Aquatech’s Map Contest
World Builder Map Contest #1
Welcome to the first World Bulder Map Contest!
This tournament is created for refreshing and creating the next competitive map pool for Kane’s Wrath.
We welcome map-makers to exercise their creativity across all four categories and try to create the most competitive, balanced, and entertaining maps possible.
Categories
Freestyle
Guidelines: Maps in this category explore new ideas for how Kane’s Wrath can be played.
This category is intended for unorthodox, outside-the-box maps.Examples of features that might be included in this category:
– Modification of tiberium fields layout
– Using subway nodes/tiberium silo
– Non-standard design elements/buildings
– Other strongly non-standard map designsMap dimension guidelines:
X, Y size of map: 3000-4500
This is a recommendation, not a hard restriction.Examples:
- Tournament Crater
- Sick City
- Vertical Abyss
Rush
Guidelines: Map favors early aggression and offensive play.
Average rush distance (bike from main-to-main): 12-14 seconds or less.
(Note: Not a hard restriction. Could be more or less)Map dimensions guidelines:
X, Y size of map: 3000-4000
(Note: Not a hard restriction. Could be more or less)Examples:
- Tournament Arena
- Tournament Tower
- Small Town USA
Standard
Guidelines: Medium sized map.
Players tend to have more flexibility on these maps to open with a wider variety of strategies and/or builds.
Average rush distance (bike from main-to-main): 14-16 seconds.
(Note: Not a hard restriction. Could be more or less)Map dimensions guidelines:
X, Y size of map: 3500-4500
(Note: Not a hard restriction. Could be more or less)Examples:
- Tournament Odyssey
- Tournament Dustbowl
- Tournament Rift
Macro
Guidelines: A map that favors defensive play and encourages players to reach end game unit compositions.
Average rush distance (bike from main-to-main): 16-18 seconds.
(Note: Not a hard restriction. Could be more or less)Map dimensions guidelines:
X, Y size of map: 4000-4500Examples:
- Atacama Road
- Airport Escape
- Het Platteland
Restictions
- Maps can be submitted to one category only. Maps cannot be submitted to multiple categories.
- No scripts/text on maps.
- No AI controlled units/buildings.
- No another map modifications/remakes.
Notes & Suggestions
- The average rush distance and playable map dimensions are guidelines and not strict restrictions. For example, large maps that play out aggressively or small maps that promote long games will still be considered using the same criteria as the other maps in the category.
- Be careful when adjusting the number or data of the tiberium fields, tiberium spikes, EMP centers, Mutant Hovels, etc. as it could impact balance between races and/or matchups.
- During the iteration phase of the competition (more on this below), small changes are often more desirable than large radical changes that dramatically alter the map’s direction.
- For newcomes in mapmaking please check out Zypherbullet’s guide for map making, or the official Worldbuilder manual’s (which also gives a ton of balance/performance improvement tips even to the advanced mapmakers).
Post contest map iteration
We want to give the map-makers an opportunity to edit their maps after the contest period to make any adjustments if necessary. Hopefully this will give the map-makers more control and a chance to make improvements based on any feedback from pro players, or the community at large.
After the contest, map-makers will be contacted by the admins in order to make improvements and get their maps into a competitive state (CE) before each seasonal map rotation. For instance, map-makers can make small adjustments to the maps such as changes to tiberum spike locations. Results from performance tests will also be made by map-makers who can use those results to improve performance.
Focus on Quality Assurance
We welcome a broad range of submissions within the contest rules, regardless of the experience of the mapmaker. However, this leads to a large number of submissions that do not meet the standards for competitive Kane’s Wrath, or are poorly optimized for in-game performance.
We request that map-makers conduct as much debugging and quality assurance as reasonably possible before submitting maps here.
This assure that high quality, refined maps are added to the competitive map pool.
Factors to consider in QA include, but are not limited to:
- Unit pathing (passability, bridges, ramps)
- In-game performance (too many objects, not blended textures)
- Map symmetry/balance in gameplay elements
- Tiberium field placements and growability
- Incompatibility of big choke points with bases (camp maps)
- No unintended build locations/drone platform landing
In particular, community groups can be invaluable for map-making discussion and getting feedback on your maps.
The map contest
Note: The default timezone for WBMC is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). While countdowns and specific times will be converted to your local timezone GMT will be used whenever we “just” use dates. For example: the end of submissions is June 21st. So the deadline is June 21st at 11:59 PM GMT.
Submission Phase: December 3rd to January 20th
Pre-Judging Feedback
We are giving map-makers more opportunity to get feedback from judges with the intent to allow for potential issues to be ironed out prior to judging. All maps that are submitted on or before the December 17th will be reviewed by admins and feedback provided in less than 2 days. Please keep in mind that maps with positive feedback or have had issues fixed as a result of this review process are not guaranteed to be selected for the Top 16.Judging Phase: January 21th to 28th
Once the maps have been submitted they will be checked for quality and the remaining maps will be passed to professional players/community figures for judging. If you are a professional player and would be interested in helping out, PM us. Together, the judges will trim down all submissions to a final 16 that will be used in the next stages of the contest.
Note: All submissions are anonymized before being sent on to the judges. Only main admins of the contest have access to who the submitters are.
Public Voting Phase: January 29th to February 15th
Finally, the public will then vote on the final versions of these maps. Note that public voting only determines the final placing of these maps, that is how much money each map-maker wins. It does not directly affect which maps will be chosen to appear in the next season of competitive play. However, this is your chance to make your voice heard about which maps YOU want to be see.
In addition, the public voting phase will now run parallel with a tournament, in order to accelerate the schedule for maps to receive competitive approval. The tournament is extremely important both for map-makers and for voters. It allows everyone to see the maps being played by some of the best players in the game.
Iteration Phase: February 16th to February 25th
The iteration phase will become a vital part for map-makers. It gives them a chance to fix smaller issues that they may have caught during the tournament phase. Note that smaller fixes are often better than huge changes.
Winners annoucement: February 26th+
Shortly after the conclusion of the voting phase, we will present the final standings. After this, all sixteen maps will be considered for inclusion in the upcoming competitive seasons.
Prize Distribution
Depending on the number of participating creators and the number of maps the prize pool changes dynamically. Be aware that the prize pool can contain games to online stores (ex. Steam), as well as money.
How To Submit Your Maps
Submission Rules
- Each individual map MUST be assigned to one category. DO NOT submit the same map to multiple categories.
- Map-makers will be limited to three(3) map submissions each, with a limit of one map per category.
- For this contest, the judges will pick sixteen(16) finalist maps to move on to the next stage:
- Four(4) Standard maps
- Four(4) Rush maps
- Four(4) Macro maps
- Four(4) Freestyle maps
Please DM your map file(s) in a .zip archive in Discord to Aquatech#9344 with the below format by January 20th. After we received your submission, we will give a message to you ASAP.
Your entry has not officially been confirmed until any issues with the submission have been resolved. We will also confirm you about that few days after.The DM has to contain:
- Map Name
- A picture of your map. Please submit your maps with a standard 90° top down overview’ do not use any angled or tilted images. Please mark start locations and describe any starting location constraints.
- The size (dimensions) of the map
- The map category you wish to enter with this map.
- A description of the map.
- List and describe any distinctive features of the map.
- Rush distance (Nod bike: main field to main field in seconds)
- A download link to your map (moddb.com – easiest tip)
Entries not in this format may be excluded from consideration.
Best of luck in the competition!Join the discord to get in contact with Aquatech
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