EPTBeast of the Hill FFA Map Contest
Hello, TL.net! My name is HyperONE, and today, I am announcing the first ever Beast of the Hill FFA Map Contest!
The purpose of this contest is to find 8-player free-for-all (FFA) maps suitable for use with the “Beast of the Hill” mod. All submissions, especially those which place well, will be considered for use in my Circle Derping tournament series, as well as for my recommendation to other organizers of Beast of the Hill FFA events — all three of them on the planet!
What is Beast of the Hill?
Note: Beast of the Hill is an extension mod. That means it will work with any Melee map when a player selects it in the in-game Arcade. You do not need to edit Triggers in your map to implement this gamemode; you just need to make a Melee map following the guidelines written out and submit that, and the mod will work with it seamlessly.
+ Show Spoiler +
Beast of the Hill is an extension mod intended for use with team and FFA maps. In the context of FFA matches, the mod aims to create games which are fast-paced and disincentivize turtling in favor of frequent interaction by providing income and an alternative win condition: hold the center at the right times and you win the map!
As with a standard FFA game, a player in a Beast of the Hill FFA game can win by eliminating all of their opponents, but this win condition is achieved so infrequently (much less than 1% of all standard matches) that you can assume it never happens.
While Beast of the Hill can be configured with many different settings, the configuration described below is the one with which submissions to this contest will be judged.
◉ A red circle with a thin black border is placed at the exact center of the map. The red region has a radius of 2, and creates a 4x4 square unbuildable area. From hereon, this circle will be referred to as the capture point, or simply the point. A unit is considered to be “on” the point if its collision box is centered on a location within the red circle (the border does not count as part of the circle and is purely for aesthetic purposes).
◉ A circular area of radius12 10 around the center of the point is always revealed to all players. (Cloaked/burrowed units still require detection to be spotted.)
◉ The point belongs to or is controlled by a player if they are the only player with units on the point and/or they have the highest-priority units on the point. If several players have units of equal priority on the point, the point is in a contested state until only one player has units, or units of highest priority, on the point. Note that one cannot contest the center simply by attacking the point, casting a spell on the point, or approaching it; they must have a unit STANDING DIRECTLY ON THE POINT in order to control it.
○ The unit priority hierarchy is as follows: non-cloaked/burrowed ground units > cloaked/burrowed units > all air units > temporary units > Zerg eggs/cocoons. Cloaked ground units are considered non-cloaked while under the effects of the Ghost’s EMP or the Oracle’s Revelation abilities.
◉ While a player controls the point, they will receive a mineral income. This amount is 10 minerals per second at the start of the game, and increments by 2 minerals per second whenever a round is elapsed.
○ If the point is in a contested state, it will not award income to any player until the point is no longer contested.
◉ Rounds are intervals of time, lasting a few minutes each. At the end of each round, the game will award the player who controls the point 1 round win. The first player to win 3 rounds wins the game. The round timer is always visible in the top-right corner of the screen.
○ If the point is in a contested state, it will not award a round win to any player until the point is no longer contested.
○ The first round lasts 5 minutes, the second round lasts 4 minutes, and the third and subsequent rounds last 3 minutes.
◉ A list of players and round win counts is available at all times in the top-right corner of the screen, as well as a ? button which briefly explains the mod and states the current income provided by the point.
As with a standard FFA game, a player in a Beast of the Hill FFA game can win by eliminating all of their opponents, but this win condition is achieved so infrequently (much less than 1% of all standard matches) that you can assume it never happens.
While Beast of the Hill can be configured with many different settings, the configuration described below is the one with which submissions to this contest will be judged.
◉ A red circle with a thin black border is placed at the exact center of the map. The red region has a radius of 2, and creates a 4x4 square unbuildable area. From hereon, this circle will be referred to as the capture point, or simply the point. A unit is considered to be “on” the point if its collision box is centered on a location within the red circle (the border does not count as part of the circle and is purely for aesthetic purposes).
◉ A circular area of radius
◉ The point belongs to or is controlled by a player if they are the only player with units on the point and/or they have the highest-priority units on the point. If several players have units of equal priority on the point, the point is in a contested state until only one player has units, or units of highest priority, on the point. Note that one cannot contest the center simply by attacking the point, casting a spell on the point, or approaching it; they must have a unit STANDING DIRECTLY ON THE POINT in order to control it.
○ The unit priority hierarchy is as follows: non-cloaked/burrowed ground units > cloaked/burrowed units > all air units > temporary units > Zerg eggs/cocoons. Cloaked ground units are considered non-cloaked while under the effects of the Ghost’s EMP or the Oracle’s Revelation abilities.
◉ While a player controls the point, they will receive a mineral income. This amount is 10 minerals per second at the start of the game, and increments by 2 minerals per second whenever a round is elapsed.
○ If the point is in a contested state, it will not award income to any player until the point is no longer contested.
◉ Rounds are intervals of time, lasting a few minutes each. At the end of each round, the game will award the player who controls the point 1 round win. The first player to win 3 rounds wins the game. The round timer is always visible in the top-right corner of the screen.
○ If the point is in a contested state, it will not award a round win to any player until the point is no longer contested.
○ The first round lasts 5 minutes, the second round lasts 4 minutes, and the third and subsequent rounds last 3 minutes.
◉ A list of players and round win counts is available at all times in the top-right corner of the screen, as well as a ? button which briefly explains the mod and states the current income provided by the point.
Permissible Map Features
◉ Rich vespene geysers, depleted mineral walls, accelerator and inhibitor zones, and a maximum of 5 pathable cliff levels are allowed.
◉ Bases with a non-standard resource count (more or less than 8 mineral nodes, or more or less than 2 vespene geysers) are allowed, but you may not adjust the resource amount for any particular mineral node or geyser.
◉ Xel’naga towers that cannot be activated until destructible rocks placed on them are destroyed are allowed.
◉ Overlapping rocks towers and overlapping destructible rocks are allowed, but those that have the exact same location and orientation are NOT allowed.
◉ Destructible rock towers which destroy minerals, geysers, town halls, etc. are allowed.
◉ Renegade Missile Turrets and Planetary Fortresses are allowed. If you choose to utilize these, ensure that they belong to Player 15 (Hostile), or your map will not be Melee-compliant.
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◉ Neutral buildings/units/creep tumors are NOT allowed.
Restrictions to Submissions
◉ Any map previously featured in any Circle Derping event will not be accepted.
◉ Any map previously featured in any FFA event listed on Liquipedia’s StarCraft 2 main space will not be accepted. See HERE for a list of FFA events listed on Liquipedia’s StarCraft 2 main space.
◉ Any map that is simply a minimally edited version of an existing Blizzard 8-player map or any other map will not be accepted.
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◉ Your map must be rigorously tested for quality assurance. See HERE for a list of potential QA issues your map should avoid. Maps suffering from too many QA issues may not be considered for judging or prizes.
◉ Your map should not contain doodads or other decorations in type or quantity that cause excessive frame rate drops. 8-player FFA is already a very demanding format on the game engine and home computers alike, and a map which creates too much lag will simply not be viable for use in a tournament setting. It is suggested that you use decorations with sophisticated animations or lighting sparingly.
◉ (Optional) It is suggested that you use textures to indicate the approximate size and location of the point. You can do this with an appropriately-sized doodad, or a texture circle of size 4.0. See these links for examples.
◉ You may submit up to
Judging Criteria
◉ Although every detail of your map is important, we will take a holistic approach to judging your submission. Small imperfections or technical mistakes will not negatively impact your placement to the same degree that an overall lack of cohesive vision will.
◉ The judging panel will consist of myself, themusic246, and several winners of previous Circle Derping tournaments.
◉ Mandatory Criteria: Your map must obey the following requirements to be suitable for 8-player Beast of the Hill FFA matches. If your map does not obey them, it may not be considered for further judging at all.
○ There must be exactly 8 spawn locations.
○ The center must be pathable and accessible to ground units.
○ The center should be reasonably open and not be surrounded by chokes too small for a large army to pass through in under ~5 seconds.
○ All players must be equally distant from the center. (You will likely need to use either 8-way diagonal/rectangular symmetry or 8-way rotational symmetry to accomplish this.)
◉ Subjective Criteria: Your map should take the following into consideration, though your implementation may vary. It is possible but unlikely that you stand to gain from ignoring them.
○ The difficulty of attacking one neighbor should be approximately equal to the difficulty of attacking the other neighbor. This prevents scenarios where the map is strongly divided into quadrants, resulting in the quick elimination of one player (or both players) in each quadrant.
○ Rush distances between neighbors, as measured from main ramp to main ramp, may be no less than 20 seconds, and ideally should be no less than 25 seconds.
○ A common complaint of players in this mode is that bases often feel scarce and they cannot play with the same freedom they have come to expect in 1v1 games. Therefore, your map should contain 1v1-like expansion patterns, with a bare minimum of 24 appropriately defensible non-island bases on the map, though you may find it more prudent to aim between 32 and 48 bases in total (not a hard requirement). You may choose to include island bases at your discretion, though they usually disadvantage Zerg, which tends to be the least effective race in FFA games.
○ While 1v1-like balance is not expected of your map, there should not be any strategies possible on the map that are blatantly overcentralizing. Some strategies such as turtling into air units or recklessly expanding to rich bases are naturally more viable in the chaotic FFA setting, but you are expected to consider the risk-reward ratio of any feature included in your map.
○ In addition to all of the above, your map should display a high level of technical finesse and polish, and demonstrate the same level of competence and familiarity with the editor and its functions as a map submitted to any other map contest might.
◉ Bonus Criteria: Your map does not necessarily have to take these into consideration to be considered favorably, but the following points do relate to open problems which have yet to be addressed in the Beast of the Hill metagame. Maps which address any of the following will be given special consideration.
○ Maps that (mildly) enhance the viability of Terran and Zerg (especially Zerg) in a format where Protoss tends to be played by the majority.
○ Maps that make it easier to play in low-FPS settings.
○ Maps that address the enduring viability of turtling straight into Carriers, Battlecruisers, and other air units.
○ Maps that make it more difficult to create an unbreachable position around the center with static defenses (especially Photon Cannons and Shield Batteries combined with Skytoss), either with the use of (well-indicated) unbuildable terrain, a terrain elevation disadvantage, Acceleration Zones, or any other feature you can think of.
Contest Phases
◉ Submission Phase: October 29th -
◉ Judging Phase:
◉ Results:
◉ Dates are given in Pacific Time.
Prize Pool
The prize pool is currently
◉ 1st place:
◉ 2nd place: $30
◉ 3rd place: $20
◉ 4th place:
◉ (new) 5th place: $10
How to Submit Maps
Send maps to MrIronGolem27 on TL.net by DMs. Each map you submit should be contained in its own DM. The title of your DM should be the name of the map.
The body of your submission should include:
◉ Map name
◉ Download link to your map (preferably using Google Drive)
◉ Picture of your map, standard 90-degree top-down view, with a resolution of at least 10x the playable dimensions of your map (e.g. a map with 216x216 dimensions should be submitted with an image of resolution 2160x2160 or greater)
◉ Size (playable dimensions) of your map
◉ Number of bases (please briefly describe any non-standard bases)
◉ Rush distance (measured from top-of-main-ramp-to-top-of-main-ramp)
○ If your map is 8-way diagonally/rectangularly symmetric, provide this number for both neighbors on the same side of the map (left, right, top, bottom) and neighbors on the same corner (top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right) of the map.
○ If your map is 8-way rotationally symmetric, a single set of numbers will suffice.
◉ A description of the map. I suggest you write no more than 1500 characters, but I will read up to 5000 characters. You must describe any unusual features of the map, such as non-standard bases (standard = 8 blue mineral nodes + 2 green vespene geysers), mineral walls, or anything else that is noted under the Permissible Map Features section.
◉ (Optionally) An in-game description for the map (300 characters max), which need not be included in the forum DM. It is strongly suggested you write this to describe the gameplay-relevant features of your map, as it is very hard to read the default map overviews for an FFA map at a glance.
Gallery of Sample Maps
+ Show Spoiler +
See HERE for a list of maps that are currently used for Circle Derping, my Beast of the Hill FFA tournament series. While none are perfect (and some are especially far from it), they should at least give you some idea of what has (and has not) been tried in terms of map design for 8-player Beast of the Hill FFA maps.
Library of Sample Games
+ Show Spoiler +
FAQ
Q: What is Beast of the Hill?
A: Please consult the section titled “What is Beast of the Hill?”.
Q: Will you accept maps for numbers of players other than 8?
A: No.
Q: I have a map that is intended for 8-player FFA games, but it was not designed with Beast of the Hill in mind. Can I still submit it to this contest?
A: Yes, so long as it obeys all the items under “Restrictions to Submissions” and the mandatory criteria under “Judging Criteria”.
Q: I’d like to participate, but I don’t know how to make maps. Is there anywhere I can learn?
A: The Mappers' Circle Discord server is an excellent resource for new and experienced mapmakers alike.
Q: My question is not listed here. Is there any way I can contact you?
A: You can join my Discord server here, or DM MrIronGolem27 on TL.net.
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