Results!*
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In first place we have Possidon's retelling of the Battle of Falkirk, a semi-historical scenario featuring William Wallace and a mix of fixed force and build and destroy gameplay. Scoring high points from both judges, Possidon snatches the first place in this very even race!
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Three points behind "Scotland Forever" is a very different scenario: A Reunion to Remember is a very meta scenario featuring all the heroes of the game, coming together to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the game with festivites and tons of minigames. Its unique take on the contest's theme makes it a lot of fun to play!
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In third place comes Lildbehr's breakneck-speed tale about the Arthurian Age hero gawain, who sets out to save King Arthur's daughter from an unknown, evil foe. With simple but fun gameplay and humorous touches, Sir Gawain and the Dragon comes in a well-deserved third place, not far behind the winner!
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The runner-up of the contest depicts a nightmarish maze where you are at the whim of an unpredictable evil mastermind.
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Scores by the judges: ( in the order entertainment value/map design/creativity/story = total )
Max marks for each category is : 15/15/10/10 = 50
Alba gu Bràth - Scotland Forever ... 7 / 11 / 6 / 7 = 31
Saint Gawain and the Dragon ........ 7 / 9 / 7 / 6 = 29
A Reunion to Remember .............. 7 / 7 / 7 / 5 = 26
The Nightmare!!! ................... 3 / 4 / 4 / 3 = 14
Average score: 25/50
A Reunion to Remember .............. 10 / 9 / 9 / 8 = 37
Alba gu Bràth - Scotland Forever ... 8 / 12 / 8 / 7 = 35
Saint Gawain and the Dragon ........ 8 / 11 / 7 / 6 = 32
The Nightmare!!! ................... 7 / 5 / 7 / 3 = 22
Average score: 32/50
Alba gu Bràth - Scotland Forever ... 31 + 35 = 66
A Reunion to Remember .............. 26 + 37 = 63
Saint Gawain and the Dragon ........ 29 + 32 = 61
The Nightmare!!! ................... 14 + 22 = 36
On this day, fifteen years ago, Age of Empires II hit the shelves of stores all over the world, quickly making its way into the homes of millions of people. Over the years the game has been an endless source of fun, as well as an outlet for creativity, for everyone who has frequented our forums and Blacksmith. Today it is time to celebrate these fifteen years of greatness. Today we will be going back to our roots, to revisit the era that existed before data editing and extensive modding became commonplace, the era before that odd novelty known as "The Conquerors Expansion": it's time for the AoK Vanilla Contest!
This is a contest in which the challenge is to create a fun single player scenario with the constraints presented by the original game: no mods, no data changes, no Mesoamerican civilizations and no Change Object Name effect; all of which is outweighed by the sheer amount of Janissary top hats!
What type of scenario you create is completely up to you, as long as you follow the basic rules!
• Your entry must be a single player scenario or campaign.
• Your entry must be playable, i.e. not a cut-scene without gameplay. Apart from this you can choose any game style you like: fixed force, build & destroy, puzzle, RPG, etc.
•
• Graphic mods, data editing and the use of third party programs like AoK Trigger Studio
• You can't enter anything already submitted to the Blacksmith, i.e. entries must have been made specifically for this competition.
• The scenario/campaign file you submit should have the extension .scn/.cpn (.scx/.cpx files, which are extensions specific to the expansion pack, won't work as the judges will play all the entries without the expansion)
• The deadline for submissions is
• When uploading your entry, please submit it to Single Player Scenarios or Campaigns category in the Blacksmith and add "AVC" to the title of your game, i.e. "AVC - Scenario Title". This will help downloaders find your submission and also keep them in kind with other entries to the contest.
If you wish, and are good with keeping deadlines, you can sign up as a judge instead of an entrant! The judging period will be roughly 2-3 weeks, depending on the amount of entries we get. Judges will rate all entries by giving marks (along with a short motivation) in each of the following categories:
The judges will rate how much entertainment they got out of the scenario, i.e. simply how much fun it was to play. Anything that can bring down the experience, like lack of a challenge or lacklustre or nonexistant instructions, will be taken into consideration here. Ultimately, though, this is the most subjective category.
The judges will rate the look of the map: the use of terrains, elevation, buildings and eye candy, as well as the overall aesthetic look of the map. They will also take into consideration how well the map fits with the gameplay: a well-designed open landscape might work well for an FF or B&D scenario, but perhaps not for a puzzle scenario, and vice versa.
The judges will consider the unique characteristics of each entry, as well as how the designer works with the constraints presented by the original game. Creativity can be found in all aspects of a scenario: in trigger effects, map design, story, soundtrack and so on. The judge will not focus on rating the quality of techniques used, as he would for the other categories, but rather focus on any that are used in a unique manner or show a fresh approach.
The judges will first determine what the designer has intended the story to be. An attempt at a humorous story will then be evaluated on whether the dialogue and writing is actually humorous or witty, a historic story or classical literature adaptation will be evaluated on how the known events are told, and a fictional work will be judged on how good a fiction it is. Judges will also consider whether it was supposed to be a complete or partial story, and not penalise a prologue. If the story contains a large amount of spelling and grammatical mistakes it can also bring the score down, but unless they are grave and/or make the story hard to follow, they should only have a marginal drag on the score.
Total: 0 - 50 points
Devestator
HockeySam18
Possidon
Lildbehr
TKaniac
Darth Sarek
Shuvro
Erskine Ravel
MrMew
HELLKNIGHT61
...
If you need inspiration, check out some of these top-notch AoK scenarios and campaigns!
The
OF | [/ \] |¯| [/ \] | ME
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The Relics of Athalën (5.0) | AoK Opus - 100,000+ downloads | StormWind Studios | "I consider the conversion of Basse to be one of the great triumphs of my modding crusade" - Matt LiVecchi
[This message has been edited by Lord Basse (edited 12-16-2014 @ 11:05 AM).]