2014 End of the Year Competiton - Main Thread

[Balthasar]

Greetings to all CivFanatics!

Welcome to the Ninth Annual
CivFanatics Civ3 Creation & Customization Forum's
End of the Year Awards.​

2014 is History, baby. So it's time again to line up our creations and decide which of them belong in our Competitions Hall of Fame.

2014 was a great year for units. The sheer variety of the unit of the year contest entrants is impressive. We also saw a lot of original graphic creations that weren't entered into the monthly contests – some very good work that I wish I could showcase in these threads. And, speaking of showcases, howze about a big round of applause for Takhisis, for keeping us visible on the Front Page.

Anyway, we expanded our forum's media footprint (a little bit) in 2014 when a group of C&C forum veterans were featured on a special C3C&C “Modcast” in August entitled "Focus: "Civilization III" . Participants included myself, MC regular co-host Rob "Rob (R8XFT)" Riley, Jonathan "Plotinus" Hill, and John "El Justo" O'Neill in an hour-and-a-half long conversation led by lead by Bruce "Blue Monkey" Long. Great fun, and still worth a listen if you missed it.

We also ran some special contests: The Heads Up! Leaderhead and Popheads contest in September (the winner is in the PCX of the Year contest), and the Back From the Dead Classic Unit Contest in October (won by Vuldacon's fantastic Skreetch). I have it on good authority that there will be more special contests in this coming year.

All of the nominees this year for Best Leaderhead, PCX or Unit of the Year were first posted by their creator to the Monthly Competitions Submission Thread. PCX and Unit nominees are winners of the Monthly Competitions. Nominees in the Mod or Scenario and Map Categories are chosen from those created and posted during the year. Nominees in every contest must be available for download at the time of the contest. The Winners of the End of the Year Contests will be posted in this thread and in the Monthly Contests Hall of Fame.

So on to the voting! All CFC forum members were eligible to vote. Polls were open for just seven days.

This year we chose our favorites from 2014 in 5 different categories. And the Winners are: (Click below to be directed to the contest thread)

Mod or Scenario of the Year - Tides of Crimson v. 10 by haluu
Unit of the Year - Delta_Strife, Ares de Borg, Wyrmshadow - San Antonio Class Amphibious Transport Dock
PCX of the Year - Ogedei_the_Mad - Ki-no-jo
Leaderhead of the Year - LMR - High Marshall Helbrecht
Map of the Year - Balthasar - Mars
​

This year we've done things a bit differently, using this thread as our theater and home base, and linking from here to all of the different polls. That gives all of you folks a chance to comment on the overall contest and on each poll separately, and and give me a place other than the Hall of Fame to post all of the winners for the year.

- Balthasar

To see past winners of the Monthly and End of the Year contests, visit the C3C&C Competitions Hall of Fame.

 

[Balthasar]

All of the End of the Year polls have been posted. It's gonna be a great week!

 

[Kyriakos]

Since this thread is for discussing the new way of doing things in the contests:

Pls seek at least some community views before altering the rules like that. How can a pcx compete in the 2014 contest if it was first posted in 2015?..

Thanks for your trouble, but you keep on making changes without thinking anyone needs to agree with them. I hope this can stop so that also when completed i can again include my own work in the contests, which currently you make impossible due to not having either agreed upon nor even fixed rules for the competitions. Who knows, maybe then there may be more contestants, despite that not just being a fault of the way the contest is run, we do have far fewer creators around indeed.

 

[Balthasar]

Pls seek at least some community views before altering the rules like that. How can a pcx compete in the 2014 contest if it was first posted in 2015?.. .

The rules for the monthly contests are posted in the OP of the Monthly Competitions Submissions Thread (see my sig for a link). I do appreciate feedback.

If your complaint about the PCX contest is referring to Ogedei's Ki-no-jo (must be, since the Cinema popheads won the Heads Up contest in September), just follow the links back to his thread. It was posted Dec. 31, 2014, 10:55 p.m. (You should know that, because you posted there the next morning, at 5:00 a.m.). That qualified Ogedei for inclusion in December's PCX of the Month contest, which he won. That qualified his PCX for inclusion in the PCX of the Year contest.

When I joined this group, I was just completing a career in the law, where rules bend like young gymnasts. They have to, because no rule was made to exactly fit every circumstance. So I'm not an absolutist when it comes to rules. Some folks are. I don't think I've strayed that far off the path. In the meantime, I'm willing to discuss any decision I've made, and my reasons for it.

But, like I said, thanks for your feedback. We're always truly pleased to see your work in the contests.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Thanks, i suppose then the rules can be debated now, you mean that?
Either way i shy away from pondering this when i have no work to enter, but i would hate to be able to be part of the contests but their running being problematic. So when you do take in the feedback, let us know the discussion on this is started and public so others as well as i can chime in so along with you we can arrive at a good way for the community to have the contests, and if you are willing to keepthe responsibility of still running them after that debate, i would also support you in that.

But pls don't just put this behind and have the next month's contest again without such a discussion. I really think it will help to know the rules and a majority of interested posters there agreeing with them.

 

[Balthasar]

We're having the discussion. But no one else has said they're unhappy with the rules. Just which rule(s) are you upset about?

 

[Kyriakos]

^They are all in your very thread, and i am sure you have read them already?

Some of those include:

-Having a set timeframe for the contest, as it was before your take on it, ie the start of the second week of each month for monthlies, the start of the third week for yearlies
-Having set contest categories that people accept and can follow, ie the set pcx/unit/leaderhead we had for so many years
-If you want a special sub-contest, discuss it with others in the community before posting such a thing
-Return the standard way of presenting entires, ie the first entry in the list has the first pic in the previews, same for the second and any later. Not the convoluted different progression of preview pics (any point to that?) and voting entries.
-If you will be away and cannot run the contest, say so in advance so someone can do so at the time.

It is an issue of having known and set rules. That is the only way one can view something as a contest, otherwise it gets a flavour of a periodic fair or likewise, and in a period where not many participate this tends to lead to it dieing. Notice that in the last year there were only 1 (2 in your system) pcx contests.

 

[Balthasar]

Okay, let's address those point-by-point:

Having a set timeframe for the contest, as it was before your take on it, ie the start of the second week of each month for monthlies, the start of the third week for yearlies

Okay, I was about to just give a mea culpa on this one, because I'll admit I've had a tough year. All year, I was Joe Btfsplk. I injured myself idiotically while attending my 40th High School Reunion (stepped backwards into thin air and fell 6 feet - landed on the balls of my feet thanks to cat-like reflexes, but got hairline fractures in both legs), had to (later) move my apartment across town, then had my computer jam up irretrievably and had to replace it. So there's that.

But then I looked at the actual start dates of the contests, and don't feel quite as bad (in case you hadn't noticed, I added links to all of the monthly contest pages in the Hall of Fame entries, so that I could look these sorts of things up). March was just awful, and December was when I was moving. My HS reunion was in Sept and I still got that contest out by Oct. 15. The rest, though, were within your timeframe - first two weeks - much to my own surprise. I can't promise to deliver on a date certain, but even with everything I can hit that window about 70% of the time, and that ain't bad.

Having set contest categories that people accept and can follow, ie the set pcx/unit/leaderhead we had for so many years

We do have the 'set' categories you list, it's just that nobody entered the PCX or leaderhead contest much last year. I would love to see more pcx entries every month, and would especially like to see more leaderheads. Don't forget that Tech Icon of the month was a category before I got there. But I think you're doing a reach-around to your next point:

If you want a special sub-contest, discuss it with others in the community before posting such a thing

First thought: um, why? There were 'special contests' before I took over the job of contest runner (Contest Master? hmm..). I restarted the practice in order to drum up some interest in the contests. That worked, by the way, and we have the Heads Up contest to thank for fully half of this year's entries in the PCX of the Year contest (thanks to Etain abruptly deleting his winning interface from existence). Second thought: I do discuss the special contests with folks here all the time. In fact, the idea for the "Back from the Dead" contest was first suggested to me by other forum members. As Rob has noted in response to you before, reaction has been generally positive.

Return the standard way of presenting entires, ie the first entry in the list has the first pic in the previews, same for the second and any later. Not the convoluted different progression of preview pics (any point to that?) and voting entries.

Let me turn that around: is there any point to adhering to a strict order that was arbitrary to begin with? It's been suggested to me that the poll should always be in a different order than the preview, so that voters will actually engage their brains before voting. On a practical level, it's usually a result of the fact that I have to write the entries down before posting the poll, because the site won't let a poll maker refer back to the thread while making the poll. So the poll list is created from that list. But then sometimes I see that some entry previews are much smaller in size than others and I move them so that they aren't dwarfed by the bigger ones. That happened just now in the Unit of the Year contest, as a matter of fact. So that poll list is in the order that they won the monthlies, but the previews are grouped by preview size. I don't think many folks are bothered by that, and I imagine that Ruby Sauce is grateful that the preview for his Clicker isn't buried down between Tony Boscia's British para and Vuldacon's Longhorn Steer.

If you will be away and cannot run the contest, say so in advance so someone can do so at the time.

This year, anyway, I had a hard time predicting that. Certainly had no warning that my laptop was about to declare itself obsolete. Fortunately, LMR has assumed the role of back-up in case of emergency, and I am grateful for that.

It is an issue of having known and set rules. That is the only way one can view something as a contest, otherwise it gets a flavour of a periodic fair or likewise, and in a period where not many participate this tends to lead to it dieing. Notice that in the last year there were only 1 (2 in your system) pcx contests.

Nothing is dying here, as long as I watch where I step. I can't generate my own pcx entries...uh, scratch that, I could generate my own PCX entries for the monthly contest, but that wouldn't really work either, would it? By the way, even with all of the time-shifts, the unit of the month contest has been going gangbusters all year, so I have to assume that your theory of ennui only applies to PCX and leaderhead makers. Things are beginning to pick up on the PCX of the month front; let's hope that we also see more leaderhead action.

It appears from this list that your complaint is actually less about rules and more about practices, specifically the way I've been running the contests. You now have my answers, for what it's worth. Would anyone else like to comment about the contest? ....anyone?

 

[Kyriakos]

^FWIW i also hope others do comment on the way the contests are held, in this thread. But if you want that to be more likely you could start a thread with a title attracting attention to this being a debate on how the contest is run or alter this one's title accordingly. I do not take silence to mean agreement, and no one really should.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I consider the competitions to be a bit of fun, where I used to find out that most of the time people preferred Grandraem's leaderheads to mine . I have seen some people become disheartened with receiving fewer votes than they expected in individual competitions and I guess it depends on how you view what the competitions are all about. Generally speaking, the community thinks that all the work submitted is awesome and rather than the vote being an endorsement of who the best artist is, it's an acknowledgement of which one of those particularly appealed to them and not a critical appraisal of the work.

Balthazar has done a sterling job as the competition runner and I'm pleased to see that LMR is available should there be an emergency in the future.

I understand that Kyriakos only wants to make certain that the competition is run in an equitable manner and acknowledge his statement that "I do not take silence to mean agreement". However, this is a forum where people do make their voice heard if there are concerns, so I would consider it more likely that others would actually speak up and say something if they had an issue with the way competitions are run.

 

[Quintillus]

First of all, thanks for the reminder of the Civ PolyCast episode. I downloaded it back when it came out, but had forgotten about it over the rest of the year. I'll have to check it out in the near future.

I see the contests primarily as a showcase of CFC's creators' work, and a fun way to engage those who might otherwise miss the work. I do see how repeatedly coming in second, third, or fourth could be disheartening, but I think it's missing the greater point that the contests themselves still increase appreciation for all entrants via the larger audience.

I like the special contests, too. With an aging game, I think one of the things that's necessary to keep the community engaged and present is coming up with new ideas, and the special contests are one of those. We've done a lot with the game over the years, and a lot more of what can be done has been done now than in 2005 (but I'm not going to say most of what's possible has been done ), so we need to keep being creative and anything that helps with that is welcome to me.

Anyway, I only have 5 days to vote on Mod/Scenario of the year? I might have half a chance if I had no commitments whatsoever until February 25th, but that's a mighty difficult task since that isn't the case!

Edit: Man, though unit contest too. I think I've narrowed it down to a few favorites, but I'm going to have to come back in a day or two with a fresh mindset before voting.

 

[Kyriakos]

I consider the competitions to be a bit of fun, where I used to find out that most of the time people preferred Grandraem's leaderheads to mine . I have seen some people become disheartened with receiving fewer votes than they expected in individual competitions and I guess it depends on how you view what the competitions are all about. Generally speaking, the community thinks that all the work submitted is awesome and rather than the vote being an endorsement of who the best artist is, it's an acknowledgement of which one of those particularly appealed to them and not a critical appraisal of the work.

Balthazar has done a sterling job as the competition runner and I'm pleased to see that LMR is available should there be an emergency in the future.

I understand that Kyriakos only wants to make certain that the competition is run in an equitable manner and acknowledge his statement that "I do not take silence to mean agreement". However, this is a forum where people do make their voice heard if there are concerns, so I would consider it more likely that others would actually speak up and say something if they had an issue with the way competitions are run.

'Fair enough'

I also want to note that indeed i am not out to antagonise. Don't confuse me with such people.
Eg myself a couple of years ago

 

[Ogedei_the_Mad]

If my entry is a problem, I don't have any problem with it being pulled off. I don't care either way.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I haven't been around much lately. Which perhaps gives me a bit of perspective. Enough to say that I see a comforting continuity in the way the polls are handled and presented. After missing a few months I returned to find the format & timeliness to be exactly what I remembered. Keep doing what you're doing, Balthasar. The way you are doing it works well.

 

[Kyriakos]

If my entry is a problem, I don't have any problem with it being pulled off. I don't care either way.

Not at all my own point, you won anyway and well-done. It was just used as an (one such) example of the rules not being as set as they used to.
I mean it, take the trophy to your house already (use a 3d-printer for that ).

 

[Balthasar]

I appreciate all of the comments, and I'm grateful for the support that's been expressed for what I've been doing. But I want to respond to a few of you directly:

I only have 5 days to vote on Mod/Scenario of the year? I might have half a chance if I had no commitments whatsoever until February 25th, but that's a mighty difficult task since that isn't the case!

My apologies for that, Quintillus. Last year the voting time for it was, I think, two weeks, and I promise it will be at least that long next year as well. I set this year's Mod of the Year poll at 7 days without thinking, because all of the other polls were set to run that long. Automatic thinking is a terrible thing.

Generally speaking, the community thinks that all the work submitted is awesome and rather than the vote being an endorsement of who the best artist is, it's an acknowledgement of which one of those particularly appealed to them and not a critical appraisal of the work.

I couldn't agree more. I have to say that's the best that I've ever seen that thought stated. I'm going to have to find a way to frame it.

If my entry is a problem, I don't have any problem with it being pulled off.

Not a chance. You got that spot the old-fashioned way: you earned it. (See post #4)

 

[ruby_sauce]

I think the format of placing smaller previews before bigger ones is quite good, it indeed prevents smaller preview windows from being drowned out .

And the competitions are all for fun in my opinion. I can say this since I've gotten 2nd or 3rd really often and I still find it fun to compete every time I make a new unit . Makes the times that I did win extra special.

 

[Balthasar]

The Winners of the End of the Year contests have been posted in the OP. Congratulations to all of the Winners!

Now I have lots of updating to do. I'll be back here for the after-party....