Monthly competitions submission thread

[Plotinus]

I don't think anyone is going to reason like this, "Well, I was going to produce a completely original piece of work, but since I can enter conversions in Flamand's competition, I'll just make one of those." If someone's going to make something more elaborate, they'll do it anyway. Because at the end of the day, the only reason anyone makes anything for this site is for fun. Being able to enter the competition is a nice bonus, but I really don't think that having less stringent rules for entry is going to encourage people to lower the standards of their work.

I agree that it can be hard to judge different styles or methods of creation when they are in the same competition. But Flamand is quite right to point out that if you start separating them, you're on a slippery slope. As he says, some unit makers (such as aaglo and Utahjazz7) make their own models, which they then animate. But some, such as me, aren't much good at model-making and construct units from pre-existing figures and props. Yet surely it would be daft to have different unit competitions for these two groups (and if you tried, then what about a unit which has *mostly* pre-existing props, but one or two custom-made ones, like my monks?).

At the end of the day, not only is Civ III creation done for fun, but so is the competition. This isn't Wimbledon - it's a few guys whacking a ball back and forth. So what if the rules are a bit fuzzy, or whatever? It doesn't really matter.

 

[Flamand]

However if you want to pay attention to that they why not pay attention to its negative effects too? (eg they discourage original work, if work that can compete does not have to be at all original or actually even worked upon).

In the 8 months I have organized these competitions I haven't noticed any negative effects on creativity or anything else. Care to show me an example?

OK, V, thats like, either very good english, too good for me to understand, or its la davian. Anywhoo, WTH?

It's a direct quote from his introduction to Evy. For some reason he seems obsessed with the letter V. (although W might works as well as you showed How do you keep finding these sites anyway??)

 

[Kyriakos]

The point is that it is against actual creativity. For example i definately do not plan to make any more civ3 buildings.

Obviously this will not effect the sum of the overall amount of work, and i have stated before that converted graphics ussually are of very high quality (afterall someone being employed as a computer games artist has made them). But they will cause a stagnation to new creative work if they are seen as equal in a contest.

 

[Stormrage]

Why don`t you plan to make more buildings? Your buildings are better that conversions. They kick their converted butts!

@Flamand, the V I was talking about in my post above was infact Varwnos, he confused me with that post of his

As for the other V dude, the movie (comic strip? Alan Moore, no?) guy, and the funny thing, I mostly find them in the Humor & Jokes subforum

 

[Spacer One]

@Varwnos, I for one am sad to hear that you wont be making new stuffs...I like your work, and dont see why you are disuaded by conversions...I look at conversions if I NEED to fill a spot...I 100% prefer original graphics to conversions (as often conversions dont "match" graphically with Civ graphics)...while I see conversions as needed to fill certain roles, I dont hold them on the same level as original stuff...I appreciate your work, and dont think you should feel like conversions take anything away from your talent...

for example, I converted some of the cities from ToT...I dont even put them in the same category as yours, but they were neede to fill a role in Civ3...

above that, often to fill a certain role, original graphics are NEEDED, because there IS no acceptable conversion available....

So please Varwnos...dont stop making your cities/etc...

 

[Kyriakos]

Ty Spacer One

I meant that i will not be making any more civilopedia pics of buildings, as those in my 'historical buildings' thread. They took a lot of work, 3d and 2d, and the Timisoara cathedral losing the comp was a great dissapointment.

I will still be making other static gfx, such as cities or terrain buildings

As for conversions: i am not at all against their use in civ3. I am against them being part of the competition though. Definately converted gfx can be very usefull, and the conversions of the Age of Wonders cities, or mrtn's late buildings, look very nice. However i am very well aware of the huge difference in work which is to be found between making a conversion, and making a new graphic, and therefore am against competition between the two.

A converted graphic can easily be better looking than a new one (if its creator was talented, and ussually professionals have to have talent so as to work for game companies). I am not a professional graphic creator. However i do not regard it as fair to be competing against the work of such a professional, which was just midly touched up with a few clicks.

 

[Stormrage]

The buildings were your best work ever man.. Don`t give up

 

[Ogedei_the_Mad]

Edit: Submission Withdrawn

 

[Kyriakos]

Ogedei, that is the second time you use a real colour pic as a preview. The funny thing is that the 256 pic of your building looks almost entirely like this one, so cheating in this way had no logic behind it at all

The only obvious difference are the considerably fewer colours in the sky, in the civ3 256 colour pic, which you should have used.

Here is your real civ3 pic, for comparisson:

 

[Ogedei_the_Mad]

The funny thing is that the 256 pic of your building looks almost entirely like this one, so cheating in this way had no logic behind it at all

Actually, I had the pic converted to Indexed and 256 colors when I made the JPEG preview pic. There's hardly any difference between the PCX and the converted JPEG.

 

[Kyriakos]

There is great difference (if you want to be carefull), and besides the jpeg is not the one you see in the game. You should post the civ3 pic, which is why i did for you in the previous post

 

[Stormrage]

Which is exactly the same.. V, play nice

 

[Kyriakos]

Stormrage, if you bothered to look at the two pics you might see that they are different.
Besides, Ogedei is not claiming that they are the same. Did you notice the "there is hardly any difference" part?

I just do not see why the real file was not posted

ps: just because he happened to post this the same day that the argument about the entirely different issue of conversions was discussed, i do not think that i should not mention it. One can differentiate between two entirely different matters, instead of trying to see a pattern of antagonistic behavior.

 

[Quinzy]

well actually i thnk the one you posted looks bette quality than the original!

 

[Ogedei_the_Mad]

Well, if it's going to be a problem, then I will withdraw my submission. The contest is not important anyway.

 

[beboy]

Too bad I don't know the equivalent for "enculage de mouches" in English...

 

[Kyriakos]

To you it may be an insignificant detail, but ogedei used to call himself "the khan of the pixel". You can be sure that he sees a difference between those two pics.
Personally i think that they are of the same value more or less, and as it is obvious probably only i would notice such subtleties as the pixelated sky (apart from ogedei).
The question was why the real pcx was not chosen, and instead there was a different one. Since there appears to be difficulty to understand the point: in my view the two pics artistically are roughly the same, or probably would be for most posters anyway. But this does not change the fact that in order for a file to be submitted it has to be a working civ3 file, available for dling by the community and for the reason i explained this was not true for ogedei's pic in the preview. Surely it takes more time to create a new version of a pic, rather than just save the civ3 pcx as a png.
I would hope that now this very easy to follow argument has been finally followed through.

The pic ogedei posted can still be seen in his thread about the new graphic.
Here it is. If you want to have a view about it, at least spend the time to look at it if you are not accustomed to noticing differences in pics that easily.

 

[Grandraem]

There is the slightest difference evident. To me it is too minor to even be mentioned. Besides, I would have done exactly what Ogedei did, converted to 256 colour and posted the pic in jpeg. This is because it is the form I am most comfortable using. I've never dealt with png. I post my leaderhead previews in jpeg format, and most certainly do not consider what Ogedei did to be cheating. I think your argument, varwnos, is more worthy of withdrawal than Ogedei's submission was.

Please re-submit your building into the competition, Ogedei. I think it's great, and it would be a shame to not have so fine a graphic in the competition.

 

[Olorin0222]

Ogedei, do please resubmit.

My 2 cents: How over inflated has this competition become? Is it really worth the fight and argument over what can and cannot be voted upon? I think you guys have been unnecessarily trolling each other. Allow the conversions and such. I put my trust in the intelligence level of CFCers to honor those who put in the work.

 

[mrtn]

I'm thinking about doing a Tonya Harding, ie have my boyfriend break the knees of Spacer One and varwnos with a lead pipe.
That way only I can win the pcx competition.