Bannerlord Creative Competition 2: Scene Design Contest

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Dejan

Community Manager
Bannerlord_Creative_Competition_2_keyart.jpg

Area, Theme & Module​

  • Area: Singleplayer Hideouts
  • Theme: Calradian Bandit Camp
  • Module: Native with no modifications
  • The competition closes on the 31st of July 2022, 23:59 UTC+3.

Description​

Hideouts in Calradia are used by the wicked bandits that prey on the innocent farmers, fishermen, hunters, merchants and townsfolk who traverse these dangerous lands. Hideouts offer an adequate sanctuary where up to no good marauders can remain hidden from the outside world when not robbing and extorting the local populace. These places often feel abandoned but anyone who passes through them can sense that there’s someone mischievous lurking in the shadows. And while they are by no stretch of imagination considered bandit villages, if poked around too much, any bandits residing there will surely cut your throat in the blink of an eye, whether you’re a goat wagon paddler or an advisor to the lord of the surrounding lands.

General Rules​

TaleWorlds Entertainment reserves the right to change the below rules at any time.
  • You may only submit your work during the submission time period specified above.
  • You may only submit your own work, no derivatives of another asset or asset theft is allowed.
  • No obscene or illegal content is allowed.
  • Contest judges, employees and contractors of TaleWorlds Entertainment are not eligible to receive prizes.
  • Taleworlds Entertainment is not obliged to award all of the prizes if there is a lack of submissions or if submissions are not of acceptable quality.
  • Winners must be able to supply us with their full name, email, home address and phone number within two weeks of announcing the winners, to be eligible to receive their prize.
  • Your submission should not be based on a third-party IP.
  • By submitting an entry you agree to comply with all the contest rules and all decisions of the contest judges.

Hideout Contest Rules​

  • By submitting your work to the contest, you agree that it will be shared as open source with all the submissions at the end of the contest, to be used in various M&B II: Bannerlord modifications, according to the open source license provided here. None of the submissions will be integrated into the base game.
  • The hideout mission should take a maximum of 10 minutes to clear (with a full hideout and including the bandit boss).
  • You should specify the type of the scene you’ve created while turning in your submission (Forest, Seaside, Mountain, Desert, Steppe). This is important as we will test the submission with the designated type. Tip: This impacts the type of bandits that will spawn in the mission which consequently impacts the gameplay (for example, if archers are spawning in the hideout, keep some open room for them to be able to utilise their bows).
  • Your entry must work with version e1.8.0 of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord and the Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Modding Kit.
  • You may submit up to three individual entries to the contest but only your best-rated submission will be taken into account when deciding the winners.

FAQ​

How do I access the Bannerlord Modding Kit?
  • You can access the modding kit via Steam only. You can download the “Mount & Blade Bannerlord Modding Tools” from the Tools section of Steam. Note that the tools use some of the files downloaded within the game itself. As such, the tools and the game should be on the same version and installed on the same hard drive.
How do I launch the tools?
  • You can choose the Singleplayer option from the launcher and once you are in the Initial Menu, you can either press the Editor button or press the Ctrl + E key combination to start up the editor.
Do you have modding documentation on scene creation?
Where can I see what needs to be in a hideout scene?
  • We have prepared a page within our official modding documentation that clarifies all the requirements related to Hideout Scene creation as well as some tips & pointers that you should follow to ensure that your scene fits the gameplay narrative of the Hideout mission.
Can I also check some example scenes?
  • Yes! By downloading our modding kit you also get access to two hideout scenes and their terrain data - mountain_hideout_002 and sea_bandit_a. They can be opened from the scene editor and are located in the Modules\SandBox\SceneObj folder.
How do I test my hideout scene?
  • Save your scene to the “SandBox” module.
  • Open the “settlements.xml” (...\Modules\SandBox\ModuleData).
  • Find the “Hideouts” section.
  • Choose the type of hideout that fits your scene (Forest, Seaside, Mountain, Desert, Steppe).
  • Now replace the contents of “scene_name=...” with your scene name. Do that for all the hideouts of that kind. It should look like something like this:
<Settlement id="hideout_forest_1" ….>
<Components>
<Hideout id="hideout_forest_1" … scene_name="YOURSCENENAME" …./>
</Components>
</Settlement>
  • Go into the Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord campaign.
  • Open the console (shift + ^). Use the command “campaign.show_hideouts 2”. This displays all hideouts on the campaign map.
  • Any hideout of the type you have chosen will now open your scene.
  • Keep in mind that not all hideouts are populated which means that some might only give you the “Leave” option. Just try visiting another hideout if that happens.
Can I mod the game and add new scene props, 3D assets, etc.?
  • No, please use the native version of the game when creating your scene.
Can I create new prefabs from the native assets (group them together) in my scene?
  • No. You can use them in your scene while in the creation process but make sure to break them up before sending the submission. The new prefabs aren’t transferred when opening a scene from a different computer!
Where can I get help with various scene design questions?

Evaluation System​

The submissions will be rated based on their performance in the following categories: Visuals, Design & Gameplay, Innovation. Once the submission end date is reached and the submissions are closed, the hand-picked community team of experts will first check the submissions. The scenes will then be judged by a panel of level designers and other developers at TaleWorlds Entertainment to determine the winners based on the following criteria:
  • Visuals - How well the different scene features fit into each other, the composition of scene props, quality of ground texture and painting work, terrain realism, details and touches in different seasons.
  • Design & Gameplay - How well the scene plays out in a hideout battle (includes evaluation of the Navmesh, entry points, walking distances, etc.).
  • Innovation - The use of new and fresh concepts while designing the look, gameplay and setting of the scene.

Contest Prizes​

Bannerlord_Creative_Competition_2_prizes.jpg

How to submit a scene​

RAR/ZIP the scene files with the following name: “Scene_YourForumUsername” and upload the RAR/ZIP file to contest-upload.taleworlds.com. There are 2 folders with the scene name located under the following paths:
  • …\Modules\TheModuleYouSavedTheSceneTo\SceneObj
  • …\Modules\TheModuleYouSavedTheSceneTo\SceneEditData
Make sure to add both of the folders into the ZIP/RAR file. After uploading the RAR/ZIP file, reply to this thread with the following template:
Code:
Scene name:
Scene type [Forest/Seaside/Mountain/Desert/Steppe]:
Screenshots:
Scene name: Outlaw’s Nest
Scene type [Forest/Seaside/Mountain/Desert/Steppe]: Steppe
Screenshots:

Good luck to all participants, you're encouraged to discuss the contest below, share work-in-progress images and of course, submit your entries!
 
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I've done some few basic field battle maps that work for my YT channel, but haven't done any hideout maps. What are the key differences? How can I put spawn points of enemies and the player for hideouts?
 
Great to see another competition. Two questions regarding 'modding' and custom assets.

Can we make use of the flora editor to make edits to the default flora? (This would require us to send the flora_kinds XML I think)

Can we make edits to the default atmosphers to compliment our scenes? (This would require us to send TOD_xx_00_SemiCloudy XML's)

My argument for their inclusion is that this can all be done within the Scene Designer, and edits to the atmospheres can really help finish a scene. Do you consider this modding?
 
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Great to see another competition. Two questions regarding 'modding' and custom assets.

Can we make use of the flora editor to make edits to the default flora? (This would require us to send the flora_kinds XML I think)

Can we make edits to the default atmosphers to compliment our scenes? (This would require us to send TOD_xx_00_SemiCloudy XML's)

My argument for their inclusion is that this can all be done within the Scene Designer, and edits to the atmospheres can really help finish a scene. Do you consider this modding?
Both of those would be classified as modding the native game. So not something you can do within the scope of this contest.
 
Do we must follow the rules of this doc?
For exemple, do we must have between 6-8 common_area positions? Or is it just suggestions?
It's not mandatory but certainly good practice, especially the gameplay design tips at the bottom of the document.

Keep this rule in mind when designing your scene though:
  • The hideout mission should take a maximum of 10 minutes to clear (with a full hideout and including the bandit boss).
 
Make it short but sweet. Excellent competition and I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with.
 
Can i get some clarification on the submit instructions. Do i need to zip up my entire SceneObj and SceneEditData folders or just folders related to my scene that are inside those folders?
 
Hey there, sorry but is there a kind of common_issues/common_fix thread related to the scene creation ? It is my first scene creation. The editor works just fine but I can't launch the map and test it. It crashes on load. Since it is my first I guess it is a common issue but I didn't see any debug tool that could help me fix it.
 
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