[MBMC] Mount & Blade Modding Contest [March-April 2019][Scripting]

[Lumos]

• The Mount & Blade Modding Contest – March-April 2019​
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Theme: Gameplay Features​
  
  
  Greetings everyone!
  
  Welcome to our second-ever scripting contest. We've listened to your feedback from last time, and, as you'll have already noticed, we've decided to give you all the liberty you want. The theme of "Gameplay Features" was deliberately chosen to be vague, and this time around we're allowing any other tools available. WSE, Lua, whatever else you've got in mind. Go nuts! (Just remember to make sure your installation instructions are clear!)
  
  In addition, you may notice that this contest will be running through April as well. The submission period is still as normal, but with the extension of the February contest we felt it more appropriate to delay this one a little bit, so as to not have the both of them overlapping. (The contest after that (2D art) starts on the first of May.)
  
  
  
  
  [size=18pt]Contest Information
  
  Theme: Gameplay Features
  Submission Start Date: March 16th 2019 00:00 GMT
  Submission End Date: April 15th 2019 23:59 GMT
  
  MBMC Rules:
  • You may only submit your work during the submission time period specified above.
  • Submit only your original work, no derivatives of another asset or asset theft is allowed.
  • 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, according to the open source license provided here.
  • If you've used assets from TaleWorlds games you must make it known so that the submission can be labelled accordingly (LSP).
  • In case there's a monetary reward, it's given out only if there are 3 or more submissions.
  
  Scripting Contest Rules:
  • You may submit up to three works for the contest, they'll be treated as separate submissions.
  • As an exception to the general contest rule above, derivatives of OSP code packs are allowed, but only your own work shall be scored.
  • If you base your submission on an existing OSP or DLC pack, you must fully disclose the origin of this existing OSP or DLC.
  • It is mandatory for your submission to include instructions for installation; it is recommended that they are thorough. (Those contribute to scoring.)
  • Additional assets, such as animations or UI meshes, shall not be scored. Only the code is to be evaluated; feel free to utilise placeholders as needed.
  • The features and mechanics you implement must not be present in Warband Native, or, if based on a DLC, to not be present in that DLC.
  • The code provided must be compatible with the latest version of Warband, and will be tested on Warband (with any necessary dependencies, such as WSE, in use), using any respective DLC if required.
• Should your submission require a DLC pack in order to be playable, your submission form must include a link to a recording of your feature(s) in action. This is optional but strongly recommended for submissions based on Native Warband.

Evaluation System

As usual, the submissions will be evaluated using a points system, based on their performance in the following three categories: Code Quality (10 points), Gameplay (5 points), Ease of Installation (5 points), Ease of Customisation (5 points), and OSP Value (5 points). Once the submission end date is reached and the submissions are closed, the judges and selected testers will review the submissions. Each of the two judges will submit up to 30 points in total, thus the maximum number of points attainable by a submission is 60.

Spoiler: Explanation of the categories

Code Quality

(10 points)

The organisation, cleanliness, and "buglessness" of your code. As normal for coding, you should strive to give your variables proper names, to keep indentation proper, and to resolve compile-time warnings; your code should be as efficient and effective as possible.
    If your submission is multiplayer-focused, you should define whether your feature works as a server side (only) modification, or requires server and client adjustments. The latter is logically not native-compatible out of the box, but uses less network traffic in the most cases. For the related performance rating network-traffic optimizations will be prioritized over run-time optimizations.

Gameplay

(5 points)

How your new feature feels in the game. Is the modified UI elegant and easy to understand? Is your new mechanic intuitive and accessible? Is the feature fun to play with?

Ease of Installation

(5 points)

How easy it would be for an inexperienced modder to install your addition; how clear, thorough, and readable the installation instructions are.

Ease of Customisation

(5 points)

How easy it would be for another modder to modify and tweak the behaviours of the pack. Reliance on constants versus fixed values, etc.

OSP Value

(5 points)

How original and useful this submission is as an OSP pack. A niche kit built to take advantage of a single specific mod's features would naturally score low in this category, as would unoriginal ideas. A pack that is both original and could fit into a wide variety of mods, however, is guaranteed to score high.

Judging Committee

The judging committee is comprised of two elite scripters.

• Sebastian
• Somebody

Contest Rewards

- Medals to showcase your achievement across the forums (by Efe Karacar)
- Eternal place in the Mount & Blade Modding Contest Hall of Fame
- Maybe something else...



Submitting Your Work

You can use the below form to submit your work. If you make any edits or changes after your first submission, it'll be accepted if it is re-submitted within the submission deadline. Name your submission as you see fit, and please try to use a stable file hosting service (Google Drive, Mediafire, Dropbox, etc.). We recommend adding any new and modified files as well as any relevant instructions for installation into an archive, and uploading that.

[b]Forum username:[/b]
[b]Submission name:[/b]
[b]Download link:[/b]
[b]Video:[/b]

By submitting this work I agree to the rules and regulations of this contest.

Spoiler: Example

Forum username: Lumos
Submission name: No more XP: TES-style skill levelling (likely not very practical)
Submission download link:
Video:

By submitting this work I agree to the rules and regulations of this contest.

Join The Modding Discord

​

 

[EmielRegis]

Just to be sure: submitted mod must be for single player or multiplayer ones allowed as well?

 

[Lumos]

Both singleplayer and multiplayer-focused submissions are allowed.

 

[_Sebastian_]

Just a little addition to the Code Quality rating of multiplayer compatible submissions;

You should define whether your feature works as a server side (only) modification, or requires server and client adjustments.
The latter is logically not native compatible out of the box, but uses less network traffic in the most cases.
For the related performance rating network-traffic optimizations will be prioritized over run-time optimizations.

 

[Lumos]

Thanks Sebastian, the clarification has been added to the OP. The rules have also been amended slightly to clarify that basing a submission on a DLC pack is permitted, and to underline that submissions, particularly those based on DLCs, should be accompanied by video demonstrations.

 

[Eärendil Ardamírë]

Well, I wish already good luck to everyone! participating. I don't have enough knowledge yet to bring something into it, maybe next year^^

 

[Leonion]

• The features and mechanics you implement must not be present in Warband Native, or, if based on a DLC, to not be present in that DLC.

So....something like, say, improved/reworked battle AI won't pass?
I mean, because AI is present in Native and pretty much every mod.

P.S. I think you might have forgotten to move the June's scripting contest topic to "Open Source Code and Kits" section of the forum.
Because in the main section it will get lost and no-one but those who knew about the contest will ever find it.

 

[Lumos]

Well, if the AI's improved and reworked, that won't be an issue -- the intent behind this rule is to simply ensure that you're not explicitly copying something that's present in the base game. An improvement to an existing mechanic is more than welcome (and perhaps this should be reworded to make the intent clearer).

Also, many thanks for pointing the omission out! I absolutely did forget to make an archive thread following the prior contest. This has now been rectified.

 

[Lumos]

So, the submission time-frame has expired, and just in time for Easter, too! (Or at least one of them.) Interestingly, this is the first modding contest to receive no submissions at all, which is rather an unexpected achievement. On the bright side, this means less work for our judges.

Worry not, the chain of contests is proceeding as normal. Await the next contest on the first of May, and prepare your (2D) art-making skills, for you shall need them...