[MBMC] Mount & Blade Modding Contest [Q3][Scening] - [Sponsored by TaleWorlds]

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First of all, congratulations to the winners. It was very fun and inspirational to test the scenes submitted, really. I want to especially thank Somebody for creating a test module for the judges and enabling us to divert time from manually loading and reloading siege maps to actually playing.

Secondly, it was a very close fight at the top indeed. Honestly all the top 10(11) scenes are really unique and above what you would find even in specially handcrafted scenes in most mods in my opinion. Beautiful, functional but most of all memorable. Nearly all the castles that landed in the rest of the ladder are also good. They're something I'd put in my mod if I had a medieval Singleplayer one. They're standard, functional castles you'd expect plenty of in medieval mods. The only thing what separated the top ones to them in my eyes is how unique I found them, and the bigger overall scope/scale of the effort that went into creating and designing them. Plenty of middle-scored castles submitted are really good, it's just that they get blown out in proportion to the ones that scored top. I think that's fair, and I think it's disingenuous to objectively claim otherwise.

Quantifying scores will never be the most accurate way of doing this, I think we're all aware of that. That's why there are four judges, and I think it evens out correctly. Just because you scored n/120 on the list, doesn't mean the scene isn't good. As I said above, I dig a lot of these. It's just in proportion to the top, let's be realistic.

Thirdly, I was too very surprised at the attention the contest got from participants, the amount of submissions and the attention paid to it by TaleWorlds. It's all wrapped up into one big and successful community event. Big thanks to everyone, and if you have any concerns, would like to see your score, elaborations or suggestions for the future don't be afraid to PM me or something.

Ettenrocal said:
I said nothing about others scenes, i was speaking of mine... 44/120 sorry but this is sick ! But if you really want i can tell you what i think of the first places :wink:
Yeah, better not. Shameful display. Very disrespectful. One way to divert the attention from the winners, scenes and the contest to 'me, me, me'. Kindergarten behaviour requires kindergarten counter-measures, I suppose.
 
Hi,
Want to say again that it was both great fun being a part of the contest and even more so to share your work with rest of development team.

Please feel free to reach me if you have any questions. Not only for complaints but also to discuss your maps, talk about things to improve, your methods workflows, tool that you find useful and tools that you would want.

You can pm me or contact in modders discord.
 
Ettenrocal said:
I said nothing about others scenes, i was speaking of mine... 44/120 sorry but this is sick ! But if you really want i can tell you what i think of the first places :wink:
It can be hard entering a contest and having your work judged... dont take it personally, it only goes to show how much you can still improve.

Congrats to everyone here, this contest is ridiculous in the amount of high quality entries and all submissions are top notch.
 
None of the scenes I've made over the years (and it's hundreds) would have stood a chance  :razz:

InVain said:
... BeefBacon's Lakeview Keep, which is a very simple castle design, scored #2 on my sheet, because it had perfectly executed both its visual and gameplay concepts.
Also one of my favourites. A simple design but filled with life through the details, both in and around the castle. The entire terrain is used to give it a great atmosphere.
But there were so many good ones, I had several ties. Good thing I wasn't the only judge  :smile:
 
It would be great to see reviews about all castles, at least I could know about positive and negative sides of my scene from masters of this job. In this way I can prepare my third scene better one day  :wink: . Anyway, congratulations to the winners.  :party:
I'm using my healing power on everyone!
 
Athaelas said:
It would be great to see reviews about all castles, at least I could know about positive and negative sides of my scene from masters of this job. In this way I can prepare my third scene better one day  :wink: . Anyway, congratulations to the winners.  :party:
I'm using my healing power on everyone!

Hi

I made a few comments to your Numenor castle:
- Nice island castle. Reminds me of Beaumaris for some reason. The use of scene props with the same stone texture gives it a coherent style.
- The AI mesh is sparse and only covers half the castle (it caused issues). Two siege ladders is nice and the fight in the gatehouse is intense.
XhJ6u.jpg

At one point a siege came to a standstill because the attackers could not reach one of the last defenders outside the AI mesh:
_YVDt.jpg

(- Entry points 2 and 7 are missing)
 
Adorno said:
Athaelas said:
It would be great to see reviews about all castles, at least I could know about positive and negative sides of my scene from masters of this job. In this way I can prepare my third scene better one day  :wink: . Anyway, congratulations to the winners.  :party:
I'm using my healing power on everyone!

Hi

I made a few comments to your Numenor castle:
- Nice island castle. Reminds me of Beaumaris for some reason. The use of scene props with the same stone texture gives it a coherent style.
- The AI mesh is sparse and only covers half the castle (it caused issues). Two siege ladders is nice and the fight in the gatehouse is intense.
XhJ6u.jpg

At one point a siege came to a standstill because the attackers could not reach one of the last defenders outside the AI mesh:
_YVDt.jpg

(- Entry points 2 and 7 are missing)

Thank you! AI mesh problem is enough to lose many points. I made it in a hurry and couldn't even tested it in singleplayer.  :lol:
 
Okay. Various, minor bugs were prioritised low since finding them can be pure chance.
It wouldn't be fair to give someone a low score just because you found some bugs, that you were just lucky enough not to encounter in other scenes.
That said, obvious, severe bugs - like characters getting stuck - was tested. A well functioning AI mesh is very important.
 
Adorno said:
Okay. Various, minor bugs were prioritised low since finding them can be pure chance.
It wouldn't be fair to give someone a low score just because you found some bugs, that you were just lucky enough not to encounter in other scenes.
That said, obvious, severe bugs - like characters getting stuck - was tested. A well functioning AI mesh is very important.

Any of the judges notice any guys getting stuck on Northmarch? I must have tested that thing 10000 times but with all the hoardings and whatnot....  :dead:
 
Congratulations to all winners!

My scene was the first one i have ever made in Warband and i learned a lot doing it and from studying other contributions.

Thanks to everybody.
 
William The Bear said:
Greetings everyone!

The contest results are in. [...]

Participant
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Scene
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Score
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Flavius Aetius​
Brenawacht​
59/120​

Well, first of all, my congratulations to all the winners and everybody involved! It sure was a lot of fun to take part in such a competition as a Warband modding beginner.
But now something more serious: 59 out of 120 points for Brenawacht?  :shock: I think you are about 50 points off target. I did neither have the time to continue working on my scene nor test the Bannerlord multiplayer (which feels like a waste of a good beta key to me  :sad:) during the last couple of weeks because of my master's thesis, so when I tested my scene a few days ago I found so many things I'm not satisfied with that personally I wouldn't even grant it 10 points at all. So I am really curious where these points come from and also (if there is any) if the judges can send me their written notes on that scene so I can get some ideas, where I can improve certain aspects and what might actually work as it is. If there are no written notes, that's fine also. I'll have an eye on the Discord announcements then for the next contest! Cheers!  :smile:
 
You're complaining about too many points?  :lol:
Fair enough. I'm not home right now, but will happily check my notes and get back to you in about 8 hours.

EDIT: Ah, yes. I remember it now. That scene gave me some headaches :smile:

Here are my notes:
- A big monumental castle. The details in besiegers camp is so far away that the player can't really appreciate it. Oddly the castle itself has much less detail. That's a little sad.
- Entry point 0 is missing. (A bit confusing placement of entry points in general). Besiegers spawn on steep cliffs (at the centre) and so the AI gets stuck in certain places.
- Many stages/layers in the castle makes for an interesting experience. To the point where the defenders can hardly see where the besiegers are coming from (several directions).

I only gave it 2/10 points in gameplay.

I will say that with some adjustments to the entry points and testing some sieges - fine-tuning in general - it could be a very nice scene.
 
Yeah, the entry points 0/4 were messed up for some reason. I placed the intended entry point 0 about 5 minutes before the deadline on the fortified hill and named it 0, but upon saving the scene it renamed itself 4. This happened a few times prior on several occasions but I didn't check it this time, which is totally my fault here. There was also the idea to place the entry point 0 in the village, but since the lower castle wasn't finished by then, it would be missing the middle route to attack the walls and become a bit boring to just march across the map without anything to see there.

As for the castle details (and a lot of "storaged" props on the map), well... -> Contest deadline.  :oops:

I also forgot to remove the sally doors so one could use the tunnel to get to the high castle. (Playing with usable props myself, again I forgot that stuff due to the deadline).

If I only had known of this contest a month earlier or so...  :sad:
 
Flavius Aetius said:
I also forgot to remove the sally doors so one could use the tunnel to get to the high castle. (Playing with usable props myself, again I forgot that stuff due to the deadline).
Aha, that was so confusing. You made this intricate 'inner castle', but it's blocked off. I doubt many players would actually find it.
Again, some really interesting ideas in the design, but poor execution prevents the player from really enjoying it.
 
Hurry is not a good companion, they say in my land... I don't know if in English this makes any sense. Hurrying to finish a project is never good, I come to say...
 
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