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The One Billion Units – Experimental Mapping Challenge

The 1 Billion Units EMC.

Mappers are allowed to enter a map with a maximum cubic unit capacity of 1,000,000,000 Units. That is more or less 1024x1024x1024 or 20 metres x 20 metres x 20 metres in the real world.

The X,Y and Z dimensions can be anything the mappers’ want but the maximum total cubic size must not exceed 1,000,000,000 Hammer units.

The map must only have one area – not split into various parts.

This is the maximum volume of the map, NOT the area the player can reach.

VMF files MUST be submitted with each entry for easy verification. Within that space, the mapper can do anything they want.

The maps will be judges on clever, efficient and inventive use of the space.

No extra credit will be given for submitting smaller maps, but we may be secretly impressed.

Deadline

11am GMT Monday 29th January 2018

26th January 2018 5 Comments

The Lambda Cup 2018 – Challenge 1 – CoastVille

Hello and welcome to the Lambda Cup, a series of five HL2:Ep2 single player mapping challenges.

If you are new to my mapping challenges, please see the event’s homepage: THE LAMBDA CUP 2018 as well as the CALENDAR of the mapping challenges for the entire 2018.

Theme Details

The word “coast” is very evocative. Long walks on the beach, pretty little seaside towns, high cliffs with waves crashing against them.

We would like you to build a map that has “coast” as its main setting. We leave the exact type of location to you but here are a few ideas.

A port used for storing and loading containers, a beach with little coves to explore, a re-imagining of Lost Coast, a cliff wall with caves and walkways, and finally a map where the player has to work their way along the coast through outposts.

Driving maps will be accepted but please think carefully before choosing this type of gameplay – it often involves a lot of work for very little player interaction.

We have purposefully chosen this theme as we feel it is open enough for all standards of modders yet also offers the possibility for many types of interpretation.

1st January 2018 46 Comments

The Lambda Cup, The Mesa Cup, Experimental Mapping Challenges, a Special Challenge and the Calendar.

Much, much later than expected or hoped but I am pleased to announce exactly what is happening next year regarding the mapping challenges.

I will give a brief summary of each event and a link to that event for everybody interested to read the details.

It’s been a lot of work and there are still plenty of things to finalise but I am sure it will be worth it.

Calendar

Right, let’s start with the overview. I have created a calendar (which took WAY longer than expected), which contains all the events. Each event has a link to the main page as well as the individual challenges of each event, except for the EMCs.
Homepage: CALENDAR

Lambda Cup

The Lambda Cup is the new name for the Hammer Cup. I changed it because I wanted more flexibility. It’s more or less the same as this year, but the points, prizes and judges have been improved. The Suffix for these events will continue to be “Ville”.
Homepage: LAMBDA CUP 2018

Mesa Cup

The Mesa cup is a series of 3 mapping challenges built for the retail version of Black Mesa. The Crowbar Collective will official support the Cup, but more details on that soon. The suffix for these events will probably be “Zone”.
Homepage: MESA CUP

Experimental Mapping Challenges

Hereby now known as EMCs, the challenges will last either 50 or 72 hours and be focused on very specific ideas and concepts. The suffix for these events will probably be “Ism”. The homepage for these events does not contain much detail yet. The calendar also has “potential EMC dates”, in cases modders want a weekend mapping objective.
Homepage: EXPERIMENTAL MAPPING CHALLENGES

Special Challenge

I can’t say much about this yet, but you will see from the calendar that it is the longest mapping challenge of the year. Stay tuned for details.
Homepage: SPECIAL CHALLENGE

17th December 2017 7 Comments

The Hammer Cup 2017 – Challenge 5 – FusionVille

We’re here at last: the final challenge in The Hammer Cup 2017!

For this challenge we want you to pick 3 themes from the 2016 and 2017 Hammer Cup challenges, and creatively combine those themes into your perfect fusion map.

The deadline for submitting maps is: Monday 11th December 2017 – that’s two extra weeks!

8th November 2017 27 Comments

The Hammer Cup 2017 – Challenge 4 – TeleportVille

Hello and welcome to the fourth challenge for The Hammer Cup 2017.

Below are the details.

PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY.

FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE RULES WILL RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION!

As always, if you have any questions, you can either post a comment or if you require a private reply, send Phillip an email: [email protected]

20th September 2017 10 Comments

Mapping Challenges 2018

“OMG, why is Phillip talking about the mapping challenges of 2018 already?”
Because the better planned they are the better prepared I am.

Anyway, the mapping challenges have proved quite successful for RTSL and it would be downright negligent if I didn’t start planning for next year.

I have been working on a calendar for the 2018 mapping challenges and wanted to share the first DRAFT with you to get feedback.

Please take a moment to read my thought process under the dates.

This post is mainly aimed at modders and mappers. I feel that the players have to fit in with the mappers in this case.

17th September 2017 9 Comments

$850 Prize Fund for The Hammer Cup 2017

I am very pleased to announce that the prize fund for The Hammer Cup 2017 will be a minimum of $850. Thanks go to my Patreon supporters and everybody who donated at various times including my livestream fund raisers.

I’d like to stress that it is possible that it could increase between now and the end of the year. If or when that happens, I will add extra prizes.

The prize structure is as follows:

  • First: $400
  • Second: $200
  • Third: $100
  • Fourth: $50
  • Fifth: $25
  • Special 1: $50
  • Special 2: $25

Details of the Special prizes will be released after the event has finished.

You will notice that the prizes double as you go up.

All prizes will be paid via PayPal and no substitution is possible. All amounts are in US Dollars.

Remaining Dates

Challenge 4: 20th September to 9th October (19 Days)
Challenge 5: 8th November to 4th December (26 days)

Full details are announced at 11am Central European (Summer) Time of the day the challenge starts.

Current Points

You can view the current points situatio on the Official Hammer Cup 2017 Points Sheet

Previously Released Mods in The Hammer Cup 2017
Final Thoughts

As always, if you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please don’t hesitate to ask or post them.

14th September 2017 3 Comments

Special Challenge 2018

Details of this challenge’s theme will be posted on the start day of the challenge. Please check the CALENDAR for all the dates and links to the event homepages.

18th December 2016 No Comments

Mesa Cup Challenge 3

Details of this challenge’s theme will be posted on the start day of the challenge. Please check the CALENDAR for all the dates and links to the event homepages.

14th December 2016 No Comments