Hello all, most of you may remember the great job Saragon did with the Holiday File Release, well he inspired me to take it one step further. I am officially starting a scenario competition open to all players with the winners receiving cash or free copies of games.

Here's how it works. Starting in May users may submit any scenario they wish in the Scenario Design section, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that you put "Otter's Challenge" in the title of your scenario to indicate you wish to be considered. September 1st will be the final day that a scenario can be submitted, then one month will be given to allow ample time for all submitted scenario's to be played. On October first I will announce the winner's.

So, how to win, well, simply put, whoever get's the scenario with the highest rating wins, if multiple scenario's receive equal ratings than the quantity of ratings will determine victory ie: If one scenario has 4 ratings of "5" and another has 3 ratings of "5", the scenario with 4 will win.

There will be 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes. 1st place will win $50, 2nd place will win $25, and 3rd place will win a free copy of the Rise of Nations sequel "Rise of Legends" which is a great game for those who haven't played it. I have also decided to give away a "Otter's Pic" prize where I will be selecting my own personal fav scenario out of those picked with the winner receiving a free copy of "Ris of Legends", so there's a chance for 4 prizes total.


Now, here's the FAQ:

Q. Do these scenario's have to be for RON Vanilla or Thrones and Patriots?

A. I apologize to those of you who don't own T&P but only the T&P scenario's are eligible, depending on how successful this is I may do a Contest for Vanilla only, but too if any of you have been putting off upgrading to T&P now you have an excuse.


Q. Can I enter a scenario I've already posted, or how about entering more than one scenario?

A. To the first: The hope is to get new scenario's, but if you feel you've already created you're masterpiece feel free to enter it. To the second: Yes, enter as many as you want, the more variety the better.


Q. How do we prevent people from cheating voting for their own scenarios?

A. I will do the best I possibly can to monitor this and make sure that all votes come from users who have been on this board for sometime, BUT, this doesn't mean that just because you are new to this forum and just signed up to enter that you can't vote, I'm not going to disqualify a vote simply because someone is a new user, it's more along the line of if we find a person has 50 votes that are all 5's and all the users joined 1 day ago, it's safe to say they are cheating, unfortunately some cheaters may slip through the cracks, that's unavoidable, but hopefully most of you here are like me and have a love of the game and believe in playing fair, and come on folks, the grand prize is only $50, it's not like your gonna retire off it.


Q. Will you be entering the contest?

A. No. As some of you may know I did create a pretty in depth Napoleon Scenario (check the link in my sig if you want to play it) but it will not be entered, nor will I be entering any other scenario, I want to see what you guys can do.


Q. This sound interesting but I have no idea how to script or make scenario's.

A. This site has clearly marked sections giving many detailed examples on how to get started and how to advance as you get better, you are also more than welcome to view my script file in my Napoleon Scenario, it contains pretty much any kind of script function you can think of, and last but not least, we have these forums where you can ask other's, or do a search, chances are your question has already been answered, I check in from time to time and am always willing to help if I can we also have some other great guys like jimmybda, lordliam, coldwar warrior, saragon, Simon, and others, my apologies if I left any out, just to many of you to list.


Q. OK, so how do I get paid if I win?

A. My best suggestion is to use PayPal, it is a reputable way to transfer money online and even across differing currencies, and no I am not affiliated with Paypal in anyway and I am open to any other suggestions other's may have if they have a service they are more familiar with. As for the 3rd place winner I will contact you to arrange for shipping of your game to an address of your choosing.


Q. Are you a member of Big Huge, are you a salesman or something, are you an internet billionaire??

A. No, No, and a BIG NO. I am just a fan like the rest of you who wants to see this game get a re-birth, I am also trying to help promote it's sequel "Rise of Legends" which unfortunately just never caught on which is a shame becuase it is a great game and had huge potential but is badly in need of an expansion pack and hopefully if we can generate enough interest in the game the folks at Big Huge or whoever owns it now will release an expansion.


Q. Is this authorized by the people who host "Rise of Nations Heaven"?

A. I have made the moderators aware of this and they have agreed to post it on the main page so let's try to let as many people know about this as possible.

Well gamers, the Otterman has put forth the challenge, I hope alot of you will answer and I hope this will be a great success and we all get treated to some new killer scenario's. Good Luck to all!!

Otter

[This message has been edited by motter28218 (edited 05-04-2010 @ 10:06 AM).]