What about a map where the goal is to produce a maximum of goods? The challenge would be to produce as many goods as possible in a given time - 5 or 10 game years (More?) - with some events to prevent it from being too easy.
If the game is set on 10 years for example, make a scenario that runs 11 years, and by december of the tenth year, make a save and send it to show what has been produced by that date...

It would be related to some or all of the available goods, and rated with a rate scale for each of the goods...

Also, it could be done on one map with different challenges: for example, one challenge would be to fulfill a goal with different types of goods, and another one would be to fulfill the goal with only one of the available good.

It would be some economic challenge instead of fighting or surviving; but could be mixed with some bandit attacks if it's an economic map, or with enemy attacks if based on an invasion map.

The goal, anyway, would be to produce a maximum of things in a limited time... It's kinda contest, yep, but with no goal to reach besides to produce as many of a good as possible in a limited time.

There would even be several ways of playing it:

To produce as much gold as possible.
To produce as many weapons as possible.
To produce as much food as possible.
To produce one given good as much as possible.
(This one could be extended to all types of goods...*grin*)

And, of course:

Basic total run for all available goods.

Playability could be improved with a few small invasions on an invasion map, and with some bad or good events as well, except fire to personal my point of view... Of course, plagues, bandits and wolves would be a must...

The idea is to try to make it with one of the goals, with several or even with all. It gives the opportunity (and necessity) to play the map different times (Different ways?) in order to achieve all goals... Now, what size map should it be? A large one I guess to increase difficulty due to the location of the ressources.

The challenge would be to produce a map that offers many ressources to exploit, not all displayed together... (Like iron spread a bit all over the map and not located in quantity in one place for example) I thought of a "place your keep" way of playing, it might as well be with an already placed keep... It depends how the ressources are placed. There is a rating per good -when you finish a map with economic goals- that could be applied to the results if the goal is to produce several types of goods.
It would be good to start with just a limited amount of wood and food, and with no gold too.

Regarding the invasions, if invasion map, it would need to be not so strong ones, with the idea of bothering more than killing your lord. If the castle is closed, monks, spearmen or macemen make wonderful teasers... They shall kindly destroy some of the things you built until they are stopped.

Scripting would be a great challenge as well, a good balance would be needed to bother the gameplay only where it hurts.

Didn't someone suggest a competitive SHH community map? The fist was great fun.

My idea is going to be rather boring to most but i still await a terrain comp.
(it's the only aspect of stronghold i consider myself good at)
Maybe a photo could be shown and you would have to create it as best you can, but i know many prefer castle building and invasions so there probably wouldn't be many entries. Well one can only hope......
Arthus
(ohhh.. why is it you only find spelling mistakes after youv'e posted )

[This message has been edited by WarLord_Designs (edited 03-17-2005 @ 04:36 AM).]

I like the sound of terrain building and also the idea of trying be the most efficient The idea i have is to create the best maze (is it good/ bad?) I have spent quite a few hours developing a maze that i think will be quite good fun and of course frustrating It's ok for my first effort (i wish right now i could add a mini map) - Playtesting like most of my maps is the hardest part but i'm pretty near completion and hopefully before i leave for Helsinki tomorrow i will upload it.

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Zebas came up with an idea for that - that would still be a fun idea.

A terrain map from a photo... that could work! That could also work for building a castle from a picture... but of course then it wouldn't be a terrain map anymore.

I think it would be hard to judge a best maze map, though I like mazes. I made one myself (that made me never want to have to lower walls again)!

Good ideas - keep them coming!

For those who read the wheel of time books, we could have a competition in creating the best wheel of time scenario.

Thats a good idea (I'm on book 6!), but how many people have actually read them?

Hmm, lets see,

How many has read the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan?
post a reply so that we can see how many it its.

Never heard of Snydens. Maybe you could tell us what this book is about more precisely?

I read the first one and have one of the later ones... but wouldn't really know if maps were depicting a WoT scenario or not.

Hm.. I was thinking on some things and beauty came into my mind... But that's obviously not a good idea for a Stronghold contest since beauty IS a part of the game, and fundamental on other contest.

So I propose... TEH MOST UGLY STRONGHOLD MAP! Er... Just kidding.

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Um, no...

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Good.

We could have a contest for the most elaborate yet impractical or nonfunctional castle. Towers unreachable by any means... stockpiles scattered around... stairs going nowhere... The results would probably just be an unplayable frustration, though.

Thats a good idea, who can make the most angry player, cool for the judgers..hehe

How about a contest where you are given a certain amount of resources and need to design the most functional and difficult to siege castle?

Isn't this called "Siège that" Lord Raganar?

But you could do a "Siege That" on a custom map.

For instance, players could try and make landscapes, which can be judged through to the next round (kinda like the current Trifle Competition), or a map already in the freebuild section could be used.

Players can then compete to create the best castle on that map, using limited resources. This can be done by putting a stockpile on the map, and filling it with stone/wood. The castle can then be made in-game, and the .sav converted to a .map.

Hey presto! A custom Siege-That competition!

The problem with Siege That is it is very easy to build a castle that is impossible to siege with 1000 stone.

How about the ultimate Competition of 'who can clear a map the quickest!' Take any map and use the editor to erase everything...Time yourself and then post your result...It could just be the comp of the year

Some people might cheat on that.

What about a stronghold heaven games tournament? Like people sign up for it and then a date and time would be organised for the match,winner goes onto the next round, loser is taken out. If a person doesent turn up for the match the other player auto wins. Like 4 players, 2 winners out of each match go head to head but on a larger scale (It would only work with even numbers though). This might not work because not everyone will have multiplayer working. This is just a crazy idea i thought up.

I agree with Supersephiroth's idea but i think that with every match a player should be given another chance if they fail to make it, I mean you may have to do somethig very important like see an ill relative or something like that so I think that should be implemented and maybe we could make it so there are different tournaments of skill for different players I mean like say, one for peasant skill, one for knight skill and one for lord skill. I'd be the peasant skill but never mind, maybe we can make it for Stronghold 2 when everyone is setlled and we could post the topic now in the Stronghold 2 multiplayer so that the forum isn't empty.

I would rather we had a design competition. Partly because thats why I'm still playing Stronghold, and partly because designing is the best bit, for me.

Meta j like 3 separate tournaments, one for newbies, one for the average player and one for the killed player.

I've sorted through all the various ideas in the Contest Ideas thread, and put them all into a chart, along with links back to the post or thread. I'll update the chart as new ideas come in. I'll make a similar chart for the non-contest ideas soon too.

Which reminds me, now that we have a new forum for contests (yay!), feel free to start new threads for new ideas (contests and non-contests alike).

I'm not sure when we'll start the next contest, as the Trifle just ended, and soon everyone will be playing Stronghold 2 and learning all about its editor.

What about going from an historical fact with an existing castle to a playable map? The idea being to reproduce the castle as close as to the original, the map being respectful of the original landscape around the castle, and the scenario trying to reproduce the historical event, even if the castle was taken, but still giving a chance to the player to win it.

Mainly: to make an historical map, (Yes, it has been done before...) but on the same basis for all. We could see what each of us comes out with... So what? Several maps of one castle? (That would really be interesting to see the representations of the interpretation each would have of some given information: castle and surrounding photos or/and maps, and historical facts.)

I do not refer to Lord of the Ring maps that are not representative of a medieval castle to me.