So since the first Map making competition is in the final stages and all the maps are submitted.  Why not allow the designers to get started on the next competition so there's not 6 months in between the start and end dates of the next one. 

Discuss....

I really like this idea, and have even envisioned having two contests running concurrently.  Maybe a short term one and a long term one.  I guess the real question is:  Is there interest by the map makers in another contest.  I had a good time in this contest, and would be interested in another. 

I think things went pretty well with this one, and the rules we settled on (voting, etc.) seemed to work pretty well, but this would be a good time to bring up any proposed changes.

I would like a little longer to be able to effectively test the board before release.  I feel that I did not thoroughly dev test my board (the release had untested changes).  This is really just me and I am never fully happy with the boards I have so really it is just a suggestion.

As a whole, I believe the first contest has gone well so far and I am interested in seeing how many players participate in the voting.  What about coming up with a new theme?

How about a Castle Siege theme? That would tie in scenarios as well, which could be fun. Heck, maybe Cram could even be coaxed into reviving his Helm's Deep map!

I already have a great board under this theme which I was thinking of revisiting soon so it sounds good to me.

I might even get involved in that one.

sounds good, that'd lead to some cool boards i bet

I'm not a designer but from the player's perspective I'd love a good Castle Seige map.

~ATH

I like that theme.  How about, 'Castles, Fortresses & Sieges' to sort of broaden & define the theme.

Kjeld what did you mean - "That would tie in scenarios as well"?

Alpha - I also would like a bit longer.  Even if I can make a map in a few weeks (doubtful), it can easily take a couple of months to test & tweak it.

I just meant that a castle siege theme would generally be more conducive toward tactical scenarios with a particular starting setup (as opposed to the Pangaea maps which were all sort of random distribution geographic-style boards).

I'd be happy to offer a $100 prize on a regular basis for map making competitions - something like a 3 month cycle for each competition so 4 per year. There should be a defined timescale within each cycle for the theme selection, design, test and voting stages within each cycle.

A 3 or 4 month cycle sounds great.   If it's going to be a perennial type of thing, it would be nice to know what the theme(s)/special rules are 6, or even 9 months out.

How about a 6 month cycle?
  Month 1 - determine theme and special rules
  Month 2-4 - develop maps
  Month 5-6 - play and vote.

This may be too fast a scale, but it can be overlapped.

i say an 8 month cycle, starting every 4th month (3 per year).  works out very nicely where there are no two competitions 'developing' at the same time. could even tweak it where that 6th month is more developing instead of playing but you'd end op overlapping developments then.

1 - determine theme
2 - develop maps
3 - develop maps
4 - develop maps            
5 - develop maps             1 - determine theme
6 - play and vote             2 - develop maps            
7 - play and vote             3 - develop maps            
8 - play and vote             4 - develop maps            
9                                      5 - develop maps            1 - determine theme
10                                    6 - play and vote             2 - develop maps           
11                                    7 - play and vote             3 - develop maps            
12                                    8 - play and vote             4 - develop maps            
13                                                                            5 - develop maps            1 - determine theme

+1 for weathertop

Weathertop's plan works for me!

Weathertop's plan gets my vote.

I'm against WT's plan, but that is just because we are still fighting.

(+1 for me.  This is what I was thinking, but he beat me to putting the idea down on paper.)

I also like Weathertop's schedule.

I tried to capture what I feel like the 'Rules' are for our map making competition.  I think it would be useful to have these all in one place, right now they are kind of all over the forum.  This is what I remember coming out of all of our various discussions, although I think there is more I'm missing.  I'll use italics for whereever I don't think there is a consensus or is my suggestion.

Theme

• Theme is chosen by general consensus, or if no general consensus - IRV voting
• Theme is in the eye of the beholder.  Any connection is enough to pass a map for inclusion in the competition.  Judges are encouraged to incorporate adherence to theme into their overall score.

Deadlines

• Should deadlines be always the last day of the month?  Time zone?
• Board submission deadline is to submit board to the council, or to pass the council?  Now that we have 4 months scheduled for development, maybe this should be a hard deadline to pass the council.
• Boards go public once submission is complete - so boards completed earlier have a slight advantage in that they are available for play longer.
• Overall timeline is constant between competitions (weathertops suggestion).  Make a google doc or forum thread that has timeline info, theme info, etc. for upcoming competitions.

Voting

• Players vote for top 3?  3, 2, & 1 points still?  I remember a suggestion to make it 5,3,1.  Because the desire was for 1st place to mean more.  I think a good system is to let players have 10 points to distribute as they fit with up to some maximum (5?) points to any one board?  That way individual judges can decide just how much better their 1st place board is.  Maybe wait until this voting completes to see how this goes?
• Map makers can vote and can vote for their own boards if so desired.

Promotion

• 2 general threads made when voting starts.  One to introduce the competition to the general public, allow discussion, etc.  One just for voting/reviews.
• Boards should put a link to at least the voting thread into their board description.
• Players are encouraged to post a link to the threads as an in game message if they suspect not all players in the game already know about the competition.

Prizes

• $100 prize.  Stick with $60/$30/$10 breakdown?

it might be nice to eventually add a "Map Competition" tag to the board list (or something like that).