As long as we're all talking about things that should have been different about the contest, my personal opinion is that we should have not allowed the same consecutive winner for a mapping contest.

Yeah, my opinion obviously isn't worth more than anyone else, especially not yours, but I think that would be doing a disservice to the community.  Skilled mappers shouldn't be penalized.   They set a high bar, and create challenges for others to break.

I see your point about the voting system, but I'm not going to go through the trouble of editing SMF's voting system. We can't really switch to a third party polling system because then we have no way of verifying that each vote is from a legitimate person and that no one is abusing the system.

Personally I think it would be better if winners and losers are chosen by staff that are impartial and non-biased, but that might limit your number of judges to a handful of people that can be trusted.  The obvious downside of judging is it can impact personal relationships.

Just my point of view, maybe it's good feedback or not, I've said enough already. lol

I realise this isn't really possible with SMF polls, but it would have been good to see a voting system in which users can vote for their top 3, rather than being limited to 1 vote.

Expressed similar thoughts here prior to the contest ending.  Granted, it was too late to even consider this and SMF limitations could preclude implementation of weighted distribution.

http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php/topic,9289.msg103356.html#msg103356

If all of those people picked Abandoned School as their first choice then it wouldnt change the results from what they already are, it would just make the other maps have higher numbers associated with them.

There can be inherent issues with polling accuracy when limiting users to a single choice.   

If only 1st place counted then a single vote can reflect accurately when controlled (and randomized).   However results can be skewed beneath 1st place without additional weights and measures to control for selection bias and other factors of a pool or sample.

Abandoned School was the best map, and deserved first place.  I think we'd both agree on that, and most users would too.
After that the competition was a lot closer.   Here is where things get a bit more complex. Do users vote with their first choice (Abandoned School) assuming that it will win regardless, or vote to influence 2nd or 3rd place. 

Of the 39 users that voted for Abandoned School, how would those users voted if given the opportunity to select a 2nd or 3rd choice with less weighting?   

If even half of those 39 users voted the same on a 2nd or 3rd choice then 2nd and 3rd place may reflect different results.

This is what Koan is aiming at in his response.  I understand and also share similar sentiments.

There's really no way to handle it without people disagreeing on the results. If we had chosen the winners ourselves then we would have chosen differently than the results of the contest and people would be upset. And now we left it up to the community to decide and big surprise people are still upset lol.

Not upset, I'm just surprised by the results.  Well I guess actually not maybe.   

1st place isn't a surprise, but 2nd and 3rd place results are a little unexpected.

After Jbird's map most of the maps were closer and tougher to evaluate.

I would have assumed gamer9294's "Abandoned Mine" would have placed 2nd or 3rd even with the darkness issues.  There was a lot of thought and interesting gameplay mechanics included in that map.

Checking the SMART log should be your first priority.

Every manufactured hard drive contains a standardized low level diagnostic log (SMART) used to record various operating attributes.

If the raw value of re-allocated or pending sector counts have incremented above zero then it's a sign of disk failure.  You want to backup all data to another device or storage medium (DVD, etc).   Your drive could fail soon or last months or longer.  There's no easy way to tell or guess, just be prepared.

There are various utilities you can use to view the SMART log.

# commandline
smartmontools - open source

# GUI
gsmartcontrol - open source - (this is a cross platform graphical interface for smartmontools)

speedfan - closed source - (has the ability to pull SMART log)
hdtune - closed source - similar to speedfan


I'd recommend trying GSmartcontrol, but you'll definitely want to verify the checksum of the .exe against the published MD5 or SHA1 hash prior to execution as the project was moved from web host berlios.de to sourceforge.net last year.

Sourceforge has been known to modify .exe without approval of project owners.  This is why you should always verify the checksum of a download against the value published on the website.

Also be aware that you may also need to download smartmontools.  I'm not entirely sure if smartmontools is included in the windows version of GSmartcontrol.


Additional references.
--------------------------
http://gsmartcontrol.sourceforge.net/home/index.php/Screenshots
http://gsmartcontrol.sourceforge.net/home/index.php/Downloads
https://www.smartmontools.org/

http://superuser.com/questions/29240/how-can-i-read-my-hard-drives-smart-status-in-windows-7

In no particular order..

MOTD
COTD
Buried
Origins

I also enjoyed Shi No Numa, Moon, and Ascension.

lol its just one of the specific 6 FF names you can use

mapname
_patch
load_
localized_
mod

I forget the other

lol safe to say it isnt that tho lol

Sorry if this is redundant or a general noob question.  Did Treyarch include documentation with WAW mod tools that lists reserved words or other programming nomenclature?

I wish users were allowed multiple votes or a point based / weighted distribution system was implemented  (user gets 10 points, can allocate integer amount to one or multiple maps).   I'm guessing the latter isn't possible with SMF software.

I think everyone knows who the winner will be.  I want to vote that direction as well, but have held off.  My concern is that with only one vote per user, the vote results will be so lopsided that 2nd and 3rd place might not reflect the ingenuity a few maps have displayed.

Hopefully that isn't the case.

http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php/topic,7276.msg103312.html

Title: Re: [Approved] Abandoned School
Post by: bigjeff101 on December 04, 2015, 05:53:13 pm

Wow I remember my first zombie map. I don't even know where to began with this poorly made map.

You don't deserve a dignified response, but I'll bite. 

Only a few in the custom zombies community have produced polished content and regularly displayed both technical skill and creative talent.   Jbird is in that short list.  His work is respected by his modding peers and by casual bystanders like most of us that have not produced maps for this community.

If you really do believe his work is shit, I encourage you to get involved, learn to map, script, or code and try to produce something even as remotely polished as any one of maps he's created or contributed on.


FYI: in case anyone is wondering, hidden posts like the one above can still be viewed.

should probably lead with:
PRACTICLY TWICE THE SIZE NOW

Two room box challenge.   

---

Double Post Merge: December 03, 2015, 10:48:06 am

---

Final version updated on the first post
Be ready to some surprises and a more challenging experience

And thanks for all your comments

looking forward to this. 

Upon returning to the room all symbols were still gone.

Has anything changed? You might have overlooked something.

Just so people don't think this map is dead,I have clipped and path noded the entire map and now Smasher seems to be a part the team since he is helping with zoning / debris and zombie spawns. On top of the fact that he is #1 Bae 

(Image removed from quote.)

#1 DAB.  lulz

Jammy what's the completion status?   Any chance it will be released by end of the year?

Does this mean High Noon is dead? 

http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php/topic,6343.msg69382.html

What if you cornered someone - couldn't you just steal their weapon?

That's a feature, not a bug. :x

I don't think it was that sinister (although the first clause in that sentence may well be true, but not for the reasons you are thinking). I think the reason was just that the Jimmy BO2 maps were, on the whole, pretty crap and the Campaign led maps (MOTD and Origins) wiped the floor with them. Ergo they got the nod for the BO3 zombies maps. And rightly so IMO.

Tranzit, Die Rise, and Nuketown fell short, but Buried remains one of the best maps in the franchise.  The Zombie team deserves some credit for that at least.

Two years ago a disgruntled Treyarch dev made a topic on Reddit with some anonymous posts commenting on MOTD aka "mobzies".  He/She didn't seem to have kind words about Activision and hinted that they used publisher influence on studio development.     I cut out a bunch of my own opinion as it mostly re-iterated existing remarks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/blackops2/comments/1bq192/im_leaking_mob_of_the_dead_

So, basically the zombie team has already a rough draft of all the DLC maps they'll release (I don't know much about future ones though) and are currently working on DLC 3 and 4. So what happened with mob of the dead (or "Mobzies" as was the working title [im not fucking joking here that was actually the working title]) was that Treyarch (or more accurately Activision) was imploring for DLCs to be ready faster (I'm not to sure about the details there, I wasn't involved on the business end of things but that's what we were told).

Also one interesting leak made by the dev is now confirmed in B03 zombies inter-dimensional storyline.

https://www.reddit.com/user/3ArcCanSuckIt

[–]3ArcCanSuckIt 2 points 2 years ago

I wasn't aware the zombies' eyes signified anything. But what I understood was that the players aren't really in the 1930's. The entire map isn't even on earth, it's like in this inter-dimensional space bubble. It's just been modeled by some entity to look like Alcatraz at that time. Again, as I said, the zombie team didn't give us specifics as to what that entity is or does. They're even secretive with their co-workers.