Foundry Challenge: Victory is Life

drogyn1701

Hello and welcome to the next Foundry Mission Building Challenge, sponsored by Cryptic and the Foundry Roundtable.

From the date of this post, authors will have 5 weeks to create their missions, after which there will be 3 weeks for the community to play through and cast their vote for the winner. The winner will be determined by a majority vote.

The mission creation deadline is 4 p.m. US Pacific Time, Friday, Sept. 21. The voting deadline is 4 p.m. US Pacific Time, Friday, Oct. 12.

Challenge Topic:

For this Foundry challenge, make a mission for Jem’Hadar or Cardassian player characters. The plot may be anything you wish, as long as it is geared toward either or both of these playable races.

Rules:

Please make sure to adhere to the Foundry EULA and the rules below.


Authors must add their mission to the official Mission Thread HERE including the following information.

Mission Title:
Your @Handle:
Faction:
Level Requirement:
Mission Summary:

The above needs to be filled out completely by the due date/time for your mission to be considered, and your mission must be published in-game at such time to be considered -- unfortunately, any mission that cannot be found in-game by the time the voting starts will be removed from the challenge.

If you are unable to push the "publish" button at this time due to timezones/ work schedules, please wait until the latest possible moment before this day/time. Also, if you need to publish your mission to test things, that is fine too, but please make sure to unpublish after testing is complete.


Rules of the challenge:

• The challenge will run for 8 weeks total, 5 to build the missions and 3 for the community to play and vote. If there is any unscheduled lengthy downtime during the challenge, the deadlines will be extended by the appropriate time.
• There are no right or wrong stories to tell, as long as the mission is geared toward Jem’Hadar or Cardassian player characters..
• Missions should take 30-45 minutes for a player to complete, in order to make sure players can play through all the missions in a reasonable amount of time.
• Once the mission is published, it should not be withdrawn, even temporarily. The only exception to this would be if for some reason players are saying they can't complete it and you need to fix something so they can. If you find spelling mistakes, feel free to fix them only after the competition ends. In general, we want all the voters to be considering the same version of your mission.
• Voting: when the 5-week build period ends, a voting thread will be posted with the information on all submitted missions. When you have played through the missions and selected your favorite, send a forum PM, in-game mail or Twitter DM to @drogyn1701. This will serve as your official vote. Limit 1 vote per person.
• In the event of a tie, @duncanidaho11’s cat has been chosen as the impartial tie-breaking judge.
• You may leave a review on each mission you play if you wish, but it is not required.

A few other important reminders:

• Please heed the Foundry's EULA when submitting your entry! This applies to any mission made in the foundry. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!
• Each author may only have one entry, no matter how many accounts they have.
• We'll have three threads: One to discuss the entries (this one), one to submit entries, and one with the official entries list for voting that will be posted when the building deadline arrives.

captainhunter1

Edit: Removed foul language.

Fantastic idea, incredibly poor timing.

Why are we showcasing just how broken the Foundry editor is right now?? It's going to put more people off than it's going endear.

I can't even fix the missions I have right now, let alone start a new one.

You may want to call this one off until the Foundry gets fixed.

duncanidaho11

captainhunter1 wrote: »

You may want to call this one off until the Foundry gets fixed.

We're well aware of the issues and don't think they should prevent anyone from building or participating. I've provided a thread with PSA's on all active bugs that authors may encounter during this challenge (rewards qualification I didn't mention, it's a critical issue that Crytpic needs to look into for long-term playability, but it shouldn't interfere with the operation of this challenge). I've also linked this off on all social media outlets, accompanying the announcement.

Link here: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1242987/new-to-the-foundry-psas-tips-and-intro

To be frank: more than anything the Foundry community needs more engagement. Passively waiting for Cryptic to change priorities isn't going to fix the bugs any sooner. What will is added pressure from community engagement. Ie. players being made aware of the Foundry and authors actively building for it. A challenge is a great way to stimulate both. I've been doing a lot in the Foundry lately, and I know that both senior authors and earnest newcomers can work around existing issues without much issue for a new mission (though I appreciate what's been going on with existing ones.)

starswordc

Okay, I have a mission in progress that deals heavily with 2400s Cardassia. It's not specifically written for Cardassians (they weren't available when I started working on it circa 2015), but I can add Cardassian-specific dialogue and RP options easily enough. Would that count?

drogyn1701

By and large we want people to submit missions made within the challenge window. That puts everyone on the same footing.

I also agree with Duncan. Getting Cryptic to re-engage with the Foundry begins with efforts like this. And having recently made a mission, albeit a single map showcase, I didn't encounter anything that prevented me from completing it, publishing it, and having it played by others.

duncanidaho11

I'll add though that the premise sounds fine, the mission should relate to Cardassian or Jem'Hadar players as they're playing the mission but that doesn't exclude the possibility of a non-Jem/Card dialog track if authors want to be more accommodating to the general community.

makoruu

I'm tempted to give it the ol' college try.

If only just for the free ship.

h29829282

Is it allowed for multiple to work on a project? If so would it be up for us to pick what member gets the prize?

starswordc

drogyn1701 wrote: »

By and large we want people to submit missions made within the challenge window. That puts everyone on the same footing.

Well, no, the mission has been sitting unfinished for that long, is what I meant. I've got it more or less fully plotted and half-finished story-wise, but I got bogged down in the work of redressing the Hathon map to be a Cardassian town.

Also, stickied the thread.

markhawkman

h29829282 wrote: »

Is it allowed for multiple to work on a project? If so would it be up for us to pick what member gets the prize?

Well, no. The contest is for each mission to be written and built by a single person.

h29829282

So we can't help someone, they make it and decide what they do with the prize if they win?

duncanidaho11

h29829282 wrote: »

So we can't help someone, they make it and decide what they do with the prize if they win?

This is a direct competition, so we do ask that each mission represents the effort of an individual author. As a team you can delegate between writing and building and provide feedback to each other as the build progresses. That allows for faster work and easier polishing, both significant advantages when building a Foundry mission for a challenge.

So, collaborating for fun or creativity's sake is best left to normal Foundry business. You can use the challenge to learn the Foundry editor and refine your building process, then work with your partner on other projects once this is through (or on the side while the challenge is on going). You can still aim for a Foundry spotlight outside of a challenge, provided you're able to make an outstanding mission.

duncanidaho11

Oh and a suggestion for authors, stating in your mission description which species your mission is for in the description is highly advisable (you players to know who to bring). The Foundry search tool will also be able to pick up on this text for anyone searching for "Cardassian" or "Jem'Hadar." However, a lot of other stuff also comes up ATM with these terms, so players looking for missions themed to their player character are going to have to do some filtering. You can make it easier though by adopting a mission tag (like we've done for the ICO, AEI, and 26c anthologies) which you can add to the mission title for quick and highly selective searching. Authors can also use these in future to add more missions geared towards Cardassian or Jem'Hadar characters (complimentary to the challenge submissions.)

What I would suggest: [CRD] for Cardassian missions and [JHD] for Jem'Hadar. Unlike DOM, JEM, or CAR for example, neither JHD or CRD returns anything else ATM.

thay8472

This for new authors or can anyone jump into the madness?

duncanidaho11

Absolutely anyone.

runekeeper8

Awesome, I have this story idea for a Cardassian Captain. Is it ok is I post this before finishing the story and add the rest of the information in later?


Mission Title: "Kafkaesque White"
Your @Handle: runekeeper8
Faction: Starfleet
Level Requirement:
Mission Summary:

starfarertheta

captainhunter1 wrote: »

...
Why are we showcasing just how broken the Foundry editor is right now?? It's going to put more people off than it's going endear.
...

I don't know, you could view this in a more positive-

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

...

To be frank: more than anything the Foundry community needs more engagement. Passively waiting for Cryptic to change priorities isn't going to fix the bugs any sooner. What will is added pressure from community engagement. Ie. players being made aware of the Foundry and authors actively building for it. A challenge is a great way to stimulate both. I've been doing that a lot lately, and I know that both senior authors and earnest newcomers can work around existing issues without much issue for a new mission (though I appreciate what's been going on with existing ones.)

What he said.

starfarertheta

- Edit monster needs to chew its food first -
- (removed what was essentially a duplicate post)

starfarertheta

This challenge sounds great. Although if something like only two missions are submitted for this challenge then I'm gonna have to throw together something of my own. Just giving you all a heads up.

(my previous challenge entries were never that great)

duncanidaho11

starfarertheta wrote: »

If there's too few missions made for this challenge then I'm gonna have to slapdash together a something of my own. You probably don't want that.

Well let's put it this way, we aren't looking to just minimally satisfy the requirements of a challenge. The bigger the mission listing, the more impactful this is. The more impactful this is, the more likely it's going to happen again as an official community event.

My stance on missions is "as many as possible," we need to make the Foundry look good with this one (in part, to justify why Cryptic should bother supporting it. Kael is still pushing for bug fixes but that's an ongoing process. Read into that what you will, so showing maximum engagement would probably be a very, very good idea here. All authors are strongly encouraged to participate with this challenge, no matter if they think they have a winning idea or not. Don't take these opportunities for granted.)

runekeeper8 wrote: »

Awesome, I have this story idea for a Cardassian Captain. Is it ok is I post this before finishing the story and add the rest of the information in later?

Sure is.

starfarertheta

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

starfarertheta wrote: »

regurgitated by edit monster post

Well let's put it this way, we aren't looking to just minimally satisfy the requirements of a challenge. The bigger the mission listing, the more impactful this is. The more impactful this is, the more likely it's going to happen again as an official community event.

My stance on missions is "as many as possible," we need to make the Foundry look good with this one (in part, to justify why Cryptic should bother supporting it. Kael is still pushing for bug fixes but that's an ongoing process. Read into that what you will, so showing maximum engagement would probably be a very, very good idea here. All authors are strongly encouraged to participate with this challenge, no matter if they think they have a winning idea or not. Don't take these opportunities for granted.)
...

You make a compelling point. Very well, I'll see what I can come up with and try to carve out enough time to make it happen. Simplicity will be my friend on this one.

P.S. - If you can read this... Huzzah!! I can post again!

qwe456345

while the Foundry seems a bit complicated to me, a pretty good idea would be a Holodeck experience where you play a Foundry-Style version of iconic events in ST history

duncanidaho11

qwe456345 wrote: »

while the Foundry seems a bit complicated to me, a pretty good idea would be a Holodeck experience where you play a Foundry-Style version of iconic events in ST history

Some players have in fact made these as Foundry missions. "The Battle of Klach D'kel Brakt" (KDF) is a notable example.

spiritborn

qwe456345 wrote: »

while the Foundry seems a bit complicated to me, a pretty good idea would be a Holodeck experience where you play a Foundry-Style version of iconic events in ST history

as duncan mentioned it has been done, just remember that we cannot replicate episodes in the foundry, so the best way to do this is use events that have been mentioned but no(or very little) details were given in the episode.

I'm doing something similar for my 23c mission, as option you can either RP it as 23c captain or as a 25c captain playing a holodeck sim of a historical event (though the event in question is my personal invention in this case).

drogyn1701

We're going to have a special episode of the Foundry Roundtable tonight (Tuesday) at 4:30 p.m. US Pacific Time at twitch.tv/thefoundryroundtable to talk about the challenge. If anyone has any questions that's a great time to come and ask them. I'll also post the youtube version to this thread as soon as it's compiled.

drogyn1701

Here's the link to last night's show. One thing to note is I said at the top of the show we had two entries, well since then we've had a bunch more people throw their hat in the ring!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGMyx_1dN-U&feature=youtu.be

sarvour0

Fascinating.
I hope I will be able to make the time to throw together a mission or two.
Probably have one of my Cardassian captains as quest giver/ally.

hippiejon

Just want to say that it is really amazing and very affirming to see so many people putting together Challenge entries. Good luck to everyone and remember that there are resources out there to find help and advice if you need it. Saw a lot of new names in the Entries thread.

where2r1

Are the missions listed on the other thread...are those completed and I can go try them as I have time? Or do we have to wait until the voting thread goes up?

baelrogh

Im still waiting for reviews. So far by my knowledge none has visited mission beside myself to give it a go. Not sure if there is some bugs and stuff for other people since for me it went smooth as it supposed to.

where2r1

Oh, OK....my problem is lack of time to get in the game itself. So, the sooner I can access them, the better.
I am probably going to stick to KDF missions, still. That list is getting a bit long.