Lua Contest
☼Lap☼
Join Date: 2009-02-16 Member: 66432Members
Join Date: 2009-02-16 Member: 66432Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Prior to release or immediately after</div>What about having a contest either shortly prior to release or right after where you challenge all the Lua coders out there to make a new feature, weapon, option, improvement, or whatever?
Winners could be given a free copy of NS2, some fancy rank, or have their idea polished up and integrated into the game.
There are already tons of Lua coders out there and having a few hundred more eyes on your work would definitely bring some improvements. I also remember reading that one of the reasons for switching to Lua was to have the community do a lot of the content creation. What better way to get the ball rolling than a contest?
Winners could be given a free copy of NS2, some fancy rank, or have their idea polished up and integrated into the game.
There are already tons of Lua coders out there and having a few hundred more eyes on your work would definitely bring some improvements. I also remember reading that one of the reasons for switching to Lua was to have the community do a lot of the content creation. What better way to get the ball rolling than a contest?
Comments
+1
I really hope it's not a combat version.
I really hope it's not a combat version.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
LAZERS PEW PEW!!! ... oh wait ns2... LAZERS THAT ARE ROBOTIC A.I.!!!
A. We get an API
B. We get official approval
The API being the big one.
A. We get an API
B. We get official approval
The API being the big one.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
A.
Usually developers worry about getting the game out before worrying about letting people mod the game. But I'm not sure what you mean here. All of the NS2 game rules code (anything not engine) is in Lua, and Lua is compiled on the fly, so these source files will be right out in the open. If you mean the developers haven't dumped out a doxygen site of calls you can make into their engine, then I guess that's true. But that's also never stopped people from modding before.
B.
I sorta doubt they will allow a contest winner's script to be made official game content. It could have disastrous consequences on the balance they are trying to achieve. However, this contest idea would be a lot more meaningful if it was kept in the community and the devs didn't get involved at all. There's nothing stopping us from having an unofficial Lua contest. In fact, I kinda dig it.
There's a movie contest running even while NS is in this bad shape and it even has a reasonable prize sum involved. If NS2 is any good, the community will most likely have create a few contests of their own indeed.
The community contest is the only reasonable way I can see it happening anyway. There's no way the actual game is going to be changed. However, the created customizations get publicity and are at everyone's disposal from that point on, so the effect is far better than just forcefully integrating something into the game. Of course it's a little shame if the vanilla NS2 gets overrun by the mods too early, but I think that's going to happen in any case.
The rewards for winning were examples. The dev's wouldn't choose to integrate something that would ruin the balance they've created. If the reward of the contest is that they'll integrate it then of course the winner is going to be something balanced.
There are also tons of balance neutral lua creations like alternative UI features.
There are also tons of balance neutral lua creations like alternative UI features.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's really more of a question of the devs having creative control over their game that I was trying to put nicely. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> Fan made content that has been battle tested (maps, mostly) occasionally gets integrated, and sometimes key ideas from scripts or fan made models and things get used in the creation of new official content, but to even entertain the idea of letting someone's script be made official content just because it won a contest is a tall order.
Good idea, but win a freecopy, i guess the Users will buy NS2.
Maybe the lua code of the winner will come with next release and he get 20-40$.