Contests / NE's Contest Survey Returns!

The summer months are coming up and with a recent surge of activity, we felt it was time to organise a contest survey for everyone to voice their opinions on a new Official NE Contest.

The poll is relatively important, even more so to those who wish for a contest to happen, as it will shape the way our next contest happens, which contest will happen and when it will happen.

You will notice that H2H is back as an option. With it being 2 years since H2H6, we are more open to the idea of running it again, although a contest as large as this, may not be possible for another year. With that said, we are still looking for your opinion, so do not let that hold you back. You will also notice Pro Tour is missing. We felt that even though last years prelims were successful, it is now time to retire the Pro Tour format, although the prelims may come back in another form.

As admins of the site we care what the community wants which is the reason for this poll, and it will help us decide which option is the best option to take. So please answer with sincerity. The poll is anonymous, however if you wish to broadcast how you voted then by all means do so. In the long run this may even be more influencial as we know there are certain members out there that care for contests and participate in them more than others. Also please feel free to leave any comments too.

Thankyou for taking the time to do this. Whilst we are asking for this feedback, it doesn't necessarily mean a contest will happen right away, or will happen at all any time soon, but hopefully something will come from this so the more votes the better.

May I remind everyone that June, July and August are generally the hottest months of the year. You'll want to be outside the house, not bathing in your own sweat trying to meet a deadline. They're not good months for contests in my opinion and personal experience.

I would love the opportunity to compete in a NE contest, regardless of what or when that contest is. Liam brings up a good point about the summer though, personally I spend much more time building in the winter months (though a summer micro contest might be a healthy medium).

it is if you're dealing with school, pretty much the only time of the year for me where i don't have to deal with any homework or tests. besides if it's a team park others can fill up the gap while you're gone on vacation. in normal months i have a couple hours of free time, in summertime i've got all day and even if i spent 8 hours a day outside i've still got enough time to meet that deadline, more than in those normal months

People going for H2H again?

I'd much rather see a contest where the theme/rides are dictated rather than decided by the builders. I find it a lot easier to build in a certain time frame if I'm told what to build rather than having free rein over everything.

Maybe it might be interested to do a sort of H2H/QFTB/X Factor crossover where each week has a specific theme or ride or anything that the parks need to be built around? The evolution of H2H - I'll give an example of a few weeks:

Week 1 - Pirate Theme (All parks would have some sort of Pirate theme)

Week 2 - Realistic small park (All parks would be similar to a small realistic park, so no over the top theming, no huge rides, just nice pleasant parks)

Week 3 - Interactive B&M Invert (The signature ride in the park would have to be a reasonably large B&M Invert that includes many interactions. This includes interaction with heavy theming, landscaping, pathing and queues, and/or other rides)

Week 4 - Free Week (Any theme, any build)

Week 5 - Recreation (Recreate any ride/section of park from any real theme park)

Obviously I'm sure others could come up with better ideas, but I'd really like to see something like this. It would make it a lot easier to build and to know what you're going to be going up against, as well as being a lot easier to compare the entries to find a winner. It could be very easily integrated into the H2H system, which seems to be the one everyone favours.

Another problem with contests is that people are too ambitious with what they want to build, because generally they can build whatever they want, and having a time frame limits peoples ability to come up with a cohesive thought for how to build their entry and what to put in it. A lot of the simpler entries are the ones which end up being finished, compared to the overly ambitious entries where the creator would have hit numerous blocks along the way. People have so many ideas, but struggle to convert them into Rct, getting frustrated and eventually stalling and giving up. Giving set guidelines for the entries would eliminate this as it would take down half of those initial ideas. Of course, there will always be some sort of drop out through over ambitiousness, but unless you literally tell people exactly what to build, there's no way to change that. Doing it this way would still allow creative differences, but give people enough of a start to at least come reasonably close to finishing.

Not only does it give you something to build towards, it means you can focus on really producing some really good quality Rct rather than coming up with the 'latest thing', which coincidentally is why Heavens Kitchen won the last H2H, they didn't try anything too out of the ordinary. They just produced really nice Rct. Not saying that the other teams didn't, but as said before, contests generally tend to be the place where people really try to push their ideas to the extremes. Evidently, it doesn't always work out.

Edit - Oh and to the other person who voted Duo Contest? Let's team up

duh everyone's gonna pick h2h, especially us scrubs that hadn't got the chance to play in a season yet

Rawry - Thankyou for your suggestion for a new contest. We actually have several new ideas that we can pull out and use, and one is similar to what you are asking. But at this time, it is most likely that it won't happen as new ideas need a bit of testing etc. etc.

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Typically, fitting in larger contests are always a struggle. The summer is when most people don't have anything going on with school/college/uni all out for a couple of months, but it is also the time of year where a lot of people go on holiday and want to be outside enjoying the weather. It's always difficult to find the right time and whether it is best to run a contest when people have more free time from school, or whether its best to run it when people have less free time, but are happier to stay inside and build.

Thanks for the responses so far, I didn't think we would get this many within this short period of time. The poll will stay open for a while, ideally we need a large number of votes to properly assess the situation.

I feel a smaller contest would be best for all. H2H's are fun, but what makes them fun is they only come around every so often. As well, they are draining. After a contest of that size and intensity, you usually see a number of people stop playing for a good period of time, the admins are drained from having to crank out contest material, the site has a lull. I think something smaller to drum up activity would be better now, with the hope it continues that energy for a year or so. 

FK

H2H please, such an awesome event.

edit; and I second liampie's comment about the summer. It's what basically ruined the previous Pro Tour. We can organize it during summer and hold drafts/make preparations, and then start building after the summer..

I voted H2H because I really want to work with teams, and make crazy cool parks in both LL and RCT2. Buuuut, I'd also be interested in another NEDC, because they're quicker and smaller scale, and they still produce a bunch of cool things. And from what I understand, they're basically the same format as the contests on Reddit, except determined by a panel instead of popular vote.

I'd like to participate.. doesn't matter than format, but if we do some kind of team stuff, I hope they are handicapped to some extent.. IMO having a supergroup of say Liampie and Pac would be unfair.

I'm all for a new contest at NE, though I more than likely would not participate.

I'd like to participate.. doesn't matter than format, but if we do some kind of team stuff, I hope they are handicapped to some extent.. IMO having a supergroup of say Liampie and Pac would be unfair.

that's why they draft the way we do, so all the really skilled peeps are picked by round 3

 

 

that's why they draft the way we do, so all the really skilled peeps are picked by round 3

I'm all for a new contest at NE, though I more than likely would not participate.

I still want a madlibs contest

I had the luck to enter H2H once and I found it fantastic. i hope it returns... But I would spread it over some months, not some weeks. Would be easier to finish things and to make free time.

PARK WARSSSSS.

Actually, I really liked the choice of "somewhere in between" when dealing with the choice of a new contest, or something more faithful. That could mean a H2H with specific guidelines for each round, or a team-based NEDC or QFTBX or something. Do that. As much as I'd love another H2H , mixing it up a bit by imposing a new twist could be really cool.

Or it could suck, actually. I don't know. My vote still goes for Park Wars.

New NE, new contest.

 

 

that's why they draft the way we do, so all the really skilled peeps are picked by round 3

Is that a criticism of the draft system? If you are just stating how its done, it would discourage players like me from participating because by ourselves we don't stand a chance.. but if teamed with others who are "better" we could provide some useful things. Unless I am in the minority of people who want a more even playing field.

It's not a citicism, it's how H2H drafting works. A set of captains are assigned, then they each pick people (who have signed up, of course) to be on their teams in a draft rotation, until each team is full. So the teams end up really even, and full of good players. People who aren't chosen unfortunately get left out, however.