The Grand Tour '20 / The Grand Tour '20 - General Topic

He who travels has stories to tell!

 

In historic times, wealthy young men would cap off their adolescence with a Grand Tour – a trek through Europe to experience art, history and culture firsthand. NE is now reviving this custom in the form of a multi-round contest! In our version of The Grand Tour, we will circumnavigate the globe, making a few stops along the way. And because such a long journey may be lonely, you are allowed to bring a friend!

 

 

Contest Format

 

The Grand Tour will consist of six rounds, held in succession with each lasting a month. You do not have to build in every round - in fact, you can consider each round a stand-alone mini contest. Every round will represent a stop along our Grand Tour, meaning you will have to build a small map themed to a location or region, with some additional objectives as well. When the deadline has passed, all entries will be judged on how well the objectives are met, as well as the overall quality.

The winners of each round will qualify for a championship match. But there is a twist: if you qualify for the championship with a solo park, you can invite another player to join you and build the last map as a duo.
 

 

Rules

 

1	Unless specified otherwise, your creation must be between 2000 and 5000 tiles
2	You may use any scenery objects you want. Using scenery from the expansions, or LL land textures as enabled by OpenRCT is allowed, but discouraged due to it appearing differently for different people. Use at your own risk. Click here to see the collection of workbenches in our database.
3	Your creation must be adhere to the objectives as specified in the rules for the round you participate in. It is at the staff's discretion to reject an entry if your submission is deemed to be not in the spirit of the contest.
4	You are allowed to advertise your work and ask for feedback.
5	You may build alone or in duos. If you play and qualify for the championship as a duo, you will have to participate in the championship as the same duo.
6	If you qualify for the championship with a solo entry, you are allowed to invite another player to build the championship map as a duo. If you qualified as a duo, but one half of the duo is unavailable or unwilling to build at this time, this rule applies as well.
7	There is no lower or upper limit on in how many rounds you can enter. If you win a round after you’ve already qualified for the championship in an earlier round, the runner-up will qualify instead.
8	To allow everyone the same amount of time to build, recycling previously built material is not allowed, unless it's something as small as a partial layout, some loose building techniques or just half baked ideas. It's impossible to draw a hard line here, they point is to be reasonable!

 

 

Schedule

 

Start	Deadline	Round		Theme
July 20th	August 16th	1		Cuba	Results
August 17th	September 13th	2		Namibia	Results
September 14th	September 20th	3		Microstates	Results
September 21st	October 18th	4		Croatia	Results
October 19th	November 15th	5		Nepal	Results
November 16th	December 13th	6		Chile	Results
December 21th	January 17th	Final		North Pole	Results

 

 

Winners

 

hydroportal and 6crazy6king6 Carnaval de Maravillas-Playa de San Arnaldo	In:Cities and CoasterCreator9 Ombezi Basin National Preserve
AvanineCommuter and WhosLeon Gardens by the Bay	Tolsimir and WhosLeon Rovinj i Plitvice
FK+Coastermind Linga Sarira at Changu Narayan Temple	inthemanual & Xtreme97 Whispering Cliffs Valparaiso

Questions & Answers

Q: Do I have to build in every round?
A: No, you can play in any round you want. If the theme of the round doesn't resonate with you, just wait for the next round! No need to blow your load as fast as you can.

Q: 45*45- 70*70? do these maps feel big for a month?
A: 2000 tiles isn't that much! Slightly over half of the average H2H map, and this isn't H2H - you don't have to build as dense. 4900 obviously is a lot, but that's only an option for the most dedicated. Or if you have a specific idea that requires this much space. You're generally getting a lot of freedom in this contest.
 
Q: Are we allowed to do a duo with different partners in different months?
A: Certainly! But what this means for qualifying will be determined in the future.
 
Q: Is each round judged by a poll, a panel of judges, or something else?
A: By polls, much like how the judging went in the NEFC. For a little more information, see the Round 1 rules here.

Is each round judged by a poll, a panel of judges, or something else?

Could you clarify how the judging will work? Will it be a panel of judges, a public poll or something else? And will each objective be judged individually or as part of a general "how well were the objectives met" question?

Edit: nevermind, I see its been answered.

A Q&A section has just been added in a second post. There's also a new rule (# stating that previously built material is not eligible for submission - small detail, and usually assumed I'm sure. It's early enough!

these questions are really just out of curiosity but- are LL submissions allowed? and these two rules in tandem confuse me a bit. how does rule 6 also apply to duos?

 

 

5 You may build alone or in duos. If you play and qualify for the championship as a duo, you will have to participate in the championship as the same duo. 6 If you qualify for the championship with a solo entry, you are allowed to invite another player to build the championship map as a duo. If you qualified as a duo, but one half of the duo is unavailable or unwilling to build at this time, this rule applies as well.
 

Awesome contest idea guys! Well thought out and looks like a ton of fun to participate. Reminds me of the old Road Rally's at RCT2.com back in the day. I hope I can find some time and motivation to cook up something, but I'm not sure yet.. Looking forward to seeing all the entries though!

these questions are really just out of curiosity but- are LL submissions allowed?

Yes! Although there's a good chance some objectives in future rounds are impossible in LL. It's a RCT2 by design, except we forgot to put that in the rules. No reason to exlcude LL anyway, I personally welcome any LL on the site.

 

and these two rules in tandem confuse me a bit. how does rule 6 also apply to duos?

 

Can you rephrase your question? I'm not sure what the confusion is. In my opinion the rules cover (almost) everything.

 

 

 

@Six Frags: would be great to have a Road Rallies veteran in The Grand Tour!

Lately I've been thinking of trying my hands on some rct again. This sounds like the perfect opertunity .... can't make any promises due to the current crisis but if things don't get much worse I should have some time . Now let's see if I can finally make something that will actually break openrct .

Wow, Levis! Great to see you around. In case you're interested in the NE discord server: https://discord.gg/TeDkefn

 

But I'm also looking for excuses to spread this link around from time to time. I hope everyone joins.

^^ Nice to see you around again old man

 

Hope you're doing well!

 

 

 

Still undecided on the contest. Might wait a bit and enter one of the upcoming rounds instead.

Can you rephrase your question? I'm not sure what the confusion is. In my opinion the rules cover (almost) everything.

 

 

Rule 5 says a duo must compete in the championship as the same duo. Rule 6 says a solo player can invite a member to make a duo in the championship. If rule 6 applies to duos: does it mean a member of the duo can drop and the other can play solo in the championship? Or that a duo CAN switch members due to extenuating circumstances? Or something else?

 

 

 

Rule 5 says a duo must compete in the championship as the same duo. Rule 6 says a solo player can invite a member to make a duo in the championship. If rule 6 applies to duos: does it mean a member of the duo can drop and the other can play solo in the championship? Or that a duo CAN switch members due to extenuating circumstances? Or something else?

 

If both members of a qualifying duo compete in the finals, they have to do so together. If either member of a duo doesn't want to or can't build for the finals, they can be replaced.

Do we have to send in the entry for an accolade? I'm asking because I would like to send my contest entry not up for an accolade, but I do want to simultaneously send in an alternate version with small retouches up for accolade.

Again, thanks for a fun contest.  At first glance I'm enjoying the Croatia round, as small as it is.  That is, except for 1 thing!

 

For the admins running this tour of the globe, a suggestion for next GT (if not rd.5 onward):

Can we get a requirement for a readme type doc?

 

Please?

 

It doesn't need pictures or links like I tend to do, or a AR / Josh level brochure, but at least a summary of what we are supposed to be experiencing? Maybe highlights of places that inspired even a non recreation?

 

I know a lot of people here believe in the "park is clearly readable itself" mantra, but I don't think that applies to something as worldly and diverse as GT.  I know I missed previous versions of this contest, but I think it would be helpful for the average traveler that is blindly visiting, and even those that entered the round but not explored that locale of the country.  It might improve judging past the basic does it look good and help provide insight as to whether the entrant really did fulfill the objectives.

I know I tend to favor these more than most do, but for GT I think it would enhance the learning experience, which is what it's all about anyway.

I think it would enhance the learning experience, which is what it's all about anyway.

 

 

and here I thought it was all about good rct.

"and here I thought it was all about good rct"

 

That can be any contest and is a minimalist excuse for evading my point.

Every entry (this round and before) has a small write-up on the release page, in case you missed that?

 

Beyond that, it has always been up to the parkmaker to determine if they feel the park needs a readme and if they want to provide one. While you think they would be valuable, I know from experience there are those that won't even considering opening a readme. So, to insist on one as part of the contest would be extreme and in my opinion unnecessary.

 

Now, if you think a readme is essential to an entry, it is entirely within your right to consider that when voting. If you feel a park needed more information and background and you didn't get it, that can be a factor for your personal vote. But, we also have those who fly through and vote on these entries in less than 10 minutes. To insist everyone make a readme knowing that for many it will be fully ignored would be a poor choice for any contest nowadays IMO.

I'll chime in to say Liam did specifically ask us for a description.  That's not a readme, but I didn't have time to assemble a readme before deadline anyway.