Dota 2 workshop monthly competition - MARCH

Tvidotto

Hey, welcome to our second unofficial dota 2 workshop friendly competition (because huge names are cool)
This month we will work with the 3 most voted heroes on the pool

the pool this month was

"heroes that doesnt have any set"

the idea of the competition is to create item´s in a friend environment and with the feedback of the other participants get the best result possible

there is no prize, is just and excuse to work and get everyone motivated

everything that is accepted by the workshop could be part of this competitions: solo items, sets, couriers and wards (announcers?) (huds?)

Categories

-Solo item (dont need to be part of a set)
-set
-newcomer item (just for the first submition on the workshop)

RULES

• open for teams of any size
• open for every acceptable item on the workshop
• everyone should keep posting feedback on other works
• the final submition need to be based on one of the heroes on the list or be a wearable item for that hero
• it must be submitted to the workshop before the deadline
• the deadline is the last day of the month at 23:59

--

THE HEROES

**on the last day of the january, the dota update came with a set for Queen of Pain, which goes in the opposite direction of the rule for this month "heroes without sets"
the 4th place was shared by Nyx and Spectre but Nyx also got a set on the same update which lead us to add Spectre as our third hero

Storm Spirit
Spectre
Keeper of the light

DECOMPILED MODELS

Spectre


HEROES BREAKDOWN






THE VOTING


IF YOU WANT TO FANCY YOUR PRESENTATION

the polycount logo over the aegis

INPIRING QUOTES


Wow, that's really awesome. Please keep us at Valve informed so we can help draw attention to the winners, progress threads, etc.
Some advice:
Try to give some attention to heroes that are under-served so far (in terms of amount of content).
The success of sets tracks well with the popularity of the hero. (Although popularity can vary between updates and as Icefrog changes balance.)
Look for heroes that the community seems to have trouble creating content for. Good work can really open up the design landscape and help people think about the dynamic range of potential designs.
Don't forget about single items (instead of full sets). Many of the most popular items in the game are single items. Mounts and weapons make good candidates for this, but it varies by hero.
Mix up these approaches. So maybe one month you do a popular hero and another month you do a hero that has few items.

-Brandon Reinhart



I love you guys for doing this! Dota2 is my favorite game at the moment and Polycount is my favorite community! I'm very proud to be apart of such dedicated artists and I smile every time I see some Polycount work in game

-coots7

---

FINISHED ENTRIES

Solo Items

Staff of illumination by Pierate

The Majestic guise of light by Jack

Lightkeep´s staff by Frump

Ring of the Storm by Anuxi

the Elder´s beard by reverendFlacid

the Elder´s TopKnot by reverendFlacid

Split blade of the Ascendants by Cpt. Roque


Sets

Empowered vestments of gods By Zaphk and Onilolz

Tortured revenant set by Don Don

Ezalor First Light Set by Bronto Thunder

CloudBurst by Scuba Cat







January competition - Mirana´s items
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=115917

LAST MONTH ENTRIES

Sets

Nightsilver Sentinel by Anuxi

Blessings of the Lunar Dragon by Bronto Thunder

Solo item

MoonLight Observer By beetrootChan and Vlad

SnOwl courier by T_Vidotto

Valron, the frost guardian mount by Paskie

Split blade of the Ascendants by Capt. Roque


*all the rules and and hero charts are made by the communty, im just compiling them

Tvidotto

ok guys, any suggestion to change on this new month?

Chaemirix

Quoted from the Workshop Thread:

Should definitely have a pool of heroes this time instead of bombarding the workshop with one. Perhaps vote down to 3-5 out of the heroes who don't have sets.

Heroes with no sets (But are workshop supported):
(# of items) - Name

(0) - Alchemist
(0) - Batrider
(5) - Brewmaster
(0) - Centaur
(0) - Dark Seer
(0) - Keeper of the Light
(0) - Leshrac
(0) - Lich
(1) - Lycanthrope
(0) - Nyx Assassin
(4) - Ogre Magi
(3) - Phantom Assassin
(7) - Pudge*
(0) - Pugna
(0) - Queen of Pain
(0) - Razor
(0) - Silencer*
(4) - Skeleton King*
(2) - Slardar
(0) - Slark
(0) - Spectre
(2) - Spirit Breaker
(0) - Storm Spirit
(0) - Venomancer
(0) - Weaver

*Have sets in files but not in shop yet

BrontoThunder

I'll mirror my sentiments from the Workshop thread:

BrontoThunder wrote:

I definitely think that there should be a theme larger than just a particular hero (or group of heroes) for future monthly contests, people are always going to be working on items and sets so the contest doesn't really change anything about that.

I think the themes should be based on less specific things like lore, hero types, colours, item slots, polycounts, dire vs. radiant.

Tvidotto

wow, i like both ideas =]

Chaemirix

Just a reminder of Bradon Reinhart's post when you originally posted the first idea on reddit:

"Wow, that's really awesome. Please keep us at Valve informed so we can help draw attention to the winners, progress threads, etc.
Some advice:

• Try to give some attention to heroes that are under-served so far (in terms of amount of content).
• The success of sets tracks well with the popularity of the hero. (Although popularity can vary between updates and as Icefrog changes balance.)
  
• Look for heroes that the community seems to have trouble creating content for. Good work can really open up the design landscape and help people think about the dynamic range of potential designs.
  
• Don't forget about single items (instead of full sets). Many of the most popular items in the game are single items. Mounts and weapons make good candidates for this, but it varies by hero.
  
• Mix up these approaches. So maybe one month you do a popular hero and another month you do a hero that has few items.

"

HendrikN

Would love to choose a character with another color scheme than blue. Mirana was really focused on blue/purple and white. How about some items for maybe Pugna (green/purple) or nyx assassin (orange/gold/dark grey) ?

zicoV

I like the idea of having a pool of heroes that havnt got any items for them yet.
Have you set up a poll for it on reddit like last time ?

Tvidotto

so for now we have 3 ideas (plz correct if im wrong)

• items for a hero that doesnt have items and/or sets
• themed items
• color scheme themed items

between those i like the idea to get a hero that doesnt have items. Chaemirix made a great list of those heroes

based on the first month with mirana, mounts were the most worked items, maybe a hero with a mount this week could be a good idea to call more people to participate

the reddit vote was a nice way to get the community feedback, i am up to do that again

AndrewHelenek

Ditch heroes, "DOTA 2 Monthly Courier Contest!"

BrontoThunder

While it certainly seemed like there were a lot of people who attempted a mount for the last comp, with only a week left only two have actually finished it and speaking for myself it was a hell of an undertaking and probably not something I'd attempt for a while. I think for Feb's comp the barrier to entry was too high, a mount is daunting and we had an extra two weeks to attempt it. I think the best way to get people to enter the comp is have a more open theme with a lower barrier of entry.

I dunno, that's just my opinion.

Chaemirix

I definitely won't participate if there's only a hero with a mount. I'm just not experienced enough to pull that off well. If we do heroes with no items, we might as well broaden the pool to 3 or 4 heroes so people can have something they'd like to work on, rather than just passing on the contest for a month. A reddit poll would be great for this.

I think the theme idea might be alright, but it'd need to be somewhat generic in order to not flood the workshop with one concept done on multiple heroes. Colors doesn't really work because colors should match specific heroes color schemes.

Nannou

I don't like the idea that other people decide a certain hero i should make items for, especially if it's only one hero. It should be a wide theme that opens up for more heroes, so more creative minds can join the competition. It can be based off of hero rase (human, demon, animal...), profession (assassin, wizard, healer...) and environment/realm (forest, underwater, dark). I also like the post Brandon Reinhart wrote.

Chaemirix

The problem with a theme is it's bound to either be too vague to be of any merit, or it's too strict and the workshop gets flooded with the same idea on multiple heroes.

Nannou

I was thinking of themes to pick heroes from, not to make items around. So there will not be same ideas for multiple heroes.

Anuxinamoon

Well we could just throw that hero list up on a poll and see who the top 3 heroes who get voted for are? I agree trying something different for the comp is good, but we only have a few days left till the new month starts, and we dont want to eat up into March

Lennyagony

Anuxinamoon wrote: »

Well we could just throw that hero list up on a poll and see who the top 3 heroes who get voted for are? I agree trying something different for the comp is good, but we only have a few days left till the new month starts, and we dont want to eat up into March

I think that might be the best way Anuxi, my impression is that we already have a theme that helps create the poll, which is "heros without items", it seems a little redundant to add another theme on top of that.

The list of hero's without items is getting pretty short pretty quickly now though, and i can see more creative theme's being a good way of populating that poll once that option dries up.

BrontoThunder

I think sets should be reserved for once every three months or so just to give the competitions some varying degrees of impact on the Workshop. There's nothing saying we can't have a more varied theme layered on top of creating items for heroes with no items, I just feel as though "creating items for heroes with no items" was what we did last time.

There's a good selection of heroes to choose from out of the list Chaemirix provided; most of them have a "weapon" or "head" slot. Why not make this month about weapons? Or head-slots? We can limit it to that list and allow any number of submissions - I think it terms of adding more contenders and entries into the pool that would be a good start and a decent compromise to the duelling ideas for March.

Lennyagony

you make some good points Bronto, and absolutely about heros with no items and a theme on top, mostly my opinion was based on trying to not over complicate the process but i also like that your attempting to change it up and keep things fresh.

I had to think about the single slot idea, but you know i think that could really work, especially due the accessibility it would add.

I-ninja

how about this- each person gets their own hero to use make an items for so no one is over shadowed by each other and at the end of the mouth we put them all together as the "polycount mini pack"

We can do "All Pick" everyone gets to pick their own hero and only one person per hero first come first serve (if we do this i get anti-mage)

or "All Random" where everyone who wants to do it gets assigned to a random hero

and we can't do any heroes with more then 3-4 sets in-game

Chaemirix

Well, we should decide on something soon, even if it's simple.

At least we've got a lot of ideas for the upcoming months for whatever is not picked this month..

HendrikN

In terms of learning and inspiration it is, in my opinion, not the best idea to use multiple heroes. I like the "oh-my-god-why-did-i-not-think-of-this" point that defines hero based competitions. I dont say that using a "weapon" or "head" contest is a bad idea, but i dont like the "all random". At least not at this point of dota. I like to compare my work to others and in fact, i think there are a lot of "lurkers" around who like to participate in such a contest, but never submit anything. It would make it very difficult for them to take part in this cool contest without getting an hero "assigned".
Hope this wasnt too harsh and that a cool theme will be found for this month

praetus

I'm kind of a lurker here but I feel like if you make either the theme too broad or have too many heroes you don't have a friendly competition anymore as much as you have a second DOTA 2 workshop thread. At that point why not just post work in the other thread? I think that at most you should have three characters to choose from (maybe make a poll and choose the top three that get voted on?). From there you could make single items, items sets, wards, or even couriers.

If you don't want to make something from the characters chosen, there is nothing to stop you from making it and posting it in the normal DOTA 2 thread, right? In order for it to be a competition (even just a friendly one) I feel like everyone needs to be working towards the same theme or from the same character set. Otherwise it's not really a competition as much as a free for all. Just my thoughts.

Anuxinamoon

Wait.. you dont need to make sets. Just one item if you want! Not sure where the 'you need to make a set' came from haha. I think either make as many items as you want is good!

Snader

I think the option for teams would be a good idea. Having several people making one item that fits in a team-set makes it a nice collaborative effort, low entry bar, and hopefully result in nice sets.

Tvidotto

hey guys, last month comp wasnt about sets and wasnt about mounts, the mount is nice that give some option to someone that dont want to make weapons like me and maybe dont want to create a courier

there is still the single item category, i think we dont need to narrow the item possibilities like "just head piece" but i think we should narrow the heroes option, or else is the same as the workshop thread

i think the idea of this competition is to share ideas on the best way to make items to a hero and help people that dont know what to do giving them a start, suggesting some color schemes and modeling styles

maybe we just need to make more clear that dont need to be a set and a set dont need to have a mount =]

maybe we could open to 3 heroes instead of one and get the 3 top voted as suggested before.

and that team idea is amazing

BrontoThunder

Well, you're the man in charge vidotto

I'll gladly attempt whatever it may be.

Tvidotto

BrontoThunder wrote: »

Well, you're the man in charge vidotto

I'll gladly attempt whatever it may be.

nah, im not sir

i just start the post but we decide the rules as a group =]

Chaemirix

I think for this month we should do a poll for the top 3 with no set/limit items.

During the month we can start to piece together if we want to do a team month for April, or a theme, or whatever else. For now we're closing in on March to iron out details, especially if it's a group thing.

Tvidotto

Chaemirix wrote: »

I think for this month we should do a poll for the top 3 with no set/limit items.

During the month we can start to piece together if we want to do a team month for April, or a theme, or whatever else. For now we're closing in on March to iron out details, especially if it's a group thing.

can we define that will be the top 3 heroes of the "non item list"?

BrontoThunder

How about we use the list Chaemririx came up with and post that on Reddit at use the top 3 voted heroes?

Lennyagony

BrontoThunder wrote: »

How about we use the list Chaemririx came up with and post that on Reddit at use the top 3 voted heroes?

sounds good!

@TehAndi

Agree with Chaemirix's idea.

I-ninja

hey what ever you guys do "i'm with you" - Dazzle

Chaemirix

Tvidotto wrote: »

can we define that will be the top 3 heroes of the "non item list"?

Sure, whatever works for you guys.

I think heroes like Pudge could really use a set, but he really doesn't need too many more "single items".

Does someone want to start a poll for reddit?

Tvidotto

http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/199tpl/polycount_monthly_competition_pool_help_us_choose/

TrevorJ

ahh, i would love to do this month, have a contract though, well see if i can make time, i voted for centaur, keeper of light could be cool to though.

Nannou

Looking good so far. QoP and Storm would be fun to make items for.

Frump

Oh man, I hope QoP doesn't get in the top 3, even though she's there now. I keep making sets for heroes shortly after their release then people come along later in competitions and make way better sets, then mine get left in the dust.

I also think it would be better if the poll let you make 3 selections, but a bit late for that now, maybe next month.

BrontoThunder

Come on, Ezalor -- you can do it!

reverendK

Well i better finish my slark item before the end of the month then...hate to drop another project before it's done.

5% slark!? Bah!

Chaemirix

Looks like the results of the poll are pretty much done.



Looks like we've got:
1. Storm Spirit
2. Queen of Pain
3. Keeper of the Light

Runners up:
4. Spectre & Nyx Assassin

Do we want to do top 3 or 5? The latter two are a bit more difficult to make items for, so I wouldn't mind some people investing time into them for a contest.

AndrewHelenek

Chaemirix wrote: »

Looks like the results of the poll are pretty much done.



Looks like we've got:
1. Storm Spirit
2. Queen of Pain
3. Keeper of the Light

Runners up:
4. Spectre & Nyx Assassin

Do we want to do top 3 or 5? The latter two are a bit more difficult to make items for, so I wouldn't mind some people investing time into them for a contest.

I'm crying inside that Dark Seer wasn't chosen.

Wasn't Bisho Bola working on a Storm Spirit set? It looked pretty rad based on the concepts!

aivanov

Hah! Seems I'll need get my rear in gear if I am to compete with you talented ladies and gents on KotL items.

reverendK

just to clarify where the decisions lie thus far:

Choose a hero from the top 3
choose a slot and make an item for that slot
rinse, repeat

is that correct? sorry - i wasn't around last month and if a concrete decision was settled on in the thread i overlooked it

Tvidotto

the results are prety stable now, next time i will make the pool show the vote numbers, i was worried if we get a tie on the 3rd place

i dont think is a good idea to change the number of the heroes after the voting, will look like we are trying to force some hero on the contest




about the rules guys, i have some questions

1- should we keep the categories as they were last month? (we decided on the posts but i forget to change on the first post, sorry guys)

• solo item (can be part of a set or not)
• set item
• newcomer item (just for the first submition to the workshop)

2- RULES (any suggestion on it)

1 - open for teams of any size
2 - open for sets, solo itens, couriers, ward and annoucers!? =]
3 - everyone should keep posting feedback on other works

Chaemirix

Not sure what you mean by "newcommer items", but yeah I think this should be open to any items, sets or singles, team or individual, for this challenge. Just stay within the selected heroes.

Tvidotto

Chaemirix wrote: »

Not sure what you mean by "newcommer items", but yeah I think this should be open to any items, sets or singles, team or individual, for this challenge. Just stay within the selected heroes.

the idea is to try to invite guys that never submitted to the workshop.

probably need to be clear =]

Chaemirix

Food for though: Queen of Pain and Nyx both just got sets.

The top three now would be:

Storm Spirit
Keeper of the Light
Spectre

Runners-up:
Slark
Venomancer

Thoughts anyone? Want to swap it up, or keep it how it is?

BrontoThunder

My vote would be to swap them but I'm not too fussed, either way these heroes will be getting some awesome items.

Tvidotto

Chaemirix wrote: »

Food for though: Queen of Pain and Nyx both just got sets.

The top three now would be:

Storm Spirit
Keeper of the Light
Spectre

Runners-up:
Slark
Venomancer

Thoughts anyone? Want to swap it up, or keep it how it is?

ouch, that got us umprepared

isnt there a new set for slark? i read that on dota.dev i think

im up to swap too, since the month didnt start