Dawn of War 2

Welcome, Dawn of War 2 fans, to the first Community Map Creation Contest! If you love slaving away long and hard to try and create the most killer map, here's your chance for your map to be made Official. That's right, the Winner's work will be placed in the game as an official map one of Relic's future patches! 'How do I sign up', you may ask? Well, its simple. Create a Gamereplays.org account, if you haven't already (Click Here to create one now). Then just follow the instructions below. Good Luck and Enjoy!

When it starts
The competition will start on August 14, 2009 and submissions will be taken up until midnight, August 30, 2009, CST (GMT -5). Judging will commence soon after. How many accepted map entries there are will determine how long judging will take. More maps will equal more time, so please be patient.

The Rules

• 1v1 Maps only.
• Entrants must be 18 years of age or older.
• Size of the map needs to be maximum 256x256 playable area, although smaller and varying lengths/widths are fine, and that the terrain width should be 175% of its size. Meaning there would be a border of unplayable area around the map that would need to be beautified.
• Maps must be created for the current version of Dawn of War 2.
• Maps must be designed for multiplayer/skirmish only.
• You must post using the format given below. This is not a discussion thread.
• If you need your map to be tested before you submit it you can post it at GR Custom Map Showcase or at the Dawn of War 2 Official Forums
• Final versions only. The map must be functional once it's submitted.
• Advanced scripting/triggering systems are not allowed
• Each entrant can submit only one map. However, you can change the map you wish to be submitted before the indicated deadline.(How to do this correctly is explained below)
• Maps must be made from start to finish, and must not be available or have early versions available in public places, nor have screenshots revealed in public forums and sites.
• The maps must be original. That is to say, remakes of previous Dawn of War maps or those of other titles are not permitted.
• Any unit and faction changes in the map file itself must be minuscule and non-gameplay affecting, e.g. renaming civilian/garrisonable buildings.
• You must post one mini-map and between two to five in game/on map screenshots(more info about this below)
• You must provide a link in your post as to where you can download the map. Screenshots are not needed in your download but a readme – either in .txt or .doc format - needs to be provided, giving the name of the map, the designer, and any special thanks to or anyone who helped you balance etc. your map.

Disclaimer - Relic® reserves the right to not select a winner if there are insufficient entries. All maps submitted to this contest are property of Relic® as per the EULA in Dawn of War II™.

Judging
To get a better idea on how your map will be judged, here is a look at how points will be distributed.
Out of 100 Points

- (20points) Original Concept:

• Make the map your own
• Realistic environments will get more points than maps that are arbitrarily symmetrical.

- (30 points) Balance:

• Resource Rates, capture points, cover, garrison able buildings (if any)
• Map position with players. Make sure one player position isn't better than the other.

- (25 Points) Eye-candy:

• Lighting, textures etc.
• Map errors, cliff errors or other terrain related bugs need to be kept at a minimum.
• Be Creative!

- (25 points) Fun-Factor:

• Re-playability, game speed, etc.

There will also be two stages of the judging process.
First Stage:
The 20 maps that get the highest score will be sent to Relic
Second Stage:
Relic then chooses the winner (1) and Honorary mentions (2) from that group

The Judges
TASK3R and Thunder (Relic® Developers), along with other Relic® Employees
Raaar
BlaqK
God_Aries

Posting Format
The following information is the correct way to post information about your map, screenshots and links. To create a screenshot simply hit 'print screen' while in game. Your screens will save to MyDocuments/MyGames/DawnofWar2/screenshots folder. To add them into your post, scroll down until you see "File Attachments" and click "Browse", click on your picture and hit 'ok', then hit "Add this Attachment". After you have all of your pictures added, make sure you click "Add into post", so that they are in your post for all to see. For the Mini Map simply print screen and use Microsoft Paint or any other Photoshop utility to isolate the map and save as a .jpg similar image file. Posting it will be the same as for your screenshots. As mentioned above, you are able to change your final submitted map, provided it is before the indicated deadline. Do not create another post for your new map. Simply edit your first with a special note in the beginning (shown in the example below)

Special note: I have changed my map from "Crazy Town" to "Calderis Refinery". (This doesn't need to be in italics)

Name: Calderis Refinery
Creator: g0dAri3s
Link: (Fileplanet, or any other file sharing sites. You can also create a zip file and add it as an attachment though GR just like you would add a screenshot, explained above. Remember to have the readme.txt or readme.doc file!





Prizes
First Place(1) will be included in a future patch for Dawn of War II and will be shoutcasted and Front paged to show off your map.
Honorary Mentions(2) will have their map shoutcasted and Front paged as well as links to download your map.

Special Notes
All forum rules related to this site still apply to this competition. Failure to follow these rules can lead to disqualification from the competition. Cheating, taking others' work, or any further accusations will be handled internally. Please, do not accuse people on the forums. Send me a email or PM explaining the problem and it will be dealt with. Once judging is completed, all decisions are final. When the judging starts, please be patient. The length of time it takes to judge will be determined by how many submissions are made. An announcement will be posted when judging has been completed and the winners will be announced shortly after. After the winners are announced, anyone who submitted a map will get a pm showing you what points each of the judges gave you, their likes and dislikes about the map, and any special notes and constructive feedback to help you improve on your design, or to keep in mind for the next map you create. Above all have fun and enjoy the competition.

Contact
If you need any clarification, questions, comments, please email me at dow2mapcontest@gmail.com. You can also PM me but I will reply to emails faster. Once again Good Luck to all of you!

• Submit Your Map
• Community Map Contest Discussion Topic