The first two Categories are Original Ships and Fleets.
Original ships and Fleets are ships of your own unique design, and shall be judged on the following criteria:
- --- Aesthetics: Aesthetics is the over-all attractiveness of the ship. Naturally, this is almost entirely subjective, but then again, most things are. Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder, after all.
- --- Originality: The more unique and original your ship design is, the higher your score shall be in this category. Note: An un-original concept can still make for an original ship. Many of the judges in the first BP said that "Alien Ships are unoriginal", which was silly, since the specific design was very original. Big, hulking Terran ships are unoriginal too, yet they didn't give low originality scores to any of them.
- --- Creativity: Creativity is similar to Originality, but focuses more on how the ship is constructed, and how pieces are used. An unorthodox or original use of ship pieces would score higher points in creativity. Innovation in terms of piece usage is key here. A ship can be very aestheticly pleasing, and very original, but still fall short in this criteria. The opposite is true. A creatively designed ship isn't always necessarily original or beautiful.
- --- Functionality: This criteria not only regards how functional your ship is in play, but also how functional it appears aestheticly. If people look at your ship and think "that looks practical and functional", you'll probably score high points here. Ships with extra detail, reactors and the like, will probably score better than ships without.Note: If a ship is meant to be a derelict, for example, and looks as functional as a derelict would, then you cannot give it a low functionality score. Doing so is an obvious misinterpretation of this rule. Functionality is scored from 1-5 instead of 1-10.
- --- Backstory: This criteria isn't strictly necessary, and you don't have to write a backstory for your ship if you desire, however, if you choose not to write a backstory, you will score an automatic zero in this category. Backstory is scored from 1-5 instead of 1-10.
Fan ships are ships from a science-fiction franchise or movie, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc, or a video-game series. Basically, a ship not of your own design, but instead a pre-existing ship that you recreated in BSF. The criteria for this section are:
- --- Aesthetics: Same as above. If the ship is ugly, it will recieve a low score. 1-10
- --- Creativity: Same as above. 1-10
- --- Accuracy: How accurate the ship is to the original, in terms of appearance. 1-10
- --- Functionality: How accurate the ship is to the original, in terms of weapons load-out and the like. If you make the Enterprise-E and arm it with nothing but Railguns and Tachyon Repeaters, for example, you'll score horribly here. 1-10
1. Ships must not have already been posted on this forum: This isn't a hard and fast rule, but is is prefered. I would rather that people create new ships for this competition, instead of just handing in old ones that they made in the past.
2. Judges cannot submit ships: This is an obvious one. Judges cannot also enter ships in the competition.
3. No plagiarism: This is an obvious one too, but I feel it needs to be stated anyway. Ships entered by you, must have been made by you. No exceptions. If you submit a ship made by someone else, and you're found out, you will be disqualified, on the spot, no questions about it. NO EXCEPTIONS.
4. Be Polite: If you're not one of the Judges, you do not judge anyone's ship. You do not make insulting remarks to other contestants, and you do not abuse the Judges, if they do something you dislike, or give you a bad score. Failure to comply with this rule will likely result in disqualification.
5. Submission Rules: If you submit a ship on its own in the Original Ships category, and then submit a fleet that also contains that ship, it will not be counted towards the fleet's score.
--- 5a: Fleets must be submitted with an Encounter file that loads up all the ships in the fleet at once, so the judges don't need to go through loading them all seperately, which can be quite tedious.
--- 5b: Fanships must be submitted along with a picture and a name of the series they're from, as frequently it is difficult for the judges to find the often obscure sources.
There are also rules for becoming and acting as a Judge:
1. Seniority: The first four people to ask for the job will get it, with a few exceptions. I will reject people who I believe will be unsuited to the task, but there aren't many people who would
2. English: All Judges must be able to use proper spelling and grammar. Comments on ships in the judging phase should be at least two or three sentences long.
3. Getting the Job Done: If you will not be able to Judge the ships properly for any reason (i.e. school, work, a download or image filter that prevents you from testing the ships out, etc.) then do not apply for the position.
4. Making it Personal: Judges must be impartial. You cannot give someone a low score because you dislike them. If their ship is bad, score it on that, if not, score it appropriately, instead of decreasing the score because you dislike the person submitting it. Also, keep in mind that this is an aesthetics contest. Regardless of your opinion of ship power, you judge a ship by its appearance, not by how powerful its guns are. Weapon balance has NO place in this competition, so do not make judgements based upon it.
I think that covers everything. Questions can be posted here, or sent to me via PM. Ship entries are also posted here, along with an image (preferably in .png format), and a download to a .shp file. If you want to be a Judge, post in this thread. The first four people to ask, who meet the requirements and weren't judges in the last competition, will be accepted. Ship entries are open until the 1st of June.
Good luck, one and all!
As the winner in all three categories of the last BP, there aren't many judges who are more qualified than you.
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