Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the fiercest competition in BSF where not a single shot is fired. That's right, it's that time again, time for the BSF Beauty Pageant, sponsored by... okay, we don't have any sponsors, that's besides the point. I'll be your Host and Master of Ceremonies, Anna.
What's all this then?
What, is the name not descriptive enough for you? It's a Beauty Pageant! For ships, not for you. You make pretty ships, you post them here and we judge them. Prettiest, most unique and most well crafted ship wins. Sounds pretty simple, right?
Can I be a judge?
Judging positions are open to everyone, though of course I will screen the volunteers and reserve the right to reject or accept any submission to be a Judge, based on a variety of factors that aren't worth discussing here. Put it simply, if you want to be a judge, just say so. There's a good chance you'll get the job.
Well, what do I have to do then?
I'm glad you asked, big blue text!
Okay folks, there's three brand spanking new categories to the Beauty Pageant, and one old one. If you've read the proposal thread, you probably know what they are, but in case you don't, I'll outline each here.
Categories!
Limited Stock:
Do you like stock-like sections? Are you annoyed with all this SWA and Shiny stuff and want to go back to the Warning Forever style of shipbuilding, when times were simpler and I had less reasons to yell at you? This is probably the category for you! The rules for entry are as follows.
- Permitted Sections: Sections that come with the game only.
- Custom Section Allowance: None. No custom sections what-so-ever. The stuff that comes in the Custom sprites folder is pretty much all fair game, but no other sections are to be downloaded or used.
- Fleets: You may submit a single ship, or a fleet of ships. Your over-all score will be based on the whole fleet, so a fleet with a few bad ships can lower your score.
Limited Realism:
- Permitted Sections: The following section packs are allowed
kae_shn
DST-sw
DST-swnc
HorseMonster_DetailedWeapons
HorseMonster_Realistic
HorseMonster_RobotBits
HorseMonster_RocketBits
SS_Prosectionax - Custom Section Allowance: Custom weapon, projectile, engine flare and doodad/glow sprites allowed. Attempts to abuse this rule to make a ship made out of custom doodads will upset me greatly.
- Fleets: Same as Limited Stock, except fleet size is limited to five ships or less to prevent bloating.
- Permitted Sections: Anything goes.
- Custom Section Allowance: Pretty much anything, though if you take a picture (whether a pre-existing one or one you drew yourself) and chop it up into sprites and build a ship entirely out of that, not only will you be banned from this competition, you will be banned from my life.
- Fleets: No fleets. Single ships only.
- Permitted Sections: Anything goes.
- Custom Section Allowance: Pretty much anything, though if you take a picture (whether a pre-existing one or one you drew yourself) and chop it up into sprites and build a ship entirely out of that, not only will you be banned from this competition, you will be banned from my life.
- Fleets: No fleets. Single ships only.
- Other Rules: Fanships are ships based on ships from another medium, be it novels, television, film or videogames. The name of the ship, a picture of the ship, and the name of the source material must be included in submissions.
What are ships judged on?
That's another good question. There are several criteria, which I will outline here, so you can know what we'll be looking for in each ship, and to minimise confusion.
Limited Stock, Limited Realism and Freeform Criteria:
- Aesthetics: A simple one. How pretty the ship looks. Largely subjective. - Rating from 1 to 10
- Originality: To be clear, this is about the originality of the design, not the originality of the concept. An original looking design should score highly here even if the concept (i.e. Hulking Terran Ship, Sleek Curvy Alien Ship, etc.) is not. - Rating from 1 to 10
- Creative Section Usage: Creative use of sections to create shapes or designs. More original and inventive use of sections will score highly here. - Rating from 1 to 10
- Functional Appearance: This is not a judgement of how your ship functions in the game, it's a judgement of how functional it appears. This is not to say how realistic it looks. You can make ships that have unique, strange shapes and still score highly here. What matters for this criteria is the illusion of realism and details. Internal details, engines and weapon placement, reactors, how seemlessly the sections melt together to make a convincing looking ship, those are what matter here, as do animations and triggers. - Rating from 1 to 10
- Playability: This is a new Criteria. All the others above existed in the previous Beauty Pageants, albeit in a less clear and concise form. This criteria judges how your ship plays in the game. How it handles, how the weapons look and act, etc. Ships that are fun to play with and look at matter here. Note that weapon balance IS slightly covered here, but should never be the sole determining factor in this criteria. - Rating from 1 to 10
- Aesthetics: As above.
- Accuracy: How accurate it is to the source materials. This covers both appearance and weapons placement and the like. If you make the Firefly and cover it in weapons, or make a Battlestar and give it giant lasers, you'll score poorly here. Basically, staying true to the ship your making matters a lot here. - Rating from 1 to 10
- Creative Section Usage: As above.
- Functional Appearance: As above. As mentioned, weapon placement and appearance and accuracy will also matter here.
- Playability: As above.
Well, is that everything?
I do believe it is! Well, almost everything. There are some other rules that I'll include at the very bottom of the post.
How long do I have to submit my ship?
Submissions close and judging will start October 1st. This may be subject to change or extension, so you have at least a month to build your ships.
Okay then, that's pretty much everything. If you have any questions, ask them in the thread and I'll answer them and include them in the first post. Here are the additional rules that cover absolutely everything in the entire contest.
Rules for Participants:
Rules for Judges: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. Submissions: Must include an image taken in Shipmaker at default zoom, and a download containing the .shp AND the .sb4.
6. Custom Sections: Any custom sprites used in the construction of your ship that aren't on the approved sections list must be included in your download, and be packaged properly and in the correctly named folders. Failure to do this will result in one warning. If it is not fixed, disqualification will follow.
That looks like everything.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.
Let the Beauty Pageant begin!
Made it a global topic, I think it deserves that. Also put up an announcement on the front page. - th15