Contest Feedback, Suggestions and Ideas

[xFezIsAFreakx]

Fez: that's kinda how the building contests used to be run.

Really? I never knew. Never looked at the old building contests. Are they in the graveyard somewhere? I'll go have a look!


EDIT: Haha, so they are! I genuinely didn't have a clue.

[Naga]

How about this... the Trailer Park contest. Either a trailer on a lot, or a lot with lots of trailers. Basically, rectangular compact houses that can be called homes. Can be simple, poor, fancy, rich, whateever.

Ok, how about a Tower contest? A house that has to be at least 4 stories tall, and the bedroom must be on top, and it must look like a tower (taller than wider).

[samoht04]

Maybe for one of the Contests we could be divided into teams of 2 or 3 and each person has a different role in the build. Say Builder 1 has to make the Shell, Builder 2 does the interior and Builder 3 completes the Landscaping and Exterior.

Of course there would be the problem of enough people entering or what EPs and SPs people have.

That is an interesting idea, Gogo. A team type of challenge could be a cool idea, although it may be similar to the Let's Build a House.

How about extending the content to also include community lots (e.g. parks, dive bars etc) every once in a while?

You can count on it, it was on our to-do-list.

Two suggestions.

Taking inspiration from another thread, a house with as few walls as possible.  Maybe give a maximum number?  The idea being that it's only us that like the beautiful abodes; the sims don't really notice if they have walls or not for most things.   

Another contest I saw once involved the contest mod making a foundation.  That was it.  The contestants had to use that foundation and everything had to go on it, nothing off the foundation.  Otherwise they could use their creativity.

Another two cool concepts. This could also be similar to a Refurbishment Contest, I've seen those where you can change everything but the exterior wall shape or something.

Maybe a tomb building contest?
And also I like te building contests to be smaller houses cause I won't even consider entering if its bigger cause I just don't have the time.

That would be a very complex contest, considering I don't know how to do all the links and triggery things to make Tombs, Lol.

Thanks for all of the other Contest Ideas. I'm keeping a list of them on my computer.

Fez, Those were how the last Contests were presented (I had to do a hand gesture then as if presenting something... I must be having a weird day...).

I also want to thank everyone for the interest in the Contests and I do hope you all take part in the Contests next year!

Also does anyone have any feedback on the length available for Contest building. I admit that 2 weeks is not very long, I've found that out lately. I'm not going to give a month for 1 contest though because that is excessive and will leave people waiting. I think it was Katluvr who mentioned about two contests at a Time? One harder that lasts longer and one that was easier but shorter? It might be a good solution to time lengths.

Another question, do you all think a week for voting is too long? I can see the results all the time and after the first few days the winner is ahead and the votes don't increase much. Would three days or something be enough for voting?

Eek, Long post, my apologies, just so much creative feedback and ideas here.  Thank you again!

[xFezIsAFreakx]

Also does anyone have any feedback on the length available for Contest building. I admit that 2 weeks is not very long, I've found that out lately. I'm not going to give a month for 1 contest though because that is excessive and will leave people waiting. I think it was Katluvr who mentioned about two contests at a Time? One harder that lasts longer and one that was easier but shorter? It might be a good solution to time lengths.

Another question, do you all think a week for voting is too long? I can see the results all the time and after the first few days the winner is ahead and the votes don't increase much. Would three days or something be enough for voting?

I don't know if I'm the only one, but the only reason I don't enter the building contests - I'd really like to - is because I don't actually have the time to build something in just a weekend or two. (I only get weekends to play sims) But then that's probably just my own fault because when I build things I take absolutely ages to do them. xD

I've always thought the voting was a bit long, actually. I tend to vote as soon as the poll goes up.

[KJSinclair]

I would love for the contests to be extended to include store items and custom patterns. I will explain my logical reason behind this. I was unable to take part in the first two challenges after Pets because those that had that EP had such a massive advantage. I couldn't even download the homes because of just how much content would be unavailable to me and there's nothing that it could have been replaced with.

The same can be said for store items, but for the members here that do not own every expansion pack, maybe it is a good compromise Patterns do not transfer very well and store items are replaced, but as long as the contest entry pictures live up to the standard that the entrant wanted then at least feel as though they have the same chance as everyone else.

Kindest Regards
KJ

[ZapKid]

Store content is helpful... once you start, you can't stop!

And voting is quite long. I think 4 days would cover it.

[NeonColors]

I think recreating houses from a book would be cool. Let's say To Kill a Mockingjay, The Radley Place?
Or you give us a house plan and then we do it, because everyone has different point of views and they would be different.

[ZapKid]

It's "To kill a Mockingbird".

[KJSinclair]

It might also be an good idea to once in a while steal an interesting request from the request thread and we can all attempt it. It could also be really cool if the winner of the previous contest got to request for the next building challenge, although that might be difficult to work out.

Running two contests side by side might also be good a long building contest with a huge budget and a small project with a tiny budget. I find that sometimes these builds take forever and other times I can throw them out in an hour or two.

I love the idea of all of us working from a plan. Even a very specific set of requirements (keeping in mind that we have to gear those specifics to base game only) E.G. 2 bedroom 2 bathroom Rancher style house. Colour Scheme: Purple.

And it may be helpful sometimes to give us a back story for the build. I find it hard to build a house unless I have a particular sim in mind for it. Then there is also that possibility that we are required to create a back story for the house. When voters know what was happening in our heads for the build it may shed a new light on our entries and allow others to see it in the way we were building.

haha you have my mind racing now

KJ

[SassySimmer]

Also does anyone have any feedback on the length available for Contest building. I admit that 2 weeks is not very long, I've found that out lately. I'm not going to give a month for 1 contest though because that is excessive and will leave people waiting. I think it was Katluvr who mentioned about two contests at a Time? One harder that lasts longer and one that was easier but shorter? It might be a good solution to time lengths.

Another question, do you all think a week for voting is too long? I can see the results all the time and after the first few days the winner is ahead and the votes don't increase much. Would three days or something be enough for voting?

I quite like the idea of running two side by side longer one verses the shorter one.  I always tend to vote as soon as it's open so the length of voting time could be decreased.

[NeonColors]

It's "To kill a Mockingbird".

Darn it! I knew that. . .

[samoht04]

More great ideas, my list is filling up my word document, all in pretty much one day as well! Combined with the list that Lilygirl has we already probably have enough to fill up next year, Lol. Don't let that stop you! We're always looking for exciting and inventive ideas.

Now for Store Content.

I would love for the contests to be extended to include store items and custom patterns. I will explain my logical reason behind this. I was unable to take part in the first two challenges after Pets because those that had that EP had such a massive advantage. I couldn't even download the homes because of just how much content would be unavailable to me and there's nothing that it could have been replaced with.

The same can be said for store items, but for the members here that do not own every expansion pack, maybe it is a good compromise Patterns do not transfer very well and store items are replaced, but as long as the contest entry pictures live up to the standard that the entrant wanted then at least feel as though they have the same chance as everyone else.

Kindest Regards
KJ

We banned Store Content for a few reasons. The main reason being it's unfair. I know not all of you have even bought the Store Items you have, I for one am amongst those, most of my Store Collection has been gifted to me by the members of this awesome forum. I'm lucky to have been gifted so much. Even though I didn't buy it this still gives me an unfair advantage over people who have very little or none.

It's all down to Wealth and how much you can or want to spend on a game. A private discussion about Store Content was discussed between Lilygirl and I with Carl and Pam. They both agreed that Store Content adds an unfair advantage. I know it's tough but that is part of the challenge. I don't see Store Items being freely allowed in the Contests.

You raised a good point there however KJ. Although the Farm Contest was possible to do without Pets it did perhaps have an unfair advantage over those of you who did not. In the future we will do more Contests to allow the use of a new expansion pack and it's features but next time it won't be so limited a style that it is not possible to do without.

I will discuss with Lily on some things but the likely outcome is that the result will stay the same as it is now. I know what you mean though, when I was doing my Beach Villa I just sat there thinking how one piece o ffurniture would have made it look so much better, yet it was a Store Item and I could not.

[Chuckles_82]

Haha, I know where that foundation-based building challenge was I've seen that thread myself.

I like the idea of a long and short challenge - and my idea for a long one would be a WORLD! Imagine the creativity we could inspire!! and the worlds we would have available for download!

[Joria]

Heeeyyyy!  You guys are stealing all my ideas!

I'm pleased to note I'm not the only one who wants a contest that will include store items.  Sort of an "anything goes" kind of contest.

 Here's a flip flop on it.  Run the same contest but two ways.  You have a lot size chosen by Tom and Lily and either a budget or no budget chosen by them.  One group builds a house on the lot with no store items and no patterns but recolors are fine.  Another builds a house on the lot with anything goes that's legal, (store items, and patterns but no mods or 3rd pty cc), but has to stay in the budget.  The choice is up to the builder as to which type of build they will do, store or no store.  You cannot enter both contests, so you have to choose do you want to build with store, or build without.  Two votes allowed, one for each type.  One winner per each type.  Then you could have a "build off" with the two winners joining together in collaboration to build a new house within the same budget on the same lot.  It would be a long contest but could be fun.  You could even have the second and third place builders do a collaboration as well and see which effort wound up being number one over all.

How about a remodel contest?  Tom and Lily chose a house and location and everyone gets to remodel it.  One rule would be the core base of the house has to remain although it can be enlarged, heightened or whatever.  You can go up or go down in it but the center room of the house must remain.  If you were building on something like a long, trailer type building, that entire building would have to be within the house if you added to it but you can change the exterior wall design, (from stucco to brick for instance), and anything else.  I did that with the Alvi dump and it became a cute cape cod cottage that looked nothing like the original building although I kept all the exterior walls!  Can you tell I prefer to rebuild than to make my own shell?

Oh, and how about a furnish and landscape a shell contest?

I think voting is too long and I think the length of the time allowed to build is fine.  Like most others I vote the minute the polls are up.   For me it's actually a bit long of a wait but I have more time than most.  I think most of us procrastinate and wait to build at the last minute.  How many times have we heard, "I keep wanting to work on my Christmas build but I keep putting it off"?  That contest should be over with by now in my opinion.

If you are going for small builds, go really small!  How about if you took a larger lot and built a liliputian town on it, all buildings no bigger than 10x10 but can go up and down as far as possible.  Houses linked with paths on the lot.  Gee, how many houses can you put on a 64 x 64 lot?  hmmmm

[cndneh]

Darn it! I knew that. . .

MockingJay is one of the Hunger Games books (I think) so close... just mixed it up a bit.

I think two contests running is a great idea, sort them according to price/size catigories (ie:short contest for lots less than 15x15, or $30,000.) 

you could have monthly contest running at the same time as well, for example: homes only built with vanilla content, or only built with stuff from pets, at the end of the month those homes get judged.  But the homes can't have any other expansion pack content (since the game has the new sort button this shouldn't be too hard to sort out).  You could also have a home built with "only store bought content" for people without specific expansion packs.

Judging time could be shortened, 3-4 days is plenty.

Love Joria's idea for the "town on a 64x64 lot"  it might just look neat rather than be playable.  Or build requirements (price, bedrooms, family members, specifications) but have it only for a 10x10 lot.  (family of 8, 2 car parking spot, pool, only on a 10x10 lot.... is it possible? contest would tell!

KJ's idea of having winner of contest choose next contest, this might work if they were provided a list, and two contest running side by side!