First Round 5th Quest Results!

[Gleeok]

Okay, here we go.


Combined overall ratings: (Thanks CJC)

1. MischaPetya (86.67 + 88 + 73) = 247.67/3 = 82.5567
2. BigJoe (86.67 + 90 + 60 + 92) = 328.67/4 = 82.1675
3. Nightmare (73 + 82 + 83 + 67 + 85) = 390/5 = 78
4. Love For Fire (71.3HM + 82 + 80) = 233.3/3 = 77.7667 (1 HM)
5. Chris Miller (80 + DNF + 90 + 85 + 53 + 77) = 385/5 = 77 (1 DNF)
6. QuestWizard (DNF + DNF + 76 + DNF) = 76 (3 DNF)
7. CJC (59.3HM + HM + HM + 81.4 + 75) = 215.7/3 = 71.9 (3 HM)
8. Imzogelmo (67.6HM + HM + 66 + 77.2 + 70) = 280.8/4 = 70.2 (2 HM)
9. HeroOfFire (73 + 60 + 81 + 45.6 + 87) = 346.6/5 = 69.32
10. Shoelace (HM + 65.6 + HM + HM +73) = 138.6/2 = 69.3 (3 HM)
11. Scootaloo (66 + 68.4 + DNF) = 134.4/2 = 67.2 (1 DNF)
12. Nethis (59.67 + 68 + 68.4 + 64) = 260.07/4 = 65.0175
13. PeteAndWally (HM + 60 + 60) = 120/2 = 60 (1 HM)
14. Dcsyxx (46.67 + 66.4 + 62) = 175.07/3 = 58.3567
15. T. McSwain (57.2) = 57.2
16. ZCFan (DNF + DNF + DNF + 42) = 42 (3 DNF)
17. Travster (DNF + 64.4 + 18) = 82.4/2 = 41.2 (1 DNF)
18. BTJCraft (33.3 + 60HM + DNF + 44.8 + 25) = 163.1/4 = 40.775 (1 HM 1 DNF)
19. Sylph (DNF) = (1 DNF)

The main problems with calculating combined ratings is simply this: One persons ratings may not be comparable to another persons rating of that same quest. In addition, quests completed by one person will differ from that of others, and ratings may have been scored based on other quests' ratings that person has given and not from some universal archetypal rating system that God gave Moses on some giant stone slabs. Not to mention there was the (to be expected, of course) "gave up on this quest for various reasons" factor.

So what I've done here is to try and present the data in some meaningful way, in order of most accurate to least accurate. Only the data for the top 9 quests are given here, if for no other reason than it would of taken me twice as long to do all of them. (There was also less data available as you go down the list which makes it less reliable as raw statistics.)


First table represents the placement of each quest (ratings be damned!) given by those who scored them, in a rough approximation of 1st through 9th. This turns out to be more accurate than simply combining ratings. Smaller numbers are better. Numbers on the left-side are more reliable:

(side note* if the vb code tags are too ugly to read you may have to highlight the text with your mouse. I do)

BigJoe:         1, 1, 1, 10
MischaPetya:    2, 2, 3
Chris Miller:   3, 3, 3, 4, 12, (1)
Hero Of Fire    4, 6, 1, 2, 13, (6)
Nightmare:      4, 2, 8, 3, (2)
Love For Fire:  5, 5, 4
Imzogelmo:      6, 6, 2, 7, (4)
Nethis:         7, 7, 5, 8, (3)
CJC:            8, 4, 5, 1

If we average these into a nice-and-neat single number we get the following:

BigJoe:         3.2 (2.0)
MischaPetya:    2.3 (2.1)
Chris Miller:   4.3 (3.3)
Hero Of Fire    5.3 (4.0)
Nightmare:      3.8 (4.0)
Love For Fire:  4.6 (3.8)
Imzogelmo:      5.0 (4.8)
CJC:            4.5 (5.8)
Nethis:         6.0 (6.2)

Now if you are paying attention thus far you probably noticed two things: Some of the first set of numbers seems skewed from the rest, and there are two sets of averages instead of one. This is because I weighted the DNF and 'divergent' ratings to get a slightly more accurate norm. This produces the second number inside parenthesis.

Recalculated ratings (extrapolated from the previous table and averaged with overall rating; [((100-(n-1)*10) + r) / 2)] this produces a better 'relational' overall rating than the last table. (Note* these are not accurate as stand-alone ratings so don't feel sad that they taper off quickly. aka; don't get butt-hurt )

BigJoe:         86.06
MischaPetya:    85.77
Chris Miller:   77
Love For Fire:  74.88
Nightmare:      74
Hero Of Fire    70
Imzogelmo:      66.1
CJC:            61.95
Nethis:         56.6

This gives us a top six of:
BigJoe
MischaPetya
Chris Miller
Love For Fire
Nightmare
Hero Of Fire


Whew!

Worth mentioning here is the clusterfuck of good quests from the 7th spot down to the 12th. These were Imzoglemo, CJC, Scootaloo, Shoelace, Nethis, and Questwizard. These were all very well done quests in their own right, but fell short of top-tier when compared to the finalists. The two most underplayed of these are probably Questwizards and Scootaloo's quest.

People seemed to have extreme difficulty with Questwizards; (which I played BTW--I win, you lose! ) difficulty spikes. These even out over time, but are a little out-of-control for a while. Too bad; there's some a good ol' fashioned ass-kickin' and brawling in this one!
Scootaloo's was another underplayed quest with lots of good ideas and some innovation, but people were a perhaps a little too critical of the new sprites. A good quest that I even contributed a script for but I couldn't place it above a few others in the list.


Another thing worth mentioning here is that, say you were to make it a top 7 list. What would you add? -Pretty hard to pick just one more, huh? Or, what about removing one more. Which one? They're all pretty good. It's really tough. That's why I think 6 is a good fit for this list here.

So that's that. I'm sure people are going to want to rant about it so now's yer chance.


If anyone has any reason why these quest authors shouldn't be wed in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace!

[Nightmare]

Gleeok, if you want to determine the mess at determining "the one", we can talk about it in chat later, but if this is final, I'd agree that Mischa's is the most deserving out of the bunch. Also, I think that the best of each should be taken out of each quest, and the final author should have to put at least some of the stuff into theirs (as voted on by everyone) for the final version.

I'll be in chat tonight to talk more. Looks like I did a good job, but I'll be converting Demo 5th into some type of storyline quest.

-James

[CJC]

NO!!! Nightmare, you threw off my statistics with that '8th' best rating, you jerk!


To clarify, this isn't the end of the contest, this was to determine the six finalists that the judging panel will play again with more scrutiny. And I am officially out. Still, if you want to know what all the hype was about with my quest, check the Reskin.

Are we still going to bundle honorable mentions with the program, like we intended when the contest began? If so, is it going to be the two runners-up or is it going to be on a case-by-case basis?

[Coyotek4]

I must be working on a 'nerfed' version of QuestWizard's entry. I'm in Level 9 now, and haven't had major issues (apart from the current lack of Keys).

[Gleeok]

Gleeok, if you want to determine the mess at determining "the one", we can talk about it in chat later, but if this is final, I'd agree that Mischa's is the most deserving out of the bunch. Also, I think that the best of each should be taken out of each quest, and the final author should have to put at least some of the stuff into theirs (as voted on by everyone) for the final version.

I'll be in chat tonight to talk more. Looks like I did a good job, but I'll be converting Demo 5th into some type of storyline quest.

-James

Well it's not over yet.

[Nightmare]

NO!!! Nightmare, you threw off my statistics with that '8th' best rating, you jerk!


To clarify, this isn't the end of the contest, this was to determine the six finalists that the judging panel will play again with more scrutiny. And I am officially out. Still, if you want to know what all the hype was about with my quest, check the Reskin.

Are we still going to bundle honorable mentions with the program, like we intended when the contest began? If so, is it going to be the two runners-up or is it going to be on a case-by-case basis?

:: smirks at CJC :: Did I really hurt your feelings? I'm so sowwwwwwwwwy.

-James

[CJC]

:: smirks at CJC :: Did I really hurt your feelings? I'm so sowwwwwwwwwy.

-James

If you'd just accepted a quadratic model for feature introduction-
Hmmm...
Well then, very clever James, very clever indeed. By nuking my quest you were able to snag a spot in the finals, you fiend!

I am, of course, kidding! I was on the cutting board from the very outset of the contest , which is sad because I was the first person to finish my entry!

To show there's no hard feelings, I've written an extensive tutorial explaining how to implement my awesome Ganon fight, so any of the finalists who wish to take advantage of it may do so freely.
I won't spill the secrets of my puzzle maze in dungeon 9, though; that is a secret I will carry to my... NEXT QUEST PROJECT! MWAHAHAHAHA!

[Nightmare]

If you'd just accepted a quadratic model for feature introduction-
Hmmm...
Well then, very clever James, very clever indeed. By nuking my quest you were able to snag a spot in the finals, you fiend!

I am, of course, kidding! I was on the cutting board from the very outset of the contest , which is sad because I was the first person to finish my entry!

To show there's no hard feelings, I've written an extensive tutorial explaining how to implement my awesome Ganon fight, so any of the finalists who wish to take advantage of it may do so freely.
I won't spill the secrets of my puzzle maze in dungeon 9, though; that is a secret I will carry to my... NEXT QUEST PROJECT! MWAHAHAHAHA!

Is there any way we can make a thread for the "Best of" Moments so the final quest versions know what'd be cool to use/add for their final versions?

-James

[Gleeok]

Serious for a second here guys. Does anybody have any problems with the list at all?

Also, contemplating a sign-up list for the people that either have, or plan to, play through the finalists quests and participate in choosing the winner. Of course you'd have to commit to playing all of them.

[CJC]

Would it be terribly difficult to run all nine quests into the finals? Nine quests can fit into a single poll and it's less than half the volume of the first round. I know it's a long list but many of the people on the judging panel will have played at least some of them already (Several people have actually played all nineteen quests, actually).


If the answer is yes, I need to make two bug-fixes to CJC5th (There's a solidity bug on the overworld and the free item shops cause a Game-Breaker in ZC 2.5.1 RC2). If no, I won't bother.