More Awesome Than You!

CONSTRUCTION RULES
1. Any size of lot may be chosen, from large to small. However, not-choking-the-computer is part of technical merit.

2. There is no budget limitation. However, less is more!

3. Only Maxis and Awesome content may be used. They may be placed using hacked collections if necessary. Non-awesome content will not be installed and houses will be evaluated without them.

4. Put your FREAKING NAME somewhere on the lot description or name!

SUBMISSION RULES
1. Submissions may be attached to posts here or directly linked from the post. Include what you wish to offer as a bribe to the contest judge(s) with your entry.

2. Submissions shall consist of the packaged lot, and any annotated screenshots you wish to use to hilight key features.

3. Linking to any site requiring registration or hoop-jumping for download will be treated as a broken link. Broken links will be treated as null submissions. The Exchange may be used for submissions.

4. If your entry scores amongst the top winners, you will be required to remit the promised bribe. Failure to do so will result in your entry being penalized in score by the same amount you would have gained for the bribe. This may result in the loss of winning position.

5. One and only one entry may be submitted per contestant. Entries will not be evaluated until the final entry has been submitted.

6. All results must be completed and submitted by 07/01/07 system time.

SCORING RULES
Scores will be graded relative to a benchmark house, where results equivalent to the benchmark will be awarded a score of 1.0. Results insuperior to the benchmark will receive scores of < 1.0, superior results will receive scores > 1.0. Scores are linear and the exact level of superiority or insuperiority of one score to another can be determined simply by dividing one by the other. Marks will be rewarded for the points below:

40% BRIBERY: Quality and amount of bribe offered. If no bribe is offered, your score here is a big fat 0.0.
30% GENERAL FUNCTION: Your choices and placement of structural elements and furniture will be evaluated based on how it withstands the rigors of day-to-day simlife for a variety of families.
10% UNUSUAL SCENARIOS: Your choices and placements will be evaluated for how it handles the standard scenarios: Headmaster, Party, Babies, Fires, Burglars, Klan Riots, etc.
5% EXPANDABILITY & ADAPTABILITY: How easy would it be to upgrade this house to account for new "must have" items introduced in the future or to accomodate growth in low-budget housing?
5% COST EFFECTIVENESS: How well does your house perform its function relative to the amount it costs?
5% PHYSICAL OPERABILITY: While non-Euclidean design certainly looks amusing, the house should look physically plausible to build and the effects of obvious defects visible from in-lot and neighborhood view (sinkhole, hover-roof) should be minimized. This isn't the "Halls of R'lyeh" contest.
5% AESTHETICS: Anyone can build a blocky thing. Can you build something that looks nice AND satisfies all the other criteria, too?

We will now answer your tiresome and annoying questions.

The Contest of Awesomeness Returns again! Same rules as above. Submission deadline shall be 07/01/07. Huzzah!

Does the house need to accommodate a certain number of sims?  And if so what ages would they be?  Or should I just make it up?

Also confirmation that the prize is a months free subscription would be nice  :P

Aesthetics will be judged on the following criteria:

2 points: Coherence, or overall style; that is, does the house present a unified aesthetic.
1 point: External appearance, including landscaping. (Or, do it look good in neighbourhood view.)
1 point: Decor, including artworks and other decorative touches, such as colour scheme.
1 point: Architectural features (i.e. How is it not a box?)

Is it okay if we submit a LotCatalog package? IMHO, the official packager is serious overkill, and all I really want to archive is the house and the stuff in it.

Should work.

I don't understand what this "bribe" section is. I've looked at other entries and seen that they upload something or other, but I don't quite get why it's there and how it's related to the contest.

The bribe represents the corruption inherent in all such obviously unaccountable contests: The ass-kissing, the back-patting, bribery, nepotism, and soforth. These factors basically assure that you will never, ever, win such a contest, at least not on merit. Naturally, we at More Awesome Than You are not into all that, so our corruption is carried out publicly, in the open, for all to see. You, too, can buy your way to the first place just like you know the people who win those other contests do!

Oh, okay. So I can offer anything I feel would help my chances of winning?

Also, not related to the bribery:
I have a house already built that I would love to enter, but it's chock full of CC. Am I allowed to rebuild it without using CC (besides the Awesome content)?

I don't see why not.

Everyone, please indicate somewhere in your post which Ep's and stuff packs you have. I didn't think to ask before installing a lot and my game crashed/froze. I had a few very scary moments there. Thanks!

not as scary, but lot size too please!  ;D

Cara, you don't need to rebuild. Get a new sims2 folder - just rename current one temporarily - rerun sims 2 and let it make a new sims 2 folder. Install your lot. Go into it and save. Exit the game and delete all the contents of the download folder. Go back into game and enter house. Fix up windows, floor/wall coverings etc etc as needed. Voila, a no CC house.

Heh, Witch, a bit too late. eheheheh. It wasn't just the house that was CC'd out, it was all over the place. Terrains and such. Wouldn't even have been worth it to try and get rid of it.
And besides, I have a lot of fun making houses. :D

/me throws Ellatrue some chill pills.

Is the Windkeeper mailbox cover that you hacked considered Awesome content?

Yes.

Can I submit a dorm rather than a residential lot?

You know, constantly whining and refusing to follow set rules doesn't make you an interesting, edgy non-conformist, it just makes you an annoying non-joiner.

HUZZAH!!!!

Tiresome *and* annoying question here:

Can it be disclosed who the 'judge(s)' are so that we may attempt to contrive the most effective bribe?

I would bet that YOU have been just nominated as a judge  ;D

Ech...not this bit again...

*Khan of Wyrms is in the process of submitting entry right now so as not to be disqualified by being made a judge.*

I'll just edit bribe later if it seems appropriate.

My understanding is that Pescado is the judge.

I asked "who is judging aesthetics?" and got the "BlueSoup has failed us, you must not!" response.

Pescado's judging for technical merit and Rohina for aesthetics.

As long as it's not BlueSoup, then taste has a chance.

LOL! :D *miaow!*

oh I've been waiting for a chance to do this...

*witch moons Emma

My eyes! My eyes! :o

Oh my. MIAOU MIAOU HISS, witch!  ;D :D

Why, whatever do you mean? *bats eyelashes innocently*

hell, go for broke...

*witch moons Lorelei

/me passes Lorelei the eye bleach

 :D

Emma, if you are offering eye bleach as part of your bribe, I am not sure that bodes well for your aesthetics score.

No, the eye bleach is for witch's moon :D

Just kidding witch, wuv ya weally

Does the pillaged stuffeth from LifeStories count as Maxis content?  ;)

I know, I should have just used the nice walls and floors and argued the point later, but I hate redecorating once I've gotten it set.

Do Inge's reservable easels count as Awesome?

No, because they can't be readily installed. Awesomeconversions count as Awesome content, though.

No. But they would probably fallback to standard easels. Besides, the lack of an easel would not actually penalize your score, since easels aren't picky in their placements, and would probably be tossed in any event to reduce the house price.

I figured as much, since people don't want bloated downloads.  More splitting hairs just because than any real reason, except I would have been glad to use them.

*Lorelei gets witch sparkleez in her eyes and cries like a teeny, tiny bebe*

And being that it is now July in Malaysia, submissions for Contest of Awesomeness 2 are now closed.

UPDATE: Due to Ambular's rules-lawyering, you get until the end of the day.

I was all ready to start judging. It is July 1 where I am.

So can you define the end of the day for me?  I have a potential entry.  I have to know when the last minute is.  :P  I have bribes.

23:59 Malaysia time, I presume, so...not quite 16.5 hours to go, as of this posting?  Am I wrong?

I hope you're not wrong.  Thank you for replying quickly.  I'll keep working on it.  I just have to do some photo-editing and write up the info.

RAR! I can't believe I didn't realize this was happening again. Dammit. I missed it last year and was really hoping to throw a house into the mix this year.

*grumble*

Ah well. I'll pillage ideas from everyone's houses no matter what. *sniffle*

/me pats Orikes.

Heh, we may have to start a separate thread just for all the people who missed the contest this year.  :)

It's OK, after I finish grading all the houses here, we'll have another contest, the Halls of R'lyeh contest as mentioned above.

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."


I can hardly wait...

Huzzah! Non-Euclidean geometry EAxis style.

*pokes thread*

When may we expect the remainder of the scores to be up?

Yeah, I'd like to know that too.

They'll be done when I get back to the game. Unless you want me to force myself through the scoring and taint the results.

There's no rush; I'm not holding my breath. I was just curious.

I'd like to see how badly I failed. I blatantly ignored two AwesomeSpec requirements. One because I don't agree and choose to make my sims do their homework on the sidewalk like the losers they are, and one because arches are prettier.

I expect to phail also, since I accidentally deleted the terlet from one of the bathrooms and the spawn-pods are nowhere near the kitchen. Oh well.

If you simply DON'T put The One Desk in the game, this won't significantly impact your score in that regard. Unbarred kitchens are a Bad Thing. Besides, you can't even see the arches or doors, and there's a whole host of other tricks one can employ to satisfy both the firebreak and fridge-lock without sealing the entire kitchen.

See, I use these new-fangled things called sprinklers, so fire blockage isn't an issue for me as fires last all of two seconds. The resultant puddles are fun for toddlers and elders alike, and give my extremely neat sims something to do. As for fridge control...well...I see the reason for the desire, but it's never really bothered me that much. For my playables, I always direct them to eat leftovers when at halvsies. For visitors, I typically set a meal out or go ahead and let them grab some chips.

The problem with leaving the fridge unlocked is more than just the autonomous cooking, but the autonomous party fridge raids. This actually EXTREMELY bad because it actually damages your sims!

Huh? How?

Visitors won't deplete your stocks if you leave out a platter of gelatin or something while using TwoJeffs' Food Already Available hack.  You can stomp it even more with his Visitor Snacking fix.  I find those hacks make it easy to play houses that don't meet AwesomeSpec; my fridges never get raided.   :)

Makes them fat is my guess.

Yes, but that would involve putting out food! It's not like they'll actually run out of food in the 5 measly hours they're there, and watching them sit around and eat is entirely a waste. Besides, I hate food.

I realize it's two months late, but will anyone yell at me if I post my house now? I followed all the AwesomeSpec requirements that apply to Nightlife and earlier, and it has street parking. The unfurnished version is just under $29,000. I don't have a bribe, though.

I don't really care if I'm not included in the contest, since I'm late and I probably wouldn't win anyway (not having a bribe, and not making it wildlife-proof). I'm just looking for some criticism on the design.

I would post it in Peasantry.  I think other late entries are posted there. 


You've surely come to the right place. ;)

To the Peasantry it is. Thanks twooflower.

All scores are finally in. Ambular will compile the ranking table soon.

Meanwhile, PAY UP, EMMA.

*Sigh* Ok........I'll post them in RL where everyone can vote for which one they would like me to have! Whee!

ps-I'll have to go make some first. Lol.

Hey, you locked my thread! Congrats, Emma.

So, sorry about the non-level edge thing. I thought this lot had been level, but apparently I didn't pay enough attention and it was just nearly level. I didn't build special for the challenge. My self-made custom terrain in Urban Paradise can be deceptive. I played with the God Mode a lot.

Don't be sad. My house apparently had non-level edges as well.  :-\ Bummer!

I thought I'd leveled the lot beforehand. Perhaps Veronaville, where I took images, is just going to bork level lots.  ::)

Or I didn't level it properly. If that's the case, I need a tutorial or somethin', because I did everything I knew how to do to ensure levelness.

*shrug*

I messed up edge-levelling too, at least I'm in good company. Emma posted some helpful stuff about level lots in the thread for my entry; levelling the lot after placement does does nothing, it's the terrain you place the lot on that has to be level.

Nothing you can do can level a lot once placed. A lot must be PLACED level, or it will NEVER be level no matter what you do it once you open it up.

??? As far as I see, lots bork hoods, not the other way around. But then again, I have 20/30 vision*.

*I am short-sighted IRL but I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA as to how bad it is.

Hoods bork lots in that if the hood isn't flat, like Sedona is for example, then the edges of the lot aren't going to be level no matter how much levelling you do after the lot has been placed. A lot with non-level edges then borks the new hood its placed in. [/lesson]

Hoods don't damage a lot merely because the lot is nonflat, but that lot cannot be moved from its original position without mangling the terrain of anything it touches, so it's completely useless for export, and becomes a throwback to Sims 1 days where a house could only be swapped into the lot that it was built in.

Want a great visual of this? Move beachlots around willy-nilly. Gah. I totally screwed a section of Queen's Cove like that. A good 7 squares of beach lot property, now covered by rocks to hide the awfulness.

Beachlots are always nonlevel and should never be moved!

In anticipation of the 2008 Building Contest of Awesomeness, I was wondering what exactly is Awesome Spec?

I understand that the lot must be flat, the fridge must be protected, and fences must be erected to keep out unsavory stray type animals. What else? What is the "viewing deck"? And fire breaking?

Just wondering if there was a list of things that made a house "Awesome."

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7263.0.html

Thanks, Amber.  :D