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... to the 31st bridge building contest. This Bridge Construction Set/Pontifex II contest is free for everyone to enter. A full version of BCS is required, though.
If you are new to the game, please note the hints for beginners at the end of this page!
Your contest hoster will be Naruto. He has also built the levels: a NORMAL and A HARD one. The NORMAL level is made a lot easier by me (and I hope that Naruto is not too disappointed by this) and should be solvable within half an hour, even for beginners. Building a competitive solution will take much longer, though. The HARD level really is damn hard and you'll need at least two or three hours to come up with a working solution.
In Contest 31 there are 3 rule categories: NORMAL, HARD and ARTISTIC.
- NORMAL and HARD bridges should be as cost-effective as possible,
- ARTISTIC bridges should be original, good-looking or crazy bridges (costs don't count).
For NORMAL and HARD bridges:
- The bridge must work without breaking any links
- The bridge must work (the 'test passed' message must appear) with 0 sec delay (press: simulate | pause | run test | pause).
- Bridge links may NOT touch/penetrate the level terrain (i.e. only touch the ground at the anchor points) throughout the complete simulation (all phases).
- The ships may NOT touch any bridge material (every pixel counts!).
- The decks MAY curve (you don't have to build them horizontal).
- Trains MAY go through/touch bridge material.
For ARTISTIC bridges:
- Everything - besides editing the level - is allowed.
- The bridge must work (the 'test passed' message must appear) with a delay specified by the architect (that means: it's sufficient, if the bridge works reliably with e.g. 17 seconds but not with any other delay).
For ALL bridges:
- Editing the level is strictly prohibited.
- You may NOT exploit bugs or flaws in the game engine (if you find any, which I doubt you will).
Breaking, bending or scratching any of the above rules will result in disqualification. In the event of a tie, the entry I receive first will be rated better. If you have questions or doubts about the rules, post it in the contest 31 general discussion forum
in short:
- rename your file as described below (saves Naruto and me a lot of work),
- compress the file with zip or rar,
- make sure this is the file you want to send because you are not allowed to send more than two bridges per category,
- send your bridge to info@bridgebuilder-game.com as described below.
in detail:
Your bridges will be located in your profile folder. Name your file like described below and then compress it with RAR or ZIP!
- NORMAL bridges: 'N-[6 digit cost]-[your name].pfb' (without the brackets, e.g. 'N-012345-Guilderoy.pfb'; if your costs are below 100.000 please use a leading zero)
- HARD bridges: 'H-[6 digit cost]-[your name].pfb' (without the brackets, e.g. 'H-012345-Guilderoy.pfb')
- ARTISTIC bridges: 'A-[Yourname].pfb' (without the brackets, e.g. 'A-Guilderoy.pfb')
- Please make sure that the 'N', 'H' or 'A' and the first letter of your name are upper case letters.
The e-mail subject must read "[NORMAL/HARD/ARTIST] Cost: xxx Name: yyy". Use these e-mail links to make sure you get it right:
The contest ends at 10 p.m. GMT on Sunday, December 16th. I take no responsibility for e-mail servers being too slow for your e-mail to reach me in time, etc. A list of received entries will is set up in the forum. Your submitted entry should appear there within 3 days!
The number of bridges you submit is limited to two per category. In case of NORMAL and HARD bridges the last submission will count, both artistic bridges count.
Any discussions on contest bridge costs are to be kept in this special sub-forum. For your own good, it is password-protected. To get the password, first read this.
General comments on the level and the contest are warmly welcome and should be posted in the contest 31 general discussion forum. This forum thread is also the right place to discuss the rules - in short: everything else but costs. If you are unsure whether or not your bridge meets all the requirements, contact me for a clarification before submitting your entry (insurance free, until I get mad).
This time there are three prizes (three full versions of any Chronic Logic game). Two will be awarded to the cheapest working NORMAL and HARD Bridge (see below). Additionally, you can win another Chronic Logic game that will be given away in a lottery. If either of the two winners declines their prize, as has frequently happened in the past, their prize shall be added to the lottery. Everybody who submitted a working bridge will take part in the lottery. This means that even if you never entered a contest before, there's a really good chance you can win a prize this time! So don't be shy! Send in your bridges!
For the cheapest NORMAL bridges:
- Winner: Eternal glory and admiration, the title of 'Bridge General', 10 points and a red/gold medal for the Hall of Fame and the full version of any Chronic Logic game!
- 1st Runner-up: Temporary glory and admiration, the title of 'Bridge Major', 6 points and a red/silver medal for the Hall of Fame
- 2nd Runner-up: Momentary glory and admiration, the title of 'Bridge Captain', 3 points and a red/bronze medal for the Hall of Fame
For the cheapest 'HARD' bridges:
- Winner: Eternal respect and awe, the title of 'Bridge Experts King', 12 points and a dark blue/gold medal for the Hall of Fame and the full version of any Chronic Logic game!
- 1st Runner-up: Temporary respect and awe, the title of 'Bridge Experts Lord', 8 points and a dark blue/silver medal for the Hall of Fame
- 2nd Runner-up: Momentary respect and awe, the title of 'Bridge Experts Knight', 5 points and a dark blue/bronze medal for the Hall of Fame
Additional awards:
- The Title of 'Bridge Artist' for the best-looking ARTISTIC entry (2 points for the Hall of Fame).
- The Title of 'Bridge Inventor' for the most creative entry (2 points for the Hall of Fame).
- Possible additional Special Titles as I see fit :)
Many thanks to Chronic Logic for providing the prizes!
The winners will be announced soon after the contest ends. Their names will also appear in the eternal Hall Of Fame.
The BCS Contest 31 levels come in a zip, download it here:
contest31.zip (98 KB)
Unzip the archive into the 'files' folder and load it from the main menu using 'Load Level'.
Please note especially rule #5: "The decks MAY curve (you don't have to build them horizontal)." Building a curved deck might be cheaper than using hydraulics (but it might also be more expensive ...). In the HARD level, hydraulics might not work at all. If you try a curved deck, remember that no part of the ships is allowed to touch the bridge (move the editing plane towards the bridge in edit mode two or three steps (using the R-key), than change to sim mode and zoom in very closely if you're unsure).
I strongly recommend you read the Manual, study the record bridges from the DWN-site and the winning bridges in former contests and finally check out the forum in case you're not very familiar with the common bridge building techniques.
Good Luck!
The full version of BCS can be purchased for $19.95 directly from Chronic Logic: http://www.chroniclogic.com/pontifex2order.htm
 Naruto &  Guilderoy
The Goals |
The Rules |
Level submission |
Deadline |
Discussion |
Prizes |
Download |
Hints
|
