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 BCS Contest 24

Welcome ...

... to the twenty-fourth bridge building contest. Again, this Bridge Construction Set/Pontifex II contest is free for everyone to enter. Chronic Logic has released a special demo for the contest.

If you are new to the game or use the demo, please note the hints for beginners at the end of this page!

 

This contest is generously sponsored by ChronicLogic.

 

This contest is also special in a way, that the bridges to be build have a real life archetype: The Viaduc de Millau! The level is a model of the original landscape and the distances between the anchor points are scaled to fit to the real ones. The real Viaduc de Millau has a length of 2,460 m and is based on seven piers of the following heights: P1: 94.50 m; P2: 244.96 m; P3: 221.05 m; P4: 144.21 m; P5: 136.42 m; P6: 111.94 m; P7: 77.56 m. The bridge is cable stayed with pylons of 87 m height, placed on top of each pier. The width of each span is 342 m. Well, enough numbers, just watch (thanks to MacKay for the forum post).

More photos and information on the Viaduc de Millau can be obtained here and here.

The Goals

In Contest 24 there are four categories CLEAN, DIRTY, ARTISTIC and ORIGINAL. The CLEAN rules just apply to the CLEAN bridges (you might have guessed that). For all other categories the DIRTY rules are sufficient.

CLEAN and DIRTY bridges just have to be cheap (and fit to the respective rules, of course)!

ARTISTIC bridges should original pieces of art and don't have to be realistic.

ORIGINAL bridges should be build as close to the original as possible. As I didn't build a complete landscape, editing the level and building a landscape is part of the job! Therefore, the ORIGINAL category is restricted to the owners of the full version, as you can't edit the level in the demo.

The Rules

For CLEAN bridges:

A CLEAN bridge should be largely realistic, that means:

  1. The bridge must work without breaking any links.
  2. Cables are NOT allowed below deck level!
  3. The bridge must work (the 'test passed' message must appear) with the following delays (the time shown to the bottom right): 1:00, 1:30 and 2:00 Minutes.
  4. Bridge links may NOT touch/penetrate the level terrain.
  5. All decks (rails & street) must be strictly horizontal, that means decks may NOT be curved.
  6. The bridge may NOT have gaps.
  7. In order not to overcomplicate things: Trains may go through/touch bridge material.

For DIRTY and ARTISTIC and ORIGINAL bridges:

For dirty, artistic and original bridges everything is allowed. The only rule is:

  • 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 CLEAN and DIRTY and ARTISTIC bridges:

  • Editing the level is strictly prohibited.
  • You may NOT exploit bugs or flaws in the game engine.

For ORIGINAL bridges:

Editing the level is allowed with the following restrictions:

  • You may NOT alter the anchor points.
  • You may NOT add anchor points.
  • You may add a river, hills, props, etc.
  • You may add as many vehicles as you want.

Level submission

If you use the demo:

The file containing your bridge is named 'contest24.pfb' and it's located in the folder 'Bridge Construction Set Contest\profile\default\demo'. If you've finished your bridge, rename the file to:

  • 'C-[Yourname].pfb' in case of a CLEAN bridge, (without the brackets)
  • 'D-[Yourname].pfb' in case of a DIRTY bridge,
  • 'A-[Yourname].pfb' in case of an ARTISTIC bridge.
  • 'O-[Yourname].pfb' in case of an ORIGINAL bridge.

WARNING: You can't load a renamed file in the demo, so once you rename your bridge, you will have to rename it back to contest24.pfb if you want to edit it again. This makes working on your bridges a bit tedious. With the full version you can just use 'save as' to save your bridge as the correct name and 'load bridge' to load it up again.

Compress the file with RAR or ZIP, attach it to an e-mail and send it to contest24@bridgebuilder-game.com.

If you use the full version:

Your bridges will be located in your profile folder. Rename your file like described above and then compress it with RAR or ZIP!

The e-mail subject must read "[CLEAN/DIRTY/ARTIST/ORIGINAL] Cost: xxx Name: yyy". Use these e-mail links to make sure you get it right:

The contest ends at 18:00 GMT on Sunday, February 27th. I take no responsibility for e-mail servers being too slow for your e-mail to reach me in time, etc.

I'll put up a list of received entries in the forum during the contest.

The number of bridges you submit is limited to three per category. The last submission will 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 here. This forum thread is also the right place to discuss the rules. If you are unsure whether or not your bridge meets all the requirements, contact me for a clarification before submitting your entry.

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.

The Prizes

Chronic Logic give away three full versions of any Chronic Logic game (e.g. Bridge Construction Set, Gish) to the winners. One game will be awarded to the architects of the cheapest working CLEAN and DIRTY bridges. Additionally, you can win a game that will be given away by a lottery. Everybody who submitted a working bridge will take part in the 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. 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 working 'CLEAN' bridges:

Winner: Eternal glory and admiration, the title of 'Bridge General' and the full version of any Chronic Logic game
1st Runner-up: Temporary glory and admiration, the title of 'Bridge Major'
2nd Runner-up: Momentary glory and admiration, the title of 'Bridge Captain'

For the cheapest working 'DIRTY' bridges:

Winner: Eternal respect and awe, the title of 'Bridge Don' and the full version of any Chronic Logic game
1st Runner-up: Temporary respect and awe, the title of 'Bridge Mafioso'
2nd Runner-up: Momentary respect and awe, the title of 'Bridge Bandit'

Additional awards:
The Title of 'Bridge Artist' for the best-looking ARTISTIC entry (2 points for the Hall of Fame)
The Title of 'Bridge Artist' for the most ORIGINAL model 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 Level

The BCS Contest Demo version including the contest 24 level is available for Windows, Linux and OSX and can be downloaded here:
Windows: bcscondemo.exe
Linux: bcscondemo.tar.gz
OSX: bcscondemo.dmg

If you only need the contest level (you own the full version), download it here:
contest24.zip
Unzip the archive into the 'files' folder and load it from the main menu using 'Load Level'.

Some Hints

If you use the demo, you'll have to play through the five demo levels first, in order to access the contest level. You may also want make use of the two tutorial levels first, if you're completely new to the game.

I strongly recommend you read the Manual, study the record bridges from the DWN-site and 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

Guilderoy   diedummenschimpansen


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