CCLP1 Deadline has been extended!

[geodave]

Greetings, Chipsters!

After much deliberation and feedback from the community, the CCLP1 staff has elected to extend the CCLP1 submission deadline to June 30, 2012.

While we understand that the submission period has been only a fraction of the time the CCLP3 submission period was open, we have already received an incredible response to the CCLP1 call for submissions. According to the official CCLP1 page, there are 3,411 levels that are currently in the running. For comparison's sake, the CCLP3 site lists 5,716 levels in its submission pool, 2,230 of which were eligible for voting.

With increased awareness of Lynx compatibility since CCLP3's release, we are expecting the percentage of eligible levels to be even higher this time around, particularly considering that the staff playtesters will be working more closely with designers on their levels' potential compatibility issues following the submission deadline. The staff has also heard from designers who have already created some levels and will submit their level sets in the days to come. The pool of 3,411 will definitely grow even larger in the months ahead.

Please note that after the submission deadline, the staff will finish reviewing the submitted levels and contact designers about compatibility fixes - all at the same time. Once this correspondance has begun, all designers will be given an official deadline by which they can implement any suggested compatibility fixes. After this fix deadline passes, voting will begin.

If you are a designer and would like to begin working with a CCLP1 playtester on any potential compatibility issues in your levels while submissions are still open, you are certainly welcome to do so - simply send an e-mail to any of the four people listed on the CCLP1 site who are serving as playtesters.

Happy chipping, everyone!

[Flareon350]

I think this is a great decision! I might be able to finish JCCLP by that time and hopefully make it considered for CCLP1.

[BitBuster]

I agree. I'm as impatient as everyone else is for the final set to be released, but I think this decision will ultimately result in a higher-quality set.

[tensorpudding]

I brought up the idea of designers submitting TWS files with their levelsets in order to expedite the testing/compatibility phase in the original newsgroup but there hasn't been any discussion of it there except that Andrew R. supports it. Is this something that people here who have levelsets for CCLP1 want to do on a voluntary basis? Is it too late to add this to the submissions brief, given that submissions are now to be prolonged a few months?

[Flareon350]

I support the TWS files of our own sets being submitted in both MS & Lynx to save time for the staff and for us regular members to put more effort into it. I have TWS solutions already for JoshL2 in MS and JoshL3 in Lynx.

[pillowpc2001]

Yeah, I think everyone submitting MS and Lynx TWS's of their level sets being considered would be a good idea... I guess the staff would still probably have to watch each one to make sure the solutions in the different rulesets are equal, plus additional reviewing of the levels to check for busts/incompatibilities that might not have been obvious in the TWS's, but it still should save them some time...

[Ida]

Oh my. I'll have to learn both how to play in Lynx and how to make a TWS then. I guess that could be good for me.

I'm not sure I think we should automatically discard all levels from designers who do not submit these files, though. I think there is a lot of engagement among those who submitted their sets, so if we encouraged this, a lot of people would probably submit solutions, thus easing the work for the staff greatly. I think there sould still be room for some sets without TWS solutions then.

How big is a TWS file? The staff needs to be able to receive a lot of data

[Hornlitz]

Yeah, if we received TWS files of a bunch of these sets, that would save a lot of time for testing.

Only, there's one problem with that. Those solutions would be the intended solutions, so we most likely wouldn't see any busts laying around.

[tensorpudding]

Addressing a few points:

This would be just showing that the set is solvable in both rulesets. There's no way to certify a complicated set as even reasonably bust-free with a minimal glean from a playtester, it has to be studied a lot. Making a good CCLP1 requires work that can't be avoided.

Ida, there is nothing to making a TWS. You put the .DAT file in the Tile World .DAT folder, create a .DAC file using your levelset editor if it has that feature, or if not writing it using your favorite text program, one for Lynx and one for MS, then solve the level in Tile World. There, you've just created a TWS. You just need to copy that file out of where it hides in the solutions folder and zip it up with your levelset and your DAC files.

I'm sure there's other tools for writing DAC files, I've also written a terminal utility that will make them without you having to do any work. I'll make it available sometime after it's cleaned up.

TWS files are not large. They're on the order of half the size or so of the DAT file they are paired with, so having an MS or Lynx one will only double the size. That would sound bad except that DAT files are only hundred or so kilobytes at most, and can be compressed somewhat. Unless there are people out there with 54k modems yet, they won't notice it too badly.

I think it should be voluntary at this point, there's certainly no reason to foist this requirement mid-stream and Tile World has some glaring issues that crop up and anyone using it would need to be familiar with it. Hopefully though, with TW2.1 going to come out soon enough, we might require people to use its facilities to help the team deal with the glut of levelsets in the next round, whenever that's going to be, and assuming that round has Lynx compatibility as a rule.

The other bonus is that it's much easier for everyone to use TWS files to demonstrate busts than a verbal description or an AVI file if the playteam and the designer are both using Tile World.

I don't think people having to learn how to play Lynx is unreasonable if Lynx compatibility, and a reasonable parity of difficulty between rulesets, is a requisite of acceptance.

[Phazite]

Good news for me. This gives me some time to design some levels that I had ideas about.