The Editing Center: Project Beta!

[Cheetah]

The ArmA/OFP Editing Center: By the community, for the community!

Welcome, in this topic sticky you will find all the information on The OFP/ArmA Editing Center's Project Beta.

It is a project to promote Beta Testing, produce lots of high quality missions, but ultimately - it is all about having fun! And fun it will be, The Editing Center will bring you two weeks of joy, the Beta Boards do already contain a lot of enjoyable missions. Don't be afraid to put up a few more, it will increase the fun others can have. Call you friends, tell them to stay at your place and have a Beta Testing marathon - for free!

Of course it is not solely about having fun, the aim is to produce a lot of quality missions for Armed Assault and Operation Flashpoint! Now you're somewhat confused, what the heck does Beta Testing do for a mission other than giving the author a large amount of bugs to deal with? Beta Testing helps to iron out any nasty bugs and horrible showstoppers, but can also help an author by giving subtle hints or comments on what can be improved. Do you think that the story can be improved? Tell the author how, but don't forget the why!

When will Project Beta start? It will run from Friday the 10th of August - 0:01 AM BST, until Thursday the 23rd of August - 11:59 PM.
That will give you plenty of time, two weeks, to beta test missions in order to mow down all other competitors! Yes I said competitors, you can actually win something with this Project!

As Homo sapiens like competition, we'll keep track of every beta test. If it follows the guidelines, the judges will mark it "Project Beta Approved" which will result in your score being upped by one point. We will keep track of all the point in this topic, so don't forget to check back regularly in order to keep an eye out for the others! Be sure not to give them a huge lead or you will never make it to the #1 spot. Note that the judges will have their own ranking, so don't fear them!

Next up: Prizes! You did the most Beta Tests, are on the top of the ranking and of course you are delighted and happy to get all the attention you deserve. However, what else will The Editing Center give you? Not speaking of the honour, quality missions, but other prizes! First, there will be an avatar for the "OFPEC Senior Beta Tester". Be sure to use it everywhere, on every forum you visit and link back to this sticky topic as proof that you actually beat all others. More? Sure, we will grab you by your ears in order to produce an interview. With the successful Bardosy interview - thousands of pageviews and him receiving fanmail - you have nothing to lose, to gain is the verb.

Finally: the rules. There will be four judges ensuring that Project Beta will run smooth. If you have a problem, PM or contact them.

List of judges
Cheetah
Denz
LCD
Tyger

Guidelines for approval

• Mission Author has been online since the 10th of July. (check this by going to his profile)
• Beta Report should be complete. Sections: package, overview, intro, briefing, mission, outro, overall.
• One cannot beta test his own missions.
• In order to WIN the event, you have to beta test at least 5 different missions.
• You can do one mission multiple times, but copy/paste beta tests will be removed!
• MP missions should be tested with two or more people, otherwise it won't count. Of course, all participants can write their own beta report (don't copy/paste! - make it unique!)

Not so difficult to participate in Project Beta, right?

So be sure to upload any missions you have on your PC, whether for OFP or ArmA, just get them on the ArmA or OFP Beta Board!
And of course, rally all of your friends with only the slightest amount of interest for ArmA or OFP and get them to participate! It will help the mission author(s), you - the tester and the whole community!


Overall Ranking

Rank	Tester	Amount	# of different missions
1.	Rellikki	15	15
2.	firecontrol	8	8
3.	Smoke52	6	6
4.	Mathias_eichinger	5	5
4.	MrN	5	5
4.	Lee	5	5
6.	Wolfrug	3	3
6.	DarkAngel	3	3
7.	Nixer6	2	2
7.	Dash5	2	2
7.	schuler	2	2
8.	Limmy3	1	1
8.	Gielovic	1	1

Judges Ranking

Rank	Judge	Amount	# of different missions
1.	LCD	13	12
2.	Denz	12	12
3.	Cheetah	4	4
4.	Tyger	1	1

[Cheetah]

OFPEC Project: Beta Post Guidelines
by Tyger

Mr. Daniel Webster, the author of my dictionary, states that a competition is A test of skill or ability for a profit or prize, usually resulting in a victor and a loser but not necessarily involving the destruction of the latter. And to have a proper contest, we need to clarify what skill or ability you will tested on.

Yes, Cheetah has told you that you will be judged on seven sections: package, overview, intro, briefing, mission, outro, and overall. But let's delve into them a little, and I'll describe just what exactly Cheetah is looking for in each of those sections.

• Package: The package is the .zip file you download the mission in. OFPEC requires that you have a readme, and the mission .pbo properly labeled, and recomends a large and small screen shot to promote your mission. Also, the OFPEC standard is that the whole shebang be .ZIP, NOT .RAR.
• Overview: How was the overview? Did they have one? Was the picture clear? How did you feel about it?
• Intro: Was there an intro? Give your comments on the camera angles, how long it was, and how it related to the mission, as well as anything "special" they included in it.
• Briefing: Tell us how the briefing was. Tell them if you thought there was too much text, or too many markers. Give us your thoughts and suggestions on the briefing. Also, be on the lookout for spelling mistakes and grammer problems.
• Mission: Give a walk through of the mission, but keep it more general. We don't want to completely spoil the mission, but we want to give a detailed summary. State any errors or issues you found, i.e. six loons were facing the wall at the base, or the second objective didn't tick off, even though there were no more enemies left on the map. Also give some suggestions on how to improve it, etc.
• Outro: Same as the intro, give your comments on camera angles etc.
• Overall: Your ending thoughts on the mission as a whole. Give ideas and suggestions on how to improve the storyline, etc. Whatever you feel you should include.

To help you out, we've compiled an example of an average, ideal post for Project: Beta.

Mission: Missions Depot v. Editing Depot Part III

Package: There was a readme that was properly labeled, and even two teaser pictures included in the .zip package. Everything in order here.

Overview: The picture was good, but it didn't have a border. Also the overview was seven pages long!! I think you should be able to shorten it down to one or two by removing all of the credits from it.  You already have the credits in your readme.

Intro: The intro was fabulous. The camera angles were just right, and there were no jumpy shots. I grabbed a bag of popcorn and a drink and was entertained for nearly 15 minutes with it! I especially liked the shot of macguba as he was surrounded by a dozen of the Editing Depot Staff, but then in a flash of smoke and fire, he disappeared! Just like a magician!

Briefing: The briefing was a little cluttered, and the were way too many makers on the map. I could hardly read some of them because they all overlapped. The briefing did explain the storyline well though, and the gear selection, while small, was well selected. I think some of the storyline and the extra Intel could be moved to separate pages which were linked to.

Mission: Well, you start at the Missions Depot, playing as Cheetah. Our objective is to seize the Editors Depot base, but let me tell you, it was a hard fight. I ordered everyone into the Black hawk, with the idea that I could para drop the rest of my squad onto the base, and then land after them, and help with the fighting. Everyone exited okay, but then warning sirens went off as a Stinger missile rammed my tail. I managed to bail before my chopper exploded though. I landed right next to mandoble, and it reverted to a cut scene of us kick boxing. I have to give kudos to you for your excellent scripting on that one. Finally, mandoble ran for cover, and we continued our hunt. All of a sudden, a PKM opened fire from our left and went prone trying not to get hit. In an act of bravery, Tyger stood up and launched an M203 grenade from point blank into the gunner, killing both of them. Whether this was AI being an idiot or a hero, I don't know.
SHOWSTOPPER: LCD hit some loon on the roof who was shooting at us with a sniper rifle, and it brought up an error: deathOfMrP = true; Variable does not exist., and all of a sudden we were teleported to the center of the map. I don't think that was supposed to happen. Then, a minute later the mission ended.

Outro:Overall: I like what I see so far. Unfortunately, the mission isn't playable as of yet because of the error, but I'm looking forward to this mission once it's fixed!

And, I'm glad to report, the losers will not be destroyed in this competition.

Happy beta testing people!

[Cheetah]

Update! Update!

Joe Tester can now score extra points by doing an extraordinary well polished, informative text. Details? Find it out yourself!

A judge will make a note of the bonus point if all other judges agree with the bonus! So try to be as complete as possible and try to rack up extra points in order to win Project Beta!

[Tyger]

MID-TERM REPORT

Well people, we're about halfway through Project Beta, and I'm glad to say we've had a decent turn out so far! There are probably a dozen missions undergoing review right now in both the ArmA and OFP boards, and getting excellent coverage, almost faster than the authors can turn out new versions!

Also, shortly we will be unveiling the runner-up prize for the second place position, which as of current is under close contest between Mathias_eichinger, firecontrol, and Smoke52.

Out on top of the running, with a large lead, is Rellikki with an astonishing 14 reviews!

Good job to all of those Beta Testers out there!

[schuler]

my pc kicked it  damn it no fair  ,, may the best man win 

[Rellikki]

Yay, I did it. Feels really good.
Now when the competition is over, can you now reveal the details for the possible extra points that you could earn? As far as I know, no one didn't find it out and I'd be interested to know...

[Cheetah]

We thought of giving extra points to beta tests of suberb quality. So those with a lot of details and possible pictures / videos. However, nobody was awarded any additional points as we never agreed unanimous.

Therefore, no additional points have been handed out. However, in future competitions we will surely include more options to score points. Uploading missions and putting missions up for review are things that come to my mind.

Good that you enjoyed the competition.