Z-I-v: Tower of Eight Panels

Nice. I'm not sure if I'll have time to submit something every round, but at least this will give me some motivation to finally add doubles to some of my previous contest files.

Also, a few questions/clarifications/suggestions:
1) How many charts are required per round? 1? 3?
2a) Are non-participants allowed to vote too?
2b) What about participants who haven't submitted a file every round? Can they still vote in all rounds?
3) Why 1-10 and not 0-10? I feel like "0" ratings should be allowed because: a) if you think a file is the "worst file ever," naturally, you'd also think it doesn't deserve any points, and b) ZIv itself also officially allows 0 star ratings.
4) Deadline times should be in UTC to avoid confusion around daylight savings time.

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Nope! I would say the only real restriction is it has to be able to run on a Stepmania 5 setup (so nothing made only for nITG).
I also want to point out that you don't need to follow round requirements. In fact, we intend for the bonus requirement each round to be a risk players may or may not take, since doing so is harder and may affect your rating.


Thanks for the good questions.

1) 1
2a) No
2b) No
3) Fair point. This would also put 5 as the 'true' centerpoint of the scale. I don't want to think anyone will submit a file worthy of a 0 though... I'll get back to you on this; I want to discuss this with the other hosts first.
4) I also considered this, but since most of the entrants are in NA I figured it would be easier to have it this way. Sorry to those who live in a region that doesn't deal with DST fuckery lol

Updating the main post to clarify 2.

Count me in for now, though I don't know much about doubles and may only do a round or two.

Sign me up. Although I'm not experienced in charting DDR double and currently doing another 8-key charts for other big event but I'll try.

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Interesting; I would also like to sign up.

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I've been in an online contest that has switched from a discrete "x points for your favourite" system to a /10 scale, and they've had some big teething problems with it. The big one is that if you're a miserly bastard, you put fewer points into the system, and that gives yourself a natural advantage as there'd more points on average on the table for yourself. Additionally, when you average them all out, it makes the negative ratings hurt positive ones a lot more, so you do end up with not that much in terms of variance between most of the songs.

The way they solved it was to basically copy the Eurovision's televote system. Each entrant has a certain number of points to give out (58, being the Eurovision's standard 1-8, 10, 12), so the voting has a flat 58 x [number of entrants] points to give out. They do the rating out of ten and instead of the numbers carrying that point value, they're weighted, with a 4/10 being worth zero, and the number increasing to 25 at the 10/10 spot, and decreasing to -6 at the 1/10 spot.

When that's all done, they multiply out their weighted score with a multiplier to make sure that all the points are distributed equally, with any negative marks being rounded up to zero. It sounds complicated, but it's a surprisingly easy system to set up.

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Pogchamp? Pogchamp. Also, I like how this is (probably unintentionally) an homage to Tower of Druaga. My only issue is one that Oni's already said - some people will be real with a rating scale, and some people will be "it wasn't completely unplayable so 8/10."

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You know what? Count me in. I could use the practice on doubles and it makes me see if there's really enough of an audience for me to put them into my own projects.

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I'll join.

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Are there any rules regarding graphics?

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Will the round requirements be announced when submissions open or sometime before?

Nope. You can include graphics if you want (although you should get permission / give credit if you're using someone else's), but if you don't need to. There are default graphics in the category to choose if you don't have individual ones as well.


Round requirements will be announced when submissions open, at 1PM EDT/EST (5PM GMT, 6PM after Nov. 1)

Given how flexible you made the rules for this, sign me up; I won't play to win, I'll just take the opportunity to experience how much fun I might have voting on stuff and find out how much or how little this might interfere with my life. Can't guarantee I will participate in any round, but at least there's no pressure for me to do that.

Plus, I trust all of you hosts on doing a good job with something like this.

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Thank you! Very nice to see you enter, and best of luck!


Super late response, but we've agreed to change it to 0-10. Thanks for the suggestion!

A group of adventurers walked into a dark tower. After having struggled with enemies guarding the entrance of the tower, they were happy just to be alive to discover the riches that this tower might possess. The group struggled to see, as the inside of the tower was pitch dark, and all that they had with them besides their swords and a few necessities were torches. Just as this problem had crossed their minds, large torches that lined the walls of the first floor lit up, and all that was in the room was now visible. They were all unsure of what caused these torches to light up in the first place, but this thought was completely overrun by what lay before them.

An old bridge connected two sides of the room, with a large, seemingly endless gap below. It’s a good thing we didn’t go any further before the lights came on, several of them thought. Worry began to fill the room once they realized that this bridge did not have any ropes to hang on to, and it appeared to be quite loose as well. Despite this, the thought of what could lie beyond this room was tantalizing, especially the possibility of loot. Knowing that there was no other way to cross the gap, everyone prepared themselves for this challenge.

In order to cross the gap successfully, everyone needs to have great balance.

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Yes! I have a question for the DMs. May I use mines on the outer two panels, or is it strictly no chart elements there?

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Mines on the outer two panels should be fine. The requirements apply to the actual arrows mainly.

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Used the 6-panel only requirement in 12 measures of the song. With a song like this it's easy to guess where I put it.
Thinking about adding the easier difficulties over the next two weeks.

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Oh yes, this brings me to a couple of questions:

1. Are there any requirements on how to title our submissions?
2. Where do we find default graphics to upload?

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1. Title of the song please! But I guess as long as it isn't something super ridiculous you won't be DQ'd. Just make sure to put the name of the round you're submitting (in this case, Center of Balance) in the subcategory field.
2. It should be linked in the simfile category page.