That's certainly true. The last two contests I was in, I was only a "play-along" because, when I tried to enter, all places were already taken. Actually in some ways I prefer being a play-along; If I'm only playing along, I don't feel as tightly bound by the rules. (Most of my Sims have a thing about rules -- they think they only exist so they can break them! I think I often agree with them!!) Also as a play-along I can benefit from the comments of the judges, without being given a score, which only tells me that, compared to the other contestants, my lots are rubbish.

May I make a couple of suggestions:

1) May we have enough time (at least a couple of weeks) at the end of the contest, to post any final thoughts about it, before the thread is closed. In previous contests I've felt that thoughts that I wanted to post when the thread was closed. On one occasion (when I was a play-along) I had to ask for the thread to be re-opened so I could post my last play-along entry. It was a large modern house for a sports star, and one of the few occasions where I've used CFE.

2) In future contests, might it be possible for a contestant who, for whatever reason, has missed a round, to still submit entries in subsequent rounds. Obviously they'd be very unlikely to win the contest, but it would be interesting to see their entries. Like other contestants, they could also benefit from the judges' comments. Similarly, might it be possible for someone who has missed Round 1, to come in late, and still submit entries in later rounds. (Actually I thought Yvelotic2001 might come into this contest as a sort of late play-along, and was a bit disappointed that they didn't post any pictures of lots they were building.)

Thank you, @AndrewGloria, @Monsieur_Oshima

I decided to do a proper comparison about the number of contestants entering and dropping out.

Starting with the Monopoly contest which took place in 2015, these contests are all still up (there are older ones, and one may be missing) I was involved in all of these, except in Apartmentmania.

Monopoly contest : started with 12 contestants, ended with 9
Urban Conversion: started with 11 contestants, ended with 3 (Phanoah's)
Community Spirit: started with 21 contestants, ended with 15 (Jo)
Wanderlust: started with 17 contestants, ended with 7 (Gadyars)
Trading Places: started with 15 contestants, ended with 8 (Jo)
Aparmentmania started with 13 contestants, ended with 9 (Gummi)
THIS CONTEST started with 14 contestants, ended with 9.

Jo's contest, with 21 entries, had the most starters. Overall, I think we are pretty much in line, though?

As for your suggestions, @AndrewGloria:

a. I don't know how much time the moderators (I am not a moderator) will allow us, but I can try for some extra days. Two weeks feel a bit too long.

b. Late entries have been allowed in previous contests - at a penalty of 1 point a day, I think - and I considered it. I decided against it due to previous experience. A round cannot be closed if all entries have not been judged for one thing, and it holds up the other contestants, the judges and the host, who all have to wait for that entry to be uploaded (and sometimes they pull out without uploading anything). Phanoah's contest was also supposed to last 12 weeks/ 3 months - it ran from September 2016 until May 2017!

Edit: There is no rule which stops a contestant who misses a round to post an entry for the next round as far as I know, but you need to start at the beginning.

I have nothing against play-alongs, and if we had more than 20 contestants, I may have started a table for that. I would not have accepted more than 20, because judges simply cannot be expected to judge that many entries (judging take a lot of time too). A lot of effort goes into planning and presenting a contest, and one does not want to end up with a list of play-alongs only (the contest will be cancelled anyway because there won't be 10 contestants).

Of course, a future host may have a different view about both extending the deadline for some and/or allowing play-alongs. Hopefully, I have explained my own motivations to you?

Thank you!

Thanks simsample. I just woke up today (Sunday 7am) and it seems to have gone, so *cross fingers*

@Justpetro I am pretty sure I know why so many dropped in my Trading Places contest, I used the Beakers house which is way too large, especially by that point in the contest.

Glad you feel better, Jo! Again, your drop-out score there looks fairly similar to most, though! I just remember @simsample using the community lot ( ) and getting away with it (my first time as a judge then)

I didn't drop out. (I'd be ashamed to drop out, after dropping out as a judge in Phaenoh's contest.) But, as a result of playing your contest "in-game", the Curious brothers and the Beakers are both now still living in each others' houses in my Strangetown. I don't think any of them are all that happy about it. Except perhaps Nervous Subject, who has got out of his dungeon and has considerably gone up in the world. He's now living in a hut on a platform in the sky, somewhere above the Curious brothers' old house.

I felt sure I was going to be disqualified! But I thought it would be so cool, so had to take the risk.

Good for him. Poor old Nervous deserves a better life.

Added later: I pm'd my score sheet.

Thank you, Jo

Scores are in, and I will post them and the contest winner later, but this seems a good time to congratulate the winner of Round 4:

And the winner is........



PEBBLEROCKER!

Congratulations on winning this round, @Pebblerocker!

Well done @Pebblerocker !

And the scores are in.

Before I post it, let's have another drum roll.

For the winner this time of the entire contest:



AND PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR SIMSAMPLE!



Congratulations, @simsample, for a well-deserved win

Congratulations to all our contestants. Since the first round, all of you have shown outstanding talent, and you have developed some great building, decorating and landscaping skills over the 4 rounds. You can all be truly proud of all your lots and hopefully we will see them on MTS soon, where they are going to be immensely popular.

Hopefully I have not made any mistakes this time, but, being human, please tell me if I have?

Here are your scores for the final round:

Modder - 60.5



simsample - 63.5



Aysarth - 61



pinkdynamite - 59.5



AndrewGloria - 56



Phantomknight - 61



Pebblerocker - 64



Monsieur_Oshima - 61



Meowingcookie - 59

Apologies to all for the way the scores are displayed! I have typed them neatly (see attached), should probably have made a VB code list.

Will know better next time! Sigh.

Congratulations everyone! All the entries throughout this contest have been just stunning. There's not a single one I wouldn't put in my neighbourhood.

Special thanks to our judges and host as well!

My little two cents that could have been improved @Justpetro was extending the deadlines at the last minute. It just seems a little disadvantageous to contestants who have already submitted their entries and could maybe have used a little extra time to change or improve their submissions. Not a huge deal, but maybe something to consider in the future.

All in all I had a great time participating!

(Edit: I think you missed adding a .5 to my round 4 score on the scoreboard. I need all the points I can get! )

Congratulations to Pebblerocker!

And congratulations to simsample! I'm not surprised that you won overall, considering some of your builds.

Fixed, @pinkdynamite!

I am guilty as charged - extending the entries was not part of my original plan! Apologies for the inconvenience, it was totally my own fault for not remembering my own childrens' birthdays when I planned the contest. You are right - a deadline should be a deadline.

As much as I agree with that ^
I really needed the extra time too - so thank you for the extensions.
Life happens, you know? And it's good to be relaxed enough in a game/hobby, that you can be accommodating when someone needs it.


Congrats Pebblerocker - that was an amazing build!

And congrats to Simsample - with all the amazing builds!!!

Thank you all very much, I really feel that the other entries for each round of the contest were far superior to mine, and far more creative. I was amazed by each and every build here!

Also I am standing on the shoulder of giants here- none of my builds would have been possible without the fabulous creators who share their knowledge and custom content here, and on many other sites. I have been inspired and shown what is possible by all of these creators, and totally stole all of my ideas from them!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this contest, and to the judges and of course @Justpetro.

I hope we can have another contest very soon!

Congrats to our winners! and everyone else for doing so well and giving your best every round. I had a lot of fun and your builds inspired me

I have a few things to add in answer to judge A: the 2-click foundation was easy indeed, the trickier thing was the combination of CFE and grid adjuster to achieve the slanted wall above the greenhouse roof on the side of the house. If noone noticed it I still consider it a win meaning I made it look easy and it doesn't stick out haha. thanks @CatherineTCJD for your tutorials!
And yes I did forget the stairs railing, oops

However, the really big mistake that I only noticed while playtesting more thoroughly after posting my entry is that the upper floor is actually not accessible
I should have known that the ceiling was too low on the landing tile, but forgot about it when I placed the stairs and designed the floorplan around it... I guess that would justify docking points for playability

Well, nobody is going to dock any points now

I noticed (circled in red) ...I marveled at it too.

Now THAT I didn't notice. Gah! I saw that the rest of the rooms were all full height, and didn't examine the stair landing. (circled in yellow)

And you are completely 'welcome' for the tutorials! I'm glad you could make sense out of them!

Yah! Congrates @simsample *claps* I agree with Justpetro, it was a well-deserved win.

There are also a bunch of other lots I am hoping get uploaded *hint hint*

@Monsieur_Oshima Well we could only judge what we could see so you got away with that one.

I should have just stuck an invisible wall with a invisible arch in those open doorways lol. The lighting in the outer area is dim because I didn’t inclose it.

You would have hated my childhood house with its long hallway which had no windows so when you closed the doors it was pitch black.

Also those columns out the front are constructed from roof edging and floating columns from the bespoke build set!

Shiftable everything is one of my favourite mods. It’s how I got most of the fruit in the displays.

My reasoning for the toilet placement is that I like putting the toilet closer to the door just in case someone tries to walk in, you can kick the door closed XD and so the mirror is central in the room.

I could see there was something wrong with the stairs and that area in the entry from @Monsieur_Oshima, thought the rails was missing, did deduct for that No worries - it seems as if most of us would only found out once we have play tested it. (I hope you fix that; it is such a nice lot).

@Meowingcookie - I love your lot and hope it will be uploaded! There were a couple of shops that made me wish I could give bonus points for interior, and yours were definitely one. The light did not bother me all that much, and I also love your interior.

As Jo says above, I hope you will consider uploading your lots! My hood always needs new lots

For the last time: some pics of the round. I tried to pick some of the tinier details from some of the lots, as well as some that I personally liked very much. I hope everyone will enjoy this thread and may it inspire all the builders around.

The colours



This pay point with the pretty sign



The sign



The shop



This pond



The plants at the edge of the pond



and the pretty shop



The fish on the line



a place to visit



Flowers



A pretty nursery



and a pretty kitchen



A very pretty shop



And a pretty place in the garden (with my country's national flower on display too)



Tending the plants


This interior





and shop

Feedback about the contest still welcome! I will also post my own thoughts about everything tomorrow