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Novawrimo Contest 2016: Rules to participate


NQ-Nyzaltar

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What is Novawrimo?
 
Novawrimo is a contest inspired from "Nanowrimo" (National Novel Writing Month, in short) that happens during the month of November (from the 1st November to the 30th of November). The goal of NanoWrimo is to write a 50,000 word story in 30 days. http://nanowrimo.org/
 
Novawrimo is a contest slightly different:
- It's not tied to the month of November (meaning there might be more than one contest of this kind in a year).
- To be accessible to a broader range of participants, the minimum size of the text is lowered to 5,000 words (which is already a significant). The ideal would between 5,000 and 10,000 words. But if you are really inspired, There is no real hard limit. 
 
 
The rules:
 
- The current Novawrimo contest starts today, Tuesday, the 15th of November, at 9.30 PM PST Hour.
- It will end Thursday, the 15th of December, at 9.30 PM PST Hour. 
- The story should be compatible with what is known from the Dual Universe backstory so far. For reference:
(Should you spot an inconsistency between the different sources, consider always the Official Lore Bible as the reference)
- The story must happen between 2436 and 12477.
(one century prior to the Arkship launch from Earth and before the Arkship "Novark" lands on Alioth)
- No alien creature should be involved.
- Physical violence should be limited (No gore or similar things). 
- Verbal violence and cursing is tolerated but must stay limited.
- Explicit sexual content isn't allowed.
- Hate speeches toward specific people, ethnic group, or religion from the real life isn't allowed.
- You must submit your text under the form of a PDF file and you must attach it to a dedicated topic (with the tag [Novawrimo] in the title) you created in the "Novaquark Archives" forum section. The PDF file must not exceed 500 ko in size.
- By submitting a fan fiction with the tag [Novawrimo] in the topic title, the poster will explicitly cede author rights to Novaquark. While these texts won't be sold under any form, they might be used (fully or partially) as promotional materials in marketing campaign for the game Dual Universe. For more information on this part, read the "Terms of Use" PDF file attached to this topic.
 
Rules Update (17/11/2016):
- The fan fiction submitted must be written in English.
-  A non-native English writer can seek help from a native English speaker to polish the text in English.
- The native English speaker must be aware that it can help only on a volunteer basis: he won't be eligible for any reward.
- If a non-native English writer seek help from a native English speaker, he must submit the complete text before proofreading. Once his text is proofread, he will have to keep both pre-proofread and post-proofread versions of the text available.
- On a similar topic, we prefer to precise that if several participants write a text together, only the one submitting the text on the forum will be eligible, as there will be only one prize per text.
 
Special Thanks to Yamamushi:
 
As the one who helped us to shape this event and helped on the rewards side of the contest, we thank him deeply for his involvement!
As he plans to participate to the contest as well, in order to avoid any conflict of interest, he agreed for not being eligible for any reward.
 
 
The rewards:
 
1st Prize: 
- 1 Digital Gold Founder Pack
- 1 key for Osiris: New Dawn
- 1 key for Space Engineers
- 1 key for Empyrion
 
2nd Prize:
- 1 Digital Silver Pack
- 1 key for Space Engineers
- 1 key for Empyrion
 
3rd Prize:
- 1 Bronze Pack 
- 1 Closed Beta Key
- 1 key for Empyrion
 
Community Prize:
- Unique in-game title: "Famous Writer"
 
 
How the winners will be selected:
 
- For the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Prizes, the winners will be selected by the Novaquark team.
- For the Community Prize, the community members will vote for their favorite fan fiction.
 
 
If you have any question, just let us know!
Good luck everyone! :)
 
Best regards,
The Novaquark Team.

Terms-of-Use-DU-Forum.pdf

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Is it possible to write the novel in French, or does it have to be in english? I'm from France, so i'd much rather do that, but I don't know if that would affect my chances in any way. (and since you guys at novaquark are French and all...) 

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Is it possible to write the novel in French, or does it have to be in english? I'm from France, so i'd much rather do that, but I don't know if that would affect my chances in any way. (and since you guys at novaquark are French and all...) 

 

 

aaahhh... as wrote before, if English would be my native language, it would be cool =) It is not very cool translate and work after mistakes.

 

I for one am more than happy to help members with XXX to English translation/transliteration.

 

Caveat A: I intend to enter the competition, unless there is overwhelming demand for this service, in which case I'll take one for the team.

 

Caveat B: I will not promise more than "as and when I am able". That said, I'm confident that won't be an issue unless there are a lot of people who need help.

 

Caveat C: I will not work with PDF files - HTML or TEXT please.

 

Note that I use automated tools for the most part - quality is generally equal to translation quality expected in International Standards or International Relations documents.

 

DM me as needed, or send things to me on Discord.

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Hi everyone! 

 

@Zeal_Iskander, @Archonious:

 

Unfortunately, you will have to write your fan fiction in English to have a chance to be selected:

One of the main goals of the fan fiction contest is that all texts can be read by the whole community.

Most people in the community are not speaking French and won't be able to read French. 

So even if a text is really good, it wouldn't make sense to select a text that the majority of people isn't able to read.

The fact that Novaquark is a French Company is not relevant on this topic.

What matters is what it means for the whole community.

 

That being said, we don't want to close the contest to non-native English writers either:

1) A non-native English writer can seek help from a native English speaker to polish the text in English.

2) The native English speaker must be aware that it can help only on a volunteer basis: he won't be eligible for any reward.

3) If a non-native English writer seek help from a native English speaker, he must submit the complete text before proofreading. Once his text is proofread, he will have to keep both pre-proofread and post-proofread versions of the text available.

4) On a similar topic, we prefer to precise that if several participants write a text together, only the one submitting the text on the forum will be eligible, as there will be only one prize per text.

 

The Contest rules have been udpated accordingly.

 

@Anonymous:

Thanks for offering your help to non-native English writers. Much appreciated! :)

 

 

Best regards,

Nyzaltar.

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Thanks for the quick response! I'll write my text in english then.
 
I have questions, though, about the bible :

  • "Aphelia is in charge of the Novark and the well-being of all the passengers. She seems as caring as invasive in the private life of the colonists. While she doesn’t seem brutal, hostile or coercive by default, her behavior is perceived as if  she monitors every action of each human that has been aboard the Novark. She also seems to avoid disclosing information on some specific topics - at least that’s the feeling of some passengers - despite the fact she always says if she doesn’t give a satisfying answer, it’s because the answer is beyond its capabilities. For these two reasons, many colonists think the AI is not trustworthy. Aphelia seems to have incredible defenses against hacking, far higher than anything the most experienced colonists in hacking have ever seen, reinforcing the feeling that the AI might hide a lot of things."

You're saying colonists should perceive the AI as such, does it mean the colonists were awake during the launch? If yes, for how much time?

  • "The Arkships are a marvel of technology. They can host millions of people in cryosleep for extended periods of time."

Arkships could host million of people, but how many arkships were launched? Dozens, hundreds? How many people were saved out of the billion of humans left?

  • "Warp drive speed is believed to be in the range of 100 times the speed of light"

Arkships don't use warp technology, so is their speed sub- or supra-luminic? From what i've gathered we're ~1k parsec away from the closest point Scutum-Centaurus arm, so our Arkship's speed is at least of 0.3c, is that correct?
 

  •  Each Arkship is controlled by a proto-sentient AI that was allowed to be built against the very strong [uMF] AI ban, because it was argued that it would have been to hazardous to let the fate of humanity rest with dumb automatic machinery that would possibly not be able to react to unexpected situations. While being an exception to the AI ban rule, the onboard AI is still however not allowed to take control of any machinery or robot besides the Arkship itself. The Novark AI is called “Aphelia”.

 

What do you mean by "proto-sentient"? Could you expand on that?

 

 


Also, is what are the topics we shouldn't mention? I believe there's probably a hidden lore or something explaining the incoherence of the IA behaviour and why certain technologies were lost, for example, so I guess we shouldn't try and explain stuff like that because it could clash with some informal lore.
What's your take on that?
 

 

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3) If a non-native English writer seek help from a native English speaker, he must submit the complete text before proofreading. Once his text is proofread, he will have to keep both pre-proofread and post-proofread versions of the text available.

 

I suppose this rule is to check if the quality of the text comes mostly from the proofreader or the original writer?

 

Just to make sure I understood things properly: each version is to be submitted in a different topic? Or is it only one topic with both texts? If it's the first option: should we add a [Pre-proofread] tag or something?

 

And thanks for this contest, I absolutely love writing on this kind of subjects!

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I suppose this rule is to check if the quality of the text comes mostly from the proofreader or the original writer?

 

Just to make sure I understood things properly: each version is to be submitted in a different topic? Or is it only one topic with both texts? If it's the first option: should we add a [Pre-proofread] tag or something?

 

And thanks for this contest, I absolutely love writing on this kind of subjects!

That also removes the chance of stealing your text. I can't see why you should open two topics, just stick to one. First post your original text. Send it to a native speaker, get the revised text back and post a second comment with the revised text. No need for people to spreading their story on different threads, only adds confusion
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@NQ-Nyzaltar I have several questions that are crucial to writing the story:
- Were any passengers awakened at any point(s) before the Alpha team wakes? Or can they be in our stories?
- If not, then our only options for time periods are 2436-2536 and 12472-12477, correct? (You did state that the Alpha team wakes up a few months or years before the landing and that all the passengers are asleep during the roughly 10,000 year journey) 
- How were the passengers for the Arkships picked from the population, or was there room for everyone on them?
 

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@NQ-Nyzaltar I have several questions that are crucial to writing the story:

- Were any passengers awakened at any point(s) before the Alpha team wakes? Or can they be in our stories?

 

 

It seems like this is an open ended topic that would be up to you. We know that Sohan Decker was awoken before the Alpha team (iirc), so it's not out of the realm of possibility that somewhere in the 10 thousand years preceding the landing on Alioth that someone was woken up for any number of reasons. 

 

I'm kind of reminded of the movie Pandorum, though the narrative isn't necessarily a new one. 

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Hi everyone, 

 

For questions related to the Lore, please post them in the dedicated topic of the Lore Bible, in order to centralize all the information in one topic.

 

@Zeal_Iskander:

Your questions related to the Lore have been answered here.

 

@Ashteron:

Yes, it's a way to avoid conflicts in the future.

The one considered as the author will be the first to post the text on the forum.

One topic containing both the pre-proofread and post-proofread versions.

 

@Temerian:

The title is only for the community winner.

The thing is, if the community winner wins also one the Novaquark's prize that grants as well the title, then there is no reward for being selected community winner anymore.

 

@Jon1812:

- Were any passengers awakened at any point(s) before the Alpha team wakes? Or can they be in our stories?

You can imagine an accidental and premature awakening. However, this would mean either the character is going back to sleep before he dies from old age... or the character can die during the trip. Just for story consistency, keep in mind that the Alpha team members should remain those who awaken first before the landing.

 

- The Alpha team will experience first a "half-awakening" by becoming "active" through a virtual simulation one year and a half before landing. The virtual simulation is supposed to represent what Alpha testers will experience during the Alpha (which explains why there won't be combat, and why it's just a partial, imperfect simulation).

 

- The Passengers are picked from the population. And there was nowhere near the room to embark the whole population. 

Please read the answers to Zeal_Iskander questions for more details, on this topic (you have the number of Arkships launched and the number of people that could embark in one Arkship.

 

@Yamamushi:

There migh have been a misunderstanding there as in fact, Sohan Decker hasn't awoken before the Alpha team (for more details check the errata regarding the Short story written by Alain Damasio).

 

Best regards,

Nyzaltar.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ah well. Missed the deadline - work trumped writing this week. :/ Just a quick drive by post to say I'll definitely be in the next one. And I'll probably still put up my piece tomorrow sometime.

 

Good luck to all!!!!

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@Devious_T:

Yes, people who have entered the contest will be able to vote for their favourite piece.

No, there's no way of ensuring it can't be for themselves (but we don't see where the issue is there: they have the right to vote for themselves if they want to. All in all, it will be just one vote).

 

@Anonymous:

No worries. There will be other Novawrimo contests in the future  ;)

 

@All:

Here is the list of the participants to the contest.

If you have posted a fan fiction for the contest but forgot to put the tag [Novawrimo] in the title of the thread, please inform us until tomorrow (Friday 16th December) 9.30PM PST. Winners will be announced in January next year: beside the winter holidays coming, it will take some time to read all the fan fictions and come to a decision. Thank you all for your involvement to the contest!  :)

 
















 

Best regards,

Nyzaltar.

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The community award will be most likely voted before the Novaquark awards announcement.

We might organize it once we have the final list for the text, starting probably next Monday and there will be two-three weeks period before the poll will close.

 

Best regards,

Nyzaltar.

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