Spell Making Session #15 - Voting

This is the voting thread to decide the winner of the 15th Spell Making Session. You can find all the individual submissions in this thread, or download them all in a pack (Spell Making Session 15.rar).

Note that the poll is score-based, you should give the highest score to your favourite submission and the lowest to your least favourite. As always, it's the order of submissions that matters, not the actual score (for example, ranking three submissions with the scores 3,2,1 is the same as 10,8,1), ties are allowed (two or more submissions may be given the same score) and if you don't give a score to all the submissions then the unranked ones will be considered tied for the last place.

The poll has closed on Sunday, August 23rd at 23:59 UTC.
The votes have been processed using the Schulze method. You can view the details here.

The winner is D1000 with his Expanding Sphere spell. Congratulations!

• Slash (+6 - best): The spell was executed with panache, had a neat script, and possessed decent mechanics for collision radii. Because of the collision restrictions, the spell had more depth and in an in-game setting would require some strategizing to work properly. I think any good spell needs this attribute to some extent.
• SearingSun (+5): Though the DoT damage didn't have any accompanying effects, I loved the neutral building explosion effect (almost used it in my spell) and appreciated the complex arrangement of lightning objects.
• ExpandingSphere (+5): I really loved the visuals on this spell - they were executed flawlessly, considering the limitations of lightning objects in JASS. The expanding sphere was cool, but I thought the spell took too long to come to completion (though I understand the want to draw out these awesome effects).
• FrostfireWaves (+4): Decent alternating patterns and diversity of damage effects made this a solid spell.
• StormyStar (+3): A decent star (it looked neat while rotating), but some bugs concerning the lifespan of the effects stuck out at me.

My spell unfortunately has a bug when the target dies. It would have taken two lines of code to fix, but I waited until the very end to submit and missed spotting it. I hope people enjoy it overall anyway.

Grats to everyone who made the deadline, and I encourage everyone to keep submitting to these contests.

(* Automatic vote: Pyroclasm +7 *)

• Pyroclasm (+5 - best): Cool ribbons alongside explosions, special effects are good but I can't see what the subject shape is. I also liked how the spell effects weren't the normal damage-them-up.
• SearingSun (+4): The explosion sfx was awesome but the symbol left by the spell seems unnecessary, It left me wondering how the sfx was related to the explosion?, also the cool shape also caused a small fps drop.
• FrostfireWaves (+3): I didn't like how the effects didn't match (visually).
• Slash (+3): The arcing effect looked good and worked properly but I think it needs more punch. It was too simple for me.
• ExpandingSphere (+3): Cool, it looked like a rotating globe lol, I just think that the spell effect was too simple.

I gave scores depending to the relevance of the spell effect to the effect shape. I'm bad at math formulas so I avoided scoring based on it.

Also just to clarify;
spell effects = damage or anything that the spell inflicts upon the targeted units.

• ExpandingSphere (+6 - best): IMO, the winner. Elipses in 3D and a sphere are just awesome. I was amazed to see how small the code was. It could have used TimedLoop, but it is a great submission.
  I strongly recommend for the creator to submit this to resources section.
• SearingSun (+5): I really like the sun form, but you really don't give it much of a use. This would be perfect for xefx or xecollider. Though maths is very complex, I still liked it, but I expected more.
• StormyStar (+4): TForumla ... The caster becomes unable to move when casting the spell which really pissed me (I was getting killed ...) and I can only cast 1 shape of this thing. Nonetheless it is a remarkable effort for someone who is very new in the world of vJass. Uses xefx which means he heard some advices, you are in the good way, keep it going.
• FrostfireWaves (+4): A nice spell. The code seems quite normal, though I don't think the eye candy was appropriate. Sometimes when the enemy units were hit by fire they were only slowed... dunno why, maybe I saw it wrong.
  It is a normal submissions I enjoyed, though it really could have used xecollider.
• Slash (+4): I take Anitarf as a real hero and a great coder. When I see his submissions I always get happy because I always ask myself "What crazy stuff did he do now for me to learn with xD". However this submission is, at least, disappointing. I was expecting a lot more, and I think Anitarf will agree with me when I say "Ani, you can make better ..."
  I really want to give you 3 (worst score ...) but for the sake of good old times, and for the sake of your talent, you deserve more.
• Pyroclasm (+4): Good example of Sin and Cos if I am not mistaken xD
  Another good spell, it remembers how easily it could be done if I had 2D3S working. A good example of a spell.

It is, no doubt, the best contest I have seen around here. All spells are vJass and are somehow complex, there are no GUI newbs.
Everyone made a nice spell and I liked it, though I am still angry there are only 6 submissions, which is a shame... For the record, I blame Anitarf for not giving us all an extension.
I see some new jassers here and found jassers I didn't know. I hope everyone keeps doing spells, these ones are very nice and I want to congratulate everyone for the good job.

Max grade 6 - winner
Medium grade 5 - 2nd place
Good spells grade 4 - 3rd place
Not so nice spells 3 - ... no one got this mark xD
Crap spells 2 - ... no one got this mark xD

• SearingSun (+6 - best): For me this is clearly the best spell. Although I preferred the green lightnings, it´s not a big job to change them. The rotating "sun" really looks very good.
• Pyroclasm (+4): I don´t know what I should say, I just like the idea of the spell^^ The triggering seems to be ok too.
• FrostfireWaves (+3): The effect looks good, but the triggering...
  Please use timers next time and try to avoid "VJ" functions. Also I would recommend you to use vJass.
• StormyStar (+2): Sorry, but I don´t like it at all. The star is a good idea, but it is far to bright and lags.
• Slash (+1): Although the triggering is very good (I haven´t read the hole trigger, but this is what I suppose from Anitarf), I don´t really like the spell it self. It´s just a flashy effect flying a curve.

@Flame_Phoenix: I´ve already made a improved version of my spell, which I´ll upload when the vote ends. The improved version also uses xe, which I didn´t use before because import-models weren´t allowed for important things. The new versio nalso looks a bit different (like I planned it originally)

@Karawasa: Do you really think, that slash is the only spell which deserves to get points?

(* Automatic vote: ExpandingSphere +7 *)

• ExpandingSphere (+5 - best): The spell is kinda annoying to target with, but still it's quite easy to understand.
  Not much more to say to, 1st Place.
• Slash (+4): The spell is easy to understand and well written.
  However it's just a part of a circle to me, not really fitting the theme, but whatever.
  It's still applicable in almost any map possible, thus 2nd Place.
• StormyStar (+3): This spell looks good on the screenshot, but other than that i don't really like it.
  The effect is not MUI (no idea if the damage is, didn't really look that much into the code) and the clouds doesn't really fit though.
  3th / 4th Place (Sharing with Pyroclasm)
• Pyroclasm (+3): The spell looks quite good and is applicable.
  But i dislike the fact, that i've to target a unit.
  Also i don't really get the 'shape' used in the spell ...
  3th / 4th Place (Sharing with StormyStar)
• FrostfireWaves (+2): Looks nice, but it's not MUI or MPI.
  Furthermore it just looks like plain converted GUI to me.
  5th place

When i'm saying place, i don't take my spell into the contest, as it is hard to judge a own spell.
I'll propably submit my spell afterwards, however i'm planing to 'prefetch' the initial calculation of the angles and distances, reducing the initial lag as good as possible.
I've also to add, that the topic of this session was kinda tricky.

(* Automatic vote: SearingSun +7 *)