i was in the end, i jumped, i needed to reach a 2x2 square of whater to survive, did not. I loved this map but the part of the end was just to hard to try it again so call me ***** or whatever but aint gonna try again. anyway, excellent map and good work, it was totally unpredictable for me :tongue.gif:
This was the first adventure map I've played that was actually fun. I loved the Metroid-style progression, where it's exploration-based, with plenty of backtracking. I usually knew exactly where to go after I hit a switch because I had seen the door before it opened.
The best part was that it was challenging, yet forgiving. Unlike most adventure map creators, you seem to understand that challenge should not mean frustration. Even during the "parkour" sections, which I usually hate, I had fun because you added checkpoints, and the platforms were larger than the usual 1x1 floating blocks.
So it baffles me as to why you abandoned those principles after the "ending", where you open up a passageway to a long, checkpointless parkour section over the Void, followed by a long, checkpointless parkour section in the End. At that point, it became just like every other adventure map which, for some hare-brained reason, prides itself on frustrating its players.
This map was so much fun to play. I've never played an adventure type map before, but I really loved this.
Reasons it was fun:
1) The environment. Everywhere I went, there was a theme, and everywhere the ambience of the location made it feel "real" to me. Not only did it help navigation in general, but it just made it so much more enjoyable to trek through. Goodness, that tree was wonderful. But my favorite place had to be the icy tree area with the minecart tracks (on which I put a minecart to go around). Not only did comforting music start playing (conveniently) when I entered, but it just seemed so peaceful. And it reminded me of one of those windup Christmas toys where the train goes around a tree. Also, probably the coolest part was how near the end of it all, it was a reflection of where you had already been, just destroyed and corrupted. Which I loved.
2) The progression. Normally, I hate things that make you back track. But for some reason, it was done in a way that made it fun. And even in back track attempts where I went to the wrong place, I didn't seem to mind. As well, probably my favorite part of any game is when it's "over" and it isn't "over." It makes it so much more exciting and mysterious, because you've overcome your objective, yet there's more and it's unknown! Also, there were no "huge" setbacks if you screwed up throughout. Aside from near the very "end," which I somehow managed to complete in one run. But it made sense to me for there to be a greater risk, as it ramped up to the end. Personally, I didn't think the "jump" was too scary, but was more scared of the rails bit just beforehand.
3) Exploration. I had so much fun traveling around, figuring out which area to go to next, and then discovering new areas. Probably my favorite part was right before mining the door when I found the room where "all the switches met." I immediately realized what the room was for and understood it all and it was exciting. That ties right back into the environment, everything was very recognizable so there was really no frustration.
I'm sure there's even more reasons why I enjoyed it so much. Like the varied puzzles, which were challenging to a degree, but not something that took forever to figure out. Honestly it almost felt like there was a story here -- hidden in the environments. I could've been reading into it, but it felt to be more than just an Indiana Jones style adventure. I did really enjoy the end. The only thing I might've enjoyed even more would have been to have even -something- else after the actual end! Whether fun things to do with the rewards or (I thought, at least) it might have been fun to just go back into the actual world and live there as if it was a normal minecraft world. I know it'd be kinda crazy what with all the redstone and exterior work that went into the building of it. Which it's crazy just how much stuff is all over and I couldn't imagine having to use a non-flat world for building something like this, which would cut into the whole 'being able to live in it' thing. But I can tell a lot of work went into this and it turned out great. This was just so much fun and I really look forward to future maps!!
This is an awesome map! The part I hate, though, is the end. I was so close to getting past the iron bar parkour part when I died... and nearly gave up.
Awesome map, really enjoyed playing it :smile.gif: the jumping on the iron fences was really hard though and it was annoying to walk back all the time but i bet thats why it's called the labyrinth of irritation :laugh.gif:
Good map designing & choice of blocks.
Nice usage of enchantments.
Looking forward to eventual next maps :wink.gif:
I expect to face a lot of flak for what I'm about to say, but take what I say with however much salt you want.
This map did not challenge, nor impress me. I'm not hard to impress, but I'm not a simple person either. I like megabuilds, but I also like the awesome small ones too. I firmly believe that Aesthetics are greatly important in any adventure map, but while this one did take a good stab at it, it just didn't feel enough. Nor was it consistent, but I suppose you did that on purpose to add to some semblance of confusion. Honestly, it didn't confuse me much. Rooms made sense when I walked into them, and their solution was very apparent. I didn't take a second glance at many of the puzzles as they were easy enough to solve on the first try. I question the reason why we were given an Axe, when no blocks are meant to be broken (save the Obsidian), and I never once used it. Again... probably to confuse? It just didn't work. I can say without a second thought that this map doesn't deserve to be featured. It's a good try... but just not good enough.
If I can offer points to build upon, I would like to see them improved in a later build.
For instance: Avoid cheap deaths.
I died maybe 5-6 times in The End because in areas where the floor is uneven and meant to be dropped down on... There was no floor there. Right in the beginning, after you drop down into the first room in the End... I fell straight down and died. That was dumb of you to miss and if you claim it to be on purpose, then I cannot accept this as a Good quality map. Admittedly, I was bored by the time I reached the End! Falling to my death because I stopped paying attention to the floor is a novice trap and should be avoided. You should be much more careful to interest the player at this point, not trap them into restarting because they stopped caring.
Second Point: As I said before, Aesthetics are important. If you want to confuse and challenge the player, you should remodel the rooms, and make them more similar! If players cannot tell a difference between rooms, given their puzzles are unique to the room, then they have a greater feeling of "I am lost", which attributes to the challenge. This doesn't mean to make the rooms boring and copy-pasta. Certainly not. But to make rooms in similar sizes, using similar materials, and using similar architectural decorations and details... The entire map blends together into a seamless Labyrinth of Irritation, rather than this... this... Temple of Obvious Solutions.
Which leads me to point three: The puzzles are easy. Brainless easy. Backtracking is of no consequence to me, and either way, you gave easy short cuts to break up the irritation! Which seemed against the point, given it's name. As I said, you've taken a good shot at the puzzles, but none of them are unheard of. They should have a much more elaborate solution if you really wish to challenge and frustrate the player. This isn't to say to Over-elaborate on them, but certainly finding a balance would take some time. If this is to be called a Labyrinth, I did not find ANY dead ends, whereas a real one would have many! It would irritate a player greatly if you would add in a difficult puzzle, only for them to find out it was a useless endeavor! The iron-door maze you put in is a somewhat good direction in this instance. Plenty of paths that pretty much gave you the middle finger and told you to go somewhere else. Try that, but on a bigger scale, with other puzzles being those iron doors.
I hope you don't read this as an offending, insulting rant, but more as a constructive criticism that can help make your map stand above and beyond others of it's kind. I personally feel if you took even some of my advice, I would feel much more impressed by the map and agree with it's featured status...
But unfortunately, I do not feel that way. This map still has a ways to go before I feel it's worth a Feature.
In the Gold Gate room, for the second ladder checkpoint, you can jump up and press the checkpoint lever. Unless that was meant to be, it makes the jumping much easier to skip about half of the parkour jumps. Just a note, but otherwise, Great Map!
I'm in the middle (I think!) of playing through this map - very awesome! So far it reminds me of the adventure of playing Mario 64 however many years ago. Excellent work. :biggrin.gif:
after the obby door, i finally used dirt after it got too hard for me, at first only up to the point i had been, then i just skipped it, awesome map, though!
^Warning, contains spoilers.^
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Keep in mind that i am quite silly quite often. If you don't like what i'm saying, please calmly point it out to me. I wish it said "Soarvivor"
EPIC :E
The best part was that it was challenging, yet forgiving. Unlike most adventure map creators, you seem to understand that challenge should not mean frustration. Even during the "parkour" sections, which I usually hate, I had fun because you added checkpoints, and the platforms were larger than the usual 1x1 floating blocks.
So it baffles me as to why you abandoned those principles after the "ending", where you open up a passageway to a long, checkpointless parkour section over the Void, followed by a long, checkpointless parkour section in the End. At that point, it became just like every other adventure map which, for some hare-brained reason, prides itself on frustrating its players.
Reasons it was fun:
1) The environment. Everywhere I went, there was a theme, and everywhere the ambience of the location made it feel "real" to me. Not only did it help navigation in general, but it just made it so much more enjoyable to trek through. Goodness, that tree was wonderful. But my favorite place had to be the icy tree area with the minecart tracks (on which I put a minecart to go around). Not only did comforting music start playing (conveniently) when I entered, but it just seemed so peaceful. And it reminded me of one of those windup Christmas toys where the train goes around a tree. Also, probably the coolest part was how near the end of it all, it was a reflection of where you had already been, just destroyed and corrupted. Which I loved.
2) The progression. Normally, I hate things that make you back track. But for some reason, it was done in a way that made it fun. And even in back track attempts where I went to the wrong place, I didn't seem to mind. As well, probably my favorite part of any game is when it's "over" and it isn't "over." It makes it so much more exciting and mysterious, because you've overcome your objective, yet there's more and it's unknown! Also, there were no "huge" setbacks if you screwed up throughout. Aside from near the very "end," which I somehow managed to complete in one run. But it made sense to me for there to be a greater risk, as it ramped up to the end. Personally, I didn't think the "jump" was too scary, but was more scared of the rails bit just beforehand.
3) Exploration. I had so much fun traveling around, figuring out which area to go to next, and then discovering new areas. Probably my favorite part was right before mining the door when I found the room where "all the switches met." I immediately realized what the room was for and understood it all and it was exciting. That ties right back into the environment, everything was very recognizable so there was really no frustration.
I'm sure there's even more reasons why I enjoyed it so much. Like the varied puzzles, which were challenging to a degree, but not something that took forever to figure out. Honestly it almost felt like there was a story here -- hidden in the environments. I could've been reading into it, but it felt to be more than just an Indiana Jones style adventure. I did really enjoy the end. The only thing I might've enjoyed even more would have been to have even -something- else after the actual end! Whether fun things to do with the rewards or (I thought, at least) it might have been fun to just go back into the actual world and live there as if it was a normal minecraft world. I know it'd be kinda crazy what with all the redstone and exterior work that went into the building of it. Which it's crazy just how much stuff is all over and I couldn't imagine having to use a non-flat world for building something like this, which would cut into the whole 'being able to live in it' thing. But I can tell a lot of work went into this and it turned out great. This was just so much fun and I really look forward to future maps!!
Bandcamp
Good map designing & choice of blocks.
Nice usage of enchantments.
Looking forward to eventual next maps :wink.gif:
This map did not challenge, nor impress me. I'm not hard to impress, but I'm not a simple person either. I like megabuilds, but I also like the awesome small ones too. I firmly believe that Aesthetics are greatly important in any adventure map, but while this one did take a good stab at it, it just didn't feel enough. Nor was it consistent, but I suppose you did that on purpose to add to some semblance of confusion. Honestly, it didn't confuse me much. Rooms made sense when I walked into them, and their solution was very apparent. I didn't take a second glance at many of the puzzles as they were easy enough to solve on the first try. I question the reason why we were given an Axe, when no blocks are meant to be broken (save the Obsidian), and I never once used it. Again... probably to confuse? It just didn't work. I can say without a second thought that this map doesn't deserve to be featured. It's a good try... but just not good enough.
If I can offer points to build upon, I would like to see them improved in a later build.
For instance: Avoid cheap deaths.
I died maybe 5-6 times in The End because in areas where the floor is uneven and meant to be dropped down on... There was no floor there. Right in the beginning, after you drop down into the first room in the End... I fell straight down and died. That was dumb of you to miss and if you claim it to be on purpose, then I cannot accept this as a Good quality map. Admittedly, I was bored by the time I reached the End! Falling to my death because I stopped paying attention to the floor is a novice trap and should be avoided. You should be much more careful to interest the player at this point, not trap them into restarting because they stopped caring.
Second Point: As I said before, Aesthetics are important. If you want to confuse and challenge the player, you should remodel the rooms, and make them more similar! If players cannot tell a difference between rooms, given their puzzles are unique to the room, then they have a greater feeling of "I am lost", which attributes to the challenge. This doesn't mean to make the rooms boring and copy-pasta. Certainly not. But to make rooms in similar sizes, using similar materials, and using similar architectural decorations and details... The entire map blends together into a seamless Labyrinth of Irritation, rather than this... this... Temple of Obvious Solutions.
Which leads me to point three: The puzzles are easy. Brainless easy. Backtracking is of no consequence to me, and either way, you gave easy short cuts to break up the irritation! Which seemed against the point, given it's name. As I said, you've taken a good shot at the puzzles, but none of them are unheard of. They should have a much more elaborate solution if you really wish to challenge and frustrate the player. This isn't to say to Over-elaborate on them, but certainly finding a balance would take some time. If this is to be called a Labyrinth, I did not find ANY dead ends, whereas a real one would have many! It would irritate a player greatly if you would add in a difficult puzzle, only for them to find out it was a useless endeavor! The iron-door maze you put in is a somewhat good direction in this instance. Plenty of paths that pretty much gave you the middle finger and told you to go somewhere else. Try that, but on a bigger scale, with other puzzles being those iron doors.
I hope you don't read this as an offending, insulting rant, but more as a constructive criticism that can help make your map stand above and beyond others of it's kind. I personally feel if you took even some of my advice, I would feel much more impressed by the map and agree with it's featured status...
But unfortunately, I do not feel that way. This map still has a ways to go before I feel it's worth a Feature.
for this map, i give you 10 diamonds and 5 goldbars
In the Gold Gate room, for the second ladder checkpoint, you can jump up and press the checkpoint lever. Unless that was meant to be, it makes the jumping much easier to skip about half of the parkour jumps. Just a note, but otherwise, Great Map!
I'm getting irritated... o_e
HA I BEAT YOU!
Keep in mind that i am quite silly quite often. If you don't like what i'm saying, please calmly point it out to me. I wish it said "Soarvivor"
(You left your World Edit wand in the inventory.) :biggrin.gif: