After playing through over 85 custom maps and supporting my 6+ maps, I wanted to share a checklist of thing to "test" before publishing your map.
Basic Checklist
Check where players will spawn on multiplayer (if you can)
Do your "notes" actually provide information that's not right in front of the player? (e.g. I recently read a note that told me I was standing in front of a cliff. No kidding!)
Are your special effects reset? (e.g. redstone, water, fire, tnt traps)
Are mod commands turned off (e.g. /damage, /instantmine, /infiniteitems)?
Is there enough light/darkness? Play through your map during both day and night.
Did you leave enough room for mobs to get out of their spawners? (e.g. spiders need a 2-block wide hallway)
Perform a thorough check on any barriers for gaps.
Perform a thorough check on any blocking cliffs to make sure players can't cleverly jump up where they aren't supposed to go.
Check all ladders and stairs for unexpected gaps
Are there any random pits/caves along your main story route, that players can fall in and not get out of?
Did you remember to clear your creation materials out the player's starting inventory?
...are you at the intended spawn point when you download and begin playing the map?
Advanced Checklist
If you took your "notes" and read them without playing your map - do they tell a good story?
Do a quick run thru on peaceful and look at the "progression" of gear that you give your player. Is it too much? Too little? Is it realistic to the theme/story?
Are the "close up" details consistent through your map? (e.g. houses have some attempt at furnishings)
Can you see something in the background/distance that gives away a future scene?
Does the background (things in the distance) have floating or other odd landforms that would distract the player from your story?
If your rules allow the player to only break a naturally-occurring type of block, that you use to hide hidden treasure behind, make sure that you check the 'world' for random generation of that block. For example, if you allow the player to break sand, and your map leads them to a beach... do you intend for them to dig up the entire beach?
... for survival or CTM maps... ...do you want the player to be able to see the outside world? If the player is not supposed to be able to escape, don't let them clearly see normal MC land - unless it's impossible to physically access and just to taunt the player about how s/he will never escape.
What other OOPSes have you found in the maps that you've played/made? Discuss!
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One more thought (based on what I'm doing with my current WIP custom map).
You don't have to do this checklist all at the end.
I do a subset of these 'checks' with each new encounter/location that I build. But definitely go back at the end and do this formal list.
Oh yes, thank you! I can't even begin to recount the many situations I've had in which the map maker has left damage off, flying on, etc.
Also, important thing to add onto this list: are you at the intended spawn point when you download and begin playing the map? Countless times before, I have spawned at the end, or falling through the air into some lava... reeeeaaaalllly big map turn-off.
Oh yes, thank you! I can't even begin to recount the many situations I've had in which the map maker has left damage off, flying on, etc.
Also, important thing to add onto this list: are you at the intended spawn point when you download and begin playing the map? Countless times before, I have spawned at the end, or falling through the air into some lava... reeeeaaaalllly big map turn-off.
Ah yes, good suggestion! Quoting it up into my OP.
Just a quick tip: A good way to "turn off" all of the SPC settings is to go into the save folder of the map (where the 'region' folder and everything is) and delete the 'spc.settings' file. Then you don't have to remember what's on and what's not.
Example: delete the file '%appdata%\.minecraft\save\Heart of a Hero\spc.settings'.
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If you'd like to help me out, I think the best thing you could do is check out my YouTube channel, even more than voting up my reputation, though that'd be nice too.
Just a quick tip: A good way to "turn off" all of the SPC settings is to go into the save folder of the map (where the 'region' folder and everything is) and delete the 'spc.settings' file. Then you don't have to remember what's on and what's not.
Example: delete the file '%appdata%\.minecraft\save\Heart of a Hero\spc.settings'.
- do you want the player to be able to see the outside world? If the player is not supposed to be able to escape, don't let them clearly see normal MC land - unless it's impossible to physically access and just to taunt the player about how s/he will never escape.
- do you want the player to be able to see the outside world? If the player is not supposed to be able to escape, don't let them clearly see normal MC land - unless it's impossible to physically access and just to taunt the player about how s/he will never escape.
Ah yes - very good one. I think this applies to any map (you need to make sure there's nothing in the distance that will distract the player or reveal something to early), but it's definitely worth mentioning for survival.
If your rules allow the player to only break a naturally-occurring type of block, that you use to hide hidden treasure behind, make sure that you check the 'world' for random generation of that block. For example, if you allow the player to break sand, and your map leads them to a beach... do you intend for them to dig up the entire beach?
If a creeper blew up would it make the rest of the map unplayable? Take a creeper blowing up part of the floor as an example. Is there a cave under the floor that the player can't get out of? Be sure to surround underground mob rooms with layers of solid stone!
Do a quick run thru on peaceful and look at the "progression" of gear that you give your player. Is it too much? Too little? Is it realistic to the theme/story?
I'd like to add, it can in some cases be hard to determine loot progression on peaceful, since most people use peaceful to build the map, and not having experienced the exact mix of mob spawners they are using would have no idea whether this:
I'd like to add, it can in some cases be hard to determine loot progression on peaceful, since most people use peaceful to build the map, and not having experienced the exact mix of mob spawners they are using would have no idea whether this:
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is thoroughly balanced with this:
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Yep. You should DEFINITELY test your map on multiple difficulty settings. With mob spawners, the thing to remember is that they need darkness to spawn. And if it's dark, some number of random mobs are also likely to spawn. There's also a set number of hostile mobs that can be spawned at one time. In general, I feel like any more than 4 spawners spread out in the same room is overkill.
BlameTheController has a youtube video about controlling mob spawns.
(you said 'loot progression' but the video showed spawners)
From a loot perspective, you can set whatever pace you want. Diamonds every 2 rooms. Random useless loot in every chest. But be aware how many times a player is going to stop the 'storyline' to look in a chest and have to decide what inventory space to manage. That's a chance they will forget what they were about to do next or a mob can sneak up on them. I tend to put too much junk in chests because I want the chest to look like art.
I feel like any more than 4 spawners spread out in the same room is overkill.
You have a point, I think I might get rid of the upper row because it's fairly pointless, but I still want it to be hard (so that the player can't just walk in without decent armor, and even then it's still a challenge) and replace the enderman spawners with something else.
Quote from rsmalec »
I tend to put too much junk in chests because I want the chest to look like art.
Yep I do the same thing, it's less of a problem in Eldmorang Alpha because there is only one set of collectibles, it's relatively simple, and it's a play-on-peaceful map, but in the next one you have score, money, computer disks, and essentially everything you end up accumulating in Eronev Mansion Adventure but somewhat worse of a problem since you can remove a wider variety of blocks.
Use NBTedit/NEINedit to set LastPlayed to 9999999999999 (that's 13 9's), which will set the date to some time in the future to guarantee that it will appear at the top of your saves list. (ingame it says 11/20/86, I don't know if that's 2086, 2186, 2286, etc.) I have, let's see, over 100 saves, so it's really annoying to sift through them all, especially if I've installed an older map.
Use NBTedit/NEINedit to set LastPlayed to 9999999999999 (that's 13 9's), which will set the date to some time in the future to guarantee that it will appear at the top of your saves list. (ingame it says 11/20/86, I don't know if that's 2086, 2186, 2286, etc.) I have, let's see, over 100 saves, so it's really annoying to sift through them all, especially if I've installed an older map.
This is FANTASTIC, out of the box thinking. My list of saves is about 300. I will do this as a player from now on! Until Mojang lets us sort alphabetically.
Basic Checklist
Advanced Checklist
What other OOPSes have you found in the maps that you've played/made? Discuss!
You don't have to do this checklist all at the end.
I do a subset of these 'checks' with each new encounter/location that I build. But definitely go back at the end and do this formal list.
Also, important thing to add onto this list: are you at the intended spawn point when you download and begin playing the map? Countless times before, I have spawned at the end, or falling through the air into some lava... reeeeaaaalllly big map turn-off.
Pre-Indev, Son.
Ah yes, good suggestion! Quoting it up into my OP.
Pleasure to help!
It's extremely frustrating xD
Pre-Indev, Son.
Example: delete the file '%appdata%\.minecraft\save\Heart of a Hero\spc.settings'.
Ooh, good one.
- do you want the player to be able to see the outside world? If the player is not supposed to be able to escape, don't let them clearly see normal MC land - unless it's impossible to physically access and just to taunt the player about how s/he will never escape.
Ah yes - very good one. I think this applies to any map (you need to make sure there's nothing in the distance that will distract the player or reveal something to early), but it's definitely worth mentioning for survival.
Adding to my OP.
If a creeper blew up would it make the rest of the map unplayable? Take a creeper blowing up part of the floor as an example. Is there a cave under the floor that the player can't get out of? Be sure to surround underground mob rooms with layers of solid stone!
My Minecraft Maps: coldfusionmaps.com
I'd like to add, it can in some cases be hard to determine loot progression on peaceful, since most people use peaceful to build the map, and not having experienced the exact mix of mob spawners they are using would have no idea whether this:
is thoroughly balanced with this:
Yep. You should DEFINITELY test your map on multiple difficulty settings. With mob spawners, the thing to remember is that they need darkness to spawn. And if it's dark, some number of random mobs are also likely to spawn. There's also a set number of hostile mobs that can be spawned at one time. In general, I feel like any more than 4 spawners spread out in the same room is overkill.
BlameTheController has a youtube video about controlling mob spawns.
(you said 'loot progression' but the video showed spawners)
From a loot perspective, you can set whatever pace you want. Diamonds every 2 rooms. Random useless loot in every chest. But be aware how many times a player is going to stop the 'storyline' to look in a chest and have to decide what inventory space to manage. That's a chance they will forget what they were about to do next or a mob can sneak up on them. I tend to put too much junk in chests because I want the chest to look like art.
You have a point, I think I might get rid of the upper row because it's fairly pointless, but I still want it to be hard (so that the player can't just walk in without decent armor, and even then it's still a challenge) and replace the enderman spawners with something else.
Yep I do the same thing, it's less of a problem in Eldmorang Alpha because there is only one set of collectibles, it's relatively simple, and it's a play-on-peaceful map, but in the next one you have score, money, computer disks, and essentially everything you end up accumulating in Eronev Mansion Adventure but somewhat worse of a problem since you can remove a wider variety of blocks.
Use NBTedit/NEINedit to set LastPlayed to 9999999999999 (that's 13 9's), which will set the date to some time in the future to guarantee that it will appear at the top of your saves list. (ingame it says 11/20/86, I don't know if that's 2086, 2186, 2286, etc.) I have, let's see, over 100 saves, so it's really annoying to sift through them all, especially if I've installed an older map.
This is FANTASTIC, out of the box thinking. My list of saves is about 300. I will do this as a player from now on! Until Mojang lets us sort alphabetically.