Im not completely sure what's going on. I'm in the Lava Maze in the Labyrinthian Branch.
I've reached this, it looks like a door, yet it doesn't seem to do anything.
I just wanted to check if something is broken or if there is more to the maze that I've missed. My initial thought would be that there is a toggle elsewhere in the maze, but I have yet to find it.
Im not completely sure what's going on. I'm in the Lava Maze in the Labyrinthian Branch.
I've reached this, it looks like a door, yet it doesn't seem to do anything.
I just wanted to check if something is broken or if there is more to the maze that I've missed. My initial thought would be that there is a toggle elsewhere in the maze, but I have yet to find it.
Thats the wrong door man actually i'm pretty sure thats where you start. The way out of there isn't a door its a ladder it looks like this.
Yeah, You gave me a good chuckle. That's the start.
Other than that little detail I have been very impressed with the map.
I'd say the best thing is that when you get stuck with something (Like walking in circles in a maze), you can do something completely different while still working towards the same goal.
Played a bit of it, it could use a lot more balancing IMO.
Arena Branch
Some of the arena battles are stupid-hard and all of them are rather uninteresting. Maybe add some walls and structures to make the battles more interesting than spawn-camping the mobs? Or, as was the case with the cave spiders, dying over and over...
Also, I really don't like how burst-y the spawners are in the arenas - every time I had to run through older arenas, about 7 or so mobs would spawn and knock me all over the place. It was quite annoying.
Puzzle Branch
The puzzles are way too hard IMO. A couple are fine (the first jukebox puzzle and the color-disk matching puzzle), but I would definitely tune down a couple of the puzzles.
Trivia Branch
The trivia branch is most likely fine...for mapmakers. A non-mapmaker would have a h*** of a time getting through that. I would add checkpoints, because it could definitely become annoying to have to go through 20 old questions over and over and over...
Boss Battle Branch
The boss battle was a joke. I killed the Wither very quickly with some good enchants. The most difficult part of that area was enchanting, which isn't all that fun.
Adventure Branch and Survival Branch
The adventure was amazing. Definitely keep that as-is. The survival was pretty fun as well, though I was expecting something more interesting. Perhaps edit the landscape a bit or add new structures underground? This branch has potential, but right now it's a bit bland.
Other Branches
I still have yet to do the parkour, dropper and escape branches. I skipped the mazes because I watched rsmalec play through them and they looked headache-inducing.
Overall, this could be a much better map if it was better balanced. I hope this feedback comes in handy for any future updates.
-CFG
Played a bit of it, it could use a lot more balancing IMO.
Arena Branch
Some of the arena battles are stupid-hard and all of them are rather uninteresting. Maybe add some walls and structures to make the battles more interesting than spawn-camping the mobs? Or, as was the case with the cave spiders, dying over and over...
Also, I really don't like how burst-y the spawners are in the arenas - every time I had to run through older arenas, about 7 or so mobs would spawn and knock me all over the place. It was quite annoying.
Puzzle Branch
The puzzles are way too hard IMO. A couple are fine (the first jukebox puzzle and the color-disk matching puzzle), but I would definitely tune down a couple of the puzzles.
Trivia Branch
The trivia branch is most likely fine...for mapmakers. A non-mapmaker would have a h*** of a time getting through that. I would add checkpoints, because it could definitely become annoying to have to go through 20 old questions over and over and over...
Boss Battle Branch
The boss battle was a joke. I killed the Wither very quickly with some good enchants. The most difficult part of that area was enchanting, which isn't all that fun.
Adventure Branch and Survival Branch
The adventure was amazing. Definitely keep that as-is. The survival was pretty fun as well, though I was expecting something more interesting. Perhaps edit the landscape a bit or add new structures underground? This branch has potential, but right now it's a bit bland.
Other Branches
I still have yet to do the parkour, dropper and escape branches. I skipped the mazes because I watched rsmalec play through them and they looked headache-inducing.
Overall, this could be a much better map if it was better balanced. I hope this feedback comes in handy for any future updates.
-CFG
Hmmm...
I'm not sure how to go about these items. I've watched VII play the Arena Branch and it seems pretty balanced to me.
I also played it with Jesper and it was very fun. I'll have to think about changes but for the most part I would respectfully disagree. The Branches are hopefully a 20 - 60 min experience each.
I didn't want a 10 full maps as one download. I wanted sort of a mini-map experience.
Your opinion is well received but I'm not sure "how" exactly to alter it for the better.
Which puzzles were too difficult?
Were you saying the Adventure Branch is bland or the Survival Branch?
Nonetheless, I will think about what to add to make it a more fun experience.
Should I remove the Boss Enchantments?
Right, to follow up on CFG's comments, I just finished as well and I'll be totally honest - I deeply disliked the majority of the map. I really only finished so I could offer feedback.
Arena Branch: As CFG said, this branch was just... dreadfully balanced. Nothing about it was fun, the whole system felt tedious, and half the battles were ridiculously unbalanced, while the other half were a joke. Offering no health potions of any sort during the battles just made everything incredibly stale, the continuous spawns promoted unbalance, and the lack of spawn-stopping after you reached the limit made everything incredibly annoying. I really honestly hated this branch. It did not feel balanced, it did not feel fun, and the visuals were sub-par and repetitive.
Parkour Branch: Started off fine, and turned into some poorly designed parkour. The end of it is in dire need of rebalance, as it just causes a waste of time for failing around course 10 onward. It was okay and enjoyable enough at the start, but really turned into a lack of interesting ideas incredibly quickly.
Labrynthian Branch: Just... no. This was unimaginative, unfun, and just unbalanced. There was nothing about this I enjoyed, and the entire thing was sheer boredom and tedium. I hated it so much, but toughed it out in the hopes the maze design would get even remotely more interesting. I was sad to discover I was very much wrong. Bad bad bad, really has no place in this map, as it just creates even more stale gameplay.
Survival Branch: Finally something interesting and relatively enjoyable. As CFG said, it could use some more love and care to it, as it ends up feeling like something cut out of a default world, by and large, but this was definitely one of the more interesting branches. Not excellent, as it's just default survival with some additions, but a lot less tedious and fairly more interesting than the previous branches thus far.
Boss Battle Branch Honestly, with all of the cool and interesting mob mechanics we can make use of now, the Wither was the last thing I wanted to see going in. I walked in all excited to see what interesting boss you'd cooked up, only to groan when the wither tag showed up. Massive lack of any imagination here, and I was incredibly disappointed by the fight. As someone experienced in Minecraft combat, it was really just a boring fight, and there's so much more you can do, that I'm incredibly disappointed that you didn't.
Adventure Branch: Honestly, this was adorable. I thought it was cute for what it was trying to be, but it wasn't anything particularly special. The story was cute, I chose the zombie king ending too, though I was hoping for a conclusion to the story, which I didn't get. Regardless, this one is definitely the best branch of the bunch.
Trivia Branch: Groan... Not fun. Tedious. Annoying. The questions often ended up being something the average player would have no idea how to answer, further made tedious by the obnoxious mechanic of returning you to the start every time you failed. Just no, never again. Checkpoints are key in something this already fairly dull. Not helped by further use of trivia-esque questions later on.
Escape Branch: Just like the boss battle branch, I went into this excited, and left absolutely annoyed and bored out of my mind. There was absolutely no reason to rehash the Complex here, and after Jesper's tease at it in Code II, I was burned out of Complex-esque gameplay. There was SO many options you had here for interesting gameplay, and instead you gave me the most tedious and boring option. I hated this area, and really wish this entire bit was scrapped, and redone with something far more original and imaginative.
Dropper Branch: Two words: Creative Environments. Your dropper levels had none. Every single one was a square chute with minimal wall decoration and simple block lines. Take a leaf out of Dropper 1&2 and The Library. You need to really expend more effort on these drops, as nothing about them was really worth doing in the slightest, especially scenery wise. There's no cool visual tricks, no eye candy, but just faintly decorated and themed square tubes.
And finally...
Puzzle Branch: Definitely the second best one out of the bunch. The ending got incredibly annoying and tedious, but the first chunk of puzzles was incredibly well designed and a ton of fun to investigate, work out, and solve. I enjoyed about my first half-hour in it, but got annoyed with the lack of easy-walking through it, when going back to the hub, and the 'rinse and repeat' gameplay of the last few puzzles. They could really use some work, but the first chunk were stellar. Once it hit the large 'maze-y' room, where you had to work out the correct doorway, I started getting bored.
On an arbitrary scale of 1-100, I award this map a 35/100. Overall it was an exercise in the most tedious side of the majority of the styles you selected, with some pretty horrible unbalancing, and a lot of incredibly boring gameplay. With a few shining moments, the idea has potential, but you failed to execute the majority of styles you were aiming for, making the map feel like a chore rather than a game.
Needs a lot of balance, aesthetic, and attention-capturing work, as detailed above.
On an arbitrary scale of 1-100, I award this map a 35/100. Overall it was an exercise in the most tedious side of the majority of the styles you selected, with some pretty horrible unbalancing, and a lot of incredibly boring gameplay. With a few shining moments, the idea has potential, but you failed to execute the majority of styles you were aiming for, making the map feel like a chore rather than a game.
Needs a lot of balance, aesthetic, and attention-capturing work, as detailed above.
Ouch. I might have to retire from map making.
So I think the point you guys missed is that I never set out to make 10 amazing maps in one. Do I get any bonus point for it being my 2nd map? I'm not sure how to respond.
So I think the point you guys missed is that I never set out to make 10 amazing maps in one. Do I get any bonus point for it being my 2nd map? I'm not sure how to respond.
Well, see I thought the Puzzle aspects of the map were very very strong, but when you attempted to replicate other styles outside of the "Quartz Abstract Puzzles" you've done previously and well, the quality really plummeted. I think you have a very creative puzzler side by forcing the player to think laterally, but at least with this map, did a lot to rehash too similar work at several points, in a much less exciting fashion.
I'd love to see a version of the Puzzle Branch especially expanded - I think you had a ton of stellar ideas there, outside of maybe the quiz-based end.
I was also a little harsh on the quiz bit. Setting checkpoints as you go would be an easy solution there, and the mob-wise, rebalancing the organization of the mobs and their spawning rate and tactics would be great. Finally, the boss fight just needs something more interesting to it than the default Wither!
A very large project I spent months on gets ripped apart in one or two posts. It's odd when you think you've made something really fun, and it turns out to be a complete waste of time. I don't think I'll put so much time into a project again.
I've reached this, it looks like a door, yet it doesn't seem to do anything.
I just wanted to check if something is broken or if there is more to the maze that I've missed. My initial thought would be that there is a toggle elsewhere in the maze, but I have yet to find it.
Thats the wrong door man actually i'm pretty sure thats where you start. The way out of there isn't a door its a ladder it looks like this.
Oh lord. Well that explains why I was so confused.
Yeah, You gave me a good chuckle. That's the start.
Other than that little detail I have been very impressed with the map.
I'd say the best thing is that when you get stuck with something (Like walking in circles in a maze), you can do something completely different while still working towards the same goal.
Great work on a great concept.
What a pal!
Arena Branch
Some of the arena battles are stupid-hard and all of them are rather uninteresting. Maybe add some walls and structures to make the battles more interesting than spawn-camping the mobs? Or, as was the case with the cave spiders, dying over and over...
Also, I really don't like how burst-y the spawners are in the arenas - every time I had to run through older arenas, about 7 or so mobs would spawn and knock me all over the place. It was quite annoying.
Puzzle Branch
The puzzles are way too hard IMO. A couple are fine (the first jukebox puzzle and the color-disk matching puzzle), but I would definitely tune down a couple of the puzzles.
Trivia Branch
The trivia branch is most likely fine...for mapmakers. A non-mapmaker would have a h*** of a time getting through that. I would add checkpoints, because it could definitely become annoying to have to go through 20 old questions over and over and over...
Boss Battle Branch
The boss battle was a joke. I killed the Wither very quickly with some good enchants. The most difficult part of that area was enchanting, which isn't all that fun.
Adventure Branch and Survival Branch
The adventure was amazing. Definitely keep that as-is. The survival was pretty fun as well, though I was expecting something more interesting. Perhaps edit the landscape a bit or add new structures underground? This branch has potential, but right now it's a bit bland.
Other Branches
I still have yet to do the parkour, dropper and escape branches. I skipped the mazes because I watched rsmalec play through them and they looked headache-inducing.
Overall, this could be a much better map if it was better balanced. I hope this feedback comes in handy for any future updates.
-CFG
My Minecraft Maps: coldfusionmaps.com
Hmmm...
I'm not sure how to go about these items. I've watched VII play the Arena Branch and it seems pretty balanced to me.
I also played it with Jesper and it was very fun.
I'll have to think about changes but for the most part I would respectfully disagree. The Branches are hopefully a 20 - 60 min experience each.
I didn't want a 10 full maps as one download. I wanted sort of a mini-map experience.
Your opinion is well received but I'm not sure "how" exactly to alter it for the better.
Which puzzles were too difficult?
Were you saying the Adventure Branch is bland or the Survival Branch?
Nonetheless, I will think about what to add to make it a more fun experience.
Should I remove the Boss Enchantments?
Arena Branch: As CFG said, this branch was just... dreadfully balanced. Nothing about it was fun, the whole system felt tedious, and half the battles were ridiculously unbalanced, while the other half were a joke. Offering no health potions of any sort during the battles just made everything incredibly stale, the continuous spawns promoted unbalance, and the lack of spawn-stopping after you reached the limit made everything incredibly annoying. I really honestly hated this branch. It did not feel balanced, it did not feel fun, and the visuals were sub-par and repetitive.
Parkour Branch: Started off fine, and turned into some poorly designed parkour. The end of it is in dire need of rebalance, as it just causes a waste of time for failing around course 10 onward. It was okay and enjoyable enough at the start, but really turned into a lack of interesting ideas incredibly quickly.
Labrynthian Branch: Just... no. This was unimaginative, unfun, and just unbalanced. There was nothing about this I enjoyed, and the entire thing was sheer boredom and tedium. I hated it so much, but toughed it out in the hopes the maze design would get even remotely more interesting. I was sad to discover I was very much wrong. Bad bad bad, really has no place in this map, as it just creates even more stale gameplay.
Survival Branch: Finally something interesting and relatively enjoyable. As CFG said, it could use some more love and care to it, as it ends up feeling like something cut out of a default world, by and large, but this was definitely one of the more interesting branches. Not excellent, as it's just default survival with some additions, but a lot less tedious and fairly more interesting than the previous branches thus far.
Boss Battle Branch Honestly, with all of the cool and interesting mob mechanics we can make use of now, the Wither was the last thing I wanted to see going in. I walked in all excited to see what interesting boss you'd cooked up, only to groan when the wither tag showed up. Massive lack of any imagination here, and I was incredibly disappointed by the fight. As someone experienced in Minecraft combat, it was really just a boring fight, and there's so much more you can do, that I'm incredibly disappointed that you didn't.
Adventure Branch: Honestly, this was adorable. I thought it was cute for what it was trying to be, but it wasn't anything particularly special. The story was cute, I chose the zombie king ending too, though I was hoping for a conclusion to the story, which I didn't get. Regardless, this one is definitely the best branch of the bunch.
Trivia Branch: Groan... Not fun. Tedious. Annoying. The questions often ended up being something the average player would have no idea how to answer, further made tedious by the obnoxious mechanic of returning you to the start every time you failed. Just no, never again. Checkpoints are key in something this already fairly dull. Not helped by further use of trivia-esque questions later on.
Escape Branch: Just like the boss battle branch, I went into this excited, and left absolutely annoyed and bored out of my mind. There was absolutely no reason to rehash the Complex here, and after Jesper's tease at it in Code II, I was burned out of Complex-esque gameplay. There was SO many options you had here for interesting gameplay, and instead you gave me the most tedious and boring option. I hated this area, and really wish this entire bit was scrapped, and redone with something far more original and imaginative.
Dropper Branch: Two words: Creative Environments. Your dropper levels had none. Every single one was a square chute with minimal wall decoration and simple block lines. Take a leaf out of Dropper 1&2 and The Library. You need to really expend more effort on these drops, as nothing about them was really worth doing in the slightest, especially scenery wise. There's no cool visual tricks, no eye candy, but just faintly decorated and themed square tubes.
And finally...
Puzzle Branch: Definitely the second best one out of the bunch. The ending got incredibly annoying and tedious, but the first chunk of puzzles was incredibly well designed and a ton of fun to investigate, work out, and solve. I enjoyed about my first half-hour in it, but got annoyed with the lack of easy-walking through it, when going back to the hub, and the 'rinse and repeat' gameplay of the last few puzzles. They could really use some work, but the first chunk were stellar. Once it hit the large 'maze-y' room, where you had to work out the correct doorway, I started getting bored.
On an arbitrary scale of 1-100, I award this map a 35/100. Overall it was an exercise in the most tedious side of the majority of the styles you selected, with some pretty horrible unbalancing, and a lot of incredibly boring gameplay. With a few shining moments, the idea has potential, but you failed to execute the majority of styles you were aiming for, making the map feel like a chore rather than a game.
Needs a lot of balance, aesthetic, and attention-capturing work, as detailed above.
Ouch. I might have to retire from map making.
So I think the point you guys missed is that I never set out to make 10 amazing maps in one. Do I get any bonus point for it being my 2nd map? I'm not sure how to respond.
Well, see I thought the Puzzle aspects of the map were very very strong, but when you attempted to replicate other styles outside of the "Quartz Abstract Puzzles" you've done previously and well, the quality really plummeted. I think you have a very creative puzzler side by forcing the player to think laterally, but at least with this map, did a lot to rehash too similar work at several points, in a much less exciting fashion.
I'd love to see a version of the Puzzle Branch especially expanded - I think you had a ton of stellar ideas there, outside of maybe the quiz-based end.
I was also a little harsh on the quiz bit. Setting checkpoints as you go would be an easy solution there, and the mob-wise, rebalancing the organization of the mobs and their spawning rate and tactics would be great. Finally, the boss fight just needs something more interesting to it than the default Wither!