I was just curious to know if you were looking for more people to "review" sets of maps... cause i lack a thing called a "life" so i have plenty of time and since i am a map maker i think that might help... but its up to you...
No life? Perfect. Just PM Z_Bill (look on the first page) that you want to help.And to everyone else, here is a good CTM server I found (the only one actually) that should keep us satisfied.
the IP is:
Fido488server.dyndns-server.com
No life? Perfect. Just PM Z_Bill (look on the first page) that you want to help.
And to everyone else, here is a good CTM server I found (the only one actually) that should keep us satisfied.
the IP is:
Fido488server.dyndns-server.com
Yes. Just send me a mini-review (features, rating, commentary) in the proper format if you've completed the maps in a series.
Just a general pro tip.
Oh and some news from the super hostile thread.
Vetches next map will be called Fallen Kingdom.... and it will be in hardcore mode.
Yep. Hardcore mode on a full length map.
Not only that but there will be no renewable wood.
And you will need to scrounge for materials.
And you won't be allowed to craft beds to skip the night.
Have fun! :tongue.gif:
And the sever has lots of maps up. The problem is griefers have screwed them over, so we need to wait untill they reset (don't know when that will happen).
And it is to keep us satisfied untill we get our own server of course.
Congrats on making your first map! I was pretty nervous the first time I released a map. It was my original CTM map. And as I start to experiment with different terraforming tools, I started to get the hang of making maps. As always, spend some time into making the terrain, as it makes up a huge part of a CTM map. The terrain immerse the player into the hellish (or anything) environment. Anyway, good luck on your future maps :smile.gif:
I believe the lighting glitches/crashes have been sorted in Blight Castle.
v1.1 has just been released and is -hopefully- playable in 1.2.3!
Does this mean their will be a reference to me in your next map?
By the way, i did not come up with this solution, someone else did this to Kiaso Caverns, and got it to work. I would link you to his post on the super hostile thread, buy I am too lazy to do that.
So I've dropped a few hours into Cutthroat Caverns, and here's what I think.
Square. Round. Your map, in a nutshell. I'll get back to this.
The start of the map is something of an enigma. You've this massive bowl in the ground that you start in, stick one dungeon and one one-off for coal and alchemy supplies, the path to the next intersection, and that's it. Your starting equipment is scattered about in three or so chests within this crater, forcing you to dodge zombie and arrow through darkness as you make your ascent. Fast forward to the first dungeon, where you're met with an enchanted iron sword, square tunnels, and endermen and creeper spawners. Turns out that is a diabolical combination- kudos for thinking that.
Past that, things get even more confusing. You enter a room with pillars and spawners, open up a chest sitting in the open containing two different, non-stacking variants of each sapling (?), a mostly-full stack of coal (!?), an iron platebody and platelegs(?!), and a diamond platebody(!!?!). Immediately beyond that, you've got enchanting tables and alchemy all set up for you.
All in the first dungeon. I can understand opening up enchanting and brewing right away (a dangerous choice, watch your balance), but atop everything else, I'm left rather confused.
Fast forward to the pathway between the starting zone and intersection. It's a neat area, really, with the broken bridge and all, but there's a lot of unused space. The square building with square tunnels on the side was fun to poke through, moreso than the square dungeon below the bridge, but it still left a lot of hollow space.
Beyond that, we've got a square pathway to the dominion monument, round caves in the grotto, round caves in the sandstone chamber, and so on. If I might summarize- you've got these themes to each of these rooms, and they all have a certain amount of class. Where it falters is that you have to schlog through uninteresting passages, square tunnels, or painfully irritating chambers to get to the wool. I'm looking at that one particular wool chest suspended over the void in a long square room here- you'll know what I mean then. Aesthetics go a long way for a map like this, surprisingly, and when a wool block is the only reason the player is looking forward to enter a particular zone, you've got some issues.
I've got to say you've done some brilliant stuff, though. The conflict at the dominion monument was both dangerous and plenty fun- massive vines of netherbrick fencing are not something you see every day, and it set the tone right for that area. Also, the mob releasing chambers in the watery grotto are brilliant- It's truly something to see a stream of nasty mobs float up from below. Also, using sheep to denote which colored wool can be find in a zone was fantastic- it's good to know what to look ahead to without really being tempted to cheat it out of the sheep.
Gameplay-wise, the map can hold its own. Mobs spawners are fairly distributed between being obvious/visible and tucked away under some blocks, but there's an excess of spawners in some areas, making advancement more a test of your weapon's durability than skill or finesse. Traps are satisfying, though infrequent and effective- a sharp eye is usually the best defense, but a falling sand trap in the sand caverns had me smacking my forehead.
Said sandtrap might not have been so painful were resources more carefully distributed. See, there's a problem with this map- stuff isn't well placed. After having collected about six wool blocks, I've only found about two iron swords (each enchanted), a diamond axe (also enchanted), four(?) iron chestplates, and a smattering of other useful or convenient tools. They're scarce. Depending on how this is played, it can be a good or bad thing, but when the only equipment you may find regularly is incomplete leather (or you make your own leather) and an enchanted stone sword, you might run into some issues. Recovering from losing most of that stuff can be difficult. On the bright side, you have potions, the best of which consist of regeneration and speed potions. These are fun, but possibly too effective and lack slightly in variation.
To summarize- The map doesn't seem to be a whole lot to look at. The square-ness of everything is rather off-putting, but lighting and decoration in safe zones is rather tasteful. A few strokes of genius give the map some zest, but otherwise decent gameplay is all that the map has to fall back on. It's slightly bland, but wholesome.
I'd be willing to put more time into the map to further revise or refine my opinion, as I'm only about six or eight pieces of wool into the map. I just wanted to put out what I had now before snoozing.
Edit: Should've poked my nose into the branches of intersection two! Now there's something to see. Just to figure how to handle the ghasts...
Thanks! Yes, I realize the ammount of circles and squares can be off-putting. I don't particularly understand your confusion with the overgrown chest of armour and supplies in the white wool dungeon, but I do agree that the dungeons are very square. I only really know the Vechs style of dungeons: square rooms and hallways of mossy cobblestone. Improving this will definitely be on my to-do list. Up until intersection two, I was still pretty new with MCedit. The gate of Illusion is my absolute least favorite place in the entire map. I made it even uglier before, with more than double the cave's size of unused space. I tried my hand at filling this in afterwards, to a point of satisfaction, but I was still unsuccessful. Intersection two has some of my favorite areas in it, but Castle Sor'Tina is entirely squares. Just putting that out there. Once (or if, depending on how much you want to play the map) you get to Intersection 3, that's when I became the best with MCedit. I started using chambers and caves of many more materials, and I hope this is reflected in the aesthetics of the map. Thanks for writing the review.
[Edit] Also, to address the resource placement: I agree that resources are very scarce. In the past, the player was given full iron equipment and a ton of food right before the lonely ruins. These full iron chests were plunked everywhere, but it made the map too easy. Later, when attempting to increase the difficulty, I came in and removed quite a few of them, but also removed a lot of spawners from the lonely ruins - and I admit, the balancing and difficulty isn't perfect. It's quite a difficult art, but I intend to improve for my next map.
Believe me, you've a fine map and get infinite kudos for attempting such a project and fine-tuning balance and features. I'm eager to get to intersection three now. :U
My confusion with the overgrown chest is that it seems like a bit much right away, particularly with the diamond chestplate, and then all of the coal in there after visiting the one-off that told me that I'd have to work for my coal. Cognitive dissonance, neh?
Well, I'm glad that you enjoy the map. Again, the chest balancing was off because I was wearing rose-coloured glasses that only showed me Spellbound Caves. I wish that I had inspiration from Blight Castle before making this map, because (apart from breaking iron bars with your BARE HAAANDS) I would have loved the expertise of loot management. But you're right, that chest could use some tweaking, especially now that there's coal built into the walls of the dungeon - too bad I'm incredibly lazy at the moment.
No life? Perfect. Just PM Z_Bill (look on the first page) that you want to help.And to everyone else, here is a good CTM server I found (the only one actually) that should keep us satisfied.
the IP is:
Fido488server.dyndns-server.com
"spider forest"
The map is nearing completion, i've got all the wools placed and just finalizing it.
It should be done in 1-3 days.
(dances in pink armor)" -YouTube comment 2012
Looks nice. Make sure there are no visible brush marks.
Did you spot some? Looks pretty slick to me.
It was in the list. I'll move it to Series though.
Yes. Just send me a mini-review (features, rating, commentary) in the proper format if you've completed the maps in a series.
What map does this server have up?
Oh and some news from the super hostile thread.
Vetches next map will be called Fallen Kingdom.... and it will be in hardcore mode.
Yep. Hardcore mode on a full length map.
Not only that but there will be no renewable wood.
And you will need to scrounge for materials.
And you won't be allowed to craft beds to skip the night.
Have fun! :tongue.gif:
And the sever has lots of maps up. The problem is griefers have screwed them over, so we need to wait untill they reset (don't know when that will happen).
And it is to keep us satisfied untill we get our own server of course.
Congrats on making your first map! I was pretty nervous the first time I released a map. It was my original CTM map. And as I start to experiment with different terraforming tools, I started to get the hang of making maps. As always, spend some time into making the terrain, as it makes up a huge part of a CTM map. The terrain immerse the player into the hellish (or anything) environment. Anyway, good luck on your future maps :smile.gif:
And I want to review it too.
But seriously, your map is amazing.
Fix the game Jeb!
Still, from the images, the map looks great. And the review was great. I expect that the map itself is great.
Does this mean their will be a reference to me in your next map?
By the way, i did not come up with this solution, someone else did this to Kiaso Caverns, and got it to work. I would link you to his post on the super hostile thread, buy I am too lazy to do that.
It's not Jeb's fault. It's the map's fault.
To fix, delete layer 128 with MCEdit.
Oh yeah and if anyone wants to beat test it so far feel free to pm me!
Thanks! Yes, I realize the ammount of circles and squares can be off-putting. I don't particularly understand your confusion with the overgrown chest of armour and supplies in the white wool dungeon, but I do agree that the dungeons are very square. I only really know the Vechs style of dungeons: square rooms and hallways of mossy cobblestone. Improving this will definitely be on my to-do list. Up until intersection two, I was still pretty new with MCedit. The gate of Illusion is my absolute least favorite place in the entire map. I made it even uglier before, with more than double the cave's size of unused space. I tried my hand at filling this in afterwards, to a point of satisfaction, but I was still unsuccessful. Intersection two has some of my favorite areas in it, but Castle Sor'Tina is entirely squares. Just putting that out there. Once (or if, depending on how much you want to play the map) you get to Intersection 3, that's when I became the best with MCedit. I started using chambers and caves of many more materials, and I hope this is reflected in the aesthetics of the map. Thanks for writing the review.
[Edit] Also, to address the resource placement: I agree that resources are very scarce. In the past, the player was given full iron equipment and a ton of food right before the lonely ruins. These full iron chests were plunked everywhere, but it made the map too easy. Later, when attempting to increase the difficulty, I came in and removed quite a few of them, but also removed a lot of spawners from the lonely ruins - and I admit, the balancing and difficulty isn't perfect. It's quite a difficult art, but I intend to improve for my next map.
Well, I'm glad that you enjoy the map. Again, the chest balancing was off because I was wearing rose-coloured glasses that only showed me Spellbound Caves. I wish that I had inspiration from Blight Castle before making this map, because (apart from breaking iron bars with your BARE HAAANDS) I would have loved the expertise of loot management. But you're right, that chest could use some tweaking, especially now that there's coal built into the walls of the dungeon - too bad I'm incredibly lazy at the moment.