Just finished the map, really enjoyed the experience. I haven't played CTM maps / Minecraft in general for quite some time, so seeing all those new features and capabilities used in this map was pretty awesome.
Obligatory victory screenshots:
*snip*
*snip*
I really liked the whole Replica Monument concept. Getting awesome loot is half of the fun of a CTM map, collecting it is even better. The unique items were always placed obvious enough that you won't miss them when exploring carefully, but you won't necessarily get them all if you don't. Glad you found them easily. I've had people miss them, so yeah.
I was a bit sad that the Golddigger 5000 didn't have a place on the monument though - definitely would've deserved one. I can't stress enough how much I love that pick: It allowed me to breeze through everything: Dungeon walls, obsidian, spawners. Also, it allowed my new awesome strategy of carrying an enderchest around at all times for rare items and supplies to work because of the Silk Touch. My inventory was no longer too small! Ough... I'd have to call that strategy a bit cheap. I have a rule in DsD about no nether portals and enderchests, guess I'll have to add it to the DsI rule list...
In general, I thought the map was well-balanced. I loved how I basically never had to farm for anything - might have been the first CTM maps where that's the case - there was always enough food and wood. Great! I dislike farming as well, and it shows in how I give out loot. (I'm not counting mining ores here) The first half of the map was a bit annoying though, for two reasons:
1. Everything takes place on islands. If you fall down, that doesn't really mean anything as you'll survive and lose none of your stuff, but it's a chore to swim back up again. Now, there has to be some kind of punishment, so maybe move the islands a bit closer to the water so swimming back up doesn't require all that much time? I've added TPs to a few fall-prone areas in the latest version.
2. I don't see the need for all the bridging. It's boring as hell, but required everywhere to travel from island to island. Why don't you just provide a path for the player? Those destroyed glass paths branching off from the intersections didn't make any sense to me. :/ To be fair, they're a lot shorter in this version than they were in v.1.0. That being said, I absolutely loved the quick-travel system from the VM to IS4. When reaching IS4, I already feared having to travel that far all the time, wasn't the case luckily. Perhaps use this feature a bit more often? Having TPs at I01 didn't really make sense, as even if I hid them, the player still had a chance of finding them if they dug for stone. I02 didn't make sense either, as you'd be finding the WM right after you finished Remnant Village. But yes, I agree there could have been more shortcuts. I'm planning on a lot of shortcuts in Dreadsky Depths.
The map wasn't too terribly difficult, but I have a bit of experience with these kind of maps. I think difficulty was appropriate. Only died a few times. Well done. I generally die about 5 times when playing it myself.
That being said - the last area made me rage pretty hard. While I loved the custom monsters dropping diamonds and stuff (those witches are tough!), the lava under the fleecy box was just a **** move. When I dropped down through the ceiling with some water, I jumped into the lava because I didn't see the glass entrances to the fleecy box, (Hmm, I may add something to make those more obvious) so I thought you have to enter from below. I considered myself to be absolutely safe because of the fire res potion, but turns out the layer of lava didn't have a floor and was only 1 layers or so thick... Fell into the void, lost tons of good stuff (Golddigger 5000, Darkbane, Hiiya'lex and a gold block golden apple) and ragequit. Only to come back to the area again today and find out that the whole dungeon was a fake... FUUUUU! -.- <3
At least getting the black wool wasn't really a problem. Just bypassed everything and went straight for the top of the dungeon, bridged to the fleecy box and grabbed the wool - mission accomplished! Yeah, after going through the bottom dungeon legit, I don't blame people who just pearl their way up and dig to the wool.
Replies in bold. Glad you enjoyed!
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So, as I shared with the folks over in the CTM Community thread (which is where I pretty much hang out most of the time for casual conversation), I discovered a few LPs of my map on youtube today! Granted, I did say that people shouldn't make LPs unless they can release the videos in rapid fire, since the map was still in beta, but it's still great to see there being some attention. Here are the videos, I'll be adding them to the OP shortly, under a spoiler tab denoting that they're from the beta period.
Awemnipotent is a bit of a newcomer to the LP scene, but his commentary is amusing nonetheless.
These guys are such silly durps. :3 They do use server TPs, which I don't allow, and are playing v.1.0 of the map, but it's a great watch still.
I'm going to comment on both of their videos and mention that they're playing old versions, and that they should consider picking up the final version when it comes out. Hopefully they'll respond, and you may even see them in this thread.
Oh no way man! They may have violated the no LPs rule, but it's fine. I'm gonna comment on their videos and let them know that I'm releasing the full version soon, and they can continue on that version if they want to.
So I searched Dreadsky Isles on youtube, just for the heck of it.
And found something.
Granted, he's a first-time LPer, and I did say something about no LPs until the final release, but I'm still really happy and surprised that it even exists! (If you don't watch the whole thing, at least skip to 20:54 and wait until he finishes reading the book. I have teh lulz.)
EDIT: Know what, I found another series by searching "Tales of Dreadsky" instead.
I'd like to know that too! I'm horrible at area names. D:
Honestly, I don't have a system, I just kinda come up with names spontaneously. Oftentimes I'll come up with the name before I even come up with the area concept. Though, if you shoot me a picture or two, and a short synopsis of what the area is about, chances are I can come up with a decent name for it.
You know when you have a really cool idea for a map, and you start working on it...
Then you come up with a cooler idea and delete everything you made.
Then you come up with an even better idea.
Yeah, that's what's happening now. I don't like it.
Protip: Don't delete anything you build. You may find a use for it later, no matter what you were going to use it with before, or what you're working on now or in the future.
I'll probably give this CTM map an LP in the future. Right now I'm doing Legendary, by Vechs, so It'll likely take me a while to get around to yours, sorry about that.
No that's fine, take whatever time you need. It'll be great to see more from you when you get around to it.
Alright guys, I've done a bunch of work on Dreadsky Depths today, and finished the first wool area! As celebration, here's a picture of it:
and in SMP's:
I'm not going to give the name out directly. Instead, here's a hangman puzzle with the name as the answer! (It plays like normal hangman; you guess one letter, and if it's in the answer, I'll update the blank spaces. If it isn't, you get a strike. There are 9 strikes.)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
And a clue...
I am the respite, the safe place far from trouble. To me, you may run and know happiness. We are the hidden, the invasion. We seek to corrupt you, to enter your every orifice and destroy you from the inside.
You should do a long video where you fly through IM and give real commentary on your thought process. A real Dev Com, not an LP with developer comments.
It'd be very interesting to know, I think.
This, this, this, some more this, a dash of this, a great big hearty helping of this, and to top it off, a glob of this. You now have a cake made of THIS.
The Waking Up dev com was only really interesting to me when you actually did developer commentary, as in, you commented on what you were thinking when you made the map. Something exactly like what Yuri just suggested would be fantastic.
I like this snapshot update, and the mob eggs are a really nice addition. However, I feel that the "sheep eat grass to regain wool" is a bit overpowered. I'm not complaining, I use wool for carpeting a lot, but it seems kinda unrealistic for the sheep to regain their wool so easily. It might work better to have them eat the wheat grass to regain their wool, and only after a timer of like five minutes. Still, nice snapshot. :smile.gif:
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Now I'm off to work on more Dreadsky Depths.
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Replies in bold. Glad you enjoyed!
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So, as I shared with the folks over in the CTM Community thread (which is where I pretty much hang out most of the time for casual conversation), I discovered a few LPs of my map on youtube today! Granted, I did say that people shouldn't make LPs unless they can release the videos in rapid fire, since the map was still in beta, but it's still great to see there being some attention.
Awemnipotent is a bit of a newcomer to the LP scene, but his commentary is amusing nonetheless.
These guys are such silly durps. :3 They do use server TPs, which I don't allow, and are playing v.1.0 of the map, but it's a great watch still.
I'm going to comment on both of their videos and mention that they're playing old versions, and that they should consider picking up the final version when it comes out. Hopefully they'll respond, and you may even see them in this thread.
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JK. :L It'd be great to see you play the full version, since your blog "LP" got cut short.
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So I searched Dreadsky Isles on youtube, just for the heck of it.
And found something.
Granted, he's a first-time LPer, and I did say something about no LPs until the final release, but I'm still really happy and surprised that it even exists!
EDIT: Know what, I found another series by searching "Tales of Dreadsky" instead.
These guys are silly durps. :3
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Honestly, I don't have a system, I just kinda come up with names spontaneously. Oftentimes I'll come up with the name before I even come up with the area concept. Though, if you shoot me a picture or two, and a short synopsis of what the area is about, chances are I can come up with a decent name for it.
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Thanks! I'm actually really proud of most of the area names for DsD, particularly the I03 and I04 areas.
Protip: Don't delete anything you build. You may find a use for it later, no matter what you were going to use it with before, or what you're working on now or in the future.
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_ _ R _ S _ T _ _ _ _ R _ _ _ S E (Strikes: O)
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Keep going.
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and in SMP's:
I'm not going to give the name out directly. Instead, here's a hangman puzzle with the name as the answer! (It plays like normal hangman; you guess one letter, and if it's in the answer, I'll update the blank spaces. If it isn't, you get a strike. There are 9 strikes.)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
And a clue...
I am the respite, the safe place far from trouble. To me, you may run and know happiness.
We are the hidden, the invasion. We seek to corrupt you, to enter your every orifice and destroy you from the inside.
Have fun figuring it out!
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The Waking Up dev com was only really interesting to me when you actually did developer commentary, as in, you commented on what you were thinking when you made the map. Something exactly like what Yuri just suggested would be fantastic.