Skylights- A cool gimmick and a clever way to challenge the player immediately, but at their own pace. I’d have enjoyed it more if you weren’t allowed a way to reach the others and if the path you chose had more permanent implications (granting some players access to items/farms they otherwise wouldn’t be seen during the rest of the map).
Upper Mines- It was a little bit empty, but it established the feel and scale for the map early on and brought the Skylights together naturally.
Abandoned Dormitories- Stupid cave spiders… I have slow instincts and a slow computer, so I died a bunch. Nothing against this area, which was a good difficulty for the first wool, albeit unspectacular.
Lower Mines- I liked that you could approach this area in different ways; you could be aggressive by rushing in and destroying the spawners, you could be methodical by tunneling and gradually lighting the area, or you could be tactical by sending in the. I took the aggressive approach, but could see doing otherwise on different playthroughs.
Everforge- Ouch, this area was tough at the beginning. Witches this early in the map were very difficult, but manageable once you learned how to fight them (never use fire, never fight at midrange). More problematic was the wool, which felt like it was a block away from being blown up by swarms of creepers. The quality of the loot you were able to get here also kind of overshadowed that of a lot of later chests, which made looking through them a kind of unnecessary for a while.
Outer Darkness- The central vines were one of my favorite areas of the map. I died many times trying to get up in the most daring way possible, only to mess up the climbing controls, overestimate a jump, or get knocked off by a skeleton. Zisteau at the top was tough, but introduced at the right time.
Mellow Caverns- Pretty easy all around, even at the lower levels. I was more amused by the Creeper Jockey than anything else. It was difficult to find the Lost Cavern though, even having been spoiled on where it was… the 3x3 block was nowhere near obvious.
Lost Cavern- That Kamyu fight was very difficult, and was easily the biggest challenge for me up to that point. I had to come back to it, but I thought it was one of the early high points of the map. The loot in the ceiling was a nice touch too.
Hane’s Disgrace- Loved the contraptions, loved the random Blazes, hated the invisible spider dungeon. I’m afraid I ended up getting frustrated and taking the easy route, breaking through the glass.
Lush Ruins- I’m torn here. It had another Headhunter fight, which was nice, but was otherwise far too massive and full of dead ends... only a few places had decent loot, and the rest were only good for a resupply. One could spend months just grinding out spawners. Maybe this should have been a mini-map of its own, with a 3 or 4 part monument to complete… I couldn’t bring myself to stick around beyond getting the wool and getting out.
Flame Warp- I was surprised there wasn’t more to this area. The geometry of it is cool, but between Ender Pearls and Feather Falling boots, it was far easier to get the wool than go onto the next area, where invisible Creepers were just plain annoying. Maybe my least favorite area if I had to pick.
Salire Castle- Could’ve looked a little more ornate and been a little less complicated to navigate. That said, I felt like I was suddenly in a Mario game here, complete with final boss. It was loads of fun.
Giant Dumb Blast Zisteau Cavern- You quickly discover that if you don’t approach this area with the understanding that Zisteaus are stupid, you become a human tennis ball and will die a horrible death in lava. I still found it extremely difficult, but not the impossible test of persistence that the beta testers reported. The tribute was well done.
Wilhelm Cliffs- You just HAAAAAD to have a stick in each intersection 3 area, didn’t you Vechz? Just teasing, I loved this area. It was a lot of fun to finally get immersed in the vistas, and I enjoyed the heck out of Big Bonk until I lost it trying to make one of your silly parkour jumps.
Hallowed Overlook- Best home base ever. All the amenities a Steve could want out of life without having to build complicated sorting systems.
Camp Ember- I loved the aesthetic of this area so much. It felt more like a real ruin and lost civilization than any other that I’ve played in Minecraft. Still, invisible Endermen??? Ye gods!
Ember Castle- Looked great from the outside, and it was loads of fun to make it to reach the top of the ruined tower (even if the wool wasn’t there). That said, the interior rooms were rather ugly and uneventful, and the random chests in all the rooms got to be overkill here.
Cavern of Last Respite- You *******!!! I fell for that trap far more than I ought to have, and kept assuming I wouldn’t be that stupid again. Nope.
Vexian Gallery- Tonally jarring? Sure, whatever. I’m too enamored of that glorious, glorious quartz to care. What texture! Oh yea, I suppose there was some wool here as well.
Blackened Archive- Zoinks. Talk about a challenge. I fell so many times trying to make it to the top. The Char was probably my favorite custom mobs… I got the crap scared out of me when I was bridging over the maze gap and saw one run what seemed like “away”, only to navigate the maze and knock me into a sea of mobs. Zombie pathfinding is scary good.
Zisteaunian Battlecry- For all the methodical progression that’s often necessary in these maps, it was awesome to see a map that actively encourages you to potion up and just go berserk. Got caught off guard by the mobs the first trip though and died horribly in a fire; the second was pretty basic with fire resistance. Maybe slightly increase Zisteau spawning? (I may regret saying that)
Endless Battle- LAG. It was just too much. I’m glad you’re now offering an alternate area, because for some users this area just won’t work at all. That said, the area was a pretty nice finale when I finally got it to work properly, and the friendly mobs were surprisingly effective. Kudos for one last troll job at the end.
Things I liked:
Headhunter Monument- It really helped liven up a lot of the bigger areas, which otherwise would have just been window dressing apart from the wool. You should definitely have more side quests like this in future maps.
Most Custom Mobs- This is where your map really had a leg up on others; combat with nothing but vanilla mobs gets repetitive after a while. Zisteaus, Chars, and Cactus mobs were my favorite of the bunch.
Deathblooms- More of these please. They’re easily my favorite diabolical invention of yours, and quite a nasty surprise. I was hoping there’d be a room completely dedicated to them.
Trolling and Humor- It felt like I was playing Legendary at times, which was a very good thing. I’ve missed the comedic tone in your maps.
Traps- This time around, they were clever, subtle, and usually the last place you expected to find them (Salire Castle and Last Respite, for instance). And of course, the Lost Cavern trap was astoundingly elaborate. Well done.
Cool things that could be improved:
Vistas- They looked awesome, but this game can only render so much. It was jarring to see day/night cycles while deep underground.
Fleecymobs- Having a legitimate boss fight was definitely a nice change of pace for some levels, and an inspired idea. However, they feel really unbalanced. Sometimes you can isolate the fleecymob and shoot it to death without it ever having a prayer; sometimes you just get swarmed and need to do unfun things to win the fight. It’s especially jarring that more than one can spawn at a time, which makes it hard to keep track of which mob you’ve been doing damage to if you die.
Random Loot- I liked that it let helped you recover if you die, but if you’ve got a dungeon crawling compulsion like me, it’s infuriating to find redundancy and so many useless items. Mousing over every enchanted item to make sure it’s not better than what I’ve already got is the worst when they’re in every room.
Things I didn’t like:
Empty feel- I got the feeling that a few areas were just the same empty (except for spawners) room over and over again… Ember Castle’s interior, Flame Warp, and Lush Ruins were the worst offenders. A little more scenery would be nice in places, but it’s just a quibble.
Lag- I love mob swarms and epic battles as much as the next guy, but having to reload or install optimizing software just to play a level really takes you out of the moment.
I'm doing a top 10, just because I'm a top 10 list addict...
10. Drowning- It doesn't happen often, but when you can't get back to the surface in time and the screen starts to show flashes of red... you can imagine what that does to someone deathly afraid of drowning.
9. Zombie Pigmen horde- Only really a surprise at first, but who doesn't remember (and regret) the first time they pissed off a horde? Usually it resulted in me walking off a cliff.
8. Ninja spiders- Just when you think you're in clear, they'll either scale whatever you've built, drop right down on you in the middle of a ravine, or simply outrun you in the case of cave spiders.
7. Walking around lava- As hard as you mash that crouch button, you still know something is about to go wrong. Usually it does, in the form of some punk skeleton who shows up as soon as you round a corner.
6. Anything in hardcore mode- Pure and utter paranoia will turn every bump in the night into something that could potentially ruin everything you've worked for. The hiss of a creeper fuse in the mode is known to cause strokes.
5. Cave-ins- You get that moment of pure horror when you realize you can't dig your way out, no matter what you do. Sleep tight, claustrophobics like myself.
4. Trapped with a creeper- The quintessential "gotcha!" Minecraft moment, though you could argue that it's a cheap shot or more shocking than outright scary. Still, it never loses it's staying power after all these years of Minecraft.
3. Silverfish- The walls disintegrating into a swarm of insects that attempt to consume you? Sounds like something out of The Mummy.
2. Battling an enderman- Everything from the alien sound effects to its silhouette against the night, surprising speed, the teleportation, frantic searching, and open mouth as it tears into you... it's all mined for maximum horror. And you'll never fully have control over this fight.
1. Ghast cries- Oh hell no. Are you kidding me? The distorted voices of children condemned to the netherworld emanating from massive, crying ghosts? No.
It's a mixed bag. The mountainous terrain is fun, and finally having rivers is nice, but a lot of the interesting variability of the terrain got lost in the transition. Canyons are random scars in the land, and we rarely get big, oceanic cliffs or beaches anymore. And for those who truly want to immerse themselves in the game, the continents are too small and surrounded by featureless oceans.
It's a little bit much for me, and tries a little too hard to be profound. The "voices of the universe" concept is cool, and so are the parts focused on it being an expression of your imagination.
If it were up to me, rather than text, it would be Notch and Jeb speaking a shorter version of it in filtered (enderman-like) voices over the credits.
I love the new door and bow sounds... since they actually sound like doors and bows. Doors creak... the old door sounded like someone dropping a plank on the ground. Longbows are quiet... the old bow basically made a crossbow sound.
Also, anyone else think we could use a flint and steel sound? You're banging a rock against metal; you could get a really cool sound effect for that.
I think that most experienced Minecraft players like any aspect of the game that adds some form of progression to survival. No matter how much XP grinding and trial-and-error is necessary to get silk touch, people will flock to it if it allows for previously-unobtainable water in the Nether, regardless of how annoying the process is.
Thanks for the feedback. Maybe the coffee and cocoa concepts could be separated, with hot chocolate providing nourishment based on climate conditions (up to 5 in cold biomes, none in desert biomes) and a separate plant and drink for the coffee concept. I just fused them together in order to increase the usefulness of cocoa beans as is.
As of right now, cocoa beans are rare items found in dungeons that are used to make cookies (inefficient food source), or brown dye (found more commonly on brown sheep). It's more or less useless in its current form. I think it's time to finally give them the attention they deserve. Here are my ideas:
-A cocoa sapling, rather than cocoa beans themselves, will be found in dungeons. Upon growth, it will grow into a cocoa tree, with a retextured structure of a regular oak tree, with each leaf having a 1 in 4 chance of dropping a cocoa bean.
-However, cocoa trees do not produce saplings of their own upon destruction of their leaves. Instead, oak leaves next to cocoa leaves have a chance of dropping cocoa saplings. The probability of an oak leaf dropping a cocoa sapling rather than an oak sapling increases based on the amount of time spent next to each other and the proximity of the leaves.
-In addition to cookies, coffee can be crafted from cocoa beans like so (seeds are beans):
Coffee is essentially a nerfed speed potion, capable of being made without farming nether wart. In addition, it provides 3 temporary hearts of health, which last for 1 minute before beginning to deplete to its original level. It cannot be cheated; if you drink two coffee at the same time, you will lose 6 hearts at the end of the period. It is possible to die of a "caffeine overdose" in this way.
The problem with new crops is that, once you reach a certain point. you have to ask yourself if you really have a use for them. Food is food. Melons are interesting because they're useful in potions and they're a good source of food when you're at home and have. But as of right now, situational usefulness only goes so far, and new crops that are simply food will probably either be hopelessly underpowered, overpowered, or essentially the same as everything else.
Something like coffee is a different story, though. Drinking coffee could act as a low-grade speed potion and/or temporary health boost, which has entirely different effects. Maybe it could come from cocoa beans for the sake of utility, and therefore grow on trees.
I wouldn't discount silk touch. In the hands of an experienced user, it's invaluable. Want to improve your mushroom farm? Unless you want to push mycelium all the way back from a mushroom island with pistons, you're gonna need that silk touch. Want to make a silverfish trap? Silk touch. Want to make a white stone building (assuming you eventually can get back from the End)? Silk touch. Want to build a zombie pigmen farm in the nether, giving you all the gold nuggets you need for glistering melon and instant health? You'll need water in the nether, and you'll only get that from silk touch. It is worth grinding for simply on the basis of doing things that you can't possibly do on your own.
Also, getting upper-level weapons and armor might be pretty important whilst facing off against future bosses, depending on their nature.
I would make a few words decoded in each book you make, and automatically change the words into English in the enchanting table after the books are read. But I would randomize what the garbage is in the enchantment table, to avoid people coming up with guides. Like the idea?
Possibly, but what happens when someone totally surrounds it with bookshelves? Would that make it totally decoded? Even if it weren't, all a player would have to do is put the table near some bookshelves, and surf through buzzwords until he finds the word that he needs. A reed farm shouldn't be the only thing you need for decoding; some sort of puzzle element should still stick with the system.
I wouldn't totally randomize what the garbage words are either, because that reduces the solution process to trial and error even after solving the cryptogram. Grinding for experience is a chore, and trial and error would just result in more of that. How about just having a huge mix of different garbage/meaningful words instead? The guides are a good thing in this case, since they will make sure you don't have to keep grinding once you find the solution. The only thing they shouldn't do is decode your cipher for you.
1
Upper Mines- It was a little bit empty, but it established the feel and scale for the map early on and brought the Skylights together naturally.
Abandoned Dormitories- Stupid cave spiders… I have slow instincts and a slow computer, so I died a bunch. Nothing against this area, which was a good difficulty for the first wool, albeit unspectacular.
Lower Mines- I liked that you could approach this area in different ways; you could be aggressive by rushing in and destroying the spawners, you could be methodical by tunneling and gradually lighting the area, or you could be tactical by sending in the. I took the aggressive approach, but could see doing otherwise on different playthroughs.
Everforge- Ouch, this area was tough at the beginning. Witches this early in the map were very difficult, but manageable once you learned how to fight them (never use fire, never fight at midrange). More problematic was the wool, which felt like it was a block away from being blown up by swarms of creepers. The quality of the loot you were able to get here also kind of overshadowed that of a lot of later chests, which made looking through them a kind of unnecessary for a while.
Outer Darkness- The central vines were one of my favorite areas of the map. I died many times trying to get up in the most daring way possible, only to mess up the climbing controls, overestimate a jump, or get knocked off by a skeleton. Zisteau at the top was tough, but introduced at the right time.
Mellow Caverns- Pretty easy all around, even at the lower levels. I was more amused by the Creeper Jockey than anything else. It was difficult to find the Lost Cavern though, even having been spoiled on where it was… the 3x3 block was nowhere near obvious.
Lost Cavern- That Kamyu fight was very difficult, and was easily the biggest challenge for me up to that point. I had to come back to it, but I thought it was one of the early high points of the map. The loot in the ceiling was a nice touch too.
Hane’s Disgrace- Loved the contraptions, loved the random Blazes, hated the invisible spider dungeon. I’m afraid I ended up getting frustrated and taking the easy route, breaking through the glass.
Lush Ruins- I’m torn here. It had another Headhunter fight, which was nice, but was otherwise far too massive and full of dead ends... only a few places had decent loot, and the rest were only good for a resupply. One could spend months just grinding out spawners. Maybe this should have been a mini-map of its own, with a 3 or 4 part monument to complete… I couldn’t bring myself to stick around beyond getting the wool and getting out.
Flame Warp- I was surprised there wasn’t more to this area. The geometry of it is cool, but between Ender Pearls and Feather Falling boots, it was far easier to get the wool than go onto the next area, where invisible Creepers were just plain annoying. Maybe my least favorite area if I had to pick.
Salire Castle- Could’ve looked a little more ornate and been a little less complicated to navigate. That said, I felt like I was suddenly in a Mario game here, complete with final boss. It was loads of fun.
Giant Dumb Blast Zisteau Cavern- You quickly discover that if you don’t approach this area with the understanding that Zisteaus are stupid, you become a human tennis ball and will die a horrible death in lava. I still found it extremely difficult, but not the impossible test of persistence that the beta testers reported. The tribute was well done.
Wilhelm Cliffs- You just HAAAAAD to have a stick in each intersection 3 area, didn’t you Vechz? Just teasing, I loved this area. It was a lot of fun to finally get immersed in the vistas, and I enjoyed the heck out of Big Bonk until I lost it trying to make one of your silly parkour jumps.
Hallowed Overlook- Best home base ever. All the amenities a Steve could want out of life without having to build complicated sorting systems.
Camp Ember- I loved the aesthetic of this area so much. It felt more like a real ruin and lost civilization than any other that I’ve played in Minecraft. Still, invisible Endermen??? Ye gods!
Ember Castle- Looked great from the outside, and it was loads of fun to make it to reach the top of the ruined tower (even if the wool wasn’t there). That said, the interior rooms were rather ugly and uneventful, and the random chests in all the rooms got to be overkill here.
Cavern of Last Respite- You *******!!! I fell for that trap far more than I ought to have, and kept assuming I wouldn’t be that stupid again. Nope.
Vexian Gallery- Tonally jarring? Sure, whatever. I’m too enamored of that glorious, glorious quartz to care. What texture! Oh yea, I suppose there was some wool here as well.
Blackened Archive- Zoinks. Talk about a challenge. I fell so many times trying to make it to the top. The Char was probably my favorite custom mobs… I got the crap scared out of me when I was bridging over the maze gap and saw one run what seemed like “away”, only to navigate the maze and knock me into a sea of mobs. Zombie pathfinding is scary good.
Zisteaunian Battlecry- For all the methodical progression that’s often necessary in these maps, it was awesome to see a map that actively encourages you to potion up and just go berserk. Got caught off guard by the mobs the first trip though and died horribly in a fire; the second was pretty basic with fire resistance. Maybe slightly increase Zisteau spawning? (I may regret saying that)
Endless Battle- LAG. It was just too much. I’m glad you’re now offering an alternate area, because for some users this area just won’t work at all. That said, the area was a pretty nice finale when I finally got it to work properly, and the friendly mobs were surprisingly effective. Kudos for one last troll job at the end.
Things I liked:
Headhunter Monument- It really helped liven up a lot of the bigger areas, which otherwise would have just been window dressing apart from the wool. You should definitely have more side quests like this in future maps.
Most Custom Mobs- This is where your map really had a leg up on others; combat with nothing but vanilla mobs gets repetitive after a while. Zisteaus, Chars, and Cactus mobs were my favorite of the bunch.
Deathblooms- More of these please. They’re easily my favorite diabolical invention of yours, and quite a nasty surprise. I was hoping there’d be a room completely dedicated to them.
Trolling and Humor- It felt like I was playing Legendary at times, which was a very good thing. I’ve missed the comedic tone in your maps.
Traps- This time around, they were clever, subtle, and usually the last place you expected to find them (Salire Castle and Last Respite, for instance). And of course, the Lost Cavern trap was astoundingly elaborate. Well done.
Cool things that could be improved:
Vistas- They looked awesome, but this game can only render so much. It was jarring to see day/night cycles while deep underground.
Fleecymobs- Having a legitimate boss fight was definitely a nice change of pace for some levels, and an inspired idea. However, they feel really unbalanced. Sometimes you can isolate the fleecymob and shoot it to death without it ever having a prayer; sometimes you just get swarmed and need to do unfun things to win the fight. It’s especially jarring that more than one can spawn at a time, which makes it hard to keep track of which mob you’ve been doing damage to if you die.
Random Loot- I liked that it let helped you recover if you die, but if you’ve got a dungeon crawling compulsion like me, it’s infuriating to find redundancy and so many useless items. Mousing over every enchanted item to make sure it’s not better than what I’ve already got is the worst when they’re in every room.
Things I didn’t like:
Empty feel- I got the feeling that a few areas were just the same empty (except for spawners) room over and over again… Ember Castle’s interior, Flame Warp, and Lush Ruins were the worst offenders. A little more scenery would be nice in places, but it’s just a quibble.
Lag- I love mob swarms and epic battles as much as the next guy, but having to reload or install optimizing software just to play a level really takes you out of the moment.
Invisible Spiders and Creepers- GAO AWAY
Great map Vechz! Here's to many more!
0
Don't have anything indicating that it's actually that, but that's sure as heck what it sounds like to me.
0
10. Drowning- It doesn't happen often, but when you can't get back to the surface in time and the screen starts to show flashes of red... you can imagine what that does to someone deathly afraid of drowning.
9. Zombie Pigmen horde- Only really a surprise at first, but who doesn't remember (and regret) the first time they pissed off a horde? Usually it resulted in me walking off a cliff.
8. Ninja spiders- Just when you think you're in clear, they'll either scale whatever you've built, drop right down on you in the middle of a ravine, or simply outrun you in the case of cave spiders.
7. Walking around lava- As hard as you mash that crouch button, you still know something is about to go wrong. Usually it does, in the form of some punk skeleton who shows up as soon as you round a corner.
6. Anything in hardcore mode- Pure and utter paranoia will turn every bump in the night into something that could potentially ruin everything you've worked for. The hiss of a creeper fuse in the mode is known to cause strokes.
5. Cave-ins- You get that moment of pure horror when you realize you can't dig your way out, no matter what you do. Sleep tight, claustrophobics like myself.
4. Trapped with a creeper- The quintessential "gotcha!" Minecraft moment, though you could argue that it's a cheap shot or more shocking than outright scary. Still, it never loses it's staying power after all these years of Minecraft.
3. Silverfish- The walls disintegrating into a swarm of insects that attempt to consume you? Sounds like something out of The Mummy.
2. Battling an enderman- Everything from the alien sound effects to its silhouette against the night, surprising speed, the teleportation, frantic searching, and open mouth as it tears into you... it's all mined for maximum horror. And you'll never fully have control over this fight.
1. Ghast cries- Oh hell no. Are you kidding me? The distorted voices of children condemned to the netherworld emanating from massive, crying ghosts? No.
1
0
But you can only take so many in your inventory... you're right though, it would probably be best spent on little things.
0
If it were up to me, rather than text, it would be Notch and Jeb speaking a shorter version of it in filtered (enderman-like) voices over the credits.
0
Also, anyone else think we could use a flint and steel sound? You're banging a rock against metal; you could get a really cool sound effect for that.
0
0
0
3
-A cocoa sapling, rather than cocoa beans themselves, will be found in dungeons. Upon growth, it will grow into a cocoa tree, with a retextured structure of a regular oak tree, with each leaf having a 1 in 4 chance of dropping a cocoa bean.
-However, cocoa trees do not produce saplings of their own upon destruction of their leaves. Instead, oak leaves next to cocoa leaves have a chance of dropping cocoa saplings. The probability of an oak leaf dropping a cocoa sapling rather than an oak sapling increases based on the amount of time spent next to each other and the proximity of the leaves.
-In addition to cookies, coffee can be crafted from cocoa beans like so (seeds are beans):
Coffee is essentially a nerfed speed potion, capable of being made without farming nether wart. In addition, it provides 3 temporary hearts of health, which last for 1 minute before beginning to deplete to its original level. It cannot be cheated; if you drink two coffee at the same time, you will lose 6 hearts at the end of the period. It is possible to die of a "caffeine overdose" in this way.
Thoughts?
0
Something like coffee is a different story, though. Drinking coffee could act as a low-grade speed potion and/or temporary health boost, which has entirely different effects. Maybe it could come from cocoa beans for the sake of utility, and therefore grow on trees.
0
I'd prefer
Mineshaft
Stronghold
Ravine
... I just really like it how it looks when you're walking through a stronghold and walk out onto a massive cliff!
1
Also, getting upper-level weapons and armor might be pretty important whilst facing off against future bosses, depending on their nature.
0
Possibly, but what happens when someone totally surrounds it with bookshelves? Would that make it totally decoded? Even if it weren't, all a player would have to do is put the table near some bookshelves, and surf through buzzwords until he finds the word that he needs. A reed farm shouldn't be the only thing you need for decoding; some sort of puzzle element should still stick with the system.
I wouldn't totally randomize what the garbage words are either, because that reduces the solution process to trial and error even after solving the cryptogram. Grinding for experience is a chore, and trial and error would just result in more of that. How about just having a huge mix of different garbage/meaningful words instead? The guides are a good thing in this case, since they will make sure you don't have to keep grinding once you find the solution. The only thing they shouldn't do is decode your cipher for you.