Due to a lack of feedback in closed beta testing, I have opened the map up to open beta testing. This means that now anyone can download the map and play. The map is winnable and completeable, however I am the only one who has play tested it, so it may be unbalanced in some places. If you play the map, I highly appreciate any and all feedback you have.
I have been working on a new open world full length map for about 6 months now, and it is finally ready for closed beta testing. As was suggested to me, I am going to keep the map in closed beta testing for now. This means if you would like to play the map and give me your feedback, then please send me a private message and I will give you the download link.
After I get enough feedback, or if after enough time passes without finding closed beta testers, I will open the map to an open beta. At that point, it will still be a beta, but anyone will be able to play it.
The map is called "Isolation", the information about it and screenshots are in the original post.
I just did some testing, looks like husks, (the mob the zombies were) cannot be spawned with spawners unless they are open to sky and in the desert biome, so basically I cannot use husks as enemies. This is only a problem in 1.11, where they changed zombies from using zombie type to using separate entity ids. So now I have to change all the spawners to zombie spawners to fix this. Thank you for telling me.
Hi, I was trying to speedrun Whirling Phenomena so I have studied almost all parts of your map
Here are some suggestions you may/may not found useful:
Disable natural spawning, especially for map after 1.9. This can make a better enemy control for the player to fight with suitable power level mob at proper location. Fighting natural spawned skeletons and witches at the very beginning is just pain in the ass.
Give more food supply at the beginning.
I prefer fighting against few very powerful mob rather than swamped by many relatively weak mobs.
Give reasonable hints for the player where to go and what to do in some dungeon, Good placement of light source can easily fix this.
The rest of the map is fine imo. After fixing the difficulty balance problem this map should be an EPIC !
Thank you for your feedback! I have realized I overreacted when I called the map a failure, and I have decided to make the small changes to the starting areas to make them more bearable.
You weren’t lying about the fall, but to be honest, I wasn’t going to run the risk anyway. If your plan is to lure me into a false sense of security, it might be working. But yeah I was surprised to see the wool down there. This area was tiny compared to the previous ones, but oh well. I’m not going to complain about a small break.
I did bring some dirt back home and made myself a little plantation of potatoes (zambinoes dropped a couple of them). Deepwood Cavern is next. I gotta admit, that’s one impressive water fall, but before going down, I did go up to see where it leads me. Sure enough it was the second intersection. We already talked about what happened; went there, heard guardians, questioned life. In the end, like you said, it was just a long range spawner and they are just killing squids. Minecraft marine life at its best. I’m not going down there. Not only is fighting guardian in the open a pain in the ass, but I’m terrified of deep waters, even in minecraft. No idea where I got this, but yeah. **** the ocean.
After completing my railtrack through the wall and along Surface Blast (I ride along a bedrock wall until I come out in the higher part of Deepwood Cavern), I started to descent into the actual area. Got myself a ton of sapplings and two really nice wooden axes (that’s the kind of loot I was looking for!). The area was very simple if you stay on the rooftops and spam torches as you run around like a mad man.
Now that I have every kind of wood and a ton of bones, wood is not problem anymore. I built a nice looking house that I totally didn’t copy from a youtube video because I suck at building, and I then rode my way back to intersection deux.
First areas are the Sabbia Tombs. The thing with sand areas is that… they really do look the same. Deset with pyramids, I mean… there’s not really anything else I can think of when it comes to desert areas. A deadly oasis or the Sphinx maybe, but it stops there. Oh well. The babyramids contained decent loot, so there’s that. I also can’t wait to see any sign of getting an anvil soon to use the 50 levels I have and the bottles’o enchanting to combine all those bows, it’s gon’ be good.
While doing the big one, I knew this one should be bigger but I didn’t see any way of going down until I looked behind a sarcophagus. Sneaky progress hole is sneaky. I didn’t have any trouble with the rest of the area, but I gotta admit those guardians spawning on uh… immediately dying bats I assume because lighting didn’t do anything (unless guardians don’t care about light level). I have no idea where the spawners were, but I did uncover some uh… skeletons sparners wearing sand-looking clothes, I’m guessing the pyramid guardians. Well uh, they weren’t spawning. At all. So you might want to check into that I suppose.
So now I’m going back to the monument to recover from my trip and take on the next area. Still no signs of those banners you mentioned at the monument though
From my play tests, I was able to farm guardians using leather armor and stone weapons. As long as you use a torch or sign or something, you should be able to the get to the ocean floor no problem. The guardians also have reduced hp from normal ones, so they are a much easier fight. As long as you keep your breath up and block their beams with shields or blocks you should be okay.
The guardians in the lower section of Sabbia tombs are unintended, I found them in my play tests, and got really confused, but then realized what was happening. The only way to fix it would be to move the area around, and that wasn't really an option considering the map layout, and in the end it wasn't that big a deal, so I left it as is. I am not sure what skeleton spawers you are referring to, I just tested, and the spawners on the surface that spawn the sand head skeletons work fine.
Many of the banners are impossible to find unless you found a clue, or a creeper just so happens to blow up the entrance, or maybe if you accidentally yourself into one. Some of them however can be found by finding the visual cue for it. I can guarantee that you will find a banner hint by the end of the map, and from that point it is about interpreting the clues and finding them all.
Yep, I had to look through MC Edit because building a railtrack underwater is... well, it's doable and I think we can agree that it's a pain in the ass.
Oh and one more thing. I can hear a weird sound all over intersection 2. It sounds like guardians but there's none of them around, so I'm assuming it has to do with the intersection being in an ocean biome ?
There is a long range guardian spawner at the bottom of the ocean allowing you to farm shards for the villager trades
Oh I don't mind building a big roller coaster through an area. I actually did one in Fallen MIne as you can see in the screenshot below. I'm a hipster when it comes to railtracks, so I'm not going to go all "Pfft, railways ? That's so pre 1.4". But you said you want us to go through Deepwood Cavern, but that implies that I have to get lucky with coords, or flat out build the railtrack underwater through the big cylinder room linking Deepwood Cavern and Intersection 2, right ?
You should be able to dig a straight path above the water if you go through the tunnel from surface blast, if you look at cords
and I wondered how I'm suppose to connect the railway all the way back to intersection 1 or the monument, because the way your told me to dig leads to the huge cylinder water room.
My original intent was to have the rail be built through the area, or back through deep wood caverns. But now I have realized that is a lot longer than I initially thought. The idea was that you would have t fully secure an area, and build a rail line through it, but looking back on it im not sure how practical it is.
Before going back to the monument, I got the chest that contained a golden pickaxe that was preventing the enitre fleecy box from falling into the lava. Thank god you put that chest there ! I also made my way down the longest of lavafalls if you know which one I mean, Zisteau would be proud. Got a bunch of potions and uh… well some other stuff. Now that I mention it, and hopefully you read this, what is going on with the random loot chests ? In the first map they were really nice, but this time, they are filled with comparators, quartz ore, random fence gates, iron pressure plates… I mean, I’m not complaining by any means (actually yes I am, scratch that, I love good loot), but I’m not a great builder. My first guess was to use it as fuel for the furnace but then I remembered: I’m not suppose to have cobblestone and thus, not suppose to have a furnace. I don’t know man, working my way through spawners to get fence gates doesn’t feel rewarding. I’d like to know what was the thought process behind that please.
Anyway, back on track. Fort Tomber. First impression: seems inspired by the castles in Legendary, right ? Castle Ira, Acedia and some other-ia. I could be wrong though, but I don’t mind it. I played a lot of maps where I had some déjà-vu feeling (Untold Story 1 Goliath took a lot of inspiration from Legendary and Waking Up, or your first map was heavily inspired by Inferno Mines, and I have to say, Fallen Mines is what Inferno Mines should have been. You made it prettier, harder and more fun. My main complaint about Inferno Mines is that you get so much loot for a really easy map. In Fallen Mines, I felt like I actually needed the loot since the map was harder).
All right, since I have a lot of torches now, I feel pretty safe just running in and lighting the whole area up, which I did… mostly. The left-side is still dark, but I got the ladders and the chests in the back secured. And you weren’t kidding, those spawners do have a REALLY short range, like 4 blocks right ?
Time to climb up that uh… brick water heater looking fort. I’m going to keep this short : **** 1.9+ skeletons. All right moving on. Got to the top and encountered the first custom mob in the map (second actually, there was poisoned silverfish in False Silver Floors). After battling for a couple minute trying to put light around the spawner right in front of the ladder, I realised something: there’s a two block gap between me and the wall. Oh well, it’s all right what could possibly go wr-and I died. I had 5 hearts and I was tickling their feet to clear out the area but somehow one of them got me. I fell and died, but at least I didn’t lose anything beside 48 levels of experience and a piece of my ego. *sigh*
The roof cleared, I looked down the deep pit, and there’s what I think is water at the bottom (could be lapis blocks, that would be a good trap, wow I should make maps). If that’s the case then this ACTUALLY is a water-heater after all. Time to go back in False Silver Floors and grab those ladders because even if you aren’t lying with that sign, even if it really is safe to jump, I’m a rebel and I do things my way. Don’t tell me what to do, mom.
Oh and by the way, why is there an underwater tunnel that links Intersection 1 and the monument ? Maybe I’m missing something but what is up with that.
The miscellaneous items are there as extra items, to make the chests not as empty, and to also give things that you cannot get otherwise to build a base if someone wants to. I will probably stop doing that in the future though, from what I can tell now, there are too many of them and they fill too much of the chest, and from what I can tell most people don't care about decorations for their base.
Its funny, when I saw the mine area in spellbound caves way back in 1.2.5, I think from paulsoars jr's LP, I knew I wanted to make a mine themed map, and I ended up wanting to make the map after inferno mines was released, around the 1.6 snapshots when the added hardened clay. Obviously I have no way to prove that, but that is how I got the idea. I also wanted to play with some of the ideas vechs had, and expanded on some, the long range spawners in "A miners start" for example.
The water drop is safe, I am pretty sure when ever I say something proceeded by trust me, I'm not lying.
The tunnel connecting int 1 and the monument is just that, a tunnel, I looked at the two bodies of water and thought a tunnel would be fitting.
All right, so after making myself confortable in the monument (cozy little storage area with a fireplace and stuff, we guchi fam), I went to the intersection to see what monstrosity waits me. I was heartbroken to realise that I missed the white wool from Surface Blast. I have no words to express how much I don’t want to go back there. It’s so bright in here, everything is happy-looking and peaceful… God damn it.
So after running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I actually found the dungeon which is BEHIND the watch tower. I can’t say if it’s because it’s not obvious enough or that I’m just blind and stupid, but anyway. Dungeon was fairly easy to conquer. I actually like this kind of dungeon where you go through corridors and rooms, it feels like the progress I make is rewarding or something.
SO.... Back at the intersection but not before salvaging one more shack for wood. The book said the next wool is in False Silver Floors. Really ? You DO like those silver****s now do you ?
So I realised that this would be a lot easier during day time since the little shits won’t be spawning. Conquered the Vechs-like castles easily (I say Vechs-like castles because he loves to make perfectly shaped boxes with no detail and call it a castle). I then worked my way slowly through the underground part of it. Yo, you might know it… but it’s hard as **** to crit a silverfish. Anyway.
So I died one time trying to do what you didn’t really want us players to do; making a cobblestone generator. I died from… impatience. I was planning to dig down to the lava, and as I was digging slowly by checking every block to make sure they weren’t infested (let’s say, 3/4 down), I said screw this, the blocks seem to be fine. The second, the instant, THE MOMENT I thought that, the next block was a silverfish block, and since I still had a wood pick, didn’t see the difference. The little **** pushed me and I died. I lost 6 enderpearls and the ****ing shield. God damn it.
BUT. I did get the cobblestone generator going, and now I have all the furni I could ever need and STONE WORDS / PICKS / AXES. You did recommend against it, but you know what ? After playing all these maps, I just stick to whatever rule there is at the START of the map, and that’s it. Survive in any way you can think of, amirite ?
I died a second time because I’m stupid and I don’t know how to press shift. I fell into darkness, blocked myself in a hole but to get out, I needed to break some silverfish blocks and… Yeah that’s didn’t work well. By the way, that was a sneaky evil move on your part to put not one, but two spawners on top of the fleecy box. Didn’t get me though.
I’m now going to start Fort Tomber if I remember correctly (Tomber as in Falling in french I’m guessing). I’m ready to assault it, with my stacks upon stacks of torches, stone tools and rotten flesh, though I have to admit on thing. I think it’s the first time that I’m actually scared of a map. The map is not forgiving at all, and I just feel like everything is out to get me.
I'm happy you are still optimistic on the map!
I can't believe you had the patience to make a cobble generator, but props for doing it.
And if the wording in the area order book was unclear I meant that you can play the areas in any order, as each one gives something that the others don't. The areas are only in the order they are because that is the order I built them in.
Your updates are definitely helpful and fun to see.
I want to say outright this map is pretty decent....
That being said it turned pretty near unplayable during the Mossy Cobblestone area. Or as i call it, the ONLY AREA THAT LAGGED OUT MY REALM
I have to ask, why in gods name did you give zombies a sight range of 200 blocks? and why the hell did you give them a spawn range of 4 and then negate that entirely by putting the entity cap of 30? One final thing, WHY DID YOU MAKE IT DETECT PLAYERS 255 BLOCKS AWAY?
It was so bad and so unplayable, we had to actually peaceful the map periods of time to even finish the area! Don't even get me started on the reinforcements!
Also bugs: Creepers with potion effects that last long can explode into lingering variants. Ex: water breathing creeper that explodes gives infinite water breathing.
In the area with all the zombies, I was able to get a stable 60 fps. Granted I have fairly good pc, and I probably underestimated how good an average players pc would be. The main goal for that area was to make zombies a threat and make them surround you in massive hoards. So the area is about dealing with large groups of enemies, blocking them off, lava bucket killing them, using the special slowness/weakness potions from the villagers to get away from them and so on. The idea also was that zombies would flood in from ever corner, so you would need to be on the run. To change the area, I am unsure what I would do. The reinforcements may have been overkill, maybe greatly reduce the amount of zombies, but make them individually tougher (do more damage, move faster, knock back resistance).
For the creepers giving infinite water breathing, that is an unintended side effect of the 1.11 changes, but I decided that I would keep the creepers in and if the player can figure that they can get infinite water breathing then why not, its not like it makes you invincible, and you loose it if you die.
I tried playing the Whirling Phenomena and holy ****. That is frustrating.
At 1st playthrough, I died in the starting area more than 10 times trying to figure out what to do. I broke all the silverfish spawner but ghasts kept blowing up silverfish blocks so at the end my starting area looked like a crater. After I figured out that I have to get the **** out here I reached the victory monument. I scrapped what I could(even from the crossway) but I ran out wood. After that, I couldn't progress. I deleted the map and reinstalled it.
At 2nd playthrough, I just got some magma blocks+flint and steel and rushed to the monument. Still not enough wood, but I can at least make some swords. Ran out again.
You said that this map is not intended to be rushed through, but by approaching slowly, I wasted 2 playthroughs. I don't think rushing through will work either as there are spawners every 5 blocks.
You said that you have to farm but farm what? If you had given me sapling at least I can gather lot of wood and get some armor from spider leathers. Also I could make a mob grinder to get some arrows.
I think the only way to reliably progress is to fish a mending+infinity bow. With unenchanted ones which can take few hours.(Probably run out of wood before that)
Also magma block is not a good light source. Why not glowstone? Or torch?
If you want to make a hard map, make it fair. In most Vechs' maps, he will give you "flak vest" which has projectile protection. Skeletons are too OP for start so it is his way of nerfing them. But that doesn't make his maps too easy as it will break after some time but by the time the player has resources to help themselves.
TL;DR : This map is brutal, savage and not fun. Next time gather some playtesters to test your map.
In my play tests I was able to get through every area without too many issues, Like starting the map and completing false silver floors without dying. I guess the main problem is I knew what strategy to use, and even with that strategy it was challenging as I intended. But from what I can tell going in blind to the starting area makes it nearly impossible.
The idea behind the starting area is you start in the small thing you tp into, then you quickly try to get some wood, and then jump off the edge into the water, make swords/axes, and kill zombies for food, and slowly find your way to the wool and monument.
As far as lighting goes I intended it to be limited. There are a lot of magma blocks, which in my play tests were way more than enough to get through the first intersection. There is also a stack of glowstone and redstone lamps at the monument, and a lot of coal in the back of the open to sky part of false silver floors.
To make the starting area bearable, what kinds of things did you have the biggest problem with? Skeletons are meant to be something you avoid unless you can get them in close quarters or find arrows, so giving a flak vest would defeat the purpose of that. The starting area is very open to allow you to move around skeletons. Maybe honey pots could make the natural spawns lower and reduce skeleton spawns. Other things I can think of: giving more wood, that is easy to access, make one ghast spawn instead of two (though the ghasts never did any thing once I got off the starting platform), reduce the amount of silver fish blocks.
By the way, thank you for your feed back, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me make my map better.
Oh ok, I got scared for a second. What kinds of things did he add.
In play play testing I was able to maintain health with zombie flesh and make wooden tools to get by. Though that is with full knowledge of where all the key places are. I would also imagine needing resources for several people would make the beginning harder.
Hello everyone! I have been working on a new map and it is finally released! You can find the download link on the main post of this thread. The map is a full length CTM called "Whirling Phenomena".
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Due to a lack of feedback in closed beta testing, I have opened the map up to open beta testing. This means that now anyone can download the map and play. The map is winnable and completeable, however I am the only one who has play tested it, so it may be unbalanced in some places. If you play the map, I highly appreciate any and all feedback you have.
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I have been working on a new open world full length map for about 6 months now, and it is finally ready for closed beta testing. As was suggested to me, I am going to keep the map in closed beta testing for now. This means if you would like to play the map and give me your feedback, then please send me a private message and I will give you the download link.
After I get enough feedback, or if after enough time passes without finding closed beta testers, I will open the map to an open beta. At that point, it will still be a beta, but anyone will be able to play it.
The map is called "Isolation", the information about it and screenshots are in the original post.
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I just did some testing, looks like husks, (the mob the zombies were) cannot be spawned with spawners unless they are open to sky and in the desert biome, so basically I cannot use husks as enemies. This is only a problem in 1.11, where they changed zombies from using zombie type to using separate entity ids. So now I have to change all the spawners to zombie spawners to fix this. Thank you for telling me.
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Those are the mummy spawners, husks meant to look like mummies.
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Thank you for your feedback! I have realized I overreacted when I called the map a failure, and I have decided to make the small changes to the starting areas to make them more bearable.
From my play tests, I was able to farm guardians using leather armor and stone weapons. As long as you use a torch or sign or something, you should be able to the get to the ocean floor no problem. The guardians also have reduced hp from normal ones, so they are a much easier fight. As long as you keep your breath up and block their beams with shields or blocks you should be okay.
The guardians in the lower section of Sabbia tombs are unintended, I found them in my play tests, and got really confused, but then realized what was happening. The only way to fix it would be to move the area around, and that wasn't really an option considering the map layout, and in the end it wasn't that big a deal, so I left it as is. I am not sure what skeleton spawers you are referring to, I just tested, and the spawners on the surface that spawn the sand head skeletons work fine.
Many of the banners are impossible to find unless you found a clue, or a creeper just so happens to blow up the entrance, or maybe if you accidentally yourself into one. Some of them however can be found by finding the visual cue for it. I can guarantee that you will find a banner hint by the end of the map, and from that point it is about interpreting the clues and finding them all.
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There is a long range guardian spawner at the bottom of the ocean allowing you to farm shards for the villager trades
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You should be able to dig a straight path above the water if you go through the tunnel from surface blast, if you look at cords
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My original intent was to have the rail be built through the area, or back through deep wood caverns. But now I have realized that is a lot longer than I initially thought. The idea was that you would have t fully secure an area, and build a rail line through it, but looking back on it im not sure how practical it is.
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The miscellaneous items are there as extra items, to make the chests not as empty, and to also give things that you cannot get otherwise to build a base if someone wants to. I will probably stop doing that in the future though, from what I can tell now, there are too many of them and they fill too much of the chest, and from what I can tell most people don't care about decorations for their base.
Its funny, when I saw the mine area in spellbound caves way back in 1.2.5, I think from paulsoars jr's LP, I knew I wanted to make a mine themed map, and I ended up wanting to make the map after inferno mines was released, around the 1.6 snapshots when the added hardened clay. Obviously I have no way to prove that, but that is how I got the idea. I also wanted to play with some of the ideas vechs had, and expanded on some, the long range spawners in "A miners start" for example.
The water drop is safe, I am pretty sure when ever I say something proceeded by trust me, I'm not lying.
The tunnel connecting int 1 and the monument is just that, a tunnel, I looked at the two bodies of water and thought a tunnel would be fitting.
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I'm happy you are still optimistic on the map!
I can't believe you had the patience to make a cobble generator, but props for doing it.
And if the wording in the area order book was unclear I meant that you can play the areas in any order, as each one gives something that the others don't. The areas are only in the order they are because that is the order I built them in.
Your updates are definitely helpful and fun to see.
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In the area with all the zombies, I was able to get a stable 60 fps. Granted I have fairly good pc, and I probably underestimated how good an average players pc would be. The main goal for that area was to make zombies a threat and make them surround you in massive hoards. So the area is about dealing with large groups of enemies, blocking them off, lava bucket killing them, using the special slowness/weakness potions from the villagers to get away from them and so on. The idea also was that zombies would flood in from ever corner, so you would need to be on the run. To change the area, I am unsure what I would do. The reinforcements may have been overkill, maybe greatly reduce the amount of zombies, but make them individually tougher (do more damage, move faster, knock back resistance).
For the creepers giving infinite water breathing, that is an unintended side effect of the 1.11 changes, but I decided that I would keep the creepers in and if the player can figure that they can get infinite water breathing then why not, its not like it makes you invincible, and you loose it if you die.
In my play tests I was able to get through every area without too many issues, Like starting the map and completing false silver floors without dying. I guess the main problem is I knew what strategy to use, and even with that strategy it was challenging as I intended. But from what I can tell going in blind to the starting area makes it nearly impossible.
The idea behind the starting area is you start in the small thing you tp into, then you quickly try to get some wood, and then jump off the edge into the water, make swords/axes, and kill zombies for food, and slowly find your way to the wool and monument.
As far as lighting goes I intended it to be limited. There are a lot of magma blocks, which in my play tests were way more than enough to get through the first intersection. There is also a stack of glowstone and redstone lamps at the monument, and a lot of coal in the back of the open to sky part of false silver floors.
To make the starting area bearable, what kinds of things did you have the biggest problem with? Skeletons are meant to be something you avoid unless you can get them in close quarters or find arrows, so giving a flak vest would defeat the purpose of that. The starting area is very open to allow you to move around skeletons. Maybe honey pots could make the natural spawns lower and reduce skeleton spawns. Other things I can think of: giving more wood, that is easy to access, make one ghast spawn instead of two (though the ghasts never did any thing once I got off the starting platform), reduce the amount of silver fish blocks.
By the way, thank you for your feed back, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me make my map better.
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I really like these videos! Glad you are enjoying the map!
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Oh ok, I got scared for a second. What kinds of things did he add.
In play play testing I was able to maintain health with zombie flesh and make wooden tools to get by. Though that is with full knowledge of where all the key places are. I would also imagine needing resources for several people would make the beginning harder.
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Do you mean he released an edited version of my map? And yes I would like to see the screenshots
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Hello everyone! I have been working on a new map and it is finally released! You can find the download link on the main post of this thread. The map is a full length CTM called "Whirling Phenomena".