On the contrary: Just a day or two ago, we finally got one of the last areas that we've been waiting on before we could compile the entire map and start working on balancing and testing it. So... it's coming. Soon. I promise.
I propose a bit of a challenge to the CTM map makers out there. How would you guys like to create a map made in 1.8, but having the feel of a vintage super hostile of old? No custom mobs, no custom items...no enchantments. It'd be interesting to see if someone could create a mini CTM based around these limitations. If I recall correctly there was a period a few versions ago when people did this, but it's been forever since someone made a good 'raw' CTM.
It wasn't necessarily my intention, but people have told me that my Strawberry Jam #7 map ("Cloudhome") had a very "classic Super Hostile" feel. Of course, being a jam map, it was incredibly unbalanced (in the direction of "way too easy"), but I'm actually really proud of it.
I think we should all just wait until 1.9 is balanced before we start making maps for it... and I'm not saying this in a "Mojang's attempts at balancing have been terrible" sense, I mean that in a quite literal "they haven't put any effort into balancing yet" sense.
1. Ragecraft 2. Not a surprise. Probably the best execution of the design philosophy that CTMs have evolved into.
2. Spellbound Caves, which really is the map that began the aforementioned change in philosophy: the clear presentation of the "fun path", and the desire to make it actually fun.
3. Waking Up. It was when this was made that Vechs was at the top of his game.
4. Kaizo Caverns, the actual first CTM. No doubt here.
5. Vinyl Fantasy 2, one of the first famous non-Vechs CTMs.
6. Pantheon; despite its many shortcomings, it gave us all so much to learn from.
7. Uncharted Territories 2. No, not 3. I mean UT2. Undeniably influential in the change of the CTM community from a group of players to a group of creators.
This map reminded me of old Vechs maps. There was some sort of nostalgic feeling to it and I like that. Anyways, this map was good, but it was really short (I finished it in 20 minutes or so) and easy.
Yeah, I've been getting the "short and easy" from a bunch of people, but I like it this way. I might come back to it sometime and rebalance it, but I might not. Oh, and it's definitely short; my best time is, like, 1 minute 19 seconds.
Caught in the middle of a massive lightning storm while piloting your airship, you desperately seek refuge... and discover the abandoned outpost of Cloudhome. Legends are numerous, but nobody knows for sure why it's completely deserted. Soon, you'll find out that it's not as empty as you thought...
Important notes:
- I actually finished this yesterday, but due to terrible internet I was unable to upload it.
- Natural spawns are disabled - it helps immensely with balancing purposes.
- Mobgriefing is disabled - the map is a bit compact, and rather than give up using creepers, I decided to do this.
- Due to how tightly packed the areas are, I recommend not digging through too many walls in order to keep the experience at its best. Most of the buildings are empty anyway.
- This map has had next to no balancing. Good luck.
- Please don't blame me for the terrible aesthetics. It's tough to make things look good, y'know? Prioritizing is also hard.
So I was originally intending some sort of elaborate time-travel-loop map, but that idea was quickly abandoned and I went with this instead. None of the lore I had come up with fit here, so as a result this map has no lore other than what's in this post. I mean, it's probably atmospheric as heck, but no story to speak of. I feel like the map as a whole is barely adequate, but hey, at least I finished it. What I think will be most interesting about this map is any potential speedruns, so... yeah, go right ahead if you feel like it.
I feel like the core of CTMs is a concrete objective with many viable approaches. Like, CTMs are the only maps where tunnel-ratting is even an option. While anything that isn't "the fun path" seems to be becoming less popular, we should never forget that it should always be an option.
My issue with this is it kills a lot of the community building stuff we do. I'm tempted to try it for this one, but I'm not sure it'd be best.
Well this way it allows people to pay more attention to what other people are doing... We might end up with more people playing other people's maps. When we have a ton of maps all released at once, very few people take the time to play all of them.
World corruption is common in the snapshots as they are unstable and some people might not be able/would be unwilling to use them.
This could mean that some mapmakers can't use the new features and I would have an advantage, but it sticks to the stated, standard rules.
Please explain your point.
I'm also going to say that this wasn't my question. I was asking it on the behalf of Mixinu, who had asked it earlier but hadn't had a reply.
If you use the snapshots, you're just as likely as anyone else to have your world corrupted. Therefore, you're still on even footing with everyone else.
This would work well and please everyone, although it does spread the map releases out.
and just to echo Mixinu's question:
Can we use the snapshots?
Stuff like levitation could be interesting...
So yeah, that discussion about "as long as it's sky islands, 3 objectives per mapmaker, and built in the 72-hour period, it's fine"... that still applies. Use your common sense, everyone! Ask yourself, "could this give me an unfair advantage over another mapmaker?" As long as the answer is "no" you're fine.
So did I mention that 15-17 doesn't work for me? I think I might have mentioned that. If we're going to change the date just because of people complaining in the thread, why did we even do the poll?
I definitely agree with all of this, but I probably just should have been more specific. Those were more of my opinion because I quite like block variation as long as it isn't too distracting (I have fun coming up with finding blocks that work together).
As for the mobs I meant for the map as a whole, having an area that is spider themed doesn't necessarily have to have any custom mobs (Spider's Den from Depths of Irkalla as an example). However I believe that in this day and age of CTM maps fighting endless Creepers, Spiders, Zombies, Skeletons, and the occasional Blaze or Ghast can get very dull, so at some point the map needs custom mobs to spice things up and amp up difficulty.
As for the aesthetics, which I know has been a long debate here, I personally don't have a problem with playing a boxy map as long as it is fun and enjoyable. The problem is you aren't going to be able to rope people in without something to catch their attention. Vechs can pull this off because he was the first person to make a CTM and will always have the most popular maps.
EDIT: Page get!
I guess I agree with this. Block variation is a good idea to avoid making everything look bland and "same-y"; however, if you're going to make an area out of randomized blocks, then for the love of god, use blocks with low contrast. For example, I use a combination of stone and andesite for the majority of my (still not finished >.>) minimap, Pinnacle; my area in Titan's Revolt uses obsidian, black stained clay, and coal blocks. (Yes, this makes gathering coal trivial for the rest of the map. I see this as a good thing; forcing the player to grind excessively for basic materials is not something that I think should happen.) The point is, from a distance, the player probably shouldn't even notice that you're using multiple different blocks. Block variation is something you use to provide texture; variations with a lot of colors of blocks are almost literally painful to look at.
Custom mobs, as of now, are the best way to increase the difficulty of a map without resorting to mob-spam. Vanilla mobs simply aren't dangerous enough for late-game dungeons. It is possible to ramp up the difficulty by using environmental features, but it's hard to pull off in a way that's actually entertaining. I've seen a lot of situations where a dungeon has some sort of environmental gimmick that has just made the area annoying. Vanilla mobs are good enough for early areas, but when there are so many tools for creating custom mobs that it's an easy task, there's very little excuse for not doing so.
I definitely agree with the point about aesthetics; I care very little about how a map looks, and much more about how a map plays. This is why I like (a good number of) Vechs' maps; they may not look great, but they (mostly) play well. Not all people are like me, though, and the general public is not going to be interested if the map doesn't look good. While it's great to have a map that's received well by the community, I don't think anyone is going to deny that we all strive for a bit wider attention, and for that, you need to work on your aesthetics. (Ignore Terra Restore; I think of it as a statistical anomaly.)
EDIT: As Fangride showed in his ninja-post, not all people even within the community are like me. Unless you're deliberately aiming for a "retro" look (which you shouldn't do, please don't do this), you need to at least put in some work on your aesthetics. It doesn't have to look like the most beautiful thing on earth; it just needs to give the impression that you tried your best.
0
I have spring break coming up soon, and I'll have plenty of time to test, so I might guess within the next couple of weeks. Not guaranteed, though.
0
HYYYYYYYYPE so glad we're finally finishing this, it's been sitting mostly-done for too long
2
On the contrary: Just a day or two ago, we finally got one of the last areas that we've been waiting on before we could compile the entire map and start working on balancing and testing it. So... it's coming. Soon. I promise.
0
It wasn't necessarily my intention, but people have told me that my Strawberry Jam #7 map ("Cloudhome") had a very "classic Super Hostile" feel. Of course, being a jam map, it was incredibly unbalanced (in the direction of "way too easy"), but I'm actually really proud of it.
2
I think we should all just wait until 1.9 is balanced before we start making maps for it... and I'm not saying this in a "Mojang's attempts at balancing have been terrible" sense, I mean that in a quite literal "they haven't put any effort into balancing yet" sense.
6
1. Ragecraft 2. Not a surprise. Probably the best execution of the design philosophy that CTMs have evolved into.
2. Spellbound Caves, which really is the map that began the aforementioned change in philosophy: the clear presentation of the "fun path", and the desire to make it actually fun.
3. Waking Up. It was when this was made that Vechs was at the top of his game.
4. Kaizo Caverns, the actual first CTM. No doubt here.
5. Vinyl Fantasy 2, one of the first famous non-Vechs CTMs.
6. Pantheon; despite its many shortcomings, it gave us all so much to learn from.
7. Uncharted Territories 2. No, not 3. I mean UT2. Undeniably influential in the change of the CTM community from a group of players to a group of creators.
0
Yeah, I've been getting the "short and easy" from a bunch of people, but I like it this way. I might come back to it sometime and rebalance it, but I might not. Oh, and it's definitely short; my best time is, like, 1 minute 19 seconds.
0
I basically didn't want creepers blowing a hole between one dungeon and an adjacent one. Because that's how compact this map is.
3
I am proud to present:
Caught in the middle of a massive lightning storm while piloting your airship, you desperately seek refuge... and discover the abandoned outpost of Cloudhome. Legends are numerous, but nobody knows for sure why it's completely deserted. Soon, you'll find out that it's not as empty as you thought...
Important notes:
- I actually finished this yesterday, but due to terrible internet I was unable to upload it.
- Natural spawns are disabled - it helps immensely with balancing purposes.
- Mobgriefing is disabled - the map is a bit compact, and rather than give up using creepers, I decided to do this.
- Due to how tightly packed the areas are, I recommend not digging through too many walls in order to keep the experience at its best. Most of the buildings are empty anyway.
- This map has had next to no balancing. Good luck.
- Please don't blame me for the terrible aesthetics. It's tough to make things look good, y'know? Prioritizing is also hard.
DOWNLOAD Cloudhome v1.0
For MC 1.8.X (really any 1.8 version should work)
So I was originally intending some sort of elaborate time-travel-loop map, but that idea was quickly abandoned and I went with this instead. None of the lore I had come up with fit here, so as a result this map has no lore other than what's in this post. I mean, it's probably atmospheric as heck, but no story to speak of. I feel like the map as a whole is barely adequate, but hey, at least I finished it. What I think will be most interesting about this map is any potential speedruns, so... yeah, go right ahead if you feel like it.
3
I feel like the core of CTMs is a concrete objective with many viable approaches. Like, CTMs are the only maps where tunnel-ratting is even an option. While anything that isn't "the fun path" seems to be becoming less popular, we should never forget that it should always be an option.
0
Well this way it allows people to pay more attention to what other people are doing... We might end up with more people playing other people's maps. When we have a ton of maps all released at once, very few people take the time to play all of them.
0
If you use the snapshots, you're just as likely as anyone else to have your world corrupted. Therefore, you're still on even footing with everyone else.
0
So yeah, that discussion about "as long as it's sky islands, 3 objectives per mapmaker, and built in the 72-hour period, it's fine"... that still applies. Use your common sense, everyone! Ask yourself, "could this give me an unfair advantage over another mapmaker?" As long as the answer is "no" you're fine.
3
So did I mention that 15-17 doesn't work for me? I think I might have mentioned that. If we're going to change the date just because of people complaining in the thread, why did we even do the poll?
0
I guess I agree with this. Block variation is a good idea to avoid making everything look bland and "same-y"; however, if you're going to make an area out of randomized blocks, then for the love of god, use blocks with low contrast. For example, I use a combination of stone and andesite for the majority of my (still not finished >.>) minimap, Pinnacle; my area in Titan's Revolt uses obsidian, black stained clay, and coal blocks. (Yes, this makes gathering coal trivial for the rest of the map. I see this as a good thing; forcing the player to grind excessively for basic materials is not something that I think should happen.) The point is, from a distance, the player probably shouldn't even notice that you're using multiple different blocks. Block variation is something you use to provide texture; variations with a lot of colors of blocks are almost literally painful to look at.
Custom mobs, as of now, are the best way to increase the difficulty of a map without resorting to mob-spam. Vanilla mobs simply aren't dangerous enough for late-game dungeons. It is possible to ramp up the difficulty by using environmental features, but it's hard to pull off in a way that's actually entertaining. I've seen a lot of situations where a dungeon has some sort of environmental gimmick that has just made the area annoying. Vanilla mobs are good enough for early areas, but when there are so many tools for creating custom mobs that it's an easy task, there's very little excuse for not doing so.
I definitely agree with the point about aesthetics; I care very little about how a map looks, and much more about how a map plays. This is why I like (a good number of) Vechs' maps; they may not look great, but they (mostly) play well. Not all people are like me, though, and the general public is not going to be interested if the map doesn't look good. While it's great to have a map that's received well by the community, I don't think anyone is going to deny that we all strive for a bit wider attention, and for that, you need to work on your aesthetics. (Ignore Terra Restore; I think of it as a statistical anomaly.)
EDIT: As Fangride showed in his ninja-post, not all people even within the community are like me. Unless you're deliberately aiming for a "retro" look (which you shouldn't do, please don't do this), you need to at least put in some work on your aesthetics. It doesn't have to look like the most beautiful thing on earth; it just needs to give the impression that you tried your best.