The Forest of Silence was a decent puzzle/adventure map that will keep you entertained, but not fully satisfied. The map has some good features to it, as well as many flaws. Read on to find out exactly what this map is all about.
Alright, some of the good things. This map has one of the better checkpoint systems. Checkpoints are clearly marked, and are spaced apart perfectly. You will still be unhappy if you die, but it won't take you years to get back on track. This map has a couple interesting puzzles, though the majority are repetitive (more on that later). I especially liked the spleef challenge, I found it to be unique, and quite fun, even though I died about 5 times on it. Another good thing was the architecture. Especially in the town, I found that no two houses were the same.
Now to some of the not so great things. Many of the puzzles were either parkour, or mazes. Neither of these should be used in high quantity in a puzzle/adventure map. They are just too repetitive and unoriginal. Many of these puzzles were also either too easy or too hard, and had very little consistent difficulty progression. Not having good puzzles in a puzzle/adventure map, leaves only the adventure side of things to critique.
The story in The Forest of Silence was pretty good, though at times, a bit hard to comprehend. I found it to be a bit of back-and-forth between puzzle with little story, and adventure with lots of story. This inconsistency lowered the total score of the map. It would have been better if the map had more of a merge between puzzle and adventure. Adding the nether into the mix was an interesting idea, and was fairly interesting.
Overall, this map is good if you are a fan of puzzle and adventure maps. If you can't stand parkour and mazes, this map may not be the best for you. I recommend checking this map out.
Bugs/tips
-Too many golden apples! Do not hand out golden apples for no reason, you are supposed to be looking for the one and only golden apple, so do not just hand out golden apples at random puzzles. It is not consistent with the story.
-Make it so that you can not leave the map. Add fences or trees along the side of places you are not supposed to go.
-Hide your redstone, and if possible your pistons. It ruins the magic if you can see the wiring.
Thank you *very* much for that excellent review!
I've started working on my next patch, and in that I'm actually making a point to remove the straight parkour and most of the mazes to try and balance that out again. I've been playing with a few old-school puzzles, and working on inventing a few for myself, and plan to try and implement them around to map to increase the puzzle side, and include more of the story in the first place.
I had some ideas for a 'history' based story set of puzzles, but ended up scrapping it, however, I've got a few puzzles from that that still would be usable. I've been considering an archery puzzle, and had some cool ideas, though I did find that Dispensers aren't pushable with pistons, which sadly ruined one thought. I had a few others though, and if I make 'em work, I'll likely replace, or add on to, the map by adding these in either before the Underwater Maze, or after the forest parkour.
Another thought was modifying the Top-of-Tree maze into something else, but I'm still trying to work out what to do with that one.
One thing I am curious about. In your classification, do you consider the Dark Forest combat area a maze? If so, any thoughts on how to make it feel less mazey?
Now for the bugs/tips section:
Golden Apples have been removed in my copy, and will be removed officially soon. I updated day of 1.8, as it was unclear how food works, and Golden Apples seemed to be the only food that healed quickly. I'm changing it to just Pork for 1.5, or possible back to Mushroom Stew.
Second one has been patched in full. Had to go crazy with sprint-testing though. It'll be in the next patch.
Tnanks for that last one. I can immediately think of the areas you mention, and for some reason never did that.
Thanks again very much. I'll be taking your feedback deeply into consideration for the next patch!
I've started working on my next patch, and in that I'm actually making a point to remove the straight parkour and most of the mazes to try and balance that out again. I've been playing with a few old-school puzzles, and working on inventing a few for myself, and plan to try and implement them around to map to increase the puzzle side, and include more of the story in the first place.
I had some ideas for a 'history' based story set of puzzles, but ended up scrapping it, however, I've got a few puzzles from that that still would be usable. I've been considering an archery puzzle, and had some cool ideas, though I did find that Dispensers aren't pushable with pistons, which sadly ruined one thought. I had a few others though, and if I make 'em work, I'll likely replace, or add on to, the map by adding these in either before the Underwater Maze, or after the forest parkour.
Another thought was modifying the Top-of-Tree maze into something else, but I'm still trying to work out what to do with that one.
One thing I am curious about. In your classification, do you consider the Dark Forest combat area a maze? If so, any thoughts on how to make it feel less mazey?
Now for the bugs/tips section:
Golden Apples have been removed in my copy, and will be removed officially soon. I updated day of 1.8, as it was unclear how food works, and Golden Apples seemed to be the only food that healed quickly. I'm changing it to just Pork for 1.5, or possible back to Mushroom Stew.
Second one has been patched in full. Had to go crazy with sprint-testing though. It'll be in the next patch.
Tnanks for that last one. I can immediately think of the areas you mention, and for some reason never did that.
Thanks again very much. I'll be taking your feedback deeply into consideration for the next patch!
Wow! Thanks for responding with such enthusiasm. I am always happy to hear back from the people I have reviewed. It is good to see you are working on improving the map! As for the dark forest, I think it really is a hybrid. It is completely your choice what you would want to do with that one. I think it could go either way. It is good you are taking my tips into account, it is people like you who really make me want to keep reviewing.
Thanks again for being such a good sport about about it. I am glad I could help!
The first time I saw this map I thought "The Devil's Lunch Break, I wonder what that map is about". Turns out the story is about how the devil is on his lunch break, and wants to mess with someone who recently died, giving them cruel challenges to complete. I thought this story was pretty cool for a puzzle map. It certainly beats the unoriginal, "Someone kidnapped you and you need to escape." So far so good, but there are plenty of problems with this map. Read on.
I have always enjoyed cruel challenges and tricks, so this map certainly pleased me in that aspect. There were plenty of unfair ways to die, and you sometimes had to choose between losing your life, or getting a better score. Those kind of self conflicts are always good, and help raise the intensity of the map. The atmosphere is pretty good as well. With the Nether added to Minecraft, it is not hard to re-create hell. Saying that, the creator still did a good job with it.
So why did this map get a 5.4? So far it seems pretty good. This map was lacking in a vital category, puzzles. It is a puzzle map after all, so this is a pretty important category. Most of the puzzles were either too easy, too repetitive, too boring or too unoriginal. Let me give a couple of examples. There is way too much parkour, and also too many mazes. These puzzles are very unoriginal, and are not very exciting. Then you have math. Yes I said math. If you do not get the right answer to an algebra question then you die. The last thing I want to do while playing a Minecraft map, is pull out a pencil and paper and do algebra. This is also a bad idea for another reason. What about the younger players who haven't even learnt algebra at that level? The math concept is an idea I would completely remove from the map. There are many other examples of puzzles that should be improved or be scrapped, but this paragraph is big enough as is. My general advice for the creator would be to replace a couple of the puzzles with more unique, exciting ones.
Overall, The Devil's Lunch Break is a short, but interesting map, that could use some improvement. If you like puzzle maps, I recommend checking this map out.
Bugs/tips
-There are some typos in the rules and story.
-Don't make stone breakable. Make it something else that you can easily break without a pick. right now it is too time consuming.
-The arrow rooms cause some serious lag. Not sure what the fix for this is, I just thought I should let you know.
Username(creator): Deathline75E3
Map Name: Trust & Faith
Forum Link: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/604746-puzadv-wip-trust-faith-v221-by-deathline75e3-181/
Requirements(mods,texture packs,ect.): None. =)
Additional Info(optional): The map may get difficult at some point, I tested it out myself. And there are parts which you will actually need to cheat (At DaikiSpamzxc's chamber) but nevertheless, please help me!
Thanks for the review! And a little edit : THE MAP IS NOT A PUZZLE MAP! :biggrin.gif: We are making a chapter 2 of the map series and we will make it much better. Also one more thing - this was our first map , our first attempt of making adv maps! Thanks again for your wonderful review! :smile.gif:
If you are saying that your map was an adventure map, you would be wrong. Just because it has a story does not make it an adventure map. Your map is definitely a puzzle, so I rated it like one. :tongue.gif: I am glad to help, thanks for replying!
Username(creator): Deathline75E3
Map Name: Trust & Faith
Forum Link: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/604746-puzadv-wip-trust-faith-v221-by-deathline75e3-181/
Requirements(mods,texture packs,ect.): None. =)
Additional Info(optional): The map may get difficult at some point, I tested it out myself. And there are parts which you will actually need to cheat (At DaikiSpamzxc's chamber) but nevertheless, please help me!
Username(creator): Malieux
Map Name: Wipeout
Forum Link: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/499112-puzzel-wipeout/
Requirements(mods,texture packs,ect.): nothing, just pure MC
Additional Info(optional): This map was called 'Escapecraft: Wipeout' but I did't want to suggest that I may be somehow connected with legendary Escapecraft series.
Username: Domportera
Map Name: Goldmine
Forum Link: signature
Requirements: a copy of minecraft:P
Additional info: It's a tad difficult, try not to rage quit :smile.gif:
Username: Domportera
Map Name: Goldmine
Forum Link: signature
Requirements: a copy of minecraft:P
Additional info: It's a tad difficult, try not to rage quit :smile.gif:
Ok, I added you to the list. Starting Escape the Puzzlemaster now.
Escape the Puzzlemaster was a good puzzle map with some interesting puzzles and some not-so interesting puzzles. This was an enjoyable map to play through, with nothing that really blew my mind, nor anything thing that really stood out as a big problem. Lets begin.
You start out in a room with a crazy person telling you that you are a test subject and you need to escape. Sound familiar? I bet it does. The story is not very original, but the signs along the map are fairly well done, but adding a couple more cruel signs along the way wouldn't have hurt. Unfortunately, I have seen too many of these maps, so I wasn't very many motivated to escape.
The puzzles averaged out to be pretty good. Some of the puzzles were fairly unique, while others were either unoriginal or boring. There is some parkour and a maze, but they both had a bit of a twist to each of them, so they didn't feel too unoriginal. Then there was a puzzle where you had to run up and down a hallway, trying to pull levers which open doors to more levers. Thank god for sprint, because if It would have been a pain to walk up and down that hallway for that long. The map was honestly quite boring, I think the creator should replace it with a more unique puzzle. The other puzzles were fun, but nothing that will make your brain hurt.
Overall, this map is pretty good, but definitely could be better if a couple more unique, and possibly more difficult puzzles were added. I recommend this map to anyone who is looking for a well polished puzzle map that is not too hard, or too long.
Bugs/Tips
-There is a fair amount of redstone, including one repeater, that should be hidden in the soul sand race.
This map has a lot of potential, and there was a good amount of effort shown. Unfortunately, a couple of things made this map just "good" instead of "great". Lets go over why this map got the score that it did.
Well, lets start with the architecture. There was some great architecture in this map. Many of the buildings had good exterior and interior design. It was clear that the creator took great care in the planning and execution of the buildings. The buildings fell short in one area, however. Most structures in the main town had nothing in the chests. They also had no imaginary npcs, which definitely affected the story. Which brings us to a big negative to the map, the story.
The story was extremely bland at first. You are supposed to get a jukebox from the other side of the lake, to spice up the interior of your restaurant. Exciting? Not really. So you get out of your restaurant, and head down to the town. There are plenty of houses, that all look pretty good, and have a couple interesting signs. Other than that though, there is almost no point to even look in the shops and houses. There is no nps, and nothing in the chests. There is nothing in the town that really strengthens the story, or even gives you an idea of where to go next. Ideas on how to make this more interesting can be found in the bugs/tips section.
The only clue you are given is, to quote the story intro, "You've been sent by your boss on an epic quest to grab a jukebox from that old abandoned courtyard across the lake". Old what? Where? These were the kind of questions I was asking myself. The only thing I could think of doing was to head out across the lake. But what part of the lake, and how far? I had to do some serious searching before I figured out what side I was supposed to exit from. I realize some people would have figured out what side to leave from almost immediately, but I was not one of them. My suggestion to the creator, would be to make this clearer.
After you make it to the other side, things start to get interesting. I don't want to ruin anything, but trust me, it gets better. The story gets improves, you actually get to do some puzzles, and even the architecture looks even better than it did before. It was quite a weird transition though, and left me feeling a little confused.
Overall, this map has plenty of room for improvement, but does will entertain you if you can get through the first half. With some serious fixes to the story as well as making it easier to cross the lake, it would be a lot better. I would recommend checking this map out, and if a solid update comes out, downloading.
Bugs/tips
-CHANGE THE NAME! Fetch Quest is a super boring and uninteresting name. Change it and I could see plenty more downloads in your future.
-Add npcs, with names, into the houses. It would make walking through the town that much better.
-Put items in the chest! It doesn't have to be much, or of any use, but it would give the player another excuse to explore the town.
-Add a scoring system? This one is your choice. Just note that it would give you something else to put into the town, and would make exploring that much better.
-There is a typo in the house behind Jain Mitch's house. It is on the second sign.
Thank you for your review. Many of the points you have mentioned will be corrected with the next version of the map. The official release of villager NPCs will certainly help with the empty village issue.
You mentioned also a lack of direction when beginning the map. It seems that I will need to clarify the importance of looking through the items in the chest next to your spawn point, as about half of my reviewers have seemed to overlook the note from the owner of the restaurant in the form of an in-game map modified to display text. Checking a provided map is apparently not as intuitive as I had hoped it would be, and a notification of some sort will be added to a sign in the spawn area.
Again, thank you for your review and feedback. It has been added to the Fetch Quest topic page and is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your review. Many of the points you have mentioned will be corrected with the next version of the map. The official release of villager NPCs will certainly help with the empty village issue.
You mentioned also a lack of direction when beginning the map. It seems that I will need to clarify the importance of looking through the items in the chest next to your spawn point, as about half of my reviewers have seemed to overlook the note from the owner of the restaurant in the form of an in-game map modified to display text. Checking a provided map is apparently not as intuitive as I had hoped it would be, and a notification of some sort will be added to a sign in the spawn area.
Again, thank you for your review and feedback. It has been added to the Fetch Quest topic page and is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for replying. Just a note, I did actually read the map. I just found it confusing on which direction to go. Its good you are fixing up some of the things I have pointed out. Thanks again for replying!
Username(creator): OrcMaster419
Map Name: [Adv] The Cure
Forum Link: The Cure
Requirements(mods,texture packs,ect.): None at all, though I always suggest to use SSP Commands, minecraft related issues
Additional Info(optional): You can look at the walk through if you get stuck or dont know where to go, also please notify me when its done (pm me or post on the thread)
Sorry for any spelling mistakes, if you would please tell me what you find :biggrin.gif:
Username(creator):Jvample
Map Name:RUN BOY RUN
Forum Link: In signature
Requirements(mods,texture packs,ect.):Texture pack in site. Not required but play with it to look nicer
Additional Info(optional): Three maps. First is reworked. Second is just released. Third is a just released demo
Username(creator): eshancowee (And friends)
Map Name:Meteor Mash
Forum Link:signature
Requirements(mods,texture packs,ect.):nothing :biggrin.gif:
Additional Info(optional):first map so all this feedback helps and its been getting 8-9/10 reviews so i would lovve your opinion
Thank you *very* much for that excellent review!
I've started working on my next patch, and in that I'm actually making a point to remove the straight parkour and most of the mazes to try and balance that out again. I've been playing with a few old-school puzzles, and working on inventing a few for myself, and plan to try and implement them around to map to increase the puzzle side, and include more of the story in the first place.
I had some ideas for a 'history' based story set of puzzles, but ended up scrapping it, however, I've got a few puzzles from that that still would be usable. I've been considering an archery puzzle, and had some cool ideas, though I did find that Dispensers aren't pushable with pistons, which sadly ruined one thought. I had a few others though, and if I make 'em work, I'll likely replace, or add on to, the map by adding these in either before the Underwater Maze, or after the forest parkour.
Another thought was modifying the Top-of-Tree maze into something else, but I'm still trying to work out what to do with that one.
One thing I am curious about. In your classification, do you consider the Dark Forest combat area a maze? If so, any thoughts on how to make it feel less mazey?
Now for the bugs/tips section:
Golden Apples have been removed in my copy, and will be removed officially soon. I updated day of 1.8, as it was unclear how food works, and Golden Apples seemed to be the only food that healed quickly. I'm changing it to just Pork for 1.5, or possible back to Mushroom Stew.
Second one has been patched in full. Had to go crazy with sprint-testing though. It'll be in the next patch.
Tnanks for that last one. I can immediately think of the areas you mention, and for some reason never did that.
Thanks again very much. I'll be taking your feedback deeply into consideration for the next patch!
-Ian
Wow! Thanks for responding with such enthusiasm. I am always happy to hear back from the people I have reviewed. It is good to see you are working on improving the map! As for the dark forest, I think it really is a hybrid. It is completely your choice what you would want to do with that one. I think it could go either way. It is good you are taking my tips into account, it is people like you who really make me want to keep reviewing.
Thanks again for being such a good sport about about it. I am glad I could help!
The first time I saw this map I thought "The Devil's Lunch Break, I wonder what that map is about". Turns out the story is about how the devil is on his lunch break, and wants to mess with someone who recently died, giving them cruel challenges to complete. I thought this story was pretty cool for a puzzle map. It certainly beats the unoriginal, "Someone kidnapped you and you need to escape." So far so good, but there are plenty of problems with this map. Read on.
I have always enjoyed cruel challenges and tricks, so this map certainly pleased me in that aspect. There were plenty of unfair ways to die, and you sometimes had to choose between losing your life, or getting a better score. Those kind of self conflicts are always good, and help raise the intensity of the map. The atmosphere is pretty good as well. With the Nether added to Minecraft, it is not hard to re-create hell. Saying that, the creator still did a good job with it.
So why did this map get a 5.4? So far it seems pretty good. This map was lacking in a vital category, puzzles. It is a puzzle map after all, so this is a pretty important category. Most of the puzzles were either too easy, too repetitive, too boring or too unoriginal. Let me give a couple of examples. There is way too much parkour, and also too many mazes. These puzzles are very unoriginal, and are not very exciting. Then you have math. Yes I said math. If you do not get the right answer to an algebra question then you die. The last thing I want to do while playing a Minecraft map, is pull out a pencil and paper and do algebra. This is also a bad idea for another reason. What about the younger players who haven't even learnt algebra at that level? The math concept is an idea I would completely remove from the map. There are many other examples of puzzles that should be improved or be scrapped, but this paragraph is big enough as is. My general advice for the creator would be to replace a couple of the puzzles with more unique, exciting ones.
Overall, The Devil's Lunch Break is a short, but interesting map, that could use some improvement. If you like puzzle maps, I recommend checking this map out.
Bugs/tips
-There are some typos in the rules and story.
-Don't make stone breakable. Make it something else that you can easily break without a pick. right now it is too time consuming.
-The arrow rooms cause some serious lag. Not sure what the fix for this is, I just thought I should let you know.
Username(creator): Deathline75E3
Map Name: Trust & Faith
Forum Link: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/604746-puzadv-wip-trust-faith-v221-by-deathline75e3-181/
Requirements(mods,texture packs,ect.): None. =)
Additional Info(optional): The map may get difficult at some point, I tested it out myself. And there are parts which you will actually need to cheat (At DaikiSpamzxc's chamber) but nevertheless, please help me!
Thx.
If you are saying that your map was an adventure map, you would be wrong. Just because it has a story does not make it an adventure map. Your map is definitely a puzzle, so I rated it like one. :tongue.gif: I am glad to help, thanks for replying!
added to the waiting list.
Alright, I added you to the waiting list.
Map Name: Goldmine
Forum Link: signature
Requirements: a copy of minecraft:P
Additional info: It's a tad difficult, try not to rage quit :smile.gif:
Ok, I added you to the list. Starting Escape the Puzzlemaster now.
Escape the Puzzlemaster was a good puzzle map with some interesting puzzles and some not-so interesting puzzles. This was an enjoyable map to play through, with nothing that really blew my mind, nor anything thing that really stood out as a big problem. Lets begin.
You start out in a room with a crazy person telling you that you are a test subject and you need to escape. Sound familiar? I bet it does. The story is not very original, but the signs along the map are fairly well done, but adding a couple more cruel signs along the way wouldn't have hurt. Unfortunately, I have seen too many of these maps, so I wasn't very many motivated to escape.
The puzzles averaged out to be pretty good. Some of the puzzles were fairly unique, while others were either unoriginal or boring. There is some parkour and a maze, but they both had a bit of a twist to each of them, so they didn't feel too unoriginal. Then there was a puzzle where you had to run up and down a hallway, trying to pull levers which open doors to more levers. Thank god for sprint, because if It would have been a pain to walk up and down that hallway for that long. The map was honestly quite boring, I think the creator should replace it with a more unique puzzle. The other puzzles were fun, but nothing that will make your brain hurt.
Overall, this map is pretty good, but definitely could be better if a couple more unique, and possibly more difficult puzzles were added. I recommend this map to anyone who is looking for a well polished puzzle map that is not too hard, or too long.
Bugs/Tips
-There is a fair amount of redstone, including one repeater, that should be hidden in the soul sand race.
This map has a lot of potential, and there was a good amount of effort shown. Unfortunately, a couple of things made this map just "good" instead of "great". Lets go over why this map got the score that it did.
Well, lets start with the architecture. There was some great architecture in this map. Many of the buildings had good exterior and interior design. It was clear that the creator took great care in the planning and execution of the buildings. The buildings fell short in one area, however. Most structures in the main town had nothing in the chests. They also had no imaginary npcs, which definitely affected the story. Which brings us to a big negative to the map, the story.
The story was extremely bland at first. You are supposed to get a jukebox from the other side of the lake, to spice up the interior of your restaurant. Exciting? Not really. So you get out of your restaurant, and head down to the town. There are plenty of houses, that all look pretty good, and have a couple interesting signs. Other than that though, there is almost no point to even look in the shops and houses. There is no nps, and nothing in the chests. There is nothing in the town that really strengthens the story, or even gives you an idea of where to go next. Ideas on how to make this more interesting can be found in the bugs/tips section.
The only clue you are given is, to quote the story intro, "You've been sent by your boss on an epic quest to grab a jukebox from that old abandoned courtyard across the lake". Old what? Where? These were the kind of questions I was asking myself. The only thing I could think of doing was to head out across the lake. But what part of the lake, and how far? I had to do some serious searching before I figured out what side I was supposed to exit from. I realize some people would have figured out what side to leave from almost immediately, but I was not one of them. My suggestion to the creator, would be to make this clearer.
After you make it to the other side, things start to get interesting. I don't want to ruin anything, but trust me, it gets better. The story gets improves, you actually get to do some puzzles, and even the architecture looks even better than it did before. It was quite a weird transition though, and left me feeling a little confused.
Overall, this map has plenty of room for improvement, but does will entertain you if you can get through the first half. With some serious fixes to the story as well as making it easier to cross the lake, it would be a lot better. I would recommend checking this map out, and if a solid update comes out, downloading.
Bugs/tips
-CHANGE THE NAME! Fetch Quest is a super boring and uninteresting name. Change it and I could see plenty more downloads in your future.
-Add npcs, with names, into the houses. It would make walking through the town that much better.
-Put items in the chest! It doesn't have to be much, or of any use, but it would give the player another excuse to explore the town.
-Add a scoring system? This one is your choice. Just note that it would give you something else to put into the town, and would make exploring that much better.
-There is a typo in the house behind Jain Mitch's house. It is on the second sign.
Added to the list
You mentioned also a lack of direction when beginning the map. It seems that I will need to clarify the importance of looking through the items in the chest next to your spawn point, as about half of my reviewers have seemed to overlook the note from the owner of the restaurant in the form of an in-game map modified to display text. Checking a provided map is apparently not as intuitive as I had hoped it would be, and a notification of some sort will be added to a sign in the spawn area.
Again, thank you for your review and feedback. It has been added to the Fetch Quest topic page and is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for replying. Just a note, I did actually read the map. I just found it confusing on which direction to go. Its good you are fixing up some of the things I have pointed out. Thanks again for replying!
Map Name: [Adv] The Cure
Forum Link: The Cure
Requirements(mods,texture packs,ect.): None at all, though I always suggest to use SSP Commands, minecraft related issues
Additional Info(optional): You can look at the walk through if you get stuck or dont know where to go, also please notify me when its done (pm me or post on the thread)
Sorry for any spelling mistakes, if you would please tell me what you find :biggrin.gif:
Map Name:RUN BOY RUN
Forum Link: In signature
Requirements(mods,texture packs,ect.):Texture pack in site. Not required but play with it to look nicer
Additional Info(optional): Three maps. First is reworked. Second is just released. Third is a just released demo
Added to the list.