I've been playing through the map, and here is my feedback so far:
Friendly Start and Dark Deep Cave:
I really like this area. It's a good opening, gameplay wise. Aesthetically, it's a little busy. The ice trees, the sand island, the floating diamond things, the lapis blocks. It's very distracting, and it doesn't look the greatest. I loved the Power Digging Tool, (Don't hit right click), and the sign up the waterfall gave me a good chuckle. Dark Deep Cave gave a nice little segway into the intersection, although the area's themes did not mesh well. I'd give this area a 7 for gameplay, and a 4 for aesthetics.
Intersection 1:
The first intersection was quite hectic. I got the "green" theme", but there were so many different block colors it became difficult to look at. The melons gave a nice source of food, and made for easy tunneling to the bottom. The bottom of the intersection felt off from the rest of it. It was more "natural" whereas the rest of the intersection was a giant square. I'm looking forward to iron tools, because I'll be able to get a lot of XP from the emerald ores. All in all, a decent intersection, but could use a lot of improvement.
Brick Forest:
Brick Forest was the first area I went to in the intersection. Upon entering, I was thankful for the bow 'n arrows, they helped me immensely in dealing with the ghasts. I skirted the edge of this area, and bridged onto the roof, where I took out the ghast spawners, and then I headed into the little room and found the enchanting table, where I promptly got BoA 1 on the iron sword. I took the next set of stairs up, and managed to block off the cave spiders before any fell on my head. The wool was a piece of cake from there. I was halfway back across the area when I realized I forgot to take the enchanting table with me, so I ran back right as it was turning night, and blazes spawned on the roof. One shot me off, and I landed with a couple hearts left and on fire, but I got in the water. Then I just ran back to the intersection. I have yet to actually take on the castle. I quite like the look of this area, it's my favorite so far. The brick and the mycelium blend very well together, and the pumpkins make a nice vegetation. I'm not sure how balanced the gameplay in this area would normally be, so I'll give it a 6 for gameplay and a 7 for aesthetics.
The Mossy Halls:
After I got through Brick Forest, I had enchanted leather armor and an iron sword, so I stepped into The Mossy Halls. Right off the bat, this is the kind of area I really enjoy. The dungeon crawl, where you either find loot, monsters, or both. The layout was not particularly complex, and I quickly got the Sword of Legions. This sword is incredible, and made the area a breeze. I kept around all the spawners, just in case I'll ever need a mob trap. From there, conquering the rest of the area and getting to the wool went very smoothly, and I strolled right out. Visually, the place didn't have too much going on. Mossy Cobble walls, with the occasional brick structure. I liked the feel and gameplay of this area, though, balance wise, it was a little easy, though I realize that's intended for this map. Gameplay 7, Aesthetics 5.
Crazy Maze Cave:
Now, this was where stuff started to get interesting. Walking in, I immediately noticed this was another very busy area. Obsidian, glowstone, smooth stone, and cobble, all in a relatively small interlocking set of tunnels. A large amount of fairly obvious MCEdit brushstrokes also detracted from the visual appeal of this area. The area played about as you'd expect. Run in, kill mobs, place torches, repeat. There were quite a few mobs, and here I encountered my first death. Luckily, I'd prepared for it, and recovered my stuff with a fresh set of gear. I was under heavy fire again, but blockaded myself into the railway tunnel to Intersection 2. I haven't completed this area yet, but so far, it hasn't been particularly interesting. I'd say a 4 for gameplay, and a 3 for aesthetics.
Intersection 2:
Once again, it feels like you're trying to have too much going on here. I like the overall shape better than I1, and the color scheme got much better, but you have leaves, vines, wood, glowstone, bedrock, water, lily pads, netherrack, nether brick, and jack-o-lanterns. That many block types in a rough sphere with a radius of 20 just doesn't cut mustard. Given that, I liked the way the blocks meshed together much more than in Intersection 1. In Intersection 1, it was just kind of a cluster of ugliness, that's much improved in this intersection. That being said, there's still room for improvement. I took a quick look into The Tunnel and The Wildwood. I don't have particularly high hopes for The Tunnel, as it seems like a straight, boring tunnel, but I will reserve judgement until I complete the area. The Wildwood was far more visually appealing at first glance. The miniature jungle with the netherrack ceiling was pretty beautiful, and I look forward to taking this on.
Safe Haven:
My first stop at I2 was your subtle ode to Domara, in your Wool Monument room. Once again, you seem to have problems maintaining continuity, even within a small area. The main cavern is very natural looking, and is quite beautiful, and then the side rooms look very manufactured, but still visually appealing. I really appreciate the supplies at the base building area. They took away what would have been a lot of tedious farming, and that's a definite plus. I also now have a wall full of double chests, and another full of furnaces, with paintings scattered all around. Giving the player a chicken farm was a nice touch, even if they don't have seeds yet. All in all, I quite like Safe Haven. I like the gameplay element of giving the player encouragement to build. It's saying, "Here, take a break from adventure, make a nice building". I still don't think it's eligible for a Gameplay score, but it adds a very nice, appreciated touch. I'd also give it a 6 for aesthetics.
Summary:
I'm enjoying this map so far. The gameplay runs smoothly, though some of the areas leave a lot to be desired in the visuals department. I've gotten 2 wool so far, and am eager to continue my hunt for more tomorrow. More review to come!
Dayum, you're fast! Congrats on getting those enderpearls, they're a fairly hard loot box to reach, if I'm remembering the correct one.
Once you figure out the pattern of the Crazy Maze Cave, it really isn't hard at all. I had the wool place and I2 railline place memorized right after I made the area. You just have to have mental directions in your head as you walk through there ("now right, now left, now right") and you should be good.
And if you run through places without placing torches... you are going to love Generic Obligatory Mine Area. < Meheheheheh.
Can't wait to hear your continuing feedback!
Oh believe me, I did love those mines. What was up with the floating mineshafts? Also, here's how I got the ender pearl box.
I used glowstone to bridge above it, then I jumped down and quickly lit things up. Not a scratch on me, but that bedrock hallway with funboxes took quite a while. I have some screenshots for later. Maybe once I'm done I'll post a mini-album and review.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There ain't much left of the world these days. The gods have forsaken us, there's no denying that. But still you press on. For what? A chance to sift through the ashes one last time? The hope to one day be called a hero? Whatever your reason, you've got a lot of work to do. The corruption won't leave without a fight, so you better get started.
I've been waiting to see this map for a long time. Downloading now, probably going to beat it several eternities from now .
:/
Wokay, quick progress update.
So I first logged in to your map, and then I saw the spawn. No offence, but it isn't the most beautiful looking spawn ever, and that is one of the most important parts of the map, aesthetically. The ice and stone blended well, but the general feel of it felt a little off. I think it was the diamonds hovering in the air and the lack of a block which could possibly have blended the ice and stone better, such as ice.
Having gathered up a bunch of materials (thanks for the quick stone pickaxe), the Power Miner and the snowball (quite useless imo, Sharpness 1 is no better than a wood sword) I headed out.
The cave was pretty good and helped pace the progression a bit. Not too many comments here I'm afraid.
The Intersection......very controversial indeed. I like the colour scheme of it, but the textures of the blocks themselves clash too much. Ores and melons don't make for the best textures. Also, the shape of the intersection, a perfect square. I think it is advisable to avoid these types of intersections nowadays, even though it was the norm back then I believe. The melon pattern also seemed very circular and brushtroke-y.
I digress, however. Getting my stuff together and setting up a quick base, I decided to go poke my head into my choices. The Mossy Halls, as its' namesake, is apparently very mossy. Overly mossy. Mossy to the point of being boring. This seemed to me like a stereotypical CTM dungeon (no offence). Perhaps you could have layered the walls with more block choices? Added a pattern? Anything but plain old mossy cobblestone, PLEASE! Gameplay though seems like your typical hack-and-slash. Nothing too wrong with that, although custom zombies may have been fun.
Grabbing the sword and the Tree Kit out of there, I headed back to the intersection and took a peek into the Crazy Maze Cave. As much as I liked the block combination, I think it would have been better in a larger-scale area. Good try though!
The Brick Forest, I'm personally of two minds about this. As much as I like the combination, the area still seemed a little dull, mostly on the walls. Nevertheless, I didn't' care too much as I pushed forward into the castle. Knocked out the creeper spawners, fought my way to the staircase, took out the dispenser by the stairs (what was with that trap? All I found inside was a pig spawner, and that wouldn't have worked due to lack of light and grass), hacked my way up the stairs through cave spiderps and heard some ghasts spawn. Went down, took the chestpiece stole a bed from the quarters and tried ascending the staircase which I had blocked.
Around 8 cave spiders. LOLNOPE. Turned around and RAN. I must say, those brick leaves make for very good cover while being sniped by ghasties. Headed back to base, gathered some melons, and that was the end of my first session.
Overall, I'm enjoying this map quite a bit, even if the aesthetics aren't up to par (you admitted to this yourself I guess). The gameplay is quite enjoyable, however, and I would definitely recommend this map to newbies of CTM.
Also, your map making style reminds me of Xerothomas.
I've cleared out Friendly Start, Mossy Halls, and Brick Forest, working my way through Crazy Maze Cave now. I've died twice: once in Brick Forest when I was surrounded by mobs at night, and once in CMC, when I was trying to get back to the start and was cornered. I'm at my I1 base now, cooking up a few stacks of potatoes (got a lucky drop :3 ), and I'm about to go back into CMC, but before I do that, I think I can give some helpful feedback on the first few areas.
Friendly Start: A nice amount of loot that gets you prepped for the areas ahead. I really liked the look of the ice trees, but something about the fancy brick diamonds seemed... forced. It was like you thought you needed another design element to add to the area and had to think of it fast, so you added those. They also kinda made the area looked cluttered, what with the already cluttered walls (could have done without the cobble).
Mossy Halls: Not much to say about this area. Spent a few minutes getting in and getting out. The latter portion had a nice color palette, but the obvious MCedit brushes looked a bit shoddy. Decent for a White Wool dungeon.
Brick Forest: Coming straight from an area with trees that had ice instead of leaves, replacing these trees with bricks seemed pretty repetitive. The fortress on the other side of the forest could have looked better, I have to say. The challenge inside was really nicely balanced (I've had worries about putting cave spiders early on in my own map, but seeing you put them in the second dungeon of your map takes those worries away > ), and I had a pretty epic battle on top of the roof.
I'll write up my views on Crazy Maze Cave once I've finished it.
Something I don't think you're considering very much is the visual cues you're giving off. When I first saw the cobble on the walls in Friendly Start, I thought there was a secret chest behind it, same with the smooth stone in the Mossy Halls, and the mossy stone bricks at the end of Brick Forest. Just something to consider.
I'm still very much enjoying this map. I'll be back soon with another progress update.
Alrighty, I got through Intersection 02, and for reasons that I'll explain further down, I think I'll be quitting this map for a while.
Crazy Maze Cave: It was okay, the layout was confusing as the name would suggest, but once you found the path to the next intersection it was just a little bland. This area was when I started realizing something; you didn't put a whole lot of thought into the amount of natural spawns that would pop up. By the time I got to the area with the wool box, that entire section of the caves was FILLED with skellies, creepers, zombies, and endermen. There were still some dark areas in the caves where natural spawns could show up, but it was ridiculous what was up there. I got the wool and moved my base to I2.
The Tunnel: Um... This was a concept that I hadn't seen before, but it also really isn't one that works in a CTM map. It was pretty easy, the loot was nice, but it just seemed like a cop-out when you made this area. I wish I could say more positive stuff about this, but there isn't much else to comment on. :/
The Wildwood: This area was aesthetically pleasing, and I liked the challenge of getting up the giant tree, but it felt kinda anti-climatic. I thought the wool was gonna be up there. After a few more minutes of searching, I got the wool without a problem. One thing you could have done better was the loot. From the top of the tree, I could spot at least two loot boxes in plain sight. I got both of them within minutes of each other. With something like that, I expected a micro dungeon or something, marked with glowstone on the wall. Making the map easier by adding more loot doesn't always have to mean putting the loot out in plain sight and saying "come get some!".
Generic Obligatory Mine Area: This is where I quit. Want to know why? Not the cave spiders, I handled them just fine. It was the freaking natural spawns. You see, the further you push into the mine, lighting things up, the more the natural spawn is going to be confined to showing up in a certain area, meaning the area directly in front of you. Right before I got to the lava area, I died after being air-juggled by creepers and skeletons. I was flailing and swinging the axe, but I was surrounded by them. Absolutely nothing I could do. Putting that aside for a minute, this didn't feel like "Generic Obligatory Mine Area". This felt like "Generic Every-sandstone-cave-area-ever". I really hate to say it like that, but it's just what it was. I also didn't get why you felt the need to have two halves of the area. I didn't get very far into the second area, but it looked much better than the first section.
Back to spawn issues, this area didn't feel like you were fighting a fair battle. It felt like you were fighting against an invisible force with infinite stacks of mob spawn eggs, which is not fun. A few well-placed MCedit hollow mob-catcher bubbles would make this area infinitely better, at least on that front. I died twice here; first time I was able to get my stuff back without a problem, second time I heard a second creeper blast after the one the killed me, so I said "Screw it!". I'm partially quitting because of that, and partially because I don't want to be fighting armies of natural spawn.
Uhg. I hate having to write something like that.
If my input means anything to you now, I'd suggest adding spawn catchers to a lot of areas in this map, the one I just went through specifically. I didn't go through any other areas in I3, but my guess is they're fairly well lit with glowstone, meaning higher mob count for GOMA. Taking away some of the glowstone lighting in a lot of areas would definitely help. It will help disperse the mob count evenly over the area, instead of making tight clumps of them appear in the closest dark spot.
If you take all of that into consideration, and release a new version of the map, I'll definitely give it a go. This is by no means a bad map, it just needs some adjustments and attention and it can be much better.
I'm curious, did you play through this map yourself before releasing it?
I'm curious, did you play through this map yourself before releasing it?
We here at the testing side tried to give him feedback about the map being imbalanced and in places too hard for an 'easy' map, but I understand from this post he didn't really listen to that. I assumed v1.1 meant he'd actually taken our criticisms into play, but I guess not.
There's a lot of problems besides balancing as well too, so I think it's safe to say he probably didn't address those either. Hopefully he'll try listening now. Being mopey when someone tells you there are problems and defiant when someone tells you to fix them is not the way to accept criticism, Isaac.
Easy? You say your first map is EASY? Good lord, easy maps don't include a huge fortress with two ghast spawners. By the way, i didn't like your power miner, so I cast it into the fiery bowels of Intersection One.
I must commend you on your placement of spawners. You are good at hiding things.
And where the HELL is the Victory Monument? i've found three wools and no monument.
This is a CTM map. Two ghast spawners should be a cakewalk. Finding three wool before finding the monument is not a big deal either, a mapper will usually try to place it in a central part of the map. For now, keep them safe in a chest.
Easy? You say your first map is EASY? Good lord, easy maps don't include a huge fortress with two ghast spawners. By the way, i didn't like your power miner, so I cast it into the fiery bowels of Intersection One.
I must commend you on your placement of spawners. You are good at hiding things.
And where the HELL is the Victory Monument? i've found three wools and no monument.
This is a CTM map. Two ghast spawners should be a cakewalk. Finding three wool before finding the monument is not a big deal either, a mapper will usually try to place it in a central part of the map. For now, keep them safe in a chest.
Yea, he didn't put the monument in the center of the map.
Monument's in I2. The map has 5 intersections, and a good sized to absolutely masssive straight shot area between each of the latter ones, with no railway shortcut at the end, because isaac thinks it's more fun to walk back through all the areas you conquered with the black wool in hand. It's like, he intentionally forces you to walk through two massive areas and one moderately sized one that are honestly going to be difficult to ensure 100% safety in. It's obnoxious.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
<Whiteblade_> You're a twisted twisted soul Amehtta. <Whiteblade_> Did you know that?
<+Xekaj> ^
First off, thanks for the LP, james! I'll put that in the OP as soon as possible.
There's been so many posts since I logged on last night that I honestly can't respond to all of them. However, it seemed to me (if I can recall) no one really had a dire question. If someone does have a question that I missed, please post it again and I'll try to reply to it as I'm online right now. Thanks especially to wright, that was a very honest and fair review. Yeah, for the comments in general so far, the aesthetics of this first map are very love-it-or-hate-it.
Dragonsrule9, yup, I've played through the map, and I had no spawn issues in there. Honestly, if you're having too much mob trouble with a certain area, feel free to bridge it or tunnel through the wall. Nobody is stopping you.
However, I'll take a look back into that area and see what I can do. Thanks for the honest feedback, and I hope you pick the map up again at some point. (Also, if you're having trouble with one area, I'd recommend going to the Arid Lands. There's a lot of awesome loot in there.)
Red, while I was mopey, I did take your difficulty critiscms into account, actually. Between version 1.0 and 1.1, I added a new pair of enchanted iron boots at I2 and a lot of other new loot. As for your aesthetic critiscms, it's really hard to please everyone in terms of design, and I specifically said that if you download this map, focus moar on gameplay than the aesthetics, because they may not be for you.
As for you, Amehtta, I did take your consideration into account actually, and I am going to be putting in command blocks in I4 and I5 that bring you back to the Monument in v1.2. Hopefully I'll have v1.2 out in a day or so. I understand that walking back through areas may not be for everyone, so I'm not going to force you to do it.
As for your aesthetic critiscms, it's really hard to please everyone in terms of design, and I specifically said that if you download this map, focus moar on gameplay than the aesthetics, because they may not be for you.
Alright, now it's my turn to do some slapping on this point.
It is abundantly obvious that this entire map was made in MCEdit, with no regard for how things might look. Aesthetics aren't the most important thing, but at a certain point... it's really important to take a step back and look at your map. Do you HONESTLY think that all your areas are well built, lacking in obvious brushes, and have good block combinations? Do you try to think about more creative names for... well, everything? At some point in the map you say you are putting in a generic area (ironically, this was one of the better ones) because you are just lazy. That is all I can really say about the map: It's made lazily. You did not work hard on it, and it took you only 3 weeks - a sure sign that you are rushing something. One of the wools was literly just a floating, reskinned nether fortress. Seriously? It would've taken you 15 minutes to make some custom parts and throw them together. Copying natural minecraft is 99% of the time a major no-no.
I didn't actually play the map (heard bad things about the aesthetics and went to check em out) but from what I have seen it looks... fairly well balanced. I can't be sure.
I'm going to go back to playing Legendary now. I wish you luck in improving this map, or making a better one.
So, new rule for everything: Everything must be happy and wonderful about everything ever <3 :3 <3
I still stand by my original statement, though.
Look forward to playing it for myself
INTERSECTION 222!!!Did you put no bookshelves in the Safe Haven on purpose?
It's really irking me. D:
Friendly Start and Dark Deep Cave:
I really like this area. It's a good opening, gameplay wise. Aesthetically, it's a little busy. The ice trees, the sand island, the floating diamond things, the lapis blocks. It's very distracting, and it doesn't look the greatest. I loved the Power Digging Tool, (Don't hit right click), and the sign up the waterfall gave me a good chuckle. Dark Deep Cave gave a nice little segway into the intersection, although the area's themes did not mesh well. I'd give this area a 7 for gameplay, and a 4 for aesthetics.
Brick Forest was the first area I went to in the intersection. Upon entering, I was thankful for the bow 'n arrows, they helped me immensely in dealing with the ghasts. I skirted the edge of this area, and bridged onto the roof, where I took out the ghast spawners, and then I headed into the little room and found the enchanting table, where I promptly got BoA 1 on the iron sword. I took the next set of stairs up, and managed to block off the cave spiders before any fell on my head. The wool was a piece of cake from there. I was halfway back across the area when I realized I forgot to take the enchanting table with me, so I ran back right as it was turning night, and blazes spawned on the roof. One shot me off, and I landed with a couple hearts left and on fire, but I got in the water. Then I just ran back to the intersection. I have yet to actually take on the castle. I quite like the look of this area, it's my favorite so far. The brick and the mycelium blend very well together, and the pumpkins make a nice vegetation. I'm not sure how balanced the gameplay in this area would normally be, so I'll give it a 6 for gameplay and a 7 for aesthetics.
After I got through Brick Forest, I had enchanted leather armor and an iron sword, so I stepped into The Mossy Halls. Right off the bat, this is the kind of area I really enjoy. The dungeon crawl, where you either find loot, monsters, or both. The layout was not particularly complex, and I quickly got the Sword of Legions. This sword is incredible, and made the area a breeze. I kept around all the spawners, just in case I'll ever need a mob trap. From there, conquering the rest of the area and getting to the wool went very smoothly, and I strolled right out. Visually, the place didn't have too much going on. Mossy Cobble walls, with the occasional brick structure. I liked the feel and gameplay of this area, though, balance wise, it was a little easy, though I realize that's intended for this map. Gameplay 7, Aesthetics 5.
Now, this was where stuff started to get interesting. Walking in, I immediately noticed this was another very busy area. Obsidian, glowstone, smooth stone, and cobble, all in a relatively small interlocking set of tunnels. A large amount of fairly obvious MCEdit brushstrokes also detracted from the visual appeal of this area. The area played about as you'd expect. Run in, kill mobs, place torches, repeat. There were quite a few mobs, and here I encountered my first death. Luckily, I'd prepared for it, and recovered my stuff with a fresh set of gear. I was under heavy fire again, but blockaded myself into the railway tunnel to Intersection 2. I haven't completed this area yet, but so far, it hasn't been particularly interesting. I'd say a 4 for gameplay, and a 3 for aesthetics.
Once again, it feels like you're trying to have too much going on here. I like the overall shape better than I1, and the color scheme got much better, but you have leaves, vines, wood, glowstone, bedrock, water, lily pads, netherrack, nether brick, and jack-o-lanterns. That many block types in a rough sphere with a radius of 20 just doesn't cut mustard. Given that, I liked the way the blocks meshed together much more than in Intersection 1. In Intersection 1, it was just kind of a cluster of ugliness, that's much improved in this intersection. That being said, there's still room for improvement. I took a quick look into The Tunnel and The Wildwood. I don't have particularly high hopes for The Tunnel, as it seems like a straight, boring tunnel, but I will reserve judgement until I complete the area. The Wildwood was far more visually appealing at first glance. The miniature jungle with the netherrack ceiling was pretty beautiful, and I look forward to taking this on.
My first stop at I2 was your subtle ode to Domara, in your Wool Monument room. Once again, you seem to have problems maintaining continuity, even within a small area. The main cavern is very natural looking, and is quite beautiful, and then the side rooms look very manufactured, but still visually appealing. I really appreciate the supplies at the base building area. They took away what would have been a lot of tedious farming, and that's a definite plus. I also now have a wall full of double chests, and another full of furnaces, with paintings scattered all around. Giving the player a chicken farm was a nice touch, even if they don't have seeds yet. All in all, I quite like Safe Haven. I like the gameplay element of giving the player encouragement to build. It's saying, "Here, take a break from adventure, make a nice building". I still don't think it's eligible for a Gameplay score, but it adds a very nice, appreciated touch. I'd also give it a 6 for aesthetics.
I'm enjoying this map so far. The gameplay runs smoothly, though some of the areas leave a lot to be desired in the visuals department. I've gotten 2 wool so far, and am eager to continue my hunt for more tomorrow. More review to come!
Oh believe me, I did love those mines. What was up with the floating mineshafts? Also, here's how I got the ender pearl box.
I used glowstone to bridge above it, then I jumped down and quickly lit things up. Not a scratch on me, but that bedrock hallway with funboxes took quite a while. I have some screenshots for later. Maybe once I'm done I'll post a mini-album and review.
:/
Wokay, quick progress update.
So I first logged in to your map, and then I saw the spawn. No offence, but it isn't the most beautiful looking spawn ever, and that is one of the most important parts of the map, aesthetically. The ice and stone blended well, but the general feel of it felt a little off. I think it was the diamonds hovering in the air and the lack of a block which could possibly have blended the ice and stone better, such as ice.
Having gathered up a bunch of materials (thanks for the quick stone pickaxe), the Power Miner and the snowball (quite useless imo, Sharpness 1 is no better than a wood sword) I headed out.
The cave was pretty good and helped pace the progression a bit. Not too many comments here I'm afraid.
The Intersection......very controversial indeed. I like the colour scheme of it, but the textures of the blocks themselves clash too much. Ores and melons don't make for the best textures. Also, the shape of the intersection, a perfect square. I think it is advisable to avoid these types of intersections nowadays, even though it was the norm back then I believe. The melon pattern also seemed very circular and brushtroke-y.
I digress, however. Getting my stuff together and setting up a quick base, I decided to go poke my head into my choices. The Mossy Halls, as its' namesake, is apparently very mossy. Overly mossy. Mossy to the point of being boring. This seemed to me like a stereotypical CTM dungeon (no offence). Perhaps you could have layered the walls with more block choices? Added a pattern? Anything but plain old mossy cobblestone, PLEASE! Gameplay though seems like your typical hack-and-slash. Nothing too wrong with that, although custom zombies may have been fun.
Grabbing the sword and the Tree Kit out of there, I headed back to the intersection and took a peek into the Crazy Maze Cave. As much as I liked the block combination, I think it would have been better in a larger-scale area. Good try though!
The Brick Forest, I'm personally of two minds about this. As much as I like the combination, the area still seemed a little dull, mostly on the walls. Nevertheless, I didn't' care too much as I pushed forward into the castle. Knocked out the creeper spawners, fought my way to the staircase, took out the dispenser by the stairs (what was with that trap? All I found inside was a pig spawner, and that wouldn't have worked due to lack of light and grass), hacked my way up the stairs through cave spiderps and heard some ghasts spawn. Went down, took the chestpiece stole a bed from the quarters and tried ascending the staircase which I had blocked.
Around 8 cave spiders. LOLNOPE. Turned around and RAN. I must say, those brick leaves make for very good cover while being sniped by ghasties. Headed back to base, gathered some melons, and that was the end of my first session.
Overall, I'm enjoying this map quite a bit, even if the aesthetics aren't up to par (you admitted to this yourself I guess). The gameplay is quite enjoyable, however, and I would definitely recommend this map to newbies of CTM.
Also, your map making style reminds me of Xerothomas.
I've cleared out Friendly Start, Mossy Halls, and Brick Forest, working my way through Crazy Maze Cave now. I've died twice: once in Brick Forest when I was surrounded by mobs at night, and once in CMC, when I was trying to get back to the start and was cornered. I'm at my I1 base now, cooking up a few stacks of potatoes (got a lucky drop :3 ), and I'm about to go back into CMC, but before I do that, I think I can give some helpful feedback on the first few areas.
Friendly Start: A nice amount of loot that gets you prepped for the areas ahead. I really liked the look of the ice trees, but something about the fancy brick diamonds seemed... forced. It was like you thought you needed another design element to add to the area and had to think of it fast, so you added those. They also kinda made the area looked cluttered, what with the already cluttered walls (could have done without the cobble).
Mossy Halls: Not much to say about this area. Spent a few minutes getting in and getting out. The latter portion had a nice color palette, but the obvious MCedit brushes looked a bit shoddy. Decent for a White Wool dungeon.
Brick Forest: Coming straight from an area with trees that had ice instead of leaves, replacing these trees with bricks seemed pretty repetitive. The fortress on the other side of the forest could have looked better, I have to say. The challenge inside was really nicely balanced (I've had worries about putting cave spiders early on in my own map, but seeing you put them in the second dungeon of your map takes those worries away > ), and I had a pretty epic battle on top of the roof.
I'll write up my views on Crazy Maze Cave once I've finished it.
Something I don't think you're considering very much is the visual cues you're giving off. When I first saw the cobble on the walls in Friendly Start, I thought there was a secret chest behind it, same with the smooth stone in the Mossy Halls, and the mossy stone bricks at the end of Brick Forest. Just something to consider.
I'm still very much enjoying this map. I'll be back soon with another progress update.
Crazy Maze Cave: It was okay, the layout was confusing as the name would suggest, but once you found the path to the next intersection it was just a little bland. This area was when I started realizing something; you didn't put a whole lot of thought into the amount of natural spawns that would pop up. By the time I got to the area with the wool box, that entire section of the caves was FILLED with skellies, creepers, zombies, and endermen. There were still some dark areas in the caves where natural spawns could show up, but it was ridiculous what was up there. I got the wool and moved my base to I2.
The Tunnel: Um... This was a concept that I hadn't seen before, but it also really isn't one that works in a CTM map. It was pretty easy, the loot was nice, but it just seemed like a cop-out when you made this area. I wish I could say more positive stuff about this, but there isn't much else to comment on. :/
The Wildwood: This area was aesthetically pleasing, and I liked the challenge of getting up the giant tree, but it felt kinda anti-climatic. I thought the wool was gonna be up there. After a few more minutes of searching, I got the wool without a problem. One thing you could have done better was the loot. From the top of the tree, I could spot at least two loot boxes in plain sight. I got both of them within minutes of each other. With something like that, I expected a micro dungeon or something, marked with glowstone on the wall. Making the map easier by adding more loot doesn't always have to mean putting the loot out in plain sight and saying "come get some!".
Generic Obligatory Mine Area: This is where I quit. Want to know why? Not the cave spiders, I handled them just fine. It was the freaking natural spawns. You see, the further you push into the mine, lighting things up, the more the natural spawn is going to be confined to showing up in a certain area, meaning the area directly in front of you. Right before I got to the lava area, I died after being air-juggled by creepers and skeletons. I was flailing and swinging the axe, but I was surrounded by them. Absolutely nothing I could do. Putting that aside for a minute, this didn't feel like "Generic Obligatory Mine Area". This felt like "Generic Every-sandstone-cave-area-ever". I really hate to say it like that, but it's just what it was. I also didn't get why you felt the need to have two halves of the area. I didn't get very far into the second area, but it looked much better than the first section.
Back to spawn issues, this area didn't feel like you were fighting a fair battle. It felt like you were fighting against an invisible force with infinite stacks of mob spawn eggs, which is not fun. A few well-placed MCedit hollow mob-catcher bubbles would make this area infinitely better, at least on that front. I died twice here; first time I was able to get my stuff back without a problem, second time I heard a second creeper blast after the one the killed me, so I said "Screw it!". I'm partially quitting because of that, and partially because I don't want to be fighting armies of natural spawn.
Uhg. I hate having to write something like that.
If my input means anything to you now, I'd suggest adding spawn catchers to a lot of areas in this map, the one I just went through specifically. I didn't go through any other areas in I3, but my guess is they're fairly well lit with glowstone, meaning higher mob count for GOMA. Taking away some of the glowstone lighting in a lot of areas would definitely help. It will help disperse the mob count evenly over the area, instead of making tight clumps of them appear in the closest dark spot.
If you take all of that into consideration, and release a new version of the map, I'll definitely give it a go. This is by no means a bad map, it just needs some adjustments and attention and it can be much better.
We here at the testing side tried to give him feedback about the map being imbalanced and in places too hard for an 'easy' map, but I understand from this post he didn't really listen to that. I assumed v1.1 meant he'd actually taken our criticisms into play, but I guess not.
There's a lot of problems besides balancing as well too, so I think it's safe to say he probably didn't address those either. Hopefully he'll try listening now. Being mopey when someone tells you there are problems and defiant when someone tells you to fix them is not the way to accept criticism, Isaac.
WHAT?!
Danger zone.
This is a CTM map. Two ghast spawners should be a cakewalk. Finding three wool before finding the monument is not a big deal either, a mapper will usually try to place it in a central part of the map. For now, keep them safe in a chest.
A WHOLE TWO GHAST SPAWNERS!
The f'k is your problem? Can you not use the bow?
Yea, he didn't put the monument in the center of the map.
First off, thanks for the LP, james! I'll put that in the OP as soon as possible.
There's been so many posts since I logged on last night that I honestly can't respond to all of them. However, it seemed to me (if I can recall) no one really had a dire question. If someone does have a question that I missed, please post it again and I'll try to reply to it as I'm online right now. Thanks especially to wright, that was a very honest and fair review. Yeah, for the comments in general so far, the aesthetics of this first map are very love-it-or-hate-it.
Dragonsrule9, yup, I've played through the map, and I had no spawn issues in there. Honestly, if you're having too much mob trouble with a certain area, feel free to bridge it or tunnel through the wall. Nobody is stopping you.
However, I'll take a look back into that area and see what I can do. Thanks for the honest feedback, and I hope you pick the map up again at some point. (Also, if you're having trouble with one area, I'd recommend going to the Arid Lands. There's a lot of awesome loot in there.)
Red, while I was mopey, I did take your difficulty critiscms into account, actually. Between version 1.0 and 1.1, I added a new pair of enchanted iron boots at I2 and a lot of other new loot. As for your aesthetic critiscms, it's really hard to please everyone in terms of design, and I specifically said that if you download this map, focus moar on gameplay than the aesthetics, because they may not be for you.
As for you, Amehtta, I did take your consideration into account actually, and I am going to be putting in command blocks in I4 and I5 that bring you back to the Monument in v1.2. Hopefully I'll have v1.2 out in a day or so. I understand that walking back through areas may not be for everyone, so I'm not going to force you to do it.
Alright, now it's my turn to do some slapping on this point.
It is abundantly obvious that this entire map was made in MCEdit, with no regard for how things might look. Aesthetics aren't the most important thing, but at a certain point... it's really important to take a step back and look at your map. Do you HONESTLY think that all your areas are well built, lacking in obvious brushes, and have good block combinations? Do you try to think about more creative names for... well, everything? At some point in the map you say you are putting in a generic area (ironically, this was one of the better ones) because you are just lazy. That is all I can really say about the map: It's made lazily. You did not work hard on it, and it took you only 3 weeks - a sure sign that you are rushing something. One of the wools was literly just a floating, reskinned nether fortress. Seriously? It would've taken you 15 minutes to make some custom parts and throw them together. Copying natural minecraft is 99% of the time a major no-no.
I didn't actually play the map (heard bad things about the aesthetics and went to check em out) but from what I have seen it looks... fairly well balanced. I can't be sure.
I'm going to go back to playing Legendary now. I wish you luck in improving this map, or making a better one.