You used Singleplayer Commands, you said... Which I assume means you're practically just using an extension of World-Edit. I've been using that in a Multiplayer map for a while now, and while I've developed my own techniques for creating landscape, they've never EVER seen the quality of this. And I must say that I feel damn proud of my work.
How in bloody hell do you do it? I would be MOST interested to see a tutorial video. As a fellow who loves to create landscapes to another, please. Please make my day and share with me the secret to your success.
*sighs* Come on people... Images don't work that way.
Upload it to an online host, such as Photobucket, Imageshack, tinypic (etc)... Post the link to that page here.
Boom! Image posted.
I expect to face a lot of flak for what I'm about to say, but take what I say with however much salt you want.
This map did not challenge, nor impress me. I'm not hard to impress, but I'm not a simple person either. I like megabuilds, but I also like the awesome small ones too. I firmly believe that Aesthetics are greatly important in any adventure map, but while this one did take a good stab at it, it just didn't feel enough. Nor was it consistent, but I suppose you did that on purpose to add to some semblance of confusion. Honestly, it didn't confuse me much. Rooms made sense when I walked into them, and their solution was very apparent. I didn't take a second glance at many of the puzzles as they were easy enough to solve on the first try. I question the reason why we were given an Axe, when no blocks are meant to be broken (save the Obsidian), and I never once used it. Again... probably to confuse? It just didn't work. I can say without a second thought that this map doesn't deserve to be featured. It's a good try... but just not good enough.
If I can offer points to build upon, I would like to see them improved in a later build.
For instance: Avoid cheap deaths.
I died maybe 5-6 times in The End because in areas where the floor is uneven and meant to be dropped down on... There was no floor there. Right in the beginning, after you drop down into the first room in the End... I fell straight down and died. That was dumb of you to miss and if you claim it to be on purpose, then I cannot accept this as a Good quality map. Admittedly, I was bored by the time I reached the End! Falling to my death because I stopped paying attention to the floor is a novice trap and should be avoided. You should be much more careful to interest the player at this point, not trap them into restarting because they stopped caring.
Second Point: As I said before, Aesthetics are important. If you want to confuse and challenge the player, you should remodel the rooms, and make them more similar! If players cannot tell a difference between rooms, given their puzzles are unique to the room, then they have a greater feeling of "I am lost", which attributes to the challenge. This doesn't mean to make the rooms boring and copy-pasta. Certainly not. But to make rooms in similar sizes, using similar materials, and using similar architectural decorations and details... The entire map blends together into a seamless Labyrinth of Irritation, rather than this... this... Temple of Obvious Solutions.
Which leads me to point three: The puzzles are easy. Brainless easy. Backtracking is of no consequence to me, and either way, you gave easy short cuts to break up the irritation! Which seemed against the point, given it's name. As I said, you've taken a good shot at the puzzles, but none of them are unheard of. They should have a much more elaborate solution if you really wish to challenge and frustrate the player. This isn't to say to Over-elaborate on them, but certainly finding a balance would take some time. If this is to be called a Labyrinth, I did not find ANY dead ends, whereas a real one would have many! It would irritate a player greatly if you would add in a difficult puzzle, only for them to find out it was a useless endeavor! The iron-door maze you put in is a somewhat good direction in this instance. Plenty of paths that pretty much gave you the middle finger and told you to go somewhere else. Try that, but on a bigger scale, with other puzzles being those iron doors.
I hope you don't read this as an offending, insulting rant, but more as a constructive criticism that can help make your map stand above and beyond others of it's kind. I personally feel if you took even some of my advice, I would feel much more impressed by the map and agree with it's featured status...
But unfortunately, I do not feel that way. This map still has a ways to go before I feel it's worth a Feature.
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Done!
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And a castle of course. Made from Nether Material. Or something.
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ESPECIALLY if it's an Adfly link. I could report you for abusing it.
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How in bloody hell do you do it? I would be MOST interested to see a tutorial video. As a fellow who loves to create landscapes to another, please. Please make my day and share with me the secret to your success.
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Upload it to an online host, such as Photobucket, Imageshack, tinypic (etc)... Post the link to that page here.
Boom! Image posted.
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... You first tho. I wanna see where you make mistakes, so I can improve on them
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This map did not challenge, nor impress me. I'm not hard to impress, but I'm not a simple person either. I like megabuilds, but I also like the awesome small ones too. I firmly believe that Aesthetics are greatly important in any adventure map, but while this one did take a good stab at it, it just didn't feel enough. Nor was it consistent, but I suppose you did that on purpose to add to some semblance of confusion. Honestly, it didn't confuse me much. Rooms made sense when I walked into them, and their solution was very apparent. I didn't take a second glance at many of the puzzles as they were easy enough to solve on the first try. I question the reason why we were given an Axe, when no blocks are meant to be broken (save the Obsidian), and I never once used it. Again... probably to confuse? It just didn't work. I can say without a second thought that this map doesn't deserve to be featured. It's a good try... but just not good enough.
If I can offer points to build upon, I would like to see them improved in a later build.
For instance: Avoid cheap deaths.
I died maybe 5-6 times in The End because in areas where the floor is uneven and meant to be dropped down on... There was no floor there. Right in the beginning, after you drop down into the first room in the End... I fell straight down and died. That was dumb of you to miss and if you claim it to be on purpose, then I cannot accept this as a Good quality map. Admittedly, I was bored by the time I reached the End! Falling to my death because I stopped paying attention to the floor is a novice trap and should be avoided. You should be much more careful to interest the player at this point, not trap them into restarting because they stopped caring.
Second Point: As I said before, Aesthetics are important. If you want to confuse and challenge the player, you should remodel the rooms, and make them more similar! If players cannot tell a difference between rooms, given their puzzles are unique to the room, then they have a greater feeling of "I am lost", which attributes to the challenge. This doesn't mean to make the rooms boring and copy-pasta. Certainly not. But to make rooms in similar sizes, using similar materials, and using similar architectural decorations and details... The entire map blends together into a seamless Labyrinth of Irritation, rather than this... this... Temple of Obvious Solutions.
Which leads me to point three: The puzzles are easy. Brainless easy. Backtracking is of no consequence to me, and either way, you gave easy short cuts to break up the irritation! Which seemed against the point, given it's name. As I said, you've taken a good shot at the puzzles, but none of them are unheard of. They should have a much more elaborate solution if you really wish to challenge and frustrate the player. This isn't to say to Over-elaborate on them, but certainly finding a balance would take some time. If this is to be called a Labyrinth, I did not find ANY dead ends, whereas a real one would have many! It would irritate a player greatly if you would add in a difficult puzzle, only for them to find out it was a useless endeavor! The iron-door maze you put in is a somewhat good direction in this instance. Plenty of paths that pretty much gave you the middle finger and told you to go somewhere else. Try that, but on a bigger scale, with other puzzles being those iron doors.
I hope you don't read this as an offending, insulting rant, but more as a constructive criticism that can help make your map stand above and beyond others of it's kind. I personally feel if you took even some of my advice, I would feel much more impressed by the map and agree with it's featured status...
But unfortunately, I do not feel that way. This map still has a ways to go before I feel it's worth a Feature.