Thanks! I appreciate it. Although, from what I've seen, CTM's have become more... intricate from when I left about 2 years ago. The aesthetics are incredible from the screenshots I've seen; I really cannot speak to the game-play, though.
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- Infamy
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Member for 11 years and 3 months
Last active Sat, May, 20 2017 13:06:07
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Dec 29, 20153
chiefwiggy posted a message on [CTM] The Ultimate -CTM COMMUNITY- ThreadPosted in: Maps Discussion
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Dec 29, 2015
6
chiefwiggy posted a message on [CTM] The Ultimate -CTM COMMUNITY- ThreadPosted in: Maps Discussion
Happy Holidays to all! Hey there, I came back here after a while without posting anything (yes, obviously I started playing and Song Of Life is too epic). I've been improving my building skills at my construction lab. Could someone give me some feedback about this picz? (Obviously all is WIP)
I think that the grass is really well done. It has a nice color and it really enhances the background. That being said, the grass could use some improvement, maybe perhaps erode the grass so it isn't so... blocky...
Oh... and the caste seems nice too.
Happy Holidays All. -
Dec 22, 20153
Chipmunk46 posted a message on [CTM] The Ultimate -CTM COMMUNITY- ThreadPosted in: Maps Discussion
It looks really neon-Vinyl-fantasy-ish. I llike it. Maybe just a few more things having on the walls though, cause the walls look pretty barren. -
Dec 21, 2015
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Chipmunk46 posted a message on [CTM] The Ultimate -CTM COMMUNITY- ThreadPosted in: Maps DiscussionSo, as I'm nearing finishing CM4's aesthetic phase, I decided I'd post one of my favorite areas from CM4 - The Final Prophecy (or whatever I'll call it, dangit heliceo :3)
Feedback would be appreciated
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Dec 13, 20154
Browneye414 posted a message on [CTM] The Ultimate -CTM COMMUNITY- ThreadPosted in: Maps DiscussionI decided to do a thing, thing looks nice I think, don't expect anything soon... ever...
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Dec 10, 20156
_Gunter_ posted a message on [CTM] The Ultimate -CTM COMMUNITY- ThreadPosted in: Maps DiscussionOMG
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Dec 6, 20156
Mithey posted a message on [CTM] The Ultimate -CTM COMMUNITY- ThreadPosted in: Maps Discussion
Not 100% what you were asking for, but here is a post I made of what I went through in upgrading my map from 1.8 to 1.9 and if it was worth it or not:
It took me around 2 weeks or so to convert my fairly large main map to 1.9. It was a pain because I had to fix all of the:
- Title and tellraw commands to have double quotes surrounding each section since they started using strict json or whatever
- A lot of spawners actually broke which needed patching up (mainly because of three NBT changes - Riding to Passengers, HealF and Health to just Health as a float, and Equipment to ArmorItems and HandItems)
- A ton of /summon commands broke for similar reasons
- Almost all playsound commands had to be updated to their new names, thankfully the new names are actually fairly organized/structured for the most part so I didn't have to look up every new name once I figured out the patterns.
- I had to block update any redstone that was on because it thought it wasn't on in 1.9 for some reason which caused a lot of bugs
- I had to give the players high amounts of projectile protection armor as skeletons are way too powerful
- I had to come up with a system to avoid the new saturation regeneration system because the map wasn't designed around it and also it can honestly limit some of the creativity that you can have for a combat oriented map
- All commands where I used UUID as a tag had to be converted into UUIDLeast and UUIDMost instead
- I had to fix all the firework /summons because I was still using id:403 or w/e instead of id:fireworks
- All my attributed armor/weapons in the map broke and had to be updated with the new slot tags. I also had to add the attack speed attribute to all weapons and the new armor tag to all armor.
- I had to fix a great deal of potions in the map because they no longer use damage values, now they have new names like splash_potion instead of just potion and have other changes to them
- I had to remove/redo a ton of MCEdit schematics that I made
- And I had to do a couple of balance changes (honestly not too many, just mainly because skeletons are super overpowered now)
I think that's all that I had to do, figured I'd post that to give you all an idea. If you do plan on updating your map I'd highly suggest referencing this post while doing so: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/redstone-discussion-and/command-blocks/2488148-15w44a-nbt-changes-and-additions
Also a warning, be sure at all costs that you don't load your 1.9 maps in 1.8. It can wipe all command information in your command blocks along with other various major problems of course. So as always make sure you do a lot of backups! Another warning, I'm not sure why exactly but with the newest MCEdit version, if you attempt to clone/copy a selection that has a 1.9 spawner in it or just move a spawner in general it will crash MCEdit completely and give you some weird error message.
As far as if it was worth it or not; for me at least it was because it really got me to learn a lot of the new changes more in depth than I could of by just glancing over the update notes. On top of that the new command blocks are incredibly useful when you learn how to use them and make it so you don't need to use repeaters/comparators as much. Less lag in general in 1.9 is actually a pretty big deal, at least for my main map. I've just been experimenting with the new "scoreboard tag" feature too today which is actually very useful as it makes doing commands on only a select group of entities a lot more easier. Also since I had to basically look at almost every command block again and aspect of my map I actually found a bunch of bugs that I never knew about or simply forgot about.
If your map isn't that command block heavy, well for one it probably wouldn't be as hard for you to update the map, but secondly I'd say it probably wouldn't be anywhere near as worth it.
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Dec 1, 201512
daxorion27 posted a message on [CTM] The Ultimate -CTM COMMUNITY- ThreadPosted in: Maps DiscussionHey everyone, I'm still hard at work on my map.
So I made this, but I'm struggling to come up with something to put on top of it. Any ideas?
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Nov 30, 2015
7
_Gunter_ posted a message on [CTM] The Ultimate -CTM COMMUNITY- ThreadPosted in: Maps Discussion -
Nov 28, 20152
coolfool8888 posted a message on [CTM] The Ultimate -CTM COMMUNITY- ThreadPosted in: Maps DiscussionAura is live right now if you want to come hang out
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1
hybbles ily but nice job misinterpreting me
basically what i was saying was id fallen into that trap of obsession with aesthetics as well
and no im saying you shouldnt put nearly as much weight on aesthetics as people do nowadays because it adds very little to the experience when compared to the amount of time it takes
im not saying you shouldnt care about aesthetics, im saying people need to stop caring so much about them and just focus on gameplay for the most part
also:
>greentexting
>2015
Yeah nah nah yeah nah yeah nah nah mate.
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Howdy hey friends, I'm back (again). I've been thinking a lot about the state of CTM maps at the moment, and I've come up with a few thoughts that I'm going to include here for discussion's sake.
Firstly, it is important for mapmakers to realize that your average players have much less experience with CTMs than those of us in the community. It seems to me that a lot of people here don't realize this, and that they concentrate way too much on a sort of professionalism, for lack of a better term, that most of your playerbase just aren't going to appreciate. While this is probably a natural effect of people playing Minecraft getting older (i.e. we aren't a whole bunch of twelve year-olds anymore), that doesn't mean it's a good thing. A lot of the greatest CTM maps of all time, for example Legendary, lacked a lot of things that are staples of modern CTMs, like:
-erosion
-block variation
-it had traps (most CTMs nowadays don't)
-custom mobs (granted, they weren't around back then)
-fancy mechanics
-storyline
Essentially, there are so few good maps coming out nowadays because people are focusing so much on making their maps polished- by polished I mean making the map absolutely perfect, balancing it out, making every area jaw-droppingly gorgeous, etc.- that they're failing to do the single most important thing in mapmaking: getting their maps out there for the public to play. I don't care if your map has absolutely beautiful aesthetics, I don't want to have to wait literal years to play it (Fangride). In the words of Extra Credits, Fail Faster: . You need to make maps again and again to finally get good at it. Remember Kaizo Caverns? That map looked awful by modern standards. It didn't have block variation or erosion or anything like that. It wasn't particularly balanced either- the fluctuations in difficulty were pretty significant (also, reminder that you do need fluctuations in difficulty in your map- you don't just want a straight line resembling the difficulty, but rather the difficulty needs to go up and spike sometimes to give the player a challenge and it needs to drop sometimes to give the player a break. I could write about this for days, but essentially just use this image for reference. I might write something on this up later.). But soon after the release of Kaizo, Vechs followed up with another map, and another, and another, until eventually he created great maps like Legendary and Waking Up.
Next, stop caring so much about aesthetics. Seriously. Krose, three_two, other guys I'm forgetting (sorry), you're all cool people but you're really not doing yourselves any favors here. Your purpose when making a CTM map is to make a map where the player can have fun- players will experience a lot of different emotions throughout a map, sure, but the end goal is one where the player is happy. That sort of high that you get when you finish a hard area, or you finally complete a map you've been working on for months, your goal as a mapmaker should be to make that high as, well, high as possible while still appealing to the target audience. Can aesthetics add to your experience of a map? Sure. But they shouldn't be your number one goal; gameplay is. You need to concentrate on your gameplay first and foremost, then you can make it look nice. If the map is really fun, word's gonna get around. Would some people download your map just because you had pretty screenshots? Absolutely, but the payoff for good gameplay is much, much higher than the payoff for aesthetics. There have legitimately been mapmakers, myself included, who have been around here for years and still haven't released a full map because they've spent hours and hours on trying to make each area look pretty. This needs to stop. Stop caring so much about aesthetics, and stop spending so much time on them. They're not your priority.
Also, before I finish typing this up, I just want to mention one last thing: I'm absolutely loving how this community has developed since I last really participated in this community- probably over a year ago. There are so many promising new mapmakers here, and I'm so glad to see this, because quite frankly, I thought most people had moved on from this game by now. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope to see what you guys think of this! n_n
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I really like the shape and the accents, but I think the nether brick isn't a good choice for the building. The texture for it is just so complicated that it really distracts the eye from all of the detail work you've put into the building. Maybe you should try a plainer texture like gray stained clay.
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Day 1:
First off, I'd like to explain the sort of map I plan to make. It's going to be a Medium-Large Medium difficulty, Open World map. The idea with the map is to emphasize the feeling of progression you normally get during a CTM map- what I need by this is, the feeling of how the player begins the first part of the map with just wood tools, and progresses to stone, iron, and eventually diamonds. The way I plan to emphasize this is by devoting individual islands to different resources- that is to say, I plan not to have each and every island containing a record (I'm using records, by the way, because I'm a #hipster #instagram). This idea is partially inspired by Zisteau's map Globule 2, which you can find here.
I'm doing this because I feel like the most important feeling players get in a CTM is the feeling of progression, of looking back on where they began from and thinking to themselves, "Wow, I've really made it far from here." The feeling you get when you place the wools on the monument after you've spent half the map looking for it- that's really what I consider to be the most gratifying part of a CTM map.
That being said, I don't want to make the map too big, in part because I have obligations outside of Minecraft, so I may have to add some of the resource islands after the completion of the main line of the map- they may be essential to the feeling I want to enhance, but they are sadly not part of the Minimum Viable Product. Don't worry, though, I guarantee they will be in the final release of the map.
Over the past few weeks, I have been working on the first area of the map, because that's the most important part of the map, gameplay-wise. If the beginning of your map sucks, it doesn't matter if the rest of the map is utterly spectacular because most people aren't going to play it. That's why I've been working on it for so long- I want to make sure it's perfect so that players can appreciate the rest of the map. A good example of this is Inferno Mines- sure, it was successful, but not nearly as successful as Vechs' previous maps, in part because the beginning of the map was so drab. My good friend Aimoskeeto, creator of the wonderful map Rugged Horizons, voiced her feelings about Inferno Mines quite well, and I think she spoke for a lot of people when she said (I'm paraphrasing here, I couldn't be bothered to go look up a post from years ago), "I don't care if it gets better from the second intersection on. I don't want to have to sit through a boring first intersection." That sums it up pretty well, I feel.
Anyway, due to the feeling of progression I want to create, and the sort of resource islands I plan to include, the first area is fairly simple, but I think it should be, because, since the starting area theme is "Dirt," then I shouldn't create some sort of crazily complicated area. The gameplay is also fairly simple 3x3 tunnel gameplay, because I want to incorporate the feeling of progression not just through aesthetic choices, but through gameplay as well. However, I think I managed to create quite good gameplay given the limitations I placed, if I do say so myself. There are plenty of traps (something I'll go over on a later date, basically, I think the movement away from traps in CTMs sort of destroys that sort of, dare I say, paranoia that you learn to have when you're playing a map) and a good deal of loot and hidden secrets to keep the player interested. It might be a bit long, but I intersperse the tunnel gameplay with occasional vistas to give the player some time to relax.
Also, I'd just like to say that I don't plan on using block variation at all in this map, at least not in the current sense of the term. I may incorporate something like a dirt or grass top to an island with a stone underbelly, but I don't plan to mix in sandstone and end stone and netherbrick and all sorts of other things. While we're on the topic of aesthetics, I wanted to create a starting area that looked both menacing and large, making the player feel small and helpless in order to further that sense of progression I've talked so much about as they finally escape the area, while also being simple and aesthetically pleasing.
Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, here are some screenshots for you to ogle at. For the spawnpoint, I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions for what to add to spice it up a bit, because I can't think of much that wouldn't go against the general feeling of the area. Regardless, I've rambled on for long enough now, and they say a picture is a thousand words, so I might as well just show you. One last thing, keep in mind that I haven't quite finished the "floor" of the area, so to speak, so I'd love your ideas on what to put there to fill all that negative space. By the way, lighting glitches suck.
On one final note, and I swear this is the last thing I'm going to say, but here are the results of the polls at the time of me writing this. I told you I wasn't necessarily going to go with the options you people chose, and, well, I didn't. Sue me.
http://gyazo.com/f7b8ea2834410924523f49672e5f7e90
http://gyazo.com/9932b15a4d17b2503f1f5c3200544ee3
http://gyazo.com/b44c0d347e9294fb8bdf2ea3068402df
Today, I've started work on the wood area. The idea of the area is to have an aesthetic sort of reminiscent of pixelated, very choppy trees- something like this:
I felt like that'd be a cool area design because it'd let me focus on vertical gameplay, something I think is criminally underused in CTM maps at the moment. That feeling of ascent into a frightening area- something of the antithesis of Descent Into Darkness, hue (pls dont hurt me krose)- is something I feel is really cool, and being able to pop out the top of the tree at the end and leave the area, now all lit up and pacified, I think will really reinforce the feeling of progression I want the player to get throughout the map.
Sorry about the short report today- I blame the Super Bowl. Anyway, here's a picture of the outside of the tree so you guys don't feel totally cheated.
Tomorrow, I'm going to write about traps in CTMs, why people don't use them enough, and how to use them properly. Stay tuned!
Unfortunately, I don't have a report prepared for today. I had a whole essay written up about traps and how to use them properly, but for some reason the page refreshed and I lost all my progress. I'm really angry right now, because I was really proud of that report. Sorry guys.
I've been working on the map some, but I haven't made enough progress to really make a report about that. The traps report should be up tomorrow though, I promise.
Let me tell you a story. I went to dinner at 6:30, and got back an hour later at 7:30. I only had about an hour till I had to get to bed by 9:00, since I'm trying to stick to a sleep schedule nowadays. Now, before dinner, I had been watching the awesome movie Dredd on Netflix. It's a pretty great movie- the action's really great, with awesome fights and shootouts, and there's this really scary feeling of insignificance throughout the film. Incidentally, I had an hour left in the movie. I also hadn't written up my report for today. It was a pretty difficult choice, to say the least. You know what I chose? I chose you guys.
Be flattered.
Anyway, this series, I suppose you can call it, on traps is going to take up two days. The first, that being today, is going to go over the philosophy of using traps in CTMs, while the second will be more literal by giving some sample traps available for download with explanations of how they work.
So the first thing we need to establish is that there are traps that are fair, and traps that are unfair. There are two criteria that I use to classify traps as fair and unfair: 1) the trap must be telegraphed, and 2) the player must have opportunities to escape the trap. CTMs have seen a drop in trap usage over the past couple of years, and I credit that to the fact that mapmakers saw what unfair traps could do to a CTM, and at the same time failed to see what fair, well used traps could do to help a CTM.
Before I get into how a CTM can benefit from the use of traps, I'm going to go over the reasons for the criteria. The first criterion, that the trap must be telegraphed. What I mean by this is that the player must be able to see there is something up ahead- they don't need to know it's a trap, but they need to see that there is something where the trap is. Here's an example of telegraphing vs. not telegraphing, the first image being an un-telegraphed trap and the second being telegraphed.
As you can see, you don't need to do much to telegraph. All you really need to do is change something about the player's environment- in this example, I simply changed a few of the blocks to a subtly different variant, and put a redstone torch on the ground a few blocks around the corner. In fact, you can be much more conservative with telegraphing while still being fair. It's very easy to telegraph, but if the player sees nothing up ahead and just walks into the trap, that's not very fair.
The second criterion is that the player must have opportunities to escape the trap. It's a good bit easier to explain- basically, don't teleport the player hundreds of blocks into the void and you should be good. Not giving the player chances to escape is kind of just like sneaking up on them from behind and rabbit punching them. It's not fair, since they don't have any chances to fight back, and you risk potentially crippling them for the remainder of the map.
Now that we've established what makes a trap fair, we need to go over why you should use fair traps. Obviously, you shouldn't use unfair traps. Unfair traps are detrimental to the gameplay of your map by making the player feel cheated. Fair traps, however, are very beneficial when used well. By making good use of traps, you can force the player to be constantly on the alert- even if you don't employ them that often, you can use them to force the player into treating their environment differently than they do with an absence of traps. With traps, you possess the ability to change the way the player thinks throughout the course of the map, something you really can't do with much else. Furthermore, traps are excellent ways to spice up the ubiquitous 3 by 3 hallways- especially in a dungeon. If you use traps there, you can make the dungeon much more interesting by using different manners of, to be colloquial, trying to kill them. This gives the player a better sense of entertainment by giving them different types of challenges- just using mobs is far less interesting to play through than having traps around every corner and mobs.
This concludes part 1 of my series on traps. Check back tomorrow for part 2, which will include trap downloads and explanations of how to use them well. See you then!
starts onhas begun as of January 31, 2015. Get hyped!OWNER - Infamy, the original author of the map.
Under the copyright terms accepted when purchasing Minecraft (http://www.minecraft.net/terms) the author (Fangride) has full rights over his maps despite use of Mojang code.
USER - End user of the map, person installing the map.
The author is not responsible for damage caused by the use of these maps/files.
Use of these maps to be installed, manually or automatically, is given to the user without restriction.
These maps may only be distributed where uploaded, mirrored, or otherwise linked to by the OWNER solely. All mirrors of these maps must have an explicit permission from the author (Infamy). ANY attempts to make money off of these MAPS (selling, selling modified versions, adfly, sharecash, etc.) are STRICTLY FORBIDDEN, and the author Infamy may claim damages or take other action to rectify the situation.
These MAPS are provided freely and may be decompiled and modified for private use, either with a decompiler or a bytecode editor. Public distribution of modified versions of these maps require explicit permission of the Author (Infamy) and may be subject to certain terms. User(s) are allowed to produce monetized content of the map(s)- e.g. Youtube videos, etc.- under the condition that in each unit of said content they provide full credit for the creation of the map(s) to the Author and that they link directly to this thread. Violation of these terms may result in copyright claims filed against the content by the Author.
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Also, don't you dare do that Fanny. I want Septum out now. NOW.
1
Let me tell you a story. I went to dinner at 6:30, and got back an hour later at 7:30. I only had about an hour till I had to get to bed by 9:00, since I'm trying to stick to a sleep schedule nowadays. Now, before dinner, I had been watching the awesome movie Dredd on Netflix. It's a pretty great movie- the action's really great, with awesome fights and shootouts, and there's this really scary feeling of insignificance throughout the film. Incidentally, I had an hour left in the movie. I also hadn't written up my report for today. It was a pretty difficult choice, to say the least. You know what I chose? I chose you guys.
Be flattered.
Anyway, this series, I suppose you can call it, on traps is going to take up two days. The first, that being today, is going to go over the philosophy of using traps in CTMs, while the second will be more literal by giving some sample traps available for download with explanations of how they work.
So the first thing we need to establish is that there are traps that are fair, and traps that are unfair. There are two criteria that I use to classify traps as fair and unfair: 1) the trap must be telegraphed, and 2) the player must have opportunities to escape the trap. CTMs have seen a drop in trap usage over the past couple of years, and I credit that to the fact that mapmakers saw what unfair traps could do to a CTM, and at the same time failed to see what fair, well used traps could do to help a CTM.
Before I get into how a CTM can benefit from the use of traps, I'm going to go over the reasons for the criteria. The first criterion, that the trap must be telegraphed. What I mean by this is that the player must be able to see there is something up ahead- they don't need to know it's a trap, but they need to see that there is something where the trap is. Here's an example of telegraphing vs. not telegraphing, the first image being an un-telegraphed trap and the second being telegraphed.
As you can see, you don't need to do much to telegraph. All you really need to do is change something about the player's environment- in this example, I simply changed a few of the blocks to a subtly different variant, and put a redstone torch on the ground a few blocks around the corner. In fact, you can be much more conservative with telegraphing while still being fair. It's very easy to telegraph, but if the player sees nothing up ahead and just walks into the trap, that's not very fair.
The second criterion is that the player must have opportunities to escape the trap. It's a good bit easier to explain- basically, don't teleport the player hundreds of blocks into the void and you should be good. Not giving the player chances to escape is kind of just like sneaking up on them from behind and rabbit punching them. It's not fair, since they don't have any chances to fight back, and you risk potentially crippling them for the remainder of the map.
Now that we've established what makes a trap fair, we need to go over why you should use fair traps. Obviously, you shouldn't use unfair traps. Unfair traps are detrimental to the gameplay of your map by making the player feel cheated. Fair traps, however, are very beneficial when used well. By making good use of traps, you can force the player to be constantly on the alert- even if you don't employ them that often, you can use them to force the player into treating their environment differently than they do with an absence of traps. With traps, you possess the ability to change the way the player thinks throughout the course of the map, something you really can't do with much else. Furthermore, traps are excellent ways to spice up the ubiquitous 3 by 3 hallways- especially in a dungeon. If you use traps there, you can make the dungeon much more interesting by using different manners of, to be colloquial, trying to kill them. This gives the player a better sense of entertainment by giving them different types of challenges- just using mobs is far less interesting to play through than having traps around every corner and mobs.
This concludes part 1 of my series on traps. Check back tomorrow for part 2, which will include trap downloads and explanations of how to use them well. See you then!
1
Unfortunately, I don't have a report prepared for today. I had a whole essay written up about traps and how to use them properly, but for some reason the page refreshed and I lost all my progress. I'm really angry right now, because I was really proud of that report. Sorry guys.
I've been working on the map some, but I haven't made enough progress to really make a report about that. The traps report should be up tomorrow though, I promise.
2
Today, I've started work on the wood area. The idea of the area is to have an aesthetic sort of reminiscent of pixelated, very choppy trees- something like this:
I felt like that'd be a cool area design because it'd let me focus on vertical gameplay, something I think is criminally underused in CTM maps at the moment. That feeling of ascent into a frightening area- something of the antithesis of Descent Into Darkness, hue (pls dont hurt me krose)- is something I feel is really cool, and being able to pop out the top of the tree at the end and leave the area, now all lit up and pacified, I think will really reinforce the feeling of progression I want the player to get throughout the map.
Sorry about the short report today- I blame the Super Bowl. Anyway, here's a picture of the outside of the tree so you guys don't feel totally cheated.
Tomorrow, I'm going to write about traps in CTMs, why people don't use them enough, and how to use them properly. Stay tuned!
1
yw bae
thanks you for the feedback, 10/10 would feed agin
ofc bb
guess who's back back again
shady's back
tell a fren
guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back...
hallo slem shiddy!!!!!!!!!!!
By the by, I'm currently working on the report for today. It'll be up later, probably around 8 or 9 PM EST (GMT-5).
3