BetaPuffle
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Can I be in the test games
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Pangea
- Thread starter hobo1955
- Start date
MaxtheSwain
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So awesome :3
Tree_TheBigKind
District 13
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I'll give mah review on this :3 Oh, but before I do, I just wanna give you a heads-up, the floating cubes at the top of spawn can be blown up using a bow (just saying). I don't think this will affect anything since it won't destroy blocks in game and I don't think it'll cause damage since it's high enough up. Anyways, on to the review :3
Personally, I have to agree with the others that said this is very similar to Rugged Lands but I'm not agreeing because of their reasons. I'll outline my thought process for that: Both maps are pretty much all terraforming. The few buildings that there is on the map are very mediocre in my opinion.... I looked around at the few buildings that there was and noticed that a few of them just use a bunch of blocks floating around it to look like it either exploded or broke or something along those lines. Honestly, I think the real intention was to distract from the actual building itself there..... It's true that I am probably being a little harsh on the building level but I'm doing it for a good reason- The level of terraforming is extremely high. It's really really nice! But the buildings bring the overall quality of the map down somewhat drastically.... Another thing is the dinosaurs.... I know the theme of the map is prehistoric so there pretty much has to be dinosaurs for that theme. I understand that but honestly, a lot of them just look really odd. I don't know if it's just the way they were built or the limited angles that minecraft gives but they just look a little off. I think some of them are alright though. Another problem with the buildings is what I've stated before- the lack of them... This isn't always necessarily a bad thing though. I'll elaborate on why I say the lack of buildings is bad in this case. When playing on a map, players like a sense of direction and placement. If they are teamed with someone, they might say "Hey, meet at the _____". I'll use sg4 since it's a popular map. "Hey, meet up later at the train". Or the airfield, or the barn, etc. There's tons of places all around the map to have as a reference. I'm not really sure if this map has enough reference points that players will like... They could always say "Meet at spawn" but usually they like to have more than that to go off of.
Anyways, enough of the buildings. I'll move on to the terraforming itself since that's pretty much most of the map. I really liked it overall. There could be a few fixes here and there but nothing major and nothing important. Very nicely done :3 There are however a few things I noticed. In some places you use the overlay brush of depth 3 with dirt then went over it with the overlay brush depth 1 grass. This simulates the normal terrain that is used for pretty much every map but then in others, you used just the depth of 1 grass without a depth of 3 dirt. This gave that area a more rocky feel to simulate the sheer cliffs. Both of these methods are perfectly fine but where those two areas meet are the issue. It just seems a bit off... Keep in mind that a normal in-game player won't notice the transition at all. It's just something I noticed as a fellow map maker. That transition is probably fine to leave but if you have time, making a quick area in-between those two with depth 2 dirt then depth 1 grass would improve it :3 One more thing, there was one place where you used the more default feeling (depth 3 dirt then depth 1 grass) where it probably would've been better to go with the more rocky feeling. If I counted right, it's the 8th picture I believe. On the left side, that archy area is the part I was talking about. Also, while the topic is on that area, below it is that water area. I suggest making the bottom of it more terraformed since it's currently flat. As of now, it's only 2 deep so raising the bottom isn't really an option but you can make little valleys and stuff in the bottom further out in it.
Now, onto what I guess you could call miscellaneous stuff :3
Chest placement- I noticed the chests were in clusters... There were quite a lot of areas with about 4-7 chests within a 20~ block radius and then there were areas with about a 50-75~ block radius that had no chests at all. If possible, editing that would give players a better experience when playing.
Custom trees- Custom trees are the best indicator of a map in my opinion. It's something that most people don't notice too much on maps when in-game but I see it as pure dedication to a map. Using default trees are just a lazy way out in my opinion. Now, there are cases where you pretty much have to use default, for example- Survival Games 1 and 3, Treacherous Heights, Holiday Resort, etc (just maps with huge forest areas since a lot of custom trees simulates the forest feeling). For a map like this, custom trees are a must but, unfortunately, I didn't really like a lot of them..... I like all of the larger ones but the smaller versions weren't very good in my opinion.... I think it was the fact that most were very skinny and had a huge lack of leaves. That gives a completely different theme than the much larger trees with a lot of leaves. Honestly, and this is just me, I suggest redoing those....
Rugged Terrain- I guess this could be generalized in the terraforming part but I'll leave it as a separate thing. There's a ton of 2-3 block holes in the ground everywhere.... This is one of the absolutely most hated things in the survival games. No one likes it when a ton of players get stuck in holes in the ground and it turns the games into a sitting game where the players just sit still for 20-30 minutes waiting for forced deathmatch. There was even one place that was just a cluster of 3 block holes (in total, about 20....). It might just be a terraforming mistake. If you would like, I can give you a screenshot or coordinates of the holes. I highly suggest fixing these since something like these holes could possibly turn a fun map into a terribly boring and overall, infuriating game. Also, with the topic of rugged terrain, it's very similar to Rugged Lands in most places. By this, I'm talking about the huge inability to traverse an area easily. There's hardly any spots for people to maneuver about with ease. Players usually like to move about easily but the terrain will break their sprint every few blocks and cause frustration....
I think I covered everything that I wanted to but if I remember something I missed, I'll probably add it somewhere later on the thread. Please don't take any constructive criticism harshly, I'm just trying to help improve the map :3
All in all, I'd rate the map 7.8/10 at the current moment.
Personally, I have to agree with the others that said this is very similar to Rugged Lands but I'm not agreeing because of their reasons. I'll outline my thought process for that: Both maps are pretty much all terraforming. The few buildings that there is on the map are very mediocre in my opinion.... I looked around at the few buildings that there was and noticed that a few of them just use a bunch of blocks floating around it to look like it either exploded or broke or something along those lines. Honestly, I think the real intention was to distract from the actual building itself there..... It's true that I am probably being a little harsh on the building level but I'm doing it for a good reason- The level of terraforming is extremely high. It's really really nice! But the buildings bring the overall quality of the map down somewhat drastically.... Another thing is the dinosaurs.... I know the theme of the map is prehistoric so there pretty much has to be dinosaurs for that theme. I understand that but honestly, a lot of them just look really odd. I don't know if it's just the way they were built or the limited angles that minecraft gives but they just look a little off. I think some of them are alright though. Another problem with the buildings is what I've stated before- the lack of them... This isn't always necessarily a bad thing though. I'll elaborate on why I say the lack of buildings is bad in this case. When playing on a map, players like a sense of direction and placement. If they are teamed with someone, they might say "Hey, meet at the _____". I'll use sg4 since it's a popular map. "Hey, meet up later at the train". Or the airfield, or the barn, etc. There's tons of places all around the map to have as a reference. I'm not really sure if this map has enough reference points that players will like... They could always say "Meet at spawn" but usually they like to have more than that to go off of.
Anyways, enough of the buildings. I'll move on to the terraforming itself since that's pretty much most of the map. I really liked it overall. There could be a few fixes here and there but nothing major and nothing important. Very nicely done :3 There are however a few things I noticed. In some places you use the overlay brush of depth 3 with dirt then went over it with the overlay brush depth 1 grass. This simulates the normal terrain that is used for pretty much every map but then in others, you used just the depth of 1 grass without a depth of 3 dirt. This gave that area a more rocky feel to simulate the sheer cliffs. Both of these methods are perfectly fine but where those two areas meet are the issue. It just seems a bit off... Keep in mind that a normal in-game player won't notice the transition at all. It's just something I noticed as a fellow map maker. That transition is probably fine to leave but if you have time, making a quick area in-between those two with depth 2 dirt then depth 1 grass would improve it :3 One more thing, there was one place where you used the more default feeling (depth 3 dirt then depth 1 grass) where it probably would've been better to go with the more rocky feeling. If I counted right, it's the 8th picture I believe. On the left side, that archy area is the part I was talking about. Also, while the topic is on that area, below it is that water area. I suggest making the bottom of it more terraformed since it's currently flat. As of now, it's only 2 deep so raising the bottom isn't really an option but you can make little valleys and stuff in the bottom further out in it.
Now, onto what I guess you could call miscellaneous stuff :3
Chest placement- I noticed the chests were in clusters... There were quite a lot of areas with about 4-7 chests within a 20~ block radius and then there were areas with about a 50-75~ block radius that had no chests at all. If possible, editing that would give players a better experience when playing.
Custom trees- Custom trees are the best indicator of a map in my opinion. It's something that most people don't notice too much on maps when in-game but I see it as pure dedication to a map. Using default trees are just a lazy way out in my opinion. Now, there are cases where you pretty much have to use default, for example- Survival Games 1 and 3, Treacherous Heights, Holiday Resort, etc (just maps with huge forest areas since a lot of custom trees simulates the forest feeling). For a map like this, custom trees are a must but, unfortunately, I didn't really like a lot of them..... I like all of the larger ones but the smaller versions weren't very good in my opinion.... I think it was the fact that most were very skinny and had a huge lack of leaves. That gives a completely different theme than the much larger trees with a lot of leaves. Honestly, and this is just me, I suggest redoing those....
Rugged Terrain- I guess this could be generalized in the terraforming part but I'll leave it as a separate thing. There's a ton of 2-3 block holes in the ground everywhere.... This is one of the absolutely most hated things in the survival games. No one likes it when a ton of players get stuck in holes in the ground and it turns the games into a sitting game where the players just sit still for 20-30 minutes waiting for forced deathmatch. There was even one place that was just a cluster of 3 block holes (in total, about 20....). It might just be a terraforming mistake. If you would like, I can give you a screenshot or coordinates of the holes. I highly suggest fixing these since something like these holes could possibly turn a fun map into a terribly boring and overall, infuriating game. Also, with the topic of rugged terrain, it's very similar to Rugged Lands in most places. By this, I'm talking about the huge inability to traverse an area easily. There's hardly any spots for people to maneuver about with ease. Players usually like to move about easily but the terrain will break their sprint every few blocks and cause frustration....
I think I covered everything that I wanted to but if I remember something I missed, I'll probably add it somewhere later on the thread. Please don't take any constructive criticism harshly, I'm just trying to help improve the map :3
All in all, I'd rate the map 7.8/10 at the current moment.
Zana
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If it is okay to ManOfTheBread and CaptButterToast opinion since they are really good terraformer, on how the terraforming, that ejegun made is?
Toast
District 13
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The terraforming seems full of random materials and is smoothed in some places, but poorly smoothed in other areas. I do like the overhang with the slim supports, the smoothing looks great and is visually appealing.
hobo1955
Peacekeeper
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Thanks for taking the time to make a long , detailed review , but I naturally have to disagree with allot of the things you said.
The terrain glitches , thanks for pointing them out. I honestly thought I'd fixed them all.
The terrain , thank you very much. The outcrops and cliffs and details where made by me , the main land masses and slopes made by Ejegun and mistakes fixed by Zana , so credit goes there.
As for the trees. I honestly think they fit the theme , and look very good in the map. The bigger trees are mainly there to add some variety and depth.
Now for the main part - the building.
Building is like an art-form. It is very subjective to different people. For example , on a house some people may hate it because the roof doesn't suit , whereas some people may love the fact that it's different and adds character.
I stand by the builds on this map and don't think they could be improved. The sheer amount of detail , surely makes up for the lack of them. To stick with the theme , we used wood and wood only (for the most part) . take a closer look and you will see how much detail was put into each and every structure.
We also had to build completely unique things that came straight from our imagination , nothing was there for us to copy. No Google image results , nothing. The things such as the cannibal fort - the spears on the walls , they use of hay bales as a base to the structure , the skull between the doorway. I don't think other map makers would've thought to make those kind of things , so you need to appreciate the ammount of thought gone into each build. It is not easy to build pre-historic as its a theme nobody has really done before.
When your saying things about them being ruined in parts , I just think it makes it look so much cooler. Nobody wants to see a build that looks too good to be true in the prehistoric age , so ruining it with the use of dinosaurs , cliff erosion make things seem all the more realistic
.
So the moral of this is : you can't rate something that cannot be compared to anything else.
The terrain glitches , thanks for pointing them out. I honestly thought I'd fixed them all.
The terrain , thank you very much. The outcrops and cliffs and details where made by me , the main land masses and slopes made by Ejegun and mistakes fixed by Zana , so credit goes there.
As for the trees. I honestly think they fit the theme , and look very good in the map. The bigger trees are mainly there to add some variety and depth.
Now for the main part - the building.
Building is like an art-form. It is very subjective to different people. For example , on a house some people may hate it because the roof doesn't suit , whereas some people may love the fact that it's different and adds character.
I stand by the builds on this map and don't think they could be improved. The sheer amount of detail , surely makes up for the lack of them. To stick with the theme , we used wood and wood only (for the most part) . take a closer look and you will see how much detail was put into each and every structure.
We also had to build completely unique things that came straight from our imagination , nothing was there for us to copy. No Google image results , nothing. The things such as the cannibal fort - the spears on the walls , they use of hay bales as a base to the structure , the skull between the doorway. I don't think other map makers would've thought to make those kind of things , so you need to appreciate the ammount of thought gone into each build. It is not easy to build pre-historic as its a theme nobody has really done before.
When your saying things about them being ruined in parts , I just think it makes it look so much cooler. Nobody wants to see a build that looks too good to be true in the prehistoric age , so ruining it with the use of dinosaurs , cliff erosion make things seem all the more realistic
.
So the moral of this is : you can't rate something that cannot be compared to anything else.
Zana
Career
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And as you can see, nobody have actually "played" on it and you can't actually see everything with only pic's and not feel the unique & emotional terraforming and the awesome dinosaurs , and as hobo said you can't rate something that cannot be compared to anything else. and
Tree_TheBigKind
District 13
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Oh, I just want to clarify that I did download it (wanted to make sure that I gave an honest review and didn't judge off pictures only)
Zana
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Oh. :3
ejegun
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I habe to correct hobo here I made the really really big cliff. As I have been trying to explain to hobo, I really wasn't done with the terraforming but I had to go on holidays which means 3 weeks without MC. I am mainly talking to Tree_TheBigKind by the way. It's just the little things I really would have liked to fix before going on holiday that do the trick. I will do my best on fixing all things when I get back. hobo1955 Tree pointed out pretty much everything I was going to fix. Also, Zana would not have had to fix it all if I wasn't on holidays, There simply wasn't time to do so, I think when I get back I will do these things:
1. Fix all things until I'm happy with all of it.
2. Get shaders working and retake the screenshots with OF on the most extreme settings you can think of. With and without shaders.
3. Create a new thread under the TeamSwish account so both me and hobo have access on modifying it.
4. Organize a second round of testgames, inviting youtubers.
5. Maybe make a testing server for our maps to play them 24/7 kinda like MCSG's PMC servers but for our maps.
1. Fix all things until I'm happy with all of it.
2. Get shaders working and retake the screenshots with OF on the most extreme settings you can think of. With and without shaders.
3. Create a new thread under the TeamSwish account so both me and hobo have access on modifying it.
4. Organize a second round of testgames, inviting youtubers.
5. Maybe make a testing server for our maps to play them 24/7 kinda like MCSG's PMC servers but for our maps.
ManOfTheBread
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- May 27, 2012
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Judging by the screenshots the most notable thing to point out is the randomness of the blocks, I feel that the scatter overlay was abused in the making of this map, however this is only from seeing the screenshots, I have yet to download the map (or check if there is a download) so what I have said may not be accurate. As for everything else, there really isn't much to say, as I'm only going by screenshots. And I can't download anything right now because my internet may explode.
SuperxAndrew
District 13
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It looks amazing. I am just afraid due to the size and terrain that the map itself is not going to be good for pvp, which, as you know, is a very important attribute to a map.
