--Towers of Aesmora: Adventure Map BETA--

-This map, when completed, will be a mix of Adventure, RPG, and Parkour maps, integrated through an open world with a gripping storyline and difficult Parkour puzzles. As the name suggests, the only minecraftian-made structures will be towers (mostly). Hope you're not afraid of heights...-

Like Darkshadow, I too have been working on a Minecraft Adventure map for a while now, and I'm ready to begin having it be tested for realzees. The story is still a work in progress, so what you'll be doing is testing the various elements that will create the challenges to be integrated in the final work.

ALSO, you WILL NEED at least snapshot 12w03a installed for these maps to be completeable, as they incorporate the new climbable vines dynamic. LINK: http://mojang.com/2012/01/19/minecraft-snapshot-12w03a/

Screenshots (more to be added):







DOWNLOADS:

BETA - Towers 1, 2, 3 - http://www.mediafire.com/?u2l318zm93lc5za

Screenshot:



In this map, there are three towers, and in front of each tower, a sign with its difficulty rating. When you are done playing it, I'd like to know what your difficulty rating was for each tower, and why. Also, to anyone who makes minecraft videos, I would really appreciate it if you recorded yourself playing this map, and then posted it in this thread, along with your feedback. NOTE: as of now, I would rather not get feedback on the style of the towers, rather the difficulty of completing them.

BETA - Towers 4, 5 - http://www.mediafire.com/?bnqv3vqu1k92n11

Screenshot:



In this map, there are two towers, both of which are fairly difficult. When you are done playing it, I'd like to know what your difficulty rating was for each tower, and why, as well as any other feedback you may have. Also, to anyone who makes minecraft videos, I would really appreciate it if you recorded yourself playing this map, and then posted it in this thread, along with your feedback. NOTE: as of now, I would rather not get feedback on the style of the towers, rather the difficulty of completing them.

BETA - Towers 6, 7 - http://www.mediafire.com/?twvp2z3tex0ay99

Screenshot:



In this map, there are two towers, ranging in difficulty with the first being medium, and the second being harder. When you are done playing it, I'd like to know what your difficulty rating was for each tower, and why, as well as any other feedback you may have. Also, to anyone who makes minecraft videos, I would really appreciate it if you recorded yourself playing this map, and then posted it in this thread, along with your feedback. NOTE: as of now, I would rather not get feedback on the style of the towers, rather the difficulty of completing them.

This will be the last of my beta downloads, as production on the final map will be starting soon. I have nearly every tower ready, all that remains is to sew together the continent, towers, and story.


VIDEOS:

Tala's First Tower Vid:



Tala's Second Tower Vid:

CONTINUE TESTING. Here's my video of the first beta thing you had for me.

Thanks tala, I'll add that to the op soon. Also, I'll add a link to the snapshot, if anyone happens to need it.

I played through all of them, and they were pretty good. Nice work on the appearence . I found that the first one was really easy (though perhaps I was just expecting it to be harder after watching Tala's video ), the second one was also pretty easy, but took a while because I went through ALL the chests, the third one was actually pretty hard, and I think the big jump in the begining is imposible :l. I had to cheat using a piece of dirt because even my sprint jumps just barely didn't make it, but after that it was both challenging and completeable. Good work

Darkshadow wrote:

I played through all of them, and they were pretty good. Nice work on the appearence . I found that the first one was really easy (though perhaps I was just expecting it to be harder after watching Tala's video ), the second one was also pretty easy, but took a while because I went through ALL the chests, the third one was actually pretty hard, and I think the big jump in the begining is imposible :l. I had to cheat using a piece of dirt because even my sprint jumps just barely didn't make it, but after that it was both challenging and completeable. Good work

Thanks! I modified the first tower after seeing tala struggle so much, but I'll probably make it a bit harder because of your feedback. As for the second one, I wasn't expecting people to find it easy. There are two main obstacles that I planted specifically designed to confuse you, perhaps I'll have to review it again. And for the third, the jump is possible, trust me. I may modify it slightly, as the reward for that tower is slightly less than some of the other towers I've got planned. Glad you enjoyed it!

Oh yeah I forgot. Are you allowed to break the ice at the top of the second tower? I did just to make a quick way down to test the next one, but I wasn't sure if you were supposed to to get the chests

Darkshadow wrote:

Oh yeah I forgot. Are you allowed to break the ice at the top of the second tower? I did just to make a quick way down to test the next one, but I wasn't sure if you were supposed to to get the chests

Oh yes, that will be one of the rules in the final release. (Breaking ice is legal.)

This adventure map inspired me to make an adventure map too!
Here's the video of moar testing.

Editing OP to add videos, link to snapshot, and such.

Also, I'll be releasing a new map for testing with five towers this time, but I'd like some more feedback before I do that. Three more people make videos/post here with feedback, and I'll release the map.

EDIT: Updated.

Bump, let's get some activity going! (Delta, I'm looking at you. ) I'm considering posting this on the Minecraft forums to get some more activity going.

So did you actually add the other towers yet or are you still waiting for more comments?

Well, I have the towers that I want to include built, but I'm still waiting for more people to test everything out. Delta has provided feedback to me via Steam chat, so that still leaves two people.

Well, things may be picking up with this soon, as I'm receiving feedback from other sources. Expect a new download soon.

Ah, nice. Did this have anything to do with the MCEdit anvil compatibility? :P

Darkshadow wrote:

Ah, nice. Did this have anything to do with the MCEdit anvil compatibility? :P

Actually, it surprisingly didn't. It had to do with a bit of feedback a friend of mine gave me. A particularly helpful bit of feedback. You know, just something that gave me a new confidence that I had the ability to make something special.

A new file is up! Check the OP for it, and post your feedback here.

Um..does that one rule mean we can't use vines on the outside of the tower at all to climb? Because if we can't, then tower #4 (the one made of stone) is impossible. Im fairly certain I had to use outside vines at one point on #5 too.

Assuming you can at certain points, I would give tower #4 a difficulty of 9/10. It was byfar the most difficult of the 5 towers you've made; I had to use some of my more advanced parkour tricks at parts. I also really liked the appearence of this tower

I would give tower 4 a difficulty of either 6/10 or 7/10 (I can't decide....6.5/10 I guess ). I loved this tower. You did a really nice job with the parkour on it. It wasn't insanly difficult, but it wasn't obvious what you were supposed to do at certain points. I liked the part where you had to shimmy around the ledge on the outside. Nice use of the new planks in the design

(Btw, what texture pack is that in the picture above the download for these ones?)

The rule only applied to climbing up vines on the outside of towers at the very bottom of them. Basically, any vines at the bottom and outside of the tower are off limits.

I'm very glad to hear your feedback, especially since the difficulty ratings matched up with mine. Though, you wrote "tower #4" for both of them. >.< I'll just assume the first was for #4 and the second was for #5.

I'm using a painterly pack that my friend threw together, and it will probably be the texture pack I'll use from now on for this adventure map.

Oops lol. Yeah, I meant tower 5 for the second one. I thought it was painterly, but the wood planks didn't look like it. Just to be sure whether I cheated or not, your saying that you shouldn't need the vines on the outside to complete any of the towers?

Nonono, the vines are essential for a lot of the towers to be completed. What I mean is that on the ground you shouldn't climb any vines. After entering the tower and beginning the parkour, then all vines can be climbed.

Oh good, then I probably did it exactly how I was supposed to.As a little added feedback so that this wasn't a pointless post, I find the hardest part of that tower was the jump towards the top where you have to jump to a ledge from standing in a two block tall space

I'll copy down here for posterity the thoughts and ideas I expressed over Steam earlier.

I have no complaints about the difficulty balance in either of the latest towers — found the wooden one more challenging personally, though I liked the design of the stone one more.

For connecting the towers together, using clues in the previous towers to lead to the next one (via custom in-game maps) would be fun, methinks, and populating the intervening areas with custom terrain generated by programs like MC Edit and World Painter would make travel aesthetically entertaining.

I think the tower sections would be more fun on Peaceful than Easy and up, given that in the latter case one is left waiting significantly longer for one's health to regenerate, and without pedantic use of torches there is always the possibility of mobs appearing on the towers. Another advantage, in my opinion, would be for looks; using lighting to make the map look cooler is a lot easier knowing that you're not guaranteeing the player a hard time by leaving some areas deliberately dark, and it seems to me that combat isn't the purpose of this map. I envisage something like Shadow of the Colossus, which uses an immersive, solitary atmosphere, great visuals and highly refined core gameplay as its raison d'etre.

Thanks Delta. I do actually have some combat areas planned, but they probably be later in the adventure. Perhaps I'll have a sign indicating that a switch to Easy or above is required for the next area.

In other news, here's a sneak peak of an upcoming tower!



I've got quite a few ruined towers completed, and I have an idea for one more. I'm closing in on my "tower quota" of 10-12, so I may begin working on the landscape. Once that happens, I may not be releasing Beta maps until the final release.

New Download is up!

BETA - Towers 6, 7 - http://www.mediafire.com/?twvp2z3tex0ay99

Screenshot:



In this map, there are two towers, ranging in difficulty with the first being medium, and the second being harder. When you are done playing it, I'd like to know what your difficulty rating was for each tower, and why, as well as any other feedback you may have. Also, to anyone who makes minecraft videos, I would really appreciate it if you recorded yourself playing this map, and then posted it in this thread, along with your feedback. NOTE: as of now, I would rather not get feedback on the style of the towers, rather the difficulty of completing them.

This will be the last of my beta downloads, as production on the final map will be starting soon. I have nearly every tower ready, all that remains is to sew together the continent, towers, and story.

Also, I think an OP renovation is in order.

Yay more towers

I found the ice tower very difficult, due to a single jump towards the top. The rest of the tower was fairly easy, with a few other slightly difficult parts.

The other tower was pretty easy, though for some reason it took me like 10 minutes to get past the part where you had to go around the corner with the vines . Nice work.

I forget if you mentioned it, but will the map be played in peaceful? Cause if it isn't every single tower can be cheated with ender pearls D: