REW COMPLAINING AGAIN SMH (SHAKIN ME HEAD)
Anyways, this thread was made as sort of a more detailed guide on how to judge your own maps before submitting them to the forums. I often see maps with the same old problems being submitted again and again, and this is thread is an attempt to counteract that! If you think something in here is wrong/missing, just reply and i will check.
Keep in mind i am not a staff member and everything written here is from my own experience.
1. Before starting
Before even starting to make a map, you should read Dacon's submission format post: https://manacube.com/threads/must-read-map-submission-information-format.649/
It covers the most basic requirements and is a must read if you are planning to make a map.
When you read the post, you may begin thinking of a theme+difficulty. To see if this theme is acceptable, run through this checklist:
Is your theme a minecraft block, biome or mob?
Is your theme based around floating islands, mario, rainbow or whatever?
Does your theme show up on the accepted map spreadsheet?
Is your map idea pixelart?
Is your map idea some kind of "box"?
If your answer to any of those questions is a yes, don't even bother building. These kinds of maps have been done ages ago and there is 0% chance they get accepted. If you're not sure, ask a person with the Mapper rank in chat, they will most likely lead you on the right path!
2. The build process
If you've gotten to this point, you probably have a solid idea of what you're going to build, but you should still check for one thing. Is your theme the right size for the difficulty you are going for (mostly directed towards expert/insanes) If not, i suggest one of three things.
-Make your build bigger. Keep in mind that if you make your build bigger, you will have to include more detail. Also remember to make your map no larger than 120x120 blocks.
-Change your target difficulty
-And if you're adamant about making a certain difficulty, pick another theme.
You should also remember to ALWAYS make the build before the parkour. You'll have a very hard time forcing the build to fit the prebuilt parkour. In addition, you should consider block variation. Don't use just clay or just wool, make some creative with the blocks you use!
Don't have too many builders on a single map as conflicting ideas will make the whole map look worse. When doing a larger collab, make sure there is at least some level of coordination between all involved.
While building the map, remember to check if the quality is up to par with other builds of the same difficulty. For the most accurate comparison, i suggest comparing with the most recently added maps, as old ones can be outdated in style. This is especially important for organics (maps of living things e.g. humanoid figures) as they can look great if done right, but horrible if done wrong. Make sure your maps's proportions are at least somewhat accurate. If you're not sure, you should once again ask a mapper for guidance. Remember to not to spam worldedit functions (e.g. percentage) unless you really know what you're doing.
Once you are mostly done with your build, you should set up an intended path for parkour. This will make it easier to build the parkour later on.
3. The parkour
By this point you are done with the build, but this is only half of the job done. After all, what's a parkour map without parkour? This is the most important part as bad and unenjoyable parkour can ruin a great map with ease.
First, make sure your parkour has a decent flow to it. This will make the parkour play much nicer and result in your map getting accepted more likely. You should also abstain from overusing floating parkour (Parkour that's not connected to the build). Also keep in mind the list of blocks banned from use in Dacon's afformentioned thread. Pistons are allowed in maps, but don't overuse them.
Add checkpoints to your map by simply typing "Checkpoint" in the 2nd row of the sign. These checkpoints won't work in the Map maker world, however. Don't overuse checkpoints!
If possible, make the parkour blocks blend in with the enviroment. If a part of the parkour is TOO well blended in, don't hesitate to add a sign indicating where to go. Make use of different heads in /hdb. In addition, use blocks with different hitboxes! Don't make your map consist of 1-2 block types. Be creative, although not too creative.
Always keep in mind that your parkour fits the difficulty you're going for. If you don't think you can judge that yourself, ask for map testing in chat.
Keep track of the amount of jumps recommended for each difficulty, you don't need to be EXACTLY in that range, but make sure you're atleast close to it. If the amount of jumps you have is too low or too high, you can tweak the direction the map goes in to make that number closer.
And that's about it! Again, if something is missing reply to this thread. Hope this helped someone during map making!
Anyways, this thread was made as sort of a more detailed guide on how to judge your own maps before submitting them to the forums. I often see maps with the same old problems being submitted again and again, and this is thread is an attempt to counteract that! If you think something in here is wrong/missing, just reply and i will check.
Keep in mind i am not a staff member and everything written here is from my own experience.
1. Before starting
Before even starting to make a map, you should read Dacon's submission format post: https://manacube.com/threads/must-read-map-submission-information-format.649/
It covers the most basic requirements and is a must read if you are planning to make a map.
When you read the post, you may begin thinking of a theme+difficulty. To see if this theme is acceptable, run through this checklist:
Is your theme a minecraft block, biome or mob?
Is your theme based around floating islands, mario, rainbow or whatever?
Does your theme show up on the accepted map spreadsheet?
Is your map idea pixelart?
Is your map idea some kind of "box"?
If your answer to any of those questions is a yes, don't even bother building. These kinds of maps have been done ages ago and there is 0% chance they get accepted. If you're not sure, ask a person with the Mapper rank in chat, they will most likely lead you on the right path!
2. The build process
If you've gotten to this point, you probably have a solid idea of what you're going to build, but you should still check for one thing. Is your theme the right size for the difficulty you are going for (mostly directed towards expert/insanes) If not, i suggest one of three things.
-Make your build bigger. Keep in mind that if you make your build bigger, you will have to include more detail. Also remember to make your map no larger than 120x120 blocks.
-Change your target difficulty
-And if you're adamant about making a certain difficulty, pick another theme.
You should also remember to ALWAYS make the build before the parkour. You'll have a very hard time forcing the build to fit the prebuilt parkour. In addition, you should consider block variation. Don't use just clay or just wool, make some creative with the blocks you use!
Don't have too many builders on a single map as conflicting ideas will make the whole map look worse. When doing a larger collab, make sure there is at least some level of coordination between all involved.
While building the map, remember to check if the quality is up to par with other builds of the same difficulty. For the most accurate comparison, i suggest comparing with the most recently added maps, as old ones can be outdated in style. This is especially important for organics (maps of living things e.g. humanoid figures) as they can look great if done right, but horrible if done wrong. Make sure your maps's proportions are at least somewhat accurate. If you're not sure, you should once again ask a mapper for guidance. Remember to not to spam worldedit functions (e.g. percentage) unless you really know what you're doing.
Once you are mostly done with your build, you should set up an intended path for parkour. This will make it easier to build the parkour later on.
3. The parkour
By this point you are done with the build, but this is only half of the job done. After all, what's a parkour map without parkour? This is the most important part as bad and unenjoyable parkour can ruin a great map with ease.
First, make sure your parkour has a decent flow to it. This will make the parkour play much nicer and result in your map getting accepted more likely. You should also abstain from overusing floating parkour (Parkour that's not connected to the build). Also keep in mind the list of blocks banned from use in Dacon's afformentioned thread. Pistons are allowed in maps, but don't overuse them.
Add checkpoints to your map by simply typing "Checkpoint" in the 2nd row of the sign. These checkpoints won't work in the Map maker world, however. Don't overuse checkpoints!
If possible, make the parkour blocks blend in with the enviroment. If a part of the parkour is TOO well blended in, don't hesitate to add a sign indicating where to go. Make use of different heads in /hdb. In addition, use blocks with different hitboxes! Don't make your map consist of 1-2 block types. Be creative, although not too creative.
Always keep in mind that your parkour fits the difficulty you're going for. If you don't think you can judge that yourself, ask for map testing in chat.
Keep track of the amount of jumps recommended for each difficulty, you don't need to be EXACTLY in that range, but make sure you're atleast close to it. If the amount of jumps you have is too low or too high, you can tweak the direction the map goes in to make that number closer.
And that's about it! Again, if something is missing reply to this thread. Hope this helped someone during map making!
