You've seen the title. Basically, the Idea of this thread is that I go off on a little rant about a gamemode that rarely gets more than 200 players online at the same time, and you nod in silent agreement with every single word I am writing (and pretend as if u had any Idea of what any of it means if you have never played the gamemode or don't play it that much).
I will try to start with more major cristicism first, and will try to keep the smaller nit-picks for the end.
Lets begin.
Deathmatch mode
Giga Blockwars has 4 gamemodes (though 2 of them recently were removed for unknown reasons):
Capture The Flag
Bridges
Deathmatch (recently removed)
Break the core (also recently removed)
And the fact I am going after a currently removed gamemode first should tell you everything that needs to be said before I get to say it.
Lets start off with the larger problem, which is game length. The game is intended for a 50v50 format. Of course, you'll not always have a full 100 player lobby, but that's the Idea. Well, just before the gamemodes removal, the amount of kills a team needs to get for a win was lowered from 150 (already a low number) to 100.
WHY? I get that a deathmatch is not supposed to last very long, the timer on that mode is the shortest among all giga blockwars modes, being the only 20 minute long one (the others are all 30 minutes). But do you seriously want the game to end once a team reaches an average of 2 kills per person? The previous one being 3 kills?
I get that in blockwars, tons of players will probably have problems to get even 1 kill(whether its because of a lack of skill or a lack of will). But just 100 kills is barely anything.
It makes the games insanely short, and hardly allows time to do anything. Especially the tasks each player gets. Tasks were introduced as small challenges in a game to allow players to unlock rewards. Well, on 150 kills there was already hardly time to do some of them, I often was only able to just barely finish all 3 as the game ended. And when the game was reduced to 100 kills only, it killed any chance you had at finishing some tasks.
The tasks themselves are also critique worthy, but that's for later.
For now, now that I have mentioned rewards, I have one quesiton:
WHO MADE IT SO THAT, IN A MODE, WHERE YOU SPAWN WITH IRON ARMOR, YOU GET REWARDED WITH MORE IRON ARMOR FOR FINISHING THOSE TASKS?
Its already enough that I can't see what the reward from a task is until I finish it, but in a gamemode with such limited time I may not even be able to finish all tasks to get the reward I may want, instead having to hope that the reward from the 1-2 tasks I will be able to complete will just so happen to be the right one.
Now onto the next point:
Map Design
The gamemode features several maps for each gamemode. For break the core and capture the flag you have:
Green Hills
Sandcastle
Ancient City
Castle
Canyon
And for Bridges you have:
Mangrove
Mystery
Deathmatch on the other hand just uses smaller variations of green hills, sandcastle and ancient city.
My first problem with the map design is: why are diamonds only available in the center?
I get why they'd be there (as well), don't get me wrong, you gotta force players to fight for the most overpowered gear available. But the problem is: once a team loses control of the middle, there is next to no way to ever regain it, which for the entire game leaves one team at a massive disadvantage.
For a gamemode with this many players its insane to punish players like that, especially with how random the team composition can get sometimes.
What I'd suggest instead is that MOST of the diamond stay in the middle, with each time having smaller diamond stacks on their "side" of middle, as in: on their side of the map, but close to the central third of the map, and they really shouldn't be big.
The ones in the middle areas on CTF maps tend to be 2 blocks tall, 3 blocks wide and 3 blocks long.
You could easily make the smaller ones a block thinner and a block shorter, making for a total of 6 blocks.
and perhaps even very small diamond stacks (like: 1-3 singular blocks) next to the Iron blocks near the spawn areas of each team.
This way, losing middle is not a complete disaster as it does not completely take away your fighting chance BUT it does force to "compete" for gear with your team more (or share it more if u are lucky enough to get that kind of team) if u intend on using the sources near spawn.
This could also be considered for bridges, though to a lesser extent as what matters in that gamemode more is speed rather than the power of your gear. I mean: back in the day, we had to grab points without wearing armor because you'd lose it each time you jump in the pit and it took too long to regain it.
It will also allow some players a slightly quicker start into the game as those blocks will make it so you can get that strong gear just a bit easier.
Another problem I have with the maps is with the areas around the flags in ctf. On a lot of them, the respawn area of the teams is very close to the flag itself, meaning that unless you are REALLY fast, you'll have to deal with a group of 30 trying to stab you immediately after taking the flag, not to mention the maps being built in a way that makes it very difficult to navigate sometimes. Especially if you are either chasing after a flag carrier.
On 3 of the 5 maps, there is no water in the central area, or there are already pre-built paths through it, which makes it very difficult to catch up with the flag carrier once they start running. On castle and canyon you are at least forced to either swim or bridge above the water, which makes you vulnerable to arrow shots or being caught while coming out of the water, making for a perfect, natural obstacle, allowing you to catch up with the flag carrier while he is running.
On top of that, those 2 maps also have the flag and team bases placed on very high places, which makes it even easier to catch up if u bridge in a high area or if u have leap feathers or slow falling or have players with bows taking out opponents trying to do that while escaping.
The 3 others don't, they severely lack natural obstacles that would slow any flag carriers enough to be able to catch up with them.
What they also lack is natural flag defense.
What do I mean by that?
Let me show you with an example: The map "castle" has its flags and player bases:
-surrounded by buildings that directly block certain paths
-placed on a high place
-placed in a place with limited paths to get there, realistically its just 2 sets of stairs and one jump pad in the center.
Now lets compare it to the map "ancient city":
Its flag is placed on a:
-Slightly elevated place
-has no natural obstacles surrounding the flag, instead having a ton of open space around it
-has a lot of paths leading right to it or close to it, you can parcour close to it, you can walk right through the mostly open space between the middle and the flag, with there being several sets of stairs near the flag leading right to it.
"Castle" is a map where the flag is very well naturally defensible. "Ancient city" is one where the flag is not naturally defensible as it is placed in a position where a flag carrier can get to it easily and run away just as easily.
"Castle" and "Canyon" are the two maps that have been around since the gamemode was first introduced, the 3 others were added fairly recently and have not been around for too long, and it shows that they were designed by very different people with very different things in mind.
Castle and canyon seem to have been specifically designed with natural defenses in mind, the 3 others are basically just different variations of a mostly flat empty space without much thought put into them.
Lastly, a very small nitpick about the map design:
Is the void on CTF maps seriously necessary? I get why its there on bridges, but CTF?
It feels annoying to get knocked off the literal side a map as massive as the CTF maps, especially if its by suprise with a KB sword, because there is nothing you can do about it other than praying. Not to mention that with enough leap feathers you can easily abuse the LITERALLY OPEN sides of the maps, admittedly to a limited extent, but its entirely doable. And the void near the respawn is a different level of irritating, Imagine trying to grab a pick and an axe from a chest or crafting and suddenly noticing you were sent flying.
I realised that putting all of the things I want to say in one thread may make it too long and might be too time consuming, so I will split it into several parts. What I am trying to say is:
That's it for part one, thanks for reading, till the next time when I will talk about the task and reward system, as well as overpowered mode and rush mode.
I will try to start with more major cristicism first, and will try to keep the smaller nit-picks for the end.
Lets begin.
Deathmatch mode
Giga Blockwars has 4 gamemodes (though 2 of them recently were removed for unknown reasons):
Capture The Flag
Bridges
Deathmatch (recently removed)
Break the core (also recently removed)
And the fact I am going after a currently removed gamemode first should tell you everything that needs to be said before I get to say it.
Lets start off with the larger problem, which is game length. The game is intended for a 50v50 format. Of course, you'll not always have a full 100 player lobby, but that's the Idea. Well, just before the gamemodes removal, the amount of kills a team needs to get for a win was lowered from 150 (already a low number) to 100.
WHY? I get that a deathmatch is not supposed to last very long, the timer on that mode is the shortest among all giga blockwars modes, being the only 20 minute long one (the others are all 30 minutes). But do you seriously want the game to end once a team reaches an average of 2 kills per person? The previous one being 3 kills?
I get that in blockwars, tons of players will probably have problems to get even 1 kill(whether its because of a lack of skill or a lack of will). But just 100 kills is barely anything.
It makes the games insanely short, and hardly allows time to do anything. Especially the tasks each player gets. Tasks were introduced as small challenges in a game to allow players to unlock rewards. Well, on 150 kills there was already hardly time to do some of them, I often was only able to just barely finish all 3 as the game ended. And when the game was reduced to 100 kills only, it killed any chance you had at finishing some tasks.
The tasks themselves are also critique worthy, but that's for later.
For now, now that I have mentioned rewards, I have one quesiton:
WHO MADE IT SO THAT, IN A MODE, WHERE YOU SPAWN WITH IRON ARMOR, YOU GET REWARDED WITH MORE IRON ARMOR FOR FINISHING THOSE TASKS?
Its already enough that I can't see what the reward from a task is until I finish it, but in a gamemode with such limited time I may not even be able to finish all tasks to get the reward I may want, instead having to hope that the reward from the 1-2 tasks I will be able to complete will just so happen to be the right one.
Now onto the next point:
Map Design
The gamemode features several maps for each gamemode. For break the core and capture the flag you have:
Green Hills
Sandcastle
Ancient City
Castle
Canyon
And for Bridges you have:
Mangrove
Mystery
Deathmatch on the other hand just uses smaller variations of green hills, sandcastle and ancient city.
My first problem with the map design is: why are diamonds only available in the center?
I get why they'd be there (as well), don't get me wrong, you gotta force players to fight for the most overpowered gear available. But the problem is: once a team loses control of the middle, there is next to no way to ever regain it, which for the entire game leaves one team at a massive disadvantage.
For a gamemode with this many players its insane to punish players like that, especially with how random the team composition can get sometimes.
What I'd suggest instead is that MOST of the diamond stay in the middle, with each time having smaller diamond stacks on their "side" of middle, as in: on their side of the map, but close to the central third of the map, and they really shouldn't be big.
The ones in the middle areas on CTF maps tend to be 2 blocks tall, 3 blocks wide and 3 blocks long.
You could easily make the smaller ones a block thinner and a block shorter, making for a total of 6 blocks.
and perhaps even very small diamond stacks (like: 1-3 singular blocks) next to the Iron blocks near the spawn areas of each team.
This way, losing middle is not a complete disaster as it does not completely take away your fighting chance BUT it does force to "compete" for gear with your team more (or share it more if u are lucky enough to get that kind of team) if u intend on using the sources near spawn.
This could also be considered for bridges, though to a lesser extent as what matters in that gamemode more is speed rather than the power of your gear. I mean: back in the day, we had to grab points without wearing armor because you'd lose it each time you jump in the pit and it took too long to regain it.
It will also allow some players a slightly quicker start into the game as those blocks will make it so you can get that strong gear just a bit easier.
Another problem I have with the maps is with the areas around the flags in ctf. On a lot of them, the respawn area of the teams is very close to the flag itself, meaning that unless you are REALLY fast, you'll have to deal with a group of 30 trying to stab you immediately after taking the flag, not to mention the maps being built in a way that makes it very difficult to navigate sometimes. Especially if you are either chasing after a flag carrier.
On 3 of the 5 maps, there is no water in the central area, or there are already pre-built paths through it, which makes it very difficult to catch up with the flag carrier once they start running. On castle and canyon you are at least forced to either swim or bridge above the water, which makes you vulnerable to arrow shots or being caught while coming out of the water, making for a perfect, natural obstacle, allowing you to catch up with the flag carrier while he is running.
On top of that, those 2 maps also have the flag and team bases placed on very high places, which makes it even easier to catch up if u bridge in a high area or if u have leap feathers or slow falling or have players with bows taking out opponents trying to do that while escaping.
The 3 others don't, they severely lack natural obstacles that would slow any flag carriers enough to be able to catch up with them.
What they also lack is natural flag defense.
What do I mean by that?
Let me show you with an example: The map "castle" has its flags and player bases:
-surrounded by buildings that directly block certain paths
-placed on a high place
-placed in a place with limited paths to get there, realistically its just 2 sets of stairs and one jump pad in the center.
Now lets compare it to the map "ancient city":
Its flag is placed on a:
-Slightly elevated place
-has no natural obstacles surrounding the flag, instead having a ton of open space around it
-has a lot of paths leading right to it or close to it, you can parcour close to it, you can walk right through the mostly open space between the middle and the flag, with there being several sets of stairs near the flag leading right to it.
"Castle" is a map where the flag is very well naturally defensible. "Ancient city" is one where the flag is not naturally defensible as it is placed in a position where a flag carrier can get to it easily and run away just as easily.
"Castle" and "Canyon" are the two maps that have been around since the gamemode was first introduced, the 3 others were added fairly recently and have not been around for too long, and it shows that they were designed by very different people with very different things in mind.
Castle and canyon seem to have been specifically designed with natural defenses in mind, the 3 others are basically just different variations of a mostly flat empty space without much thought put into them.
Lastly, a very small nitpick about the map design:
Is the void on CTF maps seriously necessary? I get why its there on bridges, but CTF?
It feels annoying to get knocked off the literal side a map as massive as the CTF maps, especially if its by suprise with a KB sword, because there is nothing you can do about it other than praying. Not to mention that with enough leap feathers you can easily abuse the LITERALLY OPEN sides of the maps, admittedly to a limited extent, but its entirely doable. And the void near the respawn is a different level of irritating, Imagine trying to grab a pick and an axe from a chest or crafting and suddenly noticing you were sent flying.
I realised that putting all of the things I want to say in one thread may make it too long and might be too time consuming, so I will split it into several parts. What I am trying to say is:
That's it for part one, thanks for reading, till the next time when I will talk about the task and reward system, as well as overpowered mode and rush mode.
Last edited:
