Hello!
Due to chest balancing I had to change every single map, to help balance this which resulted in removing secret chests on starter islands and adding an obvious chest on every map. I will cover the maps that were removed/revamped, then the little changes as a huge list! I used this feedback for the map changes: https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/skywars-maps-give-us-feedback.189833/
New content
We added 5 new maps and a new pre lobby.
The new pre lobby was inspired from the first pre lobby we ever had for Team SkyWars. We wanted to make a lobby for nostalgic reasons and also to give it a general refresh. I have received feedback on some of the new content and will be making changes, such as:
Editing current maps
These are the most major and noticeable changes.
Birdhouse (Solo)
This was a map that was just plain imbalanced. Some islands were closer to middle than others due to the straight lines, so I added a more circular shape to match the ring of starter islands. I also added more inner islands so there was lots of space to PvP. I also replaced all green stained clay to grass, so you could actually break the blocks without needing a pickaxe. I made the bird bowl smaller so it wasn't so much effort to climb.
Sundae (Solo)
Now I'm still not 100% sure on this new map design. So I would love to hear feedback, the elements that people loved about this map was the close PvP. However the middle used to be miles away, so I decided to remove it due to players often going to the top, pouring lava down and then making a sky base. The outer ring is to encourage close quarter PvP.
Farm (Team)
According to feedback I received... PvP at middle was "Horrible" due to all the farm land. So I just removed it all and added organic vegetables. I also removed chests that were in awkward places, like on top of the windmill so players would fight on the ground rather than in annoying places.
Dinosaur (Team)
This map was just awkward... I wanted to make PvP cleaner so I removed a lot of random fences and the evil volcano. The volcano often attracted players with punch bows making it near enough impossible to get to, unless they ran out of arrows. So I levelled the volcano and decorated the center with dinosaur bones.
Why did you remove the old maps?
Over time maps do have their issues or just generally get outdated. I will always base my changes off feedback, I am not somebody who will go, "Right what map should I remove today", that's dumb. I will base my actions on threads like these: https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/skywars-maps-give-us-feedback.189833/ I know players have conflicting opinions so I tend to go with the majority.
Whenever a change is made on the network, even if it isn't maps, there will be somebody that won't like it. I will always go with the majority from the feedback I receive and my best judgement. If there is a removed map you would love to see added back let me know, and let me know how it could be improved. I won't bring back a removed map exactly how it was, because they were removed for a reason.
Why did you remove the secret chests from starter islands?
In response to this: https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/secret-chest.198424/
Due to our weighted chest system on starter islands I removed all the secret chests. This is because of my experiences in staff testing, there were some players getting weapons and some who weren't because it spawned in a secret chest. I could of just made this a bonus chest, although I didn't like the idea of veteran players having such an advantage over new players because they knew where secret loot was. Veteran players already have unlocked abilities and kits, I didn't want to increase that advantage by adding bonus chests.
We do gaming events such as 'Insomnia' and after actually watching new players in person play my maps, it was so clear to me that players sometimes struggle to find chests (When I think they are in obvious places). Therefore removing secret chests is the right step to take in my opinion.
Full changelog
If you have any questions or feedback regarding maps please let me know.
Thanks!
Due to chest balancing I had to change every single map, to help balance this which resulted in removing secret chests on starter islands and adding an obvious chest on every map. I will cover the maps that were removed/revamped, then the little changes as a huge list! I used this feedback for the map changes: https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/skywars-maps-give-us-feedback.189833/
New content
We added 5 new maps and a new pre lobby.
- Paris (Solo) (Revamp)
- Canyon (Solo)
- Alien (Team)
- Streets (Team)
- Fruit (Team)
The new pre lobby was inspired from the first pre lobby we ever had for Team SkyWars. We wanted to make a lobby for nostalgic reasons and also to give it a general refresh. I have received feedback on some of the new content and will be making changes, such as:
- Pre lobby: I will be adding more parkours, especially a harder one.
- Streets: The vehicles are quite large making it difficult to PvP around them so I will be making the road wider
- Fruit: There is a lot of obstacles around the map so I will be removing some of the fruit to make it cleaner and nicer to have a good PvP fight.
- Paris: I revamped a community made map due to various reasons, the spacing was imbalanced to middle and other islands, some islands had a secret chest, some didn't. The buildings didn't make sense for what they were. The Eiffel tower, players often towered up and poured lava down then camped. I removed all incentive to tower to the top and made the Eiffel tower shorter. I added inner islands due to the positive feedback I received when I revamped 'Glass'.
Editing current maps
These are the most major and noticeable changes.
Birdhouse (Solo)
This was a map that was just plain imbalanced. Some islands were closer to middle than others due to the straight lines, so I added a more circular shape to match the ring of starter islands. I also added more inner islands so there was lots of space to PvP. I also replaced all green stained clay to grass, so you could actually break the blocks without needing a pickaxe. I made the bird bowl smaller so it wasn't so much effort to climb.
Sundae (Solo)
Now I'm still not 100% sure on this new map design. So I would love to hear feedback, the elements that people loved about this map was the close PvP. However the middle used to be miles away, so I decided to remove it due to players often going to the top, pouring lava down and then making a sky base. The outer ring is to encourage close quarter PvP.
Farm (Team)
According to feedback I received... PvP at middle was "Horrible" due to all the farm land. So I just removed it all and added organic vegetables. I also removed chests that were in awkward places, like on top of the windmill so players would fight on the ground rather than in annoying places.
Dinosaur (Team)
This map was just awkward... I wanted to make PvP cleaner so I removed a lot of random fences and the evil volcano. The volcano often attracted players with punch bows making it near enough impossible to get to, unless they ran out of arrows. So I levelled the volcano and decorated the center with dinosaur bones.
Why did you remove the old maps?
Over time maps do have their issues or just generally get outdated. I will always base my changes off feedback, I am not somebody who will go, "Right what map should I remove today", that's dumb. I will base my actions on threads like these: https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/skywars-maps-give-us-feedback.189833/ I know players have conflicting opinions so I tend to go with the majority.
- Old Paris - I mentioned the reasons above. Camping was a big issue on this map due to the large tower. I know people love to make traps on it, which is why in the revamp I kept that same aspect. I strongly wanted to revamp it due to the aesthetics, how imbalanced islands were and the feedback I received.
- Swords - Where to begin... although it had a cool trap at middle the starter islands were horrible to PvP on and so many people disliked this map according to the map feedback thread.
- Mystic - This was one of the first maps we did that didn't involve the classic circle layout. This map was just generally outdated and didn't have enough room to PvP on.
- Angelic - A community made map which at the time of release looked beautiful but had no real good gameplay mechanics other than the trap at middle. Over time it got outdated and I know the build team can produce better maps.
- Stars - A night map... Night maps can be good but there was not enough lighting and resulted in players having to change their brightness mid-game if they weren't already on 'Bright'. The spacing between islands was just too large and it was an unpopular map from the community feedback I received.
- Evacuate - A lack of chests, which could have been fixed but so often players would accidentally fall into lava due to the hilly terrain. The terrain was not suitable for clean fights.
Whenever a change is made on the network, even if it isn't maps, there will be somebody that won't like it. I will always go with the majority from the feedback I receive and my best judgement. If there is a removed map you would love to see added back let me know, and let me know how it could be improved. I won't bring back a removed map exactly how it was, because they were removed for a reason.
Why did you remove the secret chests from starter islands?
In response to this: https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/secret-chest.198424/
Due to our weighted chest system on starter islands I removed all the secret chests. This is because of my experiences in staff testing, there were some players getting weapons and some who weren't because it spawned in a secret chest. I could of just made this a bonus chest, although I didn't like the idea of veteran players having such an advantage over new players because they knew where secret loot was. Veteran players already have unlocked abilities and kits, I didn't want to increase that advantage by adding bonus chests.
We do gaming events such as 'Insomnia' and after actually watching new players in person play my maps, it was so clear to me that players sometimes struggle to find chests (When I think they are in obvious places). Therefore removing secret chests is the right step to take in my opinion.
Full changelog
- Solo
- Flowers: Removed chest from the flower on starter island and made it more obvious. Added bonus chests on inner islands
- Bones: Removed secret chest
- Birdhouse: Removed secret chest from egg, added crafting table, added hay bales in cave and added more bonus chests
- Candy: Changed the positions of chests, added more bonus chests
- Sport: Made the cave passage easier to navigate, reduced number of chests to three, made chests more obvious to find
- Taiga: Flattened parts of the island surface, removed vines, added bonus chests, made first chest on starter island more obvious to find
- Mushroom: Removed all chests higher than a certain Y level, moved bonus and centre chests lower, added a stairway on starter islands.
- Desert: Removed secret chest
- Beach: Removed secret chest on tree, added chest in cave on starter island
- Savanna: Made middle bigger for better PvP, added another chest on the ground of the starter islands
- Sundae: Remove secret chest and added a more obvious chest
- Time: Removed secret chest and added a ladder on starter island
- Jungle: Added jungle biome, remove some excess blocks, removed secret chest on the tree and added the chest on the ground. Added more chests to middle.
- Rainbow: Removed secret chest and made all three chests obvious to find
- End: Removed chest on top of obsidian tower and made a new chest easier to find
- Music: Removed secret chest
- Castle: Added an extra chest to starter island and remove lots of excess blocks so it's easier to PvP on the starter island
- Team
- Oasis: Reduced number of gold blocks, removed anvil from starter island and added another chest to the starter island
- Music: Removed chests located on the music notes above the starter island and removed the secret chest
- Trees: Removed secret chests in the leaves, added more obvious chests, reduced number of gold blocks drastically
- Savannah: Removed secret chests on top of the trees, made more obvious chests on the starter island. Made the starter island surface cleaner and easier to PvP on, added bonus chests.
- Pacman: Reduced the amount of gold blocks at middle, added lots of logs at middle for building blocks
- Flowers: Removed awkward carpet and reduced number of gold blocks
- Farm: Removed chests on the windmill, changed middle and removed crops, removed secret chests
- Prison: Reduced number of gold blocks
- Mushroom: Reduced number of chests to 6 per island
- Western: Removed chests on top of TeePee's reduced number of gold blocks, added another chest on the starter island
- Rainbow: Added more obvious chests and replaced all gold blocks to yellow wool
- Tribal: The spear is now thicker so it is easier to run across and PvP on, removed the secret chest and added a more obvious chest
- Swamp: Added another chest to the starter island
- Pirates: Removed chests on top of the sails and added more obvious chests
- Candy: Removed anvils from starter islands and iron blocks
- Mario: Removed the red mushrooms around the edge
If you have any questions or feedback regarding maps please let me know.
Thanks!
