The Arena Master
Mockingjay
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2012
- Messages
- 6,987
- Reaction score
- 5,929
Not too long ago, Chad announced the arrival of some new maps to be added to the MCSG map catalog. The maps included:
VIDA COVA
A bit of back story, I was slightly involved with the making of Vida Cova. I was for a little while a builder of Team Apollo and an OP on their server. I witnessed a bit of the creation of it and helped with some of the making of it. I watched what they were doing, and for the most part it seemed good, but there were definitely sloppy parts. For a start, I noticed some of the workers were creating things using their bare hands, it was obvious they weren't the most experienced builders and things were getting done rather slowly. They could have been getting a lot done faster but most of the workers would just fly around. Secondly, the chests were very hastily added. On the last day, they had everyone on the team just start placing chests. This led to many chests left out right in the open directly next to one another.
Now that we know a bit about Vida Cova, let's proceed inwards into it. The first thing I noticed when I was in the lobby waiting for it to begin was a surprising amount of hate. I was shocked, but at the same time wasn't surprised as I figured they might just hate on it because it's new and it doesn't have a chest route. Once we got into the game, we were all accidentally jumbled together (A rather unprofessional looking mistake for a server) and the game kicked off with people flying all over the place. Within the time it took me to escape the corn, only half of the tributes remained.
As I proceeded on through the map, I was stunned to see how easy it was to find chests. There was just no end, you could see as many as 3 chests in a row, in plain sight! It was awful, and the only real parts of the map you explore are the canyons. While there are buildings, those are typically tucked away. All the actual building is shoved off somewhere and you're wondering in giant terraformed canyons. That was a very poor choice. The canyons eventually grow very boring to be in, and it feels like at this point you're just wracking up as many chests as you can. I only played about a 5 minute round and I think I got around 25 (and I didn't even grab Corn chests). It was a very bad situation, and the game was super short.
By the end, it went just as I expected: I was dressed with all the leather gear and a stone sword and countless food items I acquired from Tier 1's as well as someone nearly identical to me, and then there was the user who got full iron and killed everyone at the corn. I fought my best, but he got me cornered at the bottom of the corn and least to say creamed me. Even if we teamed we probably wouldn't have won.
This is the last thing you want for a map. You don't want to have it so that the person who gets the corn instantly wins, other whys it's no fun at all. Obnoxiously, the user proceeded to call me a noob and told me I suck, then I proceeded on to the next server. All in all for Vida Cova, I had a lousy experience on it. Maybe it wasn't the map's fault, but the first impression is the impression that counts. My experience on it consisted of running around in trenches for a good 5 or so minutes and then being made into cream pie at the deathmatch without a fighting chance. The corn makes it rather easy for users to take you out, especially if they shoot you off.
3.5/10
Two photos depicting how easy it is to find the chests. Even a toddler could find them, and the chests are placed out this way the whole map.
I was shot down into this small ravine at Deathmatch, and he beat the crap out of me.
Origins
Proceeding onto Origins, I wasn't exactly sure what I expecting. I just hoped it was good, and having looked at the News Post, I had high expectations: and they were met. I'm still not sure what the map was supposed to be, and the creator was obviously pretty out there when making it, but whatever he did worked. And not only did it work, it blew the ball out of the park. The buildings are simply amazing, and it's probably one of the most impressive builds I've seen in a long time on MCSG. Origins is a huge step in the right direction, and I'm glad this map was put onto the servers.
When the game began, I was chased, but managed to hit the user off the floating islands. I looked down and he dropped for what seemed like ages and then hit the ground. There's no doubt that you're high up, and that's just what makes the map charming. I've always had an admiration for air maps, there's not too many and they can work well when pulled off right. This game sadly also went fast, so I didn't get a huge sum of time to explore it, but enough to know that it was a very attractive map and I wouldn't think twice about playing on it. @Guinessis has truly outdone himself on this project, and I look forward to seeing his works in the future.
One of the most breathtaking features of the map is the cornucopia. It's amazing to think that Guinessis built this all by himself, but he certainly had the thing down. It's a beautifully designed corn that goes from the very top of the world to the void, you're not going to see something like that on any other map. The final verdict, Guinessis himself created a beautiful and fun to play map with incredible detail, and he's proved himself to be a top of the line builder.
9.5/10
MCSG made the right move with Origins as well as bringing back the older yet great maps, but I'm afraid Vida Cova just doesn't hold up. It's not an impressive map, and it meet the expectations I had. We'll see how the audience reacts to in the future, but at the moment it's looking bleak for the fresh yet tainted map.
- Origins
- Vida Cova
- Lost Ride (Returning)
- Hungry Hills (Returning)
VIDA COVA
A bit of back story, I was slightly involved with the making of Vida Cova. I was for a little while a builder of Team Apollo and an OP on their server. I witnessed a bit of the creation of it and helped with some of the making of it. I watched what they were doing, and for the most part it seemed good, but there were definitely sloppy parts. For a start, I noticed some of the workers were creating things using their bare hands, it was obvious they weren't the most experienced builders and things were getting done rather slowly. They could have been getting a lot done faster but most of the workers would just fly around. Secondly, the chests were very hastily added. On the last day, they had everyone on the team just start placing chests. This led to many chests left out right in the open directly next to one another.
Now that we know a bit about Vida Cova, let's proceed inwards into it. The first thing I noticed when I was in the lobby waiting for it to begin was a surprising amount of hate. I was shocked, but at the same time wasn't surprised as I figured they might just hate on it because it's new and it doesn't have a chest route. Once we got into the game, we were all accidentally jumbled together (A rather unprofessional looking mistake for a server) and the game kicked off with people flying all over the place. Within the time it took me to escape the corn, only half of the tributes remained.
As I proceeded on through the map, I was stunned to see how easy it was to find chests. There was just no end, you could see as many as 3 chests in a row, in plain sight! It was awful, and the only real parts of the map you explore are the canyons. While there are buildings, those are typically tucked away. All the actual building is shoved off somewhere and you're wondering in giant terraformed canyons. That was a very poor choice. The canyons eventually grow very boring to be in, and it feels like at this point you're just wracking up as many chests as you can. I only played about a 5 minute round and I think I got around 25 (and I didn't even grab Corn chests). It was a very bad situation, and the game was super short.
By the end, it went just as I expected: I was dressed with all the leather gear and a stone sword and countless food items I acquired from Tier 1's as well as someone nearly identical to me, and then there was the user who got full iron and killed everyone at the corn. I fought my best, but he got me cornered at the bottom of the corn and least to say creamed me. Even if we teamed we probably wouldn't have won.
This is the last thing you want for a map. You don't want to have it so that the person who gets the corn instantly wins, other whys it's no fun at all. Obnoxiously, the user proceeded to call me a noob and told me I suck, then I proceeded on to the next server. All in all for Vida Cova, I had a lousy experience on it. Maybe it wasn't the map's fault, but the first impression is the impression that counts. My experience on it consisted of running around in trenches for a good 5 or so minutes and then being made into cream pie at the deathmatch without a fighting chance. The corn makes it rather easy for users to take you out, especially if they shoot you off.
3.5/10
Two photos depicting how easy it is to find the chests. Even a toddler could find them, and the chests are placed out this way the whole map.
I was shot down into this small ravine at Deathmatch, and he beat the crap out of me.
Origins
Proceeding onto Origins, I wasn't exactly sure what I expecting. I just hoped it was good, and having looked at the News Post, I had high expectations: and they were met. I'm still not sure what the map was supposed to be, and the creator was obviously pretty out there when making it, but whatever he did worked. And not only did it work, it blew the ball out of the park. The buildings are simply amazing, and it's probably one of the most impressive builds I've seen in a long time on MCSG. Origins is a huge step in the right direction, and I'm glad this map was put onto the servers.
When the game began, I was chased, but managed to hit the user off the floating islands. I looked down and he dropped for what seemed like ages and then hit the ground. There's no doubt that you're high up, and that's just what makes the map charming. I've always had an admiration for air maps, there's not too many and they can work well when pulled off right. This game sadly also went fast, so I didn't get a huge sum of time to explore it, but enough to know that it was a very attractive map and I wouldn't think twice about playing on it. @Guinessis has truly outdone himself on this project, and I look forward to seeing his works in the future.
One of the most breathtaking features of the map is the cornucopia. It's amazing to think that Guinessis built this all by himself, but he certainly had the thing down. It's a beautifully designed corn that goes from the very top of the world to the void, you're not going to see something like that on any other map. The final verdict, Guinessis himself created a beautiful and fun to play map with incredible detail, and he's proved himself to be a top of the line builder.
9.5/10
MCSG made the right move with Origins as well as bringing back the older yet great maps, but I'm afraid Vida Cova just doesn't hold up. It's not an impressive map, and it meet the expectations I had. We'll see how the audience reacts to in the future, but at the moment it's looking bleak for the fresh yet tainted map.
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