Rejected Hard Parkour Map Submission

[Jordn]

Username(s) - Jordn & JustAthenaxD

Map name - Floating Palace

The # of your Plot / or warp name to it - /plot h Jordn 1

Difficulty - Hard

Number of jumps (Optional) - 82 Jumps



Hey! I know castle's are quite a common theme on the Parkour server but we've really worked hard on this one and thought it through quite a bit with accessibility, Interiors and Exterior detailing. We've done the best we can to make the navigation as straight forward and clear as possible and included some small areas that players can explore.
So far we've had very positive reviews about the map and have had 5 separate testers to help us find parkour skips and bugs. Every jump has been tested and is possible.
Again, its a generic theme but with a nice twist of fantasy.

We hope you enjoy our map!

 

[DeathByAPotato]

Whoa I like the build! You are right there are a few castle builds already (Castle Insane/Disney Castle) HOWEVER this build is like really really good and besides the castle insane isn't even a really great build. Plus this is like a sky castle or something and I think that's different? Idk I just really like the build lol it's amazing and I hope it gets accepted!!! I definitely like the fantasy aspect of the build (fantasy is probably my favorite building style)

 

[caleb!]

Hello Jordan & Athena! I'm not a map judge so this doesn't affect the outcome of the map, but I'd like to give some advice on it!

The theme, to me, is unoriginal. However, the map judges often are able to overlook this in cases where the build is exceptional and the parkour is also exceptional.

The build is exceptional. I don't think you need me to tell you that. Great job! I loved all the details as well.

The parkour is the main issue in my opinion. Firstly, the map guidelines say that a hard map should have about 60-80 jumps. There can be some lenience with this, but I would recommend not going over 100. Secondly, the parkour could use a lot more variation. Now, you have done a good job of using some different blocks throughout the build, however, they generally come in "sections" which, personally, don't make a super interesting parkour. Additionally, I believe you could go even further with block choice. Try using trap doors, water/lava, doors, gates, piston heads (remove the base with worldedit), and more. There is a good guide here.

A little sidenote - you use a lot of ladder towers. These are very simple for a hard map & also very repetitive. I would recommend removing these.

Additionally, the parkour is almost always very easy for a hard map, and closer to that of a medium, or even easy map. I would recommend making some jumps a bit longer or technically difficult.

Finally, remember where I said you had a lot of jumps in your parkour? A good way to get those down is also addressing another problem - you have a lot of floating parkour. What's floating parkour? It's when you have blocks floating in midair that aren't really connected to anything. It's alright to have a few of these blocks, but generally it makes the build look a bit cluttered and it's preferred to have parkour along the walls of your build. If you make sure to keep most of the parkour on the walls of your build, it might be easier to eliminate a lot of jumps, because a large part of the parkour takes place in the air.

Additionally, I believe the second to last jump is impossible, as I was unable to complete it on speed 5. I could just be terrible at parkour, though.

I'm willing to help you change some jumps if you'd like, and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me in-game. You know where to find me, lol.

 

[Jordn]

Hello Jordan & Athena! I'm not a map judge so this doesn't affect the outcome of the map, but I'd like to give some advice on it!

The theme, to me, is unoriginal. However, the map judges often are able to overlook this in cases where the build is exceptional and the parkour is also exceptional.

The build is exceptional. I don't think you need me to tell you that. Great job! I loved all the details as well.

The parkour is the main issue in my opinion. Firstly, the map guidelines say that a hard map should have about 60-80 jumps. There can be some lenience with this, but I would recommend not going over 100. Secondly, the parkour could use a lot more variation. Now, you have done a good job of using some different blocks throughout the build, however, they generally come in "sections" which, personally, don't make a super interesting parkour. Additionally, I believe you could go even further with block choice. Try using trap doors, water/lava, doors, gates, piston heads (remove the base with worldedit), and more. There is a good guide here.

A little sidenote - you use a lot of ladder towers. These are very simple for a hard map & also very repetitive. I would recommend removing these.

Additionally, the parkour is almost always very easy for a hard map, and closer to that of a medium, or even easy map. I would recommend making some jumps a bit longer or technically difficult.

Finally, remember where I said you had a lot of jumps in your parkour? A good way to get those down is also addressing another problem - you have a lot of floating parkour. What's floating parkour? It's when you have blocks floating in midair that aren't really connected to anything. It's alright to have a few of these blocks, but generally it makes the build look a bit cluttered and it's preferred to have parkour along the walls of your build. If you make sure to keep most of the parkour on the walls of your build, it might be easier to eliminate a lot of jumps, because a large part of the parkour takes place in the air.

Additionally, I believe the second to last jump is impossible, as I was unable to complete it on speed 5. I could just be terrible at parkour, though.

I'm willing to help you change some jumps if you'd like, and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me in-game. You know where to find me, lol.

Hey man, Really appreciate the time you put into that message and I completely agree with you. As you know i'm more of a builder and very rarely do any type of parkour so that was definitely the hardest part of this map. We kept changing a few jumps but yeah I still think its easy. We really struggled to categorise this parkour because we originally wanted it to be medium but then it got way too long because we wanted players to explore the full length of the castle kinda like an adventure type map.
I'd really love if you could come on and help me alter some jumps to what you think could be up to hard difficulty standards.
Also i'm pretty sure the last jump is possible but just very hard, i've made the jump twice, but i can always remove it to make it a bit easier.

Again thanks for the message and let me know if you're down to help!

 

[Jordn]

Hello! So since posting the thread I have had help from Caleb with the parkour and now I believe it's much better.
from 142 jumps to 82 jumps. The jumps are now much more difficult and the map flows much better.

I Hope you like the new stuff we implemented.
Thank you!

 

[k_rissy]

Hello Jordn & JustAthenaxD,

Your map will now be marked as ongoing; I have reviewed it and it will now be discussed among map judges. This may take time, so please be patient. This thread will be closed from responses.

Have a nice day,
Kristina

 

[k_rissy]

Hello Jordn and JustAthenaxD,

I regret to inform you that your map is being rejected.
The theme is a bit iffy, but is not a major concern with this map.
The build, needless to say, is incredible, with immense amounts of details to be seen. Well done to you both!
The parkour is the main concern. It is very repetitive throughout; there are different blocks used, but the parkour felt very repetitive and not fun to play, so try to make a more interesting parkour, and more challenging as well.

Thank you for submitting this map, I would love to see more submissions from you!