Have you ever played a common, run- of- the- mill N map and thought "hmmm, yeah, I guess this map is okay, but it sure would be better if it was exactly ONE- HUNDRED AND TWENTY- ONE TIMES AS BIG!!!"? Or thought "Wow, this map would be better if it had been a collaboration between DOZENS UPON DOZENS OF MAPPERS EACH WITH COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, POTENTIALLY INCOMPATIBLE STYLES!!!"? Or even "that formica guy is pretty cool, and I really want him to be able to claim all the credit for creating a map series which can only succeed with huge, possibly bigger dedication from the rest of the N community!"?
If so, you're totally in luck right now, because right here I'm unveiling...
THE GIANT CUBE OF DOOM (or, The Map of 121 Maps)
Here's the idea.
- N is stuck in the centre of a giant cube, 11 maps tall by 11 maps high. The purpose of the cube is mysterious, even more mysterious than the purpose of your average N map, and EVEN MORE MYSTERIOUS than the purpose of the giant cube in the Cube movies. N will never know its exact purpose (though plenty of hints may be dropped along the way.) Each room holds something different. Mysterious clanking machines doing mysterious clanky things, floating islands of steel, and a whole bunch of loveable homicidal robots.
Each map has four exits- one on the ceiling, one in the floor, and one on each side. Each exit leads to the map next to it- either to the left, right, above or below, depending on which exit you went into. The only way out of the GIANT CUBE OF DOOM is to traverse from the starting point in the very centre of the cube to one of the cubes in the outer corners. There will be an almost infinite number of combinations of paths to reach the ultimate exits.
- Users will contribute maps to the cube, using the guidelines listed below. These will each correspond to a certain position in the cube. An overall map/ guide with map previews and hyperlinks will be posted at the beginning of this thread when the project is complete. After this happens, you can easily play your way through using the metamap. Additionally, I'll create a map pack with the appropriate coordinates for people to use in their in- game userlevels.
- TILESET: All levels must be based on this tileset: http://www.nmaps.net/197561You can then create any structures you want in the middle of the map, but the outside border must remain unchanged. You also cannot attach new tiles to the border.
(click here for some explanatory images)
- EXITS: Each of the four exits must be possible to reach. They should either all be roughly the same difficulty, OR the two exits leading towards the cube's edge should be harder to get to than the two exits leading towards the inside of the cube.
- DIFFICULTY: The maps should become progressively harder as you become closer to the exits. The colour- coded chart below should give a rough guide to how difficult you should try to make whichever map you pick, so keep this in mind when picking and working on your map. Obviously, everybody interprets difficulty differently- try to think of “easiest” as the early levels in the early columns in N, “insane” as the most difficult Mare & Raigan levels or slightly harder.
(click here for difficulty chart)
- MAPS ON THE SIDE OF THE CUBE: Only the corner maps lead outside of the cube. For maps bordering the edge of the cube, simply wipe out the exit and the groove for the exit on the appropriate border.
(See this image for an example)
- CORNER MAPS: Access to the corner maps can be unlocked by being generally awesome.
- The sign- up list (okay, table, really) can be found right here. It's an open, public google document open for anybody to edit. Not being a **** and deleting other people's reservations would be very much appreciated.
- Add your name in the slot you'd like to reserve. You can only reserve one slot at a time. After you've completed a slot, feel free to reserve another coordinate.
- When you post your map on NUMA or on this thread,the title of the map must read “THE GIANT CUBE OF DOOM x,y- insert title of map here” where x is the x (horizontal) coordinate of the map, and y is the y (vertical) coordinate of the map. Obviously you can replace “insert title of map here” with whatever you want. See picture below for the coordinates.
(click here for coordinate map)
- The message must link back to this thread.
- Before posting a map, you have to contribute to the peer- review process.
- After posting a map on NUMA, you must post a link to it back in this thread.
- Before you can submit a map, you must review the last three maps submitted in the thread. And by “review”, I mean choose between “Yes, this should be included” or “No, this shouldn't be included.” If any map gets more than one “no” vote, it won't be included in the final version. You can use your own discretion re: whether or not the map is fun or not/ whether the difficulty is appropriate, but don't be too harsh. The idea is just to weed out any awful maps.
The peer review table is on the google docs signup page http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... LSkE&hl=en
(thoughts, comments, suggestions very welcome)
