Yo yo yo!
I know, I know. *Boohoo* another Parkour thread. I just can't help myself. Bear with me, though. I will try to make this as short and informational as possible (just kidding, I'll add random bits here and there to make it look like I am clever).
I will split the thread into three major sections;
1. Introduction - current state of Parkour 2. Survey - results 3. Conclusion - the future of Parkour
1. Introduction
Parkour has always played a part on MeepCraft. It is a little part, a side role you could say. Nevertheless, a role that was deemed important enough to have a spot in the spawn. To represent the server.
I've seen a lot of people try and fail. People venture into the Hippity Hop portal just to give up a few minutes later. Some people dedicate hours upon hours to master the arts of pressing space at the correct time just to earn that extra Meeble or two. There are a few passionate people out there, whose voices are usually disregarded due to their insignificance in regard to the greater good of the server. I agree with that. There are usually more pressing matters than some Meebles producing place with under average popularity.
There are currently seven parkour courses out there. The ancient Jungle, Village (Countryside) and Ultimate City. The hundred times reworked Cactus, which everyone loves (as much as you would your 100th child). Balloon, which gained a lot of hate lately due to the 1.10 update - similar to Chillroom. Then there is Flowers and the soon to be released Ice parkour (which may or may not be a reworked version of Ultimate Ice - for those who remember (the north remembers)). I should also mention the departed Stronghold, Planets and Barrier parkour. Stronghold suffered from glitches after an update almost 2 years ago and had to be removed, Planets and Barrier were 'not up to the standards' and followed suit.
Seven maps is not a terrible billance for a server of Meep's magnitude. It takes an average player a fairly long time to go through all of them. Combine that with a week's cooldown and you have yourself an attraction for casuals to come back to. Key word: casuals. Beginners usually fail to complete any of the maps. Experts rush through it in a matter of few hours.
Most, if not all of the signs in Parkour have been brought up to date just recently thanks to the magnificient @Muunkee. It certainly took a while after the update, but atleast we have accurate information for our fellow parkour-ists...s.ts. *rattles*
We have a decent checkpoint and completition system with cooldowns, which seems to be really consistent. Thank the higher ups for that. We also have a really convenient tool to hide/show players on our adventures (or nightmares). There is one problem with the checkpoints, however. They have been stripped of any meaningful rewards yet again. The previous iterations of Ultimate City and Flowers parkour had the rewards split accordingly to their difficulty among all checkpoints. That's not the case with the newest versions. Which is a shame.
2. Survey
Let me make a short introduction for the survey results as well.
We only had 23 responses - including mine. I am not happy with that number. It's not a figure big enough to have any definite meaning as to where we are or should be heading. It is a good indication, however.
Of course, highly inept (read:troll) responses could not have been avoided. We've had a few enlightened people, who responded with all the negative answers on all the possible questions. Thanks for that. Even better yet, the last few responses selected Flowers as the worst in every possible category, with the rest being the best. Thanks for that as well. I am sure you lot had a good reason for your response. It is also important to note, that the survey was mostly filled out by people who actively do Parkour and have a certain bias towards it.
Let's get to the questions then!
1. Best appearance in a parkour map:
1st and 2nd place: Ultimate City shared with Balloon
3rd place: Flowers
4th place: Village
5th place: Chillroom
2. Importance of appearance:
Majority voted for "A bit important"
3. Best design in a parkour map:
1st and 2nd place: Chillroom shared with Village
3rd and 4th place: Ultimate City shared with Balloon
5th place: Flowers
4. Importance of design:
61% for "Very important", 39% for "A bit important", no one for "Not at all important"
5. Most difficult parkour map:
1st place: Chillroom
2nd place: Village
3rd place: Balloon
4th place: Cactus
5th place: Flowers
6. Importance of difficulty variety:
Split between "Very important" and "A bit important"
7. Which parkour course would you like to delete:
6 votes for Village, 5 votes for Jungle
8. The best designed parkour map:
1st place: Ultimate City
2nd place: Chillroom
3rd place: Balloon
4th place: Flower
5-7th place: tie of the rest (all with 0 votes)
9. Difficulty of a new parkour map:
11 votes for "Progressively harder", 5 votes for "Hard", 4 votes for "Medium", 2 votes for "Easy"
10. Level design of a new parkour map:
13 votes for "In between", 7 votes for "Sophisticated", 3 votes for "Simple"
11. Focus on appearance of a new parkour map:
13 votes for "Average", 8 votes for "A lot", 2 votes for "Minimum"
12. Checkpoint system or Run-through system:
52% for "Checkpoint system", the rest split between "Run-through" and "Doesn't matter"
13. Rewards for completing a map:
48% for "They are lacking", 35% for "They are okay, but not well distributed"
14. Perks for donators in Parkour:
Majority for "No"
15. Is it worth making money in Parkour:
A bit more for "Yes" than "No"
16. Updates/maintenance priority for Parkour:
Between "Neutral" and "High priority"
17. Experience with MeepCraft's Parkour:
Majority for "Satisfied"
18. Open questions:
1. Three players asked for Planets parkour to come back. I am pretty sure I could name all of them.
Anyways, it has been said, that Planets have been removed from the server and are not coming back.
Sorry, guys.
2. A player asked for the glass panels to be fixed - which has already been done both in Balloon and
Chillroom
3. A lot of players asked for more parkour maps, which included co-op maps, beginner maps, really
hard maps, etc.
4. A few players asked for rewards rebalancing
5. I completely agree with the following paraphrase: "I feel an easier map then even Jungle is needed to
encourage more people to do parkour and also a hard map like Planets parkour is needed"
6. Donor perks - hasn't suggested anything though. Furthermore, the survey results show no interest
in any donor perks.
7. Player designed maps
8. And some hate messages
3. Conclusion
I am tired.
Story time.
You know that feeling, when there are a million of ideas racing through your mind, but you can't seem to reach them? You feel like grabbing all of them at once, but it just doesn't work. You want to express yourself as fast and clear as possible, but the more you try, your ideas escape you further and further, until you start thinking that there were no ideas to begin with.
No?
Alright, let's finish this thread.
Suggestions (both mine and survey-inspired):
1. We definitely need more maps. Both completely new maps and the old ones reworked. People generally
don't seem to like Jungle and Village anymore. They are both really old maps, have been replayed
thousands of times and are not 'cutting' it anymore.
2. There should be a completely different style of the Parkour hub. /warp parkour would bring you to a
beginner area with different jumps/mechanics to practice. Again, bear with me here.
Imagine a 4 wide jump placed in the beginner area. Aside of the fact, that you could practice it there, you
could also click a sign with a link to youtube. We, MeepCraft, could make really short narrated videos
explaining the different methods of doing a 4 wide jump (there are atleast 3). Similarly, you could show
people how to make bunny-hop jumps. Or just simple things like how to bind and use your sprinting and
crouching buttons. Wouldn't that be cool? It's definitely a nice idea to play with.
I, personally, have to go to creative every time I am having troubles with a jump, recreate it there and
practice on it. Having 'problematic' jumps in the lobby for people to train on would be awesome.
3. Finish your idea with time trials. Here's a concept: A player steps on a pressure plate situated on the start
of a parkour map. It activates the timer and removes all saved checkpoint from the map. When the player
reaches the end golden plate, the time stops and saves regardless of the cooldown status of the reward.
Have a leaderboard, some sort of rewards for the fastest players, etc. Another great idea to play with.
4. Fix the "Return to the hub" portals. Or even better, test and adjust your things before you add them! I think it's really unprofessional to release half finished projects and leave them sit for a REALLY long time.
5. Rewards rebalancing, details are already on Trello
(I reserve this spot for any further edits/ideas)
So...
Thank you all, who somehow managed to get down here... however deep we are right now. Thanks to all the amazing people carring about Parkour. I honestly appreciate everyone, who took their time and filled out the survey.
The purpose of this thread is to give future developers/staff an idea on what to do with parkour. Atleast I hope so. It's very much possible, that this was just a personal challenge for me, to find out if I can still communicate in english... seriously, it very well might be.
In all honesty, though. I hope someone, somewhere, sometime will find a use in this thread. For it to serve as a guidance, as a reflection of what the parkour population wants and really deserves.
Thank you all again and have a nice rest of your day (see how exhausting this thread has been? I am never this polite. Ever.)
