New Parkour Suggestion

Last night, Clueless and Klutch were talking about parkour in global. At one point, Klutch told me that players could submit maps for staff to consider implementing and linked me to the suggestions page.

It has been nearly 2 years since the release of Chillroom, which is a remarkably long time for this server to go without a new parkour course, discounting Ck's recent spawn parkour. In 2012, we got City and the original ice parkour. In early 2014 we got a multitude of new maps, including Ultimate Ice, Slicks' Ice, Planet, Countryside, and Stronghold, all at once. In 2015, we got Balloon, Flower, 2 Cactus maps, and Barrier, followed up in 2016 by Chillroom, a massive project. Yet 2017 was only the second year in the server's history that saw no new courses added to the parkour world. That's not to say nothing happened last year, Mid and Ellie did a great job finding new plugins and bringing back four old maps for Christmas. However, neither of those quite match the excitement of an entirely new map, with tons of people rushing in, competing to be the first person to beat it.

This is why EmperorMeznik and I are submitting our parkour map to be considered for implementation. If accepted, this would be the first time a player-submitted map is brought in as an official parkour course, discounting Lizzer's Balloon Parkour, which was built for (and won) a contest.

If I said our map was Jungle Parkour, you'd immediately dismiss this because we already have a Jungle Parkour. Well yeah, of course we do, but hardly anyone really likes it. It's labeled as "easy" yet the third jump stumps new players, it's confusing, ridden with shortcuts, and outdated in terms of architecture. I'd propose our Jungle Parkour as a replacement to the current one, but in honesty, our map would be considered of medium difficulty. If the current Jungle were replaced with ours, the server would need another easy map. Beginner parkour players deserve more than one course (would be Cactus), but they deserve something better than the current Jungle. As a solution, an easy map is under development to be submitted as sort of a "Part Two" to this suggestion.

Our map features a variety of jumps with different strategies, in contrast to the current Jungle's makeup of mostly rudimentary jumps from slab to slab. It also has a temple, to be traversed through by the player, two small streams, and a plateau, all of which add architectural interest and liveliness to the area. Linked below are an imgur album containing screenshots of the map and a video walkthrough. Please keep in mind that if what we currently have is insufficient, we can tweak it in any way to better suit MeepCraft. At worst, the state of the map at the moment can serve as a base for a map to be expanded on, either visually or in terms of parkour. If staff would like to further consider this suggestion, a download can be provided.

Jungle Parkour Screenshots

 

Looks really nice!

 

I love the fact that it incorporates effects, which is something we’d of liked to see in other parkours. The builds look nice, the only down side is that it looks too hard for me : (.

 

I like it as long as we can keep current jungle pk, because if not its not adding anything

 

No need to have two jungle parkours.

The current jungle could be replaced with a nicer looking, prettier map. We definitely need more easy maps though, at least two.

 

Great submission, I'm all for this replacing the current jungle map! This also shows reason why we the staff team should seek opinions on projects from experts in certain areas.

The only thing I'd possibly suggest changing is all the crazy signs, maybe ast's as monkeys named with what to do just so it looks more neat.

 

Okay. I realize my opinion's worth pretty much nothing here but I did try the course.

This is a pretty fine-looking course. Especially considering it's parkour, it looks very nice. Has a clean theme, yet nice use of vines etc.

However, this is one of the least fun parkours I've ever tried. Almost as bad as barrier. It's confusing, inconsistent (for me) and the effects will almost definitely break on Meep. This isn't to say it's a bad course, but especially since the current Jungle is the only "easy" course, I don't see how replacing Jungle will be a benefit. I guarantee this will make new players really discouraged, and because if its confusing nature it's going to be tough to speedrun.

In short, it's a good-looking course that definitely should be given a chance. I know you have drastically maps better in store (Planet X ) and I feel like accepting this will only make it more difficult to bring back even better, more consistent parkour courses with a more straightforward path (especially since Jungle and Stronghold are almost mazelike in their second cp's)

if the course is intended to replace Jungle, I feel it should be basic, easy jumps, definitely not effects (which throw off even the most experienced players)

If you didn't read the above, +1 for implementation if nothing better shows up, -1 for replacing Jungle (sans 3rd jump)

 

Confusing's what the signs and walkthrough are for. There've been more signs added since you last tried it.

what effects

cactus

As I said in the thread, we're working on an easy map (one better than current Jungle, which isn't hard to make) to replace it and make room for our Jungle.

Speedrunning is the least of my concerns. Planet's my favorite map of all time and it was horrible to speedrun. Also, confusion isn't how speedruns work. The current Jungle's pretty confusing the first time around, but every speedrunner has it routed. I even literally routed it in the walkthrough for you.

By no means is that a better map. It's longer, it's my ideal map, it'll be what I grow most attached to, but objectively it's ugly as sin and nearly impossible.

In general, I think you might've missed that this isn't an easy map to replace jungle, that's still a work in progress that should be completed soon, this would just be an additional medium map.

 

sorry I was misled (jk you're all good riri)

cactus needs replacement more than jungle *change my mind*

fun

I loved planet X. It's so difficult, that anyone completing it will actually feel accomplishment and others with care. I don't know how to explain it super well, but here's how it goes in GD:
You gain mechanical skill as you play. Since everyone who plays parkour consistently is.. well, playing, they get better. This means the first time you beat City, you're not as skilled as the second, and so on. (this is why we need easier courses) the problem is, eventually players hit chillroom/countryside and they can't improve. Most players don't get congratulated or feel special the second or third time they beat chillroom, heck, the first time I beat it even I wasn't impressed. Meepcraft's parkour is in a really limited frame of difficulty so that it's hard to get into, but once you get into it, there's nowhere to go. Sure, speedrunning, but I think adding course that completion (not just a fast time) is rewarding would benefit the server and medium-skilled players the most. (It kinda was ugly as sin though, however it's a barrel of fun. It has the buggy iron-bar tower thing, who wouldn't love it?)

I see. As I said earlier

I think this is okay, but I know we (the community) can do better. (note: I in no way intend to imply that I could do better. I showed you blindness parkour and it's less fun than barrier and empty of detail or decoration)

 

Cactus Parkour is linear. When you walk into Cactus, you see a bunch of empty space and 1 clearly-defined line of jumps. Nowhere does the player have to think about where they have to go. This is the way it should be with an easy map. Players should be testing and improving their basic parkour skills, not trying to figure out where to go. Compare that to Jungle, which is a confusing mess at first sight. Shortly after the ladder jump close to the checkpoint, when the player falls onto the grass, there's no direction as to where to go. I honestly don't even know what the intended path is, but I know there are multiple ways to do it and you're not supposed to just jump into the canopy after climbing the grass a little bit like everyone does. Also, the part in the canopy is completely nonlinear. This isn't bad for a Jungle themed map, it's kinda necessary. But when the map is placed as the first one the player runs next to in the hub, when it's labeled as the "Easy" parkour, it becomes a problem. Even if the jumps our map were very easy, because of the direction being hazily-defined at some points, I'd never want it to be submitted as an "easy" map.

 

+1, I'd love to see some new maps.

 

I agree. The old jungle map is confusing. Don't get me started on the first three jumps.

+1

 

The signs are a little hard to read, I think you need optifine, or a mac to be able to zoom. I don't use optifine considering the fact my computer runs well. Maybe work on the signs?

 

+1

 

Accepted!