[Linked] A Labyrinth Maze

Realm & Areas
#12

Having a light version of builder would be best I think. We should have criteria for when it is appropriate to give this role out and I very much would like to see it only given out when people prove they are actually using it and not just creating a flood of empty descriptionless rooms. Thinking more to the tune of proven that they can build rooms together, assign exits cleanly and also build things together into a well described area… criteria which can be reasonably proven by submitting an area successfully without a need for a large amount of editing by the builder team.

In the meanwhile, I would suggest increasing the build limit to 50 per account if people are locked to 5 characters anyhow. 10 per character is already pretty low. I assume its account based, right? If they have to share that across all characters, that’s already pretty limited and fair enough to establish themselves with.

I’m not sure what a light version of builder would be. If we could redo it, I’d say that builders should be called world editors, but I worry about term confusion at this point. Builder seems like the editor-light version we’re looking for since building doesn’t necessarily suggest creative control on others. Creator might work but feels bigger than builder somehow.

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#13

“Creator” and “Builder” - yes the first feels much ‘bigger’ than the second.

‘Contractor’? ‘DIY Enthusiast’? :smiley: Actually using the home-DIY manufacturing term of ‘Maker’ might not be a bad one. It has (in the ‘maker’ circles) a certain ‘enthusiast amateur’ connotation that fits well.

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#14

Maybe “crafter” might work as well. I like “maker” too.

But we still have the option of just allow a lot of rooms as base cap.

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#15

Might also be worth it to add a quota override command for mods/admins, so they can manually increase the number of objects a player can create without necessarily conferring other tags/flags to them?

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#16

I agree with your earlier logic that we don’t necessarily need new users just blowing things up while not knowing how to use the commands for finding old rooms and deleting old unused/unlinked stuff.

Having a tag that allows moderators to check in and make sure that these would-be makers know the core command list for cleaning up after themselves first seems like a good idea.

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#17

Apparently there was a way through the labyrinth that dodged all the points of specifc interest that I wanted visitors to experince at least once; I think it’s sorted out now (making labyrinths is hard huh!)

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#18

It was really cool! At first it’s difficult to navigate, but as soon as you understand at least something, everything starts to work out right away. Getting lost is easy, there are quite interesting things. Personally, I have not had such pleasure from passing the maze for a long time. There’s a lot of euphoria going through my brain at the moment and I can’t think of bad things. I am waiting for any improvements and hope to pass it again if it changes! It will be worth it!
However, I think it would be nice to provide birds with more interesting colors, just in case. For example, the color of a dying toad, and so on

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#19

I just saw it with an invite from Shinyuu, its very fun to navigate and there’s even a little mini game in it!

I’m looking forward to when it gets linked~

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#20

We participated on a lil’ something and now there’s one more place to discover from the labyrinth. Thanks Aura for cooperating.

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#21

The sphinx is widening her riddle game into labyrinths?! The minotaur union will be angry. But they’re always angry.

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#22

You could say we’re running a collab! Its fun~

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#23

The thread is three weeks old, yay! Is it yay, though?

I’d really love some indication from the builders on if this kind of content is welcome. Someone? Something? It can stay private but it sure gets boring if the users can’t discover the puzzles and I need to take them there. And I really don’t feel good about linking it to my part of the forest without any builders’ feedback at all.

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#24

So, I think the actual Labyrinth here got a bit lost behind the conversation about quota. Which is fitting, I suppose, but… sorry about that!

I also suspect part of why you haven’t heard from buildstaff is because… well, the labyrinth nature means there’s a lot of exits to check, and a lot of potential for missing things, and so - even though it’s a fun concept - it’s actually rather hard to give it a once-over and be sure of getting everything.

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#25

I’m open to sharing the map with the builders! And now that I have a tool to set up the exits you don’t need to even check them individually; the tool just wires all the messages up (not that I didn’t check them before, ugh. That was painful)

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#26

Where are we thinking about putting this build?

The idea of a hedge maze. I’m trying to consider what types of situations we would normally see something like this, and most of them involve being on the grounds of some old mansion/estate. Hence my initial pause instead just any ol’ place because I can’t think of a place where this sort of build… unless we were going to use a larger area in this labyrinth this as some form of community garden or something possibly?

Also a consideration: What kind of roleplay are we wanting to encourage in this location? Depending on the answer, would-be locations could change accordingly.

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#27

I was initially thinking about the forest edge, lore wise the labyrinth is pretty much self contained (I added a bunching lore on it in the library too). However it so happens that I’ve been planning a proper château, winery at at. If you feel like it needs to be attached to a mansion, I just got a mansion to sell you!

As for the specific roleplay I want to encourage exploration. My test subjects reported that solving the labyrinth “is fun, especially in a group.” There are a few mini quests to motivate one to fully explore it and there are numerous references to secret locations around Sinder and surroundings. Effectively the labyrinth is a storytelling device that introduces one to deeper lore of Sinder.

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#28

“Is the game fun?” is the one angle I’m standing aside from with a project like this being placed specifically in Sinder. If it was anywhere else, we could just do whatever and not worry about it, but we definitely want to have builds make some sort of sense for where they’re placed at least in the main town. (unless I’m the only builder who feels this way - if I’m an outlier then we can just throw anything anywhere and no worries.)

My main angle is considering what goes into a hedge maze existing - and for a well maintained hedge maze, a caretaker is certainly one of those things… otherwise it would just be an overgrown mess, right? As such, having a definite plan for why the hedge maze exists and what its a part of seems important location-wise.

If it’s a community project, fine. If it’s part of the estate which was remodeled into a school, fine. If it’s part of a winery/chateau, cool, (but watch out the nimbats are coming for ya.) But we need a definite plan so we know where to plop the building down because it could go deeper or further away from town according to how its being used/kept.

As an aside, the anti-spam measure makes the labyrinth difficult to play after a while because it starts blocking your inputs until you take a pretty long break to cool the threshold off.

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#29

We largely discussed this IC but for posteriority:

The plan is to keep this north from the town (so north from the stables, next to the forest). Although I sure hope the expience is fun and woth the people’s time.

There is a lore book in the library that explains the maze’s existence, why it’s self sufficient and often devoid of people. That said, I plan to keep adding lil’ thingies to it over time (just like you see little lore additions happening in the clock tower).

I am fine integrating it in the château area lore-wise but it’d work just as fine standalone. That said, the château and the winery need more work (and I really need to clear them with @Accipiter first). I am absolutely fine with it being a community project but I want to ask for all the lore changes to come though me so they are adjusted as expected, i.e. I am open to further little lore mixups between the labyrinth and other areas (I hope to add the post office’s memento next).

Yeah, that is an issue, innit? It’s not too bad if you’re exploring at a leisury pace, though but clearly the current size is the maximum of what can be supported.

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#30

To sum up the recent discussion happening in Wolfery:

  • Maximus advised I needed transit rooms to hook everything up.
  • I added two: #cb9a7869gbrucpsv1990 is the Riverwalk that connects Sinder to the Chateau northside and itself connects to #cb9acq69gbrucpsv1f2g (the eerie trail) on the west; the eerie trail connects to the labyrinth and the orchards to create a north-east travel loop around the town
  • I linked up the trail with the orchards (thanks Widget!) and Tasho provided a thorough analysis on oddly named exits

What’s left:

  • link up Riverwalk with North Westside Road (to and fro)
  • create subareas for riverwalk and the eeriee trail (I’m not convinced we need areas for single rooms and I’d think they can just be in the sinder/forest areas respectively, but Raeth pointed out the benefits of having the subareas
  • throw a proper party at the chateau becaue that’s 87 rooms I’ve authored and I’m a bit exhuasted. I still need to draw the missing cover arts for the labyrinth (and now the chateu, geezies).
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#31

I got through the labyrinth and I have to say, It was definitely worth it! Navigating through the maze was a bit challenging at first but once I started really thinking about my choices, it became quite fun to map out! It was neat to see the various little things around the maze, like birds and mice! I would say my one issue with the place was how moving too fast would force you to stop occasionally. Other than that, I had a great time!

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