[Server] Inside The Box [Puzzles]

[parasite]

I guess it was hard work to write completely new game so different from default game. Great idea and great performance. That was pleasure to join the server and relish fresh content and brain heating due to failure in fast nexus node finding. Wonderful and excellent textures and music selection. When you enter the puzzle room (box) and steel doors behing you was locked, music dramatically changed - that was so appropriate! So I would like to say thank you Nore & Sofar for that!

I hope this server will survive for long time and can be unorthodox minetest presentation for wider and more mature audience. Maybe in the future we will have other intellectual puzzles, like some interactive formspec with math questions to solve and the quality of the answer could have some impact on the following gameplay? lol...

[sofar]

Are you stalking me!?!? O_O (:P)

Well, no, not really. :)

We do however want to see what kind of players we attract on the server, and seeing if we can maybe improve the experience. The only way to do that is to collect data and analyze it.

Note that we do have a privacy policy and we'll make sure that privacy sensitive information such as your IP address are not given out without a valid reason. For that reason the image above doesn't even contain the actual data, it's just a bitmap, and not a dynamic map where you could zoom in :).

[sofar]

Maybe in the future we will have other intellectual puzzles, like some interactive formspec with math questions to solve and the quality of the answer could have some impact on the following gameplay? lol...

Thanks for the support.

One of the nice things about the project is that the code is not as much fun as the content, and you (the players) are now in control and can make the project (server) better by making new puzzles.

We've had many players suggest new puzzle elements, and we will take them under serious consideration. I'd like to stay away from doing much of the content in a formspec, after all the fun of the game platform (i.e. the minetest engine) is that it is a blocky world, so I find it unlikely that we'd ever make a formspec based puzzle. However, we can do a lot more with the blocks, so, who knows what we can come up with in the future!

One last thing I'd like to note is that the server is *tiny*. The entire server storage doesn't even reach 100mb as of today, and is growing at a snail's pace. This means that we'll be able to host the server for a very long time at a low cost and without requiring expensive resources. So, we should be set to host this game for a long time.

[TumeniNodes]

Wondering if you guys will feel ready to reach out to Dumb & Dumber (YouAlwaysWin) guys to see if they might consider trying this out?
They normally do MC and other well known games but, it would be really interesting to see their reaction to this, and they are pretty awesome at what they do.

[kingoscargames]

Are you stalking me!?!? O_O (:P)

Well, no, not really. :)

LOL i wasnt serious though.or was i?

[TumeniNodes]

This is really lots of fun! : )
The audio tracks are excellent, the puzzles are set up really well, so far as I have gotten.
I'm stuck on my current level, I'll figure it out eventually (I hope) haha... I didn't want to give up and stop playing but, I gusta get some zzzz's
Having a blast with it.

[Andrey01]

Wow! I must play there! I hope are there parkours, minigames and etc there?

[sofar]

Wow! I must play there! I hope are there parkours, minigames and etc there?

There's a lot of parkours and parkours elements in many puzzle boxes. Some complain it's too difficult, even :).

Essentially every puzzle box is a minigame, essentially, but maybe not entirely in the way as some other well-designed minigame. You'll have to come look for yourself :)

[azekill_DIABLO]

sofar? what does this mean?

[Andrey01]

Wow! I must play there! I hope are there parkours, minigames and etc there?

There's a lot of parkours and parkours elements in many puzzle boxes. Some complain it's too difficult, even :).

Essentially every puzzle box is a minigame, essentially, but maybe not entirely in the way as some other well-designed minigame. You'll have to come look for yourself :)

At first i misunderstood what the server about. I thought there will be parkours and something like it as in Parkour Owned by Lowe server there. But the server aim is to come levels with some tricks and some parkour elements and also i need to think for some things like finding out nexus in chests for opening the door.

[sofar]

sofar? what does this mean?

I don't know what you did, but you uploaded a corrupted image, or the forum has a bug. Can you upload the image to an external host like imgur and provide me with a link?

[azekill_DIABLO]

xD sofar...

Spoiler

[sofar]

You know, now that we've had a lot of people play on the server for about a week, and people are making puzzles themselves, I'm both happy and sad at the same time.

I'm happy because we've gotten some amazing new puzzles and clearly skilled builders, and they puzzles they have made are delightful.

But I'm sad to see that we do have a few builders that are making puzzle boxes that are really poor and unenjoyable.

We do have a review system in place. The review system allows me (and other admins) to make sure that the quality of the playing experience remains at a certain level and doesn't turn into a bad experience. That means that we will be rejecting puzzles that effectively `troll` players or are just plain frustrating - like requiring to die in order to complete a puzzle.

If you have made some of these puzzles, I hope you understand that at this point we're not going to accept your puzzle boxes. It is very important to the server community that we don't disappoint our players with low quality content, and so we ask that you show your understanding and work with us on eliminating or improving on bad content.

[sofar]

Newly created/submitted boxes that are accepted (*) will go into the "New" series, that everyone can try and play. You can find the brand new teleporter for this series in the "play" section, underneath in the big temple. There are about 10 boxes currently in it, thanks to the effort of many new builders.

The "new" series is uncurated, and may contain boxes that aren't as good as some of the others, and we will monitor player ratings to see which boxes will be put into the master series and which ones won't.

(*)Speaking of accepting. I've accepted and rejected a bunch of boxes today, and I've left comments in a few boxes with signs to let box builders know what they need to change in order to get their boxes accepted. There were a few builders that have used "admin" nodes in their boxes, and we'll stop giving access to those since they are meant for special mechanics and admin use only, so those need to be removed before you resubmit your box.

[azekill_DIABLO]

There were a few builders that have used "admin" nodes in their boxes, and we'll stop giving access to those since they are meant for special mechanics and admin use only, so those need to be removed before you resubmit your box.

they are called azekill_DIABLO xD

EDIT: why the office (box 81) wasn't valid? it's all fine!

EDIT 2 :
--too dark
it's normal, i can't do anything about that, i will add a few powerful lights but...

--high troll level
we need challenging boxes like that. I already seen far harder MC maps in Mizzle II

--not finishable
it is, i tested it. It's not even very hard. Just need to turn on all the switches you can doors open then.

EDIT 3: sofar, i cna't even enter my boxes in play mode. It say i don't have permission.

EDIT 4:

Would you play on this server if every box was like this?

--sofar

sure, i would love to, it misses me.

EDIT 5: sofar. my box 100. it's gone. lol.

EDIT 6: where's the skybox? :'[

[sofar]

There were a few builders that have used "admin" nodes in their boxes, and we'll stop giving access to those since they are meant for special mechanics and admin use only, so those need to be removed before you resubmit your box.

they are called azekill_DIABLO xD

It wasn't just you, there were a few other people as well.

why the office (box 81) wasn't valid? it's all fine!

It's way too dark. Randomly clicking in the dark isn't a puzzle, it's just a form of trolling. There are also 30+ switches, again, a form of trolling.

--too dark

it's normal, i can't do anything about that, i will add a few powerful lights but...

That's not an excuse, or even a reason. The game offers many ways to provide different light levels to you, and you used none.

--high troll level

we need challenging boxes like that. I already seen far harder MC maps in Mizzle II

That's your opinion. Unfortunately for you I'm the person reviewing boxes, and your boxes are not "challenging" but more the opposite, imo. Clicking 20 chests to find the right one isn't much of a challenge, especially if they're all right next to each other. yawn. very yawn.

--not finishable

it is, i tested it. It's not even very hard. Just need to turn on all the switches you can doors open then.

I believe this was a comment on a different box, where you had put a pedestal in a way that the top was obstructed.

i cna't even enter my boxes in play mode. It say i don't have permission.

Should be fixed. We've removed the ability of people randomly going into any box entirely. The creator teleport will have still worked, but the commands were nonfunctional for a while.

my box 100. it's gone. lol.

Yeap, we had several crashes due to me attempting to prevent you from using itemframes and putting admin/edit tools in them, which caused your entire box to be wiped.

Fortunately, I have foresight skills 100 and we have backups, so I've restored the box now.

where's the skybox? :'[

Not sure what the problem is, can you elaborate?

[sofar]

@azekill_DIABLO

So, I just rechecked box 81, and indeed it's now completable. However there are some major style problems with it.

- You're using node digging tools (good) but the nodes that have to be dug are the same as all the other nodes used in the box, so it's by sheer luck that a player will find out which.
- There's maybe 4 useful switches in the box, but there are 40+ switches, and so this still exceeds the troll level
- There's switches incorrectly wired up as well
- Lots of troll boxes
- The player is pretty much forced to die to obtain a required item.
- One of the doors isn't even openable, I assume you didn't figure out how to wire it up so that both doors open at the same time

If there was just one or two of these things wrong with the box, I could maybe consider it. But you're exceeding my threshold for what I consider a reasonable hunt/search, and solely relying on just stuffing maximum annoyance into it. It's not a super pretty box either, again it's terribly dark, and the forcedly placed torch at the start is another signal that the box just isn't thought out well.

There's tons of ways to fix this problem, like using buttons and auto-deleting buttons that have been pressed, or actually using all the buttons for something useful, like turning on lights, removing fire or obstacles, etc..

[Byakuren]

What about GreenDimond's box that's just a bunch of chests and the pedestals are hidden in the floor?

[GreenXenith]

What about GreenDimond's box that's just a bunch of chests and the pedestals are hidden in the floor?

There is an extremely simple way to complete it (you can finish it in 30 seconds).

[sofar]

What about GreenDimond's box that's just a bunch of chests and the pedestals are hidden in the floor?

There is an extremely simple way to complete it (you can finish it in 30 seconds).

I have to admit, that's about as far as I want to go with accepting boxes like these. I do expect people to understand that you can't make an enjoyable and original puzzle box in 10 minutes or less. It's just not possible.

Most of the better boxes have build times of 4 to 5 hours.

If you want my advice: Don't start with the puzzle, make a nice scenery first. Build a nice looking field with a stream, a mine shaft entrance, a castle wall, a run down hut in the woods, an underground cave with waterfalls, a mountain top. You're going to leave something that people will remember and that they will enjoy solving.

I'm going to get much more strict with accepting boxes if all I'm getting is boxes built in under 15 minutes.

[sofar]

Updates!

- The bulk tool can now place a "sheet" or a "blob" of stuff. Left Click the air to toggle.
- The bulk tool now tells you what it will place.
- The bulk tool will only fill air nodes. It will never replace other nodes.
- The bulk tool blobs and sheets are now more randomly shaped.

- Edit hand! When you edit a box, you get a special edit hand that can dig and remove most nodes. You won't have to use the edit tool as much anymore, we intend to remove it entirely later on.
- Doors are now diggable by hand when editing boxes

- You can no longer enter unpublished boxes. The /enter command only will allow you to go into your own boxes or boxes that are published. No more snooping new boxes!

We've worked on some crashes this weekend, mostly caused due to code we've written to prevent players from putting admin items in boxes, so you may have to redo your boxes to remove some of these nodes (and if you can't, ask sofar/nore to do this for you!).

- cleaned up inventory tabs: You'll just get 2, and they actually make sense - "nodes" and "tools".

- New blocks! We've added a ton of decorative nodes:
* pumpkin and melon
* workbench
* bedrock and redrock
* furnace (on and off versions, the on version emits light)
* bookshelf

[GreenXenith]

Updates!

Yay!

[Napiophelios]

I finally got to play this server and I have to say this is a great game.

I made it thru tutorials 1-4 and then got stuck in box 20,
which might still be part of tutorial 4 IDK.

Anyways, nice job!!
This epitomizes what Minetest can be when
we think inside outside the box
-nyuk nyuk

[TumeniNodes]

It really is awesome and really fun... Now this... is a "game"!
Nappi, when you get here... let me know. (This is where I'm stuck) :P


I can't even get through the tutorial levels, how sad is that hahaaaaa... Lovin' it!

And, I really, really want sofar & nore to contact YAWCRAFT/Dumb & Dumber to see if they're willing to try it out.
would be so awesome of they would and did a video on it

[GreenXenith]

Nappi, when you get here... let me know. (This is where I'm stuck) :P
Image

I give you hint.

Spoiler

(I assume you are having trouble finding the Nexus).
It has to do with that switch (solid line) and that area (dotted line).