Labyrinth / Maze Event. - Xanadu - January 9 at 4:00PM UTC

[Ostentatio 1,970]

In case anyone is interested, someone has posted a rather detailed walkthrough video of the entire maze here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRL5durPleI

[zigozag 918]

I think, the labyrinth is located on the flat mountain top in q19, anybody up for expedition?

Spoiler

 

 

Edited January 10, 2016 by zigozag

[Belfesar 155]

Here is a slightly better view of the surrounding area:

 

Spoiler

 

 

[zigozag 918]

Nice one! it might be not that big flat top then, but rather the lesser one a little to the east, in q20.

[Fraeya 341]

From belf's image that's K16 looking east at the island at K/L 18/19

Edited January 10, 2016 by Fraeya

[zigozag 918]

Oh boy, indeed it is. I was horribly wrong. And there's a flat top too. Tricky Xanadu and its mountains!

[spellcast 983]

lol, for the curious, it is just south of the giant crater mountain dead center of the xanadu map....

 

also, here are a few aerial shots (at a decent distance) of the labyrinth. 

they do contain mild spoilers of the general layout 

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

The maze itself covers an area about 50x50, has 13 main buildings and about half a dozen smaller ones used to connect bridges, provide path crossings etc. MOST of it is 4 levels.

 

[Fraeya 341]

Some impressive insanity there Vali

[zigozag 918]

Vali, can we hope to see some kind of a behind the scenes post about the process of designing this labyrinth one day?

[Jaz 2,665]

It was an amazing experience to solve this maze. Took around 12 hours and the last few hours were only surreal experience only, I don't even able to recall when and how I unlocked some of the last doors.

Zaj is still in the maze, I want to find the remaining 2 doors and clues in the first half which I missed - I think all the others are solved.

Thanks for making it possible to explore after we finished it.

Big big thanks for putting this all together!!!

[whykillme 1,621]

Wonder how fast it would take to run it a second time..

[spellcast 983]

On 1/10/2016 at 6:48 PM, zigozag said:

Vali, can we hope to see some kind of a behind the scenes post about the process of designing this labyrinth one day?

 

heh  there wasn't a lot of process per say.

 

I had the rough idea of how I wanted the maze to work, multiple paths that you had to work simultaneously with the courtyard halfway through to bring them all together and then split them back apart. 

 

In september I started experimenting with how to create the missions for the doors, and ended up with the very simple method of one mission per door to keep it less confusing for me, and made a few test buildings to see how the whole bridges between structures ended up looking. (decided on wood, all of the others except rope were too tall on the ends, and rope left too much chance of players falling off as they entered the bridge)

 

October we picked the site, and I started to lay out the google doc for it.

 

November we placed the deed, and began building. I set the bottom shell of the structures, enki and logi came along behind me and built the floors and walls up to 4 stories. (a LOT of clicking, even with our GM advantages)

 

Once the shells were in place, I just... started laying out paths... I would travel the maze, planning walls (the only ones i actually built were the doors, oriels, and the occasional window) and building staircases and bridges in the various buildings. Enki followed along behind as he had time and actually built the plain stone walls. Once I had the first half done, and everything connected to the courtyard in the middle, we recruited hestia to try to solve the first part of the maze. (thats when she said : "  I take back anything nice I EVER said about Spellcast ")

 

After a few days, as I finalized the paths for the second half of the maze (some of which were quite long because I was running out of usable space in some of the buildings for branching paths) I took pity on her and gave her the map, and asked her to help decorate the rooms where the solutions could be found. The ones that are pretty and full of decor are hers... the very basic ones with minimal decoration are the ones i did......

 

After that it was just a matter of creating the missions and triggers for the doors and the final room chests. Enki went around and put the little side things to find wherever he found a nice dead end, and hestia decorated stuff for me.  

 

After the mess in december I about cried. Thankfully I was able to get the buildings to (mostly) remember what floor players are on when they log out. (there are still a few spots in a couple of the buildings where it doesn't remember right... very frustrating)

 

Learned a lot from building this one, and watching players solve it.

I will probably do another one in the future, not anytime soon however. Real life is going to take priority for at least the next several months... My wife has had a bad back all her life, and it is getting significantly worse lately. I need to renovate the ground floor of my house to change a storage room, pantry and couple of closets into one single bedroom and add a laundry room to eliminate as many stairs as i can for her. (currently our master bedroom is on the 2nd floor, and the washer/dryer in the basement)

 

I may find time to do a couple of small hunts, but it will not be 1 per month unless enki can find time to do some as well. 

 

Thank you all for the kind words and constructive criticisms of this event... and I really am glad that you enjoyed it despite the false start in december.

[Aeryck 862]

3 hours ago, spellcast said:

I will probably do another one in the future, not anytime soon however. Real life is going to take priority for at least the next several months... My wife has had a bad back all her life, and it is getting significantly worse lately. I need to renovate the ground floor of my house to change a storage room, pantry and couple of closets into one single bedroom and add a laundry room to eliminate as many stairs as i can for her. (currently our master bedroom is on the 2nd floor, and the washer/dryer in the basement)

 

Does she have ANY idea of how you build things?

Vali's Wife: "Where's the laundry soap?"

Vali: "You have to go into the pantry first, where you'll find the key to the garage."

Vali's Wife: "So the soap is in the garage."

Vali: "Oh I don't know, I just put the key to the garage in the pantry. Enki decides what you get in the garage."

Edited January 12, 2016 by Aeryck

[Pingpong 1,070]

All I can see is glowing signs next to each door in Vali's house that say "examine me" ><

[Explora 569]

Are the teleports from spawn towns still working ? I took a break half way and wanted to go back and finish it but can't port from Glasshollow.

[Jaz 2,665]

I've asked Spellcast about it earlier and all the teleports will work for several weeks - as well as the maze itself.

[spellcast 983]

they should be explora...

 

I will log in and take a look, make sure everything is set still.

 

[Aedes 2]

I know it's a bit old, but seeing as how the maze is still 'running', the Maze Merchant got tired or being alone in the maze and has moved on. I'm not sure if this 100% breaks the maze, or what, but that portion can no longer be completed.

[zigozag 918]

4 hours ago, Aedes said:

I know it's a bit old, but seeing as how the maze is still 'running', the Maze Merchant got tired or being alone in the maze and has moved on. I'm not sure if this 100% breaks the maze, or what, but that portion can no longer be completed.

I opened 30 doors and none required the merchant, i believe.

[spellcast 983]

heh  well, door #31 had a merchant zig, you missed a couple apparently. lol

 

I replaced the merchant and the door trigger works properly again.

[Jaz 2,665]

TY spellcast, I still need to solve two doors - it seems now I have a clue on one

[zigozag 918]

4 hours ago, spellcast said:

heh  well, door #31 had a merchant zig, you missed a couple apparently. lol

 

I replaced the merchant and the door trigger works properly again.

 

Yes, it was morning for me by that time and i had to rush to work instead of going for those 2 doors, plus i had 2 companions

 

Now that only enthusiasts throw themselves into your masterpiece, could you publish the deed plan, please? For research purposes.

Edited April 11, 2016 by zigozag

[spellcast 983]

deed plan... hmmm, no, I think that would be no fun. lol.

 

Besides, I have some interesting ideas to pursue once we get all the bugs worked out of underground building... 

[Aedes 2]

Spoiler

https://imgur.com/VdihqwQ

Man, too bad the deed plan isn't going to be released. Then I could figure out where I went wrong with my map. A few inconsistences, and not 100%, but it's WIP. I'll take my Cartographer title now.

[spellcast 983]

you have too much time on your hands  lol.