As a friend said before, I think the only goal of mostly all mapmakers here in this topic is reviving divinity providing new maps for players and making it less repetitive since thats the only thing we can do as players, right? You havent told me the reason of the reject of my maps yet, (I asked just few time though) however, I took the effort to ask my few mapmakers friends and I got as disappointed as they when I noticed some reasons were really bad.

Is there an invisible rule of accepting just the best map of all options from someone? Its like it does.

Im not okay with the reviews. Imagine that many people spend hours thinking of fresh ideas for maps and then spend hours editing it so that in the review it is directly rejected? Not even an undecided vote, not even a ''try again'', just rejected for bad reasons in general that should change in my opinion. A lot of people doesnt want to make more maps for divinity anymore because this annoying standard. Should I mention how harmful this can be? Dont get me wrong, im not telling you all to accept every map, Im aware maps can have mistakes, some maps are just bad, but some of them could work, some of them arent bad to give them a chance in the module, you have powers to remove it if something goes bad, right?

Whats so bad if a map its a sort of ''buildathon''? Considering there are buildathon maps already in rotation and no one complains about them... Someone told me that my maps were buildathon but Im able to finish them in round 1:30. Whats considered buildathon? Whats so wrong if a map has a too much water? Maps with water have a lot of potential and a lot to explore, there is not enough of them in divinity. So where do we find these hidden rules about what uildathon is and the correct amount water proportion/percentage to use in a map? There is not clear guideline of how a map gets accepted.

Divinity players are used to not failing any map when in reality they should be forced to build on any type of surface except lava they like or not while the map its possible. There is not a challenge once you memorize all solus for maps It’s clear why there is a lack of maps in divinity. The strict and bad explanations for rejected maps make this module dull and uninteresting due to the small divinity rotation pool. It is so easy to lose interest with the same repetitive maps being played. I believe that everyone, in general, just wants new maps without caring if there is a batch of unique and fun conceptual maps. Unlike spiritual that has a lot of content, maps, learning curve, proably this must be the reason why I see a lot of divinity players moving into spiritual.


Anyway, very sad that this module has been stuck a long time ago and its not so interesting as it was when I joined the module. I hope you remove some of those ''strict'' rules. The reasons of maps rejections should be public again! and not ''if you wanna know the reason of the reject ask me by pm'' I really hope a change or then a new module that replaces this one since the owner left the game. This module has a new team, well, good luck and at least we are gonna get reviews more often.

Thanks for reading.

Lilith a dit :

As a friend said before, I think the only goal of mostly all mapmakers here in this topic is reviving divinity providing new maps for players and making it less repetitive since thats the only thing we can do as players, right? You havent told me the reason of the reject of my maps yet, (I asked just few time though) however, I took the effort to ask my few mapmakers friends and I got as disappointed as they when I noticed some reasons were really bad.

Sometimes, cause for rejections can feel copy and pasted. I would say this is because of the lack of mapmaking awareness which I feel is exaggerated more because Divinity is a niche module so more less-experienced mapmakers will try to submit maps without being well aware of the do's and not's. The other factor of it is mapmakers will try to lift an existing concept in Divinity and create a mix of similar and kind-of similar feelings.
More map editor awareness in general will be benefitial for the game as a whole and for Divinity's case, a knack for exploring unused Divine techniques or creating unique twists on existing Divine techniques. Simply creating a map with a bunch of mice-only grounds or building a cage around yourself is not going to be enough to make the cut.
Should Divinity only accept maps that are constantly different? I think that should be ideal if players do not wish to see similar maps playing constantly. There is a problem with creating a map for Divine mode at the end of this post.

Lilith a dit :

Whats so bad if a map its a sort of ''buildathon''? Considering there are buildathon maps already in rotation and no one complains about them... Someone told me that my maps were buildathon but Im able to finish them in round 1:30. Whats considered buildathon? Whats so wrong if a map has a too much water? Maps with water have a lot of potential and a lot to explore, there is not enough of them in divinity. So where do we find these hidden rules about what uildathon is and the correct amount water proportion/percentage to use in a map? There is not clear guideline of how a map gets accepted.

Firstly, a buildathon is a map that has no clear concept besides building a bridge for the rest of the map. The only obstacles present is time and the grounds that force you to build way more than what is necessary which uses up time. Would you build on Map 0 if the map was 1600x800 pixels in size? Now imagine the cheese and hole being reversed and the bottom ground taken out. Would you want to build a on a map like that in 150 seconds?
Putting a solid ground on a map and surrounding the cheese and hole with mice-only grounds will not make a particularily interesting map because you are just building against time. I have seen some exceptions made for lower difficulties and over all limiting the amount of buildathons because it is still a valid concept but easily exploited for a fake difficulty.
Secondly, water is extremely terrible for building with shaman objects because of how the game engine processes objects inside water grounds. Take a look at this example map: @7729518. Spawn an anvil inside the water and anchor a large box with the C anchor. If you wait a bit before spawning on top of the box it will shoot up violently. Objects that are spawned and left to idle inside water will process the new velocity and update when it is moved or collided with using the amount of time it was left to idle inside the water. So if you wait shortly it will create a smaller velocity vs waiting longer with a larger velocity. This is also why you might experience builds that explode suddenly when it is left inside the water ground. To remedy this, it is important to keep the entire build updated constantly with at least one motored object or objects like runes or balloons anchored to it.
Another problem with water grounds is any sudden lag spikes will tank your build. Even a lag spike that lasts a few milliseconds is enough for it to move suddenly and if the center of the objects does not interact with the water anymore, it can potentially throw the entire build off the map which means you have to rebuild it again.
Maps that overuse the water ground is not fun and there are a couple water maps in rotation already that I have seen builds either explode from a sudden update in velocity or tank from a sudden lag spike.
Personally, I would rather see limited applications of water maps. For example, water to block mice from easily going up with cheese or maybe a small water ground for a boat to sit atop. Any water maps that uses large water grounds or relies on a build to support itself within the water ground will be chaotic because of the physics above.

Lilith a dit :

Divinity players are used to not failing any map when in reality they should be forced to build on any type of surface except lava they like or not while the map its possible. There is not a challenge once you memorize all solus for maps It’s clear why there is a lack of maps in divinity. The strict and bad explanations for rejected maps make this module dull and uninteresting due to the small divinity rotation pool. It is so easy to lose interest with the same repetitive maps being played. I believe that everyone, in general, just wants new maps without caring if there is a batch of unique and fun conceptual maps. Unlike spiritual that has a lot of content, maps, learning curve, proably this must be the reason why I see a lot of divinity players moving into spiritual.

This is a problem that is inherent to Divine Mode and not Normal Mode or Hard Mode. Divine Mode can replicate Spiritual techniques with proper supports that eats into time. Take a normal V Swing for example, with Normal Mode or Hard Mode, you can extend the V swing by just adding an additional C anchored plank to it and securing it with an arrow anchor. You will only get similar performance in Divine Mode if you brace the extended plank with another plank which will require another object to hold that extra plank in and guess what? You cannot arrow anchor it securely so you have to rely on it hitting a solid ground. Even if you allowed yourself to use arrow anchors in Divine Mode, you simply will not get a secured anchor.
Problems like this is why Divinity maps are extremely limited because often times there is no alternative solution. You cannot just build something, you have to build something and figure out how to make it not spin all over the place which will take up time and that is why 150 seconds exist.
Divinity maps are really just maps where you build bridges going in all directions. The only real challenge you will ever see is making a base to build the bridge off of. Any secondary challenge will involve balancing the bridge with physics and whatever solid ground exists but keep in mind that a long plank can cover a lot of distance on a standard 800x400 map.
Another problem I see is players solving maps for the sake of experience points or grades. Even if someone did create an alternative solution for a map, no one will mind it unless someone creates an alternative solution that completely bypasses the concept then they will copy that solution and pretty much refuse to use any other solution. For example take a look at this map: @5716547. How many players have you seen stack boxes on top of a long plank towards the bottom chocolate ground? It completely removes the challenge of the map and that is why its difficulty got reduced. The only people I seen to not use the stacked box method are the people who have never seen the map before and they quickly adapt to the far superior solution that everyone copies.
The exceptions I have seen to this are people who play in Buildtool rooms but guess what? A map does not have to be in Divinity to be playable in Buildtool so there is no reason to submit it to Divinity. This is especially true if the map concept is reliant on the shaman willing to play ball, otherwise they will construct a build that renders the concept moot and pointless to submit because the lowest denominator build will factor heavily into whether it is acceptable or not.
Spiritual has a learning curve because the shaman cannot just sit in one spot with a 800+ pixel spawning range and expect to be done with the map in a minute or less. They have a lot more freedom in what can possibly be built within time and physic constraints so they will use it by making a challenging map or a challenging solution. Sometimes the time comes close to zero from having to solve the challenge and in some cases it can be considered a buildathon.
With Divinity, you really cannot trust players to try and attempt something different if a low-risk high-reward solution exists. Even if the players would try and attempt something different, the risks would be running out of time or the build falling off which is essentially the same as running out of time.
Challenging Divinity maps could exist if it relies on building upon or creating Divine mode techniques which really is not much to work with.
The designs of Spiritual maps and Divinity maps should stay separate with very little overlap because of each modes' strengths and weaknesses.
If you want more variety of challenging puzzles then Spiritual is the module to play, if you want more relaxing puzzles, then Divinity is the module to play.

Condensation#0000's timer making tool!
Hey fellow map makers! I made an online tool that can help you make timers like this:


Here is the link to use the tool, it has instructions:
https://colab.research.google.com/drive/106HGCQymxBR6WsTH6xhKBCbTPzrARzq-?usp=sharing

It will generate the XML code for all the grounds that act as increments for your timer, and will even do an optional color gradient.

It does not make the same color scheme as mine, but you choose the main color and the final color in the tool (I usually do ffffff to ff0000 with 15 increments).

Here is an example of using the tool and the resulting timer:


Message me on forums, or in game if you have any suggestions, need help, or report a bug!