Spider is a seasonal Halloween map in lucky islands solos that has been a part of cubecraft’s Halloween events for several years. In my opinion, this map has just about reached its expiration date and is of lower quality compared to the other lucky islands solos maps. Here are some pictures of the map to help you understand what I am talking about in some parts:
Spider is a relatively small map with a small number of lucky blocks and a very small number of diamond lucky blocks. For comparison, here is a table that compares information about all of the current lucky islands solos maps:
Map size is an important factor In determining if a map is good or bad. Maps that are larger tend to have more areas to explore, greater amounts of space, and greater amount of land and lucky blocks. The benifits of a map being bigger is that the player can choose to explore more areas, the player can get more loot, and it takes a longer amount of time to get between places. The latter can also be a negative, as it may be difficult to find other players when only a few are remaining. Recently, this issue has become less significant as players are given compasses when only two are left, and the new blocks lucky blocks increase the amount of blocks that players have, which allow them to be able to cross larger amounts of space. As mentioned, Spider is a relatively small map that has few areas to explore, and the small distances between areas leads to more rushing.
Spider is tied for having the least amount of lucky blocks with Vortex, with only 109. Not including the rainbow lucky block, each player would be able to open nine lucky blocks, and there would be no remainder. Based on my game statistics, I open an average of 16.22 lucky blocks per game played (Not sure how accurate this is, especially since this includes pre 1.19 matches of lucky islands) It is reasonable to believe this isn’t enough lucky blocks, especially when you consider that a decent amount of them will most likely not get opened. 6 of them are hidden within the statue in the center of the map, and 36 of them in total are located in the basements of spawn islands, with another 36 being located elsewhere in spawn islands. This is in contrast with vortex, where there are only 3 lucky blocks per spawn island and most of the lucky blocks are in the center of the map.
Spider has by far the least number of diamond lucky blocks, with only 4, which are located in close proximity to each other in the center of the map. The obvious problem with this is that it is very likely that one player will get all 4 of these lucky blocks and the diamond lucky block, and the less obvious problem is that this further reduces the amount of loot that is distributed throughout the map on average.
The rainbow lucky block is also in a particularly bad position, just a couple of blocks below the spider statue. The structures this lucky block creates end up colliding with the statue. In the case of the mega cube, a lot of the loot ends up upwarping to the top of the spider. In the case of the rainbow tree, the top of the tree spawns inside of the spider and no rainbow apples are produced. Swamp also has the latter issue, but to less of an extent.
The terrain design of the map is also pretty terrible. The center of the map, which is the only reliable way to travel between parts of the map, is made of a web that is 1 block thick and covered with webs. It is very easy to get stuck or fall off when you are looking for other players, which incentivizes players to either play king of the hill on top of the spider statue, or camp inside of their spawn island. The spawn island in particular is concave, meaning it is lower in the middle than it is on the edges, so it’s very hard to get knocked off, and the top of spawn islands are high above the web, which makes it easy to knock other players off if they are trying to build up and fight a camper. It’s typical to fall off accidentally, or get shot off, and it’s common for two players to both knock each other off immediately at the start of a fight, further incentivizing players to be as passive and hidden as possible. Also, practically all of the map is wood or wool, which means fires burn down massive chunks of the map, separating players by large gaps.
My final issue with this map that it contains a unique bug where, at two known coordinates, it is impossible to place blocks. I discovered and reported this bug; however, it was rejected, as neither I nor the QA member could figure out why this was happening, even though we could both reproduce it consistently.I understand why this decision was made, as this map will, hopefully, get removed in a couple of days.
In my opinion, I would love to see a completely new Halloween map next year, this map feels like it’s very old and it has all of the negatives listed above, with no redeeming qualities. I also think the design, in general, is rather ugly compared to other maps.
Since my opinions about this map are strong, I decided to give it its very own feedback post. I haven’t decided if I want to do this with every map, or if I will cover them in one big post, as I have less to say about each map. If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to dig in and read all about what I have to say.
Last thread from two weeks ago
Spider is a relatively small map with a small number of lucky blocks and a very small number of diamond lucky blocks. For comparison, here is a table that compares information about all of the current lucky islands solos maps:
| Map name | Length and width (in blocks) | total # of lucky blocks (all types) | Total # of diamond lucky blocks |
| Spider | 90 X 88 | 109 | 4 |
| Candy | 160 X 160 | 205 | 12 |
| Pirate | 168 X 168 | 165 | 17 |
| Luck | 186 X 186 | 133 | 12 |
| Honey | 180 X 180 | 215 | 16 |
| Pond | 130 X 130 | 120 | 16 |
| Scorched | 130 X 130 | 205 | 24 |
| Ruins | 142 X 142 | 121 | 12 |
| Food | 126 X 126 | 173 | 8 |
| Vortex | 112 X 112 | 109 | 18 |
| Nether | 150 X 76 | 169 | 12 |
| Village | 124 X 124 | 169 | 17 |
Spider is tied for having the least amount of lucky blocks with Vortex, with only 109. Not including the rainbow lucky block, each player would be able to open nine lucky blocks, and there would be no remainder. Based on my game statistics, I open an average of 16.22 lucky blocks per game played (Not sure how accurate this is, especially since this includes pre 1.19 matches of lucky islands) It is reasonable to believe this isn’t enough lucky blocks, especially when you consider that a decent amount of them will most likely not get opened. 6 of them are hidden within the statue in the center of the map, and 36 of them in total are located in the basements of spawn islands, with another 36 being located elsewhere in spawn islands. This is in contrast with vortex, where there are only 3 lucky blocks per spawn island and most of the lucky blocks are in the center of the map.
Spider has by far the least number of diamond lucky blocks, with only 4, which are located in close proximity to each other in the center of the map. The obvious problem with this is that it is very likely that one player will get all 4 of these lucky blocks and the diamond lucky block, and the less obvious problem is that this further reduces the amount of loot that is distributed throughout the map on average.
The rainbow lucky block is also in a particularly bad position, just a couple of blocks below the spider statue. The structures this lucky block creates end up colliding with the statue. In the case of the mega cube, a lot of the loot ends up upwarping to the top of the spider. In the case of the rainbow tree, the top of the tree spawns inside of the spider and no rainbow apples are produced. Swamp also has the latter issue, but to less of an extent.
The terrain design of the map is also pretty terrible. The center of the map, which is the only reliable way to travel between parts of the map, is made of a web that is 1 block thick and covered with webs. It is very easy to get stuck or fall off when you are looking for other players, which incentivizes players to either play king of the hill on top of the spider statue, or camp inside of their spawn island. The spawn island in particular is concave, meaning it is lower in the middle than it is on the edges, so it’s very hard to get knocked off, and the top of spawn islands are high above the web, which makes it easy to knock other players off if they are trying to build up and fight a camper. It’s typical to fall off accidentally, or get shot off, and it’s common for two players to both knock each other off immediately at the start of a fight, further incentivizing players to be as passive and hidden as possible. Also, practically all of the map is wood or wool, which means fires burn down massive chunks of the map, separating players by large gaps.
My final issue with this map that it contains a unique bug where, at two known coordinates, it is impossible to place blocks. I discovered and reported this bug; however, it was rejected, as neither I nor the QA member could figure out why this was happening, even though we could both reproduce it consistently.I understand why this decision was made, as this map will, hopefully, get removed in a couple of days.
In my opinion, I would love to see a completely new Halloween map next year, this map feels like it’s very old and it has all of the negatives listed above, with no redeeming qualities. I also think the design, in general, is rather ugly compared to other maps.
Since my opinions about this map are strong, I decided to give it its very own feedback post. I haven’t decided if I want to do this with every map, or if I will cover them in one big post, as I have less to say about each map. If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to dig in and read all about what I have to say.
Last thread from two weeks ago
