Today we have a map called Curse of Evokas by TerrariaOnline.com forum member Takara. This is a great multiplayer adventure map, but can also be done single player as well.
Curse of Evokas is your basic adventure map, you need to ditch your starting items and if playing single player grab the goodies from the beginning chest. Of course you can not break any blocks except meteorite, and you can not craft anything unless specified. If you are playing multiplayer (recommended, it's a tough map) you have the choice between 4 classes. If you and 3 other buddies jump into this map you can either be the Guardian, the Sharpshooter, the Bandit, or the Warlock. There is only one class per map, so you can not all be Warlocks.
The Guardian is the tank, he wears armor with the most defense and has defense and melee accessories. The Sharpshooter is a ranged class that starts out with a bow and arrows with ranged accessories, but you also get a shortsword to start out. The Bandit is described as melee DPS and starts out with throwing knives and a shortsword, as well as a movement speed increasing accessory. And finally, the Warlock is your magic casting class, with all the magic casting weapons and accessories.
This map is pretty long, admittedly I haven't beat it yet, but the 6 hours or so I've put in got me past Skeletron and into his lair. Curse of Evokas a fun map that is challenging too. It's set in a hardmode world, so when night falls, watch out for harder enemies. In single player you get a nice stream of better weapons to fend off wraiths and other hardmode enemies.
My only gripe with this map is that it's kind of laggy in single player. The map was made into a large world and there are lots of background walls and other blocks that have effects, so when loaded up into single player, it causes the game to lag. A really simple fix is to play single player on a server doing either the 'Host & Play' option, or creating your own server and logging in with the 'localhost' method. Playing on a server is less taxing because the world only loads what it needs as you move through it, causing less lag.
Takara is also active in attempting to make his map better, keeping users up to date in his TerrariaOnline thread here.
I asked Takara some questions and he was kind of enough to answer back.
ahamling27(AH): "Curse of Evokas" is a pretty traditional adventure map, was it made from the get go to be a co-op multiplayer map?
Takara(TA): We (my friends and I) orginally wanted it to be designed for mutiplayer, with difficult dungeons and monsters, but then we realized that most people were using singleplayer, which resulted in the singleplayer version.
(AH): Single player is brutal but you made it work, for me at least, what was the hardest part about making a co-op map playable alone?
(TA): It's tricky to find the right balance of gear where the dungeons aren't impossible, but you can still get through them if you concentrate and perservere. I had to research all the items and gear and make sure that they would be suitable for solo play.
(AH): This map is pretty long, the dungeon in particular is huge, was the dungeon planned be that big or did it kind of evolve into what it is as you made this map?
(TA): I had a general layout of what the dungeons were going to be, but most of them were made up as I went along. The dungeon mostly just evolved into a long area, and the admittedly annoying Well afterwards was the fastest way I could think of wrapping it up.
(AH): I have to admit that I haven't beat the map yet, but I've explored it quite a bit and I played it solo, but the inclusion of Hardmode enemies almost made me rage quit early on, what was the most challenging part of balancing the difficulty?
(TA): The most challenging part of balancing the difficulty was making sure that, with some skill, people wouldn't be totally obliterated at night, but that the actual dungeons would not be too easy. You'll probably have to wait out the night at a town or while fending off your spawnpoint from wraiths, but things like the arrow mechanism in the village can help you do that. We thought about adding in a Wall of Flesh fight, but couldn't quite figure out how to integrate it into the storyline. In later updates I may add him as an optional boss, but that would require some remodelling of the Meadow.
(AH): What are your future plans? A sequel or a new map maybe?
(TA): I may decide to make a sequel or prequel, depending on feedback from Evokas, but I have no specific plans.
While there is a story to the map, it takes a back seat to action and puzzles. And that's fine by me, the action is pretty decent and the puzzles will be making you look all over for switches to open the next door. Although, it's worth noting that most signs are accompanied by a mannequin that is apparently talking to you. These mannequins will almost always have some vanity items on them, so that's a neat little treat.
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