Shri Tra Savern

Shri Tra Savern
A view of the vegetation outside the exits of Shri.
Map information
Reward	18 FFA Points
Difficulty	Very Hard
Location	FFA+
Mapcode	sts
Creator	srentiln
Food	Cooked Salmon x64
Publication	March-April 2013

Shri Tra Savern is a mixed maze map by srentiln. It rewards 18 FFA Points upon completion, and can be joined directly using “/c join sts”.

General

Gameplay

This map consists of two parts: Shri, the maze of life, and Savern, the maze and guesses of death.

Shri is a 2D maze with 2-block-high corridors, with 4 entrances from the start. It contains frequent pressure plates on the ground, which are what make the maze "mold" to the players choices, shifting both nearby and distant walls to confuse the player. It also contains multiple exits that change regularly.

Savern is a multi-stage section with a maze followed by what many view as the most difficult and harrowing guess challenge on the server. It has 4 entrances at the start, just like Shri, as well as a mid-checkpoint. The player descends down a long tunnel in each entrance then drops down into a 2D maze with 3-block-high corridors. Pressure plates cover the entire floor, so players can't tell which plates change the walls, unlike in Shri. But like Shri, however, it has multiple exits, each of which ascend up a long shaft. The nature of the two stages following this must remain vague here, but it has lots and lots of guessing and dying involved.

Aesthetics

The start section and end sections of Shri use a mix of glowstone and all 3 stone brick variants. The maze itself uses an unchanging mix of grass and mycelium on the floor, dirt and stone brick variants on the walls and ceiling, and glowstone mixed into all of it.

The start of Savern is set aboveground, and players can see various builds around the area. The temple-like structure that is the start of Savern as well as the 2D maze below are made entrely of nether brick blocks, slabs, and stairs. The maze is lit by torches placed above the layer of water visible through the fence ceiling. The guess section at the top of each of the shafts is made entirely out of obsidian.

Origin

Original article written by srentiln

History

A work of the more devious side, Shri tra Savern started out as a simple cobblestone and glowstone labyrinth on the outskirts of the old spawn city X known as Savern (or "Death"). Over time, the course evolved to include a small amount of randomization to avoid the problem of people just getting directions from others. While Savern did gain a reputation as one of the more hated mazes for difficulty, it needed to evolve to keep up with the newer innovations being brought to the server. It gained a major retrofitting, replacing the dull aesthetics with mood-setting netherrack bricks, obsidian, and endstone. Lighting was provided by torches behind a layer of water instead of the bright glowstone from before. Further randomization was added to the lowest region of the maze, making exiting the course that much more challenging.

Originally planned as a separate "twin" map, Shri (or "Life") took a brighter approach. Having been planned from the start with improved randomization, Shri better hid the changing points that could send each player down a different path. Unlike Savern which used death as its form of torture, Shri gave players a chance to start over without killing them, making the journey to the exit feel that much longer. As the completion of Shri drew close, inspiration struck. The circuit from Shri was attached to Savern with the thought "choices in life affect the path in death" and what was once planned as a second maze became an extension of the first.

A "wall of hate" stands outside the course for any who wish to vent their frustrations over having gone through this course.

Rating

When the FFA rating system was added in, Shri tra Savern was one of the first courses to earn a red wool rating, placing it as one of the most difficult courses on zero. However, its luck-based difficulty most likely excludes it from consideration for rotation into the hardcore maze set. Even with this probable exclusion, Shri tra Savern has been honored with being one of the first courses to be added to the FFA+ system.

Future

Shri tra Savern is a course that has reached the end of its development. The only future work currently kept in mind is in maintaining and updating the circuitry. An analogue memory cell is being considered to replace the piston tape memory currently used in the course due to tape errors breaking the route changing aspect of the course.

Challenges

This map is featured in six challenges: Walking Wanderers, Hard Maze Pack, Rivers Run Red, 2013 Assortment, The Path of Heroes, and Hexa.

Trivia

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See all maps from srentiln