This topic is about map popularity and/or how maps have evolved. You are able to edit it.
Archaic Era
Maps in the Archaic Era defined Zombies. The first maps like Winter’s Scream, Winter’s Howl, Dark Shadows, Knight’s Challenge, Heaven’s Hell, Crystal Caverns, etc. are all Archaic and provide a challenge for you to get through, mostly having rounds like 11 being the natural defeat for your game, mostly because the gamemode was new and the content seen today wasn’t there. The problem with these maps is that they weren’t really satisfying. Yes, they were fun, but they usually didn’t allow you to get very far in the game. Even with complex strategies they wouldn’t allow you to get much progress.
Middle Era
Middle Era maps (Skelotens, Catacombs, all of Haruno’s maps, etc.) fluctuated in difficulty a lot, but the Middle Era itself set the stage for maps to drift towards the Modern Era. Starting with maps that were Archaic but still a bit more interesting and easy, slowly they started to ascend. An example of this is Skelotens → Catacombs. Skelotens required big strategy planning, but as maps transitioned throughout the middle era, Catacombs would usually have you getting to the martians on any normal game, which was rare for other maps.
Modern Era
Shortly after the Late Middle Period, pixelbitie101 submitted Lunar Mineshafts to the Map Submissons. After literally a months-long delay because no one was available to move it, it was finally moved. This marked the beginning of the Modern Era. Being a moderately easy map, it quickly caught on, being really fun and the round usually being until round 11 on no effort, and even till round 22 on a well rounded team. Even more maps would come later, including bewitched and Snowyville. Maps in the Modern Era were easy and interesting, and could even go to extreme levels of easiness, for example Cryptic Castle.
Futuristic Eon
Because the stage 0 proposal for custom mob waves was accepted, custom mob waves will be coming to Zombies. This means that in the future, the most populous and definitive-of-the-gamemode map will no longer be easy maps, they will be interesting maps. The Futuristic Eon will take a while though; most maps will be overshadowed by Cryptic Castle and Mystic Library for probably a year, maybe even two. There is also something called modernization that will affect the future, in which maps outside the current era would then be modernized. For example, Winter’s Scream was an unfinished map. After Rofle added more content to Warrior and Ranger and even added a whole new class, Winter’s Scream is catching up with maps like Cryptic. The difference between modern maps being made and an old map just being modernized is that the old map inherits the basis of its era, but adds some modern elements within it rather than just changing the whole map. In Winter’s Scream case, this is challenging + fun. The problem with modernization is that the map’s reputation before can still damage it from being played, and the map will still be overshadowed by maps that were already modern.
Map Categorization
(Ty Rofle for list)
Archaic
- Monster Mansion
- Crystal Caverns
- Winter’s Scream
- Shadow’s Descent
- Heaven’s Hell
- The Ascension
- Torture Dungeon
- Hill House
- Winter’s Howl
- Death House
- Miner’s Deceit
- Beach House
- Frosty Spire
- Knight’s Challenge(s)
- Dark Shadows
- Knight’s Training
- Dungeon Dead End
- Devil’s Reservoir
Middle
- Skelotens
- Catacombs
- Fish Temple
- Cosmic Collapse
- Jungle’s Echo
- Shadow Requiem
- Cyber Complex
- Forest Fire
- Green Hill Zone
- The Hell Palace
- Inferno Battlefield
Modern
- Lunar Mineshafts
- Decrepit void
- bewitched
- Snowyville
- Beach House v2
- Cryptic Castle
- Glass Castle
- Mystic Library
- Christmas Night