Terror Mountain Revamp

[Rainbow Daydreamer]

Wow. TNT have certainly been busy. Take a look at Terror Mountain! It's... it's just beautiful, if something of a 56k-killer. Animated Bruces, falling snow, and cute handmade signs for Happy Valley.

Before you panic as I did, the Scratchcard Kiosk is NOT down for maintenance. It has been moved to Happy Valley-- maybe the Wocky got fed up of living indoors?

While I'm impressed with the detail and beauty of this new map, I can't help feeling that, since the top of Terror Mountain was 'vamped back when I was a newbie, there are things that could do with the work a lot more (default species petpages, anyone?) Nevertheless... wow.

[Iggy]

While the Ice Caves and the Mountain Top are gorgeous, I find Happy Valley slightly TOO animated. There is too much going on for me to truly appreciate it. Even the snow on the Mountain Top is distracting me, but not as much as Happy Valley. I really, really wish the animation could be disabled, like it used to. Is there a HTML version?

And it's confusing. Do the map REALLY need to link to ALL flash games in that area? I access them from the Games room anyways, so I could have done without these links. It's especially obnoxious on the mountain top, where there are six games linked.

[Larkspurlane]

The artwork is really nicely done, especially Happy Valley. I'm liking it, it's got a ski lodge or quaint mountain retreat feel.

There's way too much animation going on for my tastes, though -- snow should've been little discreet gusts at the top of the mountain, and the shinies in the ice caves are overdone (also kind of lame because they're all the same size and twirl in the same way).

Big kudos to the artist who redesigned the buildings, though. I love: the Neggery (cute little gate), Wintery Petpets & Merry Outfits. The snow faerie's new digs are massive (disproportionately so?).

[thelonetiel]

Augh! I loved the newer old top of Terror Mountain, it was easy to zoom in and get a big pretty icy mountain for graphics. Now there's no place to do that without some stupid sign in the way. I hadn't ever thought about taking a screenshot for use later because I figured it wouldn't be revamped for a long while...

I'm too annoyed about that to be able to comment on the rest of the stuff. Mrr.

[Seerow]

Nooo The Ice Caves were one of my favorite places to visit on Neopia, the old one was so pretty. The new maps are drawn nicely and I think I would rather enjoy them if it weren't for all of the silly animations. I don't need to see 50 sparkling stars or 50000 snowflakes on a map to enjoy it.

This makes me sad And now I don't know where anything is. *Sigh*

[Kamil]

0.0

It's . . . like the very worst parts of MySpace and LiveJournal bred and had unholy GLITTERING SPARKLING SNOWING ice babies.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Ice Caves, at the least, toned down a bit. I think all of that synced glittering might cause problems in those most sensitive to quick, repetitive movements.

Man. There is so much more that needs their attention; couldn't they have redone, say, Krawk Island, or Tyrannia, and have left Terror Mountain be?

[Usul_Princess]

...WHERE IS EVERYTHING?!.....

Honestly, the flash is overkill. I want to like it, but what's the point of screwing up the basic navigation? It's bad enough the site layout itself is a total mess, but these new world redraws are giving me seizures. I agree that the artwork was dated, but I wander the site like a blind man now that the yellow sidebar is gone, even though it's like 2 years later. The site is getting completely unrecognizable.

*gets worried about Lost Desert*.....That was the best redrawn world they've ever done. I barely remember what the old Lost Desert looked like. Mystery Island had a very good 21st century makeover too. I'd hate to see it go. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, TNT.

[Kari]

I can't read anything in the Ice Caves. The font is too busy and the white blends in too much to the light blue. Plus, the sparkles.

[Gumdrops]

While I'm impressed with the detail and beauty of this new map, I can't help feeling that, since the top of Terror Mountain was 'vamped back when I was a newbie, there are things that could do with the work a lot more (default species petpages, anyone?) Nevertheless... wow.

Faerieland! It's the most neglected thing on the site. Seriously, the only reason I can think of for why is that we're gonna get some epic LDP type thing for it.

Then stuff like Gormball, and Scorchy Slots.

[daisybell]

The new Happy Valley is very pretty, but I'm not sure about the other two maps. And I too think there are other areas which needed attention more than these- Tyrannia, Roo Island, Faerieland, Meridell even.

I think they've given up on people with only 56k connections, with all the flash and animations everywhere. I suppose they would say that there's not much point in playing the modern Neopets on a slow connection, so why make it accessible for a few parts of the site.

[mellaka]

Faerieland! It's the most neglected thing on the site. Seriously, the only reason I can think of for why is that we're gonna get some epic LDP type thing for it.

Then stuff like Gormball, and Scorchy Slots.

Yeah, Faerieland is always the one I think of as needed a revamp the most. And I agree with everyone that some of the artwork is nice, but the animation overkill makes it hard to look long enough to appreciate it.

[Wingsrising]

I think it's very pretty. However, I pretty much never, ever go the maps (I access everything I through my massive "Neopets" bookmark menu) so it doesn't matter that much to me one way or the other.

I wonder whether the fact that you can't use Flash on the iPhone will play into the future Flash vs nonFlash decisions on some websites?

(That said, I really, really hope that eventually you'll be able to use Flash on the iPhone.)

[ZomgethMew]

I dislike the new Terror Mountain too >_> But then again, I hardly go on Neopets, so it doesn't really affect me.
Here are the old maps, if anyone wanted them.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u278 ... 005_01.gif
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u278 ... 004_01.gif
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u278 ... 004_03.gif
Happy Valley map from NeoDex, Ice Caves and Terror Mountain maps from FGN-Guild.