Glacier Gear- NaN/10
I made this map! Since I can't objectively rate my map, I'll just put it first and give you some developer commentary. First off- I am astounded by the extremely positive response from the community for my first OLDC entry. I haven't done any comparisons to anybody elses' average map ranking but I suspect that I'm behind only Seraphic Skylands on that front due to the polarised reaction with everyone else's maps. Anyways, enough self-fellating- time for some self-criticism! I kind of expected the Waddalek to polarise some, but it seems to be the sole sticking sore point in everyone's critique. That laser really is overpowered, I guess, and I'll shy away from badniks being too powerful in future. A 1.10 (POST-OLDC edition!) will be forthcoming once the voting period ends (at bare minimum; may take forever) with a change to the Waddalek behaviour. I wish I could have had more paths in this map towards the end as well- especially something to make that 2D section more substantial. However, I'm really, really happy with how far I've come. A side-by-side comparison with Frozen Wasteland (the single map released in the heyday of 2.0 that was the inspiration for this map) definitely shows that I've improved substantially, and I'm glad that everyone else agrees. My only real regret is entering it in an OLDC with so much high-quality competition!! There are a handful of interesting ideas that I've got under incubation that I'd love to share with you- but hey, maybe next OLDC! ;D
Seraphic Skylands - 9.999.../10
grumble grumble you're better than me I MEAN I LOVE SERAPHIC SKYLANDS. Spherallic's biggest talent isn't even mapping, though. Their greatest talent is their adaptability- their ability to listen to any little bit of criticism and take its message to heart. It's kind of like filing off the edges of a piece of marble, chip by chip, criticism by criticism to construct a statue of nigh-perfection. I mean, seriously. Throughout its development, I've been observing its pre-releases on #srb2fun- and Seraphic Skylands was originally a lot more bloated, empty and un-fun. After some pestering, Sphere decided to completely re-order the map to give it additional fun and balance, which easily bumped it up from fourth place to first (not including the locked-in-first of Glacier Gear). I'm serious- the beta5 to rc1 upgrade was so momentous and I really don't think Seraphic Skylands would have had a chance of winning this contest if it weren't for that complete re-organising. Other rough edges being rounded off include making the wind funnels much more aesthetically pleasing with the soft white glow from below. Basically every piece of advice I could have given this map was given during its alpha, beta and rc testing and it was all taken to heart (with the sole exception of a complete absence of badniks... which I suppose was a nessecity considering it's simply too large to test each change with a REJECT lump.) There is exactly one piece of criticism I can give right now that was not given before and that is that the final version is significantly laggier than any pre-release version, which is a darn tootin' shame and subtracts the 0.000...1 point I've stolen from its admittedly worthless score out of 10. There's also a general sense of disappointment that after 4 years of development it managed to make this particular contest, because it looks like this is the sole map that stands between me and victory.
Cock Towers - 7/10
Axis2D is the perfect example of how Lua has revitalised SRB2 modding. Lua is ridonkulously powerful, as evidenced by the fact that Red has basically completely stripped out the entire player movement system and recreated it using Nights Axis objects. Like, seriously, she and Pac are fucking wizards. In addition to the fact that they fuck wizards, they appear to have absorbed some of their magic. It's just a shame, therefore, that the postermap for Axis2D has some design decisions made at an early stage that have affected the entire development of the map for the worst. That's not to say that it's not a good map- it's fun as hell! Those chains, wow. They've never even been attempted before and are a fun twist on the classic bridges and how they're drawn, with easily reusable rendering code to boot. But when you get things like the choice of enemies being Egg Guards (IN 2D? what were you smoking???) and Robo-Hoods In the foreground and background, to boot! I could have excused them if they were only on the main path- they're theme-appropriate and a ranged badnik, but depth perception in software is abysmal. My other serious complaint is that death pit just before the exit sector. Maybe trace an arc of rings through the air to suggest to the player that they need to jump? Also, I still totally think you (you two? Or did Pac just work on Axis2D) have a chronic inability to texture indoors areas, with all of that WOOD and MORE WOOD and OCCASIONAL STONE. I love those big clock faces, although that could have MAYBE done with another texture in front of it to have some sort of ridge/rim around the edge and make it not like a giant paper plate stuck to a building. Also, maybe it should be a little darker. But I digress. Red and Pac know their stuff.
Sacred Woodland- 5/10
This map has beauty. It's pleasant to play through! I enjoyed it a lot. Well, okay, I say it's pleasant to play through and I enjoyed it a lot. When I say "it", I mean "everything in this map up to that spooky skull with flames in its eyes on the floor". Before I talk about that, though, the change to Robo Hoods is an enjoyable one- creating fire where it lands is pretty awesome- although maybe you could have made them red, to communicate that they shot fire bullets instead of arrows to the player. (Certain visuals demand certain expectations, and circumventing them confuses the player unnessecarily.) I was never turned around in this map and it remained consistently a challenge and an adventure throughout. Those two into-darkness teleports were weird, but... whatever. I have no qualms with that part of the map. Unfortunately, once you get up to the spooky skull with flames in its eyes, everything changes- and I would have placed it above Clock Towers had there just been an exit sign there. Everything becomes cramped, the spikeballs on the floor blend in to the dark floor texture, and that obnoxious teleport to the Brak arena just makes me sad. Seriously, this feels like you rushed the ending because you thought you needed more. Did you need more? I don't think so! Don't shoot yourself in the foot next time and you could end up with a much better ranking, my chum.
Sand Valley - 5/10
This map looks nice, and I'm always up for a sand-based level. Glacier Gear was Rune Ruin for a little while. Anyways, there was a lot to love about this map. The sandopolis-style quicksand walls that you can jump up, the slowly sinking platforms, the basic texturing... although it does fall victim to Clock Towers' uniform colour fault, where there's nothing inside that visually stands out that much. That bloody fast-suck quick-quicksand caused me like three game overs, the only map to cause a single game over at all! The quick-quicksand pisses me off to no end and I really wish it were just normal Sandopolis quicksand- it would make the indoor areas more visually interesting (more yellow highlights! Not just one bland colour scheme!) and make the map much less insufferable to play. To give you a quantifiable value of how much I hate that- that quick-quicksand cost you third place in my list. Just mull on that. It's a lovely map, though, and I can't wait to see more from you!
Egg Outposts - 5/10
There were some really neat ideas in here. The idea of mixing Jungle and Electric- one straight off the wiki- is a pleasant change from the single-theme zones of yore. The idea of using those texture sets to represent them... not so much. The resultant map is extremely visually busy and grating to look at. Another point is that I've never seen a map that's both huge and cramped at the same time- that big, big room that punished me so much for falling and not understanding exactly how the mushrooms worked. What I mean, I guess, is that the amount of space the player has to platform is basically nil and the player has no visual clues on where to go. My favourite- and least favourite room was the room with the glowing crystals. I liked it because it's the most beautiful room in the map. I also disliked it because it's way too dark to do the kind of platforming you demand the player to do, which actually made me ragequit! Which is a shame. It's the most beautiful room... A prime example of a not-so-beautiful room is the big, big room I mentioned earlier- which is the first place I discovered the mushrooms in the map on my first run (when I went on the right path at the beginning, the one without the crystals). It's ungainly, cramped-yet-open, visually confusing and above all just downright punishing. That room turned what would have otherwise been an 8 minute run into a 12 minute run. Four minutes on a single room- worse than my first run through 2.1 Eggrock. Also, those tiny mushrooms with blue springs in them? The blue springs show through. Yeah. Aside from that, the usual newbie errors- rings just sitting on the ground undeafed, crawlas and buzzes for badniks (again? is this 1.09.4?) and weird texture/flat usage and alignment. (What's up with that script button having diagonal lines through it?) Other than those things, Tyrannic, this is a solid foundation to start with, and I really hope that you can take this feedback on board and improve/remake this map. I will make one last note- remember, quality, not quantity!
Floral Field - 4/10
Diagonal-Walls-ified Greenflower Zone Act 4 is probably my best description of this level. It feels... it feels simplistic and uninspired. It's like that obligatory first zone every person who ever considers making a mappack starts working on, historically, in the SRB2 community. You added a fun little ring-level-up meter, but the fact it caps at 30 when I ended the map with 170 rings and not a single hit makes me feel a little sad. I kept on getting turned around in basically every room. Like, seriously, basically all of the outdoors rooms are circular with a very low thok barrier wall and that does plenty to keep me lost. Aside from that, there's consistent production values throughout- pleasant but not exemplary- and despite all of its flaws, playing through it brought a smile to my face, which is more than some maps can say. That could be a grin, my friend- just invest more of your heart into this map and you will have my goodwill.
Midnight Cave - 3/10
This map... I don't really know what to make of it. While it has some interesting aesthetics. it suffers from oddly distributed checkpoints and incredibly confusing level design. Like, I spent 2 minutes in the last room trying to follow the arrow rightwards... until I realised it suggested I go around the spiral staircase down, where I find the exit sector... on the opposite side of the room to the way the arrow is pointing. It also doesn't help that all the springs in that room lead me directly to the hidden emerald token. The 2D section was completely without substance and honestly reminded me of the SRB1 remake- and that's not a favourable comparison. However, your theme is very solid, and you have vague understanding of how to make interesting gimmicks. With practice, you can be awesome! Unfortunately, that practice is something that's going to happen in the future, and in the meantime we have this map.
Emerald Lake - 2/10
This level felt extremely open, just like Seraphic Skylands. Unlike Seraphic Skylands, it also felt empty. Empty and open are a horrible combination, especially when combined with short and unchallenging. The textures look like they were blown up double-size from Palmtree Panic- with no smoothing around the now hard, large pixelated knife edges that cut your eyes like some sort of person intent on serious violence with long lasting consequences. The dark Green Hill indoor walls weren't the most pleasant, either. Oh, and don't have the exit visible to the player on spawn and then have it walled off somehow. It's extremely grating and I think I've seen that done in an OLDC before- it was poor form then and it's poor form now.I do like how you used Motobugs, and the Motobug sprites were aesthetically pleasing (if a bit pillow shaded), but I wish they behaved more like Motobugs in Sonic Generations than in Sonic 1, because those were just unicycle Crawlas. I have little more to say about this map, honestly. glaber, you've been in this community how long? How long have you been producing maps, all of which have systematic flaws similar to this one?