[Open Assets] SRB2-The Emerald Isles v. 3.0.7

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Also intended. In fact I was considering making the whole act a damaging floor!


(I'll look into it tonight)
 
Especially stairs. They like to bite back.

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DisastrousLonelyCusimanse

Hmm... I could have told you about stairs



This looks like an interesting map pack.
Guess I'll try it out and leave my opinion on it... tomorrow!
 
Ahh, the enemy in the floor below is clipping through to attack you.



Try fighting the floor

edit:I've updated with the changes to issues mentioned above and a few others I've noticed while scouring through the acts. I will note that some rising platforms now act odd when you spindash off of them and give you upward momentum, but I don't know what to do about that at this point.
 
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I updated! Even though it's what I consider half of an update, I wanted to release and get some feedback on the first half of the new ice level I was working on-Arctic Ravine. It still needs a bit of polish, but I've decided to change it up with level design this time around.

I realize that the last level I released was fairly difficult to get though, so here's a "softball" level to play. It gave me a chance to try out some of the slope and sector gimmick level design ideas I was throwing around. I also wanted to try to make a more visually appealing level this time around while introducing some of the level mechanics I intend to reuse in act 2.

Along with that are a few new bosses between acts, some level quirks in older levels fixed, some new quirks introduced, and a few nice secrets here and there. Enjoy!
 

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Aside from the fact I got lost in Arctic Ravine three times and then once crashed, it's pretty decent. Unfortunately it's unbeatable by Sonic because these fans simply don't propel you high enough to reach the springs before the end sign.

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Pretty much what YevaEA said. You don't have to jump into those to reach the platform. You may succeed if you use momentum, but you don't have to.
 
Pretty much what YevaEA said. You don't have to jump into those to reach the platform. You may succeed if you use momentum, but you don't have to.
You should probably up the strength of it anyways, though. It's a bit of a guide dang it moment otherwise.
 
Alright, I've adjusted the fan strength and a few stray textures here and there. My next step is to probably make the second half of the level a bit more coherent.

I should point out that the breakable pillar and the button you find further on open up shortcuts in case you fall.
 
I enjoyed this up until Aquatic Labyrinth lol
Please tone down the water, it's like Hoenn in here or something

Emerald Isle and Blaze Canyon were pretty fun!
Can't comment on the rest of the mod yet though

Also, Kuja is the best FF villain (and one of my husbandos), excellent name choice~
Best final boss battles are Exdeath (in terms of challenge) and Ultimecia + Griever (in terms of spectacle) imo
 
After all this time playing the official 2.1 port of The Emerald Isles, I've been meaning to ask how to unlock Record Attack. I've been curious on how to unlock it and the hint that it gives away is kinda cryptic too.
 
Get through Emerald isles act 2 in roughly 2:30, and the door will be open next to the end level sign. The time takes respawning at star posts into account.
 
Fixed some issues that could cause Sonic players to be stuck on one of the frozen sectors, added some ice friction and added a level select picture. Also added guest times. Might be the last update for a while, until I can decide what to do for act 2.
 
Just popping in for a general question to any who might stumble upon this thread again.

If you haven't noticed, I've made a lot of different themes to levels, and I've always tried to mix it up a bit to keep gameplay between stages distinct from each other... but I have to ask what kind of levels do you guys enjoy playing? I don't necessarily mean easy or difficult ones- I'm talking more along the lines of what do you find enjoyable out of a good SRB2 level and why?

If it's easier to point out which levels you absolutely loved or hated with a passion out of this level pack, then that would be acceptable too. Although complaining about lag isn't really a valid criticism because I don't own a computer from 2003, I am willing to accept feedback about the general length of the stages.

Part of the reason it takes me so long to come out with levels is because I kind of lack a direction. I write down some cool ideas I want to try, and see if I can make a cool gimmick out of it. But if you guys can tell me what I'm missing or nailing, I could probably pick out something and try that.

I believe that the greatest sin I could possibly commit on this project would be to crank out 8 more maps that played exactly like Emerald Isle Zone.
 
I'm just curious, did you hide any Chaos Emeralds/ Emerald Tokens in the levels? Since this is a full level pack, I'd expect some way to collect them.
 
I'm generally an easy person to please - make some interesting geometry for platforming, springing, and bouncing around, and I'm usually happy. Beyond that, I like it when I have to consider my situation and decide on what to do, instead of just executing the same action over and over again... which is to say, versatility of how a gimmick or badnik is applied is really good, in my eyes.

Above all else though, I love physics play. Stuff that screws around with your momentum - adds to it, reflects it, doubles or halves it, swings it around... stuff that interacts with your motion in a smooth, contextual way such that your motion from before matters and how you interact with it can have a huge range of resulting motion is really exciting for me. The old conveyor belt spin glitch, water surface boosting, bouncy floors and walls, gravity shenanigans, currents, Crawla Bouncing, and slopes are all good examples. Stuff that just replaces your momentum without regard for what it was before such as DSZ waterslides are not. Chain swings are kinda in the middle, since the ignore a lot of prior context about the player's momentum but still have a good bit of depth to them.

I like that kind of thing because there's a lot of granularity and depth to how you can interact with or use it - it gives you that feeling that maybe you didn't make it to where you were going for this time, but if you keep trying and tweak this part of how you entered and that part of how you traveled through the air, you'll manage it, and when you finally do it feels like you've just gotten away with something you really shouldn't have. Maybe you have actually gotten away with something, for that matter! But at its core, it's stuff that interacts with player physics in a way where it's fun just to screw around with, and which getting familiar with it can really help you out, and help you out more the more familiar you get. SRB2 really does not have enough of this kind of thing, even though it was such a core part of what made Sonic a unique platformer on the genesis.

TEI always stuck out to me because of its open, highly vertical levels where multiple paths were running above each other in the same room, which is cool in and of itself but which also led to some amazing crawla bouncing scenes. If this were expanded to include more physics play gimmicks while still having level architecture that lets you go really wild with it the way you can go really wild with crawla bouncing in some stages, I'd be super happy about that.
 
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@Flare957:Yes, I've hidden quite a few of them around-You'll definitely have to check those corners for them, though. There are roughly 20 of them spread throughout the zones.


@Prime
Thanks for stopping in to post this, I definitely appreciate your insight on the matter. "Good" momentum-based platforming is definitely something I've found difficult to get right in this game. Knowing that you can't really launch yourself forward and upward without some slope or air current shenanigans makes it sort of difficult to come up with engaging level design, outside of that awesome rising platform glitch that recently got introduced. I'll definitely try and make a return to making winding paths that have flow like I used to enjoy doing. Blaze Canyon comes first to mind.

Considering that the next level I'm working on is Ice-based, I'm trying to come up with ways to make it challenging but fun without resorting to actively throwing the player into a pit, or having Tails/Knuckles come by and invalidate the challenge altogether by snapping the level in half...though I sort of gave up on that part a long time ago.
 
@Flare957:Yes, I've hidden quite a few of them around-You'll definitely have to check those corners for them, though. There are roughly 20 of them spread throughout the zones.


@Prime
Thanks for stopping in to post this, I definitely appreciate your insight on the matter. "Good" momentum-based platforming is definitely something I've found difficult to get right in this game. Knowing that you can't really launch yourself forward and upward without some slope or air current shenanigans makes it sort of difficult to come up with engaging level design, outside of that awesome rising platform glitch that recently got introduced. I'll definitely try and make a return to making winding paths that have flow like I used to enjoy doing. Blaze Canyon comes first to mind.

Considering that the next level I'm working on is Ice-based, I'm trying to come up with ways to make it challenging but fun without resorting to actively throwing the player into a pit, or having Tails/Knuckles come by and invalidate the challenge altogether by snapping the level in half...though I sort of gave up on that part a long time ago.
When considering tails and knux, you have to make different rooms challenge different characters - as Azure Temple and Tempest Valley's emerald stage proved, crampt spaces with hazards, especially guillotine hazards, are how you challenge tails. Figure out how to force the player to consider their flight plan and timing in advance. You're almost never going to get to make a single room the same difficulty for everyone (and DEFINITELY not the same difficulty for the same reason), so for the most part you kinda just have to accept that some rooms will be easier for some characters, and come up with a balance.

Buzz and other flying enemies (besides bashes) are also good for forcing tails to the ground, but with buzz especially you kinda have to model that along the lines of "this buzz will force the player to stop and deal with it at this specific, pre-planned moment in time"... which applies to all characters, actually, but to tails especially since "stopping and dealing with it" requires a quick descent, either to land or to get the buzz directly above.
 
Yeah, you don't see tails/knux only paths too often in levels period. Knux would be easy, but I'm sure I could give it a try with tails too.
 
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