Circuit Attack! [v3.1] (r_circuitattack.wad)

Circuit Attack is an attempt to make completely new race maps in the old Circuit style from 1.9/2.0.

As of the current release, there are 2 maps:

Emerald Isle





Originally called "Lush Hillside", while the other maps was scrapped, this one was kept and mostly remade from scratch.

The beginning area is inspired by Resort Island from Sonic R, while later parts of the course, are inspired by Mania's GHZ.

Marine Chateau





The new map to this release. Inspired by Royal Road from Kirby Triple Deluxe. There's not much to say, apart from that, it's a castle... with water.

I really hope the maps aren't as bad as last time and that everyone can have fun on them.

Enjoy!

Special thanks:

White T.U - Made the logo, fixed up Emerald Isle a bit and beta-tested the maps.
Mill, Swish, Edgy the Hedgy, Super Tails and SD2C - Beta-testers who was willing to give some of their time and give honest feedback.
AxelMoon - Made some of the textures that I used. (Thanks dude!)
Sapheros - for giving me that critisicm in the first place to fix the mess, that was the old Circuit Attack.
GreenKnight9000 - for the support and beta-testing the maps.

Changelog

Welcome to releases!

V2 Release!

Version 2 is now out! Check the changelog above for more details and such. Sorry for long delay, folks! I'll see if I can get Version 3 sooner than this time.



But until then, have a teaser.

I tested this out, and I was impressed with the content. However, I did run into a few problems.

In Shivering Ice, I found two HOMs that were visible at start and at the lake area. Both of them are found here and here.

While I'm at it, may I suggest that you add a checkpoint at this location? It gets annoying when a player dies and they have to start all the way back to the starting line.

As for Galactic Arena, there is one particular part where the sky turns into a mirror.


Also, there is one particular part where Sonic players get stuck and there is no way to get out of the hole. As for the hole itself, it has a large texture error and needs to be fixed.

As for Barren Temple: The entire interior is too dark, which makes it hard for players to navigate their way through the course. I suggest making the interior a little lighter. As for the exterior, it feels empty, and the sand pools don't help much.

Overall, there is good content in this level pack, but the issues I addressed need to be fixed.

SRB2PlayerFan said:

As for Barren Temple: The entire interior is too dark, which makes it hard for players to navigate their way through the course. I suggest making the interior a little lighter.

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have you ever seen an inside to a desert temple in a video game before

they're meant to be dark

Well, I mean. There's trying to follow what you're imagining, and there's being overly rigid.

I'm pretty sure nobody wants the temple to be day-glo bright, but SRB2 doesn't have dynamic lighting, and overly dark sections negatively affect gameplay. It's important to consider the limitations of the engine and medium and to be flexible when one runs into them. Sometimes, aesthetic compromises have to be made to prevent causing problems with gameplay. Think about Starlit Warehouse from 1.09 - a very dark Match map that didn't survive the modifications to the lineup for the modern day, not least because of (its attempt to) place visuals in front of gameplay experience.

Can we please stop thinking about FSonic's Dash Mode when making a level? That makes thokfests more likely an element of the level, not to mention that its terribly unfair to anyone that doesn't use FSonic. FSonic is a fun character no doubt, but he is not a vanilla character, he shouldn't be the main attention of designing a level just because said level designer decides to play as FSonic like a main character. FSonic can make tedious sections more fun, but he doesn't need to have levels inspired by him just so using his dash mode is more usable and overpowered.

EDIT: I actually went out of my way to play this pack today (With Flare) to express my feelings on this level pack.

Its garbage, mostly because of what I said above a few days ago, but lemme go through each from what I believe is the worst to what I believe is least worse. (english wut)

1: Shivering Ice: graphical errors, it's terrible attempt to make platforming worth a fuck, but really becoming more boring and tedious to handle, not to mention that the slopes in the level are horribly done specifically to make FSonic slightly less usable, but barely becoming tolerable for speed advantage
2: Galactic Arena: Bland, Graphical Errors, really tight level design in uncomfortable scenarios, it doesn't want you to be speedy, I'm down with that, but the lack of flow to stop the player for a few seconds just to platform really close, when the theme of racing is trying to get a good flow going, its just bad at that.
3: Lush Hillside: The first level that began the biggest mistake of the level pack: Making FSonic dominant, and making others, including Flare, useless. The usage of slopes denounces any speed Tails, Knuckles, Flare, or anyone else fast for that matter could get, but of course, since FSonic's dash mode keeps his timer instead of it dropping to zero, its clearly not the level designer's fault, right?
4: Azure Lake: Porting levels from other games is generally looked down upon due to SRB2's lack of using loops and such, and usually not looking good due to how much of the level takes very blatant inspiration from the original. Azure Lake at best is just dull, its harmless since getting your speed is kinda worth it at times, but besides the obvious sprite rip of Azure Lake's Sky, nothing in the level looks generally pleasing to the eye honestly.
5: Barren Temple: The level's main problem is of course, the fucking darkness, it doesn't matter how dark it is, but its barely viewable for the player, the map maker and experienced players can get through the level no problem, but god forbid newcomers. Best solution there honestly should be some form of actual direction, but its nice for gaining speed, and of course, delves into why FSonic should not be an inspiration for designing a level.

All in all, my point still stands: Stop using FSonic as a basis of level design, just because he is a better version of Sonic doesn't mean he IS Sonic, Vanilla Mother-Thokking Sonic is still the Sonic you should base some of your level design around, especially in race. Seeing this mod poorly executed as it is, is absolutely scary for what people that try to bring nostalgia to SRB2 could do. Making Classic/Modern Level X because people liked X Game and having speed as main point of level design, is not an enjoyable example to go by, I'd rather let Nev3r, Blade, and/or CoatRack do nostalgia-themed levels more than slope-happy amateurs.

Version 3 is released!

This fixes a lot of the issues from the old versions. I hope you guys can actually enjoy the maps now! :)

It's been great working with ya, buddy!

Okay, so let me say a few things:

I read Sapheros' post before playing and gathered that the maps were made with Fsonic in mind. So, I did choose him for this and jumped right into the first map here.

The first thing I noticed is that the map looks gorgeous. I love the detail here. The second thing I noticed is that I didn't know where to go. I get that it was my first time and all, but I figure there could have been some ring trails. (Were there ring trails already? There might have been, and I could've just ignored it.) But yeah, I step into an open area or jump up from a spring, now I've gotta know that I'm supposed to turn 135 degrees to get the next checkpoint. I didn't know this and ended up jumping off and going backwards. The third thing I noticed is how many ring boxes are so out-of-the-way without really being worth it. I mean, nobody's going to go off the main path just to get an elemental shield in a map where there are no fire hazards and you can just avoid the water completely or get out in such a short amount of time that you won't drown. (Especially with the Eggman box. I mean, really, who's going to fall for that?)

A couple other things about this map:

-I liked the part where you have to spindash; that was pretty clever.
-The springs immediately after that were kinda iffy, I liked the idea but I don't feel it was well-executed. For one, you jump from the spring and want to get going as soon as possible, right? So you hold forward to get as far as possible, but that makes you fall down to the lower path. That's probably what you were intending, though, so I'm not sure I can complain about it.
-Another thing about the springs, they're kinda spread apart so you can totally miss them, which was what happened to me one time. Maybe put some more springs between those to ensure that players don't miss them.

As for the next map.

Same kinda thing about not really knowing where to go, in particular the window on the ledge that the springs take you to made me think I was supposed to exit there to go outside, when in reality I was supposed to be facing the other direction. Same kinda thing about my first time, I guess.

Another thing, the stairs were kinda steep. I find this to be a problem, since if you're going too fast the stairs immediately stop you and as far as I know, there is no way to avoid this.

And finally, the underground water segment. Yeah, that was pretty dark and should probably be brightened up a bit but that's all I really have to say about it.

Verdict: Good maps, but play through them by yourself a couple times to familiarize yourself with them before trying to race anyone.

Fodder said:

(Huge review)

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First of all, the review that Saph made is, now outdated, since it was made, when V2 was released. The new maps were tested with the vanilla trio, along with friends to ensure everything was balanced enough to enjoy.

I'll see if I can add ring trails to make things more obvious. As for the monitors... they are like that, because I don't want them to get in the way, when you're focusing on beating your opponent.

I'll fix the staircase and other things as well, it should be an easy fix.

Anyways, thanks for the review and I'm glad to know that you're enjoying the maps. :)

EDIT: Updated the wad to V3.1, I hope this fixes the main issues for you. I'll wait around for a while, before making V4, since I want to know what's wrong with the maps first.

I'm liking the colors and music choices! The levels are generally quite fun with only minor flow issues here and there. Maybe you wanna use some more ring lines to help guide new players in the right direction since it's not immediately obvious. Also, are you sure this pack shouldn't be called cr_circuitattack? There are tons of little secrets with useless monitors like lives which really have no place in pure speed races.

I'm curious to see how far this pack goes, I'd love to see a full-fledged Circuit Pack at some point.

Hedgefox, please re-upload your screenshots as attachments. You can link directly to them to display them in the post itself just like with any other image, but they must be hosted on srb2.org.

Where can I download older versions of this?

I kinda feel bad about the effect I put on this mod, and while I've already talked about this with Swift (maybe), I really do want to see more in the future. So I'll review the current levels in the pack: Emerald Isle, and Marine Chateau.

Emerald Isle: While I still remembered the moment it was FSonic based, it's so much better here. It's really extensive and while there were some areas that really don't fit their purpose in a race scenario, I just love how beautiful and branchy some of the level design is.

Marine Chateau: A water level. A race level, that involves water. At best I think this stage has great pacing... outside of the beginning of the race. The climb to the breaking bridge in my opinion feels like a complete slowdown and a rough catch up for poor non Sonic players that don't have good verticality from the ground like Tails and Knuckles. What does feel a little bad about this stage is that it's awfully short. It's good, but it only lasts for so long, at the same time I'm not sure how well the stage can continue.

This has definitely improved a hell of a lot since I last reviewed it. Though I'll admit seeing most of the original stages go really cut the pack super short, especially because if you add this with the circuit returns, you lose Race Alley and Emerald Coast to Emerald Isles and Marine Chateau. Really hoping some more levels come around for this pack. Great Job Swift.

I checked it out and...
Yes, another review

Sorry but besides some of your points being hard to decipher, uh, have you tried having *fun* in the stages? There has to be a balance of verticality and speed. Your points are seriously lacking any evidence that you played it alone, took a view of the sights, tried it with friends, and even explored the stage on your own. The amount of effort on this pack including the 2.0 version is great, people actually tried to make them the stages they are. Seriously, actually play the level pack multiple times (which isn't hard to do at all), explore as many corners as possible.

Sapheros said:

Sorry but besides some of your points being hard to decipher, uh, have you tried having *fun* in the stages? There has to be a balance of verticality and speed. Your points are seriously lacking any evidence that you played it alone, took a view of the sights, tried it with friends, and even explored the stage on your own. The amount of effort on this pack including the 2.0 version is great, people actually tried to make them the stages they are. Seriously, actually play the level pack multiple times (which isn't hard to do at all), explore as many corners as possible.

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Sadly, my router isn't the best at the momment so, i can't play multiplayer right now.
And also, if i could, nobody would join, seriously, nobody in netgames know the meaning of testing good WADs.

I miss the original 5 levels, where can I find them?

They're gone. Never to be seen again. Sorry if you liked them, but I feel like it was for the best. They weren't designed all that well.