Metreck Level Pack! (scr_Metpack.wad)

SO. I've been working on this for a while now. I was GOING to finish 7 zones, then post it, but I decided to post a beta. Anyway, Currently, it has 5 zones completed(I'll probably extend them later, though), 1 zone half/25% completed, and 1 zone not even started. They're all 1-3 minute long single-act(excluding boss act) stages. I've payed much(kind of...) attention to the boss acts. They all have custom AI(Rocky Grassland has very few alterations).

NOW SCREENSHOTS.

Rocky Grassland Zone:


Dusty Cliff Zone:



Crystal Cross Zone:


Wintery Pass Zone:


Ruin of Magma:



Light Speed Zone



Alright! Here's the download

Old one
New one

Credit goes to Chaos Zero 64 for Metalsonic sprites.

All the levels are ridiculously cramped, and none of them have and gimmicks to seperate them. 2D sections? Take them out. Some of them, are just plain stupid. Tails in a maze? A level where it does all of the ******* work for you, where all you have to do is spindash? A vast level with Knuckles that all you do is search for the exit? The bosses were pretty boring as well.

Take out the music. You killed Frog's Theme. (One of the most memorable tracks ever) It doesn't even fit, anyways.

It looks okay I guess...I don't really care if its cramped or not i just like collecting wads

AAAAAAAAAAA

I'm not sure what is in this pack yet. But you might wanna try putting your file in a .zip file It's just ridiculously large. ._.'

That's true

---------- Post added at 05:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:55 PM ----------

I have Got to say I just tried this and even though it is kinda cramped it looks amazing with all the boosts and the 2D stuff this wad in my opinion is great.

Nice stuff you got here, but I did find a few thinks that could be better and or fix'd:

RGZ:
At one part of this level there is REDWALL, I took a screenshot to show you where.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/Knockout/SRB2/srb20045.png
Also, in some parts of the level it gets cramped, that should be fix'd.
Also, could you add some grass pegging? It will make the level look much better.

Loby:
First thing:
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/Knockout/SRB2/srb20046.png
Don't let this happen. even thoygh you have springs they can use to get up it still makes it look ugly and it will make people think they will die if they fall.

CCZ:
Ok, the level is pretty good but it could use a bit more textures instead of the same old textures all over the place. Also, The boss is a bit cheap, when I hit him I have no time to doge the bomb he drops because he didn't give any warning and because he uses it almost instantly, fix that.

WPZ:
Nice level, the textures are good but I think they should be a different color, blue maybe? Also this level is a bit crapmed too.

ROMZ:
Ok this zone is ok, but the lava would look much better if it was brighter above it. Also, I have found REDWALL here too.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/Knockout/SRB2/srb20047.png

LSZ:
Ok I can tell this zone is still being worked on but I do belive the textures are to bright, maybe you could make some custom ones? Cuz I sorta thought it would be more like stardust speedway zone from Sonic CD.
Not much I can say untill the level is done.

Other:
Don't use water fore the floor or water FOFs, they look ugly. instead use the floor of the sector's floor.
Don't put grass under water. It don't look good IMO.
Most of the levels are a bit cramped in some parts, you miht want to fix that.
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Over all I would give this a 7.5/10

Good level pack, but the file size is a bit big. did you covert the music to "ogg"s?

Thanks for the review, KOTE. I'll keep all that in mind.
And yeah, I used Oggs. I'll upload a no added music version later.

And at Luminous: D: Why so negative?

Metreck said:

And at Luminous: D: Why so negative?

Click to expand...

Because this is a bad level pack? There's no other answer.

Metreck said:

And at Luminous: D: Why so negative?

Click to expand...

Learn to accept criticism. That's the only response to this statement.

In the meantime, this mod is sup-par. The levels are, as Luminous said, very cramped in some places. It's obvious that there's an emphasis on aesthetics, but it's ruined by bad texture selection (for example, using the Greenflower Zone rock wall texture in the first level is really far apart from the rest of the level's theme), and the misleading thok barrier.

The flow seemed to be just a bit off in most of the levels, too. What annoys me the most is the bad gimmick of forcing each level to be played by a specific character. It would be much better if you could make alternate paths or use some other gimmick to make it accessible to all players, rather than just limiting a level to one character. For instance, I only play as Sonic, so playing an Knuckles and Tails in their respective levels was very awkward to say the least. It's identical to the problem with SA2: you're forced to play as a certain character from level to level, rather than play as the character you want to play as, instead. Also, the levels do have some alternate paths, but are mostly linear aside from that. Some of the gimmicks that WERE in the levels were misleading or hidden and took some time to figure out, which, again, messes somewhat with the flow of a Sonic game.

Another misleading problem is that, in the Magma stage, the theme ventures ridiculously. You start out in a somewhat open grassy area, go into a set of caves with melted rock (magma) as expected from the name of the level, go back out into the grassy area, go back into the caves and when you pop out, suddenly it's gotten darker and the area looks dead. Either nighttime came faster than I expected or the theme is poorly balanced. That will need some fixing.

And then's there's the issue with the custom music. I had nothing against using Wacky Workbench Bad Future from the US soundtrack for Crystal Cross Zone. It did a good job of fitting the level's theme, to me. But the rest of the custom music fails to fit as well. You'll want to remove that music (especially the Chrono Trigger remix, please, it doesn't fit the level at all).

All in all, I'd give this mod a 4/10. The levels are somewhat linear in places, the textures needs work, as do the overall aesthetics, the themes need to be fixed, custom music removed and the enemy placement could use some work, too.

Well, I'm going to call this mod DancePack.

I have to say you have a lot of nice ideas, good concept and interesting "movement rhythm" in some levels. On the other hand, other levels ruin all fun. Your major problem is level architecture: bad scaling, cramped areas, too narrow corridors/passages, confusing/unclear paths, blind passages and unfair enemy/hazard placement. Also, Eggman gets stuck in unfair places (see MAPBA).

Tunes helped a lot. Of course. XD

kinks and cogs

Registered specially on the forums to give my opinion on this. i've unfortunately to say, have had only the patience to try 3 of the levels. ill try and make my opinion short and sweet. A lot of this is probably known and covered already

rocky Grassland zone - its a nice start to the pack, but i spent the first 3 minuites trying to traverse the rocks to the first exit when i could've just jumped. it's not exactly too clear at that part. Onto the 2nd part of the zone, where we actually do traverse the rocks: fall in the water and when you try to bounce up you're greeted by robots in the way who just knock you back down if you didnt kill them at first. you might need some kind of barrier for them. everything else was pretty nice. reaching the goalzone might need to be a bit more clearer.

Dusty Cliff- Waaay too many traps, insect robos that can just nudge and kill you when they feel like it, and the spikeys love to follow down holes if not killed. if you get hit by one during going down a hole, whats at the bottom? death cause you cant do anything.unfortunately, it needs a good tidy-up.

Wintery Pass Zone - it felt kind of comfy at the start. searching for ways to get to the elevated paths was an utter nightmare, specially the metal tank jump to it Xo. Funnily enough to say, i accidentally found the pipeway but by pressing no direction button, i actually got stuck in there for a good 2 minuites rolling back and forth. maybe a spring at the top? coming out of the pipe, its pretty hard to dodge the sentry there, which there are too many of in this level.
(this should be the part of climbing the mountain using the hidden springs) thwocking it to death, proved a day in hell

http://img188.imageshack.us/i/srb20000b.png/

help? ^^''. thwocking it bounced me up and got me into a tight space in the corner which i couldnt get out of, ending my gameplay.


the levels look lovely I know Xo, but there still are a few kinks and balances needed. Not everything needs to change but those are the bits i myself found tedious.

so please dont eat me = 3

I actually... Really love this. I know some areas are cramped, but all of the gimmicks are very fun. And I truthfully love the textures. "Especially Light Speed Zone". I really don't see why there's a problem with the visuals. Warp zone is awesome. I love the Sticker remix~
Hm.... Problems for me... Well... the two things bugging me... I can't get past the DCZ and CCZ bosses. XP I dunno why they're hard for me... but with the level layout of those stages, I think better bosses should be put in.
And I say keep 2D in. It's finally playable with 2.0 and it's actually fun.

Chao Freak 1 said:

I actually... Really love this. I know some areas are cramped, but all of the gimmicks are very fun. And I truthfully love the textures. "Especially Light Speed Zone". I really don't see why there's a problem with the visuals. Warp zone is awesome. I love the Sticker remix~
Hm.... Problems for me... Well... the two things bugging me... I can't get past the DCZ and CCZ bosses. XP I dunno why they're hard for me... but with the level layout of those stages, I think better bosses should be put in.
And I say keep 2D in. It's finally playable with 2.0 and it's actually fun.

Click to expand...

Chao Freak 1, you stole the words right out of my mouth.

I don't care if it's cramped. I don't care if it's hated by many. It's just... Whenever I host, I have to add this, no matter what. I love it so much. But, could you fix the 2D parts? When I go back to backtrack, they don't re-initialize, or they do at the wrong points...

ZX said:

It's just... Whenever I host, I have to add this, no matter what.

Click to expand...

That's because there's some subliminal and mysterious power in the songs that makes you addicted to the wad, no matter what. D:

Ezer.Arch said:

That's because there's some subliminal and mysterious power in the songs that makes you addicted to the wad, no matter what. D:

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[offtopic]IT'S A CONSPIRACY, I TELL YOU! DDD:[/offtopic]

Everyone that comes loves it, too. Great work~

That was terrible Rusty Ruins remix, used in a terrible way on a terrible level. I really wanted to like the first level, and I really wanted to like the music for it too, but I gave up my optimism when I saw the other levels. This was really depressing. Really.

What's wrong exactly? That's a hard question to answer. I think that a lot of it is that you're new to this. I understand that. I was new once too. However, I think there's more to it than that. I think that there were some things here that could've been avoided. For example, I kept getting lost. In the first level, I was genuinely lost. After that, though, I was just plain confused because I couldn't find out where forwards was. I think that's what you could start trying to fix.

My only other advice is practice a lot. Also, when you play other people's levels and you like something they did, think about why you like it.

For winter pass can you use the xmas tiles? Only snice snow doesn't look good with gfz textures

Okay, I've updated (finally). I haven't gotten as much done as I could've.. But I've gotten rid of most of the music. Also cleaned up some of the enemies. I also ended up making Ruin of Magma into an emerald hunt... It might be kind of difficult now, but oh well.

I think that this pack is awesome. I loved the music in the previous version(v07). That said, it still needs some work. First of all, you need to make the levels slightly less confusing. Second, the Rocky Grassland boss area needs to have the Robo-Hoods removed; they're really annoying, especially when you've only got 5 rings in the level. Third, you need another Tails stage to balance it out(make Lightspeed Zone as an unlockable or something so you can still have the same emerald collection method). The Dusty Cliff boss was great, however. I liked the way it dropped Minuses and Vultures on you. The Ruin of Magma boss was WAY too hard.

EDIT: This review is for v07, not the new one.

Crystal Cross is a bit hard.