Tortured Planet v9 (scmrtf_TorturedPlanet-v9.wad)

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Hmm... considering the SNZ2 problem... stepping on the part that falls also triggers an invisible/intangible FOF with the end level effect to start moving into the chamber, so even if they get stuck up above, the level still ends?
 
...And furthermore, Kim, if you really want to skip Spacewalk, you could gather the seven Chaos Emeralds beforehand, thus enabling you to skip straight to SSZ.

I was laughing when I saw this. Spacewalk isn't all that difficult, just lengthy, VERY LENGTHY. It's a lot easier to play in now as Sonic than it used to be (play the archived Spacewalk). Not to mention it looks a whole lot better than the original version that dragged on forever with repetitive platforming and whatnot. You can skip those levels if you have 7 emeralds now, but it might take longer to not only find the special stage tokens, but also to get all those CHAOS EMERALDS instead of just "sucking it up" and getting through the zone.

Sorry if I sound like a jerk, I'm just trying to get my point out.
 
Spacewalk zone is better now than before (v 1.0) but it could be much more better. There are already boring open areas that had been put by copypaste, specially in SWZ2. Also some gimmnicks aren't very well done (or not very well used) such as the laser (that act like the ropey pulley, and the same problem has SNZ). Some areas feel empty and the RBZ spikes aren't really an obstacle. In spite of all it's flaws, SWZ has potential and some gimnicks were original, so it doesn't need a total overhaul, it needs some improvements here and there with the gimnicks and the things placed.


Ideas for LGZ
I have another ideas for LGZ1: extend a bit the last laser room putting mora obstacles and making it a bit more challenging (after all we are in the 7th zone).
Also i think you should make bigger the horizontal moving plattforms room in LGZ 2, because i can jump in the inmobile plattforms without jumping in the moving plattforms. Also i think that you could make this room more challenging adding more obstacles. Also in the altarnate room in the first part of LGZ2 you could add more obstacles (laser, spikes or crushers) since the unique obstacle is a sharp that is easy to avoid.
I mention before that you should remove some computers in the office room because the lag.
Another think that i don't like in LGZ is that the floor and walls in the inside areas has in all areas the same pallete, i will like to see some palletes change in the next version.
 
Sorry, I know this is incredibly nitpicky of me, but I've seen you make this mistake about a million times now and I have to say something. The word is "gimmick", not "gimnick".

And that laser room idea isn't half bad. Maybe I can do something with it.
 
I don't think this has been posted, but when I got to SSZ (FINALLY!) and lost to many 1 ups on it and wanted to restart it (end game, start game), I allredy had the level select unlocked, is that sepuse to happen?
 
Hey guys, I thought you might like a new update on the status of Tortured Planet. I've been involved in some other projects lately, not to mention college work (though it hasn't really gotten intense yet), so Tortured Planet's progress has just been inching along. Nevertheless, I'm still putting the finishing touches on v8.3, which will host a few improvements. The most noticeable changes are in the end of FSZ2, which is still not perfect by any means, but now is less linear and repetitive. It also features a cool little gimmick that you'll have to wait to learn about.
 
... It also features a cool little gimmick that you'll have to wait to learn about.

Thats what you said about both the sand watch room in GCZ and the spaceship kidnapping you in AAZ, yet you spoilered them in the end... XD Well i hope this new cool gimmick turns out nicely.
 
Well...here's the new version, as promised. Not a ton of new stuff, but you can expect a surprise or two.
 
I found an hall of mirrors in fume shaft zone 2.
srb20002.png

It's at the end of the new path.
 
FFF, What happens to that PolyObject at the end of FSZ2? It always happens to PolyObjects or it's just an bug?
And anotha thing: I am translating Tortured Planet to Brazilian Portuguese, and I wanna know how to change that... hum... intro picture (Mod made by Fawfulfan[Matthew Chapman] -> Mod feito por Fawfulfan[Matthew Chapman] e traduzido por Kim the Fox[Ikaro Vinhas]) and the main select screen. Ther cutscenes and the signs along the way are up to me. I just wanna know how to change intro and the main select screen pictures. Thanx for the help.

---------- Post added at 12:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:07 AM ----------

And Fawfulfan, if you didn't fix that Level Select stuff, don't worry about it, I'll put it by myself.
 
If I didn't fix WHAT level select stuff?

And to change those pictures, you will need to create replacements manually, as they are graphics lumps.
 
That is a slime trail, not a missing texture. I'll have to tinker with the thok barrier to fix that.
 
I liked the changes both to ECZ1 and FSZ2. The gimmicks in FSZ2's new path were really clever and fit the theme perfectly. Maybe the shaking platforms could shake a little more, but that's kinda arbitrary. The lift at the end was also cleverly incorporated into the mine theme. FSZ still has massive problems though. I've been over that a lot of times before, but the issues just become more apparent with every release, because you don't fit them.


  • The slime sucks. Remove it. I know you're really reluctant to do that, but the color just doesn't fit at all. The green goop is much better in that regard, even if that isn't quite perfect either. Maybe you could use the brown muck from Mystic Realm's Mudhole Karst. It uses FLOOR0_2 as a texture and #A06040J as the colormap. I think it might fit.
  • Most of the factory textures you use don't fit. This includes ERZGREY3, F_METAL1W and SUPPORT1 regarding walls, and F_METAL1 regarding flats. Try some other textures that actually look like they could be found in a mine. I have nothing against the machinery elements in general, and the fans fit pretty well, but all those metallic textures clash with the rocks.
  • Closely linked to that, the elevator platforms are not really a great gimmick. The perfect gimmick fits the theme of the level, and this one just doesn't. A square platform that just moves up and down a bit serves no purpose, and feels like you just put it in to make the player do something. Most of them are in rooms that suck anyway, and the rest are used as regular elevators, in which case you could make them look a bit more like elevators.
  • I don't think I need to talk much about the rooms that include falling rocks, the aforementioned elevators and falling slime all at once. They suck a lot and should just be removed. I know you like to keep bad stuff until you replace it, but I'd rather have an incomplete good level than a complete mediocre level.
  • The outdoor sections need serious visual revamping, as well as more interesting content than falling rocks.
  • The minecart ride still needs more action. Currently, it's a bore.
  • I don't really like the way you use the stalagmite Things. Nothing against using them, but you often cover whole platforms in them, making it hard to see what's around you. Supply them more logically.
That's only for Act 2. The best thing you could do for Act 1 right now is applying the texturing of Act 2 to it. I know that just a few weeks ago, I told you the opposite, but please disregard that. The second act's theme is much better. Especially the Mine Maze rocks (although they do have "Mine" in their very name) don't fit the kind of mine you want to portray. The first act also has a lot of clashing textures in general.

Clashing textures are huge problem of yours in general. ECZ1 has them, SNZ has them, GCZ has them, FSZ has them, AAZ has them big time. You often use every texture that somehow fits your theme and cram it somewhere in the level. That makes your levels confusing to look at, and hurts visual consistency. About five main textures are definitely enough (sometimes even too much), and the rest should only be used for smaller decorations or maybe a single room that you want to look special. Texturing must strike a balance between consistency and diversity, and you tend too much to the latter.
 
Oh, wow. I've always wanted to pay tribute to Mudhole Karst somewhere in Tortured Planet. Thanks for providing me with the best way to do it!

Unfortunately, the minecart really can't get much modification, because it's already so glitched as it is. Any perturbation to the system can really hurt the way it works. I might be able to try modifying it at some point in the future, but the results may not be good.

You've given me a lot to think about. Few of those things are likely to happen overnight, but don't think that I haven't recognized the importance of everything you're saying. I've come to rely on your suggestions as the standard for improvement, even when I can't quite meet it.
 
Oh, wow. I've always wanted to pay tribute to Mudhole Karst somewhere in Tortured Planet. Thanks for providing me with the best way to do it!
I've tried it out with a bit of copy-paste, and I think you might need to change the colormap a bit around to fit. Also, the "sunkisty" light blocks shoudl probably be removed for the mud parts, because that looks very awkward.

Unfortunately, the minecart really can't get much modification, because it's already so glitched as it is. Any perturbation to the system can really hurt the way it works. I might be able to try modifying it at some point in the future, but the results may not be good.
...I meant the fake minecart ride earlier in the level. not the PolyObject one. I'm fine with the real one, although I think that one would be cooler if you fell right into instead of using a spring. But while we're at it, I think I have a way to make this one more useful without messing around with it much. Just let it drive right into a waterfall of damaging liquid so that you have to jump off quickly to avoid getting hurt. I don't think that would glitch up the PolyObject more than it already does, and it's very easy to do.


Regarding the other one, jump make the player jump a bit in-between. Stuff like broken bridges that you have to cross while in minecart mode etc. Just give the whole rail the Rope Hang effect.
 
I have repeatedly attempted to explain why I cannot give the whole rail the Rope Hang effect, and perhaps I have not made myself clear. If the whole rope had the effect, then you could hop onto it from anywhere in the level (there are sections where the rail passes through much earlier parts of the level) and you would pass right through the barriers designed to block players from taking that route until they find its beginning.

Of course, it might be possible for me to solve that problem with linedef executors, but it would be rather complex, and it would require there to be about twenty different waypoint sequences. That could be a project for later.
 
It's probably much simpler than that. Just don't give the parts where the railway overlaps the Rope Hang effect. As long as you don't force the player to jump at those points, it should work well enough.

Oh, and regarding those round "things" (I totally can't think of a word for it right now) where the slime/goop falls out of: You said yourself that the idea of walking around the rims of it didn't work nearly as well as you thought it would. Why don't you just synchronize them so that whenever the slime falls out of one, the ones next to it have their pause, like an alternating pattern? Then the players would have to hop across them and time their jumps properly, and whenever you stand on one, slime is currently falling out of the other one.

I hope you understood that, I couldn't explain it any better.
 
It's probably much simpler than that. Just don't give the parts where the railway overlaps the Rope Hang effect. As long as you don't force the player to jump at those points, it should work well enough.

Well, that might solve the first problem with the rail, but there's also a much bigger issue. If the player is traveling between waypoints, they will just pass over any gap in the bridge and won't have to jump. They will also pass through any solid sectors or FOFs, so that won't be a good option either. The only obstacles I can think of that would not disrupt or be disrupted by the minecart rail are:

1. Spikeballs (which were already used liberally throughout the previous level and would be too small and dark to see properly)
2. Flame Jets (which would make no sense in Fume Shaft Zone)
3. Lasers (which would also make no sense)
4. Crushers (which would be insanely difficult to dodge on a minecart rail and are in any case overused in Tortured Planet already)
5. Rock Spawns (which would rarely harm the player, feel cheap when they do harm the player, and which are already overused in Fume Shaft Zone)
6. Intermittently Spewing Pipes (of which there are already quite enough in Fume Shaft Zone, and which would be a cheap, often unavoidable danger)

If you can think of a way around this problem or come up with a functional and acceptable kind of impediment to the player along the rail, please tell me.

Oh, and regarding those round "things" (I totally can't think of a word for it right now) where the slime/goop falls out of
Pipes.

You said yourself that the idea of walking around the rims of it didn't work nearly as well as you thought it would. Why don't you just synchronize them so that whenever the slime falls out of one, the ones next to it have their pause, like an alternating pattern? Then the players would have to hop across them and time their jumps properly, and whenever you stand on one, slime is currently falling out of the other one.
Unsynchronized pipes, eh? The only problem is that Continuously Falling Sectors of the same speed, upper points, and lower points cannot be set to fall at different times. This is why the DSZ waterfall gimmick and my remakes of it have to be set up the way they are. In fact, I'll post something in the Suggestions thread about that.
 
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Well, that might solve the first problem with the rail, but there's also a much bigger issue. If the player is traveling between waypoints, they will just pass over any gap in the bridge and won't have to jump. They will also pass through any solid sectors or FOFs, so that won't be a good option either. The only obstacles I can think of that would not disrupt or be disrupted by the minecart rail are:

1. Spikeballs (which were already used liberally throughout the previous level and would be too small and dark to see properly)
2. Flame Jets (which would make no sense in Fume Shaft Zone)
3. Lasers (which would also make no sense)
4. Crushers (which would be insanely difficult to dodge on a minecart rail and are in any case overused in Tortured Planet already)
5. Rock Spawns (which would rarely harm the player, feel cheap when they do harm the player, and which are already overused in Fume Shaft Zone)
6. Intermittently Spewing Pipes (of which there are already quite enough in Fume Shaft Zone, and which would be a cheap, often unavoidable danger)

If you can think of a way around this problem or come up with a functional and acceptable kind of impediment to the player along the rail, please tell me.
Uh, I didn't think of this at all. Yeah, the only way to incorporate obstacles would be to let a different rope hang sequence begin after every obstacle.

Why on earth didn't I think of that?

Unsynchronized pipes, eh? The only problem is that Continuously Falling Sectors of the same speed, upper points, and lower points cannot be set to fall at different times. This is why the DSZ waterfall gimmick and my remakes of it have to be set up the way they are. In fact, I'll post something in the Suggestions thread about that.
Now that is kind of a bummer. Sure there's no workaround of any kind?
 
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