Jasper for 2.1 - New whimsical abilities!

Spoiler: Changelog

11/14/2014 ~ Updated sound files for 2.1.12.
09/23/2014 ~ Initial Release

With a few new tricks and some of old, Jasper returns to SRB2 in his most complete form yet! A couple of things with old 2.0 Jasper were ironed and improved on, such as a brand spanking new super form and other frames being tweaked, yet at the same time Jasper still retains a lot of the old spindash and land gameplay that he's (slightly) known for.



Shooting Star - The Shooting Star is a unique ability that allows Jasper to shoot stars below him to gain additional air. This ability is performed by hitting the jump button in the air. They can be shot whenever as long as you still have stars left over (maximum of 5). Be wary of how many stars you have when you jump into a situation, as if you run out you won't be able to ascend any higher!

Spoiler:

Spark Burst - Arriving from his trip to the Great Divide is the Spark Burst, a close range explosion that harms anything close enough to Jasper. This ability is performed by hitting the spin button in the air. Performing the Spark Burst also brings Jasper to a halt and puts him into a curl if he wasn't before. However, be careful where you use the Spark Burst as it prevents you from firing stars until you land!

Spoiler:

The zip included contains both the normal version of Jasper and the voiceless version, which is conveniently named JasperMute. Extra screenshots and gifs are found in the attachments. Enjoy!

Spoiler: Known Issues

- Super Spark Burst causes a crash if used in flipped gravity
- Starcount displays in Nights mode for no reason
- Harming/killing other players in multiplayer requires unique messages
- A super Jasper player makes constant and annoying pain sounds when hit by a barrage of automatic rings
- Life icon is always red due to how super colors work with 1up monitors
- Spark Burst can be used while hanging
- Spark Burst can be used with an Armageddon Shield
- Jasper's starcount display doesn't move for two player mode
- Whirlwind Shield is replaced with a Pity Shield
- No nose

Spoiler: To-Do List

- Optimization of Lua and SOCs [In Progress]

[Monster Iestyn]

Testing out this character for myself, I couldn't find any serious problems besides some of those noted already. Welcome to Releases!

[Sapheros]

This wad, is some serious DAMN fun, kinda. The biggest thing about Jasper is the use of his Shooting Star move and Spark Burst attack. I like it somewhat, because I have to think about how many stars I use, and the shooting star move actually helps with shortcuts, being a heavier Tails. But my biggest gripe is the transformation to super over a pit. For some reason, I swear, I can't use the shooting star moves to save myself in CEZ1 after getting the emerald token. It cost me a life in no time. That's my only problem about it. and I think Jasper could use another Death sound other than his main one. "AAAAAOOOOWW!" ~Jasper.wad 2014

[Volkatrace]

For my part I am very happy with the release of this character, and I'm enjoying the implemented skills, especially with "Spark Burst".

Well done.

[RetroRampage]

At first, I thought this would be a very dull fan character, with useless moves/abilities, and annoying voices. But once I gave it a try, I really like this character! I find Jasper's abilities to be among the most unique, and it adds a whole new, tactical style of play. I even enjoyed the voiced wad! The voices were non-intrusive, and weren't annoying at all. If there was anything I'd have to complain about, it would be Jasper's acceleration. I feel that if you're going for a "easy to control" character, you really should lower the acceleration just a tad. When I first started playing it, i often was caught off guard by how fast he accelerates, and sometimes I fell off platforms because of it. But this is a very minor complaint, and I can safely say that this is one of my favorite character wads, easily in my top 5.

[r543]

I remembered Jasper from 2.0(sadly I never played him, but tried his second special move in Great Divide).

Was a bit surprised with the superform, great idea and it works very nice(exept for the afterimages which are yellow, there might be a way to turn them off and spawn own afterimages), didn't think about something like that.

His moves are very useful, the Shooting Star could launch Jasper a bit higher and I'm not sure why the spark burst gets changed to a stomp when super(maybe because SF_SUPER=superfloat ?).

The voice version was also good, most of the voice clips played over and over again but they aren't annoying.

Jasper is a good character, the only things that I would change are the whirlwind shield(maybe give Jasper a higher Shooting Star if you have the shield) and some of the sprite shading, because of the current shading, he will have way less shades when you change the color to a color with less shades in multiplayer(try to use the second color, for example use 140,138,136,134 for red instead of 140,139,138,137, not only does it look better in multiplayer(with the different colors), it also shows the shading way more because the color difference is bigger.

[Larztard]

Originally Posted by r543

Jasper is a good character, the only things that I would change are the whirlwind shield(maybe give Jasper a higher Shooting Star if you have the shield).

The only reason the Whirlwind Shield changes to a Basic Shield is because the stop button for Jasper is linked to the same button as what the player would use to activate the Whirlwind Shield.

[StarmakerJasper]

Originally Posted by RetroRampage

I feel that if you're going for a "easy to control" character, you really should lower the acceleration just a tad.

Maaaybe. Something to note about Jasper's high acceleration is that it allows him much better control in the air, which makes his ability actually viable in the first place. Try moving around in the air after hitting a spring with no velocity as Sonic and then Jasper and you'll kinda get what I'm talking about here.

Originally Posted by r543

(exept for the afterimages which are yellow, there might be a way to turn them off and spawn own afterimages)

They're yellow? Honestly I couldn't tell ;w;

Originally Posted by r543

I'm not sure why the spark burst gets changed to a stomp when super(maybe because SF_SUPER=superfloat ?).

It was an intentional change because I felt that the regular Spark Burst limited Jasper seeing as he had infinite stars to spend and having to wait for a landing to use them again seemed really off. Believe it or not, the stomp still has a Spark Burst to it; Jasper just goes too fast for one to see it unless used close to the ground. Either way, it does help in combating the super float mechanic though it's not the original purpose of the ability.

Originally Posted by r543

His moves are very useful, the Shooting Star could launch Jasper a bit higher

I'm not sure about this one. I felt the height Jasper reaches is perfectly fine. Believe it or not, because you can control when to fire stars, you can time them so that if you wanted to go higher you'd shoot at the very highest point in a shot. Spamming them actually punishes the player due to the physics changes being really simple. If you want to go higher using the Shooting Star, try firing from a high point such as after a good crawla bouncing.

Originally Posted by r543

some of the sprite shading

these sprites are really old don't kill me

Originally Posted by Larztard

The only reason the Whirlwind Shield changes to a Basic Shield is because the stop button for Jasper is linked to the same button as what the player would use to activate the Whirlwind Shield.

Also, a weird thing happens where pressing jump with a Whirlwind Shield after shooting a star where Jasper uses the shield regardless. This is likely because Jasper drops the PF_JUMPED flag. A few things could be done about this: either fix it so the Whirlwind Shield works normally (or even better work when Jasper has no stars left), or give Jasper a possible new shield that gives him more stars as long as he retains it.

[r543]

Originally Posted by Jasper the Fox

Maaaybe. Something to note about Jasper's high acceleration is that it allows him much better control in the air, which makes his ability actually viable in the first place. Try moving around in the air after hitting a spring with no velocity as Sonic and then Jasper and you'll kinda get what I'm talking about here.

That's something I dislike about a lot of characters that don't have a ability which changes speed(for example Jump Thok) because you can't control them once you jumped.

They're yellow? Honestly I couldn't tell ;w;

They are, going to upload a .gif or screenshot if you want. It's hard to notice but I thought that something like this would happen with custom super colors.

It was an intentional change because I felt that the regular Spark Burst limited Jasper seeing as he had infinite stars to spend and having to wait for a landing to use them again seemed really off. Believe it or not, the stomp still has a Spark Burst to it; Jasper just goes too fast for one to see it unless used close to the ground. Either way, it does help in combating the super float mechanic though it's not the original purpose of the ability.

I noticed the small spark burst but I was a bit surprised that it goes down that fast. A character needs the SF_SUPER flags to stay in super form, right ?

I'm not sure about this one. I felt the height Jasper reaches is perfectly fine. Believe it or not, because you can control when to fire stars, you can time them so that if you wanted to go higher you'd shoot at the very highest point in a shot. Spamming them actually punishes the player due to the physics changes being really simple. If you want to go higher using the Shooting Star, try firing from a high point such as after a good crawla bouncing.

Going to try it again later. It's a nice move which helps a lot with platforming.

these sprites are really old don't kill me
Also, a weird thing happens where pressing jump with a Whirlwind Shield after shooting a star where Jasper uses the shield regardless. This is likely because Jasper drops the PF_JUMPED flag. A few things could be done about this: either fix it so the Whirlwind Shield works normally (or even better work when Jasper has no stars left), or give Jasper a possible new shield that gives him more stars as long as he retains it.

The sprites are ok, they look a bit outdated in 2.1 and the color could be changed a bit so that the shading is more noticeable, other than that they are good.

I don't know if it's possible to disable the whirlwind shield, thought that it would be a good idea if jasper's star attack got the same boost as the whirlwind shield, so that it would be useful for him. A new shield would also work.

[Rumia1]

I've been folowing the progress of Jasper on the editing thread and could not wait to try the character out when I found out this was released.

What's the first thing I tested it on?

Spoiler:

(Jasper is not good at dodging danmaku)

Jasper's death sound is somewhat horrifying, but other than that, this is an awesome character!

[Larztard]

Originally Posted by Rumia1

Spoiler:

(Jasper is not good at dodging danmaku)

If I were you, I would've used the Star Break (there needs to be an official name for this move) Spark Burst because that's like a mini Nuke Shield.

EDIT: I found out the official name is Spark Burst. I was told this multiple times in the past and I somehow forgot about it.

[Rumia1]

Originally Posted by Larztard

If I were you, I would've used the Star Break (there needs to be an official name for this move) because that's like a mini Nuke Shield.

I actually did beat her later and recorded it, but because my monitor's weird I couldn't get the proper resolution and the gif's framerate turned out terrible when I rewatched it.

[StarmakerJasper]

Originally Posted by Rumia1

Jasper's death sound is somewhat horrifying, but other than that, this is an awesome character!

Hehe, this is the issue I received the most in Jasper's lifetime. Usually it's too loud (even when I turned it down!) or people just get really scared the first time they hear it. It's become enough that it's part of many inside jokes, including the idea that Jasper can use the Pokemon move Boomburst (a really loud blast) just because his scream is loud enough.

Also fun is the fact Jasper is fighting Marisa, who is usually known for her magic revolving around stars. Also master sparks everywhere!

Originally Posted by Larztard

EDIT: I found out the official name is Spark Burst. I was told this multiple times in the past and I somehow forgot about it.

dang it larz its in the op in bold letters

[J-town]

Been playing around with this character and... it's surprisingly fun! While Jasper is a bit hard to control on-ground due to his EXTREMELY ramped up acceleration, he's truly powerful when in the air. (And a lot easier to control, to boot!) This guy's pretty much master of the horizontal, crossing large distances with relative ease and using his Shooting Star ability to keep hold of the high speed given by his spindash. Really fun!

Plus, the Spark Burst is really useful if you mess up in the THZ2 slime.

A few criticisms:
1. The (obvious) mention of the Whirlwind Shield becoming a Pity Shield. I understand EXACTLY why you've done it, just providing a fix-idea: Perhaps create a custom shield which LOOKS identical to the Whirlwind Shield, but only Jasper is able to get it from a Whirlwind Shield box. That way, you could just give the custom shield it's own ability. (Increased vertical power from Stars? Increased Star quantity? Faster Star regeneration?)
2. Horrible floor control. Jasper's rather difficult to control when on the ground due to his extremely high acceleration, but I wonder if you could manage something which lowers Jasper's acceleration whenever he's in a "grounded" state? (Or, only increase Jasper's acceleration whenever he's used a jumping move - making it difficult to recover if you just WALK off a cliff!)
3. That death voice. It's not that it's LOUD or anything, it's just.. annoying. Ouch. Personally, I'd say the best way to experience this WAD would be in Mute mode.. which is what I'll do from now on.

[Legendary Emerald]

I've been meaning to post a review of this character for a couple days now, but kept getting distracted. Now is as good a time as any, I suppose.

This is the best add-on character Wad I have ever played.

Now, that's not to say it's perfect. But I had more fun with this wad than any other fan made character wad I've tried out. Hell, I had more than playing as Knuckles/Chuckles.

First, I'll go through stats. Jasper controls wonderfully. He doesn't quite reach Sonic's top speed, but his higher rate of acceleration makes up for that, making him a character that is fun just to move around with. His special abilities just add to that aspect of his character.

Shooting Star is a great ability, and well balanced. Being able to jump five times in the air leads to a lot of fun sequence breaking moments without slowing things down to a crawl like playing as Knuckles or Tails might. Because of the high rate of acceleration, you can really go places with this move. I also like how the move puts you in a vulnerable state, for balancing purposes.

There are some negatives to Shooting Star, though. First, I don't see the need for the recharging star meter. The biggest issue that a Sonic game should curb is forcing the player to stand still and wait for something to happen. There are times when challenging level and boss design need to do that, and it's fine, but it shouldn't be a part of a character's gameplay. I don't think it would break or make Jasper unbalanced if he immediately regained all 5 stars upon touching the ground. While I haven't encountered all that many opportunities where I had to sit and wait for my stars to recharge, it did happen enough times that I could call it an issue, and did kill me once as well.

The second issue I have with Shooting Star is much more immature; the move just kind of looks like he's shitting out stars. :P Perhaps if more stars were shot towards the ground, and in multiple directions, it would not only be more useful for hitting enemies, but not look as silly.

Moving on, Spark Burst is a move that I didn't see the purpose of at first, but grew on me as time went by. It actually compliments Shooting Star perfectly. In Shooting Star, you are left vulnerable to damage, leaving Spark Burst as your only method of defense. There's a degree of risk to using it, too, because you lose all momentum in the process, which can be deadly over a pit. It's just good balancing, and I appreciate the thought that went into it. I also found the Burst useful for boss fight; there's no rebound from hitting a boss with the Burst, which lets you keep on their tail and dish out the damage very easily if you can keep yourself at the right distance.

I haven't played with the voice version, and have not collected all 7 chaos emeralds with Jasper (SRB2 doesn't save files that use custom characters for me; is that normal?), so I can't comment on that at the moment. Spark Burst turning into a stomp and Shooting Star gaining infinite shots sounds like a good super form, though.

Lastly, and with some trepidation, I must talk about the character's appearance. I don't have a way of sugarcoating it, so I'll just come out and say that Jasper is not an appealing character design to me. He kind of looks like what you'd get if you mixed a typical Sonic fan character with Kirby-esque simplicity. It leaves him looking a bit like a slime creature with white accents.

The sprites, while servicable, are poorly shaded and at times confusing to look at as well. I don't quite understand what is going on with Jasper's pants and shoes in most of his animations, and the perspective of his hat's rim is poor, which makes its bobbing animation look even more awkward. I'd also question whether both sides of his muzzle fur should be visible in his 'behind the back, running diagonally' pose. The Tails sprites in the game do not have the muzzle showing on the side of his face that is not directed at the camera, and I think that looks better. On the positive side, Jasper's jumping and spinning sprites are spot-on.

Lastly, and I apologize for ending on another criticism, but the pink star effect for the spin-dash is way too big. It's a neat effect, but it obscures too much of the action onscreen. If it was just a little smaller, and maybe a bit more transparent, so that Jasper can be seen from within it, it'd be perfect.

Well, that's my review. As I said, I love playing as this character. Most of the flaws I've mentioned are just aesthetic, which doesn't impact enjoyability in any meaningful way. Even the few mechanical issues I brought up haven't stopped me from having fun, and I won't be disappointed if they are left unchanged.

Very good work, Jasper. :)

[r543]

Originally Posted by Legendary Emerald

I haven't played with the voice version, and have not collected all 7 chaos emeralds with Jasper (SRB2 doesn't save files that use custom characters for me; is that normal?), so I can't comment on that at the moment. Spark Burst turning into a stomp and Shooting Star gaining infinite shots sounds like a good super form, though.

Very good work, Jasper. :)

Saving with custom characters was removed in 2.0 with the big nerf for custom characters, but it's possible to save in wads that use a custom savedata.(I think one of the problems with the custom character saves is that they are saved like this "character 4 level, lives, emeralds, continues", now character 4 would be Jasper, but next time you added the wads in a different order, someone else would be character 4.
That's probably the reason why this wasn't added to vanilla srb2(saving the savefiles with the skin name, then checking if the skin is loaded and then load the savefile(if the skin was added) would probably fix this, but there are more important things first.

If you wanted to try out the super form, you could use the console command devmode1 and getallemeralds, or use the all emeralds cheat which can be unlocked by collecting emblems.

[Sapheros]

There is a way to give a custom character its own savedata, but you really could try to find enough time to play in one full game. Also, if you don't feel like devmode is your cup of tea, download SRB2 Hub and go to the emerald shrine, collect all seven emeralds, and become super on the master emerald. Or if you want to be cheap, use turnsuper.lua. (I really dislike little kids who love to suggest that, NOT EVERY FUCKING THING HAS TO BE SUPER!)

[Rumia1]

Originally Posted by Jasper the Fox

Hehe, this is the issue I received the most in Jasper's lifetime. Usually it's too loud (even when I turned it down!) or people just get really scared the first time they hear it. It's become enough that it's part of many inside jokes, including the idea that Jasper can use the Pokemon move Boomburst (a really loud blast) just because his scream is loud enough.

I don't think it's too loud, I think it's more the fact that it sounds like a 12 year old boy shrieking in horror from being brutally murdered, if that was what you were going for I applaud you though.

[Legendary Emerald]

Originally Posted by Duon the Adventurer

SRB2 Hub and go to the emerald shrine, collect all seven emeralds, and become super on the master emerald.

*Facepalm* Haha, that will work perfectly for me. Thanks. :)

[HellHawkX]

Originally Posted by Legendary Emerald

There are some negatives to Shooting Star, though. First, I don't see the need for the recharging star meter. The biggest issue that a Sonic game should curb is forcing the player to stand still and wait for something to happen. I don't think it would break or make Jasper unbalanced if he immediately regained all 5 stars upon touching the ground.

The Shooting Star went through many changes in order to have a sense of balance in it, originally the character actually had 8 stars, but it was limited to 5 later. The recharge speed is fast, so you would very rarely need to sit and wait to regain them, not to mention that you instantly get one star the moment you land. Even in his current state, Jasper can wreck AGZ, so regaining all stars the moment you land would be a bad idea

The second issue I have with Shooting Star is much more immature; the move just kind of looks like he's shitting out stars. :P

He shoots the star out of his hand, if it looks like he is shitting them out, then it's only your imagination in play

10 Characters