Tortured Planet v9 (scmrtf_TorturedPlanet-v9.wad)

First of all i have to say which levels are really solid for now:
·SAZ
·ECZ
·DDZ
·GCZ act 2

And now what are the changes i want to see:
SNZ: I'm geting boring to jump in the clouds in the outside areas in both acts, although those parts don't seems a directly copy pasta, i feel that the level is monotonous in the outside areas.
Another complaint is that the ropes gimnicks aren't clever used like ACZ. I think you could make a clever gimnick based on rope pulleys in act 2. (i write something about it days ago).
That circle hallway near the end of act is boring. you have to remove it and make it more simple.
You could approach the last cave to extend the level giving it a more ice cave themed level.
About textures choice, i hate the purple and yellow colours, those colours make the ambience more unrealistic and anticlimatic, about the graphics i think that some textures clash with others.

GCZ (act 1): I think tortured planet don't have sectors based on scenary in most of the levels for two reasons:
·The linearity of the levels
·Most of the rooms are small. Sector based on scenary demands bigger rooms with a few decorations to not make slowdown and a good distributions of reliefs.
I think that you should add an altarnate path in the outside section before the rising quicksand room, trying to make a good landscape like ACZ has.

FSZ: i don't like the linearity of this level in act 1, and i think that act 2 need some rooms updates because the path splits you added are unbalanced. If i take the "spin dash path" and the minekart path i'm avoiding the long and harder part of the level.
In the outside areas the palletes are too dark and is difficult to see the next plattform.

LGZ: the whole zone needs more altarnates path. The level design here is good. You could improve
·in act 1 the lasser cannon room giving it a challenging gimnick
·in act 2: eggman's office giving it a gimmnick, and also you could update the first gimnick in the first 2D area (that seems bland) adding obstacles, walls, plattforms, etc.

SWZ: Needs more gimnicks replacements, enemies, visuals, altarnate paths (specially in act 2).

AAZ: Act 2 needs urgently improvements (remove enemies, replace gimnicks, remove some stairs and boring hallways). The second half part of the level is horrendous, uncreative and boring, and the library section need to be less square . Also act 1 could be improved but i think that you don't want to change the concept of it. One advice give the castle a new pallete to make it seems more of another world. Also you could make the plattforms near the castle less square, because those seem bland.

More cooming soon

Sunshine Atoll Zone Act 1:
Now that we've reached v6.4(.1), Sunshine Atoll has improved even more, and I dare say it's one of the best custom levels for SRB2 at this point. A few nitpicks remain, however, and I'd love to see them addressed.

The secret tree trunks areas is the first room are still rather bland, and is it just me or did you tone down the rewards? Then again, this room is already chock-full of power-ups, so that might not eb too bad of an idea. The second room with the spiraling staircases still has slightly too much scenery in the upper area. There are these two trunks in the very middle of the room, which simply are in my way, and some of the grass patches here should be moved to the sides as well.

The cave section where the path splits is still too monotonously textured. You did try to vary it up, especially in the pond area, but you still use the same texture for the areas around it. I suggest mixing it up with the orange or the red variant of that texture some more.

And that's it. The forest section has been transformed into something great. I either got used to the amount of scenery or you did tone it down, but I don't find it obstructive anymore. I don't know why there is a ledge at this newly-formed mud section though. This would be the perfect spot for the plant stepping stone idea. I know that it's a bit tricky to use them that way, but you could just use a larger version of that plant for this one spot.

Sunshine Atoll Zone Act 2:
I promise you to stop whining about the lake at beginning if you do one things: Give players a reward for taking the tree trunks. I don't know why, but this section suddenly makes more sense to me. Yes, falling into the lake is still tedious, and you should probably not put a spring right at the exit, but otherwise, it grew on me.

I love how you transformed the cave that I complained about. The ceiling detail looks gorgeous and is exactly the kind of variation I wanted to see, and lowering the height of the ledge helped a lot. The beach is also improved a lot (funny how just adding a few elevations and springs helps a lot), and the new forest section is just awesome. I did spot a missing grass border just next to the first diagonal yellow spring though. I also don't know what's up with this tree ledge right next to the one with the yellow spring on it (the one held by two trunks). It doesn't serve any purpose and is only distracting. Why not lower it a bit so that Sonic can access it and get rid of that second diagonal spring? It would give the ledge a purpose and it would flow better.

I really love how you implemented the palmtree hopping (and you also made me shut up about it, hooray). Not only does it give the ending a bit of a purpose, since it was somewhat flat and empty before, but it also plays nicely (it's actually trickier than I expected, but still reasonable enough for a first zone, since I can try again if I fail). In general, nothing to fix in this level, except the grass border, a reward for the trunk hopping, and maybe using the useless ledge as a replacement for the spring.

Eruption Conduit Zone Act 1:
No beating around the bush, the beginning looks awful. It might just be that I don't like the RVZ texture set that much, but just compare the cave parts to the outside parts. So, I suggest trying a different set of textures (again), or at least mixing it up. You might wanna get some inspiration from Infernal Cavern and the 2.0 contest version of Magma Core. Even though both are cave levels, I think the textures could be used for outside rooms as well. The RVZ textures are probably best used for smaller details and not for huge walls. If nothing else works, try to rework the outside rooms to be less open and tall. The problem is that everything has the same dark reddish tone, so try adding some different colors to balance it out.

So, there is this half-hidden, optional path that leads along the upper sections of the level at the beginning. I actually quite like it (except for RVZWALL7, it just doesn't fit), but at the end of it, where the Star Post is, I am way too high up there, with a lone Crawla facing away from me and no clue where I am without jumping down. You should probably just end this path at the height you have at the lava fall, and not make it ascend even more. Just leave out the last row of springs and be done with it. By the way, the blandness of the RVZ texture set becomes especially apparent in the more secret, higher regions, which are quite simply put a bunch of red rock.

Apart from this, there's not much to comment on in this level. The cave sections look great, and you might have actually pulled the variation thing off better than RVZ itself. I still don't quite understand why the optional factory entrance requires an Elemental Shield, especially since there is no real path split at that point anyway. You tinkered with the light blocks, and they work well now. The factory wall on the other path at the end could probably use some additional detail, although that's not much of an issue.

Eruption Conduit Zone Act 2:
I still don't like the room where the four paths split off, and I guess I figured out why. The floating bridges look unnatural and weird, because too much of them floats and they wind around in awkward 90-degree angles. The same thing throws me off in THZ2. If they didn't wind around that much and that sharply, they'd look much better. Also, remove the arrows from the four entrances. It's perfectly easy to find the entrances, it's just a bit tricky to tell which is which. You tried adding some details to make them look distinct, but you should probably work a bit more on that. You could, for example, make each elevator look different as well. I also don't like how the turret path uses a teleporter because the conveyor gets in the way. Just shorten the conveyor and merge these paths normally.

I like what you did to the section with the sideways conveyor. I suggested to cut it off, but you did something better than that. However, if you happen to jump behind two crates just before the cave room where they paths reunite, you're stuck. Said cave room looks absolutely epic now, even though it lags quite a bit due to extensive detail. I still don't like the winding floating bridges, but it's not as noticeable here. The Crawla Commander room works very well now, and the glass-enclosed staircase is very epic. The big room after that has the same problems as the room where the four paths split. The winding platforms are ugly and annoying to navigate, especially under lag.

In conclusion, I really like this level, even if the larger factory rooms look a bit awkward. I especially like how you can view the second big room from the crusher gauntlet and vice versa. Thanks to the extremely complex layout, this level actually feels like a real factory. Again, no comment on the boss because there's nothing to say.

6.3 is out, now I just need to write the review...

Snowcap Nimbus Zone Act 1:
The Radiant Cavern texturing elements are awesome, arguably so awesome that the sections without them suffer from it. As you might have guessed, my main gripe are the outdoor rooms. ICEWALL9 doesn't look good on larger walls. That texture looks somewhat artificial, almost man-made, and isn't a good fit for what are essentially tall mountains. Just try a completely different texture for those mountain walls. ICEWALL3 might fit, as might MMB2. A combination of both would probably be best. Similarly, I don't like ICEWALL5 much for the caves. Again, this is not a very natural-looking texture, and it's best used for smaller details. I just went ahead and did a find-replace job on this level, replacing ICEWALL9/ICEFLR9 with ICEWALL3/ICEFLR3 and ICEWALL5/ICEFLR5 with MMB2/MMZFLR2, and I liked the results quite a bit in many places. Another thing are the bright-colored ICEWALL6 and ICEWALL7 textures. They are good for small pillars and the likes, but you should not use them for outside areas. They look very unfitting there.

Apart from the texturing, most of my gripes are things you already know about. The rope pulleys at the beginning are still useless. The U-turn in the ice block maze can still make it somewhat frustrating to find the exit, but I think you did remove that one red spring that led nowhere. I would suggest moving the main exit to the western side of the room, from where you could still easily connect it to the next section. In said next section, the lower path in the northern portion of the room is still too tucked away and makes me face the wrong spot.

In the next cave section, we are first introduced to the really narrow hallways of this zone. Snowcap Nimbus has a habit of containing some long, cramped hallways with slippery ice, with tends to make movement very annoying and adds nothing to gameplay. This whole next section is very hallway-ish, up until the mirror room with the Star Posts. Not all of it is too cramped or even bad, but it does feel like there are too many hallways without much content.

Also, the right path at the ice room split is much too cramped and short for its own good, especially in comparison to the left path. I see there's very little space to expand it, seeing as it's sandwiched between larger rooms, but something needs to be done about it. For example, that newly decorated cave just before the actual ice room is very close to the room with the crumbling ice of the left path. You could just connect these two and make the path split at that room. Then you'd have more space for the right path.

The last split provides several problems at once. One of them is that the 2D path is much more interesting than the other one. Another is that the other path is very cramped and even slightly maze-like, and just doesn't much expect hallways. The third problem is that you have to rely on teleports to pull this whole 2D path off. Making the entrances connect is not the problem, those are actually almost connected anyway. But making the exits connect would require you to remake the whole other path. And that's the good thing, that path is not interesting anyway. What prevents you from winding this other path to the right, above the 2D one, and make them both connect properly? As for what the new path should contain, you still have a rope pulley gimmick that you introduced but did nothing with I'm sure you can find something.

Funnily enough, while this level is actually very good, there is quite a lot to do: The texturing needs massive overhauls, a whole path (and another short one) needs to be remade, and some other minor issues need to be fixed. The problem is that the weak sections of this level are not necessarily very bad, but that fixing the problems associated with them requires total remaking, because of how the level is built. I urge you to do it anyway, as the level would only profit from it. You have shown in the recent updates that every room that you add or remake turns out to be one of the highlights of the pack, because your mapping has simply improved. Replacing the dull moments entirely could make this one of the best levels in the pack.

Snowcap Nimbus Zone Act 2:
Haven't done that review yet. I just thought I'd give you the one for the first act since I already had it lying around.