Tortured Planet v9 (scmrtf_TorturedPlanet-v9.wad)

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Thanks, Spherallic! I love getting long reviews...they tell me what's wrong with my level in detail! (I'm not being sarcastic...I actually like that, because it makes it easier for me to guage what the community wants me to do.)

Okay, guys...I'm sure you're getting tired of my saying that I'll fix all these problems later. But I will. In fact, whenever I get a long review, I copy-paste that review into a file called torturedideas.txt to use later.

Here's what I'm planning to do. After I release Tortured Planet v2.0, I'm going to take a long look at SAZ1 suggestions from torturedideas.txt, and try to make as many of the changes as I can. If ideas are incompatible, I'll use my judgment to decide which one makes more sense. Then, I'll move on to SAZ2, then ECZ1, and so on an so forth. I'm also planning to throw in a few extras which no one has suggested, but that I think would improve the levels.

I give you my word that Tortured Planet's quality is going to improve.

Also, how can you get infinite lives in the 1-up cave in ECZ1?
 
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Good to know you're going to improve this, fawfulfan.
Maybe you should make each level a serparate paragraph in torturedideas.txt.

And you can get infinite lives by getting the 1-ups, jumping into the lava, and then get the 1-ups again, seeing as they have respawned.
You get 3 lives, and by losing one, you can get 3 again. Basically, you can keep doing this until you get 99 lives.
 
I'm currently starting my review, but I have to go through the old stages first, of course. I might note that the now-not-oily death pit in SNZ2 screams "F_SKY1!" really badly. Also, to be honest, I doubt anyone gives a fuck about Match and Tag stages for this mod.

Oh, and Spherallic: Your new scores are too harsh. 1/10 for AAZ is ridiculous.

EDIT: Also, for Snowcap Nimbus: I really want to see creative things being done with rope pulleys. At least do something more than just inserting a few totally ignorable ones over short death pits.
 
I might note that the now-not-oily death pit in SNZ2 screams "F_SKY1!" really badly.
But I think that would look pretty unrealistic, to have a visible thok barrier wrapping around the stage, but also have sky above and below it. That's one of the things I disliked most about stages like Aerial Garden Zone.

Also, to be honest, I doubt anyone gives a fuck about Match and Tag stages for this mod.
It's just a way of trying to make Tortured Planet stand out a bit more...very few mods have both a set of nine full Single Player zones, plus a set of Match/Tag zones.

It's also because I want to encourage more use of Match mode in general. I much prefer it to Coop.
 
But I think that would look pretty unrealistic, to have a visible thok barrier wrapping around the stage, but also have sky above and below it. That's one of the things I disliked most about stages like Aerial Garden Zone.
Uh, I didn't think of that, you're right. But still, the black pit looks rather bland.


It's just a way of trying to make Tortured Planet stand out a bit more...very few mods have both a set of nine full Single Player zones, plus a set of Match/Tag zones.

It's also because I want to encourage more use of Match mode in general. I much prefer it to Coop.
I understand what you want to achieve, but honestly, I think this should be low-priority. You have a set of very promising single player stages that hasn't nearly reached its potential yet, and it would be shame to let them rest until the Match stages are made.
 
Some body may have already said this, I haven't checked, but if you play the wad single player, and use an added character, the game is literally unplayable at Fume Shaft Zone 2. I ran in to this problem, and the only solution I've found is to either play with one of the three stock characters, or cheat. Check for your self, but this can be a magore isue if you like using the ability of level wads to save file even if you are useing an added character.
 
Some body may have already said this, I haven't checked, but if you play the wad single player, and use an added character, the game is literally unplayable at Fume Shaft Zone 2. I ran in to this problem, and the only solution I've found is to either play with one of the three stock characters, or cheat. Check for your self, but this can be a magore isue if you like using the ability of level wads to save file even if you are useing an added character.

What? Since when have you been able to save in mods even if you are using an added character?

In any case, that is probably one of my lowest priorities in this mod. It's designed for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and if you are having problems playing it with a custom character, that's honestly not a big deal to me.
 
Before I review Space Walk Zone, theres something I wanted to point out.

When I was going through SWZ1 I noticed this emerald token and when I attempted to grab it, I died as soon as I touched the platform the emerald token was on. Not like this is the biggest problem or anything, but I think it's something you should be aware of.

Anyways, the visuals of Space Walk Zone were pretty ugly, and everytime you were outside in space, it felt as those you were looking at the same thing everything time, making some parts bland. The music choice for this level was rather unfitting and did'nt sound right through overall gameplay, which is something i hope you'll change later on. I also did'nt like how certain parts stretched out longer than they should have. An example of this is the part with the blue and red floors. At first the idea was pretty cool, but
it kept getting reused over and over, making it repetitive and quite redundant. Another part that stretched out longer than it had to was the water part in act 1. It was the basically the same thing over and over, you hit the switch, avoid pits and crushers and repeat like five times. I dont think you should keep reusing certain parts because it makes the level bland and kind of boring. Also in Act 1, the part where you jump in the capsule is pretty unnecessary, and the black platforms could've easily been platforms that don't do damage because thats basically what its like when your invincible. Although it was unnecessary, it was still a pretty cool idea and would be better if you used it on an area that it would be necessary for.

Overall, I had high hopes for Space Walk Zone and I was greatly dissapointed. Space Walk Zone has potential in some areas, so im hoping when you come back to revamp this level it can be one of the better levels in the pack.


Rating - 4/10

Tonight, I am going to play through Alien Armageddon Zone and hopefully it will be better than Space Walk Zone.
 
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SpiritCrusher said:
Oh, and Spherallic: Your new scores are too harsh. 1/10 for AAZ is ridiculous.

I would like to reply to this with a quote:
Kyasarin said:
Eh, opinions.
In all honesty, playing that level really felt like a chore, made worse because of the lacking visuals, the great number of cheap deaths, and the insane length.
Oh, and, if I give it that rating, can I please give it without stupid comments like those, SpiritCrusher? The ratings diplay perfectly what I think of this level pack. Sure, they may be too harsh, but that's no need to call a honest opinion 'ridiculous', right?

Sorry if this sounds like a flame or a rant, but I can't stand it if my opinions are called ridiculous by other people. I like being honest, even if other people don't like it.
 
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1/10 means there is no redeeming value at all (apart from being completable and having a thok barrier). You yourself said that this level does have good parts, and your first rating even was a 4/10. Yes, the stage is too long and repetitive; yes, the visuals are horrible; but it certainly isn't as bad as, say, Dark Forest from the Nov/Dec contest (just as a reminder, it was a bunch of square platforms).
 
SpiritCrusher said:
You yourself said that this level does have good parts, and your first rating even was a 4/10.

But that first rating was tentative, mostly because I didn't play the level in detail, or even completed it. I found so many more annoying parts and bad things, that I decided to lower my scores.
To be honest, I never compare my numerical ratings with ones I gave previously, and I felt like being extra harsh to this pack to note as many flaws as possible, so fawfulfan can improve it more. Guess I went a little overboard with that.

But just because you want me to change my score, I upped it to a 2/10. Happy now?
 
Well, I don't actually care if you change your score or not, since I don't think ratings are that important anyway. Also, it is possible to note out as many flaws as possible without being extra harsh, but whatever. The issue is resolved, and we're all happy now. After all, what matters most is that your actual review is helpful (and it is).

Regarding my review, I'm having a hard time completing Fume Shaft without cheating or using Co-Op, because of the lack of star posts and the laggy areas. So I guess I'll use devmode and warp to Spacewalk now.

---------- Post added at 12:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 AM ----------


Spacewalk Zone Act 1
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OK, if this isn't ugly, I don't know what is. Spherallic described it best when saying it's a clusterfuck of FOFs, and it really feels like that and not a real level. It also doesn't help that the textures either clash or lack variation. I don't know what the weird PolyObjects at the beginning are supposed to do either.
We start off with some basic low-gravity platforming until we hit a switch. The switch itself looks a bit weird. It's probably best to just make them look like the ones in ERZ instead. The next room with the crusher segment looks horrible because of the red floor, but it plays well.

Then we get to another outer space room. Just like all outer space rooms, it's just a bunch of FOFs and lack real scenery. I do like those... things... though (I honestly don't know what to call them, I mean those things with the black wings). The gravity switch is not obvious enough, as you just suddenly start switching in midair, with very little control.
The invincibility machine is a very cool idea, but it takes a bit too long to get going, and the room it is used for is also disappointing. How should I know that the red floor kills me? If you introduce this beforehand, and make the room look better, this might be a good challenge though.

We then get another clusterfuck room (I love that word), but I'm gonna ignore those from now on, because they're always the same, don't add anything to the level, and come up way too often. The next real room again looks bad, because you obviously didn't care at all about visuals in this level. There's only one wall texture, and the red floor is an eyesore when used so much.
The section after that is long, frustrating and boring. I frequently miss jumps because I can't see what's ahead of me, and after doing the same gravity switch a thousand times, I really get bored. It also looks ridiculously bland because it's again covered in one gray wall texture. There should also be a Star Post after that section. No wait, just remove this section altogether, without replacement.

The next clusterfuck room gets special mention because it's missing textures, but that's it. Clusterfuck is clusterfuck, and there won't actually be anything else than that for a few minutes. When we finally get back to action, there another red floor room with red springs that push you into it. Or don't, because they're obvious. Then more clusterfuck space junk rooms and a finish. How interesting and challenging. If you threw all that filler junk away, there would hardly be a stage left, but because you didn't, it takes 6-7 minutes.

Spacewalk Zone Act 2:
More ugliness, but different ugliness. Looks like Fume Shaft vomited all over it. It actually wouldn't be that bad (just unoriginal) if it actually had some texture variation. The gravity switches in the first room are the worst possible example of trial-and-error and provoke ragequits very early into the stage. The room with the pipes and rock spawners is too easy, since you can just run through and care less for obstacles. Also, those cave section are all too empty.

Remember how the red floors killed you just an act ago. Well, now they're your saving grace. The whole red-floor, blue-floor thing is ridiculous. You die once and then you know what to do. The ERZ room that's up next actually looks quite nice in comparison to the rest, but it's also empty.

I think Mystic made his point about rock spawners clear enough, so I won't bother. I also hate going through the same section twice, especially since the gravity switch doesn't change anything. Then we get some cramped empty corridors before the blue floor gimmick reaches its ridiculous extreme. Alien Armageddon pulls this off way better by introducing light switches, but here, it sucks. It is also an incredible eyesore. The rest is more space junk, corridors and whatever (excuse me for using god mode and noclip here, I don't think I missed anything out).

We return to action at that tube room. Well, at least it's challenging. It's also hard and unforgiving as hell. If at least the ceiling didn't kill me, we could talk again. I personally used God Mode. The crusher room after that feels pointless. I simply ignored the crushers and thokked to the other side, because I didn't know what else to do there. Ignoring the copypast-fest that comes after that, we get straight to the second part of "Let's steal from Nev3r", continuing where LGZ left off. But apart from obvious copy-paste, that room is actually fun. I sigsegv'd in the space section after that though, AND NO I WON'T DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.

Overall:
Remember how solid and consistent SNZ, GCZ and LGZ were, even though they had some faults? That seems over now. I would recommend stopping to rush your levels, but whatever, it's too late now. Whatever, 70% of this is filler and other junk, and it will be hard to make this a good stage.
 
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And yet more... (If you actually mind me double posting, I'm so very sorry.)

Alien Armageddon Zone Act 1:
My first reaction upon loading this level: "Wait, I thought that was castle..." Really, this zone changes themes every half minute, and it's not doing it any good. Stick to a castle theme, and if necessary, make this zone come up earlier in he rotation. Either way, the texturing in the beginning is horribly monotonous and bland. Also, what are Crawlas doing there. I guess I get your point, since this is Eggman's core residence, you probably want all enemies to show up. But it just doesn't work. Stick to castle enemies and you're fine.

The next room shows another problem that actually was apparent as early as Fume Shaft. Two different liquids in one level is a bad idea, and it hurts consistency. The rock section itself is OK though, it's nice and challenging, even though the room is ugly,

Give me one good reason to have flamethrowers and rock spawners in a castle level. Really, put these into Fume Shaft where they belong and concentrate on Maces and Chains. I bet you can get more creative with them as you're currently doing. The cannonball section also couldn't be more pointless, the cannonballs don't actually fall down again. The key to making a good cannonball section is forcing the player to stop dead on several occasions, so that the cannonballs actually become a threat.

The next cave-like section is largely uninteresting due to lack of visuals and enemy and flamethrower overplacement. The next real offense comes with the Detons though. Instead of coming from behind, they are in front of you, crashing in your face without any chance to escape. It doesn't help either that the room is cramped and full of rocks.

The underwater section needs to go, no discussion. It's overlong, empty, bland, cramped, unfitting, too dark and simply boring. In short, it has no redeeming value. I do like the boat room after that though, in terms of visuals. You can do good visuals if you try, but don't try often enough. The extra lifes in there must be a joke though. The pseudo-river basically screams "WATERSLIDE!" to me, and I actually think that waterslides combined with maces are very cool. I don't like the blandness and crampedness of the path split after that though.

The texturing in the quicksand has to be another joke. Seriously, one single textures for everything? Hell no. I like the quicksand idea, it somehow looks a bit like blood. It's not used very creatively, however, and the theme needs a proper transition to the castle. It just feels randomly thrown in there. The enemy ambush room is pointless and boring, and the chain after that goes to the floor which makes it hard to grab. The fireballs in the next section are too easy to dodge, and the enemy choice is catastrophic as ever. Actually, coming to think of it, the volcano-mansion transition somehow worked in KOTE's Eggmansion, so you might wanna take a closer look at how he does it. You also shouldn't use lava, it doesn't fit the theme. Stick to your quicksand instead.

The swinging chain in the next room can be ignored, and the lava makes the room look even worse than it already is. But then we finally get to the real castle. Ignoring the fact that the liquid changes again for no reason, this room looks quite good. Not a work of genius, but OK. I like how you walk on top of the things that emit sime, and that could probably be expanded upon. I don't get what the mines are doing in the air though, and after that, we return to green slime and bland rocks without proper transition. Actually, that whole section is totally pointless and boring, but I like the door swing at the end, even if the room is much too bland.

Alien Armageddon Zone Act 2:
The visuals at the beginning are a nice try, but the wall texture is too repetitive. Also, the maces have been doing the exact same thing since they were introduced, and it's time for something new. They should be used creatively. The same rules as in the last act apply to the cannonball launcher, they need to involve the player. The light room after that is a cool idea, but as Mystic said, it's too long and the blue floor looks bad. Maybe flood the insta-kill sector with a red colormap or something. The mace section after that is pointless, and I hope it's filler.

The 2D section does some very cool things, and apart from some missing texture variation, it has some neat visuals as well. You might wanna remove some enemies though that can't be seen before you jump into them. Whatever the PolyObjects after that was supposed to do, it doesn't do it and instead glitches up. The library part looks quite nice, but the maze was really not necessary, especially since there are arrows anyway. In general, the underwater section feels boring, and the transition at the end doesn't work at all, especially since we return to a castle theme anyway after one room.

The next section has even more (already boring) maces and a weird elevator room that doesn't do anything. The scrolling floors after that are largely unnoticeable because it can run at full speed anyway. Also, they look weird, and the Mines are too easy to avoid.

The next section is solid, not too interesting, but not harmful. There are way too many staircases, however. Also, the Robo-Hoods on the pillars look plain weird, and the platforms in this room can be skipped easily. Then we have more useless cannonballs launcher and weird Mines in the air for no reason. The transition to the quicksand works much better now, by the way. The next few scrollers are pointless because there is nothing that could possibly harm you, and the end is too anticlimatic.

I can remember the staircases being flooded on my Co-Op playthrough, but not on my SP playthrough. The water probably goes away when I die and respawn, but it was horrible anyway.

Overall:
This beast can't decide what it wants to be, and it gets boring and bland way too often, regarding both visuals and gameplay. It has some neat ideas, but it's not very enjoyable overall.
 
SpiritCrusher said:
I do like those... things... though (I honestly don't know what to call them, I mean those things with the black wings).

Satellites.

Yeah, by now I know that Spacewalk Zone was basically an utter failure. But that's not going to stop me trying to fix it in later versions. If I simply can't make it work, I'll do it over again, keeping the good parts, scrapping everything else, and trying to add some more original gimmicks.

I'm sure you have guessed the reason I rushed the last two levels...so I could just get V1.0 out. I knew I'd pay a price for that...and I promise you that you will see some improvement coming in later versions.
 
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Satellites.
Argh. I can't describe how stupid I feel now...

Anyway, those levels do have good parts, and if you replace some of the filler with original content, you could easily bring them up to par. You have to do something about the mess that is AAZ's visuals though. Creativity actually is a bad thing when it gets in the way of consistency.
 
Just making the pile a bit bigger...

In some areas of Fume Shaft, something completely rapes my framerate, might want to fix that.
 
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