Tortured Planet v9 (scmrtf_TorturedPlanet-v9.wad)

Yes, you did improve the texturing, I'll give you that. Still, it's far from perfect, especially in the "indoors" sections. GFZROCK really needs to go, as does GFZINSID, you have much better alternatives, and pasting the tree texture all over the wall also looks hideous. You have some nice textures, but you don't really vary them, instead you cover one room with one texture, and the next with another. Don't do this. Look at how other grass-themed stages vary their textures, and don't use GFZ as a model, it sucks in that department. The palm trees look awesome though, as do most of your scenery "gimmicks", like the tall grass (that sometimes obstructs my view though) and those blue and brown elevations. for the lack of a better term.

The problem is though that instead of carefully designing each room, you make a basic container for what it should include and then paste some of your scenery eyecatchers in there at more or less random measure. Each room should look unique and carefully designed, that probably your biggest problem overall. Your approach seems to be "Let's make a room to fit my gimmick and then try to make it look good afterwards". This makes every room look similar and none of them truly unique and is what divides you from the best mappers in this community. Visually, the outside sections of Act 2 are the best part, even though the ending there feels like it was a rush job, having no real content.

What really hurts this zone though is the confusing, absolutely horrible layout. You tried something like Jade Coast, but you failed to actually have a clear path, partially due to springs facing back, partially due to paths reconnecting in weird ways. Please, keep the thematic elements and redo the layout. The lake sections are the absolute worst, by the way, combining horrible layout with horrible texturing, scrap those. Secrets are plenty, but most of them are simple bustable walls. If you want to have a complex layout, you should hide things in hard-to-reach places. Also, whar iz mah palmtree hopping sequence? The boss works, not much to say, eh...

Act 1:
When will I ever see a normal zone name from you? Just kidding, they are creative, just as they should be. I see you expanded this zone a whole lot and fixed a couple of issues as well, especially the slime-lava thingy. What still looks horrible is the outside texturing. It's just really, really bad and should be outright replaced with the volcano theme you pulled off so well in the middle of Act 2. The whole section before the factory still serves no real purpose and doesn't add much to the gameplay. Just like THZ1, it simply exists but neither looks good nor plays well. The factory-cave hybrid room after the first path split still feels cramped, and the THZ1 ripoff moving platforms on the left path are boring as hell. The layout is still a bit confusing in parts.

Once we get to the factory, things improve but also get much more linear. Also, the scenery is not nearly as creative as in some parts of Act 2 and some rooms are more or less completely empty, spice it up a little bit or it looks bland. The green light after the conveyor still feels like it should do something, but it doesn't. I do like the idea with the yellow blocks, but walking in the middle makes them obsolete. Think of a better implementation, this is a nice gimmick. Also, secrets were very nice here, with some obvious ones, some not-so-obvious ones, some hard to get ones etc.

Act 2:
The beginning room is a example of scenery done right, and in general, this act looks rather good. It did notice though that while adding a lot of scenery, you neglected the texturing a bit. Just like in THZ2, I see the same floor, wall and ceiling everywhere. This should be more varied, try it out. The path split in the beginning is still somewhat unbalanced, the right path is much too short. Also, as cool as that wheel looks, it needs to be much quicker to serve a purpose.

The room after the first Star Post then again doesn't look good. It's a complicated construction with some nice elements, but the gray texturing makes it look like one uncoordinated mess. Also, finding certain paths (I counted four) is completely luck-based, because the entrances are totally undistinctive. One path consists of pointless running in cramped hallways, but the other paths were well-designed, even though the Deton path floodlight was too intense. All paths reunite at the volcano room, and it does look nice, even though it could vary the wall textures a bit more, RVZ-style. This is what the outside sections in Act 1 should look like.

The Crawla Commander room offers quite a wide-spread arena, making this feel a bit like a mini-boss. I might suggest adding something that prevents me from spinning in one place though. The lasers suffer from the same fate as before, I simply avoid them easily. The big room after that totally feels like it should host a path split and tons of secrets, but it doesn't. I love the green "gravity" elevator after that, and it's nice to revisit the wheels at the end, even though they still need to be more of a challenge, and could benefit from replacing one of the overused conveyor paths, too. Secrets were nice, again.

Act 3:
The lava tubes still don't seem to do anything that prevents me from doing what I always do with the Egg Mobile...

Act 1:
Whoa, I sure didn't expect you to get this creative with the sector scenery. While the texturing is still repetitive and you still need custom textures, it looks much better now, and I like the small eye-catchers lying around just about everywhere. You really showed how competent you are with sector-based scenery, and I want you to use it more often in other zones. The thok barrier here can be a bit weird at times, I should never be able to actually be above it because it looks weird if I am blocked by an invisible barrier.

After the introduction section (which you might wanna spice up a bit with some more basic platforming, you could expand that water pool for instance), I get to a room which I already criticized before. It's too mazey, and you didn't do anything to change that. The basic concept of it is OK, but you should make it absolutely clear where that spring is, I don't want to search for it. The upper section could also benefit from wider gaps, I hardly need to jump.

At the path split, one option consists of a waterslide that doesn't make you do anything. It's there, but you only have to wait to progress. Put some obstacles and also make that path a bit longer than the other one. The new path is quite good, though I always feel like the boxes should float up and down, for some reason. The shield also requires no effort to get to. In the outside room after the slide, there is a very cool ship that you unfortunately never use for actual gameplay. What stops you from having a port section that involves gameplay with these boats. By the way, the secret that involves the ship is missing a colormap in the water. Speaking of colormap, it's still too dark.

The flooded room following next is also maze-y, as well as sheer redundant, thanks to lots of springs and more weird thok barriers. In the following room, we get a path split, but both paths don't really contain much gameplay. At least the left path has some cool bridges, but the player never gets to touch them. Those water floor sections are now technically filled up, and the visuals are quite interesting, but it's still more or less running.

The section where that weird "footprint" is is too cramped and also feels like a maze, due to several dead ends. The crumbling wood in the room after that doesn't really provide much of an hazard, they should be used as stepping stones over a pit or something. The broken hydrant that swings you up is a cool idea, but it could be used more creatively, for example by forcing the player to swing from hydrant to hydrant. Also, upwards current is broken, so implement it so the direction you face is the right one. The upper section after that feels weird due to the thok barrier and is useless otherwise.

Act 2:
The beginning still feels like it could host an alternate path or at least some secrets, but it doesn't. The water is still way too dark, I don't even know it if you raised it or not. I like how you installed the first alternate path exactly where I suggested it, and I still like its placement that kinda resembles the classic Sonic games: You can only enter the path if you pay close attention.

The path itself is cool too, but I feel like you didn't do nearly enough with the rope platform gimmick (even though it's actually just a normal platform, the rope makes it feel special). For example, I can skip the second one entirely. The pool after than is useless anyway, so I suggest replacing it with some more complex iterations of the gimmick. Zoom Tubes are a very cheap way out anyway, and since the other path takes much longer anyway, you could fill the entire length of the zoom tube with content (even if it's just a straightforward linear room, you could use the hydrant hopping idea here perfectly). I like the box climbing sequence after the Zoom Tube, even if it's rather basic platforming, but I can take some basic platforming every once in while.

The old path still looks rather plain, especially in the underwater area, make it feels a bit more ruin-like, by making it overgrown by some plants for example (excellent excuse to use some DSZ textures to spruce it up right there). That applies to the zone in general (even if the open, dry-land sections probably should remain city-like). Also, the flooding button rooms at the beginning of the path are still kinda uninteresting, because I just need to climb a staircase. Make me do some real platforming please.

What I really don't like is how the paths come together. You know, I press a button to get into another room where I press another button. Totally lame. You know what? When you go forward in the waterslide section at the loop, you will end up back at the start of it. Instead of doing this (it's also lame), make the new path end up there instead (they're separated by only 300~400 fracunits anyway) and make the former looping sequence takes you to a new path either use a teleport or move all those control sectors and use the inside space, your choice). That would be much better, and there really should be another long alternate path anyway.

Now the waterslide section itself: That could use some more action apart from the basic spikeball dodging. Also, the loop still isn't as amazing as you probably seem to think. In fact, it's ugly and boring. After the (admittedly cool, and you did it BEFORE Blade) wave room, we get to a path split that offers a choice between two mazes. The old one from the last version still sucks and should be purged/replaced, but the new one has potential and just needs some tweaking. You probably didn't intend it to be a maze, but its layout lends to that. The Elemental Shield is more noticeable than the button, and the door that it opens is also hard too see. I'd recommend not using a button at all and restructuring the room so that the exit is easy to see but hard to get to (e.g. platforming). I'd absolutely love to see a room where the water periodically rises and falls together with some loose boxes, while some stationary ones remain, so you'd have to hop back and forth between the moving ones and the stationary ones. Maybe that would fit here.

The courtyard where both parts meet looks cool, but not cool enough. Try having some sort of mini-garden here that grew wild after being abandoned (or think of something else, you might not actually want to implement all of my ideas as they are...). I also want the point where I jump down to the streets to be a balcony. I sort of missed the streets that mostly showed up in Act 1, maybe you'd want to have them show up somewhere earlier in the second act so the theme feels more consistent. I absolutely adore the car and I really want you to modify this room so I have to jump across a few cars to avoid some pits. Those cars need more exposure, and the room would otherwise be flat running.

The train station, as cool as it looks, still needs some gameplay. It's a bore to run through, especially as Tails. When you can't think of anything, make it a waterslide and put some more obstacles (preferably slightly different for both sides of the station). Guess that was it for this act. I sure demand a whole lot from you, don't I? O_o

Act 3:
Nothing to say, except that arena should be completely surrounded by buildings. It looks weird if I can see the sky to my sides when water is rising up around me. Gives me feeling of "What kind of invisible barrier is holding all that water in here?"

Act 1:
The texturing looks a lot better now than it did before. On a slightly related note, I was actually sorta embarrassed to see the Christmas textures show up in Frost Columns. So, while it is much better now, there are a few visual things that need addressing: In some places, you use the blue a bit too excessively, and it starts to get monotonous. I'm specifically talking about the outside sections. You know, there are quite a few other colors that you use in other places, so take a look at where you might wanna vary it a bit. Also, I already noted a lack in scenery eye-catchers. You have those icicles, and you have the machine-oil parts, which both look cool (I am out of positive adjectives, so prepare to see "cool" a lot), but especially the outside parts look too plain. You might want to look at some other ice-themed stages to see how they do it. I also noticed some unaligned textures in the first room, but I stopped looking after those in other rooms.

Now on to the gameplay: First off, the 1-up path in the first room is way too noticeable for something leading to a secret, I actually thought you made an elobarate path split there. Then, the rope pulleys. I think I mentioned it enough now, they need to be non-skippable and provide some actually interesting gameplay. The white clouds are still a tad overused, though it has gotten better.

The DSZ2 maze (the fawfulfan ice-themed version) might seem like a cool idea at first, but all it does is add confusion. Additionally, there are several different exits in there, making it even more confusing. I like the bridge though and I think that could show up a bit more. The other path that comes from this room is confusing, it require you to go around a U-turn that you wouldn't guess even exists and then you wind up looking in the wrong direction.

The next few sections haven't changed much from the last version (apart from visual fixes) and they are good as they are, so I won't bother talking about them. I do feel the need to address that overpowered shortcut though, that allows you to skip the continuously falling sector room completely. Regarding that room, it still feels a bit empty. DSZ2 fell into the same trap, I want some scenery here, even if it doesn't provide an alternate way to cross the room (which would be stupid in this case).

The next room that warrants comment is the room with the bright ice where there's a short split. The arrows are a cheap way out, please don't add arrows unless absolutely required. Also, those path splits largely contain running. The left path doesn't feature a short platforming segment (that looks gorgeous), but the rest is running in cramped corridors. The next outside room is a prime example of the dull-looking parts of your stage. Outside parts should be complex, featuring lots of exploring, some alternate ways to reach the other side, and some nice eyecatchers. This room, while the layout is good, fails to do any of that.

The inside parts before the ending rooms are confusing and cramped and don't add much to the gameplay. Actually, the whole act feels a bit too basic and is quite low on path splits. You did say though that you added another path, but some of the existing ones need to be more engaging, and if it's only some platforming in good-looking rooms. The ending room looks great though, but even here some visual gimmicks would be nice.

Act 2:
Hey, so you fixed both the exploit at the start that made you skip the beginning and made the death pit have F_SKY1. Now just add some sector-based scenery to the outside sections and you'll be golden. Also, the rope pulley here is also pointless, even if it's not skippable. And what's up with those two short splits in the beginning that both just contain a hallway? Those seem absolutely pointless to me. The mirror room could use a little more content and action, that would also make the mirror effect seem more apparent. Just some platforms to climb or something. The oilfall/pusher is also still alone and pretty much unnoticeable, which is a shame because it would make for a cool gimmick.

The room right before the first star post is a leftover from the old versions, right? It contains almost nothing and the cloud don't do anything. The path split in the ice/oil room still is unnoticeable, I'd recommend letting the player enter in the middle of it, so he can clearly see he can go left or right. Also, the right path pretty much contains nothing. The outside room after that suffers from the same fate as the other outdoor rooms: Is it too empty and basic.

I really like the new path with the PolyObject, but the abrupt 2D transitions feel weird (and actually made me die because they were too unexpected, especially the transition back to 3D). Are you sure this gimmick doesn't work in 3D? You could also have two PolyObjects next to each other and make the player jump from one to the other to avoid stuff, additionally. You also shouldn't give the player a 1-up for completing a path, they should always be hidden. The other path feels to basic in comparison, and the oil hopping gets a bit overused by now.

Then we get another empty outdoor cloud room (do something with those), and then ending tunnel feels cramped. All in all, still a lack of path splits and those that are there are very short. This zone has a lot of potential and many solid parts, but you could definitely make more out of it. The ideas you have don't seem fully realized.

Act 3:
Oh yeah, I like this boss. The slippery ice and bouncy walls force you to use caution and make the pinch phase more difficult. Nothing to improve, really.