January/February 2011 Voting

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I don't feel like voting but I do want to post my thoughts for the two maps I played; Woods Asleep and Clockwork Grove. I find CG to be waay more atmospheric and memorable. It's fun, it forces me to think, and it pulls me into your world. I eagerly look forward to more maps with this style. My only real complaint is the excessive use of silver metal. Try to lay off it next time.
 
SINGLE PLAYER

Wood Asleep by Internet Explorer - 2/10
The first room was interesting, but after that it turned into a completely flat thokfest with random trees everywhere. The latter part of the stage has a ton of slime trails.

Colossal Castle Zone by Katmint - N/A
Anyone find all the secret rooms yet? There's four of them. ;P
Also, if you absolutely cannot solve the puzzles, have a demo that shows the solutions. To play it, download it into you SRB2 folder and type "playdemo ccguide.lmp" into the console.

Grassy Cliffs by NeroTheArmadillo - 0/10
*crash*

Windmill Hill Zone by Ultimate - 3/10
The windmills and the launch through the air thing were neat, but the level was bland overall.

Clockwork Grove Zone by Thompson - 8/10
Great design here, I like the gears and clocks and such, but some parts feel too crowded with enemies, and the fairies are neat but they are also overused in some places, specifically the larger rooms. I also had trouble finding the seed path (the seed was a nice gimmick, btw) because I overlooked the gargoyle several times in the mass of detail and enemies. I loved the timed gargoyle conveyor belt things. The collapsing factory with the alarm was confusing at first and hurt my eyes from wandering around in there so long. The large room with the tree that opens on the seed path has some slime trail trouble, but not enough to effect the gameplay. The first shrink part on the seed path was somewhat annoying as instead of being able to use the gargoyle as a stepping stone I would either move the gargoyle or miss it entirely since it's a big jump with a small place to land. After that, I got stuck in an inescapable pool because I didn't jump far enough to hit the unshrinker. Please add some springs there. :P The spring plants that explode pollen were a neat effect. The day/night switch was a good idea, but it isn't really clear what it does in the seed path version and I found the path by luck, but the version on the other path was well done, since you could see the trees rising in the switch room. The end of the level (fake out endings sure are popular this contest) felt a bit too sudden with just going into the vent and then that's it, especially compared to Twilight Isle's big finish, but half of that was me wishing the level wasn't over yet. :P

Wonder Terrace Zone by BlazeFan1 - 5/10
A lot of neat ideas, but needs some noreload = 1. Luckily, I only died on the rising lava segment. There were a few parts where I had to sit around and wait for an elevator, the tree part, and when the big column in the first section comes down, if you don't get on or get off it fast enough you have to wait for it to move again. The black and white part was neat. The flashing room in the black temple hurt my eyes. X_X

Splash Garden Zone Act 1 by Blade - 6/10
Those buggy horizontal springs are annoying and you can't see them coming until you're already on them because of 2D mode. Otherwise this is about as good as you can get with the limits of SRB2's 2D mode, the high amount of visuals was a plus and the big ring at the end was a neat effect. The spring shell enemies work well in 2D mode because if you fall down and can't see them you'll just bounce off the spring. :P The buzz bomber shots were too slow to do anything, but at least they weren't annoying. :P
 
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Single player votes:

Wood Asleep Zone: 3/10. - It had a cool atmosphere, to be sure, but the layout was incredibly confusing and there really weren't any outstanding gimmicks. I also saw a lot of graphical issues.

Colossal Castle Zone: 3/10- The level design was not great in my opinion. It was confusing, drab, and didn't have too many good gimmicks.

Grassy Cliffs Zone: 1/10- I played it in DoomBuilder, so I actually got to try it. Even so, it was incredibly short and uninteresting. There really wasn't much there to set the level apart from anything else.

Windmill Hill Zone: 4/10- the windmill gimmick was fun. But otherwise, the level was a bit dull. It was just Greenflower textures over water. The level acutally worked well for what it was though.

Clockwork Grove Zone- 7/10- probably one of the best in the pack. The layout was confusing, but the features were creative and well executed.

Splash Garden Zone- 5/10- stunning visuals! But really, that's the greatest thing about the stage. Side-scrolling stages can only be so great in my opinion. This one was really good for a side scroller... but it just can't compare to (well executed) 3D levels. Also, the springs were glitchy.

Wonder Terrace Zone- N/A. That's my zone, so no vote here. Apparently, the biggest problem with it is the lack of the NoReload=1 in the level header. Too bad I didn't know such a thing existed until I was told about it AFTER the voting started.
Sorry everyone!
 
How the heck do you prevent camping from being attractive in your level?
For starters, not placing a convenient hiding space directly behind the flag which is only thwarted if someone comes into the base from the side exits, which almost never happens. (Edit: or, well, flooding the flag room with bounce rings out of paranoia.)

Camping is possible on virtually any CTF map; if people are complaining about it, it's too powerful.
 
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Camping is possible on virtually any CTF map; if people are complaining about it, it's too powerful.
I really think this is wrong. Camping should be an EFFECTIVE strategy in every CTF map, and if you have, say, two people in your flag room, you should be able to do some SERIOUS damage on anyone who tries to get to the flag. Even with just one person you should be able to significantly hinder or stop a single player attempting to grab it.

I think the reason the complaining is so common is because of the history in 1.X where camping your own base was completely impossible. People are too used to just running into the opposing base and grabbing the flag, and they get a rude awakening when 2-3 people suddenly jump them and gangbang them. If you want to get around that, you need to run into the opponent's base in groups or be more careful, throwing bounce around corners or coming in from a different direction. Grabbing the flag should not be a trivial part of CTF, and to be honest I LOVED the maps in this contest that people were complaining about camping in, partly because I was doing it but partly because it made me feel far more insecure when I ran into their base to steal it. Camping your own base makes their base feel like enemy territory, and that's something that SRB2 has been missing since CTF was implemented.
 
Except I was talking about the reverse scenario: enemy players that can very easily hide out next to your flag so it can be swiped immedeately if returned.
 
In that scenario your team clearly needs someone to kick them out. I never experienced that as a major problem when I was playing, as I tended to brutalize anyone trying it. Your mileage may vary.
 
How's it goin' guys?


Wood Asleep - 3/10


A good theme that has a lot of wasted potential. There's a ton of trees, but there's no real incentive to check out what's up there. I really expected to have to climb that giant branch right as you step outside of the house, and I was a little disappointed to see a giant field of open space (although that's what the majority of this level was). Find a way to fill up all that open space with more than just trees and a river, give the player more to do than just run to the end sign.

Colossal Castle - 3/10

Besides bland rooms, messed up gimmicks, annoying size change, and gargoyles never working, there's not much to say here.

Grassy Cliffs - 0/10

Broken.

Windmill Hill - 4/10

While the map has a few things going for it, there's a lot that brings it down. I saw only 3 or 4 textures used throughout the entire map, you also used the ugly GHZ wall textures for the giant blocks, which was eye straining. The windmill idea was nice, but since they weren't animated, it as pretty hard to tell that they could be used to reach higher areas. I suggest you use a lot more texture variation and make your level look more natural than floating boxes over a large box of water.

Clockwork Grove - 7/10

This shit is so laggy on my laptop due to the massive thing placement and huge rooms, so I can't complete it, but I do have a few things to point out. All those Crawlas aren't needed, you have a new enemy, but it's hardly used, I suggest they replace the Crawlas entirely, otherwise they're mostly unnoticeable. After you become tiny, and move into the next room, Sonic can't get out of the water if he falls in, giving the player a bogus death, and making him ragequit too.

Completed with less lag not enough time for me to type out more review right now.


Wonder Terrance -6/10

I enjoyed the different themes that were in this level, although they had poor detail as a whole. As Mystic said, dying and having to do the entire map over is a pain, and should be avoided. Your teleports were just plain ugly, you don't have to make them look as flawless as ERZ2, but you could put a few platforms near it and alight block so that the player knows that something is going to happen when he/she gets near it. On a side note, the lava-fall portion was incredibly frustrating. What music plays on this map?

Splash Garden - 9/10

You know, the camera for 2D mode is just awful, it should be much farther out than it is now so we can see everything in front of us clearly. For a 2D map, you should turn on SRB1 mode so that Sonic doesn't move at a pace that the crappy camera can't keep up with. Lastly, the sideways springs didn't work right, I kept getting stuck inside of them. Other from that, this map is as good as 2D maps get.
 
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Katmint said:
I got stuck in an inescapable pool because I didn't jump far enough to hit the unshrinker. Please add some springs there.

There's a small cave in the wall that you came from that can lead you back to safety and air and return you to the beginning of that cascading waterfall and attempt to try the jump again.

Katmint said:
The end of the level felt a bit too sudden with just going into the vent and then that's it, especially compared to Twilight Isle's big finish, but half of that was me wishing the level wasn't over yet. :P

I'll consider it was a sudden end. but I plan on making my act 1 ending's simple and brief. Act 2's, like Twilight Isle's, will be the big finishers letting the player know that zone is about to come to an end. Also....

(fake out endings sure are popular this contest)

^ agreed..
 
Originally Posted by Chrome
What music plays on this map?

That would be a remix of Big Forest from the old Kirby game, Kirby's Dream Land 2.
No, I didn't make it, in case such disclaimers are required when using music from outside SRB2.
 
For starters, not placing a convenient hiding space directly behind the flag which is only thwarted if someone comes into the base from the side exits, which almost never happens. (Edit: or, well, flooding the flag room with bounce rings out of paranoia.)
If the side exits are effective to throw enemy campers out but nobody ever uses them, then you're doing something wrong. And also, it shouldn't be difficult to throw someone out if there are tons of team rings to grab.

Except I was talking about the reverse scenario: enemy players that can very easily hide out next to your flag so it can be swiped immedeately if returned.
It is the responsibility of everyone who is not holding the flag to throw these campers out in the meantime. Shouldn't be particularly difficult task actually.
 
Good afternoon / evening to all, it is a contest interesting. It falls rather good grades !

I start with the 1-P mode.

Wood Asleep by Me : -----

I can not rate my level ...
I like to say that I agree entirely with 3-4-5 I receive. I could not give much attention to my level because I'm working on something more advanced. I know I lost the contest, I do not compete with the top designers. But I know I can to win or get a good grade if I will not work on two projects at once.



Colossal Castle Zone by Katmint : ------

Similarly, I can not rate. Because I have not found the solution with the puzzle "gargoyle-box". However, I never say that your level is wrong. There is still a nice little side with decor. But I can not give note if I can not find the end.



Grassy Cliffs by NeroTheArmadillo : 3 / 10

Hmm ... what is it? I can not start the level. Luckily, as I am a level designer, I could access it with SRB2 DB.
The first thing I noticed is that the level is similar to samples-wads that I find on the wiki. There is a problem of sky.
But there is still a small positive impact on the ... on gadgets. You know a little executors. In fact, I seem to see my first few levels. To me, there are two types of designers. There are those who make the majority of levels ... hmm correct. Small technical problems, but with large areas to explore that delights the players. And there are other designers like us (in my opinion, eh.) that have little problems in general design, but have well developed ideas, ideas that are better suited to other games that are somewhat less suitable for SRB2. But we try and do our best to resolve our faults. With practice, you can become a good designer.

Ah yes. Beware, the boss takes time in the level, but it is the area that is interesting to explore.




Windmill Hill Zone by Ultimate : 6 / 10

I like it. I had an impression of a mix between Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1, Green Hill (Sonic Adventure 2) SRB2 version and a little mixture of Unleashed.
The idea I like is the wind ! I think combined, it could be fun!
The area is also very big ! We can run around without problems. There is still a small problem. I think (I'm sure, rather) that it is a large rectangle covered with a small lake with islands. There are no caves, no walls: one sees the sky in abundance. The large space and the choice of way is a positive point, however.

Clockwork by Thompson Grove : 8 / 10

I will not talk much, because I think everything is good (nothing bad.)
Decor hard to master. A rather good level design.
The little elves are good. If I took two points, it's because I was stuck in the great hall with the clock ...
Ah yes. I find that even if there is Mechano in your level, changing the player's height is very bad. I struggled to advance in this state, especially in water. But keep it : the level design is very good !




Wonder Terrace Zone by BlazeFan1 : 10/10

It's impressive ... your first level were a little Green Hill, and you went to something special with a "cycle " ... I am very proud of you ! This is exactly the level style that I like ! And say I gave you advice in your debut ... You've improved a lot, I'm jealous.
Please note, some textures are not suitable to me. Teleporters flat at the end of each element are not good. You could create a teleporter more "machine ".
Question gameplay / life time is perfect.
I wanted to ask the music, but I just found that is the game of Kirby.
(5 minutes later ..)
I found exactly the same music! They are well, Kirby's musics.. I should see this game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfEfdSWM_-A
Continues like this, your levels become very interesting!



Splash Garden Zone Act 1 by Blade : 9 / 10

In the last competition, I moderately liked the way at this point to change the game but then you showed me that it is entirely possible to put new options in SRB2 while maintaining a very good appearance . If there'll have been no "mountain-areas" in the background, I think Sonic CD plants would not be welcome.
I think the visual aspect is your forte. And the modified code in SRB2, ah ah!
I like what you do. Therefore, I can ask you this ...
Can I use the changes you've made to my SRB2 wads for? (I speak mostly horizontal springs, some plants and enemies, graphics boxes that I fell in love, etc.).
If you accept, your name will appear ...
==> File MAINCFG the wad (with thanks)
==> The thread on the MB, with thanks.
==> The Supporters / CoAuthors section of the thread.

I hope you will accept. Good job for your level, anyway !
 
Internet Explorer;702724[B said:
Colossal Castle Zone by Katmint : ------[/B]

Similarly, I can not rate. Because I have not found the solution with the puzzle "gargoyle-box". However, I never say that your level is wrong. There is still a nice little side with decor. But I can not give note if I can not find the end.
I'd like to warn you that if you don't rate this level, none of your other scores will be counted, due to a new rule. So if you really can't finish the level, either give it a low score if you think it's the mapper's fault or rate it on what you saw of the level. Well, you don't have to, but as I said, your scores won't be counted until you vote for every map (except your own of course).

Or you try solving the puzzle. The trick is to search for the right door. I assume you're in the room with the two gargoyles. The door that is opened is not in the same room.
 
I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed my map so far. I think there has been a definite overall review of "lack of textures, square, and bland". I'll try to fix these things and hopefully release an updated version of the map in the future :P I will be giving out my reviews hopefully sometime this weekend.

Windmill Hill Zone, by Ultimate
Rating: 4/10
Explanation:
I know you said you didn't have time to de-squarify the level, but I really don't buy that; you could have at least randomly dragged around a few vertices. I know I'm an unusually fast worker, so this isn't quite a fair example, but I managed to change all the space junk platforms in both acts of Spacewalk Zone from rounded to square in a few hours. And another problem is that this level is way too open, which causes some graphical errors. Worst of all, the windmill gimmick was badly underutilized, and it was easily the only interesting thing about the level, so most of it was just dull running and jumping. And frankly, I really think you've done the GHZ textures to death over the course of your level designing career. I suggest you just redo the whole thing; it's a great idea, but the execution was kind of poor.
Thank you for the very detailed review! First of all, I would like to say that I really didn't have time to desquarify the level D: I was actually creating the "long path" to finish the level just an hour before the deadline! (or what I thought was the deadline Feb 28th). I ended up submitting the final entry 2 minutes before the deadline time :P

I'm trying to figure out a way to make the level less open without having to change around the visuals too much...although I know there will have to be some pretty big changes in the end. Yes, I've received lots of feedback about the awful textures ^^" As you stated, yes I have overdone them to death...especially since they are the only texture I have ever used (ignoring RSTH Act 3). I'm glad to hear that you thought the windmill was underused, I thought people would complain that there were too many windmills everywhere...but now that I've heard your opinion, I'm kind of glad :P

I'm not quite sure yet how I'll expand on the windmill idea, but I have a few little tidbits of possibilities in my head...Lastly, I'm glad that you think the idea is nice, because that's the most important part in my opinion...since it's the foundation of the level. I'm definitely going to constantly work on this map until I think it's at its very best. Regarding the overall dullness of the map, considering that this is supposed to be an the introductory stage to a set of levels, I'm not too sure how much excitement I can add. When I think of Greenflower, there isn't too much variation there either...

Thanks again for the review!

PS: Has anyone found the 3 emeralds or easter-eggman?
 
Time for ze review. Singleplayer scoring time!

Splash Garden Zone by Blade- 7/10
Well, this level felt kind of like OCZ in 2D. The use of the medivo slope was like "meh", and the fact that there's a bee on the start which you can't even see, 'cause it's too high, is annoying. I got sniped for just standing there... And for some reason, when these badniks shoot below them, the missle is at extreme speed, while it's slower while "gliding" sideways. Besides that, good level. I liked the springs that were on blocks, they were frustrating in a good kind of way. Like, I allways "LOL'D" when I accidently hit one.

Wood Asleep Zone- by Internet Explorer- 6/10
Definatly a good beginning, though:
1. The music doesn't fit the theme you were trying to create, that said from a guy that played the game it's from, so I know the feeling it's sepuse to give...
2. The whole other part of the stage was boring, I kept trying to find places to get on trees for nothing. When I "accidently" thokked at the large bush, just to figure I can go trough it, and finished the level, I was like O.o. And the running shoes music's well... How does it fit?

Grassy Cliffs Zone- by - 0/10
I don't think there's much to say about this, except maybe~
fucknoping.png

Windmill Hill Zone- by Ultimate- 5/10
Dunno. Nothing too special. And there's also no wind or effect to tell you that you can actually FLY when standing near those windmills. The bridges also wen't down together if you stepped on them, which looks wierd. Oh yeah, and some of the those "bridges" were actually GROUND. How the hell does stepping on a thin road made of ground make it "fall down" a bit without totally collapsing? Also, this is kind of irelevant for contest voting, so I didn't think about it while scoring, but it's non- Silver friendly, or Rosy at Silver haters case.
Edit: The spring at the beginning which if you try to re-angle you die just came to my mind. Fixed score.

Wonder Terrace Zone- by BlazeFan1- 7/10
Nice level. I like what you did in it, but there are a few things that just piss me off:
Cyan background at those wierd things that are sepuse to be teleporters.
Not sure if it's meant like that or no, but there's no real decorations to the buildings that let you go to an "elemental chamber". Like, a bit of fire on the entrance to the fire one, a bit of ice crystals and icicles on the ice one, castle decorations on the castle one, etc. Besides those things, I loved this level. It desrves such score. (Which is pretty low considering the fact a few month ago I was one of the "Server People"... And people on other forums do say my criticzement is bad, 'cause none ever criticizes there... ZOMG, I'M BECOMING MORE AND MORE OF A SPIRITCRUSHER EACH DAY!)

Colossal Castle Zone- by Katmint- 6/10
Decent zone, definatly lets you use your brain (altough at most cases, a little red arrow appearing after a button's clicked WOULD be nice, sometimes I just think I pressed the buttons after my Gargolye "powerup" shorted out... And since there's usually still a door in front of you... Derp.). As said, the fact Brak Eggman shoots missles right after the goo spam (which makes it very annoying to listen to the music which you quite pointed out as "awsome") is annoying. The fact the boss spams is also annoying, such spam should only be used if you are in a stage like Mystic Realm Zone, where it doesn't hurt you, but knock you back. I couldn't see how to dodge such spam of rings and instant hit weapons any other way. Oh, and the fact that in the part with the Jetty Syn ambush outside had a Explosion monitor AFTER the platforming that's really hard to do when gangbagged (tiny pillars to jump on) is another reason to be pissed. Oh yeah, I didn't test 'em all 'cause I'm not a suiciding faller, but some of the deathpits don't work.

Clockwork Grove Zone- by Thowmpson- 8/10
Nice zone, I won't start pointing out all of the good stuff- I'm sure they had been said. Though frankly, I expected for more, even if it's sepuse to be easier that TIZ.
1. The only reference to a clock of anyhow was in one room only...
2. It ends in a tube, and not near a boat, like the beginning of TIZ, which is sepuse to be it's "act 2".
3. Even more confusing than TIZ. Seriously. Like, at the part where you shrink, jump on a statue and climb a waterfall, there's a splitway- one path (the first you encouter) is sepuse to be the exit from the poll in case you fall... How should the player know that? I suggest putting a 1 way zoom tube from the other way.
Edit: Special thanks for SpiritCrusher for clearing out the fog about reason 3. Score fixed.

Finally done with that! I know I didn't mention too many pros on those levels, sorry, I'm being hasted and lazy as I'm writing this. I hope everyone (well, except one specific case...) takes my reviews and do something useful with them, in hopes all of these get to be actually released.

Why make a 2 hour rush level KOTE instead of finishing your factory...? Another KOTE level going bye- bye like the mansion one...
 
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ZOMG, I'M BECOMING MORE AND MORE OF A SPIRITCRUSHER EACH DAY!)
Don't worry, you're not me as long as you give every map almost the same score;)

It ends in a tube, and not near a boat, like the beginning of TIZ, which is sepuse to be it's "act 2".
I think you got that wrong. The TIZ you saw in the contest is act 2 of TIZ. This is the first act of CGZ. The two levels are not part of the same zone, and TIZ doesn't come after CGZ.
 
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