SC_Medpack (Previously known as SC_GMS)

A good level > a Level with one annoying gimmick.

TheDoctor said:

well if I were a new player, I would stare upon these rings in wonder, and search the forums for a way to get passed it to get to the alternative path. Also, leaving the modern abilities out allow the player to first experience the first path, and then trying to figure out the alt. paths.

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Okay then, think about this analogy.

Let's say SRB2 2.2 comes around. Knuckles isn't in there by default. A new player who at least knows that Knuckles is in fact in the game will be scrambling all over to find out why he isn't there, and then he figures out that he needs to type "addfile knux.plr" everytime he wants to play as Knuckles. Also it activates cheat protection. And the developers reasoning? Oh, right, "you should experience this Sonic path first, we don't want you having the freedom to choose Knuckles path without you going through a couple hoops first".

Plus, how does a new player know it's an alternate path? They could look at it and be like "oh i guess that's where I need to go" and try their hardest to find a way there. But, in actuality they cannot (at least, without adding another file or using (I'm assuming this) Tails)

When I want to play a wad, I don't want to write a new batch file just to play it. I just want to type the single file that I know I need, and then play it. What if, in the future, I load this up, forgetting what it is, and then I remember while playing I need to add Greeneyes to actually get everything. Again, they should just remove Knuckles because he has his own alternative paths and you have to add him.

Also, this is a point I've been subtly hinting towards, but adding another character causes cheat protection to be enabled. Yes, you can counter this by adding the character first, but that's technically an exploit (an unfixable one, BTW).

And, I'd like to bring this up again, you do not have control of choosing stats and balancing your paths on them. You currently have the options of leaving it unbalanced for everyone, send large amounts of time on balancing it for all characters, or just add a new character. I don't know why you are so keen on not going with adding a new character, despite how simple it is to do!

I noticed the music in Glyphic Canyon and Manray Zone aren't looped, so I looped them myself for you. http://www.sendspace.com/file/41hka2 Use them in the next version, if you want.

Since you don't know where each of the places where badniks are placed so that they cant see you when you walk into the room, I went back through and got screenshots of every area which it happens. Note: This only goes over times when the badniks are placed so that they don't notice you. Even if they face away from you, as long as they NOTICE you when you walk into the room, its fine.

Area 1:


Area 2:


Area 3 (It might be a little hard to see, but right above shadow's head is where it is.):


Area 4 (There are 4 crawlas in the picture i'm talking about,one is right to the right of the tree, you can barely see it.):


Area 5 (There are 3 crawlas there, you can just barely see the 3rd one.):


Area 6:


Area 7:


Area 8 (Even though he's facing the camera,he still doesn't move.):


Area 9:


Note that the area in the last image seems to be SPECIFICALLY MADE to get you hit. Anyhow, those are all the areas I found where enemies don't start to attack the player when you enter the room.

Glyphic Canyon: Really flat by the way, corners undetailed, lazy platforms, easy challenging with the emeralds gimmick, we're in the middle of nothing, etc :P.

Splash Hill: Same as above.

Manray Zone: I think it is decent for now.

Good luck, TheViking :).

Well....
@mydoctor
I showed the Duon character, and the homing attack path, because:

I wanted to show Duon I have his character in my collection, and...
A little walkthrough showing Glyphic Canyon.

@speedwagon
You cannot cross along the Red-spring looong pitjump? That's strange... And, again, just see my GIF and view it's possible.


Well.... In my opinion, this levels are great, but...

The SHZ's part when you have to run, run and run to the red-spring and then to the blue-spring is a bit annoying, bugging you around, and... It looks like you had a lack of ideas in that moment.

In Manray Zone, I REALLY have to do the puzzle of the snowballs? It's very boring to have to move THREE, but THREE snowballs very slowly to the buttons.

Just my opinion, besides that, I really liked this aside it being a port from... 2.0?

Agustin1216 said:

@speedwagon
You cannot cross along the Red-spring looong pitjump? That's strange... And, again, just see my GIF and view it's possible.

Click to expand...

You're missing the point. I'm referring to the fact that the player can get on that platform. It's kind of weird to be standing on this thing.

Speedwagon said:

You're missing the point. I'm referring to the fact that the player can get on that platform. It's kind of weird to be standing on this thing.

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You're complaining about that? Not just that, you can pass out AT ALL of that place. Just see this:
Getting it?
Anyway, yeah, it's kinda weird being talking of this, but... meh? :V

Agustin1216 said:

Spoiler: WARNING! If you hadn't used the Bandages character, you might not wanna see this. Also, this is the typical spoiler of Glyphic Canyon, so yeah.

Click to expand...

Anyway, just thought I'd say the levels are nice, but need some work.

For one, Glyphic Canyon could be more non-Greeneyes friendly, as I do not have all the wad names in my library memorized.

Then with Splash Hill, first off, why Splash Hill? I'd personally say if you are gonna make a S4 based stage, use the S4E2 stages that were *slightly* more original. Anyway, the act feels really short, and most of the challenges or gimmicks or whatever are either easily passed with a proper jump or are a pain to recover from if you fail (namely the room with the thin pillars and the bomb dropping bots on the water who will be guarding the spring by the time to reach it).

And Man ray? Easily my favorite in the pack, but why, WHY the snowball gimmick? I mean, it's not a horrible idea, but the fact that you have to push not one, but TWO snowballs across a pretty good sized room? That was what made that gimmick tedious for me. That and the fact that it was mandatory rather than a secret.

@metal about part with pillars: really? I always find that part to be a breeze to run past. In fact that's one of my favorite parts of that stage. Also, splash hill zone and glyphic canyon where both levels I made in 2.0, before episode 2 of Sonic 4.

@Agustin: how is the fact that it's ported from 2.0 a bad thing? :| look at s_house, that's a good one. Look at the majority of 2.1 maps, there from 2.0.

Alright, so compiling the feedback, these are some things I gathered, (also note, along with feedback I encourage to also give some advice, though I am a horrible mapper, I am a follower of logic, and will gladly fix any problems or dislikes that the majority may have)

1.) Improved visuals in Glyphic Canyon. Visuals including level - based such as the ground you walk on, the mach speed, and the skybox.
2.) A character/Lua addons for such extra paths.
3.) Obvious removal of snowball section in MRZ.
4.) Changes in SHZ's afternoon layout
5.) More non - linear paths on mach speed sections.
6.) Look into situation with enemy reaction thingy in Glyphic Canyon

Am I missing anything? And as I said, I also encourage recommendations or advice, if not it will leave me up with experimentation and instead of making a lizard a Larztard is born.

Edit: how about instead of snowballs, in its place I put buttons? Step on all 3 and the door opens? Just a thought.

Agustin1216 said:

Spoiler: WARNING! If you hadn't used the Bandages character, you might not wanna see this. Also, this is the typical spoiler of Glyphic Canyon, so yeah.

Click to expand...

Back to the topic, I really like this map pack. Not one of the maps, but all of them are fun at least for me. I really like Manray's puzzles, Splash Hill's... splashing graphics? And of course, Glyphic Canyon's... well, everything (AGAIN, for me at least.).

Zero_the_artificial said:

Spoiler: Irrelevant

i can't believe you are using my character. Actually, I can't believe ANYONE using Bandages...

Back to the topic, I really like this map pack. Not one of the maps, but all of them are fun at least for me. I really like Manray's puzzles, Splash Hill's... splashing graphics? And of course, Glyphic Canyon's... well, everything (AGAIN, for me at least.).

Click to expand...

I use bandages once in a while, I even have my new sonic boom model that's in the submissions attached to it.

Thanks for the compliments :)

... ...

TheDoctor said:

@TOGM95 well the reason why no light dash or homing attack stuff was included in the wad was so that individuals can have different experiences depending on what wads they added along side this wad. For example, adding green eyes can give the individual a different gaming experience in the same level by revealing different paths. (The same idea will be implemented in my new AT&T map pack project).

Click to expand...

Try to include lua scripts, so you can add the homing attack and lightdash, and thanks to SRB2 2.1 lua boys support, EVERYTHING can be possible.

If you use the perfect idea to this, it gets better (of course), and it will be more enjoyable. Use your imagination!

Other comments then that, good job and keep up the good work!

TheDoctor said:

@metal about part with pillars: really? I always find that part to be a breeze to run past. In fact that's one of my favorite parts of that stage. Also, splash hill zone and glyphic canyon where both levels I made in 2.0, before episode 2 of Sonic 4.

@Agustin: how is the fact that it's ported from 2.0 a bad thing? :| look at s_house, that's a good one. Look at the majority of 2.1 maps, there from 2.0.

Alright, so compiling the feedback, these are some things I gathered, (also note, along with feedback I encourage to also give some advice, though I am a horrible mapper, I am a follower of logic, and will gladly fix any problems or dislikes that the majority may have)

1.) Improved visuals in Glyphic Canyon. Visuals including level - based such as the ground you walk on, the mach speed, and the skybox.
2.) A character/Lua addons for such extra paths.
3.) Obvious removal of snowball section in MRZ.
4.) Changes in SHZ's afternoon layout
5.) More non - linear paths on mach speed sections.
6.) Look into situation with enemy reaction thingy in Glyphic Canyon

Am I missing anything? And as I said, I also encourage recommendations or advice, if not it will leave me up with experimentation and instead of making a lizard a Larztard is born.

Edit: how about instead of snowballs, in its place I put buttons? Step on all 3 and the door opens? Just a thought.

Click to expand...

@TOGM: look at second point for improvements

TheDoctor said:

@metal about part with pillars: really? I always find that part to be a breeze to run past. In fact that's one of my favorite parts of that stage. Also, splash hill zone and glyphic canyon where both levels I made in 2.0, before episode 2 of Sonic 4.

Click to expand...

Ah. I did not know this Splash Hill was made originally for 2.0. I thought I read Glyphic Canyon was the only stage in this that was from 2.0. My bad.

And the pillars? I admit, second time around onward they are a breeze, but the first time, I had no idea what to expect, and when I fell it was a pain to get up due to those bots that I have no clue what they are called. I guess it's kinda harsh for first timers, but then again... *Glances over at ERZ*

Every game is hard first time round..or almost every. It's good that these challenges are not super duper hard, or else it's replayability would be 0, and it's good that it's not super duper easy, because then there would be no point of calling this a Sonic level.

Zero_the_artificial said:

i can't believe you are using my character. Actually, I can't believe ANYONE using Bandages...

Click to expand...

Lemme just say something that I think you'll not going to believe it to the day you die...

I LOVE BANDAGES! Really, these are reasons for me loving him:

1: It's the only character i've seen imitating Sonic Boom's Sonic. (Not counting the MD2 of my doctor, cuz it's not a character in fact)

2: I LOVE HIGHSPEEDS! Really, HMS and Bandages are the most faster characters I've seen so far.

3: Him, combined with the "Enerbeam", is a REALLY GOOD combination. And... unlike you've said, it's possible to control using the spin button to go down mooooar quickly.

Anyway, you may wanna revamp the sprites. They aren't shaded AT ALL. You are the only one who has understanded how a REAL Sonic-Boom-Sonic has to look like. Just put some good shading (NOT PILLOW SHADING! D:) and you have got a friend coming from Argentina (?
No, really, Im living in Argentina, like a tourist, for 10 crazy years :D
And I got used to spanish language so well... :|

I always ask myself every damn time I see this strange word in some posts... WTF DOES MEANS PILLOW SHADING??? :P

http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/shading.html

The top of the blue box on that page should answer your question.

So no recommendations or advice? Should I proceed into making the fixes? I mean it's one thing to give feedback, and that sorta hints as to what I should do, however recommendations coming from those who will be playing it help. So, no?