Small 2.1 Preview

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Cue

ALAM STOP BREAKING THE S
Posted by Mystic on 06-27-2011 03:00 AM.

It’s been a long time since we posted any actual news of the progress of 2.1 onto the main page, so here’s a bunch of screenshots of updated stages for your viewing pleasure and speculation. As a reminder to everyone, all the content posted here is of a work in progress, and could see massive changes before actual release. Click on the pictures for full, enormous 1920x1200 detail.



A new alcove in GFZ1 demonstrating the Whirlwind Shield with a trail of rings. GFZ1 has had a few minor modifications to help improve how well it teaches players our gameplay mechanics.

The underground tunnel in THZ1 has been dramatically redesigned to not involve jumping on small barrels over slime. THZ1 in general has had small modifications to get rid of annoying and tedious sections of the stage.

A view of the exit of the new Knuckles path and the designed look of the outdoor areas of THZ1.

A part of the Knuckles path itself. Knuckles is forced onto this path where the long, empty hallway used to be. Hopefully several other stages in 2.1 will manage to get their own Knuckles areas.

THZ2′s difficulty has been eased up a bit in a few areas. In this shot we have an alternate path in the turret room, which also doubles as a way out of the slime should the player fall going the other way.

Another difficulty nerf, this time to THZ3. There are now walls to protect the player from rebounding off of the train car into the pit. The first bottomless pit in the game is now in DSZ2.

Deep Sea Zone was made slightly easier in general, with floors where pits used to be and extra air bubbles in places. The water at the start of Act 1 now rises slower, and only reaches up to this height.

Should you fall in the platforming section after the underwater waterslide, there is now a way out of the water without going through the incredibly long zoom tube and doing the entire waterslide over again. Many other quality of life issues along these lines have been fixed in general.

A few of the more boring visual areas have been spruced up a tad. DSZ3 is probably the most dramatic.

CEZ1 has been pretty dramatically changed to be a lot more consistent in theme and gameplay. There are no longer waterslides here; falling will now lead to a secondary path.

Another room from the previous version retouched. The texturing in CEZ1 varies a lot now, putting some of the Lime Forest textures into the single player game.

A part of the new, unfinished Knuckles pathway. As with THZ1, Knuckles has no choice but to use it, but unlike THZ1, Tails can select this route as well.

The new CEZ2 is slightly harder than the older version, as easily shown here in the dungeon, with a bottomless pit replacing a floor with a few spikes.

One of the new outdoor rooms, showing the new textures and the entrance to the library.

CEZ2 contains a significant amount of completely new content. Here is one of the rooms in the library. Plenty of other new areas are here to explore along with the revamped older content.

Finally, as a reminder, many pieces of information on upcoming content for SRB2 can be found on the Wiki’s In Development page, which is a rather well compiled list of things we’ve said on IRC and the forums about our progress. Of course, just because we planned to do it in the past when we made those statements doesn’t mean we’re actually going to go through with it, so take everything you see there with a grain of salt.
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Wow this look awesome! Glad to see that some frustrating/boring parts on the earlier zones as been improved. Also, by making Knuckles/Tails paths make the game more re-playability. Keep it up! I can't wait.
 
The first bottomless pit in the game is now in DSZ2.
Unless somebody goofed, this means the Deton room in THZ2 has also been changed.

Those vine textures clash a bit because they're using the vivid bright green while the rest of the stage only uses the paler, "original" green.

I still don't like how this place is Brown, Brown, Everywhere.



The new CEZ2 is slightly harder than the older version, as easily shown here in the dungeon, with a bottomless pit replacing a floor with a few spikes.

This strikes me as being a bit counter-intuitive -- you go out of your way to fix annoying parts like the DSZ2 waterslide, and then you stick a death pit in the middle of what's already a pretty difficult sequence? Unless the part right behind it has been nerfed some, I think this is a pretty dumb move.

On another note, what's with those small pillars sticking out from below? Can you actually land on those and use them to recover?
 
This strikes me as being a bit counter-intuitive -- you go out of your way to fix annoying parts like the DSZ2 waterslide, and then you stick a death pit in the middle of what's already a pretty difficult sequence? Unless the part right behind it has been nerfed some, I think this is a pretty dumb move.

On another note, what's with those small pillars sticking out from below? Can you actually land on those and use them to recover?
There's a difference between "annoying" and "challenging". The section after the DSZ2 wasn't really all that hard on either version, but if you messed up you were forced to repeat a long section of the stage just to try again. That change isn't really a difficulty nerf as it is a quality of life issue. You still have to make the same jumps to get through the section, but now you only waste about five to ten seconds of your life if you fall, instead of thirty to forty.

That room in the CEZ dungeon isn't any more difficult if you do it correctly. All that's changed is that the penalty for failure is stronger. There is a Star Post directly before and after the room, and as you saw there are a bunch of pillars below the main platforming section that you can try to land on should you miss your target or your platform start to fall. It's not intended to be annoying or time-wasting, as your reset time should you mess up is really quick, and you get right back where you were when you die. However, it IS intended to eat a few lives of newbies the first time until they get the hang of the room.

One of the big problems in 2.0.X is that our difficulty curve really is unreasonable. GFZ and THZ1 are trivial, THZ2 has a nasty spike in difficulty right at the front but is otherwise rather easy, and then DSZ is a brick wall followed by an easier CEZ and ACZ1. One of the main goals in 2.1 is to fix that so that there is a gentle but real difficulty curve in the early game, ramping up from GFZ1's trivial difficulty towards ERZ's brutality. This means DSZ gets easier and CEZ gets harder in many places.
 
21thz3-300x187.png

Another difficulty nerf, this time to THZ3. There are now walls to protect the player from rebounding off of the train car into the pit. The first bottomless pit in the game is now in DSZ2.
On one hand I like that this means the death of the "sit on rail, hold spin to win" exploit, but i'm going to miss the element of tension involved in taking care not to throw yourself off the train car to your doom. Perhaps find a compromise?
 
I was so glad to see this that I was happy puking. Especially since I haven't seen any news updates in idk how long.
 
There is a Star Post directly before and after the room
Okay, I have no qualms, then.

One of the big problems in 2.0.X is that our difficulty curve really is unreasonable. GFZ and THZ1 are trivial, THZ2 has a nasty spike in difficulty right at the front but is otherwise rather easy, and then DSZ is a brick wall followed by an easier CEZ and ACZ1. One of the main goals in 2.1 is to fix that so that there is a gentle but real difficulty curve in the early game, ramping up from GFZ1's trivial difficulty towards ERZ's brutality. This means DSZ gets easier and CEZ gets harder in many places.
The thing is, I think CEZ and ACZ's difficulty is fair for where they stand in the game. The difficulty curve starts breaking with RVZ, which actually has no enemies or death pits, save for in some detours, and DCZ because it doesn't exist.

I agree that the present DSZ is too hard to be the third level, and this should be solved, probably by pulling an Aquatic Ruin and allowing the player to avoid most of the water provided he or she doesn't fall inside. But making CEZ harder is a bit of a band-aid fix and will only make ACZ seem more egregiously gratuitous (and that's a mouthful).
 
21gfz1-300x187.png
A new alcove in GFZ1 demonstrating the Whirlwind Shield with a trail of rings. GFZ1 has had a few minor modifications to help improve how well it teaches players our gameplay mechanics.
Is this area coop friendly, or is it not needed to complete the level?

In response to the difficulty curve issue, I wonder if it would be better to move DSZ to a different slot in the game?
 
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Is this area coop friendly, or is it not needed to complete the level?
It seems to be a small section of the level. (It could be just the 1up!) Even then, you can change your skin to Tails and fly to any areas that require the shield if you need too.
 
Oh yeah, I missed a few things:

The pits are already removed in 2.0. :P
Oops :P

WARNING: Misaligned texture alert! Not in my GFZ, please!

Is this area coop friendly, or is it not needed to complete the level?
I doubt they would change GFZ1 radically like that at this point. It's likely just the 1-Up.

In response to the difficulty curve issue, I wonder if it would be better to move DSZ to a different slot in the game?
I thought about this, because Sonic 1 kinda gets away with Labyrinth being the fourth level (even though Star Light is easier) but since the levels have already seen modifications to smoothen out the difficulty curve in their current order, I decided not to suggest it.
 
You shouldn't need to change your skin in order to complete the level. It does seem like it is just to get to the 1up, but it is a bit hard to tell.
 
I looked carefully, and if you look carefully too, the ledge behind the shield platform is easily reachable from the platform Sonic is on. So the tutorial is coop friendly.
 
A new forum on the 2.1 ?
Like Brown the dog, I also say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_VheAwZBuQ&feature=related

I do not have much to say for now, I must have the download to give a full opinion.

- SRB2CB ... I do not think it will be here. (I read not much the forums about it, there are too many messages...)
- Wind shield ... well, for me, the monitors are still small. In fact, I prefer the old. I think we can ever beat them. For the shield ... there will be speed light ? I mean, the Sonic that loads as light in lines of rings?
- The screen where you see flying Tails in THZ1 is maybe a little empty in terms of decoration.
 
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