Blue Heaven is being updated for 2.0 - details inside

Jump to Nov 12, 2009 update

Some of you may recall that I've been putting off updates to Blue Heaven until SRB2 was nearing another public release. Well, in the last few months leading up to 2.0 I began readying my level pack for another release of its own. I intend to use this thread to document my progress toward release as I bring each individual level up to date and complete the addition of the newest zone, Arid Ruins. I'll update periodically with news relating to my recent progress and some screenshots here and there. In this sense I guess it'll be sort of like a blog, but I like the simplicity of posting updates in the forum.

In this first post, I bring you Burning Cavern Zone, act 2 specifically.



The first thing you'll notice is the new texture set. There will be a fair bit more of this in future updates, thanks to the efforts of the texture artists. Moving on, you may recognize this particular scene as the second "room" of act 2, which currently consists almost entirely of lava and sinking platforms. I decided when updating this area that this kind of challenge wasn't really acceptable. It wasn't fun, in any case. Solid ground now circles the outer path of the room while a few sinking platforms remain in the inner path, resulting in a much fairer challenge. The faster path is slightly more dangerous than the slower one.

A welcome change in 2.0 is the addition of flame jets. I didn't like the idea of relying on an exe mod for everybody else to experience my level pack in the fullest. They're now part of the main game, so that's one less conflict I need to deal with.

Elsewhere in the level I've added some pseudo-slopes. In the past I've been against this, but in the context of a volcano setting I have to admit they don't actually look all that bad. This better facilitates gradual changes in elevation than repeated jumping, and overall I think the level flows better for it.

Unfortunately I've run into some difficulty at the end of act 2 with linedef executors. The button near the end only half works, it lowers the ground just under the lava but not the shallow layer of lava itself, and I can't work out why this is. This leaves the level completable only if you jump into the lava and fall through to the bottom of the room (or if you're playing in race mode, in which case that entire event is bypassed).

I have yet to do anything with act 1 aside from replace its texture set. I can only hope that the lava rising event at the end isn't subject to the same bug as described above.

I look forward to seeing Blue Heaven for 2.0. =)

As do I. I can barely believe you have any part in the community in the first place.

Test, Blue Heaven for coop would be a great gift you'd be giving to the community. I always wanted to host BH in servers, and I did, but using "-force" broke the fun.

Super yay; Blue Heaven is back. The lack of updates was discouraging and I was thinking that it would be a sad fate for such a great level pack. I look forward to the 2.0 update.

Awesome. I found out about this mod near the end 1.09.4's life and it was fun. I hope you make it playable in co-op.

AFAIK, there was a reason hy coop was disabled. I think it was because of the rising lava. He would have to make the player skip the room if he dies, just like in RVZ1.

YES Blue Heaven in 2.0! This was one of my favorite 1.09.4 mods, but it was already dead when I found it. Nice to hear it's coming back.

To tell the truth, I much rather preferred the other textures you used for the walls in BCZ. These ones just look plain and boring now.

SpiritCrusher got it right. I don't plan to support co-op play because of the problems it would cause with level events like the rising lava room in Burning Cavern act 1. Once the first player reaches that point in either co-op or race mode, everyone else is at a disadvantage because the lava has already begun to rise. The draining lava room in act 2 poses a similar problem, though in this case the player in the lead is at a disadvantage.

I don't know of any workable alternatives, so in this case, "the only winning move is not to play." I'd like to support co-op, but it just isn't worth the trouble in my opinion. Race mode is just as fun anyway.

Ice, are you really saying that the texture set seen in this screenshot looks better than the new one? I think it's bland and repetitive. I thought that when I first created Burning Cavern, but there was no better set at the time.

You could Have a linedef executor that executes with the NO SONIC, NO TAILS, NO KNUX flags on, and it will only execute in coop and race. That way, it can have the lava raising room in single player, but not in coop.

Tets said:

SpiritCrusher got it right. I don't plan to support co-op play because of the problems it would cause with level events like the rising lava room in Burning Cavern act 1. Once the first player reaches that point in either co-op or race mode, everyone else is at a disadvantage because the lava has already begun to rise. The draining lava room in act 2 poses a similar problem, though in this case the player in the lead is at a disadvantage.

I don't know of any workable alternatives, so in this case, "the only winning move is not to play." I'd like to support co-op, but it just isn't worth the trouble in my opinion. Race mode is just as fun anyway.

Ice, are you really saying that the texture set seen in this screenshot looks better than the new one? I think it's bland and repetitive. I thought that when I first created Burning Cavern, but there was no better set at the time.

Click to expand...

For the lava problem, can't you make a separate path(Like RVZ did?)

Autosaver said:

For the lava problem, can't you make a separate path(Like RVZ did?)

Click to expand...

It would take away a whole lotta fun because in BCZ these room are a big part of the level.
YOu could still support only those levels that are playable.

Tets said:

I'd like to support co-op, but it just isn't worth the trouble in my opinion.

Click to expand...

It's too much trouble to make a side-room open up with a spring in it? O_o

Obviously that would be easy to do. But I'd have to devise some way of making it work so that during gameplay it doesn't seem as contrived as it really is. I'm not familiar with how RVZ does this. As it stands, I don't think it's worth my time.

I would just make a multiplayer exclusive path altogether past that area. One more suited to both coop and race than the rooms mentioned. However, in the case of how RVZ does it, I'm pretty sure it opens the path after flooding the room so that anyone caught behind would be forced to take that path. This would be rather effective for race and would address the noreload aspect of co-op.

I am unsure if he meant how to do it, or what it did. For the how, I think it is just using the same sector that triggers the lava to rise, to make the ceiling of the other path to rise.

RVZ1 triggers it regardless of game mode. If you jump over the lava and thok backwards, the passage opens in single player.

3 line def executes by a single trigger.

Here's another update for you. I haven't been working on Blue Heaven nearly as much as I wanted to, and this is mostly because I've been running Ubuntu Linux for the past couple of months now. Recently, however, I got SRB2 DB running under Wine and have been able to resume my work.

Today I bring you a screenshot of my recent work on Frigid Peak, act 1.



Frigid Peak is the next zone in my pack to receive a re-texturing. I like the way it turned out, it's much more pleasing to the eye than the old xmas mode textures it used before. In addition to the texturing, I've also reworked the level layout a bit. The area pictured above has been enlarged slightly and I've added another short cliff side area just after the cave where the level originally ended. Ending a level inside a cave is kind of boring.

An idea that I've been toying with recently is using the fake floor special to make the mountain setting more believable. What this does is extend the walls of the mountain further downward so they don't simply end where the death pit begins, so it looks like you're actually on top of a mountain but you don't need to fall for ten seconds before you die and respawn.

Other than that, my focus on Blue Heaven now is fixing everything that's broken, including enemy placement. If I keep adding things now I'll never get to a point where I feel comfortable making a release. After I get the next version out is when I can start thinking about real important stuff like making new badniks and bosses.