Recycler: Is it even a good addition to 2.0?

I can not help but feel as if the Recycler box does more harm than good. While the issue with Super losing their emeralds to it has been fixed, Recycler still feels... annoying. Sure, it is rare, but I really dislike it when after collecting so many weapon rings and the like, I suddenly lose my hard work. Often, I will end up getting the equipment of a inexperienced player, or one who is unarmed, and be left barren due to pure randomness. And when I get a ton of equipment, it feels somewhat cheap that I suddenly got a ton of weapon rings when the one who worked hard for them lost them, and probably now has nothing. Recycler also causes problems in levels with Gravity, as in ERZ2, players can get stuck if Sonic is forceskin if they get a Recycler in the wrong place(and can be stuck in a certain part of the wind slide). Teleporter isn't as bad, though Telefraging is a bit unfair to be honest(not to mention should be completely disabled in Race).

While you can just simply turn them off, doing so requires cheats being enabled, and since it is on by default, very few servers will actually have it off.

Overall, do you think Recycler is a good or bad addition to SRB2? I don't think it is; it should either be removed, or at the very least be set off by default.

Sun said:

in ERZ2, players can get stuck if Sonic is forceskin if they get a Recycler in the wrong place

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Wait, recyclers don't appear in the first place in race OR Co-op. At least, I don't think they do. If they do, then leave the server if you get stuck somewhere.


Recyclers can be annoying, but reallly, it is unlikely for it to appear in a map, and making it less likely would cause the recycler fans to get all mad becausr they don't ever see it.

Recyclers can be annoying if you have 6 emeralds, all the weapons with full ammo, and a force/nuke/elemental shield, but otherwise, they're okay in my book. I relish the time when I see a recycler, because that gives me a chance to get everything I need without actually doing much (I know I'm lazy). I would rather keep them on, but I really could care less if they were turned off.

The entire point is to shuffle things up and give someone ELSE besides the dominating person a chance to do stuff.

Shuffling gravity is intentional because it's SUPPOSED to be a temporary powerup. Unfortunately ERZ2 doesn't exactly see it this way.

Thank you for making me feel even WORSE today. Augh.

The person with the most resources is not necessarily the one in the lead; early game in fact, it's more likely to be the other way around as you have to go out of your way to get weapons, ammo, emeralds, and a shield as opposed to going after other players. You do this because the advantage provided by acquiring these things has the potential to earn you more points over the course of the game than you lost going out of your way to get them; whether or not this pays off depends on how much action took place while you were away, and how well you are able to hold on to your weapons the rest of the game.

Enter the recycler, a completely random event that cannot be predicted or countered, which says that everything you gathered might be arbitrarily given to someone else, thus negating any skill that was previously associated with reading the pace of the game to decide how to invest your time gathering weapons. Losing Supersonic to recycler was only the most severe symptom of this; it is no less a problem with any other resource, and it is essentially SRB2's answer to the blue shell.

As for letting other players do stuff, the nature of Sonic the Hedgehog deathmatch is that there is extreme liquidy to all resources in play; you only have to be hit once to lose all your weapons and ammunition(for it to be quickly picked up by your attacker or scavengers, nevermind extreme knockback weapons), and everything respawns in short order; even as a new player who didn't know how to turn on crosshairs and used keyboard only controls without strafe I was never hurting for weapons or items for terribly long, and I sure as heck wouldn't be in need of it in a 2.0 game without recycler. But what this liquidy also means is that if a player who would otherwise never have anything(as if) finds themselves with a horde of resources because of recycler, they are certain to lose it almost immediately. Again, this was most obvious with recycling supersonic, but the exact same problem is present when applied to every other resource.

And, as previously mentioned, if the gravity powerup is at all used as part of level design, recycler is a spanner in the works that can break the whole system(as Inuyasha mentioned with regards to ERZ2). The only recourse for a mapper in this situation is to not have random monitors in the map, because he has no control over their output. If it's a circuit/coop/race map, the mapper has to not have monitors period because the "all random monitor" option can output recyclers.

If I could, I would play my games with recycler disabled, but this option doesn't exist; it's always been one of my gripes with multiplayer in 2.0.

Thats so true. You don't even need all the specials if you know how to aim well. I remember many times when i would get the highest score in CTF/match by only using normal rings. Honestly I find it useless to hunt for all six special rings, and a shield. Maybe if they are really close by it would be a good advantage, but one hit from someone without a shield, and you could lose all of the things you wasted your time hunting for. And getting a shield gets difficult with all the shield hogs that camp near the boxes with the shields. But even when you finally get a shield after five minutes of hunting, someone could rail you off of the stage. I do understand the recycler has its advantages, and disadvantages, but a truly skilled player doesn't need all those fancy weapons to get a high score anyways.

Recycler: Is it even a good addition to 2.0?

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Yes, because it's like the random occasional smart bomb ruining a game in Smash Bros. It breaks up the pace and provides a bit of variety, and shouldn't be a major concern because of a) its low chance of happening, and b) it's just a game.

In both Smash and SRB2 match I enjoy the events which take place over the course of the game much more than the ultimate outcome. Conversely, in SRB2 race, the end result is of much greater importance to me (probably due to the greater lack of player interaction), so random teleports and recyclers screwing stuff up really ruin the game for me.

Or it could just be that if something screws you over in race, that's it, you're done. There's no climbing back up. The recycler, however, will rarely if ever be the deciding event of a match.

It's not a bad thing. As Neo Chaotikal said, it provides a little variety, keeps you on your toes.

Some people take winning to be serious business (some so much so, they immediately take anything they can't do/counter (aka can't be bothered to learn) as cheap.)

The recycler is a random powerup that randomly shuffles everyone's powerups. While a lot of people instantly decry such chance (ironically, any powerful powerup needs to be random to be fair, even triggering it with a sequence of moves would mean you'd probably win without them, making it useless) as retarded, they don't complain when it works out in their favour... eh? :P

Everything can be annoying. Personally, I find the rail ring breaks the otherwise delicate balance of the weapons. Should it be removed? No. It's still fair, and breaks the balance in a good, refreshing way that's not overpowered, and keeps you on your toes. Something hard to do in a game. Not to mention it's pretty much the ideal counter to special abilities (thok, fly, glide) if you can aim it right. And I'm normally useless with the things... except when I'm not. Then I scare myself sometimes.

Even if Fancyname the Sonicfurry ends up getting a recycler drop on EpicPro9001 and stealing all seven emeralds and a whole tonne of powerups, and then goes super, what's gonna happen? Fancyname will crash into walls, stop to shoot, and get Auto'd in the damn face, possibly by EpicPro, maybe by some sneaky Tails using bastard. (oh look a neon sign flashing over my HEAD. It hurts my eyes ._.)

Losing badly is annoying, (especially when it's not your fault) and I rage a lot more than I admit. But I don't lose my game face, you'll never tell when I rage. I keep it to myself, actually. Others try to "balance" the game. This community is too small to reach consensus on what is overpowered, and what isn't. (Hell, Sonic is seriously overrated amongst the playerbase, and I love proving he's not the only way to win.)

The only issue is with gravity, and that could possibly be fixed with some special flag...? So as to not recycle it (and have someone teleported to your place take it) in vital levels like ERZ2, but not Twisted Terminal, where it's merely a gimmick, and not needed. Although I'm not familiar, and have no idea how much of a messy hack such implementation would be.

If someone steals your crap with recycle, shoot the hell out of them. If you can't, they might have stole it off you with bullets.

GTF said:

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WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?! YOU'LL KILL US ALL!



But in all seriousness, I like how the recycler gives players not-so-skilled players a chance at something they would never normally get a chance to do. I once seen a player lose all 7 emeralds to a not-so-skilled player.


He didn't do much with it, but I bet he had fun.

I´d prefer to have a single game-cracking up item than 2 different pointless items, if there is a need to have an item to ruin someone´s game, make the Recycler and Teleporter a single item, that switches rings, positions, items, and everything, it´s annoying having 2 boxes per separate.

Sonnarkku said:

I´d prefer to have a single game-cracking up item than 2 different pointless items, if there is a need to have an item to ruin someone´s game, make the Recycler and Teleporter a single item, that switches rings, positions, items, and everything, it´s annoying having 2 boxes per separate.

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lolol point swap in match but srsly why do people hate this so much it's only an element of luck fdwfdfrs

Sun said:

Recycler still feels... annoying. Sure, it is rare, but I really dislike it when after collecting so many weapon rings and the like, I suddenly lose my hard work. Often, I will end up getting the equipment of a inexperienced player, or one who is unarmed, and be left barren due to pure randomness

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Thats highly annoying, specially when you have 6 chaos emeralds...
STjr SHOULD remove the recycler... Seriously, It's terrible, stupid, unfair and probably the worst item in the game. (Not to mention it is F***ing annoying)

I probably wouldn't mind it if the effect didn't happen so suddenly.

I'll be in the middle of a firefight and then *SHVLSDGH* and I'll be like "what" and find myself with a completely different set to adjust to. If there was a preluding sound to warn that recycle is about to happen, it'd give me a second to anticipate it and say "okay, my loadout's going to change, better be ready to deal with it". Kind of the same with teleports.

nightmare cenz said:

Thats highly annoying, specially when you have 6 chaos emeralds...
STjr SHOULD remove the recycler... Seriously, It's terrible, stupid, unfair and probably the worst item in the game. (Not to mention it is F***ing annoying)

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Annoying with six? Try seven.

I mean, half the time you get nothing (YOU LOSE! GOOD DAY, SIR!) and half the time you get some good stuff. Honestly, it's unfair in the same way the Lightning in SSBB is unfair. It appears, someone gets it, people get good or bad effects. And if you're playing a team game and find one, you get the bonus of throwing your emeralds at a wall, and possibly getting them all with the item's effect afterward. Or someone else could steal them. (That's a bit of minor skill the zappy object doesn't have)

Cognitive reinforcement at it's finest, here. You only remember the bad times, and think the recycler is RNG bound to try and backstab people doing well. It doesn't even exchange your rings, for crying out loud! You can still shoot the guy who got your stuff, eventually anyhow.

Rail rings are fucking annoying, and can be unfair based off of the lag, should we get rid of them? Nope. Because everyone can use them and have at least some kind of shot at them. Like the recycler. Not to mention without it Tails is OP so :P

Blue Warrior said:

I probably wouldn't mind it if the effect didn't happen so suddenly.

I'll be in the middle of a firefight and then *SHVLSDGH* and I'll be like "what" and find myself with a completely different set to adjust to. If there was a preluding sound to warn that recycle is about to happen, it'd give me a second to anticipate it and say "okay, my loadout's going to change, better be ready to deal with it". Kind of the same with teleports.

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Good point. But in team games, everyone's gonna hammer the emerald toss button, leaving the poor buggers with the flag a little disadvantaged.

I guess this would make me the culprit of triggering random teleports and recyclers. *is chased away by an angry mob*

I personally try to avoid the recyclers or teleports. Though, sometimes I get froggy and hit it just to see how my luck will change or where I will end up. It may not be fun for other people, but I get a kick whenever I hit one of those and I either lost all my stuff, or get someone's stash of grenades in exchange for some rail or bomb rings. Same with teleports because you will never know where you will end up once you hit it. Which means that it either gets you away from open fire or places you over a bottomless pit and you fall to your death.

But is it good? Well, it goes either way... Sometimes you get nice things from it and other times you lose a good shield (people always taking my elemental shields... >.<) and weapons you broke your back for. I don't hate it, but I don't like it either. So, I'm kinda 'meh' with it.

It takes the skill out of the game yet it also provides a boost to those who are less good at playing SRB2. However, now that it's been gimped to no longer recycle supers, I don't see much purpose (as that was it's main usage).

Cinefast said:

It takes the skill out of the game yet it also provides a boost to those who are less good at playing SRB2. However, now that it's been gimped to no longer recycle supers, I don't see much purpose (as that was it's main usage).

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Does stealing 6 of the emeralds off of someone not useful?

I don't mind it, because it makes things interesting when you
have emeralds on, and gives lesser skilled player a chance at
things they would never normally be able to do.

Letting the unskilled player get the advantage is not always the case. Usually, a skilled player is dominating by actually fighting, while someone else is searching for the emeralds. With the recycler, those emeralds manage to end up on that skilled player's possession. A few seconds later, he grabs the last emerald and goes Super.

Neo and Kopper have it exactly right; go play any Smash Bros. game with default settings and then try to tell me that a little unpredictabilty will kill you.

But to those stirring up the skilled/unskilled inevitability argument, you forget that everybody is subject to its' effect, and there is no telling to whom the items will shuffle or how they will end up used; in fact it becomes increasingly random the more players that are in the game. It's not possible to speak for how Recycler will play out in every netgame.

Make the Recycler ignore gravity - it causes more problems than its' benefits seem to be worth* - and you've fixed pretty much the only remaining serious problem with it.

*Edit: Ok, other than those funny instances in Twisted Terminal where the flag carrier gets sent to the cieling in front of a base...