Oh wow how did I miss this? I've been sleeping on this! Looks like other people have too, judging by the lack of reviews. This is a pretty awesome map, all things considered. The big open areas, the colors, and the scenery all come together to make a stage that just makes me happy running through it. Looking for the secrets and extra path made it just that bit more replayable too.
There are a few issues, though, that prevent it from being a solid 5 stars map.
- There are a few misaligned slopes, and geometry with awkward angles that mess with the flow. For the first one, you can fix this with triangles or adjusting linedef angles to be parallel. For the second one you should adjust your level geometry to be less stop-and-go, and instead be smoother, that you can run through without your flow being interrupted often. Neo Palmtree by GoldenB4, Azure Paradise by LazyMK, Oasis Palace by So2ro, and Emerald Aether by Krabs are a few stages that are very good at this, if you want levels to take some inspiration from. (I think Emerald Aether specifically is a level that does a lot of what you're going for with the open spaces, the bottom and lower paths, and the general feel of things)
-The thok barrier usage.:
The way thok barriers were used in this stage really broke a lot of the immersion for me. There are some walls that are unrealistically thin because of it, some high mountains without depth, and level geometry that gets cut off by sky that all looks really weird and kinda brings me out of the experience. You should move the thok barriers back so that there isn't sky that cuts off level geometry.
-It's really short!!!:
You should definitely make an update where you add a couple more rooms to this, as I feel like it ended before I could really get into it. Some extra length will definitely help the stage feel more fleshed out too. I love the vibe of this stage a lot and would love to stick around here more.
- Uninteresting object and enemy placement:
You could definitely find some more unique enemies than crawlas. Crawlas are super overused and it makes me groan when I see stages that still use primarily crawlas.
The decorative objects too are very bland and don't add much to the stage. I noticed you used community textures for this map, I'm glad to see people using the resource, you should also try using community objects.
All in all though this was a good level, and really impressive for what appears to be your second level ever. The improvement between this and Sunksea is extremely noticeable and very impressive. You should work on a map for the OLDC this May, I'm sure you'd place pretty well, and it would give you some very useful and helpful feedback too. Good job!
