Incredirock Demo Demo v1.2

It's been a while since I played the old version, so I can't quite say for sure what's changed since then other than the new level being added, but I do remember getting a lot more frustrated than I did this time.

The continued complete lack of checkpoints is a bit befuddling. Having to redo the whole level up to that point every time you die while trying to get the hang of the platforms that fling you up in TRZ1 gets a bit monotonous. Not a dealbreaker for me, but still something I'd like to see fixed.

One thing I remember is the underwater maze in TRZ2 originally being pretty much guaranteed death, which seems to have been fixed. Hooray for that! I think the geysers may have also been made easier to figure out, but then again, I might have just already gotten used to them.

MFZ mostly feels like more of the same, which is fine in my book! I've seen some people criticize the "massive, open areas with a bunch of slopes" style of level design, but personally, I'm a sucker for it. Maybe it's just because I haven't played as many levels like that, I'm not sure. Plus, the few level gimmicks along the way help to break up the openness and adjust the pace in a way I really like.

Other than that, my primary gripes are specific level design nitpicks - namely, the rising dirt platforms not really being properly introduced before having to platform over a bottomless pit with them, and the sharp turn near the end of TRZ2, where the rings seem to be prompting you to turn around and start backtracking - I think it might be more intuitive to place it in the shape of two merging curves that point the player towards the actual goal.

This has great potential! I'll go through each act and write as I play, but take this with a grain of salt as I haven't made any maps of my own.

TRZ1: There are two paths at the start of the level, at the end of the right path it's easy to accidentally backtrack. You need to take a hard right after the small slope but the intuitive direction is straight, which sends you backwards through the left path.
The death pit at the end of the act is way too far below the water, maybe set the death barrier a few feet down instead?

TRZ2: Act 2 has the same problem with the death pits as the first. It's not too big of a deal but it's mildly annoying to watch Sonic fall all the way down.
The geyser gimmick is neat, but it's a bit hard to find the spring if you fall into the water in the middle section. Maybe add a few more so you aren't guaranteed to drown. There's also a semi-precise slope jump at the end which I game overed at on my first runthrough.

TRZ3: For some reason Eggman is on the opposite side of the arena? You can't even see him when you first spawn! I'd suggest completely reversing the idea of the boss arena and have one central island with four little ones you can hop on to get a better angle.
However, fighting the Eggmobile on a sloped surface makes things a bit more interesting. Not much can be done to make the first boss harder, but I trust your ability.

TRZ1 (1.1): I don't have much to say that I haven't said about the 1.0 version but it's a marked improvement! I haven't searched for the Chaos Emeralds as of writing so I can't say anything on them.

The map has length. It's quite explorable, and I think v1.1 is a big improvement for however many paths you wind up in.

One problem is I found only three chaos emeralds from the map. I felt confused and probably overlooked many parts of the map just to find the chaos emeralds that weren't just blue, orange, and grey.

Don't mind that part though, I think the map is good overall.

This is literally the best map I've ever played. The way how open the stages are remind me of Sonic Frontiers (my favorite sonic game). But this might be because I'm on Android, but on both software and opengl the stage glitches and I can fall through the floor. And I have to get in and out of the stage. Still, very awesome map.

As a tester for the mod. I'll say this map pack is great. The first level looks well done. Especially the second level and boss arena. The transition to act 2 to 3 looks great. This is just a demonstration of what's to come. I love the map pack and I hope the future version of it goes well.

As the first (and from my knowledge, one of the only) tester of this mod, i can CONFIDENTLY say this map pack is SUPER well done! The first level feels Smooth as hell to, and isnt short, nor too long. For such a expansive first level, its super well done, and brings together a good introduction of the mappack. And as the title suggests, this is just a DEMONSTRATION of whats to come! I've absolutely loved everything so far, and i hope you all stay tuned for more!

Loving it! I'm always a fan of big, open levels like this. It kind of reminds me of the 2.3 prototypes. I've got a few gripes with it, which I'll detail in the discussion thread, but I'm sure those will be fixed in later versions.

Note I played the whole main cast (plus Vector) for everything. I also used Many Minor Tweaks, while it's nothing super game-changing it should be no different from a regular modless playthrough.

From what's available, it's pretty good. Most beginner mappers make their maps too cramped that even the smallest characters struggle to navigate.

I'm glad to say this is not the case. The stages are big and fun to navigate. Though lacking monitors and checkpoints there's a lot to explore and most of my complaints is it being too empty and not much going on.

However, I may note it's almost impossible for Fang to beat Act 1. I'm not sure if I'm missing something but the floating stones just don't launch Fang very far and the jerboa is doomed to a watery grave.

I'd personally scrap the floating stones and replace them with the water pillars.

I played through this as X Sonic, so take my words under that consideration:

This first zone makes great use 2.2.14's texture scaling features for decor, and the enemy placement is actually worth studying, as they felt like extremely intentional obstacles, rather than being haphazardly placed.

Though, the size is probably a great detriment. The reason I played this as X Sonic was because vanilla sonic was just *unbearably slow*. You really should be using a momentum mod, or at least something that lets you redirect rolling momentum into other platforms easier. Same goes for the water below too. You either wade through a flat plane of rock until you find an exit, or wait patiently for your character to fall all the way to the death pit a mile underwater.

Act 1 also has moving platforms, one section has clearly defined brown colors, so while it's not clear what they do until you touch them, it's strongly incentivised that you try going in that direction, and from there it's pretty clear what to do. The other moving platform is an elevator to save you from some pitless water. You litterally can't even see it. It's in a grass corner laid off to the side with no reason to actually stand there, and uses the exact same floor texture as the surrounding area.

I think the map could be scaled down a little bit, but what's already here is pretty darn solid level design. Like I said earlier, they knew what they were doing when adding enemies, and they really did succeed in making enjoyable and memorable level pieces. If more care was put in the water section as a true bottom path, or if it were completely absent like supposed later zones, as well as not understimulatingly large, then the full pack could really turn out to be better than cyberdime for me!