Official Level Design Collab 2023: Round 2 1.1

I'm just here to say that Sapphire Twilight was the most fun I've had in SRB2 for a long while. Been playing this game since I was a kid and I come back to it now and then, but I get dissatisfied by the low difficulty. This level actually had me die more than 30 times and it was hella fun beating it. Very creative use of springs, slopes and spikes as well. The last section induces an adrenaline rush like no other level. Very good stuff @Vixuzen

I'm really sorry but the quality of this one is the lowest it's been in years, a lot of poorly thought out ideas or extremely barren maps and almost nothing feels like it has the raw passion of the last OLDC.
The hub is also much worse than last year's there should REALLY be some form of quality control here because Metallic City should not have been allowed in and various other maps just feel somewhat lazy.

Hoping next year is back to the quality I expect out of the OLDC.

Well, I had some hours of fun playing this, but I wish I could say more. The hub is neat, but I'd like it if the command to show the map was visible at some other time, since by the time I needed the command I couldn't find what it was.

As for the levels, some were good, some were great, some were meh, but I'm so disappointment at how this pack managed to include two maps that can't be considered levels.

One of them was the ice level with Rayman collectibles. It reminds me of a Little Timmy level in Mario Maker in that it's filled with massive spike balls spread haphazardly with no rhyme or reason, for way too long. I sincerely doubt the level can be completed with a character like Sonic.

The other is Doomship Act 2. It's a troll level, but worse than that is that it cannot be beaten: after you press the large button that sucks you into outer space there is absolutely nothing you can do but go with it and then die. If there is, I gave up after way too many attempts before finding it.

I'm not sure how the "collab" part of the packs works, but I hope that in the future it means level creators can help each other before the pack goes live, thus stopping such levels from showing up, and helping the other levels soar even higher.

lots of levels and so much fun! alot of work has been put into this level pack great job guys!

see that version number, ITS LYING TO YOU. the mb from my understanding doesnt let you review mods for the version you actually played if it has updated. this review is for 1.0.0

i have not downloaded *any* updates because i wanted to review every level on the same grounds

if anything was fixed in a later version that i bring up, don't tell me it was fixed...

# NULL space
wasnt good, wasnt bad.

forces level, kinda wish the minecarts moved a bit faster

# doomship

yep that was made in 2.0, didnt really like the invisable platform as if you aren't aware its supposted to be like that then you think its a pit (i am aware that the platforms are invisible because he wanted to recreate a visual bug from 2.0, *or* he didn't know how to add flats), though i am on 1.0. the tiny sonic and tails challenge was fun, didnt really feel like doomship which is an airship from my understanding. felt more like erz, good challenging level if you are willing to deal with some of the bs

was way better than blue mountan zone act 2

music was good

# hanging illusion

good music, liked that it was a mario mode level as it doesnt get used often, like the theme, some areas are a tad bit too dark with brightness at max with opengl, some parts in the 2d mode makes the camera move to avoid being in a wall, there was a blind jump into what i thought was thorns to progress, got lost in circles for a bit due to the correct path being somewhat hidden, first time got stuck in "Spring Anti-Softlock" got eaiser the second time though, in the invisable bridge platforming section i would have prefered holes to be more clearly marked, glad failure in that part didnt kill you

# hub part one

it legit killed my audio driver... idk how it just did

# hub part two

i know im on an old version (1.0), but the missing textures should have never been in a release build

# egg rocket

FUCKING AMAZING MUSIC, one section with spring gets caught with a wall, add gaurd rails after to your 3d to 2d to 3d sections, make sure to make it more sighreadable, didnt really like how much screenshake there was

# spleenik the game, act 2

wide specki, i thoked into a pit, need checkpoints, emblems are placed well

again, i legit dont know what i just played

# snow skies, act 2

bad killplane color choice

# chemical base act 1

purple acid (dont like), varied level design

# blue mountain (2.2 edition)

contains the stupid fucking rvz dinosaurs, frozen water death pit combo, moving ball river part where the ball goes under the bridge isnt consistant, legit made me rage at balls, KILL THAT FUCKING DINOSAUR

# hexacolor heaven Zone

FUCKING AMAZING INTRO, nice colorize filter, pits can blend in, legit the level i never knew i needed, a bit short

# Omelette Farms

balls, i legit dont know what i just played

# magma mountain

legit triggered my falling celing ptsd (thx advance 3), pretty borring fang fight

# twilight hill act 2

you switched from it being a gusher to not being a gusher over a bottomless pit

# circuit rush zone act 1

im going to be honest, this is fucking too much....

# circuit rush zone act 2

fuck that fight

# windy forest

instakill spikes, after spikes that dont instakill you... good level overall though

# hub part 3

ok can you please make those warp pads work better, i keep on accidently spindashing on them

# rainy foliage zone

nice zone, metal race is a bit too tight though

# pipe sewers act 1

this level is shit, jokes aside its nice and short with some challenge, good level

# hub part 4

fuck the nights room, i can bearly see because of how clastrophobic it is, the levels also didnt need to be that high

# palace of nights zone

fun nights level, good job hiding an emerald in it too

# the nightmare zone

not hard, again i dont know what i just played

# mount majesty act 1

bad skybox, instakill water under ice platforming, other than that pretty good level

# zaxel's garden zone

uphill slope that lead into a sudden dropoff, camera didnt ketch up. this happened multiple times. good level otherwise

# temple trek zone

Crissy is back with another banger, some ground textures somewhat blend in with the thorns, path can be unclear at times. very good level

# colorvoid chasm zone

really good level, wish it was fleshed out more. also really needs another checkpoint

# blossoming brushes zone

intresting visuals

# vermutlich ne insel zone

insta kill lava come one, good music, fun

# ground veil z zone

i dont really have anything...

# metalic city zone

very short, first jump at the start of the stage probally should of been a slope or stair

# totem tombolo zone

cool level, intresting gimmics

# artic summet zone

holy shit that was a long fall to my death, couple parts are a bit hard to see in, strobing lights a bit much. pretty good none the less

# fortune forge zone

fucking intresting level, i love gambling

# saphire twilight zone

make the pits that through you up more obvious, didnt really like the texture for the snow spikes, you can still have more than just the edges sticking out, i wish i was made aware of the health mechanic before i was half way through the fucking level, DONT FUCKING SPAM SPIKEBALLS

I think it is better than the last OLDC where I only liked about three maps, but a lot of these levels are still painfully average. Combine that with my discontempt with recent SRB2 mapping paradigms and you got yourself a two star.

Love the hub - clearly a lot of effort went into it, both in terms of visuals/decorations, and the functionality/LUA side of things. The individual shops are a really nice way to give a taste of what the maps will be like, plus it was fun to see how folks decorated them differently.
It would be nice if the fast-travel worked between sessions, and my FPS did struggle at times, especially in the really long rows of shops.

I really appreciate the variety in maps. Visuals, length, difficulty and gameplay/modes are all really varied, which made it fun just running into a map and seeing what we got. It also helped keep things feeling fresh, otherwise 30+ maps could end up feeling quite homogenous.

I understand a lot of the maps are listed as singleplayer, but it would be nice if everything functioned properly in multiplayer as well.
- The help tooltips / text boxes in multiple maps didn't display in multiplayer. This was particularly an issue in Fortune Forge because it just wasn't clear what we were supposed to be doing.
- The teleports in Egg Rocket (I think) teleporting all players at the same time, regardless of progress was a bit jarring/confusing.
- I'm not sure if the Lums in a couple maps are quite working in multiplayer, seemed to be issues with them not disappearing, and endlessly spawning particle effects
- On the flip side, I actually think Doomship Act 2 was more enjoyable in multiplayer cus it didn't completely reset the whole map if someone died :P

Overall I really enjoyed this OLDC, ran in to some issues here and there, but nothing that makes me think it deserves less than 5-stars.

It's 50% great 50% incomplete. The hub feels like New Soleana town from 06. It looks like it had so much potential, but due to problems, it is just incomplete and empty...

Pretty good levels

I can understand the love of other players for the hub, but I think that this is the most terrible hub in all OLDC that were.

this is not a hub, this is some kind of hangout level. I don't want to play hangout. if I have the desire, I'll download some mod with such levels and play it. I absolutely dislike this giant mess of literally everything. I've never gotten lost in such large and useless locations. There are even literally just empty rooms with no levels. I just want to run around a small level where there is access to other levels. it's all that I need. (I understand that a small hub can't be created so easily, because there are damn 30 levels, but I think this can be managed.)

I absolutely don't like the quality of the levels. no, there are definitely some really good and enjoyable levels here (like 3-4 levels) but most of them look like they were... I don’t know how to put it correctly... made by not very experienced players? I'm not saying that all levels have to be amazing like THZ/CEZ/past OLDCs winners or something else, but I want at least a minimum GFZ/HHZ/standard.

I wanted to participate in this OLDC but after the whole competitive part disappeared... wait...

I feel like things have gotten worse since it became just a "collab" now. there is no competition here and, therefore, no one wants to make super cool levels (even if a person lacks experience). I can try to make a level OR I can try to make a cool level to take first place. I think these are completely different concepts. (perhaps there is different reason?)

if it has now become a collab because other players help other players and because of this the meaning of the competition is lost... because standards 2.2. have grown incredibly and you won’t be able to make a super-cool level that will be at least in the top three... and because of this it takes a lot more time...

well that definitely changes a lot. or is it?

2.2 really changed a lot. and the first thing it did was raise the minimum standard (or what else can you call it?). you can't just do it the way you did it in 2.1 or before. It's a different era. secondly, these are possibilities. new features that were not in 2.1 and slopes. UDMF.

what does all this give? now creating a quality level takes a lot of time and the creator must have good experience. if you don't create levels much and have no idea what design is, well, I think your level won't be very good. I don't want to say that you shouldn't participate in OLDC, because I think OLDC is different.

if you want to improve, make levels and release them on MB and share it on discord - people will tell you what’s wrong with your level (oh wait, no one will write any criticism on MB because it's not a super amazing creation... sorry... no one will say anything about your level (I think this is a completely different problem))

if there is a problem that the player wants to participate and they has some problems due to which he can't complete they level, third parties can be involved (as is already the case? I didn't participate in OLDC and can't say anything about it, but it seems like glaber, othius, chasesp, larz t, tatsuru and maybe someone else already helping with this? it's a difficult question).

I'll make a future video about each level and the hub. also, somewhere in the near future I'll make my own version of the hub to show my vision of what it should be (but you won't find the download link here because mb rules, sorry :^ )

despite this, I think the first two OLDCs were the best even despite such an abundance of new 2.2 stuff.

well, this topic is actually much more complicated and I think something needs to be done about it. of course, I may not be offering very good options, but I think you've got food for thought.

some levels are a little frustrating and/or could use some more work, but overall this is one of the best OLDCs yet in my opinion, especially that hub. everyone who participated did a great job!

Ever since the switch to this being a community project instead of a contest, level quality has been considerably worse, no offense.

Lots of featured levels looks like as if they were made by an 11 year old that just learned about SRB2 modding. I don't mind like, one or two beginner levels, but when they take up mostly half the pack, it really starts to show the quality dip. Despite SRB2 having its own level design and being branched off from DOOM, lots of levels featured here are as if they were DOOM maps. Cramped hallways, enemy spam, bottomless pits everywhere, confusing and directionless level design that gets you send back to the start of the level, etc. One level(Doomship Act 2) was literally a rage level where you just have to know what's coming up next and you only get one ring. Some levels are a minute long (without speedrunning), while some are greater than 5 minutes. And of course, a Metal Sonic boss fight and a meme level has to be in every level pack, I guess. I couldn't even play one level cause it was laggy and unoptimized af (I have a pretty decent PC that ran every level up to or even above 60 fps).

Overall, not really impressed with this one, guys. The only saving grace with this OLDC is the hub. The hub is always amazing! Speaking of the hub tho, the quick teleports have a bug where they'll just reset and lock back up randomly. It's really annoying.

I love it the hub,maps outstanding! But the hub is not optimized for mobile.

well, this is kinda mixed

a few levels are great (egg rocket and... null space of all things for example)

then some levels are blossoming brushes

This OLDC While a tad bit late was actually a bunch of fun, the levels were pretty decently spread, most i actually enjoyed, so much so i didnt end up having a bias of playing my own zones, i didnt find too much lag in SP, and the hub had a refreshing feel to it due to the mall asthetic and being able to individually make our shops! The only real downside was the abundance of Icy Mountain levels, though personslly my favorite of them was Rosie's Blue Mountain! And for general favorite level? Egg Rocket, need i say more?

No offense, but this gotta be the most nothingburger OLDC i've ever experienced. Not that there weren't any good maps, far from it, but most were just underwhelming at best in my opinion. Gotta give props for the hub tho, the mall theme is nice, although maybe could have been executed a bit better.

The hub feels very unfinished. There were more levels that I didn't like in this pack than ones I liked. Lots of lag on both both weak and somewhat ok hardware. I can say that some people improved their ability to make levels. That's always a good thing. Feels like there isnt much actual collaboration on the maps that desperately needed it. Not exactly my favorite oldc.

I mean there's a few decent levels, but for some reason in the most recent update my game will freeze for a while and i'll have to continuously focus and un-focus. Also i seem to lag quite a lot in a few levels, and the hub i'll get like 7-ish frames and it's usually not THAT bad.

figured that i'd leave this here to just let people know that:

YOU. NEED. A. DECENT. PC. TO. ENJOY. THIS.

I think this seems to be the best, I really like how there is a bit more of circuit maps. I didn't even knew that there was only one for ringslinger. But this is a very great oldc 2023 collab.

i've been playing it for a bit and its making my laptop sound like a jet turbine but man is it cool! i love the mall them here, malls are very cool! cool lebels! i love it!