Is this game SUPPOSED to be this slippery?

[VelocitOni]

But I have a speedrunner's mentality and generally try to see how much I can skip with clever jumping in other sonic games.

The very last thing you should be doing is complaining about physics and controls when you're a new player in a vastly different environment than the classics, and playing naively for speedrun thrill rather than taking it slow. SRB2 is definitely NOT a pick-up-and-play, you take it slow.

 

[Yacker]

Good to see you're already getting better! Although, yeah, it might be in your mind that going fast is the best way to play, but trust me, the thok is your worst enemy when trying to platform.

 

[Prime 2.0]

Since Iceman didn't elaborate on what actually allows thok to be useable in platforming, I will:

Same strategy applies as with normal jumping, except now you have a fixed starting speed. Before you can use it for anything, you have to become familiar with that speed, and how quickly you can slow down from it so you can predict what is safe and what isn't before you're in the air. Generally speaking though, if you use thok to speed up for platforming, you are always holding brake as you do it, because sticking a landing at 60 FU/T is goddamn impossible and if you need that speed to clear a large gap, you're more likely to be spinjumping and thokking in mid-air when you want control back so you can move forward at high speed while ascending, anyways... and when you want control back, it's usually because you want to start braking, so you're still holding brake as you thok even then.

But again, that's built upon very intimate familiarity with thok's exact speed, because you don't have any time to gauge how fast you are going once you use it before adjustments are required to not die. If you have to check your distance over time to project where that thok will take you during a precise jump, it's already too late to fix it.

 

[Frostav]

The very last thing you should be doing is complaining about physics and controls when you're a new player in a vastly different environment than the classics, and playing naively for speedrun thrill rather than taking it slow. SRB2 is definitely NOT a pick-up-and-play, you take it slow.

Except...it's a Sonic game. The entire point is that there's a physics engine you can use to skip stuff and go fast. Yes, going fast isn't the ONLY point of a Sonic game but part of the fun is seeing how fast you can go.

Made another gif. I guess I hold forward too much.

 

[VelocitOni]

Except...it's a Sonic game. The entire point is that there's a physics engine you can use to skip stuff and go fast.

Except that SRB2 is a doom modification and there's no slopes or physics quirks you can cleverly use to pull stunts like that. This is a different environment that has nothing to do with building speed, you can just thok or run for a bit to hit your maximum anyways. To be 'fast' as you want, you need to become an experienced player with the controls so you CAN thok freely whilst being careful and not end up just killing yourself.

 

[Frostav]

Can I also take the time to say that whoever designed the bosses of this game has a special place reserved in hell for them?

DSZ's boss is pure bovine excrement:

>Hit boss
>Inevitably get flung into the water from the recoil
>Get shocked getting to the springs because the designers thought shocking the water 5 billion times per second was good game design

Don't even get me started on when Eggman clones himself, because clearly getting assaulted by thrice the missiles while also trying to figure out which one is the real eggman only to get it wrong and get sent into the water and get shocked getting to the spring while being shot from all sides and then all your rings fly away and you can't get them because you have to get out before the fucking water shocks you AGAIN was a good idea.

 

[Prime 2.0]

>Inevitably get flung into the water from the recoil
>Get shocked getting to the springs because the designers thought shocking the water 5 billion times per second was good game design

The recoil is a full reversal of momentum; you're going as fast in reverse as you were going forward when you hit eggman, so the only possibly way to fall in the water after hitting eggman is to keep holding forward afterwards... which is to say, you've been stopping yourself dead in the air, not eggman.

 

[Frostav]

I know the recoil is simply reversing your momentum. It's when you don't hit him head on and then fly all awry that's the problem.

Still beat him regardless.

 

[VelocitOni]

You always fly back, directly backwards, his hitbox doesn't change a thing. To fall in the water, you'd have to literally thok from over it.

 

[Metal Blake]

Can I also take the time to say that whoever designed the bosses of this game has a special place reserved in hell for them?

DSZ's boss is pure bovine excrement:

>Hit boss
>Inevitably get flung into the water from the recoil
>Get shocked getting to the springs because the designers thought shocking the water 5 billion times per second was good game design

Don't even get me started on when Eggman clones himself, because clearly getting assaulted by thrice the missiles while also trying to figure out which one is the real eggman only to get it wrong and get sent into the water and get shocked getting to the spring while being shot from all sides and then all your rings fly away and you can't get them because you have to get out before the fucking water shocks you AGAIN was a good idea.

I can provide some tips here.

1. At this boss, always, ALWAYS ALWAYS do a spindash then jump, as the direct movement and the speed will more than likely send you right back to the platform you stated from.

2. Once Eggman clones himself, look at Eggman himself. The clones will be bloated and still, while the real one will be have his mustache wiggling about in what I assume is laughter. Also, if I remember right, in OpenGL mode, the clones appear black, which may help with hitting the correct eggmobile.

Also, it's one of those bosses that practice makes perfect, which you will find out once you get to bosses like ERZ3 and CEZ3.

 

[clairebun]

Can I also take the time to say that whoever designed the bosses of this game has a special place reserved in hell for them?

DSZ's boss is pure bovine excrement:

>Hit boss
>Inevitably get flung into the water from the recoil
>Get shocked getting to the springs because the designers thought shocking the water 5 billion times per second was good game design

Don't even get me started on when Eggman clones himself, because clearly getting assaulted by thrice the missiles while also trying to figure out which one is the real eggman only to get it wrong and get sent into the water and get shocked getting to the spring while being shot from all sides and then all your rings fly away and you can't get them because you have to get out before the fucking water shocks you AGAIN was a good idea.

If it's any secret that DSZ3 is a bad third boss, it really shouldn't be. I've already suggested that the boss's main platforming obstacle become a bit more lenient, because the water is a death sentence for anyone that doesn't immediately know what to do. Knuckles and Tails actually do worse at this section because they don't have the thok to launch back to one of the platforms.

One option is to add more platforms toward the middle so that the player doesn't have to reach as far. The other is to reduce the depth of the water, which would make the area a little bit less disorienting and make it easier to reach the top platforms.

Our community's perception on a lot of what goes on in this game is distorted by the fact that they have more experience with the different elements. Not that I have a problem with this game taking time to master (far from it), but the bias does no service to the game's casual playability. I'm glad you posted this topic, because it really helps that we have the perspective from new players to balance out the viewpoints of what I'm assuming is a mostly veteran playerbase.

I do recommend you keep playing, because the game is definitely full of replayability. The controls aren't bad once you get used to them, but they absolutely are unintuitive at first, and the acceleration and strafe physics come off as weird unless you've played it a lot like us. That's why it's a good idea to start off with Knuckles and Tails first, because you don't have to fight it as much, and you get a good vertical ability to compensate for any platforming difficulties. We're not kidding when we said Sonic is hard mode. You really want Super Sonic for the later levels because he gives you the ability to float over shit. Trust me, look for those emerald tokens. The final zone is a total bitch, and you want all the platforming advantage you can get.

 

[Mystic]

SRB2, unlike modern Sonic, is essentially a momentum game. Letting go of the controls will cause you to continue to move until friction finally causes you to stop. In midair, there isn't any friction, so you'll keep flying forward until you hit something. In order to platform well in SRB2, you should plan ahead when you're going to commit to a jump arc, and use the controls (especially backwards) after jumping to manipulate your momentum and fine-tune your jump. When thokking, you receive a TON of forward momentum. Not planning on where your character is going to end up when you do so is just going to lead to flying off into whatever is in front of you.

SRB2 is not a "Gotta go fast!" game. It plays a lot more like the classic Sonic games, where going fast will get you killed until you've mastered the controls and have a familiarity with the stage layout.

 

[clairebun]

His problem isn't with the notion of momentum physics, it's that the way they're executed is unintuitive. There's a big disparity between Sonic's minimum speed and maximum speed, but his acceleration makes it feel like you're launching forward whenever you're holding down. However, I think the game's "Sonic's Ass" perspective and the lack of player shadows is a bigger detriment that accounts to the lack of new player understanding of how our stuff works.

 

[SSNTails]

SRB2 is not a "Gotta go fast!" game. It plays a lot more like the classic Sonic games, where going fast will get you killed until you've mastered the controls and have a familiarity with the stage layout.

It's probably closest to Sonic 1, if anything. Other than a waterslide and some minor exceptions in Labyrinth Zone and Scrap Brain Zone, there aren't many slopes.

 

[clairebun]

It's probably closest to Sonic 1, if anything. Other than a waterslide and some minor exceptions in Labyrinth Zone and Scrap Brain Zone, there aren't many slopes.

You serious? Green Hill Zone and Spring Yard are full of slopes. It's their main gimmicks.

 

[Knux576]

Not to mention almost half of Star Light Zone is slopes.
I honestly think slopes look out of place in SRB2, and I'm glad they aren't in vanilla.

 

[Prime 2.0]

Scrap Brain used slopes as an obstacle in combination with those bomb guys, too, nevermind the spinny circle things.

Honestly, Sonic's most important gameplay distinction from Mario was slope physics and rolling into a ball on them. That people gripe about the physics in newer games is of absolutely no surprise, considering.

 

[clairebun]

Sonic 1 is Super Mario Bros. if you put Mario inside a pinball machine and made him spill coins every time he got hit.

I digress; what do you think of Sonic's thok now that you've got a little more time in on it?

 

[Chromatian]

I guess as much. But I have a speedrunner's mentality and generally try to see how much I can skip with clever jumping in other sonic games.

You're trying to do things that are at a different skill level than what you currently have. Try to relax with the game and go with the flow of the level and the direction it leads you, it will let you better understand how the controls work. Try completing the entire campaign normally before trying to do crazy stunts, because doing them is far more difficult here than any other Sonic game.

Offtopic: But speaking of slippery, a group of friends and I once lowered Sonic's Thrust to 4 instead of the current 5, and he became much more manageable when it came to acceleration.

 

[wolfs]

try holding S to slow down.

This quote above should've made every one of these response posts unnecessary if you weren't so stubborn and actually took the advice :/ In any Sonic game, if you don't hold back to keep yourself from falling off a ledge, you will fall off of the ledge. The classic games which SRB2 is so heavily based on share the same principle, and can be even harder to platform in simply due to the lack of speed between jumps that Sonic's thok gives you in SRB2. I will say that it applies more in SRB2 than most other 3D Sonic games but it shouldn't be that hard to adapt.

Point be, maybe if you at least held the back button for a bit, you wouldn't have fallen off of that many platforms.