time gear
Eternity in an hour
A few minutes of basic introduction doesn't give new players the years of nuance we experienced players have gotten good with. The very fact that most new players don't like the thok because it punishes them too much is proof that it's not enough.
People choose Sonic because they want to play Sonic. Telling those people "Use another character because Sonic isn't for beginners" is gatekeeping. There's ways of designing the game in such a way as to let people choose whichever starter character they want as their first character and not have them get punished in game for it. Ideally, in this case that would involve not taking away the thok.
Additionally, telling people "Just use another character" is entirely counter to the entire point of them growing in skill with the thok so that they can use it effectively. All that does is further convince people that the thok is bad. After all, if the thok was good, why shouldn't they be able to use it without getting punished? Why should they have to switch to another character? That's the logic that's going to be flowing through their heads.
Thok isn't bad. You know it, I know it. If you want to keep thok, the argument you are using isn't the one to use. It's only going to convince more people that it needs to go.
If this were true to a significant enough degree as to be sufficient, we wouldn't be in the current predicament. Thok is on the chopping block specifically because new players aren't learning it through level design fast enough to be able to use it efficiently later in the game. To change nothing is to keep it on the chopping block.
Nobody is saying it does. My point is that there needs to be harmony between the main path and Sonic's moveset. The game in its current state doesn't have this harmony to a necessary enough degree for new players to be satisfied.
2.1 is after the point I'm referring to. By the time 2.1 came around, we had Arid Canyon and a new version of Castle Eggman. No, the playgrounds era was around the time of the Final Demo, the 1.09.x series.
Also, no. When the game doesn't teach you about the thok enough, not every single death that happens with it is the players fault. Players aren't taught about recoiling off enemies into bottomless pits by the time the mechanic shows up for example, there's no safer version of this earlier in the game that would prompt new players that they should be careful. You're also assuming a LOT about what's going on in new players heads. They aren't pressing double jump while knowing it's a risky thing to do. They're pressing it expecting their double jump ability to act as a combat/platforming aid, and getting punished by the level design not supporting that preconceived notion the way they were expecting. They don't have the same amount of skill you do, so they're not using it the same way you would. They're still getting used to it. How powerful it is, how to aim it, etc.
What even is the point of the argument you're trying to make, anyway? The game isn't going to stay exactly the same as it is right now. The levels are going to continue to get tweaked, whether to a small degree or a large one. The physics are changing, and the entire reason we are here in this thread is because thok is on the chopping block. If your argument is that the levels should stay exactly the same as they are now for... Some reason, I'm sorry to say this but it's not happening. Whether they get overhauled entirely or just get subtle tweaks here and there, they're going to continue changing. If that change means the level design plays better with the thok, why do you seem to have a problem with that?
