Botanic Serenity v2.0, Part 1 (sc_botanicserenity-v2.wad)

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Okay, since I can't review the Perception, I'll review Botanic Serenity.
(warning, spoilers as I mention a few emeraldss to get my point across)

The way you used the entire environment was very well done; you don't even realise that you're going in circles. Although, ome of the height alterations are hard to predict, but I'll blame the camera for that. The rings where very well placed and there were the perfect amount to finish it on the first run. The only time I've ever, ever, not done it on the first go is when I was being careless in the 1.09.4 version some time back. The sections after the Egg Ideya had some very interesting combos you could pull off, especially with the semicircle of hoops with the small circle of emblems at the top that you see straight after you beat the Ideya to start some awesome combos. Though, even though this is great, I found myself rushing to get to the next area because there was a large gap between the hoops and emblems. This can be found in most places, but I don't really mind, I still got a 100+ link. :D
All in all, the track was very well done.
9/10

Now to the environment...
Like everyone else has said, you've taken the bland, Doom like environment that you usually see in every SRB2 level to date and make it into art. And that was before you added the textures. The textures are bright and happy but not blinding, very good choice. I find some of your sector work strange though, for example, the area near the hedge emerald. If you follow the eyes of the gargoyle on top, you see a block which just confuses me because it seems so out of place. Also, near the start, the factory inside where one of the old emeralds were still has the door sector in it so the glass looks strange from my perspective. The heights in the light tube also make the camera stuck above it. Though I forgot C resetted the camera, so yeah. But those are just me bickering and looking too close. The textures and sector placements compliment each other and make the stage look excellent.
10/10

Emerald placement time.
The emeralds took some time to find for me (30 min to be close) and they were very creative and different spots. I found some quite frustrating though, as the gargoyles usually point to them. The one underwater in the back half of Botanic Serenity took me so long to find it wasn't funny. Mainly cause of the fact that the gargoyles aren't close enough to the actual emerald spot. If you put one on the ledge above it and made it face the lake, then it would be better. The hedge one also frustrated me, but it was me not looking 'tis all. :P
The emerald locations were god, but some of the clues just didn't match up sometimes.
7/10

Okay, MUSIC TIME.
I really, really liked your music choice and the way you could change it. Those made the stage feel different in many different ways. The only thing I was disappointed with was the fact that some of the music in the Jukebox didn't loop.
8/10

This level shows that it has put a lot of effort into it and it is very enjoyable. I would play this over and over again because it was a good SRB2 experience.
If you get the average of these results, it makes 8.5/10.
But my true review is:
9.5/10
Good work man. :D
 
The one underwater in the back half of Botanic Serenity took me so long to find it wasn't funny. Mainly cause of the fact that the gargoyles aren't close enough to the actual emerald spot. If you put one on the ledge above it and made it face the lake, then it would be better.
Uh, what? For the one in the lake, the gargoyles are just next to it.
 
Thanks so much, Violo :) This level meant a lot to me back when I made it. I'm sure the others involved in this port are quite happy, too.

@everyone: Regarding crashes, I assume that copy-pasting the item placement to MAP01's sectors would make Perception much more stable. It'd be great if someone could confirm that, since I've moved on to other things.
 
For me, the graphical changes didn't take an immediate effect. It took a half-hour of wandering through the stage looking for the emeralds for it to sink in.

Also, the flats of the fake floors below the jumping water spouts were of green flowers, when the flowers around them weren't green. It looked odd to me, so you may want to look at it.
 
Uh, what? For the one in the lake, the gargoyles are just next to it.

I meant that the gargoyles are too far away, and even if they were, they don't really point in the direction that it is. It doesn't give much of a hint. It only seems to say, "Hey, here's a clue, it's in this tunnel". The rest of the gargoyles give some other hint than, "it's around here".
 
Hee, you should've seen that hint's previous arrangement: Two gargoyles were feasting on a fish. One of my testers tried spinning into the fish to destroy it, hoping to find the emerald ;)
 
[22:22] <MrMystery> a slight goof on the part of botanic serenity: getting all the emeralds still unlocks SRB1 as far as the coop mode is concerned :p
[22:22] <Katmint> fixable by putting hidden = 1 on every single SRB1 map header
Well there you go.
 
Finally giving a crack at this wad, I must say, I am simply amazed at the amount of visual detail able to be crammed into this. I haven't played around in this NiGHTS track yet, as I have not found all those Chaos Emeralds. I've gotten Green, Red, Yellow, Light Blue, and Grey. May I have hints towards the other two? ;____; Been searching for two hours..so I've just updated the wiki page with emerald locations that I know of.
 
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The statues know where they all are.

Did you check a tree in the park area?
How about a bush?
Try going as high as you can above the egg capsule. Can't make it, try getting a boost upward somewhere!
 
The statues know where they all are.

Did you check a tree in the park area?
How about a bush?
Try going as high as you can above the egg capsule. Can't make it, try getting a boost upward somewhere!

I've already gotten all of those. They are Red, Yellow, and Purple, respectively.
 
The dark blue took me a while to find. Look for a small hole in a bush with a gargoyle on it and another 1 just beside a tree. (its not far from the green emerald)
 
You guys do know there's switches that need to be activated in order to get some. Right?
 
I thought this was a really great level.

The gameplay was very good. For once I actually found myself replaying an SRB2 level more than once, simply because I love time attacking and because this level is a lot of fun. It's easy to see what's coming up next, so I never found myself getting lost or confused, or going in the wrong direction. The level was fairly long, which is also a good thing. The flow is good, too -- I never found myself crashing into walls, unlike most other NiGHTS stages.
The visuals were top-notch and the map is full of things to see. The scale is incredible and the colors and shapes all fit together to make one big theme, and it was very well done. The placement of everything is nice and the environment feels like an enormous dream world, just like in NiGHTS.
The music choices were very fitting and were great choices. The songs were catchy and memorable and I simply can't get them out of my head. I think it's great that you can change what music is playing in case you want to listen to something else. It's a minor complaint, if anything, but some songs don't loop properly.
This level has an enormous amount of replay value. First off, the level is fun enough to warrant another playthrough. Second, the level has a good amount of alternate routes to take so you can optimize time and get as many points as possible. Third, there's Emeralds; these alone kept me in here for more than a few hours, because they're extremely well-hidden -- I found myself thinking "Damn, that's so clever!" when I'd find one, since a lot of them require you to really think of things in a different way. It's also a good thing that this features an unlockable level for getting all the Emeralds, which gives the player yet another stage to time attack through and get a good amount of points, and it's also fun to play. And the level is simply fun enough to make me interested in playing it from time to time.

Overall I think that this is probably the best SRB2 levels ever designed. Why isn't this in the Hall of Fame yet?
 
Why isn't this in the Hall of Fame yet?
Two reasons:

  • It's not yet complete. We should wait for the final release for putting this into the Hall of Fame.
  • There's this unwritten rule that we wait at least about three months after release until we discuss if something should be in the Hall of Fame. This way, we can see if it still seems great after some time has passed.
Rest assured that this matter will be discussed in the future, and that it probably will end up in the Hall of Fame.
 
Two reasons:

  • It's not yet complete. We should wait for the final release for putting this into the Hall of Fame.
  • There's this unwritten rule that we wait at least about three months after release until we discuss if something should be in the Hall of Fame. This way, we can see if it still seems great after some time has passed.
Rest assured that this matter will be discussed in the future, and that it probably will end up in the Hall of Fame.

Didn't I ask this question earlier and it got answered?
 
Oof, this all encourages me to get off my butt and finish off the project!

Although if I were to do SRB2 material again, I'd rather work on the special stages ;) Wonder if Prime and akira would still be game to complete this, come December.
 
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