Resource icon

The ACZ2 Museum - old pre-2.2 content

fickleheart

ms reflec beat stan
Arid Canyon 2 went through a long development process before being complete. Back before the entire campaign was upgraded to a new standard, this addon documents what an ACZ2 by 2.1 standards was shaping up to be.

There are three distinct versions of the map available: the earliest barely-complete alpha (2014), the original pre-slope version of ACZ2 (2015), and the version that was updated with slopes before the remake that became 2.2's ACZ2 (2016). I feel that these three versions best describe this map's development process. (I did not keep any versions of the redesigned map betas around, nor would I want to include any of that content in here, as the dev team may choose to use that for future iterations.)

An early prototype version of mine carts is also presented as a separate map.

Please note that this version of the map was never completely finished, and as a result doesn't even represent what would have released. While I've updated some things that 2.2 broke of these levels, and marked some inescapable pits as death, any other issues with the maps are left as-is for the sake of preservation. All of these maps were in an alpha state at best.

Please enjoy this look into the map's history. Special thanks to Boinciel for helping me find these old alpha maps. Other marked co-authors are all of the other people involved, directly or indirectly, in creating these maps, out of the names I remembered.

I am aware of long loading times for most of these maps. This started when I converted the addon to PK3.
I am also aware that the info signs do not work in netgames. This is a vanilla game limitation.
 

Attachments

  • srb20056.png
    srb20056.png
    95 KB · Views: 2,004
  • srb20057.png
    srb20057.png
    165 KB · Views: 1,495
  • srb20058.png
    srb20058.png
    149.1 KB · Views: 1,152
  • srb20059.png
    srb20059.png
    213.1 KB · Views: 1,130
  • srb20060.png
    srb20060.png
    180.8 KB · Views: 1,076
  • VSL_acz2museum-v1.pk3
    3.3 MB · Views: 2,854
Last edited:
Welcome to releases! Glad we have quite a few addons relating to development history or concepts.
 
Some of the inescapable pits are still inescapable in the mine cart map. Also you can get past the mine cart without riding it to explore more of the map.
 
Development history add-ons bring me a ton of joy, so thanks for putting together this goldmine of ACZ2 concepts. The oil barrel section in the 2016 map is pretty brutal as Sonic, but I managed to finish it. Too bad it's (apparently) not possible to finish the minecart section; shortly after the part where you're going around in circles, I find myself riding into the horizon to my death lol. Really fascinating stuff all around though.
 
Last edited:
Always interesting to see how development went for this kind of thing, Thank you for sharing these.
 
Bahahaha oh man, it's the friggin' hang gliders again! That mechanic is just never going to find a home, is it? And what was up with that rain? Was that supposed to be something else? Like maybe oil drops coming from the ceiling. Or was someone in the dev team like "you know what ACZ2 really needs? Rain. And you'll never guess what kind of rain I have in mind...". It's so bizarre, haha. I'd also like to thank the person that decided NOT to bring back that section with the sloped columns covered in oil. That part tore through my lives like ERZ wishes it could.

Unfortunately that part made the loading times that much more unbearable. These loading times are just hideous. There's probably nothing that can be done but they sucked a lot of fun out of this pack for me.
 
The starpost rain was meant to be a standard falling rock section, but I had them as starposts as a temporary in-dev joke. A lot of oil sections are also more difficult now than they used to be now that low friction actually reduces your acceleration.

The mine cart section needs a wall added to block players off from running out of the starting area, then the rest of the pits should resolve themselves since losing the mine cart is instant death. There was never a proper end to the mine carts, which is why I removed the mid-track checkpoints and added an exit on the other side of the hall.

And yeah, the load times in PK3 are pretty unbearable. I'm not sure if there's a way I could repack it to improve those, but zones.pk3 in 2.2 has maps that are at least as big without having the same problem... if nothing else, I can move back to the WAD copy and resolve all the loading time problems, and just have a bigger file.
 
Oh man, why did they get rid of the hang gliders, they're super fun! And I love the speed boosters they tried out for the minecarts, my bigger criticism of them in the release version is how they're locked to one speed always.
 
I was kinda hoping this would include the version of ACZ2's theme from the 20th anniversary trailer. Is that still around somewhere? I love the one in 2.2 but I didn't mind the trailer version at all.
 
I was kinda hoping this would include the version of ACZ2's theme from the 20th anniversary trailer. Is that still around somewhere? I love the one in 2.2 but I didn't mind the trailer version at all.

To my understanding, it was never finished.
 
Thank you for putting this together, I love it! Pre-revamp 2.2 is very nostalgic to me as that was the kind of content we were being shown around the time I really got into SRB2. I very much appreciate all the dev lore details from the info signs and seeing how the level was expanded upon across several years.
 
I'm surprised you don't know. Was the trailer theme made by one of the others?

From what Nev3r was telling me, it sounded like what was previewed in the trailer was literally all of the tune he had completed up to that point. It was never set up to be loopable.
 
Little bump - hope it's fine. But is it eventually planned to be merged with a probably upcoming update of SRB2: The Past? It would make kind of sense.
 
Little bump - hope it's fine. But is it eventually planned to be merged with a probably upcoming update of SRB2: The Past? It would make kind of sense.
SRB2 the Past is one of my most awaited mod for the 2.2, I second that!


PS: Nice Marco profile pic by the way
 
There are no plans to merge the two projects at this time. While SRB2 the Past will cover Arid Canyon, these act 2 protos will not be present.
 

Who is viewing this thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Back
Top