Suggestions

Being able to ban player's hostnames instead of their IP addresses would be nice. It would require a DNS lookup for every connecting user, but that should not be a big problem, I think.

Dynamic IPs make the usage of the "ban" command annoying (and unfair for someone getting a banned dynamic IP). If it is possible to implement it, there should be a "banhost" command.
It should be possible to auto-ban any IP matching the banned host, too - DNS lookups can fail, but if they work, they can make an admin's life easier.

Another nice feature might be non-permanent bans. I would like to be able to enter a command like this one:
"timeban (playernum) 86400 you have been banned for 24 hours"
 
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Perhaps, a whitelist too. So you could ban a wide range of IPs and allow a few people to join the server.
 
Another idea might be implementing IP and hostname bans with wildcards, like:

"Whitelist *.de and *.com"
or
"Ban *.evil.isp"
or
"Ban *.br"

;-)
 
This isn't a suggestion for the game itself, but rather, I'm pointing out something that might be helpful for the Android port of SRB2.

There is this port of Doom & its engine for Android that I believe is pretty much complete (http://code.google.com/p/doom-android/). I don't know how different the engine and code for SRB2 are from most games using the Doom system, but maybe if we had a ready-to-use engine compiled from the Android platform (like the aforementioned one), the port will go a lot farther in development.
 
How about a variable, preferably set in the OBJCTCFG of a character, that can disable them in certain game modes? It could perhaps use TypeOfLevel's gametype-specific values, but all types that are mentioned are disabled instead of enabled.
 
Invincibility needs larger sprites so it is easier to see from a distance, because like a Super Character, you need to know when someone is going to wreck you if you get too close.

And in Singleplayer, it's rarely used (if used at all), mostly because there's never a real need for it in most situations. If invincibility gave 5000 points for each badnik killed, leading to a 1-up after 10 kills, it would give the player more incentive to grab it besides "I don't want to get hurt" .

I'm not sure how the points in the new Competition Mode work, but Invincibility should give extra points when badniks are killed with it.
 
Very true, I think it should do even more than just points and lives. Maybe a slight boost in stats for each badnik you kill (jumping and speed), to make it feel like more of rush mode. The only place I even realized invincibility in SRB2 existed was pretty much GFZ2. Outside of that it's useless.
I guess it's just not as helpful as in the classic games because in 3D you can just walk around enemies, so extra things to give the player incentive to actually use it should be done.
 
The only place I even realized invincibility in SRB2 existed was pretty much GFZ2. Outside of that it's useless.
That is so not true. In RVZ and ERZ2, for example, invincibility is a godsend, and I can think of several other invincibility monitors placed in SRB2 that are very useful. In most cases, it has nothing to do with enemies; most enemies aren't much of a threat in this game. But whenever there are hazards that don't outright kill you, invincibility is very useful.
 
Actually, Invincibility works properly in 2.1 already, granting 10000 points for the sixteenth badnik and beyond, making it very relevant for score attack.
 
I noticed some maps have been removed from tag/match mode.

Could those maps be readded?

Also another thing. The old tag mode was better. The new tag is more like 'stuck in the mud' rather than tag. You should either include it as another mode (perhaps modern tag & retro tag?), or just make it so that one person is always it instead of several. The aim could be whoever gets tagged the most loses. It's just a suggestion. I talked to a few people about this, and they all preferred it.
 
I'm not expecting this to change, but I feel like pointing it out anyway.

I've been using linux for the past six months, with lots of terminal commands. SRB2 (as well as Zennode) was my first experience with command-line-interfaces. When I was learning linux, I noticed that some commands had parameters with two hyphens at the beginning (thunar --help), while other parameters were just one hyphen (rm -r). It turned out that SRB2 taught me the wrong convention. For everyone else, parameters using a full length word get two hyphens, single letters get only one. Many parameters appear as both a wordy parameter and a single-letter parameter.

I don't know if this is just a linux/unix exclusive thing, but I'd really, really like SRB2 to move over to that standard. All of our current wordy parameters get two hyphens, and we add aliases to many of the commands that are single hyphens with a single letter. I know, SRB2 is in its own little bubble, but it gets really confusing trying to leave the bubble and go back in.

That would break the net launcher, though. I'm somewhat addicted to using it when I do play SRB2. IIRC, DB lets you edit the parameters you send to SRB2 for testplay yourself, so that should be fine.
 
So I was thinking and I thought a good suggestion for 2.1 is to have more color options for each character a player picks.

My second suggestion is let the super characters have different taunts then the normal characters.

Also my third suggestion is fix the node glitch from the teleporters.
 
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I suggest that the player setup menu should contain a shader on what color specifically wanted and what shade (be it Cyan, Turquoise what have you).

Doubt this might be implemented but eh, just minor stuff.
 
https://wiki.srb2.org/wiki/Version_2.1#Single_Player

Does anything here address the problems you have with it? (How many remembered this page even exists? :P)

Yeah, I happened to stumble across this page a bit after I posted that. I'm glad to see the bustable-block room fixed up, I genuinely spent like 10 minutes wandering around that room trying to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do.

The biggest problem I have with the zone though, is the bustable-block maze in act 2, there's just no excuse to put something so redundant, boring and frustrating into any level, let alone an official one. It's not mentioned in that article.

Both acts have pretty poor Skim placement that totally goes against the Level Design 101 notes on them.

DSZ1's starting area is really bizarre, the textures don't blend nicely, there's next to no deco and it's not at all obvious how you're supposed to get onto the higher path unless you're playing Tails.

DSZ1 had me going backwards at least once. In particular when you come out into the large semi-circular room from the high path, there's absolutely no indication whether you're supposed to go left or right.

Alot of the time it's just unclear where the path is, like in the first big room of the lower path in DSZ1 the player's likely to go forwards and jump into what turns out to be a massive pit of nothing with only one frustratingly awkward escape route, when they were supposed to take a sharp left with no arrows or anything.

This just downright baffles me. I don't have a clue what this is.
(Apologies for the console in the way, you make a bind to avoid that right?)

The section in DSZ2 with the slowly falling blocks on the waterfall has a problem - the wall on the path side is no-climb, but the far side of the room isn't. Knuckles can just climb across that side, which is silly.

And then, of course, there's the gargoyle puzzles. The first one is passable, a total newcomer to SRB2 would probably be stumped for half a minute or so, but once they get the idea, they get the idea. Having a bigger one where you have to put multiple gargoyles on, that's pretty bad. Having one where you have to awkwardly struggle them off of a wall, push them up an elevator and then stack two of them on a ledge that they can just fall right off if you're not careful, is just downright shit level design with no redeeming qualities. It just makes the player do what they've already done, but even more boring and time-consuming and frustrating and flow-breaking. This is Sonic the Hedgehog, not MYST, for god's sake.

I might rant about bad design in the other areas another time, too. There's stuff in ACZ and the new CEZ that I really want to criticise, but I'm sleepy right now. Feel free to post rebuttals, I'd like to have at least a bit of respect for DSZ.
 
The biggest problem I have with the zone though, is the bustable-block maze in act 2, there's just no excuse to put something so redundant, boring and frustrating into any level, let alone an official one. It's not mentioned in that article.
People keep telling Mystic that 70% of all people loathe this room with a passion, but he refuses to do anything about it because of the 30% that don't. Personally, I don't have a problem with the block maze per se, but I do have a problem with the fact that it's a mandatory element of the path. Due to the rather faulty aspects of SRB2's physics in regard to bustable blocks, you can't go through the whole thing in one motion because approaching the blocks at too sharp an angle gets you stuck.

Both acts have pretty poor Skim placement that totally goes against the Level Design 101 notes on them.
I can think of one room with a lot of Skims in one place, and that room is rather deliberately designed in such a way that you either move quickly or are bombarded to death. I find that a lot more interesting than just placing a few of them that don't pose much of a challenge. The Level Design 101 is rather imprecise in that regard: As long as the room allows you to outrun the Skims, you can place a lot of them without a problem. In its rooms with rather slow forward movement that you need to be careful.

DSZ1's starting area is really bizarre, the textures don't blend nicely, there's next to no deco and it's not at all obvious how you're supposed to get onto the higher path unless you're playing Tails.
DSZ's textures in general are problematic because they're all so small, which looks awful on large walls. There's no decoration because the whole starting area of DSZ1 is already taxing on the framerate, but frankly I don't find that the first room is lacking in detail. And I find the higher path to be very straightforward: Go forward -> go right -> continue walking on the platform you are on. There are even rings to guide you the way. If you're talking about the springs that only become useful when they're submerged in water, that has been changed.

DSZ1 had me going backwards at least once. In particular when you come out into the large semi-circular room from the high path, there's absolutely no indication whether you're supposed to go left or right.
Yeah, something should be done about that.

Alot of the time it's just unclear where the path is, like in the first big room of the lower path in DSZ1 the player's likely to go forwards and jump into what turns out to be a massive pit of nothing with only one frustratingly awkward escape route, when they were supposed to take a sharp left with no arrows or anything.
Again, that room is so empty because it's already killing the framerate pretty hard as it is. I agree that the escape route from out of that pit is pretty awkward, but I think that has been changed. What I don't understand is why you're first instinct is to jump down into an empty pit rather than stay on the platform you are on and turn to the left, especially since the first thing that catches your eye is all the stuff floating above you. But a trail of rings that leads to the left should fix that.

This just downright baffles me. I don't have a clue what this is.
(Apologies for the console in the way, you make a bind to avoid that right?)
This baffles me too.

The section in DSZ2 with the slowly falling blocks on the waterfall has a problem - the wall on the path side is no-climb, but the far side of the room isn't. Knuckles can just climb across that side, which is silly.
That entire room has been removed and replaced.

And then, of course, there's the gargoyle puzzles. The first one is passable, a total newcomer to SRB2 would probably be stumped for half a minute or so, but once they get the idea, they get the idea. Having a bigger one where you have to put multiple gargoyles on, that's pretty bad. Having one where you have to awkwardly struggle them off of a wall, push them up an elevator and then stack two of them on a ledge that they can just fall right off if you're not careful, is just downright shit level design with no redeeming qualities. It just makes the player do what they've already done, but even more boring and time-consuming and frustrating and flow-breaking. This is Sonic the Hedgehog, not MYST, for god's sake.
I agree that the whole sequence is too long and repetitive. What I don't agree with is that the last room with the elevator has no redeeming qualities, and you don't exactly explain why. I'm not a fan of the fact that you have to do it with two gargoyles - once you've done it, you've done it - but per se I like the idea.

I might rant about bad design in the other areas another time, too. There's stuff in ACZ and the new CEZ that I really want to criticise, but I'm sleepy right now.
Feel free to do so whenever you're not sleepy.
 

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