Resource icon

[MP Level] Angel Arrow Zone 1.1(?): CHROMED Edition

zxyspku

Some hack
attachment.php

With aesthetics inspired heavily by Wacky Workbench Past and a certain anime series comes Angel Arrow. I originally wasn't intending on releasing this until I finished certain aesthetics but said aesthetics will likely take awhile due to multiple reasons, mostly due to my interest in working on the map declining...but I'd rather not leave it in the abyss for weeks due to something trivial. Think of this as a sort of beta release in an attempt to gather feedback until I feel like working on it again.

MAP DESIGN, PROBABLY
The aesthetics aren't the only thing inspired by Sonic CD, as it's mostly flat design and use of familiar hazards like water and traps will be obvious to anyone who's ever played the special stages from that game.
attachment.php

As the map is flat the hazards will often be hard to see themselves, so I attempted to remedy this with flashing "DANGER" signs. Those familiar with Sonic CD will also be happy to know that all of the barriers ordinarily block your path can be used as springs.
attachment.php

Springs themselves are quite frequent throughout the map which will prove both helpful in skipping and getting to new areas, and also harmful for recklessly using them or capping your speed. Last but not least, just like Sonic CD's special stages there are 6 UFOs to destroy. UFOs grant you better item odds, so most of them are out of the way of the main route and instead only reachable via alternative paths. (from my own testing) When optimized, the main path is the fastest. This will hopefully discourage whoever is leading from going out of their way to attempt destroying UFOs at the cost of their own lead.

I could go on ad nauseam about my intended design ideas and the like but it'll ultimately mean nothing until more people actually play the map. So tl;dr







play the fucking map



OTHER STUFF?????
All of the flats/textures were made by me, all of the ones that weren't are edited from Sonic CD (imported by Lat, apparently) and Knuckles Chaotix. If you think something looks like visual vomit please let me know and I'll attempt to adjust it to the best of my abilities.



CHANGELOG (CHROMED Edition):
read Chrome's post lol

Supporters / Co-Authors:
 

Attachments

  • kart0149.png
    kart0149.png
    33.2 KB · Views: 6,544
  • kart0152.gif
    kart0152.gif
    741.1 KB · Views: 7,604
  • kart0155.gif
    kart0155.gif
    3.5 MB · Views: 5,791
  • kr_angelarrow1.1.pk3
    1.7 MB · Views: 871
  • Kr_AngelArrow1.1_CHROMED.pk3
    2.1 MB · Views: 821
Last edited by a moderator:
0/10 no giant robots in sight

All jokes aside, welcome to releases!
 
dope

I love the aesthetics of this map, the whole wacky workbench look is fantastic! also the music is great.

The only major thing that bugged me was the Offroad on these striped sectors. is this intended? If so, I don't feel like its really needed at all since the whole map has a few hazards and can slow down people who as little as touch it.

Some arrows wouldn't hurt :(. I know you got arrows on the floor but people are generally looking up ahead to but I feel like that's just me.
 

Attachments

  • kart0247.gif
    2.3 MB · Views: 282
This is not a beginner friendly map, and I think it's fine that way. And I'm a big fan of all the alternative routes.

This is the one area that feels off to me.
attachment.php


I still think some effect should be put on the barrier X's.
 

Attachments

  • tight.png
    tight.png
    24.2 KB · Views: 4,286
1.1: You Still Can (Not) Die

A sincere thanks for the feedback I've gotten from both the thread and many people on discord! Here's a small quality of life update before I can be bothered to make a larger one.

The big thing is that the difficulty has been adjusted. After watching a few replays of people playing through it online (along with playing with them myself) I concluded that the map ended up being far more difficult than I originally intended. Many of the hazards have been removed from the main road for more comfortable driving. Not only that
attachment.php

but the edges of the main road are no longer weak offroad.
attachment.php

A red spring as also been added to this area so it's easier to go over the water (special thanks to Ghost and vote4waifu on the KartKrew Discord for bringing this to my attention). Other than that, some small but (hopefully) helpful visual adjustments have been made.
attachment.php

The back textures of these X signs are gone, reducing visual clutter.
attachment.php

These signs have been moved further down so they're more easily readable.

That should be it for now until the next update, I hope you all enjoy.
also fuck I put the wrong Lat in the supporters section why are there even two anyway what
 

Attachments

  • kart0166.gif
    kart0166.gif
    2 MB · Views: 3,846
  • kart0158.png
    kart0158.png
    32.7 KB · Views: 3,711
  • kart0157.png
    kart0157.png
    30 KB · Views: 3,794
  • kart0167.gif
    kart0167.gif
    718.8 KB · Views: 4,061
Last edited:
(Since I complain about this all the time, I'm posting my critique from discord here, for permanence)

Going to start off with my most base opinion of this course. I fucking love it.

Theming is always super important to me, especially when the course is taking after a level from another Sonic Game. While most Sonic Zoned themed maps are fun courses, they lack any identity from their original source material (besides the music) to make me really feel like I'm playing the same Zone. But you really hit the nail on the head with this. The music is so 90s you can feel it. The Sonic CD sprawling path level design combined with the psychedelic hazard and boost placement you see in the special stage. The texture usage and sky box just all work so well in making me really feel like I'm driving in a special stage based off of Wacky Workbench past.

I want to mention the textures a second time because a lot of people think that in order make a map look really good visually is to go over the top with level geometry (Volcanic Valley from Blitz, Chengi's levels). When in reality, really clean, neat, and clever texture placement along with good use of midtextures can make levels look amazing without risking the framerate. You nailed this.

The base layout (before extra paths) is very easy to get behind and follow, and difficulty of the course is actually a lot higher I'm betting most players perceived it to be (due to the flat layout giving an impression of a simplistic design), which is in my opinion a good thing.

Small tiny choices on the main path make a huge difference in how well you play through the course, and you end up Free-styling the map which is ton of fun and something you don't get to do in many courses. Small things like this feel really good to perform:
nx1xnOi.gif


Where the course starts to fall flat though, are the shortcuts. To be specific, the issue (based on my experience) stems from there being so many options the player can access at any one time, but nearly all of them are pretty precise and can really kill your position if you screw up.

A good chunk of these are also reachable without any item, so instead of it being a case of "do I have the cash to spend on this shortcut?" it's instead "I have to take this shortcut to keep up with everyone else. The start of every race here has everyone scramble to reach those two ramps on the edge, so the problems start early, but this is easy to fix.
tEL0EsW.gif


Some of the shortcuts require some crazy amounts of mid-cut decision making, the gif above lets you either go straight, drop down early through the yellow bounce pad, or go without the bounce pad, all without any visual idea of where these will take you on the path below this one:
zUS2i8r.gif

sOTCke5.gif


What's happening here is that you're asking the player to put a full commitment to an jump but then also ask them to make a decision DURING the jump itself (what's generally the reward for landing the cut).

It's just too much pressure in a race. Even the best players don't have the processing power to make a decision mid-jump about left or right, while also considering who has what item, what place they're in, any traps that may be on the path they choose to take, what item THEY have at the time, is it the final lap or not. People bumping you off of your racing line. Even the path splits in Toxic Place and Misty Maze make people panic.The end result is the that the player gets overwhelmed and makes no choice at all, and you end up with the two scenarios above.

On a much more minor note. Boost pads are the same shade of yellow as the weak Bounce Pads. Combining that with the flat style of the level, you end up with unintelligible interactable course you have to look out for.

You could easily get away with making Boost Pads blue in this course, since it's inspired from CD Special Stages anyway.
jdKu7Im.png


So, suggestions:

This one is going to sound wacky but hear me out. This jump + pad in the back makes both the lower cut and the main path irrelevant. You can try removing the boost pad and placing damage sectors in front of both of the ramps.

This way, only an invincibility, ghost, or giant can take this top most route, as it's both the fastest and safest route if you can get up there. It also gives the lower cut a lot more power.
SnaE4YD.png


Remove these black arrows, there's no real reason to drop down here. It can remain as an option, but encouraging it will confuse players.
pVNnDG5.png


Pull this ledge back to where Suguri is parked, and spread the bounce pads across the entire road. If they don't have enough speed, they'll land on the lower path below, if they have enough, they can continue with the upper route.

Every race we did I missed these two Bounce Pads because the pressure stopped me from committing to it.
LGdwKsv.png


Pull those Bounce Pads on the right over here so it's a straight shot. Extend the road below out with a landing strip so they don't have to land on an awkward diagonal turn. (don't forget an arrow down there so they won't get turned around).

Just drag the whole FOF sector over so the wall is closed off, too.
UKo10U0.png



Add a down arrow midtexture here so players feel safe dropping. Going right is a for a UFO, but it's not required. The curve always gave me the feeling I was not reacting fast enough, rather than just opting out of a special item.
rOruEWa.png


Overall, it really is a fantastic theme and course, a nice breath of fresh air from the usual slopey-ness of most courses, while also adhering to the Sonic aesthetic better than most of our official maps.
 
Everything is chrome in the (Wacky Workbench) future!

attachment.php


Yes, this still exists. Since I had grown distraught on the quality of the map and the way I failed to properly convey my ideas I had planned to just let it rot away on the MB, but Chrome had taken a liking to it and was kind of enough to make some changes. It's been awhile so I've also realized a lot of the map's problems and had planned on making some edits (both visually and with the layout) but I figured it'd be best to focus my mapping efforts elsewhere for awhile. This should be the final version of Angel Arrow, if you disliked it before hopefully you'll come to enjoy this version more... if only by a bit.

oh and I changed the music or something
 

Attachments

  • aaaa.png
    aaaa.png
    18.5 KB · Views: 2,507
Last edited:
I admit that i've been overly harsh on this map before, mostly parroting the popular opinion on it being overly hard, but over time i've come to take a real liking for it, and i've come to realize more that first impressions of most maps in this game are almost never accurate, i personally really like the shortcut that stretches over the entire map that could be a map in of itself, it flows really well and is really satisfying to pull off, the main road itself without the shortcuts is also pretty fun to go through, the map's theming is pretty great, even if the color choices aren't my favorite, i still find it really pretty and enjoyable to look at
that's all i have to say, again, i'm glad to have given this map a proper chance since it has easily become one of my favorite custom maps
 
I really like Angel Arrow, and the changes Chrome suggested do help a lot. There is a minor nitpick I have. I don't want to alarm you but...
http://ibb.co/G0JhkD1

There is a leftover GFZROCK texture in the skybox. It's at the start and angled in a way no one will see it normally. I still wanted to let you know. : )
 
One of the most divisive maps in the game, I'm on the side that loves it. Top 3 map for me, you always have a chance to catch up, plenty of options and cuts available, and a nice tight technical multi-lap course, it ticks all the boxes for me. My only gripe really is I wish some of the upper paths were *faster*, turns out many of them aren't viable options when you have sneaker unfortunately.

Even with that being said, top 3 course for me.
 

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

Back
Top