Chaotic Darkness Black (scrmtf_cdblack_prebeta.wad)
- Thread starter JJames19119
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Chaotic Chao
horns Horns HORNS
I do remember this wad.
I can't believe I didn't get it as soon as I saw it! Love it!
I can't believe I didn't get it as soon as I saw it! Love it!
Hey, I'm not dead, what a surprise!
Can't say this is a very Merry Christmas for this mod unfortunately. On top of shifting interests, my creativity and inspiration is not what it used to be. Map making is still something I'm good at doing on a technical basis, a lot of popular tricks and optimizations I've learned are still with me. What I've lost is the creative power to bring the rest of this mod to life. While, with an in-depth and comprehensive blueprint, I could very easily make any level with great speed, a detailed level from scratch is beyond me now. Any time I open up the map builder, I find myself making generic shapes and boring pathways with little originality. Maybe I should find a job as a construction worker...
Anyways, that's the situation right now. If I wanna fix this, I'll have to get together with one of my more creative friends and hope they're feeling inspired and benevolent enough to give me some blueprints and ideas I could follow. For now, all I got are themes and generic plans, and that's what this post is really about. I'm been sitting on this text file for a good couple years and without any actual sign of finishing this, I feel I should post it so that anyone who looked forward to seeing this finished could at least "imagine" what it would've been like. Let's all close our eyes now and engage in a rousing group dream sequence, shall we?
Lime Forest Zone
I liked the way I redesigned the first level, somewhat, even if it still felt incredibly dated near the middle-beginning. The addition of trees and more openness at the end made it feel a bit more alive. I had intentions of almost completely redesigning the first half of Act 2, but I never got around to actually thinking up what I should redesign it into. The Emerald Stage, Turquoise Beach Zone, was made in reminiscence of Jade Coast (go figure, a lot of inspiration in this mod takes from Mystic Realm) and was intentionally kept small to introduce the player to the conept of Emerald Hunting.
A little history on this zone. It used to be called Leaf Forest, named after the first zone in Sonic Advance 2, because I liked it's music so much. When it came time to be more original, I used Lime instead of Leaf, taking from one of the CTF map names in the original rotation at the time. I kept the first letter, and even the amount of letters, and I thought it flowed smoothly. The third act also used to be the very ancient "Boss3.wad" made a long time ago to make Act 3 into an actual act back in...4.1 I believe? I redesigned it from the ground up later, but kept a couple basic ideas in, notably the tree climbing and having to spin to access the boss, falling into his arena.
Crawla Factory Zone
I redesigned the first act of this zone too, making it almost twice as long. Instead of button hunting, you just circled the factory once. There's still a single button, but it's purpose now is to split Sonic up from Tails and Knuckles, albeit slightly. Sonic's route into the factory involves fighting a robot infested conveyor belt, while Tails and Knuckles have to navigate an electrified floor. Act 2 is probably among what I would call my better single player levels. Two diverging paths with a somewhat detailed end, involving draining a river of slime to access the exit. There are lots of secrets to be found in this stage. I tried hard to allow a general flow to be kept throughout the whole level but I don't think I succeeded as well as I could have, especially on the left path from the beginning. Toxic Basement, the Emerald Stage, was fairly detailed and interesting to explore. The legendary pipe maze is, by some, called both the best and worst thing I ever made for this single player venture, as it's challenging, frustrating and very nerve racking.
I didn't really have much intention on touching this zone, barring maybe Act 2's left path. Even Act 3 seemed alright to me, though it could use some tweaking to be sure. This was the only zone I was truly satisfied with.
Rainy Ruins Zone
I really enjoyed making Act 1 of this zone, for some reason. The first half is a little boring, but the journey up the mountain really felt adventurous. I had a lot of trouble with the weather effect linedef though, particularly in multiplayer. Act 2's general shape was made up by a friend of mine's, and I merely provided the rest of the inspiration that went into it. It was sometime around here that I was starting to lose it and my general creativity for the game was rapidly declining. There's a few parts that need redesigning, though the outer area still is interesting to go through, just once. The Emerald Stage here, Crumbling Castle, is abut 60% finished in the WAD file I have on hand, but it's quite a clusterforce, to me it feels like there's too much in one area at a time. I struggled with this stage for the longest of times, then reached the final room, I had the general idea for it laid out, but I couldn't bring myself to finish it...
Act 3 transitions nicely into the next zone. It's also the final act of the current beta posted. It needs to be reworked though, much like the rest of the zone.
Submerged Caves Zone
This zone was meant to resemble Deep Sea Zone, but without all the ruiny type stuff absolutely everywhere, which is actually...quite boring. A lot of the underwater segment of Rainy Ruins Zone 2 is what most of this zone probably would've turned out to be and I didn't like that too much, so it was probably a defining factor in me quitting on this mod. True to it's name, it was meant to be mostly underwater, and pretty much entirely underground. With a functioning water slide mechanic in the game now, this zone has potential again, so it could still be salvaged. The Emerald Stage belonging to this zone, Frozen Flood, would've looked and somewhat played a lot like Midnight Freeze's Emerald Stage, but with a much bigger focus on water as well as ice. It wasn't intended to be quite as difficult, however.
Steep Plateau Zone
Remember Rocky Mountain Zone? This zone was supposed to mimic it, and try to make the idea behind it work. I got the feeling it could after making Rainy Ruins Zone Act 1, it just needed some tweaking. I had something of a basic blueprint for one stage laid out too. This was one of the zones I was looking forward to making but never got around to, due to the linear nature of my development process. The Emerald Stage, aptly named Pyro Tunnel, was meant to be a lot like Red Volcano Zone, in emerald hunt form. I had the very beginning of the stage thought out quite vividly; the player started in a glass tube with a vortex of lava swirling around it and leading into the level itself. Surreal!
Aerial Sands Zone
The theme of this level relied on a floating desert constantly being windswept. The challenge to the player was to fight these winds to keep themselves from being pushed off into the bottomless pit that typically occupied the area. I didn't think I'd be able to, but one of the aesthetic things I wanted to add to it was sand constantly being blown by the wind and into the air. It could serve a practical use too, such as telling the player when they were about to approach a windy area. I didn't have too much in mind though, but some of the inspiration was probably gonna play off Mystic's Golden Sands Zone, as he pulled off the kind of desert-y level I liked. The Emerald Stage, Floating Desert Zone, was intended to be very similar to it's predecessor, but with just a massive bottomless pit covering the whole stage, instead of them being peppered throughout. It was meant to be the most challenging emerald hunt stage, with the emeralds placed in very precarious positions.
Snowy Sky Zone
Think of Blue Mountain Zone, and then cross it with Aerial Garden Zone, and you got the basic idea behind this end game level. It was half mountain, half floating ruins, with snow settling everywhere. There was going to be a large prominence of bottomless pits and ice, making this stage extremely difficult for Sonic players in particular, most of whom have an aversion to the slidey stuff. It would have some paths branching off into the mountain too of course, going into a small cave perhaps to avoid the vertigo inducing AGZ-style area. The final Emerald Stage, Moon Temple Zone, was supposed to be epic. I made a concept level of act 1 for one of the level design contests way back, I don't think many people in particular really liked it, myself included. It was very gimmicky, and a lot of the gimmicks were...bad. But it was the largest level I made to date and I had whole intentions of almost completely remaking it. Unlike other Emerald Stages, Moon Temple was a two parter; Act 1 was the usual Point A to Point B fare, while Act 2 was a climb up a tall tower to find the emeralds one more time. Act 2 was going to be rather reminiscent of Lost World Zone from Sonic Adventure, the area where Knuckles played in.
Egg Station Zone
Egg Station was designed to be a very long, multi-act zone that surely would've gotten on the nerves of a few people. The first act took place in a small station-like area, where the player had to reach a rocket before it blasted off. Act 2 took place inside said rocket, where the player would have to find their way through it and to an exit they could take once the rocket reached it's destination. Act 3 took place on the outer rims of the space station the rocket had been sent to, while Act 4 took place inside it. Act 5, yes, it's still going, was a short challenge level where the player had defeat waves of robots coming in to attack them on a rising elevator, with doors opening to introduce them. Act 6, the last one, involved a large and complicated boss I had in mind, involving having to defeat a number of turrets before Eggman showed himself. It was all long and horribly convulted, but I wanted to end the standard levels with a bang.
Black Hole Zone & Darkness Space Zone
Are you still with me? This is where the ideas start getting to a "this would be silly and kinda fun" stage that may or may not have made it into the final pack. Black Hole Zone was the obligatory final boss level. I really don't even remember much about it beyond that however, although if I wanted to use it now, I could very well just take from the final boss of 2.0 and use it like that. But Act 6 of Egg Station as the "final boss" sounds much more appealing on a less drawn out scale. Darkness Space is where the whole "Black Emerald" discontinuity begins. Originally, the plan was that there was a Super Sonic level, a level where Sonic discovered the "Black Emerald" and then went onto a "Hyper Sonic" level. Darkness Space was intended to be the Super Sonic part of it, and a throwback to Doomsday Zone, the level you worked so hard for back in Sonic & Knuckles. With the removal of the eighth Chaos Emerald, this level is a little moot point now, and if I ever do continue this pack, this level probably won't be included either.
Chaotic Rock Zone & Dark Temple Zone
Chaotic Rock was meant to be a Sonic-only area, akin to how Prismatic Angel Zone was, and was going to be the ultimate challenge. Unlike Prismatic Angel Zone, there wasn't going to be any fruity rainbow roads, just a lot of rock and black bottomless pits. :P It was also going to be much more natural looking, like you really were inside a giant asteroid of some sort. Dark Temple Zone is the area where you claim Chaos Emeralds after completing the Emerald Stages. It's also where you end up after completing Chaotic Rock to claim the eighth emerald. With that said, a boss may end up appearing here in it's stead in 2.0 now, if it I ever got this far.
Chaos Portal
Obligatory Super Sonic level, blah blah blah, I think you know the drill. I hadn't really thought as far as the design and boss for this final level myself, but I wanted to be different from Mystic Realm and make it rather dark in comparison.
Supposed Multiplayer Line-up
Spring Stadium [B0]
Elemental Ruins [B1]
Greenery Hotel [B2]
Chaotic Belief [B3]
Toxic Falls [B4]
---
Greenery Cave [C0]
Wall Fortresses [C1]
Pirate Point [C2]
Azure Frost [C3]
Card Carnival [C4]
---
City Heat [D0]
Morning Hill [D1]
Ice Cap [D2]
Sandopolis [D3]
G Force [D4]
Secret Zones:
Gleaming Meadows
This was to be my attempt at a NiGHTS stage, as I wanted to try my hand at making one. The method of entry was through a special path in Lime Forest Act 1, and completing both acts of this zone would give you a shortcut straight to Aerial Sands Zone.
Special Stages
Before I stole inspiration from Mystic Realm, I had special stages already lined up. They were designed with the gimmick of the original stage you got to it from, so Special Stage 1 had trees in it, 2 had slime, 6 had wind, etc.
Steel Ship Zone
I had an idea for a Single Player Zone that I wanted to include in Chaotic Darkness as a bonus level. There was a particular Match level I made that was in the shape of a large metal ship. For match, it wasn't all that good, but the design and feel I really liked and I wanted to try turning it into a single player zone. Sadly, the idea I have is probably far too much for SRB2's poor renderer to realistically handle, so I had thoughts of scrapping this.
That's just about it I think. There's probably more, but it's all old history by now, and I don't remember much of it. For now, this post is probably the best "continuation" this pack will see. Sorry for letting you guys down.
Can't say this is a very Merry Christmas for this mod unfortunately. On top of shifting interests, my creativity and inspiration is not what it used to be. Map making is still something I'm good at doing on a technical basis, a lot of popular tricks and optimizations I've learned are still with me. What I've lost is the creative power to bring the rest of this mod to life. While, with an in-depth and comprehensive blueprint, I could very easily make any level with great speed, a detailed level from scratch is beyond me now. Any time I open up the map builder, I find myself making generic shapes and boring pathways with little originality. Maybe I should find a job as a construction worker...
Anyways, that's the situation right now. If I wanna fix this, I'll have to get together with one of my more creative friends and hope they're feeling inspired and benevolent enough to give me some blueprints and ideas I could follow. For now, all I got are themes and generic plans, and that's what this post is really about. I'm been sitting on this text file for a good couple years and without any actual sign of finishing this, I feel I should post it so that anyone who looked forward to seeing this finished could at least "imagine" what it would've been like. Let's all close our eyes now and engage in a rousing group dream sequence, shall we?
Lime Forest Zone
I liked the way I redesigned the first level, somewhat, even if it still felt incredibly dated near the middle-beginning. The addition of trees and more openness at the end made it feel a bit more alive. I had intentions of almost completely redesigning the first half of Act 2, but I never got around to actually thinking up what I should redesign it into. The Emerald Stage, Turquoise Beach Zone, was made in reminiscence of Jade Coast (go figure, a lot of inspiration in this mod takes from Mystic Realm) and was intentionally kept small to introduce the player to the conept of Emerald Hunting.
A little history on this zone. It used to be called Leaf Forest, named after the first zone in Sonic Advance 2, because I liked it's music so much. When it came time to be more original, I used Lime instead of Leaf, taking from one of the CTF map names in the original rotation at the time. I kept the first letter, and even the amount of letters, and I thought it flowed smoothly. The third act also used to be the very ancient "Boss3.wad" made a long time ago to make Act 3 into an actual act back in...4.1 I believe? I redesigned it from the ground up later, but kept a couple basic ideas in, notably the tree climbing and having to spin to access the boss, falling into his arena.
Crawla Factory Zone
I redesigned the first act of this zone too, making it almost twice as long. Instead of button hunting, you just circled the factory once. There's still a single button, but it's purpose now is to split Sonic up from Tails and Knuckles, albeit slightly. Sonic's route into the factory involves fighting a robot infested conveyor belt, while Tails and Knuckles have to navigate an electrified floor. Act 2 is probably among what I would call my better single player levels. Two diverging paths with a somewhat detailed end, involving draining a river of slime to access the exit. There are lots of secrets to be found in this stage. I tried hard to allow a general flow to be kept throughout the whole level but I don't think I succeeded as well as I could have, especially on the left path from the beginning. Toxic Basement, the Emerald Stage, was fairly detailed and interesting to explore. The legendary pipe maze is, by some, called both the best and worst thing I ever made for this single player venture, as it's challenging, frustrating and very nerve racking.
I didn't really have much intention on touching this zone, barring maybe Act 2's left path. Even Act 3 seemed alright to me, though it could use some tweaking to be sure. This was the only zone I was truly satisfied with.
Rainy Ruins Zone
I really enjoyed making Act 1 of this zone, for some reason. The first half is a little boring, but the journey up the mountain really felt adventurous. I had a lot of trouble with the weather effect linedef though, particularly in multiplayer. Act 2's general shape was made up by a friend of mine's, and I merely provided the rest of the inspiration that went into it. It was sometime around here that I was starting to lose it and my general creativity for the game was rapidly declining. There's a few parts that need redesigning, though the outer area still is interesting to go through, just once. The Emerald Stage here, Crumbling Castle, is abut 60% finished in the WAD file I have on hand, but it's quite a clusterforce, to me it feels like there's too much in one area at a time. I struggled with this stage for the longest of times, then reached the final room, I had the general idea for it laid out, but I couldn't bring myself to finish it...
Act 3 transitions nicely into the next zone. It's also the final act of the current beta posted. It needs to be reworked though, much like the rest of the zone.
Submerged Caves Zone
This zone was meant to resemble Deep Sea Zone, but without all the ruiny type stuff absolutely everywhere, which is actually...quite boring. A lot of the underwater segment of Rainy Ruins Zone 2 is what most of this zone probably would've turned out to be and I didn't like that too much, so it was probably a defining factor in me quitting on this mod. True to it's name, it was meant to be mostly underwater, and pretty much entirely underground. With a functioning water slide mechanic in the game now, this zone has potential again, so it could still be salvaged. The Emerald Stage belonging to this zone, Frozen Flood, would've looked and somewhat played a lot like Midnight Freeze's Emerald Stage, but with a much bigger focus on water as well as ice. It wasn't intended to be quite as difficult, however.
Steep Plateau Zone
Remember Rocky Mountain Zone? This zone was supposed to mimic it, and try to make the idea behind it work. I got the feeling it could after making Rainy Ruins Zone Act 1, it just needed some tweaking. I had something of a basic blueprint for one stage laid out too. This was one of the zones I was looking forward to making but never got around to, due to the linear nature of my development process. The Emerald Stage, aptly named Pyro Tunnel, was meant to be a lot like Red Volcano Zone, in emerald hunt form. I had the very beginning of the stage thought out quite vividly; the player started in a glass tube with a vortex of lava swirling around it and leading into the level itself. Surreal!
Aerial Sands Zone
The theme of this level relied on a floating desert constantly being windswept. The challenge to the player was to fight these winds to keep themselves from being pushed off into the bottomless pit that typically occupied the area. I didn't think I'd be able to, but one of the aesthetic things I wanted to add to it was sand constantly being blown by the wind and into the air. It could serve a practical use too, such as telling the player when they were about to approach a windy area. I didn't have too much in mind though, but some of the inspiration was probably gonna play off Mystic's Golden Sands Zone, as he pulled off the kind of desert-y level I liked. The Emerald Stage, Floating Desert Zone, was intended to be very similar to it's predecessor, but with just a massive bottomless pit covering the whole stage, instead of them being peppered throughout. It was meant to be the most challenging emerald hunt stage, with the emeralds placed in very precarious positions.
Snowy Sky Zone
Think of Blue Mountain Zone, and then cross it with Aerial Garden Zone, and you got the basic idea behind this end game level. It was half mountain, half floating ruins, with snow settling everywhere. There was going to be a large prominence of bottomless pits and ice, making this stage extremely difficult for Sonic players in particular, most of whom have an aversion to the slidey stuff. It would have some paths branching off into the mountain too of course, going into a small cave perhaps to avoid the vertigo inducing AGZ-style area. The final Emerald Stage, Moon Temple Zone, was supposed to be epic. I made a concept level of act 1 for one of the level design contests way back, I don't think many people in particular really liked it, myself included. It was very gimmicky, and a lot of the gimmicks were...bad. But it was the largest level I made to date and I had whole intentions of almost completely remaking it. Unlike other Emerald Stages, Moon Temple was a two parter; Act 1 was the usual Point A to Point B fare, while Act 2 was a climb up a tall tower to find the emeralds one more time. Act 2 was going to be rather reminiscent of Lost World Zone from Sonic Adventure, the area where Knuckles played in.
Egg Station Zone
Egg Station was designed to be a very long, multi-act zone that surely would've gotten on the nerves of a few people. The first act took place in a small station-like area, where the player had to reach a rocket before it blasted off. Act 2 took place inside said rocket, where the player would have to find their way through it and to an exit they could take once the rocket reached it's destination. Act 3 took place on the outer rims of the space station the rocket had been sent to, while Act 4 took place inside it. Act 5, yes, it's still going, was a short challenge level where the player had defeat waves of robots coming in to attack them on a rising elevator, with doors opening to introduce them. Act 6, the last one, involved a large and complicated boss I had in mind, involving having to defeat a number of turrets before Eggman showed himself. It was all long and horribly convulted, but I wanted to end the standard levels with a bang.
Black Hole Zone & Darkness Space Zone
Are you still with me? This is where the ideas start getting to a "this would be silly and kinda fun" stage that may or may not have made it into the final pack. Black Hole Zone was the obligatory final boss level. I really don't even remember much about it beyond that however, although if I wanted to use it now, I could very well just take from the final boss of 2.0 and use it like that. But Act 6 of Egg Station as the "final boss" sounds much more appealing on a less drawn out scale. Darkness Space is where the whole "Black Emerald" discontinuity begins. Originally, the plan was that there was a Super Sonic level, a level where Sonic discovered the "Black Emerald" and then went onto a "Hyper Sonic" level. Darkness Space was intended to be the Super Sonic part of it, and a throwback to Doomsday Zone, the level you worked so hard for back in Sonic & Knuckles. With the removal of the eighth Chaos Emerald, this level is a little moot point now, and if I ever do continue this pack, this level probably won't be included either.
Chaotic Rock Zone & Dark Temple Zone
Chaotic Rock was meant to be a Sonic-only area, akin to how Prismatic Angel Zone was, and was going to be the ultimate challenge. Unlike Prismatic Angel Zone, there wasn't going to be any fruity rainbow roads, just a lot of rock and black bottomless pits. :P It was also going to be much more natural looking, like you really were inside a giant asteroid of some sort. Dark Temple Zone is the area where you claim Chaos Emeralds after completing the Emerald Stages. It's also where you end up after completing Chaotic Rock to claim the eighth emerald. With that said, a boss may end up appearing here in it's stead in 2.0 now, if it I ever got this far.
Chaos Portal
Obligatory Super Sonic level, blah blah blah, I think you know the drill. I hadn't really thought as far as the design and boss for this final level myself, but I wanted to be different from Mystic Realm and make it rather dark in comparison.
Supposed Multiplayer Line-up
Spring Stadium [B0]
Elemental Ruins [B1]
Greenery Hotel [B2]
Chaotic Belief [B3]
Toxic Falls [B4]
---
Greenery Cave [C0]
Wall Fortresses [C1]
Pirate Point [C2]
Azure Frost [C3]
Card Carnival [C4]
---
City Heat [D0]
Morning Hill [D1]
Ice Cap [D2]
Sandopolis [D3]
G Force [D4]
Secret Zones:
Gleaming Meadows
This was to be my attempt at a NiGHTS stage, as I wanted to try my hand at making one. The method of entry was through a special path in Lime Forest Act 1, and completing both acts of this zone would give you a shortcut straight to Aerial Sands Zone.
Special Stages
Before I stole inspiration from Mystic Realm, I had special stages already lined up. They were designed with the gimmick of the original stage you got to it from, so Special Stage 1 had trees in it, 2 had slime, 6 had wind, etc.
Steel Ship Zone
I had an idea for a Single Player Zone that I wanted to include in Chaotic Darkness as a bonus level. There was a particular Match level I made that was in the shape of a large metal ship. For match, it wasn't all that good, but the design and feel I really liked and I wanted to try turning it into a single player zone. Sadly, the idea I have is probably far too much for SRB2's poor renderer to realistically handle, so I had thoughts of scrapping this.
That's just about it I think. There's probably more, but it's all old history by now, and I don't remember much of it. For now, this post is probably the best "continuation" this pack will see. Sorry for letting you guys down.
Kim the Fox!!!
What am I doing here?
I and Winky loved it. It is now in the Super Level Pack Podium (don't ask in whicg order it is) that includes Mystic Realm, Tortured Planet and Chaotic Darkness. Now we need a voting :D
No need to apologize; I'm just happy you've gotten this far. I love your maps for a reason I don't think you'd expect. I love your maps because you do justice to each theme set. When I think of each texture set, those ideas which lay at the back of my mind, you voice them. Lime Forest (2, specifically) is the best GFZ level I've ever played because it's the GFZ level I wish I had made myself. Your maps meet me in a certain place in my soul that I cannot reach myself. Again, you have no need to apologize; you have already done so much.
As far as creative block, I know that we mappers all seem to be different yet the same. My methods may not work for you, but I see you in the same spot I was two years ago. I just remember Penopat, out of his desperation, crying out to me on IRC because he was so drunk with his passion that he couldn't do a thing. That's happened to me too, so I offer my method here in hopes that it will help not only you but all who read this.
I begin with myself. I find a true peace in my heart. (I am a God-fearing man, so prayer works well for me.) Then I pull open some music, but don't look for the perfect song. I accept the first song which comes up, and I don't think hard enough about my music to skip a song. Most days Pandora doesn't give me good enough music to be able to let myself relax and enjoy the music. Usually I either pull up Grooveshark or iTunes and put everything on shuffle. (If you'd like to see what I listen to, here's my Grooveshark library.) Currently I'm picking tracks for a music CD for a female friend of mine, and my process for making CDs is to listen to the CD over and over again as my own background music, changing it when necessary. But you didn't need to know that.
I'm literally going through my own process right now in order to document it. So, I'm opening up FFZ2, my pet unfinished project. I start out by taking the map out for a test play. I run around the map until an area catches my eye. I look at it for a moment, think about what I can change, and run back and forth between the editor and testing it. Each test shows me if I like what I've just made and what small detail I want to add next. At the beginning of the mapping process, this works well, but the nodebuilder makes this really hard later on in the map.
(I'm questioning the sanity of wasting my time on SRB2 right now, so I'm going to stop talking before I say something stupid.) Best of luck to you! Although, it seems like you don't actually want to finish the map pack, so the above post was slightly useless.
Ankoctoaragon
Member
no, it's not useless, you helped a lot of people with this post.(Including me).
:)
This is a post to salute, and a post to try and finish crumbling castle to, since it's been on my To-Do list for a while now. It's embarrassingly close to being done; I really should give it one more shot before calling it quits.
A lot of my maps back then had the "child playing with a new toy" appeal I think, or maybe I could better describe it as someone who was visibly growing and advancing with their skills. I started out extremely mediocre, if not bad, as does everyone, but I quickly started improving as I took heed to the suggestions everyone gave me. Now that I'm a "vet" the creative skill is lost on me on part of having done it so long. While I could still improve, I had been doing it long enough that my creativeness kinda dulled upon it.
My point is that I think I speak for everyone when I say we had our "golden age" of map making where we were personally simply the best at it at that point in our map making career, our peak so to speak. For example, it could be argued that Mystic's peak was somewhere around Mystic Realm 4.0, possibly a bit earlier. The justice to each theme that you talk about is just that; my golden age of map making. I don't think I could reach that peak reasonably anymore, but it does warm my heart to know people like it that much. Thanks.
Kim the Fox!!!
What am I doing here?
Emblems and Token Guide! *shot*
Well, I'm gonna mark it as favourite. I just loved Crawla Factory :D
Hall of Fame! *anotha shot*
Well, I'm gonna mark it as favourite. I just loved Crawla Factory :D
Hall of Fame! *anotha shot*
His peak is Frost Columns kthxbai. Unless you're talking about single player levels (in which case it's certainly not Castle Eggman).
Well, I gotta say I never liked this pack. All of these levels feel kinda generic and somewhat boring. They're hardly unique, neither regarding visuals (they use exactly the same textures as the SP zones in 1.09.4) nor regarding gameplay. The most original thing you did was the laser jumping in CFZ2, and that was more annoying than enjoyable. I think I remember that when 2.0 came out, you said you didn't like the single player levels, and that really shows. This is a 1.09.4 mod in all aspects and such, it's not really bad, but not interesting either.
Sorry if this sounded harsh, but I wanted to give you my honest opinion. If you can't become better than what is here, trying will be a waste of effort.
Either search for them or learn how to find their locations with WAD editors.
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What's wrong with Castle Eggman? o_O
It's not nearly as good as the other single player stages, and Mystic will readily admit that. But that's not really the fault of his mapping skills, but rather the fault of lack of time and polish, too few ideas and a rather dubious execution for the theme (rock walls in a forest, for example).
I agree that my SRB2 peak (at least in terms of work ethic) was embarassingly three or four years ago during NSZ, but I keep going anyway. I don't do it because I'm good at it; I do it because it's fun for me. Any other reason does not satisfy me. My creativity is only dull when I'm not enjoying myself.
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