Moose the Fat Cat
Member
I am incredibly confused as to why the very idea of rehauling the levels to fit Sonic's moveset is even part of the conversation. The levels are generally designed with the intention of a Thok-less Sonic to be able to go through them, much as how Sonic 3 and Sonic Mania design their levels for Sonic to go through them without relying on the Insta-Shield or the Drop Dash. Like the Drop Dash, the Thok is a tool for going fast far more than it is a tool for platforming, and the satisfaction from using the Thok usually arises from taking the same path Sonic would normally take, but faster and riskier.
The only level that could possibly need changing is Greenflower Act 1 to introduce opportunities for the player to use Sonic's new move, but I don't even see that as a necessity. Greenflower has enough gimmicks, collectibles, and side rooms for the player to learn a character's moveset regardless of what the character does. Every character I've played from Releases gets plenty of opportunities to use their moveset in vanilla Greenflower.
Yes, exactly.
Although I would say Greenflower needs a gentle flying/butterfly badnik so you can test jump abilities and attacks. That's true whether Sonic's ability changes or not. Replace 10% of the crawlas with those.
Otherwise, aside from the obvious level design issues (like too many pits in AC1 in general and especially last section), that's not the issue. There's no need to throw the baby out with the bath water.
---------- Post added at 06:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 AM ----------
I don't think you quite understand what I'm getting at. Most stages don't even need to be redesigned. They just need additional safety nets to allow players to retry the platforming segment. The current level design is fine, but mistakes are pretty punishing, and for a new player, lives and continues aren't exactly easy to come by either. Especially when playing as Sonic. This is partially why Thok is so difficult for new comers. You don't hear very often players getting stuck in GFZ or THZ because those levels don't dump you into a pit for failing basic platforming. Heck these stages don't exactly have "lower paths" either but because they aren't a life sink, the player has more of a chance to learn.
And the FSonic skills, if they work as you describe, solve zero problems. The main issue that is being discussed is that, if I understand correctly, "Sonic's Thok isn't intuitive to platforming and is often misused by newer players". FSonic does nothing to assist in that regard.
Edit: I can also assure you the only stage that might need editing in regards to a new ability would be GFZ1 just to help incentive the player to try it out. Regular platforming in SRB2 is fine. If Robo-Hood can beat the game then I think the current main design is fine.
100% agree.
I feel like we're getting to the point of bending over backwards to avoid the obvious thing, what would probably be the most requested thing I would imagine, which is the homing attack. That helps the new player and solves virtually everything, provided it comes with the air thrust. But since it's off the table (I guess?), then instead it becomes anything else... like the entire game needs to be redesigned so that Sonic's current ability set doesn't change.