Official Level Design Contest - January Voting

There were seven submissions to the January contest. They are:

MAP01 - Deep Ruins Zone by BlazeHedgehog
MAP02 - Nightside Rouge Zone by Digiku
MAP03 - Stratosphere Tower Zone by Digiku
MAP04 - Acid Ravine Zone by a441
MAP05 - Cloudscape Zone by Tets
MAP06 - Tropical Paradise Zone by hotdog
MAP07 - Mushroom Kingdon Zone by FuriousFox

As a reminder, the voting will involve copying and pasting the level list above, and giving each stage a rating from 0-10, 10 being highest. You may not vote on your own stage. Voting will end February 8th 0:00 UT (February 7th, 7:00 PM EST). The level with the highest average wins.

You can download the contest level pack here: http://mystic.sepwich.com/srb2wad/mta_contest-jan04.zip (230 KB)

Custom music is also part of Nightside Rouge Zone.
Get it here: http://digiku.250free.com/_nightsiderouge-music.zip (471 KB)

MAP01 - Deep Ruins Zone by BlazeHedgehog

Blaze... I don't know what to say. While this is "THE MAP" to use if running SRB2 on your junky old P133 laptop, it really needs more gimmicks.

MAP02 - Nightside Rouge Zone by Digiku

For shame, Digi. Why didn't you use a 'bouncy sector' for the bumpers?

MAP03 - Stratosphere Tower Zone by Digiku

Technically impressive. I'm....uh... impressed.

MAP04 - Acid Ravine Zone by a441

Elegant design. I like how you made the bottom of the conveyor belts go in the opposite direction, but I also would have liked to see the detail put on the edge of the belts.

MAP05 - Cloudscape Zone by Tets

Why is it that big maps work fine for everyone else, but then I go and make one and BAAAM it hates it?! In any case, you need to watch your diagonal spring placement a little better.. most notably the red springs. Best to test with Tails.

MAP06 - Tropical Paradise Zone by hotdog

Good for your first map, hotdog. There's a couple things that could use some attention, though.

MAP07 - Mushroom Kingdon Zone by FuriousFox

Good start for you too, FuriousFox

For shame, Digi. Why didn't you use a 'bouncy sector' for the bumpers?
Did Sonic Battle have any bumpers? ;P

But anyway, I stupidly was guided into the fake "fact" that SRB2 defaults to stuff in the original header if a value in a custom header is missing *eyes a441*. If you see red sky in Stratosphere Harbor, that's why. ;P

Guess there's not much I can do about that. Loading the wad in the command line makes it normal sky. a441 says that's a bug :E.

Mystic you kinda spelt the word Kingdom wrong o_o;

There is no SKY3, Digi. That's why you get a red sky.

I dunno, I thought the see-through fency bit was gimmicky enough. Although I do admit, in some of the outer portions of the map, I did run out of ideas, which is why there's just lots of boring old pillars and water pools without much excitement.

My Votes

MAP01 - Deep Ruins Zone by BlazeHedgehog

9/10 for cool textures and stuff. I might use them to make a single player level. :P

MAP02 - Nightside Rouge Zone by Digiku

5/10 Good idea, but too small to really be much of a good level.

MAP03 - Stratosphere Tower Zone by Digiku

9/10 Very well done, Digiku, I like it for it's textures.

MAP04 - Acid Ravine Zone by a441

7/10 Why'd you use GHZ's music? Oh, well, nice job, but when you hit the bouncer to get to the upper steel floor there's a hole in the floor, but when you get up there there isn't.... How is that possible?!?!?

MAP05 - Cloudscape Zone by Tets

8/10 Nice, big level but too many sector glitches that make Tails dissapear (Well, any character, but I always use tails) Other than that, good.

MAP06 - Tropical Paradise Zone by hotdog

7/10 Nice first try, but yeah... Spring placement needs to be watched and the water outside of the lake, the river is nothing. You can walk right on it.

MAP07 - Mushroom Kingdon Zone by FuriousFox

8/10 Nice, but why is it thunderstorming on a perfectly nice day?!?!? Oh well, still good.

The winner is either Deep Ruins or Stratosphere tower in my opinion.

You can "DM" in NiGHTS, you know...

Generally, Blaze, in DM design, you don't want to run out of ideas. If you do, just don't make anything else, and have it be smaller.

MAP01 - Deep Ruins Zone by BlazeHedgehog - 8/10
I have to say this map just looks really nice, as little as it pushes the SRB2 engine. The simple, almost maze-like layout makes for well balanced matches with any character.

MAP02 - Nightside Rouge Zone by Digiku - 6/10
Quite honestly, I don't see a whole lot of playability in this map. It seems too small. However, the presentation is top-notch. It really is something to look at.

MAP03 - Stratosphere Tower Zone by Digiku - 7/10
This makes up for the previous one. The layout is somewhat similar to Airborne Temple Zone, but different enough to not utterly rip it off. Not much else to say.

MAP04 - Acid Ravine Zone by a441 - 7/10
Once again, a441's platform special caught me off guard. I expected to fall back down the hole that the spring in the center launched me through. The music was a nice choice, and shows that the midi format isn't completely dead yet. Unfortunately the layout seems too... enclosed for my liking.

MAP05 - Cloudscape Zone by Tets
It'll be really interesting to see what this one gets. I have yet to play it in a real match so I'm not entirely sure if it works. It seems a bit huge to me, but Digi says the bigness is nice.

MAP06 - Tropical Paradise Zone by hotdog - 5/10
The layout itself is not bad, but there are a lot of unused specials that could have given this level a lot more life. A huge flaw is the object placement. Rings are best placed in groups instead of randomly strewn about the level.

MAP07 - Mushroom Kingdom Zone by FuriousFox - 7/10
Unique. I can't say I've seen any match-based Mario levels before now aside from the Block Fort and Big Donut remakes. It seems a lot more could have been done with this instead of just using the symmetrical match stage 'formula' (which isn't bad, really). It's a shame the weather effects refuse to work properly in OpenGL mode.

MAP01 - Deep Ruins Zone by BlazeHedgehog - 8
Not half bad. Looking at it in single player, I thought it would suck in a real match. I was pleasantly surprised, thankfully. The maze-like layout actually was fun, and the Attraction Shield isn't overpowered with such few rings.

MAP02 - Nightside Rouge Zone by Digiku - 3
And all of it for effort. Looks gorgeous, but it plays like s***, to be blunt. I did get a little amusement out of it, though. It could possibly be fun with homing and a LOT more rings.

MAP03 - Stratosphere Tower Zone by Digiku - 7
A ripoff, but it's a ripoff of my favorite map, so it can't be all bad. I don't really like the tower in the center, because it's too hard to use the spring. Otherwise, the layout is quite nice. Sorta interesting to have a vertical version of my horizontal stage. =P

MAP04 - Acid Ravine Zone by a441 - 4
Ick. No fun at all. The powerups are unreachable, and the layout just doesn't work at all. Green Hill music doesn't fit, either. Not to mention it's totally useless as anyone but Tails, basically.

MAP05 - Cloudscape Zone by Tets - 7
Needs more detail, but the level itself is sound. As you said, it's a little big, but that worked to it's advantage with sniping and other long range fights.

MAP06 - Tropical Paradise Zone by hotdog - 7
For a first time entry, I'm quite impressed. Actually fun to play. Needs game balance, but the idea of using Tails to run on water and having all the powerups underwater is a great touch. Also gives Tails an actual use in DM without shoving it in people's faces.

MAP07 - Mushroom Kingdon Zone by FuriousFox - 6
Just above average, I guess. There really isn't anything wrong with this map, but there really isn't anything good about it, either. Just needs more things to do, I guess. Props on using the Mario stuff, though, it's been needed to be used in DM for a long time, now.

Please don't punish FuriousFox for the thunderstorms in his level. It's a SRB2 bug; SRB2 is not resetting the map header when it should be. (It also doesn't happen if you join a netgame or use ADDFILE, only if you load the wad from the command line.)

Edit: Oh yeah, it doesn't happen in netgames. You're supposed to play these in actual netgames before voting, lostgamemaker; running around in single player won't give you a very good indication of how well they work.

My ratings for the levels in this month's contest.

MAP01 - Deep Ruins Zone by BlazeHedgehog 5/10
Pretty good level. I like the collisions in the halls, but with an average of only a few people playing, it tends to be boresome finding the other players.

MAP02 - Nightside Rouge Zone by Digiku 6/10
Surprisingly fun! First time I played in it I was going "What in the world were you thinking, Digiku, I expected a LOT more from you," but when I played it with others, it was fun! The size works to your advantage, actually. The only thing bad is when you use a "Grey" shield, it explodes on everybody in the map. (Excuse me not spelling the name of the shield, as I do not know how to spell it. When I find out the name, I'll edit this post.

MAP03 - Stratosphere Tower Zone by Digiku 7/10
I really liked this level. Some springs are offcenter, and sometimes the sky is red. Really designed well, though. I don't know HOW you designed it, if you gave me blueprints to design that, I'd die. Multiplayer playing works quite well, except it's a little small. when you jump off the tower, you usually can see that the floor on your bottom is an endless pit until it is too late.

MAP04 - Acid Ravine Zone by a441 7/10
Pretty fun, though without a "Green" shield, you can't survive more than 1 minute with 5 people. Not enough space to stretch out, though. I, for one, liked the choice of music, though. I don't know why anyone else doesn't like it. It's a blast from the past. It makes me playing-old-sonic-home sick. :P

MAP05 - Cloudscape Zone by Tets 10/10
I absolutely LOVED this level. It was great! I love using the rail rings to shoot unsuspecting people fighting the other players. Just... Loved it.

MAP06 - Tropical Paradise Zone by hotdog 5/10
... Pretty good. The rings are kinda all jumbled up in 1 place, and I don't really like the idea of going through the waterfall that goes underwater and coming up in a air patch. Kinda fun, I guess...

MAP07 - Mushroom Kingdon Zone by FuriousFox 7/10
Pretty nice. I'd like it more if the infinity ring would not be centered. I really like to jump in the spring, and then shoot people on the floating platform, though. I think rail rings might be a good choice for this level, or homing rings. Overall, it's a good level.

a441, I try to join NetGames ALL THE TIME. It's never worked. No one else ever comes.

Uh, well you're rating people's maps on what they look like, not how they play. Remember, they're match levels, not single player levels.

#srb2netgame and #srb2fun on the same network as #srb2 have netgames frequently, so try joining them.

The search server and the master server don't exist, so you can't host a game and expect people to come, you have to tell them who you are and that you're hosting. Also, if you're firewalled or on a local area network, you might need to configure your router or firewall to make it work (but you should be able to join netgames other people are hosting without problems, no matter what).

Since I've never really played a SRB2 netgame (imagine that), I'll do like AJ did -- comments but no score:

MAP01 - Deep Ruins Zone by BlazeHedgehog

My map, of course. The textures in this are textures I'm using for an upcoming SASRB2 level (one of the few original ones not edited from the SRB2FD release). The idea for the fences came early on in developing the singleplayer map - to advance to the next area of the stage you must press a button. But the button is behind a fence... One reason I ran out of ideas for this map was because I was going to have another part of it have timed doors -- hit a button, the door opens for a short while, then closes. A441 informed me those weren't in yet, so I had to toss that idea out.

MAP02 - Nightside Rouge Zone by Digiku

This one gets big points for style -- defenitely original. However, it looses points because the map is really quite tiny, even for 1-on-1 deathmatch. And simple in design. Good job none the less, Digi. Animated floors and everything!

MAP03 - Stratosphere Tower Zone by Digiku

Wow, this is a complex map. Usually you only see this kind of mapping coming from veteran doom mappers who've been making maps for 5+ years. Defenitely some high-class mapping. Although I feel this map might be too small as well -- it makes up for it in vertical height, though.

MAP04 - Acid Ravine Zone by a441

Another generally small map. A little over twice (maybe thrice) the size of Club Rouge. Interesting use of the new platform you can pass through on the bottom but stand on, on the top. Can't help but wish the FOFs on the top-floor of the map (the bridge bits) were crumbling blocks, though, although I'm not sure if that's really the best idea -- not a half bad map, either way.

MAP05 - Cloudscape Zone by Tets

Holy CRAP. This map needs at LEAST 8 players I'm guessing, otherwise it's gonna be a big game of "hide and go seek". An interesting design, if I must say so. I probably just play too much PSO, but the bit you start off in, in Singleplayer made me flash back to Dark Falz's spire-thingy at the start of the boss fight. x_x I've always been a fan of big DM stages, though. Even so, this might even cross my threshold for "too big". If only there were a sniper rifle weapon in srb2 ;)

MAP06 - Tropical Paradise Zone by hotdog

An interesting map. Spring placement kept me entertained for a little while, but the layout of the map itself is very basic. However, for a first time, a good try indeed.

MAP07 - Mushroom Kingdom Zone by FuriousFox

An interesting concept , but the map itself feels boring or generic or something. I guess you could say it doesn't utilize the Mario-ness of it's surroundings besides the four [?] blocks. Could be more exciting, sure. However, a good start -- you've got stuff down like FoF's.

Actually, Blaze, the Rail weapon lets us sniper from across the map. It doesn't have zoom, but you can still torment people from a mile away ^_~

Yeah, Mystic is really good at that. XD