[Open Assets] Great Divide Zone (v1.10)

[742mph]

The multi-environment Great Divide Zone is back for SRB2 2.1!

Special thanks to StarmakerJasper for allowing his custom character Jasper to be packaged with this zone (albeit with different abilities because of reasons), CoatRack for lending me his Angel Island miniboss sprites, Blade and Dr. Pepper for various other sprites and graphics, and MonsterIestyn, RoyKirbs, Prime 2.0, and MascaraSnake for lots of help finding and fixing bugs and other issues.

I do not claim to own anything in Great Divide that I did not create, such as Metal Sonic's, Jasper's, and the miniboss' sprites.

Great Divide is compatible with Sonic Man X.

Spoiler: Changelog

Version 1.10
*Updated for compatibility with Sonic Man X version 1.2.
*Knuckles' Stomp Dash no longer halts his horizontal movement or locks his falling speed.
*Various aspects of the level, especially the Eggman base, have been altered to improve consistency, reduce railroading, take advantage of slopes, and reward the player appropriately for exploration.
*The miniboss flies through the tunnel in which it is fought instead of teleporting.
*Character select descriptions have been tweaked.

Version 1.9
*Fixed a bug that caused players to get stuck in certain zoom tubes.
*Jasper's sprites have been updated to those of his standalone character WAD counterpart.
*Jasper's fall-switch is now performed by pressing Jump in mid-jump, and his instant stop is performed by pressing Spin in mid-jump.
*Tails and Metal Sonic can spin on the ground when moving fast enough.
*Metal Sonic is no longer invincible during his air dash.
*Characters can no longer exit a spin by pressing the Spin button again.
*Minimum and maximum spindash charges have been standardized between characters.
*The Tails/multiplayer level exit has been moved into a tunnel.

 

[MascaraSnake]

And with a blink-and-you'll miss it two-week delay, welcome to Releases!

 

[Jellybones]

Is this level intended to run in OpenGL? I can't run that mode and it's extremely laggy in software. It's hard to give a good review when it played the way it did.

Well, I'll say a few things. Ring Drain in the water was a bad idea. I thought it was a death pit at first. It's better to just have it hurt the player because then I can collect my rings and wade through it back to land instead of just dying so often or losing rings I couldn't regain because of it.

Secondly, there's definitely way too many enemies. They don't often add anything and are in annoying areas where you're already on extremely slippery ice, either in threat of falling in ring drain water or back to the bottom and making the climb all over again. There's this long flat section with these custom turrets that don't do much except be annoying, and then the part after that with the FOFs was novel but annoying in practice. It's just hard because it's annoying.

I got to the volcano-looking area before I fell in lava and gave up. In software mode, at least, it's unplayable to me. Which is a shame because you've got some unique looking hazards around but they're executed poorly.

 

[Sapheros]

Well since I have better software, i'll give you my review. I'll agree with JellyBones, the draining water is very cruel (especially for those that get hit by an enemy and fall into it) The punishment of climbing back up the caves is a good enough punishment for those that have trouble platforming correctly. The new turret enemies are interesting, which I have no problem with, but their placement, ITS ALL OVER THE PLACE. I mean, in a later section where you have to platform on ice... Too many of those enemies will be firing constantly. The White Snailer enemy is also interesting, but I honestly don't like it's block gimmick, in the later part of the level where there's lava, i just simply took a hit and jumped up the fall. Alot of the 2D section are really fun and interesting to travel in (and great job on taking advantage of the zoom tube to accommodate the entire entrance) And Finally, the Tails section. Caught me off guard on my last life and the miniboss enemy got me a game over, but honestly I think it was fun, really easy to avoid the fire, but fun!, I'm more concerned what Act 2 will present since the level ended with you and tails. I like this zone, it presents difficulty in a very tough way, and while too many enemies were on screen, I found myself dying to the environmental hazards than them. There is also one thing I'd like to comment on the characters. Greene--I mean Homing Sonic has a very awkward homing attack. It looks fancy but once you actually hit something with it, Sonic just drops after that, it's really annoying with homing attacking enemies over hazards. Jasper has... and interesting move, but it's range isn't very strong to kill enemies easily. Also, his dropping after the move has not only been a problem, but it actually saved my life more than usual. I can't wait to see Act 2!

 

[r543]

I tried to load this and start the game but it didn't launch me to your level. So I had to use the multiplayer levelselect(which doesn't regenerate rings after death) to play this level(not everyone has all emblems of 2.1 yet to unlock the level select).

I don't know if you are trying to make this level difficult or annoying for the player. At first I didn't know where to go, the map was like a hub world. The water is ok, but the ring draining could be slower and it needs a different color so that the player knows that it will hurt. After some minutes I finally found a way up and reached the ice platforms. Why ice platforms ? The first part is already like a tower climbing game, there is no need to add very annoying ice platforms to it.

The room with the small springs was ok, but it's very annoying with the other sonic because the homing attack will aim at the enemies even if you are on top of them. Why did you use only blue springs ? If the player is platforming on ice platforms, they won't think about moving forward fast.

The part with the switches was good, but the water slide didn't work the second time. The moving ice platforms and spamturrets are a bad idea. I didn't get past that part because I played on multiplayer.
Most of the enemies float in the air instead near walls and the music doesn't loop correctly.

The edited version of CE/RE/whatever it is is ok, I see that you worked on the homing attack, but fully stopping the player after a homing attack isn't good. The invinciblity while homing fixes it, but it probably removes shields because of the invinciblity. It can glitch if you jump and then homing attack before landing on the ground, sonic will keep rolling and won't stop.
Why was this and the other character even included in this ?

I'm not sure on what to think about this level, it's strange and I don't know if it's a late game/secret bonus level or a normal zone.

 

[742mph]

Version 1.2 update changelog:

*Sonic's spindash charges still faster.
*Jasper's Spark Burst has a wider attack radius and can destroy projectiles.
*Red turrets fire spreads of three missiles with a one-second delay.
*Flame Snailers fire bursts of three shots instead of five.
*The ring-draining toxic water has been nerfed in difficulty. It doesn't kill you instantly if an enemy knocks you into it, and you can buy yourself a few seconds of extra time at the expense of any shields you're carrying.
*All characters can uncurl from a spin by pressing Spin, and they will switch to their falling animation after running off of a ledge.

As for the bug that r543 mentioned about not teleporting to Great Divide after starting a new game, I've never experienced it, so I have no idea what could be wrong. If this happens to you, you can use "map maph0" in the console to send yourself there without having to play in an offline co-op server.

 

[PrismaticAngel]

So, after finally beating the level with Jasper after getting, what, 3 game overs I'll have to say the following: this level is really hard.

First off, there's the ring drain water, which I think is a really bad idea. Once you fall into it, it saps your rings, which doesn't sound too bad, but considering the fact that you're constantly going to be hit by all the enemies you'll likely just barely escape with 1 ring in hand.

Second, falling down in this level is too easy, and it makes the level seem annoying because you have to keep repeating parts of the level. Adding to that, there's a glitch with Sonic's Homing Crush, where if you use it on a diagonal spring it causes you to go through it. I've fallen down several times this way, causing me to have to repeat for example the Crystal Snailer cavern after the first starpost. (See attached GIF)

It's not all bad though, the gravity panels were a pretty cool idea. And also the way you placed the Fire Snailers so that you had to time your jumps was pretty cool, like in the 2D segment. And the final part where you ride Tails is also pretty cool, if a bit dull.

 

[Puppyfaic]

I really want to play this level, but I just can't. Every 3 seconds or so, whether in Software or OpenGL, the level's framerate goes to shit. Then back to normal. Then back to shit. Etc.

 

[742mph]

Version 1.3 update changelog:

*Fixed a glitch in which Sonic would not fly upward correctly after bouncing off of a spring.
*Fixed a problem in which a section of floor with ice on it was not in fact slippery.
*Removed all weather effects to reduce lag.

Version 1.3.1 update changelog:

*Flame Snailers now fire in bursts of five flames instead of three once more.
*All characters can turn Super in Single Player.

 

[Joosp]

I did play this when it came out in 2.0, but I never actually took the time to get my say on it (which is a bit silly, considering my own character is put into it). On a whole, I really like this level simply because of the difficulty and the gimmicks it presents to the player. Stuff like the ice Snailers and how you have to manage the ice they shoot while also being very wary of other enemies with their sights on you, or the gravity puzzles involving smart use of existing gravity panels were really well done. I also really enjoyed the part where the ice in one room is burst open and creates a multitude of platforms to climb up (I know it's more of an aesthetics thing but it really looked awesome). Speaking of aesthetics, the entire Tails flight is still the best use of a brak-like missile I've ever seen. There were some things that just bugged me, though most of them have already been mentioned such as the toxic water and being dropped to a past part of the level.

The two characters presented are both very different in gameplay styles. Sonic is obviously the speedy character and has a variety of ways to get to places you want to go fast, and then there's Jasper who became a much more defensive character compared to his 2.0 version. I still question why Jasper became like this, as I found most of his abilities of protecting himself to be very redundant as I was simply trying to get across sections. Since he also became this way, he also lost his faster charging spindash and made the Spark Burst's effect of dropping him downward less useful when trying to get across large gaps. It still had its moments where it saved me from flying over a pit, but it lost it's main use in the end and I mostly used it for picking off enemies.

I still really like this level regardless of the few problems I had with Jasper or the stage itself, as the positives really outshine the negatives. I'm still very proud to have Jasper be featured in it (although not exactly in the best state) and I might make a nod to the Spark Burst in the next version of Jasper I create. Also, have a gif of me failing physics class and messing with an ice Snailer.

 

[742mph]

Version 1.3.2 update changelog:

*The Lua script that transitions the player into the 2D section in the fire area has been improved slightly.
*Characters can no longer go Super in Single Player due to a glitch with the SF_SUPER skin flag.
*Sonic and Jasper both have some new Super-exclusive abilities, but you won't be seeing much of them.

 

[The Zero Team]

*Flame Snailers now fire in bursts of five flames instead of three once more.

How about changing it to bursts of 1 flame instead? As well as removing many of the fire snailers?
You know, not everyone has a Windows XP. Some people actually have modern computers that aren't so good for Doom and modifications of it. Like me.
(Really, Windows XP is amazing for SRB2, and modern computers can run it just fine, but lag easier than Windows XP.)
In the lag place (you know what I mean), I can get down to 18 frames per second, instead of 35.

Oh, and this map (pack?) is meant for the people who got bored of how easy Ultimate mode of the vanilla levels are, right?

Spoiler: Edit: SPOILERS

You may also want to change the Tails "I can fly you over this gap thing" to a CECHO thing (dunno if that can be done in Lua, but at least the console can be used for CECHO things, that makes things appear on the center of the screen).

 

[742mph]

How about changing it to bursts of 1 flame instead? As well as removing many of the fire snailers?
You know, not everyone has a Windows XP. Some people actually have modern computers that aren't so good for Doom and modifications of it. Like me.
(Really, Windows XP is amazing for SRB2, and modern computers can run it just fine, but lag easier than Windows XP.)
In the lag place (you know what I mean), I can get down to 18 frames per second, instead of 35.

Oh, and this map (pack?) is meant for the people who got bored of how easy Ultimate mode of the vanilla levels are, right?

Spoiler: Edit: SPOILERS

You may also want to change the Tails "I can fly you over this gap thing" to a CECHO thing (dunno if that can be done in Lua, but at least the console can be used for CECHO things, that makes things appear on the center of the screen).

My computer is a four-year-old laptop running Windows 7 with nearly half of its memory full, so if I can run it without any noticeable lag, so can you. If you can't, well, I already removed the weather effects, and changes in the number of normal objects don't seem to do much, so I don't know what to tell you.

As for the Tails thing, placing his text at the top of the screen makes it look like his message is from another player, whereas placing it in the center of the screen is more of a global-impersonal-message type of thing. For example, don't you think the cutscene text in Dumbventure looked much better than it would have if it was displayed via CECHO?

I'm honestly kind of suprised that everyone finds this level so hard. Yes, it has a lot of enemies that shoot a lot of projectiles, but the player has the Homing Crush/Spark Burst to counter enemies and projectiles alike. The only truly instant-kill hazard is the death pit in the Tails section, and that part is more of a memorable setpiece than a legitimate challenge. The wost possible thing that could happen to you in Great Divide that isn't falling off of Tails is being shot by an enemy and falling into toxic water, which gives you just as much time to escape onto dry land as any other damaging liquid does. Maybe it's just because of how well I know the level, but it really doesn't seem like it should be more frustrating than, say, ERZ2.

 

[Puppyfaic]

It's not that the level is hard, it's that it's frustrating. Too many things trying to hurt you flying at you left and right, and before you know it you lose all the progress you made because you got knocked down to where you were a minute or two ago, then you groan in frustration as you try to make your way back to where you were, only to fall back down as soon as you make it back.

TL;DR: It's not fun falling all the way back to the beginning because you got hit once.

 

[Goldenhog]

Everyone that had lag issues even after the weather effects were removed, listen up, this may help you. So, I, like many others, was unable to properly play this thing because of the horrible lagging it had. And then the weather effects were removed, which made it a little better, but it still had some sort of strange on-and-off lag that made platforming very frustrating. So what did I do?

FRAME S_FLAMESNAILER_CHARGE2
SPRITENUMBER = SPR_GDOB
SPRITESUBNUMBER = 9
DURATION = 1
NEXT = S_FLAMESNAILER1
ACTION A_Look
VAR1 = 90177537
VAR2 = 0

And the lag was gone(except for the large areas later in the level, but at least that's something you can expect). What was happening is that the Flame Snailers were shooting their flame thingys even when they couldn't see the player and/or vice versa. So the game would have to account for all these projectiles that you can't even see until the halfway point of the level. And considering how many Flame Snailers are in the level, it's no wonder why the game chocked everytime they fired.

Changing the Flame Snailer's SOC as I did in the quote up there fixes this - they will only fire if they can see the player and only the ones that can see the player will fire. No more will Flame Snailers fill the processing with superfluous flame projectiles.

 

[742mph]

Post

I may very well implement this in a 1.3.3 patch this evening. Thanks for your help, although the method used in the fix you released will desynchronize the Flame Snailers if the player runs up to them at the wrong time, so I'll see what I can do about that.

 

[Puppyfaic]

Is it possible to put all the snailers on a synchronized timer? Have them always be following the timer even when not firing, but as soon as they see the player they turn on and perform the action designated to them based on the timer.

 

[742mph]

Is it possible to put all the snailers on a synchronized timer? Have them always be following the timer even when not firing, but as soon as they see the player they turn on and perform the action designated to them based on the timer.

They already follow a timer, in the sense that they all fire at exactly the same time. In 1.3.3, this will still be true regardless of which ones see the player at any given time.

EDIT:

Version 1.3.5 update changelog:

*Super characters now attract rings in order to have a chance at remaining Super in Great Divide.
*Flame Snailers will not fire unless the player is within 2048 fracunits of them when they finish their charge.
*Fixed a small glitch with characters' falling animations triggering.

 

[clairebun]

You don't do a very good job of introducing some of the new mechanics to the player. Before I knew that the water was dangerous, my three rings were drained up and I was dead. Before I knew how to control Tails and what I could do with him, I died twice.

The map's pretty decent other than that. The music looppoint is bad though. Also I swear to god that flame sound ear rape.

Also, I don't know why Greeneyes and Jasper are mashed inside the level wad, it would make more sense to put them into separate wads.

 

[Ors]

I liked the environment really much and some obstacles had new kinds of gameplay and what's most important, this is chllenging.
But there's one HUGE problem, the lag. The lag starts in the room with grass and lava. There my FPS lies between 5 and 15