Happy New Year!

[Radicalicious]

It feels so, so, so good to finally see some proper 2.3 screenshots in high quality! With all this new info coming out, would it be safe to say we might be getting more frequent updates about 2.3's development now? I'm obviously not asking for direct release dates, estimations and all that, but moreso just general progress reports, maybe the occasional screenshot, all that stuff.

Hopefully, yeah. We'll probably have less to tease without giving away surprises than the 2.2 days, but we're always doing cool stuff. As always though... when it's done™

Quick question regarding a certain topic since we seem to be doing Q&A here: Is Thok still planned to be moved off Sonic in 2.3, and if so will it still be available without modding in some form and is the team willing to share any new details about what Sonic's ability will be changed to?

Wish I had more to say, but we're still working on it. With the years of retrospective discussion about the cast's abilities (particularly Sonic's), there's a lot to consider for what new ones should be like and if the old ones should stay. Thok debates aren't any easier for us to have than for anybody else :p

wonder if 2.3 will support 2.2 mods

It depends. Maps will have to be converted to UDMF to be recognized by the game, and we might end up nuking the Doom Flat format too so a second conversion might be necessary in order to fix missing textures. Some script mods might work fine but larger mods will likely require more in depth adjustments depending on how much the Lua API changes. Like klasky said, major versions usually cause breaking changes, so just be prepared.

 

[Boingozoingo]

quick question, why do maps have to be converted to udmf? i know binary mapping support will be deprecated, but why the actual maps
and will converting other users maps to udmf be considered making portlegs?

 

[Jammin']

quick question, why do maps have to be converted to udmf? i know binary mapping support will be deprecated, but why the actual maps
and will converting other users maps to udmf be considered making portlegs?

UDMF is superior to binary. That's because it's human-readable, easier to make maps in, and allows for adding new mapping features quite easily if I remember correctly.
Making ports of older maps to UDMF for 2.3 would be allowed here as long as the port complies with the rules specific to ports. (Found near the bottom of the post.)

 

[time gear]

Wish I had more to say, but we're still working on it. With the years of retrospective discussion about the cast's abilities (particularly Sonic's), there's a lot to consider for what new ones should be like and if the old ones should stay. Thok debates aren't any easier for us to have than for anybody else :p

That's understandable. In that case, here's a couple of follow up questions: Does the team still consider it a priority for Sonic to be beginner friendly as the character players are most likely to pick first, or has the mood shifted to where Sonic being a bit more difficult than Tails and Knuckles is seen as less of a problem? Also, is the team considering alterations to the Tails bot behavior/mechanics in the "Sonic and Tails" option for the sake of being more reliable and useful for beginner players? Perhaps being able to swap between the two characters to make use of Tails' flight for example.

 

[Boingozoingo]

UDMF is superior to binary.

thats a (factually proven) opinion, i was just asking if there was any technical reason

 

[Jammin']

thats a (factually proven) opinion, i was just asking if there was any technical reason

What?
The reasons I gave make it technically superior. I wasn't speaking based on my opinion. (You seem to like saying my statements rooted in objectivity are opinionated, now that I think about it.)
I have no opinion on the matter because I have used both UDMF and binary and the differences aren't very noticeable to me. However, I do not map very much if at all, so I was going off of the general consensus of people who use it more, which is that it's easier.

 

[Boingozoingo]

What?
The reasons I gave make it technically superior. I wasn't speaking based on my opinion. (You seem like saying my statements rooted in objectivity are opinionated, now that I think about it.)
I have no opinion on the matter because I have used both UDMF and binary and the differences aren't very noticeable to me. However, I do not map very much if at all, so I was going off of the general consensus of people who use it more, which is that it's easier.

mb jams

 

[Rolly Polly Pal]

New screenshots are awesome. Hope this means that 2.3 is coming in the somewhat near future (not this year, but perhaps within the next year or two). The bonus level certainly intrigues me and I'm curious to find out what it is.

 

[Worm]

SRB2's future physics changes are still planned for 2.3, but they aren't planned on ever being as earth-shattering as some demonstrations from the early 2020s would suggest. Some developers working on those systems have since moved on, and the aforementioned work required to accomplish large revamps just isn't something the team feels like going through with, lest we just make a new game altogether. What will be present in 2.3 will largely consist of momentum preservation mechanics and increased jump heights, with existing levels and character movesets modified to accommodate for these changes.

Sorry to necro :p I'm here because of jackalman video. It's cool to hear about physics changes. I was pretty worried about them, because I never really liked the popular momentum mods and thought we were gonna end up with, as you said "a new game altogether." But actually I like momentum preservation as long as it's not too "overbearing," and I can get behind a less flashy rework.

The moveset changes are going to be interesting too. I have to imagine that includes the standard momentum mod practice of getting rid of knux and fang's speed cuts. And I'm not sure this is really your domain, but as #1 tailbounce apologist I would humbly ask that the devs at least keep a vertical speed cut for it. Being locked into full bounces really gimps Fang, and the lack of control is very much felt if you're used to vanilla tailbounce. I once played a momentum mod that got rid of starting lag but kept the end lag, which I really liked actually and would be my preferred method, but really it's just the vertical speed thing that matters. Oh also the tailbounce stopped working on vertically moving platforms in 2.14 oopsie

I'll be happy to see a cork gun rework tho. And with the introduction of a separate shield button (that isn't the same as spin by default) I wonder if there are plans to add (aerial) spin abilities to the vanilla cast. Honestly I'd sorta dislike that because I think the two button design of vanilla is neat, but it could open up some cool possibilities. Everybody wants to give Amy one (or rather move what she has to spin exclusively and give her a real double jump ability), and I have I to imagine Amy is a much discussed topic for 2.3. (I'd give her a horizontal to vertical speed thing like Maimy personally, but I don't have strong opinions about this like I do for fang)

Anyway, 2.3 just a week a way! Oh boy! I admit I've sorta been "the sarby devs don't care about vanilla!!! They hate us!!!" but after seeing this I'll at least try to contain my doomer tendencies until the update actually releases haha

 

[Mr Beagle]

Sorry to necro :p I'm here because of jackalman video. It's cool to hear about physics changes. I was pretty worried about them, because I never really liked the popular momentum mods and thought we were gonna end up with, as you said "a new game altogether." But actually I like momentum preservation as long as it's not too "overbearing," and I can get behind a less flashy rework.

I believe the changes to character movement being significantly more modest in 2.3 is a good thing actually, as the engine itself and the tooling used for it may not be completely ready for such because of the levels needing to be a bit larger and more expansive to accommodate it. This would also decrease the work required on the part of mappers to update packs to prevent the movement upgrades from breaking things.

We already have seen steps taken such as it being made possible for the entire grid to be used, but for things to really be ready we will likely need to have a single renderer that supports everything as opposed to the dual engines it has now and be able to scale down easily in the same vein as Ring Racers does by default (which allows for very long tracks even with fast karts).

Though I am left to wonder where the info of 2.3 being a week away came from when 2.2.16 is planned yet?

 

[Blast98]

View attachment 181849
Does that mean the scrapped ERZ 3 boss could be the boss for RVZ?

I genuinely hope this is the case of point here, because if it isn't, then I would probably be horrified to think it would be a completely new boss.

Nope! The scrapped ERZ3 boss won't be the boss for RVZ because one, that boss flips gravity, which is not something to be expected in a nature and two, the ERZ3 boss uses the same sprites as the CEZ boss and completely new sprites for the RVZ boss has to be made. Also, RVZ3 is probably going to take place in a creator.

 

[teoisonic]

Bring back blue mountain zone or are you just gonna let history reimagined do the dirty work

 

[icomplainlots]

are the music tracks that are used in final demo zone going to remain in the game (even after final demo zone gets replaced)???

cause i really find those tracks useful to my works!