It literally just gets funnier as it goes. I gotta be for real with you if you don’t think it’s funny there is something seriously wrong with your humor pal.
- Thread starter RoyKirbs
- Start date
Player:Fusion!
You can do it by yourself, i believe on you!
Hey RoyKirbs you made the Tofu Thawaleg (i hope i typed correctly) for OLDC 2023 R1?
I have something important to talk private with you
I have something important to talk private with you
Mr Beagle
Member
Entry back into the hub from Sakura Solstice on the latest dev. build produces a sigsev.
I know of the risk of using dev. builds, but 2.2.14 is late in the development cycle and it has optimizations that help with the huge and detailed levels. A lot of people will also likely switch to it in the coming months based on release date predictions. On the other hand, it is great to actually see that map after years of hearing about it.
Now why not use the lagkiller lua floating around? There is a lot of custom logic here and there is no guarantee that an automated approach to optimization like that will not break something (as we can't expect everything to be written in a way to maximize compatibility).
I know of the risk of using dev. builds, but 2.2.14 is late in the development cycle and it has optimizations that help with the huge and detailed levels. A lot of people will also likely switch to it in the coming months based on release date predictions. On the other hand, it is great to actually see that map after years of hearing about it.
Now why not use the lagkiller lua floating around? There is a lot of custom logic here and there is no guarantee that an automated approach to optimization like that will not break something (as we can't expect everything to be written in a way to maximize compatibility).
Player:Fusion!
You can do it by yourself, i believe on you!
My brother love Tofu T. zone that you made, so he made the badniks of the level and etc. in a functioning .pk3 file
The scores I'm giving these levels are completely arbitrary and do not reflect my actual feelings about a stage, don't worry about them.
Ultimate Soda Facility: 7.5/10 I love gambling!!!
A lot of the custom textures are neat and look pretty good.
In general the level looks and plays good.
The earthquake effect that plays when the door opens lasts too long.
I fell in a pool of soda on the alternate route and got softlocked... ):
Ultimate Seaside Coast Act 2: 7/10 avalice wasnt joking how qcould you use mushrooms that arent bouncy
A bit light on decoration in parts though it still looks good, castle sections need more texture varietey and this is really "What I would have done differently" but I think the thok barriers could have been lowered and sloped to feel more dynamic.
My memory of it is a bit fuzzy but I think in the original version of the level you actually interacted with the rising castle setpiece? I wish that was in this version as well.
Bigass loop-de-loop was cool.
Magma Mountain Act 2: 5/10
Only 50 seconds? Sure is a lot of levels this OLDC which are very short but this one in particular stood out to me as just feeling like it was missing something. It all takes place in one section which certainly adds to that feeling.
Also completely linear which isn't a good mix with short levels.
The colormap makes the walls turn into completely solid colors when using palrender/software which makes it hard to judge distances properly.
Dragon Lair: 4.5/10 also i didnt really like the song that much
You don't have to use stacks of dash pad things to move along the Y axis, Springs or Sector based Dash Pads work better.
There aren't any sounds or effects when you pick up a ring topping? Feels very weird with there being no indication when you pick one up.
There's no checkpoints, for some specific levels I wouldn't mind that too much but this level doesn't have anything unique about it that would give a good reason for it to have no checkpoints.
One of the sections has enemies on platforms that you have to jump up to and those enemies can only be killed by jumping in their heads. I actually think that's a pretty neat idea but the fact that there's no checkpoints and getting hit by the enemies sends you into a pit is a problem.
In general the Pizza Tower art style in my opinion just doesn't look that good converted into a 3D space without a lot of effort put into making it look right, sadly this level just doesn't really attempt that much.
Doomship Zone Act 1: 8/10 WE'RE SO BACKKKKKKKKK
It's cool and uses a lot of cool stuff like gravity monitors and Knuckles has multiple exclusive paths which is an epic reference I think.
In terms of setpieces, this map is still good at it like act 2, but in terms of gameplay it's way more fair.
Zoom tube is slow as shit???
Needed more texture variety + the built in SRB2 Doomship textures are very small. Like with Aerial Artillery some rooms like to stick with a texture and use it for all of a rooms walls/ceilings though the gameplay consistently has decoration that's actually pretty good.
Not made in actual 2.0 so 0/10.
Winding Woods: 7/10
That was REALLY short, and all the alternate paths are really short as well. Is this level unfinished? There being two goalposts gives me the impression that the level wasn't able to be finished.
so short there arent any checkpoints lmao
All the paths are fun but they could have been merged together to make the level linear, but have a more acceptable runtime.
Eastside Seaside Act 1: 6/10
The visuals remind me of a 2.0/2.1 level, especially with the texture choices. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though it can lead to the level looking a bit out of place.
Another pretty short level, only lasting around 60 seconds.
Not really much to say as there isn't really anything else going on in the level.
pterabytes suck!!
Eastside Seaside Act 3: 2/10
Bosses are something that I'm usually not a fan of, and this level feels particularly frustrating for me.
Mainly, you can't see where the boss is because parts of the tree block it off. This gets especially bad when the boss you're fighting will at random points switch directions, which was fine in the original arena because there wasn't any threat of dying, but here if you miss the jump you'll fall into a pit.
If you move at any point during the intro you will just miss the arena and fall into the pit and die. Epic fail
Death pits aren't tagged on the waterfalls target sectors.
The Sonic 1 8-Bit Boss theme only being 13 seconds long makes it get very repetitive after a while.
NEW Pipe Towers: 5.5/10
Gameplay is solid enough but some of the rooms feel kinda same-ey? Knuckles section is cool but pipes in other areas don't really mesh well with him.
At the end the 2D mode is carried over from the pretty neat underground 2D section but the fact you're in 2D isn't taken use of for anything besides making you go forward. I think it could've been expanded to have at least a few platforms and also take use of the fact you grow smaller.
Only some of the grass has an actual texture?
Water doesn't have a colormap.
Starfall Casino: 5/10 its called starfall but you aren't forced to play the frontiers pinball minigame to beat it
While most people dislike the SA1 Sonic Casinopolis style of levels, I've never actually minded them.
The entire map is a large open area perfect for badnik bouncing which I love.
Unfortunately since the thing with the different camera perspective gives a lot of free rings when you beat it, it's really easy to cheese the entire level.
Green Valley: 6/10
Gameplay is decent, a bit flat in some areas but still good. There's this weird section where you can choose between two paths but both paths are the exact same and merge together right after.
Also there's a few jumps where you cant see the platforn you're supposed to jump on until its too late and you fall off and die.
Decoraton is weird, It's not horrible but the actual thing/texture choices used are weird and don't really mesh together. DSZ textures look especially out of place.
There's also no epic 3D skybox, copy and pasting the GFZ skybox could have been enough but it's whatever.
Lugar Verde Act 2: 7.5/10
Good level! Not much else to comment on, a good GFZLike will always be good but there's usually nothing special about it.
Compared to Zaxel's GFZlike from the last OLDC, It's a lot more focused and less open. Way less badnik bounce opportunities.
Beeg Crawlas don't have their mobjscale properly set up in the thing's custom fields so you don't get the large collision, just the large visuals.
Sunrise Temple: 7/10
A lot of secrets and open areas which is fun to mess around with.
There's a section where you jump over spikes that are on a downhill slope and that's pretty neat.
This level caused serious lag when I first played it. It might have been caused by a mod conflict or could have been the bajillion spikes but enabling the lagkiller mod mostly fixed it anyways. Using lagkiller also revealed some of the enemies are floating!! spooky
There's a few jumps into the level that are covered by darkness and it's hard to see those jumps especially with palrender/software.
The spikes in those jumps that are covered by darkness are spaced out enough to where you can fit between the spikes and it gets annoying to get out of them.
Some of the areas with the spikes and darkness have broken textures and you can see through them causing a HOM.
I don't think any of the textures in either of these levels are aligned...
"""The""" Aerial Artillery: 8.5/10 JOHN TAY PEAKKK
This was a personal favorite of mine. Holy Fuck dripped out Crawla. You're making a map pack??? Did I already know that??? I don't remember.
It has multiple paths that all feel unique yet still fit the vibe of the level and lots of little details is areas to make the place literally feel more alive.
The scale of this level is huge and I love levels.
Where this level starts to faulter is in it's decoration, but even then most sections are still a massive step up from The Factory. Also peak 3D skybox.
Multiple sections tend to pick two or three small textures and have those small textures take up a large amount of the screen space which isn't very interesting to look at sadly.
Knoocles DVD Act 2: 4.5/10
Actually open areas this time which is cool!
There's a path split in dark city which is cool... Uhhhh... Uhhhh....
The thing with trying to review a joke mod is that for me, it all hinges on the quality of the joke itself. Unfortunately the whole poorly drawn thing for me stopped being funny a while back and since this is just more of the same I didn't really enjoy this one that much.
Pothole Mountain: 5/10 Hire this man
Custom textures seem a bit desaturated? I'm not an artist so I don't know exactly what it is I'm feeling.
Multiple paths! Homing attack. Pretty short. Nothing outstanding here.
Glaredown: 3.5/10 + Free Brak's Burgers Coupon For One Free Blue Crawla Fries
Eh? Neat idea, execution isn't horrible but bosses don't really do anything for me either way.
Green Hill: Green Hill's lookin' a lot more like 8.5/10
Extremeley good gameplay, I love the usage of slopes and there's always multiple alternate paths to take.
Thankful you put a checkpoint right before the end slope because I did in fact die there.
Decoration is pretty empty in the ares where the thok barriers are used because there's no 3D skybox or detail that isn't very close to the player. 3D skyboxes rule so don't be afraid to use them.
The areas where the skybox isn't that viewable however look great!
GFZ Encore: 6/10
This is interesting, the first part of the level is very obviously based off of GFZ1 but everything after seems to be original?
There's a section at the end which uses water skipping as a mechanic which is super cool, that feature basically never goes used.
Texture variety is weird, it does have it but it only sticks to a few textures for the whole level. Rarely is any other grass texture than GFZFLR02 used.
A lot of automation in the map which is surpising, some of the automation sections are almost as long as automated sections I've made! There's a ramp that sends you very far which is pretty cool though.
Industrial Lava: 4(th Chaos Emerald)/10
Very interesting start, Fang is one of the few SRB2 bosses I like and this wasn't horrible but its missing the difficulty the original had. At least it's short enough to not matter too much.
All the sections after the Fang fight have rising lava, not a bad idea but with the second section it is just not a threat at all because the lava moves so slowly, you would only get hit by it if you accidentally fell off a platform.
What's with these emblem placements? It's not something I usually touch on but these feel completely free and some are just sitting out in the open.
The section after Fang has solid gameplay but at the end of the day its still just a large grey rectangle which isn't interesting to look at. Also light blocks on lava are awesome, that should've been in this level too I think.
Rift Canyon:7/10
I like the idea of a top bath being literally a top path over the entire level and the only way to get up there is at the start.
Gameplay is very good, there's a cool downhill bit on the lower path at the start and some badnik bounce opportunities to have fun with.
I think my problems with the level come down to it being a straight road for the whole level and it lacks anything special in terms of it's gameplay outside of the completely optional Rayman stuff.
Decoration is okay but the walls for the entire level consists of one 256x256 image and the castle section is lacking detail and just looks a bit out of place.
Flowing Forest Act 1 and 2: I don't know how to rate NiGHTs levels so I give this a Fun outta ten!!! Levels look nice. You can beat act 2 in 40 seconds by just circling the arena the entire time.
Greenflower Mountain: 7/10
This level feels like it's doing way too much for one level but in the best way possible. It even has a Shadow Bike monitor??? I've never seen an SRB2 level that looks or feels like this before.
The level having a bunch of stuff does go both ways though since the level feels pretty cluttered in some parts, especially with decoration just having random out of place textures.
With The amount of stuff being so large and the level itself being pretty small scale, it does lead to everything being pretty cramped, I think if the level was scaled up it could fix some of these problems.
The Speed Highway Act 3 music is noticeably low quality, which is very odd because the music file is 96 kbps.
Deadzone Fortress: 6/10 heyy its this map
This map is under 30 seconds if you gun it straight to the end. I don't usually mind short levels too much but there comes a a point where it's just too short and it brings the whole experience down. There is an alternate path which is just as short and it has an alternate goal post which is always a big red flag that something went wrong.
There are loads of secrets and stuff to keep you occupied to make the map feel longer. Exploration is a part of Sonic at it's core and this map does it very well.
At points the level can get extremely cramped (I'm talking 128 units wide) which isn't very fun to play. This ain't beta quest.
It's way easier to decorate in small scale areas and so this map actually looks quite good. It's not the most polished and there are some cracks and inconsistencies but as a whole there's a lot of small details and it ends up turning out well overall.
Sky Islands: 9/10
This is a really REALLY good level. Gameplay has multiple paths that wind together and a very good runtime. Don't really have any complaints there.
The only reason it's not a 10/10 is because it doesn't really do anything special? This is all stuff I've seen before, just executed really well.
Decoration could also have a tiny bit more going on, maybe it's the texture choices or something else but I think it could be improved a bit.
Jungle Zone: 8/10 We never got Sonic 1 9-Bit
Gameplay is very solid, good slope usage and multiple paths and secrets to explore. Rollout rocks are boring.
Visuals are inconsistent but can look very good in some areas. 3D skybox and basically all of the bushy sections look great!
The main problems with the visuals come from the fact that for the entire level, it uses the exact same grass and wall textures, a version of the wall texture with the vines patch on top, and one of GFZ's textures. Only rarely are a couple other textures used, and even then only in small areas. The only decorations placed on the grass (Aside from the rare GFZ texture) are this single type of plant that aren't even in every area, and said areas with no plants can have no objects at all making those sections look even more empty.
Music being short does get repetitive after a while, though it's not that big of a deal.
Anteggtica: 9.5/10 at least its only like 3 snow levels this time instead of however many last round had
The alternate routes in this map are super cool! The no spin character exclusive route at the start is fun and the other path with the actually pretty tough minecart section while not a mechanic used in any other part of the level, doesn't feel out of place.
Visually, this level is gorgeous. The square platforms that materialize in front of you and the ones that glow when you step on them, all the moving parts in the techno sections, the huge particle effects when you walk on the snow, there's so much more to list but I don't have the time or else you would never see this review.
In fact, it might look a bit TOO good with some stuff popping in and out, and a few textures being broken until you walk right up to them. These feel less like polish things and instead more SRB2 struggling to comprehend everything in this map. DAMN YOU SRB2 ON-SCREEN OBJECT LIMIT!!!
I wish the snowball gimmick escalated to get harder and longer section further into the level you get, all the snowball sections only last like 8 seconds and are all relatively easy.
I just found out today that this is a remake of a stage from the first 2.2 OLDC in 2020.
Molten Mountain: 7/10 one of my mods broke the level so yeah okay no mods
Being for a 2.1 OLDC that ended up getting cancelled, this level happens to come with some downsides that come from being an old OLDC level.
I really liked the lava escape setpiece, one of the best iterations of that sorta thing for SRB2 I've seen period. Unfortunately its completely optional unless you're playing as Fang. Also the particle effects and stuff all around the level were nice additions too.
Maybe I just have a Major Skill Issue (I do) but I got very lost trying to figure out what to do in this map and ended up backtracking at points.
Another song that despite having a high bitrate still sounds low quality? Though in this case it could have been a .vgm file so quality and file size issues could have been avoided entirely.
Techno Madness: This is the second level this OLDC where I swear I've heard this song somewhere before.
It feels weird playing ringslinger without 200+ ping. Decoration was good. I don't know how to judge a level like this's gameplay. I had fun! I wish it tracked more stuff to show at the end like Doom. Maybe also a final ranking?
Emerald Coast agaaiin: 9/10 YOU CANT USE THE 3DS VERSION OF THE SONG AND NOT HAVE THE PEAK GUITAR SOLO PART INCLUDED!!!111!
First half has multiple alternate paths which is pretty uncommon for a Roger level and all the paths are unique and add a lot to the level. The orcas are a cool gimmick too, having multiple of them and being able to actually see them coming before they destroy the bridges certainly helps (I'm looking at you Wave Ocean).
Second half is "Peak".
I do think that the first half of the level is a bit TOO normal? It definitely adds a lot to the second half but even then I do wish it did more. It stays with the same theming for a lot of the first half and that feels a bit weird for a Roger level.
Linedef type 14 (Bustable block parameters) should have been used on the wood that the orcas break to make the debris be wood instead of the default rocks.
Dungeon Dune: 5/10 these brak images at the start go crazy
Music doesn't have a proper loop setup.
Have I played this level before?
There's a lot of waiting on sand to rise and fall, and that gets boring quickly. At the end of the level, I stayed on a rollout rock before the sand floor and ceiling started rising and instead of having to do the platforming, I just sat still and waited for 30 seconds because the rollout rock floats on the rising sand.
Because of how the level loops back on itself, I ended up getting a bit lost at some points.
Rollout Rock Isn't Fun!!
Like, the gameplay and decoration aren't bad. It just happens to have problems besides those things that drag the level down.
Desert Dream: 7.5/10
Unlike ACZ2, you can beat this level without every touching a minecart (In fact that's what I did on my first playthrough).
There's a lot of stuff that moves in the level and it help make it feel more alive. Some pillars have flowing sand inside of them and that looks particularly cool.
I can appreciate the ability to just say "Fuck that" and not align all of the minecarts flats.
Not really much else to talk about, this feels like any average good SRB2 level.
Sakura Solstice: 9.5/10 this shit dropped to 50fps in this one huge section
In my opinion this is the best looking map in this OLDC. There is loads of detail, yet it doesn't ever get too noisy and cluttered. So many small details like the snow fading away on one of the ramps and every bridge midtexture having sector based posts at the end just add so much to the level.
Very open, lots of paths, the gameplay in those paths is great, lots of secrets, Peak!
This was also a problem for me in the original Press Garden Act 2, but the freezing mechanic having no interactibility outside of leaving the state is pretty boring and there's are some long sections where you can press nothing at all to progress. It's more of a mechanic to quickly move you from one place in the level to another than anything else. Spectacle is still cool though.
I'm SHOCKED there wasn't a huge ramp at the end to send you flying.
Panic's Fury: 9/10 I was SO FUCKING SCARED when I first loaded the level and it ran at 6 FPS. Holy shit it was so relieving to figure out it was just a mod conflict.
Amazing level. Huge props to everybody who worked on this, a lot of sections are full of detail and personality. This is a format I haven't seen in an SRB2 level before, but I would love to see it come back for something and maybe have a bit more connectivity between the islands.
I found 25 tokens on my first playthrough, and on a second Amy playthrough I went for just 16. Both were super fun!
Some of these sections are SO detailed and SO good looking (Goma) that my FPS got to pre-uncapped levels of FPS. The castle dropped to like 20.
Really the only sections that I disliked were the one with a boss (Boring + Bosses are boring) and the black and white one with a trillion enemies.
Humour wasn't getting to me. Drawings were epic though.
why does the CSCS get to do all of this cool fun stuff and not me ):):
Personalized Palace: This level is 50% of the music bloat in this OLDC and I could write so much about why and how easy it is to fix, but I wont because I'm supposed to be reviewing the level itself. IMO most of the music isn't very good in the first place anyways though. Sneaky Snitch was epic.
Sadly only sections that In my opinion I would consider to be good looking are the City Escape section and the Carbon Isles section. Mostly everything else goes for the same drawn artstyle with minimal decoration.
One of the sections is just another Metal Sonic bossfight. Metal Sonic is my least favorite SRB2 boss.
Note that I did in fact cheat by using Ultimate Zone Builder (The best Zone Builder) to find a couple stars. I don't really want to continue writing about this level ):
Truly Accurate BMZ zone act 2: 10/10
NOTICE: UDMF support is still a work-in-progress; its specs and features are prone to change until it is fully implemented.
A lot of the custom textures are neat and look pretty good.
In general the level looks and plays good.
The earthquake effect that plays when the door opens lasts too long.
I fell in a pool of soda on the alternate route and got softlocked... ):
Ultimate Seaside Coast Act 2: 7/10 avalice wasnt joking how qcould you use mushrooms that arent bouncy
A bit light on decoration in parts though it still looks good, castle sections need more texture varietey and this is really "What I would have done differently" but I think the thok barriers could have been lowered and sloped to feel more dynamic.
My memory of it is a bit fuzzy but I think in the original version of the level you actually interacted with the rising castle setpiece? I wish that was in this version as well.
Bigass loop-de-loop was cool.
Magma Mountain Act 2: 5/10
Only 50 seconds? Sure is a lot of levels this OLDC which are very short but this one in particular stood out to me as just feeling like it was missing something. It all takes place in one section which certainly adds to that feeling.
Also completely linear which isn't a good mix with short levels.
The colormap makes the walls turn into completely solid colors when using palrender/software which makes it hard to judge distances properly.
Dragon Lair: 4.5/10 also i didnt really like the song that much
You don't have to use stacks of dash pad things to move along the Y axis, Springs or Sector based Dash Pads work better.
There aren't any sounds or effects when you pick up a ring topping? Feels very weird with there being no indication when you pick one up.
There's no checkpoints, for some specific levels I wouldn't mind that too much but this level doesn't have anything unique about it that would give a good reason for it to have no checkpoints.
One of the sections has enemies on platforms that you have to jump up to and those enemies can only be killed by jumping in their heads. I actually think that's a pretty neat idea but the fact that there's no checkpoints and getting hit by the enemies sends you into a pit is a problem.
In general the Pizza Tower art style in my opinion just doesn't look that good converted into a 3D space without a lot of effort put into making it look right, sadly this level just doesn't really attempt that much.
Doomship Zone Act 1: 8/10 WE'RE SO BACKKKKKKKKK
It's cool and uses a lot of cool stuff like gravity monitors and Knuckles has multiple exclusive paths which is an epic reference I think.
In terms of setpieces, this map is still good at it like act 2, but in terms of gameplay it's way more fair.
Zoom tube is slow as shit???
Needed more texture variety + the built in SRB2 Doomship textures are very small. Like with Aerial Artillery some rooms like to stick with a texture and use it for all of a rooms walls/ceilings though the gameplay consistently has decoration that's actually pretty good.
Not made in actual 2.0 so 0/10.
Winding Woods: 7/10
That was REALLY short, and all the alternate paths are really short as well. Is this level unfinished? There being two goalposts gives me the impression that the level wasn't able to be finished.
so short there arent any checkpoints lmao
All the paths are fun but they could have been merged together to make the level linear, but have a more acceptable runtime.
Eastside Seaside Act 1: 6/10
The visuals remind me of a 2.0/2.1 level, especially with the texture choices. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though it can lead to the level looking a bit out of place.
Another pretty short level, only lasting around 60 seconds.
Not really much to say as there isn't really anything else going on in the level.
pterabytes suck!!
Eastside Seaside Act 3: 2/10
Bosses are something that I'm usually not a fan of, and this level feels particularly frustrating for me.
Mainly, you can't see where the boss is because parts of the tree block it off. This gets especially bad when the boss you're fighting will at random points switch directions, which was fine in the original arena because there wasn't any threat of dying, but here if you miss the jump you'll fall into a pit.
If you move at any point during the intro you will just miss the arena and fall into the pit and die. Epic fail
Death pits aren't tagged on the waterfalls target sectors.
The Sonic 1 8-Bit Boss theme only being 13 seconds long makes it get very repetitive after a while.
NEW Pipe Towers: 5.5/10
Gameplay is solid enough but some of the rooms feel kinda same-ey? Knuckles section is cool but pipes in other areas don't really mesh well with him.
At the end the 2D mode is carried over from the pretty neat underground 2D section but the fact you're in 2D isn't taken use of for anything besides making you go forward. I think it could've been expanded to have at least a few platforms and also take use of the fact you grow smaller.
Only some of the grass has an actual texture?
Water doesn't have a colormap.
Starfall Casino: 5/10 its called starfall but you aren't forced to play the frontiers pinball minigame to beat it
While most people dislike the SA1 Sonic Casinopolis style of levels, I've never actually minded them.
The entire map is a large open area perfect for badnik bouncing which I love.
Unfortunately since the thing with the different camera perspective gives a lot of free rings when you beat it, it's really easy to cheese the entire level.
Green Valley: 6/10
Gameplay is decent, a bit flat in some areas but still good. There's this weird section where you can choose between two paths but both paths are the exact same and merge together right after.
Also there's a few jumps where you cant see the platforn you're supposed to jump on until its too late and you fall off and die.
Decoraton is weird, It's not horrible but the actual thing/texture choices used are weird and don't really mesh together. DSZ textures look especially out of place.
There's also no epic 3D skybox, copy and pasting the GFZ skybox could have been enough but it's whatever.
Lugar Verde Act 2: 7.5/10
Good level! Not much else to comment on, a good GFZLike will always be good but there's usually nothing special about it.
Compared to Zaxel's GFZlike from the last OLDC, It's a lot more focused and less open. Way less badnik bounce opportunities.
Beeg Crawlas don't have their mobjscale properly set up in the thing's custom fields so you don't get the large collision, just the large visuals.
Sunrise Temple: 7/10
A lot of secrets and open areas which is fun to mess around with.
There's a section where you jump over spikes that are on a downhill slope and that's pretty neat.
This level caused serious lag when I first played it. It might have been caused by a mod conflict or could have been the bajillion spikes but enabling the lagkiller mod mostly fixed it anyways. Using lagkiller also revealed some of the enemies are floating!! spooky
There's a few jumps into the level that are covered by darkness and it's hard to see those jumps especially with palrender/software.
The spikes in those jumps that are covered by darkness are spaced out enough to where you can fit between the spikes and it gets annoying to get out of them.
Some of the areas with the spikes and darkness have broken textures and you can see through them causing a HOM.
I don't think any of the textures in either of these levels are aligned...
"""The""" Aerial Artillery: 8.5/10 JOHN TAY PEAKKK
This was a personal favorite of mine. Holy Fuck dripped out Crawla. You're making a map pack??? Did I already know that??? I don't remember.
It has multiple paths that all feel unique yet still fit the vibe of the level and lots of little details is areas to make the place literally feel more alive.
The scale of this level is huge and I love levels.
Where this level starts to faulter is in it's decoration, but even then most sections are still a massive step up from The Factory. Also peak 3D skybox.
Multiple sections tend to pick two or three small textures and have those small textures take up a large amount of the screen space which isn't very interesting to look at sadly.
Knoocles DVD Act 2: 4.5/10
Actually open areas this time which is cool!
There's a path split in dark city which is cool... Uhhhh... Uhhhh....
The thing with trying to review a joke mod is that for me, it all hinges on the quality of the joke itself. Unfortunately the whole poorly drawn thing for me stopped being funny a while back and since this is just more of the same I didn't really enjoy this one that much.
Pothole Mountain: 5/10 Hire this man
Custom textures seem a bit desaturated? I'm not an artist so I don't know exactly what it is I'm feeling.
Multiple paths! Homing attack. Pretty short. Nothing outstanding here.
Glaredown: 3.5/10 + Free Brak's Burgers Coupon For One Free Blue Crawla Fries
Eh? Neat idea, execution isn't horrible but bosses don't really do anything for me either way.
Green Hill: Green Hill's lookin' a lot more like 8.5/10
Extremeley good gameplay, I love the usage of slopes and there's always multiple alternate paths to take.
Thankful you put a checkpoint right before the end slope because I did in fact die there.
Decoration is pretty empty in the ares where the thok barriers are used because there's no 3D skybox or detail that isn't very close to the player. 3D skyboxes rule so don't be afraid to use them.
The areas where the skybox isn't that viewable however look great!
GFZ Encore: 6/10
This is interesting, the first part of the level is very obviously based off of GFZ1 but everything after seems to be original?
There's a section at the end which uses water skipping as a mechanic which is super cool, that feature basically never goes used.
Texture variety is weird, it does have it but it only sticks to a few textures for the whole level. Rarely is any other grass texture than GFZFLR02 used.
A lot of automation in the map which is surpising, some of the automation sections are almost as long as automated sections I've made! There's a ramp that sends you very far which is pretty cool though.
Industrial Lava: 4(th Chaos Emerald)/10
Very interesting start, Fang is one of the few SRB2 bosses I like and this wasn't horrible but its missing the difficulty the original had. At least it's short enough to not matter too much.
All the sections after the Fang fight have rising lava, not a bad idea but with the second section it is just not a threat at all because the lava moves so slowly, you would only get hit by it if you accidentally fell off a platform.
What's with these emblem placements? It's not something I usually touch on but these feel completely free and some are just sitting out in the open.
The section after Fang has solid gameplay but at the end of the day its still just a large grey rectangle which isn't interesting to look at. Also light blocks on lava are awesome, that should've been in this level too I think.
Rift Canyon:7/10
I like the idea of a top bath being literally a top path over the entire level and the only way to get up there is at the start.
Gameplay is very good, there's a cool downhill bit on the lower path at the start and some badnik bounce opportunities to have fun with.
I think my problems with the level come down to it being a straight road for the whole level and it lacks anything special in terms of it's gameplay outside of the completely optional Rayman stuff.
Decoration is okay but the walls for the entire level consists of one 256x256 image and the castle section is lacking detail and just looks a bit out of place.
Flowing Forest Act 1 and 2: I don't know how to rate NiGHTs levels so I give this a Fun outta ten!!! Levels look nice. You can beat act 2 in 40 seconds by just circling the arena the entire time.
Greenflower Mountain: 7/10
This level feels like it's doing way too much for one level but in the best way possible. It even has a Shadow Bike monitor??? I've never seen an SRB2 level that looks or feels like this before.
The level having a bunch of stuff does go both ways though since the level feels pretty cluttered in some parts, especially with decoration just having random out of place textures.
With The amount of stuff being so large and the level itself being pretty small scale, it does lead to everything being pretty cramped, I think if the level was scaled up it could fix some of these problems.
The Speed Highway Act 3 music is noticeably low quality, which is very odd because the music file is 96 kbps.
Deadzone Fortress: 6/10 heyy its this map
This map is under 30 seconds if you gun it straight to the end. I don't usually mind short levels too much but there comes a a point where it's just too short and it brings the whole experience down. There is an alternate path which is just as short and it has an alternate goal post which is always a big red flag that something went wrong.
There are loads of secrets and stuff to keep you occupied to make the map feel longer. Exploration is a part of Sonic at it's core and this map does it very well.
At points the level can get extremely cramped (I'm talking 128 units wide) which isn't very fun to play. This ain't beta quest.
It's way easier to decorate in small scale areas and so this map actually looks quite good. It's not the most polished and there are some cracks and inconsistencies but as a whole there's a lot of small details and it ends up turning out well overall.
Sky Islands: 9/10
This is a really REALLY good level. Gameplay has multiple paths that wind together and a very good runtime. Don't really have any complaints there.
The only reason it's not a 10/10 is because it doesn't really do anything special? This is all stuff I've seen before, just executed really well.
Decoration could also have a tiny bit more going on, maybe it's the texture choices or something else but I think it could be improved a bit.
Jungle Zone: 8/10 We never got Sonic 1 9-Bit
Gameplay is very solid, good slope usage and multiple paths and secrets to explore. Rollout rocks are boring.
Visuals are inconsistent but can look very good in some areas. 3D skybox and basically all of the bushy sections look great!
The main problems with the visuals come from the fact that for the entire level, it uses the exact same grass and wall textures, a version of the wall texture with the vines patch on top, and one of GFZ's textures. Only rarely are a couple other textures used, and even then only in small areas. The only decorations placed on the grass (Aside from the rare GFZ texture) are this single type of plant that aren't even in every area, and said areas with no plants can have no objects at all making those sections look even more empty.
Music being short does get repetitive after a while, though it's not that big of a deal.
Anteggtica: 9.5/10 at least its only like 3 snow levels this time instead of however many last round had
The alternate routes in this map are super cool! The no spin character exclusive route at the start is fun and the other path with the actually pretty tough minecart section while not a mechanic used in any other part of the level, doesn't feel out of place.
Visually, this level is gorgeous. The square platforms that materialize in front of you and the ones that glow when you step on them, all the moving parts in the techno sections, the huge particle effects when you walk on the snow, there's so much more to list but I don't have the time or else you would never see this review.
In fact, it might look a bit TOO good with some stuff popping in and out, and a few textures being broken until you walk right up to them. These feel less like polish things and instead more SRB2 struggling to comprehend everything in this map. DAMN YOU SRB2 ON-SCREEN OBJECT LIMIT!!!
I wish the snowball gimmick escalated to get harder and longer section further into the level you get, all the snowball sections only last like 8 seconds and are all relatively easy.
I just found out today that this is a remake of a stage from the first 2.2 OLDC in 2020.
Molten Mountain: 7/10 one of my mods broke the level so yeah okay no mods
Being for a 2.1 OLDC that ended up getting cancelled, this level happens to come with some downsides that come from being an old OLDC level.
I really liked the lava escape setpiece, one of the best iterations of that sorta thing for SRB2 I've seen period. Unfortunately its completely optional unless you're playing as Fang. Also the particle effects and stuff all around the level were nice additions too.
Maybe I just have a Major Skill Issue (I do) but I got very lost trying to figure out what to do in this map and ended up backtracking at points.
Another song that despite having a high bitrate still sounds low quality? Though in this case it could have been a .vgm file so quality and file size issues could have been avoided entirely.
Techno Madness: This is the second level this OLDC where I swear I've heard this song somewhere before.
It feels weird playing ringslinger without 200+ ping. Decoration was good. I don't know how to judge a level like this's gameplay. I had fun! I wish it tracked more stuff to show at the end like Doom. Maybe also a final ranking?
Emerald Coast agaaiin: 9/10 YOU CANT USE THE 3DS VERSION OF THE SONG AND NOT HAVE THE PEAK GUITAR SOLO PART INCLUDED!!!111!
First half has multiple alternate paths which is pretty uncommon for a Roger level and all the paths are unique and add a lot to the level. The orcas are a cool gimmick too, having multiple of them and being able to actually see them coming before they destroy the bridges certainly helps (I'm looking at you Wave Ocean).
Second half is "Peak".
I do think that the first half of the level is a bit TOO normal? It definitely adds a lot to the second half but even then I do wish it did more. It stays with the same theming for a lot of the first half and that feels a bit weird for a Roger level.
Linedef type 14 (Bustable block parameters) should have been used on the wood that the orcas break to make the debris be wood instead of the default rocks.
Dungeon Dune: 5/10 these brak images at the start go crazy
Music doesn't have a proper loop setup.
Have I played this level before?
There's a lot of waiting on sand to rise and fall, and that gets boring quickly. At the end of the level, I stayed on a rollout rock before the sand floor and ceiling started rising and instead of having to do the platforming, I just sat still and waited for 30 seconds because the rollout rock floats on the rising sand.
Because of how the level loops back on itself, I ended up getting a bit lost at some points.
Rollout Rock Isn't Fun!!
Like, the gameplay and decoration aren't bad. It just happens to have problems besides those things that drag the level down.
Desert Dream: 7.5/10
Unlike ACZ2, you can beat this level without every touching a minecart (In fact that's what I did on my first playthrough).
There's a lot of stuff that moves in the level and it help make it feel more alive. Some pillars have flowing sand inside of them and that looks particularly cool.
I can appreciate the ability to just say "Fuck that" and not align all of the minecarts flats.
Not really much else to talk about, this feels like any average good SRB2 level.
Sakura Solstice: 9.5/10 this shit dropped to 50fps in this one huge section
In my opinion this is the best looking map in this OLDC. There is loads of detail, yet it doesn't ever get too noisy and cluttered. So many small details like the snow fading away on one of the ramps and every bridge midtexture having sector based posts at the end just add so much to the level.
Very open, lots of paths, the gameplay in those paths is great, lots of secrets, Peak!
This was also a problem for me in the original Press Garden Act 2, but the freezing mechanic having no interactibility outside of leaving the state is pretty boring and there's are some long sections where you can press nothing at all to progress. It's more of a mechanic to quickly move you from one place in the level to another than anything else. Spectacle is still cool though.
I'm SHOCKED there wasn't a huge ramp at the end to send you flying.
Panic's Fury: 9/10 I was SO FUCKING SCARED when I first loaded the level and it ran at 6 FPS. Holy shit it was so relieving to figure out it was just a mod conflict.
Amazing level. Huge props to everybody who worked on this, a lot of sections are full of detail and personality. This is a format I haven't seen in an SRB2 level before, but I would love to see it come back for something and maybe have a bit more connectivity between the islands.
I found 25 tokens on my first playthrough, and on a second Amy playthrough I went for just 16. Both were super fun!
Some of these sections are SO detailed and SO good looking (Goma) that my FPS got to pre-uncapped levels of FPS. The castle dropped to like 20.
Really the only sections that I disliked were the one with a boss (Boring + Bosses are boring) and the black and white one with a trillion enemies.
Humour wasn't getting to me. Drawings were epic though.
why does the CSCS get to do all of this cool fun stuff and not me ):):
Personalized Palace: This level is 50% of the music bloat in this OLDC and I could write so much about why and how easy it is to fix, but I wont because I'm supposed to be reviewing the level itself. IMO most of the music isn't very good in the first place anyways though. Sneaky Snitch was epic.
Sadly only sections that In my opinion I would consider to be good looking are the City Escape section and the Carbon Isles section. Mostly everything else goes for the same drawn artstyle with minimal decoration.
One of the sections is just another Metal Sonic bossfight. Metal Sonic is my least favorite SRB2 boss.
Note that I did in fact cheat by using Ultimate Zone Builder (The best Zone Builder) to find a couple stars. I don't really want to continue writing about this level ):
Truly Accurate BMZ zone act 2: 10/10
NOTICE: UDMF support is still a work-in-progress; its specs and features are prone to change until it is fully implemented.
RoyKirbs updated Official Level Design Collab 2024: Round 1 with a new update entry:
V1.1 - Supercalifragilistic Extra-Optimized Update
Read the rest of this update entry...
V1.1 - Supercalifragilistic Extra-Optimized Update
Read the rest of this update entry...
I haven’t had a chance to test the new update yet since I don’t have access to my PC right now. So I sincerely hope that the update will make Sakura Solstice better experience for you all performance wise. Even if it is just a little bit.
mohamed emad 120
Member
oh look it's the guy who locked my thread via request from the authors roykirbs roykirbs roykirbs
Golden Shine
Speeding Gleam
Hmm, well...zero offense to Pastel or DarkyBenji's edits, but I need to diss lagkiller's presence a bit. It rarely helps, usually makes things laggier, and DEFINITELY makes SRB2 more unstable. It comes with too many downsides for the few times it actually helps.
For reference, I tried the v1.1 OLDC with and without lagkiller. [80FPS, OpenGL, Single Player, SA-Sonic as only other mod]
OLDC HUB:
-Lagkiller active: Mostly 16~60 FPS, with rare peaks going to 80.
-Disabled lagkiller: Perfectly fine 70~80. Rarely a 40 dip when doing a split second turn occasionally.
Sakura Solstice:
-Lagkiller active: 21~50 most of the time. Sometimes peaked to 70~80. Consistently dips to 30 in 1 specific spot in the map.
-Disabled lagkiller: 59~80 most of the time. Also has the 30FPS dip has in the one spot.
Shooting Skies:
-Lagkiller active: Mostly 30~60. Randomly peaks to 70ish or dips down to 13.
-Disabled lagkiller: Mostly 40~70. Lag is pretty constant and consistent here.
NEW Pipe Towers:
-Lagkiller active: A perfect 80FPS mostly. Only seen two very quick brief dips to 59.
-Disabled lagkiller: A perfect 80FPS consistently. Worst dip I've seen is 74.
Panic's Fury:
-Lagkiller active: 70~80 FPS with sudden dips to 6~12FPS in good conditions. 20-ish in worse spots, with random perfect peaks of 80?
-Disabled lagkiller: 70~80FPS in good conditions, 40~70ish in worse spots.
I'd DEFINITELY not use Lagkiller as permanent fixture in levelpacks, because it's far too aggressive, and adds 3+ Lua hooks to practically all object types, one of which is a MobjThinker. That quickly adds alot of strain to SRB2. The more object types there are before it loads, the more hooks are added too, makes Lagkiller terrible for huge packs like this.
Lagkiller also does distance checks for all players, making lag FAR worse in multiplayer. For 8 players, every object in the map now does 8 times the distance checks. More objects are also now within player ranges, becoming active and now running their newly added MobjThinkers which they wouldn't have had without LagKiller.
All of this often makes "Lagkiller" moreso a "LagMaker", especially in object dense areas and multiplayer. The script's gotta fight like crazy to gain more performance back than it destroyed earlier, and only very situationally succeeds at doing so.
Next, Lagkiller's unstable. Completely disabling objects (then re-enabling) easily makes glitches and crashes. Examples being:
-Objects relying on leveltime or their target's actions which both will have changed when they're re-enabled. DEVASTATING for mods.
-Objects that have complicated tracers/follow-objects without similar flags to also get disabled, now freaking out and breaking.
-Minuses suddenly re-enabling in a crucial transition phase, unable to find the ground its action claimed it WAS attach(ing) to, crashing the game since they were coded without a backup plan.
-Bosses that activate effects based on position, being frozen in place when they go out of range and softlocking you instead.
-Object spawners without the flags to be affected by lagkiller, always actively producing objects (like missiles) that DO end up getting frozen by lagkiller. Those now spawn infinite objects in one place that NEVER disappear, piling them on infinitely, creating massive lag if not crashing SRB2 outright.
That's just off the top of my head.
-Objects that have complicated tracers/follow-objects without similar flags to also get disabled, now freaking out and breaking.
-Minuses suddenly re-enabling in a crucial transition phase, unable to find the ground its action claimed it WAS attach(ing) to, crashing the game since they were coded without a backup plan.
-Bosses that activate effects based on position, being frozen in place when they go out of range and softlocking you instead.
-Object spawners without the flags to be affected by lagkiller, always actively producing objects (like missiles) that DO end up getting frozen by lagkiller. Those now spawn infinite objects in one place that NEVER disappear, piling them on infinitely, creating massive lag if not crashing SRB2 outright.
That's just off the top of my head.
I'd personally take the route of combining thinkers and trying to make scripts not boot at all outside of their intended maps, so Lua doesn't have to do as many repeated calls. That'd be a cleaner way to improve performance. But if you REALLY want Lagkiller as a crux, I would:
-Auto-disable the script if you enter a map with more than 4 players
-Be a LOT pickier with the objects it adds hooks to. (Why does it not ignore MT_PLAYER, MT_THOK, MT_OVERLAY, or MT_BUBBLES, for example? You really do not want those objects performing spawn actions and distance checks all the time.)
-Refuse disabling mobjs in some circumstances, like if they have an active tracer, are in an actionable state, if they're dead enemies/bosses, or if they have a fuse meant to make them disappear.
-Let it be toggleable. As in it being OFF by default, then only adding its hooks once it's toggled on.
-Be a LOT pickier with the objects it adds hooks to. (Why does it not ignore MT_PLAYER, MT_THOK, MT_OVERLAY, or MT_BUBBLES, for example? You really do not want those objects performing spawn actions and distance checks all the time.)
-Refuse disabling mobjs in some circumstances, like if they have an active tracer, are in an actionable state, if they're dead enemies/bosses, or if they have a fuse meant to make them disappear.
-Let it be toggleable. As in it being OFF by default, then only adding its hooks once it's toggled on.
I still believe it's too dangerous to disable/enable objects when you can't know what they're coded to do. It really shouldn't be anything but a last resort. ...especially currently, when it often adds more lag than it kills. But if you absolutely insisted on continuing that method, and wanted to have a better system that doesn't add lag before killing it...
Ideally...you'd make it cluster location based system.
Make 1 global table that picks out spaced out item locations in a stage, creating an 800 FRACUNIT radius cluster around the selected item's coordinates as the centerpoint, and all items in the radius added to a cluster table.
Now only in those spots as the centerpoint for your searchblockmap actions, which at most would be 40 spots, but realistically only 10, it'll check for nearby players. Depending on if any player is nearby, it disables/enables everything in the cluster radius instantly. You could even order the clusters in order of their X position, so if zero player's X positions are past > 5000*FRACUNIT the first check, you can completely skip checking any clusters past 5000*FRACUNIT.
This method wouldn't cause problems with newly generated missile and particles.
And this way, you'd avoid adding a ton of hooks to hundreds/thousands of objects, avoid having several playerthinkers run in place of 1 thinkframe, and you'd only be doing only about a dozen of periodical checks rather than over twenty thousand-ish.
It's way easier to gain performance when you're not creating so much lag in the first place.
Make 1 global table that picks out spaced out item locations in a stage, creating an 800 FRACUNIT radius cluster around the selected item's coordinates as the centerpoint, and all items in the radius added to a cluster table.
Now only in those spots as the centerpoint for your searchblockmap actions, which at most would be 40 spots, but realistically only 10, it'll check for nearby players. Depending on if any player is nearby, it disables/enables everything in the cluster radius instantly. You could even order the clusters in order of their X position, so if zero player's X positions are past > 5000*FRACUNIT the first check, you can completely skip checking any clusters past 5000*FRACUNIT.
This method wouldn't cause problems with newly generated missile and particles.
And this way, you'd avoid adding a ton of hooks to hundreds/thousands of objects, avoid having several playerthinkers run in place of 1 thinkframe, and you'd only be doing only about a dozen of periodical checks rather than over twenty thousand-ish.
It's way easier to gain performance when you're not creating so much lag in the first place.
Attachments
RedLilyQueen
Member
Happy to report that Shooting Skies' sigsegv issue appears to be fixed! Also, I noticed that some of my gotten emblems got shuffled around- I was given ones I'd never collected, and lost some I had. Not that big a deal, just thought it was worth mentioning.
Regarding lagkiller- I don't know much of anything about how it ticks, but I did notice I got heavily improved framerates (a steady 144, as opposed to choppy-looking ~70s-100s) in Sakura Solstice, Shooting Skies, and most of Panic's Fury, for myself- noticeable exception being if I looked towards the entirety of castle island from one of its corners, where I got dips down to the 60s. I've got a pretty beefy PC, though. It seems like lagkiller might have a more negative effect on lower-end computers? Or it might be circumstantial based on number of enemies/objects around and such... just my uninformed speculation, though.
... i will also note that it kinda bothers me that it puts the animation of rings, and other cycle-based rows of objects/hazards (like the freeze thingies in sakura solstice) out of sync, though. :p
also also, I noticed one of the islands becoming a big black rectangle at a certain angle, but flipping to software then back to opengl fixed it. Dunno what that's about but it seems noteworthy!
Regarding lagkiller- I don't know much of anything about how it ticks, but I did notice I got heavily improved framerates (a steady 144, as opposed to choppy-looking ~70s-100s) in Sakura Solstice, Shooting Skies, and most of Panic's Fury, for myself- noticeable exception being if I looked towards the entirety of castle island from one of its corners, where I got dips down to the 60s. I've got a pretty beefy PC, though. It seems like lagkiller might have a more negative effect on lower-end computers? Or it might be circumstantial based on number of enemies/objects around and such... just my uninformed speculation, though.
... i will also note that it kinda bothers me that it puts the animation of rings, and other cycle-based rows of objects/hazards (like the freeze thingies in sakura solstice) out of sync, though. :p
also also, I noticed one of the islands becoming a big black rectangle at a certain angle, but flipping to software then back to opengl fixed it. Dunno what that's about but it seems noteworthy!
DarkyBenji
Darky/DyBenji
(i have to cut the quote)
Not really sure how it got worse on your part, most problems you mention doesn't seems to be about my custom lagkiller that i use on my private server (and is now used in this oldc), i was having sessions with around 8-12 players (and.. lot of addons), and the game was still running smoothly so... why isn't running well on your end? This kinda confuse me.
I do agree that there's much better way to do this, it just my lua skill is not good enough to make it happen yet.
My custom lagkiller does actually ignore most objects, especially the one that are NOT MapThing Objects, and also ignore objects with specific flags (noblockmap, scenery, nosector, nothink, ambient, and pushable).
so when you said "why doesn't it ignore MT_PLAYER, MT_THOK, MT_OVERLAY, or MT_BUBBLES" i was like "but that lagkiller does ignore these...", on top of multiplayer issue you mention (which i do agree, is a HUGE problem from the original lagkiller script), make me think if you're not talking/testing with the original lagkiller instead of the custom one.
but either way, i'll try to do your rework system idea, or letting you do it because it look a little too complicated for me to pull this off right now
yfyfyfyfyfy
The dumbest man
I agree with the opinion above that playing in 1.1 is much worse than in 1.0 due to incomprehensible lags
pastel
Yeah I can see why this is a problem. The edited lagkiller appears to be more of a rewrite than an edit, and after reviewing the rewritten version I do not endorse its inclusion. The original script has no MobjThinker and aggresively hijacks MobjFuse to disable entities instead to avoid running any extra lua logic more than absolutely needed. The new version also spams an apparently redundant P_AproxDistance call despite still having the original SearchBlockmap I used.
Andrew's StudioYT
Some guy who draws
This level pack has shown me that I need to stop playing srb2 on a crappy smasung s21
I'm missing in the credits of Personalized Palace. Doesn't really matter, but it is a thing that happened. My section was also improved upon, so good job to who ever did that lol. I made a few of the paintings, and the Toad forest (used to not be a forest, but it looks better as one). I ended up not really being able to participate due to Discord accusing me of being a bot, so I have made a temp account now, so if I participate again, I will submit under the account "Niko OneShot Enjoyer".
Didn't have time to play all of the levels in this one but most of the ones I did didn't wow me too much:
Sorry I didn't have much more positive to say. I'm sure the rest of the levels are decent but I don't have the time anymore to comb through every single level in a pack as massive as this. I didn't run into any of the lag problems others experienced, thankfully, though that may be because I always play SRB2 in 35 FPS, as god intended
- Personalized Palace, despite understanding what it was a reference to, suffers from a lack clear direction. I think a B3313 SRB2 mod is a cool idea conceptually, but I personally believe it should be its own standalone mod, and not a "level" within the constraints of an OLDC, because it stands out (and not in a good way) from the rest of the bunch as a result.
- Green Hill Zone suffers from being inoffensively linear. It has a few branching paths, but they're so close to one another that it never feels like they diverge in any meaningful way. I do appreciate the attempts later in the level to give it more visual variety by delving into the cave section, which is nice.
- Molten Mountain for the most part is cool, however the path after you harden the lava with the water isn't exactly clear. Also, I think the lava sectors have the wrong tags, because even after they're hardened they still damage you (which does not seem to be the case of the level in its original incarnation)
- Sakura Solstice is short but sweet; the only level I went out of my way to play more than once. For a stage in the making for quite a few years, I'd say it was well worth the wait. Best one of the levels I played.
- GFZ Encore is weirdly flat, automated, and as a result of the previous bullet point, linear. Also not very visually appealing.
- Dragon Lair starts out with a cool visual aesthetic but then transitions into repetitive checkerboard patterns with uninteresting precision platforming. You can't kill most of the enemies for some reason, or if you can they have weird, janky hitboxes. The Toppin rings also make no noise and thus provide no visual feedback. I gave up on this one because there were absolutely zero checkpoints (at least that I found) and I didn't want to redo the map over and over and over again.
Hate to be that guy, but...
Also, the enemies in Dragon Lair can be killed if you jump on their heads. The level doesn't make that clear at all, so I can understand why you wouldn't have known that (I didn't know it myself until I discovered it accidentally). I agree that their hitboxes are a little janky, though.
I'm planning to post my own critiques to these levels and go more in-depth, but I have no estimate of when they'll be done. Until then, I'll just say that I liked a majority of the levels this OLDC, and I wish the best for all the map authors going forward.
The hardened lava actually does damage you in the original version of the map. In the video you linked to, Sonic has an elemental shield, which is why he doesn't take damage. This is also the case in the ported version if you have an elemental shield.
Also, the enemies in Dragon Lair can be killed if you jump on their heads. The level doesn't make that clear at all, so I can understand why you wouldn't have known that (I didn't know it myself until I discovered it accidentally). I agree that their hitboxes are a little janky, though.
I'm planning to post my own critiques to these levels and go more in-depth, but I have no estimate of when they'll be done. Until then, I'll just say that I liked a majority of the levels this OLDC, and I wish the best for all the map authors going forward.