FrostedGeulleisia
*insert Glaceon cry here*
- Falcon Emissary Zone by InferNOr
- Ante-Station Zone by Twins'R'Okay
- Music Mash Zone by WasifBoomz
- Koopa Kastle Zone by Glaber
- Lava Temple by Vixuzen
- Hollow Hill Zone by Othius, Inazuma & Spectorious
- Abyss Caverns Zone by yyeellooww7
- Drenched Dam Zone by Voidy2246
- Ridge Rapids Zone by particle
- Mercury Mine Zone by Rexeljet
- Teal Tundra Zone by SunCyclone
- Bombastic Beach Zone by Shapeshifter Boi
- Fort Sunset Zone by DylanDude
- Blizzard Bastion Zone by PhilJFou
- Zaxel's Thunder Yard by Zaxel
- Emerald Glade Zone by DoodlesYT
All of them are how I felt about the maps, obviously. My taste might not be the best, and if I don't
Maps are listed in the order I've played them in, since the hub doesn't have a defined order.
Fort Sunset Zone
First thing I see is a rather intimidating task to get 500 of.... something, coins? Money? I don't know what the influence here is. The main problem is, that task becomes quite difficult if you, you know, get hit. At least they respawn (which i only found out *after* restarting the map), but you wouldn't want to get hit with 499 coins. At 500.... the level just ends, straight up, which was a bit anticlimactic. Not really a fan just due to how small the actual area is. If it would have been quite larger, It'd be more enjoyable.
Hollow Hill 1
I already appreciate the inclusion of custom title card graphics, I don't see those map header fields used often. At some point I took the wrong turn and ended up going in circles for half a minute though (overlooked that little path with "water" and ghosts I had to go through). There's some texture glitchyness in OpenGL but that's not any of the authors' fault. I don't really have much to say as it's pretty good though..
Ridge Rapids Zone
There's quite a bit of camera glitchyness involving the 2D sections, with it casually passing through walls, those could perhaps be moved back a bit more. Score monitors being placed around doesn't really make much sense, ~~but at least for the 10k ones I assume that's the OLDC "gamemode" replacing Life Monitors, or at least I hope it's the case.~~ (note:later I realized this isn't the case) If not, most of these should to be honest be 1-Ups. The location of the Signpost also threw me off. Sure, it's on a hill, but that hill isn't marked in any way so it's easy to miss and you can end up going in circles again. Oh I also had my first death here, want to know why? Blue Springs.
Mercury Mine Zone
The color choices on some textures (specifically the cyan, whatever it's supposed to be) actually kind of, hurts my eyes a little after a bit, am I the only one like this? I'm also unsure as to where the "mine" part comes into play, as I surely see some mercury but not as much of a mine as I would expect. I'm probably just more used to Mine Maze's depiction of a "mine". I just don't have much to say or think about it, doesn't really stand out to me as much as some others do gimmick-wise but it's not a bad stage at all. Oh and this isn't about the stage itself, but for some reason this one appears twice in the hub.
Blizzard Bastion Zone
The music (Diamond Dust 2 from the Mega Drive/Genesis 3D Blast) seems, a bit bitcrushed for some reason? For next time, the VGM rips you can find online work perfectly fine and are of higher quality while also having a smaller filesize overall, just so you know, oh and they loop, this track seems not to do so which is pretty jarring. Now for the stage itself - Putting an Eggman Monitor behind two Ring Monitors is pretty rude in all honesty. I'm also not a fan of having to navigate a ton of thin conveyor belts placed in a grid, while also being chased down by a Laser Turret. It would probably be hard enough without said Turret. I do like the inclusion of Emblems though, as well as the ice slide section (I almost died from getting stuck and having to jump though). The part where you have to jump off of those metal... things, that go up and try to crush you is also neat.
Ante-Station Zone
Immediately I'm greeted by a warning about Software mode causing crashes and a lot of mechanics being broken (dashmode, AI, custom characters etc.)... ok, it's not "bad design", but more "I wanted to make the stage cool but the game's jank", It just caught me a bit off-guard. There's a texture at the beginning which was supposed to say something, but the most important part of it gets cut-off so it just says "if you switch to SOFTWARE".... in Comic Sans, nonetheless. The portals seem to break a bit in software regardless, though I do like the way they're used (if they work). The utilization of Axis2D is also fun, though I saw some of the same issues from Ridge Rapids: namely the camera going inside collision sometimes. Sometimes the perspective fools me (the section with moving platforms with a skewed angle near the end guarantees cheap deaths, and the texture makes the dropshadow borderline invisible) but this's still the best use of Axis2D AND portals I've seen.
Lava Temple
TTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIILLLS, he kept blocking the Rollout Rocks. I do enjoy that part where you have to navigate one through a little obstacle course to unlock the path. It took me like four minutes to figure out the part right after that though, but it's still pretty enjoyable and I haven't seen Rollout Rocks used this way before.
Teal Tundra Zone
I honestly don't really have much to say about it, it looks nice, though the grass midtextures somewhat clash with the actual grass texture. It's also pretty short but that's alright.
Zaxel's Thunder Yard
On the SRB2 Discord, I've seen reports of people getting softlocked by a "troll path", in my opinion that's unacceptable - just for the softlock alone, the other troll exit is much more bearable as you can at least keep playing the stage after that. Sure, you probably didn't know about the inclusion of infinite lives this time around but I'll still sadly have to give minus points for that alone. The actual stage itself isn't bad: shares similarities with his previous entry, and I also appreciate how he keeps composing his own music for maps he submits anywhere. It features several of the enemies I was already familiar with from the previous entries/level pack released on the MB/earlier level pack hosted on that Brazilian server once. Oh, and my eyes actually quite hurt in some sections due to the repeating texture used, maybe making larger variants like the GFZROCKs would help? The map overall is surely an improvement, though, especially over your original pack. The softlock broke it for me though.
Falcon Emissary Zone
Loading the map took like 15 seconds, which isn't normal, there are also a few missing textures but they're only noticeable in OpenGL so I'll give you a pass there. What I like here are all the air-based gimmicks, and how the stage feels like it's just on an aircraft of some sort - the remixed Flying Battery music only adds to the effect. Very fun.
Bombastic Beach Zone
I've noticed some checkpoint jank and..... the level's over already? Turns out I accidentally skipped half of the stage, even went to replay it and saw a few sections I didn't even go to. I really don't have anything to say about it aside from those little checkpoint issues.
Music Mash Zone
There are some FOF issues and missing constants but I was told those were from a music-changing gimmick. Speaking of: the music is awfully quiet. The textures also get quite harsh on the eyes after a little bit. The piano is literally inaudible for me. Adding sections reminiscent of your old entries is also very welcome to me.... though the music breaks completely after the Hypertower section and seems to revert to MAP01M instead of MMASH. I still like it though, even if I didn't get to see some of the sections I remember from in-dev gifs. I didn't actually re-play to see the other sections, but I can imagine how they're like.
Koopa Kastle Zone
Including only MIDIs is an interesting choice, but with a good soundfont it does sound nice still. The pipes working Mario-style, the use of ports of old enemies, the fact there's a Mario Maker 2 level code is, well, I don't have the game so I can't check how it relates to this map, but I hope it's related in some way. I do enjoy some good use of Mario Mode though, it doesn't get enough love as broken as it sometimes is (I still remember how I accidentally found out how Crushtaceans crashed the game if defeated with a Fire Flower earlier in 2.2's life).
Emerald Glade 1
I can kinda see a bit of what you were going for, and while there are some things that could work (for example: I rarely, if ever, see Emerald Hunt maps). I'd distribute the Emerald spawn points evenly across the stage, giving each some sort of a little challenge you have to go through to reach. Sadly there's no way in the vanilla game to control where the emerald spawns are separated into difficulty groups, but it's probably possible to do with Lua (having a set of spawns that are easy to reach, then medium-difficulty ones, and then somewhat-difficult emeralds). It's not easy to make an impressive map, so please don't get demotivated. It honestly takes a lot of time, effort, motivation and practice. Some people are *still* working on their entries, as they couldn't meet the deadline for this OLDC. Don't be afraid to ask for advice on the Discord/Message Board either. People will be happy to help you even if you're just starting out. WasifBoomz is an example of someone who started out, their first entry didn't do too well, but they've learned from everyone's feedback and now, their third entry is one of my favorites. If you feel like your map needs more time, give it more time, it's often better not to rush stuff out the window (example: most AAA games these days). I'd also recommend you show your progress next time, and even give it out to a few people you trust so they can aid you in playtesting, it really helps to have a secondary opinion.
Abyss Caverns Zone
Pretty short but I like the atmosphere. I really don't have much else to say.
Drenched Dam Zone
Invisible walls keep throwing me off, with me trying to skip most of the stage but failing. The timer ticking down and involving a race with Metal is a concept I've not seen before in a custom map either. Bonus points for uniqueness.
Maps are listed in the order I've played them in, since the hub doesn't have a defined order.
Fort Sunset Zone
First thing I see is a rather intimidating task to get 500 of.... something, coins? Money? I don't know what the influence here is. The main problem is, that task becomes quite difficult if you, you know, get hit. At least they respawn (which i only found out *after* restarting the map), but you wouldn't want to get hit with 499 coins. At 500.... the level just ends, straight up, which was a bit anticlimactic. Not really a fan just due to how small the actual area is. If it would have been quite larger, It'd be more enjoyable.
Hollow Hill 1
I already appreciate the inclusion of custom title card graphics, I don't see those map header fields used often. At some point I took the wrong turn and ended up going in circles for half a minute though (overlooked that little path with "water" and ghosts I had to go through). There's some texture glitchyness in OpenGL but that's not any of the authors' fault. I don't really have much to say as it's pretty good though..
Ridge Rapids Zone
There's quite a bit of camera glitchyness involving the 2D sections, with it casually passing through walls, those could perhaps be moved back a bit more. Score monitors being placed around doesn't really make much sense, ~~but at least for the 10k ones I assume that's the OLDC "gamemode" replacing Life Monitors, or at least I hope it's the case.~~ (note:later I realized this isn't the case) If not, most of these should to be honest be 1-Ups. The location of the Signpost also threw me off. Sure, it's on a hill, but that hill isn't marked in any way so it's easy to miss and you can end up going in circles again. Oh I also had my first death here, want to know why? Blue Springs.
Mercury Mine Zone
The color choices on some textures (specifically the cyan, whatever it's supposed to be) actually kind of, hurts my eyes a little after a bit, am I the only one like this? I'm also unsure as to where the "mine" part comes into play, as I surely see some mercury but not as much of a mine as I would expect. I'm probably just more used to Mine Maze's depiction of a "mine". I just don't have much to say or think about it, doesn't really stand out to me as much as some others do gimmick-wise but it's not a bad stage at all. Oh and this isn't about the stage itself, but for some reason this one appears twice in the hub.
Blizzard Bastion Zone
The music (Diamond Dust 2 from the Mega Drive/Genesis 3D Blast) seems, a bit bitcrushed for some reason? For next time, the VGM rips you can find online work perfectly fine and are of higher quality while also having a smaller filesize overall, just so you know, oh and they loop, this track seems not to do so which is pretty jarring. Now for the stage itself - Putting an Eggman Monitor behind two Ring Monitors is pretty rude in all honesty. I'm also not a fan of having to navigate a ton of thin conveyor belts placed in a grid, while also being chased down by a Laser Turret. It would probably be hard enough without said Turret. I do like the inclusion of Emblems though, as well as the ice slide section (I almost died from getting stuck and having to jump though). The part where you have to jump off of those metal... things, that go up and try to crush you is also neat.
Ante-Station Zone
Immediately I'm greeted by a warning about Software mode causing crashes and a lot of mechanics being broken (dashmode, AI, custom characters etc.)... ok, it's not "bad design", but more "I wanted to make the stage cool but the game's jank", It just caught me a bit off-guard. There's a texture at the beginning which was supposed to say something, but the most important part of it gets cut-off so it just says "if you switch to SOFTWARE".... in Comic Sans, nonetheless. The portals seem to break a bit in software regardless, though I do like the way they're used (if they work). The utilization of Axis2D is also fun, though I saw some of the same issues from Ridge Rapids: namely the camera going inside collision sometimes. Sometimes the perspective fools me (the section with moving platforms with a skewed angle near the end guarantees cheap deaths, and the texture makes the dropshadow borderline invisible) but this's still the best use of Axis2D AND portals I've seen.
Lava Temple
TTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIILLLS, he kept blocking the Rollout Rocks. I do enjoy that part where you have to navigate one through a little obstacle course to unlock the path. It took me like four minutes to figure out the part right after that though, but it's still pretty enjoyable and I haven't seen Rollout Rocks used this way before.
Teal Tundra Zone
I honestly don't really have much to say about it, it looks nice, though the grass midtextures somewhat clash with the actual grass texture. It's also pretty short but that's alright.
Zaxel's Thunder Yard
On the SRB2 Discord, I've seen reports of people getting softlocked by a "troll path", in my opinion that's unacceptable - just for the softlock alone, the other troll exit is much more bearable as you can at least keep playing the stage after that. Sure, you probably didn't know about the inclusion of infinite lives this time around but I'll still sadly have to give minus points for that alone. The actual stage itself isn't bad: shares similarities with his previous entry, and I also appreciate how he keeps composing his own music for maps he submits anywhere. It features several of the enemies I was already familiar with from the previous entries/level pack released on the MB/earlier level pack hosted on that Brazilian server once. Oh, and my eyes actually quite hurt in some sections due to the repeating texture used, maybe making larger variants like the GFZROCKs would help? The map overall is surely an improvement, though, especially over your original pack. The softlock broke it for me though.
Falcon Emissary Zone
Loading the map took like 15 seconds, which isn't normal, there are also a few missing textures but they're only noticeable in OpenGL so I'll give you a pass there. What I like here are all the air-based gimmicks, and how the stage feels like it's just on an aircraft of some sort - the remixed Flying Battery music only adds to the effect. Very fun.
Bombastic Beach Zone
I've noticed some checkpoint jank and..... the level's over already? Turns out I accidentally skipped half of the stage, even went to replay it and saw a few sections I didn't even go to. I really don't have anything to say about it aside from those little checkpoint issues.
Music Mash Zone
There are some FOF issues and missing constants but I was told those were from a music-changing gimmick. Speaking of: the music is awfully quiet. The textures also get quite harsh on the eyes after a little bit. The piano is literally inaudible for me. Adding sections reminiscent of your old entries is also very welcome to me.... though the music breaks completely after the Hypertower section and seems to revert to MAP01M instead of MMASH. I still like it though, even if I didn't get to see some of the sections I remember from in-dev gifs. I didn't actually re-play to see the other sections, but I can imagine how they're like.
Koopa Kastle Zone
Including only MIDIs is an interesting choice, but with a good soundfont it does sound nice still. The pipes working Mario-style, the use of ports of old enemies, the fact there's a Mario Maker 2 level code is, well, I don't have the game so I can't check how it relates to this map, but I hope it's related in some way. I do enjoy some good use of Mario Mode though, it doesn't get enough love as broken as it sometimes is (I still remember how I accidentally found out how Crushtaceans crashed the game if defeated with a Fire Flower earlier in 2.2's life).
Emerald Glade 1
I can kinda see a bit of what you were going for, and while there are some things that could work (for example: I rarely, if ever, see Emerald Hunt maps). I'd distribute the Emerald spawn points evenly across the stage, giving each some sort of a little challenge you have to go through to reach. Sadly there's no way in the vanilla game to control where the emerald spawns are separated into difficulty groups, but it's probably possible to do with Lua (having a set of spawns that are easy to reach, then medium-difficulty ones, and then somewhat-difficult emeralds). It's not easy to make an impressive map, so please don't get demotivated. It honestly takes a lot of time, effort, motivation and practice. Some people are *still* working on their entries, as they couldn't meet the deadline for this OLDC. Don't be afraid to ask for advice on the Discord/Message Board either. People will be happy to help you even if you're just starting out. WasifBoomz is an example of someone who started out, their first entry didn't do too well, but they've learned from everyone's feedback and now, their third entry is one of my favorites. If you feel like your map needs more time, give it more time, it's often better not to rush stuff out the window (example: most AAA games these days). I'd also recommend you show your progress next time, and even give it out to a few people you trust so they can aid you in playtesting, it really helps to have a secondary opinion.
Abyss Caverns Zone
Pretty short but I like the atmosphere. I really don't have much else to say.
Drenched Dam Zone
Invisible walls keep throwing me off, with me trying to skip most of the stage but failing. The timer ticking down and involving a race with Metal is a concept I've not seen before in a custom map either. Bonus points for uniqueness.