[Level Pack] Plom Pack v2.3

[Plom510]

Plom Pack is a compilation of tracks that range from originals, ports, or those themed after my original setting. Tracks within each cup may be released out of order.

Tracks

Freedom Planet
=Dragon Cup=

=Battle Maps=

Lumiva Drift Tour
=Neuo Cup=

=Resort Cup=

=Battle Maps=

General Maps
=Ridge Cup=

=Pentagon Cup=

=Bonus Maps=

=MAP HELL=

Changelog:

Spoiler

v2.3
-NEW RACE MAP: Amethyst Drive
Pentagon Paradise
-Added impassable walls on the fences directly in front of the waterfalls.


v2.2
-NEW RACE MAP: Rec 'N Rally
-NEW BATTLE MAPS: Lilac's Treehouse, Bumper Barrage, Mhh ha ha ha (MAP HELL)
Mantalith Temple
-Steep slopes at the beginning of the track has physics disabled.
-Lowered the springs panel ramp and raised the shortcut platform at the undergound entrance to prevent players from taking the shortcut sneakerless.
-Now recieved Encore support.
Construction Gym
-Now recieved Encore support.
-REMOVED MAP: Super Center Circuit
Reason: Replaced by the new Rec 'N Rally track.


v2.1
-NEW MAP: Construction Gym
Showtime Showdown
-Added dogs.
Super Center Circuit
-Speed pads have been slightly enlarged.
SIK Fortune Night
-Music has been changed to a new remix.
-Invisible walls were added around the bridge.
Pentagon Paradise
-Added wind sectors on the first jump to push slower players onto the landing platform.
-Signage has been added on the first turn.
-Offroad around the first shortcut ramp has been strengthened.

-The following maps have recieved a new speed pad texture:
Lilac Lake
Mantalith Temple
Showtime Showdown
Super Center Circuit


v2
-NEW MAPS: Fearnought Factory, Cyber Scramble, Grit Pit, Pentagon Paradise, and Yoshi Island (MAP HELL)
-The above new maps (except for Yoshi Island) have Encore support while the following maps have recieved Encore support:
Lilac Lake
SMK Rainbow Road
Erizo Isle


v1.6
-NEW MAP: Mantalith Temple


v1.5
-NEW MAP: Lilac Lake
Showtime Showdown
-Added an Instant Kill sector to prevent an exploit.
SIK Fortune Night
-Added extremely minor decoration after the first U-Turn of the track.
-Reintroduced the shortcut in a new way.


v1.4b
SMK Rainbow Road
-Removed checkpoints from the edges of the track to prevent possible GBJs from occuring.
Erizo Isle
-Changed the road texture to be darker sand for the jungle section.
-Signpost now lands on the center of the finish line.


v1.4
-NEW MAP: Erizo Isle
SMK Rainbow Road
-Fixed checkpoint respawns around the sloped sections of the track.


v1.3b
-NEW MAP: SMK Rainbow Road (Reimagined)
Rustic Joyride
-Fixed a broken vertex slope.
-Added some fences and an arrow sign around the left turn leading into the temple area.
SIK Fortune Night
-Changed a fence into a wall to avoid confusion on a decorative bridge being a supposed shortcut.


v1.3
Rustic Joyride
-Fixed the offroad sectors around the finish line to have the Circuit Finish Line property.
Showtime Showdown
-The road now has new decorations to improve readability.
-The ramp for the big jump now has Spring Panels.
-The sloped area of the big jump section has slope physics disabled.
SIK Fortune Night
-Added arrow signs on specific slopes to help players know which way to turn.
-Improved how the removed OP shortcut was hidden.
-REMOVED MAP: CTR Cortex Castle
Reason: Moved to CTR Track Pack.


v1.2
-NEW MAP: Showtime Showdown
Rustic Joyride
-Raised most of the areas that were instant kill sectors. This change should change the dynamic of how you use Orbinaut Balls.
Super Center Circuit
-Fixed a potential GBJ area.
SIK Fortune Night
-Blocked off an OP shortcut that was near the end of the track.
CTR Cortex Castle
-Added the CTR Race Intro music that plays when the map is loaded.
-Fixed a potential GBJ area.


v1.1
-NEW MAP: Rustic Joyride
Super Center Circuit
-Now has a new original music track.
-Has a new ceiling texture.
-Tire textures have been updated.
-Starting area has been moved to just before the finish line.
-Removed some purple barriers in straightaways.
-One of the U-Turns has been sloped.
-Mini-map has been updated to reflect changes.
-Has a new thumbnail.
SIK Fortune Night
-Outline has been added around the track.
-More guide arrows have been added based on feedback.
-First set of item boxes have been moved forward a bit.
CTR Cortex Castle
-More guide arrows have been added based on feedback.


v1
-Initial Public Release.
-Super Center Circuit has a new music track.
-Super Center Circuit now takes the L8 slot instead of the L3 slot.

Any and all feedback is appreciated.

 

[D00D64]

Welcome to releases!

 

[jameds]

It's nice to see two more tracks from you!

I really enjoy your texture work in Fortune Night. And this is a great shortcut in Cortex Castle.

Now for the issues...

Spoiler

I used the default camera settings to take all these screenshots.

If you turn left at the T, it is not clear that the path continues right. Because the left side wall is a right angle, I would think I can turn left. The right side slope is also not contrasted enough to provide a visual hint. The arrow set just previously, at that T, also told me that a pair of arrows signals that I can go either direction. And this turn has a pair of arrows. The detail that the arrows point inward instead of outward is not noticable during a race.

This turn is far worse, and it got me every time. The problem here is that there isn't an indication of which direction I'm supposed to turn after the slope. The arrow is also obscured by the angle of the floor. That arrow would be useless anyway, even if it weren't obscured, because your eyes are guided downward, looking at the road ahead of you, not upward and far ahead at that wall.

By the time you can see this arrow, it's already too late because there isn't much space to correct your angle once you get there.

This arrow is also obscured by the floor.

I do have one complaint for Fortune Night though. This turn right after the very first slope is obscured by the item boxes. But it's not well communicated anyway. I keep taking the turn wider than I'm supposed to and end up in the offroad.

 

[Plom510]

Plom Pack has been updated with a brand new track, Rustic Joyride. See changelog for other updates regarding the existing tracks.

 

[Plom510]

Plom Pack has been updated with Showtime Showdown. See changelog for updates on the existing tracks as I addressed a few things regarding them.

 

[Plom510]

I know it's been so long just for QoL changes, but the Plom Pack has finally been updated. See changelog for more details.

 

[Tyron]

I did a course critique stream with some friends recently, and someone suggested that I take a look at your pack. The result is a little meandering, but I hope there's some decent critique there, and I also did a single run through each course trying to summarize what I think. (These are timestamp links.)

In short, in case you don't have the time or don't feel like watching a video (though I go over more than this for most of these courses):
- Rustic Joyride's upper path is blocked by what looks like a glitched-out slope. This area is pretty cool, though, even if I'd be concerned about it simply being too strong compared to the lower path—having an alternate path look down on the main road gives the thing a nice sense of scale. The small ramps and offroad patches on the lower path are tricky to see and could use more visual distinction, and the turn leading upstairs to the indoor area is kinda misleading, with the main path tucked away to the left and invisible until you've passed the item set.
- Some boost pads in Showtime Showdown are obstructed and invisible until you've already committed to your route through the corner, which feels a little unfair. There's a bunch of extremely steep upward-angled slopes that are wildly unfair places to use trap items, and the ending jump requires some unusual finesse if you want to stay on the track, especially if the SPB is involved—maybe add a safe way of taking this, blue diagonal springs on the edges or something?
- Super Center Circuit is probably my favorite of the pack; I load in here and instantly remember a go-kart/laser tag/arcade joint I used to frequent all the time when I was younger, you nailed it aesthetically. The overall flatness of the track does make visibility a little tricky, though, since very little of your screen is actually devoted to the course. A lot of turns would benefit from raised outer edges or an additional leading line, and one turn in particular rapidly narrows with some kind of...pink barrier? I'm not sure what this is, but it creates a trap item disaster and isn't super friendly to read even solo.
- Fortune Night, AFAIK, is a port, but the huge amount of steep elevation changes make avoiding trap items an absolute nightmare, easily some of the most unfair stuff I've seen. The buildings and scenery are placed well, though, and give you enough of a hint w/r/t the way forward that it feels fun to navigate solo—tough and scary, but never quite edging into unfair territory. I think this could wildly vary depending on the player, though. There's also at least one path, bright orange between two red left-arrow signs, that looked like a shortcut to me until I realized there was a thin fence in front of it; maybe remove the bright color so it doesn't draw the player's attention?

What's here is pretty cool—all four courses feel super distinct and totally cohesive, and I dig the variety. The verticality of some of these layouts presents readability and conveyance problems, but I also can't deny that it makes them feel really cool to drive; hopefully you can find a balance that nails both.

 

[Plom510]

Thanks for the critique! I took some of the feedback with the most recent update, in which the changelog should contain more details. The new update also introduced my reimagined take on SMK Rainbow Road to make up for CTR Cortex Castle's removal from the pack to now being a part of my recent CTR Track Pack.

 

[Plom510]

Added a new track, Erizo Isle. This is the first of a series of 5 lappers I want to make. The remainder of the Pentagon cup will be release once all of its tracks are complete. Until then, look forward to what my next map could be.

 

[ThatAzazelFire]

Goodness gracious Plom, you have so many different cups.

 

[Plom510]

Just updated the pack with a hotfix that only changes SMK Rainbow Road and Erizo Isle. Refer to the changelog for what's been done.

 

[Lightsideluc]

The tracks in this pack are solid, but I gotta say, the song choice for Super Center Circuit is just an absolute mood killer for me. It's boring, low-tempo, and sounds like it's being played on some low-end system. I'm a bit of an outlier when it comes to my enjoyment of tracks due to the music selection (what most people can just filter out will drive me nuts, such as mall music), but I honestly don't want to race on SCC *just* because of the song on it. I could have sworn there was a different tune on it wayyyy back when it was first introduced, but I might just be misremembering.

 

[Plom510]

Added a brand new original Freedom Planet track to the pack. More will come in the future, so look forward to seeing what comes next from the FP universe. As usual, refer to the changelog for small updates to the other tracks.

 

[SeasideDoe]

Just found what could be an issue in netgames-giants when set to a stop on the final ramp of Showtime Showdown won't be able to clear the final ramp if their acceleration isn't good, which basically wastes an entire power item. This could be extremely frustrating for those trying to come back from behind.

 

[Plom510]

Added another original track based on Freedom Planet. My next update should be a big one as it'll see the completion of the Pentagon Cup, so look forward to that.

 

[Plom510]

The Pentagon Cup is now fully complete in my biggest update so far. Also comes with Encore Mode support for select tracks.

 

[Plom510]

Construction Gym is now released. I was hoping to get another track released as well, but due to scheduling conflicts, I have not gotten around to polishing it. Hopefully sometime soon it'll be done?

 

[Plom510]

Late bump, but I have updated the pack with the brand new Rec 'N Rally, replacing Super Center Circuit. I also introduced some battle maps.

 

[Plom510]

Sorry for the wait! Added a brand new track, Amethyst Drive, my contest entry for the SI-HT Mapping Contest.

 

[Gaudy]

Sorry for the wait! Added a brand new track, Amethyst Drive, my contest entry for the SI-HT Mapping Contest.

Plom, the slot Amethyst Drive track is MAPPI (instead of MAPPA), I understand is reservated for Monster Monarch Classic