Right, so I downloaded the demo to see why the filesize would be so high, and it reads like that one dril posts about buying thousands of dollars in candles or whatever and wondering how to feed his family. Except the joke here is me for thinking it would be anything but the music. Of course it's the music, its
always the music. You just had to cram every song in a demo with like, 7 maps. In addition, this is a WAD file, which is uncompressed and difficult to organize internally due to the lack of folders. I'd tell you to run it through WAD2PK3, but the application refuses to take it. Whatever you managed to do, you must have messed it up
bad.
So, after playing the demo and not finding any of this "new" or "enhanced" content, and the most modified thing was giving the already existing SRB2 Museum a Halloween rearrange, that's when I learned the "new" content was in the match levels, and all 3 of them are awful. Greenflower is more cramped than someone's luggage, Dark City is a literal maze that I'm pretty sure Tails and Knuckles can fly/climb around while Sonic gets to eat wall, and Mine Maze sure lives up to its name, and sure is not fun at all. If this is really the best examples you have of original content, then my hopes ain't high.
But above all, the biggest problem is that
I don't see the point in porting the old content. Glaber is already doing that. and in so much detaila nd with so much more content that the filesize would be worth the download. I am confident that his version of SRB2 the Past will deliver on everything that I would expect. This port of someone else's port that claims to enhance things but hasn't done anything of the sort yet... It feels needless.
So here's what I think: instead of trying and failing to gather a team of talented individuals to do the blunt of the work for you, instead of trying to port what is
already being ported, you focus on actually doing the whole "enhanced" level thing, and straight up make
new maps that are
inspired by the old ones? Think of cut levels, or the 'ween/Xmas theming, and make a level pack focused on those. Kind of like
Sonic: The Lost Worlds. Doing this would narrow the scope on somethhing that gives your mod some identity, and a reason to co-exist with glabers' own efforts.
It can be an ode to the past while still being its own thing. You can cut out all the music files that you
really do not need, as well as any other content you don't actually want. Start fresh with a .pk3 from the getgo to ease the filesize from the beginning. And just work on those new levels. Nothing will get more people looking at your mod then good and unique levels. I've yet to see your work being put into an actual single player map (as far as I can remember), and you need to practice that craft. Maybe if you show us what you got, some skilled folks will be willing to join your efforts, or you begin to pull more of your own weight as you develop your own skills.
I get that you can learn from the past, but in the direction you're going, you're gonna be stuck in it.
OK, a review. I like that.
First of all, I am that type of dude that gets stuck in the past like I'm under the surface of the earth. That was random, but I felt like mentioning it.
As for the music, ohh boy... Every single music? This is only a small teacup pup compared to a giant elephant. Something will be done about the music, the exception will go towards the music, which is a big offender. But I mostly don't know how to modify tracks. That being said, it has many tracks due to the fact that this was built off of a development build. Infact, nearly every screenshot you just saw were indev builds. It will be fixed once the ACTUAL release of the demo knocks the door. Like I have mentioned, something will infact be done about the music. I don't know how to get over the situation though. (sum1 halp X_X)
Also, the "whatever I managed to do messed up pretty bad", I should clarify that this was a direct port from the 2.1 version of the official mod (BEFORE the PK3s, 2.1.2X) and during that time, I wasn't so good with mods. So I stuck using WADs until further notice. And here I am... TBF, Glaber's mod IS a PK3 now accordingly, but even then, I don't know how to work with those.
The new and enhanced content had nothing to do with modifying the museum. The aesthetics are there, but only temporarily. Until Xmas, to be exact. The enhanced content had to do with fixing up nooks and crannies. Not that it looked wrong before or anything, hell no! Just my own touches.
The new content is yet to be unveiled, BUT like you've mentioned, there is infact 2P content with new Match stages. There's also Circuit mode, which appears to have 1 track ATM, which barely works. HOWEVER, despite Match stages playing awfully, unfortunately, nothing can be done about those, besides changing weapons, which I did for GFZ (the original level was a deathmatch stage fyi). One of my goal is to fix a few stages' aesthetics to resemble more like the originals, not to revamp the level design. Someone already brought this up with the port of the Speed Highway level, claiming I stole from a different project, changed the textures and split it in half. This was later debunked that the stage from the aforementioned project was a revamp and my port was from a lost level from 2000 leaked by SSN. It's also mentioned way above that the 2P is very broken and unfinished.
1. GFZ is the most finished of the bunch, not to say it's complete though. There are few stuff to fix in the map. The original level was cramped like that.
2. DCZ is one of THOSE stages. It's a maze alright, but you can jump out of it. It isn't fun and like I said, it's a DM stage from 1999, it's expected to be jarring. It could be fixed however.
3. MMZ is the worst one of them all. Barely playable. Same issues from DCZ, but somehow worse. (keep in mind, match is optional, it's going to be abandoned once xmas releases ;))
These levels are ports made by Glaber and revamped by me due to their incompatibility with Match. Like I said, all of these stages were made for Deathmatch in 1999, it's expected to bad in vanilla SRB2.
"But above all, the biggest problem is that
I don't see the point in porting the old content. Glaber is already doing that. and in so much detaila nd with so much more content"
Like I said, this project was made PRIOR to when stuff was revealed about 2.0. Only progress was shown at a few Discord servers for 2 years, and that was before new stuff was added, aside from revampments and ACZ. It's changed now. There is much more levels, new features and such. Just like my project! It's different from Glaber's however.
I am not getting talented individuals to do the rest of my work, I am only hiring them to assist me in the project, moderate the team and help on doing stuff I haven't experienced or know anything about. It's a bit too soon, but keep in mind, unlike SRB2TP, this isn't solo. Stuff will definitely release. Infact, some people already saw the behind-the-scenes of stuff, and even the server owner helped me boost it up. It might not seem like it, but I am sure the new devs will be just as excited as they were previously. Not to brag or anything, but gotta keep myself positive, right? Also, the next statement applies above.
"you focus on actually doing the whole "enhanced" level thing, and straight up make
new maps that are
inspired by the old ones? Think of cut levels, or the 'ween/Xmas theming, and make a level pack focused on those. Kind of like
Sonic: The Lost Worlds. Doing this would narrow the scope on somethhing that gives your mod some identity, and a reason to co-exist with glabers' own efforts."
I appreciate the advice, D00D. Glaber actually approved this project too. However, that's not what the mod is about. I was infact thinking of doing an unofficial update to SRB2 Christmas! Kinda like Mystic Realm (Community edition).
Anyways, I think that's all. I think it's a great advice to continue my future projects, and I salute you for that. Any other statements made in this are mentioned on the first page.
And to make sure I don't make drawn-out posts like this. I will suggest people to read the thread before bringing up some of this stuff again. I get it's for criticism, so I will try to make brief statements as I can. This will do for now.
Thanks D00D!
- スープモブ (SoupMob)
