[Open Assets] Starry Night (Update)
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I'm granting passage of this level into the Releases forum, but not because it's particularly good or anything. You have a few good ideas, I'll admit, and it's good that you got the thok barrier down pat, as well as toggling the AMBUSH flag on your rings so they float correctly, but:
- The texturing is bland, and has almost no alignment to speak of. Manual alignment is preferable for fine details, but for coarse alignment in Doom Builder (which I'm assuming is what you're using), just highlight a wall in 3D Visual Mode and press A. Easy.
- Some of the jumps are a little too precarious for my tastes (your mileage may vary).
- You have what I'm assuming to be a DRAWSEGS overflow shortly before the big crusher room that produces weird graphical artifacts (really not sure what's going on there - maybe you can see too far forward or something?)
- On that note, I'm not sure how I feel about the crusher room itself - I guess you have enough time to survive it the first time, when you have no idea it's coming, although personally I dived back out to where I came in. I'm glad you put that spare teleporter there, because if you hadn't, since that crusher wasn't goin' back up anytime soon, the level would be unwinnable.
- Your starpost is not pointing the player in the direction the level flows, making death disorienting. (I'd also argue you don't have enough starposts, as redoing over half the level for botching up a jump is aggravating.)
- I'm not particularly happy with the room with the six crumbling FOFs; they have absolutely no indication that they are crumbling, until you find out the hard way as you're lining up your jump onto the next one and die.
- That boss room is about as basic as they come; it's literally just a cube. One with transparent walls, which is nice, but it's still a really large cube, devoid of any other notable details.
- Also, to be perfectly honest, this map seems to be going for a Prismatic Angel style. I really wouldn't advocate that, since, with all due respect to Mystic, it really wasn't a very good level, and certainly isn't one worth emulating. Try your hand at a more traditional GFZ-style level instead; not necessarily literally with that theme, mind, but a more closed-in level with less emphasis on tiny platforms over large bottomless pits.
Oh my gawd!
Your level is cool but are VERY hard as Sonic because that level like Prismatic Angel from Mystic Realm.
Why did you not use a traditional style, like in GFZ, THZ, DSZ ...
If the level will to be noted...
5/10 (+1 because the level are coloured and nice) = 06/10
Your level is cool but are VERY hard as Sonic because that level like Prismatic Angel from Mystic Realm.
Why did you not use a traditional style, like in GFZ, THZ, DSZ ...
If the level will to be noted...
5/10 (+1 because the level are coloured and nice) = 06/10
Sparkxster
bruh
I.. really don't like this level, for one thing, it tried to go for a PAZ style, and due to Mystic Realm overall being mediocre, I'm not very fond of PAZ styled levels.
The boss room is almost as simple as you can get, it's just a cube with transparent walls, I'll give you the credit for the walls but it's lackluster.
The room with six FOFS that crumble, no, just no. Replace that with something much better.
And when I died at the starpoint with the platforms that rise and lower, it disoriented me mainly because of the position, the starpost should let the player respawn at the correct way to go.
The crusher needs to reload along with the level, saying as that it should return to the position BEFORE it lowered after you respawn from the starpoint (mind you this would be an SP only nitpick). But thank goodness for the teleporter though, considering the crusher wouldn't go up anytime.
Overall, if this were in the OLDC, it wouldn't be very high in the score, I'd have to give this a 3/10 because of the nitpicks and errors I mentioned above.
The boss room is almost as simple as you can get, it's just a cube with transparent walls, I'll give you the credit for the walls but it's lackluster.
The room with six FOFS that crumble, no, just no. Replace that with something much better.
And when I died at the starpoint with the platforms that rise and lower, it disoriented me mainly because of the position, the starpost should let the player respawn at the correct way to go.
The crusher needs to reload along with the level, saying as that it should return to the position BEFORE it lowered after you respawn from the starpoint (mind you this would be an SP only nitpick). But thank goodness for the teleporter though, considering the crusher wouldn't go up anytime.
Overall, if this were in the OLDC, it wouldn't be very high in the score, I'd have to give this a 3/10 because of the nitpicks and errors I mentioned above.
Yes; i understand what you said about this level...
If you are Sonic, this is I M P O S S I B L E to reach the goal.
You're forced to use Tails.
and when you are in the room of the orange no respwn crusher, the teleport teleprt you into a room with a lot of crumbling, the the teleport off that room teleport you in ANOTHER CRUMBLING platforms room...
As well, i think PAZ and MRZ are esyer of that.
If you are Sonic, this is I M P O S S I B L E to reach the goal.
You're forced to use Tails.
and when you are in the room of the orange no respwn crusher, the teleport teleprt you into a room with a lot of crumbling, the the teleport off that room teleport you in ANOTHER CRUMBLING platforms room...
As well, i think PAZ and MRZ are esyer of that.
Bullshit. I beat the map as Sonic. Tails would've been easier, in retrospect, but I often forget there are characters other than Sonic when I test maps.
Daywalker
The Daily Browser
Yeah, this map is far from impossible. I was able to beat this on my first try with Sonic easily.
That aside, it is pretty hard to tell what exactly this zone is suppose to be. At first I thought it was going to be referencing Van Gogh's art piece "Starry Night" or was going to be some sort of green stage that takes place at night time, but then when I saw the photos it looked like it was trying to be like Prismatic Angel Zone.
The design of the level is pretty bland overall. A lot of the stuff has been pointed out already, but there some other I will add some other time in an edited post. I need to play the level again.
That aside, it is pretty hard to tell what exactly this zone is suppose to be. At first I thought it was going to be referencing Van Gogh's art piece "Starry Night" or was going to be some sort of green stage that takes place at night time, but then when I saw the photos it looked like it was trying to be like Prismatic Angel Zone.
The design of the level is pretty bland overall. A lot of the stuff has been pointed out already, but there some other I will add some other time in an edited post. I need to play the level again.
Ice
Pretty chill guy
Well it seems that you've got the basics of level design down well, so congratulations on that. But although your thok barrier and fof's and rings are all in order, you've got a couple of things working against you:
-You're starting off attempting to make your level difficult. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I would generally tell new level designers to stay away from trying to make difficult levels. Challenge and difficulty is something hard to do correctly, even for experienced level designers. For beginning level designers, attempts at hard difficulty usually come off as cheap or lackluster, and your level suffers kinda happens to be both.
-Your theme is lame. Now, I know that difficult platforming on LSD-colored platforms in space can feel pretty epic, but again, it's something hard to do right. Even Prismatic Angel Zone, which pretty much invented this genre of level (I think), was a pretty bad zone, even IF you felt like you were doing something important. It also gives you an excuse to place a bunch of bland square platforms in a big empty room because that's just how the theme is. It's a pretty lame way to go about designing a level... which brings me to my final point.
-You really need to improve your overall level architecture. This is what usually sets apart the decent levels from the obvious "noob levels". Doing this right takes a lot of intuition, and I can't really explain how to do this properly aside from giving you this singular piece of advice: Study the good levels. They can be the official levels or from a level pack, it doesn't matter, as long as those levels just feel good. Study what makes them fun, what works and what doesn't work, and compare that against your own level. Then, try to implement the things you like. I'm not saying to straight-up-copy, just assimilate the good aspects of those levels into your own design. Maybe you'll make something great!
Aside from that, you've done a decent job. I've certainly seen worse levels before. I actually really liked that part where the ceiling almost crushes you, and I feel like I had ample time to avoid it while still feeling like I'm in peril. Kudos for that.
-You're starting off attempting to make your level difficult. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I would generally tell new level designers to stay away from trying to make difficult levels. Challenge and difficulty is something hard to do correctly, even for experienced level designers. For beginning level designers, attempts at hard difficulty usually come off as cheap or lackluster, and your level suffers kinda happens to be both.
-Your theme is lame. Now, I know that difficult platforming on LSD-colored platforms in space can feel pretty epic, but again, it's something hard to do right. Even Prismatic Angel Zone, which pretty much invented this genre of level (I think), was a pretty bad zone, even IF you felt like you were doing something important. It also gives you an excuse to place a bunch of bland square platforms in a big empty room because that's just how the theme is. It's a pretty lame way to go about designing a level... which brings me to my final point.
-You really need to improve your overall level architecture. This is what usually sets apart the decent levels from the obvious "noob levels". Doing this right takes a lot of intuition, and I can't really explain how to do this properly aside from giving you this singular piece of advice: Study the good levels. They can be the official levels or from a level pack, it doesn't matter, as long as those levels just feel good. Study what makes them fun, what works and what doesn't work, and compare that against your own level. Then, try to implement the things you like. I'm not saying to straight-up-copy, just assimilate the good aspects of those levels into your own design. Maybe you'll make something great!
Aside from that, you've done a decent job. I've certainly seen worse levels before. I actually really liked that part where the ceiling almost crushes you, and I feel like I had ample time to avoid it while still feeling like I'm in peril. Kudos for that.
Blazing Inferno
Member
Before I begin, you state your wad name as scr_starry_night.wad, but it features a boss level. Naturally, general racing would be impossible in a level that requires the boss to be defeated, as you work as a team. Thus, you should change your wad name to sc_starry_night.wad.
In my opinion, the level wasn't as challenging as I hoped it would be. Besides the surprise crusher room and minimal platforming towards the end, I easily covered the stage as Sonic. Here are some things that I undoubtedly saw while testing:
In my opinion, the level wasn't as challenging as I hoped it would be. Besides the surprise crusher room and minimal platforming towards the end, I easily covered the stage as Sonic. Here are some things that I undoubtedly saw while testing:
- The robots don't suit the current enviornment. Look at other space levels.
- The first yellow spring should be positioned where the player is landed on it, as that is standard in srb2 level design.
- You should include more platforming details.
- IMO, there are too many rings bundled up near the blue spring.
- There needs to be more wall where the first checkpoint is. It looks like a fragment.
- The positioning of the linedef after the first checkpoint with the platforming needs to be fixed.
- The token location is out in the open and behind a place you naturally wouldn't see. Maybe you should relocate it, as I discovered it by dying in a pit.
- The level isn't very knuckles friendly.
- Too many straight paths are involved; too much running.
- The boss fight is too simple, and the room is too basic. Make it complex.
wizeman
u have my permission to die
Blazing Inferno
Member
Notice how I said to look at the design. I never said to look for features of the specified game type. Know the differences between different words. SRB2 is SRB2, and design would be generally the same, no matter what the game type. Based on your reaction and skills in mapping, I can only assume that you've been playing SRB2 for a minimal amount of time.
wizeman
u have my permission to die
I'm sorry
Oh, sorry about that. and By the way, i have been playing for almost 2 years and, been making maps for almost 1 year. :P
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Blazing Inferno
Member
And I've been playing srb2 ever since 2005.
Getting back on topic: Rather it be FOFs on the side of platforms to gimmicks in the boss part of the level, you need to add more detail to the map. Because your level focuses on platforming, I think it would be better for the boss fight to also focus on platforming.
If I've hurt your feelings, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to help you, even if that includes criticizing you.
speed2411
Speed2411
I just tried this... It was kind of basic. To me it looked like a bunch of multi-colored buildings that you must jump off. Several tips. Make sure your player has enough space to move that the bad guys will just close in on you any where you go. I had that problem on the moving platforms. You should make the level bigger and more visual. Besides that, I think you have a great idea. You should redo the map and post a newer version. I can't wait to see what you come up with.
Absolutely not. Of course there are some things that have to be considered in every gametype, but in general, multiplayer levels are designed very differently from single player levels.
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