Toxic Caves Zone

[Lippa]

Hey guys, after getting SRB2DB working about 12 hours ago, I spent the majority of the time since then throwing together a short level. I'm not sure if I'll pad this out into a full-blown campaign, but I'm having a lot of fun so far so expect more content from me soon.

Anyways, it's called Toxic Caves Zone and follows a similar theme to Tempest Valley but with some castle-ish segments mixed in.

EDIT: It's MAP04, for the record.

Spoiler: Screenies

Glorious DOWNLOAD LINK

Enjoy, and please criticise if you have the time~

 

[MascaraSnake]

It isn't often that we have a new mapper who does so many things right on his first try (or have you done mapping before?). On the purely technical side, your water is colormapped, your rings float, there is a thok barrier and there are no glitches. But even beyond that, your level has a good sense of space, multiple paths, cleverly placed secrets and an impeccable understanding of the concept of risk vs. reward. There's not much interesting going on here yet (although I did like your strategic usage of pop-up turrets), but that's to be expected in a first level that you made in 12 hours. I only really have three complaints:

• Some section, particularly outdoors, are quite narrow. A bit more space would be appreciated here.
• In the same breath, some of these narrow segments are overcrowded with enemies. You have demonstrated that you know how to place enemies strategically, so you can (and should) afford some restraint in places where the enemies serve no real purpose.
• Four turrets in the same room? Not a good idea. Since you placed them all in the same spot, it's more pointless than it is annoying, but one is more than enough in any case.

Barring some minor issues, you have the technical side of mapping pretty much down to a tee. Now find some inspiration and I'm very curious what you can come up with.

 

[Sparkxster]

Perhaps you may try to map for the OLDC considering that this is a good map in general and it isn't very often at all where a new mapper does it right.

One of my complaints is there that there isn't really enough attention to the number of enemies you place because the narrow segments are quite clustered.

Turrets should only be placed ONCE per room at the very least or very few turrets in the map, don't just cluster a few turrets together in the same room, it's unnecessary and annoying.

Excluding those issues, you have a great job at mapping, you should try to make a level where honestly, I'm going to say it, Time Posts (I've never seen a level that has this but eh, might be neat to see at least in common with that.)

 

[rocky]

In just 12 hours? That's awesome. You can definitely make really good maps and besides you already make levels better than me.

I believe I don't have any complains besides the narrow paths that SpiritCrusher was talking about.

 

[A hedgie]

Nice! While the wait for 2.1 is very long and boring, this certainly provided something interesting. I'd give this an 8/10. You had some good enemy placement, providing a small challenge without uselessly cluttering the map. However, there were times when there was no real challenge in particular areas. I also think the level was too short, and you could've put grass fringe surrounding the grass flats. Overall, it's a great start, but you have room for improvement. Nice music choice, by the way.

EDIT: On a second playthrough as Tails, I discovered a lot more stuff. That path with the turrets was good, although you should use one turret in that room. Also, you should slow down the rising platforms over that pit, and perhaps add some "fog" in the pit (Y'know, like ACZ1 and ERZ2.) That extra life monitor above the rising CEZ rock platform was VERY clever, too. Overall, 9/10. I wanna see more maps from you.

 

[Lippa]

Time Posts

What?

Anyways, I fixed up the things that got complaints and edited the main post with an updated version. Sparkxster and SpiritCrusher, yes, I have mapped before, both for Doom and SRB2. Thanks for the feedback, guys, it's great to know what I'm doing right and wrong.

EDIT: I also have a question about mapping, how do I make Star Posts that don't override each other?

 

[Prime 2.0]

What?

Anyways, I fixed up the things that got complaints and edited the main post with an updated version. Sparkxster and SpiritCrusher, yes, I have mapped before, both for Doom and SRB2. Thanks for the feedback, guys, it's great to know what I'm doing right and wrong.

EDIT: I also have a question about mapping, how do I make Star Posts that don't override each other?

According to the wiki, you determine starpost order by setting the angle to multiples of 360, with higher multiples acting as later starposts that activate all previous starposts.

If you were asking how to make starposts that don't activate prior starposts at all however, I do not believe SRB2 supports that. That's not to say you couldn't come up with something crazy using linedefs and/or SOC to fake it, though.

 

[Liliam]

According to the wiki, you determine starpost order by setting the angle to multiples of 360, with higher multiples acting as later starposts that activate all previous starposts.

Er.

Basically, an angle of 360 is effectively the same as 0, right? But we have the luxurious space of two whole bytes (SIXTEEN BITS!) to use, so it'd be a shame to let it go to waste. Therefore, while the angle of the star post sets the direction you'll be facing when you respawn there, for each full rotation the post number goes up by one. So 0 is post #1, aimed East, 360 is post #2, also aimed East, but 405 is post #2, aimed Northeast (360 + 45).

It's something I always see people struggle with their first time around, and NOBODY ever explains it right.

 

[Lippa]

If you were asking how to make starposts that don't activate prior starposts at all however, I do not believe SRB2 supports that.

Wow. That's just downright stupid. So there's no way to have multiple paths with individual Starposts that don't override the other path? What if you wanted to backtrack?

 

[Liliam]

Wow. That's just downright stupid. So there's no way to have multiple paths with individual Starposts that don't override the other path? What if you wanted to backtrack?

This is exactly how the classic games worked. If your paths are completely mutually exclusive, you can:

• Have contiguous sequences on either side, for instance, posts 1 and 2 on one side and posts 3 and 4 on the other,
• Alternate numbers between the two paths, for instance, posts 1 and 3 on one side and 2 and 4 on the other,

with post 5 being at the path join, meaning once you get there you activate all of the ones before it anyway.

Personally, I think ideally Star Posts should be numbered in order of time/effort needed to reach them. Especially in the case of open-ended levels where you can switch paths very frequently, the player should be rewarded for managing to find a hard-to-reach place, and definitely never sent back to the easy path should they die.