WIP 1.09.4 Adventure Mode Stage

[CesarOG922]

Something that I always found interesting about 1.09.4 was its "Adventure Mode", a gameplay mode one could make stages with which changed some mechanics of the game, as well as adding new things like the Light Speed Dash, to be more like the Sonic Adventure titles. Only one stage ever used it, and it was an extremely short Metal Harbor-esque stage that only existed to demonstrate the gameplay mode's features. I kind of wondered what it would be like if SRB2 2.2 had an actual full stage in this style, since this mode ended up being removed later on and the mods I played in 1.09.4 that featured it were kinda rough. So when I learned MIDIMan made a port of this gameplay mode to 2.2, I decided to make a map using it, with some modifications.

With this stage I'm kind of trying to get a Sonic Adventure 1/DX type of level design, very linear, but with somewhat open sections you can do cool skips in. The length of the stage should be about 2 minutes for an average run, though I'm only like 40% there.

This is my first post here that has stuff like images on it so maybe when I first post this it will look a bit strange, but here's some images of what I'm working on:

(This intro area looks kinda bland, I'll probably try to make it look nicer later.)

(Homing Attack Tutorial.)

(Another Homing Attack area but with a mid-air light speed dash at the end, this is the first kinda open area.)

(More stuff.

Here's a somewhat long thing about the Water:

The water and the Thok Barrier water are supposed to be seamless in appearance, though I've disable the Horizon effects for now because the level isn't done. Sadly, one of the visual effects with the water, having the Thok Barrier and regular water overlap by placing a transparent Sky-textured FOF in the in-map water, looks broken in OpenGL, and the Horizon effect thing doesn't look right either, so I guess once you guys get to play this, make sure you're using Software Rendering. Also, the cloud reflections. Do they need to be a bit more visible or are they fine as is? I've asked myself that a few times.)

(Image of a bottom path if you mess up a Homing Chain.)

(Another lower path.)

(A cool temple with 3 different ways of getting through, a Homing Chain, pillar platforming, and springs from a Knuckle's path)

GIF:

Maybe it's weird for my first custom level to be something which does not play like regular SRB2, but it seems to be turning out okay.

 

[DylanDude]

Maybe it's weird for my first custom level to be something which does not play like regular SRB2, but it seems to be turning out okay.

This is probably the single most impressive first custom level I've ever seen.

 

[CesarOG922]

I didn't mention this previously, but I made a custom Lua ability for Tails that replaces his flight with this triple flight burst thing. Its very rough, it takes like 2 frames to recharge after touching the ground for some reason instead of being instant like with most other characters, and the animation bugs out sometimes, but it works.

Here's the code in case anyone knows how to make this better maybe. I used that tutorial on the Wiki as a base to start off, and I don't know if that was a good idea:

Spoiler: Lua Code

local tailsflightcap = 0

addHook("AbilitySpecial", function(p)
    if p.mo.skin == "tails" then
        if p.pflags & PF_THOKKED then
            return true
            end
        if tailsflightcap <3 then
            S_StopSound(p.mo)
            S_StartSound(p.mo, sfx_putput, p)
            P_SetObjectMomZ(p.mo, 10*FRACUNIT, false)
            tailsflightcap = $+1
            -- print (tailsflightcap)
            end
        if tailsflightcap >=3 then
            S_StopSound(p.mo)
            S_StartSound(p.mo, sfx_pudpud, p)
            p.pflags = $ | PF_THOKKED
            P_SetObjectMomZ(p.mo, 0*FRACUNIT, true)
            end
        end
    end)

addHook("PlayerThink", function(p)
    if P_IsObjectOnGround(p.mo) then
        tailsflightcap = 0
        -- print ("touched ground")
        -- print (tailsflightcap)
        end
    if not P_IsObjectOnGround(p.mo) and tailsflightcap == 1 then
        p.mo.state = S_PLAY_FLY
        end
    if not P_IsObjectOnGround(p.mo) and tailsflightcap >= 3 then
        p.mo.state = S_PLAY_FLY_TIRED
        end
    end)

Anyway, a small update:

I came up with a new temple design here. The unfinished area in the background ended up getting removed later on though because it didn't mesh well with the section before it. I might plop this temple somewhere else I guess, as it's kind of just been moved into a small test room for now, for when I have somewhere to put it.

As of now I've kinda been stuck trying to figure out what to put after the other "cool" temple in the last post.

In the interior, there are springs that send you upwards onto the roof of the temple.

And on the roof, I have no idea what to put up here honestly. I do know I want to make sure the level doesn't become too vertical because I don't want the player to be able to see my ugly Thok-Barriering as easily, and also I don't like setting up FOFs and stuff too much. I guess maybe this is something replaying Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 could help with, so I can get ideas? (When I read that to myself, I realized how stupid it kinda is to make a level based on a type of level design without having recently interacted with that level design. Live and learn I guess...)



The following images are kind of unrelated to the stage itself since I was just messing with stuff in that test room I mentioned earlier, but I experimented a bit with drawing the lighting the geometry would cast on the ground as differently lit sectors next to said geometry:

(That's what the infinite water effect is supposed to look like btw, also custom floor textures from my backyard.)

Sonic Adventure DX kind of does something like this in parts of Emerald Coast and Station Square to compensate a bit for the removal of Lantern Engine lighting. It looks kinda cool, but I don't think I'd want to torture myself by actually implementing this manually drawn lighting onto the whole level.

Also I just realized something that would affect gameplay when it comes to that infinite ocean effect. Because the water visually looks as if it stretches infinitely, if the player is running on water as Metal Sonic, they can't tell easily whether they're on in-level water or if they're going to crash headfirst into an invisible barrier that looks like more water, like some messed up Wile E. Coyote trap. Maybe I could add little floating things in the water that outline where that barrier is? I've made a custom object before (the trees), so maybe that shouldn't be too hard unless I want them to bob in the water I guess. Maybe I do want them to bob.



This was probably a kinda incoherent bunch of nothing to bring up here, but I don't really know how often updates should be made. I'll probably have something better to show later.