Oh that's fine, just talking about FBZ in particular. Like I bey they could have arranged those tiles much better. I'm sure the other levels in S3K took advantage of that too, but to my knowledge none of them came out as poorly. Like those pipes that go nowhere, what are those about? Or those furnace things that look like they have tumors. Like Death Egg Zone is another mechanical level, did these issues exist in that one?
I'm glad everyone is just now realizing how shit FBZ is now that it's too late and the Fan Favorite is getting the spotlight it deserves
I never liked FBZ :v: Personally I would have picked Lava Reef. Although The SK half of the game was always weaker IMO.
100% this. Hydrocity, Marble Garden, Carnival Night and IceCap easily make up the strongest section of the game (fight me Launch Base fans). Lava Reef is the only zone from S&K that reached the same level for me, though Sky Sanctuary was also fantastic. The only thing I really liked about the S&K Death Egg was the final boss. Otherwise, I think Flying Battery is the superior zone by a fair margin.
I think if they did something like this it would rectify a lot of the complaints so far. Only other thing I can think of to solve the "emptiness" of the level is to add more foreground scenery. Also gotta agree on the junk pile discussion; the Mega Man example is much more polished looking than the current one, which looks like it was cobbled together fairly quickly. I imagine fixing the artwork on minor stuff like this shouldn't take too long.. A couple of days at most?
Actually I'd tend to disagree. Your example uses multiple layers which seems to be the general style for Megaman X but not for a Sonic game IMO, especially for such a tiny part of a stage like that robot trashbin. To me the way Mania did it fits the Sonic level style well. Less is more as they say.
There are three things that make it look amateurish and fangame-y 1. It's a very small and repetitive texture which in result looks extremely flat. 2. It has random badniks simply slapped on top of it. 3. Badniks are multicolored which destroys stage palette integrity. The example above matches level palette and is much more engaging and volumatic.
I already acknowledged not everything will be improved or fixed: Also, uhm: Trying to give constructive criticism to the devs is fine, but at least try to not be an insulting prick towards them while doing so.
Aside from the interesting discussion about FB's art, good golly the last three pages of this thread have been painful to read. I feel compelled on behalf of Mania's devs to say: It's a good job Taxman & co are immune to criticism otherwise they'd be in tears right now the way some of you guys have been dissecting FB :v: Real talk: Don't forget guys that Taxman, Stealth & PWG are all extremely talented individuals and every official game they've worked on have been top-notch polished upon release which is exactly what Mania will be.....whenever it comes out. These guys know what they're doing. I've no doubt they'll make whatever changes they deem appropriate to make Mania play and look as good as it can possibly be. Regarding the games delay; yeah it sucks, but I'd much rather Team Mania be given the time they need to create the best product possible instead of rushing out an unfinished game like in the good old days. I always felt the release date of "Spring" was more a guesstimate than a definitive date. As long as the end-product is fucking awesome (AND IT WILL BE) then they should delay Mania for as long as they need. I'm so glad for SEGA's new policy of delaying games instead of rushing them out! Flying Battery is a good choice (although not my No1 preference). FB seems to be rated as one of S&K's most popular stages (no doubt thanks to the kick-ass music and good balance of platforming and speed sections). I would have preferred a Sonic 3 (half) stage to be revealed, but regardless it's good to see a zone from 3&K finally shown-off. I know they didn't show much of FB, it was just enough to wet our appetites. I'd be surprised if they reveal any more zones prior to release. We already know four and I think there will be about 14 stages in total. Still my most hyped game of 2017.
I'm still excited for the game, but I also expect imperfections with the game. I honestly think the team could benefit if it was just a bit bigger (with more similarly talented individuals). The Sonic 3 and Knuckles teams were much bigger. Of course, technology has advanced a lot since then as well.
Oh, yeah. The funny thing is that the criticism (about FBZ) isn't even a direct criticism of them, after all, we are criticizing the fact that they aren't correcting something done by Sega! :v:/> And don't misunderstand me: I loved what I saw. The clouds that appear on the outside of the level, the new background, it looks beautiful. I love it. At certain times we end up forgetting to praise what deserves to be praised - but if you go into any of the videos of the game, they are getting a lot of praise. People love it, and of course they do, it's amazing. I will buy it and play it until my fingers bleed, but I cannot stop worrying, because it's very easy to say that it's "a work in progress". Well, yeah, but how many "works in progress" we had over the last two decades that ended up being inferior versions to what the game might have been? The potential was there, but the game simply didn't reach it. We have no concrete proof of anything at this point, in any sense. We don't know if the FBZ foreground art will receive any adjustment, perhaps the group has other priorities right now. Maybe they have so many other things to do that they don't consider that this is on the list of important things. Maybe they don't have the time. Maybe they can't even change much for some reason, who knows? We can only comment on what we see. That's what we've always done, in every Sonic game in history, ever. At the time, we also heard things from some members, like "the game is still in production", or "the final version will not be like that". And sometimes it wasn't, but in others... Oh boy. So, it doesn't make sense to say that it's not something that should be spoken. It sure does. The video has been published, so, of course we'll talk about it. And nitpick every little detail to death. :specialed: EDIT/PS: I hope that in the act2 we have a sunset... Ow boy, I would scream like a little girl. \o/
Except they literally took sprites and flipped them upside down. Look at the piranhas lit from below... That makes the composition kinda hard to swallow.
Personally it's my favourite zone because of the level design. It has a great mix of speed, open platforming, and tight platforming segments. It feels like what Spring Yard was trying to be and utterly failed at. The music being great helps too, of course.
Just so people don't get the wrong idea about what I've been saying: of course criticism is fine, and I agree that Flying Battery has problems that can be improved. But complaining about it as if none of it is going to be improved or fixed is just annoying. Nothing shown so far is confirmed to be final, it being shown off in a trailer isn't confirmation of that things won't be changed. Again: it's very possible that the developers know about the flaws you all are pointing out and haven't gotten around to making improvements. Of course, it's also possible that they don't know about them yet, in which case pointing that stuff out is helpful. So I don't think any of you should stop pointing out flaws that you notice. Just don't bring them up with the expectation that none of it is going to be fixed. Obviously it's possible that a lot of it won't be, but I haven't really seen any indication of that they won't get around to making the improvements all of you want to see. If anything the recent delay shows that they have more time to polish the game, so that's promising. Basically: just please keep in mind that this game is still in development and everything that's shown may not be representative of the final game.
Absolutely - as younglings we rarely got past the stage! I still refer the "outdoors route" of Flying Battery Act 2 as "the trap" because we didn't think it was beatable back in the day. I was six years old and we usually played as Knuckles.
Oh totally. Flying Battery is really good fun. The level had lots of little secrets that you could easily miss, like pushable spikes and hidden pulleys, and it's share of creative platforming and speed. Act 2 got particularly awesome with those strange booster-things. The magnets were fun too. Actually, thinking about it critically, it's probably one of the best and most varied levels from a design point. The music was the icing on the cake. You know how GHZ1's boss is basically the original GHZ boss with a new spin on it? The FBZ1 boss had better be the sign post.
