Nice job on 'Paternal Horn'. The chances of me loving this game just shot up. Any more Nights music in there? :D
^ Yes. This and this and this. (note: not my videos) So how long until this ends up posted on the NiD fan forums? :P
I won't lie to you, the only one thing I found interesting was that emerald radar from Sonic Adventures, such a brilliant and unique idea and looks to be working rather well! Does it work ok if you have say two emeralds close to each other? Either way, nice work. That was the one thing that pissed me off about owning the PC version, I could accept the fact that they changed the music, but the lack of the original tracks being on screensaver really displeased me (having known what the MD version sounded like and prefering it's LBZ with it's in-your-face attitude =P).
I'm not sure if this is a stealth insult or not, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. In any case, I actually thought that these were some of my better layouts, and I think I"m getting better over time as I get a better feel for making fair platforming without playtesting every time I place a platform or two. The emeralds' x and y coordinates are listed in the ROM as a table near the radar code, and the game will set the radar to show the distance to the closest one. The game's second act has two emeralds within spitting distance of each other and it's pretty evident there.
Oh no man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you =( All I meant was me personally myself, I didn't find the rest as interesting, that doesn't mean they aren't period and doesn't mean they're terrible at all, in fact, plenty above have already commented positively above the other aspects of your hack's prgress that I haven't, all I meant by my statement is that I found the emerald radar to be really awesome, new, something no-one has done before, and that the rest isn't particularly my cup of tea, I'm sorry, I guess I used the wrong words entirely.
Well at least in the video it looks like the emerald gaydar is optional (I still think that one of the fun facts in this game is actually looking for the emeralds without some silly aid to find them). Not too keen on the background colour scheme for that new Frosty Peak level but sweet that you are expanding new acts for the old zones. I hope that Chemical Plant zone with that death liquid is a new act. The two original Chemical Plant acts are amazing level design so I hope they haven't been for the chop like Cascade Valley act 1 was. Overall it's looking sweet so far and I know you and Delta wont disappoint.
So hey, guys, the SAGE 2011 release is done and available here. I usually elaborate a lot about the latest release in my posts, but after the marathon coding session I did yesterday and today, I don't have much to say about it. :P The amount of new levels in unfortunately small (four new acts, from which two form an introductory zone), but I'm using the radar as a way to draw more people farther into the game without having Classic Mode defeating the purpose. I think that will give many of you a better experience than last year, especially coupled with the simpler first level for easy emerald gathering. Bug reports are encouraged and whatnot, have fun, etc. :P
Right I gave it a quick go and all I'll say is WOW, I'm very impressed. Mystic Woods is a great introductory zone and I love how you have used some of the Cascade Valley art with it as it blends in with Wood Zone art perfectly. I initially thought that Mystic Woods was a replacement because of that until I looked on the homepage to see it was still there. You know my thoughts on the radar so I won't complain about it but what I will say it's definitely a coding feet in my mind putting that it so kudos to you for that. By the way, what happened to that so called uncurling out of a ball when rolling on the ground that you mentioned? I take it you haven't implemented new abilities yet because you ran out of time.
^ It's in: press up while rolling. I just didn't think to put that on the controls page, so I guess I'll do that now. Also, wall kicks no longer require A to be help down after the initial latch (all subsequent jumps can be done with the jump button and D-pad) and A is a jump button again until I get a better ability for it.
I was pressing A thinking that would be the move to do it. I've got to say this new method is a pain to use and you auto latch to walls when you don't want to.
I sure hope that there will be another guide for this version. Some of these are just blowing my mind with how hard they are to get. What happened to Classic mode?
The stages are as awesome as ever, although while I like using the new emerald-radar method of gem hunting, I miss Classic Mode. =( Wall jump is five hundred times easier to use; kudos for that.
It begins! It continues! Classic Mode was originally added to appease people that couldn't be arsed to hunt down the emeralds, but I then started to get people complaining that the levels played themselves, alongside long posts like this about various issues with them as pure Sonic levels. I also got sick of seeing every video on YouTube playing all acts of Cascade Valley using the same route (whichever route was to the right and needed the least effort to reach). It seemed that the easiest way to solve this was to force the exploration a bit more, and the radar helps to serve as a good middle ground between pure exploration and exploring only when cued to. There are plans to have Classic Mode unlockable as one long Time Attack mission and one long Score Attack mission.
Forcing the player to go out of their way to complete ridiculous challenges and explore levels instead of making it completely optional is exactly what made Sonic Unleashed such a painful experience. Putting all kinds of crap in the way of letting the player progress as they please instead of making it incentive for optional extras comes across as punishing the player for not exploring (irritating and off-putting) as opposed to rewarding the player for exploring. There's a lot more to this game than doing these challenges, and that's the entire point—if people want to do this extra stuff, they should be able to make that choice. Forcing the people who aren't interested in it will do nothing but piss them off and make them not want to bother with your hack. I get that you're annoyed that people aren't playing it the way you want them to, but seriously? Get used to it. You're not going to force a singular experience that everyone will magically follow. I learned that a long time ago. Personally, I completely lost all interest in this new release once I realized I had to start collecting all of this shit. It's not about whether I can or I can't—I'm sure if I actually sat down and committed myself to it I wouldn't have any issues—but the fact of the matter is that I don't want to. I've always enjoyed this hack, but I'm not going to subject myself to extra frustration in the way of just playing a game from start to finish without much fuss. That's why I started playing Sonic games in the first place and I don't like how you're trying to forcefully change that in a hack that is otherwise full of wonderfully structured level design, tactful art changes and a slew of new features that completely change the way the game plays and feels. Also, I wish you would have told me you were adding more music! I would have helped out.
What Tweaker said. I already made my opinion on Sonic CD well-known (particularly the ill-implemented attempts at exploration and backtracking), but to that game's credit it allows you to complete levels the conventional way. If people are complaining that the levels 'play themselves' then you should try comparing your designs to those of the Mega Drive games and seeing what you're doing right and wrong.
I'd also like to support Classic Mode returning in it's original form. Collecting the emeralds could be a way of unlocking additional stuff. New characters, secret modes, bonus levels, that sort of thing.
This. Also, maybe Classic mode should be select-able through either an options menu, or have it further down the start menu so that people see the Adventure mode initially. This way, Classic mode becomes more of a special feature rather than the main game, if you wanted the focus to be shifted toward Adventure mode.
Maybe in adventure mode all you would have to do to move onto the next zone is to complete the levels to unlock the barriers, making emerald collecting an option to do.
This is actually an excellent idea; unlockables, as said before, could be incentive for many to collect the emeralds, but those who don't want to can progress through the game normally if they wished to.
How about this to answer problems: Instead of a Classic Mode, why not make it so that just completing an act for the first time you get an emerald? Then, for the first few zones, having the "requirement" just be the act number, but later ones increasing the amount needed. This'd probably work better later on if it locked individual acts with emerald counts, too. This way, the first couple of zones are available to those who just want to play through in order, but later on they actually have to put in some effort.
