General Project Thread & Feedback

The bubble shield allows you to bounce, which sometimes can be useful, it can deflect bullets, not to mention it allows you to stay underwater indefinitely.
Having elemental shields AND the blue shield, like in Megamix, can be both useful and challenging at the same time: useful, because if you don't have a shield, you can break the monitor and go with the "better than nothing" solution; challenging, because maybe you have a lightning shield (which I always considered to be the best amongst the bunch) and you must be careful and avoid a monitor which can effectively be a "power-down" rather than a power-up.
Now that I think about that, maybe also the slow shoes deserve a chance after all, except they don't have the "useful" part, but only the "power-down" one. Then again, there is the Robotnik monitor too, so yeah, both power-ups and power-downs should exist, in my opinion, just throwing here an idea.

 

Eh, to a degree. You could still do some awesome bouncing if you hit breakable stuff though, and it DID last in the water.

 

With regards to shields I'd put yourself in the position of Sega at the time when they developed them.

Does anyone recall the advertisments for Sonic 3? The Bubble Shield was the core and why?

Because breathing underwater was THE big thing.

Now, whilst I have no doubt Sega developed the other shields with a perfect concept, I think the elemental shields came about originally as a form for Sonic to breath underwater and the rest sort of spiralled out afterwards. And it worked, I no longer cared much about water once they were introduced.

Personally I prefer Fire Shield- but only with Sonic. Flameball= incredible.



Anyway, each shield was geared towards a specific purpose really. In the game we're designing, it would be the case that if you don't include enough electric/fire/water dangers....one will inevitably feel weaker over the others.


For example- Bubble Shield was brilliant in Sonic 3 but in S+K... I just wnated to destroy it because it felt so worthless. Electric Shield shines through towards the end of that game.

Would it be a stupid suggestion to have zone-specific shields? (alongside the original 3/4). That way for each zone, say Tropical Zone now, a certain danger of that zone can be avoided by obtaining a certain shield...and this can be a theme that continues through the rest of the levels.

 

I suggest we come up with a few of our own original power-ups.

Like say, an Aero-Sheild that makes bottomless pits act like springs, or Knuckle Gloves that let Sonic break barriers that only Knux can usually break.

EDIT: Or special shoes that let Sonic walk on intangible tracks that bring him to different sections of a level.

 

The only thing I think would be worthy to add would be a wall-kick, as demonstrated before that Sonic can have unique paths inaccessible to Tails and Knuckles with that move.

Also, suggesting a spikeproof shield.

 

While I love the insta-shield I honestly think a wall kick could be the thing that makes this stand out from other games, think about it... Sonic 2 introduced Super Sonic and the Spin Dash, Sonic CD introduced the peel out, Sonic 3 introduced the insta-shield, Sonic Advance had a sliding move, Sonic Adventure had a homing attack... and so forth.

Every new game introduces a new kind of attack or move, even if it's only a gimmick.

 

Wall Kick = Less forgiving Knuckles' Wall Climb. D:

I honestly never got what was so special about that move. The only reason I can think of is that it was used by Mighty.

If you wanna add a move that makes people remember this game, it has to be something big. Something nobody has thought of before, in a hack, a fan game, the officials, anything.

Something that could be done with four directions, and one button. Just like in the originals.

To be honest, I can't think of anything like that. Other than blue springs that push you farther depending on how much you hold a direction against it and mash A, ad that sounds more like a level-gimmick than anything.

 

Wall-kick for Sonic? Very yes.
Not only is it a platforming staple these days but it fits Sonic perfectly. Even in Sonic CD's intro movie we see him flipping all over doing parkour stuff like wall kicks. Also it really puts Sonic back ahead of Tails and Knuckles in terms of cool maneuvers.

Yeah, from a game play standpoint Sonic's higher jump set him apart, but aesthetically it really was just a jump. We've got this guy that can fly high, we've got this other guy that punches through walls and can climb walls and glide around...and then we've got this guy that jumps a bit higher...and can flash a little shield for a split second...

I love the idea.

 

How about make Sonic faster than Tails or Knuckles?

 

I have some ideas for shields:

The first one will be a spikeproof and when something tries to crushes you, the shield will protect you but after that it will break to pieces.
Name:....don't know. Maybe Metal Shield?

The second one will protect you from all kinds of projectiles.
Name: Mirror Shield

 

Neither of those make much sense, though. First of all, by adding a spike AND crushing immunity you're basically removing the challenge of all "static" objects in the game (that is, ones that cannot be destroyed). May as well allow it to let you hover at the bottom of the screen rather than fall to your doom.

The second is utterly superfluous if we intend to make shields work the way they did in S3K.


As a result I'm not into elemental shields at all, at least not in the context of this game. Perhaps from the standpoint that the ones used in S3K allowed for traversing certain obstacles and set pieces quickly they have a decent use (much like how Sonic CD had a very heavy use of the invincibility monitor for this reason). In this case though it's probably best to just use an invincibility monitor, especially if it's hidden out of the way and a bit before the obstacle, the goal then being to get past whatever it is before it runs out so you don't get hit.

 

I think we should search the gimmicks on the borders where Sonic is restricted to something.

Previously, when Sonic braked, he stood still. Why don't we let him switch direction as in "Warioland: Shake It?" When you tap the opposite direction button, he'll run to the other side with the same speed. When you hold it down, he'll brake.

I am fond of the wall-kick, by the way.

EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkIu9cwLNjU
Link showing what I mean, skip to 8:40.

 

I dunno why, but perhaps we could use the 'Goggles' power-up that wasn't used in Sonic 1? Just throwing that out there. >.>;

 

The fact that it looks cool doesn't change the fact that Knuckles' climbing gives him the ability to do the exact same thing.

Unless there are special walls that keep Knuckles from climbing them, I still don't see what's so special about this maneuver.

 

This way Sonic is able to reach the same places that Knuckles and Tails are at.
The main character should at least be equal to his sidekicks.

 

I still haven't figured out how this would let Sonic get where Knuckles cannot if Knuckles can climb.

Would anyone be willing to explain it to my cripple self?

 

Eh, doesn't seem that revolutionary to me. :\

The main quirk about Knuckles in S3K was that he was able to get to areas once thought inaccessible to players. Like that stone barricade just before the spring in AIZ.

So if the main thing with Sonic now is "HEY GUYS NOW SONIC CAN GET TO THE SAME PLACES KNUCKLES AND TAILS CAN GET TO" then it would kind of take the novel "special custom paths for separate characters" idea out of the whole thing.

 

<!--quoteo(post=265571:date=Jan 9 2009, 06:57 PM:name=STHX)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (STHX @ Jan 9 2009, 06:57 PM)



Now, what these pics mean? Well, we know that Sonic and knuckles have different paths in S3K, and this post is to show a possible extention of that concept.
As you can see, if we give Sonic (a more limited version of Mighty's) wall jump, then he too gains the possibility of unique areas accesible only by him. With this in mind, every character can have some areas where only him can go, thus bringing the possibilities of alternate routes (which could bring to different acts/zone) accesible only to a specific character (example: Act 1 has a signpost in the end of the stage, but Sonic can reach a second signpost which will bring him in another/alternate Act 2 different from the standard Act 2. Same thing can be said for the other 2 characters).

Of course, when playing as Sonic & Tails, with the help of Tails Sonic could reach the "Tails only areas".[/quote]

If we use STHX's idea, Sonic will keep his wallkick and he won't reach the Tails and Knuckles only areas.

 

The idea is great and all, but really, how easy is that though to put in a flowing level layout.