General Project Thread & Feedback

Mighty and Ray are lame.

 

These two are not even in the original game!

 

I find it kind of annoying how in the 2P Special Stages one would always have to fight for who was in front by constantly jumping. Couldn't the Special Stages be possibly altered so there was a way of speeding up and slowing down? Or perhaps only showing a "ghost" of the other player doing the stage while giving each player his own set of rings (which is probably more practical, albeit that it makes offline multiplayer have to take a split-screen mode of sorts so that players don't share the same rings)? This latter way would make players win not so much necessarily by being competitive as by being skillful at the Special Stages.

Plus, maybe more categories could added for the "Race Results" screen, e.g. Most Badniks Hit in a Row, Highest Top Speed, How Many Time You Jumped on or Ran into a Spring, How Many Starposts You Touched, etc. Maybe even a category which you win in by using Spin Dash the least of anyone else.

Also possibly worth discussing and giving some decent thought on, instead of just the two options of "All Kinds Items" and "Teleports Only" there could be a more extensive list of item box layout set-ups (like "Teleport When Ahead, Super Sneakers When Behind," "Shields Only" or "Everything But Teleports"), or perhaps even a customizable item box options screen ala Super Smash Brothers series' Item Switch menu.

 

The Sonic 2 Special stage has always been a bitch. A ghost is a good idea, but they also have to be in seperate screens. No transparent MarioKart bullshit. Also, I just came on the slightly irrelevent idea of how AWESOME a Sonic 1 Special Stage would be with 2 players... Imagine the epic brawls.

This. Very much this.

1. Switch "Extra Goals" on/off:
-Whoever gets to the finish first + 1 point
-Whoever ends with most rings + 1 point
-Least times hit +1 point
-Least use of Spindash +1 point
-....(?)

2. Switch "Special Stages" on/off:
At the end of 2 zones, there automaticly comes a Special Stage. Whoever comes furthest/most rings, gets +1 point
If it's a draw, no-one gets points.

3. Switch "Boss Battles" on/off:
The 2-player boss battles are a little tougher than usual (let's say... 12 hits?), but who-ever destroys Robotnik first gets +1 point.

 

I never had too much of a problem with the special stages in Sonic 2, but the ones in Sonic 3 & Knuckles piss me off to this day.

 

Cool ideas guys, keep them going!

I'll just interrupt to say that on the following days, I'll (finally) have a vacation without internet access.
Coming back on next Tuesday, so behave yourselves and enjoy! ^^

P.s. For any immediate needs do please contact Canned Karma, I'll answer you asap.

 

Maybe an option could be added to the 2P Race Mode that lets you turn the badniks on/off, in case you want to race without their being in the way.

Also, going back to the note on the Item Switch-esque Montior types menu, there should probably be an option to turn all Monitors off (to make them not do anything when hit,) or perhaps instead to remove them from the stage entirely (though this might be harder.) Another idea would be to add an option which makes Eggman Monitors one of the randomly selected monitor types in the level (should someone so desire the extra challenge,) or to make all monitors Eggman Monitors -- such an option would make players try to go out of their way dodge hitting monitors. Also, maybe Slow-Down Sneakers should be added (again, for reasons of adding extra challenge.)

I've got five more ideas that I think should be considered (but these are probably the last of them):

- An option that can be turned on/off that makes players able to hurt other players by jumping into (or, if both players are jumping, onto,) Spin Dashing into or rolling into them.

- An option that can be turned on/off that deactivates the slot machines so that if you jump or fall into one you'll simply slide right through it.

- An option that can be turned on/off that makes Teleport Monitors, when hit, not only switch the players positions with each other but also whatever Shield, Invincibility, Speed Shoes, etc. the players being switched may have.

- When someone hits a Teleport Monitor (when there are more than 2 players), instead of choosing randomly what other player to switch with him, all players get switched around.

- And this is an idea which is a combination of the last two ideas, more or less: when the players all have their positions in the stage switched with each other all the Shields, etc. they may have get randomly redistributed among them.



Quick Off-Topic Question:
Will Knuckles have a gray shield instead of the blue one in this game (like in Knuckles in Sonic 2)? Just curious.

 

Also, Mystery Monitor options. By default, 100% of monitors show up as "?" until hit (as in the original game). You can change this ratio so that a percentage of monitors are "?" monitors and the rest are visible. 0% makes all monitors visible.

 

Umm... Teleport monitors already do this on the original....

 

Maybe he means an option to turn power-up switching off.

 

I am merely stating that it would be great if an option was added that lets you switch between that happening or not, so if you like that to occur then leave it on, but if you don't, then turn it off before commencing the race. I could not actually remember if the Teleport monitor did this already or not in 2P Mode (I knew they did in 1P Mode when Debug Mode is on), but since you say that it does I'll take your word for it.



Also, I actually thought of one more idea: a monitor which is a cross between the Teleport monitor and the monitor in Knuckles Chaotix that switches the characters. This would make 1P start playing as 2P at point wherever 2P was at in the level and vice-versa. You would, of course, switch back after maybe 10 seconds, but in the meantime you would have to try to gain no rings, hit no enemies, get hit yourself (if you can,) and/or even backtrack through the level a little bit (thus lowering the other participant's/participants' chances of winning.) Maybe it would be fair to make everyone immortal while switched so that you can't kill your opponent while in possession of his character.

 

I can't see how that would be fun. It would merely serve to slow down the race.

 

I guess you're right... Maybe if it only lasted for 3-4 seconds? You know, so it would be in the game only to annoy the heck out of you. ;P Maybe that could be made an ability a character can do instead of the Spin Dash when he collects twenty or more rings and then holds down the Down Arrow key while pressing the jump key. (Like SA2, for those of you who didn't get what I was referencing/parodying off of.)

No seriously though, maybe there should be a Switch monitor which lasts for only 3 or 4 seconds, just to throw you off-balance every now and then.



EDIT: While we're still on the topic of 2P mode (though what I'm about to suggest can certainly apply to 1P mode too,) wouldn't it be funny/interesting if a "Big-Head Mode" option was added that could be unlocked? It would look so ridiculous to see 2D sprites with big heads because that's pretty much only something they have in 3D games -- that is not to say that the 3D characters with the bigger heads (that they have when a Big-Head Mode is activated) don't look ridiculous too, it's just that, to the best of my knowledge, this purely trivial, different display mode has never been implemented into a 2D game before, so it would look a little extra funny. Of course, this would mean some extra sprites with different heads would need to be drawn... so it probably isn't even worth it (at least not to the project's character artists.) It's still a nice thought though.

 

Whoa guys! Don't forget that Feature Creep is a bad thing! Having all these options and features will just clutter the place and slow down progress (I know not all will make it in). I've only had the patience to read this page (reading all 92 would be insane), but there's been a few features, mentioned with frequency, that would certainly not be missed if they weren't included. Try to keep to discussing the stuff that really matters, so that when development progresses far enough, it's easier to get to the critical ideas and features.

I have some of questions myself.

The techdemo was presented in 4:3. Will there be widescreen support in the future?
Will Multiplayer mode be availabe for all levels? If so, will there be new music composed for them?
Would it be possible to allow Local Multiplayer to have up to four players in splitscreen?
Apart from Hidden Palace Zone Act 1, will there be any more levels added to the game? Will there be community designed levels?
I read that an early goal was to add extra frames of animation to the game. Is this still going to happen?
If Multiplayer allows any more than 3 players, how will you be able to tell which player is which character?

 

Welcome Mush Man,

As Multiplayer is into a very early planning stage at the moment, we approve brainstorming for the community to help us value interesting ideas.

Answering your questions:

1)Yes
2)Not decided yet, but yes for remixes.
3)Will be decided only when the single player game has been completed
4)Sonic The Hedgehog 2HD, will share the same policy as the timeless "Id Software's Doom" so expect on the very latest stages many *juicy* surprises. ^^
5)It is and in some cases is already applied, on Characters it won't be started until all the main frames are complete
6)It is being discussed on these pages, personally I like a simple coloured Flag on top of each player instead a pink shocking Sonic.

 

<!--quoteo(post=292687:date=Mar 23 2009, 09:36 AM:name=DTX)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DTX @ Mar 23 2009, 09:36 AM)

You still have a slightly noticable problem of things not mathcing up due to the way the art is constructed.

 

Big head mode.

Do it

 

I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking this.

 

Running Coconuts? ;P

Jokes apart, I'm not very fond of the SD bighead idea for 3 reasons:

-Shrink up the head even with a fixed base %, will bring up pixel aliasing wildfest. So much of the edges would require redrawing just as the spikes connected to both normal and bighead vectors. Very time consuming for a "joke", as the same time could be better invested on Extra modes.
-Redo / test collision for bighead characters
-I really never liked SD neither Bigheads, in my eyes and personal tastes they always look "childish" and "unprofessional".

Let's get back on the Multiplayer ideas! ^^

 

Wow! That's awesome! Will there be a mode within the program where you can download extra Zones? That'd be really convenient. Not to mention that you could list the best zones and a Zone of the Day / Week / Moment.

It'd be nice to see a Wins and Losses records, and a player's best act results. If you could keep the variability up in the Special Stages, that'd be great. Perhaps you could randomly generate sections of Special Stages.