Nameless Hack

=P

Otherwise, not too bad. A few of the sections of flat ground felt a bit unrewarding, though. I also wouldn't recommend putting a corkscrew right at the start of the level—I don't like having to go back and spindash just to get through it.

Only other thing I'd suggest would be trying a new palette out for size. I always thought level edits with the original palettes looked extremely awkward, as is the case here as well.

 

I was impressed with your EHZ layout, keep it up.
As for split disasm, you should try it, with many seperate files it is easier than before, also feel free to look in this topic for some Sonic 2 ASM edits.

 

I'm listing thoughts here as I play through...

- What in blazes is a "spriral"? [sic] X)
- I agree with Tweaker, the corkscrew's a bit of a surprise (and the waterfall under it doesn't use the correct top tiles, but that's minor). I think you could remedy that easily just by having the player start close enough to throw a red spring.
- Tile lineups are out of wack starting where the shield is and continuing on the top route. This usually gets fixed with experience, so eh. *shrugs*
- Whipping around the 270° loop only to stop dead against the sides of the spikes, although I didn't get hit, was kind of a letdown. :P I was expecting a nice, fast section.
- Putting the bridge support posts on the upper corners of some loops to connect them to the ceiling is a minor detail, but something that I thought looked nice and showed a bit of effort.
- Unreleated, I'm taking a strange liking to your avatar. *right-clicks, saves*
- It took me a while to finish this level in under 30 seconds, but it wasn't so much the level difficulty as random crashing into the sides of things. The level's lower (and quicker) route was sort of a mesh of flat sections at various heights, leading into a lot of colliding and stopping dead. This is probably the hardest thing to get down about making a new level, particualrly in Sonic 2. Slowing down a quick-moving character is easiest done via a run straight up a vertical wall, as the speed stays up and it makes the player feel like he's got somewhere for it. You could always use diagonal springs or an upward slope to wing the player to the right place too. :P Sometimes you can even kill this feeling just by adding more routes to it -- lots of people do two-route levels, but it takes some guts to have a lot running concurrently with their own shapes of the terrain.
- I also agree with Tweaker on palette... new art is a pain, but palettes are pretty simple, especially in SonED's Tile Editor where you get instant feedback. There's pretty much three generic looks for Emerald Hill - night, light blue, and sunset - and even those overused looks are fresher than the original palette.

Basically your level has everything that most first-levels do, but it's better on account of not being masochistic or buggy. X) Keep tweaking it as you're hacking other levels too - I redid the ending of my first Emerald Hill 1 at least five times before I was satisfied with it. Persistance pays off; practice, practice, practice; etc. I'll be sure to check out your next release.

EDIT: SOTI brought up a good point - it was pretty obvious you used SonED v0.5, and that's where I started too. But I've come to realize that even for simple hacks of Sonic 2 it's ridiculously easy to use SonED2 and a split ROM, because unlike Sonic 1 there's almost no setup required once you split the ROM. Decide where you want to go with it early, so you don't have to port too many level designs if you decide to switch later. :P

 

No, but this hack is called Remix EDIT! Its different!

 

The link isn't working for me, could you re-upload it?

 

If you are doing this in a split disassembly its pretty much a copy/paste job. Change a few labels and it'd work.

If this is in SonED1 & Hex, the guide at Hacking-cult is the best there is.

 

Well, you've misidentified SAdv2 Syndrome. The primary symptom of "SAdv2 Syndrome" is that difficulty = no floors

 

^What happened in Rivals 1 was a return to having two or three routes running simultaneously over top of one another. It sounds great in theory, but the problem was that each of said routes was lucky to be three seconds long before there was a break in the floor and you'd fall or spring up to another route. Rivals 2 is a bit better in this regard since the different routes can last ten seconds or so before they interchange, which is about how long most lasted on the Genesis with the exception of more complex levels such as those in S3&K.

Part of the beauty of hacking Sonic 2 instead of Sonic 1 is that the path system lets you run paths concurrently without having a gap in the path every few seconds to jump over or fall through. It also stops you from making the paths as needlessly flat as they are in Rivals 1... seriously, the things are more like series of connected platforms.

 

Sounds like you just don't know how to use it. :P

You're probably better off not outright importing art, and rather redrawing it from scratch. If you're trying to port an existing level, however, you can just rip the data you need and replace the level files with it.

 

Define "anything". Importing art is beyond me, but if you're trying to pull your old level over that should be relatively simple. It's one of the few times I found ESEII useful, as opening your old level in it will show you the locations of all of the level/object/ring data so you can dive into a hex editor and extract it.

I'm guessing you're editing 16x16s or 8x8s that are shared across 128x128s (read: you're editing small portions that are used by many large portions). That same thing would happen in ESEII or SonED1, it's not just a SonED2 problem. I'd work on one thing at a time: if you already have half of a level design, finish it so you know which 128x128s you didn't use. Then you can strip those away to make room for new art.

 

He is probabley having the same problem I always have.

You Export the 128x128 tiles, draw overtop them and reimport them. It destroys everything when I do it this way.

I think the problem is, your supposed to export/import the 8x8 tiles and do it that way..?

 

It's got that 8-bit feel to it, but it's nice for a start. Just add some details to it and it'll look really good.