Episode 2 Discussion Thread

[Leet]

If the leek sanctuaries are at the end of each world there's little reason to go to the town more than once. And yet I'm a big fan of not spoiling levels with them so IDK.

Hm, I just got a good idea for [a] town(s), actually. What if the town had some inaccessible areas that you could only figure out how to access them through finding hints in other levels in the world? Then there'd be more reason to go back there. With the final prize being a leek or cool art or lore or something.

[Mabel]

yo we Town reserving now? I want in on that too...

If the leek sanctuaries are at the end of each world there's little reason to go to the town more than once. And yet I'm a big fan of not spoiling levels with them so IDK.

Hm, I just got a good idea for [a] town(s), actually. What if the town had some inaccessible areas that you could only figure out how to access them through finding hints in other levels in the world? Then there'd be more reason to go back there. With the final prize being a leek or cool art or lore or something.

A nice alternative if we dont use the CoNS again would be to have towns have hints to levels related to levels in that towns' world(like hiding Optional bosses and stuff, and dont worry guys I totally promise to tell the testers they exist)

[Demolition]

It would actually work well plot-wise if we didn't use the castle of no significance again Spoilers:

It's actually super significant

. It would be neat to instead sprinkle the leek rewards throughout the towns.

[Kil]

Y'all should do that because the towns could do with having more value/stuff the player cares about in them. A lot of them seemed really huge and empty except for lots of injoke textboxes.

[Mabel]

It would actually work well plot-wise if we didn't use the castle of no significance again Spoilers:

It's actually super significant

. It would be neat to instead sprinkle the leek rewards throughout the towns.

yo I am so waiting on that story bible cuz my headcannon is pretty silly:

-turns out that EoW8 Kood also had one of those turtle dove things and didint die, but was sent to another timeline
-this will also happen to Sheath at the end of Episode 2
-whoever survives Episode 3(raocow right?) will also have one
-they all get sent to the same timeline that starts Episode 4
-this way, characters are getting development that isint thrown away at the end of every main game, and the postgame can use some ambiguous tie-ins for it

ok how off am i?

[Lunikyuu]

If one of the worlds is beach/island themed, I might try making a town for that since I had an idea for one of those a while back. The mercy powerup sounds like a good idea as long as the powerup in question isn't too OP like in the newer Mario games, since that usually makes me not want to use them on account of feeling like a cheap win.

[Xirix]

raocow said Episode 1 essentially made the world map in consideration of the levels and not the other way around, I think that worked pretty well, made for nice touches like the big circus tent and the giant egg early game, will episode 2 be sticking to this?

It's nice to have themed worlds, but not everyone's levels are going to fit the formula.

[Oddwrath]

I have an idea about the tents. Remember how in the original ASMBXT in every world hub there were zebraspace levels, which eventually transformed into the postgame of Episode 1? Maybe we should some superhard bonus levels as tents in the Episode 2, instead of just having every difficulty spike level in the postgame.

In fact, I remember you guys talking about where to put all the bad levels of Episode 1 and raocow suggested in some place that most people would never find. Maybe putting them in tents and making incredibly difficult secret exits that lead to those tents could work.

[SAJewers]

I think one of things we should do is have a world select right at the start, rather than start off right in a world, like with Episode 1.

[shaman]

I think one of things we should do is have a world select right at the start, rather than start off right in a world, like with Episode 1.

I agree with this. Variety!

[Kil]

That would allow an amazing level of player self expression

[Demolition]

I think one of things we should do is have a world select right at the start, rather than start off right in a world, like with Episode 1.

Won't this lead to problems with the intro cutscene?

In fact, I remember you guys talking about where to put all the bad levels of Episode 1 and raocow suggested in some place that most people would never find. Maybe putting them in tents and making incredibly difficult secret exits that lead to those tents could work.

Holy suggested to me giving the blood god (

Who is going to be an important character plot-wise

) an area where he rewards the player based on how many times they've died throughout the game. Maybe he could reward the player with scrapped levels and content.

[Oddwrath]

Holy suggested to me giving the blood god (

Who is going to be an important character plot-wise

) an area where he rewards the player based on how many times they've died throughout the game. Maybe he could reward the player with scrapped levels and content.

I think we're going to need a "death farming" place for that one.

I think one of things we should do is have a world select right at the start, rather than start off right in a world, like with Episode 1.

I assume the final world of the game will have leek doors in some of the "gateways"?
Or will the main HUB be the final world?

[Hoeloe]

I quite like the idea of having more stuff in the towns, including rewards and level hints. I'd potentially be up for designing one, if we're still using them.

Same for overworlds, I'm up for making some of those, too, if that's needed.

[jayScribble]

I'd learned my lesson about my town, so I'm up for another one, though I will back down if things get out of control for me. Plenty of ideas spurring in my head.

Should we have a separate topic for the towns?

[Hoeloe]

Should we have a separate topic for the towns?

Seconded - we should probably group it with the discussion on the overworld themes, too.

[ztarwuff]

Just to let you guys know, I'm working on a castle-themed town level with a boss battle and a level that's a somewhat backtory to Kood's hovering abilities, the latter of which is basically just a harder version of MAKL Vanilla.

Now, as for ideas, world selection from the beginning is good and all, but I'm not entirely sure if that's an entirely good idea. How's about we insist on having leeks as main goals? Later worlds unlock as more leeks are obtained, but as in Super Mario 64 a player can exit a world whenever they like and try their hand at another one.

Leeks will always be main goals but side exits must be something else other than a leek. This means there's no need to worry about seeing if you've missed any leeks. You've completed a level normally? That means you must have the leek.

[Willhart]

I discovered a really nice gimmick recently that might work for a castle level.

It's very red, so I think it could be used to make a castle for the bloodgod. I still need to prepare it somewhat before posting an example though.

[Darkonius64]

uhm, so uuuh, my level didn't get into Episode 1.
so will it get into Episode 2?
if yes where do i put it in the wiki? i already placed it in the level list.
(level's called Frightening Factory btw)

[Oddwrath]

uhm, so uuuh, my level didn't get into Episode 1.
so will it get into Episode 2?
if yes where do i put it in the wiki? i already placed it in the level list.
(level's called Frightening Factory btw)

When you get the authorization(don't know by whom or when or how yet), place them here:
http://asmbxt.wikia.com/wiki/A2MBXT_Levels/Episode2

Also, I want to try making a town myself, so count me in!

[Hoeloe]

Also, I want to try making a town myself, so count me in!

Hmm... I have an idea for a town with a related concept to my level, Demo's Journey Through Time, so if that level is accepted, I could try making the town for that world, with references to it (and other levels in the world, if we know what they are at that point).

[SAJewers]

We should probably wait until we figure out what each world is before we look at towns.

[Hoeloe]

We should probably wait until we figure out what each world is before we look at towns.

Of course. That's why it's been suggested that we should make a thread for world/town discussion, once levels begin to be accepted and we have an idea of some of the prominent themes.

[Oddwrath]

Based on some of the levels on the "A2MBXT Levels" page, we're probably going to have a spooky/haunted/lovecraftian/dark world that also takes place underground. But that's all just speculation.
Also, should the general plot/cutscenes have its separate thread or is this place fine?

[docopoper]

Ooh yeah. We could make each town have a reward for when you 100% the world it's in. I wonder if LunaDLL can be made to figure that out somehow. I'm going to have to dig into this stuff when I have time.

I do like the mercy block thing too and I think it should be up to the level author how that works (a good way of implementing it would probably be to have a specific layer that's unhidden by LuaDLL when the player is over a certain number of demos that way the level designer just has to put their powerup box on the "MERCY_POWERUP" layer or something). Though if we do that we'll have to have a standardised appearance for the powerup box and that may be the only thing that it's used for. Nothing that helps the player without them explicitly going for it should be permitted.