A2XT: It's Over

[Doctor Shemp]

Because there's no point in planning the plot before we know what the levels are, since the levels should dictate the plot. Otherwise the plot will just feel shoehorned in.

[Mabel]

It wasnt THAT hard, but it had a pretty tedious make up before any indications existed.

heres a vid of it sorta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3v2pjinPhs


and, while im here have an old vid of Johnson McCain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a28a3Z5VVQo

[Crow]

I'm so disappointed raocow did not jump inside the fleshlord in the Nevada fight. Defeats the entire point, I'm sad now. That's really all I have to say on the matter.

Grand Trunk Arena is a level with a lot of flavor and not much substance when you think about it, it's just really... weird. Not bad, but weird. A bit unfocused maybe? I never feel like there's much of a level here even though there actually is. I don't dislike the level but it's not one of like much either... I just don't know what to say about it really.

[Voltgloss]

raocow, as some have suggested, you should intentionally Demo falling down the Flesh Lord's pit during the Nevada battle. (And it needs to be done before Nevada is defeated - after he's defeated the pit closes off.)

The Nevada fight itself is another one that underwent numerous changes during testing. In the end, it remains somewhat cheeseable as raocow demonstrated, but doing so is the high-risk/high-reward strategy so I'm personally fine with it. The key issue is that raocow quickly realized what it was he was supposed to do to fight Nevada; most of the changes made during testing were because this was originally unclear.

I'll let others from beta testing discuss Grand Trunk Arena. I know it also underwent significant changes but I wasn't personally involved and so am not best positioned to comment on it.

[jayScribble]

A cheesy boss and a colorful long level.

"I Do Think You Fit This Shoe" is one boss that is twitchy in it's movement, but with the right positioning, can be easy with an exploit. Also, I guess the music is selected because of "Nevada" and "Nirvana" sound similar.

"Grand Trunk Arena" is a long but fairly easy level, but the theme of it is kind of unfocused on what it wants to be: it's mixing castle, forest, sky, "kill" rooms, switch puzzle, and bonus into one level.

[SAJewers]

I'll let others from beta testing discuss Grand Trunk Arena. I know it also underwent significant changes but I wasn't personally involved and so am not best positioned to comment on it.

I believe the main changes were to make it much more fair, and slightly easier. There were originally more kicking goopas, plus a bunch of pipes were randomly slippery.

[Willhart]

The inside of the tree trunk was also shaded a little darker. I like how that level told a story. Cities can have a lot of stuff condensed in one place.

[Sebby19]

I'm still confused by what that area is supposed to be.

So it's a parking area for a concert? Where's the arena for the concert? Are the Raocoin brothers performing it?

But yeah, jump down the fleshlord before you defeat Nevada.

[sedron]

It cannot be stressed enough. You gotta jump into the Fleshlord, raocow. It's super important.

My thoughts on today's levels.

I Do Think You Fit This Shoe- Nevada's a bit different than I remember, too. We didn't get to see much of the fight since raocow kind of cheesed it, though. To be fair it really shouldn't be that easy to cheese. Trying to do this fight the intended way is a good deal harder. The turnips are easy enough to dodge, but make actually approaching Nevada pretty risky. (Fun fact, they used to not deal damage, instead being throwable items.) Nevada's crazy movements make it even riskier. The carrot platform projectiles aren't too huge an issue on their own, but they can cause crushing deaths if you touch a wall while riding one. They can also potentially carry your ammo away, which is annoying. The plants in the pipes aren't really threats. Overall the fight is pretty easy if you cheese it, and just a matter of patience otherwise. I think the way the carrots act is kind of nonsense, and it makes for unfair deaths. I remember the music being a lot better in a previous incarnation of the level, too. Did ContentID strike or something? The Fleshlord is a great touch. Overall the fight is pretty flawed, but fun nonetheless.

Grand Trunk Arena- Yeah, I think "weird," is the best descriptor here. The level is just all over the place. It conveys the idea of being a giant-tree concert pretty well, especially without using much in terms of custom graphics. The NPC's aren't necessary for progress, which I like. I'm definitely not a fan of the door maze, but the gameplay elsewhere is solid, at least. Landmasses do feel very haphazardly placed, but it could have been much worse. I really think I'm just gonna stick to "weird," for this one.

[Validon98]

I forgot to say stuff about levels yesterday. College and sickness may or may not have been the reason.

The Science fight kind of gave me some honest troubles before. I know it's not meant to be THAT hard, but somehow my danmaku instincts do not carry over well to platformers, for some reason.
Crazed Circuitry I thought was a neat little level, not too hard, not too easy, although it's sort of a breather in comparison to the first couple World 5 levels, particularly Dyin' For an Electrifyin'.
Fun Times at the Laundromat, oh boy... this level gave me problems. I'm kind of amazed raocow again got through it as easily as he did, but I guess that's not too much of a surprise? I think the openness of the level can be a bit confusing, especially since one path is only really needed if you want to get an onion, although it makes getting the key easier (you don't have to do the silly bat jump, although I've done it both ways, so...). It's a nice level, it just feels kind of weird.

Now for today's levels!

I Do Think You Fit This Shoe I didn't think could be broken that easily. I had a bit of trouble fighting Nevada, and in the process I accidentally gave myself up as sacrifice to the Flesh Lord. Truly, that was an experience and raocow damnit sacrifice yourself too, it's fun.
Grand Trunk Arena to me sort of happened. Like... I know it was trying to set more of a setting, but it kind of felt all over the place in terms of theme, and that's kind of apparent somewhat with the music. A lot of neat music, yeah, but uh... I can't too much see God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Where Does the Future Go?, Totally Rad Volcano, On Cloud 9, and some weird creepy music box thing together. I don't know, the level sort of just... happened.

Editing to remind raocow SACRIFICE YOURSELF TO THE WHIMS OF THE FLESH LORD DANGIT HE DESIRES ARMLESS CYCLOPTIC ALIEN DEMON MINION FLESH.

[Crow]

ITT: People on the internet yell at a Canadian to convince him to sacrifice himself to an evil god.

[Bean]

So I've been catching up on this and am through the first seven videos. So far, my favorite level is Poison Tree from a platforming perspective, but there have been a lot of good ideas in the early game.

[CodeGorilla]

Addendum: when you sacrifice yourself to the flesh god, make sure to use the music cheat.

[Minnakht]

...and there goes any credibility I might've had. I can't very well promote backtrackability if the skylift doesn't reset, can I?

Hey there everyone, this is everyone, and this is technically my first level, albeit I can't really say it's mine at this point. Special thanks to docopoper for bringing up that stupid joke from raocow's past for the Trunk's restaurant and Willhart for making the level like 20 better. Not 20%, but 20, that's way more.

For my first level, I just kinda wanted to make a place. The Tube - the underground part - started out as a 'hey, let's make something that's actually dangerous' - there was a love frog on that little pipe stump, the location of that block to the side tailored to intersect with the heart, there was all of two infamous slippery pipes, and the shell-kicking Goopa up there. I think I made him kick in the wrong direction. And then I gave up and just went for atmosphere.

Don't blame me for music choices. Or do, for negligence. Back when this level was made, all the music was vanilla. So, in order, you would've heard SMB3 pipy underground, something in the main overground section, SMB3 sky/athletic on the airship, and then SMW ghost house in the cargo hull. (and Metroid Item Room in the little room outside the world - an onion spawns there if you get all the raocoins.) I did replace the creepy music with another creepy music, but didn't think much about any of the other music, while any theme or familiarity it might've had was lost.

In fact, most of the level used the SMB3 tileset. Nowadays, technically, all that remains is the Spiny and his 'SMB3 had no midpoints' reminiscence.

Ah, well. At least that's past us. I should make some better levels than this one.

[docopoper]

Special thanks to docopoper for bringing up that stupid joke from raocow's past for the Trunk's restaurant and Willhart for making the level like 20 better. Not 20%, but 20, that's way more.

Hey. I helped with the level design too (even if you did revert all my changes and reapply a few of them). xD Not just Willhart. Though thank you for the accreditation anyway. :)

[Septentrion Pleiades]

What is there to say about this episode other than Flesh Lord?

These levels were always problematic. Navada was a long and tedious battle if you didn't cheese him and Grand Truck Arena used to be unfair. Grand Truck Arena is just too random and it allowed pointless backtracking.

[ztarwuff]

Yeah, I don't know what it was about Grand Trunk Arena when I was beta-testing, but I kept dying in ridiculous ways. There was hardly any way of distinguishing between NPCs and enemies either unless you got too close.

[tigermoon]

That's the last time I visit Nevada... can't do a whole lot with the Flesh Lord in the center, begging to be fed a blue-colored armless cyclops demon minion.

Also: Things happened and butts and stuff.

[Voltgloss]

Three other notes re: the Nevada fight:

1. The carrot platforms no longer "push" Demo (they did originally, but that caused unfair deaths as sedron mentioned, and so was changed). Instead, they now simply hurt Demo normally (if she's not riding one).

2. The meat/fish generation rates were increased from the version most folks beta tested. Sept is correct that the fight used to be tedious if fought "correctly"; with the faster generation rates that's much less of an issue.

3. If you kill both plants in the pipes, meat/fish starts generating from them at an increased rate.

[Isrieri]

Don't jump into the Flesh Lord, raocow. Ignore them. They're crazy.

[Septentrion Pleiades]

Yeah, I don't know what it was about Grand Trunk Arena when I was beta-testing, but I kept dying in ridiculous ways. There was hardly any way of distinguishing between NPCs and enemies either unless you got too close.

It was a lot harder. Remember the "Suddenly slippery and now spike!" that was impossible to react to.

[Demolition]

So the Nevada fight is not how I left it.
Originally it featured an original song that I composed, but it looks like it was replaced by a shemp cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit, and that's sad. Now Nevada stands out as the only sibling without original music.

The Nevada theme still appears in some boss battles as the hammer brothers replacement.
which is weird because it's is literally called "Nevada's theme".

Any real reason why it was replaced?

[SAJewers]

So the Nevada fight is not how I left it.
Originally it featured an original song that I composed, but it looks like it was replaced by a shemp cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit, and that's sad. Now Nevada stands out as the only sibling without original music.Any real reason why it was replaced?

All the siblings were replaced with original music.

[Demolition]

All the siblings were replaced with original music.

In what world is Smells like Teen spirit original music?
I wrote Nevada's theme specifically for that boss battle.

[Leet]

@ nevada music f i a s c o: lol wow

okay but yeah, honestly, Grand Trunk Arena feels a lot more like a particularly action-y and linear town than a standard level. that's the words i found to describe it. i remember playing it always feeling like i was missing something.

i forgot about the invisible door easter eggs though, so it was cool to see them

as for Nevada i keep forgetting how easy it is to cheese fights like this... kinda disappointed it happened, heh. and yes, flesh lord. do it.