raocow's talkhaus

There is like, one level in the star world that I'd consider borderline kaizo, but it is pretty short. You guys are really exaggerating a bit. There might be some kaizo-esque obstacles in the levels but most of them look harder as they are, especially since they are based on reaction rather than precision, so they can be learned after a few tries and you'll get through them pretty easily.

It makes sense to wait with playing the star road anyway.

raocow is forgetting that this hack is really hard as shown by the levels today
There is no need to feel sorry for performance lol

Are the Star Road levels really that hard? As far I am concerned, they are just endgame JUMP difficulty (with some Kaizo-like design, but nothing particularly scary, and I'm sure raocow will be able to deal with them (I did them all savestateless after many many many attempts, and I'm a terrible Mario player myself)), so it should be fine to play them. And, the levels in Star Road DO count towards exit counter.

Interesting how those two levels share the same track, CUSTOM - Ice Age. (I'm not going to discuss music too much, if you would like to know what game the track is from, check the soundtrack I compiled (it contain original track names in SPC meta information) or QubicTom's Let's Play thread)

I do admit the door could look like reset door. I blame raocow doing the coin guide on the first attempt. Sometimes you can be so good that you will miss exits ;).

I'm not entirely sure why Peaks of Revolution has a hint video. The exit is not that hard to find, and it's not particularly difficult to execute once you figure out what to do.

era64 wrote:Are the Star Road levels really that hard? As far I am concerned, they are just endgame JUMP difficulty (with some Kaizo-like design, but nothing particularly scary, and I'm sure raocow will be able to deal with them (I did them all savestateless after many many many attempts, and I'm a terrible Mario player myself)), so it should be fine to play them.

Well, I mean, that's really a matter of perspective. Some people already find the levels raocow is currently playing to be hard (which is fair enough as a beginner); these people will find JUMP endgame to be ungodly difficult. But I certainly think all of it is still barely within raocow's skill level, although I'm not sure he'll have the patience to do all of it legit, especially given the daily video requirement. I guess we'll see in due time. None of it is as player-hating as something like Hyper VI endgame at least.
Also, I'm sorry but if you beat star world legitly you are not a "terrible" player.

Yeah I can't wait to see what people think when he gets to endgame/postgame stages.

cozyduck wrote: Anyways, as far as I'm concerned I prefer playing them as I unlock them just so I don't need to play too many hard levels back to back in the end.

Yeah, same. I prefer to spread the hard levels out rather than play them all together at the end of the game. I don't want to get overwhelmed.

Alright, there were levels played today!

The second half of "PEEK-A-BOO!!" really is a bit harder than the first half in my opinion. There are some kind of devious traps here, for example you absolutely need to know that you can stand behind the dark blue part of the goal tape (which is not all that obvious for a casual player), there is the wall that you can not jump over (which is essentially another death trap), and the placement of the yellow moving blocks is pretty tight as well. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, there used to be a death trap at the very end of the level after you got shot out of the house: Originally, there was a moving layer 2 bridge and you had to time yourself with it (activate the goal when the layer 2 is on its way up). This is especially mean because you get shot out of the house so if you don't immediately hold left you activate the goal with the wrong timing and die. Of course there was a textbox that warned you about the trap at the very beginning of the level, but still... Kind of mean (:

"Siberian Precipice" is kind of a filler level that still manages to be its own thing. I believe that the midway entrance is the way it is because the level was submitted relatively early and the patch that lets you put an individual position for level and midway entrances wasn't inserted yet. I really like that the secret exit is at the very start (a design choice that needs to be made more often in general, I think) and the SMW remix that plays in the cave section. The level also does the whole convoluted paths thing pretty well, in that you often see a preview of sections that you are going to play later on.

"Peaks of Revolution" is a pretty difficult level in general. I guess it makes sense since it's on the shortcut to the castle and unlocks starworld, but it can nonetheless be pretty surprising for players since it comes out of nowhere. I suppose it didn't really help that raocow kept missing a powerup in the second half :P
It's another level that stands out to me though, since while the premise of the boomerang jumps pretty silly, while you're playing the level you actually feel like every sprite is placed specifically to get in your way - and it still feels like it's your own fault when you mess up. It's a thing that's generally pretty difficult to achieve as a level designer, so I always appreciate it when it works out.
Now that you figured out the secret exit on your own, could you check out the movie of the level in the yoshi house? I think it would be a pretty good introduction to the whole movie thing that this game got going on, especially because you already found the secret exit.

Since people are already arguing whether raocow should play starworld now or later, let me just point out three reasons why he should play them as he unlocks them:
1)

cozyduck wrote: Anyways, as far as I'm concerned I prefer playing them as I unlock them just so I don't need to play too many hard levels back to back in the end.

I agree 100%. You really, really don't want to play something like fifteen super hard levels (star world and extra world) at the end of the game all one after the other. By spacing them out like this, you just make your life a lot easier later in the LP.
2) raocow is actually pretty alright at SMW. I really don't want to insult anyone here, but the way he just breezes through the game up until now makes it kind of hard to believe that he would actually struggle a lot in these early star world levels (later ones really are kind of a thing though, I'll admit that, but at that point the main game itself is also kind of a thing, so...) Just because you personally had a hard time with them doesn't necessarily mean that raocow will as well.
3) Remember that "Richest Warehouse" thing the yoshi house in ice world mentioned? For various reasons you want to unlock that as soon as possible (but at the latest before playing the final castle). The only way to unlock the warehouse is to play through star world and with the way star world is set up, it just makes sense to play the levels as you unlock them.

I think in the end it's really up to raocow how he wants to handle things and we just kind of have to accept his decision either way (:
I guess what he should take away from all of this is that star world levels are kind of a thing haha

Also, before I forget, happy birthday and thank you for all the years of entertainment. I really don't want to go off topic too much here, but your videos really make my days a lot brighter. Thank you for everything

ah geez, your welcome!

I think what I'll do is that I'll clean up what I can of a world, and then do it's star world if it has one. I think that would make a good rhythm ?

Everyone's saying the star world levels are gonna be a thing and whatnot, but I actually had a lot more trouble with Peaks of Revolution than a couple of the star world levels. Peaks took me almost a couple hours I think, because left/right micro-adjustments with ice physics are the bane of my existence

maybe its just me being crazy but I don't think that second half looked TOO hard, in fact I'd say it looked rather well balanced as it was a bit on the short side

of course i've never played smw romhacks myself so take that with a grain of salt

dr_kraid wrote:

Alice wrote:Today on "Let's Yell At raocow!" raocow somehow totally misses a powerup he uncovers then spends the next 50 attempts still missing the powerup only to die in dumb ways that the powerup could have helped prevent followed by raocow uncovering the powerup again, collecting it, then not even acknowledging it.

How does anyone manage to pay this much attention to the video

All you need to do is see the fireflower pop up once, notice that he doesn't get it, and then you're going to be screaming at him every time he goes past that part again without getting the powerup.

This isn't something super-obscure, it only takes a little more attention than raocow gives to what's on the screen while he's playing it.

raocow wrote:ah geez, your welcome!

I think what I'll do is that I'll clean up what I can of a world, and then do it's star world if it has one. I think that would make a good rhythm ?

Go for this.

I liked how at least three different times in today's video, raocow saw a Dragon Coin in what looked like an awkward location, was completely baffled as to how to get it for a short while, and then discovered, moving a short distance ahead, that there were really no fancy tricks needed. But then, I guess after Vip2, which forced you to pull off some pretty ridiculous stunts for Dragon Coins, he's probably still in "bad ROM hack" mode.

Alice wrote:Today on "Let's Yell At raocow!" raocow somehow totally misses a powerup he uncovers then spends the next 50 attempts still missing the powerup only to die in dumb ways that the powerup could have helped prevent followed by raocow uncovering the powerup again, collecting it, then not even acknowledging it.

I noticed this, too. Then he suddenly finds it in the winning run, and I'm like, "did he know that was there all along and was just not getting it for some reason, or was that last instance just blind luck?" If there is one trope that would describe raocow, though, in this video and others, it would be this one.

so this is russia: Oh man, wacky lands. Nice level.
neglected fire flower: Damn it, raocow. And in a video uploaded on your birthday, no less. Anyway, yeah, this level is pretty tricky, what with all the boomerang guys.

Good job beating Peaks of Revolution with not a ton of deaths. That's a tricky level, especially with one less fire flower. World 3 I think does a good job of showing how a hard hack can also be fun to play and well designed. Lots of really great levels over the past few days.

I'm agreeing with the idea to space(heh) out the star world. While Star World levels are insane post-game difficulty, having to do all of them in a row would get tiring. Though be warned, Disco Dance Party is very much a thing for most people. And it's not even the hardest star world level in my opinion.

Yeah, I agree on taking on a it of the star world at a time. Perhaps one per world will be good? Nice job holding out through Peak of Revelations minus one powerup past that midpoint. Boomerang Brothers are still rough enemies...

Also, happy belated birthday, raocow. Naturally, I did not remember this... But I wish you well all the same. I'll try to get a digital gift ready, too...

YSP's gonna be a thing.

After that, coming back to the Suspicious Warehouse would be interesting!

I like your plan for the star world, and it'll probably be best for your health this way.
The levels are very good, even when they're becoming more difficult. This is a good sign.
This is one of the nicer episodes in terms of commentary. I really enjoyed it this time.
...Water is a scientific construct? Then how did people survive in the Bronze Age? I'd probably have more than a handful of deaths trying to lead that horse to a key. Good job doing this so fast.

the thing about vip2 is that, you know, I knew the solution to all the puzzles and whatnot.

:)

:)

:)

:(

1 level video guaranteed.

Cool Kickin' would have been a better level without the ice gimmick imo - that is, move it to any other world, change the palette, and kill the "level is slippery" flag. I liked everything else in it quite a bit, but slope jumps + ice = no thanks.

all sinking, got it: Layer shenanigans. Neat.
setup, setup, setup, really cool setups: You really got to hurry here.

raocow, remember the movies. Watch them.

another day, another time for rad JUMP opinions

You almost never see the moving layer two which moves the whole level up and down (that was used today in "Glacier Soup"). I wonder if it's actually vanilla and just so obscure that only someone like worldpeace would use it, or if it's a custom effect. Maybe there are more levels that did this, but I just don't remember them because they didn't use the layer 3 tide at the same time? Whatever the case, the setup of the level is something I never saw before! The faster moving tide in the cave section was a pretty neat gimmick as well, as was the section where you had to wait for the bomb to explode while dodging the fire balls. I choose to believe that the buzzy beetles and koopas at the very end were actually the ingredients for the Glacier Soup

I think that "Cool Kickin" uses a very low time limit to make it impossible to kill all the enemies in the first half and then come back with the yellow yoshi for the secret exit. While the level is really compact as raocow mentioned, I feel like really tight jumps with slippery physics and low ceilings might not have been the best design decision. It's funny how that particular gimmick sort of seems to be a "Jolpengammler staple" of this hack: He made something like two more cave levels with low ceilings and really tight jumps... Let's just say that I'm not an unconditional fan of his level design (although he certainly contributed some super neat levels as well). At least there were buzzy beetles before most of the chucks so if you play carefully you won't get ambushed by the footballs quite as much.

Since raocow seems to be pretty confused about the structure of the overworld, maybe now would be a good time to explain some stuff about how word four works? If you don't want to know and prefer to play blind, just don't read the spoiler


People keep saying to watch the movies, but I think that raocow should only watch them after he either has already beaten the level or unlocked the secret exit or whatever or if he's really, really stuck. I mean what's the point of puzzle levels if you watch the movie before fully exploring them and then just going through the motions afterwards?
That being said, you should really check out the movie for "Peaks of Revolutions" and since it seems like you already beat the switch palace, the one for the correct solution of that level as well. Speaking of the "correct solution": Anyone wants to bet that he beat it the wrong way via crazy shelljumps and/or insane item babysitting?

Yipples the Friendly Dog makes the best levels.

Ryrir wrote:I think that "Cool Kickin" uses a very low time limit to make it impossible to kill all the enemies and then come back with the yellow yoshi for the secret exit.

And yet I did exactly that. I do admit the time limit makes it tricky, but I still had lots of time left.

Ryrir wrote:People keep saying to watch the movies, but I think that raocow should only watch them after he either has already beaten the level or unlocked the secret exit or whatever or if he's really, really stuck. I mean what's the point of puzzle levels if you watch the movie before fully exploring them and then just going through the motions afterwards?

Pretty much, and it's not that all puzzle levels have videos, so better get used to actually solving puzzles ;). That said, no problem with checking videos for levels that were already done.