PSI Ninja wrote: ↑1 year ago
Here are some of my suggestions for level placements:
- Fungus Forest Flow could go into World 1, because of its currently assigned low difficulty. It would also offer a branching path early on. The Feeling of a Freshman could also go into the first world, being rated at a 2/5.
- Sweet Paradise seems like it would fit better in sky world rather than the Fishmarket. A Dream of Green Apples could go in its place, since it has a substantial water section.
- Since Lady Crithania is currently a world-ending level, it could lead from the Fishmarket directly to watch out! bad word ahead on the main overworld. This transition would be nice because the ship level ends at an iceberg, and tangy's level uses the same aesthetics.
- If we decide to put snow-themed levels together on the main overworld as described above, then Where The Whales Come To Rest could be moved out of the Fishmarket, reducing the number of two-exit levels in that submap. Bumpty's level could then come after tangy's, while still coming after Revenge of the Sushi.
- PUNT RETURN should probably be situated later in the game, due to how trivial it is to farm many lives.
- I'm working on a sky-themed level that will have a boss, although the boss probably won't be finished by next week's deadline. Therefore, Level D could become the world-ending castle for sky world, and Spikes do hurt (sometimes) can be moved somewhere else, since it's not sky-themed, anyway.
- To reduce the number of two-exit levels in sky world, I'd move either or both of Warning! It's a Red Radish Morning and Aileron Moonbounce into the main overworld, since they seem less sky-themed than other levels in that world.
- Moon Palace should go into sky world instead of the city, because it would fit the theme better.
- I disagree that my level, Coasting Redwoods, is postgame difficulty. Compared to other levels, I feel it's more of a 4/5. That being said, I think it would fit better in the forest submap, or even the final world if it's still considered to be too hard.
My thought with World 1 is that there should probably be less levels than the other submaps, probably half, hence why the 1st 2 levels mentioned aren't there.
Agree with Sweet Paradaise, but I'm afraid we might not have enough levels for The Fishmarket otherwise, which is why I have it there right now.
I was assuming with submaps it would be like A2MT where beating the final level in a submap wouldn't lead anywhere, just unlock more of a thing for the final world (like in the bridge area thingy in vip6). It is an interesting idea though, but that would need to be part of figuring out how things connect.
Whales it was insisted it should come directly after Sushi (by who I forget)
If it weren't for Tim Hortons, I'd've put PUNT RETURN in Ghost/Castle World. I was under the assumption that submaps could be beaten in any order (like in a2mt, or the midgame of a2xt1), and in that scenario, i'm not sure that's an issue
I could move Spikes Do Hurt into the middle of Cave World, then chuck Quirky Quarry into the main OW, if you're doing a sky castle.
Red Radish Morning is something I'd like to move out, and I can see the reasoning for moving Aeilron Moonbase out, but again, There's nothing I can put in currently to replace them
Moon Palace I can sorta agree with, though at that point it probably shouldn't be marked as a castle (unless we do my suggestion below which makes this moot)
I didn't mark the difficulty for Coasting Redwoods. Agreed it's not a 5, and I can see putting it in Forest World to move Green Garden out to the Main OW.
Lord Ruby wrote: ↑1 year ago
About the world themes, I think we need to be mindful of not grouping levels too hard. If we put all the water levels in the fishmarket, it's going to be really unvaried. Water and ice worlds tend to be especially vulnerable to this.
I'd say it's wisest to primarily group levels based on aesthetic theming while consciously separating them if they have the same gameplay theming. But aesthetic theming can also be worth varying: Scattering a few fortresses, ghost houses, and lakes throughout the other worlds, for instance.
I see your point, I'm just trying to avoid sticking in levels that are too out of place, and with a ghost house/castle world, it's a bit limiting.
PSI Ninja wrote: ↑1 year ago
I think there's a good amount of water levels distributed throughout the game outside of the Fishmarket. I agree that the Ghost Houses are being grouped together too strongly, though. Perhaps "Ghost/Castle" world could just have a general urban theme instead. But if we move, let's say, two of the Ghost Houses out, then I'm not sure what would thematically go in their place. Maybe a Switch Palace could occupy one of those spots?
Also, I just noticed, but "Switching Difficulties" is missing from the "Worlds" tab in the spreadsheet.
One solution could be to drop the Ghost House/Castle world idea altogether, and replace with a possible Mountain World. I seem to recall there was a decent amount of mountain-ish levels back in december, but dropped it because iirc forest/cave/sky seemed stronger levels-wise, while people really seemed married to the fishmarket and ghost house/castle world ideas. It would alleviate things, but it really seemed like people wanted that to happen.
also dammit, i must've accidently overwrote a cell while moving levels around; it was supposed to be in the final world.
Anyway, I should be asleep by now, so I'll look into making some of these changes tomorrow morning