Ludwig's Flaming Fortress [Re-Review]

[Erik]

What kind of other positions could I think of?

[Imaynotbehere4long]

Um...
Boom Boom + slopes is not a good idea, of course it's empty.

*sigh*

That's not what I meant by "empty room." What I meant is that the Boom-Boom (or whatever pre-programmed AI the designer uses) is the only hazard in the room that the player has to deal with; that's why it's boring.

What kind of other positions could I think of?

...you've got to be kidding me. How about "anything that isn't basically a replica of what the player has already been through"? Here, I'll list a few right off the top of my head:

-Have the fire-bar on a higher elevation than the Dry-Bones and Bob-omb.
-Have the fire-bar be above a bottomless/lava pit instead of a valley.
-Separate the three hazards with a bottomless/lava pit.
-Mirror the block placement so that the platform on the right (the one the Bob-omb is on) is higher than the one on the left (the one the Dry-Bones is on).
-Replace the Dry Bones and/or Bob-omb with a different hazardous NPC.
-Experiment. Try something new instead of copying what you've already done earlier in the level.
-Remove the duplicate placements, shift everything in the section over to fill in the empty space, and shorten the section.

Seriously, though, if you can't think of any block+hazard placements aside from what you've already put in the level, you should probably just end the level right there. I don't intend to sound harsh, but you should at least be able to think of small variations to what you've done, like what I listed above.

[bossedit8]

One favourite signature: Ludwig's everywhere!


@bossedit8's Review - Ludwig's Flaming Fortress - Created by @Ludwig von Koopa

Design Usage:
Your design of being inside the castle is very nice and I do like what you did with the whole obstacles you made inside it. I do like that you need to have the springboard at the beginning of the section at the end of it in order to move on on your level. There are different variety of sections to discover and not only by just walking at the same lane of horizontal sections which is nice. About the first section though, if I have a leaf I can just simply bypass the springboard if I am doing my flight ability correctly throughout the room but that isn't bad what so ever anyway since the room isn't big anyway. There is nothing much happening throughout the castle though since most the time is just the samething even with the same enemy set which we are talking about later for a little. My wonderful suggestion is by having more obstacle variety throughout the castle is by adding moving layers later on to prevent from making the player having do the samething over and over again like having some crushers or anything because right now it's just the near samething to get through the whole level. This is like I am playing a game where you have to do the samething over and over just to beat a single level but that is just an example. About the vertical sections, there are spots where you are forced to use your spinjump ability in order to move on on your level. Normally it's a very bad idea since with this kind of situation, not every playable characters are be enable to get through this level. Peach and Link can't spinjump what so ever on the regular basis. Make sure you are not forced to spinjump in order to proceed or make sure that you are forced to play as specific characters like only Mario or Luigi at the beginning and at the halfway point of the level. Even in SMW you are not forced to spinjump in order to get further on in the game so please make sure to not force to utulize spinjump here aswell. We do have 2 midbosses during the level which for sure is neat but for the second boss' layout it's making the boss way too easy once you know what to do over there like you can just stand on a higher area so you don't have to do all that much by those bosses and that counts on all of the bosses and not only the second middle one. Of course at the end of the level we fight Ludwig but what I seriously don't like is that once you defeat the first Ludwig and you stand right where the other Ludwig is gonna appear, you take an unfairly instant hit which is bad. Make sure there is a warning sign as of where that boss is gonna appear to prevent from taking an unnecessary damage to the boss just by standing as of where the boss is gonna appear. Music is alright for this level and also the graphics. Very nice and fitting. What I honestly want for this level are some secrets to discover but not that necessary.
Point rating: 3.25

NPC Placement:
NPC Placements were ok to good throughout the level. Your enemy placements were ok but at the later times that if you keep fighting the same amount of enemies over and over it gets kind of boring. At least you give me some bombs so I can destroy enemies by throwing a bomb to them which I really like about it. I love something like that you can throw an enemy to another enemy (SMB2 all over again) and this level gave me the oppoturnity to do this. What I honestly don't like is that those platforms in one section is hard to predict because it's basically jumping from the lava out of the surface and you have to time it right. I honestly made it a bit metter to have them on the lines instead of something like that since they tend to glitch out once you either get hurt or collect another power up so it's best to not make something like that. Coin placements were nice but a bit more would of been better throughout the level. Power ups were alright especially at the end but for the secondary player it can be more difficult to get through the whole level on one scale.
Point rating: 3.75

Overall rating Score: 7

Very nice castle level with multiple different bosses but sadly lack of variety throughout the level.

A Video will be coming up at the future someday...

[FanofSMBX]

What do you expect IMNBH4L? How does the player program a reactive AI into SMBX?

[Imaynotbehere4long]

@ FanofSMBX:

I'm not asking for level creators to use programming wizardry to make a super-amazing original AI; all I'm asking is to do more than just place the pre-programmed AI by itself in an empty room! Is that seriously too much to ask??

--EDIT--
I should also bring this up while I'm here:

About the vertical sections, there are spots where you are forced to use your spinjump ability in order to move on on your level. Normally it's a very bad idea since with this kind of situation, not every playable characters are be enable to get through this level. Peach and Link can't spinjump what so ever on the regular basis. Make sure you are not forced to spinjump in order to proceed.

How exactly is this an issue? Sure, Peach and Link can't spin-jump, but it's an unwritten rule that all stand-alone levels should be played as Mario (unless otherwise specified) since he's the default player-character. If this level were in an episode where Peach and/or Link weren't blocked, then that would be an issue, but since it's a stand-alone level, the creator can reasonably assume that all players will play as Mario.

[bossedit8]

How exactly is this an issue? Sure, Peach and Link can't spin-jump, but it's an unwritten rule that all stand-alone levels should be played as Mario (unless otherwise specified) since he's the default player-character. If this level were in an episode where Peach and/or Link weren't blocked, then that would be an issue, but since it's a stand-alone level, the creator can reasonably assume that all players will play as Mario.

I should of reword it a bit better by adding character blocks inside the Level so the Level itself has a restriction value to be only playable by specific characters. This has been added on my Review for now. Even then, the Problem is that there are no signs or messages anywhere as of how a spinjump works exactly in a Mario game like if there is a new Player that Plays this Level, what happens if someone doesn't know how to use the "Alt-Jump" Button correctly... and by forcing you to get further on in the game it's normally a bad idea. Even though in SMW that there is a message that tells you the ability as of how the spinjump works, it is not a force in order to spinjump just to get further on in the game! The only Point for the spinjump is to make the game easier, not by forcing you to move along inside a game! This is why I am pointing that out by the forceable spinjump ability.

Edit: Playthrough made:



Original link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9qvo1bodxE

[Erik]

I fixed some things including the bosses in empty rooms, can I have a re-review please?

[underFlo]

Ludwig's Flaming Fortress by Ludwig von Koopa - Review



Looks and Atmosphere

Eh, it was your general fiery castle. The tileset you used was the same all the time and red and grey were clearly the dominant colors. Not really anything outstanding, but you also didn't commit any notable errors.
The music was alright, but did feel a but too epic and orchestral imo.

6.5/10



Design and Gameplay (counts double)

Whoo boy, that's an interesting one. It really felt like I was playing 5 levels at once. But let me explain:

The first section is pretty much "get the springboard to then backtrack and advance". Nothing wrong with that, alright. But then there's this:

Spoiler: show

The first time through I thought that was a pipe you could enter because of its convenient placement - I mean, it's hard to get to, and you just got a springboard. But nope, only aesthetical. Ceiling pipes that don't serve a purpose but are arranged in a way that would make sense gameplay-wise aren't too good game-design since, especially if they're hard to get to, the player can easily lose many lives attempting to get to the pipe.

Spoiler: show

This again is something I didn't quite like. The way the enemy is placed makes me try to jump on it by instinct, but there's a wall directly over the door, and if I attempt to jump on the Dry Bones, he instead gets me since the wall is so far down. Even after committing the same mistake multiple times, I still do the same thing. It may really just be me, but areas like this are annoying to navigate through in general. Then we get moving platforms, one of which is bouncing on lava and is even going under it at its lowest spot, this was an enjoyable part of the level. I feel like this is the best place to mention this: Aside from certain sections that are meant to utilise certain gimmicks, like the aforementioned platform, the gameplay feels really samey. It all just feels like doing the same all over again, and these parts make up a good 50% of the level.
Then there's spinjumping on Saws which could be a good gimmick for a level, but sadly this, too is abandoned after the section. There's also gravity-defying fireballs all like
After that there's a boss which is incredibly easy since you just have to stand on the edge and jump on the boss' head whenever he gets near you.
The next section is pretty meh, not really anything special.
After that we get climbing around a firebar which isn't really that hard once you figure out how to avoid it easily, and more of the samey enemy layout.
After that there's a boss that I don't seem to get the pattern of and that just seems annoying and random. I didn't really feel like I accomplished anything after beating him.
Then there's more firebar climbing which works the same way as last time, and more of the same.
Then... there's the final boss of the level? Where was the checkpoint? The level was fairly tough (or I just didn't play SMBX in a long time), so I feel like a CP would've been appropiate between the 1st and 2nd midboss.
The final boss isn't really fun or anything tbh, using the same boss AI twice in succession isn't really fun and more annoying, especially if there are no checkpoints.

4.5/10



Verdict

An alright level that meshed together a lot of gimmicks without really developing any of those to their fullest, which is kinda disappointing. If you focused on one of them this would've been a pretty good level!

5.17/10

Moved to Average

[Imaynotbehere4long]

@ Ludwig von Koopa:

In case you weren't aware, I made this tutorial to show how you can make fighting pre-programmed bosses not-boring without having to put forth much effort: http://www.smbxgame.com/forums/v ... =81&t=8890

It talks about things like making sure your additions to the fight actually make a difference and can't be easily avoided by the player.

[Ghostly_Guy]

I liked the level, but it needs a checkpoint, as there are three boss battles total. Also, having to spinjump off a Grinder is tough unless the Grinder's highest point is higher than the platform, which it wasn't here. My last edit would be to use a skin other than Pikante for the second boss, since it doesn't look right next to everything else.

Spoiler: show

Other than that, the level was great! I especially liked how you used firebars during the fence portions.