Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I haven’t played this pack yet, (tbh right now I’m only downloading the 1st pack :P) but I have a question: why releasing this episode for 1.23 when the previous episode is released only for 1.24 clients?

Either release both episodes for 1.24 or do the 1st episode for 1.23 as you did here.

Players usually ignore reviewing poor quality levels, since they usually think the creator will disreguard the critique, or the level is simply too bad to improve on. But hey, since you asked for it, here’s a review.

Eyecandy

Really bland and generic. The level creator obviously doesn’t care for eyecandy, probably because he thinks gameplay will excuse for it all, or doesn’t care about decent looking levels

However, good eyecandy provides good first impressions, as it often shows the levelmaker cares about their level. Yeah, there’s no tilebugs, however, it’s really easy to not make tilebugs with this set.

Gameplay

Short summary: A generally cramped, linear level, with no ammo until you reach the campy PU room. It manages to succeed at being chaotic and campy at the same time.

Long summary:

For some reason, the levelmaker decides to add a stupid textstring saying you get kicked if you hurt/kill in the powerup room. So you know, instead of taking measures to not make the room campy, he lazily adds a kick threat. You really think you’re going to stop players from doing that by adding a textstring? And besides, not everyone has the time to moderate a server all the time (implying that admins are going to kick others for abusing poor level design). I also dislike such textstrings because those who are hosting the level (that aren’t you) may not have the same view as you, so it’s pointless.

Camping (staying in a hotspot to get more kills, which is what I think you mean) may be annoying, though it’s not cheating because everyone can do it. You can take measures against it by changing the level design or using a script, which is the best way.

What contributes to campy level design? Linearity, cramped passages, safe hotspots. This level has it all.

Also, the hurt zones are…what? How am I supposed to expect they are there? That’s not a good anti-camping measure. You can make coin warp targets not campy by putting a powerup above warp zone, then putting a ceiling spring above the powerup.

If you have no ammo, and the other player does, you’re pretty much screwed. However, if everyone has blaster, prepare for a lot of camping in the tiny passages. Who likes blasterfights?

What contributes to chaotic level design is a lot of strong/overpowered ammo, lots of green/blue springs (though this level has none of them, so disreguard this point) small layouts, no carrots and cramped passages (yep, it can be chaotic and campy, due to being hard to dodge incoming attacks).

At the top, there’s a row of tiny platforms. I’m not a big fan of tiny platforms, because they sometimes require pin-pointing (which is annoying in a very fast paced game such as JJ2), and also make it too easy to dodge incoming fire by just falling.

Also, there’s a lazy disreguard for Lori support, which could’ve easily been fixed by adding a red spring. (platform above the bottom floor). “But lori suckzz!” well of course she is if you don’t bother making her viable.

Music

Meh….somehow I feel this guy just picked the first module he found on the mod archive and went “This’ll do”. It sounds boring and doesn’t fit.

Overall, I don’t recommend this level for the reasons above.

It has received good reviews

I didn’t play either Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles, but I do know Spaztic’s excelent conversion of Marble Garden that was made years ago. But since this is single player and a new tileset conversion, I’ll rate the overall experience.

The first thing noticable about the tileset compared to Tik’s remake is the size of the graphics being x2, much like the Rayman 1 forest conversion. Other than that, it’s obviously more lacking as it doesn’t contain JJ2-like features such as poles, vines, tubes, destructable blocks, etc.

The levels are generally OK, especially for a first upload. Both levels make a big deal out of diagonal ramps, a feature that doesn’t work too well in JJ2 as you can’t run down from them without falling forward. Yet on paths going upward or forward I genuinely got a Sonic-vibe that kept me running without too much hassle from enemies or obstacles. Eyecandy is very little, all in the form of those plant-pillar things. The background is non-textured blue with moving clouds.

In terms of pickups, there are enough carrots scattered around, coins for the usual coin warps and savepoints. Ammo is restricted to Bouncers and the Toaster, which might be a bit lacking even though they can be upgraded (with PU’s) at some point. Enemies consist especially of Lizards and Fencers, but a commonly used hazard in these levels comes in the form of the Rolling Rock. It’s used in pretty much the same way as in the original JJ2 Jungle level, until at one point they’re used as still platforms, giving players the fear that they may fall down at some point by touching a Trigger Rock.

Another fun thing to point out is the bossfight. Something as simple as placing Bubba on rows of Collapsing Scenery is still pretty fun and works well to make the boss more interesting.

All said and done, I recommend trying this download only if you enjoy Sonic games or conversions in general. If you’re looking for a Marble Garden tileset you’re better off with Spaztic’s conversion. For better Sonic themed levels I recommend, of course, Sonic With a Gun! I’d give this 6.5 for the OK conversion and gameplay, but slightly raised it to 6.7 as it’s a solid job for a first upload! :D

You forgot to include the tileset TopSecret.j2t into the zip file. It’s mandatory to include it for downloaders who don’t have it yet.

And I consider myself a JJ2 veteran. But psst.. I can’t get past the starting area, I wonder if it’s possible.

Oh, and people can bypass level passwords using TECJCS or a hex editor. :P

Sorry for all downloaders,
But this map is locked. so you can’t open it with JSC.(Because for privacy!)

If it is too hard, found any errors or impossibility, let me know.
then I’ll show to you some hints, or I’ll fix it :D

Edit—————2014-05-11 11:48 PM
Done.
Thank to your suggestion!
(and for Slaz, hint of start area : shoot 40 times upper left side. then you can be find the way.)

This is a really good CTF map. Eyecandy is well done, gameplay is fun and the level has a few tricks (which I won’t spoil ofcourse)
Download recommended!

Trig v2 is just as fun to play as the original, but feels more balanced, like it’s supposed to. Download recommended!

love it

the updates on these old maps are great

Something I didn’t quite add in the credits but I felt the need to add is that this level is heavily inspired by Cargo Sector 5 by FireSworD and that he is a great levelmaker xoxo

This level makes the best use of utilising belt floors in multiplayer, which makes it stand out. My nitpicks are, is that the top right corner is a little campy, and the top warp is fairly useless. Too much trouble to prepare getting to, for little reward and high risk. Reguardless, this level is solid and relatively balanced.

It is however, very good, but actually, it is all just like some days ago.

The level, is all good, but I recommend you some more working and coming back to Jazz2Online. Since it is the first upload here, it was originally went to be on UniverseJazz.

Hmm, your rating is actually a clear 10.

[Review changed to quick review, see the review rules.

The main purpose is to fix the alphabetization in your JCS in case if you already have a huge collection of JJ1 conversions. The thing is that most of these tilesets are actually used in some level packs / levels (NOT counting some garbage levels). If someone is a collector type (like me) and likes to keep good levels on his computer, then he pretty much HAS to have all the tilesets that the levels use (otherwise what’s the point of having the levels…?).

The reason why I keep inferior conversions is because they have unique tile placement, so you can’t upgrade them to the superior counterpart and have the levels which use that tileset still working.

Notice that in case of inferior sets that have exactely the same tile placement (andare just extended with some new tiles on previously unused spaces) are not included and I list their filenames along with the names of the upgraded versions.

Lastly, there are some cases where it is hard to decide which version is better. Most of versions have something unique, that the other ones don’t have. With the new JCS names you can easily compare them.

I’m not sure why you even bothered to include the inferior conversions of certain JJ1 sets, given that no one in their right mind would use them over their superior counterparts anyway (see Rooster’s vs Lark’s Industrius conversions for example). While I guess this upload is at least a useful reference for people looking for JJ1 sets, it serves little purpose overall as unless you’re planning on making a level pack that uses all or most of the JJ1 sets, you’re better off using J2O’s search feature to look for the individual sets you want.

It’s HOLIDAIUS, not “Holidaeus”, Violet CLM.

I’d recommend disabling ratings since nothing is actually yours.

I suppose this would be convenient for those who are looking to use JJ1 conversions which aren’t the official godawfully converted ones, though I just prefer using the search function to get the certain single conversion I want, so I don’t fill JCS with tilesets I’ll never use even more.

Absolutely great pack, two levels (Cerulean Comet and Pool Party) are worthy of a ten I’d say… The others are all of a very high standard too.

level is tedium. No, seriously, some really good maps here.

Incredibly uncreative, it’s just a boss slapped in an empty arena. Anyone can do that. Also, the screenshots are unrelated, and bossrush7 doesn’t even have a boss put in, it’s just an end area. Bossrush1 is annoying when Bilsy gets stuck in the wall. Test your damn levels before uploading them. The Devan boss is made easier for no reason.

Here’s a very useful add-on tool for those who like to script things. Helps you avoid those typos, flaws, etc. in your script that are sometimes not-so-easy-to-notice. This patch guides writing the functions themselves as well, without the need to peek into plus-angelscript for details all the time. There’s also auto-completion!