Public beta test of Ground Force pack

[minmay]

Episodic Ground Force Pack Episode 1 Public Beta Test
or, Minmay Tries To Get Other People To Do His Work For Him, Again

title is not up for debate (http://www.cowmuffins.net/jazz/levels/episodicgfpack1.zip)

FEATURES INCLUDE:
- SIX Ground Force levels. Yes, SIX!
- Take your pick of which characters to allow with an intuitive filename suffix system! (mingfpack#.j2l=Jazz, Spaz, Lori, mingfpack#aja.j2l=Spaz, Lori, mingfpack#ajb.j2l=Spaz)*
- Insights into my eclectic musical tastes!
- Visual effects with layers that you've only seen five or six times before!
- "Lobby" areas modeled closely after Survivor for reasons which are unclear even to me!
- Seriously, though, the levels themselves are original! Sort of!

*mingfpack#aja.j2l may not actually allow Lori. Too lazy to reinstall TSF again.

STUFF I WOULD LIKE PEOPLE TO DO:
- Host the SIX Ground Force levels!
- See if the "aja" system actually allows Lori!
- Give feedback on music choice which I will probably ignore anyway!
- Find out what percentage of players actually knows how to get past the "ajb" system!
- Find out what percentage of players actually knows what Ground Force is!

In response to inevitable questions about the "official" release, it'll come whenever I decide these have been tested adequately.

Also, JJ2+ is strongly recommended, for level cycling, music, and avoidance of crashes with the "aja" system.

[Dermo]

Funny. I'm working on a Ground Force pack as well. Though I was going to wait for the next level competition. BTW I vote Spaz only.

Level 1: I hit the crates, nothing happens. Why are the bombs overhead in question marks that can be destroyed?

Level 2: I loved the bouncers!

Level 3: Amazing eye candy. Though you might not be able to get to the crate at the top if you destroy too many blocks.

Level 4: Also a really cool level. Though there's a lot of destructable scenery there and not a lot of bombs falling. But that's ok. Also getting all the gems when you fall out... that's only a slight issue though.

Level 5: really cool with the towers. Though I hit the crates and NOTHING happened...

[minmay]

Dermo, stop trying to test the levels in single player.

[Speeza]

Sadly I've had no luck on getting people to join. It does seem very interesting, maybe we can have a little event using this pack?

[cooba]

I can't be bothered to fix my hosting anymore but I gave them a quick run in LAN mode.

In general, they're quite big and complex, with a lot of masked areas. I can see that the average game here will be (much) longer than in blur's level - this might or might not be a good thing. I'd place more Toaster ammo all around though, or make crates more effective. The crates in level 1 are an interesting concept but I don't know how often will they fall before someone destroys them manually.

Why do you never use stars in layer 8 backgrounds? They would help level 1 and 3 a lot, which look decent but have very empty backgrounds. I liked the parallax hackery in level 1 though.

The music choices are excellent.

My favorite level out of the bunch is probably 6, because it's not nearly as large as the others, and I like the concept behind it (bricks are more resistant to damage).

[minmay]

The crates in level 1 are an interesting concept but I don't know how often will they fall before someone destroys them manually.
The crates, if left alone, serve as a barrier that helps people avoid the clouds at the top. The ability to destroy it at any time gives players an interesting choice, I think.

Why do you never use stars in layer 8 backgrounds? They would help level 1 and 3 a lot, which look decent but have very empty backgrounds. I liked the parallax hackery in level 1 though.
Good idea for level 1. Level 3 is supposed to be indoors, so stars don't really work, but I might add something else in the background.

In general, they're quite big and complex, with a lot of masked areas. I can see that the average game here will be (much) longer than in blur's level - this might or might not be a good thing.
Well, it's too late to change now. Levels 3, 4, and 5 are designed with pretty large numbers of players in mind. Now that we have 32-connection online play, I doubt they'll always be too big, but they might usually be too big.
I'll reduce the sizes somewhat in Episode 2, since it means less work for me anyway.

[cooba]

The crates, if left alone, serve as a barrier that helps people avoid the clouds at the top. The ability to destroy it at any time gives players an interesting choice, I think.Fair enough.

[minmay]

I've updated the levels (download again from the same URL). Mostly just adjustments to graphics.

I'll probably release this on October 1st or something, provided I remember.