Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Filename(s):    bbswing.j2l bbswinga.j2l
Title:          Swingin' Jazz
Tileset:        Jungle 2
Dimensions:     96x50
Music:          medivo2.j2b
Type:           Capture the Flag

Author:         BloodBunny/Ninjin
Email:          Edward Kmett <harmless@bloodshed.com>
URL:            http://www.bloodshed.com/~harmless
ICQ:            1985432

Comments:

I put this level together to address some of my frustrations with the
masks in the jungle tileset. Most of the sucker tube/spring board combos
would not be possible without using some of the dirty tricks hidden behind
the foreground layer. Rather, they would be possible but you would see
jazz's arms or ears through the sides or top of the trunk like in the
in-game
levels using these tilesets.

I had initially intended to use swinging vines in this level, hence the
title, but this was a no-go for multiplayer since it appears that all of
the independantly mobile events dont work in multiplayer. Which is
understandable given the difficulties of syncronizing such behavior over
the
network especially in the face of high latency where trying to make things
look right for even a nominally lagged player would be a programming
juggling
act thats probably not worth the effort for event objects which are
inherently slow to navigate anyways and thus not very friendly to a player
running his tail off with the flag.

Also notable is that tiles with 'bad' masks which would cause motion to
catch
are shunted to the foreground where possible or made one-way. In
the former case you just dont collide with them, in the latter you can move
upward through them even if they dont mesh quite right with the masks
around
them. Examples, respectively are the bottoms of the end-of-platform on a 45
degree downslope tiles which otherwise catch your feet and the edges of the
water basin areas which otherwise if you press in close, will not let you
jump out.

There are two versions of this map included in this package because of
a relatively obscure cheat which works only when using the Flying Carrot
or Airboard in a level intended for CTF. If one enters the 'jjnowall' code
in Single Player mode, it affects you later in Party Mode. In other words,
once you touch an Airboard, you can fly though walls. This would not be a
real problem if in this state you responded to fly-off events or if the
code
just didnt stick when you started the next level or joined a server to
begin
with, but I can 

The 'jjnowall' cheat becomes a problem because if a person in this state
touches the flag of the opposite team, the flag vanishes. This effectively
requires the server to restart, is just as annoying as the 1.21 flag bug,
and still happens on a 1.22 server. People using this cheat are annoying
on Battle maps, but on CTF they render the server unusable the moment they
touch the flag while flying.

'bbswing.j2l' is the version of the map without the Airboards, safe for
leaving up online.

'bbswinga.j2l' is the version of the map WITH Airboards, because I feel
they add enough to the level that if you trust the people you are playing
with or are using 1.22 or above and can kick/ban people who come on
'jjnowall'ed that its worth playing. However, because of the Airboard
problem, I would not recommend leaving this version of the board in the
playing loop on a dedicated server. This version also might be worth having
around if they fix the issue with Airboards, which technically isnt a bug
because if you mark a map for CTF you arent SUPPOSED to be able to use
Airboards or Flying Carrots in the first place... but still. =)

Also, look at the sky in 16 bit color if you get a chance. ;)

-BB/N