Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This is a really great mutator! Nowadays people mostly play ctf/duels, tests or chat around. For the last one this is a really nice addition since many times the trivia end up in hilarious idiotic situations where people randomly guess the answer or fail on one letter.

Some ideas that could be added are:

- Create a sepparate “gamemode” out of this where you can see the question in your screen, the time remaining for the question, the amount of letters/hints and a highscore,etc. You can see this all in the chat now so this is basically a visual upgrade.

- Some option that allows more people to get points by answering the question right. For example, show the right answer and give points only after 5 people guess it correct or don’t show an answer when noone got it right. Points could be either equal or given according to who answered first, but it’s a bit more fair for those who can’t answer that quickly.

- A team mode where the team gains points (and perhaps it’s also possible to see your score within your team). So suckers like me won’t have to lose all the time x)

Again, this is a great mutator and I thank sal for making it ;)

Nice to see another new level maker starting out. Hopefully you too will make new levels in the future and if you do so, here is some advice that you might find usefull:

First of all, this level seems very small since you can move around very quickly which makes it more suitable for duels.

One thing I kinda dislike is that the bases are right across each other which allows you to cap and recap too quickly. Ofcourse it can be a good thing since you have to think about where to kill your opponent and it will give very fast paced games but it’s perhaphs frustrating if they are this close.

Now something I both like and dislike: the c area. You can enter it from below with an rf climb and you are able to shoot it down which gives you more control over the level. However the placement is less good, right between the bases makes it extremely campy. Still, if the level was bigger it would be less campy so I think you are on a good track here.

As for the flow, there are a few minor issues: the springs at the bottom are annoying to use and the wind below the base is unnecessairy. Besides that it feels fine.

The ammo placement is nice, though maybe there is a bit too much at one spot. Three pu’s at the bottom is probably a bit too much (I have to admit, I made the same mistake once).

The eyecandy is nice and simple, thus good for a ctf level. Perhaphs you could vary it a bit more in the walls by changing some tiles to different wall tiles. One thing I’m not fond of is that you copied one half of the level and pasted it to the other half. This makes it less original, even if you make a symmetric level I usually like it if gameplay and eyecandy vary on each half like JE or FF.

One last thing: try to make your next levels more interesting by adding more diagonal passages, at the moment is a bit too straight. Hopefully you will keep on making levels and ofcourse have fun doing it :)

Well first of all it’s good to see you started levelmaking, there has been a really lack of them especially in ctf/battle. I will just give some basic advice of what I think that could help you and some thoughts:

First of all, the level felt good to play in. It might not be of mappool quality but for a first level I think it’s original and fun to play.

As you said, the level is campy. However this might not always be bad and I think it’s not disastrous here. You can throw bouncers in the seeker box and rf the blue base a bit. Still, putting seekers at the carrot area/red base/blue base and limiting the acces to the rf pu might make those areas too campy. Usually to avoid this you can make an area more open or accessible.

The ammo placed at the diagonal ceiling makes it annoying to get, the other ammo/pu placement is fine.

As for the overal level layout, vertical levels are usually very biased and therefore more difficult to make. It’s nice that your level isn’t symmetric but perhaphs try making a more horizontal level since those are more suited to the JJ2 gameplay (which is running like you are being chased by a zombie chicken).

Even though many of the areas are very small the flow is still decent. Still, you should try to avoid 1 tile passages and also too many 2 tile passages. Keep in mind that you want to create both safe areas and dangerous areas which contain pu’s. It’s usually a matter of balancing open and more closed area. And also it is important that the player can move smoothly between them without too much annoyance.

Three carrots is fine, but one carrot or two makes the game usually more exciting since you allow the teams to get control in the level by controlling the big carrot and make it more risky to get it.

As for the eyecandy, it’s nice and calm which is perfect for a good ctf level since you want to focus more on gameplay than singleplayer. However for next levels it could be nice to add some eyecandy to specific areas to distuingish them from other areas. This makes the level more appealing and unique.

This is most of what I can say to you at the moment. Hopefully you’ll continue making levels and if so, have fun! x)

Awesome! It’s good to see you are still making AS levels and this one is just incredible and original. The thing I found most frustrating is that I keep clicking out of the screen but I guess this is also a bit my fault. I’ve only played this SP and I’m looking forward to play with others ;)

Amazing level that shows many of the new AngelScript features the new plus has to offer. I never could have imagined to see such a gameplay changing level.

This level comes back often at JDC events and when it does, it is very fun to play. That said I also think this level plays best with many people. I’m not sure if this level would work with 3v3 or maybe even 2v2, but I’d love to try some time. On to the reviewing.

Gameplay – 52/65
First thing I noticed about this level is that it is very open. Because of this you’ll move around fluently and won’t bump into stuff easily. Also springs and vines are used well to let the player go quickly up and down. The warp is usefull to go up and get higher ground since it’s risky to go up the slopes at the right top of the level. The warp back down leads to a +1 carrot, it’s a bit more risky though. At the start the warps felt a bit useless but I think it’s something you got to learn in this level.

Another good thing about the gameplay in this level is that rf, bouncer and toaster are ballanced in this level. There are enough slopes and edges to prevent shooting rf’s too far and making bouncers more usefull. Besides that I think fire is most usefull in the vertical parts. I think the area at 61, 60 should be easier accessible. This is not because it is a campy area but I think making the passage one tile bigger will make it less bumpy. You could for example move the entrance down a bit so you can still have a safe area at the top. One more thing is the tube at the middle. I think this can be very usefull but the only problem is that it’s a bit hard to see it’s there, not a problem if you learn the level though.

The ammo is well spread through the level and there is plenty of it. The only area that seems empty is the left upper warp. A total of 4 carrots with small delay is probably the main reason this level is better with more people. The placement of the middle one and the right bottom one is excellent. Putting seekers at the right top one could make it campy, but I in this case it can be easily countered with bouncers and rf’s. I think the carrot in the water shouldn’t be in a dead end or at least make it a bigger area, it’s already in the water which makes it already risky enough to get it. Also the seekers at the right bottom in the level are a bit too hard/risky to get. Besides that I think the right side of the level seems to be a bit more filled with good pu’s/carrots than the left side, this isn’t that bad though. The bouncer PU is hard to get with normal bouncers, also I think in a tense battle it’s kinda hard to see but eventually you will know where it is.

Eyecandy – 23.5/25
Well there isn’t much too say about the eyecandy, it’s just great. Layer’s 1 to 3 and 5 are used very well to created nice decorations in the walls. Because most of this decorations are in the walls it isn’t distractive for the gameplay which is ofcourse a big plus. I was thinking about more decorations at layer 5 that are not in the wall, but I’m not sure how much this would improve the level and the background is good enough (and original too!). The tileset has been used before but not with this palette. The palette is pretty dark but I together with the music this increases the atmosphere. The level is open enough to not let the darkness become overwhelming.

Originality – 7/10
I don’t think the gameplay in this level is something completely new. One thing that adds to the originality is the water, not just because it has water but also because the gameplay around it is good. About the eyecandy, I think the background is very original and adds to the atmosphere. Besides that the good quality of this level’s eyecandy is not something most level makers can reproduce.

Total: 84.5/100
This level is definatly one of the better battle levels on j2o. Like I said it is used much in JDC events and I bet it will be used many more times in the future. Download recommended ofcourse!

Note that this rating is lower than my quick reviews, this is not because the level is worse but because I’m a bit more critical.

Whenever rag touches battleships it turns into something great. Basic things like flow and ammo placement are well done. The original concept of this level is the ice/rf you need to move around. Imo it’s well done in this level and is not annoying. What I liked most is that this is fun to play, I’d love to see this added in the multiladder mappool.

Awesome level! This was a great succes at the jdc event :)

I really enjoyed this in the bash. At first i thought the flow was a bit annoying, but after playing it for a while it wasn’t bad :). Also good ammo and carrot placement. It feels good to grab that flying carrot and just spam rf’s at the center! Also naice paint sketch

A good ctf level. Pickup placement is nice and i like the eyecandy. The warp system is a gimmick im not quite fond of, it punishes players who are alive for a longer time since they don’t get more coins.

A decent level. I like the carrot in the center, it is hard to camp there. Also the bases are well placed. The tubes are a bit annoying though.

A good solid level that is fun to play. Like darksonic said there isn’t much new compared to your older levels. But then, why change something when it’s very good already? Download recommended!

It’s a shame that good levels nowadays don’t get downloaded and rated that much. I really love the atmosphere in this level. The tileset is very original, it’s hard to use imo but you managed to make it look very good. But most important is ofcourse that this level is really fun to play.

A nice small and fast level, perfect for duels. In my opinion there is a bit too much ammo, but besides that it has a very good gameplay!

A nice test with relaxing music and eyecandy, which really helps to put off the stress you get from tests. Nice work with the AngelScript too.

Thanks Treylina, I have to agree with you that a 9.5 is way too high, I much rather see advice on how to improve then a high mark. As for the seeker and blaster: Did you try using the same ammo as the power up to get it? Its not hard to get it if you know how to :). The lack of ammo is because I havent tested this level yet, I thought it was enough because this level is pretty small (you can go from point A to point B verry quickly so you can collect ammo faster) and the respawn time wasnt too high. Its probably one of the few gameplay issues I still wanted to change (I want to have a balance between spamshooting and collecting). Last: I uploaded this level because I really didnt plan to continue on it and I still wanted advice on how to improve.

If it was finished and the story was more clear I would give it a 10++. Too bad it isnt, but the levels you did finished are like the work of god. Your levels doesnt only got nice eyecandy and gameplay, they also got an amazing atmoshpere. Nice job

Wow im really wondering why this level pack doesnt got any reviews after playing this. Its an amazing pack, nice job. The only thing thats missing is a story and you should also fix some (little) tilebugs. Besides that work a bit on your english grammar :P

A verry nice tileset. I especially like the buildings :)

I wont give it a rating but ill give you some advice. First: Do not grab the left part of the level and flip it to make it symmetrical!

Gameplay:

Gameplay is decent. In the level Frigate 12-G is a bug, you can go into the jails when you jump there. One thing you should remove is the ammount of poles, they just slow you down a lot and that can be pretty annoying. Canyon of Diamonds is a verry small level with just a pit, some springs, some platforms and thats it. That level has too less gameplay.

Eyecandy:

In Escape from Alkajazz are some tilebugs where you can see your feet under a layer 3 wall, you should probably fix that (there are more parts where you did this). There are also some things that are looking ugly (imo tilebugs) like in Malfunctioning Prison one tile left/right of the spring that prevents people from entering the jail. And like i said in the start: DONT FLIP WHOLE PARTS. This looks verry uggly and its like the level maker didnt want to put much work in the level so he just flipped it. Besides all this i didnt really liked the eycandy, you should probably fill up some empty looking places.

Event placement:

The first thing i noticed was: Where are all the power ups? I think you should really add more power ups too your level, else it looks a lot like an “insta gib level” where you only need too shoot as much as you can. You’ve also placed lots of ammo in levels like Pipe’s Prison and Frigate 12-G. I think you should remove some ammo there. Also some of the ammo in your levels are respawning way too fast. Next is the carrot placement: Excellent in Chocolate Vendetta but horrible in Escape from Alkajazz. In Escape from Alkajazz they are placed next to the jail and that makes it verry campy there since you need to deffend or attack there. In Chocolate Vendetta are they placed verry well, you can shoot them down and they are placed central where you cant camp. You should also remove useless events like the morph box in Excape from Alkajazz, they have totally no use and its only annoying if you hit them.

This is all i have too say for now. Your best level is Chocolate Vendetta which would get a 6,0 from me (I usually have low ratings when rating a lvl :P).