Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I LOVE IT

Very good and useful!

(thank you cooba.)

That is great !
JCS is the best jazz jackrabbit editor.
thx !

A perfect complementation to Newspaz’s whopper of an editor – which crosses the idea of a level editor and becomes more of a game modification tool, allowing the end user to change many of the game’s aspects. In fact, the actual level making part is probably the weakest part of J1E – not to say it’s bad – if you’re very much used to JCS’ super friendly and familiar interface, you might find yourself a bit trapped.

So what does Violet CLM do? He hacks JCS to make it able to edit JJ1 layouts.

This is slick, elegant, and once again showcases the capability of Violet’s brains. Obviously you won’t find it very useful if you don’t do a lot of JJ1 level design – but for the (very few) people who do, this is the best thing to happen since J1E itself.

Now go make a JJ1 level!

Very useful!

Rain forest is obviously not my favorite JJ1 Tileset, but you did here a very nice job.
I liked the way you combined Technoir and Raneforus in your Future tileset.

this tileset is really great…
TILESET ROCKS!!! :))

[Review changed to quick review. ~cooba]

EDITED

Okay, so here we have yet another impressive tileset “conversion” by Violet. When I saw that Violet chose Raneforus, I really wasn’t too excited. Those were some of the most unattractive, and frustrating levels in all of JJ1. Like, I hated Raneforus, I used to cheat to skip those levels.

Anyway, so I’m not too excited at all, but Violet never fails to impress, as he came up with the clever idea to include a past, present, and future tense to the tileset. This gives way for a lot more possibilities and all in all makes this worth downloading.

The present tense gives us the basics. Nothing too notable here. In fact, there isn’t even any solid ground. All there is is platforms, which sucks, but then again, that’s all Raneforus had. Platforms and trees. I got over the present tense tileset real fast.

Okay, so the past tense. Now this is cool. In the past tense, we sacrifice some pretty useless looking tiles for stone and gravel taken and edited from Jungrock and Stonar, plus we get some new background to play with. Overall, it’s really awesome. You can make a really ancient looking jungle level with this. The palette is all switched around, and some old school tiles are included to just make this really have a great atmosphere. Cool.

So, now the future tense, well it’s a great idea and all, and Violet pulls it off pretty well, but it’s just not that pleasing to look at. Everything just seems to totally clash. It’s a good idea, but I just couldn’t see myself using the tileset ever. And like I said before about the present tense, there’s no solid ground… There are just platforms. The past tense had solid ground from Stonar and Jungrock which was nice.

So the final verdict,
I’m not very impressed by the Present and Future versions of the tileset, but the Past tense is solid as hell and offers a lot of possibilities for some really cool levels.

Download definitely recommended, just don’t get too excited for Present or Future.

My first tileset(-conversion) rating :P

Tileset in general:
Everything worked in all three tilesets. They will do what they have to do and there is variety everywhere, in all three tilesets.

I should add a few Jungrock tiles (the special rocky grounds, like the large rock and such) in the Raneforus Pst tileset, and waterfalls in Raneforus Present, but that’s it.

The Raneforus Future tileset should be a little darker like PT32 said.

9/10

Masking:
The masking is unique, but it fits the jungle levels pretty damn well, and I didn’t find any bugs.
10/10

Example Levels:
I won’t rate the example levels or criticize them to hell; it isn’t uploaded as “Multiple”, and they are playable with either Jazz, Spazz and Lori and don’t suffer from serious design flaws.
0/0

DR: Yes, offcourse!

Excellent in both design and execution, held back only by a few flaws that could’ve been corrected with a little more time and testing (tree masks are easy to get stuck in, a few resprites/recolors look slightly off).
And you did avoid doing the reflective goop, you sneaky little git.
Edit: Night is crazy awesome, have another .3 points.

I like this tileset. You spent too much time on it, and you deserve 10! Download recommended!

This is really good!
Good tiles, eyecandys, etc…
And I’m waiting LetniV and TechnoirV :P
Take Care!

+plus! — You added Night vers. and it like a winter level.

I’ll use it.

I dont give 10 i give 11 :)

And finally this is a featured download.
Yay!

Stunning. That’s the one word I can think of when I see this conversion. Simply stunning.
Violet CLM has done it again, taking a (seemingly) boring and bland tileset like Raneforus and turning it into a bona fide work of art. From the standard JJ1 version with a new and fresh twist (which I’ll get to), to the “past” version (with a color scheme that could only be described as “sexy”), to the future, TechNoir-laced set, just about anything you could ask for is present and accounted for in this set.
So, let’s to Raneforus V.

V1

THINGS I LIKED:
I liked the fact that so much creativity could be found in such a drab set as Raneforus. It has all the tiles (that I know of) from JJ1 present, as well as tiles from other JJ1 and 2 sets. Take the bluish BG trees from the Jungle tileset. Take the expertly recolored blue rock BG from Scraparap (it’s actually green in this set). Take the leafy branches from Jungrock. Even the rain looks perfect. Violet doesn’t bother with any “Cool” tiles……At least, none that don’t look like they absolutely belong. See, that was the thing about the set: everything just belonged. And that’s hard to do in a set.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
These were very few. Perhaps one would be the textured background. I didn’t think it fit very well in the colors. Too light, perhaps. I always kind of thought of Rane as a rainy forest planet. But that’s pretty minor. Overall, V1 was a great success to me.

V2

THINGS I LIKED:
Ahh yeah, this was my favorite of the pack. It looks sort of like a sunset tileset palette, with the subtle orange and brown hints in the set. There was a very shrewd input of the Jungrock….rock tiles, in addition to some very neat rock graphics already present in the set from Stonar. Very pleasing to the eye. I could go on and on about the amazing color choices here. Did I mention that I loved the colors? I do. But enough of that. Very nice set.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
Hmmm… There honestly was nothing I could find after my initial run-through. I guess this is the first “perfect” tileset I’ve ever seen.

V3

THINGS I LIKED:
This was also a cool set, with enough TechNoir present to counterbalance the Raneforus there. Variety does indeed help, which lends the set a rather convincing impression of a rainforest being gradually overrun by the machines of industry. Neat concept. The colors once again meshed quite prettily. And the birdie tombstones? Man, I just about lost it when I saw ‘em! Priceless.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
However…..This was the set I liked least of all. For one thing, there seemed to be more space devoted to TechNoir background details than that of the set itself. There was a tree or two, but not much. Also, while I DID like it and it WAS cool, the color didn’t seem much different than that of the first V. I would have liked maybe a darker colored set. But there is none, leading me to believe that the sun always shines there (And it sets partway every night :D). I was disappointed by that.

So all in all, I really thought the sets were quite good. But that’s only the half of my review…

THE EXAMPLE LEVELS:

THINGS I LIKED:
The levels themselves (as Violet’s custom of sorts seems to keep perpetuating) were so good that I felt I just had to review ‘em. They have master level event placement. The level design is just as good, as is the buggage. The first one was exactly the length of a singleplayer level, which seemed quite a bit long, but showed off a LOT of the set. Which is always good.
Violet put as much work (it seemed) into the levels as the tilesets, which really pays off. I loved ‘em.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
But, as is almost always the case, there were a few minor issues I had. For one thing, the second example level had a small sprite of the Dreempipes Owl flying in the foreground. Which is nice, except that it can fly backwards as well as forwards and never seems to leave the screen, which gets kind of annoying after awhile. I’m not a big fan of foreground “creatures” like that, since they are so HARD to get right.
The music for Level 2 didn’t really catch me, either, whereas the songs for the other two were generic Jazz songs. Which is not bad, except that I would’ve expected something original from someone of Violet CLM’s stature. The use of the TechNoir song in Level 3 only added to my (weird) conception that the TechNoir elements in said level and set seemed to be conspiring to choke out the Raneforus elements. Fortunately, excellent eyecandy in that level helped ease my discomfort.
The first level seemed long, the second one was medium, and the third one was short. I mean, I did a catch-22 when I got to the end of 3, it was that short. Kind of surprised me. I think 2 was the best length.
I said this already but I will do so again: I was fairly disappointed that there was no dark tileset. I mean, there’s three different sets, and they’re all light colored. What’s with that? Why not make one, say number 3, a midnight or dusk color? It would’ve been the final knockout punch for the set, but instead is quite absent.
Masking was interesting too, but as Violet said, there is a reason for this, so I won’t take too much away for that.

SUMMARY

So, what should be said at the end of the day? Good job, nice digs and try again someday? Why goodness, no! This set deserves so much more than that. It’s not a perfect set, and it has its flaws, but that’s the beauty of it. Just like every remarkable diamond has a scratch or two, so every worthwhile upload on J2O has a tarnished spot. Don’t let it scare you away. Download today.

EDIT: (3/10/2012)

Now that Violet’s released a fourth version of the tileset (LOL, look how far behind the curve I am…), I thought it would be prudent to review the new(est) one as well, since it affects my final grade of this set.

V4

THINGS I LIKED:
I could keep this up all day, and I’m not kidding. Here at last, ladies and gents, is the Raneforus Night tileset we’ve all been waiting for, and for a tileset (and example level, for that matter) that was merely “thrown together”, it’s pretty good.

No, that’s a massive understatement. It’s absolutely stinking awesome.

Raneforus V #4 is painted in olive green and indigo blue/purple shades, almost as if the player were walking through a withered and dead forest. The “rocks” are colored perfectly. The torches were a stroke of genius. Every single leaf, branch and pebble jelled together like a Swiss watch, and I’d be hard pressed to put a finger on anything I didn’t like.

The example level was so good, it’s almost a crime. One of these days, I wish Violet would take all of his considerable levelbuilding talent and make a great singleplayer epic. That would be so much fun to play.

But I digress.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
Once again, nothing significant to point out. That makes two 10/10 tilesets in one upload, which I’m sure will never ever happen again…Until Violet CLM releases his next tileset conversion, that is.

The music track was not present, so I wasn’t too impressed by that. However, since this upload is a tileset conversion and not a singleplayer pack, I won’t count that against the upload (Although if this were a singleplayer pack, I would most certainly subtract points).

SUMMARY

In the end, Raneforus V #4 blows the previous three sets out of the water, including the Past version that I loved so much. My revised rating is 9.6, and I now recommend Raneforus V’s immediate and unconditional download.

Thanks for these tilesets. I will use them in the future. :P

Perhaps quick review isn’t appropriate for this, but I think you deserve a perfect score. for creativity, versatility, and because the sonic inspiration/influence was amazing to see :)

Only bad thing here is that some very usable tiles, mostly transition/connector tiles are missing.

EDIT: I noticed the waterfalls in past ver.

The Reworder don’t work. Work offline/for host?
It don’t work for me offline and not for host…

But in a server it works!
The Example don’t work too…

Maybe the new plus?
IDK, but please help me.

(EDIT)
Only Example 3 works offline…

Cool

This program is most excellent, providing a whole new way to look at the Words that each J2L is built upon, making it quite easy to do crazy things such as move various scenery effects (destruct and trigger) to the foreground, background, or tiles that already have events, opening a whole new realm of possibilities to level creators. Expect to see this used for spikes appearing beneath your feet, a “key” on layer 1 that shows you which triggers you have activated, and other things so awesome I haven’t thought of them yet.

I see you uploaded it :D

I am sure this program works great, the first betaversion did work already… But now it’s more userfriendly!

When I am back off vacation I finish my battle level using this program for nice effects!

For sure a download recommendation for people that like to do great things with trigger scenery in there levels!

A fat 9 for this great program!

(edit:)

A tip: Look at the example levels first how they work in JJ2 than how it’s done in reworder. That wil help you understand the program ;)