Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Interesting. I would have to say this is much improvement than the last effort to make a CTF level.

GAMEPLAY:

I can almost say the layout is good. This level is somewhat balanced, although not entirely. The flow still needs some work, but at least I can get around easily enough. This level is also a little spaz biased in some places. I can almost like the base placement. One base is placed higher than the other, but the area in between can almost balance it. Too bad it falls short and it doesn’t exactly do just that. The layout leaves red base easier to be attacked than blue base. And before I forget to mention this, I have to say that there is still the whole flag bug issue. I’m pretty sure I mentioned this in my last review, but I feel that I should repeat myself: To prevent the flag bug, you have to place a border around the entire level. The thicker the border, the less likely it will be for the flag bug to occur. I suggest making the border at least 2 tiles (or better yet, 3 tiles) wide.

EYE CANDY:

Eye candy could be much better. The eye candy here isn’t even as good as that which is in battle1. In some places there isn’t much eye candy at all, such as the entire bottom right area. The tileset is missused and eye candy still needs a lot of work.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

Well, this level uses a full energy carrot; it just isn’t centered too well. It’s too close to red base which doesn’t help with balance. Ammo placement could be better and look less bland than the usual rectangle. And there is a seeker powerup on the left side with a bouncer powerup near the top. There isn’t anything on the right side except for the carrot. I never really liked the idea of considering a carrot on one side and a powerup on the other as balanced.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Nope. This has potential, though, which is why 6.2 is my rating.

The Edit: While some things were improved, other things were worsened. There are now some borders on the side (although sadly not on the top as well) which seem to have been added in the laziest fashion. Eye candy and proper tileset use is still needed for most of this level. Spring placement was modified but it didn’t help enough overall. Moving the seeker powerup was a good idea, but it leaves yet another deadend in the level. The bouncer powerup was moved to a place where it’s easier to shoot and get through a wall, and now I think it’s too close to the seeker powerup (especially since players are now able to shoot the seeker powerup with bouncers from where they get the bouncer powerup). Yes, bouncers go through walls in case this wasn’t noticed yet. Bomb scenery is good for preventing this, but use it wisely. Furthermore, ammo placement wasn’t much better, and fast fires should have been placed in corners instead. And I forgot to mention this from before, but there should only be one green spring instead of two near pos 83,45. Anyway, I feel that my rating should stay the same; much work is once again needed. Better luck next time.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

After a while, I wasn’t expecting this download to get another review ever again.

Stijn aka Fl@$h: Looking back (and after playing some of the levels that would’ve gone into the full version), I have to agree with you on a lot of points. Yeah, they’re probably too hard for their own good, though I wouldn’t go as far as saying they are outright “bad” (that comment still stings a little, but I see your point). I would add a lot more text sign hints and warnings as well as remove excess pits and traps if I ever decided to fix up these levels. I’d need much more encouragement before that happens, though. Anyway, I appreciate the brutal honesty in your review, Stijn.

Previous comments:

I wasn’t going to say anything for a while, but Killerrabbit just got on my bad side. If I had to guess, either you didn’t play all of it or you cheated through most of the levels. I don’t know how this could get a 7.2 for gameplay if jumping from platform to platform is half of the challenge (as in a lot of SP packs) and I did say it would be hard. I don’t know if you played the 4th and 5th levels, but I couldn’t focus on using a lot of pits as the only challenge (as you can clearly see). There are a few puzzles here and there which you somehow seemed to miss entirely. Maybe you should play the entire pack again. If you find it boring, then you’re not one of the people who like a good challenge. And no scenery change? It might not be too drastic in these levels, but it is noticable. So, if you can actually do a much better job with “changes in scenary” then be my guest and show me up. I’d like to see what you can do in JCS.

But I digress. I shouldn’t be too angry. I neglected to add one warning: If you find it too hard to beat or if you had to cheat a lot to get past all of the levels, don’t bother reviewing this pack. These levels weren’t made so that just anyone could be able to beat them.

mikeejimbo: Annoying intro? Maybe because of the short delay at the start or the abrupt level change at the end, but I neglected to fix that before I uploaded the pack (and the latter isn’t easily fixable). I haven’t seen anyone make an intro playble in JJ2 nearly as innovative as the one I made. I was planning on making an entirely different intro for the full pack in any case (and hopefully I’ll find an even better way of doing it).

Inf. Spaz: The 4th and 5th levels might be more like other SP levels, but that’s only because those are less linear. But I did add some interesting challenges to those levels which I have never seen quite like this before in any other pack (the puzzle in the 4th level, for example). And adding vertical play to the first 3 levels wouldn’t make them any more fun to play—just longer. BTW, if you could name several of these train levels that you say you have plenty of, it would be greatly appreciated.

On a side note: Play on Easy mode if you’re having a lot of problems trying to beat the levels. Easy mode is almost like Normal in the typical SP pack. I even added an extra save point in the 4th level, just to let you know.

I have the 50kb version of Wasteland tileset and you included the 39kb version in the zip. The level should work with the 50kb version unless you added an excessive amount of animations (and that would require a whole lot of animations). I’ll probably have to play it online to see it, even though it SHOULD work on my comp.

The Edit: Just to let you know, it wasn’t entire my fault that the level didn’t work. According to Pyromanus, the the level tried to use another tileset (I believe he said wastelan.j2t) which isn’t included in the zip. Albeir, the filename for the tileset should be wasteland.j2t since Blade was too lazy to rename either versions of the tileset. I advise using the 50kb version since this will work with all Wasteland levels. Anyway, the review:

GAMEPLAY:

Still lacks flow. Still prone to flag bug. Still unbalanced. Not to sound too cynical, but this is the worst base placement yet. There are a lot more routes from blue base to red than red base to blue. Also, there still seems to be an uneven platform placement. It’s like DW gone horribly wrong. The part I dislike the most is around pos 15,26. It wouldn’t have be too hard to make the flow a lot better there. And there is still the flag bug issue. The one-tile wide sides on the level may allow for the flag bug, and the missing border at the top will almost definitely cause it. I (once again) suggest that at least two tiles (three tiles recommended) should be used as the border around the entire level to prevent the flag bug problem. I also advise taking a closer look at some of my older reviews once again.

EYE CANDY:

The background uses transparent textured background tiles on layer 7 and the regular 3D textured BG on layer 8. It lags my system a bit, but I could live (and there’s hardware accel anyway). There are some glitches related to the transparent textured BG on layer 8, but it’s nothing to worry about too much. As for overall eyecandy, it isn’t too great, but it’s not that bad; it’s a little different from the ordinary.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

Kudos for the continual use of a single full energy carrot near the center, although an additional carrot could be used (assuming they aren’t too close to each other). Everything else on the other hand still needs much work. The ammo placement once again needs better distribution. And there’s nothing in this level that really balance the RF powerup placed right under the blue base except for maybe the EB powerup, but that doesn’t do nearly enough. If the EB powerup was a seeker powerup, then maybe it would be a different story.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Not often at all. Still needs much work. This is worth something around a 6.5, so there you go.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

I had great fun playing this.

GAMEPLAY:

Inspired by DW? Maybe. Gameplay like DW? Hardly. This level has some flow, but not much at all. It’s mostly platforms (and not pretty ones) between each base. Squared-off platforms don’t exactly scream fun. Base placement isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s just very boring: one route to each base located on each edge of the level. But that’s not the worst part; it’s everything in between the bases. I’ll explain these balance issues later on in the review. Also, there’s one annoying bug which seems to have been overlooked by the beta-testers: players can get stuck in the tube near 64,27. It might be hidden, but it’s not too hard to go into by accident. Fix it, please.

EYE CANDY:

Well, the tileset isn’t bad. However, it lacks a whole lot of variety. As a result, this level looks awfully bland and dull. I can’t say what should be done to improve the eye candy since the tileset is rather limiting, but I suppose it’s good for the tileset.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

At least it uses a full energy carrot. Too bad it doesn’t help enough to make the level balanced. All of the powerups are on the left side while there is a warp to the carrot on the right. There is a way to make this idea of balancing a level work out—just not in this level. I can almost live with the ammo placement, but it seems to be missing RFs. No RFs? That’s insane. There isn’t even any pepper spray. OK, so it’s not the most important thing, but still… I like my RFs.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Host it, if you have much lower standards than me. Otherwise, no (sorry). AvK, Spotty, and Black Ninja could have done a better job beta-testing the level. I’m giving this a 5.7 just because.

The Edit: Alright, so maybe a 6.0 (with the bug fix), but that’s as high as I’ll go. Also, I don’t recall those beta-testers making too many CTF levels in any case (no offense).[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

The second level didn’t seem to change too much, so I’ll just mainly review the first one since I already reviewed the second.

Dark forest terrain

GAMEPLAY: Almost close to balanced. Bumpy flow. Too cramped in places.
EYE CANDY: Somewhere around average. But annoying lighting.
CARROT PLACEMENT: Full energy carrot in middle top. Decent.
AMMO PLACEMENT: I’ve seen worse.
HOST THIS OFTEN? Nah. Like once.

Overall review: Dark forest terrain isn’t a bad level. It’s just not great either. It reminds me of a bad version of Slab Ratz in a way. Players will be able to get around, but the flow could be much smoother and less restricting. And I’m not sure why players have to hit the crate for the fast fire. It seems to be pointless and just another thing that gets in the way. As for eye candy, I hate the lighting in it. It looks bad in 16-bit and worse in 8-bit. I know the lighting is needed to make the name of the level make more sense, but a darker forest tileset would have been a better idea (yes, there are some somewhere). Also, in 16-bit, the bright pink BG is a bit distracting and annoying. As for carrot placement, I suppose I can live with it, although it could be better (and I’m mostly referring to its nearby surroundings). And ammo placement is so-so. As with Snooz’s strange universe, the only thing I see that change was the thin border at the top. It’s not the biggest fix, but it helps. For my rating of this pack, I have to give it a 7, just because. I feel delusional…

BTW, these two levels don’t loop too well. And your description confuses me.

And now, more CTF level reviewing fun. Joy.

GAMEPLAY:

There still seems to be not much of an improvement with flow. And once again, the left side has no easy route up. And to no surprise, it has an unbalanced layout and various areas which may tend to slow down players. This level seems to have a few more useless things like the tube near 24,34. I’m not sure what it’s for, but there isn’t enough reason to use it, plus it might be safer to avoid it. Also, there’s the same start position for each team again, which of course doesn’t help with the balance. Furthermore, the top edges of the level need some border tiles (you SHOULD know why by now), and the bases are placed in the same boring way as in the last level. Please do something different next time. Thanks.

EYE CANDY:

More or less average eye candy. I can’t complain too much, but it is just average. Perhaps TOO average (except for the BG which is almost different but not really). Hmmm.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

The carrot placement is somewhat better than in the last level. And I could almost live with the ammo placement this time. But this level does use the bouncer powerup as its main powerup once again. Argh.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

I still can’t say you should. It feels like these last few CTF levels were made in under a day or something. I’m giving this a 6.7 since I’m not entirely sure of what to give this. What an annoyingly short review I made. Bleh.

Medium sized? Maybe. Really worth a download? The rating tells all.

GAMEPLAY:

This level has some flow but not much in it. At a glance it doesn’t look too balanced and after playing it for a little bit, it still looks unbalanced. Is there a way to get up on the left side of the level? It feels as if a spring is missing. If there’s a blue spring on the right side, why not on the left? There is one way up, and that’s by jumping through the bridge although it is spaz biased (I can visualize jazz players complaining about the unfairness at this very moment). And about that blue spring on the right side, if a player was to jump on that spring an go far left, he/she would have to double jump/copter to make the platform. The ground tiles at 66,35 should have been extented a few more tiles to the right (not that this alone would save the layout, but it’s the little things that help). Other than that, there’s the wide open area on the right side and the closed up area on the left. This isn’t the worst thing, but it certainly could take away from gameplay. Also, the bases seem to be placed too closely together. It feels like a dull dueling level. That means “medium sized” may be an inaccurate description of this level. But at least the start positions are better than the last time, except maybe for maybe what I presume to be a Jazz start position. Use only MP positions unless a neutral start pos somewhat in the center is desired (I really recommend this, though). Too bad that’s not the only problem. In short, general gameplay could be a whole lot better.

EYE CANDY:

The eye candy isn’t bad for a Diamondus level—four years ago. It’s decent, but after seeing like a billion Diamondus levels, it’s nothing too special. OK, little bit different (by the smallest margin), albeit not enough to make the eye candy above average. It may help to use top-notch tilesets.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

The full energy carrot is placed closer to the blue base, while the bouncer powerup is closer to the red base (all in the bottom area). Could be worse, but I don’t like it at all. It unbalances the level a little bit. The ammo placement also isn’t as bad as it could be. I just don’t like it too much either. It also doesn’t look like it was distributed well enough. But do you know what I hate about this level the most? NO SEEKERS. What is with that? Too afraid of seekers? Are you worried that seekers are too hard to dodge? Wimp. The bouncer powerup was the only powerup once again. Nice variety. Not that a seeker powerup is really needed, but at least include seeker ammo. Sheesh (great… You just had to make me say “sheesh,” didn’t you?).

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Don’t, or else. My review tells all. 6.5 and thanks for trying.

I’m wondering how many more levels will be uploaded while I’m reviewing this level.

GAMEPLAY:

There are so many things wrong with this level, I’ll just list them all.

1.) Bad spring place. 2.) Poles which all are unnecessary and take away from the gameplay. 3.) The huge deadend area at the top left. 4.) Too many obstacles (such as unnecessary platforms) which hinder the level’s flow. 5.) Bad base placement (red base is easier to access than blue base). 6.) Horrible platform placement and too many in places. 7.) Horrendous start positions with both teams. 8.) Too many deadends with only ammo or a powerup in them. 9.) No borders on the top and the right sides to prevent the flag bug (the annoying thing where you see the text saying someone captured the flag over and over again). 10.) And various other things expected to be in a first level.

The level’s size would be only be good for dueling levels. I advise getting some more experience while playing many various CTF levels before attempting to make another one. You need to get a good idea of what CTF gameplay is like and how it should be. Actually, you probably should work on battle levels instead since they require much less to be good.

EYE CANDY:

When I first loaded the level, I was hoping low detail was off. And to no surprise, it wasn’t. This level misuses the tileset on almost every layer. The buildings in the background are floating in the air, the wall and the ceiling tiles weren’t used, and some of the tiles shouldn’t even be there at all (like the other building tiles floating behind the blue base).

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

There’s a +1 carrot right next to each base. This is almost always a bad idea. A full energy carrot near the middle of the level or two of these carrots placed far enough from each other and nearby bases would be a much better idea. Ammo is placed too badly for this level to ever work well enough. Powerup placement isn’t all too bad, but that alone won’t save this level. Taking a good, long look at other CTF levels would be well advised.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

If you do, I may have to hunt you down. In other words, no, don’t host this. Ever. Sorry to say this, but this isn’t any good. It’s expected, though, so you shouldn’t feel too bad. And don’t ask me what premise makes this level even close to an 8. This is only a 4.5, but at least it’s not the worst CTF level I’ve ever seen.

The Edit: The new placement of the red base is a little better, but it leaves a small deadend where it used to be. I also noticed the +1 carrots were replaced with a full energy carrot—and I’m assuming that full energy carrot wasn’t always there. The building tiles in the background were fixed a bit but not completely; I could conclude you are playing on a setting less than 640×480, but I cannot determine that for sure. Also, most of the poles and some of the springs were removed which helped a bit. I was hoping you did some other things like fix the eye candy on the 4th layer (there ARE levels that came with TSF which use the Town tileset quite well, so study those), add some tiles around the top and left side edges (at least 2 tiles, but 3 or more is recommended) to prevent the flag bug (although you may have never seen it yourself), and other things like that. BTW, I forgot to mention that all of the 3rd layer tiles in this level don’t completely cover the player and you can see part of the rabbit’s feet. I should have also mentioned you should avoid covering up main routes in the level with 3rd layer (unless, of course, it’s for a sucker tube or something like that). I was going to keep this a 4.5, but I decided to be nice and raise it to a 4.7 since you actually took some of my advice. But don’t think I’ll keep updating my rating for every time you update your level.

The “Return to Reality” Edit: LRK was right. I have to downgrade my rating to a 2.7 since that rating is more reasonable. Sorry.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

What’s with all of the CTF levels all of the sudden. Hmm… I shouldn’t complain too much. At least I get some CTF levels to review after that long void. In any case…

GAMEPLAY:

Let me start by staying this: as far as large goes, this is only medium sized. The main thing that keeps this level from being small or even close to it is its general layout. It has the same layout style as “Snooz’s strange universe” except it doesn’t work nearly as good (bricks weren’t meant to be used like this. read more in eye candy section). This level also seems to have a little less flow than the last level and I’m not liking all of the platforms. There are still deadends and unneeded places here and there. And places to get stuck in walls (incline tiles often don’t mix well with walls in certain situations). There are also some balance issues, such as the red base is placed much higher than the blue base (this almost always causes balance issues). And I noticed there was the same single start position for both teams. Team based MP start positions will be needed to make a better CTF level.

EYE CANDY:

I can’t say I like the eye candy much at all. It reminds me of the eye candy in “Snooz’s strange universe” except it doesn’t look good at all. The bricks look bad as one-tile high blocks floating in mid-air. Also, the background didn’t need to be mirrored. It tiles horizontally well enough. And the 4th layer background tiles are too sporadic for my liking (and I’m assuming you can figure out what I’m refering to). Work on eye candy more next time.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

Well, there’s a full energy carrot in the middle. Nice to know some of my advice was taken. The only problem is it’s way too close to the blue base (which wasn’t even placed well in the first place). Ammo is still scarce and often in the worst places (I forgot to mention this for the last level). And finally, there are powerups. I presume there are three of them. There are 2 bouncer powerups, and in a level like this, that just makes it nearly unplayable. A bouncer powerup is often a bad choice as the only 2 heart damaging powerup—especially in a level like this. Also, one of the bouncer powerups is too close to the electro blaster powerup. But after saying all of this, I don’t think I’ll find anything else which makes this level much worse.

HOST THIS OFTEN

Probably not. Obviously this level isn’t too strategic or much of anything for that matter. This is a 6.5, but keep trying.

I hate to have to say this, but if your english isn’t perfect, please please please use a spellcheck or at least have someone else proofread it for you first. Anyway…

GAMEPLAY:

Let’s all make JTF levels now. And with the same exact music and tileset. This level is a lot like Neon’s JTF level except it’s less linear. But this level looks like it works less often (well, it did work a lot less a few minutes ago). “Flag Runer,” “Bese Defender,” and “field Rooster” are the classes and they have similar problems as to the ones in Neon’s level. The only things I can say I actually like more in this level than in Neon’s is that the hooks have events on them, the turrets work a little better (just not perfectly), and the layout isn’t all that linear. The main problem might be the horrible flow, like with what seems to be obstacles in the water. And the turrets seem to get in the way a lot. There are some other problems, but if you bug me on a chat client I may be willing to help.

EYE CANDY:

The eye candy here is slightly below average. As I said in Neon’s review, Disguise set the standard, but the level falls short. And the numerous tiling errors don’t help much at all. Please look at the example level carefully before using its tileset.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

There’s a full energy that only the “Bese Defender” can get, and that class isn’t worth staying in forever so the carrot placement is already horrendous. To make matters worse, the ammo placement isn’t spectacular. And to top things off, no powerups? It could be argued that because there are no carrots for the “Flag Runer” that this solves the no powerup issue. But the fact is, it’s better with both powerups and carrots than with neither at hand. So that’s a bad thing.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

No, no, no. Please try harder and test it out more thoroughly next time. No time to proofread my review so a 6.

To be honest, this is better than I thought it would be. So I’ll just shut up and start with my review.

GAMEPLAY:

This level somehow has a layout I can live with. There are many platforms placed almost in the same fashion as in Diamondus Warzone and Crimson Diamond, and its flow is good enough. It also looks just as balanced as DW and Crimson Diamond (but that isn’t necessarily a good thing). So for gameplay, it’s nothing too special, but it’s at least decent. The only major downfalls I see are the missing borders at the top (to prevent the flag bug), the 3rd layer covering the bases (nothing big, but I rather dislike 3rd layer over the bases), and some small layout problems (like how the blue base is in a dead end and the red base isn’t, and that area around 93,57 I’m not sure what it is for). Aside from a few small bugs, it’s OK.

EYE CANDY:

Well, it’s definitely different from most Diamondus eye candy I’ve ever seen. I would say it’s above average, although the bright green BG in 16-bit is a bit distracting (but I play in 8-bit mostly anyway). No big complaints here.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

I can’t say I like the +1 carrot near each base a lot. Especially the one right on top of blue base. I still favor a full energy carrot placed near the middle more. Other than that, this level has decent ammo and powerup placement—similar to DW (just not exactly).

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Maybe once, maybe twice. An alright level. A 7.

The edit: After I played the level a little more, I found some other flaws such as a low rf missile count (not to make a big deal, but I need that weapon to live) and only one singular start position in which both teams are suppose to use (I sometimes overlook this, but it is often very important). I’ll have to downgrade this to a 6.7, sorry.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

It’s been so long since I’ve reviewed a CTF level. This will be fun. I don’t even know if anyone minds if I review this, so here’s my review.

GAMEPLAY:

For a CTF level it would be bad, but as a JTF level it’s much worse. It’s way too linear for me to ever enjoy it. You basically just run back and forth. The players shooting seekers out of the turrets could be a challenge; however, this alone cannot make the level less dull and unplayable. The classes in this aren’t too good. The Warrior/Brute class is the only class where you can capture the flag; too bad it has no powerups. You are forced to only use RFs poorly placed throughout the level. The Archer/Bowman class keeps you (or at least tries to keep you) stuck in a turret. I rather dislike that. The Wizard/Dark Mage class gives you a weak ability to hide in the ground along with some ice (ICE?) and electro blasters to, by a slight chance, shoot incoming enemies who run over your area. This class is probably the worst of the three, and you would be quite foolish to use this one. This level seems to be the perfect example as to why EvilMike thinks there shouldn’t be classes in JTF that keeps you from capturing the flag. And I must agree; what would happen if everyone chose the turret class? And I have to mention this about the turrets: easy to get stuck in and then unstuck in. In other words, I can go through one side of the turret then come out on the other. This could be useful to get the seeker powerup when in the Warior/Brute, but I truly doubt this was the author’s intention. And the one tile wide border may still allow for a flag bug, and the area above the castle seems only easily accesible to spaz. I should also mention it’s annoying to see hook tiles without hook or vine events on them.

EYE CANDY:

The eye candy is right in between average and below average. It uses most of the tiles as they should be used, but it doesn’t use enough tiles to make the eye candy nearly as good as in Disguise’s example level (which is where Disg set the standard). Not to mention some tiling errors here and there.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

Perhaps some of the worst carrot placement I’ve ever seen. When I said add carrots, I didn’t mean put a semi-fast regenerating full energy carrot right on top of each base. The +1 carrot, only suppose to be available if you choose the turret class, is almost useful. Too bad it’s really is just something to keep you in that horrible class even longer. The weapon placement also isn’t great (as I started to mention earlier in this review). The seekers and the RF missiles were placed lazily. They were just large clumps of ammo barely placed strategically.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

That’s a trick question, no (to put it harshly). Don’t make your 2nd CTF level a JTF level. Work harder next time. A 6.

PS: You forgot to include the music, which would be fire.s3m.

Let me just say this:

“I know [my survivor levels] are Ground Force levels (I forgot to credit ET for the concept, too). ‘Survivor’ was originally suppose to be the name of the pack of Ground Force levels I made. But eventually, everyone started to call the concept Survivor and making ‘Survivor levels’. (I can’t help it if ‘Survivor’ is more catchy than ‘Ground Force’). So technically, Survivor is the 20 Ground Force levels I made, not the name of ET’s concept.”

That was an old quote, but it still holds true (althought at the moment it’s now 25 Ground Force levels). So please, stop labeling your GF levels as survivor levels, because I don’t want to hear Violet complaining about it.

On another note, these need work. Did you even try testing these? The Kosmic Destruction level doesn’t even have a usable warp at the bottom of the level (most events on the lowest tile of a level don’t work). And on top of that, the end area isn’t completely masked. There are also some gameplay issues, but I’m not going into that. I’ll save you the trouble and not actually rate this, although you can imagine it wouldn’t be too high.

Another CTF level but the same tileset?

GAMEPLAY:

I cannot just say the flow is bad right away. It is decent to the point where players can jump to get where you want to go. But it fails where players have to jump to get where you want to go. There are some small deadends which really could have been avoided altogether, such as the gap between the blaster and the fast fire powerup. If eye candy means sacrificing gameplay then choose gameplay. Some more springs in some places and less in others would have been better. I do not like the base placement at all. The blue base is almost in the bottom left corner while the red base is somewhat near the top center (or at least further to its closest edge than the other buse). I suppose the warps to the left and right of the red base could try to justify this, but it does not, and this probably was not the author’s intention. There are still some moderately empty spaces almost as if Waz was desperately trying to fill up the level with tiles. But it could seem to be like this because of the weak spring placement.

EYE CANDY:

Whatever I said about the last Waz CTF level with the Dark Reign tileset pretty much applies to this one.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

The carrot placement is probably better in comparison with the last level, although I cannot easily tell if only one carrot is used or not. If there is only one full energy carrot used, then the placement is not that good. And yet it can somehow work out. Ammo placement seemed too spaced out, possibly because Waz was trying to distribute it evenly throughout the whole huge level. There is TNT, although I do not know what for. Powerup placement is… I’m guessing it is like the way it is mainly so that the level has powerups. It’s nothing special, and I doubt it’s very strategic.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

I can’t say you should. I liked the last one a little more. My best advice is not to make CTF levels out of battle levels generally because of balance issues. It’s not great, it’s not horrible, but it’s a 7.

The Edit: 7? What was I thinking? 6.5 at best. Sorry.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

Another alright level by CelL.

GAMEPLAY:

Like previous levels, this has a good flow and layout pretty much. It’s not prefect, but what is? Perhaps the only downside is that it seems to be made for 4 players and down instead of 6 (I tend to like 3vs3-sized levels more, even for 2vs2s), but that’s not going to hurt the rating.

EYE CANDY:

Pretty much what is expected. It tries to be a little different and innovative for the tileset. Unfortunately, there’s a problem. The 4th layer BG tiles look similar to the 4th layer solid tiles, which already causes some confusion. In addition, these 4th layer BG tiles were used in the background layers as well, thus more confusion. And even worse, the vines in the level tended to blend in a bit with the BG. But like most confusing things, you’ll get used to it (hopefully).

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

A full energy carrot near the middle along with good ammo and powerup placement. Nothing else to say.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Perhaps. It’s good, but not great. Aside from eye candy, it doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from other levels like it. I’m giving this an 8.

I will now try to find everything wrong with this level.

GAMEPLAY:

This part of the level is not very good. At all. I don’t think there’s anything in this that would make it different than a battle level. And not a great one at that. In either case, it’s too big (at least IMO). Resizing from the default size would be nice. The bases were placed at the top corners of the level. This makes them both just a few tiles away from the top which could cause a lot of problems. It has horrible flow, too many platforms, deadends, no borders around the level to prevent the flag bug (I advise using at least 2 tiles, although 3 is better), and it is too open in various places. To make things worse, this level uses an annoying amount of poles (there were some poles about 10 tiles wide). And to top things off, there are hurt events. Yes, hurt events. The same things that kill the server but not anyone else. Don’t use hurt events in multiplayer. Ever.

I also forgot to comment on the chatroom. Never, ever, ever put a chatroom in a multiplayer level. There are chat clients for this. If you want players to be chatting instead of playing in your levels, then maybe you should get more experience in JJ2 before making any more levels.

EYE CANDY:

The eye candy actually wasn’t too bad at first glance. It’s nothing spectacular (it’s somewhat average) but it does try to be slightly different in some areas. But then there’s the background. Only one layer was used (no mountains, just the sky). It didn’t look that bad, but it was lazy, and laziness is never a good sign. And there was one place where solid 4th layer tiles were used in a BG layer which may be a little confusing. Not the worse thing, but still annoying.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

Several +1 carrots near poles. Atrocious. Try using a full energy carrot or two (not too close together) somewhere near the middle of the level instead next time. Ammo was unevenly distributed, mainly because of the giant open spaces with almost nothing in them. Powerup placement wasn’t much better, and some powerups were too close to each other.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Not a chance. I advise working on battle levels a little more before tackling CTF levels. And it’s “Reign” not “Regin” just to let you know. I’m rating this a 5.

Well, this is almost what I expected…

GAMEPLAY:

Not bad, but not new, interesting, or different. The layout seems more or less average. But it is much better than the previous CTF levels made. There are, however, several things throughout the level which hinder gameplay. The main problem would have to be with several of the one ways, such as near the red springs at 35,24. If you go up where the one way and the normal solid tile meet, you could get stuck. This is often ignored and it is a small bug, but it can become annoying from time to time (I already got stuck at 37,19 twice). It’s easy to fix this by making sure that the one way tile and the regular tile next to it both don’t have the same masking where they meet together (I had to use 3rd layer to make it work out in my Dark Reign example level).

EYE CANDY:

I can’t say it’s above average (I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary since you did make the tileset). The eye candy is good, although somewhat average. I can’t really say much anyway since the tileset doesn’t have the most variety in tiles.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

I might be able to live with the carrot placement, although I question it. There are two full energy carrots near the top (which are probably too close together). But major the problem is, the blue base is closer to its nearest carrot than the red base is. That could be another balance problem. And then there’s the ammo. It seemed to be distributed unevenly in several places. As for powerup placement, it’s not the greatest, but it’s all right.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

It’s decent, but I doubt anyone would. If you really like it, yes. If you really don’t, no. I’m giving this a 7.2 (and yes, that rating is somehow higher than Small CTF Pack‘s rating. I tend to give higher ratings to packs—for the extra effort and all).

Pepsi vs Coke? Right…

GAMEPLAY:

In a word, no. The level is a little hard to get around (especially with Jazz) and it has too many platforms in it. There were several small dead ends at the sides of the level. I could live with one or two, but there are just too many. And the coins are another problem. There are too many large clumps of coins, and to make things worse, all you get is some lousy food after going into the coin warp. Also, the thin layer of tiles that border the level in some places could allow for flag bug in laggy servers.

EYE CANDY:

I was forced to use Hardware Acceleration (already a bad sign). It may be a good idea to make tiles transparent, but when you make entire layers transparent, it’s never a good thing. Other than that, the eye candy is more or less average. And overall, I’m not too fond of it. I would blame the tileset if I were you.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

From what I can tell, there are three carrots that are accessible (one +1 carrot near each base and one near the top). There could be one more, but that certainly wouldn’t help. Then there are the full energy carrots near the top (which I’m assuming are unreachable) which are there either for eye candy or for taunting players. Either way, I dislike it. As for ammo placement, that wasn’t horrible, but not too good. What I disliked the most was the ice on the platform at 82,7 (I never really liked ammo touching solid tiles). The powerup placement is the most questionable, although it could be much worse.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Probably not this lifetime. I’m giving this level a 6.

The Edit: While the updates were for the better, it doesn’t improve everything that needs improvement. And the transparent layers could have been a nuisance to many, but it’s not the biggest problem ever encountered. So in all, my new rating is only half a point higher.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

Just to clear things up…

1.24 levels only work with the TSF Jazz2.exe and thus it does not matter which tileset is being used. No matter what, levels made in 1.24 cannot be played in 1.23, but it is true (as you probably already know) that 1.23 levels can be played in 1.24. So there.

Great…

I should have mentioned that no one should use the survivor.j2l format for filename. In the event that I ever make some more survivor levels (although not anytime soon) it will get overwritten.

It’s also nice to know that this level goes along with the 27-level survivor pack (the one in which I didn’t make several of the levels and only works for TSF). Joy.