I came back to this game after more than a year and I have never seen such great and fair level design. For me its a huge improvement to the legacy levels. Do you have any special situations you can name so I can understand what you mean?

I think he is talking about the later levels
Such as overload for example

PS: The lost of Echoes Is even harder

Originally posted by quetzaquotl:

Trial and error is bad game design imo, srry.

I think I've already seen someone say that and that's kinda wrong, I mean trial and error was a game design back in the arcade game (which distance is), dying in Distance isn't a big deal as the respawn time is fast, you learn the level design after some tries, I could agree that it would be frustrating but you shouldn't expect to finish the level with one live on the first try.

As snakeeye also asked, do you have any specific examples? I can only see one or two particular jumps being difficult to see what you're meant to do, though those are mainly in dark areas, and you can freely change the gamma slider in the graphics options if it's hard to see in a dark area. Outside of darker areas that can be fixed by adjusting your gamma, I don't think there was any poor indication in either of the campaigns.

Seriously it's not that hard. I mean i started playing this game when it was in EA and the Campaign was't explaining much( and still didn't need to read any guide). The campaign right now teaches you all the basics need to beat the campaign. After i beat the campaign i just started watching some replays if my time was very bad on a track and saw most of the "deeper" mechanics and how to use them.

The only "trial and error" is basically just not having enough "skill" yet to perform the jump or turn you should perform. But it's not like there is some deep secret (especially not in the new campaign) that the game wont tell you.

I think they could have made default controls better -- maybe try using different inputs for rolling so you don't have to steer/roll/twist with the same stick.

Originally posted by Kurbz Tomp LAPD:

After playing the level "embers" I can sincerly say that I hope every developer who worked on this game gets aids and dies.

I do not say that they deserve this. I do agree that the game is pretty difficult if you don't have a controller or a very good handling of the keyboard and how it functions. I do feel that the gold and diamond times should be relaxed a little bit as it used to be boosting 24/7 around the track and not blowing up was diamond but now it is almost required for gold so that is the issue not really embers or the levels

I think the Early Access Campaign levels were more intuitive. I finished the campaign mode then and loved it, but have had trouble in several areas in the new campaign (only ~60% complete ATM). I genuinely think it's an issue of lighting/obfuscation. 95% of the time, they've done a great job. 5% of the time, I think they forget to play from the perspective of someone who isn't familiar with the track already.

A specific example I can think of is the track where you have to go left to find the alterante exit. Yes, there's a sign with an arrow pointing left, but there's also a blue hologram ahead of it. (Is the AI world trying to trick me?) But only when you get close to the blue hologram does the red hologram appear and make you crash. (Did I miss a checkpoint to clear the red hologram?) This had me stuck for a few minutes.

Originally posted by Crawdaddy79:

A specific example I can think of is the track where you have to go left to find the alterante exit. Yes, there's a sign with an arrow pointing left, but there's also a blue hologram ahead of it. (Is the AI world trying to trick me?) But only when you get close to the blue hologram does the red hologram appear and make you crash. (Did I miss a checkpoint to clear the red hologram?) This had me stuck for a few minutes.

Which map was this?

Originally posted by Californ1a:

Originally posted by Crawdaddy79:

A specific example I can think of is the track where you have to go left to find the alterante exit. Yes, there's a sign with an arrow pointing left, but there's also a blue hologram ahead of it. (Is the AI world trying to trick me?) But only when you get close to the blue hologram does the red hologram appear and make you crash. (Did I miss a checkpoint to clear the red hologram?) This had me stuck for a few minutes.

Which map was this?

I believe he is referring to the end of Automation.

Campaign doesnt need a rework, maps are good, they could use some... minor polishing. But even this is pointless becouse it would result in reseting global records (again). So, i say they are in good state, not perfect, not awesome, but pretty good, i have one problem myself that i found in campaign but i belive its game related not map related (namely, the 90 degree ramp connector is buggy, got destroyed when driven into one, the one that looks like quater of O)

Originally posted by WolfLikeASir:

I believe he is referring to the end of Automation.

Originally posted by Crawdaddy79:

A specific example I can think of is the track where you have to go left to find the alterante exit. Yes, there's a sign with an arrow pointing left, but there's also a blue hologram ahead of it. (Is the AI world trying to trick me?) But only when you get close to the blue hologram does the red hologram appear and make you crash. (Did I miss a checkpoint to clear the red hologram?) This had me stuck for a few minutes.

If this was Automation, then at the end before passing this cooling ring, this is what you see: https://i.imgur.com/FxnRZHj.jpg
After you've passed the cooling ring, the red detour sign appears, pointing at the "infected" end: https://i.imgur.com/Oa4wOt2.jpg
And the road following that jump is tilted in such a way that it catches you even if you jump directly toward the detour sign instead of in the direction it's pointing: https://i.imgur.com/IwCqwzX.jpg
I'm not sure what would have been confusing about this.

Why is your game different-looking? Looks like it's cell shaded

Originally posted by Ikagura:

Why is your game different-looking? Looks like it's cell shaded

Stylized outlines, used to be a graphics option but with the 1.0 release, they moved it to cheats for some reason.

Originally posted by Californ1a:

If this was Automation, then at the end before passing this cooling ring, this is what you see: https://i.imgur.com/FxnRZHj.jpg
After you've passed the cooling ring, the red detour sign appears, pointing at the "infected" end: https://i.imgur.com/Oa4wOt2.jpg
And the road following that jump is tilted in such a way that it catches you even if you jump directly toward the detour sign instead of in the direction it's pointing: https://i.imgur.com/IwCqwzX.jpg
I'm not sure what would have been confusing about this.

Quite blatantly, the real exit to the left is totally obfuscated while the fake exit is visible as you go straight. You have to blindly go left on what looks like debris to find the real exit.

I don't agree that the campaign needs a rework, but I do think that the tracks aren't as intuitive as they could be (or even as intuitive as the early access campaign). I went back to play Automation to make sure that was the one I was talking about, and it is a good example because in addition to the above, about 1/3 of the way through there's a bluff drop (in tunnel, before rings that appear as you progress) that had me quickly frustrated.

Having said that, after comparing screenshots, I think I see where the disconnect is.

This is what my game looks like:

http://www.crawspace.com/ss/misc4/distance01.jpg
http://www.crawspace.com/ss/misc4/distance02.jpg

And this is the bluff I was talking about:
http://www.crawspace.com/ss/misc4/distance03.jpg
http://www.crawspace.com/ss/misc4/distance04.jpg