Subscribe to download
Dimensional Splice

Really needs an update

Good track...thanks for makin' it. Especially love that colorful loop+tele region.

That part you described is probably the most difficult part of the track for most players. It's not low gravity, but the transferring between tracks occurs at awkward angles as an attempt to foreshadow the breaking down of the track, so it ends up being a challenge.

I've been considering changing the teleportation areas for a bit now, I'm probably going to wait for sideless roads to be added and then make some changes.

And I'll edit the description to put things closer to the start, although I'd still like to see levels' descriptions on the loading screen beforehand. Maybe that's something I'll suggest.

To clarifty one part specifically which had a low gravity, as a vertical climb, and broken track gaps and added about a minute to my time. I actually had a lot of trouble trying to consistently choose the track colors. That may be why my impression is so many abrupt changes in pacing. If people are crashing a lot in the section of the track where the next step of the track is choosing a mood piece, there ends up being a more random experience?

Also. Just to let you know. I didn't subscribe from the workshop, this auto-loaded. There isn't enough time to read the descrition when it auto-loads online. So perhaps if the description could be tightened up or shortened, there may be less confusion for others going forward.

"Also ... I thought at first that certain colors coordinated with lost abilities (no jump no fly no boost) but instead of being able to predict things that idea made it worse." This is where reading the level description might have helped. The tracks are colour-coded based on their difficulty. It's hard to make that inherently obvious when you never play the same section in multiple different colours in one run-through, so I tried to choose colours that coordinated with a basic human sense of urgency. Blue - cool colour, safety, easy. Yellow - warmer colour, caution, medium. Red - warm colour, danger, hard. Of course, they all ramp up in difficulty towards the end, but that's the basic layout.

So to sorta conclude, you've made some points that I do need to take into consideration and look into, but a lot of the things that you mentioned fall into the experimental aspect of the track, and a lot of it would have to become much less experimental in order to be "fixed".

"There's enough content here for at least two, or possibly three tracks... ...But you've also got quite a few grossly intricate obsticle course segments that might fit together better as a slower paced boost juggle track." You've literally just summed up the entire point of the track. There are basically three tracks here. They are effectively one track, as the layout is the same, but each track has a different focus, and you choose which track sections you want to play. If I separated them into three different tracks, the entire dimension-jumping effect that I was experimenting with would be lost and it would feel more as though I was re-hashing the same idea to get three different tracks. I wanted to make it feel like the player had some form of choice in what they were experiencing. And I really don't agree with "grossly intricate obstacle course segments" when the most intricate thing involves 10 pillars and a saw in a very predictable pattern.

"...momentum lost from a teleport as reset ruins your ability to complete ridiculous jump / gap pacings..." I tested each individual gap after resetting from a checkpoint and had no problems completing each one. There's only one spot I can think of where resetting from a checkpoint would be a hindrance, and it would just mean letting go of boost for a moment, no gap involved. And I'm not sure why you included teleporters, because momentum transfers between teleports.

"Too many different pacings." There are three. You choose which one you want. They merge at the end. I can see your point, but given the fact that the pacing is based on the player's decision, there's not much I can do without defeating the entire purpose of the level (again, this was more focused on the experimental idea than 100% making an awesome track).

"Too many points at which it drags." Probably a side effect of how I set up the transitions, if I had to guess. I can see the problem, but diverting the player's attention away from their decision was the last thing I wanted to do.

Before I respond, keep in mind that this track was effectively an experiment. Also, this response is going to be over the course of many comments, to respond to each of your points.

"Too much content." I can't really argue with this. The idea grew way beyond my original scope, but besides the lag, I don't see how too much content is a bad thing, considering that the level is still limited to about three and a half minutes on a good run.

"Too many different ideas." The entire level is one idea. The rest of the level is just expansion on and development of the idea. I guess you're more refering to track design elements rather than the track itself, and again, those were just different ways of evoking the same idea. I have to find some variation when I'm using the same track three times.

Also ... I thought at first that certain colors coordinated with lost abilities (no jump no fly no boost) but instead of being able to predict things that idea made it worse. Just a thought, if you insist on using the entire track, color coding the sections could possibly take some of the learning curve / abrupt shifts in pacing.