I'm just back from a trip to New Zealand, and think I agree with Soulliard. At any rate, I've drawn up rough sketches of my ideas for each sub-stage. They're kind of big, so you'll have to bear with me- is there some way to tuck them away neatly, like in a spoiler tag? This forum doesn't seem to have them. Sorry, anyway, because I'm about to clog this thing up something fierce.
NOTES:
Everyone spawns in the black area before falling down on to the level. The spawn area will probably have to be higher, just to be sure no-one's accidentally killed when the new level spawns.
Green lines show platforms.
Please forgive the rough sketchiness, this is just for platform arrangement idea purposes, before I commit to drawing them.
All platforms I've drawn that overlap into the spawn area appear after the players have landed, and are usually temporary.
I'm new at this, so I probably have the distances wrong.
Apologies for taking what used to be a simple, almost finished stage and complicating the hell out of everything.
Feedback appreciated and secretly coveted.
First, that Omega Darn we all know and love! Nothing much new here:
A: The Omega Darn would rise up once the players have landed. I'm not sure if players should be able to jump on his head- if so, it would probably have to be a bit higher. If players can stand on his head, then attacking while on his head could possibly hurt him, eventually destroying the darn and leaving only the stage.
Next, resized Penultimate Tango. Her head will probably change style, I used the old picture for now.
A: Tango will rise up a bit after the players have fallen down to the level. She shifts from left to right a little.
B: The wings act as platforms. They rise and fall a small amount, slowly.
C: Fighting on tangos head could possibly hurt her, eventually destroying her and leaving only the stage to fight on.
Moving on to something new: A stage based on the japanese level, in the memorable bossfight where Xoda has to stay on a water-wheel rocketing down a japanese stream as a giant robot dragon attacks her.
A:Forgive the 5-minute mouse sketch, that's a water-wheel that acts as the main platform. The wheel doesn't revolve- that would make things a bit hard- but does bump around a bit as it goes down the stream. Falling in the water washes you rapidly downstream, taking you offscreen and killing you if you don't jump out fast enough. The idea is to have a small, hotly contested platform that everyone tries to gain control over.
B: This small platform adds some random variety by swinging wildly between a few pre-set positions around the water-wheel, always staying horizontal. Sometimes it swings underwater.
C: The Mecha-Dragon appears occaisionally at either the left or right of the wheel (There aren't 2, like the drawing makes it seem). Warning is given by having it splash across the background scenery before it rises up. The heads can be jumped on. Occaisionally it starts to breathe fire (with some warning time), and the players have to scramble to find a safe spot.
And last, the Wild West Train Stage, inspired by the last boss of the western stage- a train.
A:The screen is only around the size of the black square. Everyone falls down onto the train, which moves slowly back and forth while the screen stays still, changing up the platform arrangement. Falling down onto the tracks = death. Occaisionally the train edges forward or backward far enough that there's only a small bit of train players can stand on, and then lingers there forcing them to fight for space.
B:The scenery goes past at a constant fast rate.
C: Occaisional platform clouds drift past.
WHEW. Sorry about the length of that. The idea is that the stage would change randomly between those 4. Maybe there should be one more sub-stage to cushion it out. Thoughts?
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