Mr. mistress's stage redesigns

Here, I'll post some ideas for revamps to current Crusade stages.

Asteroid Field

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Bramble Blast
-First Version

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-Second Version

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-Final Version

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Good Egg Galaxy

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Rice Beach
-Original

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-Updated

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Green Hill Zone

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Vegetable Valley
-v1

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-v2

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Mute City (Inspired by the Big Blue adventure stage from Melee)

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Cutman's Arena

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Chemical Plant Zone

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More ideas will come soon. Constructive criticism is much welcome.

They're both way too gimmicky... in a bad way..

Honestly I like Bramble Blast, although Asteroid Field leaves me indifferent.

The BB depicted here allows for more direct confrontation, and I prefer it.

Maikeru wrote:

They're both way too gimmicky... in a bad way..

Yeah, instead, let's have the great and original asteroid field we have.

I like it

Maikeru wrote:

They're both way too gimmicky... in a bad way..

Just wanted to post some very interesting concepts since I felt that these stages failed to take advantage of their sources (ex: Bramble Blast not having cannons)

Slissith wrote:

Honestly I like Bramble Blast, although Asteroid Field leaves me indifferent.

The BB depicted here allows for more direct confrontation, and I prefer it.

Not a fan of current BB (it's actually one of my least favorite stages in the game currently), so I wanted to create something that stays true to the original while at the same time allows for more confrontation.

SmashKing201 wrote:

I like it

Both?

I like both though astroid feld looks kindalike a lyrat crise brawl in design.

Yeti Dk wrote:

I like both though astroid feld looks kindalike a lyrat crise brawl in design.

And thats a good thing. Keep the arwings on the sides and remove the asteroids (or make them no longer a hazard) and you have a nice and well ballanced stage. Lylat Cruise was a good stage in Brawl, and as long as it doesn't tip back and forth in this game it works well. The arwings on the sides remind me of the clouds in Yoshi's Story (Melee) and can help with recovery if they are pass-through.

I just don't like the BB idea though, sorry.

Whats with this hazard obsession? Most players (yes including non-competitive) prefer the stages without hazards, whether you realize you do or not. Almost all players list FD as one of their favorites, if not singularly favorite. Don't go overboard on stage designs, simple is almost always better

perfecthell4 wrote:

Whats with this hazard obsession? Most players (yes including non-competitive) prefer the stages without hazards, whether you realize you do or not. Almost all players list FD as one of their favorites, if not singularly favorite. Don't go overboard on stage designs, simple is almost always better

Except we have too many simple stages.
There should be a balance of simple and gimmicky stages.

perfecthell4 wrote:

Whats with this hazard obsession? Most players (yes including non-competitive) prefer the stages without hazards, whether you realize you do or not. Almost all players list FD as one of their favorites, if not singularly favorite. Don't go overboard on stage designs, simple is almost always better

There is a fine line between "simple" and "boring".

Many of our current stages are crossing it.

I am not really fond of hazards, indeed, but interesting Layouts are very important.

Bloody Gallade wrote:

Maikeru wrote:

They're both way too gimmicky... in a bad way..

Yeah, instead, let's have the great and original asteroid field we have.

Yes because the concept here looks like the lylat cruise but with incoming Meteorites.

To be honest, i'd rather stay with the asteroid field we have at the moment.

As for Bramble Blast, it just leaves me an entirely different impression since the stage felt like it was more bridged and not broken down into platforms.. And also the barrels

Updated the OP with GEG and earlier designs of BB.

EDIT: Also, looking back at AF, the meteorites aren't really that necessary. I just want a better layout with Arwings occasionally acting as platforms. The meteorites was just an extra idea that apparently many (if not all) of you aren't fond of.

EDIT 2: Updated the OP with Rice Beach.

EDIT 3: Updated the OP with Green Hill Zone.

Bump. Added Vegetable Valley.

Vegetable Valley is really good. I commend you.

I am highly against the GEG change and somewhat against the RB change. Reasons being that most stages lately have been becoming more and more complex/gimmicky, and its getting progressively worse. The problem here is the lack of new competitively viable stages for tournaments, which might not be a big issue if we didn't have this post trying to additionally take away our few currently viable stages and turn them into banned stages.

The balancing team does keep casual players in mind as well as competitive, it would be nice if the community could look at stage design in a similar way. I'm not saying stages can't be interesting, just that the occasional simplistic stage (new or old) be LEFT ALONE. Us competitive players need them.

How is Mistress's suggestion not competitively viable
it's FD with a house and two platforms on the side

But in all honesty, I'm fine with the current geg

We could always copy SSF2 and make stage hazards optional

Updated the OP with Mute City.

Welp

While I appreciate your work to reduce boring stages, some of these designs just seem a little over-the-top. Par exemple, Asteroid Field and Good Egg work fine, whereas Rice Beach is a tad on the odd side.

Edit: To further clarify, try not to over-do it on the hazards unless you really need to. To paraphrase Jak earlier, there's a fine line between simple and boring, yet on the contrary, there's also a fine line between interesting and unnecessarily convoluted. Also, long and rugged designs like you have for Vegetable Valley are and should be few and far between.

Esper wrote:

Welp

While I appreciate your work to reduce boring stages, some of these designs just seem a little over-the-top. Par exemple, Asteroid Field and Good Egg work fine, whereas Rice Beach is a tad on the odd side.

Edit: To further clarify, try not to over-do it on the hazards unless you really need to. To paraphrase Jak earlier, there's a fine line between simple and boring, yet on the contrary, there's also a fine line between interesting and unnecessarily convoluted. Also, long and rugged designs like you have for Vegetable Valley are and should be few and far between.

I really appreciate the feedback, and I have been looking back to a few stages and trying to make them less convoluted, although It's proving a bit difficult for Bramble.

Maybe I should get rid of the Munchers and disappearing platform on RB.

As for Veggie Valley, I guess I can get rid of that rugged area on the right and scale the stage down a little more.

Added Cutman's Arena to the OP.

Cutman's Arena is fine as it is, in my opinion. The only thing that could be fixed is the height of the platforms.

K wrote:

How is Mistress's suggestion not competitively viable
it's FD with a house and two platforms on the side

But in all honesty, I'm fine with the current geg

The problem is going to be with those side platforms. If they are solid, then that creates a big problem in the space between them and mainstage. If they aren't solid, theres no ledges where the edge game will be taking place. In either scenario, it's a bad situation for competitive play

I also don't see how this one is better than the current one, which i think is perfect as is. Gives the neutral stages some variety from the standard BF and FD

Additionally, this post is changing RB and VV into obviously banned stages. If all three of these go down that road competitive play will be left with very little to work with, especially considering this OP keeps adding more and more stages, which is scary considering how few competitive stages will be left already if these changes all happen.

Again, I'm fine with improving uninspired stages, but if a stage looks fine and the only problem is simplicity, understand that simplicity isn't a problem at all. I just want to make sure a few are left alone. For example, if RB and VV are gonna change, leave GEG alone. If GEG is changing, maybe leave RB or VV alone

perfecthell4 wrote:

Again, I'm fine with improving uninspired stages, but if a stage looks fine and the only problem is simplicity, understand that simplicity isn't a problem at all. I just want to make sure a few are left alone. For example, if RB and VV are gonna change, leave GEG alone. If GEG is changing, maybe leave RB or VV alone

Well, these are just his suggestions. In order to get in, they would obviously need a spriter, and quite a bit of support. They should at least have polls to get in imo.

And just to clarify, I'm fine with RB and GEG staying the same, although Vegetable Valley should change IMO. Because RB had a Brawl hack stage, and GEG is a fan-favorite

A few points:

-I'm actually OK with the current GEG. What I offered was an idea that, juding from perfecthell's argument, won't come to pass.

-I agree that Cutman doesn't need a 2nd revamp, but rather have its current issues ironed out, such at the platform height and the AI going into the spikes. (I will admit, though, that I prefer my design over the current, but whatever.)

-Rice Beach, on the other hand, I just find to be a very underwhelming stage. I'm aware that it had a Brawl hack and that it's a popular tourney, but I still believe that we, can and should, come up with something better and not necessarily turning it into a banned stage.

-Vegetable Valley, as it stands, just speaks of bad design and needs a redesign IMO.

I think all three should be left alone, I like them as they are.

perfecthell4 wrote:

*textwall*

The "problem" is more than just simplicity.

While Rice Beach is fine as a simple stage, Good Egg Galaxy is wasting potential. The Galaxy series has so much more to offer for stage design than just a perfectly flat platform with two lines of bricks on each side.

Competitive play should not be considered when designing stages. If a stage is simple and should be simple, so be it. What Crusade lacks severely at the moment is general casual fun factor, as well as variety. Turning items on only leads to capsule after capsule, and most stages, even the relatively interesting ones, are pretty boring.

I seriously think we should have a stage design team since most stages in crusade are very boring

Esper wrote:

perfecthell4 wrote:

*textwall*

The "problem" is more than just simplicity.

While Rice Beach is fine as a simple stage, Good Egg Galaxy is wasting potential. The Galaxy series has so much more to offer for stage design than just a perfectly flat platform with two lines of bricks on each side.

Competitive play should not be considered when designing stages. If a stage is simple and should be simple, so be it. What Crusade lacks severely at the moment is general casual fun factor, as well as variety. Turning items on only leads to capsule after capsule, and most stages, even the relatively interesting ones, are pretty boring.

Again, i have no problem with new stages having fun and interesting designs for casual play. The problem comes when threads like this and any other in the future start redesigning any and all simple stages. If unchecked, i can guarantee that by the time we have v1.0, the only legal stages left will be BF and FD, maybe some other past stages that get in and were legal on console. I don't see whats wrong with GEG's design

EDIT
If we get a hazard switch feature, that would solve all of these problems.