time gear
Eternity in an hour
Your specific argument is:Um, I never used the "skill issue" as an argument? I mean that Sonic is what the main path in the level design is meant for, no? If not having a proper place to practice is the issue, then just follow up with my tutorial idea. I think it would work gre-
The new player should take the time to at least learn to use the Thok more properly.
This is the "skill issue" / "git gud" argument, just not worded as such. You are very specifically saying that if people are having issues with the thok's difficulty, then they should just get better at using the thok.I also struggled with the Thok when I started playing SRB2 last year. Of course it's gonna be difficult! It's the Thok! You're gonna Thok yourselves into bottomless pits, lasers, and enemies. I did too. I bet you did as well.
It shouldn't be on anyone. Think about this from the perspective of a new player who doesn't really know anything about the game and is just trying it out for the first time. Sonic's the main character of the series, maybe even your favorite character. He's the character on the title screen, obviously he's the default experience right? All the other characters are going to be sidegrades or upgrades in comparison, but he's the character you should experience the game with first.What I meant is more a streamlined tutorial. Like, after you complete the normal tutorial, when you start a new game as Sonic alone, it asks if you wanna learn how to properly use the Thok. If they deny that, then that's not on us that they made that decision, is it?
Except it turns out he's the closest thing to hard mode available from the start and while you're still getting the hang of using him the level design starts throwing death hazards around in places new players are going to be prone to accidentally thokking into, either completely by accident or as a result of panicking or overshooting a jump or etc. Sure, you were warned, but that's not going to make most people feel better about being effectively gatekept from enjoying the character they're likely to want to play as most due to his high skill floor.
The title character needs to be approachable. Ideally I would say it's the level design that should change, but ideals aren't always practical and it's a lot more work to redesign the entire game's level design with this difficulty curve in mind rather than to simply swap Sonic's ability out to one that's going to get new players killed less. That's not to say that difficulty is bad. Death is very much a part of the learning experience, but when the majority of new players are feeling like they are suffering a needless amount of deaths and it doesn't feel like it's their fault and is ruining their experience, that's an issue with the game.
Not exactly. Technically speaking, you never need to thok even a single time to complete the game, something that Amy in particular benefits from. More practically speaking, much of the level design directly discourages unskilled players from using the thok at all due to it being a death hazard nearby death pits and similar obstacles. It has fantastic utility for veterans who know how to properly utilize it to their advantage, but newer players often quickly learn to fear using it....what? Wasn't 2.2 built with the Thok in mind? Wasn't 2.2's main path built around Sonic alone and the Thok?
Let's say for example that Sonic was given some sort of double jump as his ability instead, and thok was relegated to being a shield ability. New players wouldn't need to worry about the thok's skill floor, and could use his double jump as a more traditional platforming aid making him more accessible without making him as vertically powerful as Tails or Knuckles. Shields granting access to the thok could be placed in areas that the thok is particularly useful in, allowing those of us who know how to use it to make better use out of it. On top of that, the perks granted by the thok would be accessible to every vanilla character, allowing us to mix in some even more advanced nuance to its use. Imagine performing a thok bounce on an enemy to gain some big air and distance, only to then chain that into Knuckles' glide or Tails' fly or even Metal's hover.