Finished playing through most of the vanilla maps with him, so I wanna throw my hat into the ring re: Ray's glide mechanics. While I would like to largely avoid comparisons to his Mania Plus incarnation cuz it's been forever since I've played it, it's kind of impossible to, seeing as it was the obvious biggest point of inspiration for his moveset here. To put it shortly- I feel like he's too weak here. As a whole, SRB2 has a lot less verticality than the 2D classics- which feels largely inherent to being a 3D game making things more spread out than vertically stacked. Not to mention, average jump height is lower across the board. As such, Ray has a lot less room to work with his glide right out of the gate. The air boost and wall cling help compensate, but I feel like it's not enough- especially in tandem with his flight's decay. It feels very good when you can get a good dive going and maintain that momentum over a distance, but opportunities for that in the first place feel very few and far between.
I think the biggest issue is the speed of loss of momentum when going upwards. At least, that felt like the worst point in my messing with him. It just feels way, way too harsh. In my mind, Ray is something of a mix between Tails and Knux with his own unique points. The link between Knux and him is gliding, of course- but I feel like he shouldn't struggle to gain at least some height from a glide, even an extended one. Not to Tails' relative extreme, but I don't like that it takes a lot of chaining wall clings to get even a fraction of height at a point. I do understand it's somewhat of a skill floor vs. skill ceiling issue, what with badnik bouncing, but I think the difference in feel is a little too harsh.
Mainly, I think Ray's best unique point vs. Tails and Knux is how well he can gain and maintain both speed and, to a point, height by comparison to both- in Mania Plus, at least. He has a much harder time with both in SRB2, it feels. If you wanted specific suggestions for what to change, I think his flight decay needs to be, if not outright removed, heavily reduced somehow- either extend the timer until it starts by a fair portion, or make it happen far more gradually. I can understand wanting to keep a character from being totally busted overpowered and able to skip everything in a level, but i feel like, when compared to Tails and Knux, he's outright weaker than the both of them. Even if Knux' glide is limited, he can still do it for... well, as long as he needs, without any repercussion, and has an unlimited climb to support in getting a lot of height for his glide very easily. Tails has the speed decay when ascending, and a timer, but he can still get crazy distance and good height both. By comparison, Ray has to struggle to maintain speed and height, and his only means of keeping or regaining it over more than a short period is badnik bouncing.
To sum it up, I think he needs to be buffed to be brought more in line with the other vanilla characters capable of flight/gliding- at the least, bring his effectiveness at his skill floor up to be more on par. As it is, he just doesn't feel great starting off, and I feel like that might deter people from putting the work in to really come to grips with him.
Regardless, the team did as great a job as always- I can still tell just how fun Ray'll be once I've gotten closer to the skill ceiling, and it's very nice to see him join the rest in SRB2. Cheers, Combi-rings!
edit: Ah, I forgot to mention. One idea I had re: lacking high places, letting Ray glide off of springs and similar level design gimmicks like tornadoes would help a lot. is only idea though