darkSpyro - Spyro and Skylanders Forum > Skylanders: Trap Team > Who else thinks some TfB's levels suffer from emptiness?
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Who else thinks some TfB's levels suffer from emptiness?
HeyitsHotDog Diamond Sparx Gems: 8201
#1 Posted: 01:06:42 26/05/2015 | Topic Creator
I'm mainly talking about Giant and Trap Team.

I noticed this rather recently. I'll be playing Here's a list of levels I've noticed have the most emptiness. All of them are from Giants and Trap Team

Cutthroat Carnival: It's not the worst. but where are the rides? It's supposed to be a carnival, but it lacks a lot of what a carnival needs. Cutthroat Cove would have been a better name.

Glacier Gully: What is it supposed to be? It has a very regal appearance, but no castle insight. I doubt the Ice Ogres made it, they're portrayed and stupid and loving gross, dirty environments.

Wilikin Village: This one in't that bad. It just needs to be bigger and more populated.

Kaos' Kastle: Now, I love this level, but it's so empty and linear. Once you get to the main hall, and the two places that lead the areas that unlock the big door which leads RIGHT into the backyard. Not deeper into the kastle, the backyard. Pretty small kastle. Though, there are places that make it seem bigger.

Lost City of Arkus: It looks NOTHING like a city. It's a cave with some fancy, ancient platforms.

Skylanders Academy: No class rooms. Really? How can it be a school but it has no class rooms. Not that bad, it's my favorite hub, but it's well...empty.

Rainfish Rivera: What is it supposed to be? I'm assuming a shipyard for pirates to hang out at. It has a few bars or whatever they are but, where are the ships? No bigger buildings to make it looks more populated?

Telescope Towers: Obviously, this place is an observatory, but there is the observatory? Yes, I know there are buildings, but none have a giant telescope. A lot of it's outside with magical rooms that can't look at the sky.

Skyhighlands: What is it? Oh, it's the highest point in Skylands! But what is the purpose of the giant floating thing? A tourist destination?

Mirror of Mystery: It has a VERY small town, a couple of buildings and that's it. Do the trolls have homes? Where are they?

Midnight Museum: The biggest offender. I was so hyped for this AP. It's SO empty. Only two exhibits and most of the time your outside. I was hoping for a exploration based level with tons of rooms, each with their own theme (Dinosaurs, diamonds. Arkeyan Artifacts), but nope. Practically nothing.


The reason why I didn't put any SSA or SF levels it because they do a good job showing how big the environment is and suggesting that there's more to the area then what you can see.
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Edited 1 time - Last edited at 01:12:11 26/05/2015 by HeyitsHotDog
Bionichute Yellow Sparx Gems: 1889
#2 Posted: 01:22:19 26/05/2015
While I do agree that they feel empty, I'm going to try to defend some of them anyway.

Telescope Towers DOES have a giant telescope, it appears near the end. Skyhighlands' giant crystal thing is basically meant to be the Sky Pirate's hideout. In Mirror of Mystery we can assume that the trolls probably don't have that many homes because of the battles. Riviera means "Coastline", so Rainfish Riviera basically means Rainfish Coast, which is certainly what it looks like.

I can't defend any of the levels from Giants though, aside from Willikin Village, which had a lot of cool stuff in hidden around.
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HeyitsHotDog Diamond Sparx Gems: 8201
#3 Posted: 01:23:43 26/05/2015 | Topic Creator
Quote: Bionichute
While I do agree that they feel empty, I'm going to try to defend some of them anyway.

Telescope Towers DOES have a giant telescope, it appears near the end. Skyhighlands' giant crystal thing is basically meant to be the Sky Pirate's hideout. In Mirror of Mystery we can assume that the trolls probably don't have that many homes because of the battles. Riviera means "Coastline", so Rainfish Riviera basically means Rainfish Coast, which is certainly what it looks like.

I can't defend any of the levels from Giants though, aside from Willikin Village, which had a lot of cool stuff in hidden around.



You make good points actually. Mainly for Skyhighlands.
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Hey is there anything you want me to bring for the rest of the week and if so it’s so cool that you can do something and just do it like that
angelg Gold Sparx Gems: 2791
#4 Posted: 07:43:29 26/05/2015
I agree. I have always said I would like bigger levels, in fact an open big world where you can travel form one skyland to the other would be amazing.
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Drek95 Emerald Sparx Gems: 4761
#5 Posted: 07:51:00 26/05/2015
Agree with Bionichute, was about to write the same.

Skylands is a potentially endless "dimension" so we have giant islands or even archipelagos (there is an entire sea around Rainfish Riviera) but then we also have small clusters.
Remember that I doubt the inhabitants can move the islands to their will so they will have to adapt.

A gameplay explanation why these areas might feel emptier after playing SWAP Force is because there were probably a lot more objects inside them and they were also affected by a different physics engine, so they felt more "realistic" and less cartoony.
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Bifrost Diamond Sparx Gems: 9943
#6 Posted: 08:57:50 26/05/2015
It's pretty early but fine, I'll give specific answers.

Cutthroat Carnival: Not all carnivals had rides. At least on my country it's really just an excuse to have food tents and some game tents and call it an event, not to mention some things were visibly replaced with ship materials since the pirates took it over and don't seem to care about if there's anything to do in there.

Glacier Gully: Gully is kind of a weird looking valley with chasms. There's a glacier on it, Glacier Gully. Noodles is said have it really bad in the head because of cartoon brain damage so I wouldn't be surprised if he's just stranded there.

Wilikin Village: Can't say I wouldn't have liked the same.

Kaos' Kastle: It's kind of like in Nightmare Express where you spend so much time getting to the thing the devs probably noticed too late that the level would be too big. It seems to skip something in the way to the Royal Flush arena, so the inner castle was probably cut.

Lost City of Arkus: If it looked like a city for several-kilometers-tall robots, you wouldn't even notice where their houses are; that's just the place where they left the smaller defenses so the entrance to the throne room might as well just be one for outsiders. It kinda makes sense.

Skylanders Academy: Agreed, even more since there are rooms in the original concept and the place as a whole seemed to have a lot more internal areas.

Rainfish Rivera: Would you live at the place where Mags left most of her inventions on, with a giant elemental fish around? After it was attacked by pirates, no less? There are also some decayed remains of ships in very unlikely places so Mags might've been the only one around for a long time.

Bionchute answered the rest, and I don't have the last two to judge.

I always found the levels just fine, but maybe lacking in NPCs. Having one or two every 3 gates doesn't make any level feel more alive, especially when it's a recurring character.
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Edited 1 time - Last edited at 08:58:33 26/05/2015 by Bifrost
Kevin16 Emerald Sparx Gems: 4524
#7 Posted: 20:45:25 26/05/2015
I have to say, the levels in Giants and Trap Team feel really empty.
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defpally Emerald Sparx Gems: 4158
#8 Posted: 20:55:30 26/05/2015
TfB's levels DO feel empty, particularly of enemies. Last night I was trying out Cobra Cadabra for the first time, and I was a fair bit through a mid game level (the one where you capture Dreamcatcher) before I realized we hadn't fought enough enemies to go from level 1 to level 2.

And have I mentioned I hate jump pads because they suck on two player games? VV minimized them and TfB brought them back in force and then some. Rubber banding between players causes you to drag one player along and it doesn't always choose the right player (so you end up bouncing back and forth), and the TfB games insist on a much shorter distance between players so the characters are nice and big. Swap Force seemed to allow you to get much further apart before leashing you. Yes, the models looks really, really nice but sometimes you need to sacrifice aesthetics for gameplay - gameplay should be priority ONE.

One could argue Swap Force's levels are too long. But TfB is the one that needs some level design help, need more fighting, need to limited vertical movement to either jump height or elevator/teleport based and allow two players more space to do your own thing.
Bifrost Diamond Sparx Gems: 9943
#9 Posted: 21:08:18 26/05/2015
Co-op is glitched in all games,even SF. It just changes on what causes the player repositioning to go crazy(I remember seeing some footage of a Fire Gate in SF, the repositioning just threw the second player below the area until he reached the LOWER area' bottomless pit). I like having a balance of fights and puzzles,because both can drag on for too long and one becomes a button mash fest if abused, but nor VV nor TFB reached it yet.
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SO I'LL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT
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defpally Emerald Sparx Gems: 4158
#10 Posted: 04:52:20 27/05/2015
Yes, co-op isn't ideal in how it manages who it considers the leader. But, the jump pads are the worst offender. They just make it all worse.

I don't mind a good balance, but when I go through a third of a mid game level without anything to fight that's bad. Without fighting there is little difference between one figure and another of the same type, they all push blocks and open locks the same way.
Plordigian Blue Sparx Gems: 626
#11 Posted: 04:14:22 30/05/2015
Quote: defpally
TfB's levels DO feel empty, particularly of enemies. **Last night I was trying out Cobra Cadabra for the first time, and I was a fair bit through a mid game level (the one where you capture Dreamcatcher) before I realized we hadn't fought enough enemies to go from level 1 to level 2.


THIS. All day, this. There are so many empty rooms in Trap Team.

It's a real shame, because the game is gorgeous looking. Frequently, it seemed like someone had already come through the level and wiped out the enemies. A giant, beautiful ghost town of a game, sometimes. It would be really nice to know why this is. Not enough dev time? Not enough disk space?

Combined with the much slower pace of this game (especially the ponderous Trap Masters), it could be to accomodate the recharging of the villain timer.
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skylandersspyro Emerald Sparx Gems: 3860
#12 Posted: 04:17:09 30/05/2015
Quote: Plordigian
Quote: defpally
TfB's levels DO feel empty, particularly of enemies. **Last night I was trying out Cobra Cadabra for the first time, and I was a fair bit through a mid game level (the one where you capture Dreamcatcher) before I realized we hadn't fought enough enemies to go from level 1 to level 2.


THIS. All day, this. There are so many empty rooms in Trap Team.

It's a real shame, because the game is gorgeous looking. Frequently, it seemed like someone had already come through the level and wiped out the enemies. A giant, beautiful ghost town of a game, sometimes. It would be really nice to know why this is. Not enough dev time? Not enough disk space?

Combined with the much slower pace of this game (especially the ponderous Trap Masters), it could be to accomodate the recharging of the villain timer.


Isn't the game supposed to be the same on Wii,PS4 etc.Maybe its there because of the Wii"s disk space
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Tigorus Emerald Sparx Gems: 3589
#13 Posted: 06:21:37 30/05/2015
That and mid level check points...why did they get rid of this?....Oh yeah smaller more vacant levels...sorry bitter about the F.E. Amiibo's.
Drek95 Emerald Sparx Gems: 4761
#14 Posted: 07:16:17 30/05/2015
Quote: Tigorus
That and mid level check points...why did they get rid of this?....Oh yeah smaller more vacant levels...sorry bitter about the F.E. Amiibo's.


I honestly prefer shorter levels with more to do than long ones with less activities.

Sure, lots of fights.
But less "action".
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Current Number of Champions of the Skylands: 154
BlackWing116 Yellow Sparx Gems: 1480
#15 Posted: 09:54:42 30/05/2015
Quote: Kevin16
I have to say, the levels in Giants and Trap Team feel really empty.



I'm simply going to say that you took the words out of my mouth. I've got notthing to add whatsoever.
Tigorus Emerald Sparx Gems: 3589
#16 Posted: 15:13:14 30/05/2015
Quote: Drek95
Quote: Tigorus
That and mid level check points...why did they get rid of this?....Oh yeah smaller more vacant levels...sorry bitter about the F.E. Amiibo's.


I honestly prefer shorter levels with more to do than long ones with less activities.

Sure, lots of fights.
But less "action".



See I'm one of those crazy people that liked Swap Zones. It broke the normal level grind and added some diversity. Plus I LOVE longer levels with a check point in case I need to stop playing for whatever reason. I felt level pacing was more natural in Swap Force and I was satisfied with the length. Trap Team I was always, "That's it?". Or I'd be playing a level and I was fairly into it and the wife says "time to go" or something similar and I was like "ah man". It's not a huge issue either way I just preferred the beefier levels with alternate game play modes and check points.
spyrothe111 Ripto Gems: 3702
#17 Posted: 01:29:25 31/05/2015
I always noticed that in Giant's levels.
Junkyard Isles for me...
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