Modding > Spelunky 2 > Playable Feedback Document


Implements various level generation changes from the Speedrunning community, and patches out minor bugs and issues.
By:
Dr.BaconSlices
Downloads:
130
Mod Type:
Mod Pack
Install Code:
playable-feedback-document
Added:
2 years, 2 months ago
Last Update:
9 months, 1 week ago
Average Rating:

Details


Greetings Spelunkers!

I've made a little mod that fixes a bunch of blocked paths, bugs, and other problems with everyone's favorite game! This mod works online if everyone in the lobby has it installed, feel free to read about the changes, and hop into a marginally less frustrating experience.

This mod implements all of the level generation changes suggested in the Speedrunning Feedback Document!
To view that original document, click here:
The "Spelunky 2 Speedrunning Feedback" Document

The goal of these changes is to clean up the level generation to make the game more enjoyable for speedrunning and casual play overall. It doesn't impact game balance in any major way, though it can generally be considered easier due to all of these changes being beneficial to the player. This isn't intended to be a balancing patch for difficulty, but rather QoL and Bugfixes.

Any changes made are detailed within the level files themselves for anyone curious! Only modified files are shipped with the mod, and each file contains both the original and changed rooms, with comments indicating which are which. A couple of these notes are a bit messy, feel free to reach out if you have questions.

This mod does not make changes to level generation logic. Requests like "Make the Udjat Chest Room adjacent to Path" haven't been added with this mod. As much as I'd love to add new rooms, this mod only modifies existing ones to stay true to the current state of the game. (Sunken City definitely needs more path rooms but that one is on the game devs, sorry!) Fixes that require scripts might be something I tackle in the future, but that hasn't been done yet.

Special Thanks

Hectique for creating the original document
NWDD for putting it in Derek's loving arms
Garebear for the logo
Estebanfer for the Splash textures
Omeletttte for the Hanging Hide textures

Level Generation Changes

Global

- Removes empty rooms tagged with !ignore to clean up the level files, but only from modified files. No impact on gameplay. Unused rooms have been left in. Let me know if I missed any.
- Fixes a DAR layout that can sometimes generate a floating pushblock, causing the landing sound to play when you start the level.

Dwelling

- A particular path_drop and exit room combination would cause fall damage very often, both the path_drop room as well as the chunk_door in the exit room have been adjusted.
- A few rooms did not have the !flip tag, so they would never appear mirrored ingame. These rooms have also been made more common because of the very strange approach of manually flipping these rooms. Maybe the !flip functionality didn't exist yet? Also, the few rooms that DID use !flip have also been made more common, so all of the rooms have an equal weight. Please note that this change alone is enough to make run seeds different from Vanilla.

Jungle

- A notorious set of Bigrooms no longer have a Pushblock when on path.

Volcana

- Converted the Bone Block tiles into Floor tiles in Van Horsing's 2-1 room. These allowed Skeletons to appear in the room, often causing issues with HH hurting Van Horsing and therefore locking you out of his quest.
- Adjusted one of the entrance_drop rooms to no longer force ropes when leaving shops and such.
- The Metal Clanking level feeling room has been adjusted so that it no longer requires an insane jump at the bottom.

Tide Pool

- A tile has been removed from an entrance room to prevent forced fall damage when it generates above a Bigroom.
- Tide Pool's sliding walls on path are now open by default. This is a high priority and fairly controversial change, and I have notes on it below.
- Tide Pool will no longer require a rope to leave the Stars Challenge or Shops occasionally.
- Multiple changes have been made to the row of rooms above the Lake of Fire. This section is a mess in terms of being possible in Low%, so if you catch an impossible scenario, please leave a comment below describing the rooms and their positions.
- Both lakes have had rooms adjusted to prevent corner spreading taking place too close to the exit door.

Temple

- An exit room with a mummy has been adjusted slighly, removing an occasional need to surf to leave the level.

City of Gold

- Fixed a couple of chunk_ground being able to block paths when adjacent to the Kali room.

Duat

- Guaranteed an Ammit encounter in Duat for the sake of AJE (All Journal Entries Speedrun). Duat has a whopping 2 unique Entrance rooms, both of which will house an Ammit now.
- Adjusted the lava in the Apep rooms to make traversing these rooms less ridiculous.
- Fixed blocked paths caused by coffin rooms in multiplayer.
- While this shouldn't impact gameplay, removed some relic code for an idol_top room, left behind when Duat was copied over from the Dwelling level file.

Neo Babylon

- Fixed multiple instances of forced fall damage caused by path_drop rooms featuring raised drops.
- Fixed a very rare blocked path caused by a path_drop room leading into the Ushabti Entrance room.
- Neo Babylon Bigrooms are much less frequent, dropping from a 1/1 to a 1/4 in viable configurations.
- A certain path_drop_notop room in Neo Babylon now has the flip tag.

Sunken City and Hundun's Hideaway

- Altered some path rooms to have less intestines, making those rooms far less detrimental to speedruns.
- Implemented a fix for gold generating in front of intestines in Sunken City, killing Low NG runs. Currently, this is handled by generating skulls in place of where gold would generate, preventing it from doing so. In the future, the skulls will be removed by some entity that is instantly removed.
- A path_notop room could occasionally force a resource due to a specific chunk, fixed by altering the 50% tiles in the chunk.
- The Sunken City Tallroom has been altered a bit to allow alternate paths depending on surrounding rooms.
- Sunken City Tallrooms are less frequent, dropping from a 1/2 to a 1/3 in viable configurations.
- A small adjustment has been made to the Idol Room, preventing an inescapable layout.
- Decreased the amount of water in a few rooms in Hundun's Hideaway, hoping to alleviate a lot of problems caused by water during the bossfight.

Eggplant World

- Fixed a blocked path caused by the Empress Grave.

Cosmic Ocean

- A Volcana room has been made more open in hopes of having less blocked orbs.
- A beloved and cherished combination of rooms in Temple could result in a large Crush Trap dropping on a player that had their hands off of the keyboard for 5 seconds or so when starting the level. While I will miss this combination dearly, the mod shifts the Crush Trap up to prevent this due to popular demand.
- Six rooms in Jungle had been edited to be far more open. This is a weird area to tackle, the entire theme is frustrating but I won't be overhauling the whole thing, that isn't the point of the mod. I edited the six rooms mentioned in the original document, assuming they were the most problematic.
- Very many asymmetrical rooms were not flipping correctly, all of which have been fixed.
- While this shouldn't impact gameplay, fixed the stray linebreak that split one of the Ice Caves rooms in half.

Texture and Audio Changes

- Cosmic Ocean Jellyfish are now slightly transparent, rendering them unable to fully obscure enemies and traps
- Cosmic Ocean Foreground Rocks are now slightly transparent, so they will no longer hide orbs
- Splash Screen textures are now significantly darker, so there is no more flashbang on game start.
- The Hanging Hide in Dwelling (also called a Banner by people that don't know what a Banner is) now has holes in it, preventing hidden Bats and Spiders from doing cheap damage.
- The horrible texture artifacts on Pushblocks have finally been fixed.
- Flowing Water audio is much quieter. Might be too quiet?

Problems Even I Can't Fix

  • Seeded Runs will not be the same between Vanilla and PFD (this mod).
  • Hermit Crabs wearing tiles causing huge issues sometimes.
  • Memory Leaks in Neo Bablyon or Tiamat's Throne due to the Forcefields and the audio engine.
  • Clipping out of bounds by bombing an exit door while leaving, changing the Spelunker's state. Believe me, I tried.
  • Duplicating back items by whipping them while players put them on, or something (?????).
  • Incredibly niche circumstances that make Paci or No Gold runs more difficult
  • The Lake of Fire Idol Trap being triggered by some depravity with snap traps and Pangxie.
  • Content "problems" like repetitive bossfights, why the hell would this mod touch that anyways...
  • This game is evil.
  • Other incredibly niche nonsense
  • Some exploits are enjoyed by players, my subjective opinions shouldn't dictate the changes made by this mod, so I won't be attempting to fix some problems I could fix, if other players enjoy them

Problems I Can Fix But Have Not (Yet?)

  • Elevators not aligning with other tiles.
  • Udjat Chest cannot be removed from it's room.
  • Allow Bigrooms, Widerooms, and Tallrooms to generate unlit walltorches in Dark Levels.
  • The hilarious 3-1 Skeleton, you know the one (this one stays).

Notes:

Tide Pool Sliding Door Solution
- Pages 3-5 in the document outline a high priority issue without an obvious solution, being the Tide Pool Sliding Wall Path_drop room. My approach was to force the Sliding Wall to start raised rather than lowered, cutting out the wait time. This does not entirely align with the room layout listed in the document itself, for which I apologize, but I deviated from that layout with the belief that my approach is a more realistic version of the room itself that I would expect to see in the game, but even this approach I find unrealistic. However, my solution isn't perfectly clean- I use a rock to toggle the switch, rather than a script. This is for the sake of it working online and without further complicating any issues that may come up with moderation/cheat detection, if the mod ends up being ran officially. I doubt that will ever happen, but it's good to be safe.

Interested in seeing some gameplay? Here is an old recording of a Volcana-Tide Hundun Run. Note that due to the nature of the mod, many of the changes are not immediately obvious.
Gameplay Showcase

If there are any changes you think should be made with the mod, or any features to include, let me know! I try to check the comments on my mod pages daily, but if you want a more efficient way to reach me, I'm @Dr.BaconSlices on Discord.

If a majority of these changes end up making it into the game, this mod will be unlisted, but it seems like the odds of that happening are the same as the odds of getting a Wormpack out of a crate...

Closing Words

There is nothing I want less than for this mod to be taken the wrong way. The original Feedback Document puts it quite nicely, "This list is by no means an essay against Spelunky 2 – while some of these situations can be frustrating, the abundance of our time spent playing this game is enriching and rewarding!"
All of these changes come from a place of good intentions. Behind all my snarky comments is a fan that wants nothing but the best for the game, and as much as I hope the work put into this mod shows that, I can't help but be worried that this comes across as me "fixing" a broken product. I may make jokes here and there, but this game is about as close to perfection as it gets.
But with all that being said, I would be absolutely thrilled to see the #patch-notes channel in the official Discord light up once more...

Downloads


Latest Download
Downloads Name Uploaded
25 PFD.zip 9 months, 1 week ago

Comments (1)


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10 months, 3 weeks ago

wait this mod is actually a year old already? :oldism: