If you could tweak Munch's Oddysee?

[Bullet Magnet]

Stick some Easter-eggs from stranger in there. The odd outlaw wanted poster, or make one of the fuzzles a chippunk. Sewer slogs could be slegs?

I'm just saying, the cross pollination that makes them seem more like the same world could work both ways.

Oh, and the shaman could look more like the concept art (or even be Bigface?) and he could appear and disappear into birds. When portals are used birds should flutter away when they close, and the respawn eggs should be replaced with a bird-respawn.

Birds!

Fish in clean lakes.

Possessed characters get blue eyes. If they have eyes.

Animals should not have security orbs for health. Bats, maybe.

More caveart on the walls.

[Manco]

When portals are used birds should flutter away when they close

And also replace the generic “angelic choir” sound effect that plays when portals are active with something closer to AO/AE’s sounds.

[MojoMan220]

See below.

[MojoMan220]

If you can't really add much, maybe you could take some things away? Namely, less spooce in the environment, and consequently less needed for spooce locks.

Hear me out. I think this would be a great opportunity to take something unanimously loathed by fans, and turn it into something that actually adds to the gameplay and immersion. Instead of mindlessly running through fields of infinitely re-spawning spooce, have half-a-dozen or so (maybe less) placed in the environment, so you actually have to take a moment to look for them. You could make this challenging for players by hiding them, or simply place a few of them off the beaten path. It's a cliche, but in this case, less is more.

As for this inevitably affecting Abe's possession ability, is it really even necessary to require spooce for this ability? I don't think I ever once had to look for spooce so I could possess a slig, seeing as it was more than plentiful in the environments.

So in conclusion, if you could make only one other change to the game, for me, this would be it.

[DarkHoodness]

+Rep for that man - That idea would be an easier alternative to "fixing" the spooce rather than removing it entirely.

(and whew, I'm glad I'm not the only one who was annoyed by the entire Spooce concept)

[Sekto Springs]

I second making spooce more scarce. The only detraction I can think of would be you couldn't have spooce paths. This isn't a free-roaming world where you can get lost in the vast environment. Paths aren't necessary, and it's far too platformy for my liking.

Wholeheartedly agree on the possession thing. You didn't need spooce to possess enemies in the last game, and you shouldn't need it here. I mean, does it really add any extra difficulty? It's psuedo-difficulty. Your possession orb is too small, so you spend an extra five minutes regrowing spooce to make a new one. It's not a clever gameplay mechanic, it's just shameless padding.

Oh, and I just remembered one of the biggest things that bothered me from the original game. When you activate a storm circle, actually make it rain. It's called a storm circle, not a magically generate water out of nothing circle. Natives. Rain dancing. That whole thing. Please please please. A five second storm cloud/rain sequence would make a world of difference!

[Varrok]

And also replace the generic “angelic choir” sound effect that plays when portals are active with something closer to AO/AE’s sounds.

+1... no.. +2

[Nate]

Oh, and the shaman could look more like the concept art (or even be Bigface?)

I don't want him to be Bigface, because I don't want to hear Bigface's actual voice or to have him be irritating. But I do second the motion of making him look more like the long-feathered original design.

As for this inevitably affecting Abe's possession ability, is it really even necessary to require spooce for this ability? I don't think I ever once had to look for spooce so I could possess a slig, seeing as it was more than plentiful in the environments.

If I remember correctly, there were some levels where Abe was prevented from possessing enemies because there was no spooce. They'd have to install anti-chant orbs in these locations.

When you activate a storm circle, actually make it rain.

Yes, this.

Here's a clear video of the beam here (thanks Metroixer).

As you can see, there are two gaps in the beam that you have to jump over. These gaps break the beam into three pieces, but the center piece is being suspended by nothing.

Timestamp?

[Wil]

Sekto did actually include the correct time in his link; can't work out why it isn't working. Go from 2 and a half minutes in.

[Nate]

Oh, because in Youtube URLs timestamps need to be formatted '1m20s'. Only in the embed code should it be the number of seconds as a count.

EDIT: Oh, yeah. Now I remember.

[Wil]

Weird. I've never seen the '1m20' format. Every time I've ever used the 'link to timestamp' function it's returned '80s' instead, and I've never had a problem with it working before now.

[LIJI]

+Gazillion for fixing spooce and possessing. Spooce don't even fit with the story, why the hell would Abe suddenly need to collect magical-infinitely-regrowing-green-things to use the key ability he used dozen of times in the previous games?

For the record, I haven't finished MO yet, but due to the combined negative effect of everything stated here, I became very disappointed from this game; other than the FMVs, the game feels like a half-assed fan game. (And since I've been DYING to play it for years, it made me even more disappointed). I agree with pretty much everything said here.

[Sekto Springs]

I presume this time around there won't be any SoBe machines.

[Glitch]

In regard to changing the camera angle, this is what I mean:

at the moment it looks sort of like image 1; the camera is fairly low, obfuscating a lot of the work and the floor, making it hard to jump anywhere.

Image 2 shows how I think it should look; deeper viewing angle with a slightly more zoomed out camera means that you can see just as much of the world, but also have the luxury of being able to look in front of you too.

[Wil]

Abe has four fingers!

[MeechMunchie]

Screw you, Japan!

[Michael]

I've never actually played Munch (was going to buy the oddboxx until I heard of the PS3 versions and am waiting for those!), but I have watched a lot of gameplay videos.

Not sure how the camera worked on Xbox or PC but would there not be an option to have the camera controls on the right analogue stick, to rotate left and right? On a lot of games, moving the camera stick up or down changes the zoom. For example, if we move the stick down the camera could become closer and parallel to the ground, whereas moving it up would make the camera zoom out and become high angle, like the second image Glitch posted. This would satisfy people wanting precision jumping, and the ability to get in close and look at the HD models

Whether they are possible to implement or not, I fully agree with everyone on;

-changing the sounds to be more like AO/AE (paramites, scrabs, footsteps, portals, mudokon voice pitch etc. This could help drastically with atmosphere too)

-changing Abe's jump back to a realistic jump, with ledge grab

-reducing the amount of spooce and not requiring it for possession

Someone mentioned about there being no fall damage too. Providing there are no levels where you have to jump from a really high ledge to progress, I think it'd be great to add a new animation that if you fall from too high, Abe or Munch crunches into the ground like in AO and AE.

Lastly, would there be any chance of removing the cartoony stars which appear when a character gets hit? I don't know if there was actually any blood in MO, but it would up the tension a lot I feel if there was blood akin to being shot in AO and AE. Nothing too gory of course!

[elums mum]

I 1000000000% agree about having less spooce in the environment and less spooce actually needed. Could we get a whole new model for the spooce as well? It just looks stupid :-/ at least make it glow or something do it looks sorta special.

I agree about the stars as well, maybe new animations to show that there dazed and a bit wobbly???

[Fuzzle Guy]

I think what most of us, as the hard core fans of the series would like to see is something that clearly bridges the tone and atmosphere of the first two games into the tone and atmosphere of Stranger.

It needs to be set on the same planet - it's the same world, the same dark stories are being told. Dark and Dingy, mysterious and atmospheric. Noir. Grit. They're all some of the things we loved about the first two games which Munch's Oddysee just lacked completely.

Oddworld was a beautiful place. The artwork within the games locations were beautiful. They picked up again with Stranger's Wrath so let's get it back !

• Darker Atmosphere
  
• Replace the SoBe Vendors with Sekto Springs Vendors. Water is the healthiest health up of all!
  
• Make the Mudokons seem more pathetic. When the Sligs beat a Mudokon in the first two, you felt really sorry for them. I really didn't want my Mudokon's to die in the first two games - in MO, I personally didn't care.
  
• Get rid of all the cartoony stuff. Similar Sound Effects to the first two games and Stranger if at all possible - it'll help with the atmosphere. I don't know if new music - or even re-using AO AE and SW music - is too much to ask. But a man can dream!
  
• Wild Fuzzles look and act like Strangers Wrath Fuzzles.
  
• Hiding in the Shadows?
  
  
• Bolamites chillin' in the Raisins Cave and Clakker Porn Magazine on the desk in a Glukkon's office. I rest my case.
  

I really LOVED a lot of the things in MO. Getting to see the Mudokon Villages etc. really was great - it would just be a lot nicer if they tied in better with the other games so yeah. My main gripe is atmosphere.

We're really making you guys work for your money... apologies.

Edit: Also, yeah. Does it HAVE to be just Fuzzles in Vykkers labs? I mean, surely you already have a tonne of live ammo CG Models and behaviours programmed... (I'm just being picky, throwing ideas out there now.)

[Bullet Magnet]

I don't want him to be Bigface, because I don't want to hear Bigface's actual voice or to have him be irritating.

Abe's Exoddus, opening FMV. Bigface. Speak. Irritating.

[Sekto Springs]

Replace the SoBe Vendors with Sekto Springs Vendors. Water is the healthiest health up of all!

I love the hell out of this idea, and not just because it's my name.

[Fuzzle Guy]

If you loved it that much you'd posrep me like it was going out of fashion.

[Havoc]

A lot of the ideas are above are completely game changing. Remember that they only have a small team in place to overhaul models and textures, nothing else. As much as I would like to see them implode the current version and build it back up from scratch, it's just not going to happen.

Overall my advice to JAW is to take a good look at the previous Oddworld games (which I'm sure they have already done extensively) and redo as much as their limited resources allow to get MO as close to AO athmosphere as possible. There were 2 fundamental problems with MO.

1. It felt and played like an N64 game on crack.
2. It didn't fit into the established universe at all.

So change textures, change sounds, take out every single cartoony/weird thing you can possibly butcher out within your boundries. Try fleshing out the world as much as you possibly can. The examples I very much agree with and think could be implemented:

And also replace the generic “angelic choir” sound effect that plays when portals are active with something closer to AO/AE’s sounds.

The sound effect of the portals in AO/AE did the job just fine. The portal sound in MO always bothered the hell out of me.

If you can't really add much, maybe you could take some things away? Namely, less spooce in the environment, and consequently less needed for spooce locks.

I love this idea but I have doubts about its implementation. As far as I'm concerned you can completely rip spooce from the game and throw it away. It's a stupid concept and is one of many things that has anoyed me while playing. Spooce locks are completely useless as you can just regrow spooce as much as you like. The entire mechanic is flawed right there. It's like being able to just regenerate coins in Super Mario.
However, like I said, it might be very difficult to take spooce completely out of the game. But if it's within the realm of possibilities, for odd sake take it out.

Oh, and I just remembered one of the biggest things that bothered me from the original game. When you activate a storm circle, actually make it rain. It's called a storm circle, not a magically generate water out of nothing circle. Natives. Rain dancing. That whole thing. Please please please. A five second storm cloud/rain sequence would make a world of difference!

Seconded. Part of improving the atmosphere and all that.

-changing Abe's jump back to a realistic jump, with ledge grab

Changing this might be difficult since many levels are built around this jump and certain puzzles get harder or easier (or downright impossible) if ledge grab was put in it's place. But I agree that if it's possible, please do it. But don't do it unless you've played trough the entire game using it lest you want the wratch of the Steam forums when they run into an impossible puzzle because of it.

Lastly, would there be any chance of removing the cartoony stars which appear when a character gets hit? I don't know if there was actually any blood in MO, but it would up the tension a lot I feel if there was blood akin to being shot in AO and AE. Nothing too gory of course!

There was blood and gore (in all it's pixel goodness) in AO and AE. Plenty of it. Hell in the first few screens of RF you cross a meat grinder where the meat is literary flying all over the screen.
There was plenty of gore planned for MO as well. You were able to toss sligs into grinders and out of 10 story windows. I see no reason to keep blood out of this game this time around.

I have another suggestion btw. I remember a big gripe I always used to have in MO was that Abe and Munch (when in his wheelchair) move around like they've injected themselves with caffeine. Munch could win the special Olympics no problem at all. Please fix their walking speed.

[Glitch]

A lot of the ideas are above are completely game changing. Remember that they only have a small team in place to overhaul models and textures, nothing else. As much as I would like to see them implode the current version and build it back up from scratch, it's just not going to happen.

I'm sorry to say that this guy has the right idea. Not only do we not have the time, we also don't have the tools required to make a lot of changes that we would otherwise want to make, such as changing level data.

Ledge grabbing would likely have pretty far reaching implications and would require animations, level changes, code changes, and perhaps even new sound assets.

Spooce, as god awful as it is, is here to stay I'm afraid; it's tied in to too many aspects of the game, to the point where taking it out would take such a stupidly long time that we may as well be remaking the game from the ground up.

We will be doing our best to sort Munch out to the best of our abilities, and to the highest standard we can attain within a reasonable time span. However, at the end of the day, time spent on Munch is time not spent on AbeHD, and although I want to see Munch improved to the point where it's a solid, fun game, I think that time would be better spent working on AbeHD.

Ultimately that will be more rewarding for you guys and us than rebuilt Munch game.

[Havoc]

To be honest I think making an HD version of MO is a complete waste of time all together. The gameplay is flawed at the base and no amount of shiny new graphics will fix that. I understand that it's a marketing thing though, so I agree with Glitch. Do it, but spend as little time on it as possible so there's more time to spend on new and important projects. Abe HD will be the real relaunch of the franchise. It's important all effort goes into that.

[Nate]

[*] Wild Fuzzles look and act like Strangers Wrath Fuzzles.[/I]

There weren't any wild Fuzzles in MO. They were all a captive variety bred specifically for testing purposes.

Abe's Exoddus, opening FMV. Bigface. Speak. Irritating.

Irritating, yes, but not actual speech.




As for spooce; can they be remodelled in to something better than a puffball growing out of the ground? Perhaps a flower-shape, or something more fungus-y.

[Wil]

Puffballs are perfectly fungus-y.

[Fuzzle Guy]

There weren't any wild Fuzzles in MO. They were all a captive variety bred specifically for testing purposes.

Oh? I thought there were some wild ones chilling nearby the Mudokon Fortresses. My mistake.

[Admiral Zaarin]

I'd like the spooce shrubs to be remodelled. They look cartoonish and cheesy.

Also I have to agree with Havoc. It would be better to concentrate on Abe HD rather than wasting time on MO. Improving MO graphics and leaving current gameplay and locations is like painting a rusty bucket car.

[Havoc]

Yeah well, the rusty bucket car in this case is supposed to attract attention for the brand new shiny Ferrari BMW that's coming up right behind it.