Ok i've read comments here pertaining to the 2 caves(geode and alucard caves):
Ok to start off with. i will go over my basis for the decsions on both Geode's caves and Alucards' caves seperately.
Geodes
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Well to begin..the older level just never fully did it for me.. In terms of size, plainess of backgrounds..and lack of things going on. This newer version..shockingly i though would be more appealing. I added in flickering geodes, a crystal cavern areas, and some bridge to help with some originalilty. The level was also way to small like alucard's cave which i'll hit upon shortly. The addition of spreading otu the level(which originally was planned to be even bigger) made it so that some new enemies could be added(similary this was the case in al's cave too). Liek teh bosses in cv3 the enemeis are just too mcuh the same..not enough variety...so retro and i had some nice idea with adding cave trolls and rock armo, also frozen shade. Obviously they are chosen for their appearence in cave levels in cv games. The bridges i though were neat..cause alot of tmes in real caversn you will see these crossing over gorge's or cliffs. Like in salt mines or geode caves. Furthermore Retro and i had some extra ideas planned but due to his departure out west, we werent able to make that happen. So i shot what i could have the level thus far.. In terms of size hieght the orignal wasbnt bad..but this version has alot more waterfalls and in generalli just think looks much nicer. I played the two version and dveifntly liked this much better. In essecne the overall color and scheme of the level is the same or near it. I did want to go back and pull out the bridge in front of the crystal cliff, cause i had some neat stuff planned..but yeah..theirs not much else here to say with this one.. Either way i coudlnt show off everythgn i wanted to..
ALucard's cave
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Ok here, to start off with..and after i made it i said the same thing..so i will be changing the sheme to be not only darker but also possibley more grey and closer to the appearnce of the old one. However....the size of the old ones was just ....alot smalelr than anticipated..and was seemingly after altering the geodes, not only have the size of that..but also about the sizeof molten caves. The old al caves was very crammed.. easier to get through and to me a skip,hop and jump to alucard boss. Also like geodes..when i found i could put in animated waterfalls and such..i decide to do that..but made it more cavern like in depth..which personaly i think you'd see more of that.. Too many backgrounds in the old dditn capture the depth well. If you noticed in this level their are many more backdrops. Also the old goonies styel ship the depth was horribly wrong on that..so i got rid of it..and put in this shipwrecked area.. ALucard' top room is the only room that is dffint in terms of appearence.. but not entirely uncanon. I just cut out the walls and made it look like an upper cave/cliff. perosnllay i think it looked far better than the first one i did. STill has the waterfalls too! As for the other rooms..well i defintly went thoruhg and made damn sure that the rooms themselves were iddentical to the ones in cv3..with the execption of one thing...theyre alot bigger. And because it was so crammed before..now you can see more..and experiecne more. Also where you say their are less pifalls, their are exaclty the same as the original they are just not as visible due to the height and widght of the rooms. I did notice also the fact that if i let the areas have only the exact amoutn of enemies the original did..barring the upgrade in size..that the areas would be too long between enemies. WHich i kknow what your saying and furthermore may add in more. But to be honest..i had to say when i made alucards caves this time..it's is just far more fun, and spacious to play...also the challenge is probalby harder than the original i made..you can get p'owned by cave trolls,frozen shade, and rock armor if not careful. So yeah i wil change the schem defintly..but i just dont see going back to the old ones..i think you'd see the differnce..their just not as good imho..and way too short. I also puposely did not include doors..as many times you will not see them(though not impossible), if anythng wwanted to add in some open and close skulls heads for the player to walk through..maybe they open automaticlaly or by a swtich..soemthign differnt. I may consider reworking the levle a bit smaller to be like nes version or could alt back..but in all honesty..i feel it's rather dull in nature and personally not as good, canon yeah..but playabilty.not nearly as fun..
Summing it all up
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While i see the need to keep these levels canon as reiko said.. i dont see the need for all the rooms to be small and crammed. Notie many newer games wont do this. I am doing my best to keep the game a faithful port, as you know these are not custom areas at all..BOth levels are the same as teh canon cv3 version(just bigger). I can see posibly color shcemes and keeping he game close in nature a priority. But sometimes keeping it the same means, dulling down the game..and where it is sometimes over dueing it..adn sometimes not doing enough..i think these two levels were closer to putting together real caverns that fit to the size of the game and its' niceness in backgrounds/level layout. The old levels just never fully flew with me..if for some way i can get them back in and find room for the game..then i would probaby do so(cant' promise this though).. Size constraints might make a differnce. Personally retro and i both liked the revamps, and in this case other than the color schemes of al's cave..i would say yeah i thnk they are pretty solid revamps tahta keep to being canon. Keep in mind they are not nessarily set in stone..Honestly..i did some heavy thinking before sitting down doing these levels..and honestly felt that these would be pretty favored revamped levels. Appearently that isnt necessarily the case.
As for falling of too far from the original..i'm not sure even if these 2 caveas are that far differnt.that it is destroying it's canonness. I play the levles and they still seem to me to fuly represent the 2 levels in the nes imo. Just alittle bigger and rewroked for realism.
Next on the plate
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I am in the process of reworking Warkiaya village Overall playing the old version was better than the first attempt,but i felt.. still left much in the way of what i wanted to accomplish or actual ruins. So i am revamping a final time. Keep in mind heavily with level 1..some areas..i have not a clue what the hell they are supposed to represent..so i am merely keepin the mainstay of the level similar to the original..yet recreating some areas..so that it makes more sense to the viewer. I am not really altering any of he rooms..but i think you will see what i mean when i show Barring the 2 caves videos..i'm not so certain how i should revamp now..i just dont care fro the old warakiya as much as the newer concept im coming up with..same as teh caves.. I think it's possible playing the levels and wacthing in a vid are much different.. I am looking to enhacne the level and make it more of a ruins..I am not looking to overplaster it..wtih too many burning flames..and broken building..but to merely have it some distinction between a normal town and a town in seige. The original doenst exaclty looks like much of a town or ruins for the nes..but it's an nice levle none the less. I have already added in alot of interesting new stuff..i'm not sure i wanna spoil that with you just yet..but it is definetly differtn. The room sizes are bigger in general..not all..but it will still represent warakiay village.. With that..the only other level i could possibly see revampig would be the dungeon..adn i do think that it's pretty canon..but the SCV4 sprites are just so out of date looking.. I may keep it i may not..but i'd still base it the same way it was and not do much in terms of size..just various changeing of some tiles and dungeons more or less rms 1,2 or 3 of dungeon. I liked the latter 2 rooms fine.
I am open to ideas on this..but honestly..it took a lot of work to get those two caves..with so much eye candy going on..im really not sure i agree with everyone and want to pull them apart again. The color scheme for al's cave is an easy fix and wont take much time..
Keep in mind..my goals are too keep the levels canon..but to enhance in areas i feel the need to enhance asweell. .This is not me stating the old caves arent more faithful to the nes..but we also arent talking about 8 bit players sizse and larger block either and realism.. Sometimes i am just trying to make more sense of what a level will look like in terms of reality too. Notice i took out the orange blocks in warakiay.. What is more real, the orange blocks or Ooe cobblestone tiles? That's really what i'm getting to with the cave levels. I apologize if it didnt fully hit base..but i certianly like them alot more personally. I think retro did too..but i did what i felt need to be done.
Also..i agree to a good amount with you on vampireprotector about taking suggestions and doing what other want for your game. Sometimes this can be a good thing as others may suggest something that maybe more enhancing or bring something to light a developr has missed. However in some cases..too many ideas by too many people may somewhat dissolutjion you from creating a level the way you envision it. I just saw alot of need to improve both caves for various reasons, though i agree with at least the schem of al's cave. Based on original reception of the levels earlier back on this thread page 4 adn 5 i believe. I really got no response that i could see on geodes, and i did get prett good response on als' caves..but it's exaclty fro some of the same reasons i enhanced which someone mentioned A) cavern needs more lighitng in it some areas n background would be lighter than others,B) some areas are empty(maybe i could even fill in more enemies though they are tough) and C) well i personally would not have reveamped especially a's caves if i did not thing it was too crammed. I really didnt like being able to almost see the bottomf ot eh screen from the top layer platofroms comning frome the uppper doors. The size for me..never really worked.. The shceme i can see changine. Apologizes for the long paragraphs words...lol