Competitive Custom Stage Hub

[~?~]

NOTICE FOR STAFF: If at any time an appropriate staff member feels that this thread should be moved to a different location, feel free to do so. I am unsure of where the best place to create this thread actually is, so I chose the general discussion hub. Sorry in advance if it is the wrong location. If there are any other issues, please DM me. Thanks.

The Competitive Stage Hub​

This is a thread that is dedicated to finding well made, aesthetic and also competitively viable custom stage builds made by the community. There will be an explanation to rules and qualifications. If anyone has any appropriate suggestions to improve this thread, feel free to include it in comments and I will look over them for use of application to the thread. I plan to gather together your competitive stage uploads for future customs tournaments (both with and without spirits) that will be held in the Tournaments thread section in the future. Those tournaments (and your stages used in them) will both be streamed and recorded for youtube for promotion of your stages, that way more people will see them and download them. The other function is so that others reading the thread can browse through potential candidates for their own competitive game play with new stage options other than what Nintendo has already provided them.

Rules​

- This is not a debate thread.
- When posting stage IDs, unless you are actually unable to, please post a screenshot or a video clip of the stage functionality, or some gameplay.
- Try to describe your stage to the best of your ability within your comment, as well as its functions and micro-strategies that your stage provides.
- If you want to post multiple stages, please edit your previous comments with an update instead of making a whole new comment (to stay organized).
- If your comment isn't to showcase and submit your stage, please make the comment relevant to the thread itself or to stages posted on the thread.

Guidelines For Acceptable Stages​

- Copious amounts of stage hazards or hazards that disrupt normal game play drastically and/or regularly are disqualified.
- Stages with walk-offs, or that have ledges too close to blast zones are disqualified.
- Final Destination style Builds are accepted, but will likely be overlooked.
- Even if your effort resulted in bad aesthetics, at least attempt to make your stage look like you tried (it doesn't have to be fine art).
- Tall walls that enable infinite pressure or sections to the stage that inherently favor stalling for specific character types are disqualified.
- Ice and Lava are okay, just don't base the entire stage around it. The entire stage shouldn't be a stage hazard.
- All portions of the stage must be able to be reached by all characters in the cast. Stages that inherently disadvantage specific characters are disqualified.

 

[Saikyoshi]

While there are some issues with using custom stages in a competitive-style environment (the whole "you can bounce against the sides of platforms" thing turns even a copy of Battlefield into a Cave Of Life, not to mention the busted ledges), I do at least try.

I'll go see what stages I have that fit the bill here. In the meantime, I have a few suggestions for other regulations.

• All grabbable ledges must be tested with a tether recovery character such as Ivysaur or Joker as to not inherently exclude those characters. Testing with characters that "ride" ledges with their recovery like Mario and Fox is also preferable.
• The entire stage must be accessible by the least mobile character, Little Mac, without assistance. If it isn't, even though you won't find many people maining him, it still means your platforms are too far apart.

The following stages I think would be suitable if the problems with platforms were fixed.

I'll get screenshots of them in motion later. (Why can't I just friggin' e-mail them to myself like on the Wii U and 3DS, Nintendo¿¡)

Spoiler: Ugga Dome (Neopets)

This was my attempt at making a Delfino's Secret/Endless Abyss Æ-like stage. While I didn't have control over exactly what layouts it went to, all things considered I think it did pretty well.

Why this area? Well, there's a skimish every two weeks at this obelisk, you side with a faction,fight opponents, and if your faction wins in the end, you get a site bonus. And the factions available change every instance, so I thought...

Layout description: The six platform sections slowly change how they're arranged throughout the match. They start changing to a new one roughly about every full minute or so, and no that was not on purpose.

(If you're wondering how I did it, the rails of all six segments are equal-sized, overlapping diamonds which return upon colliding with another platform. The settings of all rails are synced with each other to ensure that they do collide. And they're set to a very low speed so they stay in a given layout or similar transitionary layout for a reasonable amount of time.)

View attachment 221529
With this, you can have Smashville's moving platform with a hazards-off ruleset.

View attachment 221530
I WAS going to just adapt the alternate Pictochat form in PM Netplay, but you can't pass through platforms attached to a gear, it turns out. So I took a couple more liberties with it.

Layout description:

Smashville (Net): ...it's literally just Smashville, with looks given to it to replicate the version in PM Netplay.

Swapnote: The tethered platform in the center swings back and forth, tilting. The winged envelope acts like the support ghosts in Yoshi's Island Brawl, periodically popping up on alternating sides of the stage.

Spoiler: Green Hill Zone (Project M)

Getting that chain to sync and STAY synced was one hell of a time.
Also, the ledges are visually messed up because otherwise, they'd be FUNCTIONALLY messed up. Blame Nintendo, I did try.

Spoiler: Small, a.k.a. Kirby Beta Stage 1 (Smash 64)

This was the first thing I thought of when I heard we could make thin platforms have ledges now.

Spoiler: Merchant Port (Rivals of Aether)

Took me way too long to figure out how to get that wheel passable.

Spoiler: Air Armada (Rivals of Aether)

The entire stage bobs slowly up and down like in the game, and to use the manually-activated springs, drop through the thin platform.

Layout descriptions:

Green Hill (PM): The platform in the center swings in an arc, staying upright as it does so.
Small (64): A Battlefield-like stage where the thin platforms can be grabbed. The main portion of the stage can be passed through.
Merchant Port: A wheel with four platforms attached to it rotates in the center.
Air Armada: A simple stage with higher platforms (given grabbable ledges for accessibility). There's a spring in the center that can be used by dropping through. The entirety of the stage moves slightly and slowly up and down in sync.

 

[Xelrog]

I don't think aesthetic should be factored in the slightest, personally, if this is supposed to be about design. Most of my stages are just arrangements of platforms for gameplay; I'm no artist.

That said, I haven't gone out of my way to upload a lot of them because the upload system is so very lacking. I really hope it's updated in a future patch such that you can actually browse what you've uploaded, see downloads and votes, and take them down if desired. Until then it kind of just feels like a sea of mess and revisions that's not worth scouring to me.

 

[~?~]

I'll go see what stages I have that fit the bill here. In the meantime, I have a few suggestions for other regulations.

• All grabbable ledges must be tested with a tether recovery character such as Ivysaur or Joker as to not inherently exclude those characters. Testing with characters that "ride" ledges with their recovery like Mario and Fox is also preferable.
• The entire stage must be accessible by the least mobile character, Little Mac, without assistance. If it isn't, even though you won't find many people maining him, it still means your platforms are too far apart.

The Mac suggestion has been applied to the original post as it's a viable enough concern within the stage designing process, that some characters being inherently severely disadvantaged isn't a good concept to consider 'competitive'. I also agree that being able to bounce people off of the sides of platforms is somewhat of a minor issue within the concept of competitive builds, but note we can also play around with it to some degree to make it competitive. Hopefully in the future, Nintendo addresses this issue and allows us to apply soft sides or hard sides for platforms. As far as tether testing, don't worry, I already have that as a priority to look after because there are plenty enough people playing Pokemon Trainer, Joker and even the Belmonts to have concern over it.

Also, the Rivals of Aether recreation is mucho-interesting in all considerations. It's one of my favorites in RoA (tho I like Krags stage the most).

I'll for sure be adding that to the list, testing that one out for play in my Custom stage arena for showcasing on youtube. I hope it plays well because the aesthetics are quite nice on top of it. Would be quite a good feature to promote.

On a side note, thank you for your suggestion contribution to improve the thread.

I don't think aesthetic should be factored in the slightest, personally, if this is supposed to be about design. Most of my stages are just arrangements of platforms for gameplay; I'm no artist.

Like I said in the original post, it doesn't have to be fancy or even done super well. It's not a fine art contest. Just something to add flavor to the stage so it isn't as you said "just an arrangement of platforms". Even if it's just a poorly designed floating object in the background, it's something to differentiate the stage from others that might have similar structure layouts, a 'flavor' of ice cream if you will.