Stage
From Dan-Ball Wiki
A stage in Stick Ranger is a set of levels. Each level occupies the space of the entire screen, and navigation to the next level within a stage is done via the "next" sign located to the right of the level. Characters will always spawn on the left side of the level, with the exception of the Town and the Village, where they spawn to the right of the Shop.
Each stage contains enemies, with the exception of the Town and the Village, which has only one level and no enemies. Players will start at the Town upon game creation. All other stages have 4 to 10 levels, except for the Castle with 2 levels. At the last level of a stage the player will encounter a boss or a group of bosses.
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[edit] Advancement
Every stage has a place on the world map and is connected to other stages. To finish a stage, all enemies in the last level have to be killed, inclusive of the Boss (or bosses), and the player must complete the stage by dragging a character to the "next" sign. It is not mandantory to kill enemies on earlier levels of the stage. Once a stage is finished, the next stage on the world map is revealed and the player is allowed to proceed onwards, or to revisit an earlier stage. If you finish a stage which is the final stage of the game, you return to the title screen. But you can still load your game data and continue playing.
[edit] World Map
Navigation between stages is done with the World Map. The player is able to jump to any unlocked stage, even if there are stages in between the current location and the intended destination. A completed stage is displayed as a red dot, while an unfinished stage is displayed as a yellow dot. The Town and the Village are always displayed as a white dot, and the Castle is always displayed as a miniature castle.
[edit] Terrain
The terrain of a level or a stage refers to the "ground", "walls" and "platforms".
[edit] Tilesets and colours
The landscape is generated by using tilesets consisting of tiles 8×8 pixels in size. The ground in most stages is orange, covered with green grass. However, when in the Castle or at the Castle Gate, the ground is blue with an icy white cover. The terrain of stages in the Hill Country series are a murky green with a beige-brown covering. These three terrain types have previously been used for the walls in the game Irritation Stickman. The stages in the Forest series utilise tiles similar to that of Hill Country stages, however it is of a greenish ochre colour. In the cavern stages a redish brown tile set is used
[edit] Landscapes
Special levels, such as the Town, boss levels as well as the Castle have a linear terrain (i.e. level ground). Terrains of other levels are randomly generated through selecting an area 58 tiles in width from a long landscape. Thereafter, the columns on both ends of the terrain are extended by 3 tiles, to form the final terrain that is 64 tiles in length. The use of the extension mechanism is to allow for flat land on the far left and right sides of the screen for characters and the NEXT sign to be placed on.
The Castle Gate and Opening Street have rather linear terrains, with the largest height difference between high ground and low ground being 2 block steps (or the height of 1 character). In the Grassland series, the terrain is dotted with steps and walls. The largest height difference between high ground and low ground is 4 block steps. In addition, the Hill Country series and Lake have varied terrain that spans a greater height, as well as mid-air platforms. Moreover, Lake is an underwater stage, featuring water that covers part of the stage and most of the terrain. Small parts of water can also be found in the Cavern stages, which is the only landscape with a completly closed ceiling and a windy level structure.
[edit] List of stages
| Stage | Version added | Book cost ($) | Menu colour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Street | V1.0 | 1000 | Orange |
| Grassland 1 | V1.1 | 2000 | Orange |
| Grassland 2 | V1.4 | 3000 | Orange |
| Grassland 3 | V1.6 | 4000 | Orange |
| Grassland 4 | V1.8 | 5000 | Orange |
| Grassland 5 | V1.9 | 6000 | Orange |
| Grassland 6 | V2.0 | 7000 | Orange |
| Grassland 7 | V2.1 | 8000 | Orange |
| Hill Country 1 | V2.6 | 9000 | Green |
| Hill Country 2 | V2.7 | 10000 | Green |
| Hill Country 3 | V2.8 | 11000 | Green |
| Castle Gate | V2.3 | 12000 | Blue |
| Castle | V1.2 | 13000 | Blue |
| Lake | V2.9 | 14000 | Orange |
| Forest 1 | V3.1 | 15000 | Yellowish green |
| Forest 2 | V3.2 | 16000 | Yellowish green |
| Cavern 1 | V3.3 | 17000 | Reddish brown |
| Cavern 2 | V3.5 | 18000 | Reddish brown |
| Cavern 3 | V3.6 | 19000 | Reddish brown |
| Seaside 1 | V4.0 | 20000 | Brown |
| Seaside 2 | V4.1 | 21000 | Brown |
| Seaside 3 | V4.3 | 22000 | Brown |
| Seaside 4 | V4.4 | 23000 | Brown |
| Submarine 1 | V4.5 | 24000 | Reddish brown |
| Submarine 2 | V4.9 | 25000 | Reddish brown |
| Submarine 3 | V5.1 | 26000 | Reddish brown |
| Mist Grove 1 | V5.3 | 29000 | Yellowish green |
| Mist Grove 2 | V5.4 | 30000 | Yellowish green |
