-My apologies for not answering the latest replies. Here's a progress update.
1. The upgrade tech tree has been re-worked. (Every player still has access to all the upgrades via their upgrade building.) Sonic and Shadow now use the same upgrades. Tails and Gamma use the same weapon upgrades. Tails, Vector, and Charmy now use the same armor upgrade. The weapon upgrades for Tikal are now the same as the Knuckles/Cream tech tree (Cheese uses it in the later case). The Knuckles armor upgrade is now shared by Chaos. Amy has her own weapon upgrade path. Gamma has his own armor upgrade path. Vector, Charmy, and Chaos now share a weapon upgrade path. Amy, Cream, and Tikal now share their armor tech tree.
2. I'm currently working on an imitation of the puzzle found in Hot Shelter Zone (Amy's version). I'll need some help getting this puzzle to work.
3. I'm considering setting up some triggers that inflict handicaps on enemy units depending on how may players are in the game. Credit goes to VG for this idea I read in his very inspiring post on the do's and dont's of map making.
4. The Chao Garden mini games (small and simple) are almost finished. All I need to do is to start hunting down bugs and fix them.
5. I'm considering the idea of creating codes that will allow players to play variant versions of all staring characters. (Play version 1.05 to see the basic character.) I'll need some help in this department. If you have any ideas, submit them in this format. As of now, I have ideas for a Tails varient that focuses on his mechanic skills via making robots and mechs, a gun toting Shadow variant that gives up attack power for range, and a Amy melee variant (strength hero) that gives up some healing skills, mana, and intelligence for some offensive skill, hp, and strength.
Character:
Theme:
Stat Changes: (- some stats, + some stats. Make sure the total number of hp/mana and str/agl/int, and total number of stat points remains the same)
Spells: 3 hero skills, 1 ultimate skill, and 1 non-hero skills. (You may keep some of the base skills if you want)
-If everything goes right, the absolute earliest day I can release the map is 11/15/05. This bit of trivia is just for fun. "What is the significance of this release date?"