BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 25, 2015 11:33:59 GMT -8
My recommendation for dealing with things like this is to paste the html into something like wordpad, then use fractor's "search and replace" to convert all those entries to what they need to be. So it would be: Replace: "{td}" with "{td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 3px;"}" Then you just repaste the new html over the old on on the forum post. This is what I did when updating the battlez indices (and also how I completed the task in under a day).
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 23, 2015 0:34:25 GMT -8
Did a bit of browsing through a few levels I may've wanted to redownload, and I've found that Jungle Goonz has a broken DL link.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 14, 2015 22:27:53 GMT -8
Was there an update to this level? I was in the process for capturing a stats page and got a 'no trigger logic for switch' error on the southern GTS.
Edit: appears not...even after 8 years this error has been uncaught. I've sent a fixed version and a stats page to Goo Roo for updating.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 14, 2015 1:22:14 GMT -8
I don't see what this has to do with the GLE, should probably move this topic to Olio.
Otherwise..yes that sounds like a game breaking bug not caught by QA...but probably for good reason, as I don't see why a game designer would spend time trying to work out intricate bugs that relate to something you can't do or replicate normally.
It appears to be a default value for a constructor though, normally it gets assigned to barehand immediately since all grunts are barehanded at the very least. Removing the grunt via squashing appears to attempt to deconstruct the object..but doesn't close the dialog box, thus the 'no tool' being left over.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 13, 2015 11:46:22 GMT -8
Typically my approach to eyecandy comes after designing the area a puzzle is in. Then I look through it and ask myself "where does the player not have to move to?" Anywhere the answer is yes and there's roughly 3x3 space of tilez that meet the criteria, that's where I start throwing down the eyecandy stump tiles (199 and 200).
From there, place eyecandies down and select a few different images to use for them. Eyecandies are at particularly at risk of being over used if it's just the same one over and over...but including even a bit of variance helps a lot.
Same idea goes for behind-eyecandies, except there is no walk criteria to be made I just expand the tile criteria to 5x5 and work from there.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 10, 2015 16:01:47 GMT -8
Well, I can address this point by point: - Puzzle making often involves making the player stop performing actions, and take a look at what their goal is (pressing a switch, moving a grunt there, etc), then the way to accomplish this goal shouldn't be obvious (surround that switch in rocks, put an enemy sword grunt on the bridge). Now, when you start layering these ideas together, you start developing puzzles that are reasonably complex, and aren't just'easy'. As long as getting from A to B isn't just a simple trek or using a single tool, you've likely already got a good puzzle on your hands.
- Standard levels had an interesting style to them, I'd rate them as less dense as custom levels that are tightly fit together. Try looking back over them and styling your levels more like that (use alternate tiling, make some eyecandies, etc). It may feel homework, but personally, I really enjoy doing this kind of stuff, in addition to designing the puzzles. And you don't have to design huge 60x60 Cls, you can make something small that's around 30x30 so you have less space to work with, and thus 'fill'.
- Not everything has been done, but it takes a lot more effort to come up with new puzzles, even I'm barely getting ideas still after 5 years. But the concept of theme is still always there, better yet, sometimes loose levels work well with proper theme...but the aesthetic has to be there.
- It's a big deal because there ARE people that want to find that secret. You may not care about getting the perfect, but many others do. It doesn't take much to make secretz obvious, patterns around an area, arrows pointing, even just slightly obscuring a secret switch will suffice. When secrets are amazingly hard to find (like in a field of plain tiles), solvers will get frustrated about wasting time looking for it. They won't bother, and they'll probably be in a bitter state after finishing your level. Is that what you want?
- Smaller levels can help with that. Also this doesn't tend to be that huge a problem unless your entire level consists of fighting gruntz.
I hope that gives you some ideas on how to direct your thought train. At the very least, take my point on looking through the standard levels, it's amazing how much they accomplish with so little when I look back at them.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 10, 2015 0:23:17 GMT -8
A sample stats page should be up soon of my test against this map. Tool stats on the enemies are skewed due to some spawning gruntz trapped, and thus constantly gaining toobs. The true values are likely ~75% of the shown. To give an overview, it took me 2 hours, 150 gruntz, and over 600 slain foez to finally complete this battle. Make of that what you will for an unfair difficulty.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 9, 2015 1:01:23 GMT -8
This level in particular is a battle I've put together, and is quite true to its name. It's recommended to keep a save slot handy for this battle, as you will have to reload until you get the southern fort. (which is what the level is 'balanced' for)
Do you feel that regular battlez are just too even footed? That those derpy AIz need a boost sometimes?
Well this is the battle for you! Your position is bleak to say the least, you're out-numbered, out-tooled, and your defenses are meager and full of backdoors. Comparatively, your enemies lie behind forts of varying defenses, but one thing's for sure, this isn't any walk in the park. You'll be fighting tooth and nail just to get a foothold on this harsh land, and then you'll still be fighting to keep defending while taking over these extensive fortresses.
May the tool dropper favor you, you'll need it!
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 8, 2015 22:23:58 GMT -8
Who'd have thought that Gruntz and Tetris could be such a disastrous combination? Something is amiss, and the Disgruntled are out in full force!
Can the Gruntz escape the broken Tetris board and get the warpstone to the King to leave this place?
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 8, 2015 16:39:35 GMT -8
Seemz like a fun concept!
Just from looking over the map image, I'm guessing that UFO has a crazy speed to prevent the grunt from escaping the plateau. It's a bit hard on the eyes to have flashy things like that, so I'd recommend setting it to an Advanced Static Hazard by setting the faceDir to -1, and having it move horizontally with a width of 2, that way the staircases always have a spotlight on them, without having the eye seizure on screen.
Edit: Tested the level successfully to a perfect! The UFO isn't troubling at all actually, so it's fine either way.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 8, 2015 15:21:59 GMT -8
An old level I designed a few yearz ago. After doing a bit of touch-up work filling in missing gapz, this level is ready for release!
The main highlight is the goo puddlez around the map, most of them provide 33-75% of a goo well.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 8, 2015 14:12:35 GMT -8
I still have a copy of it, would you like me to send it your way? (and to Goo Roo for an official repost)
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 8, 2015 14:00:26 GMT -8
Apparently I did receive "Kitchen Adventure" about 8 years ago ... but never did anything with it! I was reminded of the CL via e-mail, and (lo and behold!) it actually exists on my hard drive! I would like to think that nothing was ever done with it because there was no 'Announcement' for it in 'BETA...". I will take some time to create a "View the map!" and its thumb nail for "Kitchen Adventure", then actually try to play it. I think you should prioritize DoubleBack for now, KitchenAdventure has waited 8 years...so it can probably wait a few more days. Plus, the level is probably my biggest one ever (120x120) and I have another, new, level that will be ready for beta-testing by tonight.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 7, 2015 10:47:01 GMT -8
I'll be taking a look at it also, I also recently went over another level SwordGrunt gave me a while ago through some means, so more unexpected levels should be fun. Edit- It does appear I have a version of this without the 2, I don't think I managed to successfully test this myself those years ago though, given the level is unreleased. Edit 2- Got the PERFECT! As a tip for progressing, the gauntletz/gauntletz/bricklayer checkpoint is in actuality 2 separate checkpoints. Once I made this discovery the rest of the level fell together. I think I've discovered an unintentional way to get the P, but it doesn't make a difference either way.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 6, 2015 16:12:41 GMT -8
I sent a Bare-handed Grunt to acquire the Toob (after disposing of the two enemy Club Gruntz), and then he paddled to acquire the SpongeGun. Then he sponged some enemy Gruntz into Goo Puddles. I didn't use the GunHat until later ... but managed to strand several Gruntz because i didn't acquire a Shovel. Indeed, keep a good eye out. All of the tools you acquire are visible, so getting an idea of what tools you need in each area, and where those tools come from will go a long way. Toobs has far more to do before he trades in for that spongegun.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 6, 2015 12:24:38 GMT -8
I really felt the same way looking back at this level after what must have been 5-6 years or so. The approach I took was just trying to accomplish what I could in the most 'doable' sub-section to start with, and moving from there.
That said, the area gunhat is in is the correct starting place, and he can help a great deal to assist the other group of gruntz for pressing further in....but he may not make in out alive himself unfortunately.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Apr 23, 2015 14:57:01 GMT -8
The "0 health" grunt is more of a rendering bug with the game. Due to they way reactive armor works, it is possible to have a health point equal to 1/2. However, the game probably rounds this down to 0 when picking the actual health bar to display, thus you have the illusion of an undead grunt.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Jun 12, 2013 12:25:49 GMT -8
Happy Birthday! and thanks for all your hard work!
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Oct 15, 2012 16:27:53 GMT -8
Loving the progress on this! How are those arrowz done? Is it just addition tilez or is it something special? Btw, along this line I thought of an idea to make this (potentially) easier. Could you turn arrowz into an actual object as opposed to a tile? It could be LogicPush that allowz the designer to specify which way they'd want a grunt to move, with the appearance of WorldArrow, with a special valuez for cross arrowz/multi way arrowz. This makez arrowz an overlay which allowz for placing them easily over any surface, and make natural diagonal arrowz (along with all the multi way variantz).
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Oct 10, 2012 10:18:30 GMT -8
Great level! Had me going back to old savez a few timez to do thingz differently. I missed a coin somewhere though..couldn't really tell where it may have been. and for Tomalla: You have to get as much goo as you possibly can..maybe even from less expected canidatez.
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