CLz you tried to make but failed

[Zu]

I think the thread is self-explanatory. Tell us about your Custom Level projects you had in mind and started working on, but stopped for some reason, be it loosing the interest, running out of ideas, or encountering unavoidable, major problems.

Here are some examples of mine, in random order:

* A level based on the concept that you need to collect enough goo to bake a grunt and place him in an area with the warpstone piece, and the only way to get enough goo is to make your four gruntz die next to the area with the (trapped) goober straw grunt. I dropped it because I didn't have enough ideaz for that.

* A level where you must prepare a path for an enemy shovel grunt and an enemy goober straw grunt so after the pyramidz are lowered/raised, they will go through all switchez on the restricted area and allow you to collect all coinz and the warp letter; warpstone piece can be acquired and brought to the King at any given moment with no trouble, and it's the PERFECT score that is your focus. I dropped it because the enemy AI was too unpredictable and buggy, and the enemies kept stopping in random places. And it's a shame too, because the level was nearly completed.



* A labyrinth of 255x255 size, divided into 16 big areaz, with the last one available only after pressing certain switchez in all other ones. Made only about 1,5 of those areaz before loosing interest.

* One hit one death level, with solver's gruntz having only 1 HP. Made a few attempts to do it, lost interest almost instantly.

* The one I tried today, a level basically like the one above, but with an additional theme of sneaking around, with specific use of Object Guard enemy gruntz so they would continuously walk on complex pathz. Once again, AI have proven to be buggy and unpredictable.

* A level with intentionally messed up tile propertiez; looks like a completely ordinary level, but nothing works the way it normally does, and the solver has to follow the new rulez in order to win. I have quickly lost the interest.

[SwordGrunt]

Loadz of them.

I simply ran out of ideaz, and every time I got a new one, I made a new level from scratch. I still have most of these levelz sitting around in my computer, some are even finished but I can't figure out my own puzzlez from a few yearz ago...

I remember one of them had a section with several red teleporterz (that weren't actually secret) that had to be triggered by the proper Grunt, so that he goez in the next area, clearz whatever he can, and comez back.

[GooRoo]

I started two Custom Levelz based upon geography ... the state I live in (ala "Israel"). Just couldn't draw worth beanz, and gave up on it.

The other is "Exodus Encampment" which was almost complete, then I realized I had reversed the tribez in each direction ... too much work to fix the problem.

Another that hardly got off the ground was a "push thingz around" type puzzle, scrapped because there were too many instancez where a diagonal "push" was required, and Gruntz can't move anything other than enemy Gruntz ... and I just couldn't come up with solutionz for what I wanted to do.

[alexandgruntz]

I once started working on an "all-in-one" training level, then lost interest.

[BattlezM]

Currently I have:

• A very old 'keep the ball rolling' styled level.
  
• A level in which I have no idea what is supposed to be going on any more.
  
• A space level based on switchez that change tilez to make 'circuit' connectionz.
  
• A super minified version of GruntzKoban, having the area itself change wallz and switchez.
  
• A level with a thief warpstone grunt.
  
• A level based on having gruntz wander around with 0 hp.
  
• A template layout of a vector field...
  

and I'm sure there are a few otherz.

[Zu]

A level based on having gruntz wander around with 0 hp.

How does it work, and what effect it has on the gameplay?

[GooRoo]

1 health point I can understand, but 0 is just a Goo Puddle. "The Walking Dead" did a good job of the 1 health point Grunt(z) challenge.

[SwordGrunt]

There is a way to have a Grunt alive with 0 health - I can't remember it right now, but I remember it's happened (very rarely) before.

[BattlezM]

It's when a reactive armor grunt takez enough damage to send him into the 1/2 bar of health. Not necessarily 0 health, but the health bar displayz as a 0 health grunt.

[GooRoo]

Mar 8, 2012 11:16:05 GMT -8 SwordGrunt said:

There is a way to have a Grunt alive with 0 health - I can't remember it right now, but I remember it's happened (very rarely) before.

A Grunt with zero health also has occurred when the Grunt (an enemy Toob Grunt, I recall) has died on a Toggling Bridge Tile ... he keepz bobbing up and down without ever going away. But that meanz he also cannot wander around like a Zombie.

[oldone]

How interesting. I tried, last year, to make a christmas level called "Secret Santa". The idea was that everyone (15 gruntz) would go to a party with a toy, exchange toys and go home with the new one . . .the new one being the only way to get into their homes (cps). It was all based on my town of Groan, and truthfully, redrawing it in the snow was a bit daunting, so I just never finished.

[GooRoo]

Mar 13, 2012 13:19:36 GMT -8 oldone said:

How interesting. I tried, last year, to make a christmas level called "Secret Santa". The idea was that everyone (15 gruntz) would go to a party with a toy, exchange toys and go home with the new one . . .the new one being the only way to get into their homes (cps). It was all based on my town of Groan, and truthfully, redrawing it in the snow was a bit daunting, so I just never finished.

That soundz like we need some intelligent young person to create a program to read a .WWD file and selectively replace string 'X' (Trouble in the Tropicz URL) with string 'Y' (Gruntziclez URL, for example) to give you a fast "leg up" on your Groan puzzlez. But are there suitable Tilez in Gruntziclez to replace the 'housez' from TitT?!? That is probably what your stumbling block was ... inappropriate Tilez.

[Pinkgoo]

-Started a Gruntzkoban level in the Gruntzicles tile set, never finished.
-Made a "ToolTime" level, showing off all the different usez of toolz. Somewhere in its development the file bugged out, and then it got erased somehow.
-Made a Gruntz parody of Fitznik. It would later evolve into Gruntzkoban.
-Tried to make a 1000x1000 maze. Bah.
-A Trouble in the Tropicz level that used a secret switch to make it look like a volcano was erupting. The lava would flow down a volcano, and you would have to solve puzzlez quickly and stuff.

[GooRoo]

In an earlier post I said "That soundz like we need some intelligent young person to create a program to read a .WWD file and selectively replace string 'X' (Trouble in the Tropicz URL) with string 'Y' (Gruntziclez URL, for example) to give you a fast "leg up" on your Groan puzzlez. But are there suitable Tilez in Gruntziclez to replace the 'housez' from TitT?!? That is probably what your stumbling block was ... inappropriate Tilez."

Well, it turnz out that all that is required is to open WWD "X" in one graphicz set, and save it in a new name, then change the graphicz set to the one you want to use! I had it in mind to create a Custom Quest based upon "Palette" by Gaby (which is a "Rocky Roadz" tile set), and create a "High On Sweetz" version, with the additional 'surprise' of having a Question Mark Switch at the very end that changez the image to a 'finished picture'. But alas, when the QMS was pressed, the game crashed because suddenly there were Switch logicz on non-switch tilez. But it worked to open "Palette" and SAVE it as "Palette4", and then change the world from 1-Rocky Roadz to 4-High on Sweetz!!! All of the tilez became HOS versionz of the Rocky Roadz tilez. It worked because 4 has MORE tilez than 1 ... going the other way would undoubtedly leave many invalid tilez, and the map would never open under Gruntz and may even be a problem in Gruntz Level Editor.

[Gaby]

Just a remark - The original "Palette" was designed with "Gruntziclez" graphicz and not with "Rocky Roadz" tile set...

[GooRoo]

Jun 19, 2012 11:29:37 GMT -8 Gaby said:

Just a remark - The original "Palette" was designed with "Gruntziclez" graphicz and not with "Rocky Roadz" tile set...

It has been at least a month since I gave up on it ... and my CRS (Can't Remember Stuff) isn't getting any better. But the method worked, no matter the source. But I wouldn't recommend "High Rollerz" as a destination graphic set ... those crazy wallz would require a lot of "touch-up".

[Zu]

A level centered around the trick of using a thief grunt to take some specific toolz in an area where they aren't needed and then lure him into going to the area where those toolz ARE needed, as a sort of involuntary mailman.

Partially works, which means that I may actually use this in the future. However, the initial idea involved reusing the same thief grunt for going back and forth between two areaz (to further emphasize his mailman role), which has proven to be impossible, because a resurrected thief grunt no longer attempts to steal toolz. This means that if two areaz require multiple acts of moving toolz around, then each of such acts requirez a separate tool thief. It's quite a limitation, unfortunately...

[SwordGrunt]

Jul 17, 2012 13:51:07 GMT -8 Zu said:

However, the initial idea involved reusing the same thief grunt for going back and forth between two areaz (to further emphasize his mailman role), which has proven to be impossible, because a resurrected thief grunt no longer attempts to steal toolz. This means that if two areaz require multiple acts of moving toolz around, then each of such acts requirez a separate tool thief. It's quite a limitation, unfortunately...

In fact, I think any enemy Grunt will completely abandon his original role when resurrected and will act as a regular Battlez enemy (just like the Points: 0 enemiez in Questz)