wonkyth
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 15
Registered: 06-18-2007
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Well, actually, I was thinking of challenging all forum comers to a game, one which involves making a calculator in ST2...
But I'm sorta occupied at the moment. very occupied actually.
I'd like to do it someday, and hopefully my entry will be a bit better than "Adder".

____________________________
"Satire denounces the world;
Wit penetrates it;
Humour accepts it;
But Nonsense Transforms it"
- Cedric Whitman
w.r.t. Aristophanes

The Mystic
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 09-20-2006
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Danjen02 wrote:
Can't have everyone making logic gate puzzles though, can we?

Yeah, wire gate puzzles are too easy to set up; if we're not careful, we'll end up with an entire set of them. (*evil grin* Hmmm...)

wonkyth wrote:
Well, actually, I was thinking of challenging all forum comers to a game, one which involves making a calculator in ST2...

I'll pass, thanks; I can't even get one to work in ST1 yet (not that I've tried all that hard). I am, however, working on an automatic wire puzzle.

____________________________
Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so.
If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you.
Oh well. Another day, another dementia.

Danjen02
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 11
Registered: 11-08-2007
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Although it would be cool to have a level design challenge with a set of constraints and make an anthology of sorts with the results.

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SubTerra
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Radiant
Level: Moderator

Rank Points: 142
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Danjen02 wrote:
Although it would be cool to have a level design challenge with a set of constraints and make an anthology of sorts with the results.

Interesting idea. What would you suggest, then?

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= Radiant =

Danjen02
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 11
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Well, I had a few ideas for this, actually.



The first one was that somebody (Radiant ) could post a level template containing only walls and the exit(s). It would be up to the level designer to finish the level from the template, using objects as they saw fit. One rule that could be used is that no one would be allowed to change what is already there. This way, all the levels have a similar feel and geometry to them, but the level and solution would vary but a large margin between each author. If there were, say, four to six level templates, everyone who was interested could make a level out of them, and those could be used in a level collection sharing a theme.

EDIT: Or better yet, everyone who participates makes their own template for everyone to use.

The second idea I had was to have a level design challenge where designers could only use a certain set of objects. For instance, one challenge could be: "only objects from the Walls and Falling object sets may be used, except for Extending Walls and Flowstone". Personally, I do not like this approach as much, since the restriction of certain objects would seem somewhat arbitrary and unfair.

Alternatively, an object restriction could force the use of an object. For example: "this level must contain at least one Ice Block, Duplicator and Skull of Death". This could be good as well, since it could allow lesser-used mechanics to be used more often, but the downside to it is that there would be a sudden flood of levels with said mechanic in it.

____________________________
SubTerra
- Ultimate rank
- 2009 level design contest, 2nd place

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[Last edited by Danjen02 at 03-21-2009 12:41 AM]

wonkyth
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 15
Registered: 06-18-2007
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This sounds good...

____________________________
"Satire denounces the world;
Wit penetrates it;
Humour accepts it;
But Nonsense Transforms it"
- Cedric Whitman
w.r.t. Aristophanes

Kwakstur
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 385
Registered: 05-05-2006
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Hmmmm....

Some restrictions?
Using templates?
Anthology?

We have a lot of models for this kind of thing on these forums. There are a lot of contests on the Contest board for DROD involving rooms with a theme (and these are always later compiled into a hold*, like here), and there are definitely many unofficial contests like this, such as Limited Space (here, here, here) and Jeff_Ray... says (here)

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*In DROD, rather than sharing one puzzle you made, you make an entire "hold", which is a full adventure; you have a lot of puzzles strung together in an explorable world that may even have several floors (kinda like a dungeon from one of the 16-bit Zelda games, but without the action).
Obviously, for Sub Terra, we'd just have Radiant make a level set out of our puzzles.

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Also known as ExpHP everywhere else.

Radiant
Level: Moderator

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Okay, this sounds interesting. I think I'll throw something together for April 1st (no joke ) and give people a month to make an interesting level (or more) based on that. How does that sound?

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= Radiant =

wonkyth
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 15
Registered: 06-18-2007
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I assume this would be for SubTerra, not SubTerra2?

____________________________
"Satire denounces the world;
Wit penetrates it;
Humour accepts it;
But Nonsense Transforms it"
- Cedric Whitman
w.r.t. Aristophanes

Radiant
Level: Moderator

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Registered: 02-05-2003
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wonkyth wrote:

I assume this would be for SubTerra, not SubTerra2?

For the moment, yes.

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= Radiant =

Danjen02
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 11
Registered: 11-08-2007
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File: explosionspeedtest.SUB (352 bytes)
Downloaded 42 times.
License: Public Domain

Not exactly a quirk or bug-like behavior per se, but I did play around with conveyors a bit, because I wanted to see what happened when several objects lay on the conveyor at a time.

At first, I thought that the objects would move together all at once (but given ST's grid movement—where objects can exist in two cells at once—meant that concurrent movement like this is unlikely), but it turns out that they will more or less evenly spread out to make room for other objects to fall into place from above.

Also: conveyors will start an orb turning, but the orb CAN roll in on top of a conveyor in the opposite direction!

Edit/note to self: I should really take a good day off and just find quirks and document them...

Edit 2 - More fun with Orbs: If an orb is rolled through a portal, the default frame (that is, an upright stationary orb) is used. Note that it will still move and react as normal, but have a different graphic (provided it does not fall down a ledge first).

Attached file is a test to see which is faster between cyrobirds, skelwings, and side-by-side orbs beside an emerald. In terms of explosion speed, it seems cyrobirds are the fastest, followed by the orbs shattering an emerald, and finally, the skelwings. Mines are obviously the next fastest, being quicker than a regular explosion, but slower than the skelwings.

____________________________
SubTerra
- Ultimate rank
- 2009 level design contest, 2nd place

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[Last edited by Danjen02 at 03-23-2009 08:47 AM]

Kwakstur
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 385
Registered: 05-05-2006
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And IIRC Players are even faster.
EDIT
Oh, wait, your recent quirks thread does list players, and they're below cryo birds...
Okay, apparently I'm a little rusty.
/EDIT

I have vague memories of putting Players, cloners, and deadly stuff in Wraithwing explosions... And after a short while, it left a surprise in the far lower-right tile of the level in the editor...

I'd complain about the dangerous invalid pointer somewhere that must cause this, but AFAIK there's no other way you can use that thing (and rightly so, because any puzzle involving it is automatically unfair).


EDIT: I just saw the post I made about it (where I responded to someone else who discovered the same thing). Apparently, there's a shortcut to getting it.


____________________________
Also known as ExpHP everywhere else.

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[Last edited by Kwakstur at 03-23-2009 09:05 PM]

Danjen02
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 11
Registered: 11-08-2007
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Hm. I remember messing around with the editor years back, with several mines stacked on top of each other. When the level ran, the mines started to fall, but made a very interesting wave-like pattern for a few seconds, and did not move vertically during this time. After about 2 seconds, they started to fall and explode, but the interesting thing was that for those two seconds, they should have fell, but didn't. I cannot reproduce this - were the gravity/falling mechanics changed in a recent version?

____________________________
SubTerra
- Ultimate rank
- 2009 level design contest, 2nd place

Radiant
Level: Moderator

Rank Points: 142
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Danjen02 wrote:
were the gravity/falling mechanics changed in a recent version?

Nope.

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= Radiant =

Radiant
Level: Moderator

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Let's bump something non-HQ related too I believe some people were looking for this list.

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= Radiant =