Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3684
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

(Post updated December 6th, 2010)

Those of you who have been reading my signature obsessively; rejoice! For all others, an introduction.

Smitemaster Man

Is the title of my next DROD: TCB project. For the most part I was keeping it to myself and under wraps in its early development, but this topic has and will continue to serve to publicly announce stuff about it. The hold isn't nearly complete; as of now it only has around nine complete puzzle levels and some more incomplete levels.

So, what is this hold exactly?

Good question. Smitemaster Man is essentially my current attempt to take RoboBob3000's excellent Mega Man Eighth project and actually make a complete hold out of it.

The hold could run similarly to a Mega Man game if I could finish it (but it's not at that point yet) - the player would first need to complete any of eight themed puzzle levels, each with a "boss fight" at the end of it. Defeating each boss would net the player the use of its weapon in any other boss fight. Each boss would be weak to each of the other boss' "weapons" to various extents, but for balance all "boss rooms" would be solvable from the start, unlike in Mega Man Eighth. After the eight robot masters are defeated the player would go through a few levels of the villainous Dr. Ken Iving's fortress, and then bring him to justice.

Right now all I have is eight puzzle levels and some of the Dr. Iving puzzles, sans any boss fights since a year of on-again off-again thought hasn't led me to make any boss rooms I would consider good.

So, what does this mean for your other project, Fetch the Pie?

Don't worry, I'm still working on Fetch the Pie. In fact, I'm going to be updating, or possibly finishing that before I work on this project more. This is mostly an excuse for me to not have upwards of 90 Chaco puzzles just sitting on my hard drive, without anyone playing or breaking them, or giving me feedback.

What this will let me do is have some commentary on how I'm doing, and also hopefully receive some recommendations on where to go with the project.

So, how can I get involved in this?

I've got enough alpha-testers for the beta-board now, so right now unfortunately the answer is "you can't". However, if I decide to release the hold to the public Architecture forum before publishing it, then obviously things will be different and I'll gladly accept commentary from anyone.

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Feel free to ask questions.

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Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

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[Last edited by Chaco at 12-04-2010 02:32 AM]

noma
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1594
Registered: 11-22-2006
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I'll volunteer, though I'm a bit hesitant about the whole "boss man" thing. Never done anything like that, but I'll give it a shot.

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3684
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

noma wrote:
I'll volunteer, though I'm a bit hesitant about the whole "boss man" thing. Never done anything like that, but I'll give it a shot.

I'm intending to make rooms similar to the ones RoboBob made - that would be difficult to solve without placing any monster at a certain point, but possible - and a lot easier to do if one particular monster is placed in the room, out of a possible eight.

(I'm not going to pretend it's going to be easy for me to do by any stretch, though - which is why I haven't already done any)

At any rate, I've invited you - I'm just looking for feedback on the puzzle rooms I've already made.

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Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

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[Last edited by Chaco at 04-15-2009 11:33 AM]

mxvladi
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2505
Registered: 02-11-2008
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I'll volunteer as well.

zex20913
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1723
Registered: 02-04-2003
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Seems sweet--might as well try out this beta-testing thing with this hold, eh?

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Someone Else
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2357
Registered: 06-14-2005
IP: Logged

I'll beta test as well.

Chaosgamer
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 88
Registered: 04-08-2009
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Me to, I've never beta tested before.

deftriver
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 77
Registered: 07-11-2007
IP: Logged

Signing up to volunteer

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3774
Registered: 12-28-2004
IP: Logged

I sure would like to try testing and feedbacking .

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My website

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3684
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

I've invited the previous people.

skell wrote:
I sure would like to try testing and feedbacking .

Skell, you don't seem to be on the list of people I can invite. Do you both have CaravelNet and have the "available for beta-testing" option checked on your profile?

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3774
Registered: 12-28-2004
IP: Logged

Chaco wrote:
Skell, you don't seem to be on the list of people I can invite. Do you both have CaravelNet and have the "available for beta-testing" option checked on your profile?

Ah yes, I had this option option unchecked, I had no idea there is such option actually. Changed.

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My website

vinheim
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 300
Registered: 05-31-2007
IP: Logged

How is this hold coming along? I enjoyed Megaman Eighth Alpha, so this is something I'm definitely anticipating.

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3684
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

It's pretty much completely stalled while I'm working on Fetch the Pie. I still haven't managed to solve the main problem I was struggling against - coming up with interesting boss rooms like the ones seen in Mega Man Eighth Alpha, and implementing boss weapons in said rooms (or possibly out of said rooms).

I'll probably address this problem seriously once Fetch the Pie is finished, and either finish the hold using a Mega Man theme or scrap those elements completely and publish the ~100 rooms with no theme or story.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

vinheim
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 300
Registered: 05-31-2007
IP: Logged

Yeah, I reckon it's difficult. I've actually tried porting LoZ bosses onto DRoD, like King Dodongo from OOT, but playing it in 1 DRoD room provides less of an awesome experience than when it's played in real-time.

I think I have some good ideas:
1) I think you should just scrap the whole "boss" idea, and theme each level around a "boss" instead sorta like GJL. For example, in the case of King Dodongo, you'd have, say, a 5x5 level where the outside is all floor and the middle is all lava.
2) Puzzles would be placed here, but what is important is that there is some sort of sign that you are being chased while going around the outside and that you are throwing bombs at certain points.
3) Every "boss" room would contain a square of, say, 16 brains (4x4) so you know it's the boss room and beating it completes the level. They are accessed once you beat every other room (it's unrequired and behind a blue door). These boss rooms should be the most difficult, but it can be easier if you enter from different entrances/set certain variables.
4) You enter from different entrances/have different vars depending on how many "items" you've collected. Items are gotten by solving rooms the challenging way.
5) These items not only benefit you by making 1 room easy as you might as well not do these challenges, but they are there for completion and help in the future too.

These ideas were from a ZelDRoD project I was going to start years back, but didn't, so they might not be suitable for your project (which only has 1 new item per level if its like Mega Man Eighth Alpha).

Zorglub
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 74
Registered: 10-08-2007
IP: Logged

I volunteer.
Z

Timo006
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 527
Registered: 07-19-2006
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Is it still possible to volunteer for beta testing?

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Drod Number: 3034; 8th person to see the Second Sky

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3684
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

Yeah, beta testing is still open. Invited the two of you.

There are currently 11 beta testers, not counting me, so I'm probably only going to take one more "recent" set of eyes to look over the hold's puzzles again.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

Zorglub
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 74
Registered: 10-08-2007
IP: Logged

I just realized that this was an old topic to which I replied. Anyway, I'm glad I did, the hold if really nice to play. Difficulty is varying, most of the time challenging for me, but always reachable. The occasionnal red herrings are distracting, and add to the challenge.
It was great being able to finish the existing rooms.

The levels are nicely themed, and my view is that you could leave it that way, I'm not so much for stories anyway. Now of course, if you add 8+1 bosses of the same quality level, it'd be great.

vinheim
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 300
Registered: 05-31-2007
IP: Logged

I can't beta test holds, but I'd really like to see this and comment on things. Could I get e-mailed the hold?

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3684
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

OK, message sent to vinheim asking him for his e-mail address.

Assuming I can successfully deliver the e-mail address, vinheim will be the last set of new eyes I need looking this hold over and I'll edit this post and the thread-starting post to regard that fact.

Probably most people guessed by now, but recently I've been pretty busy with college homework and studying for finals.

Hopefully this winter (among other things) I can actually finish the next segmented update for Fetch the Pie, get that project finished and booted out the door, and focus my attention better on figuring out what to do with this hold. I don't like the status it's in now where it's just locked up in a beta board where only a few people can play it and comment on it.

EDIT:

OK, Vinheim should have the file now. Alpha testing now closed.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

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[Last edited by Chaco at 12-04-2010 02:25 AM]

vinheim
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 300
Registered: 05-31-2007
IP: Logged

Thought this would be a good place to post my comments regarding the whole hold for other testers to see and consider (mostly the bosses part). (I'll still be e-mailing you my comments for each room once I've beaten a level).

First off, the puzzles are excellent. Some of them I've never seen before and require new tricks I've had to learn (mostly in Stone Man and Snake Man levels). They're also really difficult, but just like Zorglub said, reachable. I've only been able to do a room per day or 2 (or longer).

Second, the waterskipper level is far too easy. Granted I haven't beaten the level yet, but I was able to breeze through 5 rooms all in one try, without much thought (all 1S rooms, 2E and 3E).

Third, I'm liking the 1E rooms. They give the right overall feel of how the whole level will look like. However, some could be harder, but not too hard (Stone Man and Snake Man) so that you know how hard the whole level would be, and some could show the overall feel of the whole level a bit more (Gyro Man's 1E didn't have platforms so I didn't know they would also be a main object here despite the hub level showing a wraithwing and platform). The aumtlich 1E room was a perfect 1E room.

Fourth, I've been brainstorming myself on how you could do boss rooms. My initial 2 thoughts were:
1) Make 7 rooms per boss, each showing how the other 7 weapons would help you fight the boss (so in Stone Man, you'd have different Rock Giant puzzles, one being solvable using wraithwings, one with aumtliches, etc). The problem here is that means a whole 56 more rooms to think of, and I reckon you don't have much free time.

2) Make 1 room per boss like Megaman Eighth. The problem here is that it's going to be difficult to make an interesting room where the 7 unique solutions have around the same difficulty/are still interesting.

So, I sorta combined the above 2 for a new idea:
1) Make 3 rooms per boss. 1 room would use 3 of the weapons, another room would use another 2, and the last room would use 2 weapons. Not a lot of rooms will need to be thought up, and at the same time, you can put a whole lot more interesting puzzles in each boss room without feeling restricted.

And also, 1 more idea:
2) Make a boss room that isn't DRoD-like, a scripting room. I haven't really brainstormed what kinda scripting would happen, but I'm sure you and other testers will have some brilliant ideas here.

Awesome hold so far. Can't wait for the next update.