Cheapo Level List Game

[ccexplore]

(I'm just curious to see if anyone's found the 100% solution on level 5 yet. That is, I think, one of my hardest puzzles so far.)

Well I have now found a 100% solution on level 5; whether it's same as yours has yet to be determined. &#A0;I'll e-mail. &#A0;(No PM this time since it's easier to explain with screenshots than words, as usual.)

[ccexplore]

Speaking of your set, in the spirit of my Lemmini-style bug-finding, here's a few minor bugs to fix in your styles:

1) Observe closely the entrance in that "Prelude" level (and also "Toccata"), in particular observe the "green clouds" part of the entrance object.  You'll find that they shift slightly right during the entrance-open animation.

2) Barely noticeable, but the entrance animation of the "Columns" style, the color brightness does not appear to be constant.  It seems to get slightly brighter as it proceeds but then abruptly becomes darker at the last animation frame.

3) In the "Bubbles" style, the background over the skills toolbar has a particular spot that's in shades of bright white.  Unfortunately, that spot is located at where the numbers for bombers and blockers are displayed, and since those are also in white, it noticeably reduces readability there.

4) The text font seems to look especially jagged in the "Rock" style (particularly numeric digits for things like OUT, IN and TIME)

5) Not style-related, but on the level "Behind Bars", the intro text has an extraneous blank line between the 3rd and last line of intro text.  Probably Cheapo's fault in its word wrapping.  Try adding an actual line break in the intro text after the word "then" if that's allow.

[namida]

6) All your base are belong to us.

[Proxima]

1. Nice catch. I've fixed it, but it may take me a while to get round to putting up the corrected version.

2. What you're seeing is that the trapdoor "wing" contains two colours, and the pixels of these happen to be present in different proportions in the last two frames because of the way it opens at an angle. It's exactly the same in all the styles except Pink (which uses a different, ten-frame trapdoor animation), but most noticeable in Column because in this style the two colours used are furthest apart. Nothing to fix there.

3. True, but I like that graphic and I found the digits readable enough for it to be usable. I'd rather not change it, but I'll consider it if you think it's a big problem.

4. I'll see what I can do about this one when Jayelinda visits the week after next -- she's the Photoshop expert. I think what's happened is that as I've made the lettering so much darker, the border pixels, which are meant to be very faint to give the impression of a nicely rounded curve, have become darker than they should. I know it's annoying, but it wasn't easy to get the lettering to be the dark colour I wanted it. One improvement I've already made -- there was a pixel in the "9" that should have been black (and hence revealed the background) but wasn't. That's made it a little bit nicer to look at, at least!

5. Ah yes, the infamous blank line glitch. For some reason Cheapo automatically inserts one when the line is a certain length; adding a line break won't help. (Actually, I'm pretty sure there was one anyway; I always use manual line breaks to prevent words being split between lines.) I've taken out the word "then", which is the best solution I could find.

[ccexplore]

Please, if you solve any of the levels, even ones you're not reviewing, have a look at this guide -- quite a few of the levels I haven't shown to anyone yet, so there may be plenty of backroutes I need to know about so I can deal with them.

There're some in "The Hotel in Hell", a fairly easy 28/30 and a harder 29/30 that barely works. &#A0;Both leave the hallways on the right side nearly unused.

[edit: one more 28/30 solution, comparable in difficulty to the 29/30. &#A0;But ventures the least right of all my solutions thus far.]

[edit:  30/30!  Just barely enough time though (no fast forward however).  Least right and most left of all solutions thus far.  Hint: your traps etc. are not effective enough!]

[ccexplore]

2. What you're seeing is that the trapdoor "wing" contains two colours, and the pixels of these happen to be present in different proportions in the last two frames because of the way it opens at an angle. It's exactly the same in all the styles except Pink (which uses a different, ten-frame trapdoor animation), but most noticeable in Column because in this style the two colours used are furthest apart. Nothing to fix there.

I don't believe that's what I'm seeing.  The wings of the door are actually fine to me; rather it is the non-wing part whose brightness is not quite consistent, particularly the white and particularly with the final animation frame I think.  It might be difficult to notice depend on the brightness/contrast of your monitor.

When I have time I'll make some screenshots and use MS Paint to check the pixel colors to verify.

3. True, but I like that graphic and I found the digits readable enough for it to be usable. I'd rather not change it, but I'll consider it if you think it's a big problem.

It's readable enough but sticks out like a sore thumb.  The graphics is nice but that white spot ruins it.

Seems like flipping (mirroring) horizontally the background bitmap would be an easy fix to put the white spot away from the numbers.

[Proxima]

There're some in "The Hotel in Hell", a fairly easy 28/30 and a harder 29/30 that barely works. &#A0;Both leave the hallways on the right side nearly unused.

That's annoying. Could you PM me with the details?

Seems like flipping (mirroring) horizontally the background bitmap would be an easy fix to put the white spot away from the numbers.

But that would leave gaps here and there corresponding to some of the bits that are currently "behind" the toolbar graphics.

[ccexplore]

Seems like flipping (mirroring) horizontally the background bitmap would be an easy fix to put the white spot away from the numbers.

But that would leave gaps here and there corresponding to some of the bits that are currently "behind" the toolbar graphics.

But the background originally does not come with the toolbar! (does it? ) I'm talking about mirroring the background itself in its original form, then overlaying the toolbar graphics etc. on top of it.

[Proxima]

Mm, but I don't think I have the original graphic any more!

As for the backroutes, I'll get working on them soon; they look fixable, but it might take a bit of time.

[ccexplore]

Mm, but I don't think I have the original graphic any more!

Doh!  I should note that unfortunately on that style, you also made a mistake in the placement of the skill buttons (one pixel too low), so the top pixel-row of the skill numbers run onto the pixels of the skill buttons.  Oh well.

I imagine you got the picture somewhere off the internet, any chance you might remember the URL or maybe the search term you use in Google or something that led to the site?

If not, at least e-mail me the final bitmap with the skill buttons (the one that goes into the style file).  Maybe I can still work something out.

[Proxima]

When I have time I'll make some screenshots and use MS Paint to check the pixel colors to verify.

Don't bother. I checked again and you were right -- I hadn't replaced the colours in the very last frame. I've fixed it now and will upload a corrected version soon (I want to get on with debugging "The Hotel in Hell" first.....)

Meanwhile, anyone going to review Level 6? I know it's dull -- too much straight building -- but it's not that hard; someone must have passed it?

[Proxima]

OK, I've uploaded new versions of the preview set (should have eradicated backroutes on "The Hotel in Hell") and of the Fire and Sand styles (both in styles1.zip). I'm afraid you do need to download the new version of the styles for "The Hotel in Hell" to work properly (although it is a tiny difference).

EDIT: set uploaded again (one more backroute eradicated). And all 22 styles are now up!

Link again, for those who want it:
http://repton.freespaces.com

EDIT 2: whoever's reviewing "Lemmings of the ZBB" (which comes next) might want to download the new version from the above link. Not much has changed. Just the hint.

[ccexplore]

Meanwhile, anyone going to review Level 6? I know it's dull -- too much straight building -- but it's not that hard; someone must have passed it?

I finally took the time to pass it, so let me know if you want me to review it (despite having reviewed the previous level already) so we can get on with other levels.

[Proxima]

Go for it -- I don't think anyone else is going to be bothered.  

[ccexplore]

Level 6: Lemmings of the ZBB
Save 50/60, RR 1, 5:00
1 floater, 6 blockers, 32 builders
 
Good:  Turning photos of your buddies and girlfriend into a lemmings level?  As pure to the concept of unique graphics levels as you can get.  It's cool to see the use of graphics outside of video games in a lemmings level.

Bad:  I think this might qualify as Tame 21......

Ok, gross exaggeration, but it's certainly rather dull since all you get to do is to build.  Some would find the level a bit slow-paced (others would say "relaxing" ) due to the repeated building, low RR, and slow music.  The required multitasking only makes things slightly more annoying by forcing you to scroll back and forth every now and then over a rather large level area.