While meeting up with Simon yesterday, we had a short discussion about the shimmier and I've came up with some easy to understand mechanics/rules for it, that I find are share worthy and maybe lead to an interesting discussion.
The starting/ceiling catching part, as it was discussed earlier, was pretty clear: A jump that goes straight up for a few pixels and catches up to a ceiling if it hits one. Otherwise it could also be used as a delaying skill. The only thing left here is the jump height. Maybe 1 or 2 times stacker/basher etc height or something in that region would be reasonable.
The main discussion I want to start here are the ceiling checks! My simple and intuitive rule I popose for the top check:
The Shimmier can go forward if the ceiling height changes <= 1 pixels going forward.This would lead to the Shimmier being able to go up/down to 45 degree slopes. This feels a bit steep, but still reasonable. Also it's very easy to understand even for new players: If they see a 2 pixel high step on the ceiling -- this means a stop.
Allowing only a not so steep slope would need something like a counter that counts the up/down height changes: Only X steps up/down allowed in the last X moves. This is not as intuitive and can also lead to weird cloner interactions where a cloner could be able to cheat itself further forward if the counter goes on incorrectly.
The most reasonable proposal for a milder slope would maybe be miner tunnel --->
only 1 pixel ceiling height difference allowed every 2 pixels.As I said I would prefer the steeper variation as it may seem a bit more extreme, but easier to understand.
It also allows the Shimmier to do more things and therefore being easier to implement into a solution, leading to more usage.
There would still be the question of the bottom check:
Through how narrow tunnels can the shimmier go on?1 pixel, as it is the case with walkers, floaters and climbers (even though it would be somewhat consistent) wouldn't be a great choice here I feel. It would seem weird seing the Shimmier go throw a 1 pixel high tunnel.
What what height to choose otherwise?
Maybe 5 pixels high as a minimum as a bashers that want to go on? I don't know, but this seems like a somewhat reasonable line to draw. We need more ideas and opinions here.
So let's here more about this topic: Do you agree with me? If not why not and do you have a better proposal? Let's hear it!