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Messages - Simon

#4111
Site Discussion / Re: Lix board?
June 12, 2012, 06:36:35 PM
I'm more for a general Lix board preferred to a Level design sub-board, since level design is just a small part of what's discussed. Just one huge topic for bug discussion etc. is hard to keep track of right now, and it's bad practise anyway. If you make a board, I'll make a list of topics to move there.

However, a separate board will clash with the remaining site's design. The site is categorized not by game, but by topic, and all boards span across all available games.

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/bb/forum.php?board=1" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">Bug tracking is already done on the Lix site -- anonymous posting is possible again now. There's also a general board there, but it lacks common features and action.

-- Simon
#4112
Lix Main / Re: the Lix user feedback thread
June 12, 2012, 03:24:53 AM
You want to select skills subconsciously. This requires quite a period of training, during which errors will be made all the time, with improvement coming only slowly. I can't tell whether this investment is worth it, that's something you have to decide for yourself.

Practising a lot with Proxima sounds really good though, it should make the initial error-heavy time much more enjoyable.

Crossover Combat is a map I've enjoyed a lot, I should play it more often. It's intended to be a team map, but it's a good strategical map for normal 1v1 as well.

-- Simon
#4113
Lix Main / Re: the Lix user feedback thread
June 06, 2012, 09:19:41 AM
First problem: Move mouse really, really hard and quick, to get outside the window in one frame.

I reset the mouse position to the center all the time to allow infinite mouse movement for right-click scrolling, and Allegro doesn't provide the raw mouse input.

Second problem: I think I already do most of the stuff usually advised for Allegro 4 programs. This is an old problem with has already annoyed people on their forums. I might still play around with this someday. It doesn't help either that I do all graphics with the CPU.

-- Simon
#4114
Lix Main / Re: the Lix user feedback thread
May 30, 2012, 05:05:27 AM
Noted it, will investigate when I'll be doing some development again.

-- Simon
#4115
Havoc 19: Looks a Bit Nippy Out There [...] Good: [...] Good pun on the title.

Clam, geoo, and me were all wondering in IRC -- what is the pun reference? Clam first thought it was Monty Python, but searches didn't yield anything.

-- Simon
#4116
Haha, role playing games... I enjoy games of the exact opposite type *grin*

Most people already know I enjoy puzzle games of the DOS aera, like Lemmings, One Step Beyond, Pushover, Avish, Stoneage... won't discuss those.

I played a lot of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-o1nVjKejg" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">Garden Gnome Carnage (link to Youtube), an arcade scoring game from 2007 describable with "so, you're this appartment building, and...", in both the old Gamemaker version and the newer Flash version. It may look stupid, but it can be played with skill. Despite not playing for over a year, I'm still in the http://www.gimme5games.com/hi-scores/garden-gnome-carnage" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">GGC global highscores with at most two people legitly above me (scores not divisible by 10 must be phoney), I used the nicknames Eiderdaus, Rodent from Hell, Nagetier, and Schlagetier. Maybe there are more strong players on the game console version.

These months, I've played a lot of http://www.martinmagnusson.com/games/quadnet/" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">Quadnet (screenshots and a video), an arcade DOS game, from the later 1990's. It's one of the purest games in this genre, you're a spaceship in a rectangular play area, and avoid/shoot metal spheres flying around, their number increasing over time. The player has the normal 4 keys to move in eight directions, and then 4 more keys to shoot in four directions independently from his motion. There are youtube videos with people scoring over 2 million points, I'm way below these with a highscore of 650,000.

Since a few days ago, I'm experimenting with a new key layout in Quadnet (it allows you to remap inside the game): two rows of four keys à la < v ^ > instead of the default two inverted-T layouts. This uses 8 fingers instead of 6, omitting the middle fingers' need to jump between keys. At first, this is extremely confusing in such a fast game, and I haven't even gotten half of the old highscore yet. I've been using the new layout for a week now, and have just beaten the old-layout highscore with 720,000.

geoo has suggested alternative 8-finger layouts. I probably won't use them, but new players might consider them as serious alternatives to dual < v ^ >; they seem easier to learn. One suggestion: keep inverted-T except for the up direction, which is moved to the pinky finger. Second: keep inverted-T except for the down direction, which is moved to the thumb. The whole inverted-T should be moved up in that case, e.g. qwerty Caps, Q, S, LeftAlt, and something similar for the right hand. Both of these ideas have the hands mirror each other, unlike my layout, which is not symmetric.

Screenshot of the current highscore table:

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/quadnet.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

-- Simon
#4117
Site Discussion / Re: Custom CSS
May 01, 2012, 01:28:52 PM
I've updated the custom CSS. The front page is trimmed even more, see the old/new comparing screenshots in the first post. The download link is the same.

-- Simon
#4118
Lix Levels / Lix tutorial levels
April 28, 2012, 06:29:15 PM
Hey folks,

geoo and me are creating tutorial levels these days. I've attached what we have so far.

Rubix has already made tutorial levels in the past, but their explanations use images. These can't be translated automatically. In addition, some levels were too hard, in particular the batter and cuber tutorial.

You're encouraged to playtest the attached levels. You might even show these levels to new people who've never played such a game, and see if they get stuck. These are some design criterions we had in mind:
  • Use the in-level text system. Examine an attached level to see how it works, or read doc/files.txt. Leave room at the top of the level for this text (best) or lower the level height (second best).
  • Give several opportunities in the level to execute whatever is taught.
  • Make really obvious whatever is to be done. If there is any non-straightforward task, explain it in the text.
  • Make it as hard as possible to kill lixes or get stuck. "Tutorial" means a safe sandbox to experiment. (As I write this, I notice that the miner/platformer level violates this too hard.)
  • It's perfectly fine to recap a previously learned thing (we use builders in the blocker level), but more than 2 different skills per level may already cause confusion.
  • Make the level look good. The tutorial levels might well be the most-played levels in the whole game.
We're planning a group of levels to introduce all the skills (currently, we've only build levels for this), another group of levels to introduce advanced game features and unobvious skill usages (Rubix's advanced tutorials are great examples for this), and a third, smaller group with introductory multiplayer levels.

http://piratepad.net/ep/pad/view/ro.68TEl8xCMjJ/latest" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">Our current to-do list (read-only)

-- Simon
#4119
GuyPerfect: If we're talking about cheap food, go for the bakery items at your local grocery store. Like those packs of four large muffins for $4
geoo: I'll get a 5 days' supply or ramen for that
GuyPerfect: For four bucks? I don't believe it.
SimonN: Czech ramen is cheap, and geoo lives near the border
geoo: http://nakup.itesco.cz/en-GB/ProductDetail/ProductDetail/2001018730185" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">http://nakup.itesco.cz/en-GB/ProductDetail/ProductDetail/2001018730185
SimonN: 4 US dollars is 3,02 euros, and divide that by 0,18 euros (= 4,50 crowns) is 16 packs of ramen
SimonN: Bon Appetit.
GuyPerfect: Why are we talking about food and not testing the Lemmings Revolution patch? O-:
SimonN: 16,7 packets in fact
Simon (to geoo sitting next to him): Google should better be able to compute "16 cheap Czech ramen in US dollars".
geoo (back to Simon): Wolfram Alpha is likely able to do that already! Try!

This is a drawing of Ghetto Wars:

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/flockdraw-ghetto.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

-- Simon
#4120
Hey,

We have played way too much Commander Keen 4 and 5 on hard mode. geoo: "What?! The dopefish is now able to shoot! ... Nah, I haven't seen the devil behind it." He considered making headlines with this in a biology magazine.

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/dopefish.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

There are hidden stashes with approx. 10 lifes in both game's first levels. The Keen 5 stash is only accessible via the impossible pogo trick (when standing, press pogo, then immediately hold jump) to jump a tad higher. I managed this twice without thinking, but also without knowing that this works differently than normal pogo jumping. Thus, I was unable to tell geoo how to do it, who was stuck trying for 20 minutes or so. Games shouldn't have physics like this...

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/geoo-hamandegg.jpg" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

The delicacy of the day: scrambled eggs with roasted ham cubes, treated as a tasty bun topping. For 2 persons, use 4 eggs and 150 g of ham, and get 4-6 buns. Use lots of margarine/oil/fat when preparing this in the pot. Simon: "I will go to the bakery, will be back in 5 minutes. You do the cooking, turn on the Brownian Motion Inducer to level 3." This was way too much for a gentle roasting on a stove with maximum setting 3, so we quickly revised this to 1.

We also prepared an open-source version of Pribinacek, a Czech yoghurt: farmer's cheese and curd cheese, mixed roughly 1:1, a little bit of milk, and then lots of vanilla sugar. This is way too heavy to eat all in one sitting, and it was also too much farmer's/cottage cheese for my taste.

-- Simon
#4121
New http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/party.gif" alt=":party:" title="Party Time!" class="smiley" />

geoo brought two large bags of tea, one with peppermint and one with OpenThymian. Here's the leftovers from preparing the thymian tea:

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/geoo-thymian.jpg" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

Mostly though, his supplies were instant ramen and old chocolate from the merry Easter bunny holidays.

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/geoo-ramen.jpg" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

I dragged geoo to the weekly Go club in a pub in town, and promised to be back at around 22 for his scheduled nap. But he enjoyed himself pretty well, mostly when playing with one funny and charismatic player, and we stayed till midnight.

I build Pipe Smokers' Club today:

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/levels-network-2p-simon-pipesmokers.txt.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

However, this level isn't ripe yet, like so many other levels using steam. It's too powerful to trash the other person's landing points.

We raced through L2 Outdoor, because geoo claimed this was the easiest tribe. I needed 3 twisters for the first level. geoo failed Glide Like The Wind and needed about 6 trials to complete this rather obvious level. I was ahead by 2 levels for the rest of the game. Runners suck in L2 because they jump from each ledge, and stun themselves on every opportunity. Assignment sucks in L2 because you can't assign close to each other, and we already know this. Garden of Stone sucks in Outdoor, because it is hard, and the hopper ledges are badly placed, and geoo overtook me there in the end. Rrrrr! Nobody had remembered the best solution to Garden of Stone.

geoo used the hopper to hop across the exit and continue waypaving. geoo: "My solution was ingenious! I used up all the skills. And I didn't spam them, each had a use!"

Today's evening program is playing Lix with another friend of mine, and then going swimming.

-- Simon
#4122
Lix Levels / Re: Lix Community Level Set
April 21, 2012, 05:51:32 PM
It's particularly intricate to move back and forth between 2012-03-20 and 2012-04-15, because the terrain was converted between image formats, and a few dirs/files have changed names. Most levels won't work in the old version.

Proxima has already uploaded the .exe. Edit: See my attachment for the remaining game data.

Keep this in an entirely separate dir from the up-to-date version.

-- Simon
#4123
Lix Main / Re: the Lix user feedback thread
April 16, 2012, 09:35:25 AM
Yep, thanks. I've reuploaded the full game package with the DLLs included now.

(Actually, I don't make a bin/ directory in the Windows package, the executables and DLLs simply sit in the Lix root dir. Could change that if it gets too untidy.)

-- Simon
#4124
Lix Main / Re: the Lix user feedback thread
April 16, 2012, 12:57:59 AM
I just released a new version with several bugs fixed, both physics bugs and other problems. See bug tracker or github commit list for details.

I renamed bitmap/ to images/ and converted all "official" images to .png. If you have terrain which neither geoo nor me is tracking, then you have to copy that manually into images/ (no need to convert to .png). Also, I renamed replay/ to replays/, again you can copy over your old stuff (but I had physics changes in the current release, so it's not as important to keep old replays).

Proxima: I could reproduce the problem (editor exit & save), this isn't fixed in the just released version, but I will do something about it. New versions will be out quicker than the current one when they don't have physics changes.

-- Simon
#4125
Lix Main / Re: the Lix user feedback thread
April 10, 2012, 04:13:40 PM
It's a consequence of the levels not knowing whether they're single- or multiplayer.

I will simply hard-wire the exporter to use singleplayer terminology for next release. The level format should be changed at some point, too much stuff calls for individual hatch/exit options.

-- Simon