Original post by ccexplore:I wonder if Lix should soft-end time-limited singleplayer levels, rather than hard-ending them with a nuke like it is now. That is, no auto-nuking and give the option for the player to continue playing even after time's up, with the obvious effect that the resulting solution will fail regardless of number saved.
That of course does nothing with the objection on having to repeat execution to coax an otherwise working and not-so-different solution into the time limit, but does at least address the objection about time limits interfering with player's process of solving the level.
Soft time limits: Very good idea.
That makes testing of multiplayer levels much easier. Authors will not forget setting overtime to something small after testing.
Triggering the nuke at exactly 5 seconds left makes for a longer time limit than the soft limit. Late-spawned lixes have extra time before they become exploders. Some existing levels must therefore be revised to fit the shorter time limit.
I have implemented this for the upcoming release.
Simultaneously, I have addressed another wish: Singleplayer should start quicker.
In previous versions, the nan-nan sound played at 1 second into the game, the hatch opened at 2 seconds, and the first spawn was at 4 seconds. Now, the first spawn is at 2 seconds -- unless it's a tutorial level or a multiplayer game. The sounds and hatch animations are shifted accordingly, it still looks pretty.
The first spawn is still in physics update #60, with 1 second equalling 15 updates. The game starts at update #30, to be compatible with older replays. Old replays have, upon loading, all replay action from updates [#0, #30] moved to update #31, the earliest possible update to use user input. (If you do something in update #n, it will affect update #(n+1), this has always been like this.)
A singleplayer time limit starts counting with/after update #30 instead of #0 as before. The update count is internal only, and printed in the replay file; it's never shown to the user. Therefore, the timer looks as counting normally down after entering the level. Similarly, the stopwatch on untimed levels counts from the point of entering the level, not from the now arbitrarily numbered update #0.
With the first lix spawning 2 seconds after level start, the game will give 2 seconds more than in previous versions. This offsets the nuke bonus of past versions: Late-spawned lixes could walk and exit after the first spawners had begun exploding at 0 timer. 2 seconds should be enough to keep all existing levels solvable without this nuke bonus.
When the timer runs out in singleplayer, a "no"-sign is displayed on all goals, and there will be no more collision of lixes with goal. If a lix is already exiting while the timer runs out, she will exit normally and count. This is no bonus, because an exploder has always been un-explodered upon becoming exiter.
What are your ideas on this, before it's released? Is 2 seconds of extra time too much?
tl;dr: First spawn at 2 seconds instead of 4, but no extra time after time limit (unlike nuke previously).
-- Simon
