Level01a

[aiaf]

Level01a is about exploration and some story.

Story wise you enter the dream world (sleep).At the moment its a about a robot society, but could be anything(fantasy setting etc) is a dream.

 

Then somehow the AI can enter too and try to help you, but also the enemy (spheres ? etc) can be there.

For now goal is to present to the player some "AI commands" from level 3.

 

General mechanics:

Most robots have some text when clicking on them with info of whats going on.

Buttons activate things, or teleports.

There are 5 special robots.That give you tasks , but i tried to make it such way that player can have choice and ignore them if they want.

You can activate a power generator.

Also is the monolith model with represents the AI.

One robot will give you the spell powers in this level, that will have effects in the ship.

 

Things to do:

Activate health command:

You uncover this by visiting each pyramid in the lower level ( 2 pads with one number per pyramid).

Other unknown command:

You get this if you talk with the 3 AI monoliths , on upper level.

You can get there by climbing tower or using a teleport Depending on what path you choose.

 

Not finished , i think it needs more interaction , the level beeing so big.

This level is not forgiving on the player (maybe annoying), one mistake and you fall and start again ( waypoints needed ?)

Climbing the tower is hard for a new player, but i can do that with ease now.

 

I tried to have a strange level, mystery , dont know if i pull it off, probably not .

Tell me what you think.

To try level Forth.exe +loadlevel 1a

[mdgunn]

Sounds great.  If no waypoints yet then I think they will be necessary yes.  If you need any discussion on how to approach then let me know. 

I will check out the level.  

 

 

[aiaf]

I can setup waypoints from code and put them in gworld, but if is a simpler way to do from editor im all ears, do tell.

I need the first waypoint to be after the player climbs the tower.

 

 

[mdgunn]

I usually try to keep things exposed to the editor so things that are possible to do there *can* be done there. To get access to the same things via code you can loop through the world objects and look for a named object or a certain property (e.g. a property set up to specify the type).  Looping through all objects is of course expensive but it should just be done once on level load and then you have the references you need (stored in a lua table for example).  

For example I (and I think others) usually have a line in the items lua script to set the itemType like this..

Script.itemType="cryo_pod"

if you look through all world objects and check if they have self.itemType=="waypoint" for example then you would have a list of all possible waypoints.

However, this has not been stated for developers to have to use this name or do this step so it could be that some one else has done Script.type or Script.item or something similar but not quite the same.

 

[mdgunn]

I spent a good chunk of time looking around your level. In general I think it's very good.  It reminds me a good deal of a game called Kairo.  The level design complexity in that game is very effective for how simplistic the graphics are.  If you have not played that game I highly recommend it or check out a video. It may give you some ideas about simple things that could be added that might not take long, or I could help with.  If you want to of course. It could add much time to put even apparently simple things in place.

 

I think some people would not like Kairo it but I just think it is so effective in the simplicity of the levels but the feeling that is carried by those spaces.  I think you will probaly find them similar to your level as I think you can tell a bit from the video and images below:

 

 

 

 

I think you have identified most of the elements that need work above (lack of waypoints for example - but I think you plan to already put these in).   It's nice that there are some vertical bits. I think I got about 3/4s of the way up the tower. Think I probably tried about 5 times before exploring elsewhere. The other bits feel about right in degree of challenge and the tower is too I think.  If there was something interesting at the top then the pay-off would be quite satisfying.

I think I found the collapsing blocks a bit frustrating.  Now that there are just a few of them it might seem a little mean that they look identical to the others.  It might be better if they were slightly different somehow so you knew you were doing such a section.  I think partly it is because I find the LeadWerks FPS controller code to sometimes feel a little spongy or unresponsive in jump situations and sometimes when you want to jump it feels like it is not doing it. I think this is especially the case when ground is falling away from the feet as in a downwards slope or a descending platform.

I think I have 4.6 loaded currently and it threw errors from the blocks that have platform.lua on them so initially was throwing exceptions and refusing to load.  I'm not sure if they are required in the level.  They probably are (one seemed to be somewhat hidden between 2 other blocks and I wasn't sure that was on purpsoe).  Might be worth you checking against 4.6 (current release) and if you think things are now fine then we can both stick on 4.6.  

In general I think the level is heading in the right direction. 

If you want any more feedback or have other questions about my experience or want me to try something specific let me know.

 

 

[aiaf]

That Kairo game looks awesome.

Mine resulted as it is because i was thinking abit about mist.

 

There is also a somewhat main quest that start from the right side of the map (you need to explore all pyramids to find bits of the commands from the VR level).The monolith there is the ship AI and explain this somewhat.

I have to signal that better for people to go there.

 

Quote

If there was something interesting at the top then the pay-off would be quite satisfying.

Agree, there are some things on the upper level.

After you climb the tower first time. the chief robot  opens another way to a pyramid so you can get the last part of the VR command, If you spot this you dont have to climb the tower again.

You have to talk to all upper level robots to activate the teleporter.They send you to reactivate the generator on lower level (big cubes on the right).After that the chief robot send you to kill a rogue robot on the lower level.And you are open a hidden way to another robot that will give you spell powers (this is not finished yet).

Ill try add some more puzzles.

 

Quote

I think I found the collapsing blocks a bit frustrating.  Now that there are just a few of them it might seem a little mean that they look identical to the others.  It might be better if they were slightly different somehow so you knew you were doing such a section

They are a bit different they move slightly.But probably is not enough to notice.

Still have to tweak some areas that are too hard.

 

I will try to update to 4.6 again.

[mdgunn]

Just noticed I am actually on 4.5  right now - I keep switching mainly for this project - so the error I was getting about mass not being set (see platform.lua) was not a 4.6 thing.  I would be interested to know if you see any problems with 4.6 again though as if there are no reasons not to it is probably better that we are on current otherwise it is a pain to have to switch between versions for different projects as Leadwerks does not really support this well. If you prefer we stay on 4.5 then I can try to do that too if you feel now is not a good time to switch though I'm a bit concerned that if I have other projects on 4.6 locally then if I forget to switch back to 4.5 and work on this it may have re-written files and messed things up a bit.  

 

 

 

 

[aiaf]

I tried 4.6.There is still the problem with the platforms in level1 and level1a.Aside from that all seem to work ok.

I dont know if its leadwerks or the script to blame.

Scripts\Objects\Physics\NoGravityWithPhysics.lua is the script , i tried to fix it but no luck.Maybe you can have a look.

Well figure a way to solve that platform script problem.

 

I adapted level 1a to not use anymore the platform script, its ok , its become a bit easier this way.

I think we should upgrade to 4.6.Waiting for your input , if ok ill make the commit with the new 4.6 binaries/files

 

 

[mdgunn]

I don't have any objections. I think you can go ahead.

[aiaf]

Done

[aiaf]

Here is a movie with the latest switch i made, there are 3 pyramids that can be selected like this.

The player could open the way to enter the selected pyramid.

 

Im not entirely sure i will do the 3 interior room of the pyramids, i dont know what to put in them at the moment.Maybe is better i stop.

I have some problems with the buttons not playing the whole sound, i dont know what happens there.

 

[Josh]

"This type of video file isn't supported" in Edge browser.

[aiaf]

Duh microsoft, Its mpeg4 , guess you could download the file and play it with vlc , or use a proper browser chrome/firefox