Why I like the CC2 Engine Better

[mobius]

This about the CC2 game engine compared to CC1. Not the levels or game elements.

First of all, years ago; When I was first forced to start using tileworld [because MS chips challenge doesn’t work on 64 bit Operating systems] I used the MS rule set. That’s what I was used to and I liked it better. Lynx seemed very weird at first and I didn’t really like how a few amount of seemingly simple rule set changes really made for some major changes in level design.

After a while however I got used to Lynx and grew to like it better. Now, I pretty much prefer it and I can’t really stand MS anymore. The main reasons; smooth animations not only look nicer, they make it much easier to play, to see where monsters are going and easier to follow chip around as well. Now whenever I play MS it feels so choppy and annoying. Secondly the glitches in MS are a pretty big hassle. Most notably slide delay and the controller/boss glitch. So it’s really nice to not have to deal with that.

But now that CC2 has been released I must say that I like that so much better than either MS or tileworld’s Lynx. Not only because the game and the new features are awesome, but I like the game engine better. I feel like movements are slightly smoother and more fluid. It also feels like the hit-detection on enemies is friendlier than Lynx. So often when playing in tileworld I die while trying to step into a line of enemies or get caught by a monster when I wasn’t expecting it. I often misstep, either moving too far or not enough. If I’m really honest my playing experience with Tileworld’s lynx has been quite frustrating.

Since I started playing CC2 I haven’t found any of these frustrations, at least not nearly to the degree of tileworld. The hit detection is very nice imo, the controls are slightly easier and feel better. I like the ability to reveal walls while passing by them, and the “splash delay” is minimal too. This was another nuisance in Lynx.*

CC2 has its share of glitches too of course; some of which while I haven’t run into yet myself, I would image may be quite frustrating. But so far, nothing I’ve encountered has been as game-breaking as the MS glitches. Overall I really feel the improvements on CC2 far outweigh any negatives verses CC1. So for the most part I’ve stopped playing CC1, though I still play a level or two occasionally, I haven’t deleted the game forever or anything like that. But from now on it’s primarily CC2 for me. And any level sets I make will be for CC2.

What other people’s thoughts on this?

*this is a side point but that splash delay is weird imo. I recently saw a video of the Amiga version of chips challenge [which in graphical quality looks very similar to the Lynx] there is no splash delay at all!

[chipster1059]

I've been wanting to make a post about this for a long time. Here are my thoughts on the subject.

MS is perhaps my least favourite ruleset, because it's just so full of glitches. Like you, I especially hate slide delay. Boosting can also be a pain in some levels. Perhaps the only levels I prefer in MS are so called "insane levels".

When I first started playing in Lynx, I was absolutely annoyed at the animations, although I got used to them and now I like them. Perhaps the only problem I find with it is splash delay, and explosion delay.

So Steam is probably my favourite ruleset. It's also got wall slapping, which makes blue wall levels a whole lot less frustrating, and shorter animations. Also, CC2 supports some tile combinations that were invalid in Lynx, such as objects on locks or water, which gives the designer more freedom without having to worry about ruleset compatibility. There are a few annoying things with CC2, such as the recently discovered force floor bug (it completely ruined one of my level ideas) and I find block slapping harder than in Tile World, but overall I think it's better. Thank you for posting this.

[random 8]

Lynx and CC2 collision detection are pretty much the same, and they both run at 20 ticks per second (except for electricity in CC2, which is processed 60 times per second, and force floors, which are...weird).

The biggest differences I can think of for collision detection are that, in CC2, items don't give you as much protection, you can die from "block-slapping" monsters, and Chip isn't swapped with the first monster on the monster list when the level is loaded. The latter only serves to create inconsistency, as something like this can illustrate (the bottom chip is obtainable, the top isn't).