25-Oct-2014, 2:10 AM
I am happy to see some discussion about these things. The plan is to have documentation that includes reasoning for the changes to each level, but for the time being I wanted to see how people receive the levels without it. The set is still not set in stone and any level could be updated if we figure out better versions of them. Obviously many changes to the levels are a matter of choice no matter what we do. In the current build of the set some changes weren't chosen to be safe, but possibly to test how players feel about them.
Now that I have had time to think about Teeth * and seeing that it really does create problems for players, I agree that we should change the start to something else. I believe I have a version that uses the toggle wall delaying the teeth, works in both even and odd step, as well as not changing anything in MS. Though I thought the odd-step trick was novel and preserved the spirit of the original, this version should be better.
The other teeth stuck in the trap toward the end of the level also plays differently. Had the level been solvable otherwise, we would not have changed just this one part, but now we did consider alternatives. Simply changing the direction the teeth is facing allows the section to be solvable but requires precise (and kind of lucky) timing. An element change could work, but it is tricky because there are both fire and water tiles already present in the area. A bomb at (29,0) wouldn't be terrible, but not ideal either. Basically in my mind it comes down to just being easier to solve if the teeth isn't released, which is less of a hassle overall.
Glider and Fire is another problematic level. The original is solvable, and the mirrored element change is not without its own problems. The current solution I wanted to try, was to include some sort of hint in the ccx file that is displayed before the level starts. Maybe this hint should be very clearly spelled out? If you block the path of the gliders with a block you can stop the level from filling up completely. If you need more gliders than you have, you can open the stream again using block slapping before closing it again. How many players just can't solve the level no matter how much they try? Perhaps we should at least remove a few of the gliders from the ice since that part is also tricky. (If someone attempts the mirrored version, take note that not all the gliders on the ice in the original are on the monster list in MS.)
All comments on all levels are very welcome. Like on Security Breach *, I haven't seen many complaints on why the mechanism feels different than in MS (which basically comes down to different trap behavior between the MS and Lynx). Any other levels feel weird?
-Miika
Now that I have had time to think about Teeth * and seeing that it really does create problems for players, I agree that we should change the start to something else. I believe I have a version that uses the toggle wall delaying the teeth, works in both even and odd step, as well as not changing anything in MS. Though I thought the odd-step trick was novel and preserved the spirit of the original, this version should be better.
The other teeth stuck in the trap toward the end of the level also plays differently. Had the level been solvable otherwise, we would not have changed just this one part, but now we did consider alternatives. Simply changing the direction the teeth is facing allows the section to be solvable but requires precise (and kind of lucky) timing. An element change could work, but it is tricky because there are both fire and water tiles already present in the area. A bomb at (29,0) wouldn't be terrible, but not ideal either. Basically in my mind it comes down to just being easier to solve if the teeth isn't released, which is less of a hassle overall.
Glider and Fire is another problematic level. The original is solvable, and the mirrored element change is not without its own problems. The current solution I wanted to try, was to include some sort of hint in the ccx file that is displayed before the level starts. Maybe this hint should be very clearly spelled out? If you block the path of the gliders with a block you can stop the level from filling up completely. If you need more gliders than you have, you can open the stream again using block slapping before closing it again. How many players just can't solve the level no matter how much they try? Perhaps we should at least remove a few of the gliders from the ice since that part is also tricky. (If someone attempts the mirrored version, take note that not all the gliders on the ice in the original are on the monster list in MS.)
All comments on all levels are very welcome. Like on Security Breach *, I haven't seen many complaints on why the mechanism feels different than in MS (which basically comes down to different trap behavior between the MS and Lynx). Any other levels feel weird?
-Miika