: Canyon is another beast entirely, however, and Matt and Andrew need to delve
: deeply into the guts of it, or to rip it up and start over, or perhaps to
: drop it entirely.
Let me echo everything Steve said about this level. Even though I have been playing on an old PowerMac 6500 with OS9.1, I had the exact same problems as Steve except I have never had the slow frame-rate problem. The first time I played, the Troopers were frozen in place and could not be harmed....that is, except for the Trooper in the opening room. That Trooper acted normal, as well as all other enemies. I'll try playing it on my G4 at work tomorrow and see if the behavior is the same.
The second time I played a few days ago, the level played PERFECTLY. All the enemies activated like they were supposed to. Even the Troopers. I can't say that I did anything different this second time compared to the first time, though the first room I visited after the opening room might have been a different one.
Actually, I rather liked the level. There are plenty of Pattern Buffers and rechargers scattered about. Plus the enemies cannot open the doors that separate adjacent rooms. That helps protect the player quite a bit. If Matt and Andrew can figure out what is causing the major problems plaguing the level, I hope they keep it.
To add to the mystery, let me also offer this strange incident. Just for the challenge, I have been trying to vid all of these levels. However, on this particular level, I have been unable to get the level to even begin properly under vidmaster rules. Most of the time, when I start the level from Cmd-Option-Begin-New-Game, my opening position is OUTSIDE the box where the player is supposed to begin the level, and I am facing the single Trooper. Twice (for some weird reason) I actually started in the previous level Minnow, even though I KNOW I entered the level number for Canyon. It happened twice, so I know I didn't make that stupid of an error. But aside from that, I have yet to get this level to even begin properly. If I try to play the level starting outside the box, the level crashes almost immediately, at least as long as I don't move. The enemies ignore me. I have seen this behavior once before when trying to vid. On level 23 of Ben Potter's Marathon Fell, strange things happen when trying to vid that level. It does not crash, but it definitely plays strangely. I would appreciate it if someone would try to vid the level and see if you get the same behavior. It could be a RAM problem. The level seems rather large, though I have not had this problem when vidding the other levels. The behavior does seem to be different depending upon the amount of RAM I devote to the PF application. Sometimes I get nothing but a blank screen.
The only other suggestion I would offer for this level is that it wasn't easy for me to tell if I had hit those high switches or not after shooting them. Would it be possible to lower them a bit, just enough so the player can tell if they have been struck? Otherwise it's very annoying to run all the way to where the door should be open, only to find that it isn't. :(
Matt and Andrew, do everything you can to fix the level. I enjoy it and would love to see it stay in the scenario.
