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	Re: Eternally Amazed!
	Posted By: Forrest of B.org	Date: 9/4/04 10:45 p.m.
	In Response To: Eternally Amazed! (Steve Levinson) : Wow! There is not an emoticon appropriately large to describe the smile on my face. I guess I'll just use :-) I'm so glad that you like how it's turning out. I'll try to cut down on monster regeneration (so far I don't think there's any of it in Ch3, except maybe on one level, and then it's light and for story reasons). I've also taken your advice on asymmetry of Pfhor levels, which you first gave to me halfway through building "May The Pfharce Be With You" (15), hence changing it so that gameplay, at least, was more asymmetrical. "My Kingdom Pfhor A Horse" (18) is the first Pfhor level built after that, hence the asymmetry. The one Pfhor level in Ch3, "Gamma Knife Therapy", is already built and also symmetrical, but it's a 1023 poly map so I'm probably not going to be changing that. The S'pht levels are far less symmetric, and I really quite like it: I find myself building less symmetry in levels that take place on larger places, so things in the great outdoors of Lh'owon are very rugged and natural. Ch4 and Ch5 are not yet built much, but what little is built and Pfhorish about them is not very symmetrical at all. : I've already posted extensive comments on levels 1-13, but there is a bug I : neglected to mention before on level 9 that I assume would be an issue on : level 6 as well since they share the same core. With the left-most circuit : to be destroyed I managed to slide down between the circuit and the door : that covers it, leaving me trapped. I'm guessing this wasn't supposed to : be possible? Nope, not supposed to happen. Though the circuits are all identical, at least they're supposed to be, so I don't know why that would only happen with one. : Level 14. Forrest, I suspect that the timing element didn't work properly. I : like the overall design of the level and it is visually beautiful. The : Pfhor textures really shine. What I found, first of all, is that both : Leela's and Tycho's terminals could be read at any time throughout : gameplay, even when they were dim. I could thus skip the rest of the level : entirely if I was content to follow Tycho. Not what you intended, I : presume. In terms of which terminals were illuminated, Leela's started out : as being illuminated as was appropriate. At one point I actually saw the : terminals switch off, just as I was heading back to retrieve the first of : the chips - obviously I was too slow. By the time I returned with the : second chip, however, Leela's terminal was again bright and Tycho's was : dim. I take it that was not supposed to happen? When I repeated the level : to see if I could legitimately beat it, this did not happen (I lost yet : again), but I didn't wait to see if it switched back. Even after Leela's : term switched off, I could still leave by it, as well as the one in the : back. Right, that's not supposed to work like that. Either I forgot to check them as "light dependant" or the lighting isn't dim enough on them. I have no idea why Leela's terminal would become bright again. Adam, please look into that when you get to bugfixing this level. The proper exit is supposed to be via the third terminal, with the windows looking out on the power cores. Hathor rants there earlier in the level, but Leela will take you out from there if Tycho cuts in before you can finish your job. : Level 15. There is an elevator near the beginning - it's possible to become : trapped between the platform and the door at the bottom - this wouldn't be : so bad except that the back side of the platform isn't textured. Actually it is textured, but you're stuck so close that you can't turn around properly enough for the engine to start texturing it. You stick exactly on the side plane of that platform. Should maybe just make that side solid, since there's no use in trying to go down into that doorway anyway. Also, you're not really stuck, as the platform will come back down again. : When I : started to play this level, my first thought was - finally, a pfhor ship : that isn't symmetric, but then it turned out I was only on one side of a : completely symmetric ship. OK, I won't harp on this again. In the hive : itself, the monsters didn't become active until I got near them. Was this : as intended? I was expecting an ambush and instead could pick them off one : at a time. One caution - the first time through, I missed a couple of them : and couldn't figure out why I couldn't leave. I had initially though to have them all activate and ambush you, but then I thought that that would either be REALLY HARD if the player stayed in the room and fought, or really easy if the player backed out again and made them all come down the hallway after him. Although I guess monster impassibly polys could fix the latter problem. Do you think it would be a reasonable difficulty to fight them all at once, if they all activate and ambush you? : Level 16. Although this is just a placeholder awaiting a new level from Adam, : it's a damn pretty level! Perhaps Adam would like to use this as a : starting point for one of the two he owes you? Yeah, Ooga had a real nice start on this level. He's built some other pretty stuff for me before that isn't being used anymore. His life is in turmoil right now but I'd like to get him onboard as a regular mapper if it all settles down soon enough. : Level 18. I agree that the beginning is boring, but overall I think this : level is boring. Not that it isn't interesting and it certainly : graphically is nice, but there aren't a lot of monsters to deal with : except when you first get up the elevator. Oh, and the upstairs docking : area really needs some ambient sounds - it sounds dead right now. I like : the eye candy and I think the level has potential, but there really needs : to be more action in general. Don't change the map layout - it's great, : and assymetric ;^) . Just work on monster population and make the player : work harder to overtake that ship. And of course, fix that bug with the : terminal assignments. The beginning is far less boring now; I added some Juggernauts and forced you to stay outside and fight them and the hunters and troopers that you could have just ignored before. But yeah, it could use more monsters in the ship itself, and I think I set the ambient sound volume a bit too low. I play with the sound turned way up so I still hear it, but I played with the volume more normal and you're right, it's too quiet in places. : Level 20. Nice. Some players may have trouble with the pillar-hopping, You : might want to make the O2 power-ups regenerating so that the player : doesn't run out of air trying to find their way. I think they are regenerating. Did they not regenerate for you? : One other thing - when I : jumped into the hole, I somehow managed to come out on the other side, : landing on a stairway. Fortunately, I was able to climb the stairway and : jump back down into the hole, but I suspect that this wasn't supposed to : happen - at least not in the variation on this level. Right, you're not supposed to get that view for a while. I'm not really sure what causes that bug, I've seen it a few times myself and not been able to concretely reproduce it. Another thing for Adam's to-do list. : Well, that concludes things for now. Great work Forest, and the entire : Eternal team! Thanks a bunch, and thank you for all the feedback! I'm all jazzed to keep working now. I'm really liking Ch3 a lot so far, I think it's some of my better map work, and I rather like the lava textures too, so I hope you guys will enjoy it as much as I am. :-)

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Replies:

	Eternally Amazed!	Steve Levinson	9/4/04 8:59 p.m.
	Re: Eternally Amazed!	Forrest of B.org	9/4/04 10:45 p.m.
	Re: Eternally Amazed!	Steve Levinson	9/4/04 11:29 p.m.
	Re: Eternally Amazed!	Dr. John Sumner	9/5/04 11:49 a.m.

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