Tom 7 Radar:
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Fine, I understand all of the above, but it doesn't diminish my frustration.
How does one comment upon a level? I can't see any links which allow one to do so.
Can I just say also that I hate bots? I gather that some levels can only be solved via some arcane knowledge of the ways in which multiple bots function. |
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Tom is right. It can take tons and tons of work to make a level that has a difficulty rating of 8 or higher, as the harder the level gets, the harder it is to find a solution, the harder it is to make it harder, and so the harder it is to upload such a hard level. Plus, the author needs to add some cool/clever bits to actually justify the work, as not so many people want to play a 9-1-7 level or something like that.
If there was an option to view the solutions to hard levels without beating said levels, many hours, days, maybe even weeks or months of very hard work on building, testing, debugging, and fine-tuning would all be ruined.
Besides, how could we possibly put in place such a system so that nobody has a level that has been pre-spoiled that they might find 'beatable' woithout any help? An example that just shows how thoughts can vary: mjn's "Memory Hole (final!)" is rated a difficulty of 7 (or was if it isn't); I found it rather simple.
Another (not really related to escape, but is a good point) example is that many people, when presented with a (legally) scrambled Rubik's cube, they are unable to solve it, no matter how long or hard they try, without some sort of help; Yet, there are some people who can, without recording or learning any tricks, or knowing who to solve one, can intuitively picture the cube or some other method, and make judgements on what they may need to do next, and continue working away at the problem, until they finally solve it.
Different people are skilled at different things, and a 'One size fits all' approach will not work for some, and a 'Customized plan' method will allow somebody to somehow game the system and get auto-solves on pretty much everything. That sort of thing just won't work. It's not just about respect for the level author and that finally knowing the solution to a level isn't worth spoiling it for yourself and not getting to have that sense of accomplishment. It's also that not everybody wants certain levels to be spoiled. Some just want to solve it themselves.
Also, having a pre-solve for grand prix or rouge-like-like (I've gotten to this point in the rouge-like series, and that level is purely devilish. Rouge-Like was tricky, but is quite tame compared to Rouge-Like-Like.)
would mean that any new player might rate them easy, or after having it spoiled, seeing the 'spoilers' section comments and not understanding what the 'trick' or 'twist' is, as they may think that the provided solution is the one that is the expected route, and so not see a 'trick' or 'twist'.
Tom, has written a few very hard levels that could be seen as 'impossible' levels (a great example is Newark Liberty Airport (EWR), as it has a rating set of 9-9-6), and I expect he wouldn't want to just giveaway the solutions. |
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It's deliberate that you can't see the solutions. I've occasionally had a solution spoiled while debugging with somebody else's player file, and I can tell you it's not worth it to just see the solution. If you're stuck, my recommendation is to leave a comment on the levels that vex you asking if anybody has a bit of a hint (marked as a spoiler).
There are lots of levels I've spent hours on and not been able to solve, including grand prix. :) |
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10450. Anonymous (75.76.229.51) –
20 Jul 2011 00:48:33
[ BAD SAT SCORES ]
got a 1330, 3.7 gpa with nooo EC's..yup, my life's over. hello community college :( |
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I've been playing this excellent game for some three years, but there's some puzzles I'll never solve in a thousand years. Is there any chance, Tom, that you could revise your system so that we could view solved versions of puzzles? I'm not talking about all those 'small' or 'bot' ones compiled by Kacper, but 'impossible' levels like 'grand prix'. |
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It's Coprinus Domesticus a mushroom which is classed as a type of white wet rot, it feeds on plaster apparently. there must be a big damp problem behind the plaster for this to be happening. |
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animation.png is a packed version of all the individual .png files making up the animation frames. If you want to modify the graphics the right way to do it is to get the source code and build it; part of that process is taking all the individual .png files and automatically packing them into a single animation.png file. The arrangement in that file is basically arbitrary, but packing them into one file makes it much more efficient to start the program and to do updates. Go ahead and play with the graphics (or anything else) all you want, but the graphics is one of my favorite parts do, so I'm not really looking for contributions here. :) In the font, the characters after the name are used for incidental font-sized stuff like the ratings bars in the level browser. You can't really type them. You could see the whole list in chars.h: tom7misc.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/tom7misc/trunk/escapex/chars.h?revision=1609&view=markup |
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Update: On the lost player files thing I seem to have found both. Weird, and now I have no idea what happened. I do know that the game did Something weird when my updates had trouble, but I am not sure what. Very odd. |
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That last one was me, i forgot to type my user name in. |
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Also, what were some of the symbols in the font.png after each of the colored ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz...
lines, what are they for, and how are you supposed to get them?
I mean the weird ones like the very end's arrows and such. I know what the Blocky-ish things are for (viewing ratings), but like the 'esc.' one. |
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However, I think the Animation.png would be MUCH easier to navigate if the snippets had some sort of natural order, rather than being like if all the little pictures had been coughed up onto a green background and then smeared about in weird square rings. I mean, Is there any reason for this current configuration, other than that's just how it turned out?
Due to animation.png's messiness, editing the player's look would be near impossible, as most players probably wouldn't know the order of the frames when moving a given direction even when looking at the pictures. So although *sort of* easy to make happen, it won't be so easy for the player. Plus, it easily gets wiped.
Maybe make player animation a separate file, and maybe when updating, having escape copy player animation file ____.png to ____2.png, replace original ____.png with the new one, paste ____2.png onto the new file ____.png so the background of ____2.png doesn't obscure anything, and then delete ____2.png.
It might be long, but it should be possible, as all the steps that are not already part of procedure can be done in a generic paint program (as long as the program is as good as or better than MS Paint). If not then the player could manually do the procedure.
My original thought really was just a "this would be cool" kind of thing. |
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Oh well. Thanks for the link, even though it might be a while until i get around to using it.
Anyway, something I thought of: Maybe that if there become Registered player pages showing progress and everything, that the little picture of the 'office' dude that might be displayed would be whatever the player's normal start position snippet in the proper picture file looked like the last time they connected to the site through the game (upload anything or download levels/updates).
Just a thought, but, it would be cool... and if you can do the user pages, the picture thing shouldn't be too hard... |
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If you still want to be able to play them unmodified, you can either maintain a copy of the source tree where you simply don't include the patch that removes insane levels from the level list, or (much easier) play on a version of the game that predates that patch.
tinyurl.com/escape2007 to the rescue. |
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You can play malformed levels by loading them via the editor (which doesn't mind showing ones that don't pass validation). But it still sanitizes them when it loads them, which usually makes them unwinnable. Being able to load insane levels would mean having to keep old bugs around in the rules, which would be pretty much untenable because I'd need to keep every old released version of the rules still maintained. (And some of the older bugs can actually crash the game!) So I can't do this, sorry... |
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Aha, there it is, thanks. To me it seems to fit in pretty well - if I'm not paying close attention it just passes me by, probably partially because the rhythm is quite a bit different from the original song (ie, no swing). |
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Also, I would like it if there was an option in-game to play any 'corrupted' level as if it was a regular level, (however they are still sanitized by the editor, and will be rejected by the server if uploaded, just like insane levels are now) by first clicking on it, giving a message along the lines of "Notice: This level is corrupted and does not meet the requirements to pass the level sanity check. This means that this level may have strange gameplay and possibly other strange features. Keep in mind that the server classifies this level as insane." It will then have the choice of the Esc key for "Return to level selection" and the L button for "Load anyways".
That way they can actually be played, as I would like to try and solve radiant's malformed levels as I was unable to do so before they became completely forbidden. |
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Thanks! Super Brain Damage!! :)
Nope, heartle$$ is at 1:14. "No need to be heartless...." I actually thought it was so obvious it was like a painful medley. 1:34 is from Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, the part "If you tear a gory hole it comes with the territory, so quit actin' so smart..." Lots of parts are original though.
Graham seems to think the compilation will happen, but you never know. Having more tunes at the ready probably increases the chances, though. :) |
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Awesome!! Trying to reconcile the crazy rhythms of this with the beat-context-less intro of the original is breaking my brain, in a good way.
I'm having trouble the HEARTLE$$ bit though, which is kind of frustrating since I've listened to both of these songs tons of times. Is it the part at 1:34? It sounds kinda familiar but I can't identify it with anything.
Also if this KGW covers thing is actually going to come together I suppose I should start mine at some point. |
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idea: Scared/Baby Bots
Both are the same thing, they are like hug-bots, but they try to hug other bots. |
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I noticed that using the scroll wheel on my mouse (not using middle click and drag), it took approx. 23-25 seconds to get from thread top to thread bottom. however, scroll on touch-pad and middle click & drag can be much faster.
Also, although I've not been playing much, I try to check on escape every day to see if there is anything new, so I consider myself an active player. |
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Thanks djoel! I feel good about I have a DRAM too because I think it's pretty damn weird but likable.
Almost everything is made with Cakewalk (I just click on the piano roll) and the Roland SC-880, which is a hardware midi synth (but I only use like 4 primitive waveform patches on it). I've been wanting to make my own software for a while, but so many things to do. :) More fun to write music anyway...! |
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LURVE IT man! I HAVE A DRAM is defs my favourite!
Just wondering what you use to get such a wicked true 8-bit sound? Is it hardware/VST? Really inspiring stuff, i'll be checkin in for more!! =D |
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Umm, I have an Idea:
Maybe a category along the lines of "Begginner - these levels are a good way to get more used to the game"
then A "Moderate - these are average, good levels"
a "Hard - These are the levels that will make your brain hurt!"
In each category could be a "Stylish levels" folder.
there could also be a "What not to make if you want a good level"
And a "Ratings tutorial", which teaches what ratings mean to those who don't know. |
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