2573. Tom 7 (h-67-100-132-144.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 04 Jul 2005 00:48:13 [ July, July!! ]

Cool, now my radar doubles as a pop novelist "message board" or "battle spa."

2572. David Foster Wallace (wittgenstein.wv.cc.cmu.edu) – 03 Jul 2005 20:37:53 [ July, July!! ]

I am so great!

2571. David Foster Wallace (wittgenstein.wv.cc.cmu.edu) – 03 Jul 2005 20:37:39 [ July, July!! ]

Look at meeeeee! Looooook!

2570. David Eggers (qwest163-dsl5.cybermesa.com) – 03 Jul 2005 20:23:40 [ July, July!! ]

I'm obnoxious? pfft. whatever bitch.

2569. catamorphism (m208-190.dsl.rawbw.com) – 03 Jul 2005 16:03:29 [ July, July!! ]

No, Dave Eggers is much more obnoxious (in that pretentious look-at-me-look-at-me-I'm-so-great way) than David Foster Wallace.

2568. Tom 7 (h-67-100-132-144.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 03 Jul 2005 12:34:38 [ You're at the CONCERT? Do they have a SMOKE MACHINE? ]

That will eventually go away.

2567. Arthur (ctwboo101.ctw.utwente.nl) – 01 Jul 2005 04:42:38 [ You're at the CONCERT? Do they have a SMOKE MACHINE? ]

Your BellRays review makes me laugh every time I read it.

2566. mjn (pool-68-160-225-150.ny325.east.verizon.net) – 30 Jun 2005 09:40:01 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Actually, I meant stable as in preserving the existing order among ties (like merge sort, insertion sort, etc.). No important reason; it just occurred to me that it'd be cool to be able to see the unsolved levels ordered somehow other than alphabetically. If sorting was stable, then you could do Ctrl-N, Ctrl-V to get the unsolved levels on top, newest first. Or you could see the unsolved levels in style order, or a particular author's levels in difficulty order, or whatever.

2565. Tom 7 (h-68-166-177-14.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 30 Jun 2005 08:07:46 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

It should be stable in the sense that repeatedly sorting the same way produces the same result (this used to not be the case, and it was bad!). But this was done by making each sort order completely distinguishing (so that if two levels have the same number of solution moves, then it falls back on alphabetical comparison, etc.). I think then what you're asking for is trivially satisfied. ;) What is it exactly that's annoying or that you want to do and can't?

2564. mjn (dialn-async454.dial.net.nyu.edu) – 30 Jun 2005 05:17:02 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Minor suggestion: could the level sorting be stable?

2563. Tom 7 (h-68-166-177-14.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 29 Jun 2005 10:51:36 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Well, I was just talking about the editor, which of course already has the mouse-over behavior. I dunno if I am ready to change the gameplay yet...

2562. ashleyriot (69.151.235.52) – 29 Jun 2005 02:34:53 [ You're at the CONCERT? Do they have a SMOKE MACHINE? ]

I came upon your site by "accident" & I looked around a tad bit surprised & then began digging around the cybernetic backyard for a way to contact you. This seems to be the best way perhaps? I like your notes from school. I find you, interesting. & if you are bored someday & curiosity gets the best of you here is a way to contact me.

thiswayforever@hotmail.com
AIM: discordia indeed

2561. Brian (gs134.sp.cs.cmu.edu) – 29 Jun 2005 02:03:31 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

> brian: wow, writing on your monitor is pretty hard-core!
Only in my office, though!

How about Max's interactive suggestion in reverse? Mousing over a panel or teleport will show you its target. Arrows will be useful, though! Wow, that will change some things. Not much hidden info left. Only bot ordering now?

2560. Tom 7 (h-68-166-177-14.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 29 Jun 2005 01:32:57 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

panel arrows are in the editor for the next version (press d). I could improve the display a bit, and it is useless for huge panel levels, but I think it is helpful in many cases. The only thing keeping me from implementing max's suggestion is that it would require storing and maintaining a separate index from tiles to panel/teleport sources, since that information is only one-way right now.

also, I started implementing an Excel-like pattern extension tool, which I think is pretty cool, and should handle the series-of-panels stuff nicely.

brian: wow, writing on your monitor is pretty hard-core!

jl: bombs! yes, that would be fun. actually, I think that would be pretty easy to implement and draw, so maybe I will do it. but, bugs first...

2559. John Lewis (h170.32.255.206.cable.lngv.cablelynx.com) – 28 Jun 2005 21:20:49 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

I have an idea for a new game feature: a block which functions in a similar manner as electricity. If you push a block onto any object, both the block and the object will explode. If a robot pushes it onto you, you will explode. This feature would be good for breaking through walls, destroying annoying wire switches, blowing up robots, and more! :-)

2558. Brian (potetz.dsl.telerama.com) – 28 Jun 2005 18:42:22 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

> What about something that drew an arrow from every tile to
> its destination?

Yeah - I often simulate this mode using a dry-erase pen on my CRT. Some levels its kind of fun to have to poke around & figure out what all the buttons do. But in general, I agree with Tom's total disclosure philosophy.

I like Max's interactive idea, too.

2557. Max (pcp0010478666pcs.hamden01.ct.comcast.net) – 24 Jun 2005 12:17:45 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Yeah as a toggled mode, that would be pretty cool. But potentially quite confusing if there are many panels (imagine how this would look on "Collapses"!). I'm thinking of a mode where scrolling over a tile will light up any panel(s) (with an arrow could be cool too) or teleport(s) that is/are referring to that tile.

2556. Tom 7 (h-72-244-70-113.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 24 Jun 2005 08:10:25 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

heh.

What about something that drew an arrow from every tile to its destination? (as a toggled mode) I've often thought of implementing that.

2555. Anonymous (129.94.198.73) – 24 Jun 2005 03:42:55 [ Quake 3 Done! ]

Phew just finished q3a on nitemare thanks to some tips here!
It is oh so satisfying to beat Xaero 10-0, even if the tactics were a bit questionable :)
I agree q3dm18 was also a pain in the azz heh heh
All in all a very entertaining way to spend ~5hrs

2554. Max (pcp0010478666pcs.hamden01.ct.comcast.net) – 24 Jun 2005 00:48:37 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

That all sounds good. Pretty much any basic building block tool for multiple panels would be very helpful for mechanized levels however unpredictable it may be.

Another thing that I would find very handy would be a way to find out which panel is referring to a given tile. For example, if I have like 60 panels referring to 60 tiles, and I have one tile that I later decide should not be affected by a panel, I currently have to scroll over each individual panel until I find the right one.

Also, I think it would be totally awesome if there were two bizarro worlds (jk).

2553. Tom 7 (h-72-244-70-113.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 24 Jun 2005 00:22:22 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Yeah, the level upload thing should have a comment, just like deleting and the other operations that post info messages.

I'm going to improve the cut'n'paste mechanism, which should make the shifting thing unimportant.

I'm not sure what to do about the cook thing, because I don't want the server cluttered with too many solutions--basically, I want to discourage uploading solutions, period, unless they are really interesting, or a single shortest solution for each level. Some levels have lots of cooks, and many people have the wrong idea of what cooking is, so I don't want to make it so easy to upload solutions that are useless in the long run. (OTOH, some day when I upgrade spacebar, maybe space considerations will be such that I can tolerate an unlimited number of solutions.)

I'll think about this panel thing a bit. I guess what I'm getting at for the moment is something like Excel's automatic drag-completion (if you've ever used it), where it tries to extend a region doing the "obvious" thing. So in the case where the region is a series of panels pointing to a series of locations, in order, it would continue extending those panels and that series. If the panels were of different colors, following a repeating pattern, then it would be continue that pattern. I think this could be general enough to handle most of the common cases, with the slight downside that it would be somewhat unpredictable.

2552. Max (pcp0010478666pcs.hamden01.ct.comcast.net) – 23 Jun 2005 22:51:21 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Sorry to overload this with so many less-than transcendant suggestions, but how about making it so that when you move a selection with ctrl+arrows for several spaces, it remembers what tile was in the spaces before instead of paving over everything with just plain ground?

2551. Max (pcp0010478666pcs.hamden01.ct.comcast.net) – 23 Jun 2005 22:31:53 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

...And how about allowing you to add a comment as you upload a level (have a dialogue say the space is for introducing the level, if desired -- spoiler box may be checked if desired) to appear as i.e.:

'[level]' uploaded by [person]: This level is sooo boring omg

2550. Max (qu-advlan110.quinnipiac.edu) – 22 Jun 2005 13:45:03 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

And another thing (I get lots of Escape ideas at work), how about making it so that when someone reports a cook, they are prompted to submit the solution?

2549. Max (qu-advlan110.quinnipiac.edu) – 22 Jun 2005 12:39:20 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

About your question of what kind of editor tool would help heavily mechanized levels involving lots of panels -- how about something that can select multiple panels at once (right click)and then select multiple spaces (maybe shift+right click) for the panels to automatically refer to. I have no idea how practical this idea is, but it's worth a shot I guess.

Also, using the proposed "fill" tool, if you were to fill a space with panels, would you then have to choose a tile for each panel to refer to or have them all refer to one tile with just one click? Each of these options would be useful.