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.

2548. Tom 7 (h-72-244-70-113.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 21 Jun 2005 23:50:23 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Thanks for the suggestions. I did 1 and 6, since those are easy. I have been planning on doing 2 (especially) and 3 for some time, but haven't got around to putting the advanced features in the editor (it will take a little more work to do it right, especially copy/paste).

As for 3, it's basically an arbitrary decision about what entities can be pushed into. I restricted it to things that you'd normally walk onto, and I consider the teleporter a "button", not a "walk into" (otherwise, you could push bots off it as well). Actually, this idea is slightly violated, since a Dalek can't walk onto another dalek that's standing in electricity (only possible by teleport or starting condition). Maybe I will change that (?). Anyway, the pushing code is about the most complicated thing in the game rules (maybe second to steel interactions with panels), so I don't want to play with it too much. ;)

7: There will be more bots soon, at which point a toggle won't make much sense. But it should let you change a bot's type by putting another one on top of it. Actually, I just fixed that.

It's true that you could get a little more mileage out of electric tiles if you could electrify anything, but it would mean major changes to implement (there is no such thing as "tile states" currently). I could introduce a bunch of individual electrified tiles, but I think this is a slippery slope. Same goes with directional lasers, although I am inclined to think that these may be more useful. In any case, I'm trying to resist adding new tiles that do something that can be accomplished another way. For directional lasers it's easy to see how to do this, for electricity, you could make a hugbot push some steel to change the level right after the electricity is turned off (although this is limited by the number of bots and level space you're willing to kill).

Thanks for the suggestions!

2547. Tom 7 (lolo.wv.cc.cmu.edu) – 21 Jun 2005 11:55:06 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Yeah, but only on Windows. It will be there in the next mac version.

2546. Max (qu-advlan110.quinnipiac.edu) – 21 Jun 2005 11:48:26 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Oops, sorry, apparently you just changed that in the latest update!

2545. Max (qu-advlan110.quinnipiac.edu) – 21 Jun 2005 10:55:13 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

10) I think when you decide to delete a level from triage, you should be prompted to leave a comment explaining why, as when you report having cooked a level. We haven't had any incidents leading to confusion yet, but there is definitely potential.

2544. Stephan (fl-71-3-32-158.dyn.sprint-hsd.net) – 20 Jun 2005 22:02:08 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Ok, A few more for the editor:
7) A toggle for bots between hugbot and dalek. It's a pain to have to erase a bot to switch, and then have to renumber. You can toggle sleep/wake, why not hugbot/dalek too?

8) Not needed, but would be nice: 'erase all bots button' or maybe shift-click the erase button?

And finally,
9) Have you considered directional lasers, not just 4-way? It seems like the 4-way can inhibit some level design simply because you have to block the unwanted laser directions with additional tiles.

2543. Stephan (fl-71-3-32-158.dyn.sprint-hsd.net) – 20 Jun 2005 21:45:13 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

6) And hey, in the editor, when you cancel placing a panel or teleport down by pushing the escape key, the editor should remember what was there when you started and restore the tile, not just put floor down!

2542. Stephan (fl-71-3-32-158.dyn.sprint-hsd.net) – 20 Jun 2005 21:40:57 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Suggestions:
1) In solution playback mode, it would be nice to see what move number you are on. (It can lead to discussion about how, "In move 23, you could save time by going left.", etc.)

2) In the editor, how about copy, cut and paste an area that's been hilighted with right-click?

3) Also in the editor, a flood fill tool or a fill highlighted area could be handy.

4) Daleks can teleport. So why shouldn't I be able to push a sleeping Dalek through a teleport?

5) It would be cool if electric field could be a tile state, (perhaps overlaid on the image using SDL's alpha blending?) This could allow electric field on top of other tiles and might allow for some interesting puzzles. Right now when the field gets turned off, you're just left with floor; kind of a waste of space.

2541. Tom 7 (h-72-244-70-113.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 20 Jun 2005 20:36:08 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

I released an emergency bug-fix today on the server, and whenever I do that I bump the version on the level collections so that there aren't any confusing mismatches. But I couldn't make a windows release until I got back home. It should be there now.

2540. octweak (200165248086.user.veloxzone.com.br) – 20 Jun 2005 19:15:55 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

After updating escape I tried to update levels, but I get an error
"This version cannot accept any collections. Please upgrade"
Press Cancel

I try to update but there is no new version

2539. Un fan franais de supergreg... (76.37.119-80.rev.gaoland.net) – 20 Jun 2005 17:23:26 [ Supergreg ]

supergreg NUMBA OnE !!!

2538. Tom 7 (h-67-100-132-214.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 19 Jun 2005 00:36:35 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

The panel thing is intentional, and basically fundamental to escape. Every tile has exactly one destination, so if you flip between a panel and teleport (for instance), both will necessarily target the same spot.

2537. Max (pcp0010478666pcs.hamden01.ct.comcast.net) – 18 Jun 2005 22:33:02 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

Oh yeah, another thing: is it a bug, intentional, or just practically unfixable that a panel in the foreground and a panel in bizarro world can't refer to two different locations? I think it could be potentially confusing (but there are already a lot of ways to be confusing ;) ) but very useful in designing levels...

2536. Max (pcp0010478666pcs.hamden01.ct.comcast.net) – 18 Jun 2005 16:07:00 [ NEW: Escape Beta 2! ]

How about having an icon that appears next to the number of moves (or somewhere in the title line of a level, like the key) indicating that you have the speed record?

2535. Tom 7 (h-67-100-132-214.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 18 Jun 2005 11:19:54 [ UPD: midimml/t7es ]

Yeah, in fact, the 2A03 requires an external pure crystal coprocessor to run, so there's one in every cartridge.

2534. Quincunx (cpe-24-25-175-211.maine.res.rr.com) – 17 Jun 2005 16:18:50 [ UPD: midimml/t7es ]

Don't most NES games have crystals in them? That's why I named my second Album-a-Day "Crystal Aegis Prototype." I'll keep an eye out for the T7ES page.