Suggestions Box

[Midnight Synergy]

As for avatars (the little pics under a name), we decided against them to keep (a) the board bandwidth costs reasonable, and (b) avoid some of the problems that they can cause... sure some avatars are fun, but they can be quite inappropriate sometimes and are very open to abuse.

[majic1]

Maybe a useful tip..
If testing (with interation from stinky or Loof) an area away from the starting position, simply reposition the characters to that area you want to playtest to save time. Rather than wasting time playing through areas you are satisfied with to get to the area you're toying with... might sound obvious, but could be of benefit to someone like me.

Thanks Robbie! What a great tip - can't believe I was so stupid not to think of it! This is going to be a real time saver. (Of course, NOW I have to remember to put them back in their original positon when I'm done - just what I need, something else to remember!)

[LinkyNStoof]

I don't know if this is the right thread, but here goes:

1) The main menu of the editor (the first screen that shows up when you fire the editor, that thing with "New Level", "Load Level", etc.), you should add an entry to go to the website where you have the level editor tutorials.

For the most part figuring out the level editor by myself is not too hard (just try something out and see what happens when you play it), but there were still a few things that confused me (for example, I didn't understand what the last 4 objects are, they don't seem to show up as anything--until I finally managed to stumble onto the level editor website and learned that they are not really objects but atmosphereic effects). Having a link to the tutorials will definitely make it less intimidating for first time users.


2) cut-and-paste could be useful. For example, I remember you (the site admin) suggesting someone to break up a larger level into smaller ones, but then I realize if he/she has already started off with a larger level and have many things in it already, there's currently no easy way to break it into smaller ones.


3) It would be useful to use the right mouse button to erase stuff. For example, if you've currently selected an object, the right mouse button will put an "empty" over where you clicked, and if you've currently selected a tile, the right mouse button will put a floor tile over where you clicked. I think it'd be a handy and useful shortcut.

[eeyore31]

Just a suggestion----I have fumbled around trying to remember how to link to editor help, but once on the page...I just clicked favorites and changed the name of link to StinkyLoof Editor and added it on my favorites. Now when I want to re-check something, it's easy to find!!!

[loof101]

This is a great game. One suggestion, that I am stealing from GOOBS, is a way to "go back one step" and/or be able to have another chance from wherever you get killed. I am becoming bored with "There Must Be Another Way," as after I have gone over and over again getting the to the final box, re-doing all of that work, I lose again. There doesn't seem to be a sure-fire way of dancing around those spaceships shooting at you, and it'd simply be nice to be able to pick up where you left off to keep trying to master a particular part of a level.

The Goobs? I LOVE that game! I've got the demo with new graphics. The level editor option is there, but you can't save levels. and yes, I am stuck on the Mixed up stinky and loof level that is style cave. I would like the bookmark as well,but it would make more sense being called a "Level mark," and speaking of which,

Teri1255 wrote (I think)

Two lives per level (or something like that)

I was thinking of a coin with a checkmark on it, called a "Checkpoint".

How it works is below:

As soon as you would normally get killed, as in not grabbing this, you need to restart the level. This is similair. When you collect this and get killed,

e.g.:


Stinky picks it up, and releases a chomper, gets killed.


You get a screen saying:




CHECKPOINT REACHED!


and shows the level title, it acts like you're starting from the beggining, except for:




1)You're where the checkpoint was.
and
2)You hear stinky saying:


"Let's try that again, OK?"


Then a screen says:


Continue from Checkpoint/

Y/N


type y for yes. type n for no. No returns you to the Level Select Screen.

Yes continues the level.

Loof 101

[LinkyNStoof]

Boy, you really like reviving dead threads don't you?

They already talked about this way back before DRTW was released. Before the release, Patrick said they tried to implement it in DRTW but couldn't do it in a reliable way, so they eventually scrapped that feature. Probably a good thing, given that the game was still crashing on everyone's computer even without these extra features!

[Robbie]

Uh huh LnS - this was waaaay back in the archives - 10 months back to the previous post.

I like the idea though & should Pat consider developing a new version later on ( ), it's one of the things that would be great to see go in. And adding on to that, Multiple Checkpoints for longer more linear levels...

Good job Anthony - not bad for a young fella!

Robbie

[LinkyNStoof]

I like the idea though & should Pat consider developing a new version later on ( ), it's one of the things that would be great to see go in.

Judging from Patrick's comments back then, I don't think checkpoints are doable unless they completely rewrite the Wonderland game engine.

If MS do decide to do such a thing though, remind me to throw in other feature requests like allowing transparencies in custom models.

[Robbie]

Yeh, and I'm sure you'll recall that he mentioned that the game as it is pretty much stretches the engine to it's limits.

From what Pat sad back then too he hinted that a rewrite might be on the cards I guess depending on how this version goes & what other projects he might have lined up for the future.

Maybe if we gather all these great ideas together (like the transparencies - good one) at some point he may toy seriously with the idea.

Until then, I'm satisfied with what I have to work with...

... though while you're at it (throwing in feature ideas)... in the editor it would be good to be able to extend atributes for tiles to more than 1floor/wall & 1 object - to say floor/object/sign/walkable/custom music/custom sound effect...

...anyway, enough of that...

Robbie

[Robbie]

Yeh, and I'm sure you'll recall that he mentioned that the game as it is pretty much stretches the engine to it's limits.

From what Pat sad back then too he hinted that a rewrite might be on the cards I guess depending on how this version goes & what other projects he might have lined up for the future.

Maybe if we gather all these great ideas together (like the transparencies - good one) at some point he may toy seriously with the idea.

Until then, I'm satisfied with what I have to work with...

... though while you're at it (throwing in feature ideas)... in the editor it would be good to be able to extend atributes for tiles to more than 1floor/wall & 1 object - to say floor/object/sign/walkable/custom music/custom sound effect...

...anyway, enough of that...

Robbie

[Robbie]

Janet posted a great little tutorial for those wishing to explore the realm of custom content & another thought came to mind with regards to improvements to the current version.

And once again this may be a little out of the way (or off the track altogether) but would it be possible to add a warning message when someone tries to open a level without having the custom content in the appropriate directories?

Maybe you could transfer the tutorials to a sticky posting here on the forum from the main Midnight Synergy page.


Robbie

[LinkyNStoof]

I'm not 100% sure that's a totally good idea. Some people like ol'gramma purposely do not play with custom models, and so having a warning message pop up all the time can get annoying. At the very least the user should be allowed to turn off the warning if they want to.