One of our testers, Rob Segel, has mentioned that the Easy mansions that come with the game tend to vary widely in difficulty. <br />
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Having not tried the Easy mansions yet myself, I'd like to have *you* as testers comment if you feel a mansion's difficulty on Easy is too hard. Here are some guidelines, so you can let a mansion designer know if you feel it should be made easier in specific ways:<br />
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- Most gaps Jack jumps over should be only 2 tiles wide. At most 3 tiles wide. <br />
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- Most falling platforms should be the widest variety. <br />
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- Almost never should several successive fast maneuvers be required by Jack in a row (i.e. jump from conveyor belt to falling platform, jump over monster, jump to next falling platform, then jump to safety). Generally it should be one isolated obstacle at a time, rarely in combination if ever. <br />
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- Precision jumping should not be required. Easy players have a hard enough time simply jumping over snakes and skull spiders.<br />
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- Rarely should obstacles overlap. (i.e. a skull spider that crosses a zapper beam, or one skull spider who cross another skull spider in the same area.)<br />
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- Generally there should be a feeling of <blockquote>safety</blockquote> followed by <blockquote>let's get past this single obstacle</blockquote> (which should take generally a single jump or two, or a few steps), and then Jack is back in relative safety again.
Okay, so I have a question. In the screenshot attached, Jack can walk over to the ladder and climb it. Technically, this does not make any sense. The ladder should be <blockquote>above</blockquote> jack -- he can't suddenly go from <blockquote>under</blockquote> to it to <blockquote>above</blockquote> it and start climbing. yet, the current incarnation of the game allows Jack to walk over and climb it.<br />
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I propose that Jack should only be able to *get on* a ladder at the same places where he can *get off* the ladder. He can't get off the ladder on the middle ledge in this scenario, and so he shouldn't be able to get on it here, either.<br />
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But, this is rather late in the testing process to make such a major change to basic gameplay. So the question is, would this break anything?<br />
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It's too late for this to really benefit existing mansions much, but future designer could take advantage of this change to allow ladders to cross areas Jack can walk, without allowing Jack to get on them -- providing for a lot more creativity in building than was possible before. (Jack can, for instance, move from the top of the room to the bottom, whiel passing over a middle section, but he has not access to the middle section, and likewise, while in the middle section, he has no access to the top or bottom areas.)
I just finished Jasperlone Mountains Easy, just a tad late of Vern releasing beta 3. Anyway, I'll just put it here for you guys to beta test with no delay. <br />
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The mansion isn't as big as normal. Wait until beta 4, when hard mode is around... it will be much much bigger (I'm looking at 180 rooms) and I'm thinking of a section that players can obtain extra money from by doing extremely hard puzzles. But I don't know what Vern would think of that. : Ideas... ideas...<br />
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Anyway, yeah -- Here's the mansion. Don't try putting it in your built-in mansion folder; it won't work. Just put it in the custom mansion folder and use the <blockquote>Open Mansion</blockquote> button on the main menu, for now.<br />
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Hey, look at that -- a new avatar. Now which mansion could that be?
I have some proposed changes to gameplay that I'd like to get opinions on. First, I've noticed while playing through Mt. Peril today that some of the puzzles Tobin created years ago are now messed up somewhat with the new jumping mechnic. That is, moving platforms affect jack's vertical momentum when he jumps from them. Example rooms for you to consider with the editor (from Mt. Peril):<br />
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16900 -- Jumping from the lower-left platform to the upper-right one is now much harder, since you're performing the jump while the platform is moving down.<br />
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16898 - The final jump in from platform to the upper-right area is similar.<br />
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And yet, the vertical momentum is *required* for the very fast moving platforms that go between rooms in other parts of the mansion. (The elevators that go up/down between rooms.) If Jack jumps on these without the additional momentum, he will jump right through the platform (it moves up right through him) or he will fall to his death on it.<br />
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So my ideas are:<br />
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A) Reduce the effect of the vertical momentum for slower platforms, so they don't affect Jack's momentum as much.<br />
B) Eliminate it entirely, for the slower platforms.<br />
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But the question is, would this create inconsistent gameplay, where sometimes Jack's jumping behaves one way, and other times, it behaves an entirely different way?
Everyone who has been active on these forums, posting bug reports / suggestions, playtesting, etc. is welcome to have their name in the new <blockquote>About</blockquote> screen for MM2. If you'd like your name there, please reply to this email and list your name exactly as you'd like it to appear in the credits list. It can be your real name, your screen name, or whatever you want.
Don't forget to post here to indicate what mansion(s) you'll focus on testing.<br />
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Dr. Demented's Den and Magma Peak now exist in Easy/Hard, so they are ready for testing.
Post here for comments about Blackheart Keep, all difficulties. Begin your post with the room number the comment is referring to, if it refers to a specific room number.
Post here for comments about Castle Basano, all difficulties. Begin your post with the room number the comment is referring to, if it refers to a specific room number.
Ideas... ideas...<br />
