+- Midnight Mansion Forums (https://actionsoft.com/forum)
+-- Forum: 120 (https://actionsoft.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=10)
+--- Forum: 999 (https://actionsoft.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=55)
+--- Thread: Beta 2: Blackheart Keep (/showthread.php?tid=1327)
Pages:
1
2
Re: Beta 2: Blackheart Keep - hawaii - 04-21-2010
1724332F0B242F32242F410 wrote: Missy -- yeah, I think the purple key is supposed to be that easy to pick up.
Could you give specific room numbers for the areas you felt were too basic or needed more decoration? I looked at the lowest level, but it seems to be decorated just fine.
When you look at the MLB bottom right lowest level all that walking in the green to red area.....very, very boring
I am not the best one to judge the play of the easy, normal, hard. So I will leave that job up to the experts in this field. But to me, that whole area is just so boring.
Regarding my previous post about 15697 - Easy. The reason I question about the key being to easy to p/u is because now Jack does not have to pull any leavers to move on. so that entire yellow block area seems to be a waste????
Re: Beta 2: Blackheart Keep - VernJensen - 04-21-2010
Okay, I see what you're talking about now, Missy. I think probably what's happening is, when you pick up the lantern in 16500, instead of turning around and going back to the left, you're walking to the right again, re-exploring an area you've already been in? If so, I can just put a wall here, so that when you get the lantern, you're forced to go back to the left again. There is no reason for that gray door really. This leaves only 2 boring rooms for you to pick up the lantern and go back (when coming from room 16497). Would this help?
Re: Beta 2: Blackheart Keep - RobSeegel - 04-27-2010
Blackheart Keep - Easy
Nice mansion. Good rating - almost felt too easy compared to some of the other Easy mansions. Well constructed. Fairly consistent throughout, though there were one or two rooms that appeared to be noticeably busier/harder than the rest, and a few (overly?) sparse rooms: 16505, 16497, 16308(dark). Overall, I liked it. Despite the comments below, nothing appears to be
broken. Many of the comments I initially made - I ended up revising after further review.
15704 - I was able to get Jack stuck on the most prominent ledge on the right side by jumping to it as the falling platform I was on fell past. [Note: when I went back into the room using MMB, I couldn't recreate the situation - perhaps when it happened the first time, I missed the trigger or didn't move once I thought I was
stuck.I saw that there were triggers to prevent this happening, and when testing the room in MMB, everything worked.]
16695 - I initially noted this as questionably hard (for Easy) on this screen because I thought the combination of jumps to small platforms, plus zappers was a little surprising compared to the rest of the mansion. I went back after finishing the mansion and went directly there using MMB. What about adding some falling platforms between the small platforms w/ zappers? It wouldn't dramatically decrease the difficulty. Just a thought.
BTW Vern - if you're reading - how about a key binding for Open by Room ID in the MMB? I use this a lot, and it sure would save some time.
16696 - I also initially noted this as being questionably difficult because it's an extremely busy screen compared to nearly any other screen in this mansion in terms of moving platforms. This room and 16695 seemed a little out of place to me. I tried the following changes: I got rid of the checkered platforms, added hidden blocks to prevent the up/down platforms from going into the ceiling or water and to me, it seemed to fit better. It was a little easier, but not by too much.I considered taking out the low ceiling, but decided against it.
15493 - When scorion died, was it supposed to trigger hidden treasures immediately? [After looking at room more carefully, I think the answer here is
yes] It didn't for me. I had to leave the screen and come back, and suddenly the hidden things appeared, with a regenerated scorpion.
[Note: I went back and tried to recreate the situation I was in when I saw what I described. I couldn't seem to do it from MMB. I was in the lower right level waiting for scorpion to kill itself, when I saw the issue I describe. Perhaps a fluke?]
Re: Beta 2: Blackheart Keep - VernJensen - 04-28-2010
Thanks Rob, I've gone through your notes and applied changes where appropriate.
Funny about room 16696 -- I had *already* modified that to do exactly the changes you had suggested, after releasing beta 2. ;-)
Re: Beta 2: Blackheart Keep - RobSeegel - 04-30-2010
Just finished Normal and Hard (Normal with Harder beginning).
Not too much to add here. It will be interesting to see what you do with the rest of the Hard level. I'm hoping for some real surprises, maybe some newer areas.
Some of the backtracking in the beginning seemed a little over the top. It reminded me too much of the scavenger hunts my parents used to set up for my sister and me -- little notes with clues we'd follow that made us go two floors up, then two floors down. We'd backtrack and end up going up and down stairs over and over again. At first it was kind of fun, but got tedious quickly. In the Hard version, I ended up getting a little bored and suspended the game to go off and do something else for a while, before finishing it.
Perhaps instead of vines on the final building, perhaps there could be mobile platforms that could take you to a new section, or just provide a more convoluted way of working your way up.
The good thing about playing Easy -> Normal -> Hard, is that it makes it easy to see the difference in level of difficulty (I would have known if you hadn't said anything that the Hard was basically Normal with a different beginning).
Unfortunately, I find myself hoping for unique twists and turns that makes each level stand apart, instead of basically the same scenarios with fewer save points, more monsters, tougher jumps, etc. I end up a little disappointed. I thought the difficulty level of Normal was just about right.
Re: Beta 2: Blackheart Keep - MTGA - 05-01-2010
Normal
Room 15697
possible cheap death? if you came in from the left and ended up dying in the room and reappear on the left in the small area between the bricks and the edge of the room you get killed immediately by the spider (if there's one there).
Re: Beta 2: Blackheart Keep - VernJensen - 05-04-2010
Rob, you're right that it would make it far more interesting to have structural changes in the rest of the Hard version to make it more interesting. The reality is I just don't have the time to do that... I need to get back to programming the game instead of doing level design. So unfortunately it's going to stay nearly as-is for Hard.