MM2 - Brave New World

[Freddy]

Continuation.

And picture 4 shows a room with an important lever in the lower left corner that leads to what I now officially declare as the GRAND PRIX BRELL.
[smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Btw, Jack isn't only dozing. He has a real nightmare! Already in the second room of the mansion he has a major problem. When he entered the room he saw 7 scorpions fall into the pit, a problem that he even can't solve by offering al his lives.
:-X

The enclosed zip Double 0 Seven may be unfolded to a 32 rooms beta testing mansion. Perfect play brings Jack with € 4.725 to the exit gate. That means 1 extra life per 8 rooms. But there are some shields and saving points (plural).

Edited: in MM2 - BNW betatesting 007 there are 2 mistakes. In the exit room the temporary purple door is missing so Jack will finish with a purple key. And the number of secrets is wrong, so you may get over 100 %.
:o

Enjoy and I am looking forward to any remarks. And new beta testers. Is there any hope?
:-*

[brell]

Few points:

The scorpions in 17302 are rather hard but doable.

The saving points are well placed: One shortly before and another shortly after the scorpion room.

The skeleton in 16502 is hard to avoid. I guess Jack should use the conveyor belt to avoid it but when I jump back it always gets me. Yes, I was out of shields.

No purple key in 16502 anymore? Anyway, the walk back to the new exit is even more tedious now. But I guess that will change.

[Freddy]

3C2C3B32325E0 wrote: ... The scorpions in 17302 are rather hard but doable. ...

You are right. I don't have enough time right now to do it in a proper way, but I already made a slight change. Let me know if it makes enough difference.

3C2C3B32325E0 wrote: ... The skeleton in 16502 is hard to avoid. ...

Here I have to disagree. It took me quite a time to figure out about how to make it safe and normal. Therefor my best suggestion is: try it again. Make sure that Jack only jumps from the conveyor belt to the bottom floor in the direction where he has the profit of the momentum of it.

3C2C3B32325E0 wrote: ... No purple key in 16502 anymore?  ...

I moved it to an other interesting spot, hoping that it would be more normal.


So:
- a change in room 17302;
- an added purple door in the exit room (to make sure that you find the purple key)
   
- the right mansion name and amount of secrets.

You all find it in version 008.

[brell]

The scorpion room is much better now. You used the same

feature

in a room in the blue (normal) version of MM&M

The skeleton is easier now when you know how to do it. Sorry, my bad.

Found the purple key but again the walk back to the exit is tedious. I know you are not very keen on using MM2 features but how about a

lift

from the purple key room to the exit room?

One more thing: You name the betatesting version with ascending numbers (001 to 008 as of now). This has the annoying side effect that the betatester(s) cannot use saving points from 007 in 008 and has always to start from the beginning.

[Freddy]

Thanks again for your reply.

5343545D5D310 wrote:
Found the purple key but again the walk back to the exit is tedious.  I know you are not very keen on using MM2 features but how about a

lift

from the purple key room to the exit room?

You are right that I do hesitate with MM2-features but that is because I don't have the skills for that. Sooner or later I will introduce them in this mansion. Carefully.
Concerning the way back from the purple key to the exit you need to know these things:
- although the exit is temporarely it deserves a better handling than what I do;
- the purple door near the exit is, of course, also only there to be able to use the key;
- it is also only 'now' that getting the purple key is the last activity before leaving the mansion;
- creating a shortcut after picking up the purple key is an interesting idea BUT I have to take care with the gold/silver-issue (not obvious at all but it IS possible to walk back through the opened green and blue doors, pull the lever with the green knot to make the blocks silver and only then making use of the shortcut.)
Since yesterday evening I have an idea (that is different than a press button forcing the blocks to reverse = gold). Now I still need some time to figure out if it is useful.

5343545D5D310 wrote: One more thing:  You name the betatesting version with ascending numbers (001 to 008 as of now).  This has the annoying side effect that the betatester(s) cannot use saving points from 007 in 008 and has always to start from the beginning.

:-[ :o
What a horrible mistake. Never thought a second about this issue, although I should have known better (from the past). Sorry about that. I will look for a solution.

[Freddy]

764255545449300 wrote: [quote author=5343545D5D310 link=1671814205/33#33 date=1674556130]
Found the purple key but again the walk back to the exit is tedious. ... how about a

lift

from the purple key room to the exit room?

... creating a shortcut after picking up the purple key is an interesting idea ...
Since yesterday evening I have an idea ... Early this morning I made these changes in my own working-BNW.
1. I rearranged the lower left corner of the room with all the same-coloured keys and doors. Jack is now forced to leave the room with a one-way ladder down to the upper middle room of the transit zone.
2. In the upper right orange-brown room I found a spot where I could add the temporary exit. One that may stay there for a rather long time, because it is in a good central position of the blue area around the transit zone.

These small operations made the road to the exit many rooms shorter than before. To make it even less tedious I am thinking about adding extra MM2-enemies.
:-?

[Freddy]

After many hours 'work' in previous weekend I am able to add an update of the
MM2 - BNW betatesting mansion.

The beta-BNW will not change of name anymore and the existing 3 save pedestals will stay fixed. If you want to, you may change the current filenames of your saves at Library / Midnight Mansion 2 / Saved Games / ... An other possibility is replay the purple section again, but why should you want to do that?

I did minor changes in that area with 2 targets:
- changing the tough double snake jumps into more 'normal' single ones at the 6 trap doors room and in the skeletons room;
- improving the flow by changing the speed of the bird in room 16100 and both spiders in the skeletons rooms.

At the end of the purple section (plus the 2 gold coins room) there is the unchanged reward of $ 3.000.

The transit zone contains 6 rooms and became a grown up. Image 1 shows what you may expect from that area: nearly everything from MM1 ! (There were also a few ghosts installed during the process, but I did remove them because they didn't fit with the other stuff.) Notice the coming back Elisabeth who is 'guarding' the save point. When you save over there, she reappears below your feet!! And as promised, in one of the other rooms you'll find the exit gate.

:exclamation
IMPORTANT MESSAGE for testing the blue area surrounding the transit zone. Please start in the upper right corner with opening the red door.

The concept of the blue area is based on a combination of opening coloured doors and the toggling of gold/silver blocks. It took me hours to figure out about how to realize this in practice. It's clear that the blue area isn't finished yet.

Several rooms received changes, in the first place to be playable, but also concerning the normal level and the flow. The blue area starting with a yellow door is now nearly completely one way, to avoid boring backtracking. In the purple key room the birds on the bottom floor got better spread and a higher speed. Etc.

Perfect play leads to $ 6.050 . On the image you may see that I lost 2 lives and btw also all shields ...
> :-? :o :-[ :'(

As always I have an open mind for all remarks.

[brell]

53677071716C150 wrote:

I did minor changes in that area with 2 targets:
- changing the tough double snake jumps into more 'normal' single ones at the 6 trap doors room and in the skeletons room;

I don't find it any easier but I like it better this way.

53677071716C150 wrote:

The transit zone contains 6 rooms and became a grown up. Image 1 shows what you may expect from that area: nearly everything from MM1 ! (There were also a few ghosts installed during the process, but I did remove them because they didn't fit with the other stuff.) Notice the coming back Elisabeth who is 'guarding' the save point. When you save over there, she reappears below your feet!! And as promised, in one of the other rooms you'll find the exit gate.

I like the transit zone but ...

53677071716C150 wrote:
IMPORTANT MESSAGE for testing the blue area surrounding the transit zone. Please start in the upper right corner with opening the red door.

How should the player know that he is supposed to use the multicolor key in that room? What happens if he uses it somewhere else?

53677071716C150 wrote:
Perfect play leads to $ 6.050 . On the image you may see that I lost 2 lives and btw also all shields ...

To me it seems that the mansion is slowly evolving from

normal

to

hard

. BTW have you reduced the number of shields from older versions?
I lost all my lives before getting the yellow key. I'll try again later and of course check what happens if I use the multicolor key elsewhere.

[Freddy]

4C5C4B42422E0 wrote: I don't find it any easier but I like it better this way.

In both cases Jack first has to jump to the left and then back to the right. At the left side I added a brick with the hope that the jump back would be easier. No?

4C5C4B42422E0 wrote: I like the transit zone but ...
How should the player know that he is supposed to use the multicolor key in that room?  What happens if he uses it somewhere else?

In the first place I am happy that you like the orange-brown area, because I know it gives a maze feeling and not everybody likes that. But in this case the maze is functional and above that I tried to make it as small as possible and hopefully also with enough to do. Now, if my concept for the blue surrounding sector is right, future will show you that it doesn't matter which 'gate' Jack chooses first.

4C5C4B42422E0 wrote:
To me it seems that the mansion is slowly evolving from

normal

to

hard

.  BTW have you reduced the number of shields from older versions?
I lost all my lives before getting the yellow key.  I'll try again later and of course check what happens if I use the multicolor key elsewhere.

You may absolutely be right, because I lost all shields myself and 2 lives. It is interesting work for me not to search for the edges of what is possible, but to get things 'normal'. I like this challenge. If you have peticular places in mind that are too hard, please yell. Without the game and builder nearby I am thinking of places where Jack may 'hurt' his head by touching a critter on the next floor above him.

Besides that you noticed well that there are less shields than before. Previously there was one in each room. Now there are only three of them left. I did remove them (and the ghosts) because I needed place for the maps, the exit and a few inevitable torches near the middle save pedestal.

Good luck with your new attempt(s)!

[brell]

OK. Used the multicolored key in the other blue room at the far left end of the mansion. Never found a key for the red door on the other far right end.

Got the yellow key and finished the purple key quest.

There are no special remarks now, just that I find some rooms/areas close to hard.

Missed an obvious gold coin in the room with two scorpions, one spider and an interesting ladderjump.