Note: this is using the OLD version that was uploaded earlier today, that Rob accidentally uploaded. Since I only just now found out (AFTER playing and writing notes) that my notes were for an old version, well... you get old notes. Take them for what you will.
First, there is no need to reply individually to each item here. Reply only if you have questions and need clarification, or have already fixed something.
15896 - Lower portion of bricks above pillars need to be in layer 6. (Jack can jump and have his head poke through.)
15897 - Look into music ID here. I had a weird error message regarding music when entering this room the 2nd time.
15897 - My preference would be to not have as many things appearing out of thin air. In this case, the bat platform going up. Or at a bare minimum, make the trigger's action permanent, so once visible, it stays visible.
15697 - It's difficult, but possible to jump from the falling-platform on the upper-left to the area to the right. I'm guessing that's not intended.
15697 - Because the bricks the skeleton spider is walking on are in layer 6, his feet aren't visible -- the pseudo-3D brick fringe covers them. The bouncing eyeballs look weird too. I'd try selecting
Don't draw layer 6 fringe
in the editor, then use the selection tool to select and delete ONLY the brick fringe in this room. See if that works. Otherwise, it is necessary to have layer-6 bricks on the top row? Maybe you can get away with having layer 6 bricks *under* it, but the topmost row is layer 4 only.
15696 - For the top-left moving platform that appears out of thin air in this room… I'd make it a black bat platform. Somehow this conveys to me that it might move between rooms. Other brick-looking platforms don't convey this to me for some reason.
Secondly, players looking to get onto the top ledge area in 15896 will be totally lost, since there are no visual clues in 15696 that this platform even exists, let alone moves down to the room below. So players looking for how to get up there will be totally lost unless they eventuallly discover it accidentally. Not sure that's the best approach…
But in any case, one thing that does definitely need changing is once you've ridden it down into 15896, if you then mess up on the gray falling platforms and fall into the *lower area* of this room (very easy to do if you time the jumps wrong vs. the eyeball), you'll have to go *all the way back* which is a big pain. My vote: once Jack manages to make it to the top ledge of 15896, have a hidden trigger here that he'll activate before he reaches the gray falling platforms. The trigger permanently makes some platform appear that Jack can use to get back up to this area if he falls to the lower part of this room.
15895 - Okay, yeah, the eyeball in this room is definitely very hard to avoid.
16096 - I think the sign here is fantastic. (As well as the one above, about Gus missing.)
16095 - Sign's wording
And ensure that key is secured above ground
seems to be missing a word or something. Maybe
and ensure that *the* key is secured…
or
the purple key
or something else? Not sure what you intended here.
16693 - Weird graphical glitches if Jack jumpes in the middle-left area. Some parts are above him in layer 6, other parts (the rounded parts) are not. Needs to be consistent, like the area in the very middle.
16693 - Maybe sign should be changed to
Good thing I put an emergency landern down here.
versus
packed
makes it sound like Jack already had one on his person when he came. I know that doesn't make sense, but I read it that way for some reason.
16893 - 4th paragraph -- Sign is missing a quote mark after
he continues,
to resume the quotation. Also, 3rd paragraph, i'd put a period after
the Goblin sighs
and start a new sentence (capitalize) for the next quote.
16895 - Cheap death. I walk into snake before I can see it an react. Nothing should be within 4 squares of a room's entrance, at a minimum.
16896 - Yeah, this'll need a bit of changing. The problems with this room are as follows:
A) We have no particular visible goal. Most players will take one look at the room, and just leave.
I don't want to try to navigate all that for a single coin
. What happens when players beat this room… do they get a yellow key? Maybe a sign could tell players the purpose of the room, so they realize, if it's optional, but leads to a big bonus, the reward of completing it. But as it is, I have no incentive to want to even try.
B) The platforms are just too random. This causes problems when I jump on the falling platforms, because I don't know how to time it such that I'm guaranteed a save spot to jump before I land in the lava. I'd say you need some solid ground somewhere near each falling platform, OR predictable moving platforms in the room.
C) The triggers need to be permanent! I died and re-appeared in the previous room, and when I came back, all the falling platforms I had gotten to appear thus far had disappeared. Had I not been testing, I would've instantly turned around and given up.
In general, it's just a bit too hard, but if this is one of those
crazy hard, in order to get a yellow key
rooms, that's okay I guess (with some modifications to address the issues above), AS LONG as a sign explains that this room is optional. The problem with MM2 is that, with hidden triggers, you never know *what* you're going to get by completing a room. So you have no idea what is optional and what is required, unless the game tells you.
16697 - Jump on the vine, then jump to the room to the left, then jump back to the vine in 16697. Then climb down. Halfway down, Jack will
re-attach
to the vine (and stop climbing) -- something that is symptomatic of vines that are partly in layer 5 for one part, and partly in layer 4 for another part. I'd look into that. If it's not that, let me know, and I can investigate.
16897 - Very disappointed that I have no blue key yet and therefore can't access the save point yet. I've entered the
extra life
cheat many, many times already, but encountered no save point thus far. I don't kow what the other testers were talking about, about there being too many? I've not encountered a single one in the route I took, and definitely could've used one.
16695 - Putting the grass at the top of the vines in layer 6 doesnn't work, because it goes over Jack's head, but the mud bricks go under his head. Either the mud bricks need to be above his head too, or the grass needs to be in layer 5.
Okay, BIG QUESTION: The main
problem
I have with this whole
underground troll
section is that I got here via *secret*. Well, more or less. That room with the 3 trolls you drop into the lava… that's the entrance to this area. Plus then you have to navigate a dark room with coins over vines, which is also very much a
I'm going through a secret area
type thing. But then you hit an unexpected pole, and are dropped into this HUGE area, when you're expecting only a small one-room secret area.
So my big question is this: is this lower area *required* to be completed? If so, I'd say the entrance to it should be a bit more of a
normal
entrance -- one that conveys
You need to go here
rather than
this is an optional secret
. If you want to bounce ideas back and forth on what kind of changes this might entail, I can help with that.
16696 - The 2 spiders to the right of this room kicked my butt. I died on both of them! Don't know how hard it is to pass them, since I couldn't try again with them gone, but maybe it's a bit hard, don't know.
16695 - If you get on the lower-left vine here and drop down and push left quickly while falling, you can land in the room below without dying. But that's not a big deal -- you can get here easily via the middle vine. I guess I'd prefer being able to drop straight down and live.
16694 - It's a little weird that walking off the ledge at the bottom-right of this room kills you, but maybe there's nothing that can be done about that without making the design less cool.
I really, really want a save point because at this point I want a break… Partly because there is a bit too much freedom in this mansion about where to go next. It feels a little
too
free -- as if I always have too many choices about where to go next. Maybe that's not true at all though. But perhaps it feels this way because of all the unexpected things that keep happening ot Jack… falling down a pole in the dark (didn't expect), and just the way this section is designed, is such that it feels like he's randomly bumping from place to place, instead of intentionally going somewhere. (i.e. seeing a purple door, finding the purple key, and then opening the purple door… versus
Oops you fell through a trap.) I'm not sure if it's a bad thing or not, but that's the feeling I have… is more like the game is in control of me and where I'm going next, instead of I am in control. I guess normally I prefer to be more in control.
16893 - Okay, LOL. This door puzzle is definitely way too hard! I agree with the other tester that said this. One problem is that all the lever handles are the same color, making it impossible to remember which one does what. Maybe if you made all handles brown for levers that toggle ALL gray doors, and then used different colors for various individual doors, AND cut way down on the total number of levers (maybe close to half as many!), then it might be a lot better.
There needs to be, in a puzzle like this, a sense of the player figuring out
Oh, I need to get to *that* lever and pull it!
But that is impossible right now, because there are far too many levers, and all the handle colors are the same. Maybe my solution wouldn't help anyway, for the colorblind. It'd be best to find a way to making a tricky puzzle with just a few levers… maybe 3 or 4 total. That way, a player can remember what each lever does, and has to think
How do I solve this?
rather than just trying levers randomly and then feeling overwhelmed.
16694 - The
lie down to get a coin
trick is something reserved for custom mansions only. Don't do it in built-in mansions.
16494 - I don't like the idea of having save points appear out of thin air. (In fact, over-using the
appear-out-of-thin-air" thing is dangerous, and your mansion might benefit from a bit less of this.) If you want to block the save point via gray door, and have a trigger open the gray door, that's fine. But let's not have it appear out of thin air. The idea, again, is for the player to be in control of his destiny. He *sees* the save point… but can't get to it yet… but later finds out how. Versus it just appearing randomly. That feels like, again, I'm just bumbling along, controlled by the game, and it feeds things to me when it wants to, and I can't really control where I'm going or what I'm doing. I try to avoid that kind of feeling.
16494 - What's a DMAIL?
Okay, taking a break for now. Will play more later. But… I hope you make the gray door puzzle a lot easier before I continue! Hah.
