Archive: 15 posts

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I'd like to say... I've just finished my first level since joining LBPC 4 months ago but it simply would not be true, I ran out of thermometer at about 85% My name is Gravel. Some of you may know me, I'd like to think I've got a good rep, for being a humorous chap with a somewhat unique perspective on things... The last 15% missing from this level is largely that... my sense of humor and a script that ties it all together Let's Backtrack shall we? LBPC member Coxy is holding a Ghostbuster contest with a deadline of 8/31. Loving Ghostbusters i decided to enter. I came up with some ideas... began building, the level started taking on a life of its own and blam No thermometer left! I've decided to honor this commitment though and build from the foundation up all over again... (with no deadline this time) Thought it might be a good idea though to see what some of you thought. As currently constituted, the level is at best piecemeal! Still if I'm gonna rebuild this thing from the ground up with what I have learned- I'd love your thoughts... In particular, positive thermo saving suggestions, and what you like or hated. I'm fairly tough-skinned though- so you can be honest, just know, I know what I like! I like presenting seemingly easy tasks... I like frustrating you... I don't like to kill you-but i will, I don't think I'm ever cheap... but you may curse me when you fall and have to climb it all again... The Premise: Sackboy is hired as the 5th ghostbuster. He has a busy first day in the mundanist of ways... Clean-up all the slime about! He has to go to the roof and make sure the new signage is being installed A-OK. Race a demon trying to escape the containment field grid. Get a PKE reading from a river of slime... and check out the woefully inadequate electrical conduits. Sackboy ends his day with some simple filing... All this was tied together through some "Official Ghostbuster Wrist Holo-communicator" cut scenery... that got cut do to poor planning. I also have some game(video can be found in this thread https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=t=13672pg2 ) elements in the thread (firepoles, flying books,etc) that I dropped or didn't get to... Well that's about all folks! Please tell me what you think. I'll be unlocking it shortly. Please come to this party knowing what to expect... this is a prototype, beta-y thing.

2009-08-25 05:17:00 Author: Gravel Posts: 1308

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I would be honored to be killed and killed again by you Sir Gravel. I'll try to make it as far as my feeble skills will allow - you know how I reacted to Waterfalls. lol BTW - oh most creative in the round guy I know - nice thread title and set up. You should write for movies... or TV, whichever pays better

2009-08-25 05:44:00 Author: Morgana25 Posts: 5983

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Agreed. It was a treat reading. I'll glance it over tomorrow - assuming my absent-mind remains absent. [work it out.... ...there it is. Bad puns for the win!] Edit: I would appreciate it if you'd return the favor in a similar type thread I've got going in these same forums (Canyon Throwback).

2009-08-25 06:32:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

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I'd love to take a look through this! There's an active thread right now with some thermo-saving tips, and even some seasoned creators are learning a new thing or two, so it might be worth a look: https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=p=271879#post271879 (https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=p=271879#post271879) Let us know when the level's unlocked so we can give it a whirl!

2009-08-25 07:16:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937

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I'm astounded once again by your skill sir gravel! The silhouette cutout look is AMAZING! Your river of slime is gorgeous, and the filing cabinet tower is a real treat. I'm not sure i got to all the different parts of the level, couldn't seem to get on top of the roof for some reason, but what i saw looked fantastic.

2009-08-25 07:31:00 Author: Burnvictim42 Posts: 3322

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Morgana- You can do this I promise-- all except for the slime race, in that, the two vertical lifters are going to need to be replaced with different shaped teeth as success here feels more like blind dumb luck... Comphermc- Agreed. will check out your thread at my nearest opportunity. Hope you find something to your liking. Burnvic- I was so envious of you when I saw you had a score... I was tweaking some switches @ the time... So in my jealous rage ( I kid you not) I spent 45 minutes climbing that stupid filing cabinet... When I made it (finally) I realized I wasn't playing the craftearth version but the mymoon version... AARRRRGH! Still I had to set the scoreboard up like that out of emergency... but it did some really wild stuff for me... dragging my sack all over. Thank you for your kind words! I think it really had the right stuff till I went wrong! Teebonesy- Kool. I'll check the thread, Hope it's not the one I started... 2 months ago, that may be awkward to find I didn't heed my own advice... It is unlocked currently with like twenty plays and three stars which is alright by me. Id' love any thoughts you have on it... For anyone who's interested... the sections are: 1) Ghostbusters Office Janine's desk... level entrance... 2) Left electrical outlet reveals mousetraps and ductwork. 3) Right electrical outlet opens to the man in the slimey moon. [a] a race through slime ending back at the electrical outlet. [b] a set of obstacles to navigate in order to raise something from the slime long lost by Dr Venkman (the slime finish line doubles as a lift up to...) 4) Exterior of the GB HQ. Navigate to the roof. The flipper is 2 layers deep! 5) To the right of the HQ is the entrance to another race...this time through a three level containment field 6) Last but not least, the office filing cabinets/dewey decimal library climb...They're suppose to be office files but I got to admit they look how I remember libraries before all the computers. 7) I got one of the wrist holo cut scenes up under the thermo... just to give you an idea... Happy Hunting and thanks!

2009-08-25 09:21:00 Author: Gravel Posts: 1308

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I have played this level many, many times by now in various stages of production and I felt like a king when I finally mastered the filing cabinets....LIKE A KING!! It also the level that gave me my first laugh that lasted a couple of hours, there we were playing a piece of the slime level all jumping like mad men when Gravel out of the blue came up and said: You know if you time it just right, it's easy Now, I have played Gravel's different contraptions on many ocassions and when "Mr. Cryptic" uttered that sentence...I guess something just cracked in my head. Now, I will play it again tonight to see how you can improve your thermo but I'm guessing it comes down to fewer materials and cutting back on a few complicated shapes here and there.

2009-08-25 10:11:00 Author: Zwollie Posts: 2173

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Hey Gravel, I had some trouble finding the level, but I got in. I've had this problem in the past where if the level creator is playing the level, then I can't see it. This may have been the case... Anywho, I was unfortunately not able to see a whole lot of it. I first went to the right, via a trash can. I got to an area where there are cardboard platforms going back and forth. 5 minutes later, I had made no progress... did I miss something? It appears that I'm supposed to use the flipper platform to launch myself around the glass bend, but I couldn't figure out how that was supposed to work... :/ Edit: It appears that this is the same area BV was talking about with "the roof" above. Then I went to the left, becoming a mouse of sorts. This part was pretty cool, but I ran out of lives twice on the electric floor above. Can I suggest infinite checkpoints, if only for testing sake? I can't offer much else in terms of feedback, as I didn't see much else! The detail right at the entrance was very nice. I can tell from the design of the rest of your level that that your thermo issues are most definitely related to complex shapes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears you build by carving out shapes...? This is probably the least thermo friendly method of building, unfortunately. I only recently discovered the glory that is the corner (feel free to jump on the bandwagon!). It takes a bit of getting used to, but building all your own corners can really help to cut down on the number of edges used. I only mention that because I can tell from a few area that you used a round shaped tool to mold out the level. A circle is fine by itself, but once it's added to another shape or corners become edited, it really starts to take shots at your thermo. Let me know what I was doing wrong, and I'll give it another go. (p.s. Wine bottle vehicles, ftw?)

2009-08-25 15:21:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

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Well Gravel, I'm glad I was able to inspire such a well thought out plan of a level. I can't lend much in terms of knowledge you don't know about ghostbusters - but some thermo saving tips: + Choose a few materials to be working with and try to stick to them + Try using stickers instead of making lots of complex shapes + Place out the major parts of the level first, and then add in more gameplay if you have time. + Sometimes you will need two levels, and that's sometimes as good as one. Thanks for making a level for the contest though, it's more than most people have done I'll give the level a play later and tell you any further views - but it seems you've made a very good ghostbusters level.

2009-08-25 15:22:00 Author: Coxy224 Posts: 2645

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Hey Gravel, I had some trouble finding the level, but I got in. I've had this problem in the past where if the level creator is playing the level, then I can't see it. This may have been the case... So I am not alone on this, YES!!

2009-08-25 15:24:00 Author: Zwollie Posts: 2173

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So I am not alone on this, YES!! Go to Gravel's recently hearted list, and you'll find it. That's what I had to do. Edit: Gotcha, Zwollie. I was just presenting a solution to the debacle, in the event it happens in the future (as most creators will heart their own levels, lol).

2009-08-25 15:25:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

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Go to Gravel's recently hearted list, and you'll find it. That's what I had to do. Nono, that's not what I mean. I played it a dozen times already. I was talking about the dissapearing levels when the creators themselves are playing it.

2009-08-25 15:26:00 Author: Zwollie Posts: 2173

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Which thermo is climbing Gravel? Specificaly what is the message your getting because if it's complex shapes you have to scale back the number of points on the polygons, if it's stickers you need to pull that back.... depending on the message your getting you may have tons of room in another aspect of stuff but not much in just one. Post the message and I can try to offer specific suggestions. I just had an experience in a level where I learned a lot about what you can change and still keep the thermo under control for a long time. What I saw looked great. Jeneane's desk is great - I love the key click sounds when you jump on the computer and the silhouette style drawing is fantastic. I don't know if your going to add text to direct the player but it isn't clear if you go left or right first. On the left - I love the scale you've set up. I managed to get up to the electrified bit and even made it to the levers. (having the mouse guy electirified confused me though - I didn't know if the bolts would kill me or if jumping on him would kill me but not seeing any alternatives I went for it) made it to the third swinging lever and couldn't get down into the open area. Did I miss something. I kept layer switching to the front and getting fried. To the right. Had problems figuring out which direction to go first - through the wall or up. Through the wall - love the dis-embodied feeling you've got in here. The cardboard looks great. Slime is cool too! Not sure if we're suppposed to see the big green spotlight or get the jetpack though. Seemed a little rough design wise there. I found the angled lifts and those are tricky. It's doable but dang! It also took me more time than I had on the race clock to realize how they worked too. (It was very late) To double back to the "lift" finish seemed a bit strange to me too. If there were a way to set up the race and then drop the gate after it starts might reduce the confusion. The firehouse I can't really comment on - I couldn't get up there at all. Tried jumping allover that bottle and just couldn't get up. I explored the right hand side too and couldn't find a way up at all. Strange thing with the bubbles you have up there though. You can't pick them up unless you literally jump on them. Glitch? or intentional? The card cataloge is a thing of beauty and it better be after staring at it for 40 minutes. I made it as far as I could - just out of sight of the floor and kept sliding back down. Dang that cardboard is slippery stuff. It's wonderfully designed but true to your style it's right on that line of "this is great" and "wth!" I'm going to take another crack at it tonight. Had to get to bed early (2am - lol) and couldn't get much further than that. I'll post more if I can get to any new areas So far I'm having a love/hate thing going on with it but I may have just been too sleepy to appreciate it's finer points last night.

2009-08-25 15:38:00 Author: Morgana25 Posts: 5983

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I appreciate your time and efforts... really do! Zwol- please add '...in theory' to the phrase. And play the **** thing now! Morgana- yes, indeed the level is sorely missing direction! Janine hires you and sends you on your way... then the individual GB would contact you through your wrist holo-com to further direct. I do believe I am maxing like three thermometers... one is definitely shapes, one stickers, and I couldn't add the talking tool, I will contact you w/further details if you'd like. After the Ghost-rat-thingy there are 4 levers! the fourth moves you to back plane to drop through opening. The Slime area is weakest--as it was here I knew I was in big trouble... That stomping is awesome isn't it? It's so me... points for the taking but it'll annooy you! Morgana. Glass bottle. The games weird with edges... try the base (r side) as flat bottom curves up to side ... that's the sweet spot! Once you do it once... you be surprised how easy sack makes it... then every time after it gets easier and easier. Navigating the bricks, fire escapes, and containment field are all the same... its in the timing... just ask Zwollie, he'll tell you, "If you time it just right... it's easy... in theory" The card catalog/files closes the level, about 3/4 the way up the heartbeat starts and it then quickens with every step... since I published, I can't do it... nerves. Comphermc- Thank you for trying it dude... I'm sorry you gave in... I'm still figurin how I build... Always w/cardboard I rarely if ever use the grid (I think it complicates everything). One thing I'm really liking is the tunnel w/mousetraps... I like that detail a lot... thats all one piece of cardboard. I built a faux tunnel in 3 layers, lit it, photographed it, and then stickered it to a flat piece of cardboard. It gives me the detail I seek allowing room for some of those ovals... latter on. Unfortunately I didn't take that resourcefulness with me the rest of the way!!! Bricks Well you got the gist! Now comes the timing. If you launch yourself into the tubey-thonk end of the cardboard brick (that'd be like positioning on lower brick to have to jump up and to the right) head-first you generally will get some form of feedback from that piston controlled brick; you mis-time and are not propelled, you are propelled level, you are propelled downward, or you are propelled on an upward arc to bricks above you... whats maddening then... is sailing over those bricks to fall back down! It normally takes me 7-8 tries. The wine bottle is actually "Fizzy pop BUZZ! brand" the idea being someones misfortune is Sacks happy accident. ------------------------------------------------- a general aside: Ya know I've been playing games for a long time... and to me, the more complexly enabled the machines' geometry have gotten... the easier and easier games have gotten... I really believe we have been spoiled. Years ago it was hit or miss, succeed or fail, black or white. Time it or not. If you care enough to make it up my bricks, fire escape, cabinets, you should as Zwollie said, "Feel like a king!" of course infinite check points are probably the way to go here... So what do you think are games easier or harder?

2009-08-25 17:08:00 Author: Gravel Posts: 1308

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Locked by request.

2009-09-03 21:46:00 Author: Whalio Cappuccino Posts: 5250

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