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The Accidental Astronomer

Archive: 26 posts

The Accidental Astronomeroats-beef
<a href="http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/?action=view¤t=APhoto_2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/APhoto_2.jpg" border="0" alt="To the Observatory!"></a>When you head up high into the mountains, you find a very disgruntled astronomer who begs you to do something about the factory that's spewing out soot and blotting out the stars! You have to use all sorts of vehicles and contraptions to get to the bottom of it.
all
I have learned much from reading these forums and hearing tips and criticisms, I think I have improved my skills! So here is my new level. I am looking for feedback on how to improve it.

The cable car that takes you high in to the mountains:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/APhoto_1.jpg
The Mountain-Top Observatory:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/APhoto_2.jpg
Cloud-Top Railway:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/thesteamcaboose.jpg
A Perilous Crossing:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/stormycrossing.jpg
The Giant Hurling Machine:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/getreadytofly.jpg
Escape to Safety!
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/rockettosafety.jpg

Now the unfortunate bit: given the sorry state of LBP's search engine, in order to find this level, you'll have to let me know you are interested - and I will comment on your level. You can then find it through the link on your comments. So you'll get a little bit of feedback even before you do any work at all! Then I will do what I can to help you with the level you are interested in reworking.

Alright! Let me have it!

~ oats-beef

-----------------------
Full disclosure: This level is really my second attempt at publishing my first level... The original beginning just didn't do the end justice (and it was difficult enough that nobody saw the end away), so I reworked everything about the first half, smoothed out countless bits of everything else, and published the whole shebang under a new name. That's why some of these images may appear familiar to a few of you.		2009-09-12 18:49:00

Author:
Unknown User

I have to admit the premise does interest me - I probably wouldn't be able to get around to trying it until later tonight though if even today.2009-09-12 18:54:00

Author:
Jagrevi
Posts: 1154

My goodness, Jagrevi, what have I gotten myself in to!? Your level, Am? Toor, is nothing short of astounding. I am stunned and more than a little humbled. I am wracking my brains to come up with some tiny thing that could be improved... I got nuthin' so far. I am going to have to go play it again now. I did leave a comment so that if you have a moment to check mine out, then you could find it that way.

In the meantime, I suppose I had best get to figuring out how you accomplished such wonderful things!

all the best,
~oats-beef		2009-09-12 19:25:00

Author:
Unknown User

Looks amazing! Just a little problem though..
I searched for it and couldn't find it..
I also tried your name with no luck..

If you want add me, or leave a comment somewhere so I can find you.
can't wait to play it!		2009-09-12 20:06:00

Author:
javi haguse
Posts: 744

Javi, I came across a couple of your levels just last week and was totally hooked. Just now I left a comment on 'Descent 2'. Do you have anything that is less polished that could still use some serious investigation and feedback?

!!

~ oats-beef		2009-09-12 20:31:00

Author:
Unknown User

I found the level by going to the comments on Jagrevi's level.

The entrance to the factory needs to be fixed. It's hard to drop into and I missed it a few times when I was walking around trying to figure out what to do. Also the balance obstacle. Jumping up stairs in LBP isn't fun and I had to retry quite a few times to get across and the camera angle was a not so good. I almost bailed on the level there. Could you put the checkpoint up on the platform it would be a little better. Also put a checkpoint right after this part, I would not want to retry it and I almost got squished by the bridge. You should probably tell us in the level or desciption to turn on prizes so we don't have to restart if we take the sticker first. Or use a regular sticker.

You have some stuff working for you here: I like tuning the telescope, the variety of means of transport and the trebuchet. The level opens well and have the components of a great level but ends up feeling underwhelming, maybe becuase of all the amazing levels I've played lately. I like the new title.		2009-09-12 21:45:00

Author:
Kipmonlin
Posts: 251

Hey, this certainly has me interested. I'l check it out later.2009-09-12 22:19:00

Author:
TheJollyRajah
Posts: 466

Thanks for the tips, Kipmonlin!

I have just gone through and reorganized the checkpoints, added a bit to the description so that people know they need to collect a sticker for a ticket later one (until I can sort out a better solution), and I have reshaped the entrance to the caves so that it's much easier to fall in there.

Now I am off to try yours!

~ oats-beef		2009-09-12 22:22:00

Author:
Unknown User

hi oats-beef.

i tried your level and here are some comments i had.

i really liked the sailboat, trebuchet, and train. the puffs of smoke from the train were a nice touch. as was the water and lighting with the sailboat scene.

it would help to make the level more visually impressive at the beginning by adding detail to the mountains, instead of just being triangles. it would be more interesting to have irregular shapes and a variety of materials here.

the bulldozer in the factory was nice, but would be more interesting if there were sounds effects when the boulders are being moved/destroyed.

when i first met the astronomer, there was a conversation bubble, but i immediately fell to the bottom of the observatory, so i did not get a chance to read what he said. it would help to make it so that does not happen.

when you are jumping down to the lake, instead of posting a sign to tell people where to jump, you could add very thin invisible anti-grav material to "funnel" players to the right location. it is hard to make such a long piece stay invisible, but if you break it up into sections, it can work.

i got squished by the drawbridge. maybe you could make it so the player pulls a switch that is out of the way to make it drop?

there are several places throughout the level instructing the player on what to do. i think it could be more interesting if instead of just signs, they are characters dispensing the instructions - like a train operator, trebuchet operator, etc.

anyway, just some thoughts. hope they were helpful. gave it :star::star::star::star: and a "good".

please try out my level "Dog Bone Mystery". thanks!		2009-09-13 19:19:00

Author:
pennydog
Posts: 74

Hey pennydog,
thanks for all the excellent suggestions! Really good. I am painstakingly going through, taking everything you said in to account - sprucing things up, and changing some things I have had misgivings about from the beginning. I managed to break the level in the process, sadly, but I can rebuild it, I have the technology...

This evening I will republish the thing and give your level as thorough a consideration as you did mine.

Thanks again!

~ oats-beef		2009-09-14 10:13:00

Author:
Unknown User

A new build?

I should probably wait and play the new build than before giving any feedback.		2009-09-14 14:16:00

Author:
Jagrevi
Posts: 1154

oh no! sorry your level broke. that can be very frustrating. the other day i spent a whole afternoon making changes to my level. i was sure i saved it and shut down normally, but the next day i reopened it and everything i did was gone! all that time down the drain.....

anyway, good luck rebuilding. i'll be sure to check it out after your edits.		2009-09-14 23:26:00

Author:
pennydog
Posts: 74

In attempting to reshape the mountains in the intro, I managed to wreak utter havoc, sending the level into overheat and breaking nearly everything... I have spent the last couple days alternating between panic, hopeful optimism, and resigned attention to detail. But it has been reborn a far better level (in my opinion) and republished for all to play.

Giant portions of the level have now been rebuilt largely from scratch. As I was working in the mountains, I found that you could get a nice-looking effect by sculpting the shape of the rock to match the pattern of the material itself.

See what I mean in this before and after shot:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/reshapingeverything.jpg

This, of course, had a domino effect that made me spend countless hours reshaping every peak in the mountain range... and then all stone structures in the whole level. In addition to reshaping everything, I have made a metric ton of other changes, including replacing all the annoying stairs with curved wooden spans, making the tunnel-boring machine actually bore a tunnel through the rock, I have also now included a big red button you can press if the trebuchet breaks - the current one is dissolved and a new one appears from thin air (I finally figured out how to use an emitter to replace an object!). The stormy sailboat crossing is now 100% stormier, with complex lighting effects and emitted lighting bolts built of electrified metal and numerous searchlights in a forked pattern. It seems awfully exciting now!

I have play-tested this new build as much as I can on my own and sleep deprivation allows, but as it's fairly new and we all tend to play our own levels in certain fixed patterns, it's hard to know what needs tweaking. So now I need some outside help.

Tonight I will have time to carefully go through other levels that need feedback!

Deepest thanks to all who have helped me with suggestions - I do hope you enjoy the new version,

~ oats-beef

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
to find this level, try looking for one of my comments in Javi Haguse's 'Descent 2' or Jagrevi's 'Am? Toor'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------		2009-09-15 10:18:00

Author:
Unknown User

I've just tried searching for @oats-beef, it could'nt find any results????2009-09-15 13:28:00

Author:
GruntosUK
Posts: 1754

It's convoluted, I am one of those unlucky saps whose levels cannot be found via search. You'll have to find one of my comments - recently on Javi Haguse's 'Descent 2' and Jagrevi's 'Am? Toor' - and get to the level that way.

Still interested? I'll check out yours this evening

~ oats-beef		2009-09-15 14:08:00

Author:
Unknown User

While you're at it, leave a comment on any one of my levels as well and I'll check it out. Just let me know which one you commented on.

I'm really astounded by the level at which you are using the feedback and continue to improve your level. I'll gladly check it out and help with the process .

....or I could just look at any of the other level comments you've made.		2009-09-15 14:13:00

Author:
comphermc
Posts: 5338

Found it through jagrevi's comments. I'm playing now......

+ I was reading your post about editing rocks around the texture, and it looks really good.
+ Great lighting, and the clouds coming past look excellent to.
+ Nice little dish puzzle
+ I really like the rocks in the foreground and background, it adds excellent depth.
+ Nice train
+ I liked the boat, the water and the lightining in the background.
+ Trebuchet was a great idea, a little fiddly at first, but I got there in the end.
+ Factory looks FANTASTIC. Great lighting and details.
+ You really love your vehicles, and they are all great fun to ride in.

- I'm not keen on the flat black/white background. Because the rest of the visuals are very good, it sticks out a little. Would the wilderness background not fit?
- The drilling machine got stuck, I managed to get under the rocks though and continue. NVM, I take it thats meant to happen
- You need more direction at the boiler room, before the rocket. I wasn't sure what to do there, perhaps a magic mouth to explain, and something to stop you getting in the rocket until the puzzles done, I was confused as to why the rocket would only fly so high, so just went back and randomly flicked the switches until I got the message.

I enjoyed the level, the visuals were great, and the vehicles superb. I would think about adding a background in, it looks a little strange without one in my opinion.

***** and hearted.		2009-09-15 14:42:00

Author:
GruntosUK
Posts: 1754

It appears I have reached a point where I now cannot finish the level - which is ashame since I was going for high score.

The part where you drive the vehicle through the debris. The vehicle has now hit an overhang and cannot proceed. However, there is still debris preventing me from progressing, and the debris appears to be wedged in a very small opening I need to go down, so I can't pull it out either.		2009-09-15 14:43:00

Author:
Jagrevi
Posts: 1154

Oh my, what a bunch of great suggestions, and I can handle them tonight! All apologies for those having difficulties with the tunnel-borer.. it was the very last thing added and I guess I didn't work out all the kinks quite yet. Moving it backwards and forwards can help - and I just realized one of the things I meant to do was to change the direction of the grinder teeth along with the drive wheels - that should help to get it unstuck when it hangs like that.

Ok more tonight, thanks again to all who have helped thus far, I will respond in kind for everyone.

~oats-beef		2009-09-15 14:59:00

Author:
Unknown User

While you're at it, leave a comment on any one of my levels as well and I'll check it out. Just let me know which one you commented on.

I'm really astounded by the level at which you are using the feedback and continue to improve your level. I'll gladly check it out and help with the process .

....or I could just look at any of the other level comments you've made.

It was the last level I played, and I hearted it so it will be on my list.		2009-09-15 15:42:00

Author:
GruntosUK
Posts: 1754

Ok, yet another round! I think I have fixed the tunnel borer so that it can't get stuck. For one thing, the gear wheels now turn outwards when you are backing up, so this unsticks the thing quite effectively. The walls are also reshaped and if a block gets jammed under there, there are magnetic keys to dissolve it.

More instruction has been added to the boiler room, now it's patently obvious that you can't leave yet - and the logic behind the inlet/outlet pressure valves is more explicitly spelled out. If you actually wait until the pressure gauge reaches max, there is a large explosion in the boiler that will kill you if you are too close. I say this because it's unlikely anyone will ever see it.

As for the background - it's something I struggled with from the get-go. The way the level is built, the mountains are above any features in the 'wilderness' theme, the lake appears to be floating oddly above the trees, and the in the cave it doesn't matter, there's rubber in the background.

The real problem is that I can't move things around, the trebuchet needs an immense amount of space above it. I already had to cover the lighting machines with giant clouds because on particularly high flings, the underlying mechanics of the level were revealed. (Oh no!).

So there's fog. To hide it. I wish oh wish you could apply stickers to the back wall. Or possibly I need to learn more about this so-called layer glitch.

thanks to everyone for the help, I think it's really been improved.

~ oats-beef		2009-09-15 22:29:00

Author:
Unknown User

For the trebuchet, consider demitting the whole thing. Never heard of demitting, check out rtm's thread:
Demitters Tech demo (https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=t=11861&highlight=demitter)

It's pretty advanced, but always a solution.		2009-09-15 23:05:00

Author:
comphermc
Posts: 5338

I think that's kind of what I am doing - there's a trigger when you first enter the level that drops a dissolving block on the emitter switch, this emits the first trebuchet. Then when you approach the trebuchet, the emitter is moved to a different place. So every time you hit the button, since only one emitted object can exist at once, it dissolves the first one and emits a new one above that drops down right next to you. I imagine there are more slick ways of doing it, but this way, I can say that it's 'being sent away for repairs', and a new one is 'delivered'. I don't like it when in-game mechanics don't make sense for the world they exist in. Know what I mean?2009-09-15 23:18:00

Author:
Unknown User

What a demitter does it move the piston way out of the way, emits the object, moves back into place and emits the object again. This way the new object is emitted back in its original place, rather than having to fall to the ground. Same concept, though.

-----------

Alright, I promised some feedback:

I enjoyed the very beginning with the mountains and the ski-lift type thingy. I thought it was weird how it didn't line up in place at the landing. Just kind of awkward. I like the satellite and the premise of the whole level. Stupid smoke-stacks ruining everyone's night sky! The train part was "meh". It didn't look awful, but it wasn't shockingly great either. I like the little trick you use to turn off the train, but the switch was at an awkward place for when you have to pull it. It felt like I was going to fall off!

The little dive into the lake might have been funnier if you have some sort of high dive platform there, rather than just a ledge. Neat concept, but I failed to catch very many bubbles. Lol at the lake being frozen and the sign to accompany it. I went to the right of the lake and noticed that I can fall out of your level, which is a big no-no. The simplest solution would be to just put up an invisible barrier blocking me from going to the right.

I liked all the carving that you've done with the snow section, but it may not have been the best method. When you're fiddling around with your next level, try using the corner editor tool instead. It may take a bit more time, but it is much lighter on your thermo. Also, this area might look better if you stickered all the blue wood with a plain white sticker. For me, it just looked...unfinished.

The next part was my favorite part of the level. The ship on the stormy seas was phenomenal. I was very impressed with the everything going on. Nice water effect, lightning effect, wave effect, everything.

Next came the trebuchet. I want to think that you made it for the idea, but part of me says that it was just a way to get back to the other shore. I probably would have enjoyed this part more if I rode the boat to a little island with the plunger on it, hit the plunger, and took the boat back to the factory thing. It just seemed like the trebuchet was out of place in this level. On to the factory...

The whole factory was a bit dark. I might suggest lightening it up a bit. Everything else looked pretty good, as far as I could see. The little roller puzzle didn't work so well for me. I tried and I tried to make it smoothly across, but I had to resort to bouncing on the fire and re-catching the wheel slightly to the side. I tried getting a running start from above, but it didn't work out as [assumedly] planned. Then, when I finally made it across, it was weird trying to get onto the ledge. This part definitely seemed like more of a chore than it was any fun.

Nice little puzzle to overheat the [whatever it was] followed by a fun little rocket section. I assume I landed on the moon? I actually thought the moon looked a bit more like snow and winter than the blue wood below, but whatever.

Neat little level. There were some truly great parts that pushed this otherwise 3 star level to 4 stars. It still needs some work though, assuming you are willing to make changes.



All from memory, too. Impressed? Sorry for the very long review.		2009-09-16 01:57:00

Author:
comphermc
Posts: 5338

All great suggestions, thanks so much!


What a demitter does it move the piston way out of the way, emits the object, moves back into place and emits the object again. This way the new object is emitted back in its original place, rather than having to fall to the ground. Same concept, though.

I may have to look in to this... my solution is not the most elegant...



I like the little trick you use to turn off the train, but the switch was at an awkward place for when you have to pull it. It felt like I was going to fall off!

It's been moved backward now


The little dive into the lake might have been funnier if you have some sort of high dive platform there, rather than just a ledge. Neat concept, but I failed to catch very many bubbles.

I will see what I can do!


I went to the right of the lake and noticed that I can fall out of your level, which is a big no-no.

Lol... there was a bit of mountain there that must have broken when I moved the lake sign... it's back now. oops.


Also, this area might look better if you stickered all the blue wood with a plain white sticker. For me, it just looked...unfinished.

Stickered now! Looks much colder...


The next part was my favorite part of the level. The ship on the stormy seas was phenomenal. I was very impressed with the everything going on. Nice water effect, lightning effect, wave effect, everything.

Thank you, I also like this part very much


Next came the trebuchet. I want to think that you made it for the idea, but part of me says that it was just a way to get back to the other shore. I probably would have enjoyed this part more if I rode the boat to a little island with the plunger on it, hit the plunger, and took the boat back to the factory thing.

Riding a sailboat backwards seems awkward to me. If only there were a way to flip objects... perhaps emit a rightward facing boat? Hmm.... But then again, I do love the trebuchet...


The whole factory was a bit dark. I might suggest lightening it up a bit. Everything else looked pretty good, as far as I could see. The little roller puzzle didn't work so well for me. I tried and I tried to make it smoothly across

It's possible to simply push to the right, but yeah.. the landing on the other side could be smoothed out!


All from memory, too. Impressed? Sorry for the very long review. Quite impressed, and very thankful. I appreciate all the help.

all the best,
~oats-beef		2009-09-16 08:41:00

Author:
Unknown User

The little roller puzzle didn't work so well for me. I tried and I tried to make it smoothly across, but I had to resort to bouncing on the fire and re-catching the wheel slightly to the side. I tried getting a running start from above, but it didn't work out as [assumedly] planned. Then, when I finally made it across, it was weird trying to get onto the ledge. This part definitely seemed like more of a chore than it was any fun.

I hung onto it, and span completely over it all the way to the end, then just got off. I don't know whether thats the way you intended people to do it or not but it worked, and looked cool 		2009-09-16 09:12:00

Author:
GruntosUK
Posts: 1754


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