Archive: 12 posts

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Hey guys, I am in the process of building a boss something a little like my doodle below; http://i36.tinypic.com/zkpauw.jpg His six legs each have a brain and the plan is that when all his legs have been taken out the rest of him will disappear also. The trouble I was having was that the legs would stick around after their brain had been popped. Not what I'd hoped for. Ideally I want each leg to vanish on it's own so that it no longer poses a threat to the player. I managed to get this result by slapping a blob of dark matter in between each of the wobble bolts that hold the legs to the body. This would be perfect, were it not for the fact that I am now left with several blobs of dark matter after he is taken out. Does anyone know of a less ugly/cumbersome method of keeping each of those legs seperate while still having them fade away? Thanks in advance, any help is much appreciated!

2009-09-20 01:24:00 Author: Unknown User

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What if you put a creature brain on the leg and one on the dark matter too?

2009-09-20 01:58:00 Author: warlord_evil Posts: 4193

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Creature brains will not destroy dark matter, and won't work in teh way that you like without some modifications. The reason the legs are not being destroyed is because your monster is all one object. Anything attatched with pistons, rods, string, etc, will be counted as the same object. In order to get your creature to destroy itself like you want, you'll have to do one of two things (as far as i can think of) 1) Make the monster out of dissolve, and put a key switch/magnetic key combo on the brains. Set the switch to dissolve the leg when the brain is popped by putting thekey on the brain, and setting the switch to inverted, and putting it in a place where it can detect the key. You'd have to color code for this (ie: each leg a different key color). Problems with this are that the brain casings will still remain, and you will have to set up a manual trigger for killing the boss (see second point). 2) Seperate your creature. Suspend the legs and body SEPERATELY, and hang them off of dark matter in some way that the dark matter is offscreen and not glued to your monster. (ie: put a piece of dark matter, then use a piston to connect the dark matter to your monster body/leg). The legs cannot be attatched to each other, or the body. If you want the legs to use wobble bolts or the like, attatch the pistons to a bit of thin layer, then put the leg on top of that. You'll have to syncronize your timings of the pistons and bolts carefully, so allthe legs don't interfere with each other, if your monster moves much. Hitting the brain will dissolve the entire leg, as it is a seperate object, and there is only one brain on each object. You will also need to set up a system to destroy your body, but thats simple. Use the same magnetic key/inverted thing, and put a key on each leg. When all the legs are destoyed, all the keys will be gone, and the switch will activate. Use the switch to either 1 shot a protected brain on the monster body, or dissolve the body.

2009-09-20 03:02:00 Author: Burnvictim42 Posts: 3322

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Alternatively, you could make a ball and socket sort of attachment for the legs (think the human shoulder). You could then move the legs with winches connected to DM high and off screen. This way you can easily kill each leg and it will still be "attached" to the monster. Check out this [very poorly made] youtube video for the basic idea: YouTube - Demo for LBP The point of the video was to show how to make a one layer thick moving arm, which was ironically enough made for Burnvictim. Instead of attaching the arms to the body, attach them to something else above.

2009-09-20 05:15:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

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Thats actually a very good (and FAR simpler) method. By nesting the joints via a ball and socket method instead of attatching them, you can destroy the legs individually. I'd forgotten about that video

2009-09-20 05:24:00 Author: Burnvictim42 Posts: 3322

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Thanks for taking time out to help me with this guys. I'm gonna go with the majority vote and (seemingly) easiest solution; The ball and socket joint. Just to be sure before I start tinkering with anything, is this a fair summary of the concept in motion here? http://i36.tinypic.com/5v9fgn.jpg I'm thinking three layers of this, behind the mask of my spiders face will give me the effect I'm looking for. It will also allow each leg to dissolve on it's own giving the effect of the boss becoming less difficult the more you attack it! I feel it's worth mentioning Burnvictim, that it was my plan all along to make the head out of dissolve in the fashion you described. Only diference being that while you probably thought it up on the spot it took me half an hour of stress and brainstorming before the idea came to me! I can only hope this kind of thing gets easier the more you do it. Thanks again for all of your help and time taken guys.

2009-09-20 14:10:00 Author: Unknown User

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It does get easier. I would make one slight change to your design... The way you have it there, both legs are still attached to the body because of the winch. Just put a block of DM way above each leg instead of attaching it to the body.

2009-09-20 14:25:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

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Ah, well spotted there. I see what you mean; that design would cause the legs to act in pairs and would need to be taken out in tandem. The only trouble with the dark matter there would be that it would be left behind after the enemy was taken out. Bringing us back to where we started in terms of design woe! Would I be able to attach both the winches to a very high up, unseen blob of dark matter? That would (hopefully) keep them seperate and hide the gubbings for after the spider gets taken down! Ooooooh, my head... I think I need a lie down. Maybe I'll go work on something less taxing. Like splitting the atom!!

2009-09-20 17:03:00 Author: Unknown User

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Would I be able to attach both the winches to a very high up, unseen blob of dark matter? That would (hopefully) keep them seperate and hide the gubbings for after the spider gets taken down! That was exactly what I had in mind. Above edited to reflect that. Ooooooh, my head... I think I need a lie down. Maybe I'll go work on something less taxing. Like splitting the atom!! Ha!

2009-09-20 17:11:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

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Yea, it gets easier as you go along. Like all LBP, its a bit of a learning curve. But after dealing with something like this, i guarantee any further endeavors with similar problems will be much easier.

2009-09-20 17:27:00 Author: Burnvictim42 Posts: 3322

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Well guys, I've been beavering away in my spare time for the past few days and after many cubic centimetres of blood, sweat and tears, come up with this guy here: http://i34.tinypic.com/1evwhz.jpg (Please note that I have not yet made the body consist of dissolve material) The spider, let's call him Boris, is suspended by a chandelier which descends on a piston when triggered by the players arrival. The chandelier's piston is attached to a high off unseend block of wood, held in place by a small piece of dark matter. Can anyone see the (I wish) deliberate mistake yet? With all the winches being attached to the chandelier the brains are then accountable for the entirety of Boris instead of just the one leg that they are attached to! I made the segment of chandelier they are attached to dark matter in a bid to resolve the problem but guess what? Then the blooming chandelier wouldn't move! Should I give on giving boris his grand entrance or can anyone think of a way we can seperate those legs up while still giving him mobility?

2009-09-26 23:48:00 Author: Unknown User

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OMG this is awesome I say just embed small pieces of material in the chandelier and then attach the winches to them. In the same way that your ball and socket joints separate the legs from the body, just have squares embedded in the thick layer of the chandlier and hide them with thin layer on top. I cannot wait to see boris the spider in action

2009-09-27 00:10:00 Author: rtm223 Posts: 6497

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