Archive: 10 posts

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Hi all, I'm a super-noobie as my post count and join date will attest, but I have an idea for my very first level that I want to create, and I want to run it by the community and see if all of these ideas are possible and/or how hard they are: It's a level based roughly on the storyline of the book (not the movie) Dune. Lots of desert, rock, and cave locations. Level begins with the house at arrakeen that you explore a little. In one room a hunter-seeker will appear (I guess it'll be some kind of small floating object that moves around the room) and to defeat it you need to grab it and pull it over to "immerse it in water", or whatever might approximated that in LBP. After this, I think you will ride an ornithopter (some kind of flying vehicle, just an automatic path, no need to really control it). The 'thopter would fly a little ways over the desert to a cave area underground, where you will meet up with Liet and Duncan Idaho for some speech bubbles. Then the harkonnen will attack and you need to escape. I want to follow the book closely for the escape, and have a maze you need to travel through, with the path ahead illuminated until you reach that point, and then the next path illuminates while the last marker goes dark. This will continue until another ornithopter you must ride in, which will take you out to the desert. In the story, it flies into a sand storm and after a time crash lands, but I don't know how hard the sand storm would be so maybe it would just crash land in the desert near some rocks. At this point I need to introduce the sandworms. The following platforming section should be jumping from rock to rock, while avoiding the sand. If you walk on the sand, a sandworm should pop out of the ground and kill you. Is this possible? I don't even know how to start approximating "walking without rhythm" which in the book will not attract a worm, and I assume that isn't really feasible for the game to detect how continuously you are walking on a particular surface? After some of this platforming, you reach a fremen sietch, which is just a cave system. I think this will only be for speech bubbles. After you run through the cave, you need to ride a worm, which will be some kind of climbing/platforming section to reach the top of the worm's back. Following this, I guess the level can jump straight to the final battle of the book, the Battle of Arrakeen. This will be a section with enemies to kill. I'd like to try to approximate the shields that soldiers wear in Dune: a personal energy field that repels fast-moving objects and only admits slow objects. I have no idea how this would work though; is there something like a force field that you can't shoot through, but you can walk through? Is there any substance or object or door that will stop/kill you if you run through it, but will let you walk slowly through it? Anything like that? Could such a barrier be constructed? Finally after this, I may or may not have some kind of boss battle with feyd-rautha. Nothing super-complicated, no shields for that part anyway. And that would be the end. So, how is this idea? Is everything I want to do possible in LBP?

2009-10-15 02:45:00 Author: kengou Posts: 5

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anything is possible in lbp

2009-10-15 03:15:00 Author: Littlebigdude805 Posts: 1924

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Level begins with the house at arrakeen that you explore a little. In one room a hunter-seeker will appear (I guess it'll be some kind of small floating object that moves around the room) and to defeat it you need to grab it and pull it over to "immerse it in water", or whatever might approximated that in LBP. Possible, depending on how you want to "immerse it in water". As of yet, there is no true water in LBP, but people have made some similar things. A magnetic key switch would be enough to kill your seeker when you bring it to the water. After this, I think you will ride an ornithopter (some kind of flying vehicle, just an automatic path, no need to really control it). The 'thopter would fly a little ways over the desert to a cave area underground, where you will meet up with Liet and Duncan Idaho for some speech bubbles. Then the harkonnen will attack and you need to escape. I want to follow the book closely for the escape, and have a maze you need to travel through, with the path ahead illuminated until you reach that point, and then the next path illuminates while the last marker goes dark. This will continue until another ornithopter you must ride in, which will take you out to the desert. Possible, just use a few sneaky proximity switches. In the story, it flies into a sand storm and after a time crash lands, but I don't know how hard the sand storm would be so maybe it would just crash land in the desert near some rocks. At this point I need to introduce the sandworms. A large rocket engine could make a good sandstorm effect. The following platforming section should be jumping from rock to rock, while avoiding the sand. If you walk on the sand, a sandworm should pop out of the ground and kill you. Is this possible? I don't even know how to start approximating "walking without rhythm" which in the book will not attract a worm, and I assume that isn't really feasible for the game to detect how continuously you are walking on a particular surface? Its possible, but you'd have to be very careful about it. Proximity switches would have to be tweaked very finely if this is a flat surface. If there are rocks or things above the surface of the sand, it would be much easier. As to the without rhythm, you could use player trackers to figure out how fast a player is walking, but i don't think you could really use it well to determine a rhthym. someone else might have a solution though. After some of this platforming, you reach a fremen sietch, which is just a cave system. I think this will only be for speech bubbles. After you run through the cave, you need to ride a worm, which will be some kind of climbing/platforming section to reach the top of the worm's back. Following this, I guess the level can jump straight to the final battle of the book, the Battle of Arrakeen. This will be a section with enemies to kill. I'd like to try to approximate the shields that soldiers wear in Dune: a personal energy field that repels fast-moving objects and only admits slow objects. I have no idea how this would work though; is there something like a force field that you can't shoot through, but you can walk through? Is there any substance or object or door that will stop/kill you if you run through it, but will let you walk slowly through it? Anything like that? Could such a barrier be constructed? There is what is called "plasmified material", which when initially made is also semi solid. Sackboy can walk through it, but other objects cannot. Using this material, you could make a shield, so paint bullets can't fly through it, but sackboy could walk up and kill the enemy. (I think, haven't experimented with the paintinator and this actually) Finally after this, I may or may not have some kind of boss battle with feyd-rautha. Nothing super-complicated, no shields for that part anyway. And that would be the end. So, how is this idea? Is everything I want to do possible in LBP? I don't remember who feyd-rautha was offhand, its been a while since i've read the books, so more information here would help an opinion. Sounds like a fairly ambitious first project, but Let the spice (and creativity)flow. Heres a link that might help: How to 'Plasmify' objects: https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=t=10596 Also, Ladylyn1 has an excellent level about player trackers, and another on boss logic and Incinerator22 has a nice tutorial on more basic logic devices if you need help with those.

2009-10-15 03:22:00 Author: Burnvictim42 Posts: 3322

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That sounds like a lot to put into a single level. I don't know if the thermometer/room will allow it. You might want to try to divide it up into logical sections (though it might fit into a single level). Sandworms/Shai-Hulud popping out from under the sand shouldn't be too complicated as long as they simply pop up and down at specific locations between rocks. Detecting if Sackboy is walking constantly could be done, but it would be somewhat complex and I don't think it would be a fun gameplay element for the level. As for the energy shields, I'm assuming you would use a Paintinator? It might be possible to block the paint shots but let Sackboy walk through. I'm not sure how this could be turned into an interesting gameplay element though, unless you mix up enemies that you can't get near but must shoot with others that you can't shoot so must get near. With the right level of storytelling and visuals, this could be a very interesting level/set of levels. Btb, I'm a Dune (novels) fan. @Burnvictim42 : Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is the younger nephew of the Baron Harkonnen. He was played by Sting in the movie adaptation.

2009-10-15 03:32:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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Thanks for the replies! This does seem like an ambitious first project, doesn't it? I'll work on proof-of-concept stages with only certain sections so I can learn the editor better and make sure I can do all these things before putting it all together. One of the first things I did when I took LBP online though was look for Dune levels, and I only found two that were related to the books (one was actually related to the games instead), and both were interesting but I'd really love to see one that is more faithful to the story/concepts of the book. So I thought I'd just go ahead and try to make one! Too bad there's no way to do knife-fighting in LBP... is there?

2009-10-15 04:31:00 Author: kengou Posts: 5

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No, theres really no way to do knife fighting aside from actually making a knife... but it would be scripted, and awkward. Thanks for the reference, gilg. Its all coming back to me now... not really, but i can pretend

2009-10-15 04:40:00 Author: Burnvictim42 Posts: 3322

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Messed with the creator today trying to make sandworms kill you if you fall off rock platforms onto the sand. I'm not sure how to make the worm pop up out of the ground, so I had to make do with an emitter that essentially drops the sandworm on top of you. Any idea how to have it emerge from the ground underneath you?

2009-10-15 15:52:00 Author: kengou Posts: 5

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I would hide the sandworms behind the frontmost thin layer (which could be made to look like sand). They would simply be put on pistons linked to a sensor switch to detect when Sackboy is just overhead on the sand. To keep Sackboy from falling through the sand I would make the floor out of emitted dissolve material, with a magnetic key switch detecting if a sandworm is trying to pop up and dissolving once it is near the surface. The floor could also simply be two pieces stuck to the front layer using low-strength wobble bolts so that the floor "parts" when a sandworm pushes upwards (though this makes it harder for Sackboy to fall into the trap). Just some ideas, but there are many other ways to go about it.

2009-10-15 16:10:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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QUOTE The following platforming section should be jumping from rock to rock, while avoiding the sand. If you walk on the sand, a sandworm should pop out of the ground and kill you. Is this possible? I don't even know how to start approximating "walking without rhythm" which in the book will not attract a worm, and I assume that isn't really feasible for the game to detect how continuously you are walking on a particular surface? UNQUOTE Hello there! There is way to do that. If you work with proximity sensors on each piece of sand, you could create a link from the sensors to dissolving material high in the sky. For example: you place some floating material and add some lines of dissolving material (for example 5). Each prox sensors you attach to a separate piece of dissolving material. When the player passed that area 5 times you could let the worm appear. How ? well by placing a large block of metal on top of all the dissolving layers and it falls down a bit each time the player walks over that particular sand area. Then finally after the last dissolving layer is gone it falls on a button which is set to activate a sandworm going up and down. ow and don't forget to put the sensors on a piston so that when the first one is activated, the second one goes up just below the sand to trigger the next layer dissolving. I know this might seem complicated and it is a little bit tricky but this can really work. I use this technique a lot in my boogeyman level. hope this helped

2009-10-16 20:56:00 Author: nightwing Posts: 422

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I've had a go at making a Dune-inspired level after reading your post! It doesn't have much to do with the overall story, and it's my first attempt at level creation, but feel free to have a go and see what you think! It's called "Frank Herbert's Dune - The Spice Refinery"

2010-09-08 17:17:00 Author: DaveMuadDib Posts: 16

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