Archive: 11 posts

---

Firstly. Hi everyone! This is my first post as well as my first 'level'. It's not so much of a level as just a trial run of a steerable airship. Creator: SalieriAAX Level Name: Airship Practice Flight I've tried out a few that I've found in the community and I wasn't hugely impressed, so I decided to have a go myself and after loads of experimentation I've come up with a design that is pretty stable, unflippable and not too big. I'm working on an actual level to use it in at the moment but I thought I'd best trial run the airship itself before I went all out. Please try it out and let me know what you think. Cheers folks.

2010-01-07 11:12:00 Author: SalieriAAX Posts: 421

---

I think its more a kind of hotair balloon with rockets But the flying works just fine. Its a big one so i dont really know how to use it in a level...

2010-01-07 12:15:00 Author: Arrestor Posts: 363

---

Well, that's kind of what an airship is... isn't it? I know what you mean though. I started with one that was more like a boat slung under a zeppelin balloon. Much like this: http://ageofsteam.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/steampunk-airship3.jpg which was one of my prototypes. Looked cool but the problem was it was only facing one direction. So, instead, I went for this symmetrical design. The idea kind of being that it's supposed to look sort of head on. Anyway, thanks for the feedback, I'm still trying to come up with a perfect design. I ight try another more zeppelin-looking one next.

2010-01-07 14:14:00 Author: SalieriAAX Posts: 421

---

Hey salieri, I was really impressed with the mechanics and the navigation of this vehicle, and those propellers were a really nice touch. However, I wasn't keen on the design as it looked too industrial and heavy for my taste, and the picture you showed above I think would've been a better direction in terms of visuals: it's whimsical and looks like it was meant to fly! To solve the unidirectional problem, you could simply mirror image one of the sides (I would prefer the side with the wing-like sails). Other than that, I would've liked to see this incorporated in a level... Wandering aimlessly in the sky on an airship, jeffcu28

2010-01-08 21:54:00 Author: jeffcu28 Posts: 648

---

Wow, I'm impressed. I really didn't know what to expect... To be honest I was dreading this because so many people get flying things wrong. It's extremely well made, flies quite well, and there's some nice logic at work behind the scenes too. You can get the airship swinging a bit if you're overzealous with the controls, but that was just me trying to see if it was really tip-proof.... and it is! I see where you're going with the design, and I like it. The propellers are a great touch! It does look a little heavier than it actually is, but then again that fits right in with the whole pirate zeppelin steampunk vibe of this sort of thing. For my money, I like this better than the balloon contraption from the second to last PS3 Islands story mode level. Ok, so I have 2 suggestions. First, put a life checkpoint inside the gondola. It's reasonably easy to forget what you are doing and fall out of the gondola, which breaks the level unless you want to spend 5 minutes waiting for the airship to float down and run around searching for it. My second suggestion is to use the "black gradient" sticker to make it look round. The metal panel stickers you chose for the body are great, but they look flat. You don't need a drastic amount of black shading, just a touch. Increase the size of the gradient sticker to make the shading more subtle, and place it off center either up or down to make it look more or less shadowy. This will really make your design pop. You have clearly put some time and effort into this. It has been very well playtested and I think you have the rate of climb and descent spot on. Left/right steering is very good as well, and it doesn't gain or lose altitude in the process. So, I'd love to see this in a proper level. Start off simple! Don't go crazy with impossible hazards or tricky puzzles. Whatever you do, stay away from timing related challenges that you need to fly through. Piloting the ship is fun in itself, so just make a wandering pathway with a series of gates and places to land with light platforming where you need to go push a button or something. Use the PS3 level I mentioned as a template. Add some scenery like floating clouds and you have yourself a winner. Because this is only a test level and advertised as such, I rated it 5 stars. Nice work!

2010-01-09 17:53:00 Author: Taffey Posts: 3187

---

As previous posters already mentioned, it could benefit from better visuals (something like that picture you posted would have been awesome), it feels too heavy, cold, metallic. But on the mechanic side, it works just fine, which is a great achievement because most creators fail to do a flying vehicle that actually flies or doesn't flip. I enjoyed the ride and didn't face any problems. Congratulations for that.

2010-01-09 19:03:00 Author: Lleonard Pler Posts: 277

---

Hi All, Thanks very much for all of your feedback. Having a look over my older designs I agree this one does look a bit too industrial - I was kind of going for a sort of 'prototype' livery, just for testing the mechanics but I'm not too convinced by it eiher. I'm going to return to the older look for my next attempt, once I've worked out some issues I am having with some other projects. I forgot to mention that one of my main objectives was to make it simple enough to be capturable, and then have it as a prize at the end of the level. I just want to make sure it's good because I've got so much of other people's trash already from prize bubbles. I'll reply again if I post an update or a different model. Thanks again.

2010-01-09 21:59:00 Author: SalieriAAX Posts: 421

---

Well, I've found the feedback really useful, and created a 'second draft' which is mechanically more or less the same but with a full aesthetic overhaul that I think will probably be a bit more popular. I've also finally decided on what I'm doing with the level I'm going to use it in, which is a fairly simple concept and should e acheivable in a few days. If you'd like so see the new look, including some cool new animated bits, I've uploaded it as: Creator: SalieriAAX Level Name: Airship Practice Flight MKII

2010-01-10 18:58:00 Author: SalieriAAX Posts: 421

---

The new airship is really beautiful. Great stickering work! I can't wait for a whole level using the airship to travel from one part to another.

2010-01-14 18:43:00 Author: Lleonard Pler Posts: 277

---

Love the new look and design of the airship - it's top notch. 5 stars! Oh, but you still need a checkpoint on the gondola. Can't wait to see what kind of level you create around this ship.

2010-01-16 17:37:00 Author: Taffey Posts: 3187

---

Love the new look and design of the airship - it's top notch. 5 stars! Oh, but you still need a checkpoint on the gondola. The level is on hold for a bit while I work on something simpler - I've started so many projects that I've not finished that I've decided to get one thing finished at least. Unfortunately, checkpoints are actually very heavy and I'd have to seriously increas the size of the balloon to compensate, which would affect the handling a good deal. What I've decided to do is have the airship launch from a much larger 'mothership' on a couple of extremely long winches, with a switch next to the checkpoint, so that the winch needs to be reeled back in when you respawn (a bit like the vanships in Last Exile, if anyone knws it). I've tested it out and it works really (reelly! lolz) well, with the additional benefits of having a meaningful limit to how far you can fly it rather than arbitrary borders, and adding a bit more of a cost to failing.

2010-01-19 10:25:00 Author: SalieriAAX Posts: 421

Posts: 1077139    Threads: 69970    Members: 9661    Archive-Date: 2019-01-19

Aus dem Archiv wurden alle persönlichen Daten wie Name, Anschrift, Email etc. - aber auch sämtliche Inhalte wie z.B. persönliche Nachrichten - entfernt.
Die Nutzung dieser Webseite erfolgt ohne Speicherung personenbezogener Daten. Es werden keinerlei Cookies, Logs, 3rd-Party-Plugins etc. verwendet.