Archive: 8 posts

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OK, so I'm thinking about making a survival-style minigame. The longer you last, the more points you'll get. If you die, you'll be instantly transported to the scoreboard and the game ends. Nothing special here. So let's say sackboy has to evade things by jumping and moving to the left or the right. Explosive barrels or other nasty stuff falls from the sky and is shot at sackboy from the left and the right. Not too difficult either. Now comes the problem: I don't want players to be able to "cheat the system" because it is a repeating loop. I want the objects that sackboy has to evade to be more or less random, so no two games are ever the same. I've been thinking about this for a while but haven't been able to figure out how to make this. Obviously you'd need switches that are connected to emitters which emit the things that sackboy has to evade, but I can't think of a way to activate these switches in a random order. Anyone here have any idea how I could tackle this problem?

2008-11-20 10:47:00 Author: Dijkie Posts: 42

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Base the triggering of the emitters on the position of the player on the screen with a time delay. The player is about the most random thing moving on the screen. Overlap the sensor trigger zones so there is no sweet spot where nothing happens. hope this helps

2008-11-20 12:01:00 Author: Piratepete Posts: 110

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I had already thought of that myself. It might work, but it's not really random. I was thinking more in the lines of a contraption with, say, 16 switches that are activated randomly and preferably not by the position of the player. I think that someone would eventually figure that out and thus be able to cheat his way to a high score.

2008-11-20 14:15:00 Author: Dijkie Posts: 42

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I think you would struggle to create true randomness in LBP. Go for the illusion of randomness instead. Heres an idea make a 'flipper' on the floor with a metal ball. Set a series of sensors above the flipper on pins (like one of those old pinball type machines, but with the just the pegs) rig the emitter to short range sensors so that as the ball bounces around it triggers the emitters. Rig the flipper to the player being in the area where the game starts. Any better?

2008-11-20 15:11:00 Author: Piratepete Posts: 110

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Also see https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=t=4366&highlight=random for another suggestion. Though the basic idea is what Piratepete said, using player actions. The random effect does not depend on the position for my suggestion, but on the time a player arrives somewhere. Well, just check if you could use it. Random effects with simple objects work in real life, because there's "deterministic chaos". If you throw a dice exactly the same way then it will always turn out the same. In LBP, the physics are programmed, so there is no deterministic chaos. For example, make a circle in the air and let it drop on the ground; it will just drop an do nothing, it won't roll around. The only thing I can think of which also behaves chaotic in LBP like in reality is time, so I used that combined with player actions.

2008-11-20 18:27:00 Author: Shiwayari Posts: 167

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I'm just doing to chuck a few ideas at you and see what comes out. I am none the wiser about random capabilities, but I have an idea or two. In a box off-screen, there could be a wheel with 16 (or however) key switches on it, and on the floor there is a key. The smaller the keyswitch range, the easier the level. Now, make a small wooden (or whatever) bit poking out one of the sides, with a rocket on it, not too powerful, but enough to spin it. On the walls put some wooden blocks pushing the flying wheel at predetermined periods of time. Each key switch activates a different emmitter. As the wheel turns around, the blocks with pistons should push it and create a random effect. ... If you get what I mean... ... (is that the right meen/mean? I always get confused) Much thanks, Will.

2008-11-20 19:37:00 Author: Callahan90 Posts: 98

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I'm just doing to chuck a few ideas at you and see what comes out. I am none the wiser about random capabilities, but I have an idea or two. In a box off-screen, there could be a wheel with 16 (or however) key switches on it, and on the floor there is a key. The smaller the keyswitch range, the easier the level. Now, make a small wooden (or whatever) bit poking out one of the sides, with a rocket on it, not too powerful, but enough to spin it. On the walls put some wooden blocks pushing the flying wheel at predetermined periods of time. Each key switch activates a different emmitter. As the wheel turns around, the blocks with pistons should push it and create a random effect. ... If you get what I mean... ... (is that the right meen/mean? I always get confused) Much thanks, Will. If get what you mean.. I have tried something similar. I made multiple wheels with 2 rockets on them the way you described and put them into a big box. Then I unpaused and they were bouncing around, which looked fairly random. Then I rewinded, unpaused again, and every of the rocket-wheels made the exact same motion as before, hitting the walls and other wheels at the same angle, time etc. This is because, like I wrote in my previous post, the physics are programmed and there is no deterministic chaos, thus everything you make is exactly defined and always has the same outcome. Of course, the first time you see the results it will really seem random, but every time after that it will be the same. I think the only way to simulate proper randomness is using player input combined with mechanisms with a lot of possible outputs.

2008-11-20 19:58:00 Author: Shiwayari Posts: 167

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Thanks for your insights. I'll give this some more thought after I finish the level I'm currently working on. edit: I don't know if people are still looking for a way to make random things happen in LBP, but this guy's idea seems to be working nicely: YouTube - LBP Randomizer

2008-11-21 07:49:00 Author: Dijkie Posts: 42

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