Horrible Level

[mcapodici]

Not sure if it is completable. I assume so!

level.txt

[JordyMoos]

I agree with you, it is a horrible level! hahaha
One of the diamonds is not laying on anything. Therefor it will tend to fall forever

Because of how the engine works it is solvable.
Two important parts are here at play:

• Only visible tiles and some additional tiles around the border are getting "update ticks" and are therefor alive.
• The map has no boundaries

Given that you can collect the first diamond. Then push the boulder to the right to escape between the boulders and the pets. Then walk right "out of the map", walk down and then walk left (lower than the second diamonds position.

At some point you will come close to the second diamond and it will get update ticks and therefor fall to your screen.

To complete this level you do need to know a lot, about the engine and the level haha. Else you will never find the second diamond haha

Thanks for sharing!

[JordyMoos]

I can not add this level to the "official" levels in the game because it is not really solvable. But I can make a sub menu "Awesome Community levels" and add the level there.

What are your thoughts?

[mcapodici]

Thanks for the reply. Yes one of the things I noticed is that not all the rocks fall out due to the screen size. Then you pop up and get some surprise rocks on your head. I got out at one point but got lost trying to find the diamond!. The idea behind the pets is to release them and start a "war", but you have to stay inside the pets to be protected from explosions or enemies. OTOH if you get too close to the pets you can also get stuck and unable to move at all. It's a lot of fun! I am happy for you to include this as a community level. If I get some time I will improve it a bit. I think it needs some solid border to avoid getting lost as that is just annoying.

…

On Fri, 7 Dec 2018 at 07:13, Jordy Moos ***@***.***> wrote: I can not add this level to the "official" levels in the game. But I can make a sub menu "Awesome Community levels" and add the level there. What are your thoughts? — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#146 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADXYfxc5hbL2s6LEjDNz2LQJuHPSaIlaks5u2XpNgaJpZM4ZHL8j> .

[JordyMoos]

Then you pop up and get some surprise rocks on your head.

Hahaha nice

The idea behind the pets is to release them and start a "war", but you have to stay inside the pets to be protected from explosions or enemies.

I really like the creativity in your idea.

The reason that it currently does not work as planned is because of the "control" attached to the Enemy and Pet.

----- Technical stuff here
This is the rest of the levels configuration, which gets attached to the "scene" you create via de easy editor.
https://github.com/JordyMoos/elm-pixel-boulder-game/blob/master/src/static/levels/test/sample.json

Both the Enemy and the Pet have this "control" attached to them:

{"type": "control", "data": {
        "control": {
          "type": "walkAroundAi",
          "data": {
            "previousDirection": "left",
            "nextDirectionOffsets": [-1, 0, 1, 2]
          }
        }
}},

This walkAroundAi lets you configure the "last direction you made" and also a list of next possible directions (based on your previous direction).
What happens is this: The previous direction was Left. -1 based on left is Down. Entity should go down if possible. If not possible try the next offset (0) which means the same direction as before untill a valid movement is found or the list is empty.

(There is a minor bug here, I messed up left and right (-1 and 1) on the offsets so its inverted lol, with previousDirection=Left and offset=-1 the Entity will go Up not Down, dont laugh)

Anyways this configuration will let the Entity try to "take the corner" or else "follow his current direction". Which works wonderful if the enemy is actually next to a wall. He will just follow the wall. But if there is nothing around him them he will walk mini circles and wont really change position much.

With this said we can tune to control of our Pet:

{"type": "control", "data": {
        "control": {
          "type": "walkAroundAi",
          "data": {
            "previousDirection": "down",
            "nextDirectionOffsets": [0]
          }
        }
}},

----- End of the technical stuff

If we change the Pets control to this then the Pet will walk down and will continue to do so "forever".

So you can place Pets above the Enemies, separated by some Dirt or something that the Player needs to remove to release "the beasts" and let them be destroyed by the Enemies.

I think it needs some solid border to avoid getting lost as that is just annoying.

Yea I agree there is no end to it which is annoying. You can use the "Strong Wall" which can not be destroyed by the explosions.

Ps. I can easily add another textarea which shows the real configuration (which then the changed pets behavior can be tuned, which I also can supply) That way you can test your level with the alternative pets behavior.

What are your thoughts?