Multiplayer Map-Making Contest

[Simon]

Let's build cool multiplayer maps for Lix!

How to participate

Build some maps in the Lix editor and post them here! All multiplayer maps built from January 2021 through April 2021 are eligible.

Schedule spontaneous playtesting sessions (e.g., in irc.quakenet.org #lix, chat in your browser) or post on the multiplayer-planning board here on the forums. The more Lix sessions you schedule/join, the better you can test and improve your maps from the feedback.

Flopsy's Editor tutorial
Flopsy's Guide to Multiplayer

Inspiration

There are no hard rules, any multiplayer map is eligible. Here are some inspirational prompts:

• An asymmetric map: Instead of copying/mirroring one player's terrain, everybody gets completely different terrain. It's good to playtest such a map several times in our sessions, so you can fix the balance.
  
• A map with few skills, maybe at most 3 or 5 of each. Players must carefully decide whether to spend a builder, or whether to bat an attacker.
  
• A map where you usually save either close to 100 % of your crowd, or nearly nothing. The player can't merely make a route for his continuous stream of lix, then defend the route.
  
• A map that mixes racing (only 1 lix or only a few lixes, lots of jumping/running/turning) and route-building.
  
• A map with a 5-player and a 7-player variant. We tend to have the fewest maps for these player counts.
  
• Something really novel. 1-lix racing maps were groundbreaking when Rubix made his first one. Arty made a diplomatic map. What else is sleeping in design space?
  

Prizes

Everybody will get a nice postcard in Summer 2021. If you're not happy giving me your reallife address, we can think of something else that is nice.

The point is to promote map-making and find unexplored places in design space. This contest is a lot more open-ended than the NeoLemmix level contests. We are not keeping the levels under wraps, there is no separate playing phase. Instead we are encouraging people to participate in our arranged Lix sessions (or arrange your own) and you bring the levels to be tested.

You are allowed to change the level as much as you like based on other players' feedback or your own findings. The deadline is 30th April 2021 at 23:59 UTC.

-- Simon

[Simon]

Daimyo and Peasant, a first attempt at an asymmetric 2-player map.

Higher routes are usually stronger. I'm trying to handicap the upper route (A) by making it longer, and by having it pass right over B's exit. B can climb to A's exit to attack, and gets the elevator at the lower left to attack, but I'll have to see if the elevator is fast enough to be meaningful.

-- Simon

[Flopsy]

I have 2 maps which have existed in the last Lix multiplayer session but were not played.

First up, Run the Gauntlet. I'm showing the 4 player version of this map, it has vertical wrap only. I have circled the hatches and their respective exit in the same colour to show the extent of how the map will play out. I have this in 3-8 player versions.
The trapdoor on the left has their exit in the same section as it but they are very big risk of sabotage from the Lixes above the acid pools which cannot get out unless the built bridge exists to free them.
It's like trying to sneak past a bee's nest without disturbing them!
It's optional to try and save all your Lixes from the hatches in the other player's sections, there are ways past the steel borders at the right hand side of the level.



2nd up, Sector 4T Lixes which is something a little less chaotic than the above. This is the 4 player version again and it is also available in 6 player and 8 player, it has horizontal and vertical wrap.
Again I have circled the hatch and exit in the same colour, you are working diagonally down and right past a few frogs to get to your exit. This map is a little more relaxed and it is unlikely you will meet other colour Lixes on this map if you're careful.

[IchoTolot]

Ok here is my first map!

Staicases Of Sorrow



Available for 2-8 players. Although the 2 player variant is sligthly different as there is also the possibility for a horizontal route.

Main idea:

- I wanted to make a map where you not nessesarily need to go through all players to reach your goal.

- Each player must get down 2 areas to their exit. In the 3p example picture, red A has their exit in the blue zone. This leads to a slightly different 2p version.

- This would leave 1 player coming from the top to attack you and 1 player you must go through who you can attack.

- Not too much monoton digging or long dangerous bridges should be nessesary.

- The steel should make it a bit more difficult to just completely destroy paths

- Higher lix count for a slightly longer game.

Things I am unsure about:

- Is the horizontal wrap with the porqupine area a good idea? Maybe only the main entrance + exit shaft is better (with or without wrap). As there is mostly just 1 attacker the extra path could lead to too much general avoidance, but maybe a bit of a chance for avoidance is good? Also, for your try to avoid confrontation you will have a higher chance of porqupine attacks

- Maybe having to traverse an additional section is good - potential for a harder version of this map?

- Skill count, SI number, lix number way too high?


Versions attached.

[geoo]

I realized I never actually posted the maps I made for this contest here, so better late than never, just in time for the session tomorrow!

Ghetto Party (first pic): Basically a hybrid of Selective Rescue and Ghetto Wars, and it plays reasonably well.
Bat or Plat: Idea was that some players have to go down while others have to cross horizontally. Failed horribly.
Diplomacy (second pic): I made this one today so technically it doesn't qualify for the contest. The idea is that you're in a position to rescue other players' hatches, and you need their help because you don't have enough bombers to get down to your exit. But they might try to get to their own exit along the way.

I feel like I've lost inspiration, a lot of stuff has been done, and I have a hard time to come up with new ideas. A bunch of wacky stuff I've tried didn't work out, maybe there's still some ways to combine existing ideas (like Ghetto Party) or spinoffs (like Diplomacy)... I'm really hoping neutrals (and pre-placed lixes) are coming soon, there's so much potential in there. Have been looking forward to that for ages!

[Simon]

geoo: Thanks! I'll include the Ghetto Parties in the next release. Diplomacy, you concluded that it doesn't work yet as-is. I didn't remember Bat or Plat as horrible, although as fickle because typical fallback ideas fail. I'm still tending to leave Bat or Plat out because you deem it horrible; if you want it included, tell me.

geoo, please send/post Rescue Rangers. I have Selective Rescue, but I think you have more than one version of this idea.

IchoTolot: Thanks, will include these Staircase of Sorrow in the next release!

Flopsy: Please send/post your maps!

Dominator_101: Please send/post the team Rescue Rangers! I've got your Constructive/Destructive Interference and will include it in the next release.

-- Simon

[Flopsy]

Here's all my multiplayer maps to date Simon, some have been updated since so it's probably best that I post every level I have.

[WillLem]

I'm not sure if it's too late to enter, but here is my first ever Lix multiplayer level!

Let Pandemonium Commence!

[Dominator_101]

Dominator_101: Please send/post the team Rescue Rangers! I've got your Constructive/Destructive Interference and will include it in the next release.

Sure, I can definitely send my double team map. I did want to try and fix the one quirk where you can build a bridge that's safe for one player to drop but not the other (in the chute between the two players), but I think alignment is screwing that up, if I drop the gap to 2px (currently 4px) the lix just hang in the chute and don't fall. That kinda makes sense since it's in the exact middle of the two hatches, so it's likely at an 'odd' alignment rather than 'even.' If anyone has any ideas to fix this, let me know and I can try, but if people also don't think it's an issue I could just leave it as-is. I'm curious how wide the chute is in geoo's original team one, I based this one off of the single iteration since his team one wasn't up. One idea I had that might work is if I make the worker drops all 3px that should shift the alignment of the chute, but that might also be pretty annoying to change.

Whether I make a fix for that or not, I'll probably also spin up some even player versions, just for the sake of completeness (the point was to have an alternative to the even player team map, but no reason to not just include even player versions of this as well).

As for the interference maps, it might be best to just include the 2-player versions for now, I think I might need to think about how to better handle more players. My general idea of the maps was to be 2p, and I just kinda slapped on 4p versions since there were 4 hatches.

[geoo]

Attached are my versions of Rescue Ranger Trolls! (Technically, it's a WIP level name which I never changed, happy for suggestions or to keep it.)
The original had the issue that you could dig under the trailblazer landing platform, redirecting them straight to an exit. In the attached archive I also included "B" versions which fix this. They are currently untested though, so it'd be good to for someone to review them.

@Dominator: I really like your multi-hatch versions, and I think they make great additions! I also appreciate the subtle differences in gap width etc, which add a bit of variety. The quirk with the possibility of building so that the bridge saves only one player does seem exploitable, though only with a lot of effort. I guess it'd be good to have a fix, but not crucial?
I had look at my version, and it doesn't seem to be possible there. Basically the chute is 1 lo-res px wide, but there is a slight asymmetry (both in the original and in the "B" version, in a slightly different way). I think it can be fixed, basically if everything is symmetrically around the 1 px chute I think everything should work out, but I haven't tested. No-one has noticed as of now, and I hope the asymmetry in the "B" version is just as subtle that it won't make a difference in practice. If it turns out to be exploitable in some way I'd try to fix it though.

[Dullstar]

I keep forgetting to post these.

Carnival of Pain has been playtested in previous sessions.

Bridge of Death is completely untested, as I haven't been around for any Lix sessions since it was created. It was an attempt at creating something unique and assymetric, where the top player is unable to save all their Lix and must sabotage the three bottom players, who all share the same exit and must work together to not be sabotaged. That said, there's a good chance it's complete garbage.

[Simon]

Added all maps posted by Dominator_101, Dullstar, geoo, Flopsy, IchoTolot, WillLem. Thanks!

Removed Dominator_101's 4p versions of Interference from the upcoming Lix 0.9.37 according to his suggestion.

I haven't gotten an email/PM/post by Dominator_101 with his team Rescue Rangers yet. Thus, I'll leave his team Rescue Rangers out of today's release of Lix 0.9.37. When Dominator_101 sends me something, I'll include that and release again.

-- Simon

[Dominator_101]

Apologies for the delay on these, been all over the place the past week. Here's the double team map pack. I did actually make a fix so that the chute is a 2px gap rather than 4px, to prevent the bridges that work for only one player. I also added even player versions just for completeness (except 2 players, because that seemed pointless, but maybe it could be interesting? I dunno).

Small disclaimer: I ordered the hatches/exits directly in the text file because it was easier than moving all of them around in the editor, but I did give them a once-over and I think all of them are in the right place. We can keep an eye out if anything is misplaced when playing, but i think it should be fine (honestly it's probably more likely everything is correct than if I moved them manually).

I can also include the original versions if you want, just in case, but I think the new versions should probably be fine.

Also, is there a file structure I should use for future reference? Right now it's just a zip with all the files in one folder, is it easier for you if I split them out the same way they're structured in the level navigator (with the network/user/#p structure?) or something along those lines?

[Simon]

Thanks! Will include in 0.9.37. I didn't get 0.9.37 out the door yesterday, it will release today.

In case the hatches/exits turn out wrong someday, we'll fix it and re-release.

Maps in zip archive are fine. When I get several maps at once, I run a script that:
renames the files to all-lowercase,
renames the files to remove all characters except a-z0-9,
sorts them into directories by author and player number,
converts CRLF to LF line endings,
and chmod 644.

This naming is inspired by how geoo named singleplayer level files 10 years ago. It's not set in stone, I merely do it like this for now.

Sorting maps is up for discussion. With many authors, the directories become hard to search from within Lix. See Organize Multiplayer Levels on Lemmings Forums and github #392 Organize Multiplayer Levels.

-- Simon