the Lix user feedback thread

[ccexplore]

Consider a way to allow objects to indicate be drawn in front of terrain, instead of always behind like right now.  Alternatively (and equivalently?), a way to allow terrains to indicate be drawn behind objects, instead of always in front of like right now.

Okay, now I found out in Brickout C2 that entrance hatches and exits are apparently always drawn behind other types of objects.  Oy. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/XD.gif" alt=":XD:" title="XD" class="smiley" />  Is there any technical reason that those things can't just respect the z-order like the rest of the objects?

[mobius]

Using Simon's water, I made acid. It probably doesn't look quite right though, because I need to see it in action. In other words I need to be able to play it which I don't know how to do. (I might be able to do that with Fireworks(?) but I rarely use that program) I don't think the bubbles will look right. Besides arranging them differently I may need to draw them differently. Also I'm not sure about the different shaded line at the top. I made it change color over time like in Revolution.

 If you like the idea tell me how to make it look better (I use Paint right now). I was also thinking about making quick sand or something. Just to add some variety.

[Nortaneous]

Is there a way to get diagonal lasers outside of making 1px laser segments? Anyway, here are the diagonal wood pieces for the goldmine set, edited from the plank supports. I would've cut them down to a size that would make them fit with the other planks, but at least from my testing, they're actually more annoying to work with that way.

edit: Here's a gif of the acid. You can see things in action with GIMP, which I think exists for Windows if that's what you're on. The bubbles just show up in random places; they should change position only gradually over time, so they look animated (moving) instead of thrown on haphazardly in Paint. Some variety in the types of water available would definitely be a good idea, though, as would variety in the ground and ceiling traps; we don't have many of those, and the 10-ton thing is tricky to position. I might take a shot at that later.

[mobius]

I'll fix it later. I'm just bad at visualizing that sort of thing without aid. I just wanted to get an idea if this was wanted in the game.

[Simon]

Both the water and 10-ton trap were made way back in 2005 or 2006. They have several problems: The cell-shading drawing style simply doesn't fit with the modern tilesets. They looked better among the other terrain pieces I made, but I consider even those inferior to the other tilesets. The water has an additional problem with the flowing animation; the waves seem to move back and forth.

And they're horribly to place, they were made when the possible grid sizes were 1, 2, 10, or 25, not 1, 2, 8, 16, with 8 being changable into anything by the user.

There's actually a need for better water, Matt's sawteeth water isn't popular either, except with highly abstract styles.

-- Simon

[mobius]

here's version 2, I tried to make it flow better this time. Somehow I think I got the bubbles too close together, I'm not sure. Once again I couldn't preview it myself. I dont have GIMP. and fireworks is so annoying, I hate that program. For some stupid reason Windows photo viewer doesn't even play moving GIF files, so to view them I have to do it in a web browser. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/angry.gif" alt=">" title="Angry" class="smiley" /> I have Virtual Dub but I don't think that will work, I may try though.

[geoo]

Err, why aren't you just viewing it in Lix?
Put .W before the file extension, put it in some level and check whether the animation looks smooth.

[finlay]

The pulsating from dark to light green is a bit annoying.

[Proxima]

It seems to be impossible to set the initial view to the very bottom of a vertical scrolling level, no doubt due to the small difference in size between the game and editor toolbars.

Along with the earlier suggestion of reversing the behaviour of normal and right-click when assigning multiple builders (i.e. it would be more consistent if right-click selected another lix, normal click queued the current builder) it would be nice if right-click prevented queuing completely. This would be helpful when you have a single builder who's about to turn round, and you want him to build immediately in the opposite direction.

I still find the way replays automatically change speed very annoying, particularly when I get near the key part and instinctively try to turn fast-forward off, end up turning it on and have to replay all over again. Can this feature at least be turn-offable?

[Simon]

Both are sensible ideas, will note them down. Especially the replay speed change can be considered a case of the game wanting to be smarter than the user, and thus should be togglable.

-- Simon

[Nortaneous]

A third level of zoom would be useful, at least in the level editor.

[finlay]

Just held escape for longer than a millisecond and it exited the program... this should at least be disabled on the mac version, where quitting the program is universally cmd+Q. Or perhaps just making it have to register distinct key presses for you to 'escape' more than once, instead of interpreting holding it down as pressing it more than once.

Also, based on what you said earlier – that the latest version is January, the mac is a bit out of date.

[phil]

finlay: It turns out this happens on Windows as well, so it's probably something Simon should look at.

And about the Mac version's progress, it now uses 2012-01-07's codebase http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />
About the long delay - I didn't have a proper way to integrate changes from Simon's repository and that kept me off it for a while. But I talked with him on IRC today and we decided on a hopefully better solution.

[Proxima]

I've noticed some bugs with the display of how many Lix are under the cursor. In the attached replay (the level is You Have to Build a Bridge, currently the latest post in the community set topic) stop at 2:45 and watch the climber on the far right. When he falls down into the crowd, the display will say "3 Walkers" and doesn't tell you that one of them is an athlete. Likewise, during the platforming, the display vacillates between displaying "Platformers" and "Walkers". And the end of platforming is displayed as "Shrugger2s".

[Simon]

Phil is the nice person who builds the game for Mac users.

The levels in question are rather old, they were the first which were built with Matt's terrain. Several entrance and exit graphics have been altered since to fit a 16-pixel grid, usually by adding space at their sides. This dislodges them in very old levels. We haven't overhauled them yet, multiplayer and other people's packs were the center of attention usually.

-- Simon