Oriental blocks are confusing for climbers

[Nepster]

The lix mechanics treat a pair of high-res pixels at coordinates (2x, y) and (2x+1, y) as solid if at least one of these pixels is covered by terrain.

Given that the borders of the blocks 01 to 08 of the oriental style do not have straight edges, this has some interesting consequences for climbers:
- Climber may never climb any side of the big block 08 nor may they climb the right-hand side of the block 05.
- For all other blocks (including the left-hand side of block 05), it depends on the coordinates of the block whether a climber may climb up or not. If the block is positioned at an even x-coordinate (in high-res), then the lix may climb up the whole block. If on the other hand the block is positioned at an odd x-coordinate, the climber will soon fall down.

As a player of a level, one cannot tell whether a given piece has an even or odd x-coordinate. So one never has any chance to determine in advance whether a lix may or may not climb such a block. The only way to be sure is to actually try to climb the piece and see what happens, or to peek into the editor.
I don't have any suggestions yet how to improve the situation, that do not sacrifice the look of the oriental style or will likely impact existing levels.

[Simon]

Let's redesign these blocks entirely. Get rid of the awkward MS-Paint style. Contributions welcome!

Should be obviously smooth, or obviously rough. Whether smooth or rough is secondary to me. Rubix and Nepster have agreed to revise a couple levels in case it matters.

-- Simon

[Simon]

I'm experimenting. I want to be more creative with the other blocks. They don't have to be all smooth. 78x78 is a dumb shape.

-- Simon

[RubiX]

Huge improvement right there ^

[Simon]

Thanks thanks!



I've dabbled in the bonsai bush tiles, too. Everything looks MS-painted or cut-out-of-paper. Massive urge to replace most of Oriental.

It's OK to vary sizes and shapes slightly. I want at least one rough-edged block. Some blocks tile differently. Now I need loose bamboo rods to terminate a tiling sequence. Affected levels need individual care later.

Tilesets are time-consuming, every tile takes me 30 minutes to an hour. Please contribute -- I fix the bugs, you create a few tiles. The rod bar to jump is at better-than-two-colors.

-- Simon

[Simon]

The two horz rods came out like I wanted them, but maybe they have too high contrast. It's hard to use them with the bamboo tiles and get a good-looking result.

The zig-zag tiles are cool. It replaces a the medium-sized square rattan block. Zig-zag is not the wobbly shape that I envisioned first, but still a novel shape and tiles extremely well with itself.

I'm not happy with the third, green tile. That looks like two balls of goo, not like lovely leaves.

-- Simon

[Simon]

Another leafy bush, and I improved the green goo from yesterday.

-- Simon

[mobius]

those look very nice. and I agree this is better than the before-blocks. Although variety is nice; they just didn't work very well to make levels with.

[Simon]

those look very nice.

Thanks!



More bushes. But we need even more bushes!

-- Simon

[Simon]

I recolored the Asian gate, it looks neat in levels now. Used sparingly, it's a nice colorful stamp in levels. geoo drew great bamboo leaves.



-- Simon

[Ryemanni]

Looks a lot better!

[Simon]

I've got the rough work done for the remaining tiles: The bonsai tree, and the red bridges.

I'm not happy with the bonsai tree's stem color, it should match the slightly darker roots and branches. But at least the shapes seem good. That's most important for physics.

But that's all tiles remade for now! Planned course of action:

• Redesign the bridges. Done, see images in this post.
• I migrate all Oriental levels in the main Lix repo: Lemforum community pack, NepsterLix, Rubix's levels, multiplayer levels.
• I merge Raymanni's 3 tilesets.
• I merge some physics bug fixes from the 2016 backburner, release experimental Lix version.
• For each pack maintainer (Proxima, Nepster, Rubix), I'll prepare a list of affected levels with Oriental tiles. Pack maintainers check if levels still look OK, are solvable, and prepare a new proof in experimental if needed.
• Everybody shall complain about physics bugs, tile oddities, etc. in experimental. I love bugs! Tell me the bugs! What is not 100 % perfect? Tell me!
• Release as stable.

Looks a lot better!

Thanks!

I always feel like my energy is best spent on code. Tilesetting is more exhausting and daunting for me. But this set has been nagging me for years. I'm happy that I tackled it and that geoo even contributed.

-- Simon