Rubix's levels: Simon's feedback based on Wafflem's 2017 stream

[Simon]

Hi,

Wafflem streamed Rubix's singleplayer levels on twitch yesterday: All of Pleasant and the first half Sinister. Vod for 14 days

One-pixel gap: See attachment. Lixes walk across this gap. This is intended: Physics resolve the land in 2x1 chunks (2 pixels wide, 1 high), and consider a 2x1 chunk solid when at least one of the two pixels is solid. I'm nonetheless unhappy about these gaps.

These gaps happen occasionally when terrain tiles sit at odd x-coordinates; here, the pagoda sits at (1395, 191). Maybe I should nudge the pagoda by one pixel. But in general, I'd like to keep all integer positions for tile placements, and exploder craters generate odd shapes anyway. I don't have a good final answer on the one-pixel gaps.

Unclear spawn interval: Nepster and Wafflem both wanted to view spawn interval during play, but neither found this in the user interface. Chatters eventually explained how you can mouse over a hatch to examine the SI. Issue #207.

Skill blueprints, splat ruler: Skill blueprints (shadows) show resulting terrain on the map before an assignment, while mouse over lix. Splat ruler measures splat height from arbitrary ledges.

This is getting important. Earlier this year, I've focussed on minimum viable multiplayer, but the multiplayer is in good shape since 0.9. I have to focus on the general user experience again. The blueprints seem like the most urgent lacking feature here.

Mark lemming: First, I'd like to improve the highlight under the cursor. That lix doesn't stick out clearly. Game draws her lighter, but I'd like to draw her really bright and with a dark outline, setting her apart from the bunch. Issue #247.

And I'd like to perma-mark able lixes (at least 1 permenent skill) on the map. The cursor already prefers them in the crowd, but that's not clear because the highlight under the cursor is too dark.

I believe that with these UI improvements, marked lemmings become unnecessary. Marking introduces a mode, and I'd like to avoid modes at all costs. The marking was necessary in NL because the cursor didn't snap to athletes.

Platformer doesn't turn: This is awkward, indeed, because the builder turns and the platformer looks so similar. I designed the platformer 9-10 years ago and decided that copying L2's behavior was a good idea. I can't judge neutrally what's better. The non-turning platformer is easier to anticipate, but the turning platformer is consistent with the builder.

Steel sensitivity: Lix terrain removers cancel when the mask overlaps steel, with small grace areas near the boundaries. When things align to the 16x16 grid, it's easy to anticipate chokes on steel.

The basher removes terrain in her own column and forward, and will therefore choke on steel within her head. We gave the miner a grace column here in 0.7, but didn't change the basher. No idea whether either grace column is good or not.

The NL terrain removers are extremely lenient and won't choke even if 80 % of a pickaxe's swing tries to remove steel. I understand that when you're used to the NL lenience, the Lix chokes on steel feel strict.

Thanks for the stream, and for the excellent feedback!

-- Simon

[Proxima]

Platformer doesn't turn: This is awkward, indeed, because the builder turns and the platformer looks so similar. I designed the platformer 9-10 years ago and decided that copying L2's behavior was a good idea. I can't judge neutrally what's better. The non-turning platformer is easier to anticipate, but the turning platformer is consistent with the builder.

As I mentioned in the stream chat, the non-turning platformer is valuable for multiplayer. For singleplayer, the fact that it's different from the builder gives more options to the map designer, and can lead to interesting linchpins in the puzzle-solving process. I would imagine there are already a good number of maps that depend on this; I noticed at least one later on in the stream (not the map on which Wafflem noticed the platformer behaviour).

The basher removes terrain in her own column and forward, and will therefore choke on steel within her head. We gave the miner a grace column here in 0.7, but didn't change the basher. No idea whether either grace column is good or not.

Link to steel sensitivity discussion. I proposed making the basher slightly more lenient for consistency with the other Lix skills; Nepster disagreed because this would destroy one-way gadgets in existing levels.

[IchoTolot]

I wouldn't do a complete makeover for platformers at this point in the game. A ton depends on the current mechanic. The non-turn I wouldn't even call problematic even if I prefer the turn, the slight height gain is more consistancy breaking as it kinda does a slight job of the builder here, but again: A ton depends on the current mechanic + in multiplayer to be able to gain a tiny bit of height was helpful a ton of times.

I 100% would push for slightly more forgiving bashers/miners though as the extreme sensitivity can be a bit annoying. It destroys one-way-gadgets? ---> Implent OWWs in general!
They add to level creation in single player and I would bet my ass on the they can inspire some great multiplayer maps as well! The fact that level creators are going out of their way to create self-made one-way-gadgets is hinting that they would be highly appreaciated! Also they are a stable in Lemmings-like games so everybody is familiar with them, too.

[nin10doadict]

I also like that the platformer doesn't turn. Making it different from how it works in NeoLemmix allows for more puzzle ideas to come to fruition. For similar reasons if jumpers or shimmiers get introduced into NeoLemmix, I feel like they should be different from how they are in Lix (no tumbling mechanics, climbers can't cling to a wall if they jump into it, etc.)
I find marking Lemmings to be useful for when there's a Lemming in the middle of the crowd that I have to have do something by separating from the crowd, but I don't know exactly which Lemming it has to be to make everything time out properly. Marking the Lemming helps me to know which one I tried last. Still, that's a case that only pops up very rarely.

[RubiX]

Thanks for recording this. 
I sat in bed and watched it.   This gave me a unique view on how it actually looks when someone is solving my levels for the first time.   

Clearly I see I still have maps out of place still.     Definitely some maps in pleasant that are certainly needing to be moved into a higher difficulty rating.
I'll be making more tweaks to things in the near future.

Great job!
Rubix

[Wafflem]

No problem! I am more than happy that I streamed this pack, and I will be more than happy to continue streaming it in the future!

I thought Slime Time (Pleasant 11), Finding the Safety Net (Pleasant 24) and especially The Ice Box (Pleasant 32) were too hard for Pleasant, while Out of the Blue (Pleasant 18) really belongs in very-early-Pleasant (maybe Pleasant 3).

I'll go ahead, wait here (Pleasant 19) should probably be moved to later-Pleasant due to the miner trick that I would not see in the typical first rank.

Depths of the Ice Cave (Sinister 5) and Fast Money (Sinister 18) should probably be moved to Pleasant, but I didn't use any of the bombers in the latter, so that solution is probably backroute-y. Run Forrest! (Sinister 1), Set Us Free (Sinister 7) and rorriMMirror (Sinister 16) should probably be moved to later-Sinister.

The levels I've enjoyed the most were Tricks of the Trade (Pleasant 5), knocked out (Pleasant 8), I'll go on ahead (Pleasant 19), Getting ahead of the game (Pleasant 20), Lost Underground (Pleasant 20), Start Thinking Strategically (Pleasant 23), Slow Approach (Sinister 3), The Leaning Tower of Lixa (Sinister 4), Depths of the Ice Cave (Sinister 5), Are You Gonna Go My Way? (Sinister 9), All Together Now (Sinister 10, one of my top favorites!), Burning For You (Sinister 13, another top favorite!), I'm Holding Out For a Hero (Sinister 14) and The Center of Attention (Sinister 15).

Yeah, I myself am not too sure about the platformer not turning around when they hit a wall. I do agree with nin10adict that this has the potential to create puzzles that are different from NeoLemmix. The platformer already also makes a 1-pixel height in terrain anyway. I also agree with what he said about marking Lemmings, this is something I use very often when playing NL levels and testing others' levels.

Thanks for summarizing all the issues I've mentioned in the stream as well, Simon! I hope to see you in the next stream for this pack as well, RubiX!

[RubiX]

Thanks for the input, this post will help me when I make changes to the difficulty ratings later.