Author Topic: Return to Fluffy Land (level)  (Read 20869 times)

annikk.exe

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Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« on: January 31, 2010, 08:08:48 AM »
Battle through a collapsing asteroid belt, survive the zerg and surprise attacks, navigate past the pulsar and reclaim Fluffy Land as your own!


This level is very hard.  I don't expect any of you will win on your first attempt.  You've all been asking for a hard level, well, you've got it.  It is possible to win - I have beaten it.  But yeah...this one should keep you guys busy for a while.
There's some pretty nice eyecandy if you get far enough though.. :>

If you find any bugs in the map or if you have any comments about it, please let me know.
Special thanks to Smith, Rudolph, and my flatmates simon, temphix, andy, for beta testing and feedback.

Enjoy :>

njursten

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2010, 04:15:16 AM »
Second and third wave doesn't seem to attack properly when you haven't captured the asteroid with all the defence trees.

Also, I lost the game once (well, no popup or anything, just returned to the main menu) when the enemy captured the backmost asteroid, even though I had another asteroid. But maybe that's the way it should be?

I liked the pulsar. :)

annikk.exe

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2010, 07:27:31 AM »
Thanks for the feedback.  I'm having problems recreating the bug you described.  I colonised the sector but left the asteroid with 7 defense trees alone, and just built up on asteroid 6.  All 3 waves came and then the sector collapsed.

How are you getting this bug to happen ?



With regard to losing when you had another asteroid, the intended behaviour is that if you have less than 10 seeds and less than 1 tree on the new asteroid and old asteroid, then you lose.  Does this match what happened to you ?

Koss

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2010, 10:13:02 PM »
annikk.exe, big thanks for you work. Very clever level. I have much fun, playing it. I have passed it about 6 or 7 times, very hard & fun, thanks.

cinemabaroque

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2010, 08:39:47 AM »
Definitely hard!  I had a lot of trouble fighting past the waves and getting out of the collapsing sector, had to use a lot of sneaky tactics.  Nice job and there are some good ideas (the pulsar was pretty sweet, and expanding the send distance of the asteroid before it with each tree) floating around in there.  Now that I've beaten it I look forward to digging around in your lua code.

Thanks for the level.

annikk.exe

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2010, 06:59:33 PM »
Thanks guys :>
Cinemabaroque, I learned how to code by studying your maps.. :>

annikk.exe

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2010, 07:59:48 AM »
By the way the .lua code (which you can view by opening the level in Notepad) is all properly spaced and is absolutely slathered in comments.  I tried to make it so that it would be easy for new coders to understand how I had done something.

Ally The Cat

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2010, 11:57:44 PM »
Sounds good! Ill try it out later.

njursten

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2010, 01:07:57 AM »
Thanks for the feedback.  I'm having problems recreating the bug you described.  I colonised the sector but left the asteroid with 7 defense trees alone, and just built up on asteroid 6.  All 3 waves came and then the sector collapsed.

How are you getting this bug to happen ?

With regard to losing when you had another asteroid, the intended behaviour is that if you have less than 10 seeds and less than 1 tree on the new asteroid and old asteroid, then you lose.  Does this match what happened to you ?

The only notable thing I did was leave that defense tree asteroid untouched. Maybe the bug wasn't related to that... Only seen it once though.

Hm, I don't remember, but I think I had more than 10 seedlings. Though what do you mean by new and old asteroid? I only had control of one asteroid at the moment, IIRC.

annikk.exe

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #9 on: February 10, 2010, 02:19:29 AM »
The asteroid ID's are the same as the number of trees on each.  So Asteroid 0 is the very first asteroid, and can have 0 trees.  Asteroid 1, is the second asteroid, with 1 possible tree.  Etc.

With this naming scheme out the way, here is what I mean:

Once the waves of 100 seeds start, if asteroid 2 is taken over by the attackers, and you have less than 10 seeds on asteroid 3, and zero trees on asteroid 3, then you lose.


It's not that I don't believe you... I am sure there is some really obscure way to mess things up... the bug seems to be super-rare though as yours is the only report I've had of it.  If anyone else does see this bug, please let me know how you did it !  :>



Btw out of interest, how many of you have completed the level?
How many attempts did it take you?  (roughly)

threephi

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #10 on: February 14, 2010, 05:44:27 AM »
Fun level, and kudos for doing some innovative stuff.  There are however a few small gaps in the logic for failing level 3 that you might want to take a look at.  The game ended a few times at that stage when I in fact had the resources and positioning to keep going.  Having taken a quick scan over the lua file for the level, if I've read the code right, it seems the issue boils down to not recognizing when the player has seedlings in transit to planet 8 when the farm area is destroyed.

The survival situation unaccounted for arises as follows.  It's all the more frustrating that it fails the level because IMO you can't get to that point in the first place if you haven't played really well all the way so far, and to have just barely eked out survival yet still lose, kinda sucks ;)

When the final attack wave of level 3 sweeps through, if you don't have enough seedlings to face down the enemy outright on planet 7, and thus can't stop him from taking the planet, the only remaining strategy is to retreat to planet 6 and build up your seedlings while you wait for 7 to fall.  Then when 7 flips, attack it again as the enemy vacates it to move on to planet 6.  If you were able to muster enough additional seedlings, you can retake 7 in time to move on to 8 before the area is destroyed.  But as I mentioned, if your seedlings don't actually arrive before the wave timer ends, you lose.

I've also seen the level end prematurely if the enemy takes planet 3 but you have hopped past him to retake a higher numbered planet.  It may not be possible to win if that happens, but I think the level should continue to play out.

annikk.exe

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #11 on: February 14, 2010, 08:11:40 AM »
Hi and thanks for the feedback.  :>

When the final attack wave of level 3 sweeps through, if you don't have enough seedlings to face down the enemy outright on planet 7, and thus can't stop him from taking the planet, the only remaining strategy is to retreat to planet 6 and build up your seedlings while you wait for 7 to fall.  Then when 7 flips, attack it again as the enemy vacates it to move on to planet 6.  If you were able to muster enough additional seedlings, you can retake 7 in time to move on to 8 before the area is destroyed.  But as I mentioned, if your seedlings don't actually arrive before the wave timer ends, you lose.

The intended behaviour is that if you do not have at least 10 seeds at asteroid 8 when the timer is up, the sector collapses and you lose the game.
It is not supposed to be possible to win if you lose the frontline asteroid on wave 3, so you could say that running out of time there is intended behaviour. :>



Quote
I've also seen the level end prematurely if the enemy takes planet 3 but you have hopped past him to retake a higher numbered planet.  It may not be possible to win if that happens, but I think the level should continue to play out.

That is a bug then, hmm..  The intended behaviour is for the game to end only when the enemy has taken out all of your asteroids.
I don't think it would be possible to win if the enemy is taking out asteroid 3 :P  But you are right, the game should continue to play out...

avius

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #12 on: March 26, 2010, 01:45:15 AM »
annikk, thanks so much for your work on these mods! This game has a lot more to offer and you're beginning to tap into that. Cheers!
Haven't been able to finish Return to Fluffy Land. I've only tried it twice. Something interesting occurred though. I was able to save 25 of the original 'super seedlings' and eventually take the defense tree asteroid. When the surprise laser mine attack occurred I had about 80 seedlings. I was laughing when the 2 laser mines decimated all 80 seedlings. Not one laser mine was destroyed, despite the 6-7 defense trees! Now, either those are the strongest laser mines EVER or it's a bug of some sort.
Hmmm....

annikk.exe

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #13 on: March 26, 2010, 04:53:18 PM »
Avius,
Well spotted.  The laser mines are indeed uber.  I ramped their awesomeness up by about one order of magnitude.  Taking them out is one of the main challenges of Return To Fluffy Land - you have to be as efficient as possible and have as many seedlings ready on the frontline asteroid as possible when the attacks start coming.

There's a really cool asteroid near the end of the level... :>

wowo

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #14 on: June 24, 2010, 04:08:38 AM »
Hi annikk,

I love and HATE this level... took me a lot of times to get to the quasar... what is supposed to happen there, when I finally sent one seedling over the game ended without a message!?!?

Anyways cool level idea... still different... thanks!

ieatcheese56

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #15 on: August 14, 2010, 04:56:17 AM »
i have this odd crash whenever i get to the third asteroid. everytime i try when the message is supposed to pop up it crashes

Ytaker

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #16 on: August 15, 2010, 10:09:09 PM »
Same. When I do play it, it crashes just after landing on asteroid 2 (third).

Some of the features are too ambitious, I fear. I've read about the win conditions, and I dislike those. The way the map is made, it's easy for the game to misread them, and screw up.

annikk.exe

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #17 on: August 16, 2010, 07:03:56 AM »
It crashes due to changes (ie game patches) in Eufloria since the map was written.  I would need to update it in order for it to be playable and I don't have time at the moment.

It wasn't that great a level anyway tbh :P  You're not missing much.

Ytaker

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #18 on: August 16, 2010, 07:55:19 AM »
Oh. I looked at the date. Thought this was a more recent one. Yeah, it's fair if it's 6 months old.

kj

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #19 on: August 18, 2011, 01:30:52 PM »
Sorry for the zombie thread, but every time I try to play this, I chew up the first wave, move to the second roid and plant a tree, crashes the game.

Any ideas?

thanks in advance
kj

annikk.exe

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Re: Return to Fluffy Land (level)
« Reply #20 on: August 18, 2011, 03:56:39 PM »
No idea why it happens.  It was written for a much older version of Eufloria, I guess at some point the game changes meant it started to crash.  I will need to go through it at some point and try to fix it.