What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)

[Rudolf]

Hey all, Alex and I are going to start promoting the usermade levels a bit more, and are going to release a map pack of the best bunch. I am playing a load of them this week, but I am also curious to get some feedback from the community. The idea is to get a representative and diverse set of levels collected so we can show what cool things are available even after finishing the main game.

So: Which levels are your favourites and why? :-)

Rudolf

[Bonobo]

Ugh, hard for me to tell favourites because IIRC I enjoyed all of them.

What I like is surprises. Well, good surprises, that is like finding that there are some of my seedlings on a newly discovered asteroid (and not too late in the course of the gameplay), or, on zoomout after a new discovery to find that there are some other huge asteroids which before I couldn’t see.

Discovery seems to be a big thing, I find it gratifying to discover new discoverables.

Also interesting are in-game messages, be they warnings or recommendations or whatever. They usually are welcome surprises.

[Rudolf]

Heheh, don't be shy, name a few you think I should consider :-)

[Bonobo]

Mh, certainly Annik’s and AWS’s levels come to mind, IMHO none of those should be left out, but I remember that I also enjoyed those older “.level” levels quite a lot, sometimes simply because they didn’t have the “usual” layout. I can’t remember one single level which I didn’t enjoy <shrug>

[Rudolf]

Wow, some of the levels out there are HARD (And long)
Getting my arse handed back to me in my own game :_D

[annikk.exe]

One of the criticisms of the levels in the original game is that they are not quite hard enough to satisfy seasoned strategy gamers.
Hence the first reaction of many designers (and I was no exception) is to create very difficult levels.  :>

For Infected Empire, I made 2 different difficulty modes.  The easy version was retitled "Slightly Poorly Empire".

[Koss]

I agree with annikk, the original levels is too easy !

Levels to pack:
Alpha
Binary Black
Day & Night
Fluffy's Comet
Fluffy Land
Infected Empire
Infected Empire Epic Edition
Infinity
Invasion_Beta.Lua
Level_Mid_Point_V1
Night Stalkers
Return to Fluffy Land
The Night Creepers

[wowo]

I like Koss' list... have marked most of the levels he mentioned as mid or hard...

Would add

-Nemesis_V1
-Slightly Poorly Empire (as mentioned by annikk)
-Strange tactic.LEVEL

Also

-Grand illusion

would be worth considering whenever ready / bug fixed...

[Bonobo]

(Wowo answered in the meantime, so some of this may sound funny.)


Oh, then please also include the easier version of the Empire (Slightly Poor Empire) too, for senior l4m0rs like myself. It’s definitely an easier and therefore less frustrating entry level for weaker players who don’t want to hack the code.

Also, RadMans recent level "Grand Illusion" should be included, IMHO, after he’s had time to tweak a few things. It’s given me ca. 1.5 hrs of excitement.

BTW, I wouldn’t say that the original levels are too easy. I’d rather say that they lead and train the player so that later on they can play harder levels. I for one was never bored by the campaign, DMM, and Skirmish Arenas.

[Rudolf]

Thanks for the feedback!

Difficulty is a tricky subject. The vast majority of the players do not find the levels too easy, it is mostly reviewers and RTS veterans who think they are, simply because they are mouch more used to playing strategic games to win win win. :-)

The level pack is likely to be about 5-8 levels for now, and I want to include levels that appeal to people with varying skill levels, because it is meant both for new players and more experienced ones. I also want to reward the level creators for their work and make sure their levels get played a lot. :-)

It is superb that we can offer these levels to a wider audience, and that makes the extra time spent on making the game moddable completely worth it.

[Rudolf]

We should maintain a level guid like this really:
http://www.dyson-game.com/smf/index.php?topic=215.0

I wonder how many of the older levels still play well?

[Bonobo]

The problem I see with some old levels is that they are named “level1.level” etc. and are meant to be exchanged for the orig. levels.

[Rudolf]

That requirement no longer exists so they can be renamed to their actual name :-)

[kennywalker1q2q3q]

Defiantly Annikk's lvls which use the gravity and the infected AI, it would be great to show people who don't go on this forum how much the game has progressed
oh, and there was one lvl, im not sure who made it but i think it was called the night stalkers and it used a really clever day and night cycle where the range of the astroid decreased at night.  

[Bonobo]

Yeah, Night Creepers and Night Stalkers by Mihhaelo, they’re also really cool.

I hope he and other veterans of custom levels are still around.

[Rudolf]

Yeah I plan to include The Nightcreepers as Nightstalkers seems broken to me, (You can't progress beyond the first 2 asteroids?)

so far I have chosen:

Infected empire + Slightly poorly empire
Fluffy's comet
Binary Black
Nemesis
Night Creepers

[AWS]

hehe. well i have to say that in my humble personal opinion, i didnt realy enjoy annikk's gravitational wonder 'fluffys comet' as much as others seem to have. (sorry annikk, but i shoould be honest right!)
for me, i found it, although an excellent example of the gravity work he's been doing, a tiny and infuriating level. i never actually finsihed it, my wife persevered many many times and finally found a way through. but for me, too much for too little, if you get my drift.

anyway, so fluffys comet is not on my list, is the short way of saying that.
i will say though its given me many an idea for level designs, all this gravity stuff.


 

[annikk.exe]

I agree, Fluffy's Comet is a bit weak.  When I made it, I had _just_ built the gravity engine, and it was my first quickly-churned-out attempt at a level.  (My regards to your long-suffering wife - sorry about that! :P)
Infinity is a better example of the gravity engine helping to create a completely new game dynamic.

Of course, if you (Rudolf) can afford to wait a month or two, I should be into my new place, and I can finally switch my attention from decorating back to level design.  Then I will build the Big Bang map.  That may prove to be very awesome indeed... :>  Although it would require the new patch in order to be playable.

I reckon by the end of this month I should be fully into my new place and settled.  Therefore I intend to work on the Big Bang map in August.  There will be an extensive open (public) beta for this, due to the infinite variations of maps it can produce.  It is going to need a LOT of testing...
Unfortunately if the new patch is not out by then, only new-patch-testers will be able to test it...

[Rudolf]

I am happy to exchange it for Infinity :-)

[AWS]

I reckon by the end of this month I should be fully into my new place and settled.  Therefore I intend to work on the Big Bang map in August.  There will be an extensive open (public) beta for this, due to the infinite variations of maps it can produce.  It is going to need a LOT of testing...

can i assume this makes me the first to sign up for the testing?? 
count me in...

[Pilchard123]

If the patch is out by then, then I'll help test it too.

[Jazz Ad]

Aeon
First Contact
Mid Point
Nemesis
Fluffyland

These are the maps I play the most.

[Rudolf]

Maybe we should organise a running poll for the next community map pack release? X maps with the most votes will go through, or something like that?

[AWS]

so.. whats the latest on the final release version? any news?

[Rudolf]

It's out! :-D

[Bonobo]

So … how can I tell whether I have the last patch for the patch?

[annikk.exe]

It's out! :-D

w000t :>


Ok dudes, next map pack we need to have TWICE as many maps.  Lets get to coding !

[Rudolf]

So … how can I tell whether I have the last patch for the patch?

Patch the game like you normally would I reckon, it should say version 2.05 then.