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Eufloria => Eufloria Classic => Eufloria Classic Mods => Topic started by: Rudolf on June 24, 2010, 07:43:50 PM

Title: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on June 24, 2010, 07:43:50 PM
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
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Bonobo on June 24, 2010, 07:59:09 PM
Ugh, hard for me to tell favourites because IIRC I enjoyed all of them.

What I like is surprises. Well, good surprises, that is :D 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.
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on June 24, 2010, 08:02:55 PM
Heheh, don't be shy, name a few you think I should consider :-)
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Bonobo on June 24, 2010, 08:34:52 PM
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>
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on June 24, 2010, 11:06:35 PM
Wow, some of the levels out there are HARD (And long)
Getting my arse handed back to me in my own game :_D
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: annikk.exe on June 25, 2010, 12:28:27 AM
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".
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Koss on June 25, 2010, 04:13:36 PM
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
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: wowo on June 25, 2010, 07:21:20 PM
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...
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Bonobo on June 25, 2010, 07:42:55 PM
(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.
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on June 26, 2010, 05:27:12 PM
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.

Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on June 26, 2010, 05:43:28 PM
We should maintain a level guid like this really:
http://www.dyson-game.com/smf/index.php?topic=215.0 (http://www.dyson-game.com/smf/index.php?topic=215.0)

I wonder how many of the older levels still play well?
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Bonobo on June 26, 2010, 07:08:06 PM
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.
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on June 26, 2010, 07:33:57 PM
That requirement no longer exists so they can be renamed to their actual name :-)
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: kennywalker1q2q3q on June 27, 2010, 10:07:20 AM
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 :o
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. ;D ;D 
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Bonobo on June 27, 2010, 11:01:17 AM
Yeah, Night Creepers (http://www.dyson-game.com/smf/index.php?topic=781.0) and Night Stalkers (http://www.dyson-game.com/smf/index.php?topic=789.0) by Mihhaelo, they’re also really cool.

I hope he and other veterans of custom levels are still around.
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on June 28, 2010, 05:38:35 PM
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
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: AWS on July 03, 2010, 11:18:54 PM
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.

:)
 
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: annikk.exe on July 04, 2010, 10:40:58 PM
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...
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on July 05, 2010, 01:03:19 AM
I am happy to exchange it for Infinity :-)
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: AWS on July 05, 2010, 11:03:35 PM

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...
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Pilchard123 on July 09, 2010, 07:30:41 PM
If the patch is out by then, then I'll help test it too.
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Jazz Ad on July 13, 2010, 08:54:10 AM
Aeon
First Contact
Mid Point
Nemesis
Fluffyland

These are the maps I play the most.
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on July 21, 2010, 07:25:37 PM
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?
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: AWS on July 23, 2010, 04:04:01 AM
so.. whats the latest on the final release version? any news?

Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on July 23, 2010, 04:22:42 AM
It's out! :-D
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Bonobo on July 23, 2010, 04:35:49 AM
So … how can I tell whether I have the last patch for the patch?
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: annikk.exe on July 23, 2010, 06:49:15 PM
It's out! :-D


w000t :>


Ok dudes, next map pack we need to have TWICE as many maps.  Lets get to coding !
Title: Re: What are your favourite levels? (For a Map Pack)
Post by: Rudolf on July 24, 2010, 12:37:47 AM
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.