Rocks'n'Diamonds

Something I think shouldn't be so hard to implement, and it would help certain map makers make certain levels, is to let the element the mole can leave behind be configurable, so the mole can leave behind something else than sand...

Very good point! To make the engine more "orthogonal", this would be a good, useful and logical addition! :-)

(I think it's also easy to implement, so maybe it can already be added soon.)

Does writing a reply to a 2004 post in 2018 push the thread back to the top of the queue? I hope so...

Basically all the built-in monsters could be configured to a greater extent than they are. Currently, many of them can only be configured in terms of whether they can go into acid or not.

Take fireflies and butterflies. These differ from each other in two ways - a) what they result in when exploding, and b) direction of travel. If one or both of these things were made configurable, the designer could create quite novel levels without needing to use CEs. Stone butterflies? - just make them create boulders when they explode.

But you could go further...

Picture - this could be configured via choosing another icon, like for CEs.

Behavior upon touching amoeba - explode / don't explode (go past/turn away) / sink into the amoeba, etc.

Deadly when colliding with - as per Snik Snaks and Electrons - currently only Snik Snaks and Electrons can be configured so that they don't kill the player if touching the player (still kill the player if the player runs into them).

Affected by gravity - this would be cool to implement for monsters. They would move as normal except when this is on, they couldn't go up. So in an an empty cave, fireflies with this setting 'on' would just move back and forth along the bottom of the cave.

I know that it can be argued that most of this can be done with CEs, but I have to say, there are two kinds of R'n'D level designers, those who use CEs and those who don't. I do use CEs but I find that the effort to use them is a turn-off.

Another argument against this is that if you make these monsters highly configurable, why have them at all? Why not just have one super-configurable monster? The answer to this is that unless you could use a given element as a template, and customize it differently at the 'individual placement' level, you need multiple elements in order to have variety in the level.

So all in all, I think making some basic elements (especially monsters) more configurable would be a wonderful step.

e.g. moles that explode when they touch the player...
e.g. pigs that eat rocks (but not jewels)
e.g. robots that are stuck waiting for you at the bottom of the level, at least until gravity is turned off...

The next step would be to make these settings alterable in-play by CE events, so that for example the player could touch a CE and suddenly the robots, fireflies etc are not bound by gravity.