Set Speeds

[Sascha]

In the next versions of
Rocks&Diamonds it would be nice
to be able to set the speeds of

the conveyor belts
the enemies [(dark) Yam Yams, bugs, butterflies, ...]
falling amoeba drops
satellites
moving balloons
falling gems
timegate stopping
exploding bombs
burning dynamite
*************************
the whole game
(everything goes faster or slower)

Then you could make your level(s) harder.

[Daniel H.]

satellites
moving balloons
falling gems

These three elements are very easy to make using CEs, then you can change the MOVE/FALL SPEED option.

the whole game
(everything goes faster or slower)

Then you could make your level(s) harder.

Well, you can make everything go slower by using CEs that stall the engine for every other frame. But then the graphics don't look good because they are not updated as often.


I agree that it would be nice to make a way for everything to go faster or smoothly slower! But I don't think that we really need a way to control the speed of every single element!

[Sascha]

Yes, maybe not everything, but for example the amoeba drops.
That would be very good I think, because you would have to be
more careful.

Well, it would not be very nice to create all elements
with custom elements, only to set the speed.
All in all I think you should set the speed of the
timegate switch.

[Holger]

Offering different speed for certain standard elements may indeed be a good idea. Wouldn't be too hard to add with the new level format now...

I think we could add a few such options after the release of 3.2.0...

[Jannik]

In my opinion setting speeds for standard elements is not a good idea.

I like to see a level, think about a walkthrough, imagine running this way, calculate the dropping rocks, explosions, ... and then just do it (and commonly die ). For me, that's the fun of RnD.

If there are too many custom speed settings, it could break the game engine:
- movement schemes - that worked in 100 games before - could fail
- a rock would not be a rock any more, you're scared that it could smash through the housing of your monitor ...
- Yamyams could transform unexpectedly from a lovely pet to a deadly monster ...
- you won't know if a bomb is just a little firecracker or if its detonation will result in levelwide nuclear fallout ...

Trial and error is ok for a finite puzzle, but not for exploring each element in each level anew ...
I hope you understand, what I mean ...

That's also the reason, why I don't like unannounced CE elements (if they look similar to standard elements but have different behaviour).

For a skilled professional level designer and a special levelset, this could really be very powerful and fantastic!
But please not easily accessible in the level creator for every noob who can't estimate the effects of his changes ...

Changing the speed of the whole game (relating thread: How to slowdown game) is indeed an interesting idea, I wonder if this could work in network mode ... but no, sounds to easy.

[Holger]

> If there are too many custom speed settings, it could break the game engine:
> - movement schemes - that worked in 100 games before - could fail
> - a rock would not be a rock any more, you're scared that it could smash
> through the housing of your monitor ...
> - Yamyams could transform unexpectedly from a lovely pet to a deadly monster ...
> - you won't know if a bomb is just a little firecracker or if its detonation
> will result in levelwide nuclear fallout ...
[...]
> That's also the reason, why I don't like unannounced CE elements (if they
> look similar to standard elements but have different behaviour).

I absolutely agree here! The fun thing of these types of games is that you can understand the "physics" in a very short time, and don't have to learn new principles for every new level! That's why a level designer should be very careful when changing "common" things. Changing the player speed may be OK (as you notice this immediately); changing lots of other parameters may cause more confusion than fun.

I especially agree on the comment on CE design here. Good level designers who are "bad" artwork designers (and therefore use the standard R'n'D graphics for their CEs) should *at least* explicitly introduce their newly created CEs with envelopes, so that the player knows from the start that this is not just a simple rock, but a flying saucer trying to kill the player from every direction etc. :-)

> For a skilled professional level designer and a special levelset, this could
> really be very powerful and fantastic!
> But please not easily accessible in the level creator for every noob who
> can't estimate the effects of his changes

Again, I totally agree here! (It's already far too easy to create "confusing" levels with R'n'D, I'm afraid... :-/ )

> Changing the speed of the whole game (relating thread: How to
> slowdown game) is indeed an interesting idea, I wonder if this could work
> in network mode ... but no, sounds to easy.

Well... Making it slower should be possible. But then, I'm afraid that wasn't exactly what you were thinking of... ;^)

[Martijn]

Wasn't setting the overall game speed something already on Holger's TODO list? If I'm right, he would add it in the coming version. I would like to play the game a bit faster.

[Holger]

> Wasn't setting the overall game speed something already on Holger's
> TODO list? If I'm right, he would add it in the coming version. I would like
> to play the game a bit faster.

Overall game speed is another thing here, and yes, it should have already been added, I think. It won't be in 3.2.0, but (as it's relatively easy to add) could be added soon after...

[Alan]

Overall game speed is another thing here, and yes, it should have already been added, I think. It won't be in 3.2.0, but (as it's relatively easy to add) could be added soon after...

Are you talking about the slow motion keys that where in 310? I hope they return because they where very handy for debuging animation.

[Zomis]

Are you talking about the slow motion keys that where in 310? I hope they return because they where very handy for debuging animation.

In case they don't come back, you can use the '0' key in pre-releases to enter frame-by-frame mode. Although I also hope they come back (at least for pre-release versions), it's a bit too much difference between normal and frame-by-frame speed.