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.

I shouldn't reply to my own posts, but anyway

Developing this idea further, I think that the EMPTY_SPACE_1 to 16 series points the way forward for a number of other elements.

What I like about this series is the ability to create a level with a number of element types that behave the same [well, act as/like space] while differing in one key detail [in this case, the graphic].

Now imagine if this was done for a different kind of element, one with a bit more going on. Let's take... say... the mole.

We keep the original 5 mole elements as is; no change there.

We add a section 'MOLE', or 'MOL' since the palette is only 3 els wide;
under it are 16 new elements; all default to looking like one of the existing mole elements.
In fact, why stop at 16? Why not have, say, 32? - the same number as of GEs. (No connection between these and GEs, though.)

So we have 32 elements: MOLE_1 [although MOLE_01 would be nicer]
through to MOLE_32.

These really must be configurable to be of any interest.

What configuration options should they have?

Well, definitely 'USE GRAPHIC OF ELEMENT'; mind, I would like every element to have this, including Sand.

'CAN MOVE INTO ACID', as per the original moles. But I have noticed that elements 'of a type' tend to share this setting, my preference would be for it to be unique to the individual element [eg 1601], but I understand if this is not worth doing.

Now we get to the interesting ones.

As per the original request in this post:

'LEAVES BEHIND' - this would be a configurable row of elements, as many as possible, eg 16 is the max for GEs, but maybe 32, if the row could be 2 rows high. Would need to come with a 'NUMBER OF ELEMENTS IN GROUP' number control so the designer can restrict, or alternatively have mainly e.g. spaces in the row so the mole leaves behind space, but sometimes other things, etc.

Ideally you could add GEs into this and they would be expanded to their contents.

However, another very important aspect of these 'super-moles' is, what can they eat? So have another pair of controls,

'EATS' - up to 32? elements; and 'NUMBER OF ELEMENTS IN GROUP'.

Another area that could be applied to almost all monsters is:

'EXPLODES UPON ENCOUNTERING';

As with the others above, this would be implemented with a pair of controls.

There are many ways to die in RnD - fallen on, run into a monster full tilt, occupies a space horizontally or vertically adjacent to a monster [only some kinds], caught in an explosion, etc. Now it would get very fiddly to have different controls for encountering head-on another monster, being fallen on by a rock etc, so my idea would be for the user to be able to add any of the 'typically can kill' controls, eg rock, dark yam yam, firefly, amoeba, etc, and have this apply when they are doing their 'typically can kill' thing, eg when rock is falling, when dark yam yam bumps into this element but not when passing, etc.

This last sub-idea is meant to be a time-saver in terms of development, but I haven't figured out what should happen if the super-mole goes past a firefly, as opposed to them colliding:






I should say explode (or trigger a firefly explosion, if that is more convenient), as that is what happens if the player occupies a space horizontally or vertically adjacent to the firefly.

The beauty of this idea is that you could create some very subtle interactions, without having to implement configuration at the level of individually placed elements *.

[I think configuration at the level of individually placed elements would be great, but isn't generally a feature of Boulderdash-clone games - although I think the RnD engine comes closest, by doing it with CE value, or something or other].

John