A Couple of potentially broken levels

[ncrecc]

What if there's text in the level, like 'take the green key first'?

Exactly.

That means that playng a level set that comes with its own custom artwork, but using different artwork to play it, could always result in such problems, even if i try to match the "custom" colors of game elements to those of the "classic" artwork.

my solution would fix that problem while leaving the level appearing identically in an updated version of the DC collection. i imagine DC levels displaying correctly with default RnD graphics would be desired for a Classic Original Games version of DC1 that does not come with custom artwork. here's a diagram to demonstrate what i mean (the hex values of DC elements are made up but i imagine the ordering of the key/door colors is similar):

dc mapping diagram.png (135.27 KiB) Viewed 194 times

this is unrelated to the EMC collection.

[Holger]

That looks very convincing! I do like that approach, and I appreciate the work you have put into it.

Especially regarding your argument of having a DC set in the "Classic Original Games" collection, which is indeed valid.

this is unrelated to the EMC collection.

Well... the EMC collection has exactly the same problem!

Look at level 4 of "Emerald Mine" in the "Classic Original Games" collection, and compare it with the original level set in the EMC collection ("Emerald MIne (Kingsoft)") -- green and blue keys are swapped.

So we already have a similar problem since quite some time!

And when evaluating the issues in the DC level set (when played with the R'n'D engine) pointed out by Wildstrike, I'm slowly starting to get used to the idea that it might work better when using an extended version of the EM engine for the DC level sets (with support for all those DC game elements yet to be added), because this might make more sense compared to tweaking the R'n'D engine with lots of flags to behave more like the EM engine -- after all, the original DC game started as a clone of EM, adding more and more own game elements, but keeping the EM game engine mechanics. This will be a lot of work already done for the R'n'D engine, but might result in better overall support for all those DC level sets...

And if I do that, the "green key vs. blue key" problem is exactly what we already have in the EMC collection now.

[Wildstrike]

And when evaluating the issues in the DC level set (when played with the R'n'D engine) pointed out by Wildstrike, I'm slowly starting to get used to the idea that it might work better when using an extended version of the EM engine for the DC level sets (with support for all those DC game elements yet to be added), because this might make more sense compared to tweaking the R'n'D engine with lots of flags to behave more like the EM engine -- after all, the original DC game started as a clone of EM, adding more and more own game elements, but keeping the EM game engine mechanics. This will be a lot of work already done for the R'n'D engine, but might result in better overall support for all those DC level sets...

Found a few more oddities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL0H6G0VFow

[Holger]

Found a few more oddities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL0H6G0VFow

Thanks a lot, this is in fact very helpful!

I have started to re-implement the DC game elements in the native EM engine, which should cover a lot of bugs and different engine behaviours (which are likely to render certain levels unsolvable).

There are also bugs/behaviors that also happen in the EM engine (like spaceships starting in the wrong direction, as you have reported earlier in this thread); these have to be handled on top anyway (regardless of R'n'D or EM engine).

Would you be willing to play-test a pre-release version with a EM-engine-based DC engine (once it is available)? This would be very helpful to start with a DC engine replacement that was already tested against a number of common cases and edge cases, like those you have reported so far.

[Wildstrike]

Would you be willing to play-test a pre-release version with a EM-engine-based DC engine (once it is available)? This would be very helpful to start with a DC engine replacement that was already tested against a number of common cases and edge cases, like those you have reported so far.

Sure, sounds fun.
Also found that you can snap all gems about to fall on your head or to the side of the character by just holding the snap key and a direction. Tested in dc2 and seems like it never misses or gets you killed.