Gray ball contents doesn't seem to be fully configurable

[TheOnyxGuy]

Toying around with the new features of recent update, I was trying to make sort of a joke by making gray ball turn into one specific item, but for some reason I was frequently getting rather empty fuel orbs or MM styled envelopes, while having only one item in it's contents. I checked other 15 slots just in case, but such elements are not even there to begin with.

Empty fuel orb (exceptionally empty)

asgagdaaf.png (144.28 KiB) Viewed 11115 times

Envelope 1

asgagdaaf2.png (142.99 KiB) Viewed 11115 times

The contents

asgagdaaf3.png (155.38 KiB) Viewed 11115 times

The layout

asgagdaaf4.png (155.37 KiB) Viewed 11115 times

The spaces are where envelopes have previously been

asgagdaaf5.png (145.67 KiB) Viewed 11115 times

Also, I see it randomizes the rotation of elements you add to it, which kind of see is intentional, but not always good for some things like fixed grids or mirrors. Just saying. I feel like it could sorta be toggleable at least.

And, by the way, here's that test levelset I was doing to test out new capabilities I mentioned in the beginning:

that_one_for_testing_purposes_by_ohdale_thingle.zip

The file

(7.48 MiB) Downloaded 1074 times

[Holger]

All bugs fixed now!

(The "wrong element created from gray ball" bug is really horrible, how could I have overseen this? But yes, because the default elements are all used in their "base state" and are changed by adding an offset to be rotated when created, while the grid element you used is not, and caused an element overflow, resulting in these unexpected elements.)

Also, I see it randomizes the rotation of elements you add to it, which kind of see is intentional, but not always good for some things like fixed grids or mirrors. Just saying. I feel like it could sorta be toggleable at least.

You are absolutely right -- this is really necessary for any serious level creation when using things like fixed grids/mirrors!

Added a checkbox to do just that (enable/disable rotation of newly created gray ball content elements)!

And, by the way, here's that test levelset I was doing to test out new capabilities I mentioned in the beginning:

Cool, especially the main menu looks really crazy!

And apparently there are still some problems with custom explosions for MM game elements... will check that, too!

[Holger]

And, by the way, here's that test levelset I was doing to test out new capabilities I mentioned in the beginning:
that_one_for_testing_purposes_by_ohdale_thingle.zip

Some additional notes regarding the new R'n'D patch release 4.3.5.1 I have just releases:

- custom explosions for the MM bomb and McDuffin now work as expected in your level set
- all clickable stacked global animations are now really clickable, not only the first one
- on "Game over! Play again?", in-game global animations are also restarted now

Hope that helps!

[TheOnyxGuy]

Ok, now it works as intended, wonderful job!

But, unfortunately, there's still one problem: you can make the gray ball also generate the sub-tile elements (ya know, the DF and MM walls), which does not only create them in their unnaturally big size, but also turns them into a deco (pretty much like char elements, which just have a center as an obstacle). I think the best solution for that is rather just make gray ball create the 16-th state of each mini wall (the full set of four walls, much like when you place them in R'n'D engine, it just fills the entire tile with all four of them at once) or just prevent it from creating them completely.

Mini walls after coming out of gray balls

kfhbnadkkadklai.png (6.03 KiB) Viewed 10892 times

Speaking of mini tiles, I once tried applying a custom sprite for the empty space (via custom graphics, ofc), which does work in MM engine, but only for the full empty space tiles. I know it's a minor thing, but, making it just use the empty space texture probably won't work well because it will shrink it for the x16 tile (or, hopefully, draw behind the wall sub-tiles), so what if instead we could do custom textures for each MM/DF wall tile state? I mean so we could apply different full-tile textures for two neighbor tiles, any set of three of four blocks or full 4-block set.

Custom 4-block wall set variations

dffsdhdsrfsdg.png (867 Bytes) Viewed 10892 times

Also, nitpicking, sorry, but... could there be an option of changing gray ball's melting behavior to just custom shrinking/exploding animation in the future? I mentioned that idea before, by the way, in this topic along with some other ideas.

[Holger]

But, unfortunately, there's still one problem: you can make the gray ball also generate the sub-tile elements (ya know, the DF and MM walls), which does not only create them in their unnaturally big size, but also turns them into a deco (pretty much like char elements, which just have a center as an obstacle). I think the best solution for that is rather just make gray ball create the 16-th state of each mini wall (the full set of four walls, much like when you place them in R'n'D engine, it just fills the entire tile with all four of them at once) or just prevent it from creating them completely.

Fixed -- will now be created as a four-wall block.

(BTW: Did you really manage to use them in the R'n'D engine? I only get question marks then, as expected. )

Also, nitpicking, sorry, but... could there be an option of changing gray ball's melting behavior to just custom shrinking/exploding animation in the future?

I added a checkbox "[ ] explode instead of melting", which does just that.

What might also be useful is a transparent ".changing" animation (or ".shrinking" or ".opening" or whatever it might best be called), that would be drawn on top of the new element during the animation (similar to the current hard-coded "melting" animation), as the ".exploding" animation could be customized, but is drawn instead of the new element, changing to the new element graphic after the last explosion frame (just like in the R'n'D engine when blowing up a wall with emerald, for example).

Speaking of mini tiles, I once tried applying a custom sprite for the empty space (via custom graphics, ofc), which does work in MM engine, but only for the full empty space tiles. I know it's a minor thing, but, making it just use the empty space texture probably won't work well because it will shrink it for the x16 tile (or, hopefully, draw behind the wall sub-tiles), so what if instead we could do custom textures for each MM/DF wall tile state? I mean so we could apply different full-tile textures for two neighbor tiles, any set of three of four blocks or full 4-block set.

These are in fact two ideas.

But I do like both of them. Not sure how easy or hard it would be to implement this, thought.

[TheOnyxGuy]

(BTW: Did you really manage to use them in the R'n'D engine? I only get question marks then, as expected. )

Well, what I meant is that they're placed in editor as a full set of 4 blocks if R'n'D engine is selected, of course it doesn't really display in R'n'D engine correctly.