Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

All about creating levels and level sets, custom elements and custom artwork.

Moderators: Flumminator, Zomis

Flumminator
Posts: 184
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:08 pm
Location: Germany

Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Flumminator »

Hi all!

After more than a decade of - very sporadic - work, I finally did the last touches and hereby release

Niko's Bug Mine







Be warned. This levelset contains 180 levels full of bugs. Lots and lots of bugs! And ways to create even more bugs. And - of course - the means to destroy these masses of bugs and collect their emeralds 8)

Inspired by the Contributions-Levels from Rüdiger Schäfer, many of these levels will require you to "dig" through various amounts of amoeba to reach the goal.

But besides that there are also some levels focussing more on puzzle solving and sometimes also skill. These are typically the smaller ones. Feel free to skip levels you don't like.

Some levels include CEs to
  • Automatically create bugs
  • Manually create bugs
  • Teleport the player to another part of the map
  • Create a map randomly
  • Have "special" bugs
  • Create some fun effects
I'm not an artist, so everything uses the default artwork.

For the bigger levels you will certainly need to make use of the Save/Load or replay features. I was able to complete all the levels - except one - playing in real-time and only using the replay-feature after screw-ups. The one level I could only solve using single-step mode is aptly named "Bug Tube V - Mission Impossible".

Solution tapes are included. They're typically my first try to complete the level, so they're neither optimized for runtime nor highscore.

I would greatly appreciate feedback on the levels, especially which types of levels you like most and what would you like to see in a sequel!

Until then: Have fun! :D
Attachments
nb_bugmine-1.0.zip
(312.39 KiB) Downloaded 171 times
Flumminator->PostCounter += 1;
jm28121977
Posts: 84
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 8:04 pm
Location: England

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by jm28121977 »

This sounds right up my street. Will get onto it soon and give some feedback when I've finished it.

Cheers
Jamie
ncrecc
Posts: 156
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:59 am

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by ncrecc »

bugs truly are some charismatic critters ... enjoyed building up a little infestation of them in "the bug blaster" and watching them scurry along the level border every so often. not done with the levelset yet, & i've skipped most of the amoeba-intensive longer levels, but so far there have been some pretty good levels (particularly the "one bug one mission" ones). it's really neat having an entire levelset for bugs
User avatar
Holger
Site Admin
Posts: 4073
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:13 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Holger »

Still have to give it a try, and then some feedback -- please stand by!

And I should add it to the high score server soon! (Already existing scores will show up then.)
jm28121977
Posts: 84
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 8:04 pm
Location: England

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by jm28121977 »

Hi

I'm on level 25 and I'm really enjoying it so far. I thought that 180 levels of just bugs would get a bit repetitive, but you've found such a variety of bug-related puzzles and ideas and ***spoiler alert*** even a 'bug gun', that I'm finding the levelset highly enjoyable. :D

Best wishes
Jamie x
Flumminator
Posts: 184
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:08 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Flumminator »

jm28121977 wrote: Wed Mar 29, 2023 7:21 pm I'm on level 25 and I'm really enjoying it so far. I thought that 180 levels of just bugs would get a bit repetitive, but you've found such a variety of bug-related puzzles and ideas and ***spoiler alert*** even a 'bug gun', that I'm finding the levelset highly enjoyable. :D
Thank you, I really love to hear that :D

So I can actially tell that I recently started working on a sequel. I've already got some ideas for more variations to be played on that theme. Assuming I'll release after a few dozen levels instead of nearly 200, it also shouldn take another 10 years ;)

:?: Question to all :?:

It doesn't have to be all new: which mechanics from Bug Mine would you like to see again in the sequel? I'm probably going to elaborate on the mechanics from Lvl.48 "Portable Amoeba" and Lvl.162 "Bug Guiding" anyway, because I think they allow for nice puzzles in various difficulties.
Flumminator->PostCounter += 1;
Flumminator
Posts: 184
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:08 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Flumminator »

Holger wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 8:12 pm And I should add it to the high score server soon! (Already existing scores will show up then.)
That would be great!

I'd really love to see how other people are cracking down these levels :)
Flumminator->PostCounter += 1;
User avatar
Holger
Site Admin
Posts: 4073
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:13 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Holger »

Flumminator wrote: Wed Apr 12, 2023 8:15 pm
Holger wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 8:12 pm And I should add it to the high score server soon! (Already existing scores will show up then.)
That would be great!

I'd really love to see how other people are cracking down these levels :)
I have to apologize -- I totally forgot about this! :shock: Thank you for this reminder! :oops:

I have now added your new level set to the high score server, and also uploaded all your included solution tapes (as nearly all of your own, already existing tapes on the server were marked as either "unsolvable" or "broken_tape", which I assume may be caused by re-ordering levels before releasing the final level set). All your newly uploaded solution tapes (as taken from the final level set) are marked as "approved", so everything went fine here. :D
filbo
Posts: 647
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2014 10:06 am

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by filbo »

> nearly all of your own, already existing tapes on the server were marked as either "unsolvable" or "broken_tape", which I assume may be caused by re-ordering levels before releasing the final level set

Seems like a tiny bit of shell scripting would let you match up these lost tapes with their corresponding levels :)
User avatar
Holger
Site Admin
Posts: 4073
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:13 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Holger »

Seems like a tiny bit of shell scripting would let you match up these lost tapes with their corresponding levels :)
Probably yes, but there may be other reasons why some of these tapes do not solve the final levels anymore (like levels that may have been changed a little bit after uploading a tape with the same level number), so I don't think that it's worth the effort, just to have some more tapes from Niko for his own level set that are not displayed in the hall of fame anyway (as only the best tape is displayed there). :)
Flumminator
Posts: 184
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:08 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Flumminator »

It seems the API server was not well prepared for the re-ordering of the levels. The tapes are correct according to the final level order and I can replay them in R'n'D, but the names shown on the web interface are the "old" names, before the re-ordering:
Bildschirmfoto 2023-04-13 um 16.56.22.png
Bildschirmfoto 2023-04-13 um 16.56.22.png (238.58 KiB) Viewed 5534 times
Bildschirmfoto 2023-04-13 um 16.57.06.png
Bildschirmfoto 2023-04-13 um 16.57.06.png (270.82 KiB) Viewed 5534 times
So I guess the highscore server identifies level sets by their full name as given in the levelinfo.conf file, is this correct? Because I thought it would use the directory name (like in levelsetup.conf) and actually tried to avoid this kind of trouble by doing the re-ordering to a new directory with a slightly different name, but both were using "Niko's Bug Mine" in the levelinfo.conf :?

So I'll try to do this better with any upcoming level sets.
Flumminator->PostCounter += 1;
User avatar
Holger
Site Admin
Posts: 4073
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:13 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Holger »

It seems the API server was not well prepared for the re-ordering of the levels. The tapes are correct according to the final level order and I can replay them in R'n'D, but the names shown on the web interface are the "old" names, before the re-ordering:
Oops, indeed. :(

The reason for this is that the first time a score (and score tape) is submitted for a certain level and level set, a database record for this level and level set are created on the high score server, using the submitted level name and level set name (as the high score server may not have this information available at this time). If the level or level set is renamed later, this does not change the level or level set name on the server anymore. :-/
So I guess the highscore server identifies level sets by their full name as given in the levelinfo.conf file, is this correct?
Yes, that's correct. In fact, the level set is determined by first checking the level set identifier (which is the name of the sub-directory of the level set, which was "bugmine" for your level set, which matched for your own test levels, but did not match later when you released your level set using the level set identifier (sub-directory name) "nb_bugmine"), and if this does not match, by checking the level set name that is configured in the "levelinfo.conf" file in the "name:" field.

The reason for this is that I found out very early that quite some people rename their unpacked level sets when adding them to the game, therefore changing the "level set identifier" to something different, but usually do not edit the file "levelinfo.conf" (or do only one of the above changes, but not both). So I also check the "verbose name" of the level set to try a successful match (instead of recognizing that level set as a new one, which would result in scores not shown anywhere else as for the user who submitted that tape).
Because I thought it would use the directory name (like in levelsetup.conf) and actually tried to avoid this kind of trouble by doing the re-ordering to a new directory with a slightly different name, but both were using "Niko's Bug Mine" in the levelinfo.conf :?
That was principally a very good idea, but the high score server could not be tricked that easily... ;-)

To do some testing on the high score server with a new level set still in development and testing before finally releasing it, you could do any of the following:

1. Use the high score server that is used for testing instead of the "real" high score server (maybe with a second, dedicated user just for this purpose, so only have to switch R'n'D users, and do not have to edit files when switching from "test mode" to "normal mode" and vice versa).

To do this, just edit the file "serversetup.conf" (or "users/00x/serversetup.conf" for a separate user with the number "00x") inside the R'n'D personal data directory, and just change the entry

Code: Select all

api_server_hostname:     api.artsoft.org
to

Code: Select all

api_server_hostname:     api-test.artsoft.org
That's all!

Or, 2. Use a different level set sub-directory name ("level set identifier") and a different level set name from what you plan to use for the final release of the new level set. This way, the high score server cannot find out anymore that a given score is related to this level set!

For example, for the second "Bug Mine" set, you could just use something like "test_bugmine_2" for the level set folder name, and "Niko's Bug Mine 2 (Test)" for the level set name (and remove the "test" addition for the release). That should work as expected.
User avatar
Holger
Site Admin
Posts: 4073
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:13 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Holger »

Update:

Better do not use the development API server (which may be unstable due to ongoing development at any time), but the testing API server! That is, use the following entry in file "serversetup.conf":

Code: Select all

api_server_hostname:     api-test.artsoft.org
(I have also changed the previous post accordingly.)

For the test API server, new scores are automatically checked and approved every five minutes (just like on the default API server), while approving new scores is only done manually when I'm working on it on the development API server.
User avatar
Holger
Site Admin
Posts: 4073
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:13 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Holger »

The tapes are correct according to the final level order and I can replay them in R'n'D, but the names shown on the web interface are the "old" names, before the re-ordering:
I have extracted the current level names from the level files of your set (using the "file" command with the R'n'D "magic" file), used "sed" to convert them into a SQL script, and used that to update the API database.

So all level names of your set should be correct in the web interface now. :)
Flumminator
Posts: 184
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:08 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Releasing "Niko's Bug Mine" - 180 levels

Post by Flumminator »

Holger wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 10:21 am So all level names of your set should be correct in the web interface now. :)
Thank you! This looks much better now :D

Regarding the testing server: I'll keep that in mind and try it later. Since I've already started working on the set before, I'm using preliminary level set identifier and name which I intend to change both when eventually re-ordering it before release.
Flumminator->PostCounter += 1;
Post Reply