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Message: 4087

Author: andrewbroad

Date: 16/04/2004

Subject: Good Advice? (JSWED v2.0.3 documentation)

 

I have some comments about the "9 Good Advice" section of John
Elliott's JSWED v2.0.3 user-guide (originally from the instructions
for Paul Rhodes's JSW editor):

> 1. Don't put anything in the path of a guardian.

It's okay if there's no pixel-collision. It's also okay to put items
in the path of a guardian, although they will be collected if they
collide with white-ink guardians.

[Note the word-order carefully: "A collides with B" means that B was
drawn first, then A was drawn and their pixels (or colour-attributes
as the case is with items) collided, causing A - not B - to react to
the collision.]

> 2. Don't have arrows passing through anything with white INK.

Again, it's okay if there's no pixel-collision.

> 3. If you have white background INK, any objects in the room will
> be automatically collected on entry to the room (see swimming pool)

- unless the items are on non-background squares (cf. point 9 below).

BTW, I object to the use of "object" to refer to items. Everything
in JSW is an object - blocks, guardians, items, everything. Even the
original JSW calls them "items".

> 4. Do not have two characters with the same attributes, especially
> if one is a guardian.

Surely "guardian" should be "static nasty" (or, in John's
terminology, "fire"). There's no such restriction for guardians,
unless this is supposed to be aesthetic advice! ;-)

Two block-types with the same colour-attributes give various
interesting combinations: springy platforms (background = ramp),
ramp-floors, ramp-walls, conveyor-floors, conveyor-walls, and
conveyor-ramps (as noted in point 5).

> 5. Having the same attributes for ramp and conveyor creates a
> 'conveyor ramp' (see Chapel).
>
> 6. Avoid having a guardian at the top of the screen above a gap at
> the bottom (see right-hand half of Under the Roof).

Again, "guardian" should be "static nasty" (or "fire").

Sometimes it's very useful to have static nasties in the top row,
particularly to eliminate infinite-death scenarios if the player
could fall off the bottom of the screen at the wrong place.

> 7. Do not put anything in the path of a rope (try it and see!),

Collision for ropes is pixel-based. If a rope collides with any
pixels, Willy is immediately moved to the point of collision -
causing instant death if it was a guardian with which the rope
collided. If the collision is near the top of the screen, Willy is
`teleported' to the room above.

> and do not allow an arrow to pass through a rope
> (especially not a white rope).

It's perfectly safe to have an arrow pass through a non-white rope,
provided that the arrow is *after* the rope in the room's guardian-
instance list, which should be ordered as follows:
1. HORIZONTAL/VERTICAL GUARDIANS (presumably also diagonal,
wraparound and colour-cycling guardians)
2. ROPE
3. ARROWS

An arrow passing through a white rope will kill you if it collides
with the (white) pixels of the rope.

> 8. Never allow guardians to overlap.

Arrows can overlap with anything provided they're drawn last (if
they're not drawn last, other guardians can collide with them, like
the goose in We Pretty's "SKYLIFE A V I A T I O N AVATAR"), and
provided they do not collide with white-ink pixels.

It may be appropriate to allow horizontal and vertical guardians to
overlap in some circumstances. It depends on whether they would
collide (collision for HGs and VGs is pixel-based), and in some
cases /when/ they would collide - Party Willy (Part 2) has more
`time-limits' than any other JSW game I've played!

> 9. Objects on top of other characters (floors, walls, etc.) cannot
> be collected.

They cannot be collected by Willy, but they *can* be collected by
white-ink guardians. For example, in "Wood Jackson" in Party Willy
(Part 1), I have an arrow `shoot' an item off a floor-block.

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/collision.html

 

 

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