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Message: 5766
Author: Daniel
Date: 29/03/2006
Subject: Advanced Trainer - Daniel's suggestions
I would like to offer some ideas for the "Advanced Trainer" (let me
refer to it as "AT" for short, not to be confused with "Allana
Truman" :-) ). Please forgive me, Andrew and everyone else, if I
repeat something that has already been said or show misunderstanding
of a quirky feature (QF) - sometimes I find it difficult to
visualise a QF if I haven't seen it in a game so far. And I haven't
played "Goodnite Luddite", "Party Willy" and "strangel" yet, so I am
sure there's an awful lot I haven't seen :-) .
I would like to submit a number of ideas, with the hope that they
may be incorporated into your room ideas (most of them probably
don't deserve a separate room).
1. Basic jumping - impossible manoeuvres
a) an impossible jump, like for the upper item in "Upper Balcony"
(032) of "Willy's New Mansion";
b) having to jump /over/ a Water-cell, without landing on it,
because it becomes a trap, like in "Top of the shop: The Laundry"
(01) of "Jet Set Willy III" (the Water-cell at [10,14] is a trap - I
hope I counted correctly).
c) having to jump from far-enough back, because otherwise you hit
the ceiling, go down and die - like on the lower left-hand side of
the room "Catacombs" (37) in "Spaceman Willy" (too easy, perhaps?).
2. Earth-cells: Jumps through innocent-looking blocks
a) Andrew wrote:
> (...) and Daniel Gromann's overhead ILB.I feel EXTREMELY flattered to see this feature christened with my
name :-) . I'm not sure it's appropriate though, because in such
case a lot of other features should bear the names of people who
applied them first, why should there be an exception in my case?
:-) .
In fact, there are two variants of the OILB, corresponding to the
two possible jumps through overhead Earth-cells.
The first one is depicted in Andrew's updated document "Quirky
Features", in point 3 of the section "Jumping left through overhead
Earth-cells". It sort of corresponds to the jump depicted in the
same section under number 1a. It can be seen in "JSW: The 2005
Megamix" in the rooms "Road to the Inaccessible Castle"
(071), "Snatch the disk and get out!" (146) and "Shortcut to the
Roof" (154).
The second variant is even more spectacular, IMHO. It sort of
corresponds to the jump depicted in the same section under number 2,
and can be seen in "JSW: Mind Control", in the room "The Most Secret
of All Places" (112).
BTW, Andrew, perhaps when you update your "Quirky Features"
document, could you expand it to depict both variants (as points 3
and 4 of this section, I suppose) ?
b) A "classic" jump through an ILB can also be very spectacular. In
the room "I used to see the shop from here" (50), DrUnKeN
mAsTeR!!!'s rendition of "Watch Tower" in the game "DrUnKeN
mAsTeR!!!", you can jump from the platform hanging in-mid air below
the conveyor, through the ILB which is the leftmost Earth-cell of
the ledge on which the uppermost item is sitting. You land safely
below, and for some reason this jump looks particularly spectacular
to me :-) .
3. Ramps
a) There is an extremely interesting design pattern in Sendy's
game "where's woody", between the rooms "*really rampant rampy rope
room*" (157) and "decompartmentalization" (158). It's not really a
quirky feature, I think, but perhaps it would be worth presenting (I
will certainly reuse it in one of my games). Collect the leftmost
item in "decompartmentalization" and try to get out. Sendy revealed
the mystery at the end of the message # 5147.
b) Andrew wrote:
> Jumping through ramps: when precisely you can jump through theThere is a beautiful design pattern involving this (and a conveyor)
> ramp, and when it catches you.
in the room "Squggle squiggle squigle squiggle" (064) in "JSW: Mind
Control".
c) Andrew wrote:
> Effects of \ and / ramps that are horizontally adjacent.Could you give us an example of a room from an already-existing game
involving this feature?
4. Conventional guardians
a) In the room "Whintstanley's crevice" (32) of Lee Tatlock's
game "Willy vs. the Vampire Lord", when you go for the right item,
you have to turn round and stand in one character-column in order to
avoid the fast-moving yellow vertical guardian coming down towards
you. When you are standing in one character-column, sometimes the
guardian kills you, and sometimes it doesn't, depending on where
it's facing at the moment it comes down. This is a very interesting
phenomenon, because it means you practically have a random chance of
success or failure, unless you are able to calculate the guardian
movements so that you know when to go for the item. I think I
couldn't possibly do it myself (calculate, that is), but perhaps
someone can.
I have a feeling - but I may be wrong - that it's a similar
situation as with the arrows passing through Kari Kriníková at neck-
height without collision. Andrew says "if she times it correctly",
but to me it looks more like blind luck. But again, I may be wrong
:-) .
5. Arrows
Is it possible to make two arrows collide (going in opposite
directions)? What will happen?
6. Ropes
Andrew wrote:
> (...) Jumping off a rope onto a stand-onable cell that is as farI would add to it:
> away as possible (at (6,27) for a standard rope in column 16).
> Falling off a rope into a 2-column gap that is in the most awkward
> position (columns 21/22 for a standard rope in column 16).
a) a very awkward jump from the rope like in the room "Entrance to
the House" (11) in "JSW: Mind Control" (when you go for the right
item), involving a quirky jump through an Earth-cell;
b) an awkward jump from the rope, involving a jump through a Water-
cell (I think it would work with an Earth-cell as well), like in the
room "Below the Ludicrous Room" (147) in "JSW: The 2005 Megamix"
(when you go for the right item) or in the room "Strange Forestlike
Corner" (092) in "Mind Control" (when you get down from the rope
onto, or rather into, the magenta Water-cells).
c) an awkward jump from the rope like in the room "Entrance to More
Tunnels" (089) in "JSW: Mind Control" (when you go for the leftmost
item).
d) using the rope to enter an Earth-cell at leg-height
It can be used for various purposes. In the above-mentioned
room "Strange Forestlike Corner" (092) of "JSW: Mind Control" it is
used to collect an embedded item.
A few days ago I felt a strong urge to design something, and I
designed a new room, the screenshot of which I have uploaded to my
folder in the Files section ("nowa.jpg"). It is *probably* the
beginning of a new game. It will be a JSW48 game, snapshot-type,
very hard, targeted at experts, and it will seek to apply all of the
known QF within interesting and difficult design patterns (in
combination with guardian movements limiting the time for manoeuvre,
etc.). I do not want to give any details of this game or time
perspective at this point; I will probably just add to it slowly
whenever I feel a need to try new design patterns, QF or other
challenges.
Anyway, on the screenshot you can see a rope, from which you have to:
- jump to the right twice (once through an ILB to collect the item,
then back onto the rope, and then through the block below the ILB to
land down safely);
- after entering the room from above for a second time, you have to
step down /into/ an Earth-cell at leg-height (to the left), so that
then you can jump over the gap without hitting the overhead Fire-
cells.
So that's another example of "using the rope to enter an Earth-cell
at leg-height".
e) having to jump for items so that you land on the same rope again
after collecting them (too easy, perhaps?);
f) an invisible rope;
g) a rope which goes beyond the boundary of the room, like in Philip
Bee's "JSW (again)", in the room "A Close Call" (22);
h) Andrew wrote:
> A rope which collides with other pixels already on the screenI think that the most spectacular way to present this feature is in
> and picks you up from wherever you are.
a room where you actually cannot get onto the rope otherwise, like
in the room "Ynot?" (43) in James Wyatt's game "JSW meets Colossal
Cave".
i) The "rope-teleport bug" (recently discussed in messages 5387,
5390, 5391 and 5396) - when it is understood correctly and can be
applied consciously, and if it is something different than the above
point (h).
7. Edges of the screen
Andrew wrote:
> Entering a room inside a Fire-cell such that you can escape fromThere is also a third variant: when you enter the room from above
> it if you move immediately (both variants in the same room).
after jumping through an ILB. An example of this can be seen
in "JSW: Mind Control", when you enter the room "Playing with
Yourself" (054) after jumping through an ILB in "A Little Room with
a View" (021).
In fact, I think that feature can also apply to /any/ part of the
room if you enter it by teleportation and are teleported onto Fire-
cells. Isn't this correct?
8. Items
I think that just for the sake of completion, Andrew, you might add
an example of "Items on the background cells which are collected
automatically on entry to the room because of the white background
INK" (like in the "Swimming Pool" of the original JSW).
9. Special effects
Does JSW64 allow to have arbitrary POKEs turned on/off on a room-by-
room basis?
If it does, I would say that it would be very interesting to have a
room with the perpetual motion POKE applied.
10. Master Bedroom
I would add a right-conveyor to stop Willy during the toilet-run,
which will allow him to outmanoeuvre (a) guardian(s), for example as
in "JSW: The 2005 Megamix".
11. JSW48 Annex
Combined cell-types (same colour-attributes)
I think that a nice example of the application of "Conveyor-Ramp-
Air" is the room "Towards Your Destiny" (103) in "JSW: Mind
Control". You cannot walk unless you hold the "Right" and "Jump"
keys together!
12. MM48 Annex
a) Andrew wrote:
> A jump over a Fire-cell can cause it to change type, as inWow, how is this possible?
> MM4's "Dotty"!
b) Andrew wrote:
> Standing on a Crumbly cell in row 0 causes row 8 to crumble!I've noticed this amazing phenomenon in one of the rooms of "Manic
Scribbler". How can it be explained?
Daniel
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