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Message: 6957

Author: andrewbroad

Date: 29/11/2016

Subject: Re: Ropes and Broadsoft Lifts

 

In Message 6946, ian.rushforth wrote:

A query for Andrew - I wonder if the 'buggy' interaction between
ropes and Broadsoft Lifts was reflected in the evolution of your
game JSW64MM James Bond?

It strikes me that since the ropes in the game are predominantly of
the non-swinging variety, this might have been a conscious
decision, made in order to prevent problems from arising as a
result of such rope/lift interactions?

I was unaware of any interaction between ropes and lifts when I wrote JSW64MM:JB.

The reason that all the ropes (except the one in "Quantum of Solace") are non-swinging is economy of space. I was trying to cram so much into those rooms that I didn't have space for swinging ropes. I also enjoyed gliding straight up and down the ropes, and hadn't seen many non-swinging ropes in the JSW games that I had played up to that point.

The Broadsoft Lifts patch was only ever an unstable beta-release. I was aware of the following bugs:

1. The lifts pick the player up too early when (s)he is below them.

2. I was hoping to make the vertical lifts carry the player down smoothly instead of letting him/her fall.

3. I was hoping to make the code that draws the player shift him/her downwards by the number of pixel-rows between the top of the lift's cell-row and its actual pixel-row, like when (s)he's on a ramp.

4. If a lift carries the player up off the top of the screen, it actually takes him/her to the room below!

I'm afraid I have no plans to resume work on Broadsoft Lifts, JSW64MM:JB, or any of my old MM/JSW projects, but I hope to implement better lifts if I ever get round to writing my H* game engine...

In Message 6956, rushforthian wrote:

Is it possible to attach files to messages here,
to demonstrate such scenarios?

I'm afraid not.

--
Dr Andrew Broad

 

 

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