2016-05-13 19:50:49 (edited by JasonBlaze 2016-05-13 19:52:59)

lol!  , this game is awesome!  , I'm on level 6 now,  hihi
btw, guys, I'm  still confuse with the switch...  , could you explain  how the switch's work?

2016-05-13 20:17:01

Aprone,
I've tried four times to download this game.
Three times it crashed Firefox and the fourth time it crashed Windows.
AVG is checking it  and probably thinks it's a virus.
Phil

2016-05-13 20:55:06

Phil I have no idea why the download would be giving you trouble.  My website has been randomly going down all week, and my emails to the web host have been unhelpful so far.  I intend to call them in about an hour to try and resolve the issues person to person.  I suppose it's possible that they are once again fiddling with my website and had somehow interrupted your file download.  That does seem unlikely to me, but hey, it's as good a guess as anything.  lol
Phil, I'll be taking this link down later, but here is a dropbox link to the game.  Hopefully this one works for you since the website link is not.  https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbt7isna8jbck … s.zip?dl=0

JasonBlaze, glad you're enjoying the game.  big_smile  When you place tracks, normally they are in the raised position, which means they affect the arm.  If you hold shift when placing most track pieces, you can place them in a lowered position.  When lowered, the arm passes right over them and ignores them completely.  This seems sort of useless, until Switches come into play.  To help yourself visualize how it works, lets assume I place a "lowered" track piece at A 1.  I then place a track switch at B 1.  I can arrow back to A 1, press enter, and choose to link it to a switch.  I select the unused switch at B 1.  When I start up the arm, when it runs over the switch, the track at A 1 will rise up!  Now when the arm hits A 1, it is affected by the track instead of ignoring it.  Switches can be set to raise lowered pieces, lower raised pieces, or do both with the toggle option.

I hope this helps a bit.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2016-05-13 21:18:02

hoho!  , ok! thanks for your explaination! big_smile

2016-05-13 21:22:36

stuck on 8, I run out of energy at the very last move before I eat the last rat.....I know I have to throw up a battery charger but those things knock you back which is making my brain go insane lol....time for a mental break

aprone maybe you should make a dragon racing game or a game about toast it just might be fun lol

can i get a peace double harmony burger? no chaos

2016-05-13 21:36:23

Me too.

Ja volim samo kafu sa Rakijom.

2016-05-13 21:50:41

Thanks, the checkup solved the problem. I'm now at level 7.

A few questions:
* Can a switch be tied to two more than a single piece ?
* Can a piece be tied to more than one switch ?

A few suggestions:
* Add a key to toggle a piece between its lowered and raised state, or add it as the first item in the menu. It could be very useful for example when you put a raised piece and then afterwards notice that it should start lowered; it may be annoying to go through the menu to select the right piece again just to toggle it.
* Add delete key to remove a piece from a square; again, for interface simplicity
* Put level 5 before levels 3 and 4. At least I don't know how I could solve them without using switches, so switch introduction should arrive before.
* When attaching a switch to a raised piece, put it by default in lowering mode and conversely; instead of always in raising mode as it is now
* Don't make the switch specific sound  if the switch doesn't do anything.
* When associating a piece to a switch, in the menu, you mention about yet unused ones, what is very good; but it could also be useful to tell in this menu what already used switches are currently tied to.
* Replace the debug mode by a real time equivalent, i.e. saying what the robot does at the exact time it does it
* Add a speech history system allowing to review back latest sentances. This will be very useful for example 1/to go back and examine each step taken by the robot without alt+tab and looking at the generated file, and 2/to read again the tiny clue given in the level description
* What about the ability for a switch to turn pieces by ±90° ?

Thank you for this cool game !

There are 10 kinds of people : those who know binary, and those who don't.

2016-05-13 21:55:53

hahaha, you don't need a switch to  complete level 3 and 4, heh
you need to do a little thinking tongue

2016-05-13 22:09:14

guys, how do you get past level 4? I've tried everything I could think of, but always get stuck after catching the second rat.

I used to be a knee like you, then I took an adventurer in the arrow.

2016-05-13 22:22:43

guys, how do you get past level 4?

There seem to be several solutions, but to get to mine I could give this clue: going directly to the goal may not be the right way to go.

There are 10 kinds of people : those who know binary, and those who don't.

2016-05-13 22:38:28

Smoothgunner, that made me laugh out loud!  I can't say much about a dragon racing game, but there is "Dog who hates toast".  That may count as a toast game.

Aminiel, originally pieces could be tied to multiple switches, but that was removed to make the interface simpler.  For a while I considered adding the feature back in, but many level puzzles had already been designed with that restriction in mind.  It probably wouldn't hurt to add it back in, so I'll at least keep that in mind for a possible update.

I like your idea about a single key to delete a tile, and a key to toggle between lowered and raised settings.  For a short time I did have switches automatically switch to lowered mode if they were assigned to a raised track, but it seemed a bit confusing not having the switch's default setting be the same every time.  I may have been overly cautious, haha, so if more people agree it should change itself, I'll make the adjustment.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about a real time version of the debugger.  I may need more explanation.

Turning pieces by 90 degrees with a switch was actually also in early designs of the game.  I determined that it made most puzzles far too easy to solve, so that feature has been left out.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2016-05-13 22:50:27 (edited by Xvordan 2016-05-13 22:55:04)

Connor142: A hint that will help you. Remember that turn tiles can be place adjacent to one another to accomplish difficult turns, and you may want to visit the place you started from before you seek the goal.

Aminiel, glad you're enjoying the game. I'm in no way Aprone (he's nicer), but I want to chime in on your suggestions (Edit: It appears he beat me to the punch):

  • The first item in a tile's menu, when it is connected to a switch, should allow you to change tile settings. Pressing enter on that will raise, lower, and otherwise alter the piece.

  • You don't need any switches for the puzzles before six. We don't have a spoiler tag, so I'll just say that it just requires some slightly fansy twisting and turning.

  • I think the default state of raised or lowered pieces is a matter of personal preference. I for once can see uses for both setups, so I'm not quite sure if that should be changed.

  • Trust me, you wouldn't like a realtime debug mode. Aprone did that for me during testing, and it was very verbose and distracting. Remember that the arm is moving and bouncing all the time. In a complex puzzle, that's a lot of messages to digest.

  • Aprone and I have discussed rotating turns before, and figured they would make various puzzles too easy to solve.

Kai

Spill chuck you spots!

2016-05-13 22:58:20

Thanks Key.
Best regards, Haramir.

The true blind is the one who refuses to see.

2016-05-13 23:10:58

Hahaha that's great love the random stories! This game is fun and it gave me an idea. If you ever wanted to expand on this game you could make like a train game where you build the track, and build a train. This game makes me think and I've learned that often I over think the solution. I hope there will be oven more grids as the levels progress!

Kingdom of Loathing name JB77

2016-05-13 23:18:23

Kai (Xoren), actually that extremely verbose debugging mode I showed you, for a laugh, has been added.  Modified to be less annoying of course!  Pressing Q will turn it on and off, and you have 3 settings which just determine how long the game should pause itself to allow the spoken text to "sink in".

I found a bug that was breaking mission 21, and that is been fixed.  I remember changing a line of code after originally adding the map, which is something I try to not do.  As a result, I broke it and never went back to replay the level to notice.

Changes from 0.6d to 0.7

- Correct a game bug that broke level 21, making the switches fail to work.  This bug may also have affected some challenge maps.
- Delete is a quick way to clear track.
- L is a quick way to toggle a track piece between being raised or lowered.
- When selecting switches, additional information is now listed, letting you know what the switch is already set to do.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2016-05-14 00:43:52

Aminiel, originally pieces could be tied to multiple switches, but that was removed to make the interface simpler.  For a while I considered adding the
feature back in, but many level puzzles had already been designed with that restriction in mind.  It probably wouldn't hurt to add it back in, so I'll
at least keep that in mind for a possible update.

In fact it may well simplify some puzzles. So be careful before adding it.

Something else I noticed about switches: if you link a switch to a tile, and then delete that tile, the switch remains assigned. Perhaps it should return unused in that case.

Turning pieces by 90 degrees with a switch was actually also in early designs of the game.  I determined that it made most puzzles far too easy to solve,
so that feature has been left out.

Right. So perhaps it's better to keep it as is.

You don't need any switches for the puzzles before six. We don't have a spoiler tag, so I'll just say that it just requires some slightly fansy twisting
and turning.

Yes, I found the solutions without using switches a little later on. In fact I was far too complicated with my switches, when I just had to turn in some other way.

Trust me, you wouldn't like a realtime debug mode. Aprone did that for me during testing, and it was very verbose and distracting. Remember that the
arm is moving and bouncing all the time. In a complex puzzle, that's a lot of messages to digest.

However, I'm still convainced that it would really be useful to understand why the robot ended up on a particular square.
I'm sure, it's useful to track down where you made a misstake. Do you have another idea  how I could do otherwise ?

I'm now stuck at level 9. Whether I'm out of battery just a turn before killing the last rat, or the robot gets in an endless loop. Any clue ?

Thank you.

There are 10 kinds of people : those who know binary, and those who don't.

2016-05-14 06:42:55

suggestion

maybe we can get some type of an award for completing each puzzle. I was thinking we could get coins that we could spend in a store shop to purchase different sounds for the game, music, bonus puzzles things of that nature. or maybe achievement points, the less moves you use to complete the puzzle the more points you can receive. I guess I just love a pat on the back for my hard work lol and these puzzles are definitely hard work, I'm still stuck on 8

can i get a peace double harmony burger? no chaos

2016-05-14 09:12:43

just finished 8, I know you guys could care less but I had to tell somebody lol because damn man that puzzle was so hard, I think I was working on it for like 90minutes and I'm not even including the time I tried it earlier today

can i get a peace double harmony burger? no chaos

2016-05-14 09:26:56

hello guys?
how is the switch set  to toggle supposed to work?
is it something like this?:
I set one lower track blocker on C1
then a switch at A1
then I   tie the track blocker with the switch and set it to toggle...
so, everytime I hit A1
it will  raise and lower the track blocker, right?
or not?
because I have tryed to do something  simmular with  example above... but it didn't work...
the track blocker just will  raise once and then when I hit A1 again, it will do nothing...
is this a bug?
or I'm  understanding it wrong?

2016-05-14 09:33:07

you have the concept correct. only thing you have wrong is you can't keep lifting up and down the switch/tile. so for example once you hitthe the switch once at a1, it will raise or lower the tile at c1 once and that's it.

can i get a peace double harmony burger? no chaos

2016-05-14 09:37:30

Smoothgunner, nice work on completing the map man!  big_smile  A lot of these are real head scratchers, so I know what you mean about wanting to share the accomplishment with Someone.

JasonBlaze, it sounds like you had the switch set to raise only and not actually to toggle.  When on raise, it will raise a track and then do nothing after that.  A switch set to lower will lower a track and then do nothing after that.  Toggle is the only switch option that will always do something, because whatever the track currently is (raised or lowered), this switch will move it to the other position.

I guess I should say it's supposed to behave that way.  It worked fine last time I used one, but there is always the slight chance I managed to break it when working on related code.  If anyone can confirm that the toggle setting isn't working, please do and I'll dive into code to fix it.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2016-05-14 09:49:11

oh, aha... big_smile

2016-05-14 10:07:11

hmmm o wow didn't know about this toggle feature......i'll try it on the next map which is 10, 9 was no sweat.....and thanks aprone glad to know somebody cares lolololol

can i get a peace double harmony burger? no chaos

2016-05-14 11:50:36

Awesome game aprone, one of these that has a basic idea but a really scarily addictive gameplay, also great proof that these sorts of puzzles are indeed doable in audio with the right overview.

It's a  shame I'm so bad at this sort of thing myself big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2016-05-14 11:58:19

i'm stuck on challenge 14 now, I can't figure how i'm supposed to kill the rats and recharge at the same time, that stage has a ridiculously low starting energy level compared to how much you have to change path. any hints would be appreciated.

“Get busy living or get busy dying.”
Stephen King