Amber Life - Inchdix

[George 478]

I think I've fixed it. I've closed off the jump up to the tree branch, and I've just spent 10 minutes jumping around trying and can't do it. I'll upload a new package tomorrow.

[Gillian White 4]

I see you have done a walkthrough,  and I see I missed the Vulcan Stone, I just jumped down at the left eye of a huge face and got into where the fire wrath were, which led to a secret and overlooking the huge water.  

Can I go back and get the Vulcan Stone?

[George 478]

Yep, jump down into river and go back to the left eye, it's not far away from where you are  

[George 478]

Hi TombOwl. I take it this is the block in question in Botany Bay? I can't find a problem with it. I can't recreate what you did. The block can't be pushed forwards or pulled back, only pushed left or right, and either way opens the trapdoor below it for me. I'm at a loss with this one, but as no one else has mentioned it anywhere, I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave it. Must be a glitch somewhere, but I can't find it.

I did find a problem, however, in that if you go for the Silver Secret before using the Fuse, you're lost forever on the Botany Bay where no one will ever find you  

[George 478]

I had no idea you could see the Machine Oil through that metal grille at the very start of the level. By the way, I ran around in that level for 2 weeks and played it perhaps 20-30 times before I felt comfortable enough to start work with it. It's my favourite level of the game. The design is way above my head, way out of my league. I'm beginning to suspect Jon may have been a professional game designer. Or an Oxford professor. Or both.

[George 478]

I found the problem with the block TombOwl. I'll have to fix that.

[George 478]

Easy fix on the block, just needed an extra trigger. Fixed the Silver Secret as well. Removed the 2 from the OCB of the door to the secret and put a trigger for it on the fuse puzzle hole. Now you can't get the Silver Secret until you use the fuse.

The split second cam problem is one of these difficult ones. I had the problem when first testing. One thing that causes that problem is rolling balls coming to rest on triggers. I went through the whole level and checked every rolling ball, did some tweaking and ensured that wasn't possible. I never encountered the problem again so thought it was solved.

The problem seems to be random now, only affecting certain people, and I don't experience it no matter how many times I replay the level. I know ahmets can trigger heavy triggers, so I suspect it may be the ahmets dying on a trigger somewhere, which would explain why it would be random. Folks will get into routines of shooting them in different places in different ways, so that's a possibility. I suppose I could remove the ahmets, but that would take all the atmosphere out of the level and might not even fix the problem. I think we're going to have to live with that one. It isn't a major issue, just a slight annoyance for some as they don't know what the switches have done and will have to run around a bit.

[George 478]

I think I recall that camera targets placed on the same tile as a door can also cause the split second cam triggers, not 100% sure on that as I don't recall that problem being random. Might be, but I think we have to live with it.

[George 478]

I'm closing off those spikes in Secrets of the Sea as well TombOwl. I don't think I should, because anyone who does that knows they are bending the rules and they would have to come back and finish the level anyway because they would be missing something important and it would serve them right. However, I've relented and have put flames on the tile as well as spikes. I just need to test the whole game again before uploading the revised package.

[George 478]

I've just remembered another cause of split second cam shots, and that's placing null meshes directly under a trapdoor. Not sure if it's just cam targets or any nullmesh, but it's best to not place them under trapdoors. However, because this bug is random, I'm inclined to think ahmets because they don't fade away and, like rolling balls, they do trigger heavy triggers. The fact that they can die in various different places would then explain the randomness of the problem.

When building levels, don't place ahmets in rooms where they can die on triggers, don't leave rolling balls on triggers, don't place nullmeshes directly under trapdoors, and don't place camera targets on the same tile as a door.

[TombOwl 6]

George, your work sounds good.  I await your revised game levels to see how they play.  The camera shot problem happens in many other levels as well, so it is probably due to the random effects as you say, and can't really be fixed. That is ok.

Eddy on the levelbase yesterday mentioned on that forum that he had a problem in "Botany Bay" where a pushable block fell down a hole and blocked passage causing the game to end.  I don't know what he meant, but maybe there is something to it.

Eddy also said that he climbed the ladder at the spikes because some customlevels in the past required that.  Thus, it is good that you added flames to prevent that.

Thanks for all of your efforts in bringing Inchdix's work to life.

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by TombOwl

[George 478]

It has been an honour to work on these levels. It's an education, like sitting at the feet of the master. My replay is up to Secrets of the Sea and is going well. I had problems with sinking blocks and removed perhaps a dozen blocks from the level. It was Botany Bay those problems showed up in. I never encountered the problem again.

[George 478]

Finished the run through. Tomorrow I'll release Amber Life v2 

[George 478]

V2 has been released. Please let folks know to replace the game folder with this new version.

http://www.skribblerz.com/amberlife.html

Thanks Tomb Owl, appreciated, and your patience is greatly valued.

[TombOwl 6]

Thanks George.  I tried to download the new version from your link, but it is still the old version.  When will the new one be available?  Thanks again.