The Creator's Corner

How do I make Overlay Tiles that appear over Ferazel?

How do I make a Lightmap?

How do I make bonuses float?

How do I make stationary platforms?

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

How do I make Overlay Tiles that appear over Ferazel?

If you mean perpetually, then you can't. Overlays are stationary. Else, look here: (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum;=Mascot+FAQs&number;=59&DaysPrune;=20&LastLogin;=#35")http://www.AmbrosiaS...0&LastLogin=#35(/url)

How do I make a Lightmap?
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum;=Mascot+FAQs&number;=59&DaysPrune;=20&LastLogin;=#13")http://www.AmbrosiaS...0&LastLogin=#13(/url)

How do I make bonuses float?

If you've seen an example of this, I'd like to see it.

How do I make stationary platforms?

Let INFO(0) be 3 or 30, one of those (probably the former). Check the manual to confirm which one. It will be called "floating platforms" there. Logs in water must be set to this value in order to work.

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Greetings - I am your friendly neighborhood moderator. Over the coming years I shall force-feed you my biased one-sided liberal tripe that I find truthful based upon my own faulty and fragmented logic; excessive smileys 🙂 🙂 🙂 and bizarre TexT! formatting also help clarify my inane points. Welcome to the boards!

Quote

Originally posted by spamguy:
**How do I make Overlay Tiles that appear over Ferazel?

If you mean perpetually, then you can't. Overlays are stationary. Else, look here: http://www.AmbrosiaS...b/forumdisplay. cgi?action=topics&forum;=Mascot+FAQs&number;=59&DaysPrune;=20&LastLogin;=#35://http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/u...0&LastLogin;=#35://http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/u...0&LastLogin;=#35://http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/u...0&LastLogin;=#35

How do I make a Lightmap?
http://www.AmbrosiaS...b/forumdisplay. cgi?action=topics&forum;=Mascot+FAQs&number;=59&DaysPrune;=20&LastLogin;=#13://http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/u...0&LastLogin;=#13://http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/u...0&LastLogin;=#13://http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/u...0&LastLogin;=#13

How do I make bonuses float?

If you've seen an example of this, I'd like to see it.

How do I make stationary platforms?

Let INFO(0) be 3 or 30, one of those (probably the former). Check the manual to confirm which one. It will be called "floating platforms" there. Logs in water must be set to this value in order to work.
**

I didn't realize there were MASCOT FAQ's, are the new?
Anyway, Ferazel appears on top of my Overlay Tiles. Does this have something to do with the lightmap?
I have several logs placed in acid. When you jumb on them, they float to the bottom, then ascend upwards, ect. How can I avoid this? Do I have to resort to horizontally moving platform? 1 pixels range.
Thanks spamguy, sorry for posting a question already on the FAQ.

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

For the logs: Use platform type 3, Floating.
Floating goodies: 1 in info(0) as I recall.
Overlay tiles: You appear behind them if one of those passage things is around them. Ever wonder why the vertical ones had all those little deadends in Labyrinth?

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The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. --Socrates
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. --Thomas Edison
Lack of will power has caused more failure than lack of intelligence or ability. -- Flowers A. Newhouse

What if you made the area with the overlay pitch black using the Lightmaps? Would spirtes and Ferazel appear behind the darkened overlay tiles?

How do I remove a splash screen? I did this before, but I forgot.

With Monster Tinting:
What does 2 do?
Why won't some monsters be tintable?
I tried making a Salamandrake brown, but it didn't work.

Scenery Tinting:
Can any piece of scenery be tinted?
Does the tinting look good?

Thanks again.

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

"What if you made the area with the overlay pitch black using the Lightmaps? Would spirtes and Ferazel appear behind the darkened overlay tiles?"

No idea, I have no experience with lightmaps.

"How do I remove a splash screen? I did this before, but I forgot."
It's in level info(27).

"With Monster Tinting:
What does 2 do?
Why won't some monsters be tintable?
I tried making a Salamandrake brown, but it didn't work."
Monsters don't use the same tints as scenery, try low numbers, also as I recall some monsters use fields other than 2 for their tints.

"Scenery Tinting:
Can any piece of scenery be tinted?
Does the tinting look good?"
Yes, and not necessarily.

"Thanks again."
You're welcome.

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The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. --Socrates
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. --Thomas Edison
Lack of will power has caused more failure than lack of intelligence or ability. -- Flowers A. Newhouse

What do you wish you could do, but can't? (Due to lack of knowledge)

Why do you make levels?

What are your opinions on dificulty? Do you side with the OBW and Dr.Tall belief or spamguy's logic?

Any comments on what makes a beautiful level?

Any comments on what makes a fun level?

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

What do you wish you could do, but can't? (Due to lack of knowledge)
I wish I was better at dealing with the parallax backgrounds. Those things are a pain in the bottom.

Why do you make levels?
Because it is an enjoyable process with enjoyable returns. There is litle more rewarding than having someone say:
"I spent all day('s) on that level and was pleased as punch when I finally beat it."

What are your opinions on dificulty? Do you side with the OBW and Dr.Tall belief or spamguy and Zelda's logic?
All levels must walk the thin line between adictiveness and annoyingness. If I am playing a level that the creator couldn't even beat, I quit. It's a waste of my time. The creator should always be able to beat their own levels, and not by the skin of their nose.

Any comments on what makes a beautiful level?
I spoke my piece about this previously.

Any comments on what makes a fun level?
Addictiveness.

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

Quote

Posted by Emperor Ent:
Do you side with the OBW and Dr.Tall belief or spamguy's logic?

A teensy biased are we? And how dare you compare me to OBW! I can beat every single level I've made except for the one which you aren't supoosed to beat because there's another path you can take ;). The reason I can only beat my fifth to last level by the hair on my chin is because it involves a hang glider ride but there's no air to support you. So one mistake along the way and you're going to die. And if you think you're not going to fly on my path of Xichrons...you'll have something else coming when you find out you skipped all my perm flags and the door is locked. 😄 Bye bye Ferazel....I managed to beat that hang glider thing after my 15th or so try.
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About the lightmap question that's floating around here...If you want to make your level very dark, set your lightmap to all black. If you want to make your level pitch black, make an all black lightmap but also set level info (0) to 9. I have a pitch black level in Dr Tall Land and what happens is this. You can still see lights and fireballs and wraith energy but you cannot see the sprites themselves. However, the background of the level will still shine at full brightness so Ferazel can guide himself by his shadow. If you put BG background all over the level, Ferazel will be able to see nothing unless he freezes an enemy and can then see for a little bit. Making a pitch black level is a cruel end to a long treck through (insert realm of choice)

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Dr. Tall says: Taller is Better

(This message has been edited by Dr Tall (edited 07-01-2001).)

My beta testers have been complaining about vertigo, vomiting, and convolsions due to the background of one of my levels.

The level uses Labryinth proportions and backgrounds. I am trying to remove the thing on the very bottom of the level. It really interfers with game play. Can anyone help me?

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

Quote

Originally posted by Emperor Ent:
**My beta testers have been complaining about vertigo, vomiting, and convolsions due to the background of one of my levels.

The level uses Labryinth proportions and backgrounds. I am trying to remove the thing on the very bottom of the level. It really interfers with game play. Can anyone help me?
**

What is happening is this:
I manage to make the pxBack Tiles (that repeated pattern at the bottom of the screen) appear behind Ferazel by changing the Layering Type. However, this causes weird things to happen to my background the lower part of the image leaps around franticly. That is what is causing the convulsions.

Does anyone know how to stop this?
Does anyone know what the various Layering Types do?

Please help, I am really desperate.

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

Ok, I solved the background problem. But it created another.
I have a Goblin Chief in the upper left of my long and difficult level of Labryinth proportions. Unfortunately, I can't get hime to work the way I would like. I want it to work similarly to an actual boss level; You walk towards a certain point and then you can't go back. You are trapped and have to defeat the boss.

If anyone knows how to do this please tell me. Or I could send the level to you and you could fix it.

Thank you very much.

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

  1. You have to set the boss's INFO(3) = 1. Why, I dunno. It makes him move.

  2. Two points must be defined on the boss level: the primary (where you enter the level), and the secondary (the other side where you eventually will leave). Both can be obtained by looking in any given sprite's info box; the first coordinate given is the axis you want. Move a dummy sprite around to find both coordinates you need. Use the MASCOT guide to put these values in proper fields; I don't know off-hand.

I think that's it.

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Greetings - I am your friendly neighborhood moderator. Over the coming years I shall force-feed you my biased one-sided liberal tripe that I find truthful based upon my own faulty and fragmented logic; excessive smileys 🙂 🙂 🙂 and bizarre TexT! formatting also help clarify my inane points. Welcome to the boards!

Quote

Originally posted by spamguy:
**1) You have to set the boss's INFO(3) = 1. Why, I dunno. It makes him move.

  1. Two points must be defined on the boss level: the primary (where you enter the level), and the secondary (the other side where you eventually will leave). Both can be obtained by looking in any given sprite's info box; the first coordinate given is the axis you want. Move a dummy sprite around to find both coordinates you need. Use the MASCOT guide to put these values in proper fields; I don't know off-hand.

I think that's it.
**

Thanks spamguy.
I already have 1) but I will try working with 2). This level, however, is not linear. You actually pass under the Goblin Chief several times before fighting him, will this work anyway? I will try and report back.

The Primary: is that where you enter the "ring" (the area that you can't leave)?
The Secondary: is that where you exit the "ring"?

Thanks again. This level will drive me mad. But soon I will be done.

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

I am beginning to suspect that all boss levels must be linear. Does anyone have a suggestion how to bypass this? Thanks.

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

Quote

Originally posted by Emperor Ent:

**What do you wish you could do, but can't? (Due to lack of knowledge)

Why do you make levels?

What are your opinions on dificulty? Do you side with the OBW and Dr.Tall belief or spamguy and Zelda's logic?

Any comments on what makes a beautiful level?

Any comments on what makes a fun level?
**

Wow. What a great set of questions? I wonder why more people don't resond? 😉

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

How did your original post stating "spamguy's logic" suddenly turn into "spamguy and Zelda's logic"? Did Zelda agree with me? Where?

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Greetings - I am your friendly neighborhood moderator. Over the coming years I shall force-feed you my biased one-sided liberal tripe that I find truthful based upon my own faulty and fragmented logic; excessive smileys 🙂 🙂 🙂 and bizarre TexT! formatting also help clarify my inane points. Welcome to the boards!

Quote

Originally posted by spamguy:
**How did your original post stating "spamguy's logic" suddenly turn into "spamguy and Zelda's logic"? Did Zelda agree with me? Where?
**

Yes. A long while back in a post I probably couldn't find. She made several points about level difficulty, all of them similar to yours. Besides, I wanted to pair OBW and Dr. Tall together and felt you needed a partner too. It isn't fair to have two versus one. Even if one is a moderator. 🙂

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Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? A this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.

Quote

Originally posted by Dr Tall:
(BI can beat every single level I've made(/B)

So can I. I can even beat every level that was made for the OBW project that I have so far. Some are very tough. Especially AVN's (funny, he thinks mine are impossible).

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For as long as I can remember, I've had memories.- Colin Mochrie, Who's Line is it Anyway?
Homo Homini Lupis - Werewolf motto, Diskworld.
This message has been edited by htjyang. (Edited to remove unnecessary left-wing content.)

Quote

Originally posted by Emperor Ent:
**What do you wish you could do, but can't? (Due to lack of knowledge)

Why do you make levels?

What are your opinions on dificulty? Do you side with the OBW and Dr.Tall belief or spamguy's logic?

Any comments on what makes a beautiful level?

Any comments on what makes a fun level?
**

Hmm... Really makes ya think.

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Download (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl?path=ferazel/addons&file;=Extemporaneous.sit.hqx")Extemporaneous 0.5(/url) for Ferazel's Wand.
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