New Element ideas

[Sendy]

Also I have some ideas for special elements. I don't know if CLCK will eventually come with an element designer, or if extra elements can be implemented by fans, but I think these would make really great ideas.

1 - Mega boulder. A boulder that is so heavy you cannot push it. Graphically it would be a round shiny ball of colour 5.

and

2- sloped mud. This would serve two functions: an aesthetic improvement to caves and creation of puzzles.

Sloped mud would come in four varieties:

/ - with top part filled with mud. This acts like a regular mud tile. Things can rest on the flat top without rolling off and it can be dug away.

\ - with top part filled. As above.

/ - bottom part filled with mud. This acts like mud, but items will slide off of it to the left if they can.

\ - bottom part filled with mud. As above, but the other direction.

The following ideas are less appealing to me and were an afterthought but still interesting enough to mention:

Sloped walls would be interesting but they already 'act' sloped - if there's enough graphics space it might be nice to have sloped variations of walls, perhaps just for left and right downward slopes.

Sloped titanium wall would also be interesting. Like a wall things would roll off of it, but it's indestructible.

I hope I explained that well enough. Anyway if anyone likes these ideas let me know

[LogicDeLuxe]

I don't know if CLCK will eventually come with an element designer, or if extra elements can be implemented by fans, but I think these would make really great ideas.

The resources of the C64 are limited. I already removed the Ghosts to make place for more useful elements.

Nevertheless, there is a feature which allows having code extensions inside the cavepack, which of course reduces the memory available for the caves itself, when used. Though, it's currently not supported by the cavepacker and probably never will be.

[Simon]

Nice ideas, Sendy!

New special elements that are sloped, but only to the left or only to the right (like the sloped mud, sloped walls and sloped titanium walls you suggested) would have to be coped with by the objects handlers of stationary boulders and diamonds. I guess that would slow down most caves significantly. Oh well.

What do you think about these ideas:

- Let's have two types of amoeba: a green one and a red one, living together in the same cave. They grow, suffocate or petrify independently. But: When they touch, there's a 3x3 explosion (to space).

- Have bigger explosions in some circumstances. For instance, when the red and green amoeba touch, there's a 5x5 explosion. Maybe like this:

Code: Select all

.XXX.
XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX
.XXX.

Since 5x5 is quite big, the explosion could grow in 2 steps. Step 1:

Code: Select all

.....
.XXX.
.XXX.
.XXX.
.....

Step 2:

Code: Select all

.XXX.
XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX
.XXX.

After that, all exploded tiles fade to space as usual.

[Arno]

Good ideas!

Here are some other ideas for new features/elements that I have (for a long time already):

1. To open the exit when you get the last diamond, but closing it again when you get another diamond. (This would lead to very difficult puzzle caves in which you need exactly the required amount of diamonds.)
2. Boulders (or other things) which fall upwards instead of downwards, and also kill rockford, fireflies and butterflies just like ordinary boulders.
3. Gravity, like in Supaplex.
4. Caves consisting of one screen, without scrolling. (So in fact I mean intermissions, without getting a bonus life at the start, and without a warp to the next cave when you die.)
It would be really great if this can be made this possible, as I still have a big collection of difficult puzzle-intermissions.

I don't remember well, but perhaps some of these are already possible in the CLCK?

[Simon]

2. Boulders (or other things) which fall upwards instead of downwards, and also kill rockford, fireflies and butterflies just like ordinary boulders.

Nice idea. From my point of view, it would be difficult to integrate this new element into the original Boulder Dash "cave" graphics theme. What things could possibly reside inside a cave that behave like this? So it would be difficult to find a fitting graphic representation for this element, I suppose.
Well, for instance a kind of balloon "falls upwards", but it's implausible that such a balloon would be able to kill Rockford when falling upwards onto him, but would not kill Rockford when he touches them otherwise.

[LogicDeLuxe]

1. To open the exit when you get the last diamond, but closing it again when you get another diamond. (This would lead to very difficult puzzle caves in which you need exactly the required amount of diamonds.)

Let the biter eat open exits. One limitation: There must be a diamond right next to the exit, so the biter doesn't get the time to eat the open exit.

2. Boulders (or other things) which fall upwards instead of downwards, and also kill rockford, fireflies and butterflies just like ordinary boulders.

I did this in Crazy Dream 7 (the only game using the Crazy Dream engine). Gravity can be changed to all 4 direction, even while the cave is running. I got the idea from Bone Cruncher and from Miniboulder.
Sorry, there is not enough RAM left for making a reasonable construction kit for this engine. Thus I made CLCK instead.

4. Caves consisting of one screen, without scrolling. (So in fact I mean intermissions, without getting a bonus life at the start, and without a warp to the next cave when you die.)
It would be really great if this can be made this possible, as I still have a big collection of difficult puzzle-intermissions.

You can achieve this by placing a second Rockford unable to move in the upper left corner in CLCK. He can be still killed by the suicide key, though.

[RTADash]

I think the number of elements in the PLCK is just about right.
When puzzles/games have too few elements, they are either simple or boring. When they have too many elements they are either confusing or overwhelming. I wouldn't mind more new elements, but I'd probably not use them.

[CWS]

There are some good ideas mentioned here but all in all I think there should not be many new objects in Boulder Dash. Maybe some new things that go along with the meaning of Boulder Dash and they really fit into it (I like the transporters of Crazy Dream 7 a lot) but where would this end? Many peoples ideas would result in many new objects. And that's not good. Look at Rocks'n'Diamonds. It's really a great game - so do not misunderstand me - but there are way too much elements, even custom elements. I found caves in which I didn't know what do to because there were so many different kind of objects.

Of course, I'm open minded. I once had also the whish for this and for that option and new element. But in time I come to the conclusion that many new objects would only result in greater confusion.

[RTADash]

Look at Rocks'n'Diamonds. It's really a great game - so do not misunderstand me - but there are way too much elements, even custom elements. I found caves in which I didn't know what do to because there were so many different kind of objects.

Very good point! I'm on that forum too, so I know a lot about that game and play it regularly. Most of the people in the RnD community focus on a single area in the game due to its massiveness. For example, some people mainly work on CE/GE techniques, while others focus on tricks and bugfixing, and there's yet others that specialize in classical levels. It's a very diverse community