DF-21 Forums

[Pumpkinetics]

I've just uploaded a decade old collaboration between myself and new member Dirk Destiny. I'll be posting a full commentary on the level soon.

It's... well... try it!

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"So, how goes (X) ?"

"WORKIN' ON IT! I SWEAR!"

[The MAZZTer]

This isn't DarkXL, and you're not lucius... ;_;

I just tried to "cheat" and access the uploaded file directly... 403'd. Man, some people just ruin my fun. >_>

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http://www.mzzt.net/ | I am a respectable admin with a respectable sig.

[Fenwar]

Or the fun of people who upload php scripts and pr0n...?

http://df-21.net/downloads/missions/twrdoom.zip

I'll post it "properly" later (unless Jackson does).

[The MAZZTer]

Fair enough Fenwar.

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[Darth Oosha]

Played it for a bit; probably won't finish it tonight as I don't feel like thinking about how to solve the maze. I guess a door appearing green on the wall map doesn't necessarily mean it's open, as I initially assumed it did?

Architecture and texturing seem good so far, although it doesn't look much like an overrun Rebel base. Combat's been light; ambush was obvious.

Other notes so far:
* Is the comlink BM something that's been seen before?
* From the area with the conveyor belt, there are two ways forward: through the air ducts and through the big Imperial door. If you pick the air ducts and don't open the door, you'll be trapped on the other side of it.
* You can trap yourself in the room with the four Imperial doors, and in the chambers that the troopers ambush you from.
* A few places have glass and doors that can be shot through.
* From a distance, the melted vent bars look like a red switch; not game-breaking, but it had me confused for a minute or so until I got closer.

[Pumpkinetics]

Explanation: each switch controls a red door and a green door. If a door currently appears on the map, It's closed. Try to get an unobstructed pathway.

And I'll write my full explanation of the level when the level review topic is posted. But I will say now- the textcrawl was written by me at age 6. While I was also heavily into starcraft. And no, I have no idea what a "contant mistake" is.

_________________
"So, how goes (X) ?"

"WORKIN' ON IT! I SWEAR!"

[Jackson]

[Fenwar]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I'm stuck right at the start... I can't find the blue key anywhere. I'm assuming I need it to get in the room which (a little bit of cheating tells me) contains the switches that control the maze puzzle.

Maybe I'm just getting old...

[The MAZZTer]

Secret door downstairs. Check the dead-end hallway and the view through the window and see if anything doesn't look right...

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http://www.mzzt.net/ | I am a respectable admin with a respectable sig.

[Darth Oosha]

I just went through the window when I played it. The key is on an officer at the end of the conveyor belt.

[The MAZZTer]

I couldn't reach the window.

I liked the trash... spinner... puzzle. Looks a lot harder than it really is until you figure it out.

I give this level a 2/5. It looks like it had some good work put into it but the design and "immersiveness" is pretty much non-existent.

_________________
http://www.mzzt.net/ | I am a respectable admin with a respectable sig.

[sheepandshepherd]

Pretty good . . . the puzzles were fun, and I especially liked the secret room after the trash spinner puzzle, that was so freakin funny . The kell dragons . . . didn't really work out, all you have to do is shoot em to death before opening the cages. The tower itself could have used some work on details too . . . and it was too easy to fall down during the final battle (or maybe I just move around too much). I'd give it a 4/5, good job overall.

[The MAZZTer]

Oh c'mon, 2.5/5 maybe, but it's definitely not even a 3/5. The texturing in the first area alone is horrid, the story is cliche and non-existent otherwise, the level makes no attempt at a realistic level layout...

And the Tower of Doom was a huge letdown! It's a friggin' stone pillar with an easy boss at the top (you even get a shield supercharge right before it). The only time it scared me was when it HOMed like crazy and I thought I was stuck for a second before I fell off the back and got hurt.

I thought of making up a little Kyle fan fiction for this level, as it could be entertaining ('As Kyle approached the tower, he finally was out in the open air and could see the sky. It was quite ugly, and he could only attribute it to Imperial polution. "Does their evil know no bounds?" he thought to himself.'*).

* - The sky texture in this area is meant for a different palette than the level uses.

_________________
http://www.mzzt.net/ | I am a respectable admin with a respectable sig.

[Pumpkinetics]

Alright, this is my full commentary on the level "Tower of Doom (Classic)". This is all my viewpoint, it doesn't include the opinions of Dirk Destiny (Hereafter referred to as DiDe) in any way. He'll add his own notes if he feels like it

ORIGINS

When the Tower of Doom first came into conception, I was 6 years old, and I had only just learned about DF editing (although I had already played a few custom levels without realising how they had been made)

Now, when I refer to this level as a collaboration, I mean "I thought of something that would be cool, and DiDe stuck it in."

The first version of this level simply included the tower. The maze was then included, although that was entirely DiDe's idea. Then the rooms with the vestigial conveyor belt and obligatory boxes. After that was my "Let's rescue R2D2! Nobody's ever done that before!" idea, which led to the western "superbox" end. The final element was when I suddenly came up with the idea for a "main access computer". And so it was added.

WHERE THE CONCEPTS CAME FROM

A lot of the better ideas are DiDe's doing. I came up with a few, but I was more big picture. I wasn't the kind for brilliant puzzles at age 6. I doubt I'd come up with something like the red door/green door maze even now. I'm not sure who thought up the Sandcrawler-ish sucking bit, but it was before DT1, at least. The hidden troopers bit was obviously somewhat flawed in conception, but I like the idea enough that it may be used in Kalmar, though in a slightly different format. The sewer spinners and South park scene were DiDe's ideas; South park was big at the time, and we both usually play by map, so the spinner puzzle wasn't particularly difficult for us. In the "main access computer", Dide did the flashing wall lights, and I did the "Access locked", "DTP" and "flashing switch that doesn't indicate whether it's been pressed or not, and thus is indistinguishable from its 3 inoperable counterparts" BMs, with MS paint.

The Briefing was DiDe's but the textcrawl was all me. The original by DiDe simply said "an (our real names (yes, I'm paranoid)) level." 7 year old (by that point I was 7) me thought I could do better, so I made a BMP of my briefing. I thought it was good. To this day I still have no idea what a "contant mistake" is.

REDISCOVERY

The last real work on Tower of Doom was sometime in 1999. Eventually I got bored of DF, and stopped playing levels altogether.

Then last year I started again. So Dirk Destiny brought around a flash drive with the old level. I'd forgotten the finer details, but I remembered that I thought it was good when I was 7.

I'm never trusting previous me again. Ever.

We decided it was best left secret, played for laughs only. I gave it a persona rating of 2 out of 5 (That was what I'm expecting here, too)

But recently I started something, and this particular something prompted me and DiDe to post Tower of Doom Classic.

See, I thought the basic premise was okay (rescue R2D2 from an imposing imperial facility built around a large stone tower) and that a decent level could be built out of it. With the right mindset, and the right Gmid.

So, as a form of practice before fully committing to Kalmar, I am working on Tower of Doom - Special edition. And when I say Special edition, I mean rebuilt from the ground up. Same story - different base. Very different.

_________________
"So, how goes (X) ?"

"WORKIN' ON IT! I SWEAR!"

[Fenwar]

I've just added the Level Reviews topic at

http://df-21.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php_t=1220

If anyone feels like pasting across the review-like comments from this thread then feel free to do so! If not I'll get to it shortly.