Feel Bad Friday(s)!

[A Random Player]

-Made it easier to walk just a short distance. Right now, you run so fast that tight quarters (running one tile to the side without continuing into a spike) are *challenging*. So I played around with the movement-controls. Now, TES starts off just a bit slower, giving you a chance to stop in a small fraction of a tile's width.

This makes me happy One of my most annoying times in NaQRC was when the wiggly spikes were closer to the wall, and it was hard to be able to jump up without hitting the spikes. It won't significantly affect previous levels, right?

[testtubegames]

Feel Bad Friday (20 minutes early, hey!)

I took on Letter Writer by A Random Player. Took me a while to figure out the core mechanic (until after the video, in fact), but it's another impressive example of "I didn't think the game could do that" from Random.

You can watch the video here.

Or see Random's post here. Or snag this code:

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"Letter Writer"-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]

Again, Random... wow.

Also, thanks for making it not too hard I appreciate that after these past couple weeks

I'm excited to see the next TES version! According to that post you linked, there will be many features that I've been waiting for. When will it be released?

Should be coming soon -- I've spent the past couple weeks working down that list of bugs/features. I'd like to get them all done before I update. But I'll aim to have it posted in a week regardless.

Also, I'll find you the full video. It'll take a while to upload and then download, but it's all yours. It'll take me a few days, though (busy weekend), so you may need to be patient.

This makes me happy One of my most annoying times in NaQRC was when the wiggly spikes were closer to the wall, and it was hard to be able to jump up without hitting the spikes. It won't significantly affect previous levels, right?

I know, right? Some of those things were just hard because the game was unforgiving. It shouldn't affect anything else... it's really only for cases where you're moving very short distances... something that no level can really take advantage of yet, anyway.

[NealCruco]

Also, I'll find you the full video. It'll take a while to upload and then download, but it's all yours. It'll take me a few days, though (busy weekend), so you may need to be patient.

*pokes Andy* I don't mind continuing to wait, but are you still too busy after four days? It's fine if you are; I'm just wondering.

[testtubegames]

*pokes Andy* I don't mind continuing to wait, but are you still too busy after four days? It's fine if you are; I'm just wondering.

Just made it back into the office after the weekend -- but yes I would likely have forgotten. So, well-timed poke! I sent the link to the file along to you via PM.

[NealCruco]

*pokes Andy* I don't mind continuing to wait, but are you still too busy after four days? It's fine if you are; I'm just wondering.

Just made it back into the office after the weekend -- but yes I would likely have forgotten. So, well-timed poke! I sent the link to the file along to you via PM.

I have received no PM from you.

[testtubegames]

I have received no PM from you.

Odd. Sent (for real this time?).

[testtubegames]

Ah, a nice, relaxing Feel Bad Friday this week.

SPOILER

SPOILER_SHOW

I didn't even really need to edit it for length! Yay!

I take on Through the Spikes and Charges by A Random Player. Watch how I do.
Edit: Watch how I do in the actual, edited footage.

You can check out Random's original post here, or just snag this level code:

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"Through the Spikes and Charges"-eNrlVDEOwyAM/AvzDTXESXlLlbUvyIb695KgokilGAJDJWxH8XDGPtvgIAkRh892to8wgydw0Cr/KM/rXiTo5v/aRjfnRGoC9EhyiiKIoHSgEJc6Al/05ETpjD8wqSgq68uVXmaI4RKtiihpbtpWUJPa2ZfcqbQ6ekVTa7t7oHtvW/ypZsq8RvNuRgcklQNJRhoOwAZ1Tm0KD4wpcS8aEH9R4zrsCEdYgT4r4tTT3/T19QZ8qamx]

SPOILER

SPOILER_SHOW

YAY! 20 Deaths! Phew. It's nice to have another FBF that doesn't wear me out. (I'll note that I contemplated doing 'Through the Path', before I realized that I needed a couple weeks of rest to work my way up to it

Thanks for sharing the level, Random! It was clean, and an interesting use of the mechanics. I wasn't expecting to be able to float so nicely next to those lines of charges.

[A Random Player]

Ah, a nice, relaxing Feel Bad Friday this week.

I take on Through the Spikes and Charges by A Random Player. Watch how I do.

The floating near the charges effect is actually a "bug"... But not one which can be fixed reasonably (without halting oracles and a symbolic mathematics system ). Basically, the E-field approximation does weird things near a charge. Force doesn't really go to infinity, where Coulomb's law says that it should. Of course, you could also say it's correct by including the shell theorem, which may or may not be what's happening here. I don't think so, since the field appears to be translation-invariant - probably just a quirk of the relaxation method.

As you said, this is indeed a very simple level. I can't say much about it besides the level was intended to have a gradual increase in difficulty toward the right, with smaller and eventually changing gaps. Also, there was supposed to be a star at the very bottom and top, but that meant only one star in the main area, which was supposed to be the hardest part. Finally, no Turing Machines because switches were still quite difficult to use at that time (0.3). Oh, and the title references Through the Fire and Flames.

Now I'm going to wonder - what happened? My guess is that Andy was too tired from fixing the electric bug. (See: Lack of intro (45 seconds of nothing at beginning), random put-TES-near-exit-and-win at end.) Don't worry, annoying physics bugs are very annoying

[testtubegames]

The floating near the charges effect is actually a "bug"...

Hey, you're right, it is indeed bug-ish. I didn't even notice that as I was playing through. But thinking back, that was an issue I had to deal with.

The most basic problem would be you near a single negative charge. If the force really grew to be infinite, then you'd get flung in-and-away in a really ultra-chaotic and non-fun way.

So, basically, I decided that you, the player, aren't quite in the plane of the charges (after all, if so, you'd 'hit' them instead of passing through*). I imagine the player to be moving around a few inches in *front* of the charges. And that tends to resolve everything.

Now, practically speaking, the reason why this happens does indeed have to do with the Relaxation Method, and the fact that I calculate voltages at every lattice-point in the game. The method leads to finite-valued voltages... and between that and the way I calculate the e-fields from the voltages, the forces won't grow boundlessly. Which, at the end of the day, is what I want.

Though, I will admit, there's something odd to the fact you can float so close to a dipole.

Now I'm going to wonder - what happened? My guess is that Andy was too tired from fixing the electric bug. (See: Lack of intro (45 seconds of nothing at beginning), random put-TES-near-exit-and-win at end.) Don't worry, annoying physics bugs are very annoying

Ah, whoops! That's the unedited version I posted! I replaced the link above with the *actual* video. My b, my b.

[Stargate38]

Why wasn't there a Feel Bad Friday last week?