Author Topic: Issue with Mysteries Unvielded  (Read 7270 times)

Offline Draco18s

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Issue with Mysteries Unvielded
« on: September 20, 2010, 09:18:52 pm »
The level drops blocks as if its is in Frenzy mode, but I am only unable to start one stream at a time.  As of yet I've only manged to create 1 of 3 chains ">= 12 blocks."  Any time I get anywhere near having a second ready to go, I lose from blocks stacked above the board.

I made a short video, I managed to lose in 21 seconds.

As I'm waiting for the video to upload I managed the three chains.  x.X
I've only ever skipped one level prior, and that was Need For Speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcJaokJTtrY

Offline Fiskbit

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Re: Issue with Mysteries Unvielded
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2010, 11:35:30 pm »
The level is definitely acting as intended. This stage takes serious advantage of two things: one is bumpers mode, which makes it especially easy to make very long chains (hint: don't set up chains in advance on this stage. Set them up on the fly, as the stream for that chain is still en route. This wastes less time and lets you pull off cool tricks), and the other is that blocks don't fall when chains of 3 or more blocks are happening. The more time you spend sitting there setting things up, the more blocks you have to deal with.

Bumpers mode is really interesting, in my opinion. If you take the time to baby-sit the stream for a given chain, you can loop it around in all sorts of interesting ways and make incredibly long chains. It's a lot of fun and good use of it here is vital to success.

Also, you may find that enabling smart drag is very, very helpful. It's in the settings menu and it makes it so that you can't change the direction of any blocks you've already rotated until the next time you drag. It makes setting up chains MUCH faster because it lets you backtrack over blocks without having to release right click, which is awesome. Also, you can disable the auto-marking behavior that marks the block you right click on; that behavior can still be doing manually by middle clicking on blocks or using one of the 3 mark keys.
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Issue with Mysteries Unvielded
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2010, 12:51:38 am »
Alright, well, the level description didn't inform me that it was effectively in frenzy mode with regards to block-dropping.  Bumper mode only notes that streams bounce off other blocks, not that they drop faster.

Offline Fiskbit

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Re: Issue with Mysteries Unvielded
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2010, 04:43:46 am »
Well, but it's not in frenzy mode; the stage just has a high difficulty. Blocks drop at different rates in different stages regardless of whether it's a frenzy stage, which is tied to the stage's difficulty (you can also override various difficulty stats in the level editor for things such as the block drop rate, which I probably did on this one). Bumpers mode only affects how streams interact with blocks, which helps counter the high block rate in this particular level.

Is there something you feel could be improved in the game with regard to this? I guess I'm a little confused because I'm pretty sure there are other stages that have high block drop rates despite not being in frenzy mode, and simply having a level description for this level informing the player that blocks drop quickly likely wouldn't do much because they can see when the level starts how quickly the blocks are being dropped.

Anyway, any further feedback you can provide would surely be helpful. :)
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Issue with Mysteries Unvielded
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2010, 10:26:33 am »
The drop rate on this level was significantly above the drop rate of any of the other levels around it.
Both the level before and after it were not that fast.  They may have been faster than the earlier levels, but the progression was such that I never noticed, however upon starting this particular level I was overwhelmed in seconds.  The drop rate was equivalent to the most recent Frenzy level while at the same time having a win condition that required planning and a new type of planning.  I simply felt as if I was being asked to achieve a Zen condition in a Frenzy environment with a new mechanic that I'd never seen before.

 

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