And so... Any new story lines, as in "scenario" ?

[sabinou]

Hello everyone,

I'm the kind of guy that will rant much more than the average, and yet I bloody LOVE Creeper World, all 3 episodes. I try to call my rants "constructive criticism", with hopes they may occasionally give good ideas for the future ;)

Here, what I'm concerned about, is how SHORT the story arc is in CW3. I made a small rant about it in the past, Virgil and others responded, in short "wait until colonial space shows up".
Well, colonial space showed up, and this is "only" (between GIGANTIC double quotes, OK) quality member-created maps, which is not very different from the prospector zones and alpha space if we're honest.

Shall we eventually have new story lines, new developments ? A choice of planets linked to each other (not just choosing a new map to our whim, but unlocking new planets as we finish other ones, like in the main story arc), of developments, with the story evolving according to the changes we made ?
Does that possibility still reside somewhere within the colonial space, hidden ?

As a person attached to stories, a scenario, this would be the most considerable value added the game could offer. I already had more maps I could play in a decade before Colonial Space was added. What I'm sorely regretting is a new scenario, a new story in which to immerse myself. Maybe I'm the only one in that position, but maybe not, who knows !

Thanks if you've got some lights to shed on this :)

[Clean0nion]

Here's my thinking.

Someone (let's say me) creates a series of maps. I upload the first in the series, then I go back to edit the second map in the series. To this map I add the following currently nonexistent command:

<-map Completed if
   @DoThing
else
   Make the screen black and have text say "Beat the previous map in the series first!" followed by the map's name and its CS ID.
else


Where the variable "map" is the Colonial Space ID of the first map in the series. For example, if the first map was my map Asteroid, the ID would be 72. If it was MadMag's Nano, the ID would be 64. And so on. Then I upload the second map in the series.

As a result, when someone downloads map #2, they will receive a notification that they have to play the first map first. Or if they have done so already, then they can just play.

That's my idea. Virgil! I summon thee to review this CRPL idea!

Edit: Virgil! Ignore this!

[Grauniad]

that is what map keys are for.

[J]

Remember how I checked map completion in my units series? There was a good reason to put a shield key in every map.
Feel free to take some code out of it.

[Karsten75]

Sabinou. I'm not really sure what your story (ha that is a pun!) is, but I checked and both CW1 and CW2 has only 20 worlds in the official story line. CW3 has 23 and in several worlds they can be completed differently - that extends the story.

Now in English, which I don't think you speak as a first language (but which you speak better than I speak any other language), "rants" are not things that most people pay attention to. They "tune them out" so to speak. Or are you the guy who stops on the street corner to listen to the crazy guy standing there telling you the world will end tomorrow?

You also can't expect to make other people do what you want them to do - at least not without paying them, and even then sometimes not. So if you want a scenario - go make it yourself and he a hero for all of those people who want a scenario and loves a good story.

[Clean0nion]

Sabinou. I'm not really sure what your story (ha that is a pun!) is, but I checked and both CW1 and CW2 has only 20 worlds in the official story line. CW3 has 23 and in several worlds they can be completed differently - that extends the story.

Now in English, which I don't think you speak as a first language (but which you speak better than I speak any other language), "rants" are not things that most people pay attention to. They "tune them out" so to speak. Or are you the guy who stops on the street corner to listen to the crazy guy standing there telling you the world will end tomorrow?

You also can't expect to make other people do what you want them to do - at least not without paying them, and even then sometimes not. So if you want a scenario - go make it yourself and he a hero for all of those people who want a scenario and loves a good story.

If you want something done... do it yourself!

[Flabort]

@CleanOnion: The "nonexistant" command in the script you shared can be summed up in this one:

Code Select Expand

$commandNodes:2
$previousKey:""
:awake
<-previousKey Artifact Collected if
"COMMANDNODE"  <-commandNodes SetBuildLimit
else
"COMMANDNODE" 0 SetBuildLimit
endif

Try building anything without command nodes. I mean, there was one guy who made a map where guppies auto-refill at four points, and therefore didn't need CNs, but aside from that....

[Clean0nion]

@CleanOnion: The "nonexistant" command in the script you shared can be summed up in this one:

Code Select Expand

$commandNodes:2
$previousKey:""
:awake
<-previousKey Artifact Collected if
"COMMANDNODE"  <-commandNodes SetBuildLimit
else
"COMMANDNODE" 0 SetBuildLimit
endif

Try building anything without command nodes. I mean, there was one guy who made a map where guppies auto-refill at four points, and therefore didn't need CNs, but aside from that....

That works. Thanks for that! Now all I need to do is work out how keys work
I appear to have taken over this topic

[Lost in Nowhere]

Additionally, how many other maps have pre-built and pre-loaded guppies?

[sabinou]

Sabinou. I'm not really sure what your story (ha that is a pun!) is, but I checked and both CW1 and CW2 has only 20 worlds in the official story line. CW3 has 23 and in several worlds they can be completed differently - that extends the story.

Now in English, which I don't think you speak as a first language (but which you speak better than I speak any other language), "rants" are not things that most people pay attention to. They "tune them out" so to speak. Or are you the guy who stops on the street corner to listen to the crazy guy standing there telling you the world will end tomorrow?

You also can't expect to make other people do what you want them to do - at least not without paying them, and even then sometimes not. So if you want a scenario - go make it yourself and he a hero for all of those people who want a scenario and loves a good story.

Point 1 : you're right, I remembered the story lasting longer in the previous Creeper World episodes. I still would very much like a story line extension for CW3.

Point 2 : you caught me, I'm not English. I'm not sure you were attacking me on this (you told you weren't, and then I feel you did, oh well, who cares actually), but, well, what can I do about it ^^ I'm doing my very best to express myself correctly, and I'm ready to take the blame when that is not enough, case closed.
(Would it be "rantings", then, rather than "rants" ? Probably)

Point 3 :
I guess you guys missed the main point : "constructive criticism".
I have zero dot zero skills in developing maps, in building scenarii, in game development.
... and would that forbid me from giving heartful, sincere, earnest advice ? Seriously ?

I strongly believe that, if my suggestion is taken into account, this will make the game even better, and it will increase its potential to seduce more customers. Which wouldn't be bad, unless Virgil suddenly announces he's now refusing to earn more money in the future.

The forums are the place where the most hardcore players will lurk, who can be satisfied with an endless supply of additional maps.
But maybe there's another potential audience that won't speak out, because it's not "hardcore" enough, because it's a potential audience, one who would have possibly finally decided to join and buy if there had been more praise about, not just game play, but story line ?
Maybe. Maybe not.
So, just in case, I made that suggestion. In the form of a ranting, yeah, I felt down after I believed Colonial Space would mean there would be new "stories" to immerse myself in, and I saw I was mistaken, it was just like Prospector Zone Reloaded.

You may discard my suggestion, sure. But I wanted to voice it, with hopes to allow the game to become even better.

[Clean0nion]

Sabinou. I'm not really sure what your story (ha that is a pun!) is, but I checked and both CW1 and CW2 has only 20 worlds in the official story line. CW3 has 23 and in several worlds they can be completed differently - that extends the story.

Now in English, which I don't think you speak as a first language (but which you speak better than I speak any other language), "rants" are not things that most people pay attention to. They "tune them out" so to speak. Or are you the guy who stops on the street corner to listen to the crazy guy standing there telling you the world will end tomorrow?

You also can't expect to make other people do what you want them to do - at least not without paying them, and even then sometimes not. So if you want a scenario - go make it yourself and he a hero for all of those people who want a scenario and loves a good story.

Point 1 : you're right, I remembered the story lasting longer in the previous Creeper World episodes. I still would very much like a story line extension for CW3.

Point 2 : you caught me, I'm not English. I'm not sure you were attacking me on this (you told you weren't, and then I feel you did, oh well, who cares actually), but, well, what can I do about it ^^ I'm doing my very best to express myself correctly, and I'm ready to take the blame when that is not enough, case closed.
(Would it be "rantings", then, rather than "rants" ? Probably)

Point 3 :
I guess you guys missed the main point : "constructive criticism".
I have zero dot zero skills in developing maps, in building scenarii, in game development.
... and would that forbid me from giving heartful, sincere, earnest advice ? Seriously ?

I strongly believe that, if my suggestion is taken into account, this will make the game even better, and it will increase its potential to seduce more customers. Which wouldn't be bad, unless Virgil suddenly announces he's now refusing to earn more money in the future.

The forums are the place where the most hardcore players will lurk, who can be satisfied with an endless supply of additional maps.
But maybe there's another potential audience that won't speak out, because it's not "hardcore" enough, because it's a potential audience, one who would have possibly finally decided to join and buy if there had been more praise about, not just game play, but story line ?
Maybe. Maybe not.
So, just in case, I made that suggestion. In the form of a ranting, yeah, I felt down after I believed Colonial Space would mean there would be new "stories" to immerse myself in, and I saw I was mistaken, it was just like Prospector Zone Reloaded.

You may discard my suggestion, sure. But I wanted to voice it, with hopes to allow the game to become even better.

Firstly, Karsten75's comment WAS rude. "Rant" is a perfectly acceptable word. Asking for advice on a forum is not demanding that other people do what you want them to do! For the most part we are a helpful community and I for one am always happy to procrastinate on whatever project on which I'm working.

Secondly, sure, there are some hardcore players here. J comes to mind, and I think VirgilW has a pretty good understanding of how the game works.
However - some of us are not! I have beaten one Prospector Zone map and never beaten a single Tormented Zone map. I hardly ever beat any of the CS maps and, as a map maker, on how many of my own maps do you think I have the top score? None!
So what I'm essentially saying is that some of us are total flops.

Thirdly, although there are none currently, I can assure you that there is at least one map series in the making!

[Flabort]

Thirdly, although there are none currently, I can assure you that there is at least one map series in the making!

J's Units Pack technically counts as a map series.

[Clean0nion]

Thirdly, although there are none currently, I can assure you that there is at least one map series in the making!

J's Units Pack technically counts as a map series.

I consider J's map pack to be a collection. A series is linear.

[Cavemaniac]

@sabinou.

Glad you're enjoying Virgil's creation so much that you want more of it.

Sometimes it's hard to remember that the guy who brought us the game mechanics of the creeper world game is also the creator/author of a whole sci-fi universe.

I, at least, find it difficult to reconcile coder and sci-fi author!

And as a one-man-band indipendant software publisher, Virgil has so much to do that I think it's a wonder that he had time to create the story arc as well as actually make the game work (and get released, and promoted etc etc).

Bear in mind that there are as many creeper world experiences as there are players.

Some, like you, enjoy the story elements.

And that's great - there's a lot of effort gone into creating the stories.

But, at the other end of the scale, there's the likes of me.

I'm not too bothered about the story (sure, I'll read it so I've got some context to play my game in), but mostly, I just wanna thrash the bad guy and blow stuff up.

And if someone makes a stand-alone map with zero story but awesome gameplay, that's fine with me!

Also, I think you are quite right in saying that a forum such as this is the perfect place to have your say.

The trade off there though, is that other people also have things to say - and they're not always complementary!

[Relli]

I felt down after I believed Colonial Space would mean there would be new "stories" to immerse myself in, and I saw I was mistaken, it was just like Prospector Zone Reloaded.

The early maps are like that, sure. Because it's new, and the easiest thing to make is a single map. The stories will come, I guarantee it. I can tell you that I'm planning one myself, although it's not exactly speeding along. And if they're moving just a tad too slow for you...then you should try to learn how it all works, and make your own series. Dive in and see if you can figure some things out, or ask someone here for help. Ask me if you like.