Custom Map #2234: Blobby's Typing Tutor. By: CS Z

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This topic is for discussion of map #2234: Blobby's Typing Tutor


Author: CS Z
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[CS Z]

Boost your Words Per Minute (WPM) typing skills as Blobby the blob and his friends try to reach the hold bases.

With school starting back up, I wanted to explore the possibility of mashing up a classic Missile Command-style map with a typing tutor set in the CW4 universe.  CW4 in the classroom?  Oh yeah!


There are two unique features of this map:

Typing mode.  This is basically an attempted camera lock that's not perfect + a pseudo console that shows what is being typed.  I strongly suspect this idea will catch the eye of some mapmakers.  Text adventures, entering unlock codes from completing other maps in a series, and maybe even writing eval() style 4RPL(?) code in-game are just a few of the possibilities.

Blobs that change target locations while they travel.  Not sure how this idea could be leveraged but it could result in someone making a smarter blob (e.g. one blob starts getting damaged by snipers, other blobs might try to avoid/stay out of range).


The words that travel with the blobs are just a simple custom, invisible unit that moves in tandem with the blobs.  Nothing particularly special there.


The ADA message makes some recommendations for changing your settings so that typing won't interfere with gameplay.  The last four recommended keybinding changes might not be necessary even though they were a problem at one point.

[Durikkan]

Well, I got the longest time so far.   I think my main complaint is that when you type a word it seemingly doesn't turn around the blob that was created first, but rather the blob that was created most recently, so when it gets crazy you sometimes have to type the same word 3-4 times in a row to get a blob close to reaching the exit to turn around.  That slows me down because it interrupts the natural flow. 

I did have a slight complaint that it takes too long to ramp up, but it occurs to me that you could just start it on 2x and lower it to 1x when it gets harder, so that one is easy for the user to work around. 

[CS Z]

Well, I got the longest time so far.   I think my main complaint is that when you type a word it seemingly doesn't turn around the blob that was created first, but rather the blob that was created most recently, so when it gets crazy you sometimes have to type the same word 3-4 times in a row to get a blob close to reaching the exit to turn around.  That slows me down because it interrupts the natural flow. 

I did have a slight complaint that it takes too long to ramp up, but it occurs to me that you could just start it on 2x and lower it to 1x when it gets harder, so that one is easy for the user to work around.

Nice!  I appear to be the only one with the custom objective completed though.  Completing both objectives is just 5 min 30 sec (i.e. requires completing a full 30 seconds at 70 WPM with no errors).

The mission script removes the first match in the list of words rather than which blob is closest to the hold base.  Hold base distance when multiple matches occur might have been a nice touch.  The 4RPL adds words and units to the list with AppendToList() and removes the first match it finds in the list.  Some distances from blob nests to the hold bases are longer than others, so sometimes words appear to be out of order.

Everyone's typing skills vary.  2x is definitely a good way to go if it is too slow at the start.  I can only type at about 75 WPM myself but I consider the starting 20 WPM at 1x to be fairly accessible to all players and gets the rhythm going.

I figure Typing Mode, which is basically an in-map console with a blinking cursor, has potential for lots of use-cases (not just a typing tutor/test).  The fact that you didn't encounter any obvious issues with Typing Mode itself in a high pressure environment means that it worked well enough as a proof of concept.  I personally ran into the occasional hangup when pressing 'p', which momentarily pauses the game by default and can cause a keypress recognition issue, but that issue was fairly rare.

[InwardChaos]

I'm not sure what's going on, but the typing interface is not recognizing the Left-Shift for capitalizing letters.
Right-Shift works without issue, though.
It's not that my left shift button doesn't work. Its the shift I always use for typing (including this message), and it works in normal gameplay, just not for this game mode.

[Karsten75]

I'm not sure what's going on, but the typing interface is not recognizing the Left-Shift for capitalizing letters.
Right-Shift works without issue, though.
It's not that my left shift button doesn't work. Its the shift I always use for typing (including this message), and it works in normal gameplay, just not for this game mode.

I believe they are associated with discrete identifiers (I know Cntrl and Alt are) so one has to make accommodation for them both to be treated as equivalents, or one may not be recognized.

[CS Z]

I'm not sure what's going on, but the typing interface is not recognizing the Left-Shift for capitalizing letters.
Right-Shift works without issue, though.
It's not that my left shift button doesn't work. Its the shift I always use for typing (including this message), and it works in normal gameplay, just not for this game mode.

Sigh.  Looks like 4RPL being a stack-based language got me again:

Code Select Expand


if (GetKey("LeftShift" false) || GetKey("RightShift" false))


Should have been:

Code Select Expand


if (GetKey("LeftShift" false) GetKey("RightShift" false) ||)


Stack errors would be SO much easier to debug if there was a CPACK console that could be viewed while playtesting.  This is a coding error that wasn't detected by the 4RPL compiler but would have definitely been detected at runtime.  There aren't really any messages available anywhere.  The 4RPL Console is only for 4RPL console scripts, not CPACKs.  The debugging tools available in the game are pretty limited.

I'm pretty right-shift heavy as I type, so it would be rare for me to actually run into the bug.  I probably did run into it but brushed it off as a typing mistake rather than a bug to look into.  Also, most (but not all) of the shift key words are on the left side of the keyboard, thus reducing the chance of encountering it myself.

[Karsten75]

Stack errors would be SO much easier to debug if there was a CPACK console that could be viewed while playtesting.

https://github.com/KnuckleCracker/CW4-bug-tracker/issues/917

[CS Z]

Stack errors would be SO much easier to debug if there was a CPACK console that could be viewed while playtesting.

https://github.com/KnuckleCracker/CW4-bug-tracker/issues/917

That only works if the mapmaker's been made aware of an issue.  The game provides no direct visual indication that something is wrong in the 4RPL in the first place.  When I'm playtesting, I'm rarely in the editor, so that solution won't work.  Also, some of my 4RPL detects whether or not I'm in the editor and behaves differently based on that information, which again means that solution won't necessarily work even when the editor is active.  I'm glad that there's been some improvement to text logging but it's still not a sufficient solution.

A visual alert (and maybe an auditory alert for the first error) while playing in non-editor mode is pretty much a necessity to be made aware of the situation that a bug exists.  Ideally, it just displays the bug somewhere on screen.  The 4RPL opcode compiler could also better detect stack issues and refuse to compile obviously broken code.

[MuadDib]

How do you do the ' in Don't ? I couldn't type it.

[MuadDib]

Ok it's on the ~ key (uppermost left) here somehow

[CS Z]

Ok it's on the ~ key (uppermost left) here somehow

That doesn't sound right.  "Don't" should use the standard quote (') character, not backtick.  But this is Unity we are talking about and each computer and keyboard could be different.  This map was a precursor to Item Shop to see how well keyboard typing works.  Overall, it seems to work reasonably well but needs some minor adjustments.