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"Mods chat level" by mark |
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| 19705 | Mods chat level | mm (690) | Thu 11 Dec 2014 07:01 | |
| Hi all! I'm struggling with it as well...& haven't solved 11 & 12 yet. Hi Wowei, schoen, dass Du auch wieder hier bist! | ||||
| 19568 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 20 Sep 2014 06:24 | |
| Devin, love the Square Slots idea, I just haven't yet come up with anything original to add that will do it justice. I vote for keeping the rooms independent as intended and this , this is a series that should and will evolve slowly. | ||||
| 19449 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sun 24 Aug 2014 16:32 | |
| Nice solve Jim ....TKCS I have been playing around with this level all day . I could not get what I had wanted but something similar. Only just finished it but I had not seen your speedrun then. I'm just going to throw it out there without testing as no time left. |
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| 19438 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Mon 18 Aug 2014 09:49 | |
| Nice solve Jim and of course a different way. Just solved a level in the old version and them bookmarks make a big difference. I think there is about ten obvious levels out there for me to do but they are against a timer. The new bookmarks will help me polish them off. Just got to find them. Cheers to escape !! by RAINKING a fine example of why yoy need more bookmarks. On my first play through lots of hard things to learn but did not realise the timing element . I'd bookmarked at the end so I can now just go back and tighten up all the elements. I know I could have just created numerous accounts to get through this problem but then remembering which was which was to tedious. Anyhow I got the old version to play the malformed levels (thanks Dave for info) and to tell the truth can see no difference in play to the new one. So you did do yourself a favour not updating. Ps Nearly finished a new mod of a very easy triage level , should be fun. |
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| 19435 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 16 Aug 2014 03:32 | |
| Actually, thinking back, I seem to remember that noname nailed the bookmark bug. It certainly all made sense at the time anyway. I have no idea whether he managed to compile a fixed version though... |
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| 19434 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 16 Aug 2014 01:30 | |
| Hi Jim. Tom is already well aware of the 'bookmark bug' in latest version. I think it only applies to the Windows install anyway, the compilations for other platforms are still based on the old version without the bug. I can't remember all the differences but there aren't many. Here's the few I can recall: 1. Bookmark bug!; 2. Teleport animation; 3. Anti-radiant sanity testing. Unless someone can get the source to compile debugging it is irrelevant anyway. I've tried in numerous verions of VC++ (including 6.0 which it was originally written in, I beleive) with various versions of the SDK libs and got nowhere. Then again, I've only ever been a semi-professional programmer at best (except ASM, and that's been a while) so if Tom can't do it I'm probably pi**ing in the wind. noname and wowei are pretty on to it and might be able to help... I'm stumped. |
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| 19432 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 15 Aug 2014 12:23 | |
| Nice one Jim just tried the older version and I can have as many bookmarks as I want. In the newer version if you make a bookmark at a certain point then go a bit further and want to make a new bookmark it just ignores you. You have to delete the old one to get a new one. So it always keeps your mistakes and if you have found something really hard later on I'm to reluctant to delete it in case i cant remember what I did. I guess I'm going to play the harder levels in the old version from now on. Thanks... |
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| 19427 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 15 Aug 2014 09:30 | |
| Correction 2233/2433 | ||||
| 19423 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 14 Aug 2014 22:34 | |
| Cheers Jim. Just having a dabble to shake the rust off. There's a lot of levels to catch up on, it'll take a while. Bob18 can stay on the back burner for now... 'Enigma' is presumably noname's mod 'Planetary Enigma' from the second wave of 7B7B mods (which I seem to recall you started .) It's in deleted levels. |
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| 19321 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sat 07 Jun 2014 12:58 | |
| Sorry about that deleted wrong level by accident,it then would not let me reupload so I had to put a dot in the title. |
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| 19260 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 30 May 2014 11:50 | |
| Nice solve on the P D Ultimate Jim,this level gets easier the more you play but it sure is rock hard to solve the first time. Just curious for noname's mod which way did you go or was it something different. Anyhow been working on new level for you all for the weekend it's more for fun than it is hard but maybe still a bit tricky for some. It's another level I modded from the minor league's. Thanks all keep on escaping. |
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| 19193 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 16 May 2014 14:52 | |
| Hi all,hope your still all out there waiting patiently for Tom to fix the game. It's took me all week to do the memoryhole levels something I once thought were to difficult,but what do I know. The final one a slighty different way and a speedrun. Keep hanging in because I've got a good level waiting to go. I've tried to post like N7DOT did but not able to. Jim have you been able to play improv 5 it's a cracking good level. Good luck all see you soon. |
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| 19172 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Thu 24 Apr 2014 11:39 | |
| Well it does not appear to work for me either. This time when I tried to update triage I got an error message,this did not happen before. Hope it does not take to long to be sorted. By the way I have solved a level since his happend and you do get the solutions to download. |
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| 19167 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Mon 21 Apr 2014 14:56 | |
| No I can't get it either and I don't see the picture of it on the website. I have tried for two days and two different computers. |
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| 19151 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Mon 31 Mar 2014 08:57 | |
| Ps Jim have you got slippery when rouge by Dave yet? | ||||
| 19150 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Mon 31 Mar 2014 08:47 | |
| Hi Jim my triage reads 2096 out of 2376 so a big incentive to find 4 more soon. Yesterday i got IBEW 349 by rip finishing off his three levels. Everyone of them was great and intense. IBEW was not as hard but after CATOTENTAILS completion about six months ago,and looking at the other 2 there reputation was enough to put me off playing them. All together I managed another 5 last week. On the difficulty scale i've got everything done up to N7DOT'S The Carousel which i've not done yet. Then up about another hundred up is where the gaps start to appear. Most of the difficult one's are not the problem it's the middle range that gets me the most. 15 left of N7's to do so they are not all as easy as some of the ratings say. 12 to go for radiant but i won't be getting them anytime soon,still only 1 by the pie guy and still not started planetry mystery 5 bots 7 buttons series. I don't think there is a level left that I have not looked at or a least give it a try. So i've still got a long way to go will i ever get there i don't know,but there are levels i'm getting which i once thought impossible. Thanks see you soon. |
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| 19147 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 28 Mar 2014 16:43 | |
| Only solved escapement this week did it a little different to original and speedrun. As there has been nothing new for over a week thought I'd give you something to play. |
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| 19140 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Mon 17 Mar 2014 09:52 | |
| Just one more from me Jim hope you don't mind I'd forgotten about your ball skills ending. It took me ages to get my solution so i wanted to fix it. There is still a little to do to finish it if all goes well. Dave wishing you all the best and good luck in the future. I too got made redundent a couple of years ago but I'm enjoying my semi retirement break. Thats why I've had loads of time for escape. I'm going to have one more year off then go back to work. |
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| 19133 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 16 Mar 2014 07:54 | |
| Jim, re my whereabouts - I'm a tad busy right now. I've recently been made redundant, so I'm unemployed for the first time in my life. I'm snowed under with dealing with that and using my (temporary) free-time, and skills, to good effect. Right now I'm heavily involved in fitting out a charity shop evicted from their previous premises. There are lots of levels for me to catch up on, and lots to be be modded or made, but I'm sure you can get by without me for a bit longer. |
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| 19131 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 14 Mar 2014 16:59 | |
| Jim I guess i'll just have to wait to see how you solved 6. I also cooked it today but it took me 1300 moves.(and a lot of time) I was half anticipating this but there was no yellow so i have no time to reshuffle solution now. I'm always away from my computer at the weekend till Sunday afternoon so can't play but i do read the comments page. If my soluton is massively different their could be an 8,I doubt it will be but you never know in this game. |
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| 19128 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Thu 13 Mar 2014 16:10 | |
| Not sure if no 6 is cook proof I've no time left to play,so i have thrown it out there to play for some fun. Had to add more black to the bottom of level, check speedrun for 4 for the easy solution missed thankfully. Have fun |
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| 19105 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 07 Mar 2014 12:41 | |
| Jim i've posted the other version for you to play,I will be waiting to see if you can break it.I'll be away for the weekend so won't be able to alter any levels. Feel free to mod level as this was my intention. Thanks have fun with half the solution or can you ignore it. |
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| 18952 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 06 Jan 2014 15:36 | |
| Mark, we seem to uploading runs simultaneously yet again... | ||||
| 18894 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Tue 24 Dec 2013 05:36 | |
| It's Christmas! Well, it is in Kiritimati anyway, 45 minutes to go here. Everybody have a great Christmas, and Cheers, Dave. |
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| 18837 | Mods chat level | N7DOT (2227) | Sun 15 Dec 2013 04:18 | |
| (I do appreciate the positive response though!) | ||||
| 18826 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 13 Dec 2013 08:11 | |
| Dave woke up to your comments on bugs and hacks,as for a bug i don't think it is it's just a bit slow.If you put the transponders where you say and also leave the original two where they are it won't let you move. As for hacks i'm not that smart. I knew my solution was way off the mark but i must admit i do like your shortcut at the end. When i'd finished making the level i was so tired(partly still hungover) i could not think straight enough to solve nicely. As for orthagonal d maps i'd never even heard of the word till you mentioned it last week. Hope you don't think i was trying to mislead with all the lines as i thought the puzzle was ok without them,but if i did not hook them all up together all the remotes kept disappearing and it looked scruffy and too obvious. I never set out to make a level like this it just evolved as i was making it. Glad you liked it. Ps did not understand am i doing a radiant,maybe is it because i have not solved fireworks? Actually i have not solved that many of radiants,they must be i think the toughest set of fun levels out there. I know how a lot of them are done because of the editor but it does not mean i can solve them. |
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| 18818 | Mods chat level | mm (690) | Wed 11 Dec 2013 17:57 | |
| :-) I'm glad I've got this right! So once more (without "spoiler": Happy Birthday to you, Mark, have a lot of fun tonight and I'm wishing you all the best for the next 45 years! | ||||
| 18817 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 11 Dec 2013 15:38 | |
| Yes that is correct Kirima,thankyou very much i'm in the middle of a new level so i shall save you a slice of cake. It started of as another simple level with no real puzzle to it,but then i got an idea how to make it more interesting. I'll be hungover tommorow that's for sure so i'll get back to work on it in a couple of days. Going out in ten minutes i'll do my best not to get to drunk. Thanks again, hope everyone has as much fun as me. |
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| 18813 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 11 Dec 2013 07:37 | |
| Here is your 43 run,there is less because my lowest was 42.(I deleted all solutions except original)can't find it now. |
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| 18812 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 11 Dec 2013 03:54 | |
| One school year but 1 calendar year and 4 months, I still need a 43 run. Don't do anything I wouldn't (this is a pretty non-restrictive request)! Cheers, Dave. |
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| 18811 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 11 Dec 2013 00:56 | |
| Hi Dave that's the second time.was about to post speedrun 52 told me i had record only for it not to be by the time i pressed enter. Got to go to bed now 5.30 in the morning stayed up to post new level on the right day. I see you made 44 |
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| 18780 | Mods chat level | N7DOT (2227) | Sun 08 Dec 2013 14:56 | |
| Hmm... mark, maybe the laser death aspect of the laser maze could be removed? I'd prefer that players not have to do any of that low style stuff to get to the first exit. (just remove the four visible lasers in that maze) | ||||
| 18770 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 07 Dec 2013 04:23 | |
| OK, I'll have a quick try at explaining the transponder version because I'm never going to upload it anyway. I never fully tested it because it wasn't good enough but ... You have a grid full of panles with crossovers in bizzaro and park transponders on it. The panels map to an identical grid of remotes with blocks in bizzaro. The remotes map back to the same spots on the original grid. If the bizzaro grid is fired horizontally from the right from it will turn all the crossovers making a path to the rightmost transponder, repeat from the left. Fire across the original grid, any number other than 2 or certain cases of higher even numbers will fail, 0 cancels out. Higher evens than 2 can be ignored anyway. Refire the same way to reset the grid to its original state and repeat vertically. Hope this makes sense ... |
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| 18769 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 07 Dec 2013 03:23 | |
| PPS. I am still clueless about your dalek/teleport direction reversal mechanism. Every time I tried I came unstuck with multiple consecutive reversals. | ||||
| 18768 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 07 Dec 2013 02:08 | |
| N7. Continuing from previous comment outside of the level comments ... I'm curious, you are full of interesting ideas, how far did you get with this before? The difficult bit is testing two axes using only one 'singularly active' piece without introducing a huge maze of remotes. (by 'singularly active' I mean a piece that can only switch over one other cell). In the transponder version I mentioned before, the transponders are 'multiply active' because they are used as both a trigger and part of the test procedure allowing a bi-axial test for exactly two pieces on each line on both axes, this makes the zero test redundant. The final implementation using 'singularly active' pieces (ie. spheres) only checks for an even number on each axis but is backed up by a 'fail on zero' test. This only works becuse four in a line is not possible without failing either the 'zero test' or the 'parity test' somewhere else. PS. If you solve these levels every dalek dies, if you fail they don't. If you have access to a large enough monitor (I only have this at work), the animation of the test procedure, especially for Queens, is really good. :) |
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| 18701 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 29 Nov 2013 12:14 | |
| I've rated my own level by accident(Improv 2.1a)so I reset the score to 5 5 5 I will average it out after it is solved. I was scoring the one below which i had not scored straight away as i could not decide. I got very lucky on it and did not know to put. |
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| 18674 | Mods chat level | N7DOT (2227) | Wed 27 Nov 2013 01:28 | |
| My reversal detecting mechanism required one mechanism for each of horizontal and vertical, so it required 3 mechanisms still. | ||||
| 18635 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 21 Nov 2013 23:13 | |
| I already changed it from 4 to 5 and back to 4! I could not make my mind up. Jim has handsomely compensated for my indecision :) re early mods levels: I agree. That was the original intention: rate the level up to stop it being automatically ditched into minor leagues and then correct it once the next mod had been released. In reality, it just gets forgotten about once it's in the graveyard. You've got a couple of these levels still in triage btw. |
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| 18620 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sun 17 Nov 2013 15:55 | |
| Escape not just a game but an education.. I did not know who Reuben Garrett Lucius was. I'd never heard of a turing machine I thought at first it was touring spelt wrong. Now i know who C Dudley Langford is... I must admit i did read the puzzle on Langtons cube's. I did not really understand what was meant until after solving the level,and a google search produced nothing. Langford's cubes a different matter,short clip on youtube to explain. |
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| 18610 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sun 17 Nov 2013 05:43 | |
| Hi N7DOT,from your last couple of comment's about the chat level and it being buried i'm guessing you don't know this. When in any directory instead of scrolling down press Ctrl + a .... Sorts out into alphabetical order. Press any letter you like jumps straight to it.For example you want to play Saftey glass by Tom 7 in the triage. Open up triage..Ctrl + a....press...s there it is. Just in case anyone else does not know. Ctrl + t ..... sorts by author. Ctrl + v ..... sorts your unsolved to the top. |
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| 18602 | Mods chat level | N7DOT (2227) | Sat 16 Nov 2013 21:56 | |
| I'm not really in a position where I can easily play spades, but as I have enough active interests and addictions that maybe that's a good thing :P One of the things I have been playing quite a bit of recently is Tom's implementation of scrabble called Muddle. You can play alone or with others online and try to find 'cool words' or new words. It says it's cooperative but it can be competitive too. |
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| 18588 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 15 Nov 2013 12:42 | |
| Hi Dave that game sounds like a variation of Whist people play it differently all over. My favourite game was also Crib,but none of my friends play cards except Poker or stupid non skill games. I was brought up in a card playing family playing cards every Saturday and Sunday morning,sometimes domioes. I have very fond memories of the days way back then when older relatives were still around. I'm very adaptable to any game of cards and started playing poker about 20 years back. I used to go to the casino to play in small tournaments 3 or 4 nights a week.(always turned a monthly profit) I only gave it up with the advent of the internet as younger players were catching up to quick. I don't consider myself a gambler and when my edge had stopped i stopped playing. I started playing again when they made a pub poker league and these players are just as clueless. Poker seems to be so easy to play but you never stop learning,knowledge is everything in this game. People that have only played for a month and think there experts are the easiest to take money from. I may well become a spades addict Jim as i really enjoyed it. After playing another couple of hours and understanding the point system i bid my first nil and succeeded,but my partner was a computer and playing perfectly. To be good at cards you still need to be lucky to win which thankfully i am. My latest levels have been on hold, you can thank Jim for that. |
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| 18581 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Thu 14 Nov 2013 19:37 | |
| Hi Jim how you doing? When i went out last night i was playing small stakes poker won about $30.(just found out the pound sign does not work in the comment box). No i did not know spades but i do now spent the last 20 mins playing,enjoyable game. Hope you like the new set of levels i made,some of them are meant to help. 16.2 by Dave took me quite a long time earlier today.I did it the speedrun way about 100 moves more.(yes there are 2 solutions so far) I thought someone would take a block out but not two of them. Got a couple of ideas left to make a few more,mostly everything you need to know about my levels or mods. Would not dream of spoiling other peoples levels,not on purpose anyway. I like the fact they are simple and to the point but maybe not a dead cert for the beginner. How you getting on in rouge like level's and have you spotted the clues? Having an early night tonight 00.20 See you all good luck.. |
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| 18570 | Mods chat level | N7DOT (2227) | Wed 13 Nov 2013 20:21 | |
| Right now I'm working on implementing a certain math puzzle in Escape, so it will be a while before I add a new level. (well, there is another one that's more well known and is still just a concept right now.) | ||||
| 18566 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 13 Nov 2013 17:24 | |
| Nice mods Dave as always,just noticed them ten minutes ago. Tried desperately to solve both only managed the one. Going to meet friends for a beer and a game of cards.(won't be fit to solve the last one till tommorow) Glad to see you speed run both ways of trick 15. Hope you don't mind me making these levels,this is the only place i could think someone might be stuck in a R L level. With me i always want people to be on the same page. |
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| 18552 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Tue 12 Nov 2013 20:04 | |
| Hi mm,for my last mod whatever harder have a look at Learn a trick 9.(thats why i made it) Where could that be applied,does not work on Dave's level. Still hard even when you get the trick. Good luck... |
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| 18547 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Tue 12 Nov 2013 15:43 | |
| Just read my last comment, it might be a little confusing. When i said under the laser i meant in the y layer. |
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| 18546 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Tue 12 Nov 2013 15:31 | |
| Super level Dave however i did it differently again. I'm not going to mod it, there are plenty of them already. Liked your solution and if you want to find mine add a patch of rough under the left hand laser. If you don't want to do that just ask and i will post solution 1454. Adjusted previous level scores down a little. |
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| 18544 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Tue 12 Nov 2013 06:46 | |
| Congrats on both levels Dave. My first 10 thanks.I don't know whether i'm pleased or frustrated at the moment,your mod has just blitzed my solution.(back to the drawing board for me) Your dalek panel is killing me. My solution was my one and only solve of noname's whatever a different way,it took hours and is a bit tired.(needs a speedrun). I was trying to help with the learn a trick but you obviously did not need it.(Did you notice?) VM21 that is a very satisfying solve. If someone had just made VM21 no mod series do you think you could have done it? I remember when you first put the balls in and it was not to easy then. As for keeper's of the rouge mods i would not have a clue. My last solution solved all except whatever forever. I'm guessing that your new solution will solve all as well. Off to play however now.. |
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| 18542 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Tue 12 Nov 2013 02:55 | |
| VM21 done, thanks for the heads up! | ||||
| 18490 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sat 09 Nov 2013 10:39 | |
| Just a few more levels,not really tricks in all of them buy i started to call them Learn a trick so i'll stick with it. Most of the levels are just simpler versions of some of the things you would have to do in some of my levels or mods. There not intended to be hard just fun. |
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| 18472 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 09 Nov 2013 01:59 | |
| That's it from me. After a 15 hour shift followed by a few beers, one speedrun is enough! Good night all. | ||||
| 18457 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 08 Nov 2013 10:55 | |
| Just a few levels thrown together quickly,i suppose we have all been guilty of only trying to make hard levels. It was actually quite fun to make a few,might do a few more later. Nice one Kirima,thats what happens with ten minute levels. Take that back sometimes it happens with one i spend ages on. All the best keep on escaping... |
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| 18450 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 08 Nov 2013 07:52 | |
| I was only thinking along the same lines as you N7DOT the other day. If the levels at the top are two hard for beginners what will make them stay.. The Ctrl + E function is great but how does anyone know about it? What would people think about making a "Learn a trick" series. Ps as for easier levels "Ice world 1" these are the kind of levels i don't solve very easily at all. |
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| 18438 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Thu 07 Nov 2013 22:21 | |
| Been very busy trying to solve the new level myself. I thought this was possible when i found my new trick,but it was mighty hard to do.(not the trick) Never even noticed new level or speedruns as i was so busy playing. |
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| 18417 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 06 Nov 2013 08:52 | |
| Hi Nexxus,great to have new players especially those that create new levels so welcome. Here is a little tip for you... When you join Escape the levels at the top of the triage are probably to hard or don't make sense but there are many fun levels for all abilities out there. So when in the triage directory press Ctrl + e .. Then scroll to the bottom or press the end key. This will sort the levels out into a solvable list,Just start at the bottom and work your way up. If you notice this advice you will have a lot more fun and learn lots on the way. Good luck ... |
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| 18413 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Tue 05 Nov 2013 23:36 | |
| I was going to upload my solution to noname's level as it's massively different to the orignal. But then i noticed i used one piece less so obviously a mod. |
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| 18393 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Mon 04 Nov 2013 16:05 | |
| Congrats mm that was a toughie,trust Dave to spot the flaw in the level and so quickly. I knew what i had done wrong the morning after i posted it but did not think it mattered. Jim if you read my very first comments on Rouge Like then spot the flaw in Revampeed it should help a little. Any way I was waiting for another solver as i have a mod to make you work that little bit harder. |
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| 18362 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Thu 31 Oct 2013 19:57 | |
| Not from me there's not I had 136. Well done on getting them all... |
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| 18305 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Thu 10 Oct 2013 07:12 | |
| Yes Jim that level took me ages too,i had a bookmark halfway for over four months.Finally solving the wrong way as usual. Anyway i've been working on another mod for quite a while for you to play. It's nearly ready i'm just testing hopefully all the possibilities of it not going wrong. Hope you and anyone else likes it,it will be up soon. |
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| 18299 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 27 Sep 2013 10:32 | |
| Wow Jim thats another great mod from you,at the moment i think i know what to do but i can't quite execute it. Just to let you know i'm having plenty of fun and games with it. I only solved the original two weeks back and i was trying all these things out then.thats when i realised there's probably a good puzzle inside. I also solved 3 of your modded levels that where together, Four Squared (V3) i thought that was a great find. The 3 levels i modded i did as i solved them it was just coincidence they came together. Fourth contact was just a fluke i looked at my solution,now you have solved it,it's probably an easier solution to the original. I now find if stuck on a level it better to take a break and come back to it. So i will play it again later. I've just solved another level and im working on the speedrun,it will be up soon . Thanks good luck all. |
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| 18289 | Mods chat level | mm (690) | Wed 18 Sep 2013 16:01 | |
| Congrats, Mark!!! | ||||
| 18282 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Tue 17 Sep 2013 15:14 | |
| Thanks Jim that was great, you inspired me to have another go. I found the extra love and money and solved virtually the same way as you. I now see what you say about Dave's being harder find.As i did not need to find any new tricks but just order them the right way. Anyhow a big fat 10 as promised. |
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| 18280 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Mon 16 Sep 2013 17:51 | |
| Hi mm i am fine hope you are well,i had to give up on Jims mod as i was finding impossible. Since giving up ive solved some great levels especially numbots. Ever since Jim commented on it i was always giving it a go with no clue where to start. (I dreamt about it one night and it gave me an idea and solved it a very short while later.) Done over 100 levels rated 5+ some i would say are a bit harder than ratings say. Yes Jim i would love a clue,i think everyone would i hate seeing the level at the bottom of the difficulty list because no one can solve it. So i send you my regards,and best wishes and as much love and money you need,or is that my clue. My new tally is up to 1880 with lots of levels looked at and left,I've done many levels i first thought i could not do. Good luck to everyone, Hope Dave comes back soon. |
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| 18278 | Mods chat level | mm (690) | Sat 14 Sep 2013 18:27 | |
| How are you all doing? | ||||
| 18235 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 17 Jul 2013 05:48 | |
| I should point out that I had probably spent over two hours, on and off, on 18 without success before 19 was uploaded. Then I decided to carry on working with 18 but look for a solution that would fit both. From that point it still took another couple of hours. All these levels are definitely 9s in my opinion. I have noticed that when we solve a new mod using part of a solution from an older mod, we tend to forget how difficult it was to get to that stage in first place. I'm going on the road for a couple days, so I may or may not be around but, in all likelihood, not. Cheers. |
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| 18232 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Tue 16 Jul 2013 23:43 | |
| noname, I really liked your 18 solution, no wonder it took you so long to find it. I'm very glad I didn't have to find it!!! It should be blocked in 20. The original to 20 uses my solution to both 18 and 19, cook away... |
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| 18221 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sun 14 Jul 2013 17:09 | |
| Hi Dave and everyone else,back from the weekend away and i've had time to study your solution for 16. Well that was a stroke of genius by you and if i had not solved a different way i think i still be playing it come christmas. My solution is still very hard to do but probably not as difficult as yours. But who knows we all think a bit different,anyway i automaticly give the level 8 as it had 2 answers maybe more,but on reflection and understanding the original solution i'm changing it up. |
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| 18219 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 13 Jul 2013 06:51 | |
| It sounds like you are pretty close Jim. I would love to know if your first solution to 15, when (not if) you get it, also works on 16 or 17. I haven't had a chance to work on 17 yet, it may have to wait a few days and even then I think it's going to take me a while. | ||||
| 18207 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 10 Jul 2013 21:12 | |
| Glad to hear it Jim. By the time you catch up we might have figured out what to do with spare bit! I know what I want to do with it, but haven't yet found a way of making a really worthwhile mod out of it. |
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| 18198 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Tue 09 Jul 2013 20:02 | |
| Yep, that's funny! Think it'll help if I use my reading glasses while playing? |
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| 18197 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Tue 09 Jul 2013 18:44 | |
| Ha Ha Kirima,you just done basicly the same as me at the same time. After Dave's comment thought i'd play it again. |
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| 18192 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Tue 09 Jul 2013 16:12 | |
| Last comment by me already proven to be false,nice solution Kirima. I did test your bomb place but i could not make it work that way. The levels not as good as first thought, i'll get rid of it again in a few days. |
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| 18184 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Tue 09 Jul 2013 08:58 | |
| Hi Dave i've fixed 13 now do you think it's worth loading as a keeper. |
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| 18181 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Tue 09 Jul 2013 08:19 | |
| Wow Dave that was great fun and prety tough too.So you never found my easier solution to 13. I'd been playing around with 13 that much my bookmarks for the level stopped working so i started again so i did not have to solve the whole level again. In the original 13 i'd changed the last grey panel to useless. As soon as i uploaded i had the feeling of dread it may be cooked,but it looked so hard i left it.The trick in my solution was getting from the top rooms to the bottom at about move 888. Anyway i solved yours slighty different bomb placement which i'm not to sure if it's tougher so i'll do a quick mod with my first solve solution for you to play. |
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| 18178 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 08 Jul 2013 21:01 | |
| PS. Are you still out there Jim? | ||||
| 18177 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 08 Jul 2013 20:43 | |
| Blind as a bat! I had spent over an hour on VM13 and was just putting the final part of a solution together when a stray bot stepped on the new panel and another one popped up. Never noticed it before that point... daft idiot! Maybe we can spin-off one of the 11 style levels later with the blue walls back, it would be interesting to see just how many mods it would actually take to decookify the level. |
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| 18168 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 08 Jul 2013 02:31 | |
| I've probably made 12 more rigid than I would have liked. If anybody has a more original bomb ending and needs to rollback part of this mod to make it work, please be my guest. I've only managed to come up with one possible new idea for the bomb (i.e. without blowing up a bot retaining wall) but it would have involved too many changes. PS. I woke up at 4 in the morning, just in time to catch the last few games of the third set! Wishing I'd stayed up and watched the lot now! |
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| 18158 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sun 07 Jul 2013 15:20 | |
| Yes i do prefer VM11 again, and it also leaves more scope. It was just that it was a solution i found in my original level so i edited out,even though i thought it was better find.It also uses the main part of the level i was trying to be tricky with. I'll get rid of 11, |
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| 18154 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sun 07 Jul 2013 12:24 | |
| I'm watching the tennis as well, When i did not want to touch the bomb it was before your example. I thought the brakes had to come off from the start,and you would have to of come up with something really special as not to ruin the whole level that we had so far. |
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| 18150 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sun 07 Jul 2013 09:05 | |
| Hi Kirima,i spent a long time messing with VM10 trying to get something different from what we had allready seen. The thing was i could just about cook the level every way without making one exit impossible. I have uploaded my alternate level just for you to see the problems i was having. Different exit this time. My solution is not very good as i done it off bookmarks. I know it was not my turn for a mod but just throwing this out there,as it's basicly the same level just a different ending. |
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| 18147 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 06 Jul 2013 22:14 | |
| La bombe est arrivee! Cheers Mark. | ||||
| 18145 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 06 Jul 2013 20:54 | |
| Hi Kirima. Yes, I'm still here. I'm also tiling the bathroom! Still haven't had time to play 9 and 10 yet, and am unlikely to for a while. | ||||
| 18098 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Thu 04 Jul 2013 13:32 | |
| Took a while to get 117 for the top,but i've 88 for the bottom. | ||||
| 18090 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 04 Jul 2013 04:21 | |
| It seems the bombs have gone ballistic already. The main thread will be interesting. PS. noname. If I was forced to solve 7A the intended way, which at first sight seemed the only logical method, I would have rated difficulty much higher. Please leave this up until for a little while because it is a very elegant solution. |
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| 18085 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 03 Jul 2013 20:10 | |
| Fun little challenge Mark! | ||||
| 18084 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 03 Jul 2013 20:08 | |
| Bottom 90, Top 117 | ||||
| 18083 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 03 Jul 2013 19:59 | |
| Had another go and improved on bottom score. Bottom 90, Top 129. | ||||
| 18082 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 03 Jul 2013 19:39 | |
| Hi Mark. Had a quick play with your idea of unlocking the VM7 bomb. Beat you to the top with 129 but haven't got the bottom solution below 114 yet. It is clear we are attacking this problem very differently. I Will keep trying. Renamed Level 2 was one of my very very early solves (28 Oct 09 - 1092 moves!), long before I knew of the existence of speedruns let alone beating them. I went back through and redid most of the levels in 2011, hence I have a lot of speedruns from that period, many of which I imagine are beatable. There's a lot to be said for experience. I wonder if the 2011 Dave would have beaten your run in 10 minutes... I don't think so. Kirima, if you start playing with bombs, you make joining the party irresistable!!! :) |
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| 18079 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 03 Jul 2013 10:11 | |
| Pps it took me more than 30 mins to do last post as VM8 was not there before i started. | ||||
| 18078 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 03 Jul 2013 10:07 | |
| Ha ha,nice one Dave you reclaimed your speedrun.The funny thing is I only solved that level yesterday. After solving any level i always watch the other solutions and i stole it from you anyway you left an easy 6 at the end. It took me about 10 mins of checking to see where you even got the 2 back from. For some reason i must have thought this level was harder than it actually is,it only took 5 mins to solve,but when i first played ages ago i left it all in a muddle.(just goes to show how much you can learn at this game) I remember bumping into this level in the comments section because of the bad language title it had. Thats the first time i got the deleted level directory so i could look at it.(lev914). Fair play to you mm you gave him a bit of a roasting back in 2005,your comment was very funny. Anyhow talking off speedruns and the bomb in VM series, just for fun i'd edited the bomb back in 7 to see what could be done. To bottom exit i managed a 98 and top exit a 155 and it was quite a bit of fun to do,can anyone top these scores. Its nice to see you back again Kirima after your little break and once again another nice speedrun. I had just finished VM7 and was checking to see if any other mods where out when i clocked your speedrun 5,I had got smaller solutions in the bank and was very tempted to redo 7 without red panel to test Dave and Jim.In the end i thought that would be unfair. Ps i think its nearly as good to have owned the speedrun for a while as it is owning it out right,at least you get your name up and they don't take that away from you. I don't know how many speedruns i've stolen by shaving bits out of them , But at a guess this must be how most of them come about. It would be nice if all the speedruns were saved so i could see the beaten one's as well. Pps i remember reading a comment from Jim some time ago,don't remember what level that he felt he owed Tom7 loads of money for all the free entertainment he'd had. I really know what he meant by that now and thank Tom7 so much. |
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| 18072 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 03 Jul 2013 04:31 | |
| Hi M. Welcome back, I was wondering when you would show up again. All the mods on VM have been by Mark (odds) or myself (evens) so it could do with some other input. I'm in two minds about the bomb as well, it's going to have to be one very good mod unless it just ends the level with a final choatic flourish. We'll see, I may get inspired nearer the time, but no good ideas yet. PS. Mark. Sorry about the speedrun on RL2. After I saw your run pop up I decided to go back and play the level again and came in two moves quicker. There must be a couple more to be clipped off yet. |
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| 18050 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 01 Jul 2013 01:37 | |
| PPS. I've got wandering apostrophes again ;) | ||||
| 18049 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 01 Jul 2013 01:35 | |
| PS. I haven't fiddled with the bots... I'll leave that to you. | ||||
| 18048 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 01 Jul 2013 01:33 | |
| Mark, thanks for modding VM, don't know why you were so reluctant, somebody had to do something to get the series moving again. I've had another go to try and jemmy things along a bit further. Annoyingly, I saw a better mod idea after I uploaded... too late now, maybe later. |
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| 18041 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 28 Jun 2013 15:36 | |
| Hi Dave , i was really reluctant to play with various models 2. IMO it was the best first mod we ever had,it was no walk in the park. But saying that its not a complete level, no one else was having a go so i have. I could not put anything loose inside so I played with the bots instead. |
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| 18036 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 27 Jun 2013 21:51 | |
| I don't see how you could have made that work using green either. I'm happy if the series continues from here, but will wait to see what the others think. This procrastination is partly due to my deep-rooted democratic principles and mostly due to the fact that I can't think of a good way of modding it yet :) FYI. I did solve as intended. |
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| 18033 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 27 Jun 2013 18:51 | |
| Came back after a couple of days to find three new mod blocks levels, and a solution length which has doubled... Consequently, decided to go straight from 9 to 11. Jim, I'm not sure about some rules, I think you broke them all! However, 11 adds something which gives those 2000+ first solve moves some point, so who cares about rules :) | ||||
| 18013 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 24 Jun 2013 22:46 | |
| Finally got around to playing some blocks levels... Sorry Mark, couldn't leave your switches and lights alone! | ||||
| 18007 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 23 Jun 2013 22:47 | |
| Ha ha, nice one Jim. A few of the things I was playing with in MT14b prototypes have turned up in 17c. I also totally bypassed the intended solution in 17b. Will need a rethink now. Kirima, if you want to roll back VM and maybe take out some of the bizarro stuff, go for it. |
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| 18005 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sun 23 Jun 2013 17:09 | |
| Ps forgot to mention in my last post,which is the reason why i even posted. Kirima i'm easy with Mods levels i'll always go with the flow ,I dont mind what anyone does. Thanks. |
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| 18004 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Sun 23 Jun 2013 17:02 | |
| Hi Kirima, dont worry about cooking VM5 i knew that would pobably happen anyway. I spent my time more trying to get a clever ending to the level,but could not make that work either. Anyhow i've once again fell behind on the other mods thinking levels.(not even tried them yet). After cracking the single file levels i've spent most of my spare time just playing Max's levels,most of them are devilishly good. Well I got about another 10 that i could not do before and i've pushed my triage to over 1700 with them. Try and catch up with MT levels this week some time if I can.For me it just seems harder to go back to levels once i've been playing others. Getting to the point now where levels to play are going to be serious thinking jobs that take way to much time. 1800 maybe six more months if lucky. Good luck everyone,by for now. |
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| 17992 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 21 Jun 2013 20:02 | |
| ... You will also notice that a blue block in bizarro has changed to green. Still wont let you through the portal, but gives top access to the switch... part of a planned mod along similar lines which never happened, so I left it in as a bit of a teaser. | ||||
| 17991 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 21 Jun 2013 19:56 | |
| ... This forces you to use the cook on the disappearing tile but takes the transponder out of play anyway. Hope it makes a bit of sense. | ||||
| 17990 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 21 Jun 2013 19:51 | |
| I have got a non-cookable fix for the disappearing tile... it involves introducing a green lamp near the heart and locking the transponder to it by using red floor underneath. Unfortunately, I can't upload it as that mod is sitting on the computer at work. | ||||
| 17989 | Mods chat level | mm (690) | Fri 21 Jun 2013 19:17 | |
| I totally forgot about the "i", thanks for reminding me, so I did install a mouse and did configurate it properly and the mouse does draw rectangles, that's all I do know so far. (It didn't work my usual mac-way pressing ctrl as a substitute for windows right mouse.) | ||||
| 17987 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 21 Jun 2013 18:11 | |
| Congratulations! 20 is only 18 the way I should've done it in the first place, I'll delete 18 soon. Plenty of scope for turning the screw further. I spent a while making mods for 14a, that's why I haven't even played, let alone modded, the 'blocks' series yet. There are plenty of options, but failed to find a satisfactory one which shut out all the tricks used later in the main series. Did you get a chance to play with 'i'? |
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| 17977 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Fri 21 Jun 2013 06:45 | |
| Yes Dave you are right i was just typing a comment to say ignore that comment about black,if the level gets tricky and clever enough the bomb might not help anyway. | ||||
| 17975 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 21 Jun 2013 06:30 | |
| I don't think that is a good idea. What if the key to level is opening the bot release point at a specific point in the wall? Not much point if you put a sign up saying 'place bomb here'. Just thinking ahead... | ||||
| 17968 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 20 Jun 2013 21:44 | |
| I would almost be inclined to make inclusion of the bizarro world 'stuff' compulsory. It would add a bit of a new twist to the way we have to develop the level. I so want to blow up a wall, that bomb is just too tempting! PS. Kirima, you may find going round in circles quite useful... hint. PPS. When I made VM2 I saved and it auto-recovered an earlier bookmark, even though the edits meant the bookmark has illegal moves in it. Never seen that bug before, has anybody else come across it? I re-saved the level with a different name to keep the insane version on file. |
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| 17962 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 20 Jun 2013 19:15 | |
| PS. re MT18. I don't know how far you have got with this level. Have you worked out how you can get all the yellow blocks out of their room without changing the slider direction? | ||||
| 17961 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 20 Jun 2013 19:02 | |
| Hi Kirima. Quick 'i' tutorial:- Get the MD5 of a SOLVED level (e.g. Modular Thinking 16). Go into Modular Thinking 18. Do not move from the start position. press 'i' and enter the MD5 of 16 (2fd717f4600478982e44d7461ea9856e). If it works the move counter will change from '0' to '0/xxxx' where xxxx is the length of your default solution to MT16 (e.g. '0/1473') as if you had done those 1473 moves and then undone them or pressed 't'. You can then use 'o' or 'p' to play through the old solution inside the new level. It will stop at the first illegal move, in this example it should be about 500 moves in. Press enter when the illegal move prompt comes up and you can continue playing from that point as if you had just done those 500 moves. This is NOT a hint, just a quick example! I'm not suggesting your first 500 moves of 16 will help with 18. As I said, it can be used in slightly different situations, but I won't go into that now. |
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| 17955 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 20 Jun 2013 17:19 | |
| PS. I found Hugbot Research Lab the best level for learning bot manipulation, but Single File is a good one too. Mind you, I still haven't beaten Land of 10000 bots, so what kind of expert am I? ;) | ||||
| 17954 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 20 Jun 2013 17:08 | |
| I stand corrected. It was John Lewis who posted the 462 run. It was also JL who uploaded the original adaptation of 'success' so maybe he gave up the solution on purpose, who knows? Sorry Eric. MD5 is the checksum of a level which is used to identify it. It appears as a 32 digit hex number (look down at the level title whilst typing a comment and you will see it). |
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| 17952 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Thu 20 Jun 2013 07:38 | |
| Made a mess of last post as i did not think it through enough. What i meant or should have said is,if in the first version of the level there is a block that is not movable but also not needed you still have to walk around it. Then in the modded version it is taken out, if you cross the path of the block which is now not there that is when the solution for modded version ends. Hope this is a bit clearer. I also like you Dave am a bit lazy but i still don't know the "i" function. When pressed it asks for MD5 of level i don't know what that is or what to type. I think this would be handy to know so when i make a mod eg avalanche 4Gf i would not have to sit swaping from screen to screen doing about 6 moves at a time just to get the best solution. |
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| 17949 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 20 Jun 2013 02:16 | |
| I always find myself typing 'it's' instead of 'its'. I know what I should type but my finger ca'n't stay away the apostrophe. | ||||
| 17948 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 20 Jun 2013 02:08 | |
| Sorry Kirima, my clue was not intended to be as cryptic as that, should've thought a bit more about the wording... Before you leave the bottom left room you must return the sliders to their original orientation, the 'evil' slider is there to force you to do this, it serves no other purpose. I'm clearly much lazier than Jim. If a mod shares say the first 1000 moves with a previous solution, as sometimes happens, I just 'i' it in and only do the changed bit manually. e.g. Avalanche 2. It's also really handy time-saver when the change in a mod is so subtle that it, or it's effect, is hard to spot. It can be used in other situations but they are very rare. Ctrl-0 will import solutions from your player file, it doesn't care or know which level they originally related to or where the level is located. However, it will only check those solutions against levels in the current directory. That's why Optimization 462 will grab Eric's spoiler speedrun from the Minor Leagues version. I guess, at some point, many of us have uploaded a speedrun and regretted it later, I know I have, but once you've done it there is no going back (see the Single File series for an really good example... but ultimately it directly led to the creation of Quintuple File). |
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| 17946 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 19 Jun 2013 17:38 | |
| Hi MM,its how you solve the level that counts.What i meant by that say there is a block in the way in the original solution you solved, so you walk around it. But if the modded version has a wall, hole or electric in its place it will not Ctrl +o. THats because it only rememembers exact solutions. Even if you only walk over one tile that changed to something solid but theres loads of space around it , Ctrl + 0 can not recognise solution. It happened to me in Modular Thinking when you took out a slider by the yellows. For me to get Ctrl+0 to work i had to pretend the slider was there and push it to the side. Hope this message is clear written in a rush ,i'm going down the pub now. Its been the best day of the year over so far 23 degrees, so its making me thirsty. By for now |
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| 17938 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 19 Jun 2013 02:40 | |
| Mark, if you use ctrl-down you can scroll the screen down. It wont let the player go closer than three spaces from the edge, but this is easily enough to have the bottom rows on screen while working in the middle room. | ||||
| 17907 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 16 Jun 2013 20:03 | |
| Anybody know what the 5th and 9th languages in Carlin's greeting are? | ||||
| 17906 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 16 Jun 2013 19:45 | |
| Never heard of a 28th before... Old school'mates' do keep turning up on facebook including a few I can't remember at all, but I don't actually make any contact, not really my thing. I really haven't got much in common with any of them any more anyway. Bumped into one guy who I used to go on the lash with (...the good old days before anybody worried about proof of age!) in a pub about 10 years back and that's the only time I've seen any of them in the last 20 years. I'm afraid 18 will involve running around a bit (unless you cook it), but not that much more. Sorry about that, I would prefer a more compact solution but the nature of the level doesn't really allow it. Next time we go smaller. Carlin made some great levels, and some very repetitive ones. I would love to see some new ones in the former category. Certainly has plenty of ideas. PS. There can't be many tricks hidden in triage that you don't already know by now. |
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| 17903 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 16 Jun 2013 17:23 | |
| I think the timing of the end of the stick was about the same for me. but then I think we went through the system within a year of each other (5th = 1985/6). What do you mean by 'invisible slider'? |
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| 17896 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 16 Jun 2013 03:49 | |
| Thinking 18 was inspired by the way I solved 17. Could not force that solution and close out the existing one, so made some other changes instead. Whether this is a good idea or not remains to be seen... I only had a proper look at 17 earlier today. It took just shy of a couple of hours. Had I been forced to find Kirima's more elegant solution it would have taken a lot longer. |
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| 17893 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 15 Jun 2013 23:06 | |
| You'll be happy to know it is getting pretty stormy now. Solved 17 slightly differently. I have been toying with a mod but I can't get it to work properly and not entirely sure I can. I have other things I need to get on with so it'll have to wait for now. |
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| 17891 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 15 Jun 2013 19:31 | |
| Temperatures are quite comfortable here (17C at the moment) but I'm not sure you'd like the persistent rain we seem to be stuck with this week. Roll on spring! Haven't speedrun 17 because I haven't solved it yet :) |
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| 17882 | Mods chat level | mm (690) | Fri 14 Jun 2013 20:21 | |
| Dave, thank you so much for your explanation, I really appreciate it as I didn't get "it" at all! Thanks for ctrl-e as well, that's pretty interesting and you're right, it might be a better indicator for difficulty than actual rating seems to be. There had been a 2009 version for Mac, but it didn't work, I can't remember what exactly had been the problem? I also remember having had a bookmark problem as well, that had been very annoying, but that had been years ago and I thought it had been solved?! I know I'm missing the transporter animation, but I have no clue if there might be anything else that had changed? I don't care about animation, and I'm glad my bookmarks to work smoothly. |
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| 17879 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 14 Jun 2013 19:37 | |
| PS. At least I know how to parse an .esx file and create insane levels now! Four years too late, but never mind... | ||||
| 17878 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 14 Jun 2013 19:31 | |
| Have been looking at the source code over the last few days, that's how I discovered ctrl-e. Tried compiling in VS2008 and VS2012, but neither will recognise or convert the project file correctly. Got rid of all the code errors but can't get the linker settings right yet (work in progress). C++ is not my strong suit. I really want to try out noname's fix for the bookmark bug. Does anyone know which version this was originally written in? |
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| 17877 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 14 Jun 2013 19:17 | |
| I knew it wouldn't take you long :) I had no idea that there wasn't a new compiled version for MAC. Apart fron the sanity checks, I don't think your missing out anything! Not having to deal with the bookmark bug must be good! It definitely makes difficult levels harder to work with. To explain: Windows is different. The player and level files are not stored in the main program directory but in a hidden directory in the user's account. This is why some deleted levels which come with the download of the game get permanently stuck in triage unless you manually delete that triage directory. (The level is deleted from one Triage directory but not the other but it is moved to Graveyard, so the same level appears in both Triage and Deleted Levels - there are about 30 of these ghost levels). This is nothing to do with Tom's source code, as that is the same whatever the platform, but something to do with the way SDL handles file save operations in different versions of Windows (under normal circumstances this behaviour is correct and desirable, just not in this case). The up to date versions of the player file and level directories have not been saved to the main Escape directory since Windows XP, so just copying it onto another machine will not work (as Mark found out), but the game documentation has not been updated accordingly. Copying a player file into the game directory will still work, but backing up from the same location is pointless. I should really stick this lot on feedback and flag it as a bug report (...again). Manual installs of multiple versions of the game will not cause any problems (I have 3 on this machine: 2005, 2007, 2009), but running the setup utility will overwrite your menu and desktop links rather than add additional ones, not a major problem, just annoying. It does, however, seem to create new versions of level and player data for each version, but I'm not sure if this is 100% safe, so I have erred on the side of caution and avoided downloading level updates in the old versions. Hope this makes some kind of sense... DC |
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| 17876 | Mods chat level | mm (690) | Fri 14 Jun 2013 17:59 | |
| Finally I've got the Modular Thinking levels all done, this feels great! As usual, I had been blind and just didn't see one possibility. The annoying thing is: this happens to me way too often... My solution for 16 is slightly different, but I think it's not worth adding another mod. I've been reading the recent comments here and I just don't get it?! I'm playing the old version (from 2007), as there is no new version for Mac, and I've got multiple copies of the game on my computers, I can open all those copies and play multiple escapes on my iMac without any screwing-up problems. I copy my "main-escape" whenever I think about it, just in case and as a back-up, and all my bookmarks and solutions and ratings will be copied as well. In my "Quarantine: Impossible Levels / Bugs"- folder there are 19 levels, I've solved 15 of those and don't know either if the rest is actually solvable or not? |
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| 17875 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 14 Jun 2013 16:35 | |
| Mark, I play on multiple machines. Only one copy of my player file has my personal ratings for a particular level. I ctrl-0 the solutions around and try to maintain one file as the master copy, but personal ratings and interim solutions still tend to get lost in the melee. PS. Of the Bob's levels, I think Bob 3 took me the longest. |
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| 17871 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 14 Jun 2013 07:04 | |
| Actually in some ways ctrl-e (if you allow for upload date) is probably a more realistic difficulty sort than ctrl-d. It definitely highlights a few levels which I found harder than the ratings suggested: Three-quartered Arena, Almost nothing but hard, Compression 2, etc. Also nice to see Flows up there, never a d=9 level admittedly, but definitely in my all time favourites list. Slightly puzzled by Bob14 though! (or to put it another way Knight's Tour so deviously modded that it has exactly the same solution!) I'm going to have to try and remember which ones I haven't rated and do so (easier said than done). Been trying to work on some new level ideas but keep getting interrupted by work, rebuilding the bathroom, etc.. I had loads under development a couple of years back but lost them in a hard-drive crash, the prototype of Seven Bots was all that I recovered. PS. Utterly failed to find a version of escape older than version 200510120, and that's only thanks to radiant's link. Also, pieguy's site is still a no-go zone, only a few pages (e.g. pgpatch) are accessible, and I haven't been able to track down a copy of pi^2 anywhere else. PPS. Good night. |
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| 17868 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 13 Jun 2013 21:48 | |
| It's Single file. I'm fairly confident Jumps is impossible. | ||||
| 17865 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 13 Jun 2013 20:01 | |
| The oldest version I've found so far is Oct 2005. Many of the quarantine levels, including The Dalek Question predate this by about 6 months. Of the 10 which pass the sanity test in the current version, I've only got solves for 7, not including The Dalek Question. No idea if the other 3 are actually solvable or not but I haven't managed to do it. | ||||
| 17860 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 13 Jun 2013 02:53 | |
| Playing the 2005 version is interesting when you are used to the current one! Just trying to dig a bit deeper into quarantine. | ||||
| 17856 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 12 Jun 2013 20:09 | |
| First time I've used the 'i' function in a while! | ||||
| 17854 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 12 Jun 2013 17:19 | |
| Hi Mark Easiest way to play the Malformed levels (credit to radiant): Go to "tinyurl.com\escape2007". Your are on Windows. An install of the old version will screw with your current one, so download the ZIP version, not the install file. Download, unzip, and run it from wherever you unzip it to. Create a new player, level update quarantine only, and away you go. PS. Only briefly looked your 'new', Revenge. No idea as yet, I did it the intended way. |
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| 17839 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 12 Jun 2013 06:09 | |
| PS. For anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about: See comments on 2641,2,3,5,6,7 and 3128 for an explanation. | ||||
| 17838 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 12 Jun 2013 06:00 | |
| So 19 Oct 2009 it is, and they are not recovered solutions. The first triage level I remember solving is Shark Tank and that also has the same date. QED That coincides with my recollection of the Revenge of the Malformed Levels series being right at the top of the list the first time I updated. Obviously, I was utterly clueless at the time, and they got banned pretty quickly. Only went back and did them a couple of years later after being prompted in a comments chat with radiant. Definitely, a fun little exercise when you fancy a break from 'ordinary' levels. |
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| 17828 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Tue 11 Jun 2013 17:41 | |
| Ah, I thought that might be the case! I've only got computer.dat and pi.dat. Will keep trying. I'm intrigued by the other 11 rooms. | ||||
| 17803 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 10 Jun 2013 05:50 | |
| Then again, I only discovered ctrl-e today, so what do I know? | ||||
| 17802 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 10 Jun 2013 05:33 | |
| The MD5s are different... can't make sense of it yet. Another inexplicable thing: A couple of days ago I 'lost' all solutions to gnomme deux. No other levels, just that one... |
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| 17801 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 10 Jun 2013 05:24 | |
| I did just ctrl-0 it no problem. Funny thing is when I did that my solution and my tick against the second version mysteriously disappeared. So, I tried deleting all solutions from all of these levels except for my original solve of the first one, close escape, go back in, and the solutions are gone for all the levels except for my 1548 first solve of the original. However, every time I ctrl-0 anyb of them your 1222 run pops up from nowhere. Got me stumped! |
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| 17797 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 10 Jun 2013 04:38 | |
| Hi Jim, I just ctrl-0ed your upload but to be fair I rated as previous because I didn't spot the mistake the first round! | ||||
| 17787 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 09 Jun 2013 19:46 | |
| PS. My first, and so far only solve, was about 1900 moves and the same as yours in the important aspects. May try and tidy it up later if I have time. | ||||
| 17786 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 09 Jun 2013 19:35 | |
| Nice job Mark! The ratings are a realistic comment on the series at this stage, and not about the job you did :) Even though I started with a pretty good idea of how to attack it, it still took a while. I think that has formally answered the question about whether we should stop at this point with a very loud and resounding NO. I would have been extremely surprised if 13 didn't have a cook of this nature, it was never intended as a fait accompli, which is why made no comment on the subject of stopping. Will leave 13 up just for now to see if anybody wants to keep it as an intermediate level. Onward... The respite from all the 'mods' yestertday did give me a chance to finally knock off The Wrong Parity. Pen and paper solution took about 5 hours in the end, would have been quicker if I hadn't completely missed the whopper of a clue in the title! Two more to go before I finally have no choice but to make an attempt at Block Cipher. Also finally downloaded the SDL libraries, so I may have a tinker with the source code. How's your triage quest going? |
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| 17769 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 08 Jun 2013 17:41 | |
| I half agree. If it was a brand new level I would totally agree. I can only speak for myself, but I tend to leave the redundant bits in as a matter of historical interest. The level has developed organically and they show the process. Clearly in both levels the red bot is out of play, and in the Red Balloon, the three remotes are out of play because they no longer do anything worthwhile. The same applies to the bomb, the space has to filled with something so why not leave it there. Everything else is used, in fact some of the other mechanisms have developed more purpose. The trick to Jim's mod will also be needed in my version. In most other respects the intended solutions are very different, even though the Red Balloon solution is backwards compatible. |
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| 17766 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 08 Jun 2013 16:45 | |
| I did wonder why you posted there. Continued from 3563: Ctrl-0 only works on the directory you viewing at the time. You just need to come out of triage, go into Minor Leagues and run it again. Are you stuck on Jim's DC5 mod or mine? |
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| 17761 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 08 Jun 2013 01:59 | |
| PPS. I'm not sure that one tapestry 950 years ago qualifies Bayeux as a 'tapestry town'. It's a bit like classifying Coventry as a place where the women ride naked on horseback... | ||||
| 17760 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sat 08 Jun 2013 00:22 | |
| Thanks noname. I have been having a play around with computer.dat this morning. On reflection, I think you a right that 5 and 10 are probably the only levels worth implementing (6 is clearly practically impossible). The force floors in 10 only ever move ice blocks which reduces the problem considerably and it certainly looks like it can be done, but my prototype mechanism is very cumbersome and certainly nowhere near worthy of upload. PS. Mark, you're forgetting me for a start. I may be a Londoner but I live about as far away from there as you can get (Strictly speaking: I live as far away from a spot in the Sahara just outside Tangiers as you can get whilst being confined to the surface of the Earth). :) |
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| 17752 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 07 Jun 2013 03:48 | |
| PS. I do know how to spell Antarctica :) | ||||
| 17751 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 07 Jun 2013 03:45 | |
| Jim, I thought you were American, that's why I put your name up. 'Blue Bayou' was the giveaway, no BrE speaker would use the word 'bayou' (to be honest, I didn't even know what it meant until I looked it up). So, we've got 4 continents covered in the Mods levels, 3 to go, but I don't hold out much hope for Antartica! | ||||
| 17748 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 07 Jun 2013 00:02 | |
| I've never been to the States (flight transfers excepted) but somehow I feel I know that town... | ||||
| 17746 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 06 Jun 2013 21:15 | |
| After reading Kirima's comment, we have a new series series theme: Eurovision :=) No danger of running out of level titles... Got a vague idea where Gary and noname are but I have no idea where Jim is from though. |
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| 17735 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 05 Jun 2013 21:49 | |
| Yep, got it. Not seeing the wood for the trees again. I really thought Jim had pulled of a different trick. | ||||
| 17729 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 05 Jun 2013 19:28 | |
| Wasn't me. I was busy working on a mod of my own which is now on hold. Mark would've commented. My guess: noname. | ||||
| 17720 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 05 Jun 2013 16:21 | |
| I do agree with you mm i sure this can be fixed love to see Dave do it. I have been through every emotion with level from elation to dejection. Before i posted this level in the first place it was uncookable but to obvious and i thought the trick deserved more. I actually hated myself for being so stupid for a couple of days when it was cooked for the second time. Anyway the secret is well and truly out but i think it does deserve a level. Instead of being the "MaD Jirks" i think Dave should think we are the Dam Jerks. |
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| 17716 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 05 Jun 2013 15:28 | |
| This is what i realised yesterday after it was to late. There's always going to be a shelf or ledge to rest on unless everything goes , then we have no misdirection. Or we could just coat everything yellow. Ps i like your bot work mm. |
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| 17702 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 05 Jun 2013 07:26 | |
| Hi Guys, back up to speed on the DC5 series. Didn't need to use the 'method' on any of them. Obviously don't want a mod forcing the cook but I don't yet see a fix... it's late, long day, maybe tomorrow. | ||||
| 17701 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 05 Jun 2013 04:33 | |
| Jidark? It does lack a certain je ne sais quoi. What about 'MaD Jirk'?... it also works if Kirima joins in. | ||||
| 17700 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 05 Jun 2013 02:23 | |
| Been away on business for a couple of days. Middle of nowhere, no internet!!! Got a bit of catching up to do! I'll work through them in order, so I may be a while. | ||||
| 17631 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Thu 30 May 2013 19:11 | |
| Don't worry about it, Mark. I once thought the same thing and, if you're anything like me, you will get stalled now and again. I found once I got to that point that solutions came like buses: One here or there and then you get a session where things just fall into place and you nail a whole bunch of them, then things tick over nicely for a while until you hit the wall again. It's kept going like that, right down to now. About 8 weeks ago, having not solved one for months, two of them fell into place within an hour. Then no more progress until I finally ticked off another one yesterday. Genius is no substitute for sheer bloody-minded determination, but sometimes you just have to wait until you're in the right mindset. |
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| 17618 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Wed 29 May 2013 17:07 | |
| Looking forward to tomorrow's 1700 level :) | ||||
| 17613 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Tue 28 May 2013 15:27 | |
| Ni Mark, I was planning to delete it anyway. Just though I'd leave it a up a few days for fun. By searchable comments, I meant 'text' searchable rather than searchable by level. I sometimes recall non level specific things which have been discussed in comments and without remembering which level the discussion was in there is no easy way of finding them again. I usually find it quicker to pull up level comments by getting the level number from the game, pulling up comments for any random level and overwriting the level number in the URL "...bar.org/f/a/escape/level/3537?spoilers=1" |
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| 17609 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 27 May 2013 19:18 | |
| Wow! Dungeon is a total rip-off and not a good one. I guess there is no way to copyright a game concept. Electricity is water, hugbots are knights, daleks are evil knights, sliders are carts, and lasers are dart-shooters. When two evil knights crash they turn in to some kind of pile of dead bodies and armour. Everything else is the same including most of the graphics ideas. I note that Tom is only creditted as a level author and even that is hidden away in a readme. It was clearly made after the introduction of bots but before bombs. Instead it has pink spheres based on the ones used in CC. I will be generous and assume the idea was to take Escape and try to merge in CC elements but it never got that far. Graphics quality is terrible as are the controls, so I would advise anybody else thinking of having a look not to waste your time. |
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| 17601 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 27 May 2013 02:46 | |
| Jim, just been for a reccy. Looks like they right are in the middle of building a another LP release right now so the chances of getting any attention are about zero squared anyway. Just had a play of a couple of Joshua Bone's new levels - and, yes, the time limit is still as irritating as ever. Funny thing is CC levels are fun to build but so annoying to play. | ||||
| 17598 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Mon 27 May 2013 01:09 | |
| Jim, I'm not a huge CC fan for the same reasons as you, I only discovered it because of Escape. It was never included in the release of WEP I had many years ago, only later found out that some games were editted out of the early UK release. That said, it is a very interesting game, not least because the level creators prefer to incorporate the bugs into levels rather have the game fixed, but Escape wins every time as far as I'm concerned. I don't have any direct contact with anybody. Could try posting on the CC message board... may catch the attention of John Lewis or Davis Stolp but I would bank on it. |
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| 17596 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 26 May 2013 22:49 | |
| You won't find the original Chip's Challenge for MAC but I think you can get a MAC version of TileWorld which is a better option anyway. It may not come bundled with the level set files, but they are easily available. | ||||
| 17594 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 26 May 2013 21:32 | |
| Born and bred East London. Probably would have ended up somewhere on the continent, instead of here, if I wasn't quite so linguistically inept ;) | ||||
| 17590 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 26 May 2013 21:10 | |
| Pieguy, Joshua Bone, and, especially, John Lewis have been busy in the Chip's Challenge camp. Myst and Riven. That takes me back a few years, was living in Holland then so it must have been about 2001, think the others came later. Loved them, but I dread to think what the graphics on the original would look like now! |
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| 17587 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 26 May 2013 19:58 | |
| I couldn't agree more Kirima, and quite a few of those 3000ish players are N7DOT :=). Question to all: How did you come across the game in the first place? About 4 or so years ago, I found a ancient copy of Sokoban on a back-up disk, played through all the levels and started wondering if the concept had been taken further. A search of the net revealed quite a few games which I downloaded and tried one by one. They were all unsatisfactory until I chanced upon Escape which was maybe about the 5th one I tried. Even then, it took me a little while to really get into it. These are many many reasons for the lack of players but I think the biggest one is lack of profile. Just pretend you don't know about Escape, type something like 'block pushing puzzle game' into google and try and find the first hit. Only the determined or the already initiated will find it. This profile will have gradually dropped over recent years as the battle for high placement on the search engine lists has intensified. Social media based games, sponsored mobile apps, and heavily pushed commercial releases have more or less totally bumped Escape out over the last 4 years. This was the main reason I thought of resurrecting the FB page, but maybe that wasn't the best idea, I guess we'll just have to think of a different way. I also think the lack of in-game or searchable comments is a big problem when it comes to retaining new players. I seem to remember that radiant had an idea for implementing a forum, does anybody recall this? |
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| 17578 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Sun 26 May 2013 16:36 | |
| Correct, both Mod 14 and The Wrong Parity remain on my list. Never properly looked at at Block Cipher and probably won't until these two are out of the way. | ||||
| 17539 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 24 May 2013 23:39 | |
| PPetcS. Thinking about good players, we haven't heard anything from wowei or radiant for a while and I am really beginning to miss their input. | ||||
| 17523 | Mods chat level | Dave (2400) | Fri 24 May 2013 00:22 | |
| Right! Done it! Took a break after solving 19, came back to 20 and solved it at the first attempt. What's really annoying is that I had been working on exactly the right basic idea for a couple of days, I was just looking for a more complex solution when an easy one was staring me in the face. Solving 19 probably didn't help much in terms of stategy, but certainly helped in the sense that it unfogged my mind. Curiously, I have first-solved all of 15, 17, 18, 19, and 20 (16 was mine anyway) using the intended solution, which is pretty unusual for a mods series. |
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| 17521 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Thu 23 May 2013 19:31 | |
| Well done Dave just seen speedrun 19. When i started this game escape Balls by alex was on top of the list so ive been playing 7 months max. i have just under 600 left to go but i like to solve every new level as they come. Have not done dont shoot yourself by Dave or the last 2 mods by noname. I have plenty levels to choose from and one day ill try planetry mystery series. I dont really like the sokoban type levels as much even though thats what brought me to this game. yesterday and today ive had a rest from 20 and ticked off all the auto generated levels,I thought some of them were a lot harder than the 3's they were scored. |
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| 17513 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Thu 23 May 2013 12:47 | |
| Moved to graveyard: deleting level before it gets dumped in minor leagues. We still know where it is if anyone wants to talk. |
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| 17489 | Mods chat level | mark (2878) | Wed 22 May 2013 03:57 | |
| 'Mods chat level' uploaded by mark: Thought this maybe a good idea so we can talk about levels and ask questions. This way we can talk about a current level without giving to much away. |
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