Working Horse build
#1
Several years ago I had the idea to make an elimination game in PR2 based loosely on HORSE or SKATE. Basically, your opponent does something, and then you have to do it, too. The idea is for players to take turns placing mines in an open area, then running through that area without hitting any. The first player that hits a mine (whether it's one placed by themselves or their opponent) loses.

The original level I released at the time had one big issue: Players had no reason to respect the rules of the game. This manifested in two ways. First, a player had no incentive to actually run through the minefield when it was their turn. Second, a single player could have as many turns in a row as they wanted; the turn order was not enforced (the best I was able to do was use mutual exclusion so that only one player could occupy the minefield at the same time, but nothing forced players to alternate turns.)

ANYWAY, I was finally able to fix these issues through one of the most janky tricks I think I've ever done on PR2: The Alien Egg freeze beam. The main issue I had before was that I needed to make sure both players could access the common space (the minefield) while never actually being able to touch each other (if this happened, forcing them to take turns would become impossible.)

The fix for this is to trap both players in water, with one player (the one who just finished their turn) inside the line of sight of an Alien Egg. When the egg fires a freeze beam, it hits BOTH players, causing them to fall down one level. The player who just had a turn falls into the waiting area, and the player whose turn has just come falls into a play area. This ensures one player is always trapped within the waiting area, as the only way for them escape is for the other player to trigger the Alien Egg (which incidentally moves them INTO the waiting area.)

The issue with a player simply refusing to play is formally fixed with the introduction of Time Blocks. The player whose turn it is will always have 10 seconds less on the timer than their opponent, and thus is motivated to finish their turn in order to earn two Time Blocks (which puts the other player at a 10 second disadvantage.) The number of Time Block pairs in the level must be at least the maximum number of mines that can be placed while still making the minefield possible to navigate. I believe this number is about 25 in the 6x10 area below.

You can see the level layout below. Comments and feedback are appreciated as always!


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#2
Ah, if this was hard coded into the game I think it would be very popular.

This would be great for competitive frusts, glitch maps, and many other applications! I think this could be coupled nicely with a custom stat bar in level editor so both players start with the same stats.
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