posted 06-10-2002 08:28 AM            

All levels should have a 'LOOK ONLY - IF MUST' walkthru or hints on at least
any VERY TRICKY, very hard to figure out spots, included w/the download!!!!

Not necesarily the whole wlkthru, but at least on the knowingly very difficult spots!
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Psiko, I saw you helped Walrus on his 'Big Trouble in Siberia Pt1: scenes 1-3'.........

I need your help! Am completely stuck in Scene 3 where have used ACCESS CARD (1st one)
flipped switch & saw cutscene of an area opening up (except, perhaps for the very outside door I must? yet open somehow) & baddies waiting. Also still have unused PUMP ACCESS card.

This is one of those type 'hard places' it seems. HELP PLEASE!

posted 06-10-2002 11:34 AM               

For the walkthrough matter, your idea seems good, but for long levels I think that could be really hard for the players (well, it would be hard to myself...)... I don't know, I don't like walktroughs, I think a good level should be done without any help... expecially from the author...

That's why I came back to the COTW itself to make it "clearer" and easier in all those parts which were not "clear"... I would have done it before, but they are 55MBs! this means a lot of people could lose the download while doing it simply because I changed it or deleted it... then the new cotw would have been NOT compatible with the previous two versions (not compatible one each other... so a lot of mess...) the better solution was to wait and listen the players to prepare the final version of it compatible with my TR-A..

I like HARD levels, I mean REALLY difficult, because I feel the challenge only on those kind of levels (Project Eden by Core Design itself, is completely satisfying from this point of view), but I like even the CLEARNESS... I prefer more of THIS in levels than the need to look at walktrus... So, my COTW is on the re-building in some passages for this reason... When someone says that a level is "hard", it can be GOOD or NOT GOOD...

It is good when it remains CHALLENGING (even a little bit frustrating for when it is done is more satisfying..), NOT good when it gets hateful... (like some levels I played)...

Example: if the level designer shows you with a cam where to go after pressing a switch, it is clear you must go there to go on... and it is good in large maps like COTW itself...

If you know where to go but a simple jump does not work, there are two chances: or "think about because you are doing the wrong thing"... (like in my first floating platforms series: simply side-jump and you can do them...) or the jump is objectively hard... (like the jump in the empty on the blue sloped square, while on my Cathedral Level you are going to take the second Buggy Car on a monkey ceiling....)

The first (floating platform) must be kept, the second is frustrating, because a jump is a jump, there is no need to load so many times the game, in order to do a simple jump, and it must be changed, and I changed actually in the new COTW

The wondering around and "I am stuck" moments are considered in the TR-gameplay itself, and it is nice to "understand" what to do when you have all but you don't know... example?... in the COTW itself, after the "chess room" with technobirds and the "beautifull death" ("you cannot move anymore" one), you are again in the cathedral level... you don't know what to do, but you have two activators with you!!! and when you remember that you could exclaim: "ehy, I was forgetting those two activators!!!"... this is a "projected" stuck moment simply to make you to exclaim that...

A walkthrough could help, but it could be considered like a "defeat" for the L-designers: it is funny to get together in the forum (LOL) to discuss about a solution of a challenging level, not funny if people get together to discuss how much it is hard and frustrating..... (well all of you in the other forum were nice, but sometimes I was sorry because all of you were stuck in the same situations, this means that the gameplay can be improved a little bit in those points, right? and this was extremely helpful to me)

So, I definetedly don't like walkthroughs and I am working to make things "clearer" but hard enough to be challenging the same

(COTW_v3.0 is already done since few days, and it is a LITTLE bit easier but CLEARER, more appealing to look at -completely retextured and all new lights and shadows-, and a little bit more involving with a lot of new stuff)

posted 06-10-2002 09:07 PM            

I have found the answer for BTSiberia in having to SHOOT an engine (did, but not enough or right spot when tried...so didn't KNOW this was 'IT.!') That was really the only SUPER TRICKY spot for me but couldn't get any replies in Eidos Forums. Did find the 'shooting' mention in last post on a Siberia Topic at Top Listings Forum.

I guess it is a better adventure if you have to hunt for the answers or help you find yourself needing sometimes....BUT, if there seems to be NONE AVAILABLE is when can be really frustrating. On my own I don't know how many other things I would have tried, like for the umpteenth time before would have happened on shooting that engine enough for it to work. (I did shoot it earlier in game, but not enough, etc....& of course you wouldn't normally think of that in that spot really)

Probably just a FEW HINTS on the EXTREME or 'HIDDEN' type parts would suffice in including w/Designers levels.

Most people probably will PLAY UNTIL EXHAUST IDEAS anyway before searching for help. Usually that's only when seems have tried EVERYTHING, & feel completely stumped.
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You say you have COTW ver.3.0 READY!?
When will it be up for downloading?

posted 06-11-2002 06:52 AM               

The ENTIRE "Tomb Raider A" will be probably ready at october or november and it will be divided into three parts: "The Mother" (with Jerusalem, the Subdued, the new TEP and some other "secret" levels) "The Father" (this is the new COTW itself) and finally "The Son" (with the Kernel of Rhatech levels (the nuclear sun you see up in the sky in the COTW)