« homeBrowsing all comments (spoilers: on | off) (info: on | off) next 25
Mods chat level Thu 20 Jun 2013 19:02
<Dave> 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.
 
Modular Thinking 14a Thu 20 Jun 2013 17:56
<mm> Thanks guys! This mod certainly only exists because I've been desperately seeking whatever kind of possible solutions... I could re-upload it if ever, but an intelligent spin-off mod sounds great as well.
 
Mods chat level Thu 20 Jun 2013 17:19
<Dave> 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? ;)
<Dave> 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).
<mark> 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.
 
Modular Thinking 14a Thu 20 Jun 2013 02:48
<Dave> To be honest Jim, I did consider modding it, but there are only so many hours in a day. It will lead to something to completely different and is probably worthy of a spin-off series. Go ahead!
 
Mods chat level Thu 20 Jun 2013 02:16
<Dave> 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.
<Dave> 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).
<mark> 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
 
Just mod blocks Wed 19 Jun 2013 09:41
<mark> Now we got holes the rule about red blocks has to change they are ok.
 
Modular Thinking 19 Wed 19 Jun 2013 02:52
<Dave> Your oversight was overseeing my oversight. So I got in first! Apologies.
 
Mods chat level Wed 19 Jun 2013 02:40
<Dave> 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.
 
Just mod blocks Tue 18 Jun 2013 10:14
<mark> Ps changing the position of a block does not count to your 5ish goes.
If theres somthing in your way and you need to move it,put it some place else.
 
Modular Thinking 19 Tue 18 Jun 2013 07:08
<mm> No problem!
 
zigue-zague 1 Mon 17 Jun 2013 04:17
<Jim> Welcome back Carlin, its really nice to have you return.
 
Mods chat level Sun 16 Jun 2013 20:03
<Dave> Anybody know what the 5th and 9th languages in Carlin's greeting are?
<Dave> 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.
<Dave> 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'?
<Dave> 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.
<Dave> 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.
<Dave> 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 :)
 
closing quarters Fri 14 Jun 2013 22:10
<Dave> School?... I vaguely remember that... big building where old men hit you with sticks... (You think I'm joking?)

Anyway, have a good break :) PS. It's midwinter here :(
 
Mods chat level Fri 14 Jun 2013 20:21
<mm> 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.


<Dave> PS. At least I know how to parse an .esx file and create insane levels now! Four years too late, but never mind...
<Dave> 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?
 
« homeBrowsing all comments (spoilers: on | off) (info: on | off) next 25