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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0008075Valley 1Suggestion - Mission IdeasJul 4, 2012 9:13 am
Reporterjruderman Assigned To 
Status consideringResolutionopen 
Summary0008075: Puzzle room: repair a slimenet machine
Description"A bat culling machine has been discovered in a cavern. It was scrambled by the cataclysm. Use a whip spell to rotate squares and complete the slime network."

Squares:
* A mechanical pulse emitter (one or more openings).
* Bat spawners (one opening).
* "I"-shaped pipes.
* "L"- or "T"-shaped tile that hold slimes.

Every few seconds, the center emits a fire pulse, all "powered" slimes emit pulses, and bats appear in all the spawn tiles (unless there are too many bats alive).

The goal is to rotate the tiles so that all bats are hit by pulses as soon as they spawn.

Players rotate square with whips. If you're directly below a square you want to rotate, aim up-and-left to push it 90 degrees clockwise.

These rooms are meant to be dangerous. At first you're surrounded by bats, and later you're dodging pulses whenever you move. If you accidentally kill a slime (e.g. by letting too many water pulses hit a red/yellow slime), you have to leave the room and start a new puzzle.

Reward:
* A mystery clue, if one is available.
* You are healed automatically whenever you pass this tile on the world map. You no longer need to return all the way to town, which is convenient on large continents.

Difficulty ramp:
* Once you solve a 3x3 slimenet puzzle, you unlock 3x4 puzzles, etc.
* Once you unlock fire and frost bats, you have to deal with enemy resistances. Luckily, red/yellow slimes "powered" by fire pulses will emit electric pulses.
* On higher platforming difficulty, you are given fewer safe places to stand.
* On higher combat difficulty, the pulses and bats are more frequent.

Why I think it fits AVWW:
* Fits major game themes: "a cataclysm scrambled everything", "improve the continent however you can", "unique technology in a world of magic".
* Satisfies player urge to create "monster farms", without breaking game balance.
* It's a puzzle, but it's tactile and in-world.
* Caverns lack puzzles, and this puzzle fits well underground, since it involves slimes and bats.
* Gets new players to try whip spells.

If you don't want to implement this from scratch, an MIT-licensed Net puzzle generator is available at http://svn.tartarus.org/sgt/puzzles/net.c?view=markup :)
TagsNo tags attached.
Internal WeightFeature Suggestion

Activities

Pyrrhic

Jul 4, 2012 9:13 am

reporter   ~0026307

Seems interesting, but I don't like how fast-paced it seems; I prefer puzzle rooms to be about taking your time to figure something out. Perhaps this could be a simple "complete the slime network" puzzle, without the bats?

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
May 23, 2012 10:17 pm jruderman New Issue
May 24, 2012 9:30 am tigersfan Internal Weight => Feature Suggestion
May 24, 2012 9:30 am tigersfan Status new => considering
Jul 4, 2012 9:13 am Pyrrhic Note Added: 0026307