Chronic Logic

I don't know if this is what you are talking about, but I've seen when an anchor is not right on the edge of a drop and the bridge sags after the simulation starts, that the edge of the drop ends up poking through the deck. When a vehicle runs across it, it bumps into this land. I normally build a little ramp over this section. (It hugely increases stress but gets you past the level.)

And yes.. Looking at the mail message it says quite clearly that it's an early version as a thanks to those who pre-ordered.. Sorry! I got the mail and in a fit of excitement clicked directly on the link without reading a word.

*ahem*

Anyways. Moving swiftly on.. amdkt7.. It is possible to zoom by moving the mouse to the top or bottom of the play area while the left mouse button is depresed. (Tell it that it has no friends and the right mouse button talks about it behind it's back.)

Sorry for posting stuff that's already been reported! And actually I did think that development was finished. Just another 5 watt lightblub moment. http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

OK. I've finished the levels and have been playing with the pnumatic bridges (meduim 3 and 5.) This feature definitely counts as a major plus for PXFII! http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'> You can create some really crazy moving structures. I'm kind of hoping that there will be some larger ships in the final version which require moving the bridge further out of the way! Or maybe a bridge spanning multiple rivers so it requires more than one opening.

Anyways. I've had a few situations where the desk sections at the split point of the bridge haven't separated correctly and the bridge has pulled itself apart. The problem can usually be solved by partly or completely rebuilding the bridge, (somehow I think that the order the links are placed effects it. So far I can't consistently recreate a bridge which does this but I'll keep trying.) I was wondering if this was another known issue and if anyone else had been playing around with pnumatic links enough to spot this one.

Thanks street/kinnoch. I replaced all the deck sections with steel and KERCHING!.. Hello medium level 4 goodness! :biggrin:

Has anyone else seen this? I creaed a bridge, The cars run across, the bridge opens, the boat moves past, and the bridge closes again, except that it never stops saying phase 4/5. The bridge actually gets back to it's original position but the sound of the draw bridge shutting never stops and the level never completes so I can't progress.

Thoughts and musings on the game:
I miss the sounds of destruction (as mentioned in another thread.) I also miss the text at the beginning of each level tell you what to do. (At the moment I'm just guessing what to do based on what parts are available.) And for a game which is now selling for ฮ, 15 levels seems to be not many. (Granted I *did* get it for the pre-release price and I know the community will provide itself with ample entertainment in this arena http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'> but I feel a little like I've bought an engine with some example levels rather than a game.)

Minor thing.. It would be nice, when running in window mode, to allow the mouse out of the pontifex window. I don't know how other people use window mode, but I life to have a couple of things running (a game, messenger, browser) and multitask. It's difficult when the game won't let go of the cursor.

And for those having performance problems... As long as I stay _well_ away from shadow mode, PFX2 runs great for me in a 640x480 window on my PIII500. (I know. I so need a PC upgrade it's not even funny.)

Oh well.. Happy bridge building, or for those who've already finished the game, happy level building!

Well it's past midnight for me so it's the 26th! *shrugs and grins* I'm off to bed. If it gets released while I'm asleep then have fun playing. I'll catch up with these crazy wacky repeated email checking forum thread in the morning!

*laughs*

ok.. no more for now... That's enough.. I don't even know if they are any good! I don't want to dissapoint!
;)

Hello.. I've done a couple of new levels (it'd be nice to have someone to guinnea pig them on coz It's difficult to know how difficult they are when it's just you playing it!)

I was also thinking about maybe pontifexifying (what a great word! *grins*) the original BB levels.

Is anyone going to host levels? coz I've got nowhere to do it. Let me know.

Is anyone else out there making levels?

(Edited by Duckling at 5:29 am on Oct. 11, 2001)

It sounds like a nice idea... I haven't really been doing any work on new levels since I did the first two. My initial burst of map maping motivation has depleated http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('> But should I get back into it to the point where I've created an entire map pack then I'd be interested. And I'm sure other people out there would also like the opportunity to have their creations hosted!

So in short.... Do it do it do it do it now!! ;)

Oh.. and on the subject of file size.. I have two levels zipped up and it comes to about 188k.. But that includes 5 new textures which I have daubed all over my nice 3d terrained scenery! :biggrin:

The train tracks arn't so hard once you figure out the trick.. You know how to put textures on your levels right? (select your texture of choice and right click to paint.) Well if "track" is highlighted then the track texture is superimposed over whatever texture you are currently using..

Well, actually half of it is.. You need to apply the track texture to the blocks either side of the center line.

Just remember to set the "edit forward" and "edit back" values to 0 or all blocks along that (z)axis will have the track applied to them

I LOVE this idea.. I have been a big RollerCoasterTycoon fan for some time and building coasters is WAY fun!

As well as just building the coaster you should have stats (like RCT.) Then the scenarios become:

- Build a Coaster with an excitement greater than X..

- Build a Coaster with X inversions.

- Build a coaster which can support 3 trains running similtaniously.

- Build a Coaster which reaches a minimum height of X

- Build a Coaster with a minimum length of X.

- Build a coaster with a minimum top speed of X.

- Build a coaster with a minimum G of X.

- Build a coaster with a minimum negative G of X.

And combinations theirof!

You could either have people build freeform coasters, or each level provides you with 'waypoints' which your ride must pass through.

I don't know if anchors would make as much sense for this than for bridges, but you could mark areas of ground which are stable are areas which arn't. (water, paths, roads)

OOooohhh.. Funky.. can you imagine the fan sites? Loads of people creating mad coasters.. (You should be able to paint them and give them funky names!)

And different types of coasters too!!! If you wanted to build using prebuilt bits then that'd be a steel rollercoaster. Or gameplay closer to BB would be wooden rollercoasters!

NICE idea! http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

And the "In Train" view would be a blast!!

(Edited by Duckling at 5:56 am on Oct. 12, 2001)

OK.. This was originally a mail but I'll put it in here aswell.. share and enjoy etc...

Some of these point have also been covered by other people on the BB boards but I'm gonna keep them in here anyways!

-------------------

I personally found pontifex easier than BridgeBuilder. The reason
being the inclusion of the heavy steel and cable elements. Please
don't get me wrong. I like these new elements, however, the main
chalenge of the original game was in trying to create a bridge which
could spread out the weight of the train so that it could pass.
This problem is made much easier with the heavy steel and cable,
so therefore the game is easier.
What I suggest is scenario type levels which add more variation.
For example:

You could have levels where all you could use was light
steel (which would give you gameplay more like BridgeBuilder.)

You could have levels where you only have access to a fixed length
of cabel or a fixed amount of heavy steel.

You could have a level where the local authority forbids building
above a certain height.

You could have a level where each anchor can only take up to a
certain weight limit.

It might also be fun to add a "wood" building material. A local
authority won't allow a metal bridge in a protected area because
it would look out of place, so you can only use wood. (This is
another variation on my first suggestion, ie create some levels
which are closer to BridgeBuilder, where people often solved
levels with some kind of trestle bridge.)

Another element which I think may add to gameplay would be an
option for a level to have a roof (in the same way that it has
a floor.) You could have levels where you must thread a bridge
through a winding cavern, or where you must pass a bridge through
a very thin gap.

(I did have a little ascii picture here to illustrate my point better, but I can't figure out how to get preformatted html, or switch to a fixed width font so nuts to it! *grins*)

Either way, having a roof would create a
variable height restriction on the builder. It may prove to be
an interesting chalenge. It would also somewhat legitamize the
'floating anchors' which you have in some levels, but that is
a very minor point! *smiles*

Maybe you could have multiple potential anchor points which
the player must also buy (although they'd be the most expensive
part to stop people just buying them all!) You could even have
different types of anchors, for example, a floating anchor.
It wouldn't be able to hold much weight and it could move, but
it'd be much cheaper than a normal anchor. - To be honest. I'm
not so sure about this one, but I figured I'd include it anyways.

You could have a level where you are in competition for a bridge
making contract and to test your skills (and those of the your
competetors,) you must create a bridge which will be subjected to
higher and higher weights until it breaks. The bridge which
supports the most weight gets the contract. (This is more of a
competition type thing I guess, but you could have it as a level
just to get people to go back and keep modifying their bridges.)

Having levels with different kinds of vehicles may be interesting
also. A stream of cars, vans and lorries (which would create
different kinds of stress as they are over on once side of the road.)

For higher difficulty you could also create wind as another variable
to deal with. (You must build a bridge over the blah-blah estuary.
It must be a good bridge as you get strong gusts of wind comming
off from the sea!) Things such as wind work well for the game as
they are elements which a real bridge designer would have to consider.

Basically, it would be nice to see other restrictions than money
applied to the game. Maybe even having some levels be infinite
money, but maximum weight.

actually.. having the number of textures much higher would allow for much more detailed levels. (I know it'd add nothing to the gameplay but it's just nice to see!)

If I wanted to create a house which consisted of a single block raised higher that all around it (it would have a flat roof and sloped walls but I never said it wes a well built house!) then I would require 9 textures for that alone. One for each block surrounding it. (brick texture with windows or doors in the right orientation.) and one for the roof..

OK, so this is a kinda silly example, but you can apply it to other cases, such as having the track on a raised section which you could texture to look like a bridge with archways.. or if you wanted the textures under the water to be mud instead of grass, you could have one texture for each side of the river whihc "fades" from grass to mud in the right direction..

If you want to had detailed texture design then you're gonna run out of files REAL quick...

To be honest I've not tried referencing textures out of the range specified in the manual so maybe it's possible (in which case this is a rather pointless post, but hey! at least it's on topic! ;) ) But is there any reason why you couldn't have any number of texture files..

(of course you coud end up with a minute level file and a hideous amount of textures! But you pays your money you takes your choice! http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'> If Pontifex can't find a texture file will it just use the default grass one?)