New Level Set: Zed

[DJC]

Hi. I posted a new set a couple of days ago. No one seems to have tried it. Maybe they have and it's just crap, in which case I'm sorry to have taken up your time... or maybe it's because it's called Zed and it's at the bottom of the list.

http://www.armadillorun.com/levels/data/Zed.zip

[Ryo_Sangnoir]

There's a solution posted to the first level. A solution which far outshines my meager attempt

There'll likely be a solution to the second up by the time you read this.

[PeterT]

I'm at the second to last level. Zayin was interesting - I finally managed with just one rather short piece of elastic.

[DJC]

I'm at the second to last level. Zayin was interesting - I finally managed with just one rather short piece of elastic.

So, do you not post your solutions? I mean I could understand the reasons why if you don't, but I have noticed that (considering your performance in the competitions) you have very few solutions posted on armadillorun.com

[DJC]

With the new version you can record the time that a solution takes to complete (although I suspect the clock is there to help you set your timers correctly without tons of revisions - incidentally a pause button would be good although you can pause it by clicking and holding the Windows title bar, but I digress). I wonder if this could be used (i.e. measured by the solutions page) to further refine top scores? I think this will be used at some point in a competition as an additional rule (sort of like in Serpentine II where you're not allowed to break the cloth and have to post in multiples of $200). It could breathe new life into all of the posted solutions, including the built-in levels.

i.e. a $200-remaining solution that completes in 5.92 seconds beats a $200 solution that completes in 5.95 seconds.

Or am I talking rubbish again?

[PeterT]

I stopped posting my solutions at the official website 3 months or so ago... Mainly because it got too hard to keep up with all the updates, and also because of the emergence of the 2$ tweaking culture

[DJC]

Ah, you mean Sangnoir and me... I know, we're parasites. But it does provide a different sort of competitiveness. And we both also try to come up with our own solutions too. It's just that we always get bloody tweaked. There's also RYO who delivers amazing solutions and also tweaks others' stuff to NDE.

Actually I just thought that since you're the site admin and having seen your competition submissions you probably don't post level solutions because it would crush the opposition and potentially harm interest in the game. There does seem to be two separate cultures: one for the level solutions and one for the competitions. There doesn't seem to be many of us (Orjan is probably the best) who do both.

[Ryo_Sangnoir]

On the subject of tweakers, hi was a killer right from the start, and jojo was also a mass tweaker. LFRmy and OISGoats pwned the Alphabet levels.

Although jojo tend to post number + generic comment, RYO just uses OISGoats names his levels very nicely and hi uses pwned. Someone else, whose name I have forgotten, just posted the number.

See http://armadillorun.com/solutions/solut ... nts+to+fly for some weird stuff - we were discussing jojo, and he pops out of the woodwork to tweak

Was hi the first major tweaker? RYO and LFRmy have both developed very nice paddles, as has jotun for some levels - I think.

[DJC]

On the subject of tweakers, hi was a killer right from the start, and jojo was also a mass tweaker. LFRmy and OISGoats pwned the Alphabet levels.

Out of interest, what does "pwned" mean? is it like "resluts" - a typo (of "owned") that just stuck? I think lots of people use it.

I think RYO uses just the score as his filename and a smiley as his comment (although he has sometimes also credited you and me). RYO doesn't seem to show up in the competitions unless he uses a different name.

I think this game is already developing its own history. Tweaking is like a subculture in itself. I'm glad there seems to be an influx of new players. The more this game spreads the better I say.

Are there any figures available on how many it's sold?

[?rjan Flatseth]

When I first arrived at the official solution site, all the levels was allready pretty optimized- just some hard tweaking left to do. Then I left it for a couple of moths and when I came back, I saw that almos every record was taken with the same dark force pedal. But I took a tweaking-spree 6th October and took lots of records - most of them by $2 -hehe. It is what it is. One cannot avoid it anyway.

[DJC]

But I took a tweaking-spree 6th October and took lots of records - most of them by $2 -hehe. It is what it is. One cannot avoid it anyway.

Yeah, I think you crushed a couple of mine

It must be pretty depressing for new players who have just completed the built-ins to find that there's nothing they can do to get their names up there. That's why I try to build new levels (however poor quality they may be). It seems to have taken off in Russia recently and there are a couple of new players who are good at both tweaking and new solutions (mainly ASAM and ioncorpsE).

If you see my earlier post about the time solution, I think that could inject some interest for new players: cost + time.

I saw that almos every record was taken with the same dark force pedal

Yeah, whatever happened to Hudak?

[?rjan Flatseth]

Yup. Why arent Hudak in the forums or int the contests? He sure is a force-pedal-****, but he sure is very skilled too!

[Ryo_Sangnoir]

There is a cheaper pedal now (JP's pedal), although I've seen it used in a total of 1 level except for Level 2. Can't remember what it was now, though.

The Eurogamer contest thread is definitely part of the history. GeckoUK won most of those, who appears to be tmcsweeney, who hasn't even entered any forum contests to my knowledge.

Link: http://www.eurogamer.net/forum_thread_p ... d_id=55853
Not all the levels are on the first post. There were...13?...total, with no solutions posted for the last challenge.

[?rjan Flatseth]

Hm. I have never looked at the eurogamer-contest.

edit - took a look. Who the hell is GeckoUK ? Looks like a dangerous man to compete with!

[Ryo_Sangnoir]

From the profile of GeckoUK: Name: Tim McSweeney

So, as I've said, looks to be tmcsweeney - who hasn't entered any forum contests. But then again, I don't think many people from that contest have - except for BFC.

Edit: We MAY have the first display of non-RoD (Rod of Doom, used for breaking things) force from Squint. Level was posted on rapidshare, but is here as an attachment for your convenience. I may be completely wrong, but nevermind