In the early days of this forum, when I was still a young lurker, there were magnificent levels which were fun to play. These were levels that, more often than not, made you rely on planning and creating actual contraptions to get across whatever obstacles that level offered. For some reason someone decided this was a bad way of doing things, and the erratic age began.
What I'm bringing up here is, of course, very subjective. I haven't actually performed scientific polls and studied the matter, but I know I'm not alone. If someone takes offense from this, well good, cause I want people to think about this.
Today the average contest level is dominated by levels which almost always feature things like falling debrief, dark-powered elements, or, the scourge of this game; loose rockets. Often many of these combined. If you have these kinds of things in a level, there is bound to be a way to solve it using a minimum of material. This doesn't really sound too bad, does it? Well, the problem is that these kinds of objects are chaotic.
I do not enjoy chaos. Chaos is what you get when there are too many (small) elements acting together, so that a small variation in any one of them will change the outcome of the system, as a whole, drastically. The problem is that there is NO way for the human mind to actually logically deduct how you should change a chaotic structure to make it better. You are just guessing. Guessing takes time, nothing more. Of course, you can add more and more material to the erratic object to make it behave and travel in a much more determinable path, but then you've already lost to whoever uses just one length of rope and five extra hours to tweak it to the portal. I do not enjoy chaos.
While you can remove all the elements of chaos from the level itself, it's still just as easy for the player to add material himself, and tweak on. My plea isn't to ban rockets or anything such. My plea is for us to think about making levels that reward good concepts, not just too much time. There are many, in mine and many other's view, prime examples of these kinds of levels. SkiJump64C, CrimsonKing, CaverOfKafka, and my own Spelunking are just some of these. (I remember some of these, because I won them, fair enough, but I choose to think I can judge them somewhat fair even so) We call these genres of levels "traveler" levels, in honor of ?rjan's contribution to A league 14. (we miss your resluts
)
I have nothing against tweaking, as long as there is a somewhat clear purpose, and consistency in its effects. Bottom line (for me) is that problems that can be solved with nifty
concepts should be far more frequent than problems solved with chaos. Lately entire levels, not just parts of them, have been totally dominated by chaotic elements. *shrugs*
Another issue, much bigger than I think people admit, is our rules. I've brought this up many times before, and got little response. I'll try again. *takes a big breath* We have lousy rules.
We have inconsistent rules that not only are illogical, but give the host of the level far too much power. Why should the host have to decide whether or not a solution is qualified for the light medal or not? Isn't this in itself a big fat red warning saying that our rules are just not strong enough? I can elaborate, but I have, so many times already, so I won't. Unless people actually want to hear. Again.
And while I fear we are a minority of silent, discontent, 'dillo soldiers, I still want to say everything I feel should be said. Be it, as it may, my epitaph. *is very dramatic*
Thank you.