So, since the high scores on "Spaced Penguin" are subposedly down, does anyone know what constitutes a really good score? I just got a hair away from 800K, including 2 separate 250K point tricks. (See attached screenshot of one of them) Too bad I didn't do this one on my first shot, or it would have been a 500K shot!

ok... So I've spent too much time playing this damn game... Sue me...

Nevermind my last post, I just smoked my own score by a longshot...

1,435,743 points in one shot.

Insanity.

Okay. So now I'm stuck on level 18. I've figured about 3 ways to solve it if I just had one more @!#!$% mirror. Hints?

Hmmm. I just re-did level 18, and the only hints I can give you without posting a screen shot are:


1) Double-mirrors allow the beam to pass through them sideways in addition to reflecting. All three double mirrors will be used this way.

2) The 45-degree angle prism will deflect beams from two opposite directions at the same time. The prism in this level is used in this fashion.

3) The central "box" on the puzzle gets circumnavigated twice. Once diagonally, and once in a straight fashion. This is where the double mirrors come in handy (they reflect the diagonal beams while also allowing the straight beams to pass).

4) The very last thing the beam does is to go down behind the diagonal wall, and split into the last prism hitting those last two bulbs at the ends of the diagonal wall.

Ahhh. It was the prism thing that got me. I was obsessed with the laser coming down to that final splitter directly. I didn't consider that it could be redirected first. Thanks muchly.

Speaking of things not working out quite right, I finished level 19 without using either of the double mirror's special features, and I finished another level (20, maybe?) without even using all of the pieces. Did anyone else get the same results?

Yeh - I found a couple of times that I either didn't use all the pieces, or didn't use the features of them. Can't remember which levels, though (and I wasted enough time yesterday playing it that I'm not going back to remind myself again now!)

Bryan.

Yes, I finished some levels without using up all the pieces, or without using the special features of certain pieces. I think it's because the designers had a particular solution in mind, and we just came up with a more efficient one.

Since no one has posted this yet, here is the secret decoder ring for the levelX.txt files:

Everything is ampersand (&) delimited.

Each square is defined by a fs#=i and fr#=j value (# = 0 to 191, 16x12 grid)

'i' is the object in the square:
0 = blank
1 = outer walls
2 = bomb
3 = square brick
4 = one-way device
10 = laser
11 = bulb

'j' is the rotation (direction) of the object (laser, one-way, outer wall)
0 = W
1 = N
2 = NW
3 = NE
4 = E
5 = S
6 = SE
7 = SW

On the line "anzo=x", x is the number of items in the bin. Objects (on the next line) are numbered 0 to x-1

The item values are:
1 = mirror
2 = splitter
3 = refractor
4 = double mirror

So who's designing the level editor?

-Jeff

That's funny...

I was just going to post a message saying that the only thing Reflections needs, is a way to make custom levels.

Looks like you're way ahead of me on this one! Awesome!

Yeah... Now all we need is an editor...

Damn. I had almost that exact thing typed into a TXT file and I was formatting it to post here. I was almost done, but then it came time for my haircut appointment, and I had to leave for an hour. During that hour, you posted.

On my way to the haircut appointmet, I toyed with the idea of making a little level editor in VB. But then it struck me: They must have a level editor of their own. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if it was built in to the gameplay engine itself. I'll bet there's a line you put in the config file to activate the editing feature or something...

Yeah... Now all we need is an editor...

What a coincidence. Click on the attachment.

Okay, notes on this one:

- It requires Microsoft Excel 97 at least. I have not tried it on later versions of Excel.
- No complaining about the fact that I did it in Excel. It was quickest that way.
- It uses a VBA macro so you gotta have that enabled.
- It was hastily thrown together, it is not pretty. Sue me.
- There is no file-checking. It flat-out writes a file called "levelx.txt" to the specified folder and will waste anything that's already there. Also, it will crash if the path to that file doesn't exist. So make sure to create a fresh folder for the file instead of overwriting your existing copy.
- Documentation will come later. For now: Select one of the desired objects on the right. Move your mouse pointer over the EDGE of the selected object and hold down CTRL and drag it onto the worksheet.

You're a mad man, Tony!

Crude, but it will definitely get the job done...

Awesome!

A side note...

An easy way to add multiple items of the same type is to right click on the item, select "Copy", and then CTRL-Click on all of the places you want to add the item, and then hit paste. Cool for mass item inserts.

Another note...

Works fine with Office 2000, specifically Excel 2000.

Dude, I have no job and I still don't have that much time on my hands. I can only assume that you've reached admin nirvana, where all computer systems are on an even keel and it's time to sit back and admire your work. Kudos.

Actually, Admin Nirvana was a couple of months ago before Nimda struck us.

I am awaiting a new server that we have to move all our stuff over to. In the meantime, our current servers aren't even backing up. I'm a wreck, actually.

The thing is, there's very little I can do about it until the new server and tape system comes in. I actually was pretty productive today. The Excel spreadsheet was thrown together pretty fast in between other things.

By the way, I've noticed that the spreadsheet doesn't show updates to the Total Items cell until after you activate the macro. I'm not sure why. It seems to be cosmetic only, and I'll probably just hide those cells anyway.

So. Now that the editor is out, who's going to challenge me with some cool laser maps? Hmm?

Ahh. Admin purgatory.

I was working with your map editor with Excel 2000 and ctrl-drag doesn't seem to work, so I was forced to copy and paste, but then the orientation of orientable objects doesn't seem to always be stuck at southeast, so I'm forced to edit the .txt file manually. Also, it'd probably make more sense to be able to place mirrors, etc. on the map to make it easier to see what you're doing, and calculate how many you need from that. Also also, you misspelled ``available''.

Oh -- it may also be interesting to note that you can have multiple lasers on the map.

That's strange. If you copy a cell from the sources on the left and paste it into the middle of the map, it should keep that orientation. If it shows the correct orientation on the main screen it should write that orientation correctly to the TXT file.

Unless the Excel 2000 macro language behaves differently than the Excel 97 macro language. That would royally piss me off. The orientation code looks for the little \ | / - characters in the cell. It does something different depending on whether it finds the character early in the cell or late in the cell (so it can tell the difference between the up direction and the down direction for example). The only way I see that it could get that wrong is if (a) the text got changed in the process of copying and pasting, or (b) the "InStr" visualbasic function is returning different values on 97 and 2000.

If you want to mess with it yourself, the password to unprotect the worksheet is pitifully obvious.

Damn,

You beat me to it. I was working on an excel spreadsheet editor as well. Although, I have to say yours is far superior to the one I was making. I've never used VB scripting, so mine was pretty simple. I guess I'll scrap it now. Oh well, it fun to screw with while waiting for a design-rule-check to finish at work.

-Jeff

Hmm, I seem to have gotten the bug with the always-SE-facing laser, too, so I'll look into it.

So how were you going to do it without VB scripting?

Oh, God, my code was so brain-damaged. Attached please find a bug-fixed version that has the correct compass directions for the directional objects.

Told you I did it in a hurry.

Without a lot of playtesting, how about this one?

Hi Tony.

I wonder why you used all items in level 17. Here is my try, just before putting the last mirror into position.


cu,
sven

Very good. Now that I see it, I think I may have done it that way the first time, and didn't remember how to do it when I tried it again.

Cool. First user-published level!

At first I thought I could do it without using all the pieces, but I ended up using everything. Didn't use the double-sided mirrors in a special way, though, they could have been singles.

Hmmm. Not very hard, I guess. What I was heading for was a situation where the laser ends up being pointed at a bomb and you have to use a mirror to block the laser instead of reflect it. But then I remembered your earlier annoyance at the fact that there was a level you completed where the last thing it does is hit a bomb, and it still worked. Which makes my little trick useless, since it doesn't really matter if you hit a bomb, as long as all the bulbs light up. Oh, well.

Figured it out with one extra mirror...



Tom

1,435,743 points in one shot.

I did the exact same thing as you on level 6, except I got it on the first try. Most of the rest came from level 25 - it looks impossible but you can actually set up a stable pattern which just barely extends to the ship, so it takes a while before the ship and the penguin meet.

Argh, so much sleep lost over the two games in this thread. You guys are evil.

Borislav

Nuts. I just went to their site to pull a copy so I could try out these maps you folks are building only to find out that they've had to take it down due to too over 70,000 players/day. Now where would one go if they wanted to find a lingering copy of that game.... Would it remain in my cache?

Would it remain in my cache?

Very likely.