Bay 12 Games Forum

There was an extremely laggy indie MMORPG where you started on a planet (randomly generated, I think?) and had to build up a colony with factories producing materials so that you could design and build your own spaceship and then go visit other planets to set up trading routes between them. Full PVP, from what I remember, and the planets had randomly generated creatures wandering around.

I can't for the life of me remember its name. Anyone remember what I'm referring to? It was crusty, low-budget 3D graphics, and the servers had horrendous lag that took them years to fix, if they ever did.

I've never tried this before. I've embarked at a nice juicy major river and I want to dam it so I have a dry canyon to build in. The river freezes in Winter, and I was able to build a wall near the river's mouth. But the river just kept on flowing in spring, regardless.


Is it because I used wood walls, or...?  I also used raising bridges at the map edge to bypass the whole 'too close to the edge' restriction.

Do I need to dismantle it and use floodgates instead? Also, the river is only 1z deep, but do I need to build walls on z=0 as well?

Thanks for any tips.

Now that Towerclimb is on Steam with a massive new update, I think it's time it had a thread here.


This is quite possibly the best sleeper release of 2015, but maybe you've seen it before-- you might even have already thrown down £5 for the beta, considering it's been in development for five years. But now it's on Steam, and it's fully released, with easily double+ the amount of content! Owners of the pre-Steam version can send an email to davioware to request a key.

But for those who don't already know, what is Towerclimb?



Official trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXtAmFDZT_U

It is a 'roguelite', permadeath platformer, with randomly generated levels and a kickass soundtrack. Don't let the simple graphics fool you into thinking this is a short or shallow game-- there's 20 floors in Chapter 1 alone, and they jokingly refer to that as the "tutorial." Now there's an even bigger Chapter 2 with the Steam release, and it's going to take you a LONG time to beat either of them... if at all. It's extremely challenging!



The game is dripping with atmosphere and mystery, and despite the simplicity of the pixel style, the particle and lighting effects are gorgeous in motion. There's a story, of sorts. It's not explicitly told, but you'll eventually learn the purpose of your climb. Each level is themed to a particular 'biome' and each biome has its own set of unique threats, from dodging puppies and rats in the Caverns, to climbing vines and avoiding killer beetles in the Conservatory.

Lava is deadly no matter where you find it, and water-flooded levels are often populated with vicious pirhana and jellyfish. Spikes litter the halls and landing on them is fatal, but if you blow them up with a Blast Berry - also to be found scattered throughout the tower - you can collect the shards and throw them at enemies. You have an inventory and can hold a limited number of items, like springs and crates. Jump Berries let you reach higher places, and treasure chests can contain useful items and equipment, including gloves and boots that increases your climbing and running speeds.



There's hidden quests, challenging 'Path of Exiles' shortcuts (for the very brave or very foolish), and shops where you can replenish your resources. While difficult to master, the game almost never feels "unfair" and there is always a solution to your current problem, assuming you have the resources to deal with it. Don't squander your Corrode potions, because you may need to blast your own path through the destructable terrain. And make sure to collect the Gold Berries you find so you can spend them at the shop. Don't forget to buy a revive potion; you'll need to always have one on hand, because you are going to die. A lot.



If tight platforming isn't your thing, but you're still interested in seeing the game, I would highly recommend watching KY's Towerclimb series here. He's familiar with Chapter 1 at first, but when he finally reaches Chapter 2, it's all new to him, and it's really fun to watch his discovery of a whole new area!

I know this post doesn't do the game justice. I'd just urge you to give it a look, because it really seriously deserves your money. This game was developed by two brothers and is packed with charm, runs smoothly without any bugs or crashes to speak of, and will (hopefully) keep you entertained for a heck of a long time!

(Oh, and P.S. Play with the 'depixel' setting OFF. It's a horribly ugly filter they added I guess to make the graphics appeal more to people who "hate pixel graphics"(?) but instead just makes everything look round-edged and goopy. They did the trailer with this setting on and I think it gives a really bad first impression. Seriously, what's up with that??)

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So, what's everbody's highest climb so far? I just hit Chapter 2 last night, but I haven't got past the Vault Caves yet. The toughest biome for me is always the Ruins, because it usually ends up costing all my resources (damn you, Zardo!)

Edit: Managed to fix it. I don't know why, but the first time I installed AE, even though I selected all of the optional extras, it just didn't install the presets for some reason. I had no Presets folder at all. So I went back into the setup program and reinstalled with just the presets extra selected, and this time, it installed them! So if you're reading this from a frustrated Google search or whatever, try reinstalling. It won't mess up your current installation or project files.

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Thanks for looking. I'm using CS5.5 and I'm just learning the basics. Whilst running through a series of beginner tutorials, the instructor started using 'animation presets', and I realised that I don't appear to have any. Whilst trying to figure out what the problem was, I discovered that almost none of the items in my Help menu function at all.

In the Help menu, there's one item called "Animation presets..." that I was hoping might shed some light on my initial problem, but clicking it doesn't do anything. Clicking "After Effects help..." doesn't either, nor does "Scripting help...", "Expression reference...", "Effect reference...", "Keyboard shortcuts...", or "After Effects Support Center...".

However, "Send Feedback" does work, insofar as it gives me an error message: "Unable to display web page. No application is associated with the specified file for this operation." None of the other inoperable menu items display this message, though. They simply don't do anything.

Other Help menu items do work. I am able to bring up the About splash, Product Registration screen and Updates box.

I don't really mind that the Help menus don't work, but I imagine it might have something to do with why I don't appear to have any Animation Presets in my "Effects & Presets" panel. Any clues?

I'm not what you'd call outgoing, or particularly social. I'm not unfriendly, I just have the personal confidence and independance of a piece of fluff. I don't like unfamiliar situations. I'm fine with routine, familiar surroundings are no problem. When push comes to shove, I'm not overly shy talking to people, so it's not that. I just don't trust myself. When I'm stressed, details pass right by me and I don't see them. My brain shuts off if I need to listen to directions. The second I put down the phone, I couldn't recount the conversation I just had-- it's already gone. I was too busy worrying about things. Worry worry stress stress panic.

So here's my struggle: I have never gone to a music gig before, and I've always wanted to experience it. Even if it's just once, being there at a live show. It sounds amazing. There's this thing happening in London in November, and I found tickets... and then my brain immediately came up with a million reasons why I shouldn't go.

First it was, "I can't go on my own". Then I found someone willing to go with me.
Then it was, "But I can't travel 3 hours by train on my own", because I need to have a clear plan in my head of what I'm doing, where to go, what all the possibilities are... without familiarity I am extremely easily lost. Just thinking about it stresses me out.

And then family, feeling sorry for me (that sure helps the self-esteem!) offered to drive me to meet up with the friend I'd go see the show with.

And now I'm like... well shit, I have no more excuses. But I'm still terrified at the prospect.

I don't exactly have the money to be paying for this, but that was never a concern in the first place, so I can't suddenly hide behind that reason. My friend will lead me by the nose if necessary, and I feel completely at ease with that part. I'm fine being lead. I don't like the fact that family is willing to inconvenience themselves to make this happen for me. I'm overwhelmed with appreciation (not to mention quite teary about it), but now the desire to do it is overpowering. It's being offered on a silver platter... just fucking take it already!!

But I'm still scared, and to be quite honest, I'm pissing myself off with this. When I found out about this gig I was REALLY excited about going. I've been really into his music lately, and it'd be one of those memories you hold onto forever, you know? And man, I sure lack those. I never do anything exciting, never step outside my comfort zone. I stay reasonably happy where I am. Sometimes not so much.

Well, truth is, very little comes anywhere close, geographically, or thematically, that even tempts me. Except this. Now I'm tempted. Now I want it. But I challenge myself so rarely, that it still feels like there's a mountain between me and it, despite just how close it is.

So here's my chance. Every wall I imagined in front of me crumbled with the help of friends and family... so why can't I bring myself to say the final 'Okay, I'll go'?

And what sort of replies am I even expecting from this? ...I dunno. I mean, I can probably guess. And maybe all I need to hear is a bit of encouragement, or maybe not... maybe I just needed to offload the anxiety somewhere. I'm going straight to bed after I post this, no second chances to chicken out or second-guess. I want to see how I feel about it in the morning. This whole thing has made me feel pretty darn pathetic, honestly. But deep down, I know it's about more than just going to a sweet gig. It's more important than that. I need to do it just to prove I can. Otherwise, what good am I as a person? For those kinds of stakes, surely it's not so bad to let those who love me help if they want to.

It's been a while, so just checking. I found a rather nice volcano and want to live in it, so I'm digging a tunnel from the base of the mountain to the map edge. Ideally I'd like it to drain away, but I wouldn't complain if it flooded the bottom layers in the process. Like some kind of lava mountain moat.

I'm interested in discovering games where the main focus of gameplay is in building elaborat Goldbergian trap-combos to defeat opponents. Evil Genius did this in a limited way, but the Devil's Deception series on Playstation systems seems to be the most focused on this concept.

But these are literally the only games I know of that fit this archetype. Are there others?

Here's an example of what I mean by "trap combos": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py25AeWo2rY

I have a little game project I'm playing around with, which I'll probably never finish, but for the time being I'm having fun with it. It would be set in a 2D, side-on underwater environment.

I'm having problems visualising how I'd make such a vast and empty environment... well, interesting. And not disorienting. There's the seabed, and the surface, but then you have this giant empty area in between where all the player will see in any direction is more water (and probably sea creatures and enemies and whatnot).

I want to avoid the old cliché of solving this by setting the whole game inside underwater cave systems. I'm also against the idea of having a minimap, though some sort of map may ultimately be unavoidable.

I'm just not seeing a way to make this idea work well. Which is a shame, because I think the rest of what I have planned sounds pretty fun and unique. Of course, I probably won't even have the skill to get that far, but that's no reason to give up prematurely.

Thoughts or ideas welcome, and I can go into greater detail if need be.