Given that the majority of Tomb Explorer players (63% according to the poll) don't enjoy maps with time limits, along with the notable amount of people who've said that the time limit just plain spoils their fun, I'm considering making a change to the way the timer and time limits in general work.
Since with the existing implementation, some levels have time limits and some levels do not, I'm going to change it so, instead of a time limit, the value entered into these levels will be a "challenge time". Here's how the challenge time works. If the player finishes the level within the challenge time, they'll get a score based on their finishing time. Once they've played past the challenge time, they'll be able to keep playing the level until they finish it, but they won't be scored at the end.
This approach, in my opinion, would leave the time limit challenge there for the of people who liked time limits (6%), but will take the stress and frustration off of people who just want to play the level through until they've figured it out. Now they can!
I haven't updated Tomb Explorer to include these changes yet, since it'll take a bit of work and I've been busy taking my computer apart and reinstalling everything, so if you have anything you want to say about the idea before it happens, now's the time to speak up!
I really don't like this idea. Some puzzles take a lot of thought to figure out; if you give an infinite amount of time to each tomb, then every tomb is winnable by everyone. All you have to do is spend enough time clicking around. As it is now, certain areas are locked to you unless you can figure out the secret within 30 seconds, and that's great! It forces your mind to work much more efficiently/actively/creatively/whatever than if you have all the time in the world.
Sure, time limits arn't for everyone, and they're not for every board. They are for me, though :( | |
Perhaps a challenger set of "maps" which are unique and are not found in the normal casual game list. There is no previewing or playing around with these.
In the normal game list, the timer is still there but it's non-blocking. Perhaps award bonus points for finishing before the timer runs out. In the challenger set, running out of time ends the run. ts | |
I really liked a suggestion from the last set of comments where if the time limit is up, you can keep on going until you reset the level or until you find the final treasure. If the time limit is up though, you don't score any points when you finish the level.
| |
D4RK3 54B3R wrote:
I really liked a suggestion from the last set of comments where if the time limit is up, you can keep on going until you reset the level or until you find the final treasure. If the time limit is up though, you don't score any points when you finish the level. That's what I suggested here, wasn't it? IainPeregrine wrote: I really don't like this idea. Some puzzles take a lot of thought to figure out; if you give an infinite amount of time to each tomb, then every tomb is winnable by everyone. All you have to do is spend enough time clicking around. As it is now, certain areas are locked to you unless you can figure out the secret within 30 seconds, and that's great! It forces your mind to work much more efficiently/actively/creatively/whatever than if you have all the time in the world. Well if there were enough people making levels of each category, then it probably wouldn't be an issue. But I want to appeal to people of both categories since, on the one hand, I like having parts of the map that people aren't going to get to because they're forced to push for the finish by the time limit, and on the other hand, I don't want to frustrate people. | |
I love this idea. It makes the game more of an interesting puzzle game than a fast-paced clicker.
| |
- keeping the clock running so a person who is trying to trim the seconds off their times can monitor how well they did compared to the challenger time. (+23 seconds)
- perhaps offer a mode that lets them play without the pressure of time altogether? Maybe you have this...
ts