A Strange Dream map (Spoilers)

Lit Knob

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Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

A Strange Dream map (Spoilers)

« on: May 07, 2022, 03:31:34 »

Spoiler: A summary of my reaction and completion of the level (click to show/hide)

Recently, I thought of the fact that its gradients are way more "connected" than The Machine's. They feel like a single huge sky split into smaller parts.
At this point, I had at least 5 reasons to make a map.

Spoiler: Missing stuff (click to show/hide)

Full Scale

Half Scale

One Quarter Scale

« Last Edit: October 12, 2024, 00:03:42 by Lit Knob »

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Lit Knob

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Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Re: A Strange Dream map (Spoilers)

« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2022, 04:30:57 »

I just realized: You will never find that run orb in-game because you already have one upon starting the level.
It's probably a leftover.

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kilicool64

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Re: A Strange Dream map (Spoilers)

« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2022, 16:01:17 »

Quote from: Lit Knob on May 08, 2022, 04:30:57

I just realized: You will never find that run orb in-game because you already have one upon starting the level.
It's probably a leftover.

Huh. That's interesting. Yeah, that would have been a pretty bad idea. It would have forced players to go to the right first and thus mislead them that this is the direction they're supposed to take when the level is actually open to being explored in many different directions.

The run orb's existence was just a bad idea to begin with. While you can design levels with progress blocks that require it, playing the game without the ability to run just isn't fun. I'm not surprised it's an unwritten rule among level designers to always either put it in the starting inventory or make it accessible extremely quickly.

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Lit Knob

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Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Re: A Strange Dream map (Spoilers)

« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2022, 01:34:30 »

Yes, I agree.
I remember playing Dark Alleys and It Waits. Even though it's somewhat justified in them, it was still annoying, especially Dark Alleys, since it's a maze with flat screens.

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Philch

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Re: A Strange Dream map (Spoilers)

« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2024, 07:09:05 »

Quote from: Lit Knob on May 07, 2022, 03:31:34

Spoiler: A summary of my reaction and completion of the level (click to show/hide)
After finishing The Machine, I installed the Expansion Pack.
For some reason, I believed it to be a selection of the very best community levels of 2007 (I probably thought it was the Third Party Pack, I guess).
I started playing A Strange Dream and was like "Woah! Where did all those new enemies come from? I can't believe a fan did all this by themselves." Then I fell into the beloved Chomp trap... and nearly had a heart attack (and that was just the beginning… Yes, I'm referring to elementals).
Since I had not yet found the boundaries of the level, I kept going right... Again... Again... And again. I thought "Man, this level completely dwarfs The Machine, look at this! You could get lost in here."
Then I finally realized, "Wait a minute. I'm at the eskimos... again? Wat. What kind of sorcery is this?" And that was the first time I experienced a seamless warp.
After some time, I realized it was made by Nifflas, and that "new" enemies are in the editor by default.
Spoiler: Unearthing secrets (click to show/hide)
Then (after months), in my second playthrough, I talked to the cute bird circle and realized it had a secret ending, just like The Machine, and also an OST player.
And finally, when I learned how to use Ego's editor, I also found secrets (the cat and the sheep. I wish I had found them in-game though), and realized there were like a thousand different ways to beat it, due to the duplicated power-ups.

Recently, I thought of the fact that its gradients are way more "connected" than The Machine's. They feel like a single huge sky split into smaller parts.
At this point, I had at least 5 reasons to make a map.

Spoiler: Missing stuff (click to show/hide)
Easy mode and OST player tracklist not included. Merged endings to avoid "breaking immersion" (in contrast to "The Two Machines", there's just one baby in this story, not "twins").

Full Scale

Half Scale

One Quarter Scale

Once again thank you Lit Knob for helping me beat the 50GC version of this game, the map was very helpful for the last handful of GCs!
How do you make maps like these? My image viewer was too weak to view the full scale map so I had to use GIMP to view it fully lol.

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Lit Knob

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Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Re: A Strange Dream map (Spoilers)

« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2024, 12:12:47 »

I'm glad it helped, despite being a map of the original.
It makes it more useful than I expected.

I used PicPick to take screenshots, then stitched them in Photoshop.
I asked Robin (Pie Sniper) if he could make a mapper recently, and I've been helping him with that.
It's still a beta though, it's missing some features.

To view full scale maps, you can use FastStone.
It's great because you just have to hold left-click to pan the whole thing.
My current maps aren't too huge, but if I made a map of a level like Gaia in the future, FastStone wouldn't open it due to a stupid limitation (unless they fixed that).
When the time comes, You can use Pictureflect for that.
FastStone is enough for everything else

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Philch

4
0

Re: A Strange Dream map (Spoilers)

« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2024, 07:30:27 »

Quote from: Lit Knob on December 01, 2024, 12:12:47

I'm glad it helped, despite being a map of the original.
It makes it more useful than I expected.

The 50 GC version does come with its own map, with golden creatures cells colored golden as well but you map was extremely helpful when I needed to plan a route or to reference it to see if I had been there before or not. As for your program recommendations, I'll look into them. I run Linux so I'm curious how well they'll run on Linux and how good they are to the native programs I use.

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