Sack, The legendary - Challenge 2 - Morbidallia *Published*

[Luos_83]

Sack, The legendary: Level 5 of 13 - Challenge 2 - Morbid boss by Luos_Desruc


"Morbidallia"
Challenge 2 of "Sack, The legendary" series.
A storybased adventure that brings Sack to a world where sackpeople have not been seen for thousands of years.
Can be played with up to four players without any real problems.
I would suggest to play it offline for the best experience though.

Sack, the legendary - Challenge 2 Trailer:
Special thanks to LbpHolic!


Story:
None, After working on the boss for four weeks I still loved every minute of him in playmode.
I thought it would be cool to give the boss his own "Level" so people who enjoyed him in "Sack, The legendary - Level 5 of 13 - part 2 of 2" can fight him again without having to go trough the whole level again.

Note:
I will be dead honest about this,
This boss is the result on a small conversation I had with Fij.
I thought he could really improve his boss in "Dead Sack Cave" and couldnt sleep that night.
So I came up with a very basic design for my own boss.
basically:
Moves up/down/left/right
shoots plasmaballs.
Original way of damaging it.
It ended in about 5 lines of text and a small drawing of the boss on paper.
(asci version of boss: (/\) .. yes thats it)
four weeks later I was done, The logic was a pain in the ....
And I am very glad I created "Sarge" the huge gladiator in "Arena of the Gladiators" as his logic was the basis of what eventually would become "Morbidillia".

This was about a month ago, and did not even start working on Level 5 of "STl",
As I wanted this boss as a part of my level it sat there.. Waiting for me to pop up in play mode and trying to beat him.. Even after almost 2 months of playing.. I still love what I created.
I never expected the logic to be so hard.. but I can say that logic will probably never give me any problems again.


This is a challenge/bossfight level that is part of level 5 of "Sack, The legendary".

Difficulty: Normal, though the last part is near Hard.
Average playtime: Depending on your luck between a few minutes and 10 or so minutes.

Sack, The legendary: Level 1 of 13
Sack, The legendary: Level 2 of 13
Sack, The legendary: Level 3 of 13
Trailer for Sack, the legendary levels 1,2 and 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYx4TugKQQ4
Sack, The legendary: Level 4 of 13
Trailer for Sack, The legendary level 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhL0mSWnyrw
Sack, The legendary: Level 5 of 13 (part 1)
Sack, The legendary: Level 5 of 13 (part 2)

For the whole project,
check out: "Project Legendary"

I would like to thank my friends and family for putting up with my endlessly endless timespending in the LBP editor.
I would also like to thank Adipose for having some patience and letting me finish this massive beast called STl 5.
Thanks for comph on helping me getting the "Sinking" platform basics right

Also lots of thanks to everyone who helped me test the levels..
Shuluu, Fred, Judy, Draakje, Ladylynn and many many more.
Thank you for making my endless hours in the editor less dull,
and all of your anthousiasm every time one of you entered the editor gave me a huge smile on my face.

Enjoy!
Any comments, reviews and head-up's for problems in-game are appreciated!
I would also like to know what you people think of the conversations in-game.


Extra's
My first boss.
When entering the level, you can choose to go left for a small tutorial on how the log-canon works.
When acing the level you will get the (very) basic version of the boss.
Its the one I created after day 1 of this project.

What's so special about this boss?
Well.. click here!:

[spoiler]
*mouth opens/closes
*Moves left/right
*rotates 180 degrees left/right (for smoother movement as its an organic boss)
*Moves up/down
*Short intro animation with boss starting to lower, glow and scream at sack (view will shake)
*Shoots 3 kinds of plasmaballs (depending on how often it got hurt) (will open mouth to do so)
*Has light on its head that will "power up" before releasing a storm of plasma balls.
*Screams each time you hurt it with the "Log-Cannon"
*after each two hits from the "logcannon" the difficulty increases.
*Boss will move faster, shoot faster plasmaballs, different movement-loops.
*boss will start bleeding more and more after each hit.
*When boss is hurt and screams, cam will shake and revert to original position after boss is recovered.
*Boss will scream and explode after final hit.

*Logcanon has three lights, red, yellow green.
*when its red its obviously empty, a cooldown timer starts.
*When cooldown is finished, light will turn yellow.
*A carrier will get a log (emits one out of view) and brings it to the canon and reloads it.
*Canon will now emit the green light, its ready to shoot.
*You have to pull a grab to activate canon, shoots log.
*(Canon is rusty, ocasionally the grab will be hard to pull)
*when log hits Boss itll activate the boss its hurt animation,
*log will partially dissolve to give a "it broke" effect.

two platforms in the level will "break" partially each time you hit the boss,
making it harder to take cover from plasma balls.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
Build time level 5 part 1: 2.5 weeks.
Writing mouths/timing mouths/retiming mouths/improving grammar/re-improving logic: 1 week.
Build time level 5 part 2: 1.5 week. (minus boss)
Build time boss: 4 weeks.
Build time boss level: 1 day.
[/spoiler]

Please note:
I published test versions of this boss to see what I could improve and to get some opinions.
After 45 online plays it had comments like "Epic" and "Amazing" and was still on 5 stars without any influence from me whatsoever.
(and I havent created challenge 1 yet...)

[RoharDragontamer•]

I can't wait to check it out tonight!!

[RoharDragontamer•]

lol. I guess I meant on Monday.

[Arctos13]

I remember playing the test level of this. Why are you publishing challenge 2 before challenge 1?

[Luos_83]

I could name it challenge one, but looking at the first four levels.. I think I could make a cool run/speed challenge out of the 4 Races that would fit the first four levels.

You could also ask.. why is it still 13 parts while level 5 is 2 levels big.
(I am just lazy and dont want to revert all the 13's into 14's )


edit:
Got me a "Trailer", or more.. me and Judy being butchered by the boss
so updated first post!

[Luos_83]

Allright, and this level is now published as well!
Keycode is still 2446!

[smasher]

I just tried this one out. I really loved the atmosphere in this one. I thought the design was great, and everything worked really good. I must admit I haven't tried any of the other levels in this series yet, but after playing this I'm going to. My only complaint is that I think it takes a little too long to reload. I was waiting around a lot. I think if you could speed that up. It would be a little more fast paced, and get the old adrenalin pumping! Great work!!!

Could you give me some feedback on my LBP Paint Factory?

Thanks

[RoharDragontamer•]

Well, I just finished playing it, and realized there is a tag missing in LBP, and that tag is "Elegant". As usual, your environment is simply beautiful with an incredibly well balanced attention to detail. I thought it was awesome the way Morbidillia increased her attacks as she took damaged. I also thought it was great that the "safe" platforms got progressively smaller as the boss took more damage as well.

I'm not sure if I agree with your decision to use an unlimited life checkpoint in this case. Usually, I'm a strong proponent of them, but as this is sort of a modified survival challenge level, I was disappointed that I could simply sit there and die until the weapons recharged. There is really no point to having the "safe" platforms and the logic to decrease their size with an unlimited checkpoint. I also think the reloading sequence could be a touch faster, but I'm not sure I would if there were limited lives. It would be a challenge to jump and avoid the attacks of Morbidillia as you waited for reloads.

Regardless of my minor complaint I still gave it 5/5 plus a heart.

[Luos_83]

I did have a non infinite lifes checkpoint, the problem with that is, if you are with more than 2 players, you go trough the 6 lifes one in a matter of seconds in some occasions.

I might reconsider and re-add the 6 lifes checkpoint.

I dont want to speed up the canons for two reasons..
1. Avoiding the boss is part of the challenge. (this would be better with the 6 lifes checkpoint though)
2. i worked 4 weeks on it, you better look at it

thanks for trying the boss out.
Ill check paintfactory first thing tomorrow!

[Sickivionkey]

AWESOME! Easily one of the best bosses I've played in LBP. I found myself cursing a bit when the cannons were slow to reload, but I guess the reload time is part of the point, huh? I think an infinite life checkpoint works well here, given that the ultimate goal is speed. I plan to play again to get a better score.

Overall, very well executed, which must have been very difficult given the bugs that still pop up from time to time in the level creator.

If I had to say anything negative at all, I found it extremely difficult to get down the timing of dodging and returning fire while I was using the left cannon. (Note: May just be a personal problem!) Several times I'd either die or be too late to pull the trigger so that I'd miss. Meanwhile, I had absolutely no problem while using the right cannon. I'll play again and try to figure it out. I think it's just something about the timing and pattern of the shots on the left side that throws me off.

5 stars and a heart (so I can easily find it and play it again!)

If you're still doing F4F, please give my level (TRIAL OF SEASONS - SUMMER) a try. I'll have it published first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks! LINK

[RoharDragontamer•]

I did have a non infinite lifes checkpoint, the problem with that is, if you are with more than 2 players, you go trough the 6 lifes one in a matter of seconds in some occasions.

I might reconsider and re-add the 6 lifes checkpoint.

I dont want to speed up the canons for two reasons..
1. Avoiding the boss is part of the challenge. (this would be better with the 6 lifes checkpoint though)
2. i worked 4 weeks on it, you better look at it

thanks for trying the boss out.
Ill check paintfactory first thing tomorrow!

Keeping the infinite life checkpoint for part 2 makes sense, because restarting that level would really suck. But for the boss level, I don't think it's that big of a deal to restart, and I think it would make it much better because we would actually have to play it the way you intended it to be played.

I would really like to get your input on my Pyrostilskin's Cave level. Smasher's Paint Factory is certainly worth a look, as well!

[Luos_83]

I wrote down both levels and after I do my chores.. (cleaning house/emptying kitty litter bins etc etc)
I will play your levels.
You might have the review within 2 or 3 hours!

[Luos_83]

* re-added the double life checkpoint, removed the infine life checkpoint.

[Sickivionkey]

I'll have to try again with the double life checkpoint. I've got the rest of your library of levels on my list as well...

Thanks for the helpful feedback on my level BTW.

[Fenderjt]

I played 2 of your levels yesterday, part 1 & 2. I must say they were really good! The story just kept me focused and the atmosphere of the level was lovely! The flower bombs were fun!
The boss was a great idea!!! It was fun, some bosses are hard work and end up being boring but yours was great. Very well thought out. I bet you enjoyed making these levels as they are very interesting to play! 5 stars and a heart Keep up the good work!