Give me the run down

[wait wtf]

Okay since i wasnt in the beta can some one give me the run down on how complicated on a scale EDIT:1=easy/10 hard the pros and cons of the following objects are.

Holograms
grabinator
creatinator
controlinator
music sequencer
sackbots
jump pads
grappling hook
Gravity
recording voices
and cinematic camera

[Testudini]

Okay since i wasnt in the beta can some one give me the run down on how complicated (on a scale to 1 to 10, 1 being hard 10 being easy) and the pros and cons of the following objects are.

Holograms (1)
grabinator (1)
creatinator (1)
controlinator (2)
music sequencer (Depends if you have any musical knowledge)
sackbots (4)
jump pads (2.5)
grappling hook (1)
Gravity (1)
recording voices (Never tried)
and cinematic camera (8 )

Added my answers to the quote.

[Merc]

Are you saying they're all hard to use Clay? well, looks like i'll be learning for a while then, I am an abomination at logic.

[dajdaj03]

Clay is right, I think it's more logic the other way around,
1 = easy / 10 = hard (edit your first post)


Holograms - 1/10
material without any physics properties/ tweak the lighting, animation and transparency
+ Could merge with other material without cutting out that other material.

grabinator - 1/10
Grab anything grabbale, change its layer position and throw it
+ new gameplay possibilities

creatinator -1/10
Like a portable emitter
+ good for versus gameplay

controlinator -6/10 but depending of its use
Control anything you want with the PS3 controller
+ the more important and powerful tool of LBP2

music sequencer- 8/10
- must have a little musical knowledge or practise

sackbots - 5/10 but depending of its use
Basic settings and AI are simple, more advanced stuff not...

jump pads -1/10
Set the strength and...jump!
+ dynamic gameplay

grappling hook - 1/10
grab and...swing
+ dynamic gameplay

Gravity - 1/10
Nice and simple to use feature

recording voices - 1/10
Get a mic, use a magic mouth, push the record button...and speak
- must have acting skills
- bad sound quality

cinematic camera - 3/10 but depending of its use
Quite simple with the use of sequencers to synchronize everything
+ Give a cinematographic feel to your level

[Shadowriver]

Holograms - depeds on on what you want to use them
grabinator - easy peasy
creatinator - same as emitter
controlinator - depends what you want to build, it simple to connect buttons direcly but if you want more interactivity you will need a logic knowledge
music sequencer - simple FLStudio sequencer, also you music skillz
sackbots - same as controllinator,
jump pads - easy
grappling hook - wasy
Gravity - how this can be even hear in something? it a single tweak
recording voices - easy
and cinematic camera - you need to learn how they behave, specially transitions and keying, but once you learn you will use to them (seems like Clay had problem with that )

[AeroForce22]

Holograms - 1/10
Holograms are just like any other material, except they offer a color option and you can make them invisible if you want. I would say the difficulty rating is 3/10 if you plan on using them for animations. Then again, it all depends on how complicated your animations are. The pros are obviously the fact that it can be set to invisible, it's weightless when no other physical materials are connected to it, and it has no physical collision properties. Cons are the animation "texture" that it leaves even when the animation speed is 0%.

Grabinator - 1/10
The Grabinators are really easy to create with in basic ways. You just set them down, make an object grabable, and your sackboy will lift the object above his head while holding R1. However, coming up with clever puzzles might make the "difficulty" of the tool a bit more on the high end. Pros are that it offers more puzzle options, as well as the ability to switch layers with grabable objects. Cons are that, until we see some more clever usage of such a tool, they appear somewhat limited.

Creatinator - 2/10
I've personally always had difficulty working with emitters. I find them annoying. However just recently in the beta, I discovered that you can select objects in your immediate area for emitting without have to save the object you want to emit. Features like this make it easier to "program". Pros are that it offers a great deal of possibilities as you're carrying around a portable emitter. The only con I can think of is the look of the power up. It might come off as too silly for the more serious levels, but it's super adorable for the cute, Mm style levels.

Controlinator - 5/10
I put this at the middle of the spectrum because the controlinator itself is very easy to understand. The only issue is that you'll never be using just a controlinator. Obviously you need to put what the outputs of the buttons will be doing, which is where the new movers and such come into play. Pros are that it lets you build your own controls and avoid the horrible controls from LBP1 of three-way switches and buttons.

Music sequencer - ?/10
Honestly it depends on your skill. I spent most my time in the beta using this beauty and I've only had two years of piano back when I was...5 and 6 I think (which is more than 11 years ago). I think I'm pretty good, but there's obviously better people out there like comishguy. It honestly depends on how well you know the piano and how well your ear picks up pitch...and whether or not you can think of exciting melodies and harmonies that people will enjoy. So I didn't rate this object as it's completely subjective to musical talent which can't be rated. However, the pros obviously are that you can make custom tracks to your levels. However (at least in the beta) there are a great deal of limitations. The first apparent one is the lack of "organic" instruments. Most are synths, which results in a high amount of techo/8-bit songs. The beats per minute (bpm) maxes at 240, which is very low for some songs. Also, there is no way to adjust tempo during the progress of the song. Music sequencers fade out and fade in when activated by switches as well. There's more, but I'll just start ranting. xD It's a great tool though! Don't get me wrong! But they could do much more with it I think.

Sackbots = 7/10
Sackbots are pretty unique. Obviously if you're just gonna have them walk around or follow you, the difficulty is non-existent. But if you want to program them to "act" or perform tasks, or even get you to control the sackbot via controlinator, that's when the learning curve goes up. Pros involve the fact that you can use them as replacement sackpeople or characters in levels. Cons involve the inability to swim, use grappling hooks, and jetpacks.

Jump pads - 0/10
Set the height you want the pad to bounce you and that's it. Gravity plays no effect into the distance you'll travel. Pros involve exciting gamplay (who doesn't love fast-paced bouncing?) and clever puzzles can be made. Cons are that it can't be stickered so it'll always be white and the sound it makes when you bounce of it can kill a mood.

Grappling hook - 1/10
Just a basic power up. Obviously puzzles are subjective as well (similar to grabinators). Pros involve fun swinging action and grappling friends so that they die. Cons involve, and this is completely subjective to me, the fact that reeling in is up on the control stick, and extending is down on the control stick. Originally realling in was holding the X button, but they changed it to up on the control stick. This causes problems when you're trying to swing AND extend/pull in on the hook. It takes a while to get used to as well, but that's not a big deal because what doesn't?

Gravity - 1/10
Clever uses are hard to come by, and I feel we're slightly cheated on this. I understand though. Since sackboy wouldn't be able to jump at a certain gravity level, his "strength" adjusts to the gravity, essentially just creating an effect that makes him look like he's jump and falling really fast. However it works like you think it would on other objects. Pros are puzzles and aesthetic appeal, cons are that when gravity is low, sackboy will "bounces" after landing.

Recording voices - Beats me. :x Haven't used it as I lack access to a mic. However I noticed that the quality is completely dependent on the microphone you use and what kind of filtering you choose to include. Sometimes it should just be avoided in levels (especially when it's low quality), but it works pretty well in others, ableit a bit a weird to hear.

[Movie] camera - ?/10
This is a lot like the music sequencer. It depends on the person. You either have an artistic knack for creating a cinematic experience, or you don't. There are some tricks to using this tool, one of which I think is very important for creators to learn. It involves having speech bubbles and these cutscene cameras working together in harmony all while allowing the player to control the speed of the text. Generally I only see movie cameras along with sequencers and speech bubbles on it. This disregards the player's ability to read the text him/herself which could result in missed story. It would take a while to explain how to do this, so I'd save that for a tutorial when the game is released.

Anyway, that's what I think. :P

[Gravel•]

Almost everything you asked is a 1 in play mode: easy!

In create mode, everything is equally pretty easy but dependent on your skill as a creator... your ability to tinker, and to what extent you enjoy failure.

Just a few notes...

sackbots are really pretty simple and dumb in the average creators hands. Think of them as lumps of clay. Until community behaviour chip give-a-ways start making the rounds I wouldn't get your hopes up too high!

Hologram is a very beautiful material and is incredibly versatile! The grappling hook controlls are very subtle. Easy to use-- Hard to master.

If you've used an emitter you pretty much have used the emit-inator...

The cameras and sequencers are fairly complex. You'll be able to use them day one right out of the box... but you may have some difficulty getting 'exactly' what you want. Additionally, there so flexible I found myself dreaming up ridiculous camera moves!!! The fine tunning took a while for me! But the 'focus feature', and 'local space' are really brilliant settings!