Additional tweaks & new tools (9/8/12)

[SSTAGG1]

There is only one thing about LBP logic that 'really' bothers me, and it's the default settings of sensors. I can usually count with my fingers the number of times I use the closeness setting for tag sensors. Also, typically, whenever I fail to properly edit one of the sensors to strength, it causes a slew of unneeded frustration and review of my logic. Given how many sensors I tend to use, this process takes an inordinate amount of time.

I did have a saved object to circumvent this problem, yet now my hearted objects section is gone.

I suppose another change would be to move the colour selection of components to the very bottom of the edit menu. It's somewhat annoying to have to move down through 8 or so colours just to get to editing the option I want. Like the option to hide/show components in play mode, it's probably the least used function on the edit menu, but it takes up half the space.

[bigl0uc0ntra]

I want to see real working TVs.

[SackBoy98]

I want the options to either have shared screens or to have INDEPENDANT multiplayer screens. I beleive this is in the LBP vita version so I would really want it for LBP2. In LBP2 , it has to be versus mode for the game to have INDEPENDANT screens. It would be quite awesome if we could have any type of screen gameplay,no matter what the game type is.

[Tynz21]

These are some of the best suggestions I've seen. Many would save loads of logic work and some would just make the game better aesthetically, such as the sackbot animations suggested. One thing I really wish they had in game is a sticker crop tool. I suppose it would cut down on the need for dlc stickers, which is probably why we haven't seen it yet. However, since they released the move paint tool, I don't see why they couldn't put out a tool to crop your stickers into shape... I'd fork over $5.99 for that.

[Dortr•]

These are some of the best suggestions I've seen. Many would save loads of logic work and some would just make the game better aesthetically, such as the sackbot animations suggested. One thing I really wish they had in game is a sticker crop tool. I suppose it would cut down on the need for dlc stickers, which is probably why we haven't seen it yet. However, since they released the move paint tool, I don't see why they couldn't put out a tool to crop your stickers into shape... I'd fork over $5.99 for that.

Thanks Tynz. A sticker crop tool would actually be unnecessary IF the sticker cutter tool was more reliable. One of the biggest uses of stickers to me is the ability to just have extra shapes, or cut out extra work needed to make specific shapes from scratch with holo and sticker panel. Unfortunately, it seems like practically EVERY sticker has an invisible boarder that is not actually visible in the sticker image. So, as I'm sure you and many already know, when you "cut out" this shape with the sticker cutter tool it often looks nothing like the sticker, but more like an amorphous blob! Then you have to corner edit it yourself to cut out that extra outline area.

Sticker packs are the only dlc I don't get for this reason alone..

[Masseyf]

The ability to set lives on checkpoints. I dont like that infinite is pretty much expected, but its not hard to see why when your choices are a fairly small number or infinite. Easy to implement too, object/graphic already exists (single life CP), and the coding/logic involved is nothing more than a counter and a trigger that turns off a light every 25% of your set number. (this option on the entrance would be handy too!)

Sensors - replace the effect radius and layer option with a properly customizable one. Id love to be able to set exactly what area and layer(s) that will trigger the sensor, could be done by letting you drag out a holo like mat when tweaking your sensor.

[Dortr•]

The ability to set lives on checkpoints. I dont like that infinite is pretty much expected, but its not hard to see why when your choices are a fairly small number or infinite. Easy to implement too, object/graphic already exists (single life CP), and the coding/logic involved is nothing more than a counter and a trigger that turns off a light every 25% of your set number. (this option on the entrance would be handy too!)

I never really thought about this but it's a good point. It seems like checkoints are a somewhat "grandfathered in" type of object. In that it is rather silly to have 3 separate things that do the same thing but in different amounts. I don't really understand why they wouldn't just have a single checkpoint object that could be tweaked to have a certain amount or infinite. This could even be tweaked to serve as the level entrance since all the entrance seems to be is a glorified single life checkpoint..

While on the subject one thing that kinda bugged me in certain situations with checkpoints is that they are not player dependent. If anyone dies it costs the team of players a life. It makes sense to have a good sense of cooperation but in some cases it would be nice to have a setting that keeps track of how many times each player has died, and when that player has run out of lives, that one player will no longer spawn from the checkpoint.

Sensors - replace the effect radius and layer option with a properly customizable one. Id love to be able to set exactly what area and layer(s) that will trigger the sensor, could be done by letting you drag out a holo like mat when tweaking your sensor.

A lot of people seem to agree with this and want something similar, but I honestly don't see why it's necessary.. Oh wait.. I thought you were talking about tag sensors specifically (in which my normal response would be don't impact sensors kinda do that?) But you are talking about ALL sensors? Not a bad idea at all, but actually a similar concept to the impact sensor on an invisible holo. Having an adjustable & layer dependent trigger radius like you are describing would actually be very much like the function of an impact sensor. This would be very useful for player sensors since there is no "impacted by player" setting on impact sensors.

In most cases, i think impact sensors with tags are the solution to any tag radius-area-specific type of situation. So in actuality.. I could only see this as being useful with player sensors since you can not put tags or any logic on players.

[Chazprime]

I never really thought about this but it's a good point. It seems like checkoints are a somewhat "grandfathered in" type of object. In that it is rather silly to have 3 separate things that do the same thing but in different amounts. I don't really understand why they wouldn't just have a single checkpoint object that could be tweaked to have a certain amount or infinite. This could even be tweaked to serve as the level entrance since all the entrance seems to be is a glorified single life checkpoint..

It's probably there for the sake of compatibility. In situations where you're adding features to or bugfixing an existing tool, oftentimes it requires modifying dependencies that are used by other parts of the game...even changing their behavior slightly can potentially introduce game-breaking bugs and glitches, so it's safer to branch the code into a new tool and create a little UI clutter than to risk breaking thousands or even millions of published levels.