Koolbear interviews Lobber - the man behind the levels

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 1:10 pm

An Interview of Lobber, by Koolbear

Commentary welcome, if you've played any of my levels, opinions wanted. There are detailed descriptions and stories behind every level, listed on that page.

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 1:24 pm

E) I have no clue which levels you made.

Hattrick · Post by **Hattrick** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 1:42 pm

Iceman wrote:E) I have no clue which levels you made.

X2

*EDIT*
ahhhh no D3 levels, that explains that.

Looks like you contributed a lot of time developing levels for D1 and D2 tho.

Nice job!

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 3:46 pm

Lobber,

I have never heard of you until I read this thread, and your interview. A few of your levels are very interesting and I will feature them in my level spotlight: Ariel, Mothball, Ophelia, Oberon, Puck, Vuck (what a name ...

), Umbriel 2.1, and maybe Fusion Bianca.

Hmmm ... I think I need an extra section for you ...

Funny enough, Oberon made me find out that D2X-W32 did not support D1 drain triggers ... just fixing that.

Capm · Post by **Capm** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:14 pm

I remember testing some of your levels

So don't worry, you weren't completely forgotten about

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 10:34 pm

Icarus was my best D1 level, the Icarus1 level.

It has an open area, and a secret area that snipes into the open area, then a super secret area that snipes into the secret area, and then an ultra super secret secret area that lets you get the "Wing of Icarus" +15000 shields. You can only get two. If you try to get more than 30k shields, the engine drops you back to zero as you "fly too close to the sun."

Good luck figuring out that puzzle.
[spoiler]If you use an editor to look at it, you're a cheater![/spoiler]

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:35 am

Sorry Lobber - I don't D1 or D2 - but well done anyway.

I know making levels is a thankless task: the only nice thing which ever happened to me after making a level (X-Box - available at PD) was Sarge nominating it as the Descent 3 level which required the most skill to play online.

Check it out, it's fast'n'furious!

Here's a screeny:

Planetdescent says "It Looks like a good 1v1 level"

That's great, coz I built it for 1v1!

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 2:29 am

Mobius wrote:I know making levels is a thankless task: the only nice thing which ever happened to me after making a level (X-Box - available at PD) was Sarge nominating it as the Descent 3 level which required the most skill to play online.

I believe that you meant to say "that".

Mobius wrote:Check it out, it's fast'n'furious!

I believe that you meant to say ";".

Mobius wrote:That's great, coz I built it for 1v1!

I believe that you meant to say "because".

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 2:36 am

Now now, don't be you dissarailin mah thread ya hear!

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:57 am

Mobius,

go make your own thread, shameless hijacker!

Sarge · Post by **Sarge** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 8:38 am

Mobius wrote:...the only nice thing which ever happened to me after making a level (X-Box - available at PD) was Sarge nominating it as the Descent 3 level which required the most skill to play online.

Huh?

I mean, I remember X-Box and it was fun and all but I don't remember saying that!

(I know, I know... prescription drugs should not be abused.... heh)

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 11:43 am

Lobber,

I have put up a page featuring a selection of your levels. View it here.

Iceman wrote:E) I have no clue which levels you made.

You can read the interview, or see my Lobber page.

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:13 pm

Thanks, that's a cool page.

Also, check out Robo-bouncer (Robo-B).

Corners3 is huge as well, and Cordelia S-2, "Observatory".

Dodecahedron also.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:13 pm

I am not looking for huge levels, but for some that have something special, like extraordinary looks, gameplay or some other special twist. I find your bouncer idea just great (you could even enhance that effect with using D2X-W32 speed boost areas ...

) Same goes for the other levels I have featured: They all have something special either in the idea behind them or the execution (actually I find ophelia's texturing pretty awkward - but it's the perfectly crafted 4D level structure imho). Since Vuck is a polished version of Puck, I have not been featuring Puck as well. Fusion Bianca is basically the same idea, horrible texturing though again (ok, that's a matter of taste), and the supersize fusion bolts are a fun idea, but still does not reach Vuck.

So I will take another look at the levels you mentioned, but I do not promise anything.

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:32 pm

I consider Icarus1 the best of my D1 levels. It looks small, and it is tightly packed, but theres alot packed into it, with 4d overlapping that does take place.

(btw, your javascript in your website doesn't seem to work with mozilla's Firefox)

((That is, the hoverover links to the images doesn't work in Firefox, but strangly enough, the side bar works fine, I had to load up and run IE to view your page))

Oh, and you have to look at the simple geometry of Dodecahedron. That is a masterpiece of a simple looking level, but took hours of trigonometric calculation and cube manipulation trial and error to get perfect.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 1:27 pm

Lobber,

the image links only work if you enter the site via the main page (i.e. index.html). That is because index.html contains frames that are referenced in the image display javascript code. I could change the code to work anyway though ... some time ...

Robo-B: Too large, where's the point of that level?

Dodecahedron: No link provided.

Icarus may be a good level, but it has nothing to it I find outstanding or original enough to feature it. It's just another good anarchy level. I have built a lot of those myself, and (almost) nobody ever cared, sob sob

(Have you seen my levels?)

Money! · Post by **Money!** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 11:32 pm

Lobber it sounds like Descent would have been a different story without you. Glad you helped it along.

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:53 am

Diedel wrote:Lobber,

the image links only work if you enter the site via the main page (i.e. index.html). That is because index.html contains frames that are referenced in the image display javascript code. I could change the code to work anyway though ... some time ...

Robo-B: Too large, where's the point of that level?

Dodecahedron: No link provided.

Icarus may be a good level, but it has nothing to it I find outstanding or original enough to feature it. It's just another good anarchy level. I have built a lot of those myself, and (almost) nobody ever cared, sob sob

(Have you seen my levels?)

Dodecahedron
Somehow, I missed listing that level in the interview.

I can understand if you didn't find anything extraordinary with Icarus. That is intentional. It was designed to "resemble" an ordinary anarchy level, to fool a casual observer. Try opening it in an editor.

Robo-B's point was to create a level that felt like a large indoor room that looked out into a larger world outside, into the night sky. It just so happens to be a bouncer level as well.

I haven't looked at your levels yet.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:25 am

Lobber wrote:Dodecahedron
Somehow, I missed listing that level in the interview.

Neat!

Lobber wrote:I can understand if you didn't find anything extraordinary with Icarus. That is intentional. It was designed to "resemble" an ordinary anarchy level, to fool a casual observer. Try opening it in an editor.

I did. It contains a lot of walls. So what? 4D structure? Alright.

#1 I cannot even find any access to the hidden parts of the level, maybe because
#2 That doesn't work with D2X-W32 here.

Nice idea though. Too bad I cannot enjoy it.

Lobber wrote:Robo-B's point was to create a level that felt like a large indoor room that looked out into a larger world outside, into the night sky. It just so happens to be a bouncer level as well.

I found the indoor area intimidatingly huge already. The texturing really did not meet my taste.

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:15 am

I would be happy to give you a tour in Icarus1, if you showed up in Kali.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:23 am

Lobber,

somehow the 4D stuff doesn't work with D2X-W32. I have even tried to mark the transition segments by changing the textures around them, but to no avail. Or does it for you, and I made another mistake?

What time can I meet you on KALI? (I'm on GMT+1 DST).

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:47 pm

My only suggestion would be to look at it under something other than D2x-w32. If you can.

I'm on kali all the time lately. But right now I have to go to work

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:50 pm

I can't.

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:15 pm

Perhaps i can record a demo and you can load that up instead

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 3:39 pm

You could create a D2X-W32 version using in-level teleports ... that might even work if completely isolated parts of the level which are only connected via such teleports are located in the same space.

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:44 pm

Is weapons fire sent through the teleporter?

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:25 am

No. Only player ships. No bots, no bullets, no other objects.

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:19 am

Teleporter?

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:55 am

Diedel: I'm guessing you know how the 4D trick was pulled off in D1/2 (joining cubes together that overlapped in order to create a "teleporter" effect). This had the effect of sending everything, including weapons fire, through the "teleporter".

Teleporter triggers, unfortunately, would not have the same effect.

Koolbear interviews Lobber - the man behind the levels

Did you enjoy playing my levels?

Koolbear interviews Lobber - the man behind the levels