Refreshing levels

[tomangelo]

Main thread to discuss about levels and possible changes.

Current division of levels in Colobot: Gold Edition:

Spoiler :

1. Missions
   
   1. Leaving Earth
      
      1. Equipment
         
      2. Building
         
      3. Departure
         
   2. On the Moon
      
      1. Titanium Ore
         
      2. Flying Drill #1
         
      3. Flying Drill #2
         
      4. Black Box
         
   3. On Tropica
      
      1. The Trap
         
      2. Amnesia
         
      3. On the Offensive
         
      4. Shooting Drill #1
         
      5. Black Box
         
   4. On Crystalium
      
      1. Viruses
         
      2. Subterranean strategy
         
      3. System Failure
         
      4. The Lost Valey
         
   5. On Saari
      
      1. Uranium
         
      2. Invasion
         
      3. Disarmed
         
   6. On Volcano
      
      1. Transport
         
      2. Analisys
         
      3. Mountain Warfare
         
      4. Technological Treasure
         
      5. Safe Home
         
      6. Time for a sharp exit
         
   7. On Centaury
      
      1. Cloning
         
      2. Target practice
         
      3. Cleansing
         
      4. New polices
         
      5. Self-defense
         
   8. On Orpheon
      
      1. Logistics
         
      2. Storm shelter
         
   9. On Terranova
      
      1. Killer Mushrooms
         
      2. Poison Hail
         
      3. Gold Digger
         
      4. Alien Queen
         
2. Free game
   
   1. Leaving Earth
      
   2. On the Moon
      
   3. On Tropica
      
   4. On Crystalium
      
   5. On Saari
      
   6. On Volcano
      
   7. On Centaury
      
   8. On Orpheon
      
   9. On Terranova
      
3. Exercises
   
   1. Spiders and supply
      
      1. Spiders 1
         
      2. Power Cell 1
         
      3. Titanium 1
         
      4. Titanium 2
         
      5. Power Cell 2
         
      6. Spiders 2
         
      7. Spiders 3
         
   2. Ants and wasps
      
      1. Barrage fire
         
      2. Flying tower 1
         
      3. Flying tower 2
         
      4. Fighter Jet 1
         
      5. Fighter Jet 2
         
      6. Wasp Hunter 1
         
      7. Wasp Hunter 2
         
   3. Fundamentals
      
      1. Follow a path
         
      2. Follow with variables
         
      3. Massacre
         
      4. Exchange posts 1
         
      5. Exchange posts 2
         
      6. Labirynth 1
         
      7. Labirynth 2
         
      8. The gold digger
         
      9. Remote control #1
         
   4. Motors
      
      1. Dragster
         
      2. Radar
         
      3. Crazy bot
         
      4. Patient hunter
         
      5. Shadow
         
   5. Mover
      
      1. Mover 1
         
      2. Mover 2
         
      3. Mover 3
         
      4. Flying mover
         
   6. Functions
      
      1. A function
         
      2. Spiral
         
      3. Remote control #2
         
   7. Classes
      
      1. Remote control #3
         
      2. Remote control #4
         
      3. Remote control #5
         
4. Challenges
   
   1. Fundamentals
      
      1. Follow a path
         
      2. Massacre
         
      3. Exchange posts 3
         
      4. Labirynth 3
         
   2. Motors
      
      1. Crazy bot 2
         
      2. Shadow 2
         
      3. Help
         
      4. Radar and traps 1
         
      5. Radar and traps 2
         
   3. Mover
      
      1. Mover 1
         
      2. Mover 2
         
   4. Functions
      
      1. Function
         
      2. Spiral 2
         
5. User levels
   
   1. <userlevels>

Ok, now we should think about these levels, their good and bad parts, what we should save and what we should change.
Problems that I've found in levels:

Spoiler :

A.1.* Tutorial missions, they teach us the basics.
„The Nevada desert is already bustling with activity.” - I'm not sure. All this „activity” means a few robots just driving around, and a couple of engineers in the only building in the desert. IMHO it should be more bots (that actually do something useful), more buildings and more engineers in them and around them. It doesn't look like a last hope of humanity to find a new home.

A.1.I We are in the middle of the desert, with a factory and PracticeBot. Why they're here? It's supposed to be a vehicle which Me arrived or something? Maybe we could use some vehicles from BuzzingCars, when we'll have a licence. Next, our goal: find your survival kit. Find. Why they didn't give Me the kit? We don't even have any clue where it may be. And where he is? In the bush, near ControlCenter. Like some garbage. This doesn't make any sense. It's like „Welcome to our company. First day in new job? First task: find the keys to your office, they are signed with your name, they should be somewhere in the headquarters.”.

A.1.II Nothing's wrong with this one IMHO.

A.1.III We must transport a blackbox to our SpaceShip. Tutorial about researching, making bots, starting SpaceShip. Where is our BlackBox? On a platform, on a hill, that Me, engineer and wheeled bots cannot drive.Why they put a BB (BlackBox) in such unavailable place? It would make more sense if there will be house/houses with engineers that just finished works on the BB.

A.2.I Nothing's wrong
A.2.II ^ Not even a part of the story.
A.2.III ^
A.2.IV A bit strange that suddenly energy cells are almost empty, while in previous mission they were full.


A.3.I Where did our robots go? Where are our energy cells and titanium? Why we can't build anything?Needs some explanation in SatCom. We throw away everything from our spaceship? We returned to Earth, and they didn't give us anything? And mission is complete, when we die. Some players might just think „Oh no, I've died on this stupid mission, we have no chances in this mission” and turn off the game.
A.3.II We have no idea where we should go, no clues. This is hard, but not because you must think, this is just unfriendly.
A.3.III Everything looks good.
A.3.IV Not a part of the story.
A.3.V Hmm, not bad. Quite easy mission, unlike 3.II


A.4.I Only one that I want to suggest is to tell the player that defense tower is resistant to Alienworms.
A.4.II Not so bad, but why we must destroy all the livings?
A.4.III A bit strange that both robots have full energy cells. Maybe crazy bot should get partially discharged nuclear cell? And they should start closer to our spaceship. Another question: how he stole our BB if we were flying? Or why we landed here?
A.4.IV Not so bad.


A.5.I We can't build whatever we want to. Quite strange.
A.5.II Why we landed in the place, that will be under siege? Just to kill ants?
A.5.III Why we (again) can't build anything? And why these Ants doesn't defend themselves? And why we can't just take the BB and fly away?

A.6.I Why TNT was leaved between the lakes of boiling lava? Why we need to bring them to our spaceship?
A.6.II Looking good.
A.6.III ^
A.6.IV Not bad, but why that robot can fly without any limits unlike Me?
A.6.V How these Ants did multiplied? Did they teleported there?
A.6.VI ^


A.7.I Not so bad

A.7.II Not a part of the story

A.7.III Not so bad, but searching of highest point on the map is quite boring.

A.7.IV. Not so bad

A.7.V ^

A.8.I ^
A.8.II ^, but we should explain why we can build only lighning conductor. Our spacesuit is resistant to lighnings, so it's not fault of the storms.


A.9.* no bigger problems found.


B.* We could add some settings, like 'generate invasions', 'amount of subsoil resources', 'generate whole map' (i know it was - at least partially - implemented, but still it's hidden feature), and so on.


C.* && D* - if we have a licence to Ceebots, we could maybe add some exercises and challenges from then, maybe add some new ones, with different difficult.

//Text with this color means "This mission need some bigger change, now it have big lacks in logic and may be discouraging"
//Text with this color means "This mission is good, doesn't need to change that"

In main story we have 36 levels, and 21 doesn't need changes (at least doesn't need big changes), so we have 15 levels that we should change.
Of course it's only my opinion, you can think differently.

What's your opinions about missions? What we could change? What we should save? What are your ideas?