Yes, N v2.0 is finally coming together, and as promised we have for you a new beta version to try out. Hooray!
Most of the obvious kinks from the initial beta have been worked out; we’re looking forward to a whole new batch of problems 🙂
Here you go!
N v2.0 Public Beta
For our fans: thanks to ska, gloomp, flagmyidol, lord_day, and RandomDigits, there’s a new secret/hidden column of user-made episodes that’s unlocked when you beat all the regular episodes. The current level selection is temporary/placeholder, and will be changing substantially for the final release, we just wanted to get this feature in quickly to stamp out all the bugs.
We need your help testing these, because we have yet to beat some of them — please confirm for us that they’re actually beatable in the new simulator. Also, we’re going to post on the forums about this feature in the near future, stay tuned.
This is our first “public” beta, so for those of you just joining us, here are some intro notes:
You’ll notice that the editor is missing (we’re still working on it), but there are lots of new things we think are pretty cool and are hoping you’ll enjoy.
First and foremost, N is finally playable in-browser, which should solve the problems Mac and Linux users have been having. The N code was painstakingly ported to Actionscript 3 from the ground up, so we were able to refine and optimize it to work better on modern computers. Let’s just hope the browser version of the Flash Player is finally up to the challenge of N. So far people seem to be having more luck with Firefox than Chrome. No reports on IE because nobody uses it ;p
The first thing you’ll need to do is to make an account; we considered duplicating old accounts, but since we are integrating searching for and playing user levels right into N, we instead decided to retain NUMA and the old system as is for those of you who want to continue using that version. In N v2.0, your account will save your game so you can resume your progress wherever you login, and it will be where your user-made levels are stored.
Because of some of the changes we made to the code, old levels and replays are not automatically compatible, so we decided to start fresh with N v2.0. Your old levels will be playable in N v2.0, with a few exceptions (e.g objects placed without snapping in 1.4 will end up snapped to the 1/4 grid in 2.0) — you’ll just have to paste the old level format into the editor (once it’s finished), test them to make sure they work, and then you can upload them to the new database for all to download and play. We’ll go into more detail on how that works when the editor is done and added.
In this version, when you beat the built-in levels in episode format (under “play game”), they are unlocked for highscore runs (under “levels” -> metanet levels). You’ll be able to browse user levels and your own levels and get highscores for those as well, all of which will be hosted on Metanet’s servers for free.
If some of the levels look familiar, you’re not hallucinating: the built-in levels in N v2.0 are made up of our 100 favourite levels from each of the previous versions of N (v1.4, N+ DS, N+ PSP, N+ XBLA) plus 100 new levels. It’s kind of a “best of”.
We’d love to hear what you think! Please send all feedback, including bug reports, questions, comments and critiques to metanet AT metanetsoftware DOT com, subject line “N v2.0 feedback”, or in this forum thread. If you’re reporting a bug, please send us as much detail as possible — let us know about your OS, browser, and if you can, how to reproduce the bug you’re seeing. More detail = way better 😉
There are still lots of things that remain to be done.
Known bugs/problems (which we’re working on) include:
- sign-up broken (rejects all email addresses… doh);
- suicide key doesn’t work;
- intermittent chuggy performance;
- news scroller is mis-scaled;
- sounds cutting out;
- glitch when wallsliding at the top of the screen(?!);
- buttons/UI isn’t completely finished/polished;
- .swf file is 666.68kb.. possibly semi-demonic.
Highscorers, take note — if we find any bugs that require significant changes to the game, we may have to wipe the highscores for the final release. We’ll keep you posted, but be ready to re-work your magic when the update comes out just in case.
The final release will include the editor, of course, plus some more polish. We’ll also think about some of the things we’d planned but cut for time and will see what we can do: social stuff (eg the concept of a friends list so you can easily find and challenge each other), the planned challenge modes or other game modes, and a way for you to make your own episodes or playlists. So there’s still lots to do until we consider this game really finished, but we’re happy to have a good base to work with, finally.
For the winners of last year’s contesque, we haven’t forgotten you! We still haven’t figured out what the prize will be, but now that N is out we can get back to work on it 🙂
And finally, a bit of a year-in-review. 2012 was disappointing in many ways (for example, we planned to have N finished by the summer!) and exciting in others (we did a bunch of talks, travelled a little and made some new friends, plus we finally finished many of the planned updates for N, which is hugely gratifying after so many years of work).
We are very grateful that so many fans have stuck with us even as we continued to let you down by missing deadlines — rest assured, your support and understanding have been huge comforts through our various struggles with N. We know that we have not been keeping you updated very often this year, and we really regret that. We promise to make more time for blog updates in 2013 and to let you know what we’re up to in the future, whatever that may be.
Speaking of which, we should have some pretty interesting not-v2.0-related news for you N fans shortly, so keep an eye on the blog!
Hey, thanks a lot for your work M&R! The beta is much more polished now, Im really happy with this release 😀 Ill beat it again to test all changes. This update came out sooner than I had expected.
Im having trouble signing up though, is it because hotmail is not a valid server, because Im getting an error (“please enter a valid email address.”)
I also found I cant by any means suicide D: The suicide utton and the player-2 jump buttons seem to be linked, because when I change one, the other changes to the same as well.
Also IM really happy to see theres no lag anymore! Wow it goes really flowy now 😀
yeah, i’m getting the same problem (‘please enter a valid email address’)
Also having a problem signing up, says email not valid, any tips?
Congrats on getting it done!
Hi,
flagmyidol here. I would love to help playtest the secret column for time in-browser (although to a small extent we already did that) — but my progress wiped with the new beta. I don’t really have time to beat the entire game again just to playtest the column. I’m wondering if there’s any way around this.
Thanks.
“objects placed without snapping in 1.4 will end up snapped to the 1/4 grid in 2.0”
Could you expand on this a little? I never used z-snap much but if it’s leaving I’m sad to see it go.
I’m getting a large amount input lag now. The weird part is that it happens sporadically, and I’ll have no problems moving around sometimes. I’m on Windows 8, 64-bit. Don’t know if this helps or if there’s anything you guys can do to help. Otherwise, the game runs /extremely/ smoothly. Feels brand-spanking-new.
Should also note that the game doesn’t get choppy or lose frames when the input lag is happening.
Should ALSO note (last one) that this didn’t happen to me on the last version.
still, could there be any new object or enemy please?
or tiles
oh and is it possible that N log in doesnt accept german emails? My email doesnt work its always invalid
Can I +1 flag for playtesting the secret column, having already played the entire beta once through.
Oh! also, will there be a version available to download for offline play?
In a way, one of the things that made me play 1.4 as obsessively as I did was having a local version. It kind of set N aside from the generic flash games you play in browser for half an hour or so then forget about almost immediately.
One last thing. I know lots of people have been talking about some way of making our own user-episodes, for mappacks and the like.
I was thinking about the ‘secret’ user maps column, and had an idea. Would it be plausible to have a second empty user maps column, which we could fill ourselves in kind of the same way we interacted with userlevels in 1.4.
I.E. some kind of usercolumn.txt which would update the contents of an in game column?
Or would this just open a whole can of worms?
I feel like an ass for complaining about the beta so much… The game runs really well and is so flowy 🙂 Yeah im getting the same problems signing up as everyone else but im sure that can be fixed.
so where the guys at metanet live? because i want to kiss their feet
It’s so smooth! I feel like I am playing N in HD or something.
Also, I really hope Z-snapping hasn’t been removed. It was a crucial part to many user created maps, and I’ll be very disappointed to see it go.
This game has always been horrible. DO NOT PLAY.
It’s really smooth, my lag issues are gone. Progress has been wiped, presumably because of the inclusion of new levels which is awesome. 30-4 is new I’m fairly sure. Suicide is broken, sign-up and button reconfiguration are broken, but that has all been mentioned. Are you guys gonna release a downloadable version or will it always be in-browser? Thanks!
Input lag problem (partially) fixed for me. Seems to be a problem with Firefox. Played it on IE with no issues.
Oops, spoke too soon. Started off lag-less, the speed is now varying between 1 and around 3/4 normal speed.
Chrome seems to be the best browser; we’re not sure about having a stand-alone version yet, we had hoped that in-browser performance would be good enough these days (our code takes less than 1ms per frame, unfortunately we’re not sure what’s taking the other 15+ ms).
About snapping: unfortunately this is intrinsic to the new level format, positions aren’t stored in worldspace, only gridspace, so 1/4 snap is the finest resolution possible… we realize that this makes art maps harder, but we haven’t seen many non-art maps that don’t use snapping.
Also, I just wanted to mention: we’ve been browsing NUMA lately to find new user levels (as well as going through levels that were sent to us) and we are AMAZED. The range of different styles — the fact that each mapper has a distinct recognizable style — and the range of ideas that you’ve come up with, was really impressive. We’re pretty moved by the creativity and ingenuity, thanks so much.
“About snapping: unfortunately this is intrinsic to the new level format, positions aren’t stored in worldspace, only gridspace, so 1/4 snap is the finest resolution possible… we realize that this makes art maps harder, but we haven’t seen many non-art maps that don’t use snapping.”
Aw, that’s a shame. It will be missed, believe me. Further question regarding the new level format, though. As you may have noticed browsing NUMA, manually editing values in the map data to achieve unusual effects has become extremely common. Will this still be easily possible in 2.0, or will the data be more locked down and hard to alter?
I’m afraid teleporters aren’t going to work, I’m not sure what other manually-edited-property tricks you’ve found, but they will probably not work because we’re not using the values in the data directly anymore.
The main thing with the old level format was we read in those raw values and used them directly; now we use indexed properties (e.g instead of a direction vector, store a number between 0-3 to indicate a cardinal direction).
We were really concerned with “George Lucasing” N (i.e making changes which ruined the magic), however we also wanted to make the code a lot more robust and efficient, and the new format is smaller and faster.
Thanks for the info M&R. you’re the best.
I noticed a lot of old glitches don’t work anymore. thwump cannons, squeezing, etc. i don’t know if this is a good thing or bad. hopefully there will be something new… let’s hope!
keep rocking!
Same as the others for the “glitches” not working anymore. What’s more, I can’t get my e-mail address to work for signup!
But it finally runs at 60 fps, great!
The “Suicide” key doesn’t work.
No more unlockable flavours?
YES
Well, I’ve beaten five of the columns so far today! (00, 60, 50, 70, 90) I’m well on my way to getting to the secret column!
I noticed a few bugs with the sound. If more than one instance of some sounds is triggered at the same time, the second sometimes turns off the sound. Like when a second rocket gets triggered, for example. I’m pretty sure I got that bug too with the door-switch sound on one level.
I figured teleporters were dead, was more concerned with “NaNed” drones (drones and other enemies of that type made to stay still by changing a value to something unsuitable).
One more question about the new format (last one, I promise): It’s still a form that’s easy to copy and share, right? Because that’s a big part of the “magic” of N.
There will probably be a plaintext option, but the idea is that you can just share links to the levels (i.e the link will open N and load the level).
If possible, a stand alone version would be fantastic. It would be more stable in general, and people wouldn’t need internet to access the game.
Well, I just beat the whole thing!
😀
There’s a bug though. I don’t see the secret column!
D:
never mind 😀
Wow. I just played this version of the beta for the first time, and I got chills playing the first few levels. This somehow feels like how N was supposed to feel the whole time. It’s so flowy. Beautiful work guys.
So what’s the status of the logging? Anyone got past the ‘invalid email’?
Hey. Why can not I register an account? Continually shows “please enter a valid email address”. Or it has not yet implemented?
PS. Sorry, I do not know English, I use online translator.
There’s a problem with sign-in, it’s rejecting all emails… we’re working on it!
@RandomDigits: could you explain what happened? i.e did it boot you to the main menu, and then you had to re-enter the episodes screen to see the new column? what went wrong?
useless things and minor changes to do: the story section is poorly made; the help section too.
also, why don’t you guys make a check on the episodes that have always been defeated? let’s say i’m on 99 and i don’t remember if I made it or not, I can’t tell it.
GAME LOOKS AWESOME
1. running sprite looks unfinished, like it’s missing few last frames
2. 2.0 is too easy comparing to 1.4
Everything else is cool, I can’t wait for the final release
@M&R: I don’t know if it was meant to be that way, and if so, I don’t know if you want me to reveal the secret here, would it be better if I email you?
Also, I got to u5-4 last night.
At first it seemed amazing. Reaaally, really smooth. But then it started getting lag spikes like crazy and switched from that to smooth repeatedly. I’m on a Mac, if that helps.
I take back what I said. I was just getting mad, sorry. This game is great.
So, when I play it feels like I’m slower and heavier. Also, I can’t make an account because apparently neither of my email addresses (gmail and me.com) are “Valid”. I am liking these new maps, though.
It seems a lot faster! One strange thing though is that you have to press jump to start a level whereas before you would press space. Personally, I like the space bar better, but it’s not a big deal.
I definately agree with lord_day on the z-snapping. it’s really a crucial part of my map making as well!
Speaking of map making, I’m kindof wanting in to make a few levels for the “secret” column, if that’s still available. If not, or you just think I’m not talented enough (highly doubtful), that’s ok too.
😀
http://www.nmaps.net/user/lfaber
also, I cannot sign up-the text box for email cuts off after you get to the end, so it says:
Non valid e-mail.
(but I can’t type the whole thing in!!!!)
>:(
@RandomDigits: when you unlock it (by beating all the episodes) it should be just like beating any other episode, takes you back to the episode-select screen. If it took you to the main menu, that’s a problem, let us know!
@Miststalker: that’s happening on some of our test computers, but we can’t figure out why. Does using a different browser help?
About pressing space, we hadn’t considered this — I’ll see if we can add a separate key.
It’s better in Chrome for some reason. Safari has always been my first choice for Mac, it just works so well with every element. But it seems that Flash just doesn’t… hmm…
The kill-option doesn’t work. No matter which key I change it to, it stays the same. But very fluent beta. Nice work!
Are you going to release the source code or not?
I remember years ago there was a discussion about this…
stopping Rainmeter improved my PC’s performance massively. I am an idiot for not trying this earlier.
When I beat the last episode it took me to the episode-select screen, so all was fine there. However, there were no new episode squares to select from. After re-reading your post, the words “secret/hidden column” made me try looking elsewhere. After maybe 10 or 15 minutes I figured out how to access the u-column. And as for whether these user levels are all still beatable? Yes they are!
(I’m pretty sure the only time beating an episode takes me to the main menu is when I beat it from “resume game”)
I should probably compile a list of bugs and weird things I noticed… There’s one issue of special importance to me though, to do with pause. Specifically, that the tab key unpauses the game. This means if I want to pause N and go to another program I have to either switch to another tab first in Safari, or switch programs with the mouse, instead of simply pressing cmd+tab.
ahhh RD: that’s probably why my game kept unpausing…
I think a stand-alone final release version is a MUST and Lord_day pretty much summed it up. Part of the fun of Nv1.3 and 1.4 was putting it on your friend’s flash drive and spreading it around the classroom/office like a virus. Also, a boss mode would be boss. As for the ninja flavours, I’m sure all that good stuff will come, just cut Mare & Raigan some slack!
Peace!
I’m confused. Are you finished with the secret column or is it still being edited? If it’s still in progress, I know I already said this, but, how could I get some of my own maps in there? It would make me extraordinarily happy.
Like, so, so happy.
hey M&R, always nice to hear from you! We’re all super excited for v2.0. As for the new levels – I’ll have to agree with mammaletto – there’s a shitload of blue drones, but almost no lasers and chainguns. These are really great enemies, giving a great range of possibilities. I think that you’re underappreciating them. Just look at the maps kiaora has linked!
As for the big-amount-of-zap-drones maps… You’ve overdone it. Like, who needs that amount of drones?! I don’t want to sound rude, but it really doesn’t have sense in my opinion. Yeah, sometimes it works. but only sometimes. Not mentioning the lag that some people have. I think you should tone down their amount. Just a suggestion.
Doubling that one anonymous guy, aren’t you going to put in any new enemis or tiles? (I don’t really care about the latter, N with the current 8 types of tiles is completely fine for me) but the enemies… I was thinking, maybe you could merge N v2.0 with NReality somehow? I dunno if it’s doable (since you’re already having a lot of problems with things that should be ok), just a random thought. if not, then okay. I would also like to see some new obstacles and objects – miststalker’s idea with the multiple-use doors is really cool. The new door types could lead to a totally new and awesome puzzle genre, just think about it 😉 I was just expecting more from the v2.0, although it’s only a beta, so yeah. I’m really happy to see the improved physics and stuff. Great work on that!
Again, thank you very much for still being with us after 9 years. I haven’t been in the community as long as some guys here, who have been playing N continuously from ’04. the Metanet community has hosted thousands of people from all over the world throughout all these years. This game is surely a significant part of life of each of us.
one more time, good luck and big thanks for giving us a great and an incredibly addictive game 😀
great game guys! new physics are amazing, can’t wait for level editor.
i don’t like how after you complete the level you can still be killed by the remaining enemies.
what is the “levels” part supposed to do? do you need an account to use it? because, somewhere in the original poat you said you could go to levels – metanet levels and play levels in highscore format if you’ve beaten the episode, but i’ve beaten a few episodes and there is nothing there in the levels-metanet levels section. sorry if this is unclear
best of luck to you two 😀
Hey M&R, so just as RandomDigits said, the usermade column is unlocked after beating the game, but it does not appear on the menu, on the place its suposed to appear. Actually, it doesnt appear anywhere.
So my question is, is this suposed to work like that, I mean, theres a way of accesing them, you know, but Im not telling here just in case that suposed to be like /that/ and you wanna keep the secret. But if its not, and its suposed to appear on the space right to the right of the 90s, then somethings going wrong.
Great job finally putting out a beta version of 2.0! I just finished all the levels, including the ‘secret’ user level column (why is it secret, though?). I played it on internet explorer (for some reason, it worked better on there than on chrome or firefox for me) on a sony vaio with windows vista, and here are a couple of bugs I noticed:
1. Similar to the problem RandomDigits seemed to post about in the metanet forums, on some levels I also had a running continuously problem. Mine had nothing to do with switching tabs on the browser, though. Every now and then, if I held the ‘right’ key or the ‘left’ key for a few seconds and then let go, the ninja runs for quite a few seconds longer than he should. It seemed more frequent on some levels, but I think it was just due to the way the level was set up (it happened fairly often on the last user level u9.4, for example). It might be a vista problem like the choppy frame rate was in n v 1.4, but I’m not sure.
2. Maybe it’s just me, but the jump button seemed to be delayed sometimes (not lag, but just delayed…the drones on the screen would still move along normally, etc). Sometimes it seemed as if a jump was activated after I let go of the ‘jump’ button instead when I pressed the ‘jump’ button.
Like the other users, I also did experience some slowdown on some levels instead of the choppy lag that sometimes happened before, and that’s good. Neither of these problems listed above happened all the time, but the first problem was definitely more annoying on some levels. Good luck with fixing everything!
This patch is a quantum leap compared to previous version.
I’m hopeful about N v2.0 from now on. Keep it up!
48-4 Treadmills: Number one on the worst levels ever made list.
wow, just beat the whole user column (acceded it thanks to the bug with arrow keys) and I must say it’s quite an amazing column. So much coolness, intensity & variety, and the very last level is… hm a perfectly well chosen very last level. I took it as a kind of sequel of mother thwumping impossible from n1.4, though it was more easy.
this last column definitely add the something which was missing in the rest of the game levels.
also i totally agree on what lord_day and ska said about making a downloadable version.
i’m more and more excited about the future of N, thinks are going in a great direction, thanks a lot for all this work.
a little disappointed so far, to be honest. i feel that at this point, at least in regards to the way i use n, that a lot has been taken away from the game, and not much added in.
sure, we’ve got a fantastic new engine with much smoother gameplay, but we’ve lost the inherent difficulty that for me was idiosyncratic to nv1.4, z-snapping (which is without a doubt a seriously useful mapping tool) and teleportation. i would’ve been fine with this if we could see some additions – tiles, enemies or gameplay mechanics, but after playing all the levels i haven’t seen anything new.
that said, i’m speaking mainly from the viewpoint of a mapper (who hasn’t even seen the editor yet), and the new feel is undeniably cool. it’s obvious that a heap of work has gone into overhauling this, and so i’ll wait it out patiently!
also, zap drones wut
Oh come on TBL, didnt you read the comments, we were keeping that “arrow trick” as a secret dude.
“Hey M&R, so just as RandomDigits said, the usermade column is unlocked after beating the game, but it does not appear on the menu, on the place its suposed to appear. Actually, it doesnt appear anywhere.
So my question is, is this suposed to work like that, I mean, theres a way of accesing them, you know, but Im not telling here just in case that suposed to be like /that/ and you wanna keep the secret. But if its not, and its suposed to appear on the space right to the right of the 90s, then somethings going wrong.”
Um I seem to have found a little bug/ glitch with the mine:
http://i.imgur.com/BhLfb.jpg
The guy is supposed to blow up when he lands there on that mine.
regards E4e
hi,
in the two player mode still exist some difficulties. when both players want du play at the same time, some keys don’t work, because one keyboard can’t act 4 keys at the same time…
try to make it a LAN game as well, better controlling optoins.
and the second one…
player two can get the extra times but the team do not get the extra time!!!
should be possible for both.
BUT:
awsome game though!!!!
E4E: That’s because the squeeze physic has been eliminated.
hm sorry Eddy but someone already explained how it worked on the forum with screenshot and all so yeah… it’s the kind of secret that can’t keep secret very long 😉 And for the final release it needs to be corriged anyways.
Linux user here. It’s super awesome fun. Alas, it goes into slow motion when there’s more than a few things on screen. I’m not sure what the deal is, as there’s no perceptible framerate drop, everything just moves slowly. Like the actionscript VM is travelling close to the speed of light or something.
It took me 3 hours to do that last level. I’ll try the user ones out tomorrow when my fingers have had a chance to recover.
(*Psst, hey guys. Jumping between mines one tile apart on the floor is easier now, and can be done from great heights.)
Just found out that you fixed triple jumps (off a 1-tile slope and wall). I now respect you so much more.
Will report back once I’ve finished the user column (don’t tell anyone I used the bug to unlock it (hehehe))
p.s. looking forward to those prizes 😛
Wow, the game runs amazingly smoothly now! Just thought to let you know that the keyboard input problems I was having with the previous beta are no longer present. Keep up the good work!
Hey M&R, I have a suggestion that Im sure the highscoring community would highly appreciate (and I mean a damn lot!). I see the change in the code in this second beta has fixed triple slope jumps, that is, jumping on 1-tiles, and I really thanks you for that. My suggestion is, could you code Corner Jumps?
I know, they werent suposed to be on N1.4 and maybe you dont know how to code them at first, but guess what, that trick is a big part of N highscoring and speedrunning, its the mother of the tricks. If you could take a look at several different demos so you know what im talkking about (although you probably already know about the existance of cjs), maybe you could figure out how to include them on N2.
It doesnt involve a big change on the physics or the game, but it does make a huge difference to us, the highscorers. We can help you showing a bunch of demos showing different kinds of cj so you can see how it works. They change depending on the angle, the speed, etc.
Im really looking forward to your response, since this would be a huge difference to the new highscoring scene, we would really apreciate it. And brings a whole load of new possibilities.
Thanks in advance, Eddy.
Oh I forgot, as a side note, Id like to point out that cjs in N1.4 are a hard trick to master, they require a big deal of skill (to get them consistently somehow), so that adds the difficulty factor to those who already beat the game and want more possiblities for highscoring. Including hard tricks to outrun the others is commonly used when a level has already a pretty clean route. And cutting those frames is worth the hard time getting the new hard route.
– Eddy
Eddy, try to mail them!
i’d like to see again corner jumps and other tricks too!
n without tricks is un-imaginable!!!!
Hello, just throwing in my vote for the cj’s. And corner shoves, too.
About corner jumps: I don’t think there’s anything that we can do, this wasn’t a special case, it was just a case of the ninja (a circle) landing on the corner of a shape for one frame, and the player pressing jump on that same frame.
AFAICT, this is still possible, however it’s much harder, because a frame is shorter in this version: previously the game ran at 40hz, which meant that the ninja was on the corner for 0.025s, whereas now a single frame (at 60hz) takes only 0.016s. So your window of opportunity is 1/3 smaller.
I’m not sure whether there is any other change which can explain this difference, but this is my best guess, and there’s no way I can see to “add” the ability to corner-jump (other than letting the ninja jump off of things that are near-but-not-colliding… which is an interesting idea, but not something we want to explore for N since it will change the feel of the game a lot).
Maybe I’m misunderstanding corner-jumping though?
That could be the reason, but I think there must be some other differences. Since in 1.4, only the hardest corner tricks had a single frame range, but by varying the angle and speed you could do safer ones, and even make them consistently. People almost never do single-frame ones.
I can feel the change on the atmosphere that makes cjs not possible, honestly, I have tried a lot and still havent got one, and the fact that noone has pulled it off makes me think they are just impossible. I will try to get one though, Ill keep you informed. Clearly there was something weird that made cjs possible in 1.4, and that made the frame range variable depending on the speed and angle.
Oh, aside from that, I can see a big bug, N its cheatable. I just used Cheat Engine to slow it down and it worked perfectly, I maan, I could play on any slower speed, so one could easily cheat, without N taking any measures about it, not even a message.
This should be fixed, you can ask Unreality, he added this kind of antihack and antispeedhack, so if you slow the game down in any way, it blocks it and you have to close and reopen N.
I see you fixed the sol editing though, this is great, so now no more sol hacking will be possible and therefore no more hackers! But still, cheaters can appear, using Cheat Enigne or something like that. It would be awesome if you could fix that.
hello guys
i was a player in 2008, can someone tell me what tricks can still be done on this new n?
I wonder if the fact that tile squeezes no longer work could be the reason why super-corner-jumps are also gone. Maybe the ninja went slightly into the corner when those super-corner-jumps happened…
I find it kinda funny that normal (useful) corner jumps are nearly, if not completely impossible, while tricks like the bounceblock backwards walljump (bbbwj), thwump backwards walljump (tbwj), bounceblock “corner jump*” (bbcj), and presumably (although I haven’t done it yet) thwump “corner jump”* (tjc) still exist. (Please don’t remove. =D)
I have a feeling that the corner jump and corner shove issues are related. I’m guessing the reason corner shoves are not possible is that the ninja no longer goes partially inside a tile when it collides with it at high speeds.** (Maybe tiles detect the ninja faster than before..?) Similarly, corner jumps are probably so much harder now because the ninja’s foot doesn’t end up partially inside of the tile as they collide.*** I guess the simplest way, at least theoretically, to reintroduce these two tricks would be to actually slow down the collision detection between the ninja and tiles just slightly enough that the ninja can end up partially inside of the tile… It might create a few unwanted side effects though…
—————————————————————
* These are not true corner jumps, but really backwards walljumps (i.e. a walljump in which the ninja faces away from the surface) done while falling down towards the object rather than jumping up to it.
** For corner shoves, particularly the head: http://i48.tinypic.com/20zcw3l.png
*** http://i49.tinypic.com/2ymy7hf.png
It seems RD and I think alike.
I would really love to see 2 player highscores. It would add so much more possibilities to highscore and that would make the game about 1000 times more awesome 😉
I’m really looking forward to highscoring even if it’s only single player and I like the current level design a lot.
@govan: it’s possible, however for reasons related to a secret project it won’t happen this year for sure
@EddyMataGallos: could you email us Unreality’s email address? We’ve been meaning to get in touch but have been busy.. but this is on our todo list.
@Meta_Ing: it’s possible that the different behaviour is a result of the ninja not penetrating as much as in the old version..
@xela: there are two problems with 2p highscores: (1) most levels are easily exploitable (i.e you can sort of “cheat” by using one player to clear some mines), and more importantly (2) the ragdoll is not deterministic.. we’re not sure why, we’ve tried to make it deterministic, however for some reason it’s still a bit random, which means replays wouldn’t work. But we’ll consider it in the future… it’s also a UI mess since there’s not much room for highscores as it is…
Of course, I just sent it to you to:
metanet AT metanetsoftware DOT com
Oh and yeah, that squeezing into the tiles seems to be the difference on the collision detection for corner jumps and corner shoves, great info Meta ^^
Just beat the whole game (including user column). The current levels are quite nice, but I have to agree with the others who said it was too easy compared to v1.4… I suppose gone are the days where I’d want to throw my keyboard through the screen, and consequentially the huge satisfaction of beating those levels, but oh well. =P
Additionally, I kinda have to agree with the overuse of zaps and lack of chainguns and lasers, although my biggest issue was the lag that was so common with the zap drone infested levels. Of course I understand that this is still a beta and intermittent lag is something that you’re aware of, so hopefully by the final release, if all of those levels remain, it won’t be so bad.
On an unrelated note, I consider a level like this without the ability to perform proper corner jumps as a form of psychological torture and I demand to be compesated:* http://i47.tinypic.com/zvppah.jpg
* I kid, of course. =D
*compensated
i wonder if these two things are at all possible:
1. options to remove the walls/ceiling/floor of a map.
2. scrollable maps, so that you can make a map larger than the current window size and the map would scroll while you played it.
Really thank you very much, Metanet.
You are doing an awesome job. And I think that now I’ve really gotten and I plunged into the new essence of this new look for N. I managed to get the essence of these new levels simpler and frankly I must say that I like the idea. I’m really enjoying.
N is much for all of us and our lives. Thank you very much.
I responded with some multiplayer issues and ideas here:
http://forum.droni.es/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=9701&p=164391#p164391
Hope you can take a look. 😉
Cheers!
I’m suprised that the release of a standalone version of 2.0 wasn’t a sure thing from the begining. If a voice of a single anonymous player counts for something then I would like to see You gentelmen release a downloadable version of the new N. It’s how I found out about this game in the very begining, several years ago – it was included on a CD of a gaming magazine in my country back when I didn’t have internet acces. Like sombeody mentioned above, having a standalone version makes wonders for spreading the game around, and let’s us play without the need of an internet connection.
We had hoped that a browser version would be good enough, since we didn’t want to have to support two different versions… however I think we’re going to re-evaluate this decision.
ps there’s only one gentleman, R — M is a gentlewoman
Yes dear Mare and dear Raigan, you should re-consider this option. N as a standalone program is EVERYTHING. We can port it EVERYWHERE we go, sometimes there is no internet connection, or even sometimes internet down for a while, even days. And also it’s a much better way to distribution and introduce the game to friends and acquaintances. Also sometimes internet runs at abnormally low speeds.
I always liked an idea that someone said when I was a kid, whenever you go to do something, something new, a new step, do it forward, do not walk backwards.. 😉
I have made this thread in Forums so people can vote for their favorite, and you can see the preferences of the community and why.
http://forum.droni.es/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9722
Cheers!
M&R and zoasBE: let me point you three to the results of this forum poll made in 2010.
http://forum.droni.es/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=6036
@Zapmeister:
Thank you. Really useful.
So sorry for double post, didn’t see that thread before.
@M&R:
Please take this link better:
http://forum.droni.es/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=6036
😛
@xela: there are two problems with 2p highscores: (1) most levels are easily exploitable (i.e you can sort of “cheat” by using one player to clear some mines), and more importantly (2) the ragdoll is not deterministic.. we’re not sure why, we’ve tried to make it deterministic, however for some reason it’s still a bit random, which means replays wouldn’t work. But we’ll consider it in the future… it’s also a UI mess since there’s not much room for highscores as it is…
Unless I’m missing the possibility that some levels require a player to commit suicide to complete the level, wouldn’t it just make sense to void the run either as a a failed run, or at least void it as a run which can be submitted for highscores (like practice mode in 1.4)
I was thinking for such highscores, you could have the 2 accounts (requiring a dual login) be like this: say I “Ben_Schultz_11” and “vankusss” team up. I’m player 1 and van is player 2. Say our score is 0th with 148.075 (btw how come you’re using the same .025 syntax if the frame rate is different?) then the highscores board for 2 player mode would read “0th Ben_Schultz_11 & vankusss 148.075”
Obviously like 1.4, you’d only want that combination once on the highscores boards, but what if I theoretically decided to team up with xaelar on the same level? Could I then have 2 highscores on the same level, or would only the better one of the 2 stay on? That is of course assuming you can be bothered to code a 2 player highscores database, although it seems people are all for it. As for teleporters, squeezes etc. I am actually happy to see them go. I was never really a fan of either.
The thing about 2-player is: both players have to beat the level/survive, then basically it’s just 2 people playing single-player simultaneously, which is a lot less fun than being able to divide and conquer (i.e one person gets gold, one goes for exit). So, we prefer it if only one person beating the level counts as a win.
However, because the ragdoll is so random, it means you can get drastically better times depending on how the other player’s corpse flies around. This means that getting the best 2-player highscore isn’t going to be skill-based, it’s going to be rolling the dice again and again until the corpse hits at just the right way to take care of all the problematic mines, allowing the best short-cut.
About the timing: where are you seeing this? It should be multiples of 16.6666 (i.e 1/60 second), e.g 81.566, if not please let us know since it’s a bug!
Yeah Im getting multiples of 1/60 of a second.
M&R: if one player die, level restart.
where is the problem?
I’m a little sad about that random ragdoll physics problem, but as for the mine cheats, there are possible ways to solve this. Like only one player has to finish the level but noone must die before the level is completed (like govan already suggested). If only one has to finish, you can still split your ways and have different objectives ingame, mostly 1 gets the gold and 1 finishes the level.
I’m still so exited about those 2 player highscores that I think it’s something like a must-have in N2 and I already have someone to team up with me to grab some 2P 0ths.
@Ben:
I don’t think anyone will team up with many different people to take 2 player 0ths on a local machine and spam the boards, so I think it should count records for every team, if you change the mate, you get a new score.
It probably takes a lot of practice to get the 2P timing right and grab the 0ths after a few weeks/months.
Btw, when will the highscores and the login be enabled? And will we need to beat the game first? I hope not because I didn’t do it by now ;D
Oh, one question: since this isn’t 2005 any more and SWF file size isn’t so much of an issue, is there any chance you could adjust the export settings so that the sound effects have a higher sample rate? (I think 22.05kHz is Flash’s default, while 44.1 is preferable.) The low quality of the sounds, in contrast to modern standards for streaming audio, is something that stands out to me when I open many Flash games such as N.
This is of course assuming that the raw sound files were higher quality before being compressed into the SWF format; otherwise I suppose it wouldn’t be as simple as changing export settings.
I wish I had somebody to team with like xela has haha, some people I know play N, but not nearly as good to be able to aim for highscores. Anyway, Im also looking forward to highscoring this!
nice one to resume the game, but if you collect the points, your time do not increase 😉
About the problem about rag-doll physics in multiplayer;
Isn’t it possible to disable rag-doll physics in multiplayer mode? Or maybe in multiplayer mode, died player’s corpse suddenly should disappear to prevent to blast more mines.
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