Make a coin or item that extends time (NeverTrac #157)

[Cheeseness]

This issue has been migrated from the Neverball Trac ticket list.

As suggested by this topic, the idea of having a coin that extends time was liked upon.

Original ticket created by @ChallengeSY

[parasti]

@ChallengeSY has some prototype code in his neverball repo. I had a quick look and immediately noticed a few things that will have to be addressed for a future implementation:

• Levels making use of clock items will naturally have little spare time. The constant ticking clock sound gets really, really, really annoying.
• For the same reason, it is hard to tell how much time you have left. The ticking sound simply doubles at one point during the last 10 seconds, which is actually a lot of time. Also the HUD barely changes. The sound could perhaps get more elaborate as time goes on and the HUD timer could be color coded to go from yellow to red or something.
• It is also hard to tell how much time you're gaining by picking up clock items. A numeric popup (+3.5) or such would help immensely.
• Clock items need custom pickup sounds as all the other items, it's hard to tell when you're picking one up.

[ChallengeSY]

Indeed, the constant ticking can be quite annoying, and also agree that the feedback is too subtle (especially when collecting yellow clocks). After reading the thoughts @parasti wrote, I believe that it is more desirable to come up with new unit denominations for the clocks (right now, they are identical to the money coins). I am currently thinking about ≈5 seconds for the yellow clock, ≈15 seconds for the red clock, and ≈30 seconds for the blue clock.

The very first level I had designed with this in mind, Time Pressure, only starts with twenty (20) seconds, and, with the current denominations, the maximum time possible is fifty-eight (58) seconds if all the clocks are collected. I have since used the clocks occasionally throughout the refurbished set, now known as Clockwork Alpha.

[camthesaxman]

Other custom level sets by KodeBreaker and Adacrop make use of this time extension feature (which requires CSY's clockwork version of Neverball). I think it is worth considering that this be added to the base game to support these level sets.

[KodeBreaker-Has-SWAG]

I really think these clocks should be added in as well, it's such a good idea. Having clocks would be really good for a new update added along CSY's Clockwork sets.

[qwertychouskie]

+1 for this. My only concern would be making the clocks' colors easily identify the amount of extra time they give, while still looking visually distinct to normal coins. In the screenshot above, it's easier to tell which coins give you more time, while in the videos I've seen of the full mod, the time bonus coins are visually distinct from normal coins, but you can't tell from a distance how much extra time they give.

[parasti]

They should not use the coin model, in my opinion. In my mind, I imagine a little spinning alarm clock or a sand clock shape.

[camthesaxman]

What do you think of this concept? (Please excuse the shoddy UV mapping. I'm still learning how to model stuff in Wings3D)

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/17279765/139366962-547fdcdb-1f45-4fba-8a40-13e51bf32b2c.mp4

[parasti]

That is really cool. I feel the color/material properties of the item are not the best choice, but the concept is great.

Some ideas that occurred to me: 1) maybe the time indicator above the item could be a billboard (info_bill)? Curious of how that would look. 2) Perhaps the sand clock could flip over based on how much time it gives? 5 second item would flip once every 5 seconds, and so on.

[camthesaxman]

1. I'm unsure of how to make Z-ordering work properly with billboards ("info_null"). They always seem to draw behind everything and get covered up by the stage. I tried both using the "image" attribute or the "material"/"model" attribute, and both ended up drawing behind everything. Is there any way to control that?

2. That's a neat idea. However, clocks come in values of 5, 15, and 30 seconds, so flipping every 30 seconds wouldn't be very noticeable.

[parasti]

Oh, right, I forgot that Neverball doesn't really sort transparent materials that well.

As for animations, the wait time could be solved in a number of ways, e.g., with a secondary animation pulse/bounce while waiting for the main rotation. Or, by scaling the values down, so 5 seconds become a 1 second animation loop, 15 seconds become 3 second animation loop, etc. Or, maybe not scaling linearly, but increasing the animation loop time for each level of item, e.g., 1 vs 2 vs 3 seconds.

Just thinking of ways to make that animation subtly grounded in reality. For me, it's fun to see these kinds of "useless details" in other games.

(If you don't want to, that's fine.)

[camthesaxman]

I was also thinking about texturing the items so that the higher value clocks appear to contain more "sand".

My main roadblock right now is trying to get these models textured properly.

[parasti]

https://github.com/Neverball/neverball/pull/252 Clock items are merged, but keeping this issue open for any model updates.

[ChallengeSY]

Granted, I had multiple issues, but ever since I broke my dev environment, I never was able to rebuild it.

Congratulations and thanks to the rest of the team!

[Adacrop-The-Great]

I wrote a pull request to change the colouring of the clocks since three distinct colours allows the denominations to be distinguished from one another. The +5 second clocks retain the original pink but the other two have been changed as follows:

+15 seconds: Turquoise +30 seconds: Orange

[Adacrop-The-Great]

Another way to make the clocks distinct is by having them move in a distinct manner, so they can be spotted from a distance, especially when surrounded by money coins. Changes have been merged, but here's a video demonstrating the concept. #299

clockdemo.mp4

[qwertychouskie]

What do you think of this concept? (Please excuse the shoddy UV mapping. I'm still learning how to model stuff in Wings3D) hourglass-1.mp4

This is my favorite by far. It is way more clear that it's not a normal coin, and also it's very clear how much time you get from it. Would love to see this model merged before 1.7.0.

[Calinou]

Another way to make the clocks distinct is by having them move in a distinct manner, so they can be spotted from a distance, especially when surrounded by money coins. Changes have been merged, but here's a video demonstrating the concept. https://github.com/Neverball/neverball/pull/299

This looks nice, but I feel it's still hard to distinguish until you spot that particular moment of the animation. I had two ideas in mind for making the time coins easier to distinguish from score coins:

• Make them rotate clockwise instead of counterclockwise. Maybe slow down their rotation as well.
• Make the time coins square or another shape (perhaps not octogonal though, as it may be interpreted as a "stop" sign).