Marble Blast Platinum Support

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map-pin PlatinumQuest Feedback/Praise Thread

  • IsraeliRD
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08 Jul 2017 11:39 #1
Well, you guys have had (some) time to check out PlatinumQuest. Any thoughts, feedback, general praise etc is appreciated and should be posted here.

We will take in requests for things, but as of right now they are not a priority.
To report bugs/crashes, send console.log + crash.log to [email protected] with detailed report of what happened.

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08 Jul 2017 12:12 #2
Yay, glad there's a proper place for this :cheer:

Overall, really REALLY impressed with the quality of level design - it's clear you guys thoroughly tested everything and put in lots of things that would make the level fun and interesting. There's so much scope for path-finding etc, and it seems like the game can be equally enjoyed by players of all skill levels. I am particularly excited about having a go at creating custom levels with the new editor - but trying to get good times on all the levels first! I also really like the Bonus levels - it just adds a layer of thoughtfulness to the whole process of playing a game and what one might expect.

One thing I didn't really like is some of the Gem Madness Expert levels (e.g. Hydropower) - they're just a bit too nice looking and it seems the focus is less on the gameplay in those levels. Otherwise, the other Expert levels are really well made.

As a possible feature, could we have an option to favourite levels? It would make it a lot easier for me to find a certain level which I particularly liked but couldn't remember which category it was in, for instance. It should be easily accessible in Single Player and Multiplayer, perhaps in the 'Menu' tab?


Overall, really pleased :)

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08 Jul 2017 12:30 #3
Positive: most things. Love almost all of SP, obviously there will always be a few levels each individual person dislikes but generally I thought the quality of the SP was fantastic. MP was not fantastic but not bad either. All the new features - bubble, anvil, fireball, disappearing platforms/items, etc etc etc were probably my favorite part of the update because WOW some of that stuff is fun! Definitely planning on making some levels riddled with new features in the future (Traps 2 anyone?)
The new addition of 'Awesome Time' is also great fun!


Negative: Most of my negative feedback would be random small things, such as a particular level I disliked or w/e. However what stuck out the most were these things, in increasing order of 'problem' in my eyes:

Stepped on the tourney
lol

Skate Battle Royale and Skate Battle Royale
There was no problem with changing to 'Time Travel Race' and 'Cardcaddy's Gem Collection' so why on earth can a 2 not be tacked on the end of the PQ one, or a 'PQ' and 'MBP' put on them respectively?

Previews and levels lagging, as well as random crashes
I don't think there's much to be done about the first and I expect the second to be worked out over time so this one is kinda useless lol

The new GUI
I expect some may disagree with me here but I'm not a fan of the new GUI at all. It makes it harder to tell which order levels come in, and the leaderboards are no longer in your face, which is very frustrating. I keep clicking to a level and wanting to check the rankings but it's not there and I have to click through other stuff first. Also the times and ratings run together into one long number for some reason... This one, at least, is a relatively easy fix I assume, looks like a bug to me

Powerups on Radar
By far my biggest issue with PQ is this and it's hardly even in any levels but when it is it TICKS ME OFF especially because I use the circle radar. I tried with 3rd radar and it was not as bad but still annoying. On the circle you can hardly even tell where the gems are because there are oodles of powerups all around it. As I normally use the circle I found this pretty problematic

Overall, I think PQ brings a fabulous set of singleplayer levels with loads of interesting new features, but downgrades slightly from platinum in the 'logistics' of the game so to speak, various small tidbits here and there. Remove powerups on the radar and I can probably get used to everything else tbh.

Great work from the PQ team to put this all together.

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08 Jul 2017 13:51 #4
This is one of the best marble blast games I have ever played! The new UI looks great and the levels are all unique! I like the little things too, like if you leave the marble alone for a few seconds, Zs start coming out of it like if it was sleeping. Awesome Job Platinum Team, looking forward to the new events and custom levels! :cheer:

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08 Jul 2017 17:48 #5
Perhaps you could fix this
Attachments:

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08 Jul 2017 19:37 #6
Just thought of something - it seems a whole new stage of level design has been reached with some levels. Overall everything is really polished and well thought out, and yet there's still room for 'cutting corners' as it were. It's really impressive and a definite showcase to what some of the members here can do. :)

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08 Jul 2017 20:16 - 09 Jul 2017 04:13 #7
I've been busy at work all day so I'm just going to keep this brief. Maybe i'll go into detail more some other time.

Positives:
• I liked the anti-frustration features added to the final product, such as easier menu navigation, multiple checkpoints for collectathon maps, and actually adding a landing marker to where the cannons you control will launch you, so it's not just guess work.
• Graphics are overall vibrant and come together nicely, so no complaints there. Light reflections are also appealing.
• Having and archive for every single past iteration of MarbleBlast is great too, and I appreciate how faithfully it replicates the Gold and Ultra environments in particular.
• I like that the Platinum times are actually more akin to the gold times in Marble Blast Gold, and not just an "easier" version of the ultimate times.
• Music, at this point in time, is very nostalgic and I appreciate the familiar instruments used in Platinum.
• The homage to Lode Runner: The Legend Returns and LR2 are by far the best tribute levels I've ever seen.

Negatives:
• The secret for unlocking any level you want is gone now. Any kind of arcade-platform game needs at least one cheat code
• Racing levels are frustrating, namely the ones that expect you to maintain above a certain speed; I'm not a speedrunning pro so I still try to be careful around sharp curves, which ends up punishing me because of this gimmick.
• Levels that take advantage of glitch exploits like the 45 degree camera angle, or other such tactics should only be optional for speedrunning, not required gameplay.
• Arbitrary par time limits are incredibly aggravating (never liked them in Gold either so seeing those cranked up to 9 in PQ is not a welcome experience).
• Too many checkpoints for simple and shorter levels, not enough for long-winded levels.
• 2D perspective levels have twitchy camera adjustments in places due to awkward foreground objects (see Dangerous Development).
• Some levels don't have enough conveyance on what you're supposed to do or where to go (see again Dangerous Development).
• Short and obvious levels have too many hints, while long and convoluted levels don't have enough.
• By the same merit hints don't stay up long enough for me to read, especially problematic when some hints have two or three lines of dialogue.
• The no-jumping restriction is used a little too casually and frequently at times.
• Difficulty curve for some individual levels are erratic and often unbalanced (see the tornado section in Be Elusive, especially aggravating since there's no checkpoints).
• The constant update installs via launcher don't like it when you edit the graphics or textures, and automatically replace them back to the default ones, making that "Custom Graphics" tab on the website kind of useless.
Last edit: 09 Jul 2017 04:13 by JordanPlo.
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08 Jul 2017 22:46 #8
I really like the clean style that all the levels have. Making levels unlock upon completion of specific levels is a great idea for newer players. Awesome times are really good too, though it does make getting first on a level rather meaningless when you still only have UT.
I like pretty much everything about PQ and the stuff I don't is fairly minor. Namely hunt levels and Lost Islands. Hunt levels is more a matter of opinion, but I felt like there were a lot more of them in the advanced levels than there should have been. While I didn't get stuck on the path of Lost Islands, I did kind of stumble through to the end. Also the camera needs some work, at the start it tries to zoom in and out on each railing. On other 2D levels it can get a bit glitchy too.

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09 Jul 2017 00:07 #9
Wow, first of all I'd like to say that as a little kid seeing all the PQ trailers and news back in 2010-11 I never thought I myself would be a part of this new era. Amazingly done team, you all seem so truly devoted to us and this experience and we love you guys for that. (Funny fact: back in 2015, if I remember correctly, I had a dream that I was at Matan's house, in Israel, playing PQ at his computer. Looks like now I don't need to travel that far. :lol:)

I think the level graphics are by far the most groundbreaking thing here, and this will be definitely the main thing that can transport Marble Blast to a much wider gaming audience. The new levels as usual are great for speedrunning, and the new addition of Awesome Times and such concepts will add great competition. Fire and ice, teleport powerups, these new features are almost overwhelming in quantity. I'm really looking forward to all the new multiplayer levels as well -- after all, MP was my first experience and impression here in this community.

As far as the new interfaces go -- I feel like they changed so drastically upon us all, and especially in multiplayer servers I'm feeling a bit of "MBP homesickness." Same is true for the fact that there's no ability to see chat in level select, it feels like a bit of a disconnect. I also feel this way about some of the styles of the levels -- they are often based around single concepts and are solely structured to introduce these. There is a lot of focus on detail, which I also like, but it makes one feel a bit wandering and lost especially with these level structures. BlastedMarble's first custom level kind of brought me back into a feeling of true, classic marble blast by focusing more on using features in passing and making pathfinding and "skill course" structure with his level. I'm sure other custom levels coming this way will do that for me as well.

Great job all, as I said I'm rooting for you to win over the hearts of many mainstream gamers because all of you darn well deserve it.

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09 Jul 2017 18:06 #10
My only real qualm with PQ is that the offline scores are seemingly completely separate from the online leaderboards, which means I gotta have at least one score on every level twice. This is literally the only marble game I've ever played that does this.
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09 Jul 2017 18:19 #11
Try using a different sound for the mine and for the nuke.
Also, please fix the tornado sound.

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09 Jul 2017 19:32 #12

GravityBird wrote: My only real qualm with PQ is that the offline scores are seemingly completely separate from the online leaderboards, which means I gotta have at least one score on every level twice. This is literally the only marble game I've ever played that does this.


This is a known bug, eventually your scores gotten online will be transferred offline, but not this other way around. This is how it worked in MBP, but it's not working right now.

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10 Jul 2017 00:10 #13
First of all, huge thanks to the Platinum Team for making this mod. Dedicating a lot of your free time for 7 years into making something without monetary reward requires extreme patience and effort that not many of us are willing to. They definitely deserve a lot of praise for bringing PQ to live. :)

Now the feedback.

Positive:
  • Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. The graphics of this game look so good that it makes MBG jealous.
  • The new features, wow. The new powerups (teleporter, anvil) are awesome and fun to use, the new game modes are great additions to the diversity of the game. My favorite game mode is probably gem quota as it adds numerous path possibilities.
  • Easier navigation to levels. Enough said.

Negative:
  • The thing that bothers me the most is that you cannot see the global scores of levels unless you click an extra button. Even worse, the first page only shows top 5, not 10. This is particularly annoying if you are playing levels selectively based on ranks. I know less things can be shown given there's now an animation going on, but how about instead click an extra button to see the animation, or show the useful stuff if I have animation disabled?
  • The 2D mode. People may disagree with me here, but despite all the bugs, I find this mode simply not as fun as the other ones. Limited visibility, hard-to-estimate jump height, delays in adjusting the scope of view all make the mode quite frustrating, and much much pain if you are trying to speedrun.
  • Some of the levels are just pointlessly annoying, e.g. the endings of Orthogonality and Manic Bounce. It took me a good 18 minutes to pass Manic Bounce when first trying the level, most of it were spent being bombarded by the bouncy obstacles at the end. I don't think it's a good idea to make challenges based on pure luck rather than skill. With that said I find the levels in Platinum expert being a lot more skill-based (hence better) than PQ expert.

Feedback aside, thanks the PQ team again for creating the biggest (best?) mod to Marble Blast to date. :D

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10 Jul 2017 03:29 - 10 Jul 2017 03:30 #14
Agree with many things that Imperial has said -- I also may add (or rather, nitpick :P) that the new "You have collected a gem, powerup, etc." location of pop-ups can be quite inconvenient. In many of the PQ levels I haven't found it a problem, but in some of the difficult MBP and Custom categories it blocks my field of view, especially when speedrunning. The old way was much more what I'm used to, and fairly out-of-view -- not quite as fancy-looking, but imo things like that shouldn't be changed if they work well already.

(sorry for not editing my post instead of posting again, it would probably just go unnoticed though)

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Last edit: 10 Jul 2017 03:30 by Eguy.
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10 Jul 2017 04:22 #15
First off its super fun, I like how the hunt levels are in singleplayer now, even though I suck at them. :P They're lots of fun and nice and relaxing to play. PTs and UTs are nice, I find myself actually trying for ultimate time more often now. I agree somewhat with Frostfire about GUI, but I'm getting used to it. The game looks sooooooo fantastic. The marble reflections, the shaders, there are times it feels like a different engine lol. New powerups and hazards are all great, they make sense, they're not just there for more features. Levels are super fun and rarely frustrating. Racing levels are fine after I play them a few times and get the hang of them. Music is great too, of course. I really like electroforte and reanimation. They're all really good.
The style of the game is consistent, lots of colors, resembling more MBG than MBP did. Music fits in, really nothing feels out of place.

I'm really impressed with what the teams have done with this game and I'm so happy its finally out. I remember watching the trailer over and over again back starting in 2010. I was in universal the day it came out, and I ran back to my hotel room so I could play it. I'm not at all disappointed with it. I don't know how to end this post so thanks platinum team :D

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10 Jul 2017 15:00 #16
PlatinumQuest is, by far, the most amazing mod to MarbleBlast Gold since the very beginning! Everything about this game is redesigned from the ground up, from the music, shapes, level design, interface, file system, I can go on forever. I appreciate the hard work you've put up for these eight years, and I'm impressed how you implement these features to start the next generation of MarbleBlast fun! The mods I looked at before PQ look basically the same as MB Gold, and PQ goes above and beyond to be dramatically different than the original MBG. I started playing it on July 7, and completed 99% of the official levels (105/106). I even beat Manic Bounce (21:53.816), which requires much more patience and determination to face this endeavor but it's worth it. The only level that I didn't beat at this time is 'Emergency Stopping Only' - that level seems impossible to beat unless you have full speed throughout the level. As this time of posting this, my total wasted time of playing PQ is up to 11 hours. This shows that the late Intermediate/Advanced/Expert levels take some time to master them; however, none of these levels is really difficult in general. I can't wait to make compilations on PQ in the future and take advantage of the revamped recording system (thank you developers!). I rate this mod an A+.

Awesome Hint:

Since the Awesome Time/Score is secret, you will have to beat it in order to find out what it is. Just practice every day, and be ready to keep pressing the 'Restart' button...A LOT!

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10 Jul 2017 16:56 - 12 Jul 2017 06:20 #17
If I can be weirdly specific here, I find fault in the level "Above and Below." Not for anything big, but the smaller details of it, like how slightly higher the second incline underneath the large turbine is that you need to do this weird trickshot in order to get enough height. Just in general I shouldn't be having this much trouble just trying to jump up one ramp, it's difficulty put in the wrong part of the level. The other issue I have is with the ramp you launch off after grabbing the shock absorber and hitting the wall with the time travels; I expect to be building enough speed so I can make the next jump off the following incline, but because I hit that vertical wall my marble starts spinning rapidly in the opposite direction, so (and combined with the shock absorber still in effect) when I try to attempt a jump on the following incline to make the gap the opposite rotation of the marble slows down my momentum and I end up undershooting the gap 50% of the time.

I find a lot of fault in the Expert levels as well. Now a good chunk of them are actually thoughtfully crafted designs, but for certain others that old mentality from the original Platinum starts rearing its head back here.

Orthogonality is the first that I had problems with. From the forked falling path onwards it becomes mere guesswork on how to proceed, which I don't consider to be a legitimate challenge and more to be just frustrating in the wrong places, much like with Above and Below, and even though it tells you what to do you only have so much time to actually react before a wall or platform knocks you the wrong way or off the ledge in the case of the final stretch. Additionally on the subject of that final stretch I've found just trying to land on that platform after jumping off the ramp to be more of a hassle than it should be, and worse yet if you fall off and retry the moving platform to the finish doesn't go back to its starting position immediately like it should after respawning, causing more guesswork that makes it one of the vastly weaker levels in the Expert group.

Polymorphism is another one of those weak levels that has a lot of guesswork to it, and more often than not unless you've played this level countless times before you often get knocked off the moving platforms in ways that you can in no way telegraph. It would be so much more manageable if the moving platforms didn't shift around in a way that they clip into eachother frequently; it's needlessly difficult to stay on the platforms when they keep phasing into one another.

Fist Bump is the next level I find problems with, and not really for the concept, because bumper jumping is a great way to get extra air time and sometimes take shortcuts. My problem here lies with the actual shape and design of the PQ bumper; it's totally rounded out like a dome. Consider for a moment the bumpers from gold, they both have flat surfaces on top, making using them to your advantage more precise. However PQ takes that precision away with how their bumpers are shaped and it, once again, causes more guesswork to be able to progress due to how they can launch you in just about every possible direction and very rarely straight upwards like it should.

Emergency Stopping Only is probably my biggest issue in the Expert campaign by far, primarily because of the insane amount of speed building it commands, now the first ramp wasn't so bad because if you have a hard time brushing through the rotating obstacles, you can take a detour and land off to the side, then after rolling across the décor make an easy jump back down to the ramp on the other side; there's room to get creative here, which I appreciate. But then comes the final ramp which actually makes a 180 into a half a vertical loop, which seems like a cool idea to end the level if it were not for the obscene amount of speed to takes to even get that high up. I legitimately took the speed booster before the incline upwards, went all the way back to the start of the runway, did a SECOND mad dash down it as fast as I possibly could (jumping and camera tilting when possible), and used double the speed booster item to get myself all the way to the edge of the half loop, and I STILL didn't have enough speed to make it; that's ridiculous in of itself.

And finally we have Manic Bounce, the finale of PQ so to speak. Now first and foremost, the presentation of this level is insane and unbelievably outstanding, and when you take that cannon to the final area you really get that genuine gamer feel that you've had a long journey, and you're almost at the end at last, it's an empowering feeling. The only thing hindering this grandiose feeling of a journey coming to the end is... well, the level itself. Every single part of this level is centered around only one thing; the bounce material. Now granted it starts off pretty cool and creative, like that one figure 8 pattern where you're weaving in between the blender shaped rotating objects, but towards the end there's just so many curved, cylindrical bounce platforms that you have to ricochet off of that, once again, again, it becomes pure guess work to make it to the next checkpoint, and while it felt really nice to finally make it to the finish pad, it honestly felt like I got there mostly on dumb luck alone, there was no strategy or any kind of critical thinking used to get to the end, just jump, jump, jump until you miraculously get to the other side. For that final stretch in particular it probably would have actually been a better move to just have that be a long, straight runway to the finish; I mean all of the grand objects, props and scenery are already there (not to mention rolling down a runway with that huge cylinder wrapped around it would make for quite a cool sight), so this could have very well been a simple victory lap to take in before you reach the finish and watch the credits.
Last edit: 12 Jul 2017 06:20 by Gravity. Reason: Critique on other specific levels

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14 Jul 2017 04:47 - 14 Jul 2017 04:49 #18
I had a lot of text here but the forum spat out an error and deleted my entire post so here it is again without all the extra words. Long time since I've been here so duplicates will probably happen. Saw MBG LP and will time my playing mainly when another streamer plays.

Locked at 90 FOV playing Ultra
Empty space in the level description of Ultra levels because there is no description.
"Help Text" in Battlements.
Don't know how to change launcher's game directory location so I don't launch the game from there.

MBU: Black Diamond
You can go through the sky background.
Pointless scrollbar (for now) in Graphics section of the settings.

In original MBU, the finish triggers are much higher (they extend infinitely up or at least a lot higher), so it should reflect that.

- No Ultimate times for Gold?
- No hints in Gold/Platinum/Ultra? I know that this is more for preserving a sense of respect to the original material, but I'm sure someone just getting into the games would wonder why only PlatinumQuest had hints.

If I see a hint bubble I should be able to click another level and show the hint for that, too.
Different pads for MBG/MBU (i know it's possible, PQ and Platinum pads different)
Director's Cut in singleplayer?
Scrollbar is slow using the mouse wheel.
Ultimate "Time" hint on score levels
I can barely tell the difference between good Time Travels and bad Time Travels (Colorblind friend can't tell either)

With animations a lot of lag when trying to select different levels
Would like to see unlock conditions even when a level is unlocked already

I haven't seen a dev reply on this page so I hope this post gets seen anyway. I'll probably post again later when I, well, actually play the game!
Last edit: 14 Jul 2017 04:49 by main_gi.

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14 Jul 2017 07:17 - 14 Jul 2017 07:20 #19
Unfortunately I can only reply so many times since I only have so much knowledge, but hopefully there's some helpful pieces here.

main_gi wrote: Don't know how to change launcher's game directory location so I don't launch the game from there.

I don't really know why you'd want to change the location, and as far as I know, you can't do so in the first place. Everytime you run the launcher, it looks for all the files and folders in wherever the launcher installs them. You should probably bug HiGuy about this.

main_gi wrote: MBU: Black Diamond
You can go through the sky background.

Indeed you can. In fact, you can do this with any level that uses any of the MBU skies. Why? Because the skies are actually in-game objects (.dts) rather than skyboxes which are used MBG, MBP, and PQ.

main_gi wrote: - No Ultimate times for Gold?

There weren't any Ultimate Times in the original game.

main_gi wrote: - No hints in Gold/Platinum/Ultra? I know that this is more for preserving a sense of respect to the original material, but I'm sure someone just getting into the games would wonder why only PlatinumQuest had hints.

Yeah, you're almost certainly right about this. Hints were introduced in PQ so they only exist in PQ. Adding hints to levels from the other games isn't a bad idea, although that's quite a lot of them. 281 to be exact. (100 from MBG, 120 from MBP, and 61 from MBU.)

main_gi wrote: Different pads for MBG/MBU (i know it's possible, PQ and Platinum pads different)

People have mentioned this before (which really translates to me talking about this on multiple occasions), and I think the answer we have right now is that we can do half of what you've suggestion. Adding the MBG one would be very simple, however the MBU one is a different story. Alongside the fact that the texturing is different, the whole model itself is different. And some of it moves. There's a lot.

main_gi wrote: Director's Cut in singleplayer?

Remember that the Director's Cut levels are custom levels, so they're technically not part of the official game. The only levels that are accessible in singleplayer that are added by the launcher are the official MBG, MBP, MBU, and PQ levels. (Hypercube, MBU's 61st level, wasn't part of the original game, but it was in the MBG Xbox version so that's the only exception.

main_gi wrote: I can barely tell the difference between good Time Travels and bad Time Travels (Colorblind friend can't tell either)

I must say that for the longest time, I couldn't tell the difference either. That was until I actually read the help text message on Feeling Frictional (PQ's 3rd tutorial level), so now I know what to look for and I can pick out which Time Travels are positives and which Times Travels are negative. Even then I have to agree that I can still hardly tell the difference, mainly because my marble is moving too fast (heh heh), so I undersrand your complain. However if the difference was easy to spot, there wouldn't be any fun in the surprise of running into a negative Time Travel, wouldn't there? :^)

That's all I have for now. Hopefully there are some helpful bits scattered around somewhere.

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Last edit: 14 Jul 2017 07:20 by Nockess.
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14 Jul 2017 13:13 - 14 Jul 2017 13:35 #20
Fancy detailed interiors,
neat level select,
lots of level modding functions,
really advanced path nodes,
nice nature theme,
cool power-ups and shapes,
marble reflections,
great levels,
world's largest and best MB mod.

Some things I don't like:
- Where's that custom level system on the main menu that higoo showed? D:
- Several levels have small tunnels and areas where a lower camera distance would be better.
- Sometimes you literally can't see where you're going in 2D levels.
- There's no button to just toggle the LE, and the list that shows up instead is empty. Even if it wasn't empty and there was a toggle button, I would likely just go to the level I want to edit and turn the LE on.
- Menus with a lot of things in them along with the pause menu are pretty laggy.
- Be Elusive! needs a checkpoint...
- Some levels need too many help texts, and some of them disappear too quickly or show up when you're supposed to be doing what it says at that moment. Emergency Stopping Only for example.
- The ice spike collision appears to be slightly too large for the visible mesh.
- After firing from a cannon, input is disabled for a second or two.
- There need to be more indicators for PhysMod triggers.
- Skate Battle Royale has the same name as Skate Battle Royale.
- aag terminal velocity is a better name for levels where you actually go fast . . . also HEYYY
- 0/10 you cant play ultra multiplayer maps in singleplayer
Really though, why are PQ's MP maps in singleplayer? Do they have a separate LB from solo matches on a server?
Last edit: 14 Jul 2017 13:35 by Weather.

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14 Jul 2017 13:16 #21
I think PQ is an AWESOME mod and I really, really appreciate that you made my suggestion about matching sounds come true. Actually, I didn't expect you to take it that far as to include gem sounds, opponent gem sounds, 'you can't finish' sounds and so much more. :)

I love the new fan models, and the button is an absolute masterpiece. Thanks for getting rid of that green box with stars from MBG!

There's one thing I thought of, perhaps it's a little late for that now but maybe you can handle it. The thing is, I didn't actually expect the gem sounds to match the music, but now that they do, I thought you could even match them to their values in Hunt and Gem Madness modes. For that you'd need to add 12 more gem sounds an octave higher than the ones that exist already. Then:
  • you could have the red gems keep their original sound,
  • the yellow gems could be a major second higher,
  • the blue gems a perfect fifth higher,
  • and the platinum gems an octave higher.
With such intervals, not only would the gem sounds be distributed along the Egyptian pentatonic (which is pretty much all the sounds common for major and minor; Egyptian on C is C D F G Bb). As a little bonus, the intervals for every type of gem except platinum would have their scale degree match their values! What do you think of that?
Aside from that, PQ is absolutely better than I ever thought it would be! I really admire all the hard work from both of the PQ teams over the years, you've made MBP a whole new game!

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14 Jul 2017 13:42 #22
I did just have another thought - what happened to the Mario Kart levels? Was looking forward to those :(

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14 Jul 2017 14:37 - 14 Jul 2017 14:38 #23

Weather wrote: - After firing from a cannon, input is disabled for a second or two.


I can say at the very least that this is intentional, some cannons that launch you to an exact point have a "lock player" field set to last generally a second or less.

Weather wrote: Really though, why are PQ's MP maps in singleplayer? Do they have a separate LB from solo matches on a server?


PQ was originally designed without Multiplayer in mind, so the PQ Hunt maps were always intended to be played in single player. MBU, not so much.



TheEwok wrote: I did just have another thought - what happened to the Mario Kart levels? Was looking forward to those :(


They're custom levels, I should probably release them soonish

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Last edit: 14 Jul 2017 14:38 by Three.
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14 Jul 2017 15:21 - 14 Jul 2017 15:37 #24

Rosie wrote: Unfortunately I can only reply so many times since I only have so much knowledge, but hopefully there's some helpful pieces here.

main_gi wrote: Don't know how to change launcher's game directory location so I don't launch the game from there.

I don't really know why you'd want to change the location, and as far as I know, you can't do so in the first place. Everytime you run the launcher, it looks for all the files and folders in wherever the launcher installs them. You should probably bug HiGuy about this.

main_gi wrote: MBU: Black Diamond
You can go through the sky background.

Indeed you can. In fact, you can do this with any level that uses any of the MBU skies. Why? Because the skies are actually in-game objects (.dts) rather than skyboxes which are used MBG, MBP, and PQ.

main_gi wrote: - No Ultimate times for Gold?

There weren't any Ultimate Times in the original game.

main_gi wrote: - No hints in Gold/Platinum/Ultra? I know that this is more for preserving a sense of respect to the original material, but I'm sure someone just getting into the games would wonder why only PlatinumQuest had hints.

Yeah, you're almost certainly right about this. Hints were introduced in PQ so they only exist in PQ. Adding hints to levels from the other games isn't a bad idea, although that's quite a lot of them. 281 to be exact. (100 from MBG, 120 from MBP, and 61 from MBU.)

main_gi wrote: Different pads for MBG/MBU (i know it's possible, PQ and Platinum pads different)

People have mentioned this before (which really translates to me talking about this on multiple occasions), and I think the answer we have right now is that we can do half of what you've suggestion. Adding the MBG one would be very simple, however the MBU one is a different story. Alongside the fact that the texturing is different, the whole model itself is different. And some of it moves. There's a lot.

main_gi wrote: Director's Cut in singleplayer?

Remember that the Director's Cut levels are custom levels, so they're technically not part of the official game. The only levels that are accessible in singleplayer that are added by the launcher are the official MBG, MBP, MBU, and PQ levels. (Hypercube, MBU's 61st level, wasn't part of the original game, but it was in the MBG Xbox version so that's the only exception.

main_gi wrote: I can barely tell the difference between good Time Travels and bad Time Travels (Colorblind friend can't tell either)

I must say that for the longest time, I couldn't tell the difference either. That was until I actually read the help text message on Feeling Frictional (PQ's 3rd tutorial level), so now I know what to look for and I can pick out which Time Travels are positives and which Times Travels are negative. Even then I have to agree that I can still hardly tell the difference, mainly because my marble is moving too fast (heh heh), so I undersrand your complain. However if the difference was easy to spot, there wouldn't be any fun in the surprise of running into a negative Time Travel, wouldn't there? :^)

That's all I have for now. Hopefully there are some helpful bits scattered around somewhere.

Wow, I wasn't expecting a reply so early, thanks!

Location: I want to mod the game, and there's several spots where I'd want to do it (number rendering and audio). Obviously, I only mean cosmetic mods. I'm also used to running games from the marbleblast.exe launcher, so the launcher itself is far away from the game.

Sky Background: Speaking of, I liked the animated "mathy" background in the original MBU. I wonder if they could recreate that?

Ultimate times for Gold: But they *added* Ultimate times for Ultra. Don't see why they didn't do it for Gold.

Different Pads: Yeah, I know. But unless my memory is wrong, Ultra's pad extended farther, or infinitely up, and so it had a big gameplay difference.

DC in Singleplayer: Heh, I knew DC existed but I don't remember how to access it anymore. I guess it's only online. But yeah, PQ has a "director's cut" in the form of bonus levels.

Good and Bad: I already knew at the time because I read that hint trigger (the bands are supposed to be different). But I still can't see it. (Unfortunately, I think most designers would use it as a surprise, because unless the distinguishing marker is clearer or, actually visible, people will still have to use trial and error to work a path through a level.)

Thanks again for the response.

Some extra things:
The game will temporarily disable f.lux if you have it on when it loads.
Sometimes when I focus back onto the game it will turn on Caps+Numlock+Scrolllock. It would be annoying if I had not already practiced the "Double Caps Reset Action" from when other programs did the same thing. Still.
Someone here or somewhere else didn't really like the name "Consistency". I propose it be changed to Speedroll.
My favorite audio segments in MB are the Ultra sound effects. I would like to request an audio pack for that.
I also agree with the octave change idea (in Ultra, I think the marble's bounce is also higher depending on speed)

Edit: This game has the same virus/trojan false positive thing as in MBPU it seems: www.virustotal.com/en/file/9fbd81406026c...5209416058/analysis/ Wonder if it was ever fixed for Quaternion?

Edit 2: I would also like to see the MBU MP maps playable in Singleplayer in a new section in the MBU level pack.
Last edit: 14 Jul 2017 15:37 by main_gi.

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14 Jul 2017 17:42 - 15 Jul 2017 18:32 #25
The custom levels archive is seemingly contributing towards the overall ranking on the leaderboards. I honestly don't think it should considering how painfully antiquated the design for 90% of these levels are, like they were made in the previous decade or so (which they very likely are). Honestly when I was going into this batch of levels I was expecting something along the lines of more recent custom PQ/Platinum levels handpicked by the staff and shared to the online server as honorary levels, something that has a little more quality assurance to it.

EDIT: I just about finished every single PQ level from Tutorial to Expert, I should feel accomplished (and I slightly do), but mostly I feel like I don't deserve it given how much luck I pulled off in the final stretch, but I've already gone into quite enough detail as to why I felt that way in my July 10th post in this topic, so I would just be repeating myself.

Out of curiosity I decided to check the Bonus level group to see if beating every single level in the regular PQ campaign unlocked anything, and it didn't. That is easily the biggest upset I've found in this entire experience. My steady hard work to complete every single official PQ level rewarded me with absolutely nothing substantial, except maybe an offline achievement that I don't even get because I beat all the levels online and, once again, the times for offline play are completely separate from the scores you get online. But this isn't Steam, so an achievement shouldn't even come close to being an acceptable completion reward.
Last edit: 15 Jul 2017 18:32 by Gravity. Reason: Post-Game Feedback
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16 Jul 2017 03:27 #26
You know that when you open up PlatinumQuest, the games shows a tip before it loads the main menu. Sometimes, it does this so fast that I couldn't read it that fast. I would like to have something like "Tip of the Day" button that can show display the tip.

Awesome Hint:

Since the Awesome Time/Score is secret, you will have to beat it in order to find out what it is. Just practice every day, and be ready to keep pressing the 'Restart' button...A LOT!
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16 Jul 2017 11:40 - 16 Jul 2017 11:46 #27
Wow, after eight years PQ is released. I downloaded it before five days and I have finished all tutorial and beginner levels and some intermediate. I've seen loads of new features like the cannon, bubble power-up, anvil, disappearing platforms, marble physics triggers, new game modes, etc. I liked the 85% of the levels. My favorite levels so far are: Downhill and Out of Here!!, Maximo Center, Exoplanet, Momentum, King of the Island and Bubble Cavern. Now I will write down some pros and cons.

PROS:
- A totally new environment. Awesome new textures, new music, loads of new power-ups (The bubble one is my favorite) and variety of new shapes.
- Improved graphics that make Marble Blast look like a modern 2010+ game!
- Original and replayable new levels (At least the 85% of them, as said below). Insane level building skills from PQ's level makers.
- I loved the new menu, especially the level select. I also loved that this build contains all MBG, MBU and MBP levels in one game.
- MOVING AND ROTATING OBJECTS!!


CONS:
- As it is recently released, it has bugs that need to be fixed:
Sometimes unexpected, power-ups like SJ and SS stop working, you can see the particles but they don't boost you!
The level select lags a lot. It is annoying that it needs at least 5 seconds to load the level preview.
2D mode's camera sometimes is too zoomed in or too zoomed up (If you want my opinion I think you must re-design the zoom of each 2D level)
- Many levels have the same Scaffold and Under Construction style and that is kinda boring. (Let's count them down: High Rise. Quick Fall, Hip Pop Step Jump, Construction Wonders, Rickety Race, Work In Progress, Dangerous Development, Scouring the Framework, Platinum Construction Co, Contructor, Hydropower.). I liked most of these levels anyway.
- I didn't like the fact that some levels need special Unlock Requirements, I feel like I will never play these levels! :P


As an overall, I really liked PQ. PQ is a mythbuster for everything that community thought before 10 years it could not be coded. I am really proud of you, PlatinumTeam! You changed the whole game. I am going to spend some time on leaderboards finishing all levels maybe I will make some levels on it.

I would rate it 8.5/10

EDIT: I would also request putting the original MBU's skybox and clouds instead of the current ones on MBU.
Last edit: 16 Jul 2017 11:46 by Kostas.

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16 Jul 2017 14:20 #28

kotsomosx wrote: The level select lags a lot. It is annoying that it needs at least 5 seconds to load the level preview.

- I didn't like the fact that some levels need special Unlock Requirements, I feel like I will never play these levels! :P

I believe this is probably because when you select a level it actually pre-loads the entire level, that's why hitting play is instantaneous now.

And I agree, a lot of the unlock requirements are a little too out there for my tastes. I don't see myself wanting to unlock the vast remainder of levels because I don't care for the ultimate times or the excessive amount of trickery it takes to get the nest eggs. Again I was hoping to unlock at least one level after beating all of the main campaign levels in PQ, but that didn't happen either.

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16 Jul 2017 15:15 #29

kotsomosx wrote: The level select lags a lot. It is annoying that it needs at least 5 seconds to load the level preview.


Have you tried disabling animated previews in the options menu? It'll probably help a lot. Glad to see you're enjoying it for the most part, though.

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17 Jul 2017 22:02 #30
Just to say, thanks for adding the option to cancel .rrecs - very appreciated! :cheer:

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