Photon Cycles, a luminous lightbikes game, is all about driving around your ridiculous looking vehicle, while excreting lethal hazards from your rear, with the intention to cause your enemies to wreck into stuff. That is pretty much all there is to it.
I decided to make the map because I am a fan of this micro-genre or whatever it is; it is fun and competitive, has simple mechanics, and is intellectually stimulating in the nuanced and clever tactics and strategy players can employ. The entelechy of the game is what makes it interesting, in the same way lego blocks and cellular automata and DNA are interesting. I figured I could make something small and neat, like TronCraft Rebirth, only this version won't give people hand cramps from right clicking so damn much.
Special thanks to Sixen and Motive for their feedback, Mexa for publishing in the EU region for me and those brave few who helped test it on Battlenet.
Tested it on Map Night, way more fun than troncraft!
I do recommend increasing the size of the gaps between blocks though >.> Its very hard to get through them even if we ignore the battle.net response lag >.>
I had a lot of fun playing this with my friends. Personally I think the difficulty of getting through the gaps is just right. After a few games most of us were getting the hang of getting through them. What you want to do is make sure you don't come in at too much of an angle and aim for the larger gaps and you should be good.
Anyways I have one suggestion, replace the default music with some music like what you have in the trailer. I was disappointed to not hear any when I played, really helps to set the mood.
I don't know if this is a problem with our connections or the map. But every once in a while we would all get a lot of lag for a single random round of the game. Which is more of a problem in this sort of game. I don't know if you have any idea what might cause that, but something to keep in mind.
If you wanted you could also make the loading screen require you to press a key to continue. The game loads far to quickly for people to read usually.
I love the Homestuck music tracks, but since it isn't mine to use, it would be wrong for me to include it in the map. People are welcome to donate music for use in the map, though, provided the license permits it.
I've heard of the lag or whatever it is, but there is nothing that indicates it is anything other than latency problems on Battlenet's side of things. If anyone has a replay of this phenomenon, I'd be happy to take a look and see if I can pinpoint the issue if it is in fact caused by the map.
I believe Press Any Key is bad for anything other than single player maps, where others do not depend upon your response. The volume of text in the loading screen is one of my running gags; it's not all meant to be read. The Controls section is the only important part, and if its not easily readable, I can improve that with the next major update.
You could probably find some music on Newgrounds. Since all the music there is Creative Commons you are free to use it as long as you credit the person.
Ah well in that case, regarding the loading screen, I would suggest moving the controls to somewhere near the top, as most people won't start reading at the bottom, or even realize the controls are down there till they reach that point.
The light trail coming out of the back of the model is a ribbon, and it is part of the model. The barriers that come out of the back are the ShapeCube model. The ambiguity of language can only be overcome with a certain precision of one's use of words.
I'm in need of some screenshots and more death messages. If I use your stuff in the map, your name will be included in the contribution credits in the loading screen and in this topic, of course.
Screenshots are for the score condition option cards, intended to depict the theme of conditions. Don't worry about cropping or touching them up, as I'll handle that myself. Screenshots should preferably be in bulk, inside a zip, rar, or 7z archive.
Survival - Survive to be the last photon cycle on the board. Get one player alive, and at least one player crashing into barriers not owned by the survivor.
Slayer - Earn points for each photon cycle killed by your barriers. Get at least two players to crash into a third player's barriers.
Endurance - Earn 1 point each second you are alive. Get at least 2 players alive navigating through barriers, and a third crashing.
Death messages, pointless and amusing. And I'm always adding more, but I can't do it alone. I need new messages for Boundary Death, Suicide, Double Suicide and Kill notifications, preferably laced with comical memes and references, and no obscene words (obscene implications are dandy).
Boundary Death - One player; Boundry Deaths are the easiest to avoid, and the players deserved to be mocked for them.
Suicide - One player; Suicides tend to be accidental, and also merit making fun of the player.
Double Suicide - Two players; Double Suicides involve two photon cycles crashing into one another, and is ripe for romantic and sexual parody.
Kill - Two players; Kills involve a player being killed by the barrier of another. There are just too many ways to describe a player defeating another.
There's this app called Lightbikes 2 for the Iphone, it's similar to this in the sense it's based on tron light cycles and I was thinking why not make something like what they did. Multiple stages, one is the normal flat stage another is a stage that is flat with three other levels, each one lower and one that is slanted so that you can get back up to the highest level. It has a jump ability and customize models, although that would be a little too much for a sc2 map.
Anyways if you have an itouch, iphone, ipad you might want to try it out as it just feels so good as a tron light cycle clone. Also it's free so if you can try it out you're losing nothing.
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Photon Cycles, a luminous lightbikes game, is all about driving around your ridiculous looking vehicle, while excreting lethal hazards from your rear, with the intention to cause your enemies to wreck into stuff. That is pretty much all there is to it.
I decided to make the map because I am a fan of this micro-genre or whatever it is; it is fun and competitive, has simple mechanics, and is intellectually stimulating in the nuanced and clever tactics and strategy players can employ. The entelechy of the game is what makes it interesting, in the same way lego blocks and cellular automata and DNA are interesting. I figured I could make something small and neat, like TronCraft Rebirth, only this version won't give people hand cramps from right clicking so damn much.
Special thanks to Sixen and Motive for their feedback, Mexa for publishing in the EU region for me and those brave few who helped test it on Battlenet.
This map is available in NA and EU regions.
Features
Controls
Fixed, you should really advertise that as a feature :)
Looks cool :D
Tested it on Map Night, way more fun than troncraft!
I do recommend increasing the size of the gaps between blocks though >.> Its very hard to get through them even if we ignore the battle.net response lag >.>
I like the pointless death messages.
With the next major update, I'll try increasing the spawn period by 0.1 or 0.2 game seconds, see if that helps some people.
I had a lot of fun playing this with my friends. Personally I think the difficulty of getting through the gaps is just right. After a few games most of us were getting the hang of getting through them. What you want to do is make sure you don't come in at too much of an angle and aim for the larger gaps and you should be good.
Anyways I have one suggestion, replace the default music with some music like what you have in the trailer. I was disappointed to not hear any when I played, really helps to set the mood.
I don't know if this is a problem with our connections or the map. But every once in a while we would all get a lot of lag for a single random round of the game. Which is more of a problem in this sort of game. I don't know if you have any idea what might cause that, but something to keep in mind.
If you wanted you could also make the loading screen require you to press a key to continue. The game loads far to quickly for people to read usually.
I love the Homestuck music tracks, but since it isn't mine to use, it would be wrong for me to include it in the map. People are welcome to donate music for use in the map, though, provided the license permits it.
I've heard of the lag or whatever it is, but there is nothing that indicates it is anything other than latency problems on Battlenet's side of things. If anyone has a replay of this phenomenon, I'd be happy to take a look and see if I can pinpoint the issue if it is in fact caused by the map.
I believe Press Any Key is bad for anything other than single player maps, where others do not depend upon your response. The volume of text in the loading screen is one of my running gags; it's not all meant to be read. The Controls section is the only important part, and if its not easily readable, I can improve that with the next major update.
You could probably find some music on Newgrounds. Since all the music there is Creative Commons you are free to use it as long as you credit the person.
Ah well in that case, regarding the loading screen, I would suggest moving the controls to somewhere near the top, as most people won't start reading at the bottom, or even realize the controls are down there till they reach that point.
Good idea. I've got a major update coming in a few days, and I hope it includes music. I'll check it out.
You considered bunging on the tychus05_briefing_xelnagaworldship_emmissive texture to make the bikes look more tron like?
Also what model you using for the trail?
Contribute to the wiki (Wiki button at top of page) Considered easy altering of the unit textures?
https://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/179654-data-actor-events-message-texture-select-by-id
https://media.forgecdn.net/attachments/187/40/Screenshot2011-04-17_09_16_21.jpg
@DrSuperEvil: Go
Easily the best map ever. That is all.
The trail is part of the model, a ribbon from the look of it.
You mean you arent the map maker who knows how it was done?
Contribute to the wiki (Wiki button at top of page) Considered easy altering of the unit textures?
https://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/179654-data-actor-events-message-texture-select-by-id
https://media.forgecdn.net/attachments/187/40/Screenshot2011-04-17_09_16_21.jpg
The light trail coming out of the back of the model is a ribbon, and it is part of the model. The barriers that come out of the back are the ShapeCube model. The ambiguity of language can only be overcome with a certain precision of one's use of words.
Minor update: Endurance and Slayer victory modes added.
Enigmatic screenshot ahoy.
I'm in need of some screenshots and more death messages. If I use your stuff in the map, your name will be included in the contribution credits in the loading screen and in this topic, of course.
Screenshots are for the score condition option cards, intended to depict the theme of conditions. Don't worry about cropping or touching them up, as I'll handle that myself. Screenshots should preferably be in bulk, inside a zip, rar, or 7z archive.
Death messages, pointless and amusing. And I'm always adding more, but I can't do it alone. I need new messages for Boundary Death, Suicide, Double Suicide and Kill notifications, preferably laced with comical memes and references, and no obscene words (obscene implications are dandy).
Boundary Death: x made some pancake.
Double Suicide: x and y are united for eternity. x and y both lost at chicken.
Here are some pics from the one game I played. D:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/antilux/screenshots?tab=&showdate=1&filter=shortcut_4
I've been working on the option card images for which I won't be using screenshots (there are a lot). How does this look?
There's this app called Lightbikes 2 for the Iphone, it's similar to this in the sense it's based on tron light cycles and I was thinking why not make something like what they did. Multiple stages, one is the normal flat stage another is a stage that is flat with three other levels, each one lower and one that is slanted so that you can get back up to the highest level. It has a jump ability and customize models, although that would be a little too much for a sc2 map.
Anyways if you have an itouch, iphone, ipad you might want to try it out as it just feels so good as a tron light cycle clone. Also it's free so if you can try it out you're losing nothing.