Tower of Babel Forum

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

I've come up with a list of tower types. I have no idea why. Z liked them so much that he asked me to post them on here (even he hasn't seen the last category though!)

(1) Mazes. Most basic, most commonly created by amateurs as 2D constructs. Advanced mazes can use clever lighting or three dimensions. Any maze with no cameras is trying to hide how easy it is. Mazes can be subdivided into those hunting for static targets (flags, klondikes) and those with moving targets (hoppers). Mean maze makers like to hide zapper beams around corners.

Mazes can be very dull, so liven them up a little. Get Pusher involved by placing objects in the way. You could make a maze out of blocks to give both a different style and to make Pusher solve a maze that changes as you affect it. Use lifts as walls to bring down with forcers, or bring up to cross gaps.

(2) Cause and Effect. A basic interaction is involved - for instance, grabber needs to operate the freezer to get past the zappers. At a basic level, these are simple and obvious (ideal for tutorials, but dull otherwise). More advanced towers of this type involve multiple objects - such as The Bridge with both forcers - but still aren't much challenge.

A good tower of this type could be one in which Grabber is deposited in an enclosed area with access to several gadgets, and needs to get Zapper through an obstacle course to zap the objective (or to free Grabber to access the klondike).

(3) Multiple Layers. These puzzles require more thought. If you activate the forcer to bring up the lift you'll also cause the pusher to push the block, set off the bomb, destroy the convertor and make the zapper zap the klondike. That sort of thing. You basically need to see the effect of each object in advance and react accordingly, for instance by stopping that block from moving. More advanced puzzles like this can involve many steps and become harder to predict, but a good look and an occasional false start will figure them out.

Aim to make all of your towers multiple layered. Too easy an objective (or too monotonous) has no challenge.

(4) Timed Towers. These can be any other kind, or something as innocuous as "shoot all the hoppers". Not all towers need an actual timer - time bombs are just as effective, as is a watcher heading towards a proximity mine, or a lizard eating your floor. These make things tough by forcing you to hurry, and I am slightly opposed to them as a puzzle purist. Time limits should never be too tight.

Time limits have never appealed to me personally on a tower, being either too tight or so much longer than you need that you needn't have them. I've always preferred towers where the hurry is implied - like the watcher heading for the proximity bomb next to the klondike.

(5) Optical Headaches. I can't think of a good name for these, but they include puzzles with a floor full of prisms to push into place or a grabber with hundreds of exchangers puzzle. These are all much the same and involve a nightmare of objects which you need to make a path out of. They can be horrible for those who hate them and boring for those who can do them blindfolded. The grabber one could be made more interesting if three-dimensional (lifts and different planes of exchangers!) while the prism one is limited by that 16-square zapper range.

Please folks, no more of these unless they're innovative.

(6) Complex Towers. These are towers where objects inter-react. Unlike the linear puzzles where objects each affect one thing, in a complex tower doing any action can cause multiple effects. Use that exchanger and you can access the klondike, but then the watcher can move and set off the proximity mine. If you operate the wiper you can block the watcher but you'll also block Pusher from moving the block (which will stop the worm but free the lizard). These are the toughest puzzles to solve but very difficult to create.

(7) Another one I've just considered - colourful ones. As any advanced tower constructor will know, you can change the colour scheme for a tower from the designer too. As a result, you can have towers where:
- The floors are lift coloured. This leads to obvious confusion, so listen out for spider footsteps (unless you're especially evil and turn them off!).
- All black towers. Many like to make all the object, wall and floor colours black, so that you can't see anything. Stumbling in the dark can be mean.

I think I've got an idea for a shadow tower. I've been inspired...!

Artinum.

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

I really like towers with timed mechanisms, like the good old Watcher/Mine approach; rotating Pushers are nice for this as well. Klondikes make good triggers, since they can be grabbed and zapped, but not pushed.
Chain reactions are a favorite of mine, too.

Another type of tower might be called the "speed tower"; basically a very fast chain reaction, which forces you to program your spider as manual control would be too slow, resulting in a zapped spider.
Exchangers, Klondikes, Freezers, Pushers and Mines are very good for this.

Z
--
"Who said that? Confucius?"
"I say that."