About This Level
Lately I have been working on an experemental level project, which I am planning on releasing saturday. Due to the way the level works, and the complexity, I am making this forum post to describe it and announce it to the general public.

The level is something that looks like a hotel, since people own rooms which are in the level. There are just a few differences between this level and a normal hotel. The first difference is that I made it. The second difference is that you can actually play it instead of just run around asking for a room.

You see, this level has gameplay. It has substance. Competition. Stuff you can actually do. To start things off, I should explain the way this works.

At the beginning when I host this level, no one will own anything. The rooms will be in the level, but they will be devoid of furnature, lighting, and even windows. Plus the walls will look all ugly and damaged. To own anything in the level, you must buy it with coins.

Coins are obtained in a simple manner: by running around the level, finding them, and collecting them. Once you have enough to buy what you want, you have to ask me (the owner) or possibly in the future if this is successful, to let you in the "store" so you may buy something. In the store you will look for anything you wish to buy, and enter its respective coin warp. I will see what coin warp you enter, and make the appropriate edit to the level. This way you can buy rooms, furnature, renovations, powerups for your room, and a few other things explained later.

Supplies of items are limited (including rooms), so coin gathering is important to do quickly and without dying too much. People will be trying to kill you.

Another important part of this level is challanging other players for items. If you want to, you and another player may agree to a challange where you both wager something. The winner keeps all. Challanges may be done anywhere in the level, but it is encouraged that you preform them in the special area of the level designated to challanges, since they will be more controled. Unless you WANT people to interfere. (See rules section at the bottom). If you are evil, you can force challanges by paying the store 150 coins. This way you get to do a challange without wagering anything, and you get to pick whatever you want from your opponent! Usually the best thing to do is take everything.

There are also auctions that will be held occasionally, where you may buy items that are not normally for sale in the store. Bidding is in 10 coin increments.

Roasting is encouraged because every game will have a prize that is given out to the person who achieves the highest roast count. The server itself will be set to 100, but every game I will say something like "10 roasts to win" and then cycle it after that. I use this method for technical reasons.

Some other fun features are buying "fire" which allows you to destroy someone's furnature, security systems that let you know who started the fire, mailboxes where you can recieve messages sent by various people, warps which let you warp to any place you want in the level (with a few exceptions), and the ability to build YOUR OWN house in JCS for a high price of coins which depends on the size.

The level only has 6 rooms right now, but once they are full I will add 6 more.

Trading items or rooms is allowed.

This level isn't all about getting items, of course. You can do other things that don't relate to the gameplay at all, like defend your room from invaders or go around burning everyone.

Since a gametype like this pretty much requires players to play frequently, I have made a "rent" system. It increases exponentially (by 150%, starting at 10 coins) for every game a person misses. Excessive amounts will result in eviction or unexplained fires. Rent is paid in coins. Also, every game will be scheduled. Unfortunately, it will be based off my schedule unless it is a weekend game.

Rules
Challanges: the first person to die is the loser, no matter who kills him/her. Lag, 5/4/3/ heart kills, or other annoyances are not suitable excuses. If a player times out or leaves the server during the challange, they lose. Refusal to accept a force challange is concidered a forfeit, which is a loss.

Owning rooms: Currently you are only allowed to own one room, but this may change sometime in the future. Therefore, you may not challange someone for a room if you already own one. Same goes with trades.

Furnature/Items: You can only own as much furnature as you have space for. That means if you don't own a room, you don't have any space, so you may not buy furnature. You may still by fire and forced challanges, though.

The store: Try not to kill the owner in it. They may do something mean like not let you buy stuff.

Ambient lighting: Not a rule, but a reccomendation. This level makes use of it in some areas.

The items
There are several items in this level which you may purchace. All of them go into your property. The ones listed here are the items which are more than just decorations.

Carrot: Carrot generator.
Celing light: Bring light into your house.
Disco lights: Makes your entire property a mess of pulsating lights.
Fire: Burn someone's furnature.
Food: Food generator.
H-bomb: Cause huge damage to a room which will require major renovations to repare. Possibly the evilist item.
Mailbox: Get messages from people.
Nuke: Destroy everything in someone's house.
Powerup: Powerup generator.
Security system: If someone burns you, you will know!
Walls: Change the walls in your house.
Warp: Teleport to anywhere you want on the map (you chose where when you buy it)
Window: Bring light into your house.

Technical Stuff
This level does not use any complex triggers, if you were wondering. Changes are made by me updating the level in JCS as it is run. It's a simple method, but it works perfectly. The level is rather large (300x75), and will grow larger when new rooms are added. Slow computers will not get good framerates.

Final Words
I'm going to host this on saturday, 6:00 PM, PST (That the west coast of North America). Yes, the time is biased towards myself, but I made this level. Currently I am the only person allowed to host it. Anyone else will be...yelled at or something ;P.

If you have any questions, comments, speculations, criticisms, complements or random, unrelated musings, post them here.

I'd just like to say yay. Oh, and if your house burns down, don't blame me.

Cool idea. ;P

Good thing your soul is already condemned from supporting warez once.

Ooooooo,very interesting idea...

If this all works out as planned, you might possibly have the best hotel level ever made. Not to be offensive, or anything. By the way, do DM's get a special discount on rooms? ;P

Sounds great. I only wonder how you will do the furniture "building" sicne the maximal amount of triggers is 32.

Well it has finally been unvieled.

Very very interesting idea. Or possibly a new gametype. Or something. It's too bad I won't be able to play it at all. Pjoeoaie.

Originally posted by Fl@$h
Sounds great. I only wonder how you will do the furniture "building" sicne the maximal amount of triggers is 32.

Flashy,I'm dissapointed of you!

He wrote he's gonna do it by editing the level in JCS while playing!

Yeah, but then how would people hold the amount of coins they didn't spend yet then?

great idea: only I don't like the time. I cannot be on the computer that late (stupid parents) but if you do host it daily, when will those times be? 6 PST is about 9 here...

I can host it around 4PM my time (CST, Maybe better for the people in Europe), if you let me. I can tap into it and figure the system out, how to get into *your* area, and anything else you try throwing at me. My hotel I think is the best at keeping people out. A simple combonation lock won't keep me out.

****ing router problems....

Very interesting idea; I'll be there for the opening if my D&D session doesn't overlap it. I do have some Qs:

About how long will you initially run the server? An hour or two?

How often will the level be updated? Every so many roasts? (I hope you can stand updating the live game for concurrent hours.)

Can you give us an idea on how much items will cost, or how long it will take to obtain them?

Can your possesions be affected while you are not playing in the server? If so, I think the "rent" will be negligible, compared to losing all your stuff to fires and nukes and such...

The forced challenge is pretty evil, which is ok. However, will it be just as easy to lose rare and expensive items (such as your own house) as it is to lose petty items? If so, this would detract from the pursuit of rare items, at least in my opinion.

What would you consider the main objective of this game? I would assume it is to maintain as much wealth as possible.

About how long will you initially run the server? An hour or two?

Depends on the amount of people. 2 hours will probably be the average gamelength.

How often will the level be updated? Every so many roasts? (I hope you can stand updating the live game for concurrent hours.)

I'm thinking of just writing everything that happens down in notepad (so-and-so bought this item, blahblahblah) and then editing the level accordngly once I am ready to cycle. It's ultimately less work for me, and a lot less tedious.

Can you give us an idea on how much items will cost, or how long it will take to obtain them?

I'm still tweaking things, but items range from 10 coins to 100 coins, most of them around 50. Coins are fairly abundant, and they are mostly located on the rooftops and in secret rooms (don't worry, they aren't TOO hard to find...)

Can your possesions be affected while you are not playing in the server? If so, I think the "rent" will be negligible, compared to losing all your stuff to fires and nukes and such..

Yup, they can be affected. The rent is supposed to be negligible until it reaches extreme points like 1000+ coins, which is basically unpayable unless you are super-l33t and able to collect that much money without dying.

The forced challenge is pretty evil, which is ok. However, will it be just as easy to lose rare and expensive items (such as your own house) as it is to lose petty items? If so, this would detract from the pursuit of rare items, at least in my opinion.

You can only be challanged for your house if the person who challanges you doesn't have a house. As for items, I am thinking of putting a cap on challanging for them. How this cap works, I do not know yet.

What would you consider the main objective of this game? I would assume it is to maintain as much wealth as possible.

Collecting wealth and power. Ultimately good players will prosper, since the bad ones can get stuff taken from them through challanges.

I have nothing against hotels. But this should not be considered a hotel. This is a game. Personally, I think this is a revolution in Jazz2: an actual stragegy game. I think that this will lead to games of pure strategy that have nothing to do with battle skills.

Oh wait, that's real life.

Sounds interesting. I'll try to remember to come..

It's 11 PM GMT (23:00) for those to lazy to find out.

Darnit. You just had to host it when my computer is broken. =(

I hope that you will host this after the first time. I'm really looking foreward to playing it. I really like the idea.

Note: I just added 6 more rooms to the level (making it a total of 12) because I now realize more people will be comming to my server than I originally expected. The 6 new rooms are extremely small and low quality though, so the 6 original rooms are something you should try to get.

*Gasp*

I've just thought of a terrible thing, chickens cant fly!!!!


Anyways, is there any way you can get ahold of the hotel without playing online? Because i want to get it and claim allthe rooms for myself (Unless the author doesnt give permission)

But seriously, evilmike may have came up with an idea to help hotels be popular again!

Only I may host it or edit it. The level is passworded (even though those are easy to hack.)

Any version of the level edited by someone besides me is "unofficial."

I added a PANTSBREAD room. Yay.

Originally posted by KRSplat
It's 11 PM GMT (23:00) for those to lazy to find out.

I must correct you, PST is -8 GMT (EST is -5 GMT). In other words, server is up at 6 PM PST, or 2 AM GMT.

With the unlocking of the doors approching (about an hour) I have decided to reveal something. I know the name of the hotel! At least I think.

EM was hosting something, passworded, and if you've talked to me on #jj2, you know that won't stop me. I tapped it, and I got a portion of the level hosted. Should I speak the name of it?

Originally posted by Syntax
I must correct you, PST is -8 GMT (EST is -5 GMT). In other words, server is up at 6 PM PST, or 2 AM GMT.

Oh. Darn.

Xion, the name of the level does not really matter.

The level was a success and most things went along as planned without problems (although I did a lot of work managing it all!).

The next round will be hosted Sunday, at 6:00 PM PST. That means tomorrow, same time as today.

Thanks for playing, if you did.

That was a great idea and I'm happy that it went well (though I wasn't on).

If any of you are comming next game, and you don't have a room, there is only one left... you will either need to buy it fast or else you'll have to take someone else's room.

Ninja sez:

Okay, this was awesome. So far I have: a room, table(which I bought several times thanks to Turtleslayer and my own stupidity), a mailbox, and a couch. I was about to buy a piece of pie, but mike shut his store. :-P

The coins were very well placed, and I can't wait for it to be hosted again.

Edit:The only thing that wasn't cool was the frantic: "PICK ME QUICK BEFORE SOMEONE KILLS ME, LOOK I'M BUYING!!"

Name it "Rabbit Crossing Hotel

ehe, sorry, that CGN games just too fun.

It doesn't sound much like a real hotel. And by real, I mean those which ppl live in, not rabbits.

So, was it called Project PSI?

And by the way, "Host it for 2 hours at a time" my butt. You hosted it for about an hour and 20 minutes... The exact time I GOT ON! ARGH YOU MIKE!

I can get your IP, you know.

Also...

"Depends on the amount of people. 2 hours will probably be the average gamelength."

How many people were in there where you ended it half way through the average gamelength?

Xion, I did an hour and twenty minutes due to the level of work. Quite frankly, such criticism offends me. You would be amazed how difficult it is to manage 16 people's requests for buying stuff simultaneously.

OMGHSHRSTHBFGRDYHGDRTGDFHRFTG

I CANT JOIN!!!!!!!
Do you think that I am awake at 4:00 AM?? (my time is GMT+2)

You should let some Europe people host that too... Or you should host your server like... 12:00 PM of your time and then 6:00 pm of your time... that would be better indeed. Most of the players are from Europe(YAY) and you will get much more players if you host it at 12:00 pm of YOUR time. Oh my god I am good at maths

Originally posted by EvilMike
Xion, I did an hour and twenty minutes due to the level of work. Quite frankly, such criticism offends me. You would be amazed how difficult it is to manage 16 people's requests for buying stuff simultaneously.

Mike, there is a way where you can take 16 people's requests at one time...Just sit in Notepad and just when somebody says "I'm buying this" and if they go through, you just type it in the notepad...just "Xion bought a Mailbox" or something simple like that. And cycle every DAY...Therefore you can just say "Okay cycle is happing, good night!" and quit and go into JCS and make the changes, deleting them from the top untill you have none. Go at your pace.

And about my threat, it's true, I can get your IP...****ed if I know what to do with it.

That's what I was doing (with notepad). And because of your threat, you are permanently banned from the level, even though I honestly don't care what you do with my IP. I'm just mildly annoyed and feel like taking it out in an excessive and unnessicary way. Good job.

And The Winner:
I'm sorry for being stubborn, but I'm not changing the time I host this, and I won't let other people host it either at the moment, just because I know other people will mess it up. It's my level, after all. And believe me, a lot of people play at the time I host. Mostly from the western hemisphere.

And to Xion:
I'm actually kidding about the whole banning you part, but I hope you get my point. I do not like ignorance, mmkay?

Oh, and regarding those threats, you should keep in mind that I'm not someone who will just stand by doing nothing if I catch someone I know "hacking" me, or similar.

Originally posted by EvilMike
And The Winner:
I'm sorry for being stubborn, but I'm not changing the time I host this, and I won't let other people host it either at the moment, just because I know other people will mess it up. It's my level, after all. And believe me, a lot of people play at the time I host. Mostly from the western hemisphere.

And to Xion:
I'm actually kidding about the whole banning you part, but I hope you get my point. I do not like ignorance, mmkay?

Same here mike...I'm just saying I can get it easily, but I can't use it for any other reason than to join your server.

Although here's a way: If you have somebody else hosting it, they can record the stuff on the notepad and submit it to you for building...

Although here's a way: If you have somebody else hosting it, they can record the stuff on the notepad and submit it to you for building...

Hmm....6 things, Xion.

1. I don't think anyone else would have the patience.
2,3,4,5,6,.It is Mikes hotel, and I think it should stay that way.

Originally posted by Xion
And about my threat, it's true, I can get your IP...(-)ed if I know what to do with it.

Eventually I plan on letting others host it and report the updates to me. But at the moment, this level is still a bit of an experement. I'm making up a lot of rules and other things as I go along.

It would be confusing as if one person hosts and adds some stuff, and sends it, and another person hosts and add some stuff, and sends you would have a problem..

Goodluck thinking of a way around it.