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I thought I would share some good news on the remake of Lego Rock Raiders, we were going to call it Block Raiders (due to Lego trademark on the RR name, however the good news is that the trademark has expired and also the extra time they have to renew it, and we have just registered the 'Rock Raiders' trademark ourselves. The name will live on.

That's what happens if you get a zillion year old door slammed in your face really hard.

Right kiddies, I want you to listen to this awesome experience I'm archiving here. Last night, I had a recurring dream. And in this dream, were a bunch of rockraiders. It was that one weird level I often end up playing in RR dreams. However, this time, I found several interesting and different things: A) There were two new floor types. The first was a modification of Ice, and the second was some sort of purpley weird rocky? ground. B) There was a big blue crystal/stalagmite growing out of the floor. If I clicked on it, I could tell my raiders to harvest red energy crystals and some weird grey stuff C) There was a big purple crystal/stalagmite growing out of the floor nearby. Clicking on it showed it was some sort of machine/device that was asking for 4 red energy crystals. D) My raiders brought them over and suddenly I was brought to a cutscene of this giant chained thing breaking free. It was some kind of cool rockmonster with armor. Its helmet was red and white. Then it broke out of the armor and transformed into a mostly noncorpeal being that was surrounded in black mist/darkness/poor special fx. Then the cutscene ended and the "boss battle" began in this odd cave with the guy from the cutscene and the raiders who had brought the crystals. D1) I had the premonition that defeating him was the alternate way to win the game since he was supposed to be some kind of secret final boss, as opposed to merely beating all the levels. So, yay. Cool dream worthy of archiving. May this serve as inspiration for me and other people someday.

The Wii is still obsolete.

9:15 PM - PeabodySam: Now that DDI has copyrighted the title Rock Raiders, that probably means that we won't be seeing LEGO Rock Raiders in the near future for sure. 9:15 PM - PeabodySam: Or, at least, they'll have to be called the R*** R*****. 9:15 PM - jamesster: *clap clap clap* 9:15 PM - PeabodySam: Or, for extra fun... 9:15 PM - PeabodySam: The **ck ****ers. 9:16 PM - jamesster: I nearly spat salsa on my laptop

Captain Click warned everyone to stay out of his cave, but Papa still decided to visit it. When arriving, Captain Click opened his door right when Papa was about to knock on it. The door then came off and somehow got stuck to Papa. Also, I find it sort of cool seeing a house right next to the pizzeria. I wonder if Lego Island's population is slightly increasing? Or maybe its the new house for the brickolinis/errorlinis/doorlinis?

I mentioned it in the documentation, but I had no video proof of it. This is what happens when you use the 'GHB path' for the 'RRB path'. Copying the nodes straight from GHB to RRB would result in a syntax error, so I worked my way around it and used a different method to simulate the 'path switching'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZIr95C2MAU&feature=youtu.be

Darn. I was hoping I wouldn't double-post. Sorry. The fixed Komau The Mahiki That finishes the set of Mata Nui Turaga masks, but its late and I'm on vacation so I'll get the collection pic up sometime later.

editing because my old post was sort of snippy and it's obvious you're making it for PC. Edited parts are in bold. It shouldn't work for the touchscreen versions. Assuming this game is RTS-like, I don't see how you can get it working for touchscreen stuff well. It's irrelevant though because those handheld things are really underpowered, and seeing that you wanted this to draw influence from both LRR PC and Minecraft good luck running it without toning it down in power and content a lot, and then if you do that good luck having the PC release be any good unless it's a totally different game. Edit: Yes I know Minecraft has a phone edition too, but it's a somewhat different and more limited game. If there's going to be a handheld version that's like that then I don't care (literally, I'm not interested), I was expressing concern if the phone game was to be the same as the "main" version. I'm not even touching the Wii thing because the Wii had been "dead" since the Wii U came out in november, and even if it were still alive it's unpreferred to Sony's and Microsoft's console(s) because of that power thing. But then their controllers would not work at all with this type of game, so really it's best to focus on Computer development IMO - better controls for this kind of game, and more power for this kind of game. Edit: same as I said above, but I'm still suspicious about this one. Maybe you have something different in mind that would work and I'm wasting my time nagging at people who know what they're doing, but to be honest I'm feeling a bit suspicious since you suggested making it on a dead console.

A little update, I have been working on the suggestions requested, however I will not be able to integrate Mac support just yet as it requires downloading and installing an SDK. I'll do that once the main features are finished to make it easier to create both versions. EDIT: I've been updating my progress under the 'Planned Updates' section in the original post, by striking through items that I have amended to the program but not yet uploaded to RRU.

Beta access is the #1 thing I'd want. Getting your own level in the game sounds cool, but I'm kinda worried that said levels wouldn't be guaranteed to be amazing, depending on the level design skills of the person paying for it - but still, it sounds fun, I'd go for it.

Source code? But seriously, rewards such as early-Beta access, the ability to create a level for the game (like, pre-release they allow you to design a level that will become part of the actual game), a copy of the game design document, maybe even a special physical edition with some kind of statue and some lithographs.

Guys, Stewart has contacted me back. I have sent him the stuff in this topic, so I guess he is still looking for more ideas to compile. For the KS campain he is looking for proper rewards, so please suggest what you think they would be.

Cirevam and I have come up with many monster ideas like this, or just completely passive, during the development of our mods. It would be nice for just general wildlife to exist, and maybe even reproduce and grow, to give a feeling of life in the world. Possibly "plants" (not powered by sunlight of course) and fungus too, and maybe things in/under the water/lava/ground if such depth is developed. Maybe you could even harvest some of the plants/animals/fungus for your men to eat, or maybe you have to set up a farm of some sort or at least collect things for someone to set up a farm for your men to eat off of, and some of the foods you grow can give them more energy than silly sandwiches (maybe there's a mushroom that superpowers them for a short time, it should look like amanita). There could possibly even be non-wildlife entities, like other miners or a civilization/alien race mining (more on this later) with technology and weapons. If they're enemies, it might even be possible to hijack their equipment and use it yourself, like in Crystalien Conflict, or barter with them for their assistance to reach your goal (or maybe even the other way around). Maybe you can even capture some wildlife as pets or for experiments, or figure out how to get the monsters (golems?) to work for you. Also, complex monster design. Opposite example: like how rockworms, or anything train-like, are impossible in LRR due to how all units are basically a single point with a model built around that point (this can apply to vehicles too). Absolutely. For the challenge bit, I think everyone feels that the monsters are pathetically easy for the most part. Mods have made it better, but due to AI hardcode Slimy Slugs are still more of a threat than monsters since you can always kill a monster to get stolen resources back. Meanwhile, things like bats have fake difficulty due to the stupid scare thing, but removing that makes them just scenery (I know I was saying earlier how more passive wildlife is good, but still). It was also frustrating how monsters always deal a hardcoded damage to entities. Even the non-hardcoded parts were universal for that monster. Depending on their strength, weaknesses and element (if they have one), they should do different damage to different units, because the different units (vehicles, buildings, raiders) should have different defenses, weaknesses and invulnerabilities to the attack methods and elements dished out by wildlife and natural forces. In a more in-depth development, the different individuals of a species could be randomized in size, build and power, so you could spawn, say, three lava monsters, but one is smaller than the others, and one is faster, the other much stronger but not able to use fire-based attacks as well as the other two, I know it seems odd for this type of game, but their could even be mini-bosses or full bosses. The mini-bosses could just be extra-strong individuals of a species (going off of what I said just above about randomizing), or maybe a leader of a group of creatures who has more powers (or stronger weapons, if it's from an intelligent species). The major bosses could be parts in the story, maybe just super-powerful creatures/machines or a cunning and intelligent being manipulating things. As for how scary, of course. Again, monsters in LRR aren't a threat. Either by appearance or power or even sheer number traveling in a group (imagine a hundred rock monsters charging you) they should be more threatening by far. Not everything should be like that, of course, and looks can be deceiving to make it even more shocking in the end. There should be some development of the backstories of things like the monsters (like that theory we have based on the book HADU that either the monsters were intelligent or they were created as golems for an intelligent race that once lived on the planet), or just things so that we feel like the wildlife is made of actual living things and not just things to kill for fun. The Rock Raiders originally didn't want to harm the monsters, and only shot them out of defense. That should be the case here. Or, you can choose to be the more sadistic team commander and shoot every creature in sight. You don't necessarily have to be a good guy in this game, just the protagonist. You can make and set your own morals for you and your team, and it will determine your outcome - choosing a more "evil" approach wouldn't give you a bad ending, nor would you be certain to be successful if you chose a more "heroic" method (I'm not sure how you define good and evil for a team of deep miners, but I'm sure it can be done). The outcome depends on your approach, and your morals are just how you chose to get to your destination. I'm so hungry I could eat an octagon. Of course, it might cause conflict if you decide to kill intelligent beings for your own gain - though allying with them could cause another group of beings to become your enemies, hence how your morals don't set in stone your success. Maybe you don't even know which choice is which, and you just do what you think you should do - which could be anything, and could lead to anything. You could think the planet's environment is important and want to leave the creatures in peace - that could lead to them attacking you, or helping you, or lead to your failure by not wanting to hurt the environment, depending on what you do when and to whom. You could say that the wildlife is in the way of a more important objective and destroy everything to mine - you could succeed, or get attacked by animals or beings, or destroy yourself by mining wildly and causing a cave-in. It all depends. What Alcom said about it being an option and not an objection - that should be a big focus too. Your leader or whoever the characters are here just gives you an objective, and how you complete it is your choice (moral system?), or you could possibly do other things that would complete an objective not given that would cancel your first (secret objectives). Or just bonus objectives that don't help towards your current mission but might help towards the future - which reminds me, what you do in a mission should build up over time, not like how collecting a lot of ore in a level in LRR meant nothing when you got to another level and had to get more ore. Edit: Jamesster just suggested a Super Mario 64 approach - multiple objectives on a map (however that's defined) where more than one is mandatory, and what you did to the map in the first objective will be saved and show in the second objective (if there's an earthquake, there should be some code that takes what you did and applies the quake effects, not just lazily throwing rocks around and changing walls). This of course goes along with the bonus objectives and secret/disobedient objectives. Again, what objective you chose to do and ignore determines the future levels. There should also be much more complex objectives than collecting crystals. As I said earlier, maybe you collect plants or capture animals for science or farming or social needs, or clear a cave of monsters or drain a lake for mining or dam up a flooded river so another team can mine, or set up or destroy stuff or save a lost team or any number of possibilities. Some missions might be timed, some could be infinite but things could go wrong if you wait too long, which then might bring moral choices back. Anyway, those are just some foundation ideas I have. I don't want to suggest anything about the actual content so that everyone can creatively throw ideas around, but I do want to suggest the structure of how the game works. Hopefully I've said at least a few useful things here. Sorry if anything here is kind of poorly-worded or not understandable, I just threw things down as I thought of them. This reminds me of that monster I made that is covered/fused with Energy Crystals, but merged with a Creeper.

Stewart ask me to post a response to my email to get more feedback to send back: (I've underlined important stuff) Me: "An issue we faced with modding LRR was (as previously mentioned) that it's not particularly affordable to the average Joe, which therefore meant that next to no-one is creating new models for any of their mods. Then the programs that can do the conversion between the formats, still cost around $50 or more (such a Milkshape 3D)." Stewart: "This is a huge help in our production run, however we could perhaps create a conversion program, from another less expensive modeler, which 3d modeler packages should we go for?" Me: "I'll give an example: You start the game for the first time, the game retrieves the resolution of the monitor and sets the game's resolution to match. This resolution is then written to file, which is then read by the game every time it starts. This means that, if 2 years later and larger resolutions come along the settings file can be changed to also support that resolution without the game needing an update." Stewart: "Our latest code, checks for system for the available screen resolutions and then works at the highest resolution" Me: "I have managed to get LRR to run at 1024x768 by changing stuff in the CFG, but the darn right menu can't be moved so it sits in the middle of the screen" Stewart: "we are now set up for more varied resolutions, so the HUD menus are all definable, in new code you will be able to position them anywhere." Me: *paragraph on types of multiplayer such as Direct connection, Central servers and player servers* Stewart: "This area we have not developed, we have functionality from DIrectX but we will have to do some specific programming or license a library to do all of this" Me: "As for multiplayer modes. Here's some ideas to just throw out there: - Drill together to achieve one goal - Some sort of player vs. player mode (who can achieve the goal first) - Rogue player(s) mode, a player controls the monsters or natural elements in an effort to destroy the other players progress? - Race mode, who can drill their way to a point first? - Sandbox mode, drill, build and chat to your heart's content - Base defence, protect your base(s) from waves of monsters." Stewart: "Sure no problem with these, more ideas welcome" Me: "Monster Suggestions - Rock Monster is a must - Small fast monster that hides in the dark and attacks things that walk into unlit tunnels. - A monster that emerges from lava pools (this is a good reason to stop lava erosion)." Stewart: "I like lava monsters. Lego would not let us make the monsters to scary or do much damage, now we are freed up should we go for meaner monsters?" (I understand this to be that LEGO may have not wanted to to be too hard). Stewart would also like more feedback based on experience with LRR (modding and play) and more monster ideas. If you post stuff I can bundle it all to send back to him.

Tool decay in an RTS is rather silly unless the units know to go back to the tool store to get a replacement. But what does that accomplish? Just like the Support Station, it's another reason for units to stop what they're doing and run back to the base which wastes time. With infinite free tools from the tool store, limited-use tools are pointless because instead of managing a resource (I have three hand drills left, let's try to build more vehicles instead) it becomes a time sink (stupid drill broke, now I have to go back to get another).

Addictgamer Anyways I think we are straying from the point of the topic to gather possible ideas for the game if it were a cross between LRR and Minecraft.

ugh... the banner looks ugly. Even the forum layout looks...ugh.