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I know it's kinda been done before, but I have been commissioned to write a tool to convert an LXF model from LDD into a DAE file, and the commissioner is fine with me open-sourcing the project now that it's complete, so I might as well share it. I give you, LDDCollada Quick Notes: LDDCollada is the command-line version, written in C# so use Windows or Mono. Drag and drop input files onto .exe to convert LDDCollada.Mac is a macOS GUI that exposes options the CLI doesn't Does not extract .LIF archives for you Will generate properly-filled versions of the decal textures Make sure your software is gamma correct - in Maya (first screenshot below), the filled textures look natural against the solid triangles, but in macOS Preview and Quick Look (second and third screenshots), the solid brick colors look dark but the decal textures look bright. My first go at writing Mac software (I kinda cheated by using Xamrin.Mac) Could be interesting if you want info on C# .g file parsing Ignores normals Screenshots:

While playing Bonkle Heroes and being unimpressed with the difficulty (or lack thereof), I thought it'd be fun to try and play the game with absolutely no upgrades. Normally, as you play, you go off to Balta and spend all your Technic bits on armor, weapon upgrades, and interactable abilities. The result is a game that is extremely boring as you can float through most enemies with Nuparu's nuclear missile launcher and gun down bosses with Hahli, taking minimal damage - and if you do happen to lose a mask, well, they respawn if it's a mask you don't have so you can just pick it up again (and they even show up on the radar!) In addition to the no-upgrade rule, I also didn't allow myself to use the Piraka after you unlock them except for required interactions and in Hero Mode. Furthermore, I wasn't allowed to be scummy with picking up masks to heal (although completing all the levels with 'one-mask-only' would be obnoxiously un-fun, so I didn't try). This made the game extremely interesting for a number of reasons. The biggest change was the result of no interactable abilities. This massively cuts down on your income, as the areas typically locked behind these areas are floating with studs (and canisters). The result of this is that Hero Mode (which, for those who haven't played, is invincibility until you interact with a Gold Construction (usually neccessary for progress, especially boss battles) triggers much later. When I played it through with upgrades I'd get Hero Mode much earlier than I needed it, and now not only did I nuke things with Nuparu, I was also invincible. I wasn't expecting this to have the biggest impact, but... it did. The second biggest change was that I had to learn about the enemy AI. In normal BH you can just charge in, throw a nuke, take a heart of damage or so, and everything just blows up around you. Not anymore! Now I need to be wary of the Bohrok's rolling attack during which they're invincible, the jumping and spitting of the Visorak and how to dodge it, Vakhi shockwave attacks, and so on. This was really interesting to see the actual AI - it's surprisingly in depth - and learn how to dodge. You never do this in a normal game, as if something somehow survived the first nuke from Nuparu's hand, well it doesn't survive the second! This was the result of.... ... the third biggest change, massively decreased damage output. Jaller's fire spitter deals absolutely trash damage, Hewkii's (slow and lumbering) rocket can't OHKO things even if it does hit, Nuparu is now just bad, Kongu's crossbow won't do anything unless they're right in front of you (in which case they're shooting you). I'll talk about this a little later. The fourth biggest change, and the least changing, was the lack of survivability. It seems to me that when you get armor, it doesn't just reduce the amount of damage you take: instead when you get a hit that first hit does no damage. If a second hit lands in a brief period of time, you'd take reduced damage. Now, of course.... well, both hits deal full damage! However the game is too friendly with its mask placement & that masks respawn when you lose them (likely to prevent softlocks from losing a critical mask) that you can't lose. This didn't really change how many of the levels played out, especially the 'story' ones - the masks are so frequent and the enemies so sparse that, while it is more challenging (especially the enemy-rich Jungle stages), it's now 'fun' as opposed to 'boring.' However the biggest change were the boss battles. The Piraka have a zamor attack that creates an insanely huge shockwave. However, as pointed out above, if you have the armor upgrades two zamors need to hit for you to take one damage. WIth no armor... well.. you'll take two damage I had to learn to see this coming and learn how to dodge it. Similarily the enemy spams they summon were now actually challenging to kill, as opposed to 'bring on the next lot please.' Levels of note include: - Zaktan's boss battle: the enemies are tough and numerous, not to mention Zaktan has always been one of the more difficult bosses. Also, because you can't use abilities to open up access to vast stacks of Technic pieces, you have to fight a lot of them for Gold Mode. This was a lot of fun. - Rakshi levels, especially later ones (Desert and Jungle) - the 'shield down' gap is so small it's very easy to miss. - Reidak's boss battle: a mess even with full upgrades, with none you will be scurrying from mask to mask just to stay alive sometimes - Avak's boss battle: his minion summoning now cannot be cleared out with a click of the button with Nuparu, and attacks arrive from all directions. - Any post-Piraka Vezon fight. Vezon is one of the few enemies with a sizeable HP pool (other bosses just need to be hit when their shield is down). Due to a lack of damage output, this can be quite slow and hard - and Vezon's attacks here are nearly undodgeable and a decent amount of luck (you can still avoid most hits, just not all). Kongu can't deal any damage as his damage drops with range and Fenrakk's head is quite high up, Nuparu is good at spread damage and miserable against a single target, Hewki's rocket always misses, Matoro takes ages to reload but is still a solid choice, Jaller just sucks - the best choice is Hahli. I'm not sure why Hahli does so much damage, but my theory is her piercing missiles hit Fenrakk's hitbox twice or even more, resulting in massive damage (boot up BH on your full upgrade save file and try shooting Fenrakk with Halhi, then with Jaller. Jaller is so much slower as his missiles don't pierce). Particular mention must go to Vezon's post-Thok fight. There is no space to manouver and the only two respawning masks are Hewkii and Nuparu, of all things - the absolute worst at dealing with Vezon! Levels that were less fun include: - Roodaka boss battle: this level always was a pain and continue to be so, as you're on a small platform there's no room to manouver whatsoever - Sidorak's Visorak spam is just a spam and not fun to fight - Vezok is still a joke - This didn't affect the final Vezon fight almost at all aside from having to dodge more attacks than otherwise My ranking of characters: - Matoro. The only person who can one-shot a Vahki when zoomed in. You get pretty used to aiming at something, right-clicking to zoom in, left-click to fire, right click to zoom out again I did get a couple of 360 noscopes! - Halhi. Solid DPS and good speed. - Jaller. Not because he can shoot for damage (he can't) but because he's the fastest of the bunch. Everybody else is pretty mediocre - Nuparu is still solid for spread damage but can't deal high single-target damage - Hewkii's rocket has high damage but really low area of effect and because it's so slow it nearly always misses - Kongu only does high damage when the enemy is right in front of him, which always results in you taking damage So yeah! One wall of text later, I managed to make Bionicle Heroes fun. I can reccomend!

Sometimes having too many power path tiles causing some of them lacking the power, as you can see on the screenshot here - Whic is the primary reason I build another power station there, and probably in some other parts of the map too - Not something I'm sure with all honesty, but maybe it affects just one set of buildings connected to power station through certain powerpats, while some buildings can still, somehow, remain unaffected. Theoretically it's possible to be tested out if you build emergency power station with several support stations connected to it if the Power Surge bug is happens and see if the emergency base will work or not, but I'm not having enough nerves to test it out myself. I'm usually always panic when such thing happens, and it took me like whopping 5 hours, if not more, to build that one base on the water works mission. Most of the time I wasted by generating ore with the help of ore refinery and crapton of teleport pads so I could have enough ore to build these power path tiles to begin with. It was pain as it is. Probably one of the primary reasons why I REALLY want to speed up my ore refinery at least 3 times, maybe even 4. I'm usually build one of each building (if possible, not on every map can you build Docks for obvious reason, and some maps don't have enough crystals and) and then usually up to 7-8 support stations, sometimes 12 like on that screenshot from waterworks for rare exception when I want my base to look nice, but usually 7-8 is enough for quick and rapid victory with 70+ minions (at around 80+ minions the game start lagging a bit). And usually up to 4-5 upgraded gunstations, and usually one non-upgraded gunstation since I've moded it to actually heal vehicles, minions and buildings (on the screenshot of waterworks, there is two non-upgraded gunstations, I build the second one as I couldn't reach every vehicle and building if i place just one on either side, so two of them covering both sides). I usually start from tool station > teleport pad > power station > ore refinery > support station > either upgrade station or super teleport (usually super teleport is coming first then upgrade station) > usually I build 2 or 4 more support stations if I need more minions > non-upgraded Gunstation > Docks > Geological center coming last, and then if I have still more crystals left, I just covering the base with upgraded gunstations so the base looks nice and give false feeling of being protected, even though I rarely use them except on missions like frozen frenzy or rocky horror. (Theoretically they MIGHT be actually useful against obnoxious slugs, but I haven't tested it on them. Could be great alternative way to beat back to basic). Then, I just finish building the rest of support stations. In early missions however, where the crystal count is being low, I usually teleport useless bases once they done their purpose, like support station once I teleport extra rock raiders in mission where oxygen is not limited and big teleport\upgrade station once I've summon and upgrade my vehicles, basically leaving only power station + tool store + ore refinery as the only buildings I need. But yes, I do often turn off the power from many buildings simply because I'm unable to power ALL of them because either the crystal carry limit, in which if I surpass, the game would just end with "mission complete" tag and\or simply because there is not enough crystal on the map itself to power them all. I mostly disable power from buildings I don't use like teleport pad, big teleport, upgrade station, gunstations, geological center, docks and several support stations if I can manage the oxygen level stay positive. If I'm low on crystals at the moment and you don't have too many minions, usually two crystals, one for support station, another for ore refinery is more than enough. At such situations I'm mostly disabling the support station for short time period and enabling powers for these buildings instead only when I know I need them to do a specific job done, like teleport specific vehicle and\or upgrade it, sometimes for geological center to see what's around on the map, and then immediatelly disabling it's power and enabling support station back. On the screenshots you see (except the forth one, there I'm simply out of crystals on the map I think, heh, and I have no idea how to get crystals from the crystal seams that are placed in the ocean area), I usually try to enable the power for all buildings, since then these buildings become more active and emerge light, which makes the base look more alive and more colorful\sweet looking. With the limited amount of crystal I can carry, of course I had to disable several things like geological center and gunstations, since they look alike regardless of power is on or off. So, about 19 are active mostly is for sure. The issue more often happen to me on maps like frozen frenzy, water works and rocky horror. Although on rocky horror, for some reason, it's not as deadly and I still had some support stations working while other were having Power Surge issue, even though all of them were powered from the same Power Station.