ClonesGame.com Forums

[rt]

One of the features in Clones is the ability to queue up a morph. A morph is queued anytime you issue a morph that the clone could normally perform but isn't able to do so right at that moment. For example, if a clone is falling you can issue the mold morph and the clone will start molding as soon as it starts walking again.

Once you know how this feature works there are a few ways to use it during multiplayer matches:
- If one of your clones is in the path of your opponents and falling then you can issue drill and the clone will drill away the landing area.
- If you make a molder bridge and when a clone is falling off the end of it issue the doppel morph. The other clones walking off the bridge will pass through the doppel on the ground thus making a one-way flow of your clones going out.
- If you have a clone that you know is heading towards a cliff but the cliff is far away you can issue puff. One the clone falls off the ledge they will puff up. However if you notice that your opponent has done this and you have a clone walking towards their clone then gulp. This will cause the puff-queue clone to waste it's puff on your gulp tunnel and then walk up the tunnel and go splat off the cliff if they don't notice it.
- Spin a bunch of clones out of a recent nova hole and issue puff to the spinners. When they hit their heads they will puff up and land safely.

[Simon]

Yes, this is a very convenient and natural-feeling control method.

Have you considered to enable queuing molder on a molder, so you don't have to care about the molder when he's done with the first bridge? I believe this would come useful in lots of places.

-- Simon

[rt]

Have you considered to enable queuing molder on a molder, so you don't have to care about the molder when he's done with the first bridge? I believe this would come useful in lots of places.

We considered adding in a "transition" queue so that you could queue up a morph that the clone would perform on it's next transition to a different state. For example, if you had a spinning clone you could transition-queue up a nova so that when the spinner hits it's head and changes to a faller it would trigger the nova. Your mold example would also fit into this category.

We're not sure how this would impact the gameplay, but it's an interesting concept. We might add it in for some test builds to see what effect it has on multiplayer.

[rt]

The latest build of Clones also contains a "directional" queue that allows you to queue up a morph that the clone will perform when it changes direction after walking into a wall. The purpose was to allow you to choose the direction to clob/gulp out of a driller hole, but there is at least one other way you can use this feature: Doppel removal. If your clones are walking towards an opponents Doppel then you can select one of your clones, enable directional force in the opposite way the clone is walking, and then issue the nova morph. When that clone hits the doppel and turns around it will go nova and shatter the doppel. This way you don't have to sit around and wait for the clone to reach the doppel.

[Simon]

Yeah, I always use directional select when trying to shatter a doppel, it's really convenient!

The transistion queue has its uses, I will use it if it's there. I use spin -> explode a lot already, but currently, it has a certain failure rate and still costs a whole clone when unsuccessful.

The molder -> molder queue fits with the transistion queue, but -- it fits just as fine with the current model of "wait until being able to do it, then do it". It's not possible at all to start a new bridge while the molder is still active.

-- Simon

[Raszlo]

How the hell does one use the drirectional queue?

[Simon]

1. Select clone,
2. Hit directional force key of the direction against the current walking direction,
3. Hit skill key.

Conversely, regular directional force is 1. dir force key, 2. select clone, 3. skill key.

I have remapped the directional keys to the left hand (standard are the square brackets IIRC) because I use them all the time. I don't know if it's worth enough to re-learn a new custom hotkey layout just for this, though.

-- Simon