behind the scrapyard puzzle... well, sort of. (Patreon)

ok so i already tried typing this once but prntscrn gave me the solid dick when i tried to paste an image in and then patreon crashed so siiiiiiiigh
take 2

today we'll be talking about the scrapyard puzzle (finally). i already posted here about the original design and why i moved away from it so heavily, and so, based on a stream suggestion i made the focal point of the area riding a train through a field of other busted trains.

i am, of course, referring to this one: 

so i started the puzzle just by laying that track, and probably those rows of trains near the bottom/top so i could give myself a space that i would need to originally break through

incidENTALLY, y'all know the railnet puzzle, right? with switching the tracks? this whole idea of crashing a train through something to progress is very similar to the original idea of that puzzle. for the railnet, what i wanted to do was make the player arrange the tracks so they could ride a still-functioning train and destroy some blockage/rubble near the exit with it to escape.

the reason i did not go through with that is because of the way the rail graphics and train graphics are set up. specifically, getting the train to turn would have been a huge pain in the ass to make and orient a diagonal train sprite for each direction and time that properly... even now it's not something i would want to do, which is why in the scrapyard i knew i couldn't have any trains turn on the tracks. at least i set it up that way deliberately, unlike the railnet.

if i were going to do the railnet over today, probably i would keep this concept because it makes way more sense and is much more interesting. it occurred to me while typing this that i could get around the difficulty of making a turn graphic for trains by having another one of the characters present approve the train's path after the player sets it, and then everyone can pile into the train, and exit on the outside. probably charlotte conducts it because she doesn't give a fuck. this has the added benefit of making the other characters more active. then they can all ride out into chrysolia and are forced to disembark when the tracks vanish.

...shit, i kind of want to do this now. 

...uh, so the point of this was, when i was making the scrapyard puzzle, i wanted to be sure to keep it distinct from the railnet one-- and so one thing i decided on early was no switching the tracks. anything that was going to be done should be done with the trains themselves. that meant it was ram city...

... listen, we're gonna have to have a part 2 or like 1.5 on this because i'm impulsive as approximate fuck and i'm going to go make plans to change the railnet now. bye.