Pending improvements

For the next update, Gregory Stone was mulling several possible fixes and additions. Some of these had been on the table for ages, some were responses to other recent changes and additions. Some were longer-term "it would be nice" plans.

Characters

• More advanced button mapping
• Include collision with a surface as a variable for character animations
• Allow flag so to perform a move you need to be standing on solid ground, or that an animation does not complete until the character collides with a solid surface.
• Make only the visible parts of characters and monsters effected by BBL collision
• More advanced, variable, dynamic idle sequences. Different idle sequences depending on conditions.
• More possible animations per character, or allowing a .CHR file to draw from multiple .CBL files, or allowing .CHR files to transition into each other under certain conditions
• Make character dimensions more flexible: two blocks wide, four blocks square.
• Make it easier to spawn attached "monster limbs"
• Allow pick-up of inventory items by contact
• Different character death animations depending on different criteria

Monsters

• Make solid monsters more solid
• Allow monsters to carry characters if gravity is pulling them together
• Don't let monsters push characters through walls
• Allow larger monsters; multiple blocks wide or tall
• Make monster permissions more flexible than "power level"; some monsters can only be destroyed through contact with character; some only through time or through contact with specific other monsters
• Allowing monsters to be affected by gravity and background blocks. Define foreground masks, block by block.
• Monsters can be damaged by background blocks
• Flag to make monsters change direction when they touch different walls
• Flag to make monsters change animation according to different factors
• Allow monsters to be inventory items
• Different noises for different monsters

Background blocks and maps

• Foreground objects, that players and monsters could walk behind
• Allow monsters (specifically or generally) to affect background blocks. So, for instance, shooting a block might change it.
• Background status remains static: NEVER/EVEN AFTER CHARACTER DEATH/EVEN AFTER LEVEL CHANGE/FOR X TIME
• Monster status remains static: NEVER/EVEN AFTER CHARACTER DEATH/EVEN AFTER LEVEL CHANGE/FOR X TIME

Sounds and music

• More music support: MIDI, .MOD/.S3M, or else custom music editor
• Maybe a simple custom sound recorder

Interface

• Allowing custom title menu options
• Customize the inventory screen: both what fields appear and the overall screen presentation
• Text field support (If the games could have supported dialog and exposition, there was a whole extra level of complexity just waiting.)
• Custom typefaces (for menus and text fields)
• On-screen displays: health, score, etcetera
• The ability to name counters at will

Additional features

• Allow counters and inventory to reset upon death
• Some included .GIF and .FLI utilities

Engine adjustments

• More scrolling modes: always centered, screen-by-screen, forced scrolling (either by direction+rate or by drawing a path, with stop points and continue conditions)
• Fixing edge-of-screen problems: sprite flickering, animation freezing, block state change freezing, characters getting misaligned with the scrolling
• Archiving all game data files on export, to avoid sprawl and to avoid players from accessing key files (significantly .TXT and .GIF) out of context