O-Rail Technique

[Cloudless Night]

Hi, I'm Claire Darling, from the Everlasting Server, and I am the creator of the O-Rail.

 

So through experimenting with different surfaces I've found that some will trigger the slide or grind animation when traversed across.  The technique I'd like to share I refer to as the O-Rail because it's made with the letter O aligned in a row.  This allows the player to slide across the top of the row of letters using physics similar to ice.  The letters will only let you travel one direction, but clever builders can still find use for this.  We've also found that the height of the letter needs to be a certain amount or the player will attempt to stand on the object under the row of letters instead.  This limit is roughly just below knee high, and I did not test with different character sizes, both myself and my partner Kinetic Velocity are about the same height and build.

 

One thing we've noticed is that if you're going to use a long rail, then a fence to lean on will keep you aligned so you don't fall off.  Below are a couple pictures from our base OASIS-3471 that use this technique and you're welcome to try it out yourself.  I'd love to see pictures of this technique put to use in creative ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cloudless Night]

For wide lane O-Rail Slides, it was not necessary to make the O's too close as seen with Green and Blue. Green and Red allowed for the same sliding conditions without any dip in height. Also when a water surface was placed over it, instead of swim animation it was surfing animation.

 

[Cloudless Night]

More fun with the O-Rail, I made a slip and slide out on the front lawn of our base.  Once more people see it and try it, I have a feeling this is gonna take off.

 

[Heraclea]

Interesting.  Does this work with other letters, like maybe T?

[Sovera]

This is spectacular, Claire, thanks for sharing with us!

[Cloudless Night]

It seems to work by suspending your landing.  I've tried making ramps and it doesn't transfer falling motion into forward motion well.  But you can slide uphill without resistance so used right you could make escalators.  It's tricky lining letters up at an angle, but it does work. 

 

[Dacy]

I used a variant of this. I used the letter I, but not like how you show the Qs lined up. The face of the letter has the plate that induces the slide; unfortunately,  you can only see it from below. By lining up my letter i's so that the plates are contiguous (use "hidden markers"  under options to see the plate on the letter, or /seeeverything) and placing them at a 45 degree angled slope, I have my shark pool which only exits down (barring the use of fly). I did find that fx plates can slow or temporarily stop the slide, so, for the most part, I had to bury those under the tech balconies which the letters seem to be on. I also discovered that the letters must be face up, not face down; despite the fact that there is a plate on either side, the effect will not work if it's not the front plate that's being used. I also found, as you did, that I could not hide the letters by sinking them mostly into the floor. Even though the plate is still above the floor, you no longer slide on it. So, I had hoped to have a slide where you did not see the letters, but instead, I have this:

 

A note, if you are putting a slide pit together, make sure the plates join evenly, or if that's not possible, make sure the one below is not above the one above, or it will stop the slide. It does not matter which way the letters face, and it does not matter which letter; I used I because it screams "Alphabet Letter!" the least.  Base shift has made a few spots less than perfect, but overall, I did what I hoped I could. It's a trap! 😄

 

Here's a shot showing the plates of the alphabet letters from underneath. Note there are no spaces visible, and this is important. (I hate these plates in any other circumstance...)

 

Probably not the clearest picture, but given that it's a complete build at this point, there's not much space for a picture. But that's several plates.

 

Thanks for pioneering this! While I did not use the same method exactly, you gave me the idea to adapt to get it to work for my situation. 🙂

 

-Dacy

[BBBadger]

I don't know if it's been posted but you can accomplish something similar but setting down Hearts in a Jar (the jar with the handle on top of the lid). It takes a ton of them, but you can set it as low as you like to get the sliding effect.