Sliding tile
A sliding tile is any tile that causes objects to move involuntarily—namely, force floors, ice, and teleports, and traps in Lynx (as well as MS and Steam in special cases). They have special properties when interacting with these objects which depend on the ruleset.
MS
Sliding tiles in MS always slide objects at 10 m/s, unless Chip is stepping with the appropriate boot. Even though blobs and teeth move at a mere 2.5 m/s on any non-sliding tile, they still quadruple to 10 m/s.
Blocks treat traps as sliding tiles, but only when sliding into them. This was a deliberate (though perhaps last-minute) decision by the MSCC developers to make sure Torturechamber is solvable.
If a block slides into a trap or teleport, it will treat the tile like a force floor pointed in the direction the block is facing, though it will stay stuck in a trap if the trap is closed. Other objects besides Chip will also only attempt to exit the tile in the direction they are facing, but in the case of traps, they will not be on the sliplist.
Boosting is a result of passing over sliding tiles. MS allows only one voluntary move every turn; this does happen, but since the voluntary move is still within the same turn as the last sliding tile, it can be performed immediately after the last involuntary move—and if that voluntary move ended a turn, a spring slide can be used, adding yet another extra move. Consequently, a spring slide can be used any time Chip exits a teleport.
Blocks can be rammed on sliding tiles; if Chip attempts to push a block into a block-acting wall while the block is sliding, the block will be removed from the sliplist and it will stay on its tile until actually pushed off. This behavior is what makes After the Rainstorm solvable.
Lynx
In Lynx, all objects slide at twice their normal speed except on teleports. This means blobs actually slide at 5 m/s; teeth, on the other hand, actually move at 5 m/s but only attempt to move every 4 out of 8 ticks (the 4 even+X ticks)—only averaging 2.5 m/s—so their sliding speed is still 10 m/s.
When a sliding object bumps into a wall, it stalls for one tick, during which it turns in place. This allows a desynchronization of sorts; for example, if two objects simultaneously enter two slides that are identical except for one ending in ice into a wall and the other ending in a force floor pointing back, the object on the former slide will come back one tick later than the other object. As another example, if Chip does not have suction boots and walks onto a force floor pointed at a wall, he will bump into the wall for one tick before he can override the force floor.
Objects moving onto teleports only move at their normal speed. Although open traps double the speed of all objects passing through them, they do so by skipping different frames of animation. Traps, as well as teleports in Tile World Lynx, are not considered sliding tiles in the context of overriding force floors.
As in MS, objects (unconditionally this time) on traps will treat them as force floors pointed in the direction they are facing. Chip is the only one that can change direction in a trap, and even then only when it is closed or the exit direction is blocked. Objects on teleports treat the tiles as floor (they teleport just before landing on the tile), except Chip, who will be stuck if he ever stays still on a teleport.
When starting a level on ice or a force floor, an object will not be affected for the first tick, with the exception that it can not move backward off a force floor. In particular, blocks and clone blocks will stall for the first tick before sliding (blocks face north by default).
If a sliding block is pushed on the tick that it lands on a tile (sliding or not) or the tick before that, it will be pushed in that direction and Chip will follow it. Slapping a block, however, will only affect the block on the tick that it lands. Chip can also push against a block on any other tick (two if sliding, between two and four otherwise) before it lands on a tile without moving himself or the block. Blocks on traps are more complicated; there is a precise maneuver that allows Chip to push a block on a trap to change its direction without following the block.
Steam
Sliding tiles in Steam and CC2 function almost identically as in Lynx, but there are some notable differences. Generally, the sliding tile category in Steam includes teleports but not traps.
Sliding tiles attempt to move objects every frame, but only when they are fully on the tiles. Normally, this is every 2nd tick, or every 6th frame. When objects bump into walls while sliding, the first bump costs 0 frames, but each subsequent bump on the same tile costs 1 frame (as opposed to always costing 1 tick). As such, objects can be “misaligned” with the movement frames, as sliding tiles will still move them every 6th frame when not bumping into walls. If this happens to Chip or Melinda, the player will be unable to perform any actions, including dropping items, overriding force floors and teleports, and switching characters. Chip and Melinda can also become misaligned by dropping suction boots on a force floor and not overriding immediately. Objects can become “realigned” by either bumping into some more walls or reaching a non-sliding tile.[1]
Chip interacts with teleports the same way as other objects do. In the context of overriding force floors, they are considered sliding tiles, as they were in the original Atari Lynx, until stopped on (e.g. by partial posting). Red and yellow teleports in particular act like force floors, except that the player can always override them when not misaligned, i.e. they do not need to slide on a previous teleport or force floor to do so.
Speed boots cause any movable object carrying them to always move at their sliding speed. This means that an object's speed when entering a teleport is doubled, but not an object's speed while sliding on ice or force floors.
Traps only push objects out of them on the first tick that they are opened by a trap button. This initial push counts as sliding. When they are held open or are opened by an active wire, they are acting floor. This difference from Lynx is responsible for the change to Nightmare in the Steam version of CC1.
See also
- Concussion Rule, a name for certain trap behaviors in MS and Lynx.