Originally posted by wtfweb

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ok i played through the first world of your hack so far and here are some comments and suggestions:

- get rid of all those berries after goal posts - Color fading for the lose. I'll get rid of them, as they only really provide an anoying fade error. -

- i like your 1-screen bonus areas. they remind me of smb (in a good way.) - Thanks -

- on the spots were pipes change directions, i dont like your use of the slanted vertical running platform - it should probably just be another cement block - Yes, I thought that, but it would be hard to tell which way the pipe turns in more complex puzzles. -

-your overworld is great! i like how one of your secret exits lets you skip a level like they should (any interested player is going to go back and play the level they skipped anyway) - OverWorld design is one of my greater aspects -

overall, your level deisign is GREAT, if just a little bit repetitive from level to level. it's not too hard and not too easy, and you have some really clever puzzles. also you did a great job at making secret exits not frusterating, as they're easy to locate but fairly difficult to actually access. - This is why I admit the old SZTW sucked. level difficulty was random, while in this hack, I tried to balance the difficulty and not worry too much about originality, while in the same way make things look like they belonged, more so than over-using cement blocks for puzzles. -

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Originally posted by Shane

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I rather like the overworld I just hate the way he's using icegoom's graphics while icegoom himself hasn't gotten a chance to finish his own hack with his own graphics.

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Originally posted by x1372

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interesting hack. A few comments though.

1) Several sections of the ground just looked ackward the way they overlap each other. I'd think its generally better to have a standard corner piece rather than a straight horizontal platform with another platform that you can't walk through sticking out of it. That seemed to happen way too many times. - I did that to add a bit more 'depth' to the levels... The usual smw layouts look a little tacky having one land mass that 'happens' to be shapped like a level. -

2) The corners of your smb3 pipes... I'm sure you'll change them later, but they're a bit ugly. Just some sort of graphical change to make them fit would be nice - heck even turning them all into those big skull icons that are used with torpedo teds would be an improvement. - Using the torpedo ted gfx sounds like a good idea. I'll look into changing the corners into them. -

3) In the first stage with layer 3 water, you should have a lowered platform at the bottom left where the sinking tree platforms are. That way if you fall you have somewhere to get back out of the water (without slowly swimming way under the bottom of the screen past three dividers to get to land like I did). - Yes, I should do that -

4) There was one pipe in an area with 4 pipes one on top of the other that left you stuck if you entered it (I think it was the second one of the four, one of the two that didn't have two coins in front of it). - I wonder why I still have those 2 other pipes... I'll remove them. -

5) The secret exits in your castle levels are IMO very poorly designed. Having gone through the castles to the end of the game, I would have had no idea that they existed had you not had the box popping up telling you that the demo had 22 exits. Being expected to take a pow back an unspecified distance which requires many retries to see the whole level with it, plus no hint during them that there might be a secret exit is a bad thing. Possibly having a message box at the beginning mentioning that the castles have secret exits would be helpful - Actually, the castle secret exits are ment to stay a secret throughout most of the game until you get all the switch palaces and find a secret exit in world 7. Finding them in advance just means you dont have to worry about them later.

Spoiler:
The 'extra' world, a 'DARK' world is beyond the hidden castle exits... I made a complex set of level exits for the world.

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6) Overworld design was nice, but I think icegoom's set needs some palete work or something as is, but nothing that hasn't been mentioned before. - Everyone says te pallette is tacky, yet its the default pallete for icegoom's OW gfx. I might change them later on. -

7) As mentioned before, berries after the goalposts look bad. - Yes. -

8) The many paths through the second world was interesting, but maybe there should be something hidden along one of them? It seemed the hardest path (upper of the 3) is the hardest to reach, and maybe should have a switch palace or top secret area or something. - Nobody's forceing you to play the mud mountain path. Its just there for curious players. -

9) Bonus areas are nice, but I think yours tend to skip a little too much of the level. Having to go all the way back, especially in one level not meant for backtracking to get all the dragon coins is a bit of an irritant. - Then I'm guessing you hate Super mario Bros. -

10) As for flying over sections, easiest way to stop that is to put an entire string of invisible ? blocks along the top of the screen like FuSoYa did in many levels. Though in general its moot since that section of the game is before capes are available. - Capes won't be available until world 3 or 6 (Forest or Mountain). It'll more likely be world 6, mainly becuase of the reason stated. -

11) I can't replicate it now, but a few times I had random "corner of the block" deaths in one of the mud levels... the same sort of thing that happened a few times in Alastor the Stylish's hack. Unfortunately I have no idea how to fix that sort of thing. - Yes, the anoying 'reaper-blox'. I have NO clue how to fix it, and it seemed to be a problem in one of the chocolate island levels in the original SMW. -

12) Is there a reason for the dotted line outline at the edges of some of the smb3 pipes? - Me not changing the gfx of the 'needed' exit tile's to blank yet. Don't worry, they'll be blank in the final release. -

13) The invisible 1up in your ghost house is just mean. You're more likely to lose a life there rather than gain one. - Alot of my invis 1up's seem mean... I'll move them around a bit. (two would be in 1-3 and the house) -

14) I dunno if its just part of icegoom's set, but the fact that mario doesn't have a palette change when he gets fire power looks very odd to me. - Last I checked he turned orange :/ -

15) I think you're overusing the "skulls on lava" thing a bit, unless you're planning to not include many more. I think that levels that force you to move slowly like that are annoying more often than not - I actually found myself using the ~ speed on and off during those sections with no consequences. Passivity is bad. - Yes, I'll probably re-make some levels before newer demo's. -

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Originally posted by ZTaimat

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interesting hack. A few comments though.

1) Several sections of the ground just looked ackward the way they overlap each other. I'd think its generally better to have a standard corner piece rather than a straight horizontal platform with another platform that you can't walk through sticking out of it. That seemed to happen way too many times. - I did that to add a bit more 'depth' to the levels... The usual smw layouts look a little tacky having one land mass that 'happens' to be shapped like a level. -

5) The secret exits in your castle levels are IMO very poorly designed. Having gone through the castles to the end of the game, I would have had no idea that they existed had you not had the box popping up telling you that the demo had 22 exits. Being expected to take a pow back an unspecified distance which requires many retries to see the whole level with it, plus no hint during them that there might be a secret exit is a bad thing. Possibly having a message box at the beginning mentioning that the castles have secret exits would be helpful - Actually, the castle secret exits are ment to stay a secret throughout most of the game until you get all the switch palaces and find a secret exit in world 7. Finding them in advance just means you dont have to worry about them later.

Spoiler:
The 'extra' world, a 'DARK' world is beyond the hidden castle exits... I made a complex set of level exits for the world.

-

9) Bonus areas are nice, but I think yours tend to skip a little too much of the level. Having to go all the way back, especially in one level not meant for backtracking to get all the dragon coins is a bit of an irritant. - Then I'm guessing you hate Super mario Bros. -


14) I dunno if its just part of icegoom's set, but the fact that mario doesn't have a palette change when he gets fire power looks very odd to me. - Last I checked he turned orange :/ -

15) I think you're overusing the "skulls on lava" thing a bit, unless you're planning to not include many more. I think that levels that force you to move slowly like that are annoying more often than not - I actually found myself using the ~ speed on and off during those sections with no consequences. Passivity is bad. - Yes, I'll probably re-make some levels before newer demo's. -

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Originally posted by x1372

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3) In the first stage with layer 3 water, you should have a lowered platform at the bottom left where the sinking tree platforms are. That way if you fall you have somewhere to get back out of the water (without slowly swimming way under the bottom of the screen past three dividers to get to land like I did).

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Originally posted by icegoom

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The overworld palettes are my fault. I had to have blue in each palette to get the water to look right, so I figured I might as well use the blue as shadowing for the green hues. I really need to release an updated SMWRedrawn patch with my newer overworld graphics along with cave and castle sets. I keep putting that off because everything's not absolutely finished.

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Originally posted by ZTaimat

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If you release a 100% SMW-redrawn patch, release another one to patch on to the old one. (aka the one I, and a few others are using)

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