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| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - - Posts by x1372 |
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x1372 Goomba                  Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| Well I'm pretty new at SMW hacking, but there's a few ideas that might work. Note that most of these are pulled from various hacks of different mario games I've played.
1) Completely remove lives. Honestly, would anyone miss them? The only real penalty for dying is restarting the stage and possibly lost powerups. Do something completely different with the 1up mushroom, for example have it be worth 10/20/50 coins. Have coins end up being spent on power-ups or something or for some sort of side game (for 1000 coins, get a chance at a boss battle to gain a yellow yoshi or something). In fact, as a balancing tool, the drop down item might be useable only when winning minigames - normally collected powerups simply overwrite whatever you're using. ~ pulled from mario adventure, a SMB3 remake 2) Drastically alter the spin jump, possibly making it only useable by small mario, only useable by super mario, or require a seperate power up. This would put the threat back in a lot of enemy sprites. I know this was mentioned somewhere but I can't recognize the source. As a potential alternate method, add new sprites that act similar to the old ones except still hurt mario upon spin jump (palete swapped spinys or some such). 3) Have some levels (possibly the vast majority) where cape flight is disabled. I know at least one hack demo included this- if you attempted to fly, you would have the initial flight animation followed by normal cape falling once you reached your normal max jump height. Alternately, one could completely remove the cape or make it function more like the SMB3 raccoon tail which had far more limited flight. ~ super mario returns EX demo 4) Give yoshi a life meter. Have his first hit send him into the "panic" run he normally does. Have the second hit repeat that, except have yoshi run faster. Third hit yoshi vanishes in a cloud of smoke. 5) force players to revert to regular mario at the beginning of every level. That way only powerups collected in level A can be used in level A, and level B which isn't designed around the cape doesn't have to deal with it. I don't know if any of these might prove truly useful, but they're at least a few small ideas on dealing with the problems you mentioned. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| I just finished the 4th world. Still not sure whether the ship has a secret exit or not but I'll come back later if I don't hit them all.
I did have that path glitch thing happen to me twice, once on teacup island and once after completing the 3rd castle (saved at the nearest chance and reset each time). So far the game's great, I really like the puzzles involved in getting the secret exits. One quick question - how did you put 3 doors so close to one another and have them all take you to different areas? Mysterious castle 3's intro room is, as far as my LM experience goes, impossible due to the way exits are handled. Then again, I'm someone who hasn't even gotten the hang of ExGFX yet so maybe I'm just missing something simple. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| Just finished the game (all exits) and loved it. Kinda wish you got more for completing the last level though.
I really did love that "secret 8 - mirror" bonus level, I was planning something in that vein for a hack that I'm working on, now I might consider devoting an entire world to that sort of level. Also, that fishin' boo sprite flat out wins. I wasn't able to notice any problems that weren't already pointed out (namely, yoshi in castle 7 and the wrong lava marked as safe with a star). One other question - is there actually a blue pow in star world 4? I'm not sure whether or not the route I took to finish the level is the way you're SUPPOSED to do it or not. |
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x1372 Goomba  Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| Amazing stuff Mikeyk. I can't wait to see what can be done with custom shooters.
I hesitate to ask for some somewhat standard sprites, but here goes. I'm certainly not expecting to see all of these in any way, I'm just throwing some ideas out there. I'd like to see Poochy and the Penguins from Yoshi's island if possible. Poochy alone offers many interesting level possibilities, and the penguins could make very interesting obstacles/springboards if handled properly. Poochy would essentially be a 16 pixel tall mega mole who jumps when he reaches a wall and who either follows you or if you're riding him runs in the direction you're facing (runs faster than the mega mole too). The penguins would bounce mario away if he touched them without hurting him, and wouldn't be vulnerable to anything except thrown enemies. Perhaps yoshi could eat them and spit them out in a new area to get an "enemy bounce" jump off the penguin without killing it. I'd also like to have a black (or maybe gold) pow that acts like hitting a blue pow and a silver pow at the same time. Alternately, blue and/or silver pows that mario CANNOT pick up. I don't know whether this would work better as a block, but a super springboard (Lost levels) could make for some interesting possibilities. I'm not too sure how well that sort of thing would work with scrolling or blocks above it though - either the level wouldn't keep up or mario's acceleration might fling him through ceilings to his death or something. generatiors that make "wind" such as found in lost levels and DKC2 could have an interesting change of pace, especially if there's different variations (alternating left and right, random, etc.) Additionally, a wind "shooter" could be used as a variant for with a boss (think the tree boss from the Kirby series). A boo that, when mario looks at it for 10 game ticks, gives up the peek-a-boo routine and goes after mario despite the direction mario faces would make boos more interesting. A "auto-scroll" sprite that only makes layer 2 scroll while allowing Mario to go at any speed on layer 1 (IE not act like a moving level, where you're stuck on whatever part of the stage). One idea I have for this is a moving wall of spikes that moves at a constant speed and forces progress while allowing the player to outrace it. (Idea out of Kid Chameleon - anyone who's played the bloody swamp knows what I'm talking about) "Layer 2 smash" sprites that move horizontally for vertical levels. A sprite that ignores mario when he's walking or standing still but if while within a certain distance from it mario jumps or runs it attacks him. I realize I'm not terribly creative with my ideas, but maybe one or two of them are something both possible and interesting that will become useable sprites. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| Is the only thing that really prevents the chomp rock sprite from being easy to code its face? If that's the case, frankly I'd be very pleased just to have one with no face that was pushable and rolled similar to the YI one - like many other YI sprites, that brings out many interesting puzzle possibilities. Even better from my standpoint would be the snowball from the same game, that grew as it was pushed, but I'm pretty sure that one is a bit beyond doing easily.
Also, since I'm posting, I might as well throw out a few more ideas of interesting sprites. A "lightning" generator like from Donkey Kong Country 3 could make an interesting world theme. The background flashes and a tiny bit later a bolt of lightning comes down where mario was during the flash. If a sprite is above mario it takes the hit instead. if the lightning hits mario he takes damage, but by moving he can avoid it. A "wing cap" temporary powerup for mario. it would be a sort of a cross between a P baloon and a cape that would only last a certain amount of time. Mario's full speed jumps for a time would set him, at the top of the jump, into "cape glide" mode, allowing him to fly horizontally like with a cape but not to (easily) gain significant height. The fact that it would only last a short period of time before mario reverts would keep it balanced as well. Ideally this powerup would set mario into glide if he hit it in midair at speed, so that the "launch mario" level entrances could get mario gliding instantly. In a similar vein, a metal cap would also be nice. Decreases mario's jump height, increases his fall speed, and has him sink and walk through water (and lava?) as if it was on land. Invisible cap could be done too but the only real use can see is temporarily avoiding certain enemies and walking through certain blocks designed for it. more water-based sprites would also be nice. For some reason water levels always feel like they're missing something in SMW... bloopers, Lockjaw the pirana (DKC2) guarding certain areas, exploding puffer fish that shoot spikes when you're near them, starfish that "wake up" and then start moving in a straight line from where they are to where you were when they started... and please, something fireproof. nothing like a fire flower to completely remove every single threat that a water level has to offer from a distance. Additional koopa types would also be interesting. Perhaps a silver shelled koopa who acts like a red one with the "I don't fall off platforms" routine but doesn't get sent flying out of his shell? Preferably after a certain time he'd wake up and turn back into a koopa rather than hopping out of the shell like they do currently. Or with some other color have the koopa, once removed from the shell, invulnerable to stomping and set on the "chargin' chuck attack" mode chasing mario looking for revenge? Or even more amusing, a koopa that once removed from his shell began throwing chuck style baseballs at mario? More "flying, chasing" sprites like the boos, fishin' boos, and lakitus would also be nice. Something big, slow, invincible, and tracking mario's X and Y coordinates that keeps following would be nice. I realize many of these ideas might not be particularly good, but I'm just hoping something that I added might be interesting. I'm not too sure if sprite tool is really capable of doing any sort of temporary powerups like the caps, but if P baloons can drastically alter mario's gameplay temporarily, who knows? |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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Originally posted by Kario Actually, what I think he meant was essentially a key that doesn't work on a keyhole, hurts/kills enemies while not in mario's hand and moving, and looks like a mushroom block from SMB2. The primary thing is that it can be used as a platform elsewhere in the level. They also should be stackable, so you can put one on top of another... dang. something else that keys don't do naturally. Actually, that would probably be what would make that a tough sprite to make. I'm thinking that maybe it would be a block-sprite thing. Mushroom blocks start as a block, but turn into a sprite when mario picks one up. It stays a sprite when mario throws it, but when it lands and stops it turns back into a block at the nearest available space. That way it would be treated as a block when still (so enemies could stand on it or bump into it and turn around, and so they could be stacked) but would behave properly when in mario's hands or when thrown. The catch is that the mario 2 throwing setup and SMW ones are worlds apart. I would think ideally this block would be one that you couldn't throw upwards, for one thing.Anyway though, I do think that this would be a very nice sprite to have, if something like that is possible. I almost think that you would HAVE to turn it back into a block to make them stackable - SMW sprites, at least sprites that are not under direct player control, are incapable of standing on top of other sprites. Here's a few more ideas for possible sprites. bowser's big ball that actually works on normal levels. The ball unfortunately simply falls through all platforms except the specific ones used in boss levels. The same thing happens for the iggy/larry balls. These could actually be very interesting for use in levels, assuming there isn't something else with the sprites that makes them unuseable. I haven't yet fooled around with your generators, but is it possible to have a "raining" generator, such as used by the para-bombs and para-goombas? Nothing quite like, say, a rain of the aforementioned iggy/larry balls (or, say, chargin' chucks) to ruin your day. Would it be possible to make level movement things as well? I know there are "special" level movements used in certain levels of the original SMW (upper path, first level of world 4 comes to mind) and if its possible to make a level move in different ways and at different speeds (frankly I want a faster one than "medium" that doesn't do the "start slow, constantly speed up until you can't even jump anymore and touching a goal kills you" thing. And vertical scrolling up or down for vertical levels would always be a plus. Another idea is a platform sprite that moves in whatever direction mario presses (possibly halting mario's horizontal movement while riding it) but has a set timer either with the "flashing, about to vanish" visual cue or a timer of some sort onscreen. Essentially I'm thinking of a timed lakitu cloud whose timer starts when mario touches it, preferably one that moves signifiicantly faster. A sprite that mario kicks or picks up by walking into it (think stunned SMW goomba) but damages mario if he steps on it. A parachuting spiny. We already have bombs and goombas, I'd like to see a similar thing that Mario CAN'T step on. A green parakoopa that randomly bounces low and high. Long firebars. (or can the SMW sprite setup not handle that sort of thing?) Something similar to the baseball boys of Yoshi's Island would be neat, at least the throwing ones. Ideally this would use some variation of a hammer brother or chargin' chuck and not be limited by an ammo supply. Hopefully one or two of these ideas make it into spritetool. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| Hi, I was hoping I could get approval to post on the SMW hacking board. I posted there a few times, mostly just a few ideas for custom sprites in Mikeyk's topic and a bit of commentary on Alastor the Stylish's hack, and was hoping that I could continue with what little posting I was doing there. I also have a SMW hack in progress, though its not very far along and is nowhere near ready for any sort of preview.
I'm mostly a lurker anyway but I was hoping I'd be able to post on the few times I feel inclined to. *edit* Thanks! (edited by x1372 on 08-30-06 10:38 PM) |
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x1372 Goomba  Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| Hi, I've been designing levels recently and while testing some of my more recent levels I've been having the same sort of problem. At a certain point in the level, while the sprite maximum is nowhere near reached, several sprites simply do not show up in the level. In many cases, this causes the level to become impossible to finish (no goalpost, or no critically necessary platform). This never happened once in my previous levels, some of which actually did hit the maximum sprite count. I'm thinking that it may be at least partially a result of using sprite tool - In every level that had this problem, I was using custom sprites. Additionally, often the missing sprite is the only sprite at all for several screens, so I know I'm not overloading the area with them. This problem has shown up both with custom and non custom sprites failing to show up. I'm just wondering if there's any sort of workaround for this problem, or some method for keeping its interference to a minimum. If it helps, all levels that have had this problem are using the following settings:
SNES register 00 (shouldn't be an issue) Sprite Memory Setting 00 No sprite bouyancy No Layer 3 Accessed as submaps from other levels Uses custom and normal sprites The only real solution that I've managed to come up with is simply cutting the level off wherever the point is (usually around 0A when starting at the 00) and using a door or pipe to transfer to another section. However, I would much rather have longer straight shots through levels if possible. Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered with this problem. *Edit* Thus far I am only using sprites that come naturally with Sprite Tool. For example, in the current level the only sprites that are used from sprite tool are firebars and roto discs. All others are natural to SMW, and none are keys/pows/springboards that get remembered while off the screen.. (edited by x1372 on 09-23-06 08:12 PM) |
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x1372 Goomba  Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| I played through it, and I definitely like the level design (and your intro video was amusing). I especially liked the puzzle in the yoshi house (I actually had a level planned with that exact same idea) and the intro to the area past the yellow switch. I only saw a few issues of note
1) Yoshi wings are WAY too easy to get. The fact that you get a blue yoshi from that, and that it lets you skip an otherwise interesting level, are irritating. Blue Yoshi means you essentially kill the difficulty of every future yoshi enabled level that includes koopas. 2) You might want to change your sprite settings in the first level. My first run through it, the two flying koopas who are essential to the secret exit didn't show up (I came back thinking that the blue yoshi was a necessity). 3) I know its just a short demo, but IMO you're slightly overusing the forced movement levels. Frankly I'd rather be able to go at my own pace, and a one in 5 ratio of forced movement levels is quite painful. 4) cute trick with the yoshi coins in Vacation Paradise, but raise the goal post if possible because as is its impossible to get to them while riding yoshi. I don't like having to throw yoshi past the goal post in order to keep him. 5) nice bonus area, quite interesting to see all the different bonuses you pick from I definitely enjoyed the first demo, good luck continuing with it. *EDIT* As for solving that problem, I dunno. I definitely like the concept you're using, the only thing I can really think of is that other sprites are in the memory spot. Maybe if you moved things around a little and kept the blue koopa and his shell, the jumping piranha, and/or the paragoombas where they wouldn't be onscreen at the same time it might prevent those turtles from disappearing. Oddly enough, I haven't managed to recreate their disappearance, so I dunno if it was a rare occurance or what (my first run through they were BOTH gone, since then I haven't had a time where even one was missing). (edited by x1372 on 10-01-06 08:40 PM) |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| I definitely agree that something there needs to change, but at least having a place to upload any and all hacks is a good thing. Even the truly bad hacks may have a few good ideas. though obviously not many are going to want to have to deal with them.
One of the bigger problems, as I see it, is that there really isn't much of a good way to really tell which ones are truly good and which are terrible under the current system and really sort accordingly - the current voting system isn't very useful. Sorting by rating doesn't really help me much in that regard. The fact that currently Super Demo World isn't even in the top 5, and that nearly all hacks fall between 5 and 6.5 show that this really isn'ta good system of ratings. One other thing I'd like to see is a seperation between full games and demos. Demos are nice, but I think they should be organized and rated seperately from completed hacks. Though I have to say, the highlights I'm seeing here make me feel a LITTLE better about my own current levels in my "nowhere near demo ready" work in progress. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| I'm going to have to side with glyph here for the most part. Unless you exp For example, I recently designed a complex desert level. It was, by the standard of myself and my friends who are testing it, a relatively difficult level. When trying the same level with the use of the cape, the entire thing gets reduced to a joke due to how easy it is. Adding in obstacles to prevent flying over the level makes the level itself needlessly cluttered, and makes a difficult level even more so for standard play. Yoshi adds even more fun abuse possibilities. So much for having any blue or yellow koopas anymore (or any for that matter if blue yoshi is obtainable). Pow puzzles become pretty weak as well since yosh can actually eat a pow right after hitting it and spit it back out for another press (and another and another...). Of course, that isn't even considering the fact that taking a hit is almost meaningless once you have yoshi, and that if you're willing to sacrifice him and get another, you can pretty much skip any jumping puzzle as well. It's kind of telling about the original game - name one time you would rather have fire power over a cape. I'll tell you. Fighting Ludwig Koopa. In every other situation the cape is either just as good as, or better than, fire power... and in that situation, fire only makes an easy battle easier. Oh, and there are actually a heck of a lot of levels that you can just fly over in the original game. In fact, between yoshi and capes, you could trivialize every single level in the special world with the exception of tubular (12B). While I fully agree with the fact that yoshi and capes make the game more interesting, from a balance perspective they are a nightmare. The fact that once you have a cape or a yoshi from a level you can restock it at any time only compounds the problem. Go back and play the original, unedited Mario World without getting a cape or a yoshi. Suddenly you have a much more difficult game on your hands. In fact, you can get a 96 exit completion using a cape in one level (donut ghost house), a yoshi in one level (valley of bowser 4), and your pick of a cape or yoshi in two (cheese bridge area and chocolate island 3). In fact, I would argue that the game IS more fun that way - you have to actually deal with the tricks and traps that Nintendo put into the game rather than just fly, float, or damage boost your way past them. There's nothing wrong with levels and games based on these powerups, but a lot can still be said for levels that are fun without them and trivial with them. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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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. 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. 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). 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). 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 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. 7) As mentioned before, berries after the goalposts look bad. 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. 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. 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. 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. 12) Is there a reason for the dotted line outline at the edges of some of the smb3 pipes? 13) The invisible 1up in your ghost house is just mean. You're more likely to lose a life there rather than gain one. 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. 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. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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Originally posted by ZTaimat 1) well, I just thought that looked a little odd, but there's nothing wrong with it. I know I ran into more walls because of it than I care to count. 5) in context, it makes much more sense. As far as just the demo was concerned, there's no real way to expect the player to have found those without the end of demo text box (and it figures, since I completely scoured the ghost house before checking either castle). 9) loved it actually, but mario world just seems different. SMB1 focused on just finishing the game while, SMW focuses on exploration, in terms of both secret exits and dragon coins. Having one dragon coin on one path and another on a different one just doesn't gel with me, especially if both paths include areas you can't go back (though a sacrificed yoshi let me get all 5 dragon coins in the offending level) 14) odd. When I played through it Mario remained his traditional red and blue colors the entire time, though having a flower allowed him to shoot fireballs. There was no visual cue that Mario actually had fire power other than that you could fire a test shot. 15) I'd just reccomend making sure the player has to keep moving in some form or another, it really shouldn't be too major of a change. Oh, and I forgot to say it in my previous post (cut it short since I had a class starting) but I definitely enjoyed the general level design of your hack, which is what I play these hacks for anyway. My aplogies if I came off as nitpicky. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| I'm really not good with ASM, but if possible I'd like to have the following ASM change to SMW. At the very least I'd like to know if it would be doable somewhat simply.
At the begnning of every level, during the "Mario Start" screen or whatnot, I'd like to have any feather or flower powerups mario currently has or has stored in his item box to revert to regular mushrooms. Ideally this would not effect a star in the item box. This appears to be the only way that I can find to truly balance the dfficulty level while maintaining several different jumping puzzles late in the game that would otherwise be completely pointless with a cape. With this sort of setup I could allow capes in early levels without allowing the player to fly/float through later levels. I believe something like this has already been done before with yoshi, and I'm debating doing the same thing with him too (I'm looking into an idea where there's a hidden exit in an early level that requires either an item box star or a yoshi, only available from much later in the game, that leads to the game's true ending). One other thing that would be nice would be if this same code managed to prevent Mario from wearing a cape or having firepower in the image at the top of the overworld. Also, the reason that I want the code to execute at the beginning of a level rather than at an exit or death is because I want to be able to include other powerups in levels such as yoshi's house where you can walk off the screen to the overworld without completing the level. Finally, it would be nice if there was some sort of trigger that could be used to turn this function on or off, for later use. I have another idea that would be able to make use of this sometime, but if I can't get a relatively simple code change like this done there's no way I can do anything that complicated. My apologies if any of this would require far too much coding to be worth doing, or if something similar has been done before (I read through the topic and didn't find anything). This is just my only way I can think of for balancing how generally overpowered the cape is in SMW with the fact that it's a fun powerup to play around with. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| It definitely looks very nice so far. If I could make one request, please make sure the final version goes in depth into the map 16 editor. I understand ExGFX enough to mix and match sprites from different tilesets, but I have trouble doing similar things with blocks and such due to my lack of map16 knowledge.
So, if possible, add more information on Map16 in the final version. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| I'm not one to talk much about "needing" exgfx, but I'd argue that some basic things need to be touched up from what I've played so far. As noted by others, the vines that end with nothing just look wrong, they need a basic endpiece of some sort. Similarly, some GFX changes to make corners squarer when water is used with the "steps" (yellow switch area). Also, corner tiles for the switch palace are clearly strange, as is putting those changing item blocks as pipe corners. Additionally the "smb1 style" hidden area has the pipes look wrong since they come to an unconnected corner. basic changes like that would be a good place to start.
Also, iggy's castle... You need some way to prevent yoshi from being in that courtyard, because it really messes up his tongue. One other thing - while the "exit of this level, beginning of next" thing is a nice touch, doing it with so drastic a palette change as in the first to second level doesn't look right at all. Very nice intro hack though, a lot better than several of my first levels were. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| Ok, comments...
Level 1 - not bad, though the walk through wall thing is kinda weak. Level 2 - you said you're changing it, I say thank goodness. Additionally, the underground part is very... passive. Passivity is bad. Level 3 - your pipes seriously need work. I try to enter a vertical one carrying a key and I get forced out of it every time. Ghost house - Interesting "secret" at the bottom left, a bit hard to get to though. You have graphical errors with the ghost house exit, it keeps having bits of it follow you as you continue on. Level 4 - are you planning on a complete removal of yoshi? if not, this could be trouble. Also, you might want to use the underground spriteset at your ending, because the buzzy beetle I carried through the level (color changes for the second part) became utter gibberish at the goalpost. Issue with the keyhole already noticed. Furthermore, don't overuse the skulls on lava thing, those things IMO are one of the worst ideas Nintendo ever came up with... PASSIVITY IS BAD. Castle intro was good. Once you got on the ride platform though... ugh. I didn't push a button, just sat there. Didn't have to worry about anything until the dry bones (whose bone incidentally is nearly impossible to avoid). I dunno if the "hey I can get on top of the roof" by the question mark was intentional or not but its pointless so it'd be better if you couldn't. Again, nothing wrong with platform rides, but for crap's sake make them require you to do something. If you ever can go 20 seconds without pressing a button on a platform ride and come out ok, something seriously needs changing in the level. Interesting start, my #1 thing to say is to make sure that the player has to do SOMETHING during those passive parts. Just riding on a platform for long amounts of time is monotonous. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| The issue I meant with jungle of mesh four is a common problem in a lot of hacks. Buzzy Beetles, Bob-ombs, and stunned goombas can all be carired through a pipe. When this happens, you get a permanently stunned buzzy shell, bob-omb (won't explode), or goomba. If this happens, and you go to a section of the level that does NOT use the same tileset, the sprite that you are carrying will be gibberish. In some cases this is a nearly unavoidable problem, but in yours it would be very simple to fix. You use the same sprite tileset through the entire jungle of mesh 4, except at the very end wth the goalpost. If you just used the underground spriteset at that spot, you could concievably carry a stunned buzzy beetle through the entire level without any graphical issues. The only other issue with it is that you have a different sprite palette through the second part of the cavern (the forced movement part) so the carried beetle shell turns grey for that section.
This issue actually ended up causing problems in the hack I have in progress too and a lot of others (including demo world). It's often overlooked, but in your case one very minor change with no ill effect could completely solve the problem. On the passivity issue, its actually a pretty tough thing to tackle with moving platforms. It's pretty hard to make it non-passive wtihout being too difficult. For that reason, even in levels that I work on with the exp There's nothing INHERENTLY wrong with SMW's moving platforms. however, the way they are implemented by almost everyone (including the SMW designers, the original skulls on lava level was a snore too, as were the bonus areas that included it) leaves much to be desired. If I do include those platforms in my own hack, the player will at the very least have to deal wtih a lot of bats and a blargg during their (inevitably short) ride. As stated, all the other major issues appear to have been taken care of. The ghost house and beetle shell things are very minor issues at most, the pipes is something you can easily have fixed by the next release. Just concentrate on keeping the player from long forced standstills and you're in great shape. |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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| The problem with those bowser balls (and the iggy/larry balls) is that they don't react to standard platforms. As you might know, you can place them anywhere in a level but they fall straight down, through any floors or platforms. Making them relevant would take a lot of ASM hacking and sprite disassembly, unless you wanted just a "rain" of those balls from a specific point. If that was the case I think the "normal shooter/launcher" just a few posts above would take care of that nicely.
Additionally, I have another sprite request if possible. I'd like a sprite that stays with mario, following the screen. Every x seconds, it determines an angle to shoot itself at mario, based on their relative x and y positions, and then flings itself in that way, forcing mario to move. Basically this would be an obstacle that would interefere with mario's timing of other things. *Edit* huh, guess I hadn't played around with it enough to figure out that height thing, thanks smallhacker *Edit2* Yeah, smallhacker's definitely right. If you place the ball below that magic line it just falls straight down though. (edited by x1372 on 11-27-06 07:51 AM) (edited by x1372 on 11-28-06 05:13 AM) |
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x1372 Goomba Since: 07-03-06 Last post: 6317 days Last view: 6299 days |
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Originally posted by Phazorite ok for the first one, mess with the sprite memory, found under the lakitu icon. In general, setting 00 is best unless you have any big sprites (like the big boo, banzai bill, or the gas bubbles in ghost houses). 09 worked for me in a room with 4 small sprites, a big boo, and a big boos boss, so that should work for a room with several bubbles. For the second problem, check the entry settings (1 door icon). Make sure FG and BG are set properly. If mario dies right as you enter the door, odds are you put him far below the camera and it assumes he's in a pit. CO for both FG and BG is usually the answer for this. For the moving hole sprite, just test it out on a variety of platform things. Put it in the middle of a big wide platform under the corect tileset and it should work just fine. For the layer 3 water, you can't have vertical scrolling. turn off Layer 1 vertical scrolling (middle box under the mario head icon) *edit* FPI, any particular reason for 0E over 00? I thought 00 let you put more sprites onscreen at once...though you're probably right, you've done this much longer than I have. (edited by x1372 on 12-04-06 11:29 AM) |
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| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - - Posts by x1372 |
