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Shadow34370: 2009-05-10 01:43:18 pm
Hello, I have been recommend by a few people to come here and post about my hack. This is my first real "Full Hack". It is based to be more redesigned Super Metroid. It is not going to be unbelievably hard, but rather a bit more challenging to help people relive the Metroid experience. I have a total of eight videos on youtube (first is listed below). None of the stuff seen in the videos are final, they are just there to give viewers a gist of what my SM Desolation hack is going to be like. I do a bit of commentary, just to help give viewers the reasons I did certain things.

Enjoy,
Shadow34370

Progress Chart:

Level Design:

Area 1: Canyon (Crateria) 95% complete.
Area 2: Underground (Brinstar) 75% complete.
Area 3: Ice Cavern (Upper Norfair) 60% complete.
Area 4: The Reservoir (Maridia) 25% complete.
Area 5: Research Lab (Wrecked Ship) 55% complete.
Area 6: *Unknown (Tourian) 0% complete.
Area 7: *Unknown (Ceres Station) 0% complete.

*Still to be named.

Mapping:

Area 1: 50%
Area 2: 0%
Area 3: 0%
Area 4: 0%
Area 5: 0%
Area 6: 0%
Area 7: 0%

Other :

Power-up Sprite Changes: 20%
Enemy Palette Changes: 20%
Misc. Sprites: 50%
Samus Suit Palette Changes: 66%
Changes to game behavior: 50% (Beam power, and speeds. As well as missile and super missiles, and possible gravities.)
ASM Changes: 50%

Project Release Date: Due to problems from bad hacking habits the hacking is taking a lot longer than I thought. No Release Date

If I think of anything else I'll be sure to list it.

Thread title: 
Not bad...not bad.
Good level design, no mistakes or erros with BTS.
I wonder what the color for varia/gravity will be,but one flaw:the power suit orangish colours hurt my eyes.
I checked the other videos too. Very interesting level design, I'm really looking forward to play this. It can get a bit too plain at times, but since this isn't final I guess you'll be working on the levels a bit more? Like the room where you get the speed boster for example... but there could be a point to leaving it that way too so it's your choice. Difficulty seems just about right. I don't like "pro" hacks that much either, not because they're too difficult, I just don't think they're as fun. One thing though, some of the hidden passages and stuff just seem too random, but then I might not be too good at exploring so I don't really trust my own opinion on that one.
(user is banned)
thats me
just for the case your level-design will not change significantly:

Your map-design will not fit the gameplay nicely when you put some more challenging monsters there. In a Metroid-game where you are able to shoot only in 8 directions, the
map-design has to be build mostly on non-rotated rectangles, like in SM. Some rotated or smooth surfaces are only for rounding up nice optical design.

You will surely recognize what I am talking about when you put some enemies there.

Good luck.
^/_\^
This looks good.
How close to finishing are you?
Ethan
Seems decent, although why don't you have a background for you're ship room?
Go ahead. Stare.
Alright! A new hack/er here. I'm in agreement that the landing site should have some more interesting visuals added in, but that can be done easily any time. I like your level design so far, and I don't have a problem with your hidden paths and tunnels since I like that sort of stuff.

Thanks for posting it here, I can't wait for another fun hack to play!
Looks great, can't wait.
Hi all,

  Thanks for posting. Not many people have replied on my youtube vids so I didn't know if people liked them or not. Just a few things I wanted to point out though.

1. I seen a comment about me adding some scroll blocks, so certain items aren't exposed. I originally wanted to do that, but I don't know how to set them up besides the ones that are already in the room. I did some searching on it but really didn't see anything about it on the forum. I know it has something to do with hex editing, but the only thing I can do right now with that is adding doors.

2. About my landing site. I wanted you to land on a asteroid type surface with no atmosphere. (I know there shouldn't be rain than, but I just never took it out.) I originally wanted to put some white dots so it would look like stars or something in the background, but that background kept getting messed up. (I think it is because the screen scrolls normally on the landing site.)

3. Just a note, but all power-up sprites (Ex: spazer, bombs) will be changed in the final version. I didn't show them in the videos because I don't want to give away the surprise. :D Not sure if I am going to change missile / power bombs / and super missile sprites though. I just started messing with TLP so I am still very new to it.
 
4. Most of the enemies in the rooms will probably change. I really just want to get the level design done, than start working with the other details. Most of the time I just used the enemies that were originally in the room.

5. As for when it will be finished. I just posted my last video yesterday, and I have been making the vids as I create the hack. So it will probably take me another month or so to finish level design and probably another month after that adding details and fixing bugs. So I am going to try and shoot for a April - June public release.

6. I have three areas shown in my videos. (Canyon, Underground, *Water place) Which leaves three others. Im not sure if I am going to change Tourian around too much, since there is a lot of triggers and stuff that go on there and they might be a bit beyond my knowledge to touch. Another area that will be added is an ice area. This area will be too cold for Samus to enter without the varia suit. As for my final area I am not really sure yet. 

*Haven't desided on a name for this area yet.

7. Here is a screen shot of my ice area. It is still very early in development. I just recently started messing with palate editing, so will see how it goes.



Note: I am going to use the spore FX to make a snow effect, but it didn't show up on the screen shot. Also snow in the room will most likely be the identifier that the room will hurt Samus if she doesn't have the varia suit.

-Shadow34370
Go ahead. Stare.
I see one problem with your ice area, the background doesn't look right. I really like the blue you have, but I don't like how the BG looks. It just doesn't seem to fit an "ice" theme to me anyway.

A note for your snow, spores will definitely work, but try using rain and change the pallete blend to 08. If I remember right it makes the rain white and looks a lot like a blizzard. Just an idea that might work in a room or two.
That's some good stuff you've got there, Shadow.
The ice even looks like ice!
And there's no bolognab here to shoot down your palette editing either :x
(user is banned)
Breathe in the Future, Breathe out the Past
Looks to be an interesting hack. Always nice to hear about a new one in production  Very Happy
Ethan
Hmm, Ice tiles look very familiar. Were they already ingame and I'm just stupid or do you make them yourself?
That's one of the maridian tilesets.

Looks pretty interesting so far, but I'll reserve judgement until I see more.
Super Secret Area - Dead Ahead!
Looking great so far.  I like the fact that a number of the items are hidden, but not ridiculously so, which means with a little effort, you can power yourself up quite easily.

Good work!  Keep us posted. Very Happy
OMG FLAN!!!!!!!
About your scroll problem. Scroll blocks are actually quite easy to use, and you don't need to use a hex editor unless you expand a room or want scroll blocks in a room that doesn't have any.

1. You can use the scroll editor in SMILE to change a rooms INITIAL scroll blocks (what they are when you enter a room).

2. If you want scrolls to change when you go through a tunnel or hidden path, then you need to use a Scroll PLM (the little green/red "S"). Check the highs/lows of the PLM and write that down. Then open the scroll editor and edit the scrolls how you want them to be after you go through the tunnel. Don't save the room, but go to save scroll PLM. In the offset box, put in the number that was in the PLM high/low. Then save. Put the scroll PLM so you'll run through it when you go through the tunnel, and that's it.

3. If a room has no scroll blocks, they will all be scrolling, but you can change how. If the scroll pointer is 0000, then they will all be Blue blocks (the bottom and top two lines will be non scrolling in-game). If you want Green blocks (full scrolling), change the pointer to 0001.

4. If you want to put scrolls into a big room with no scrolls, because you want red blocks somewhere in there, then you'll need a hex editor. Just find free space in bank $8F (79000 in a hex editor) and remember the last 4 numbers of the address. If the number is below 8000, then you have to add 8000 to it. Then just put that number into the scroll pointer for the room. You'll need 1 byte of data for each scroll block in the room.

Now wbout the hack...

Looks really nice. I like how you've changed the starting tileset. Not many hacks have done that (AFAIK Mockingbird is the only one). I'm still watching the rest of the videos grin new
Just an update of whats been going on. I've finished a few more rooms in my "underground" area, finished custom sprites for about 4 power ups, completed a few ice rooms, and decided on colors for my varia suit. A few of my ice rooms are giving me issues however. My rooms that allow me to have a layer 2 are fine, but the ones that I need BG_Data are giving my headaches. I can't find a good bg pointer that I link. I found one that I think is ok, but I figured I'd post it and let you all decide. Also, a couple questions.

1. I want spore spawn to be my mini boss in the ice area, but if he is green it isn't going to look right. So I want to make a nice chilled spore spawn. (Icy blue) The problem is mini bosses have many different colors, since when they are damaged the change to a slightly darker color. My question is how do you edit his darker colors as well has his original colors?

2. Can you change the beam or enemy sprites by using TLP, or is it more complicated than changing tiles?

Screen shot:

Quote from Shadow34370:
A few of my ice rooms are giving me issues however. My rooms that allow me to have a layer 2 are fine, but the ones that I need BG_Data are giving my headaches. I can't find a good bg pointer that I link.


You can get rid of the background data and add a layer2. You want to set the BGdata pointer to 0000 and click the "other" tab next to BTS and set the "layer2scroll" box there from x1x1 to x0x0.

Quote from Shadow34370:
1. I want spore spawn to be my mini boss in the ice area, but if he is green it isn't going to look right. So I want to make a nice chilled spore spawn. (Icy blue) The problem is mini bosses have many different colors, since when they are damaged the change to a slightly darker color. My question is how do you edit his darker colors as well has his original colors?

They're somewhere in the SMILE help thread, and I think Squishy_Ichigo has a link to that post in his sig. Go to tools > beauty salon and click right on the scrollbar beneath Samus. Click on the drop down list, choose I'm a genius and go to the location as indicated by that post. You'll be able to edit his colors with I'm a Genius.

Quote from Shadow34370:
2. Can you change the beam or enemy sprites by using TLP, or is it more complicated than changing tiles?

You can change beam and enemy sprites with TLP, what you won't be able to change is the way the game uses them, so the animation will remain the same.
Green-Kirby, ROAR!
Quote from Deep_Space_Observer:
Quote from Shadow34370:
2. Can you change the beam or enemy sprites by using TLP, or is it more complicated than changing tiles?

You can change beam and enemy sprites with TLP, what you won't be able to change is the way the game uses them, so the animation will remain the same.

Example would be that without coding you can't make more tile space used for the beams. Or that charged plasma and hyper beam uses the same GFX.
Its been a little while since I posted an update, so here is what has been going on. My crateria (canyon) area is almost complete. I just got about 4 more rooms to finish. My Brinstar (underground) area is about halfway done, and my ice area is moving along. It is taking my a little bit on the ice area, because I am changing a lot of palettes of enemies that I am using in there so it better fits the area.

Here is a screen shot of my icy mini boss in the ice area. Take a look if you want.
Image 1:


Image 2:


I would love to change the AI so that his *spores* or now *snow flakes* would just fall from the ceiling streight down. That way I could make ice sickles Very Happy But that is beyond my knowledge.



...
Nice...an Ice Spore Spawn!
Green-Kirby, ROAR!
I like the edited GFX and palette.
Go ahead. Stare.
I thought it was a bit oddball at first... But it is sort of growing on me... I'm also really glad to hear you're changing other enemy palletes too, I think that needs done more than it is.
OMG FLAN!!!!!!!
Ice palette = Very nice

Spore Spawn palette = *it's times like these I wish I was blind*

No offense meant, but SS's pallete is terrible. It's just the colors you've used for each part. I think you should make him a much darker blue, with greyish tendons and bright blue or red nucleuses.
Edit history:
Shadow34370: 2009-02-13 07:38:13 am
Well its been a few days, so I think its time for an update. For the majority of the time I have been working on my ice area. I've gotten quite a few rooms done these pass few days. I decided to just make one post that I am going to edit as I complete rooms and such. So here we go...

Progress chart moved to first post.  Very Happy