MaGL X2 Relay Level (What is a level? A miserable little pile of...)

[Rednaxela]

Just wanted to check how things are going, it's been a few days and we're already running late.

No worries. Partially due to work, this week's evenings have been unexpectedly busy for me. Tonight I got back to it and will post a partial update shortly.

-maybe tone down the generators on hardcore_crispy's screen (probably not needed if a midpoint is added?)

Slightly adjusted the generator rate, though not well tested yet.

-consider moving the midpoint before OrangeChickenPasta's screen to after it, now that the screen is more reasonable (maybe this was already done?)

Done.

-maybe add a midpoint after the shift to Waluigi
-maybe do something about the invisible maze so it's not quite as annoying

For the first possibly yeah, though I still feel like it might be too early? For the second, well, I made one suggested change of making it so one can't die in the pit after it (filled the pit with water) so that it's just about impossible to die between completing the maze and getting the next midpoint. I think that's mitigation enough.

-figure out the bug where the screen doesn't advance when I finish Cirno's screen - maybe it turns out it only affects me, but we don't want to chance it happening in the LP

I've tried several more times and not managed to reproduce that happening myself. Just to double check, are you on a recent LunaLua version?

-maybe do something about danddjosh's screen so missing the jump is less punishing

Hrm... not sure what to do about this.

-probably have a midpoint closer to pholtos' screen, possibly slow down the pollen generators slightly, possibly add a shield to Sheath's sprite
-figure out whether we should still have a midpoint at Mabel's screen if there's one before pholtos' screen

I'm in favor of the sprite adjustment for sure. I'd rather not adjust the pollen generators probably. As for the midpoint, I have mixed feelings

I'll take a crack at the sprite adjustment tomorrow probably, unless anyone else wants to first.

[Rednaxela]

MaGLX2Relay-58G.zip

Changes done in this version:

• Balancing Cinro's screen for (Wa)luigi
• Slightly reduce generator rate in hardcore_crispy's screen
• Made FusionWarrior's walls non-breakable as requested
• Move midpoint from before OrangeChickenPasta's screen back to being after
• Add water after noterday's maze to ensure one can't really die after it

[SAJewers]

- Player 1 Start point is wrong
- In the Freeze/Block puzzle, you can still hit enter to restart time prematurely, when messes things up slightly as you still don't get re-powered up until the natural restart time.
- After the completing Koopa/Switch Block screen, I got an FPS drop that continued until I died and restarted the level
- The music still resets upon beating Crocomire. It shouldn't restart from the beginning.
- Not a bug, but it'd be nice if I didn't have to re-do the quiz everytime I restarted the level there
- Not sure if Intended, but you can use the propeller block to quickly reach the top of GalaxyofJ's screen and skip everything else
- It'd be nice if peach started out with a powerup (or there was a powerup available right from the start)

[Dragon Fogel]

My LunaLua version is "v0.7.0.1+green", evidently. I know I updated it pretty recently, is there something newer than that now?

[Dragon Fogel]

I updated LunaLua and I'm testing the new version. Made it to the end legitimately and I only lost about five lives in the process, so the overall difficulty seems fine. Most of the difficulty is in learning the sections.

-I made it to Section 4 on one life, but I started getting lag in Section 2 and it didn't go away until I died. This was particularly troublesome in Section 4, the fade-out felt very slow and the autoscroll was so slow as to be awkward again. I see SAJewers thinks the time-stop puzzle is triggering this somehow.
-Cirno's screen progresses to mine properly now. However, you can't actually see the lava, so an unprepared player might jump on the blobs and die without realizing why.
-There's a bit of empty space between Nopor Puss' head and the player's feet. This is probably due to the sprite size. I hadn't noticed until this latest run.
-I think we already agreed to remove the propeller block once you reach GalaxyOfJ's screen, but that hasn't been done yet.
-The upper Ninji on OrangeChickenPasta's screen gets blown up by the bombs now. I don't remember that happening before, but I saw it happen twice in a row this time. Maybe move the bomb generator back a tile? I second the suggestion of starting Peach with a power-up.
-The issue with blocks not appearing on Kapus' screen seems to be a matter of reaching that screen with the time stop in effect. Not sure what can be done about this, maybe some Lua trickery to cancel the effect before switching sections?
-Best option I can think of for danddjosh's screen is to put a mushroom on a generator. You can't really backtrack in this section, so it shouldn't break later screens, and it means the issue is just that getting to the top of the bombable blocks is trickier and slower, but not likely to kill you. (Unless you do that intentionally to skip it, of course.)
-You can bring a springboard from Pyro's screen to LunarRainbowShyGuy's. This doesn't make a huge difference because you still have to wait for the garbage blocks to fall, but it can mess things up?
-Pholtos' screen is pretty doable once you know what to do; I got it on my first attempt. But I still think there should be a midpoint closer to it because the first part of this section can take a while and gets annoying to repeat. A midpoint either before or after LunarRainbowShyGuy's screen might work best.
-When the boss dies on Mabel's screen, you only see the upper-left of it in the death effect. Might want to fix that.
-Did we ever decide on something for the fifth dragon coin? I think the simplest option might be to make it a prize either in place of or in addition to the 1-Up on SharkNurse's screen. That or let Horikawa add the final one.

I think that covers everything I noticed.

[SAJewers]

I updated LunaLua and I'm testing the new version. Made it to the end legitimately and I only lost about five lives in the process, so the overall difficulty seems fine. Most of the difficulty is in learning the sections.

-I made it to Section 4 on one life, but I started getting lag in Section 2 and it didn't go away until I died. This was particularly troublesome in Section 4, the fade-out felt very slow and the autoscroll was so slow as to be awkward again. I see SAJewers thinks the time-stop puzzle is triggering this somehow.

It wasn't the time stop puzzle, but the other one where you had to hit the switch blcosk with the koopa shells. that's where the slowdown started for me. The time stop puzzle I'm able to press the enter key and restart time, but I don't regain my powerup right away.

-Pholtos' screen is pretty doable once you know what to do; I got it on my first attempt. But I still think there should be a midpoint closer to it because the first part of this section can take a while and gets annoying to repeat. A midpoint either before or after LunarRainbowShyGuy's screen might work best.

Considering Section 8 is one screen long, maybe just move the checkpoint to pholto's screen.

[FrozenQuills]

-I made it to Section 4 on one life, but I started getting lag in Section 2 and it didn't go away until I died. This was particularly troublesome in Section 4, the fade-out felt very slow and the autoscroll was so slow as to be awkward again. I see SAJewers thinks the time-stop puzzle is triggering this somehow.

My onloop function for the puzzle returns immediately if you're not in the first section, and it doesn't do anything memory wise besides editing like one variable, so I'm not sure how it could lag the rest of the level.

[Dragon Fogel]

Considering Section 8 is one screen long, maybe just move the checkpoint to pholto's screen.

I brought this up as a possibility earlier, but the boss fight following that up immediately might be a bit much. Not for difficulty, necessarily, but pholtos' screen takes a while to get through and a lot of it is just waiting.

Most of Section 7 takes a while to get through, though, so cutting down on the replay time before pholtos' screen is pretty important, in my view.

[Rednaxela]

Thanks for that SAJ and Dragon Fogel.
Also, I'm surprised at making it through the whole thing (even considering you've learned it fairly well by this point) with only 5 deaths.

As a note, most of this afternoon I expect to be busy with some LunaLua development stuff so won't be able to work on this till late evening or tomorrow, so if anyone else wants to take a crack at any of the remaining issues noted, feel free (perhaps someone thinks they can do a decent job of making the Sheath sprite have some kind of shield matching up with the position of Link's?)

-The issue with blocks not appearing on Kapus' screen seems to be a matter of reaching that screen with the time stop in effect. Not sure what can be done about this, maybe some Lua trickery to cancel the effect before switching sections?

Interesting... Pretty sure I can indeed cancel time stop when switching sections if that's really the issue in any case. I'll be sure to check that

[Ivy]

Dragon coin 5 could work for horikawa, though it's a bit close to mine at 2 or 3 screens between us

[OrangeChickenPasta]

-The upper Ninji on OrangeChickenPasta's screen gets blown up by the bombs now. I don't remember that happening before, but I saw it happen twice in a row this time. Maybe move the bomb generator back a tile? I second the suggestion of starting Peach with a power-up.

If the top Ninja does die from the bomb generator Rednaxela or someone can move the ninja over a square to the right, my section does have a power up at the end and in sedron's section there is a flower so i don't think a power up is necessary.

[Dragon Fogel]

If the top Ninja does die from the bomb generator Rednaxela or someone can move the ninja over a square to the right, my section does have a power up at the end and in sedron's section there is a flower so i don't think a power up is necessary.

The thing is, that power-up comes too late to be useful - you can only get it after already dealing with all the threats. And then there's a midpoint right after. Plus it's a little inconvenient to even get.

[OrangeChickenPasta]

If the top Ninja does die from the bomb generator Rednaxela or someone can move the ninja over a square to the right, my section does have a power up at the end and in sedron's section there is a flower so i don't think a power up is necessary.

The thing is, that power-up comes too late to be useful - you can only get it after already dealing with all the threats. And then there's a midpoint right after. Plus it's a little inconvenient to even get.

Im sorry but i disagree

[Dragon Fogel]

It's only available after you've done the entire section, and there's a midpoint immediately afterward right now.

To be fair, the level wasn't set up like that when you added it, but that power-up really doesn't have any use at the moment.

[SAJewers]

If we don't want to put in a powerup there, we could just make the player change using LunaDll/LunaLUA, which will cause Waluigi's powerup to carry over to Peach, rather than use a change block. Just repalce the change block with another blocks that looks the same.

[SAJewers]

Something last minute, but I just realized after going through the A2MT music thread, it would be hilarious when you failed the quiz on Maiku's screen, the normal death jingle was replaced with the Price is Right's Fail Horn.

[CrispyMWHC]

Something last minute, but I just realized after going through the A2MT music thread, it would be hilarious when you failed the quiz on Maiku's screen, the normal death jingle was replaced with the Price is Right's Fail Horn.

That'd be fantastic.

[Maiku Wotaharu]

Something last minute, but I just realized after going through the A2MT music thread, it would be hilarious when you failed the quiz on Maiku's screen, the normal death jingle was replaced with the Price is Right's Fail Horn.

That'd be fantastic.

If it's possible, Rednaxela has my blessing to add it in!

[Rednaxela]

Something last minute, but I just realized after going through the A2MT music thread, it would be hilarious when you failed the quiz on Maiku's screen, the normal death jingle was replaced with the Price is Right's Fail Horn.

That'd be fantastic.

If it's possible, Rednaxela has my blessing to add it in!

I have some ideas about how it might be doable but not 100% sure. I'll give it a shot in any case (basically, unsure if I can cancel the normal death sound, but I have one idea in mind that might work)

[Rednaxela]

Good to know.

Minor update. Probably not worth retesting if you're someone who tested a recent version, unless you want to check out the first item in the change list.
MaGLX2Relay-58H.zip
Changes:

1. Added a translucent shield to the Sheath sprite (Not completely satisfied with the sprite edit. I'll give it a shot improving it further some time...)
2. Fixed issue with blocks not appearing in Kapus' are if you change sections with time freeze active
3. Fixed a broken mask issue with footballs

I've left the player 1 start point right infront of pholtos' screen in this version, for purposes of allowing easier testing of the first item in the list.

[Dog In Da Grass]

Probably not worth retesting

I don't quite know what's up but it's been a bit of a glitchy mess. It's been lagging super hard for me and several sections didn't load properly. Hoeloe's bees outright caused an error this time and defeating crocomire in the catbat chase scene didn't do anything but bring the wall down, the next section didn't do a thing either.

[Dragon Fogel]

First thing to check is if your LunaLua is up to date, because it's changed a few times over the course of this project and older versions may not work with the level.

[Dragon Fogel]

So it's been a few days and we just have a little tweaking left, I was wondering how that was going.

In addition to the things SAJewers and I mentioned earlier, I just thought of something to note:

If we don't want to put in a powerup there, we could just make the player change using LunaDll/LunaLUA, which will cause Waluigi's powerup to carry over to Peach, rather than use a change block. Just repalce the change block with another blocks that looks the same.

I think this is good because it rewards you for not getting hit (and you can potentially keep a hammer suit up to that point, saving time if you're good enough to do a one-life run). However, on the screen before that, you switch to Toad briefly and it seems to be set up for a small Toad. Minor tweaks so you don't have to duck-jump might be good.

[FusionWarrior]

Any new updates? Despite being mostly a lurker, I am curious!

[Rednaxela]

Any new updates? Despite being mostly a lurker, I am curious!

Heya. Well... things right now are in a state of mostly under control though not much has happened in a bit. A few minor edits left... Thanks for reminding me though, I should do some more on this some time (recently my smbx-related time has mostly went to some lunadll stuff). It turns out there's not a huge amount of time pressure for various reasons, but yeah...