Practice Makes Purrfect

[sunwarrior25]

It seems that most everybody has a hack of their own, so I might as well take a stab at it. Somewhere in the middle though, I got hungry, so... yeah. Starting to drift into non-vanilla.

The Levels:
World 1

Beach House (start, 1-0) - Major changes besides palette are the sign and a door leading to an empty test level.
Oh Fudge! (1 - 1a) - Fish swim in 1-block deep Fudge puddles, Charlies exercise on stairs, and a rather tricky airshow near the end.
Yellow Switch Palace (1-Switch) - Yup.
Forest of Fudge (1-1b) - Lakitus patrol the airspace as Mario hurdles past those wily smilies.
Ninji Tower (1-Fort) - Hyah! Out of nowhere appears the short Ninji Tower! Unfortunately, the Ninjis lighting system has been repo'd by the Chucks.
The Harbor (1-2) - Mario must hop across the 4 boats on the harbor, before diving underwater for the return trip.
Iggy's Catsle (1-Castle) - A linear redesign of 'Iggy is a 9'. Having been locked inside, Mario must pass two switch puzzles in the initial lava chamber. Iggy awaits after the old escalator room. (You no longer have to deal with ice physics and ghosts.

World 2

An Odd Cliff (2-1) - Mario decides to climb a short, but heavily populated, cliff. Will he make it to the top?
WTForest (2-2) - Strange things are happening in the forest...
Ninji Tower 2.0 (2-Fort) - The Ninjis have built a tower inside the tower. Except this one goes down. Mario needs a Feather to reach the secret exit...
Red Switch Palace (2-Switch) - Yup...
Sunset Bridge (2-3) - Mario crosses the bridge- while it's under attack!!!
Twilight Forest (2-4) - A nice and quiet atmosphere is interrupted by biplane launchers and an unseen Lakitu.
??? (2-Castle) - Perhaps a cape could help you reach the boss?
Secret Warehouse (2-Secret) - "Heya bub! Didja know the ninjis have the key to the Red Switch?" Collect your feather and move on.

More to come...

Get it Here~ ♪

[FroggerbobT]

Things I noticed:

1. Get rid of the berries in yoshi's house if you change the pallete. They don't change for whatever reason.
2. Lots of blind jumps into munchers and chucks in yoshi's island 1.
3. Was I supposed to be able to get 2 free mushrooms from the p-switches? if not you might want to edit it so that you have to use both no matter what.

[sunwarrior25]

1. Alright, I'll get on that soon.
3. W-wait... What? Where? How?

EDIT: I'm not sure which level you're referring to about the switches, but an update-ish thing non-the less.

Yoshi's Island 1 (aka Oh! Fudge!)
- Coins added to one of the blind drops (if they weren't there already).
- Reconnected the "bonus" room from the original level.
- Renovated the bonus room accessible via green switch blocks.
- Renovated the bonus room accessible via red switch blocks. Added a "prize" room.
- HINT: Have you noticed how there are no dragon coins throughout the rest of the level? You'll know what I'm referring to when you see it.
Yellow Switch Palace: Puzzle is slightly different. Same basic Idea though.
Yoshi's Island 2 (aka Forest of Fudge)
- Added Lakitu and his pipe dwelling friends.
- Yellow switch blocks make this level easier.
Yoshi's Island 3 is now Woah that's high!

[FroggerbobT]

musta been forest of fudge. with the yellow switch on, I double-grabbed the p-switches and got 2 free shrooms.

[sunwarrior25]

Oh... It's a good thing I found out the second P-switch wasn't really needed, eh? It was removed from the above version (ab). ;)

EDIT: Just because I have a screenshot doesn't mean the level works...

Screenshot removed. The level, 'Woah that's high!' no longer exists.

Basically, I'm trying to get the yellow boards + the bill cannons to stay on the screen the whole sub-level. Currently, the level boards (the brown ones) are on Layer 2, while the yellow boards are on Layer 1. If I switch the two (and their scrolling rules), Mario can run about freely, but I get rubbish in the background. I'm tempted to just say screw it, and make it a normal vertical level with a bill generator (as unoriginal as that sounds).

[FroggerbobT]

you can fix the background issues. just play around with the BG starting position.

[sunwarrior25]

Alrighty, I'll probably get around to looking for that when I get around to editing Yoshi's Island 4 (or Iggy's castle). Actually, I could use some help getting the screen to start where Mario does... I've got a "bottomless" pit I don't want to spoil.

Also, updating the ips:

Woah that's high! (aka Yoshi's Island 3) is now Ninji Tower:
- Level is now vertical.
- There are 5 dragon coins within the tower.
- Random Tip: I didn't know this, but apparently baseballs will still kill Small Mario, even if he's full of helium.

EDIT: Updating twice!

Oh! Fudge!
- Fixed the camera position of the 2ndary exit in the first bonus room (accessible via green switch blocks). Camera would spawn above Mario's position, effectively killing him as though Mario fell into a bottomless pit.
- Fixed proportions in the first bonus room's bonus room. Also fixed its camera.

EDIT2: One more update couldn't hurt...

YOSHI'S ISLAND 4 is now The Harbor

[sunwarrior25]

Update!

Forest of Fudge
- Moved a very troubling Yoshi Coin up one block.
The Harbor
- Added 2 Yoshi Coins to the main level.
- Added an underwater sub-level. It's fairly open, and not all that hard. The other 3 Yoshi Coins are in this sub-level.
- Added a mid-point to the main level.

Update Twice!

Green Switch Palace
- Color palette change.
- Puzzle changed.
Red Switch Palace
- Color palette change.
- Puzzle changed.

To do...
- Iggy's Castle
- Change the Yellow Switch Palace puzzle slightly.
- A random ghost house.
- A red level.
- Learn how to change the overworld.

[Yonowaaru]

Changing the overworld is not too hard, although there are quite a lot of mistakes possible.
There are some good qualityt tutorials on SMWcentral, and if ya need any help, I'd be glad to help ya!

[sunwarrior25]

Why tank ya! Btw, update!

Overworld changed! Only 9 levels total are accessible now.
Switches can be unlocked in this order now: Yellow, Red, Green. Blue was unavailable for comment.
The Harbor is now a Red Level.

If you see a fish bouncing around, don't blame me. I'm not the one who fed him full of cinnamon Altoids. :p

EDIT: Update Twice!

Injected 3 sub-levels into Iggy's Castle in an attempt to make it longer. The rest of the castle is the same, except for the Mid-point, which is now in the 4th room in Iggy's Castle.

UPdate THRICE!!!:

Iggy's Castle/Room 2: Replaced a turn block with its "empty" equivelant.
Iggy's Castle/Room3: Added triangle objects for wall-climbing/jumping gimmick.

4th UPDATE IN A ROW!!!:

#1 Iggy's Castle
- FINALLY fixed the turn block in room 2.
- Removed the Big Boo from room 4. It's sheer size scared the Boo-Blocks into semi-non-existance.

Umm... Update #5?

Oh Fudge! - Rearranged the Green and Red Switch Blocks above the second fish puddle (before the stairs).
#1 Iggy's Castle - Made the platform to the left of the Midway Point longer.

[sunwarrior25]

Using the Reply button because I am so totally tired of spamming the edit button in my above post. Basically submitted it to the gauntlet that is the SMW Central Moderating system. (Is it as strict as the WC3C.net mod system?) hack rejected, link removed.

EDIT: Apparently so. But! They aren't as confusing. To do: Change what the mods suggested.

[sunwarrior25]

It got approved!
...
Now what?

[randoguy101]

It got approved!
...
Now what?

...read the reviews for more suggestions? That is, of course, if there are any.

[sunwarrior25]

I'm getting a glitched out "cage" in the background, and I think it has something to do with the auto-scroll.

What is it, and how do I fix it?

sunwarrior25BB_00000.png (5.9 KiB) Viewed 5607 times

Auto-scroll: Medium
Tileset: Normal 1
Enemy Set: Pokey

[yoshicookiezeus]

Fish button, set the layer 3 options to No Layer 3. The cage is a remnant of some beta sprite, the graphics of which was never really finished.

[sunwarrior25]

Thanks! That seems to have done the trick! :D I'd +rep ya, but this's the wrong forum for that :p

EDIT: You guys are Soooo going to hate me for this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Mm7bYauKM

[kilon]

It is a bit repetitive and bland, but it could become a very nice level.

[sunwarrior25]

I know, but the fact that Mario can't jump off the ground when he's imitating Sonic means that ground enemies (like Goombas, Koopas, and Chucks) have the upper hand (as seen by the number of times I lost my power-up). Not sure what to do to make it more interesting, seeing as it's based on the idea of a race course.

[sunwarrior25]

Version 10 (in hex) got approved as Version 1.0!

Changes:
- Red and Green switches are no longer accessible from World 1.
- Most levels renamed to Nyu Island 1, 2, or 3.
- Most of Iggy's Castle has been tampered with. (Not sure what to do to make Iggy harder)
- Main Overworld redone.

Looks like I'll be working on this for a while. For instance, I need to get World 2 started.

Also, I'm not sure, should I post development versions here? Or wait until they're approved?

[sunwarrior25]

Hey look, a triple post!

This level starts vertical and finishes horizontal. How? A pipe (that I can't seem to get to atm).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqysk7eiQX4

[FroggerbobT]

Heh. Wow. Never realized I commented on this a while back.

Been watching GVirusG's LP of it, lol.

Looks good from his LP.

[gamercal]

Personally I think the whole koopakick thing has more charm than the bullet bill launchers, but that's just me possibly.

It does look decent though - keep it up ^_^

[sunwarrior25]

According to Your Tubes there, this video isn't processed yet (despite having a thumbnail and being viewable from my Channel Page). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqKVij4VsUU

Basically, I'm not so great at Mario. Especially while recording (something about lag).

What I did:

Rename all levels back to a unique name.

An Odd Cliff (2-1): Map16 Shenanigans. Midpoint entrance (not the tape) is now below the Level Entrance, so it works now (at the cost of the camera scrolling upwards at the start).

WTForest (2-2): Doors connect the sub-level to the main level. (Not seen: 2/5 Dragon/Yoshi/Big/Special/2nd Banana coins have been placed in the sub-level, in "back track" locations. A Blue P-Switch at the end of the main-level reveals a door to the sub-level, which has the real goal.)

[gamercal]

What a strange Youtube error... it's been messing me up a lot too lately :(. Mostly failing downloads though.

WTForest looks great... glad to see that your "inability to play" isn't infringing on the hack difficulty!

Must be annoying to have lag during recording though... possibly look into a different recording program if that is a major issue. I know I had to go through a couple before I found one that didn't lag my comp, so maybe that could help you too. It might also help with the slight desynch you have there... although that was definitely much better in that video.

I'd so play this just now, but I have a thing against playing demos... it might seem stupid, but I guess I just don't want to play a thing and get all excited for it when it will take a long time to finish... or not even get finished at all in some cases :(. If I may ask, how long do you expect this hack to be? Obviously not judging anything on that, but I would like to be sure of what I will be looking at when it's done :D

(Have you been taking lessons from Tails with your platform designs btw? xD)

[sunwarrior25]

What a strange Youtube error... it's been messing me up a lot too lately . Mostly failing downloads though.

Yeah, I'm assuming YouTube itself is being strange lately (tech guys get bored?).

Must be annoying to have lag during recording though... possibly look into a different recording program if that is a major issue. I know I had to go through a couple before I found one that didn't lag my comp, so maybe that could help you too. It might also help with the slight desynch you have there... although that was definitely much better in that video.

Woops! Turns out a certain-certain guy hasn't used Disk Cleanup in a while... I hope that's the cause of my lag, and not the recorder. (Though I think this recording went a little smoother due to an evaluation copy of Camtasia Studio)

how long do you expect this hack to be?

I'm aiming for anywhere between 3-5 worlds, and won't be using the Special World (due to the Special World Colors messing up the beaches on the overworld). I'm a bit lazy though...

Have you been taking lessons from Tails with your platform designs btw? xD

I saw raocow play Hacks 101, and should probably play it myself. (though, I probably won't shade the koopas to match the terrain)