And Another Thing - discussion thread (bowz soft deadline at August 29th)

[KobaBeach]

Disk Poppy — Hoje às 11:57
i agree with lord ruby - look at smwcp2
it will never get "finished"

KobaBeach — Hoje às 11:58
can we not make bosses then

Disk Poppy — Hoje às 11:58
sure

sorry tiki

[SAJewers]

If I have time, I'll see if I can whip up another Castle for this (no guarantees though)

[KobaBeach]

If I have time, I'll see if I can whip up another Castle for this (no guarantees though)

It's okay if you don't. Just take your time and don't overwork urself <3 xoxo

Anyway I'm planning on a deadline once The Whole Game Is Postgame's submission period is over. I'll announce it around late December.

[PSI Ninja]

Just wanted to share some of my own thoughts regarding the boss situation and the overworld:

I've also thought about this (while watching Somecallmejohnny's Sonic 06 review for the umpteenth time, what a choice) and I feel like, if we don't have enough castles or stages with bosses, we might be able to get away with a world ending with just a standard level.

Don't we already have enough castles (and bosses), though? So far, we have:

• Thwompire State Building (boss: Thwompson Twins)
• Siege at Castle Wolfenstein (boss: Vanilla Lemmy)
• PREHISTORIC DOOM CASTLE (boss: TBD)
• Spikes do hurt (sometimes) (boss: Vanilla Ludwig (glitchy graphics))
• The Castle of Spirits (boss: Liquor Bottle (Sea Pokey sprite))
• Sui Glide (no boss)
• Fortress of some important relevance (boss: in progress)

We also have Lord Ruby's in-progress level/boss, Moon Palace, and Basil II, but I don't know if the latter two will have bosses. This all seems sufficient for a seven or eight world hack. For the castles that need bosses, maybe we could just choose from boss sprites/disassemblies on the Central, and make some modifications to the code and arenas to change things up a bit.

I remember I also floated the idea of custom bosses after the initial release and, I gotta say, I'm too rusty to properly get set on doing those rn.

There should just be a single, final release of AAT. No "initial release" or anything like that. Otherwise, if we leave the custom bosses as future work, then I guarantee that no one will bother to implement them. It's okay if you can't make a custom boss. I also don't think I'll be able to code a custom boss anymore, thanks to burnout from working on my Switch Palace level. So how about we consider what I mentioned above: for the missing bosses, we just tweak existing sprite ASM and/or find new and interesting ways to use them in arenas (similar to what I did in my Thwomp level). That's something I would be willing to do, at least. I think it's more tractable than coding custom bosses from scratch, and it's a step up from just using the vanilla Koopalings (unless people really want them, of course).

As for an overworld, I'd like to get the overworld people around, assuming they're free, to help organize something in like, Google Sheets? We could work on the overworld collaboratively. I'm not sure how, but we might be able to figure something out. I'm thinking just a vanilla overworld, I'm not too bad at those, to be honest?

I think a vanilla overworld would be good enough. There's just something satisfying about seeing the overworld events play out, instead of having a static map with no visible paths (like in A2MT). I hope we can have a nice, interconnected overworld with branching paths (i.e., not super linear like in Luigi's Adventure), but this is contingent on there being enough secret exits. Also, I think we should try our best to theme the worlds. It would help the game feel more cohesive in my opinion, rather than just being a random compilation of levels.

Current focus on getting the current stages done, and then see if anyone's interested in making a Bowser's Castle. Doesn't have to be multiperson if someone's willing to shoulder the burden, but a sort of collection of short 30 second stages from people who feel like they got the motivation in them should be okay, doesn't need to be massive either.

I really like your idea of Bowser's Castle being a multiperson collection of 30 second stages. If we go this route, then I don't know if we should do it the traditional way (choose from a selection of doors), or string them all together à la Bowser's Starship from TSRP, but we'll figure that out when the time comes.

[KobaBeach]

i inserted some new levels...

[raocow]

how ominous

[KobaBeach]

the only thing ominous is me and maybe whomever else volunteers having to re-test every level just in case, after i added a small hex edit to make the blue switch palace work correctly (apparently it's just a graphical thing

involving asm

so shrug)

i might as well, i haven't actually beat Every Level but also i don't think im good enough to do everything without a few self imposed midpoints

[SAJewers]

maybe if raocow submits a level i'll test it /s

(but really one day i'll get to testing some levels)

[KobaBeach]

maybe if raocow submits a level i'll test it /s

you're lucky he hasn't opened a mario editor in like a decade or he'd probably make some borderline unplayable mess just 4u (with patented gucci as f*uck rao-sthetics in the palette and graphics)

anyway i'm at horse adventure

i'm just going from top to bottom, left to right on the fish market, but doing the ones i have to the right of the life farm/switch palace area last because i have no idea about their difficulty rank

can someone fix the spreadsheet again

[Daizo]

I will get back to my level soon enough, I've been working on a number of projects myself which kept me busy + bugs with my own boss as a result of SA-1 being applied.

[KobaBeach]

I will get back to my level soon enough, I've been working on a number of projects myself which kept me busy + bugs with my own boss as a result of SA-1 being applied.

That's fine. As I've said already (probably) I have a deadline in mind, but I'll only announce it once submissions for tangy's christmas collab are done, and it should also not be too close for comfort, I think?? It's mostly just to get the main game finished to start Bowser's Castle or the equivalent of it, and then to finalize with the overworld design and whatnot.

--------------------------------------------

I'll get back to my level later, I'm just feeling super uninspired and out of practice with SMW (it's been a few months), plus the lack of interesting standard hacks these days isn't helping much. I'm gonna try to download the new Lunar Magic today along with whatever tools were updated, and make some semi-private levels, not for AAT, and post them on the romhack shack discordt, for practice's sake.

Honestly tackling level design like I'm tackling my art (just do a bit like every day or so, maybe aim a bit above your skill level to push yourself? but draw what makes you happy) should help me improve, granted I have feedback to draw upon. I do want to amass some ExGFX because I like making my levels fruity as fuck like me (i already have like 100+ ports, JP stuff included and fixed by myself, excluding Samantha's previous fixes).

There isn't enough custom foregrounds on SMWC tho

Also need to get back to ASM, but coming up with funny mechanics is a bit harder for me. The coding aspect or making complicated sprites with varied attack patterns isn't as hard, I feel. The end result of growing up a carol stan. I also have a bunch of JP hacks, as well as Western late 00s-early 10s stuff I'm just nostalgic for, in case I need inspo. Need to peruse some recent Western ones and maybe ~git gud~ enough to try out le kazio [sic], if for anything than for the movement tech, chocolate asset uses and possible glitch exploiting.

Or I might just sit on my ass and watch Stop Skeletons' Xbox "documentaries" (do they count?) for like the umpteenth time.

oh yeah i should get back to re-testing stuff º3º

[camwoodstock]

maybe if raocow submits a level i'll test it /s

you're lucky he hasn't opened a mario editor in like a decade or he'd probably make some borderline unplayable mess just 4u (with patented gucci as f*uck rao-sthetics in the palette and graphics)

&: You say that like it's good we don't have a level by raocow that will function as a hell of his own creation for futurecow! ...Okay, maybe from like an actual design standpoint, but we do think a level with gaudy-beyond-belief palletes could be fun as long as it's not like, active eyestrain.

[KobaBeach]

&: You say that like it's good we don't have a level by raocow that will function as a hell of his own creation for futurecow! ...Okay, maybe from like an actual design standpoint, but we do think a level with gaudy-beyond-belief palletes could be fun as long as it's not like, active eyestrain.

honestly i just want to live in a world where raocow relearns lunar magic just to own sajewers (no offense). also rao palettes are always fun

[PSI Ninja]

Good news, I got the ASMT/A2MT ticking P-Switch to work! https://psininja.talkhaus.com/smw/ticking_pswitch.zip

I had to change the main code hijack from $008DDB to $008DAC, because the old address doesn't work in our base ROM. Hopefully the new address is stable. I also needed to disable the P-Switch music in AddmusicK's tweaks, otherwise it would play at the same time as the ticking. Note: I made the directional coins work with the ticking, too. I don't think that's how it was in ASMT/A2MT, so if you don't like that, then just delete that part of the code.

You can see it working in the test level in the .bps patch I included. It also works in Fishing Grounds, which is the only level I can remember that has a P-Switch.

[SMCslevelengine]

As for uberasm, I don't think I'll necessarily need the uberasm code from the baserom to do my levels, but to send it, it should be just as easy as sending the uberasm code file + what level it goes in over to koba?
Since to get vertical scrolling to work as of late that's what I needed to do

[KobaBeach]

As for uberasm, I don't think I'll necessarily need the uberasm code from the baserom to do my levels, but to send it, it should be just as easy as sending the uberasm code file + what level it goes in over to koba?
Since to get vertical scrolling to work as of late that's what I needed to do

yes

[KobaBeach]

hey cunt you still in here. i was reading a smwc post of yours that was like "What would be humorous would be an infinite lives hack with a death counter. I want to see that if it doesn't exist already." and the only reason i didn't add that to aat is because i didn't know if the level authors would be okay with that, and honestly i assume They Wouldn't

[camwoodstock]

hey cunt you still in here. i was reading a smwc post of yours that was like "What would be humorous would be an infinite lives hack with a death counter. I want to see that if it doesn't exist already." and the only reason i didn't add that to aat is because i didn't know if the level authors would be okay with that, and honestly i assume They Wouldn't

honestly lives are just a dated construct from the days of endless arcade games overall so we'd be fine with infinite lives at the very least. we genuinely thought we already had a death counter since asmt the first had one

[KobaBeach]

honestly lives are just a dated construct from the days of endless arcade games overall so we'd be fine with infinite lives at the very least. we genuinely thought we already had a death counter since asmt the first had one

We do, I got ycz's patch from SMWC and it's super good, because it doesn't cover the lives counter unlike the recent one that people use in Kaizo. But also, you have to patch out the 0 that is just static on the points display in the HUD because every point you earn in SMW has at least one 0 and Nintendo thought, might as well.

Anyway, I also play every SMW hack (and trying to get around to doing the same with Mega Man hacks) with endless lives cheats but no other added assist features other than the occasional savestate for checkpointing or to get past bullshit sections that are too much to do tool-less (I make it a point to play what I can toolless even if it's an ancient romhack), and raocow has softened on his lives stance in the past, being more in the favor of doing away with lives if they actively hinder rather than add to the game design, an example of the latter being Nachos and Fried Oreos.

However, I don't want to make sudden choices because some people in the project (not me) are SMW veterans and they might find it kind of rude to have endless lives just placed on them.

We do have a "bring up save screen on OW" patch, though. I'd like to add a message box indicating it's there in the first stage or Yoshi's House, but that depends on how the overworld is constructed. I imagine many people so far don't even know it's there.

I'm trying to add whatever QoL features I can without excising difficulty altogether, it just depends on how the "dev team" feels like. If we make a super long Bowser's Castle I'll definitely add multi midpoints to its multi-choice rooms, for one.

Thanks for your input, btw.

[SAJewers]

Just have an easy life farm in every world or 2, rather than figure out what to do with 1ups in levels that have already been submitted

[KobaBeach]

Just have an easy life farm in every world or 2, rather than figure out what to do with 1ups in levels that have already been submitted

Yeah I was thinking about it and I feel like we can go the JUMP route and have small rest areas similar to VIP3 and 6 and have JUMP style vanilla/semi-vanilla mechanic minigames for 1UPs and maybe some hidden colored Yoshies. I don't know if I know the ins and outs of SMW enough to make the minigames myself though, so I leave that role to all y'all.

There is a patch for extra Yoshi colors, but I don't want to use it. Let's stick to the three main ones.

I've thought about also adding in one or two NPC sprites ala ASMT that basically serve to dispense nonsense info and fake advice like Trap Tower!Alice in ASMBXT, provided we have space for the message boxes without going deep into coding, as well as one normal custom sprite ID free. I could try to work being able to add parameters and the like through Extension Bytes, like how chdata made the Yoshies in the Resistance Base load the message box based on palette number. Blame my JRPG roots, I'm sorry.

It could also be a parallel to the A2XTs' towns but obviously less convoluted.

[SAJewers]

I don't even think they need to be elaborate minigames or anything, just dumb, short bits to get lives

(I say this as I have an idea in my head for something stupid for a life farm)

[Lord Ruby]

I would also prefer keeping lives. But I wouldn't throw a fit over them being removed.

(I also have a silly idea for a life farm.)

[SAJewers]

Hey

If anyone here used resources from somewhere (like smwc) in their levels, can you please make sure the author/creator is credited in the credits sheet on the google sheet?

I'm slowly going through now to try and add credits, but may have missed some

[Jongseok]

Plus, it is okay if you directly write uploader(creator or author)'s name in description or Credits Wrangling section in google docs.
I filled some missed blocks and uberasm in 'Blocks' and 'uberasm' sheets in google docs.