Koba's Final Boss development log(?) - Milestone 2: Jan 31st

[KobaBeach]

Okay so, I've really missed getting back into making custom sprites and just messing around, making nonsense. And since I kind of feel bad that we don't have a custom final boss, by technicality, I've thought about making something by myself. I've thought about making a so-so final boss, but to prepare properly for it I'd use hack (Asian and West, Kaizo and Standard, Inaccurate and Fixed) and SNES game code as reference material for anything I may have trouble with, on top of public SMWC and 2ch resources.

I've previously ripped carol's SMB3 Bowser Phase 1/Falling Bowser Phase 2 code from Brutal Mario's boss demo using p4plus2's Shex and Geiger's SNES9x debugger and I've started going through its code, but haven't read it in a week or so. Still, I've managed to instantly get used to reading it again and debugging it, when I laid eyes on it. I also have Mesen-S for more recent hacks and commercial games. For commercial games I'll try to focus on ones that have disassemblies for ease of debugging, yoshifanatic may be too much of a weirdo furry (says the giant man/furry enthusiast), but he has talent.

I'd only be able to make ASM and placeholder graphics. If it's finished I can make a custom song based on a MIDI for its battle (maybe something from the Legend of Heroes 3-5 PC versions, there's very few Trails MIDIs and SaGa is over done), but only after the boss is done and once hack finalization has begun.

I'll give myself up to June 6th (my mother's birthday) to finish anything. If it's not done by then, you may replace it with a resprited SMW Bowser based on whatever ASMT canon character strikes y'all's fancy. This project is not to go through VIP5 syndrome! I swear upon my late grandma's grave, may she rest in peace.

I don't know if Ruby and PSI can help me, and honestly, I want to keep them away from this part of the project because I feel like I've been stressing them out with too much on their plates. ASMers are not to be abused, we are humans after all, and a valuable resource that deserves respect (is that too dehumanizing?).

I'll try to use the Simple HP patch's code, if I have enough time, some basic Mode 7 patch nonsense so it's not just taking space (think Julius and Yaruo and how they could spin and stretch, pretty much) and if I make multiple phases I'll try to make a boss midpoint type flag (more or less a flag, just need to see if I can preserve it when exiting through retry).

I'll try to give credits to whomever's code I borrow/study from and I'll try to keep most of the collective sprite(s) to one ID to avoid cluttering up the sprites list, loaded based on Extension Bytes.

I've previously thought about making a Silhouette Mirage lategame boss or whatever but that's aiming too high. So far I'll just make something simple, Julius/Tanasinn-style is somewhat doable especially if I can read their fixed code from the translation patch, but I have no qualms with aiming lower. I would appreciate some more casual hack players (both less skilled and high skilled) to help beta test it and give feedback later down the road so I can actually make it fun and not a "carol boss".

First milestone deadline is this new year's eve (Dec 31st).

hte gays......... (SOURCE)

[KobaBeach]

Here's some ideas for stuff I stole from other bosses

quick teleport phase (marx, smwcp mole)
widening windowing hdma ray (tanasinn, seven heroes)
spinning big projectiles around it (xanbie) while it slowly follows demo, vomiting slow falling projectiles and blue blocks
the big projectiles stop until they're all above the boss then try to aim at demo (please make sure this is easily dodgable)
fires bullets all around (doom wall)? need to look for better bullet patterns, look at worldpeace's bosses
fires two large projectiles one spins in a smaller radius, the other in a larger one (wendy brutal?)
followed by a large laser (marx, toadsworth)
worldpeace's bullet indicators
yellow devil mk2 style bouncy blob transformation, have grace period with warning indicators before moving from the jumpable state
404 talkhaus is down (megadmin/tanasinn)
cloaked behind a window (rumia) fires a projectile, then teleports. demo must attack with popping up blue blocks
phase two change: windowing in layer 1 that expands through the whole screen, then brightness, teleport to mode 7 area

Will try to add to these as I code in more stuff and axe more stuff, and change stuff around so you can attack more often.

I should go to bed but it's already almost 5 AM...

[Lord Ruby]

Have fun >:3

[KobaBeach]

Have fun >:3

I'll try...

I feel like being able to study other people's code if I'm unsure helps alleviate the stress of me... Well, stressing out over whether it won't work and dreading being stumped and unable to progress. I doubt myself a lot, it comes out a lot less in digital art.

As for my stages, I'll try to work on them on and off if I can. To anyone reading this, please remind me to insert the recent stages to a new baserom before today is over (roughly 24:00 GMT+0), I promised SAJ. I'm not in the mood to separate my boss sprites from the main baserom like I did my levels, but it shouldn't be important.

Sorry for not sleeping either

[KobaBeach]

Anyway after sleeping a bit I spent the 11th starting up the DBZ teleport phase's code. It's very incomplete, still needs some extra research (what are good coordinates, how wide/tall does the screen go in bytes...) and then testing to see if it works somewhat properly in-game.

Here's that part so far. Feel free to steal, it mostly uses defines, lol:

Code: Select all

;=================
; Sprite Routines
;=================

Return:
	RTS

Start:
	JSR SubGFX                      ; Run GFX Routine.
	
	LDA !14C8,x						; \
	CMP #$08						; | End code if sprite status != alive
	BNE Return						; /
	LDA $9D							; \ Halt code if sprites locked.
	BNE Return						; /
	
	LDA #$00						; \ Draw from range (x) to (y)
	%SubOffScreen()					; /

	LDA !State,x				; \ Jump to phase routine depending on status flag.
	ASL : TAX						; | ASL multiplies value in flag by 2,
	JSR (Status,x)					; / as the labels are two bytes long (words).
	RTS

Status:
	dw Teleport
	dw Dummy
    
;========================
; Teleport routine
;========================
	
Teleport:
	LDX $15E9|!Base2                ; Reload Sprite Index from the JSR.

    LDA !Flag,x                         ; Check if Setup Flag has been set
    BNE +

    JSL !RNG                            ; Else teleport 1 (need to double check) to 7 times
    CLC
    ADC !MarioXLow
    AND #$07
    STA !AmountToTeleport,x
    
    INC !Flag,x                         ; Indicate that we're done setting up

+   LDA !AmountToTeleport,x             ; Have they stopped teleporting completely?
    BEQ .next                           ; If so, move down to continue to another state.
    
    LDA !TeleportTimer,x                ; Check if they're still in the middle of a teleportation.
    BNE .ret
    
    LDA #$30                            ; Apply the time necessary for the animation.
    STA !TeleportTimer,x

    JSL !RNG                            ; Set up the new X and Y coordenates on the screen, at random.
    CLC
    ADC !MarioXLow
    ASL
    TAY
    REP #$20
    LDA NewXPos,y
    SEP #$20
    STA !SpriteXLow,x
    XBA
    STA !SpriteXHigh,x
    
    JSL !RNG
    CLC
    ADC !MarioXLow
    ASL
    TAY
    REP #$20
    LDA NewYPos,y
    SEP #$20
    STA !SpriteYLow,x
    XBA
    STA !SpriteYHigh,x
    BRA .ret                            ; Skip to the end

.next:
    INC !State,x                        ; Back from the teleport? Move on to the next state.
    STZ !Flag,x                         ; Clear Setup flag to repurpose address in other state.

.ret:
    RTS
    
NewXPos:
    dw

NewYPos:
    dw
    
Dummy:
	LDX $15E9|!Base2                ; Reload Sprite Index from the JSR.
    RTS

Need to replace all the shitty tabs and actually add comments to the asm file.....

I'm using simple squares and circles for placeholder graphics rn before it gets replaced with some ASMT canon character of choice (preferably the ASMT discord people's choice), but I could edit the original if need be before I claim any more graphics files.

I'll add a basic GFX Subroutine before inserting it for testing, those are usually the most boring parts. The most fun part is racking your brain on how to make the graphics display properly in the wacky world of Assembly, especially since I want a blinking arrow indicator to give the player a hint on a good time to stomp it.

Also need to figure out/debug how worldpeace managed to code in the attack warning signs in the JUMPs, but that's for later.

Man, remember when I thought about making this Justice from Guilty Gear back at the beginning of the year or smth?

[PSI Ninja]

I don't know if Ruby and PSI can help me, and honestly, I want to keep them away from this part of the project because I feel like I've been stressing them out with too much on their plates. ASMers are not to be abused, we are humans after all, and a valuable resource that deserves respect (is that too dehumanizing?).

Honestly, after about a year and a half of experience, I'm finding ASM coding to be the most fun part of SMW hacking. Toiling for two to three weeks on some UberASM code and finally getting it to work feels good, but then I'm like, "I still need to design a whole level around this". I have yet to code a sprite entirely from scratch, though. The best I can do right now is tweak existing code or Frankenstein together codes from different sprites. It seems to me like sprite coding would be among the more advanced ASM you can do, mostly because of all the different interactions you'd need to handle.

If this is something you want to do by yourself, then I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines. It won't be the end of the world if it can't be done for the collab, but a custom final boss would certainly be the cherry on top.

[KobaBeach]

Honestly, after about a year and a half of experience, I'm finding ASM coding to be the most fun part of SMW hacking. Toiling for two to three weeks on some UberASM code and finally getting it to work feels good, but then I'm like, "I still need to design a whole level around this".

It's so good. It's so good. It's really hard to learn first, but when you get it down it's like a bunch of fun puzzles for you to solve. The hardest part is getting the inspiration for a good idea. And Ladida and Sonikku say it's miserable, peh. Then again they get hounded by people like Roberto daily to make them shit, or at least they were.

A problem for me too is dreading being stuck and having to cancel it entirely, but I'll try to stick to concepts others were able to do so I can take some notes from their code in other hacks and public resources.

I have yet to code a sprite entirely from scratch, though. The best I can do right now is tweak existing code or Frankenstein together codes from different sprites. It seems to me like sprite coding would be among the more advanced ASM you can do, mostly because of all the different interactions you'd need to handle.

It kind of is. Tweaking, Frankensteining and reading code is how I learned, personally. My first sprite on SMWC was based on Akaginite's code in VIP5, in fact. At least I think it was Akagi, whoever made the stage (Air ship) submitted it anonymously, but I think I saw it in her old filebin in getuploader.

Though, I will add that I think a lot of interactions are semi-automated by Tweaker, though you can hard-code custom stuff into the sprites if you don't want to use the vanilla behaviors. I've personally hard-coded a lot of custom hitboxes, entirely because people used to complain about the hitboxes on the burner by-frame blocks that people used to use. Huge thanks to Roy's Tap-Tap the Red Nose for the pointers.

Still need to figure out working with different graphical modes too, I only have the basics of Mode 7 down (and to unlock its true potential you kind of need trigonometry). Also gotta get used to HDMA again.

If this is something you want to do by yourself, then I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines. It won't be the end of the world if it can't be done for the collab, but a custom final boss would certainly be the cherry on top.

I'm doing it primarily by myself so as to not wear you two down any further. You can help if you want but. I worry you'd all be taking on too much.

[SMCslevelengine]

best I could do for a final boss in recent memory was the black mage in Return Trip, so I don't know how much help I could be here

[KobaBeach]

best I could do for a final boss in recent memory was the black mage in Return Trip, so I don't know how much help I could be here

Yeah I'm trying to do something closer to Julius but less. "Messy" (trying not to be mean)

Though looking at some of A2XT2's bosses I kind of worry it won't be as fun as those. Oh well.

[handfist]

the boss should be nitori

[KobaBeach]

the boss should be nitori

i agree

[Lord Ruby]

Here are some Nitori reference images for the artist >:3

[KobaBeach]

Here are some Nitori reference images for the artist >:3

us

still can't believe alex tried to shove his waifu into an important role in the asmt canon what a slut

[KobaBeach]

will try to work on it a bit befour jan 31st