Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comments

[Tails_155]

nm, it just seemed like there was a larger rush today than usual of posts.

[tenta]

I was playing so much that i forgot i have to work on a level >.>....

ow im working hard...simple level go!

[Tails_155]

<.< make sure you show something.

[Lv27MarkerMMan]

@limepie thank you for the feedback. I will attempt to explain my thoughts

The mushroom at the beginning is there for 2 reasons:
1) to test the spinjump code in that room easily
2) I was trying to prevent the player from bringing a cape in by having them start on 2 mushrooms
From what I've recently heard there will be code to prevent the player from bringing in a cape, but does that apply to the boxed item too?

The invisible mushrooms are supposed to be a good surprise, because I like the idea of rewarding the player for finding something invisible instead of killing them for it. This is just my insight on it.

I asked about the magikoopa earlier and other people seemed okay with it. The problem is that its head shares graphic spots with the baseball chucks' torso. His dissappearing state is supposed to look like a block as a sneaky way for the wizard to appear kind of thing. I also thought it looked like the wizard is pulling its hat in front of its face. Do you dislike the whole thing or just parts of it?

I figured sending the player back would be a way to give the player a chance to try a different path in the second room. I don't know who would go back to play anyones' level all the way through a second time just for fun in a hack. Although it is true that the coin is in a door near the beginning of the level. I guess I should adjust something.

Actually it does sound like a good idea to move the key hole platform to the left so you land on it if you fall straight down. Should I just remove the door have them die to screen scroll if they don't have the key? The door does give the player chance to go back and find the key. I kind of think the player doesn't deserve the exit if they accidently fall off without the key. Is that too mean?

On the block breaking gimmick, I did decide to abandon it because I had to meet an earlier deadline. chdata posted something about alcarobot in the asm thread to help. However I was not able to use what I was able to find on alcarobot. Also, recently there has been a 'we want to finish soon' feel to the project. I figured finishing would be simpler this way. However if I can get a good lead on how to make my original gimmick idea to work, I wouldn't mind to revive it.

[limepie20]

From what I've recently heard there will be code to prevent the player from bringing in a cape, but does that apply to the boxed item too?

Yes.

The invisible mushrooms are supposed to be a good surprise, because I like the idea of rewarding the player for finding something invisible instead of killing them for it. This is just my insight on it.

I can see what you mean but it's just very odd and I don't like it.

I asked about the magikoopa earlier and other people seemed okay with it. The problem is that its head shares graphic spots with the baseball chucks' torso. His dissappearing state is supposed to look like a block as a sneaky way for the wizard to appear kind of thing. I also thought it looked like the wizard is pulling its hat in front of its face. Do you dislike the whole thing or just parts of it?

The problem is, it just looks jumbled and messy. Like I can't tell what it is and then when it disappears its body turns into a block and it almost looks like a glitch.

I figured sending the player back would be a way to give the player a chance to try a different path in the second room. I don't know who would go back to play anyones' level all the way through a second time just for fun in a hack. Although it is true that the coin is in a door near the beginning of the level. I guess I should adjust something.

Actually it does sound like a good idea to move the key hole platform to the left so you land on it if you fall straight down. Should I just remove the door have them die to screen scroll if they don't have the key? The door does give the player chance to go back and find the key. I kind of think the player doesn't deserve the exit if they accidently fall off without the key. Is that too mean?

Yes that's very mean. It's not like the player knows before hand that there is a keyhole there and they're only allowed to go there with a key. Get rid of the door, and add some clouds/vines to get back up.

On the block breaking gimmick, I did decide to abandon it because I had to meet an earlier deadline. chdata posted something about alcarobot in the asm thread to help. However I was not able to use what I was able to find on alcarobot. Also, recently there has been a 'we want to finish soon' feel to the project. I figured finishing would be simpler this way. However if I can get a good lead on how to make my original gimmick idea to work, I wouldn't mind to revive it.

Well you jut updated. So you have up to August 4th plus 3 weeks. That's plenty of time for you/someone to make an asm code. I don't know enough about asm to make it but you can try the asm thread again.

[raocow]

Wasn't there actually a few people adressing this issue in the asm thread not too long ago?

[GVirusG]

I'm not sure, if this is the right thread to post the following in XP

I'll be gone from July 31st to August 7th, so I can't post anything during these days.
Yeah, that's already it XP
Didn't want to interrupt you guys in your discussion there...

[Cheeseofdoom]

Alright, it isn't well.... well here we go.

I've been working on it, it isn't that long, but it's something. I just need something here in case a more complete something doesn't get posted before the 4th. I'm leaving on the 4th for a week, and school starts the 17th.

That being said, playtest your hearts out.

P.S. Why can't I upload an .ips file?

[Wyatt]

Alright, it isn't well.... well here we go.

I've been working on it, it isn't that long, but it's something. I just need something here in case a more complete something doesn't get posted before the 4th. I'm leaving on the 4th for a week, and school starts the 17th.

That being said, playtest your hearts out.

P.S. Why can't I upload an .ips file?

Haha, woah. This level is insane!

Things to point out (some of them are sorta obvious but I'll say em anyway)
-background clouds have ugly square border around them
-fan colission is kinda wonky where it takes up the whole square, it'd probably be easiest to make the graphic take up the whole square as well
-you probably don't need a text box talking about the gold fans, just make them animate faster. Hopefully that's possible
-i hope you're planning on including more normal enemies throughout the level, I'm curious to see how they'll all react to the gimmick

So yeah, awesome level, keep finding new ways to use the gimmick. If you need somebody to make the music to go along with this I'm totally game for it. Question though, if you mute a sound effect channel, does that mess up the sound effects?

[Cheeseofdoom]

Haha, woah. This level is insane!

;)

-background clouds have ugly square border around them

I suppose I should fix that, never really though much of it.

-fan colission is kinda wonky where it takes up the whole square, it'd probably be easiest to make the graphic take up the whole square as well

I'll talk to my graphics department (aka MoneyMan) about a redraw.

-you probably don't need a text box talking about the gold fans, just make them animate faster. Hopefully that's possible.

I can't animate those ones faster, but I guess I could animate the normal ones slower. Right now they both only have two frames, so I'll have to get MoneyMan or someone to draw more frames.

-i hope you're planning on including more normal enemies throughout the level, I'm curious to see how they'll all react to the gimmick

Current enemies you'll (hopefully) get to see:

-Fish
-Thwomps (Regular, Rightward Maverick, Leftward Maverick
-Dolphins
-Spike tops
-Um, I guess I need more sprites? These things aren't easy to make.

So yeah, awesome level, keep finding new ways to use the gimmick. If you need somebody to make the music to go along with this I'm totally game for it. Question though, if you mute a sound effect channel, does that mess up the sound effects?

I have no clue. You and SNN are going to be my music gimmick department, so once I have a level put together, he'll be able to set up a thing that triggers the musical cues, and I'll be able to tell you how to use it.

Thanks a lot for play testing!\

Edit: His name is MoneyMan, not MoneyGuy.

[limepie20]

There's a way to animate things faster than the frames smw gives you. I'll look for that post.

Edit:

You input the same animation is several different slots:

Lunar Magic does the same thing. The first 8 ExAnimation slots all actually run on different frames. However, the next 8 slots all run in the exact same frames as the first 8 slots. And so on. This means slots 0,8,10,18 animate in the same game frame, as do 1,9,11,19, then 2,A,12,1A, etc.

[...]

You can do animations that run twice as fast (15 fps), by simply using 2 slots that are 4 slots apart within a group of 8 (like for example, 0 and 4) and setting the same destination in each. If you want to take it further, you can go at 30 fps by using slots 0,2,4,6. And if you want to go at 60 fps, you'd use all of slots 0-7 to do it (and if you give yourself a seizure animating the palette at that ridiculous rate, don't blame me).

[Cheeseofdoom]

Lunar Magic does the same thing. The first 8 ExAnimation slots all actually run on different frames. However, the next 8 slots all run in the exact same frames as the first 8 slots. And so on. This means slots 0,8,10,18 animate in the same game frame, as do 1,9,11,19, then 2,A,12,1A, etc.

[...]

You can do animations that run twice as fast (15 fps), by simply using 2 slots that are 4 slots apart within a group of 8 (like for example, 0 and 4) and setting the same destination in each. If you want to take it further, you can go at 30 fps by using slots 0,2,4,6. And if you want to go at 60 fps, you'd use all of slots 0-7 to do it (and if you give yourself a seizure animating the palette at that ridiculous rate, don't blame me).

I'd love to do that, but my gimmick is using up every single exanimation frame I have available.

I'd also love to see someone animate a palette at 60fps.

[keckcellent]

Cheeseofdoom:

I love this level - a good gimmick executed well (so far). I can't wait to see more. I got confused at the first part of the level with the slope against the vertical wall. I thought it was one of those watermelon blocks that you can run up. You can also fix the fan-collision problem by bringing the fan up to the top part of the block and putting ground immediately beneath in Map16. A minor, minor nitpick - you have a bad corner tile under the first message block.

Moctroidprime:

Did you know that I wrote some extensive feedback for your level 3 times? And because of issues with cookies on this site & my computer or something, I lost it 3 times including just now? I basically said that I thought the new Map16 stuff looked good but the older stuff looked better, there were issues of functionality where I would run through the slopes (check out the slope tilemap here - http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=13448), and that I felt the level should be about 3-5 screens longer. I'll provide a more extensive feedback tomorrow when I upload my IPS (hopefully) but for now, I'm just going to give you the basics. I would recommend using your last IPS with the version you thought was better. I apologize for giving you some misdirection. You have great tile-placement skills already and once you practice making your own Map16 blocks, you'll be able to make awesome 'vanilla' creations.

So I plan on uploading my level tomorrow. My new phone won't let me upload the IPS so I'll have to head to the library again. If I don't make it, I'll have time before the 4th to get there (and if I don't, I'll just upload a PNG of my level so far on my phone). I also hope to update the level dredge tomorrow. Day off!

[Cheeseofdoom]

I got confused at the first part of the level with the slope against the vertical wall. I thought it was one of those watermelon blocks that you can run up.

I can see how that might happen. I'll look into changing that.

You can also fix the fan-collision problem by bringing the fan up to the top part of the block and putting ground immediately beneath in Map16.

I received new graphics this morning, so the clipping issue is fixed.

A minor, minor nitpick - you have a bad corner tile under the first message block.

Thank you! I completely missed that. You have a good eye.

[Mochtroidprime]

By now I'm probably coming off as a stupid imbecile that doesn't know how to listen...
Anyway keckcellent, sorry you had to go through that trouble because of my level.
What I got from you saying is that the older dirt houses were okay...?
If not, I still have a separate IPS for the wood houses, I'll just have to re-add the 5 screens to the end of the level.
http://bin.smwcentral.net/u/7516/Floode ... BHOUSE.ips
I don't think I can make my level much bigger, I reached the sprite limit while adding those extra 5 screens and had to delete some sprites, when they are spaced far enough in my opinion.

[tenta]

As for right now i have a temporary name for my level which is named Caverne du Quebec (Quebec cave) and i have done some little developement.

The level is vanilla made since i don't know ANYTHING more than creating..i don't know how to add custom stuffs and things like that so il let someone who want to obviously to change the texture and musics...also add custom monsters if possible..

Last thing....how the hell do i make lines for platforms?

[keckcellent]

Mochtroidprime:

At no point did you ever come across as a stupid imbecile. You're learning a number of things and you've seemed to be receptive to criticism. And some of the stuff you're learning isn't that obvious (like the slope tilemap stuff). What I envisioned when I said add some Ghost House tiles was to keep the houses largely intact but add some brick tiles in the dirt in sporadic places. Don't worry about it. I feel like a jerk for suggesting it and then liking the original (water houses).

And yeah, you don't have to listen to me at all. You should listen to level clearers but I'm not any one of them. I'm just giving some advice on what I feel could make the level better. Whenever I suggest stuff or get criticism, I think of that line from the Matrix ''Sooner or later you're going to realize just as I did that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." I haven't played your latest version yet (I'm at the library) but you could have made the level 3 screens longer rather than 5. Or you could have added screens to a different sublevel. Its up to you. The best advice I can give is that if you enjoy playing the level you designed, you're doing something right. Good luck and sorry about that.

And now for my level. There are a lot of things missing from it. No 'boss' yet. No BG in the main section. Placeholder music before the main area. The Diggin' Chuck is glitched graphically because I was trying to figure out where everything goes (I plan on replacing it with graphics that will fit my level). And I want to ExAnimate the Bullet Bill replacements. Also, its pretty short. But I wanted to get an impression of what people thought about the general level design before I continued on.

http://bin.smwcentral.net/u/9440/A2MT%2BLevel%2B21.zip

Tenta: To make lines for platforms, you have to set the FG/BG graphics index to be either 'Rope' or 'Castle'. To set the graphics index, click on the purple poison mushroom button. I don't know which Rope tilesets would work. I think there are 3 rope tilesets and I can't check here.

I can't think of any good Addmusic/ SpriteTool tutorials off of my head right now. Sorry.

[tenta]

Hmm i just tried that but it mess up my levels by modifying the underground tileset...


Edit: I lost my Original super mario world rom so i can't test my own level... >.>

[keckcellent]

Hmm i just tried that but it mess up my levels by modifying the underground tileset...

Tenta: (no actual spoilers but its long again).

There's a few steps you need to take. First, if you don't already have it, download YY-CHR. http://www.romhacking.net/utils/119/. Then, open up GFX16.bin and GFX1A.bin. Copy the line tiles from GFX16.bin to GFX1A and put them exactly where they were on GFX16. Save it as ExGFX***.bin where *** is an ExGFX file number (for example, 1BE) you have reserved. Make sure ExGFX***.bin is placed in the ExGraphics folder. Go into Lunar Magic and hit the Yellow Mushroom button to import new graphics. Then hit the Red Mushroom button, click 'enable bypass of GFX files', and set FG3 to ***. Finally set the GFX index to Rope 1. This should provide you with the underground tileset but line blocks.

The only other issue you'll have is that the ExAnimation in the background is wrong. The solution can be a bit annoying to fix this. If you're using the most recent baserom, I would recommend just going into the 'Level' menu, scroll down to to 'Copy BG Image' and at the prompt, enter the (hexadecimal) number 'FD'. This is a level I made - it has the cave background but without the sparkles.

Mochtroidprime: Now that I have played your level, its looking better. And this is looking better than the previous dirt-version. There are still some Map16 blue blocks in places you'll need to fix and you may want to check out that jumping pirahna plant and how it interacts with the blocks above it but its good. I like the level design. Its a pretty easy level but not ridiculously so and offers some fun challenges.

[Davvic]

Alrighty. The level was changed around a bit. Its now somewhat of a puzzle, and you have to explore a bit more. Added a bonus AUS reference!

http://www.mediafire.com/?iy5doani34romdm


Edit: I may need to remove the bullet generator

My post was lost in the previous page! Need some testing done, a lot changed.

Still no testing done! Argh.

[yoshicookiezeus]

Just got started on the secret exit part of my level.

This place is creepy D:

A2MT_00062.png (3.49 KiB) Viewed 4079 times

Let's get that key and find a way out of here

A2MT_00063.png (3.56 KiB) Viewed 4079 times

That can't be a good sign

A2MT_00064.png (3.64 KiB) Viewed 4079 times

[Karatekid5]

A small but good update here. I was able to make what pretty much is a 32x32 Spiny by changing some things in the CFG file for a 32x32 ShyGuy, and speeding it up a bit. It turned out how I wanted it to, so, I can pretty much cancel the sprite request I made. So, now I can finish up the level :D .

[morsel/morceau]

http://www.mediafire.com/?iy5doani34romdm

I don't know what I'm doing in this topic, but I played your level. Here are my thoughts

The first area is pretty fun platforming.
-the koopa hopping is gratuitous, and can be obnoxious to time; also, there's a koopa that falls from the sky here, what's his deal?
-the coins marking the pipe at the end won't come back (and you need to go in it again)
-the yellow pipe that takes you back two screens doesn't seem to have any purpose (there's nothing important I would need to go back for)

the purple room
-why is there a jumpingboard here?

the vertical room
-the dragon coin here doesn't show up when I play the level (does it show up when you play it?)
-where is the puzzle? Once you get the jboard from this room, just bring it straight back here and you can jump through the rope. There's no need to get the pwitch and spawn the vine with the shell (btw, you need to actively stop the shell and kick it again else the turn block will run out too soon - this is annoying).

I dunno what to suggest as an improvement. Maybe ditch the puzzle, put the goal where the pswitch is and extend the vertical part and make it more challenging. You could have a midpoint at the end of the first area. For the dragon coins, try changing item memory (MArio's head).

[Davvic]

-where is the puzzle? Once you get the jboard from this room, just bring it straight back here and you can jump through the rope.

Whoops, I didnt realize that you could just take the spring back around... The intended solution is to bring it to the pink room, get the p switch, then take it back to the cave. This is what testing is for ^^

Does anyone have an idea for how I could filter it so that springboards could not be taken INTO the cave, but p-switches can?

[Tails_155]

Moar updatez

Level06A.png (156.93 KiB) Viewed 4039 times

One of the underwater areas is done, unless there's a glaring issue.