A Second Mario Bros X Thing: analog funk V1.3

[docopoper]

Sure, I'll add a midpoint 1up and make the vine more obvious. I never thought people wouldn't recognise the vine since everyone in beta testing easily did (though I guess we were all used to the graphics replacements). The lack of 1up was just an oversight.

Do you guys think it would be good enough to have more vines around it so that the player recognises that it's a vine graphic? Because the reason I liked keeping it one tall is because I kept getting reactions of "oh my god, do I really need to do that?!" followed by people doing it relatively easily since it's not actually that hard to do.

I think I'll also make it more obvious where the key is since that seems to lead to unfair deaths too.

[Lunikyuu]

I didn't get that it was a vine at first either, but I assumed I was just being dumb... I tend to do that a lot along with assuming I'm terrible (to be fair though, I tend to get 4-5 times more demos than the average player) Oh well, lesson learned for the next beta test

[Voltgloss]

Was the library clue not clear enough that there was a vine after the midpoint in The Floor is Lava?

[docopoper]

Was the library clue not clear enough that there was a vine after the midpoint in The Floor is Lava?

That's a really bad thing to have a hint for anyway. It was supposed to be obvious and doesn't have the feel of a secret.

[Voltgloss]

Was the library clue not clear enough that there was a vine after the midpoint in The Floor is Lava?

That's a really bad thing to have a hint for anyway. It was supposed to be obvious and doesn't have the feel of a secret.

It's not obvious, though. It took me about 30 or 40 tries from the midpoint before I realized the vine was there and could be used (i.e., wasn't just decoration). That's why I put the hint in the library about it. And it's only relevant for the secret exit.

[docopoper]

Dangit. I thought it would be the sort of thing where the player would take at most a few seconds of not knowing what to do to notice that there was a vine there. I didn't actually know that that hint was in the library until release. I probably would have just changed it if I had.

Either way I'll change it in a bit.

[Validon98]

While the vine is not that obvious, I really don't think it needs to be changed too much. I mean once you understand the vine is a vine, then it's not that hard to get to.
I kind of feel weird that people are calling bullshit on the stage when of all of the levels of the postgame this one I had the most fun with despite dying repeatedly in order to get the secret exit.

[XutaWoo]

It feels kind of odd that people wouldn't assume a vine is a vine to me. Are there vines earlier in the level that aren't? If so, that should be changed, but I'd think the fact vines are vines in Mario games and from what I've seen most levels earlier in the game would make this whole thing be something easy to figure out in the context of the game as a whole.

[Voltgloss]

It feels kind of odd that people wouldn't assume a vine is a vine to me. Are there vines earlier in the level that aren't? If so, that should be changed, but I'd think the fact vines are vines in Mario games and from what I've seen most levels earlier in the game would make this whole thing be something easy to figure out in the context of the game as a whole.

The issue is that, because the vine is one tile tall, you can't grab it if you're powered up - you can only grab it while small. But that's a not-at-all-obvious quirk of SMBX. When I first tested the level, I tried that section while big the first time, jumped to the vine and didn't grab anything, didn't know about the quirk, and so I thought the vine was just a weird decoration. (I think LunaDLL was used to mitigate that issue in later versions of the level.)

It's also unfortunate that it IS strictly speaking possible to get past that part without using the vine. Just very hard. (My method was to get the red Paragoopa's shell near the midpoint, place it on the expanding/retracting platform, and quickly bounce-jump off of it to get over to the other side. I think I accomplished it maybe three times out of 50 or so tries.) So until you figure out the vine, you think the level's asking you to do something really super-demanding.

[docopoper]

Ok, here is my proposed update to The Floor is Lava:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/490 ... isLava.zip

You can all download it as an update if you want and give feedback as to whether my changes fixed the issues you had.

Changes:

1) Added vines into the stage before the non-obvious vine to hopefully get the player thinking about vines. Though there sadly isn't one visible from the midpoint since I couldn't find a good way to put one in the level without being a distraction.

2) Changed the moving bullet bill shooters so that you don't get fired at immediatly when making the long jump between the two boxes.

3) Added a free life if you respawn at the midpoint.

4) Changed the first furba into a shell less red goopa so that it doesn't walk over the edge any more.

5) Made a custom graphic for the box containing the key so that it now shows a pulsating key on the box.

[Kil]

I mean, the vine is the only thing there. It should be obvious that that's how you're supposed to proceed simply because there's literally nothing else nearby.

[docopoper]

That's what I thought. But I can't argue with the fact that there seem to be a lot of people that didn't figure that out.

[YelseyKing]

I mean, the vine is the only thing there. It should be obvious that that's how you're supposed to proceed simply because there's literally nothing else nearby.

That's what I thought. But I can't argue with the fact that there seem to be a lot of people that didn't figure that out.

The problem is that it doesn't really *look* like a vine. There are little decorative bushes throughout the stage, so I figured that's all *that* was, too. Also, I can't remember offhand seeing the re-sprited SMB1 vine anywhere, at least not the top segment, so honestly it being a vine never even once crossed my mind.

Like Voltgloss said, the jump across that platform is *just* barely possible, with pixel-perfect timing (I did it once... out of about 40 attempts), so... yeah.

Ok, here is my proposed update to The Floor is Lava:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/490 ... isLava.zip

You can all download it as an update if you want and give feedback as to whether my changes fixed the issues you had.

Changes:

1) Added vines into the stage before the non-obvious vine to hopefully get the player thinking about vines. Though there sadly isn't one visible from the midpoint since I couldn't find a good way to put one in the level without being a distraction.

2) Changed the moving bullet bill shooters so that you don't get fired at immediatly when making the long jump between the two boxes.

3) Added a free life if you respawn at the midpoint.

4) Changed the first furba into a shell less red goopa so that it doesn't walk over the edge any more.

5) Made a custom graphic for the box containing the key so that it now shows a pulsating key on the box.

I'll give it a look later, but now that the anger/frustration has subsided, I actually think the level was neat. I just... died a lot.

[Lejes]

I mean, the vine is the only thing there. It should be obvious that that's how you're supposed to proceed simply because there's literally nothing else nearby.

It's possible to make that jump without the vine nor bouncing on a shell. It's not reasonable in the slightest but you come to expect that kind of garbage from Mario fan games.

[docopoper]

The problem is that it doesn't really *look* like a vine. There are little decorative bushes throughout the stage, so I figured that's all *that* was, too. Also, I can't remember offhand seeing the re-sprited SMB1 vine anywhere, at least not the top segment, so honestly it being a vine never even once crossed my mind.

Yep. That's a perfectly reasonable problem to have with the level. I hope my changes help though I can still imagine it's going to get some people which is unfortunate.

Like Voltgloss said, the jump across that platform is *just* barely possible, with pixel-perfect timing (I did it once... out of about 40 attempts), so... yeah.

That's fine under normal circumstances so I'm not going to fix it but yeah... Sorry for putting you through trying to do that. xD

I actually think the level was neat. I just... died a lot.

Good. :)

[Hydachi-Turnip]

I could of SWORN there was a way to change characters while on the world map! I've seen raocow do it multiple time! Or was that just simply the power of editing?

[YelseyKing]

I could of SWORN there was a way to change characters while on the world map! I've seen raocow do it multiple time! Or was that just simply the power of editing?

Pause the game on the world map, then press left or right to cycle through the characters.

[Doctor Shemp]

I could of SWORN there was a way to change characters while on the world map! I've seen raocow do it multiple time! Or was that just simply the power of editing?

Pause the game on the overworld then press left or right to cycle through the characters.

EDIT: That's the best ninja I've ever seen. The exact same wording!

[Leet]

arrow keys while paused

e: wow two people beat me to it wow

[docopoper]

Actually. That should probably be added to be mentioned in the tutorial for the next update. I've had to tell every single one of my friends that who I got to play the game because the game just fails to mention it.

[Alice]

Pause the game on the world map, then press left or right to cycle through the characters.

Speaking of this I keep having a strange issue with changing characters. It doesn't happen every time but for some reason a significant chunk of the time I go to change characters this way the game either unpauses immediately without changing characters or it switches and unpauses despite me never hitting start again. (And my d-pad is nowhere near my start button and the controller is not only quite new but doesn't have any issues in any other game.)

[Voltgloss]

Pause the game on the world map, then press left or right to cycle through the characters.

Speaking of this I keep having a strange issue with changing characters. It doesn't happen every time but for some reason a significant chunk of the time I go to change characters this way the game either unpauses immediately without changing characters or it switches and unpauses despite me never hitting start again. (And my d-pad is nowhere near my start button and the controller is not only quite new but doesn't have any issues in any other game.)

I've experienced this too. I think it's a general SMBX issue, not specific to A2XT.

[tigermoon]

That's happened with every version of the SMB.EXE file I've got(and I've got like five of 'em), regardless of whether I'm using a controller or keyboard.

[Alice]

Pause the game on the world map, then press left or right to cycle through the characters.

Speaking of this I keep having a strange issue with changing characters. It doesn't happen every time but for some reason a significant chunk of the time I go to change characters this way the game either unpauses immediately without changing characters or it switches and unpauses despite me never hitting start again. (And my d-pad is nowhere near my start button and the controller is not only quite new but doesn't have any issues in any other game.)

I've experienced this too. I think it's a general SMBX issue, not specific to A2XT.

I've never actually had it happen with SMBX before so I figured it was A2XT. That's odd cause I've spent a lot more time playing SMBX than A2XT so far.

[YelseyKing]

Pause the game on the world map, then press left or right to cycle through the characters.

Speaking of this I keep having a strange issue with changing characters. It doesn't happen every time but for some reason a significant chunk of the time I go to change characters this way the game either unpauses immediately without changing characters or it switches and unpauses despite me never hitting start again. (And my d-pad is nowhere near my start button and the controller is not only quite new but doesn't have any issues in any other game.)

I've experienced this too. I think it's a general SMBX issue, not specific to A2XT.

That's also happened to me. I thought it was related to JoyToKey, but I guess not, if many others are having the same problem.