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FPzero posted:I'm overly harsh on yellow just because I find it difficult to work with in its pure form. Add a tiny bit of orange and you're suddenly in an orange spectrum, add a bit of green, the green spectrum. Pure yellows are just hard to bring out in my head and when I see them on paper. I agree with most or all of that, and yeah, the image is a much better way of what I was trying to convey in my verbal diarrhea. 
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Apr 8, 2017 18:26
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-> 
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| # ? May 11, 2024 13:58 |
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...I just now noticed that the single Forest of Illusion(?) tree next to Streamside has a X ) face as opposed to every other one having the Jack o' Lantern-esque face.
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Apr 9, 2017 00:26
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 The level is cool but just too long. Each exit makes you solve at least two long and involved puzzles to win. Individually, the puzzles would be fun but taken together it's too much. Unfortunately, there wasn't really anywhere to cut throughout it because the majority of the video was slowly puzzling out the solutions so this is mostly unedited.
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Apr 10, 2017 18:14
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I don't normally like puzzle levels but I honestly feel like that one is a super elegant way of doing one. The check points and hints work well, and the "coin trails to show where sprites go" makes it easier to figure out for even a dummy like me. Doing it + the secret exit in one go definitely makes it run a bit long though, I agree.
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Apr 10, 2017 19:53
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You don't see many vertical levels.
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Apr 10, 2017 20:32
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I liked the verticality and the puzzles, but that really would have been better as two levels.
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Apr 10, 2017 21:25
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PurpleXVI posted:You don't see many vertical levels. There's a couple reasons for that, mostly stemming from the fact they're actually quite glitchy. There's a lot of weirdness with object wraparound, sprite weirdness due to loading when you scroll vertically and not horizontally, things like that. The goal post doesn't work properly in a vertical level, which is why the goal sphere exists (they can only be used on screens 0 and 1, and they still end without the fadeout ala a goal sphere anyways)... Not to mention SMW's vertical camera being a little bit weird. Since you can't use objects on the boundaries, you can just use Map16 but using wholly Map16 tends to make levels much larger in size, and layer priority doesn't work properly. You have less screens than a horizontal level, and there's a lot of layer 3 weirdness. Backgrounds can have issues with scrolling either due to tiling, or garbage showing up. Not to mention simply how hard it is to design a level where the player has to climb up, and how simple levels where you fall down tend to end up. Usually people just don't bother with them.
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Apr 10, 2017 21:41
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I think my vldcX level will put in a decently good word in favor of vertical levels. Actually there are a few vertical levels going into that hack, which is going to be pretty neat
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Apr 10, 2017 22:36
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So, what actually is Map16? I know it's a SMW thing and a lot of stuff uses it, but is it a tileset? Is it a sprite collection? Is it just some random name the guy who made Lunar Magic came up with and the community latched onto it?
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Apr 12, 2017 19:10
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Basically, how all the 2D Mario games (except Mario maker) works is the levels are built out of "objects." These objects are built out of the individual tiles. I'm not 100% on the other games, but I've fiddled with SMB3 a little bit before, and if you want to place custom things you need to make custom objects. Lunar magic, however, has a system called "Direct Map16 access." I'm not sure why it's called Map16 exactly, but probably because it's a tilemap of all the 16x16 tiles. This allows you to place the tiles directly instead of having to place the objects, and it's pretty goddamn powerful. It's a must when using custom graphics.  You have two ways to look at the Map16. The one on the left is through the Place Objects window, and the one on the right is the actual Map16 window. Each Map16 tile is constructed out of four 8x8 tiles, and each of those can be flipped in the X or Y direction, and have their own palette row selected. Each 16x16 tile can be set to act like another one (this is how you use things like custom blocks) and can have its layer priority turned on or off.  And the Map16 window has its own 8x8 selector to help with building these tiles. Here I've made a block that is the SMW grassland ground block with four different tiles set to act like tile 25 (which is air). The 8x8 selector can look at all the non-sprite graphics files you currently have selected for your level. EDIT: For reference, this is what the extra tileset of my VLDCX level ended up looking like:  Although all of these tiles are already in SMW, because I ended up remapping them or changing their palettes I had to place them on the Map16 page. Tyty fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Apr 12, 2017 |
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Apr 12, 2017 20:31
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I see! Thanks for the explanation!
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Apr 12, 2017 20:43
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 Wrapping up mountain world. The skull rafts in the first level are done really well for once and the second level is graphically impressive, though needed a bit more development with its themes and setups to be truly great.
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Apr 13, 2017 13:28
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I wanted to try these levels out. How exactly do you run this? Most of what I've tried worked poorly.
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Apr 13, 2017 13:34
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When you download the hack, you'll have a .bps patch. You'll also need to find and download from somewhere a Super Mario World rom. I can't link you to one directly. It should be 512KB big and might be labeled "Super Mario World (U) [!].smc" This is a standard SMW rom. Once you have the patch and the rom, you'll need to use a patching program like Flips (Floating IPS) to patch it. Follow the included instructions to properly patch the rom. Don't forget to make a copy of the rom you downloaded so you'll have a clean SMW rom for any further use You'll most likely need to use snes9x as your emulator (that's what we use). If you have a patched rom, all you need to do is load the rom in snes9x and you should be ready to play.
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Apr 13, 2017 13:57
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Snes9X seemed to have serious control issues (jumping out of water was nearly impossible), and bSNES (which has a new name I can't be bothered to remember) runs too slow to be useful. I take it that the game doesn't run on the real hardware?
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Apr 13, 2017 14:07
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I can't say I've had control issues with snes9x... Make sure you're holding up when trying to jump out? I'm not 100% certain but I have a feeling it doesn't run on real hardware.
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Apr 13, 2017 14:21
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FPzero posted:I can't say I've had control issues with snes9x... Make sure you're holding up when trying to jump out? That is the control issue I was having. Holding up was locking out the left and right buttons, so if you left the water it was very hard to actually land on the shore.
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Apr 13, 2017 15:13
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I had a similar issue which was fixed by mapping the diagonals properly on my controller. It's a little touchy but it's doable easy enough within three tries. In other emulators it doesn't matter, but it does for snes9x. If you haven't done that, try that. No idea if that works on keyboard though.
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Apr 13, 2017 15:26
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Gnoman posted:That is the control issue I was having. Holding up was locking out the left and right buttons, so if you left the water it was very hard to actually land on the shore. Are you using a keyboard for controls, by any chance? Keyboards have limits on how many keys they can have pressed at a time, and any remotely decent controller will be massively better than a keyboard.
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Apr 13, 2017 18:48
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Are you using a keyboard for controls, by any chance? Keyboards have limits on how many keys they can have pressed at a time, and any remotely decent controller will be massively better than a keyboard. Wired Xbox 360 controller. An Afterglow, to be precise.
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Apr 13, 2017 18:54
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Gnoman posted:Wired Xbox 360 controller. An Afterglow, to be precise. Are you using the stick or the Dpad? If it's the dpad, the controller reports "up-right" as a different input than "up" and "right" together. You'll need to dig into the emulator input options and enable a separate binding for the diagonals in that case. If you're using the stick it should just work fine, although if your deadzone is set really oddly then you'll run into problems. It shouldn't be, though.
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Apr 13, 2017 19:55
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I was using the D-Pad, as using a thumbstick to play Mario seems somewhat blasphemous.
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Apr 13, 2017 22:09
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Man there's some weird stuff about SMW. I had no idea those moving block snakes worked like that.
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Apr 13, 2017 22:30
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Dr Pepper posted:Man there's some weird stuff about SMW. It's really amazing any SNES game runs at all.
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Apr 13, 2017 22:34
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Trasson posted:It's really amazing any Fixed that for you. Modern games are just as tangled a mess as old console games were. In fact, modern games are even more complicated, leading to more opportunities to break things in new and interesting ways!
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Apr 13, 2017 22:40
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 FF6 Rando Part 10 - Grand Treason This week: betrayal.
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Apr 13, 2017 23:56
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I wouldn't write Zepeli off as the Absolute Worst quite yet. After all, you haven't come across the character that inherited Umaro's berserk status. You could get an exploding berserker! Or a runic berserker! I have that last one on the... interesting seed I've been playing. Fake edit: To be clear, I haven't played the LP's seed, so I'm not trying to be coy or anything. You could end up with a really good berserker for all I know!
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Apr 14, 2017 03:55
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Can berserkers use any command other than Fight? Zepeli might theoretically be redeemable by getting access to really awesome equipment. I mean, imagine if he were the only one able to use the Ragnarok.
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Apr 14, 2017 04:14
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Cattail Prophet posted:I wouldn't write Zepeli off as the Absolute Worst quite yet. After all, you haven't come across the character that inherited Umaro's berserk status. You could get an exploding berserker! Or a runic berserker! I have that last one on the... interesting seed I've been playing. TooMuchAbstraction posted:Zepeli might theoretically be redeemable by getting access to really awesome equipment. I mean, imagine if he were the only one able to use the Ragnarok. That is honestly the only possible redemption. He's able to equip basic swords, like the elemental blades we just got but not the enhancer, so I really doubt it. Since I'm delaying another week since this was episode was short on missed content I'm going to do a quick summary of our characters (note that Hato, Shanon, Gendo and Hiiro have had some esper bonuses, so their stats may not be stock) Party Average Stats: Strength 37, Speed 35, Stamina 32, Magic 32. Chichi, aside from Vigor is pure average. Strength is low, but she's here to heal rear end and chew doritos, and she's sometimes out of rear end, so no big loss there. Gendo is fast and strong. The third strongest on paper, but the strongest person we'd willingly choose to attack with. He's not bad, but he is boring. Jean currently is low across the board, his magic is terrible, which is really sad to see from the guy who ate a gem box. 13, 13! Zepeli is double that! I'm going to fix that as soon as I can. Viral is slow and weak, but his magic stat is above average, so once we get some magic in him we may see value. Hato needs no introduction, he's great if you can look past his unpredictability. Only Viral is slower than him. Magic is a little low, but still in the curve. Hiiro's stats are above average across the board. Fastest by far and second only to Shanon in raw magic power. R-elem has a much smaller pool to draw from, so damage should be more reliable than Hato, but it lacks the piercing strength of GrandTrain. Shanon is a glass cannon, Stamina is the only dump stat. Legato really only has magic going for him, he's one of the slowest ninja's ever. Zepeli is weak but fast. The only plan for him is when he has to be used, I need to cram his face full of the highest +Strength Esper I can find. In vanilla I love Cyan as a character, but drat if Zepeli doesn't beat him out for most pathetic member. If we were to enter Kefka's tower today, Zepeli would definitely be left on the ship, and the second seat would either be Gendo or Legato, depending on if I had enough skeins or MP to sustain offense with Legato.
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Apr 14, 2017 04:48
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FPzero posted:
Lots of these levels supply one-ups, which seems odd to me for a compilation ROM with infinite lives. I know there's the checkpoint mechanic that generates one, but why else would they be there? A concession to the notion that the level might appear in a 'normal' game?
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Apr 14, 2017 05:20
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I just assumed they were unaware that in the final product infinite lives would be a thing
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Apr 14, 2017 05:34
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Yeah as far as I can tell everyone just assumed lives would be a thing. The other thing about lives is that they're a nice little reward to hand out to the player so people like to design little things for them.
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Apr 14, 2017 06:00
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ArcMage posted:Lots of these levels supply one-ups, which seems odd to me for a compilation ROM with infinite lives. I know there's the checkpoint mechanic that generates one, but why else would they be there? There's not really much in the way of bonus things to hand out to players for jumping through your optional deathtrap. You don't want to give power ups, since power ups aren't meant to be bonus extras. As well, anyone who can get through your optional deathtrap doesn't need a power up. You can't give out pure points, for all those are worth. So, you can give coins, which are just fractions of lives, or lives. If vanilla SMW had Genesis Sonic special stage rings or more esoteric powerups like the Hammer Bros. suit those would be excellent to put in this sort of thing. As it stands, optional deathtraps tend to just have the satisfaction of doing them as the reward.
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Apr 14, 2017 06:08
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FeyerbrandX posted:Jean currently is low across the board, his magic is terrible, which is really sad to see from the guy who ate a gem box. Extra fun: because his skill is X Magic and not just Magic, he can't cast anything outside of battle.
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Apr 14, 2017 06:43
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oldskool posted:Extra fun: because his skill is X Magic and not just Magic, he can't cast anything outside of battle. Yep, I realized it as soon as Chichi got back. But I didn't realize his magic stat was poo poo until last night. You know what else doesn't know his magic stat is poo poo? Break 
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Apr 14, 2017 11:36
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Can you Runic Blue Magic? I want to say that you can Runic anything that costs MP but I've honestly never tried it with Blue Magic. Honestly it would be a sweet ability if you could use it against the late-game "magic" like Absolute 0 but I'm guessing that it doesn't work there because those abilities don't actually have MP costs.
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Apr 14, 2017 14:44
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C-Euro posted:Can you Runic Blue Magic? I want to say that you can Runic anything that costs MP but I've honestly never tried it with Blue Magic. Honestly it would be a sweet ability if you could use it against the late-game "magic" like Absolute 0 but I'm guessing that it doesn't work there because those abilities don't actually have MP costs. IIRC a lot of monster spells have an MP cost of 20, but Runic is hardcoded to only work against proper "spell" spells with the color dot and everything.
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Apr 14, 2017 15:02
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Spells Vs Spell-like effect
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Apr 14, 2017 15:49
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Fixed that for you. Modern games are just as tangled a mess as old console games were. In fact, modern games are even more complicated, leading to more opportunities to break things in new and interesting ways! Hopefully with a little less opportunity to get arbitrary code execution. (And the Car Boys videos, which I'm sure everybody here watches, is good support for your claim...)
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Apr 14, 2017 17:06
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| # ? May 11, 2024 13:58 |
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 Welcome to Abstract World where levels don't make physical sense! This is a very special session because Tyty was visiting from Canada and we decided we absolutely had to record VLDC at some point. Please excuse the unclean audio over the next several videos, especially the clicks of the analog stick. It's much harder to edit out background noise when you have two people on the same open mic. We start off with two very different levels that each give us varying amounts of trouble but in a good way. The sprite setups in the second one are pretty great and challenging!
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Apr 15, 2017 18:54
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