Cave Story - Redesign v0.50.6

the new fireball block effect is really cool 0.0
e. in malco's first dialoug, right when he's talking about the fireball, he says is'nt instead of isn't.

 

It's fixed this version, despite the readme not saying so. Sorry, I forgot to put it in there.

January 28th, 2012 - v0.39.7 release.
- Added the missing puppy. (Sorry, my bad)
- Moved sparkler chest so it's no longer possible to 'accidently not find it before completing jenka's puppy quest'.
- Fixed the break away bricks in [sand2] that looked like skulls during the cutscene.
- Fixed minor cutscene bug with Jenka if the player activated the first puppy before talking to her while carrying the second puppy.
- Fixed being able to bring puppy back to mimiga village.

 

I have to say, I really love the jump boots. totally awesome.

the flying bugs in sand zone get caught on the thin platforms sometimes
that's about it? this is really shaping up to be a lot of fun. thereis definatly a more "metroid" feel to the game with all these unlockables and secondary paths etc.

 

I have explored every corner of the caves, attained 57 health and 32 missiles, ran into multiple unfinished secret paths and joke signs... but two questions remain unanswered.

1. What is the widowmaker's lair? The game thinks I have beaten it, as the hole in the Power Room revealed. Did it have something to do with the acid-filled hell below egg corridor?

2. Where the hell is the Blaze Blaster? Others seem to find it just fine, I just can't. The cavern is getting too big to search, and everywhere I look is either a lesser upgrade or a fake-out.

FOUND IT! I guess I didn't look everywhere, that was pretty easy to get to once I spotted the location on the map.
Instead, can you tell me what's the recommended ammo for this thing?

 

Did the bushlands upper-area plunge to the bottom of the map ever get fixed? I think it was reported earlier in this thread. It is game breaking.

 

Updated for the first installment of the Labyrinth. Be sure and look through the version notes, quite a lot was done this patch.

1. What is the widowmaker's lair? The game thinks I have beaten it, as the hole in the Power Room revealed. Did it have something to do with the acid-filled hell below egg corridor?

The widowmaker's lair is now inaccessable, but it was the room in the graveyard that was high up off the ground. Inside is a one on one showdown against (iirc) six widowmakers. Widowmakers appear inside the catacombs rarely. They look like the gravekeeper in the graveyard, but are darker and carry a golden blade. They move considerably faster, and swing much, much faster. With only pre-labyrinth items, they are very tough to kill.

2. Where the hell is the Blaze Blaster? Others seem to find it just fine, I just can't. The cavern is getting too big to search, and everywhere I look is either a lesser upgrade or a fake-out.
FOUND IT! I guess I didn't look everywhere, that was pretty easy to get to once I spotted the location on the map.
Instead, can you tell me what's the recommended ammo for this thing?

The blaze blaster has been moved to the Labyrinth now. It's fairly easy to find, since obtaining it unlocks several passages. The fireball weapon has no ammo item, and will not have an ammo item. You will be able to find fireball expansions however, that will increase the max ammo by 25 per expansion.

Did the bushlands upper-area plunge to the bottom of the map ever get fixed? I think it was reported earlier in this thread. It is game breaking.

Bushlands? Do you mean Grasstown? I'm not aware of any out of bounds problems with the grasstown maps. There may of been one earlier in development, but if so then it's long since been fixed.

 

This is a very impressive mod, I love the huge levels and the extra parts of dialogue. Wow, King is nasty

The bat swarm fight was really cool.
The second Balrog fight I found frustrating - it's hard to control yourself with those randomly moving green things that push you, and Balrog throws balls that push you and block missiles. I found him much harder than any other boss I've seen in this game.
The mega missile is a nice touch, especially the way it looks. I had no idea you could mod the W key like that.
The sand worm fight is an awesome idea, but I think the execution could be tweaked a bit. Right now, I can defeat by just standing at the bottom and firing upwards, ignoring everything else in the room. Sure, I'll get hit, but all those blobs drop powerups anyway, so I end the battle with a L3 gun and almost full health.
Sparkler is very useful.
Frenzied Toroko was a pushover, she dropped within seconds by just focus firing with the dual autogun. Curly was also very easy.
It's funny when you drop into big spikes while carrying the reserve tank, and end up taking 999 damage followed by 1998 damage.

Small bugs in the version you just put up today:
I'm seeing some odd-looking bucket sprites in Yamashita Farm.
In the Curly fight you can jump to the top floor and just drop down fireballs, I doubt that was the intent.
The missile upgrade at the end of catacombs respawned when I entered the area again from the top.
I found Kazuma by accident, I had no idea he was in that weeds level. Perhaps this needs a hint?
In the catacombs, I reached the right side of the level; there I could walk off-screen, and proceeded to fall to the bottom, get pushed all the way to the left of the level, and drown. That was odd.
Occasionally, mega missiles will fly through a missile block without affecting it.
Considering I just dropped down a canyon, I'm wondering why I can't just jump off the Sand Zone lookout? It's not all that high.
I wonder why enemies drop autogun ammo considering it refills itself really fast? I've had a few times where I was farming for experience triangles and all enemies I killed dropped an autogun refill instead, that was kind of annoying.

And right now I'm stuck in the first room of the Labyrinth. I suppose I need to jump high and use the two Sparkler shots to boost myself to the next platform, but I can't get high enough. I had the same problem with the save point in the west-most Sand Zone, I just can't reach the platform even with the Sparkler. Am I doing something wrong here?

So anyway, awesome work and keep it up! These are just small bugs, I don't mind them but I figured you might like getting bug reports.

 

This is a very impressive mod, I love the huge levels and the extra parts of dialogue. Wow, King is nasty

The bat swarm fight was really cool.
The second Balrog fight I found frustrating - it's hard to control yourself with those randomly moving green things that push you, and Balrog throws balls that push you and block missiles. I found him much harder than any other boss I've seen in this game.
The mega missile is a nice touch, especially the way it looks. I had no idea you could mod the W key like that.
The sand worm fight is an awesome idea, but I think the execution could be tweaked a bit. Right now, I can defeat by just standing at the bottom and firing upwards, ignoring everything else in the room. Sure, I'll get hit, but all those blobs drop powerups anyway, so I end the battle with a L3 gun and almost full health.
Sparkler is very useful.
Frenzied Toroko was a pushover, she dropped within seconds by just focus firing with the dual autogun. Curly was also very easy.
It's funny when you drop into big spikes while carrying the reserve tank, and end up taking 999 damage followed by 1998 damage.

Small bugs in the version you just put up today:
I'm seeing some odd-looking bucket sprites in Yamashita Farm.
In the Curly fight you can jump to the top floor and just drop down fireballs, I doubt that was the intent.
The missile upgrade at the end of catacombs respawned when I entered the area again from the top.
I found Kazuma by accident, I had no idea he was in that weeds level. Perhaps this needs a hint?
In the catacombs, I reached the right side of the level; there I could walk off-screen, and proceeded to fall to the bottom, get pushed all the way to the left of the level, and drown. That was odd.
Occasionally, mega missiles will fly through a missile block without affecting it.
Considering I just dropped down a canyon, I'm wondering why I can't just jump off the Sand Zone lookout? It's not all that high.
I wonder why enemies drop autogun ammo considering it refills itself really fast? I've had a few times where I was farming for experience triangles and all enemies I killed dropped an autogun refill instead, that was kind of annoying.

And right now I'm stuck in the first room of the Labyrinth. I suppose I need to jump high and use the two Sparkler shots to boost myself to the next platform, but I can't get high enough. I had the same problem with the save point in the west-most Sand Zone, I just can't reach the platform even with the Sparkler. Am I doing something wrong here?

So anyway, awesome work and keep it up! These are just small bugs, I don't mind them but I figured you might like getting bug reports.

For the first area in the Labyrinth, you need to fire down while in the air and holding the jump button. You should have at least two sparkler shots available by the time you get to the Labyrinth. I've tried to make sure that it's possible to get out of the hole with only one shot available.

The powerups that enemies drop are based on what quote actually needs. If you're in need of missile ammo, they'll drop missiles more often. Or health, if you're hurt, etc.

I may allow players to jump off the lookout later, but the idea was to 'require' the Curly encounter.

I know about the missile thing, it's an issue with how pixel's original code calculates projectile position and tile edges.

I'll investigate where it is in the Catacombs that this occurs, as well as the missile powerup thing.

Thanks for pointing out the bucket sprite thing, I completely forgot about placing buckets in the farm.

The way the boss fights are designed is they are fairly difficult until you learn the tactic for beating them. For Igor, for instance, the tactic is to -not- jump out of the way when he lunges at you. For the second Balrog fight, there are several tactics you can use to your advantage. The first is to get him to drop into one of the two holes in the room (where his projectile spam is fairly harmless), and spam him while he's in the air. The second is to actually ride on top of him, and get higher up, out of the way of the spam he throws, as you can stand on top of the rafters in the ceiling. The Curly fight is supposed to be easy, though. Toroko will be tweaked more once her and King's scene is better developed (note that this will involve Sue's Locket, back in the reservoir.) Thanks for pointing out the ease of the Sand Worm fight. With recent changes to many elements of the combat, I may need to go into their code and program the little blobs to selectively set their EXP value to 0 at random - which would reduce the in-battle loot, but not eliminate it completely.

As for Kazuma, yes the shelter is in The Weed, in Grasstown. Sue talks about Kazuma being in Grasstown, and if you talk to the residents in Grasstown, one of them will tell you about a shelter (iirc).

Edit: Okay yeah, I see what you were talking about in the catacombs. I forgot to replace those tiles with speed booster blocks. Whoops.

 

Okay, I tried the Labyrinth again; it helps if I keep holding down the jump button while sparklering, but I still cannot do those jumps with any degree of consistency. They work for me about one time out of ten, failing the other nine. And since I need several such jumps in a row (and a mistake can drop me back down), this is rather frustrating.

Oh yeah, minor detail: I found myself wanting to turn the music off in certain areas, because some of the calm, and very short songs get repetitive when used in a huge action area like the Sand Zone.

 

Alright, this is how to do it:

Spoiler

The White lines are just regular jumps. The red X's signify spikes. The yellow X's signify where you should point down and shoot. Yellow lines signify jumps that pretty much demand the sparkler the entire jump. Note that there are more ways than just this, and it is possible to escape by climbing only the left wall. This is all also possible with just a single sparkler (1/1 ammo). The most sparkler ammo you can have by the time you reach this point is 4. How? Don't go into the red seed storage room right away. Go fix the teleporter, and visit areas you've previously been to. Some areas that were out of reach before, no longer are now that you have the sparkler. I'll also point out that it is possible (though tricky) to obtain the sparkler before defeating the sand worm.

Good luck.

 

I like the gameplay, although it's kinda hard without practice... but when I first found out about the Sacred Grounds, I tried to beat the brother of Jenka, and it took me more than two months to actually beat him (the best I ever did before beating him, I had 6 HP before getting killed by his third form's defense). But with practice, this mod can become easier to play. A mod I'm working on is HARD, and a previous attempt, the protagonist had 15 MAX HP, and said protagonist actually managed to beat Red Demon, Misery and both forms of the Doctor before going up higher, to end up at what was Arthur's house. And I'm busy with what, EIGHT mods? Wow, that's a lot... But this mod is cool, yeah.

The secrets are hard to find, and I kinda like

Spoiler

the secret place which has the Life Capsule and the Fireball or upgrade or whatever.

Really good. Then there's the monsters and foes that Quote has to fight. Completely impressive. I am unable to make my own foes, but I have my own way - I replaced the Gaudis with crocodiles. In one of my mods. The only way I can make new monsters. Unfortunately. But yeah, I'm really surprised and the toughness of them, too, and that a flying Giant Critter is actually a BOSS. Of course, one of my failed mods used a Droll as a boss, only to be followed by a Red Demon-like Droll (acting like Red Demon, obviously), and with one of my mods, I may actually manage to make even a Night Spirit as a boss after turning all weapons into Level 1 (which, in one of my mods I am working on, I actually did).

In terms of the areas, most of them are complete, but most of them aren't. Those who explore would probably know, even though this is still a mod in progress - and those monsters in the old village that are kinda invisible until they start coming out? I think they're called what, Darklings? They're awesome. Even more awesome than dancing squirrels... but why DID I place "dancing squirrels"?

Spoiler

Maybe memorizing 75^4 was a bit crazy?

As for the Blade, that was AWESOME! Allowing for it to be a ranged AND close combat weapon, that I didn't expect. I guess the Nemesis will eventually STILL be in this mod, though. And if Curly uses the machine gun, that'll probably be in the next version. But I still like the blade... and numerous of my in-progress mods has the protagonist starting with a sword, or getting one as his or her first weapon. But a CLOSE COMBAT sword? The best way for me to imitate that is by making it short-range!

I really must admit, this (at the moment) 15-year old is actually more impressed by this mod than by any other mod I've seen so far (including that other "King's Story" mod). And seeing as this mod is awesome already, to add more awesome would probably make it super awesome. Anything that may seem offensive is not meant offensive, since I say things in my own way... and sometimes it confuses people.

 

I guess the Nemesis will eventually STILL be in this mod, though.

Actually I plan to completely replace the Nemesis with a Lightning Gun that has two shooting modes. One, shoots bolts that arc a bit randomly, but shoot in the direction you point (it'll have a conical area of effect, but will only strike one target- increased weapon levels add additional jumps). Two, charging the weapon with [Map] will ramp up the damage the more it's held, and when released it'll fire a very thick lightning bolt onto a single target, which will then split into two, arc onto two other targets, those split, etc. etc. The only downside is charging the weapon will actually consume the weapon's XP.

Also plan to do homing missiles for the missile launcher.

Still working on the Grappling Hook, though.

Glad you like everything so far, look forward to more.

 

Update:

I've gotten the Grappling Hook working now. The physics seem to be stable, and the swinging motion is very smooth and fluid. Quote does do a funny little dance if you stop swinging and just let him dangle, though. Not really sure why.

The update will come when Chaba's little side quest to get the Grappling Hook is done. The plan is that the Grappling Hook will be instrumental in fighting Monster-X (such as you'll be able to latch onto certain parts of the boss).

 

Well. The grappling hook looks AWESOME! Will is be able to work on any walls or only those "plus" walls? And can you try to make the Map System viewable with a button (such as M) or will it have no shortcut key? As for the inventory window, I assume it won't look glitched or anything? I tried six weapons in one mod, and the inventory window didn't look right. And you are probably going to do something to prevent the game crashing if the player has more than 24 items? Or will the player never get more than twenty-four items?
As for the funny dance thing, maybe he's afraid of heights? (sarcasm, obviously)

 

The Grapp;ling Hook does SEEM great, but it looks different. It doesn't seem to emulate Pixel's style very well, and you're really good at doing that. I would suggest using a chain that's actually IN Cave Story already, and then use the head you used in ArmsItem or whatever, but simplify it, or switch the current actual sprite with the ArmsItem one, because the sctual sprite is usually simpler than the ArmsItem sprite. You follow?

 

I assume that you accidentally typed the ";" there. And I agree with Dunc2403. And then I realize that I'm the only one here who hasn't finished a mod yet due to lack of graphics. And then I agree with Dunc2403. It's going to be an endless loop, so I'm gonna stop this post here. STOP.

Okay. And the horizontal chains would have to be rotated, but I think it's possible to work perfectly. As soon as the next version's playable to me, I'll go as quick as I can until I get the Grappling Hook, and see if I like it. I already like the sword and the Grappling Hook's going to be awesome, I can say. Anything offensive, I apologize, but I don't think it'll be offensive here. Say, will the Grappling Hook also be able to hurt enemies hit by the hook's head, or not?

EDIT:
Forgot to ask yesterday, so I'll ask today. What other weapons are you planning to replace from the original? The sparkler-weapon is the replacement of the Bubbler, I take it, and the Machine Gun is replaced by the Auto Gun. I really like the Blade, as I have mentioned in a previous post, but I miss the "bladestorm" caused by a Level 3 Blade in the original game. Will you be able to add a third firing mode, if possible? The splash damage caused by the Blade is good enough to remove numerous monsters from the area, unless they're immune or take little damage (Ballos, for example, takes 1 DMG at the Blade's edge).

 

If you would like to, could you put in a method of upgrading the grappling hook, from going to Metroid grapple blocks, to any block? Or would that require doing something that would not work well in game?

 

If you would like to, could you put in a method of upgrading the grappling hook, from going to Metroid grapple blocks, to any block? Or would that require doing something that would not work well in game?

I'd like to know the answer to that question too. Without being hasty. Patience is the key.

 

Alrighty...

One - The grappling hook could be modified to stick to any solid block, but that was never the intention. It's nothing like the grappling hook in Terraria.

Two - The reason the chain looks the way it does is because rendering a circle is a lot easier than rendering a chain made up of longer links. Mainly because there would need to be sprites for 16 directions, and the direction would also have to be calculated, and the resulting chain could look awkward or could end up with a twitch in the sprites. So, a circular link was really the only sensible method... and a circular sprite requires less cycles to render a chain than a dot would require to render a rope or a line - which might look better, or cleaner at least.

Three - As for the grappling hook's anchor, the sprite is actually the same as the one in armsitem. It's just a different palette, and of course it has multiple directions.

Four - The grappling hook's anchor does cause damage to enemies, but it is relatively minor compared to the other weapons. As a bonus though, if you shoot a pickup item such as a heart, or missile, with the grappling hook, the pickup will be collected instantly. There are also plans for the grappling hook and Curly, such as shooting curly with the grappling hook would haul her back to quote, where she would ride on his back. Some undetermined button or combination would tell Curly to 'get off' and follow Quote instead.

Five - I've considered possibly adding a mini-map screen in the top right corner, but I am uncertain whether or not it would lag, how much it would lag, etc. In super metroid and other such games with a minimap, the images it uses are completely separate of the physical game environment, meaning a 'sub-map' of each map in the game would have to be made, stored, and accessed somehow.

And lastly... more weapons are planned. The Spur is going to remain, but will have a handy feature where the beam will be able to ricochet off of certain walls, splitting into two smaller beams when it does. I've considered the possibility of adding a charged-shot to the Autogun (would be a [Map] key function), a flamethrower effect to the Fireball (again, [Map] effect). Not sure what could be added to the Sparkler. The missile launcher is still going to get further upgrades. Two planned upgrades is a cluster-fire mechanism, where holding [Shoot] will charge the missile launcher, and releasing [Shoot] will fire multiple missiles at the same time. Note that this feature won't work with [Map] (super missiles). The second planned upgrade is a homing missile that will fire straight, scan a conical region infront of itself for enemies, change sprites if it detects one (such as a light on the missile's nosecone coming on and blinking), and then guide itself onto that enemy. Otherwise, they'd just fly straight. I've also dabbled with the idea of a freeze ray, or ice beam, and what the different aspects of that game mechanism would mean for the engine. It's easily the most complex idea. There's also going to be a speed booster type of item, and I'd like to do some type of pseudo powerbomb. I've also looked at the possibility and feasibility of a wall kick mechanism.

 

Alrighty...
One - The grappling hook could be modified to stick to any solid block, but that was never the intention. It's nothing like the grappling hook in Terraria.
Two - The reason the chain looks the way it does is because rendering a circle is a lot easier than rendering a chain made up of longer links. Mainly because there would need to be sprites for 16 directions, and the direction would also have to be calculated, and the resulting chain could look awkward or could end up with a twitch in the sprites. So, a circular link was really the only sensible method... and a circular sprite requires less cycles to render a chain than a dot would require to render a rope or a line - which might look better, or cleaner at least.
Three - As for the grappling hook's anchor, the sprite is actually the same as the one in armsitem. It's just a different palette, and of course it has multiple directions.
Four - The grappling hook's anchor does cause damage to enemies, but it is relatively minor compared to the other weapons. As a bonus though, if you shoot a pickup item such as a heart, or missile, with the grappling hook, the pickup will be collected instantly. There are also plans for the grappling hook and Curly, such as shooting curly with the grappling hook would haul her back to quote, where she would ride on his back. Some undetermined button or combination would tell Curly to 'get off' and follow Quote instead.
And lastly... more weapons are planned. The Spur is going to remain, but will have a handy feature where the beam will be able to ricochet off of certain walls, splitting into two smaller beams when it does. The missile launcher is still going to get further upgrades. Two planned upgrades is a cluster-fire mechanism, where holding [Shoot] will charge the missile launcher, and releasing [Shoot] will fire multiple missiles at the same time. Note that this feature won't work with [Map] (super missiles). The second planned upgrade is a homing missile that will fire straight, scan a conical region infront of itself for enemies, change sprites if it detects one (such as a light on the missile's nosecone coming on and blinking), and then guide itself onto that enemy. Otherwise, they'd just fly straight. I've also dabbled with the idea of a freeze ray, or ice beam, and what the different aspects of that game mechanism would mean for the engine. It's easily the most complex idea. There's also going to be a speed booster type of item, and I'd like to do some type of pseudo powerbomb. I've also looked at the possibility and feasibility of a wall kick mechanism.

The ice beam would be my second favourite weapon. And the wall-kick (or walljump, as I'm used to) is a pretty good idea.