Cave Story ~ The Lost Mage and Pirate

~Finally, it's done!!
My first released mod!!
But, before you play it, first some Background story and such:
~This mod's going to take place during the original Cave Story story, so much of the mod won't make sense if you haven't gotten the true ending and beaten you-know-who, the Crazy Ball of Insanity. {If you haven't, then you suck and I hate you for not saving Curly D=}
You play as Lowell and Khan, a Void Mage and Space Pirate, respectively.
~Lowell had just discovered something else he could do by manipulating the Void, where he would "Shove" an object through an open Tear and have it exit through a second Tear, causing it to "Teleport", or "Move" across respectable distances.
While he was showing this new spell off to his friend, Khan, something unexpected happened {Of course} and the Tear that Lowell had just opened to throw something into swelled to immense proportions, swallowing both the Mage and Pirate.
The mod picks up after our characters exit through the second Tear {Well, one of them, at least...}
~This first part's pretty easy, as it mostly focuses on hordes of enemies, so all you need is a good trigger finger to get you through this part.
That said, save points are a bit sparse, so dieing hurts, specially if you have to go through the Security Checkpoint, >=D
~Do tell me if you see any grammatical or spelling errors, strange parts of the story that don't make sense, weird glitches, or etc. As, even though I'm a magnet to bugs, I'll always magically miss them in anything I make.
~Also, read the next Post for clarifications on parts of the mod that don't make sense, as some of it's on purpose {After you've beaten the first part, of course}. This is only the first part, so I can't jam the whole entire story in, just yet.
~Also, be warned. This is the first story I've ever seriously written. So it might be cheezy in a few spots, or several. Maybe even the entire story has the ability to induce extreme constipation. But I like it, so =P
~Anywho's, I've lost my train of thought, so I'll just edit this if I remember whatever it is I forgot, so here's teh modz!!!
{Warning, dialogue's heavy. Might be because it's the first part, but I doubt it. =D}

~DOWNLOAD:
Alright, here's the {hopefully} finally update until the next part. Fixed a lot of things, even added a new room that'll be of help later on.
But this is mostly to get it ready for some LP's. ;
Cave Story ~ The Lost Mage and Pirate V.P1F eSnips
Cave Story ~ The Lost Mage and Pirate V.P1F Mediafire

{I leave it workin', but I'm pretty tired as I post/edit this. There shouldn't be any more bugs, but lemme know if you find some, anyways...}

~SCREENSHOTS:

New Message Box image and Text.
No, it's not Comic Sans MS, because that's way too hard to read...
It's....uh....*Looks it up*.....
...Segoe Print.....?

New little animation for Rock Ogres, they actually toss a rock instead of acting like total Droll clones....

I can't find too many things to screenshot, without spoilers which would reduce the "LOL" and "WTF" moments for new players, but once the new spoiler tags are decided completely {Because if I use them now, they might switch on me later...}, I might use those to hide new pictures....
Anyways, here's a little secret, I leave you with...

Where could this be? =O
What could be it's purpose?



~Updated as of July 4th, 2009. 10:57 AM

 

READ ONLY AFTER BEATING

Spoiler

Ok, I'ma try to do this in chronological order, so first we start with:

At the beginning, the rumbling and flashing is from the second Void Tear, if you didn't notice Lowell's glance when he talked about it.

The random magic? Take a wild guess.
Yeap, it's Ballos. Why? Why would he do something as random as this? You'll see.

That sign? Suppose to say "Marx's House! Keep out!!"

Marx: the strange mystical guide that's one of the basics in literature. Notice he's yellow? Aren't Mimiga's white? Maybe he's not a Mimiga...? Who knows! Also notice that he said '..when you guys flied here." and notice how quickly he believe Lowell? He's hiding something!!!

Misery and Doctor: The background's screwed up because I'm too lazy to do the work required to fix it, so I'll save that for a later date ^.^
I didn't purposely make Misery seem stupid, it's suppose to be how she acts around the Crown's Bearer. And tell me if you think they sounded like the real Misery or Doctor, ^.^;
And notice she said "Bursts", Plural. Lowell and Khan aren't the only unfortunate souls randomly brought to the island.

The Facility: Suppose to be one of the many abandoned bases left behind after the War. Really old, and such, too.

The Corridors and Bridge: Well, after so many years of dis-use and ill-repairs, these hastily set up and not even completed pathways have began to fall apart. Luckily {or Unluckily}, they never end up blocking the way. Even the Bridge is still cross-able. To some degree.

Rock Ogre: Based off the unused sprite, I just made animations for him to take over the Droll's script. They're pretty tough, one hitting you unless you beat the Quiz, and they're rumored to have a secret tribe, somewhere...

Khan's shocking surprise: Yeah, Khan pissed off the computer, so it shocked him. That's what happened if you couldn't tell, XD

Balrog and Misery: When Misery says "Strange fellow", she meant Quote. And "other interferences"? Looks like Misery's already dealt with other Lowell's and Khan's {My thought on why she and Balrog aren't constantly harassing Quote}. And when Balrog goes "Beaten twice in one day!?" he was talking about Quote having already beaten him.

GSp: Don't want to give too much info for GSp, as you're suppose to find out most of it in the mod, but just to help avoid confusion, GSp is not from the same world as Lowell and Khan, or even the Island and Mimigas.
You'll find out more about him and exactly what's wrong with him and why, if you play your cards right.
He's one of the variables for the true ending....

Depression: Noticed GSp was able to bring up magma to the surface? The Depression's an abandoned add-on because it was too close to a hot spot. The idea was that whoever build the facility needed some source of immense heat to use as a source of energy, but the Depression was too close to the hot spot.
The generator's at another hot spot, hence the Cooling system and Air conditioning, but it's more contained...

The Claw: Poor robot dood. Those are suppose to be balls of energy it fires, not sure if you can tell XD

The Quiz: This is just a random mini-game, one of many that you'll see. I've planned on Balrog hosting most of them, but there will be other special guests. The Quiz is suppose to be pretty easy, with a 50/50 chance on everything and since you can retry it, so the prize isn't all that great, but it'll help in a pinch {EX: Rock Ogres}
Lowell and Khan will also never remember these Mini-games...
...hopefully.

Hidden Room: It's the idea of what's behind the fireplace, since you're never able to even investigate it...{Even though you can see Pixel put a blank entity in front of it...}

The Credits: Probably don't even belong in the mod yet, but they're mostly there for me. Easier to adjust things and add to it as more characters and enemies pop up, now....

 

I shall be the first to play it.

 

Nice mod.
The beginning is the best.
The ambiance, the starting, it reminded
me of a awesome arcade game for some
odd reason, haha.

When you die, and restart, you
appear in pure blackness and for
somewhat reason, you start to
"Drown".

Also, when you save, for some
reason I couldn't load.

Other than that, very fun mod,
and very interesting dialouge.

 

Sorrah

I shall be the first to play it.

Actually, SpacePirateKhan has already played it. {His sister{s], possibly, too}
Needed his characters dialogue, and the best way to get it is to have him experience the actual game.
That and he catches what bugs I miss before any actual release.

Nice mod.
The beginning is the best.
The ambiance, the starting, it reminded
me of a awesome arcade game for some
odd reason, haha.

When you die, and restart, you
appear in pure blackness and for
somewhat reason, you start to
"Drown".

Also, when you save, for some
reason I couldn't load.

Other than that, very fun mod,
and very interesting dialouge.

Yeah, you drowned because you were in the first room. Not sure how to fix tha-----WAIT, I JUST FIGURED OUT HOW!!
DAMNIT!!!
XD
Well, just save right at the beginning to avoid that.
And, you can't load?
Khan's or I have never had that problem....

Oh yeah, Khan said the Dialogue was the best part, XD

 

Wish I could play this D: I shall play when my computer is working again though <3 Looking forward to it!

 

Just finished it, loved it, aced the Quiz, and I will write a full review tomorrow. Right now is the time for sleeping. I'll say this right now, though: cut down on the dialog.

 

Downloading now...
I've been looking forward to this one for a while now and it sounds pretty good.
When I finish playing through I'll give you some feedback.
Okay I haven't finished it ye i fact I've barely started but what I have to say right now,
you gotta use some skip flags, cause the first cave was well made and pretty difficult but I kept
dieing right after the dialogue with the yellow mimiga.

 

can you reupload as a zip file by any chance

 

PS: I'm not sure how long Fileflyer will keep this up, but I don't know any other good sites =D

I would recommend mediafire.

http://www.mediafire.com/

 

Got up to the bridge then died and decided it was too late to have another go. I'll finish it tomorrow, but it seems awesome so far! Some really creative cutscenes.

 

Okay I've finnally finished playing through. It's a pretty interesting mod so far. The quiz bit was pretty fun but as of now, I can't be bothered to try and get them all right for the prize. I'm looking forward to more

 

OMG SPOILERS:

People here seem to be saying the dialog is the best part. I can't say I agree. It's the second best part. Every second that Balrog was on the screen was pure awesome.
But yeah, the dialog's really great, however, it's also the biggest problem. There is just so much of it. Mr. Void Mage comments on everything that happens, which while funny, also gets in the way of gameplay. And some of the conversations were way too long. I got killed by a Rock Ogre on the bridge (only time I died) and had to restart a long way back, and sit through a tidal wave of text I'd already seen. Awesome the first time, yes, but the second time I saw Khan get zapped, I was actually reading The Zombie Survival Guide. So keep up your genius dialog, but less is more. I want to blow up monsters. Also, the conversation between Misery and the Doctor was fine. I didn't think it was cheesy at all.
You should also put in a save point right before the bridge, so I don't have to sit through that stuff. And speaking of cutting down on waits, is there a reason why those lifts had to go so slowly?
I was impressed by all the custom sprites and portraits, although GSp's portrait was a bit off. It looked like he had an enormous head. By the way, I thought that Lowell had been punched in the face when he came back from that door with his nose bleeding. Bonus: it took me a while to figure out that Khan was a modified King.
Speaking of GSp, is he a ninja? Is that why he hates pirates so much? I think if your mod had a suitcase game show host, a space pirate and a robot ninja it would get close to being as awesome as Cave Story itself.
Heh heh... Tubby Toaster.
The Quiz was friggin random. (Oh yeah, you used the word "random" a lot at the beginning. Kind of took away from the whole mysterious thing) The Quiz is probably the most memorable part of your mod, since it's the most original. I wanted Lowell to keep that hat... it was an epic hat. And yeah, I aced the quiz, so that's probably why I liked it so much.
I really can't wait for Part II. Maybe Khan will actually get to shoot something?

 

WARNING: Some moderate spoilers.

First a question: Why does Marx say random words in all caps?

Second, I also love the dialogue and cutscenes, they literally had me laughing out loud,but some skipflags in places other than the bosses would be nice.

Third, the new experience bar is cool, but hard to read. It looks to me like it says Over gooo! :S

And last, there was a cutscene in the security checkpoint that doesn't stop the enemies, so it jumped on we while I couldn't move. I didn't die, but I was still annoyed.

Anyway, I loved it so far, looking forward to the next release!

PS I can help you with weapon hacking and possibly NPC hacking if you have any cool ideas but aren't sure how to implement them. I've been helping GIR out with WTF story, and its actually not that hard to create hacks for people.

 

delicious.
I love baklava.

which happens to apply to your mod, too.
good job.

 

Can you please post some screenshots? It gives better presentation...

 

Thanks!!

Wow! I really didn't expect everyone to like my mod so much!!
I thought Khan was just saying it was awesome because he was in it and he wanted to be nice, XD
Thanks doods!!!
{Although, whaddya think of the story so far? It's the first story I've ever seriously written....{As in, not for School and such, XD} }

To Captain:
Yeah, if everyone's really getting bored with the dialogue, I'll probably add a bit more save points...
And, Lowell's suppose to voice his comments on everything.
I mean, wouldn't you if you found yourself in the same situation?
One of the ideas behind the mod is to voice everyone's thoughts of Cave Story through Lowell. He'll just say what's been one everyone else's mind.
And you really think I did a good job with Misery, Doctor, and Balrog?
I hope I can do as good with Jenka....
The lifts are slow because that's the animation speed. If I learned some Assembly {Which I'll have to by the third weapon, don't want to use all of the Cave Story originals...So help with Assembly would be appreciated ^.^;}, I might be able to speed them up.
Also, remember what Lowell said about Security Checkpoints?
"Overall long and unnecessary" That's basically what that room is. It's also another deterrent to dieing, because you wouldn't want to go through all that again.
Lowell's bleeding noise is from a common Anime thingy {Same as the drop going down the side of his head}, and it should help hint at what the ******* ********* is, ^.^; {And no, I won't tell you if you guess it right =D}
I know GSp's portraits funny, but him and Khan are done by two different people, so the characters all look unique. I tried helping GSp's look, but I'm not that great of a spriter myself, XD.
And, you were close with the King idea. Khan's actually a modification of Quote wearing the Mimiga mask. ^.^; Or so Khan says.
No, GSp's not a Ninja {As cool as that'd be...Hmmm...}. To help clarifiy things, and because you won't find this out for awhile, he's apart of a large army of similar robots, who are all from a completely different world {He's the only one here, though}. Anything he says that has Beeps in it or is in Caps is his programming taking over. He himself doesn't even understand why he's attacking Lowell. {Find that out later >=D}
And well, I used "random" a lot because I say it myself a lot, and Lowell's suppose to be a lot like me. And it's not suppose to be all that mysterious. This is like if two average, if weird, doods were thrusted into the situation of Cave Story. It'll get serious at certain points, but over all it's suppose to be funny.
I wasn't sure if everyone would like the Quiz, as I didn't work too hard on the dialouge, mostly so I could hurry up and post the mod, so I was afraid people would call it boring or stupid, XD
And you liked the hat? I thought I went a little too far in the silliness, but I think it was pretty sweet, =D
And yes, Khan will get to fight.
More then you think, >=D
{Sheesh, Captain, long post, XD}

Now for Dooey:
Marx's is suppose to be really quarky. Hence his Yellow colourly and his random yelling {Capped words}. He also knows surprisingly a lot about Lowell and Khan {Remember? He said "When you guys flew here..", how'd he know about Khan?} and helps them pretty quickly, and for seemly no reason....
He'll also be a source of random help along the way.
So visiting his house periodically might be helpful.
And, yeah, yeah....need to work on the dialouge....
XD
And the Exp bar is suppose to say "OVER 9000!!!", if you can't read it, XD
I thought it'd be pretty funny, myself.
And which cutscene had that problem? The shutters? The gravekeeper? The lifts?
I could install some anti-NPC blocks if I knew which, because I've never had that problem.....XD
Oh? And you could help me with weapons? Because I've got this awesome idea for the next one, but I know it needs some Assembly.....{Private message if you're interested in helping me, as I'd like to keep it as quiet as possible, =D And I'll make sure to add you to the credits,
Probably should add a few other people, while I'm at it....}

To Lace:
Baklava?
What's that? XD

To GuilhermeEin:
I guess I'll try to get some of the funnier screen shots...
I just hate ruining surprises....

Anyways, thanks for the feedback!!

 

Khan's actually a modification of Quote wearing the Mimiga mask.

I meant his portrait.

Sheesh, Captain, long post, XD

Yeah, no one reads long posts, right Lowell?

 

Oh

I meant his portrait.

Oh, his portrait? I'll have to ask him.
I thought he made it from scratch, since his art is a lot different from Cave Story's..
{All those black, solid divider lines, instead of the colours slowly fading into each other...}

Yeah, no one reads long posts, right Lowell?

Hopefully they do.
I don't want to answer the same things over and over....
...again....

 

The dialogue is awesome, don't change it unless you can somehow make it funnier! But yeah, its only funny the first time, so skipflags would be nice. I know you said in the OP that you wanted to avoid them except for bosses, why is that?

It was the "thats a big shutter" one. The critter on the bottom floor attacked Lowell while he was busy talking to himself.

Haha yeah that is actually pretty funny, but please try and make it a bit clearer. (Or maybe everyone else got it just fine and I have weird eyes?)