Woo! Happy new year! Hmm... a long reply is in order for "celebration purposes" or whatnot.
Thanks again for the compliments and feedback! I'm kinda surprised... this mod started as just a little hack as a vehicle to use the storyline, but it keeps growing and growing...
A little about the 'glitches' (thanks Kager): I have noticed a few strange things here and there, though a few are surprising. Firstly, the Highway map was my first created Doukutsu level (besides the one-screen Crash Site), so by then I didn't realize the oddities presented by incomplete slopes. Yeah... I *do* need to revise a few of those underwater areas in particular. I'll do that eventually.
Regarding the rooftop bug: Egad! I never noticed this, but you're right. I can reach that automap within seconds... not quite intentional. I'll fix this eventually... blame the physics.
Regarding sloping roads: Yes... sadly, Cave Story's slope tiletypes also have the "foreground" flag set as well, meaning the tile graphics always appear over the player graphic. It looks really nice normally, but Pixel didn't foresee anyone trying to add "depth" to the tile graphics. I wonder if it's possible to somehow "fill in" a few of the missing tiletypes and use them as "background slopes", making this render properly... 'Tis a shame that Doukutsu doesn't have multiple layers a la Rm2k3.
Regarding skies: I don't care much for the non-scrolling either, but sadly I have no choice in this case. Obviously, sky backgrounds don't tile vertically well, and the Cavestory engine can't seem to handle backgrounds larger than 320x240, sadly (otherwise the underground Highway areas would actually be underground). If there was a way to scroll only horizontally, I would do that...
And a few individual responses:
@Doublethink: Thanks for your little mini-review of sorts! Hmm... the Gaudi projectiles were somehow missing from the .bmp after I stripped it down (my bad). Thanks also for your thoughts on the plotline. I've forever got a "humor complex" or something, and I simply can't resist the occasional random punchline. Yes, maybe there seems to be a little *too* much comic relief on Xaser's part, but I'm sorta trying to accent his character a bit. For, you see, he's missing a few screws and acts it quite often (his intro dialogue after the crash, for one). Eventually he'll come around though.
And about Morgan's initial reaction to Xaser: She's always known he was a little wacky (to the point of frequently annoying her) and when he shows up with a gun, setting off every alarm in the place, she's obviously under the impression that he's snapped. A loony with a gun is a *very* dangerous proposition, though obviously he's not really that much stranger than usual. How nice.
*sigh*, it seems there's only so much I can explain in this interpretation. Despite its complexity and the huge amounts of dialogue, this mod actually posesses a
very stripped-down version of the plotline at hand. I'm trying not to lose too many details in the conversion, but it's tough trying to develop characters like this. Pixel did it wonderfully, but I'm no minimalists. Those details are tough... ;P
@Kager: Hehe, thanks for your compliments and review, but don't get the idea I've been sucking up. I've never quite seen an individual with your skills in forum combat, I should say. An interesting spectacle at the very least. ;P
@Metalogz: The Archives background is a little odd but somehow I kinda like it. The 'classical' look contrasts the techy foreground so much it works somehow. Though, I'm interested in seeing that background of yours anyhow. I just may have use for it.
@Garde (and all else interested): I'm 'Xaserius" on YIM. Not *too* hard to remember I hope... otherwise I'd have forgotten it myself by now.
Give me a 'ring' any time I happen to show up... just if you've got a different username than your forum name, make sure and identify yourself for justice purposes.
Woo... I spent far too long writing all that. How nice. XD