N.E.T. Story (A Cave Story Mod) =Big Update Coming!=

What do you think of the new Mimmiga village? The mod is set a while before Cave Story so the village hasn't been terrorized by the doctor yet.

http://youtu.be/kfobJBHkjZ8

It looks good, can't wait to see the update done.
King's face only looks a little silly.

 

I only just now remembered that N.E.T. Story existed, and decided to give it a go. Something something mod notes:

Spoiler

fashionably late by at least 60 days

having the mod default to fullscreen upon start-up is not okay

>mod begins with chat algorithm
i don't have a good feeling about this

oh god damnit

there should be a comma between "Toroko" and "have"

there should be a space before "No"

why does my man sandaime never get blessed with altered dialogue in these "Cave Story, but Slightly Different" mods?

wow mahin way to be a dick
also when he says "*grumble grumble*" when you talk to him for the first time, the text doesn't wait for any input from the player before ending itself

literally where are the save points
what if i drown in the reservoir

oh arthur's house is unlocked
ok

why can't i go back through the crack
why is this even here in the first place
it just juts randomly out of the wall

there needs to be a space before "and", and there's a random space in between the lines for no reason

ok how was i supposed to know that i had to trigger toroko not with a silver pendant, but by interacting with the computer in Arthur's House several times?

who am i

this remix of balrog's theme isn't too great, to be honest

wait where did toroko go

how do i know the name of this mysterious brave little toaster when it didn't even introduce itself?

you're doing a kinda bad job of hinting at where to go
i just randomly interacted with this again after wandering around and it reconnected

why did the music randomly cut out

my parents taught me not to meet with strangers i meet online

no means no

wow ok fine i'll meet you in what is probably unedited sand zone

i didn't screenshot most of it, but a lot of the dialogue involving the computer requires better grammar and punctuation

needs a space after the ellipses etc. etc.

wow would you look at that
i was right

hello not curly
also "You" shouldn't be capitalized

excuse you
i only have a polar star

luckily i'm a professional polar star user

christ you're even more forward than curly was about weapon trading

why would you hide a savepoint like this
i only shot it out of boredom while passing by

oh god why did you put water in the walls
not curly why

platforming behind the walls is literal cancer
why the fuck

this took entirely too long to achieve

>damp
l-lewd

ehehehe

no because this is LITERALLY CAVE STORY

i know i just spent 15 minutes trying to find her panties within the walls of her house
but why am i suddenly dating not curly

10/10 guidance

ok
lemme just give this girl i bested in combat not even half an hour ago a sharp fang as a present to seduce her
surely this will work

how is this woman so turned on by sharp beast fangs

ok did i just move into arthur's house
i'm confused

all these missiles
and no launcher to launch them with

what

so it's basically igor, but different
but he doesn't have a walking animation
w-why

lokie?
lokie??
you probably meant "loki"
but
loki???

what is with people and using only computers to talk to me

why does this give me a bad feeling

doesn't look very imprisoned to me
tbh

why the random awkward pause between mentioning misery and telling me to talk to him when ready

the entire plantation is a gigantic waste of space
there's nowhere to go except the little alcove where not curly is

what the god damn shit fuck is that facepic

i love how i only have 10 hp
and how almost anything kills me in one hit
i'm just joking it's horrible

it's also horrible how i have to sit through this dialogue and awkward pause whenever i want to try again

digested????????

oh uh
thanks
i guess skipping it didn't matter after all

>instantly teleport back to Arthur's House
how and why

what test???

>3, 6, 7, and 10 are approved
but what does it mean

have i been playing a dating sim this whole time

why did i appear here
i have so many questions

but why tho

why would she want something as dangerous as a red flower
in the middle of mimiga village
i don't

why put quotes around "you"
also she didn't even seem to want the demon flower
why did i give it to her then?????

good question
i certainly have no fucking idea what's going on anymore

these guys just popped out of thin air

what is with you and map system-less wall mazes
they're nothing but cancer
stop

wow rude i could've died in there

random omega is both random and dead
but why all these -10 spikes
are they really necessary when i have exactly 10hp

excuse you

u wot m8
demon flower or no, that shouldn't do much unless she's a mimiga
is it possible that not curly is also part mimiga??

THAT'S NOT HOW RED OR DEMON FLOWERS WORK, YOU NIGNOG

oh

please explain to me when my weapons degraded to level 1
and why

the blocks not curly threw and the exp chips dropped by the heart enemies all went behind the door sprite
pls fix

i actually don't care
also "devistated" should be "devastated"

ow the edge

ok then

rude

I can't really say I liked the mod. It went all over the place, and by the end I was completely lost. Why was I forced to romance this Not Curly? Practically everything I did and every area I went to was for the sole purpose of increasing that imaginary affection meter. Also, you really need to work on the mod's text, especially the punctuation. There were at least two or three instances where you left entire blank lines in the dialogue, and there were so many cases of missing punctuation that I just stopped trying to screenshot them all.

 

I can't really say I liked the mod.
Get the 3rd ending, you'd probably like the mod more then.

I can say from experience that that's not really the case...

Spoiler: Also...

It's hard
Deal with it.

I really hope this isn't how you're going to respond to all criticism of the difficulty...

 

Well at least the mod doesn't abruptly end, then.

True, but the gameplay isn't really any better...

Also, I just did?

So... Is that a yes?
You're just going to brush off any and all criticism of the difficulty of N.E.T. Story?

 

How is difficulty a flaw?

Difficulty isn't a flaw when it's done well.
It's only a flaw when...
Actually, I cover this HEAVILY in the review so, I'm just gonna make you wait for that to come out. (AKA, make you wait until I'm done editing it.)
In the meantime, I HIGHLY recommend you go watch this video; It goes over difficulty in general, While (part of) my video goes over how it applies to N.E.T. Story.

 

Alright, I decided to come back and try to get the best ending. By the way, not all of those requirements make sense, but I digress.

Spoiler

let's try this again, shall we?
preferably with less suicide this time
i'll try to avoid bringing up things i brought up in the first playthrough unless it's something i wanted to elaborate on

regardless of it having a new story, it would have been better if you made more substantial changes to the maps
with new areas, it feels like you're actually playing something different

even though spirit tried to help you with the grammar and punctuation, you shouldn't blame all of the remaining errors on him
let's not forget that you're the one who failed to use ANY punctuation in the initial version, and you even said that you were too lazy to go back and check the changes spirit made or didn't make

i wasn't paying attention, so i didn't see when Toroko disappears, but you should still try to find a way to fix her just disappearing forever
it's bad design to just ignore it

also, why does Balrog just come out of nowhere and fight me
he doesn't even give a valid reason; he just says "it's battle time"
we haven't even introduced ourselves

y'know, you could have asked this as soon as i told not curly that i would meet her

she only got to fire her gun once
git gud, casul

i don't understand why it "bears a curse," but i'm fine with passing up on it

i looked through the OP again, and nowhere does it hint that this turns into a dating simulator with not curly
while i guess the premise is creative, it's still handled really awkwardly

now that i have been educated, the damp panties are no longer lewd
however, why the fuck is there water in her home's walls when it's situated in the middle of what is essentially a desert?

when reading through not curly's chat logs, there were several instances where there were pauses i actually had to press z to progress
why
>inb4 spirit deleted the dialogue but left the code
that's why you go back and check your stuff, ya dingus

this first message is acceptable, seeing as it could've been sent in IM form to fuck with the main character...

all these missiles
and not a single launcher to launch them with

i'll have you know that Lokie most certainly does not equate to Loki
they're two completely different names
don't tell me you're lazy enough to not change a single letter

this second message, however, is really dumb
this is what i was refering to in my first batch of notes when i asked why everyone was talking to me through computers
if cthulhu is a magical being, he shouldn't have to resort to just IM communication

how could not curly ever hear my opinion if she's chilling all the way up in cthulhu's "prison"

how is this related in any way to me romancing the not curly

how does this resemble misery + cthulhu in any way
cthulhu DOES have eyes, after all
and doesn't look like he was drawn in mspaint

that block doesn't match this tileset in any way

digested still makes absolutely no sense in this context
what, did cthulhu physically eat misery?
if so, she wouldn't be mind controlled
she'd be dead

by the way, there's a difference between "hard" and "unfair"
if a boss is hard, you will get punished for any mistakes you make, but you'll also get to recover from the boss's projectiles or summons
this fight with "digested" misery is unfair, however, because of the sole fact that you have only 10 health
her circle projectiles deal 6 damage each (which you can recover from), and the block she drops on you deals 10 damage (which instantly kills you)
when combined with the lava in the arena (10 damage) and the spikes littering the arena (also 10 damage), you can instantly die even at max health in numerous circumstances

the curse of the machine gun

no but really
did i just move into Arthur's House or something
does literally no one in the village question that a total stranger holed up in his house after the mysterious disappearance of toroko

>take online romance test
>get all 10 matches
>computer spits a Snake at me
uhh
ok???

who the FUCK is chaba
note: i actually know who chaba is, but in this context he is nothing but a name
so is the entire labyrinth, but i digress

all it took was watching her commit suicide by nameless protagonist in an alternate dimension

it still confuses me why not curly would just accept a demon flower for absolutely no reason

now you don't see them...

and now you do!

these hidden hearts are normally supposed to make a noise upon taking damage, but in this instance nothing happens

since when could omega speak

still rude

*teleports behind you*

now i'm getting all hot and bothered
n-not curly, i...

this kind of reminds me of a story i read where a guy was going to throw himself in front of an oncoming train, only to be persuaded out of it by lady in the crowd

these random warps to Arthur's House will never not be jarring
it's kind of a lazy way to move from place to place

you really need to make up your mind on how these messages are handled
either pick just normal text or just instant text, not a weird mix of the two
also the "T" in "The" shouldn't be capitalized aaaaAAAA

whoa when did you get there

are you fucking kidding me

/me angrily murders everything in first cave

is it bad that my favorite dialogue in this mod is the hermit gunsmith's unchanged speech about the polar star

is it me, or does the Spur charge faster?

what the fuck when did you get there

bruh

hello completely unedited ma pignon storage room

then where the fuck do i go now, oh mod creator of no guidance

>whimsical star almost kills the egg fish
jesus fuck don't do that again

it took me entirely too long to find this

not curly what the fuck
when did you tape yourself to my back

you do know those hearts are pointless without a level 3 machine gun, right

after reading your post again, i thought to reload my save and look around
how in the god damn shit fuck was the player supposed to guess that the booster 2.0 was here of all places
design could not be worse

you didn't even auto-equip the booster 2.0
0/10

what do you mean "i don't know"
you're the one who sent me the teleporter destination
how did you manage to not only teleport onto my back, but tape yourself there before i could respond

i don't think there was any delay between ballos flying up into the ceiling and dropping back down as a ball
why

>making me fight Ballos
>without the Super Missile Launcher to gib his final phase
>even without a Life Pot
you monster
though it did succceed in making my heart pound
survived with 7 health

ONLY NOW YOU THINK TO ASK THAT?

why is not curly suddenly a psychic type
is she evolving from not curly into mary sue

oh i was just talking out loud
that was silly

this stuttered like hell for no reason
the pauses felt unequal in length

what the hell
when and how did i get here
also spawning the player in water without so much as giving them a warning is a dick move, especially when they don't have the air tank

also you do realize that there was no save point between the ballos fight and this, right?
if i am to suddenly die by a press or something, i'll have to redo the entire fight

also when did i get an extra 15 health

good level design
i'm joking it's terrible

EXCUSE you

i spy something that doesn't belong
also nice fake block in the middle you ass

i like how there are bats flying in the lava for absolutely no reason
i can hear them dying as i machine gun across the pool

oh god when did this turn into the 2nd map of hell
complete with Running Hell

and still no save

I HAVE A MIGHTY THIRST FOR SAVE POINTS

i thought i killed you

what the h*ck
there were two of them in the same spot

epic Loki spam, friendo

i don't like the fact that i'm about to take a Loki bullet to the tailpipe

who the fuck
also nice use of almost no shading at all

the fact that there's a space before the ellipses and not after it warrants mentioning
how do you mess up that bad
>inb4 spirit
hush

oh i see
it's the epic self insert meme

would you look at that
it's the similarly epic fourth-wall-breaking meme

neither do i for once again i'm lost as fuck

SHOTS FIRED

how convenient
and by convenient i mean lazy
what was the point then

but i'm obligated to say yes

what was that noise

>i actually got 3 more health for doing that

>try to go to the save point after that entire ordeal
>not curly starts to freak out
what the hell, dude

>she still has her red flower
>after all that time
what the HELL, dude
why did you convince me to stick my flash drive into crazy

how will this accomplish anything

i said no to canceling my bringing up of one of my items
and now i can move around
...what

i think i broke it

oh nevermind, all i had to do was leave and come back
...that's still really bad design, though

>accidentally say yes to showing her the panties while saying no to all the options again so i could save
>her face
my sides

are you serious
did that actually work
did i really just accidentally stop someone from committing suicide by nameless protagonist for the 2nd time in one day

no shit sherlock
what else do you think they'd do

i don't think this will work if not curly threatens to kill herself with red flowers every 5 seconds

ok
that weird "idea" thing not curly did was kind of weird since it was so slow, but it was a neat idea

but i want to save again

>spur reverted to polar star
1. how does that work
2. fuck you

>wind fortress music
ok you're at least 1/2 forgiven

this design is seriously lacking in "level"

it's rarely ever a good idea to have huge, flat, boring slopes like this one

weird corner is weird
pls fix

there are two random pits where i'm standing and where my mouse is
they prevent you from cleanly running to the left
pls fix

>go to a random corner of the room below the door
>press down
>randomly express thought
why

oh
we ACTUALLY wind fortress now

whatever you tried to type should be "familiar"
also at least this time i have more than 10 health

>kill not curly+ as soon as she's about to throw a block
>she leaves the block after dying
uhm...
what

this is dumb
they leave a block upon dying, which still acts as an active hitbox that blocks bullets
and there're so many
why

you really need to set some flags or something so the player doesn't have to suffer through all this dialogue each time they die

the dead not curlys can also absorb shots until they disappear
and each time they do, they replay the disappearing noise

what the actual fuck
i've killed at least ten of these things

there we go

holy mother of lag, man
rarely does cave story experience a drop in frames
and it just dropped big time

a fucking horrible boss fight

*awkwardly twiddles thumbs*

epic fourth wall breakage, my man

oh
that was it

>implying
also
original character donut steal

i know you tried, but combining mspaint art with in-game tilesets and sprites just looks bad

where did she even go

>those very minor edits
>that fucking gun he's holding
i'm sorry but my sides

that literally never happened

>gave birth to love
wait
was not curly+ throwing freshly born baby hearts at me
fucking BRUTAL

you really need to learn how to spell Loki
you also need to look up what digested means, because that's not digested

>black hair
>blue hair
>daughter has blonde hair
what
also if that's supposed to be curly, that's not how androids work

u-uh
yes?

>go to save
>get healed instead
wot
also bland interior design is bland

>both the save disk and the health station refill my health
panic

well, this is the first time i've ever seen a door like that
however, it doesn't match up perfectly with the tiles above and below it

don't you mean Arthur's computer

where did this bucket that totally isn't from minecraft come from

oh it's actually over this time
>curly brace yourself for
2/10 made me cringe

Now that I actually got to play through the entire mod, it was a bit better. After learning that the mod was basically a shoddy dating simulator, I didn't get quite as lost. Still doesn't mean that it went all over the place on a regular basis. One problem you need to learn to handle is balancing. I went from 10 health to 40 health in a single life capsule. You could've easily split that up into smaller life capsules and spread them out more in the earlier areas. The final boss also speaks for itself.

Oh, and I'm surprised to see that you found my previous batch of notes so funny. I wasn't really expecting a reaction like that.

 

I guess i'll say my thoughts about it...
I actually played N.E.T. Story like a month and a half ago.

Spoiler

(I'm going to refer to the pc as "Yu" I mean Sarah calls him "You" which is basically the same thing)

Looking over the fact that this mods map were just slightly edited versions of the originals.

My biggest quarrel with this mod, was the story... specifically the lack of explaination of... really ANYTHING.
You are... are... are...? That was never really explained, the most I got out of that was Sarah calling Yu "you" which still doesn't explain a whole lot.
Who's this Sarah? Why does she want to date Yu? Why does the pc like her so much, that he goes around the island finding "gifts" for her?
WTF?!? CTHULU?!? Wait, what and why? He captured Sarah so that he could fight Yu? And he also ate Misery for... REASONS???
I wasn't really mad about the whole red flower part cause hey, maybe Yu didn't know about what they do, and just wanted to give Sarah a nice present.
Although she did tell Yu that they were "dangerous" when he gave them to her, and still accepted them anyways.
There was also no clear explanation as to why Sarah decided ate the red flower after Yu came to her house.

My second biggest quarrel was the lack of guidance.
IT WAS REALLY UNCLEAR WHERE I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO AND WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO NEXT.
When in doubt, go to Arth- Yu's house and check the computer I suppose...

I know that there's these "other endings I can get" but the way you get them is ludicrous.
You have to check literally every corner to find what you need.
You also need to choose certain options, and there's never any indication as to which one you should pick.
I didn't bother to try and get the 3rd ending even after you posted what you needed to do.

Other than that I kinda enjoyed the mod... kinda...

I know that i'm just restating a lot of the stuff that Seasons said, buts that's because I agree with him.
zxin, if multiple people(2 people, I know, that's a whole lot) are complaining about certain aspects of your mod, then you should really take it into consideration and see how you can improve said aspects.

You want to know why I didn't even bother to try and get the 3rd ending?

Spoiler

1. Seasons already went through that pain for me
2. The preceding things that you needed to do to GET to the 3rd ending are things are just flat-out dumb, the average player would never be able to find out how to get the 3rd ending.
They wouldn't even KNOW that there was multiple endings if you didn't put in that 1/3 at the end.

I know that you won't be working on the remake for a while(cause of the whole laptop thing). But you should really look at what we said and try to improve in those areas.
I mean, at least we didn't just flat-out say "This mod is bad"(I mean we kinda did... but at least we stated are reasons for our opinion).

We're not hating on you zxin(well... I don't know about Seasons, but im not), we just want to help you improve your modding.

Also, you should totally have the pc's name be "Yu" so that when Sarah calls the pc "You" she's technically not wrong.

Conveniently enough, while I was writing this, Seasons wrote another review on him getting the 3rd ending.
Dude, I love your mod reviews, every time I see a new mod released I eagerly wait to see your review on it.

Also, sweet review on Seasons review zxin.

 

Hey man, I might as well point out stuff like this so you don't accidentally make the same mistakes in the remake/better version.

By the way, I didn't really have much difficulty with the mod aside from the final boss. I was just pointing out those parts because you have to take into account the various people who aren't quite as good at Cave Story. For example, while I didn't really need the safety buffer of more health for Digested Misery, you can probably understand why dying in one hit would frustrate some people.

Oh, and for the love of God, lock the screen in some fashion if you're going to use one or more Rabid Toroko-esque bosses. It's hard enough to dodge two blocks at once, but it's a nightmare to do so when you can't see what attacks are being telegraphed.

 

Just wondering, but what did you use to make it? (BL, CE, or SW?)

 

Just wondering, but what did you use to make it? (BL, CE, or SW?)

I would assume booster's lab, since that's pretty much the best tool out there