So I started a hack.

In the flooded area..one of the last jumps to the village is quite annoying to make...it took me several tries to get it right x_x

I'd like to second this. There's a similar bit, slightly before it where it's very easy to get stuck. I tried loads of times, and ended up just putting turbo on and holding jump, edging forward a tiny bit at a time, and it was still a very hard jump to make.
Aside from that, it's looking really, really good! I'm looking forward to the final version. Do you have any idea how long it will take? And if you don't mind me asking, how long, compared to the original, are you planning to make the game?

P.S. I think the way the boss music just goes quieter, coupled with the way the boss vanishes so abruptly, works very well at adding a sense of mystery to it all.

Edit: P.P.S. In the room with a fire, one of the NPCs is running about, and whenever he passes the fire, he seems to walk behind it. I don't know if it's a fixable problem, but it looks a bit odd, so you might want to change the boundaries of where he walks or something. Also, the first time I played, the woman in the Grotto just told me to leave her alone after the boss fight, but the second time she told me she'd met Naomi and all about Grant. I'm not sure what I did differently.

 

Very excited about this one, I doubt there will be much for me to comment on, but... Here I go making this post as I play.

* In the first room you can jump off the map. This isn't a big deal since odds are people playing your game have already played cave story. But this might be the first thing a new player runs off and does, giving them a bad initial impression.
* In the storage dugout there is text sound before the text box appears when you use the angel statue.
* And If you stand in the middle of the statue hit down, nothing happens. You can fix this by putting another entity over the left side of the statue. The entity 349 has no sprite and is half a square to the right of where you actually put it. Same can be said for the unusual statue in the village.
* Both doors in flooded cave look really wierd being able to see the background through it. I'm sure you wanted it to look like the other side of the door, and there probably is a way, I can look into this if you don't have the time messing with such minor details.
* In the village storage room when you use the door to leave you can walk around a lil bit before the screen fades out.
* When you defeat balrog there is no <NOD after "it vanished so suddenly..."

Well, as far as the boss fight being too easy goes, whatever its balrog one. Throw death spikes and wind everywhere and he'll still be easy. I don't think the turned down music is inapropriate either, especially if balrog looked like his portrait. The thing dissapeared, you didn't kill it, you should still be tense, the music is good. On a side note i really hope you manage to get balrog looking how you want!

I don't think the hard jump underwater is bad either, its tricky but something that with practice shouldn't take you more then about 5 tries. Nothing worth crying over, if missing the jump ment death and having to start over from the start point, then it would be bad. As is not a big deal.

Commenting on flaws aside, I greatly enjoyed the game. I see alot of potential, and I the story is interesting. I hope you keep your "elitist" mindset and continue to share all the new information you find! When I'm done with my hard mode mod (and a different mod I'm working on) I too would like to make something completely different like this. Great job, looking forward to more.

 

Hehe, you guys are gonna be keeping me busy for quite some time today, I'm sure of it.

- The flooded area
I can easily fix the door thing. The background was added as a last-second thing, so I never really noticed. All's I have to do is change the door's black to something slightly brighter than 0x000000 (which is what the game uses for transparency.) I'll make the jump less of a hassle, since it seems to be an issue for most people.

- The room with the fire
That can be fixed; I just need to mess with the Z order of the sprites.

- The scene in the grotto
The long-haired-guy-that-looks-like-a-chick () won't talk to you until you've talked with Naomi in the little house and gotten her to tell you about what she's found out so far. In order to get her to do that, you'll have to return to the house a second time after first seeing her there, then she'll give you her little speech. The FAQ that comes with the hack mentions this (but with less details.) I'll add the <NOD after the vanishing bit; thanks for pointing that out. I must've overlooked it hitting Z/X to get through the text quickly.

- Storage Dugout
That room is reserved for future use, so a few things may be out of whack. It was also the first room I worked on, so I was still getting the hang of the editor. I'll have a look at these things and fix them - they're too simple and easy to fix to just overlook.

- The first map
I haven't noticed this at all. In fact I never would've noticed it if it hadn't been brought up. :x I had a major "Ohhhhhhh..." moment after realizing I could use the crate to jump over the edge of the map. Thanks, I'll add a ceilling there.

Again, thanks for testing it and bringing up these things.

As for how long it'll take me / how long I plan to make it, as I've said before, this is a side project (my main project is a 3D sprite-based RPG for PC) so "how long it'll take" depends on how involved I can be in things. Maybe a month or two. It should be about as long as the original, maybe a little bit shorter.

PS: Did anyone get the real health container?

Edit: Turns out, you can make it through the flooded cave before drowning. I guess that hard jump wasn't hard enough for some people. I'll just make the passage longer instead of making more split-second jumps though.

 

PS: Did anyone get the real health container?

Edit: Turns out, you can make it through the flooded cave before drowning. I guess that hard jump wasn't hard enough for some people. I'll just make the passage longer instead of making more split-second jumps though.

I found that place - at first entirely by accident, but now because i'm adept at finding secret blocks (thanks to Shmitz's mod ) I could spot where they went and based on the fact that the other one was a fake, I assumed there might be a real one hidden at the bottom. I was right!

As for making the passage longer, it's probably easier but just as effective to make it more twisty-turny - it'll be ovbious where to go but thanks to the underwater physics it'll take longer to make it round bends and hopefully stop people getting there. Although I think it's safe to say that however hard you make something, someone will always manage to do it.

 

PS: Did anyone get the real health container?

o_o...I didnt think there was one...

Oh yeah, another thing..some people still walk around even though they're talking to you which is kinda strange..and rude. But I guess rudeness would be abundant among sinners..

 

Edit: Turns out, you can make it through the flooded cave before drowning. I guess that hard jump wasn't hard enough for some people. I'll just make the passage longer instead of making more split-second jumps though.

I think you should leave it as it is. Sequence breaking is fun. I actually thought you were supposed to go through there without an air tank (because I never found it) and I was going to complain about how annoying that one jump was before I read the thread and noticed you made it annoying on purpose.

In fact, you should make the whole hack possible (but very difficult) without the air tank. It would add replay value.

 

In fact, you should make the whole hack possible (but very difficult) without the air tank. It would add replay value.

Bit too late for that, I'm afraid. I've already edited the passage. Anyhow, the tank gets lost later on for a little while. One of the areas is completely filled with water, and pacing through that area is acheived through the lack of an air tank - you're likely to die if you attempt it before you're supposed to.

However I suppose it would be possible to get through that level ahead of its time because of the changes I made to water (see the progressive drowning thread.) With enough health and if you're lucky enough to find plenty of health dropped by enemies, there might be a way.

 

New screenshot of an incomplete stage.

 

That looks very cool...
*anxiously waits for more*

 

I'm moving back to my appartment (long story..) sometime this weekend, so it may be a little while after that before I can post any new updates. The actual level in question is complete, but I still have to add various event scripts in little side-rooms. It's not an overly difficult stage (being the first "real" stage of the game - this is a new game being made with the CS engine, not a hard-type remake mind you) but there are a few rough spots.

One one of my 3-hp playthroughs, I ended up dying after a chunk of the ceilling fell on my little dude while I was busy fighting off some flying enemies. Totally forgot about it and didn't notice it until it hit me.

I'm also migrating back to my main project (Endless Saga; screenshots in my sig </shameless_plug>) this week after a brief hiatus, so progress will be a little slower. I want to finish the level and the new weapon you get near the end of it before I post the next release, though. So I'll be a bit pressed for time.

Which is a good thing. A hack job just isn't a fun hack job if it's done at a leisurely pace without any pressure.

 

This conversion so far is very detailed and is great overall. It's a little more "vertical" than the original game, but you do it without penalizing missed jumps too much, and it's quite creative. The only thing I didn't notice being pointed out yet is that the red-haired kid is two pixels in the air. This isn't so bad for the one in the house, because it just looks like it's standing on the shelf, but the one outside seems ... unnatural.

 

That's a bit odd (though I can see exactly what you're talking about.) In the image file, they're both at the exact same height.

The sprite is probably defined that way. I'm going to assume the possibility of an x/y offset byte in the npc.tbl file. I'll look into it - now that I see it, I can't stop noticing it and it gets on my nerves.

 

I gave NPC.tbl a quick look and, matching it up with stuff from the code, found some section that offsets the position of a sprite. So that's why the little dude's floating above ground (and why some of my custom new sprites are partway through the floor and walls ) Not sure what that particular sprite is a good 2 pixels higher up than the others but whatever.

This is rapidly turning into a total conversion mod. I've created two boss battles. One of them is a two-part battle you can escape from (admittedly I wanted to see how I could mess around with boss encounters.) The other, I'm still working on - I'm going to have to find enemy AI scripts otherwise the fight will be way easier than I'd want it to be.

Both bosses have completely new graphics.

The tileset I'm using, also, has been altered.

I won't post screenshots of these two bosses, since I want to keep things fresh for next friday (new demo.) Suffice to say the first boss battle is a real pain until you can figure out the pattern (the terrain was carefully crafted to take advantage of the enemy AI) whereas the second... it'll depend on what I can do with the enemy AI scripts.

I'm also adding a 100% new weapon. I've found where in the code this stuff is handled, so I may as well use it. No, there are no weapon scripts as such - behavior is defined directly in the code. Sorry!

 

While waiting for the next release, here's a little something to keep everyone occupied.

http://www.filefactory.com/?e57ce2

 

Just letting you know I await your next release =D

 

What to do after talking to that guy in the village of the sinners?

 

What to do after talking to that guy in the village of the sinners?

You've reached the end of the current demo; about a day or two's work only, so it's short.

I've nearly completed the second area (at least the part you can visit currently) and a second new weapon. I've altered the mechanics of a few enemies (nothing major.)

I'm rather proud of the second area. One of the areas there is a water-filled region with invulnerable flying enemies - you need to jump from platform to platform while dodging these things. It's not as hard as it sounds, but it's no walk in the park.

I might actually be able to release a demo before leaving for my appartment (seeing as the date keeps being pushed back) Don't take my word for it though.

 

My main problem will be spare time: my primary project is a PC game of my own, and I have a full-time job, so this is more of a side thing to which I'll dedicate a few hours only per week.

you've only been here like two weeks & yet you already have 113 posts witch means you have a very high posting frequency witch is espically unusual of someone who says he has very little spare time?

 

you've only been here like two weeks & yet you already have 113 posts witch means you have a very high posting frequency witch is espically unusual of someone who says he has very little spare time?

I'm at home 24/7 this week and don't work on weekends. Furthermore, it only takes a minute or so to write a post. That's less than 2 hours of board time (I have the boards open when I'm working on my hack and refresh occasionally.)

Starting last friday I've been on vacation, so I've been able to get a little more work done on stuff.

113 is nothing, unless you type something like 50 wpm... 1130 would be unusual.

 

you post an average of 6.5 posts per day no one else on the forums even comes close to that many posts per day

it seems to me that you have a lot of spare time