The Mimiga Army

vid or it didn't happen

Fine, i'll vid. Just don't expect HD full quality... Man, all the bugs...

 

Fine, i'll vid. Just don't expect HD full quality... Man, all the bugs...

Yeah show us the video merlinoboy. Also I speak a bit of dutch so here's a message:

ik ben hond. woef woef. woef.

 

Yeah show us the video merlinoboy. Also I speak a bit of dutch so here's a message:

ik ben hond. woef woef. woef.

Actually it's: ik ben een hond.
But don't worry, it's nice!
You understand this? If not, say and i'll translate:
Ik zal de film morgen posten! Spleee! XD
Well, if you can understand that with the dog, that's nice already! Wwwww... Wait! You've given me an excellent idea! An english-to-dutch-thread! Yayz thnx!

 

Wow, I sense lots of hatred here. How unexpected. Seriously people: try to not confound who we are and what we do. Even if you hated the mod there is no reason to be asses. You can just... do not play it, you know?

I am here for my comments, and probably to get my load of hatred...
- First: thanks for the job.
- As already `suggested' the story is indeed lacking. It is a pity since the begin was extremely promising. I really loved the idea of a follow-up from the bad ending. Every successful story tends to have sequels: in order to make a sequel possible often authors invent the impossible (usually to justify that a kick-ass virtually unbeatable hero returns to a start-game character level). Continuing from a bad ending instead sounds natural.
- Spikes... I understood you love spikes, but I am afraid Cave Story is not meant for die-really-often games because reloading is too slow. Maybe it is just that I do not play well; but I edited few spikes... sorry.
- I had the feeling you thrown the save points a little randomly: I moved a few because the original position was annoying. When I play a difficult part I like to focus on the challenge not on the dialogue or the animation that are nice only the first time; in two cases (power station and slot machine room) the save point is just _before_ a dialogue... It is not a good place! (bosses do not count as it is unavoidable) Cave Story is already slow on reloading and just after I have to read and read again the same dialogue; with the added penalty that the guadi in the Power Room might hurt you while you cannot move.
- A little suggestion to place save points: try to think about your levels as a sequence of challenges and put a save point before each. Ask yourself: if I had to play this piece again and again I would find something annoying?
It might be a dialogue, it might be an easy, but long puzzle, it might be a repetitive action... doing the same thing again and again it is not fun in this cases.
I think a good example of well placed save points is `I wanna be the guy' in Hard difficulty (the designed difficulty) every challenge is always between two save points; in Normal there is an extra save point in the middle. In Very Hard the player is expected to pass more than one challenge before saving. Finally at Impossible difficulty level the player is expected to play the whole game saving only once at the infamous killer save point.
Unfortunately Cave Story does not support difficulty levels (does it?) so you cannot make everyone happy: but remember that to you the game is always easier than to us because you know the levels perfectly.
- Bug, most probably it is known. The game crashes in the level where you take off the helicopter to come back to the island if you use the computer before recovering the coordinates from the dragon.
- When you have the choice between the Blade and the Nemesis I think you should add in the dialogue what are the two choices: something like yes take the Nemesis, No take the Blade.
- In the base level most of the friezed mimigas can be defeated just using the Fireball while standing on a wall; not fun. The AI has flaws, try to place enemies in places where the player cannot abuse it.
- I kinda missed the missile launcher...

Anyhow I generally liked the gameplay; there are some ingenious puzzles (like the telephone) and enemies usually are well placed.

Thanks again!
etb

 

looking good so far, i dl'd it and i've made it to the Abandoned City.

however, looks like the "tower" building causes a stuck glitch if you go in as soon as you see it because you cant float low enough to go back out the door, or high enough to get caught by the second fan if you can even go through it.
will edit this post as i find more stuff

EDIT:

I have to read and read again the same dialogue; with the added penalty that the gaudi in the Power Room might hurt you while you cannot move.

i thought the PC couldnt be hurt except by certain entities (i.e. falling blocks in Balcony/Hell) while the game is processing an event. dialogues count as events. are Gaudis exempt to the no-hurt-while-event-processing thing?

 

You are right, I explained wrongly you cannot be hurt during the dialogue. But you can be hurt just after; it happens when the dialogue ends that the gaudi is overlapping Albert.

 

You are right, I explained wrongly you cannot be hurt during the dialogue. But you can be hurt just after; it happens when the dialogue ends that the gaudi is overlapping Albert.

in that case, if there's no shooting Gaudi, just wait until no one's overlapping Abert

 

Yes... now that you mention it would work too. But I after the third time I tried the Gaudi level I started pressing the buttons quickly to skip the dialogue.

Oh well... I just moved the save point from outside the power station to inside: you save just after the dialogue and avoid the problem entirely.
I like to follow the idea: You do not like it? Fix it and leave a note.

 

Wait, whoa, this mod is finished?? I've only played a small part of the first demo! Guess I should get around to playing the whole thing once I have time.

 

Wait, whoa, this mod is finished?? I've only played a small part of the first demo! Guess I should get around to playing the whole thing once I have time.

Yeah I was surprised too. It's mostly new maps that he created though, the storyline is kind of absent/purely-skeletal. Still pretty fun though.

 

i've been meaning to play more of this, perhaps actually review it or something, but i keep forgetting, XD

 

Now i think you did agreat job with the storytellign here, but its not withoutits flaws.

I had no problems until nearly the final room. WHich is where the soldier gets upset because there are a ton of Gaudi. My complaint is that some of the platforms and ALL of the instant death spikes are difficult to see. It's a fairly hard room but 9/10 of my deaths were due to jumping directly on a spike because i didnt knwo it was there. The spikes need to stand out more.

 

Now i think you did agreat job with the storytellign here, but its not withoutits flaws.

I had no problems until nearly the final room. WHich is where the soldier gets upset because there are a ton of Gaudi. My complaint is that some of the platforms and ALL of the instant death spikes are difficult to see. It's a fairly hard room but 9/10 of my deaths were due to jumping directly on a spike because i didnt knwo it was there. The spikes need to stand out more.

You're playing the first demo. The mod has a final release. Read further into the first post. (Probably like 2 more lines...)

 

Finally getting around to completing this. I'm pretty sure the difficulty has been toned down (a couple of paths changes, noticeably more save points) but it's still a fun romp. Now, time to construct some

DELAYED SPOILERS

-The weather station guy still stays frozen in his 'surprised' position the first time you talk to him.
-The Doctor is pretty amiable near the start, I guess all that power mellowed him out a bit.
-The pit-type area was alright, but Larson Labs is great. The area with the acid drops and the machine area are both really well-done, but the other two are a bit simplistic. In the Gaudi area in particular the Armor Gaudis are too far away to shoot at you from the ends of the corridors, and even then there's enough exp to level up a small battalion.
-Next area is pretty easy, I'm not sure what the point is to all those enemies up the top when you have to take the lower path. The Necrogun's projectiles look pretty cool though.
-The Mine area is really well-designed too (I love huge maps) but again in the first part there's enough exp and health to heal you five times over. I really wish people hadn't whined about this mod so much -_-; The event with the computer is a bit messed up, but the acid drops kinda sound like they're falling in time with the music This area has actually given me a couple of ideas for what I can do with my The Island Contest mod...
-I beat Drilltank first time, but it was still a good challenge with those low-power weaps.
-Yay, a water area! :> There's never any real danger of drowning here, but there are a few tricky jumps to execute. I really like the one little physics-based part with the rushing water between the blocks, it reminds me of Chapter 1 of WTF? Story.
-The next area is really too easy, all you need to do is just stay out of range and spam the Necrogun. I'm really liking how all the different areas are connected though, even if there's no real reason to head back through them yet.
-Speaking of connections... Zone V is a bit better, but it's still easy to just boost over everything.
-BEETLES! The scourge of every mod... At least you didn't over-use them, and tried to do something interesting by placing them vertically rather than horizontally.
-Holy guacamole! It's upgrade-topia!!! Been a long time since I've actually used a Spur...
-I really like how getting up to the Summit takes some careful thinking, but the area to the right says it's still unfinished D:
-Hey, it's the helicopter cut-away! I can't remember if you made that or if it was borrowed from someone else.
-Aww man, I haven't played CS for so long my hand is starting to cramp up D: The Clock Room? is really well-done (aside from the last part which is basically just an exp/health farm), some careful boosting required but nothing too silly.
-Back here again... some more challenging boosts, especially that nasty one right along the very bottom, but really there aren't too many spikes and the map rewards you for being careful. I actually made it through on just my second try. And then back to the start... you're leaving me hangin' here man, I've been waiting for something to happen for about 5 maps D:
-The couple of Mimigas left here still act like you're just meeting them for the first time. Maybe you forgot to make them invisible?
-Aaand moving block puzzle time. Another well-designed and reasonably-challenging area, aside from that silly bit with the two healing terminals about a screen apart (then again, it looks kind of like you're meant to get hit there...). The part after the save point is especially good.
-Puzzle time! It's pretty simple, but it's also set up very nicely. It's followed by... aww man, Igor spam? D: It seems like that alcove near the start was meant to hold something, but there doesn't appear to be anything there.
-Actually the Ravils/Igors are very well-placed, and that's a neat trick with that one Press. Reminds me of my Hell mod >_> And then... random pokies? HAHAHAHA, that's BRILLIANT. Even if I got a bad turnout
-Awesome, Abert is actually talking again. The wind and moving block parts through the next area are all good, but the 'running underwater' parts don't really take any skill and the Igor part is just blah. Again you can just Necrogun-spam them from out of range, or better yet, speed past the first set entirely. It's nice how you can take a couple of hits and still continue, but the save points are still abundant; I skipped the one before the Igor section altogether.
-The Wind/Booster area is nice, but that first terminal is wholly unnecessary, since everything after that point is basically a one-hit kill (the 'maze' isn't exactly functional).
-Final Corridor? D: The Doctor fight doesn't really work as you intended unfortunately, because of the way he falls down to the bottom. You can just camp the solid area and unleash the Spur on him when he decides to land there. This could be easily remedied by putting in npc-only tiles (i.e. the ones you still fall through).
-The next battle, however, is a fun and innovative take on Ballos' first form. I love how he gravity-leans when he charges
-...And his second form... and his third... wow. I finally turned hax on here, out of a desire to get this mod finished; I still had only 23 health and I had saved at the one part of the mod that I couldn't head back from D: I took the opportunity it check out the bad ending too.
-I shudder to think what would have happened here if I hadn't picked up that bomb D: Scaffolding, eh? That jump with the moving block is haaard and annoying to get back to, but I made it though quick enough. Nice to see some actual characters again though...
-Oooh boy... I'm more used to fighting him this way though, so I only had to turn on hax at the last moment <_<
-Last boosting area isn't too hard, but I'ma keep hax on for the final battle. I don't feel the need to prove I can beat 'em again and I've been at this for a long time...
-GAAAAH what is it with these completed mods and brief endings? I don't feel any closure at all :<

Phew... okay, let's see what we have here...
*Looks up*
HOLY TAPDANCING CHRIST.

I guess this is what happens when I try to review an entire mod at once D: I know that you're probably done with this now so thanks if (any of) you've read this far. Maybe I can wrap it in a briefer fashion (lolno):

The Good: Let me preface this by saying that I've really, really enjoyed most of this mod and I think you deserve a lot more credit for it. It's partly because I haven't played a mod for ages, but it felt great to be adventuring into expansive, unique, and unknown areas again. Aside from the few parts I mentioned, the map designs and enemy placement are really well-crafted and intuitive; it sorta reminds me of Kaeso's stuff. You also do a really good job with atmosphere, i.e. picking the right music, making each little area look fresh, etc. All the maps are cleanly-made, and there are only a handful of bugs/script errors (which have mostly been mentioned by others already).

The new graphics and tilesets are functional and unobtrusive; not really striking, but very competently done. There's nowhere in the mod I can remember that really looks bad. Overall, it's clear that you've put a huge amount of thought and effort into the mods' general design (aside from maybe save point placings), especially to have it completed in such a relatively small time. It rekindled a feeling I've been missing for a while now - the desire to be proactive in the mods section and work on stuff of my own. Just in time for uni to squash it again!

The Not-So-Good: All the problems I had with level design I've already mentioned so I won't go into that again.

A lot of other people have mentioned this, and I kinda took it with a grain of salt at first because it's a pretty generic complaint, but the story is really lacking in substance. I understand that it's much better to not get dragged down trying to make something up, but there's so much stuff you started on but didn't really explain. What's the Mimiga Army? Why is Abert so popular? Why is he seemingly the only member? Why is he working with the Doctor in the first place? Why is he going to the surface? Why does he turn against him at the end with nearly no explanation? The radio conversations just stop after a while. And then there's all the stuff that Atari mentions, like the C/CA, the weird weather, everyone leaving, etc, none of which really cumulates into anything. You travel though the places he describes, which is a nice tie-in, but it only results in you returning to the Island and basically going in a big circle. This is all a bit of a shame, because the dialogue itself is actually really good, and I was always looking forward to more character conversations.

It looks a lot like you had some stuff planned but got bogged down on the details. Again, I know the mod is complete (although it'd be nice if you fixed some of the maps up a bit), but if you could make a post explaining some of my plot questions or even send me a PM or something I'd appreciate it to no end. For now, I just need to make sure I'm up-to-date on my mods, then hopefully I can update the Quickie Guide with this, A Lost Land and The Witching Hour before my motivation gets destroyed again. (Really been giving carrotlord the short end of the stick, haven't I? D: ) Above all, it's great to have another story-type mod completed, and it should encourage everyone else to get theirs done too. I hope you're planning another one as well!

 

Well i just finished it. I wont be able to produce as structure a
review but here is my opinion. The dialogue sequence at the
start was quite well done, and i like the pixel art, it gives the
characters personality. Though later on admittedly i felt kind
of kept in the dark about the story. I mean i know that was
doctors intention, but it was just, walk right and kill things
for the most part. Larson labs was a gameplay high point.
And the first Ballos battle was very very good. The simple
addition of the platform changed everything. And the instant
death spikes made sure you couldnt use the infamous ballos
spike exploit. And before i foregt, the drill fight was INTENSE

On to the bad. The freezing section that needed to be fixed by
visiting a random dragon? Mod killer right there.

And sadly, the Ballos sprites were feeble. Honestly, i wondered
why you didnt just leave the regular ballos in, because the
sprite replacements looked like a joke. If your going to change
sprites, do soem drawing, dont recycle old sprites and tiles. It
really stood out to me how ugly it looked.

I managed to beat it without hacking, and the challenge was
pretty well balanced. All in all, i did enjoy it.

 

And sadly, the Ballos sprites were feeble. Honestly, i wondered
why you didnt just leave the regular ballos in, because the
sprite replacements looked like a joke. If your going to change
sprites, do soem drawing, dont recycle old sprites and tiles. It
really stood out to me how ugly it looked.

Well they ARE golems, which tend to be made out of large blocks of earth and suchlike. I thought they had a genuine machine-y look to them, like they really were animated conglomerations of rock.

 

I'd usually die in this mod when the first Ballos' fight Last form was with about 50% HP. I was this [---] close to using hacks.

 

Well they ARE golems, which tend to be made out of large blocks of earth and suchlike. I thought they had a genuine machine-y look to them, like they really were animated conglomerations of rock.

I dont think they looked the way they did because they were golems. I think they were golems because they looked the way they did. And they looked the way the did due to laziness.

I'd usually die in this mod when the first Ballos' fight Last form was with about 50% HP. I was this [---] close to using hacks.

The first figth with the golem was the best one. Because of the way it destroyed the ballos exploit i mentioned where you could get continual minimal damage from ballos spikes, while avoiding any other damage and getting perfect shots up at him.

In the first fight there are strategies you need to learn in order to win, and i thought that having tothink up inventive strategies forthe fight was cool. Here are mine if you have trouble.

Spoiler

First form:

Use the spur and constantly charge it, aiming for a full charge every time. Hit him any time he moves vertically.And when he uses lightning, move back and forth under him intiem with the strikes. During this time you can hit him twice more.

Second form:
Make him fall at teh far left. Whenever he gets too close, dash under him. Constantly charge your spur and only attack when he stops, smash him right through the eyes. Aim to kill him when he is TOO YOUR LEFT

Third form:
You will get hit here now and again, by the bats. Just makesure you ONLY get hit by them because they do 3 damage. Its no big deal if the falling rocks hit you (-4) but try to avoid them. Do not EVER touch ballos when your not blinking, he rapes for 14 damage. Just shoot his spheres with the fully charged spur constantly, aimign to hit more than one at a time. Prioritise firing up at him because it will kill some bats too, allowing you to heal yourself
when you boost up to avoid ballos. When his HP is zero he will enter form 4 at teh end of the movement cycle.

He goes LEFT UP RIGHT DOWN LEFT

When he goes DOWN at 0 HP thats the momenthe changes forms. At that poit, do not be on the platform. Be a little to the right, boosting gently.

Form 4:

Land on the platform that forms at your feet. You should be able to walk along the entire platform withotu being his by ballos, if you tiem it right. So beign mindful of his spheres, dodge all projectiles while firing full charges into him and you'll win.

 

I dunno why you guys had so much trouble with the first Golem fight. It only took me maybe a dozen and a half tries? Here's my strategy guide-eth.

Spoiler

First form: Spur, derp. Charge all the way, stand at the far left, when he charges upwards to you, boost right, turn left really quick and release the spur, then charge again. Land, then before he's all the way boosted right to you, boost above him to make him go upwards towards the ceiling. When you have a fully charged shot unleash it before he lands. If every shot you land is fully charged you should beat him before he even uses his lightning.

Second form: When he's spawning you can walk on the death spikes (for any unaware.) Boost up to his eye when he lands. (It really doesn't matter where you make him land, but the far right/left would be best.) Spam blade/nemesis. Focus on not falling off. If you do, try and take a hit before you land on the death spikes for temporary invincibility.

Third form: This one really has no strategy. Use blade/nemesis/spur and kill him by any means necessary. I used the Spur if I remember correctly. Boost over him when he comes over to the platform, and spam your Spur/blade when you're up in the middle of the Green Devil (or in this case Demon Crown) swarm to try and get some health/weapon energy.

Fourth Form: Going into the eye and spamming has a very low chance of working here, seeing as you're probably already low on health and already used a life pot potentially. Plus the -2 spikes don't spawn (while a Demon Crown might be an alternative for a -3 hit.)

Anyway, if you're going for the center-eye spam, use your blade (if it's level 2) or your nemesis (if the blade isn't level 2) If you're low on health (I.E. 12 hp left) then I'd reccomend getting out of the eye, seeing as the rotating balls still hit you -10 each time.

I can't believe I remembered all that.

 

First golem took me 2 tries, since I fell into the death spikes the first time.

Second 2 I beat first time around.

To be honest the mod was pretty easy. As far as mods go, that is.