The Official CSTSF Discord Group and CS Modding Community Modding Competition! (MODCON '17)

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Sep 12, 2017 at 12:02 AM
Catz R cool
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huh weird, i could've sworn i heard that repeatedly. my bad in that case, should've done better research

still though forcing a theme is not good not good and just totally giving up is even worse
That's what's so annoying about you guys having discussions about my mod, because you start to get false information from those who don't know much but try to add on to what's been said
 
Sep 12, 2017 at 12:03 AM
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OK you've got to stop commenting about whether I """tried""" in making my mod. I did not fucking "decide" to make it break on older operating systems, and the mod states in the intro where it takes place, not the readme. The readme tells you the technical stuff like controls and achievements, which you would've seen if you actually tried to open the compatibility version, which I am confident will work properly on your system. Currently the only one who still has a problem with it is TLink
I did not see any kind of intro whatsoever. I opened the .exe, got sent to the title screen, and immediately went into Towers mode.
 
Sep 12, 2017 at 12:05 AM
Catz R cool
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I did not see any kind of intro whatsoever. I opened the .exe, got sent to the title screen, and immediately went into Towers mode.
Try deleting the profile. It only appears if there's no existing profile
 
Sep 12, 2017 at 12:16 AM
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Try deleting the profile. It only appears if there's no existing profile
Apparently there was a Profile file already inside CTD2's mod folder in the "[All] Modcon 2017 Submissions" package. Methinks you shouldn't have made it automatically make a Profile upon starting up in case of something like this happening.
 
Sep 12, 2017 at 12:21 AM
Catz R cool
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Apparently there was a Profile file already inside CTD2's mod folder in the "[All] Modcon 2017 Submissions" package. Methinks you shouldn't have made it automatically make a Profile upon starting up in case of something like this happening.
Oops yeah Enlight might have accidentally opened the game before rezipping it
 
Sep 12, 2017 at 7:17 AM
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As for the criticism, I'm just going to say that I was not expecting people to behave like this. I did expect a couple of people to attack the less finished/polished part of my mod, but was actually shocked to see that nearly everyone was completely ignoring the new features of the mod, ignoring pretty much everything I spent time on, and just assaulted every single possible part of the mod that make it less user-friendly/less fun.
Nobody is ignoring the new features of your mod, they just don't make up for the glaring flaws that plague it otherwise. To put it concisely, you spent too much time on new features and not enough time on polishing them and making sure they worked for most players (you need playtesting, and not just yourself). Bad parts of a mod tend to overshadow the good parts if they're big enough issues, especially issues that don't let the mod run on certain computers.

Also I deleted the profile.dat and it was nice to have a general intro to the controls, and the cutscene made it slightly fit the theme. But only a bit more than it was before. The mod definitely needed that intro cutscene, so you should make sure the profile.dat is not included, even if you're not the one putting the zip together (by that I mean you should double check to make sure enlightened put it together right, since you want your mod to look its best, right?)

In regards to this mod and the contest, I think your mod goes a bit against the spirit of the contest in that it's CTD again, and this contest was supposed to be all new entries. So if you're doing another tower defence mod people are going to be expecting a lot more polish this time to make up for the fact that it's no longer a novel/new concept. And polish doesn't mean just new features but also fixing issues that were in the original. In terms of polish, fixing all the issues is more important, really.

Anyways, back to playtesting some mods.

Sushi Strikes Back:
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Oh hey it's cave story, my favorite video game. What kind of title is "sushi strikes back", anyways? Guess I'll find out.

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This sushi place sucks. What kind of sushi bar doesn't have tuna?

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You missed an s here.

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Whenever I enter this map I hear a thud and the screen shakes a little, is that supposed to happen?

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I like this bubble thing, it seems like a neat mechanic to let me manage my air supply.

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What is with mods these days and their love of short ranged weapons?

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I have no clue what I'm supposed to do at this point and I'm a few minutes away from just giving up on this mod.

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Okay I decided to restart because I had a feeling I ran into something unintentional and yup. Apparently you can softlock the game right away by just going back and forth once or twice on that first map transition. Not good, not good.

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I went back to the left again to see if I could get the softlock to happen again after picking up all the stuff but the transition never finished/took me to the next map and now I'm just stuck on this black screen. The beginning of this game is very, very broken.

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At least I'm finally making some progress in the game now, exploring the ocean floor.

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Also I haven't mentioned it yet but I do love the idea of this duck torpedo launcher thing.

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And I really like how this bubble thing heals me at level 3 now (especially since I was about to die).

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One of the big crab's shots went into the air and now the helicopter-ish noise it makes is playing forever and it's really annoying.

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Oh that's it, huh? Well okay then.

It was fun while it lasted, I liked some of the unique weapons you had here, mainly the duck torpedo gun. And how the air worked underwater was a nice touch as well.

Beach Cave:
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Hey this is some nice title screen music, I like it.

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Oh I guess it's more than just the title screen music, which makes enough sense.

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Finally, a mod where I can fart to swim (silent farts).

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Oh I see how this part can be broken now. Really though, it's kind of odd that I can use this switch multiple times anyways? Since it always moves it to the same spot, or at least tries to.

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Fake blocks? Really? I thought we had moved past this as a modding community (or at least I thought we were past using it for necessary parts of the game, secrets get cut a bit of slack). They're only 3 pixels different so it's going to be annoying as hell if this becomes a recurring mechanic.

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Oh, that's it? Okay. That was a bit fun, kind of short but neat to have a mod that plays with the water level (despite the game not always cooperating).

Only one left now, but I'll save it for tomorrow.

Good thing this contest is run by professionals.
Guess who gets a warning for being salty for no good reason (hint: there is never really a good reason to be salty).
 
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Sep 12, 2017 at 7:43 AM
Giving it my all and shooting for the moon.
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Alright, so it appears I did made a mistake in the compilation. I've updated the [All] zip file to remove the profile from CTD2.

There were some issues people had with extracting the original CTD2 zip file (apparently it's a 7zip file but named as a .zip file???) so after removing the profile and window.rect files from all the mods, I opened CTD2 for 2 seconds to make sure it worked and didn't notice the autosave. Oops. I'm an extremely clumsy individual.

Okay I decided to restart because I had a feeling I ran into something unintentional and yup. Apparently you can softlock the game right away by just going back and forth once or twice on that first map transition. Not good, not good.
Unfortunately, you happen to be correct. It turns out in the mad 2-hour dash where I blindly crammed as much of the necessary flag/tsc stuff as I could, I accidentally added the flag for that door to the left exit instead of the right, I'll add this to the list of shameful mistakes.
 
Sep 20, 2017 at 5:02 PM
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[QUOTE="duncathan, post: 358741, member: 2160]
2. Complete .pxe, .pxm, and .tsc files made before June 1st, 2017 are not allowed.

[/QUOTE]

Wow. That is not applicable. If I compress and decompress my file (blabla.pxe.pxm.tsc or something) with File Manager (built in program), the date will be changed to the current one. So that doesn't work...
 
Sep 20, 2017 at 5:15 PM
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Wow. That is not applicable. If I compress and decompress my file (blabla.pxe.pxm.tsc or something) with File Manager (built in program), the date will be changed to the current one. So that doesn't work...
we use the honour system
do you have any honour, gabriel raver?
 
Sep 20, 2017 at 5:59 PM
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we use the honour system
do you have any honour, gabriel ravier?

Yes. I just wanted to say that it could be a problem. Not everyone cares about Honor (I actually do), and it can also accidentaly happen (Someone with Honor could have had by error included old art made years ago, and have a very bad internet, which would make compression pretty convenient to send the mod)
 
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Sep 20, 2017 at 7:03 PM
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honestly though the community is so small that it's not really a big deal. There's not much to be gained by cheating this rule, we'll probably find out anyway, and it probably won't fit the theme if you recycle large parts of your mod
 
Sep 21, 2017 at 11:03 AM
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Good questiong

In the interest of balance I think at least one more judge is still needed. Again I invite anyone to contact me if they want to offer their services. With that in mind, I'll get the private judging underway properly next week.

If anyone would be willing to put together a list of currently found minor or major technical issues (i.e. scripting/functionality only) in the entries that would also be great, to help ensure that I/we don't overlook anything :orangebell:
 
Oct 4, 2017 at 7:14 PM
I don't anymore.
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So how goes this?
 
Oct 4, 2017 at 8:28 PM
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No there isn't
 
Oct 4, 2017 at 10:06 PM
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Oh yes, sorry.
There's a new mod-discussion-only thread here where the judges' results will be posted.
Wrong contest. This is the one that allowed changes to the .exe.
 
Oct 5, 2017 at 4:08 PM
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Yeah the judging discussion has started. I know it seems quieter this time without everyone posting but it shouldn't really take any longer than it has in the past (actually most likely less).
 
Oct 22, 2017 at 3:51 PM
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Oh hey I almost forgot about this, but I still need to play the last modcon entry on my list.

Treasure Islands:
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Here we go. Title screen looks nice, but as others have said the text looks a little plain.

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Okay so the first thing I want to talk about is this boat, which from what I've played so far I understand to be the save point and health point. It's a nice looking boat, but at a glance I don't know how to use this thing, or more specifically, where to use this thing. The part I'm standing at right now I can't interact with, and if I go too far to the right I'll also reach a spot where the boat is not interactable. The first few times I used it I actually wasn't sure if it was a run on contact or an interactable event because of the vagueness regarding this, and once I even ran straight past it and into the water when I wanted to save, which cost me a lot of progress. I'd recommend making how this boat works more obvious and also maybe not letting the player go past the edge of the dock, although I will take some of the blame for jumping into the water.

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I've seen this issue reported before too and I can confirm that dying to the first area sucks, since you lose your ability to attack for some reason. I'm also not a fan of these spikes in the first area instantly killing me, especially when I'm just getting used to how this character controls (since you adjusted their jumping physics, at the very least).

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I figure I'll just mention right away that I'm not a big fan of the combat so far. Coming to a complete stop when swinging the shovel really limits mobility when attacking, and so does not being able to swing at all in mid-air. Unless something is dead center in front of me I'm not hitting it, and if I miss I'm getting punished because there's no hope in getting out of the way in time. I can't say that it's super terrible just based on that, but something about it doesn't feel very fun. Feels like a change of pace from cave story's combat for the sake of being a change of pace.

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This is a little design choice that I like. The sign to the left tells me I can hop down through some platforms, like this bridge over the water, and I am immediately rewarded for doing so by finding a secret. It's like the game is teaching me its mechanics! But one thing I don't like about this is that it's a bit confusing in terms of hazards, since this was the first area besides the dock that I saw water I could jump into. So naturally, after finding this secret, I tried jumping into a similar looking water hole and the game rewarded me with death. Not fun. Maybe the water here could look a bit different visually so its more discernible from the deadly water?

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I wish there was a way to get HP outside of using the boat, since I find myself getting hurt sometimes from the enemies and/or bosses while learning the new combat.

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It's nice that getting a major treasure also gives me an extra hp point in my bar in addition to the ones that are just flat out hp upgrades, but it would be nice if this was explained the first time it happened? I didn't even notice until the 2nd time it did.

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I came back up here again when re-exploring this place and I was able to pick up the mimic again. It disappears after I get it, but if I come back to the map it respawns. Also, why are there spikes down and to the left of this mimic chest, in the perfect spot so if I jump off and hold left I land on them? If you're going to make me do a blind jump off of this it'd be nice to not have to worry about instant death.

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I'll never get why people love putting 1 tile wide platforms in jumping puzzles. I think they should always be at least 2 tiles wide, especially if the player needs momentum going forward on the jump off of it.

Also one thing I don't like about using the shovel is the size of the hitbox. Where it hits in front of the player is fine, but it doesn't seem to hit anything on or behind the player, not even a little bit, despite the swing visually covering that area.

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I don't mind all the platforming but does it all have to be over insta-kill spikes? It's a long way back to the boat every time.

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This clue doesn't actually give me a clue. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not?

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Wait, there's a checkpoint here? I'm fine with this, but it would have been nice to know that I didn't have to go all the way back to the boat to save. Maybe there should be some non-boat save points, given how big these islands can be?

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Oh also I was able to get this life upgrade again after coming back to the island. I think I can get it as many times as I want, actually.

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So I guess I kind of got stuck here for awhile, since it's not very obvious that you should interact with this door-thing. It just looks like a weird wall to me, and there's nothing to "stand in front of" to interact with, since you normally interact with things directly behind you. Maybe this could've been a run on contact event, at least the first time you come to it after the map is loaded?

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At first I thought this was a secret path due to this suspicious looking corner here leading to a place where I could get into the wall, but apparently it just leads me off the map entirely? You might want to fix whatever funky collision you have going on here.

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Oh so, I guess I can just get this as many times as I want? I don't even have to leave the map and come back, every time I dig now I get a new life-thing.

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Wooo I found the secret spot, this place was neat. I like secrets.

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I don't think I would have found this one if I didn't ask you for a hint in the chat Noxid. Not that it's super hard to find but I thought I already found a treasure on this island. There should be a system or something that keeps track of where a treasure has been found, like maybe an exclamation point after the map name on the main map?

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I like getting these boots and that shovel upgrade, but it's kind of odd for these upgrades to be just in the final dungeon? I would've liked to have these when exploring the main islands.

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Oh we're fighting ganondorf now, are we?

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It's a shame she only has like 1 hp, she has some neat attack patterns if you just try to avoid her for awhile.

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Haha this is fun. I like this ending.

Overall it was pretty fun, asides from what I noted above. The art was all good and the music too, but the cave story enemies look slightly out of place in the game. That one music track also gets a bit boring after awhile, since it's used on ALL the major islands, but otherwise it's all good.
 
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