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Yoshi's Island: Empty Nest

So some of you may have seen this on my twitch or heard about it, but this is finally it!

I'd like to formally release an assembly patch. It takes away the annoying crying baby completely, and replaces star count with a health system! Please see readme.txt for all details. Patch with asar on version U1.0 ROM.

Yoshi's Island: Empty Nest

I'd like to thank goom for helping me with sensible damage table values.

Just gonna dump the readme here too, enjoy:

Yoshi's Island: Empty Nest
by Raidenthequick
Version 1.0

This patch removes Baby Mario completely.
Yoshi is free to roam, exit pipes, finish levels, etc. without Baby Mario.
You can still die from spikes, lava, pits, etc. like normal.

This patch is a combination of several small hijacks / modifications.
See emptynest.asm for some detailed comments explaining it all.

HEALTH SYSTEM
Now there is a new way to die since Baby Mario is removed.
The star counter now acts as Yoshi's "health".
Getting hit by something decreases it by a value in the damage table.
The damage table contains one value per sprite, so damage can be customized per enemy.
When the star count reaches 0, Yoshi dies.
Stars and middle rings still increase it, so they now act as "health".

DAMAGE TABLE
A reasonable damage table has been chosen as a baseline/default, but feel free to modify as you please.
It is located in damage_table.asm and has convenient names for the sprites too.
Note that enemies who didn't cause Yoshi to be "hit" and lose Baby Mario in vanilla will also not
cause damage here, but you may modify sprites to cause a "hit" and then they will pull from the table.
Some methods of damage are not yet implemented because they differ from the standard Yoshi being "hit".
These are marked in the damage table, so please read the top of damage_table.asm for more information.

TRANSFORMATIONS
Transformations rely on certain Baby Mario attributes,
but these have been fixed; it completely does not show or rely on Baby Mario.
Also note that Yoshi now loses health while transformed.

SUPER STAR
Super Baby Mario and Skiing Yoshi still display Baby Mario's graphic,
but both of these are technically "Yoshi" in the code's perspective.
Graphical patches would be required to completely graphically remove
Mario as well. NOTE: The big "Yoshi" egg during Super Baby Mario is
actually "Mario" in code, so this has been removed also.

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS
-Add support for all the baby-stealing sprites like bandit, and really anything
that is nonstandard damage like Hootie and the Blue Fish.
-Add a table for objects that damage Yoshi, e.g. icicles and wooden spike/stakes.
-The Yoshi block after transformations doesn't act exactly like the vanilla game,
because it relies on the bubble of Baby Mario to float up and return to; currently
in this patch it just returns you directly to where the block is. Would have to
simulate a bubble somehow and use that as a return point to fix this.
-Star counter is broken in Prince Froggy boss fight and also shows "behind"
certain objects, like in 1-2 helicopter section.
How does this work with transformations?
Works fine, with one caveat that I don't have the bubble that yoshi returns to so it doesn't work EXACTLY the same , see the readme.
It's like my childhood wish finally came true.

bitchin'
Great, it's finally here! Should totally make some cool hacks with this at some point.

Glad to see this finally released
Layout by LDA during C3.
While I can't say I haven't had my fair share of annoying moments with that little crybaby. I wonder if removing it is that great. After all it'S one of the core elements of the game.

Well, to each his own.

Originally posted by Raidenthequick
Getting hit by something decreases it by a value in the damage table.

In the vanilla game, don't you have the chance of getting to Mario before the star counter decreses, thus losing no health?
That said, it's not like I actually have a better idea on how to hanlde it.
Maybe, when Yoshi gets hit, make it spawn those little star sprites and set their despawn timer so that they will vanish quickly. That way, if the player is quick, he can regain all his health like in the vanilla game.
In the same way, you could make bandit steal some of Yoshi's health that he can get back... maybe?

Either way, as I said, the baby is a core element of the game, so removing it must have been a lot of work.
I don't really hack Yoshi's Island but regardless, good job #smw{:TUP:}
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It actually was a little more work than I had anticipated, especially when I started realizing the necessity for the damage table.

With regard to "it changes the way vanilla is played!", well, that's kind of the entire point. Someone gave me a hack where the fundamental core game is the same but just the Mario graphic & annoying crying sound was removed. So you had to chase around a random pointless bubble in order to win. That was fine enough to just get rid of the noise, but this takes it further so yes it does completely change the game, intentionally.