Posts by TooManyToasters - SMW Central

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Originally posted by Dagx

100 new hackers will all probably make levels called "Pipe Path" and "Rope Bridge" but you have really made levels like this work. I like the way this is going and I hope you stick to it.

also what music patch did you use? I don't recall either of the ones I've used having Green Hill Zone music.

I used the first one down the list. I can't remember who submitted it and they both seemed to have disappeared from the Patches section... I also noticed a few songs you used in Pandemonium Fortress aren't in the patch. What did you use for Midnight Skies, Phobia Fortress, and Firing Grounds/Fiery Finale?

In my opinion, you should be using custom music for every level. The music for the second overworld is better, but the blowing grass needs to go. Alright, I'm gonna give you my two cents on each and every level.
Pipeline
An excellent level. The music fits well, and while it's simple, it's fun. I've played through this one level quite a few times, actually. I still have a bit of a problem with the flying hammer bro above the pit. That's a pretty difficult obstacle to get past for the first level.
Shift Castle
Oh man. So much win here, I don't even know where to start. The only gripes I have with this level are the lack of custom music and the brown platform (you had to sit and wait for it to do a whole loop around before you could get on it). The second part was amazing... how exactly did you do that? I might just steal the idea.
Big Red Button
Not much to say here. It's kinda like an automatic level. The shell doesn't hit those flying red koopas, though.
Sunset Pathway
I know it's a really early level, but it's too short and a little too easy. It's still good, though. The palette is a little awkward; the colors of the grass should be the other way around. It should be darker at the bottom, and the black is a little bleh.
Midnight Mountain
Very fun. Slippery levels are rarely done right, even in the original SMW, but this was perfect. I have the same issue with he palette as Sunset Pathway, but other than that, you should leave it as it is. Some custom music and maybe a custom palette for the cave portion would do wonders for it, though.
High Rider
Short, but fun. You had some clever ideas with the line guides. I love the Dr. Mario music, too, but there's not much else I can say. I'd swap places on the overworld with Midnight Mountain, though.
Aqua Pillar
The first part was very clever, but some of the enemy placement in the second part is just evil, and it's certainly a step up in difficulty from High Rider. I noticed the Great Boo fight didn't make me want to kill something in sheer frustration this time around, which is good, because it's an excellent idea.
Uphill Struggle
I love the palette, but there are some edges that think there's dirt under them, some bullet bill blasters floating in the air, and pipes hovering slightly above other pipes. You fixed the glitched bonus room, though, which helps. It reminds me of Long Road except short and with better music. But for a level called "Uphill Struggle", there wasn't much uphill struggling. You could always scrap it and make it a vertical level...
Secret Grove
Not really secret since the key in Uphill Struggle is in plain sight. It needs custom music and a custom BG palette. The ropes don't actually touch the pipes, so you might want to use something less awkward-looking. The moon was pretty easy to find, too, and it let you skip a pretty clever obstacle.
That's all for today. I'll do the rest of them later.

I'm definitely not a fan of the SMB3 graphics, but it looks good so far, especially Mouser's Castle. I'll give the demo a try when it comes out.

Fire Emblem DS is all I want. As long as they don't wait over half a year to bring it overseas like they did with Radiant Dawn, I'll be happy.

Alright, here goes.
Misty Mansion
I'm just gonna stop commenting on the lack of custom palettes/music. It should be obvious where I stand on that now. The palette choice was good for this level, though, but the mist was a bit annoying (Several times, I've killed myself because I couldn't see the turn block with the P-switch, so I bounced right into the pit when I hit it). Still, this was a great level, and it really reminded me of the ghost houses in the original SMW. The secret exit was awesome, too. Sometimes the boo buddies spinning around the platform with spikes would move twice as fast, though... not sure if that's a glitch, but it's kinda cool either way.
Putrid Puddle
Great theme, and the SM64 music was an instant win. When you first posted the video in the screenshots/video megathread, I thought it was a little bland, but it's not bad. The first part is very unique, not in level design, but in overall theme. The second part could use a new FG palette, though; try making the colors a bit more similar.
Dinos and Diamonds
I like the first part, especially the dark palette that makes it look like late evening, but the pipes look weird. Really weird. They look comic-y and cool, but they don't fit in with the other palettes at all. Almost every time I play this level, I jump past the pipe at the end of the first part and kamikaze into the pit because I can't tell I was supposed to go into the pipe. You should make it a bit more obvious, because it just looks like another piece of scenery.
The second part was very well designed, but the BG palette burned a hole in my pupils. Tone it down... a lot. If nothing else, change it completely and rename the level. You might want to try melding some of the ground squares together with corner tiles, but it might look better as is. The FG palette looks good, and the level was pretty well designed. I liked the nonlinearity of the second part, but it couldn't hurt to make it a little more non-linear.
Fiery Freezer
It's been done before. Not only in Banjo-Tooie and Super Mario Galaxy, but in PF1, too. My advice is to scrap it, replace SHift Castle with something easier, and put Shift Castle where Fiery Freezer is on the overworld.
Gloomy Grotto
Oooh, plot development. This was a nice theme, and it would be perfect for a nonlinear level, but it was just as linear as the others. Don't get me wrong, it's a good level (using a super shell to grab coins from a question block was genius), but a nonlinear level once in a while is good for mixing things up. The BG palette was nice, but when the fast BG scroll set in, the contrast between light and dark put a strain on the eyes. Keep the flying grey turnblocks, but put them in a different area with a more monotone background and it'll be much better.
P.S. You should make Secret grotto more rewarding and swap places with Supply Area. Supply Area is too hard to find, and Secret Grove is too easy to find. Now, it wouldn't hurt to give my thread a little nudge towards the top of the page, would it?

Originally posted by "Dagx"

Also here's the secret to the second part of Shift Castle. Change it to a layer 2 level "Level mode 2". Set it to no vertical scroll. Set the Layer 2 Horizantal scrool to "Variable". Put on an autoscroll sprite. Make a layer 2, test, retest, tada!

Genius. I might use that for one of my later hacks... giving credit where credit is due, of course.

Here's a screenshot of the end of a level in Lunar Magic:

And this is what it looks like in-game, and then through a secondary exit:

I think it might have something to do with the upside-down rope and munchers, but they show up fine.

Looks interesting. If there's a yellow toy box, will there be other color toy boxes too?

Yeah, it went past screen 0F. It's fixed now. Thanks.
EDIT: The secondary exit still shows the top part of the level and kills me.

Is it possible? I'm making a ghost house, and I want to have an auto-scrolling level with spikes that stay on the very left part of the screen. I'm using a background made of objects on layer 1, but the spikes appear under Layer 1.

Originally posted by Sind

I'd choose the PS3, cuse the 360 doesn't have any games I like. (I don't like FPSers)

Because we all know that it's physically impossible to develop a game for the 360 that isn't an FPS.
I haven't played the PS3, but if you're willing to shell out $25 every 3 months for Xbox Live, you won't be losing out if you buy a 360.

Clear Cuts Cave's FG ad BG clash pretty badly, but other than that, the graphics in this hack look very good. It uses plenty of ExGFX, but it also looks simple and pleasing. I've seen many hacks go overboard with ExGFX to the point where it looks cluttered and ugly, but that isn't the case with this one. The level design looks pretty interesting, too... Especially in Clear Cuts Cave (which kinda reminds me of Kirby Superstar for some reason).

Not quite sure what's going on here...

Originally posted by FPI

Originally posted by InvisibleCoinBlock

Try making your spikes and wall in new map 16 tiles that are layer priority enabled. In theory, that should work, but I haven't tested it.

That should work indeed, I did that many times.

I remember a few levels in the TSRP games that had stationary layer 2s and auto-scroll... how exactly do you do that?

Originally posted by Decimating DJ

Set the FG INIT position to C0.

And, er... how exactly do I do that?

Would've been better if it wasn't the exact same thing as SMDJ3.

Custom palettes. Use them.

Oh... simple enough. Thanks.

Originally posted by Steam Ripper

I'm alternating between Halo 3 and Gears of War on my brand new Xbox 360.

Halo 3 will get boring quickly if you're anything like me. It can still be fun if you get a big custom game going with a good map variant. That doesn't happen very often, though, and Matchmaking will just make your ears bleed from all the 8-year-olds cussing at you and calling you a noob.
I've been playing the Phantasy Star Universe demo quite a bit lately. The full game has been out for quite some time, but there are still plenty of people playing the demo, so it's ten times better than any arcade game (if you don't already have the full version) and it's free.

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