Originally posted by ECS.98Once again, here before C3 ends lol
This has been a lot of fun to play! I haven't actually finished it yet, i've only played up to Ludwig's Castle (+ All of Star Road and Special World. Also got all Yoshi Coins up to this point), but i thought i would give my thoughts now before the forum closes lol.
Note that this is all from playing the first version you released on this thread, i didn't have time to play through the updates yet.
Dang! Glad you've been enjoying it far enough to get to this point!
Originally posted by ECS.98I like the palette changes, there are a lot of subtle differences like the Chucks or the Bone enemies that make it feel fresh. The white line in the grass ground looked weird at first, but i started to like it.
Small details do go a long way. Most of these changes are bc I was always fascinated as a kid with how some enemies appeared in the credits and opted to make these changes a reality.
Originally posted by ECS.98Also love the backgrounds in some levels, it really sparks some life in the game we're used to know.
Beta bgs as well as making some bgs make sense in comparison to their locations on he overworld (whether Vanilla Dome 4 now uses underground bc rather than a star night sky, or simply ghost houses having a day sky in the windows when they're outside) really does change some of the level feels!
Originally posted by ECS.98And of course, the updated songs are great to hear, giving a new atmosphere to some levels and even worlds we already know.
The original idea that started it all lol. Just wanting SMM2 music in SMW and thus needing Yoshi to function in castles. I wanted to make Star Road have the og theme and then change to Space World once you found all 96 exits but I couldn't find an easy way to code that with my current asm knowledgeable T_T.
Originally posted by ECS.98Also, the cutscenes are incredible! It really goes above and beyond compared to what we usually see in SMW cutscenes.
Lol these are the poster bois for this update haha! It was a pain to make them work when they needed to based on the criteria met and then have certain flags for the 2 intros. Ugh, those 2 intros... I'm so hapy it is where it is now!
Originally posted by ECS.98Yoshis are great, i love
the new abilities, really makes for some big changes when playing with each Yoshi
(although i haven't been able to use them in any level outside of their own in Star Road yet lol). I just wish there was
some sort of timer or effect to know when the yellow, grey and golden yoshis have their abilities ready
, as it's hard to know when i'm able to use them.
Also for some reason
grey yoshi prevents mario from cape spinning/throwing fireballs while the ability is in effect
.
Glad you like em! I feel as if though Red and Blue Yoshi got the short end of the stick. Maybe I can incorporate the fire stomp russianman made for the red yoshi. That was an idea I had but i couldn't find a way to make it work at the time. Blue is probably okay as is. I'll definitely need to look at that oversight with the
.
Originally posted by ECS.98I'm loving Hard Mode! It really does change quite a lot from vanilla to make it a more challenging experience, and some levels have indeed been pretty dang challenging lol
I like a lot of the enemy changes, stuff like
Rexes following the player
,
Banzais spawning on player's height
,
Swoopers following player's y position
,
Hammer Bros having a different movement and throwing more hammers
, as well as
many enemies being immune to spin-jump
... all this stuff makes the enemies challenging in new ways. Also loving the new enemies like
Fire Spitting Piranhas, Nippers, Fat Piranha and Boss Bass
.
Would be nice to see some other enemies having something more than just speed increases, but i imagine it's hard to code something new rather than just changing the attributes they already have.
Also, personally i'm not a fan of
Thwomps and especially Sumo Bros causing earthquakes
. This is more just the fact i don't like this specific mechanic.
I'm glad! Who knew simple changes could make such drastic changes in how a level plays out to get through!
Originally posted by ECS.98It's cool that you're making hard mode based mostly on sprites, i just wonder if you'd consider doing some design changes to go along with it. I noticed some levels that aren't heavily based on sprites (or based on sprites you didn't change) feel very similar to their vanilla counterpart, which is a bit of a change of pace on hard mode. Most notably levels based on layer 2 movement or line guides (Like Lemmy's Castle, Cheese Bridge Area, Way Cool...).
Even if you don't want to change terrain or something, at least maybe use some more sprites on a few of those levels.
I made very subtle changes and even incorporate conditional map16 tiles to spawn only in hard mode but I'm not sure as far drastically changing the entire design of the level for hard mode. I'd have to see what new sprites I could add to levels that are missing that flow in hard mode.
Originally posted by ECS.98Also, there are some minor issues or just some weird stuff i found in a few levels:
Yoshi's Island 1: In the sublevel there's a message box that contains the same message as the second message box of the level. It feels out of place.
I'd need to check sma2 again bc most level edits, especially dragon coin location were part of sma2. Maybe a different message might have been said so I'll check.
Originally posted by ECS.98Yoshi's Island 3: The bat ceiling here might be a bit too much since we have to run along the line of used blocks really close to the ceiling. Sometimes there's no room to avoid them.
I wanted some consistency and you may have noticed, most short sublevels that are cave themed happened to have that sprite. Plus i think they should be much harder since a lot of the times its for a Dragon Coin (though I guess one could argue you can switch hard mode off and just cheat the design. I originally intended hard mode to be nontoggle but I was advised a lot of people may not like that so i just decided to be nice, WHICH IN RETURN DON'T CHEAT ME THEN lol).
Originally posted by ECS.98Iggy's Castle: When we lose Yoshi to one of the balls in Iggy's battle, Mario gets teleported to the ball's position and dragged along it. This will often result in Mario getting crushed inside the platform, or getting dragged into the lava.
I'll have to talk to Yoshifanatic about that bc that was supposed to be fixed or if not, then its sort of unfixable unless some heavy deconstruction is done to the lose yoshi routine.
Originally posted by ECS.98Donut Plains 4: The diagonal pipe cannon we come out of launches us directly into a Piranha Plant. That's a guaranteed hit unless the player knows to hold jump beforehand (which they most likely don't because, in vanilla, that setup is designed so we fall directly into the midway gate)
Players also have the option of not going in there and seeing the other side since it is hard mode (which I personally would be cautious of). Seeing as how hard mode is intended for smw experts, I trust the judgements individual players can make.
Originally posted by ECS.98Donut Ghost House:
Was the Big Boo Boss removed? I got both exits through different Goal Tapes... just wondering if it's intended.
Yes its intended and no, the Big Boo boss is still present in the game, just not that level.
Originally posted by ECS.98Vanilla Fortress: I'm not a fan of all the bactracking we have to do for Yoshi Coins if we take the longer path on the first area (especially because the shorter path is Small Mario only, so i was forced to since i had power-ups)
This was a sma2 design for the Dragon Coins and don't want to move too much of that since this is supposed to be a hybrid of the SNES and GBA plus a bit more but I can definitely see where you're coming from.
Originally posted by ECS.98Gnarly: Unless i'm missing something, the new movement pattern of the Hammer Bros' platform doesn't let Mario jump on top of it... which means the ending section of this level can only be completed by flying or Yoshi dismounting.
Since these levels are supposed to be the hardest of he entire game, what you're meant to do is a full acceleration jump and time your stop
before you hit thicc piranha plant
.
Originally posted by ECS.98Mondo: In some random areas of the level Yoshi keeps getting scared as if i was hit, yet there's nothing in there. These are usually at around the height of tall water level. (Maybe it's the Boss Bass spawner?)
You are correct, this is an oversight, thanks!
Originally posted by ECS.98Funky: I love how the low timer makes it easier to do the super fast music glitch lol
Also, with how easy it is to lose your Yoshi thanks to Sumo Bros, this level got pretty dang tough lol
Haha yes! I was trying to make this level as unfriendly as possible to Yoshi seeing as how crucial he now is for this level!
Thank you so much for taking the time to be so critical and informative on your feedback! It's stuff like this that make me so happy bc I know people re playing and putting as much effort in playing it as I put in making it! I hope you continue in the hack's full release thread (which is linked at the first post) and you can continue letting me know how the experience goes! i'd truly recommend patching the latest update as it does fix a fatal issue that can kill the player in an unfair way (which was a HUGE oversight).