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What annoys you about SMW hacking/hackers

Originally posted by Wormer21

- Some hack "stereotypes". Vanilla = boring, Kaizo = ugly and unfair, etc. It's not true.

This also, along with 'all joke hacks have to be stylistic suck.' I've only seen a few actually clever joke hacks that were more satire/deconstruction game/prank type. Making a worthy successor to Chaos CompleXX is almost impossible, and I'm not even sure about the 'almost' part.
-The mentality that any difficulty that's past one's comfort zone=Kaizo
-No single unanimous, precise definition of 'pit.'
-No single unanimous, precise definition of 'Kaizo.'
-The fact that I've done enough hacking that the original game seems 'boring' now even tho I used to really like playing this game. Kinda like when I listen to a really catchy song I like so many times and then gets boring. I do not want this to happen with any other childhood games.
-When Kaizo levels require keeping/collecting a power-up from a different level so that the current level can be possible. Not really a removal reason but still an annoyance.
Legacy custom music
A site with a non-useless dislike button
SMW hacking channel

Originally posted by Macky
Not to sound rude here, but how in FUCK HELL does this make someone a terrible person? There are people here who don't want their hard work stolen.

*coldly stares at Ivan*

And that list of people includes Nintendo, but that doesn't seem to slow any of us down. Moral inconsistency is just the worst.

Originally posted by Gloomier
Maybe said person is just trying to make their hack stay as original and unique as possible? But then again, I've never seen people using original stuff from open hacks, like SMWCP (except for some bosses). *shrug*

I think that's a silly goal, and not achieved by locking a hack. But I was using that statement as a bit of hyperbole as an example of the general, contradictory attitude displayed by the kind of hacker that annoys me.
If Nintendo didn't want their hard work "stolen" then how come they let this site stay up for nearly a decade now?
(I'll ignore Marceline "Le Camerin" Gray, she's a prank.)

We're too small to care about, I guess. Or maybe it's because we're not making any money from it and they don't want to criminalize obsessed fans. (Edit: Okay, one of us does make money.)

They have thrown lawyers at some guys who made money from messing with their ROMs.
<blm> zsnes users are the flatearthers of emulation
Speaking of the whole "locking hacks makes you a terrible person" thing, and to go along with the topic of this thread, it kind of annoys me when I see people mistaking "changing the internal ROM name" for "locking your hack" and people giving out false advice when someone asks about not being able to open a hack in LM even though the difference between the two isn't hard to tell at all.
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Originally posted by Gregor
If Nintendo didn't want their hard work "stolen" then how come they let this site stay up for nearly a decade now?

Because SMWCentral doesn't host or link to ROMs, making it Technically Legal. Consequentially they don't really have the power to take this place down quite so simply, and it's not really worth it for them to go to any great effort over it.

Romhacking doesn't really matter to Nintendo, but that doesn't mean that we aren't using their work for our own ends. Inaction =/= support.
Very very very shortly, this drab, workaday world and everything in it will be changed forever! Follow us into the golden country, into the empire of the senseless!
I agree with some of the problems that were already mentioned, let's add some more.

Leveldesign:
- Levels that use too many coins / use coins only for decoration. The worst examples are when people place coins randomly and not even in groups or something similar, just to fill up empty space.
- Levels without fillers. As stupid as that may sound. I rarely enjoy playing gimmick hacks when the levels are linear and every single pattern is a difficult, "innovative" idea. It's important not to overload levels but instead add some coin blocks, simple platforming or generally 1-2 seconds of relaxing in between.

Palettes:
- People saying palettes are "bad" just because they don't fit their style. For example, many say that good palettes need perfect gradients or that pink grass is generally ugly.
- Monotonous palettes (especially in vanilla hacks). Best example is, if you choose a colour, then copy it, just change it's brightness and make a gradient out of it. That looks incredibly boring in 99% of the cases.
- The above gets even worse if forground and background use really similar colours. Especially an issue with vanilla castle levels from what I've seen. (When they are completely grey / brown / whatever)
- EDIT: Also hacks where all the palettes are very desaturated, except you want every level to look like it's going to rain in 5 minutes.
Well, I don't like to complain too much about hacks, but...


-When a one level hack don't have a mid-point bar...seriously, it's really horrible, for example, you play the hack and it's getting harder, it's awesome and challenging, but if you die, you will go to the very start of everything, that can be quite annoying.
I find it ok if the hack is a hard hack by itself, as you naturally use save states on these, but when the difficult itself is on having to start all again, then I think it's quite unfair, it's just like having one life and when you die it's game over with no continue.

-Hacks that are simply generic and boring.
Well, if I play a hack, I like when it surprises me, or just is fun and addicting to play, the hack that makes you wanting to play more is naturally what I like.
I hate to do this, but I can cite Pokémon Darkness as an example.
The hack is nice, it has nice graphics and
horrible sound effects for coins and power-ups
a nice soundtrack(good choice for custom music), however, the levels are quite boring, and they don't make you want to play more, once you get bored you will want to stop.

-Hacks that don't have difficult or challenge.
You know, easy doesn't mean bad, neither hard means good, but I compare these things to arcade games for the most of time.
I like when the game is hard enough for you to want to keep playing until the end, even if you're spending all your coins on that game, you still want to play it, and when you pass through that hard part you feel victorious and satisfied.
Mario Gives Up 2 makes you want to keep playing.
SMW - The After Years makes you want to keep playing.
ASMT makes you want to keep playing.
There are a lot of hacks that are really hard and still make you want to keep playing.
It's nice to play a refreshing calm and easy hack, but, a nice hack still needs to make you feel like you have an actual reason to keep playing.

-Hacks that don't give anything interesting
This is harder to explain, but, I personally don't like a hack that just has enemies around the level, it's not like they really have a purpose, they are just there and you just destroy or avoid them...
It's boring to play a hack where you just have to go walking and destroying enemies until you reach the goal point.

Yeah, that's all I can think of now. lol
This user is a noob. :c
I'm pretty sure if you look around hard enough, you'll find some decent chocolate hacks that will keep one interested to the end on the site; that being said, I'm not going to name any of the 10-15 hacks I have in mind.



There's nothing wrong with locking hacks either. Some people make puzzle levels, and they simply don't want you to open the hack and spoil the level design.
Originally posted by Scorpion
There's nothing wrong with locking hacks either. Some people make puzzle levels, and they simply don't want you to open the hack and spoil the level design.

Well, if a puzzle is so complex that it needs to be spoiled in LM, then it's pretty much the hacker's lack of empathy.
Originally posted by Scorpion
There's nothing wrong with locking hacks either. Some people make puzzle levels, and they simply don't want you to open the hack and spoil the level design.

Again, I was using hyperbole. That example does not fit into the context I used during my first post (has nothing to do with copyright/"stealing"). I'm not going to hold it against you, since you can only respond to what is actually said, and responding to implications can be troublesome, but that was the context in which I said the statement.
Originally posted by Scorpion
There's nothing wrong with locking hacks either. Some people make puzzle levels, and they simply don't want you to open the hack and spoil the level design.

If the player needs a hint to beat the level, let them get their hints. It's not a spoiler if it consists of information you explicitly asked for.
<blm> zsnes users are the flatearthers of emulation
Originally posted by MolSno
Lack of presentation. Time and time again I see people who have no clue how to properly present their hacks. Whether it be boring screenshots, bundles of screenshots with no textual information inbetween, or entire videos of levels (which I don't even bother with most of the time), a lot of people just don't know how to make people interested in their hack.


How does one properly present? As someone relatively new to the scene, I tried to see how one does it and emulate what appeared to work. What is a good way to present and get people's attention without imposing or annoying?

Originally posted by Alcaro
If the player needs a hint to beat the level, let them get their hints. It's not a spoiler if it consists of information you explicitly asked for.


Agreed. If a person gets too frustrated, they are going to stop playing your hack. Even with Kaizo, which are designed to make you hate yourself I think, you should want everyone who tries your hack to have fun doing it. Like I said earlier, I don't mind if people poke at mine. In fact, I explicitly encourage it.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Originally posted by Ten
How does one properly present? As someone relatively new to the scene, I tried to see how one does it and emulate what appeared to work. What is a good way to present and get people's attention without imposing or annoying?


By showing off screenshots of your hack, mainly more of the fun and action-packed parts. MolSno wasn't saying (or at least I think he wasn't) screenshots in general are bad, only the ones that poorly present the hack and fail to make it look good, such as a screenshot of one of the more empty areas of the game, or barely any screenshots at all. To properly represent a hack, it would be preferred a good number of screenies (not too little, but not too many) are shown, that actually show off the fun in the hack and would be likely to make one interested in it.

Hope this helped. #ab{:)}
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pretentious people who complain about every little thing
@Presenting hacks: the best way to present a hack, imo, is with a trailer, which is what commercial games usually use. It shows enough amount of information on gameplay, aesthetics and plot. Also, if done right, it can easily convince people that the game (or hack) is going to be epic. Unfortunately, not everyone has any experience on video making to make a decent trailer (it doesn't look that hard to do, though, I dunno).

---------------------------------

Adding to my list:

- Obvious repetitive copy-pastes, like having a group of 3 question blocks with the middle one having a power-up, and this pattern can be seen multiple times throughout a level or even a whole hack. It happens a lot with coins and Yoshi coins as well. It just makes the hacker look lazy and uncreative.

- Too much color contrast between the surface and the dirt tiles. i.e. surface (usually grass) is a dark-ish green, while the dirt is a light-ish beige. There are worse color mistakes, I know, but this one in particular annoys me quite a bit. I think it's because the hacker is trying to make something unique, but in an unprofessional way.

- (Almost) Linear OW's/hacks with no secrets. I mean, it just beats the point of having an OW. A game map suggests there is some sort of exploration in the game and there can be several paths to choose. If there's only one path to choose, might as well use a system where you unlock the next level and play it right away or simply choose which course to play, in a fast and practical way. Also, finding secret exits, which are the main form of unlocking different paths, can be lots of fun for me. A hack with no secret exits just feels... straight, mystery-less.
Originally posted by KTBHacking
By showing off screenshots of your hack, mainly more of the fun and action-packed parts. MolSno wasn't saying (or at least I think he wasn't) screenshots in general are bad, only the ones that poorly present the hack and fail to make it look good, such as a screenshot of one of the more empty areas of the game, or barely any screenshots at all. To properly represent a hack, it would be preferred a good number of screenies (not too little, but not too many) are shown, that actually show off the fun in the hack and would be likely to make one interested in it.

Good screenshots alone don't really do it for me. I think that showing off large quantities of screenshots turns me away even more than no screenshots. What really gets my attention is when there's textual information included. Explaining what's going on in the image or pointing out something and talking about it specifically gets me interested, and makes me look at the screenshot multiple times. In my eyes, screenshots with no textual information are only good when showing off graphics.
Depends on my mood. In general? Bad level design, a lack of variety, and in most cases, levels that rely on pure luck.
Originally posted by KTBHacking
Originally posted by Ten
How does one properly present? As someone relatively new to the scene, I tried to see how one does it and emulate what appeared to work. What is a good way to present and get people's attention without imposing or annoying?


By showing off screenshots of your hack, mainly more of the fun and action-packed parts. MolSno wasn't saying (or at least I think he wasn't) screenshots in general are bad, only the ones that poorly present the hack and fail to make it look good, such as a screenshot of one of the more empty areas of the game, or barely any screenshots at all. To properly represent a hack, it would be preferred a good number of screenies (not too little, but not too many) are shown, that actually show off the fun in the hack and would be likely to make one interested in it.

Hope this helped.


It did. Thank you.

I personally got the impression that screenshots are not optimal, because you're going to want to find the spot in your level with a lot going on, but it's hard to really establish context with just that. I chose, instead, to simply show off entire levels (the new version of LM makes that a great deal easier), since I have the conceit that my personal strength is in level design.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Originally posted by Nao
People saying palettes are "bad" just because they don't fit their style.


Originally posted by Nao
Also hacks where all the palettes are very desaturated, except you want every level to look like it's going to rain in 5 minutes.



Maybe those palettes just don't fit your style.