[SM] Z-Factor Hack v1.3

[Shionkreth]

Good hack, you have a talent for level design and I find it very reminiscent of old nes games. That said, it was perhaps a little too reminiscent of old nes games.. and trying to play without any kind of walkthrough all the backtracking, bombing every nook and trying to figure out where I'm supposed to go just got a little too taxing for me. Clearly a project of passion, though, kudos and thanks for sharing it with the community.

[Digital_Mantra]

Been replaying this one. V1.0 on powerpak.
Remembering how challenging and amazing this hack is.
Memory is shite so I've forgotten the game and my speedruns of it in the past.
Easily top 3 of hacks ever made, alongside Hyper and Redesign Axeil.

[advancedpillow]

Can you hook me up with a copy of 1.0? I never was able to snag that version and I gotta play it.

[MetroidMst]

Yep.

[Digital_Mantra]

When you play 1.0, there's quite a few soft lock perma-stuck resets, just try to avoid them and use savestations lots and also, lots of farming.
But it's really a great game. Great challenge, great flow, great level design. It may be the crumble block of hacks, but it's totally fun!

[Meeptroid]

Damn I gotta finish Z-Factor soon.... Also, 100th post! :grin:, but anyways, I have played it before, just never completed it. Send Metaquarius my regards, and great hack!

[Quietus]

It's definitely worth finishing, as Tourian is exceptionally good. :^_^:

[Metaquarius]

Yep.

MST... don't make me mad at you. 1.0 shoudn't exist. That gate is a lie.

[advancedpillow]

It's definitely worth finishing, as Tourian is exceptionally good. :^_^:

For real. Tourian in Z-Factor is amazing.

[Digital_Mantra]

After several deaths to spike quicksand.. fuck you I did it.

[advancedpillow]

Geezus, dude! On console, no less!...

Most impressive :nod:

[PKstarship]

I haven't played this hack yet, but is that room just a way of getting the power-ups early, or is it the only place you can get those power-ups?

[Quietus]

It's a route involving lots of hard tricks and tests of patience, and it lets you get those items early. And in the time you probably do it, you could have completed the game anyway. :yay:

[piush]

I remember I loved this hack the first time I played it. After I am done playing the one I am on now, I am going to give this another go.

[Steel Sparkle]

I have finally got around to playing this hack. Pretty good so far. I managed to get to the secret room.. Those treats were certainly delicious! Good job Meta. I will continue onwards with my 3 prizes.

[jamos05]

I beat this hack. I enjoyed it enough that I'm making one post here so that I can leave it a positive review, since apparently you have to post one time before you can leave reviews.

[Lady Aran]

I'm really enjoying this hack soo far. Unfortunately though, while I like the open endedness of it, I almost think it's a little *too* open. That said, I think I've run into my first real problem spot at the moment. I made it to the Wrecked Ship (finally!) but am incredibly stumped when it comes to this room (specifically the one two rooms to the left:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

In game:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[spoiler][/spoiler] (That's room seen in the position on the map screen; the room I'm having trouble with is the one seen with the gray door)

Help?  :blush:

[Quietus]

I believe that this post leads to your solution. :^_^:

[Lady Aran]

Shit. How the hell did I miss that? I read up to pg 15, but at the time I don't think I was stuck yet. My fault, I'm sorry. Thank you though, I'll give it a whirl and hope I get lucky.  :grin:

[Musaran]

Edit: Z-Factor's map v 1.3 is out.

[spoiler]http://www.nordub.ca/Maps/Z-Factor.png[/spoiler]

Improved it

I would like it added to the 1st post, since even the danidub map was hard to find.

My changes :

• Fixed wrong blocks (incomplete)
• Re-colored blocks
• Environment hazards
• What opens doors & other obstacles (incomplete)
• Intended path
• Caption

To fix errors, for a few days you can post here, else e-mail me.



Now, as for the hack itself...


Pretty nice room design, you know your game.


The map design is messy : some overly long ways, lack of shortcuts once powered, and it's absolutely not clear where to go or not go on the IG map because of it's serious limitations.

(hence my map)


And it's hard, in a bad way.

Hard is expected in a fan game for people who did not have enough with the original game, but this is unforgiving.

One has to know the techniques up-front, there is little to no training ground.
Failure typically sends back very far.
As a result one is not encouraged to try, and has trouble telling apart dead ends from from intended paths.


All that said, I still enjoyed it... using external map and savestates.

[Quietus]

Improved it

I would like it added to the 1st post, since even the danidub map was hard to find.

Thanks for the alternative map, but the original is easily found under 2012 on Danidub's website. You can also find the link in Danidub's signature on the forum or in Danidub's profile. :^_^:

[Metaquarius]

@Musaran : Good effort with the map but I'd like to point out that there's no such thing as an "intended path" in Zaridia. The idea is that the player should be lost : there're numerous paths, you've just highlighted one of them (and not the easiest nor the fastest). This applies to the whole hack to some extent. It is not a good design by any means and I definitely see people not enjoying this factor.

[Foxhound3857]

I'm playing this one at the moment. It is fun for the most part and I'm not having TOO much of a problem figuring out where to go, although the item order and the places where you're meant to explore once you get it are a bit vague. There are clues, but since the map is so big, sometimes it's hard to find your way around (which isn't easy given the obtrusive nature of most rooms). Thus far, the only time I've had to look up help was after getting Power Bombs. I had checked every area I could remember seeing those blocks EXCEPT the ones that I had forgotten about because I couldn't figure out how to get back there, which led to the Speed Booster (which I was able to find on my own without a problem). At this point I'm ready to tackle Wrecked Ship.

Anyway, yeah, liking this hack so far, but I do wish it was a little more intuitive. I don't like situations that force you to brave heated rooms without Varia or underwater segments without Gravity; you're supposed to have those items BEFORE encountering situations like that. Really, I only got through Norfair to the Ice Beam by experimentation (realizing I could get refills through the Hell run), and finding the Varia suit was...well, it was sheer luck.

Basically, when I see something that's off and I ask myself "Is the developer REALLY expecting me to do this?", now I just assume "Yes. Yes he is." And so I do it. And I have fun after that.

At least I'm able to play it without Savestates.

Edit: Now I'm genuinely stuck. Cannot find the path in Lower Norfair. It was bad enough finding the way to Draygon, but this is just ridiculous. The way forward should never be this convoluted or difficult to find. There should always be clues or general hints to point you in the right direction.

Edit: Finished.

Clear time: 9:47
Collection rate: 86%

Jeez, 3 minutes for that escape is tight.

[CaRmAgE]

No clue where I'm missing anything, since there are no gaps left in my map.  Took me 4 attempts to escape in general, and 2 more to also save the animals.  My problem with the escape is more-so the evil rooms than the timer (but I'll get to that in a moment).

[spoiler=Thoughts]I did not have the problems others were having with finding my way initially.  I picked up on all your hints almost immediately.  I even found the room with X-Ray in it before even getting Charge Beam or Super Missiles.  Then, Norfair happened.  I literally was steps away from both major upgrade (HJB and Ice) when I turned around, because I thought I hit a dead end. 1) I hate when devs put morph ball tunnels offscreen, because I never think to look for those (they're impossible to see w/ X-Ray). 2) Many people won't think to look up for secret passages, especially since it is difficult to X-Ray ceiling secrets.  The timed rising lava didn't help, either, because I didn't think I had time to look for secret passages.  I actually had to look up a map for both upgrades, and thought I was expected to take a lava bath to reach Ice, which left me fuming.  Had a similar problem in Lower Norfair, where I thought I had to take an acid bath.

Maridia was even worse, because X-Ray didn't always work.  I had to look up the map for the secret passage behind the vines at the beginning, because X-Ray revealed every wall and floor as secrets when they weren't.  Then, there was the big room on the way to the third turbo tube where you expected me to already know about a grapple point that I haven't even seen yet.

My greatest issues with the hack, though, were 1) 1-block crumble blocks in morph ball tunnels with no option to mockball; constantly failing the ceiling-HBJs and losing lots of progress was painful, 2) invisible hazards; why do you have secret quicksand passages mixed in with hazardous ones where you can't tell the difference? 3) no way to refill resources before bosses (as well as green gates + shinesparks prior to the boss room just to rub it in our faces); Botwoon was painful to fight, and the fight seems to contradict your "no advanced techniques required" thing, due to the wall-jumping required (I don't think you realize how quickly the floor can kill you with the turning animation bug slamming you into the hazard repeatedly); Draygon took me an hour to kill, because I was forced to play out the whole thing safely.

I don't know if Tourian made up for all the frustration, but it was still a great part of the hack.  As for the escape, the crumble block was evil, especially the ceiling spikes part, since hitting them ejects you directly into the crumble blocks below with no hope of recovering.[/spoiler]

One final note: If you allow getting to certain places early, you should make sure we can get back in case we need to search for more expansions.  Being trapped in Norfair/Western Brinstar with only 1 Energy Tank was not cool.

EDIT: Wait, I can't go back to look for more expansions?

[MetroidX]

I really want to play this game this weekend. However everytime I run it with an emulator, the emulator crashes. With SNES9x-1.54, i get a message saying dll42 missing or something like that. With zsnes, it just crashes. What gives, this is the first hack that is giving me this problem?
I am patching the Super Metroid (JU). smc and then zipping it up. Can someone help?