Super Metroid: The Doors

[TobiMikami]

The Doors
[spoiler=Type of Hack]Three quarters (The equivalent between a fullhack and a halfhack, may go up, may go down.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Features]New ASM
New graphics
Expanded Ceres
Prime HUD for the new beam system[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Difficulty]Hard. Some areas are more difficult than others, a few optional expansions may require infinite bomb jumping walljumping will be needed at some points, very few necessary unless trying to sequence break, save stations are marked on the map for a good reason[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Mapping]The map is broken down into segments, each are labeled what area they come and go from for your convenience, there's many parts of each area that can only be accessed by separate elevators from other areas, this does not make sequence breaking impossible, but does provide structure and linearity[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Themes]The hack takes much inspiration from Prime, however, it does not try to replicate Prime in 2D, it expands upon the idea of using the areas and the beam system to make new puzzles, threats, challenges, item exploration, and just generally more memorability.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Plot]The story begins after Metroid II, where Samus meets a baby metroid she names Sterence. Short after, a team of Space Pirates on board a mothership named The Orpheon 2.0 attack a space colony in which Samus has kept her new found pet. Samus tracks the Frigate to an airspace over Zebes, the Space Pirate's original base. Believing Sterence is on board a research vessel, Samus boards the ship to realize an absence of activity. It is here she finds Ridley in possession of her prized pet, who makes an escape when Samus realizes The Orpheon 2.0's reactor system has failed about 3 hours prior and has been sucked into Zebes' atmosphere, upon escape, she tracks Ridley to Zebes, what lies beyond...is unknown, what is in between, are The Doors. [/spoiler]
[spoiler=Progress]
Beam Systems: 90%
ASM: 75%
Graphics: 96%
Orpheon 2.0: 20%
Overworld: 45%
Phendrana: 10%
Magmoor: 3%
Phazon Core: 8%
Frigate Crash Site: 60%
Crater Core: 70%
Lore and other fun things hidden in game: 40%
Mapping: 39%
Overall Progress: 39%
Estimated Time Remaining: 6 months to 2 years
Time Elapsed: 1 Year[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Cool things created already]
Phazon Suit (Courtesy of Grime) with Phazon ASM (Courtesy of me with help from Quote, Person, and P.J.)
Note that you will spend most of the game in your Varia suit, and you must traverse a sunken Frigate, this creates a necessity for walljumping and grapple skills to be honed.
Wave, Ice, and Plasma pirates
Ridley undergoes a conversion from Ridley to Meta Ridley between Orpheon 2.0 and the end, lore and schematics can be seen at the overrun Glacier One lab
The Stoke (Mini Crocomire) and mini Kraid can also be found in Glacier One lab, it is assumed these were experiments that overtook the lab
Plasma colors changed, heat based, destroys Icicles in Phendrana which block doors
Wave Beam and Ice Beam doors
Save Stations, Map Stations, and Elevators are labeled with special map GFX
The Doors logo in place of Nintendo
Samus's ship resprited as Pirate vessel, it is assumed she stole it from the hangar in Orpheon 2.0 upon departure[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Releases]A release that will allow the play-through of Orpheon 2.0 up to the landing site, because the vessel isn't enormous, it should be out within the next month, it doesn't feature anything too special, but it gives a first look at the game, maps and designs are always subject to change before the final release, even the next patch, so the areas may have improvements based on my judgement and player feedback, to keep patches interesting![/spoiler]
REDONE AS OF 10/4/14:
Consolidation of UPDATED works
[spoiler=Overworld][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Phendrana][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Phazon Core][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Crash Site][/spoiler]

[Grimlock]

Congratulations on getting to a point where you feel far enough along to create a thread for your hack.  I know it can be a big step for some people.   :cool:

Will any of the theme in the game be related to the band "The Doors", (sorry if you mentioned it in your post, I missed it if you did).

6 months to 2 years? I was going to act surprised but yea, that's about what my first M1 hack took me (almost 2 years), I'm well over half way done with my second one and I started it at the end of July (it's amazing how much easier things get the second time around).  I took a few extended breaks on my first one when I got side tracked with other projects.  If you stay focused and don't let yourself get distracted you can probably get it wrapped up quicker than you think.

Well I don't know much about SM hacking but I wanted to give you some encouragement anyway.  Sorry, no slick SM advice or anything just: Good luck!  :grin:

I'm interested in seeing how your custom graphics progress so I'll be eyeballing any future screenshots.  :nod:

[TobiMikami]

A very good question my friend, a little about myself, I'm a huge fan of The Doors and Jim Morrison, my favorite quote from Morrison, which is the first thing that appears in the game is "There is what is known, and what is unknown, in between are the doors" The hack is based around that quote, it uses Prime to help support that idea, because people expect certain elements of Prime, but the doors are what are the only thing between stumbling upon something a little overwhelming, especially for sequence breakers, especially because the sequence breakers will most likely miss the Pirate Lore which gives advice as to where to find certain items and the bosses, and how the maps connect.

[CrAzY]

Looks very dark & foreboding. One thing I will say, though, is that Samus suit being black does not mesh to well with black/dark backgrounds, & it looks like your hack will have a lot of those. It's your choice for what type of feeling you'd want to induce with that, but I would personally brighten Samus up a bit or not to rely on dark /plain backgrounds too much.

The HUD is interesting. Looking forward to your future progress on this.

Also, does Ridley properly function in that new room of his? Looks like he'd get stuck!

[TobiMikami]

The Phazon suit is pretty late game item, you get it at about 80% of the way through the game so it isn't a prepetual conflict, and it does look a bit better in  the running game with animation and everything, also depends on your brightness too I think, a lot of stuff to consider. My problem is a lot of my rooms chew through space like hell, I'd set up a BG pointer but unfortuantely a lot of my rooms use a lot of layer 2 special effects and for some reason background tiles eat up space like a bitch, especially when I start putting in BTS for slopes, I try to provide as much background as possible, and the landing site does have some BG, it just doesn't show because I'm using QuickMet (Orpheon isn't finished yet so I can't even play through normally to get to the planet) Below are the Power and Varia suits for the game as an update, I may be doing some HUD tweaks again soon too so those may be up and coming too!
[spoiler=Power Suit][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Varia Suit][/spoiler]

[crazyal02]

It seems a bit weird that it takes place on Zebes but there's Tallon IV area names. Regardless, this hack looks pretty sweet, and I can't wait to see more.

[Grimlock]

I like your crystal graphic, I originally planned on adding some crystals in my NEStroid hack but ran out of tiles.  I think you can make it look more realistic if you use a darker blue in the shadow area.  Very good either way.

[TobiMikami]

I have returned with some preliminary HUD icon sketches, they're shotty and the Wave Beam one isn't included cause I botched it pretty bad, any suggestions?
[spoiler=Power Beam and Missiles][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Ice Beam and Super Missiles][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Plasma Beam and Power Bombs][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Plasma Beam and X-Ray Visor][/spoiler]
In reference to Ridley's room, yes, there is a possibility of him getting stuck, I have only observed it in the lower part of the room however and only on occasion, I will try to debug it as much as possible but it happens infrequently and when I release map data for his area you'll notice there's a save room very close by just in case. The Ice crystal is a beam specific block to the Plasma beam, a pirate lore suggests "A heat based weapon" to bypass frozen obstacles, generally it just keeps you out of certain expansions to make the exploration more in depth and to make another use out of your beams. The one thing about The Doors is any items you get you'll be using quite extensively with the exception of Power Bombs, you'll probably only collect about 10-15 of them in total, they don't do much damage to enemies and their only purpose is to collect certain missile tanks and such, you will however need all your beams, with the exception of Spazer which is purposeless in this hack therefore it's not included. Grapple will have a large focus from the point in which you get it through the point you get the Phazon Suit, after defeating Ridley it will again be pertinent as Space Jump is gained in the very last area, mainly because you'll kind of NEED it. As far as the area names, they're just more interesting then the typical Zebes names, I'd name the planet something else but the ROM the lettering for "Planet Zebes" is represented as "PLANET ZBS" So with that "E" being reused it's hard to make a name unless it happens to be a letter then an E then another letter than an E etc, etc, it's just a pain in the ass so Zebes it is xD
-ALSO, if anyone can provide me with some free recording software, I'd much rather make videos then spend forever uploading screenshots, a trailer would easily replace a lot of these annoying screenshots that eat my time alive that I could spend hacking :P
Thanks for all the support guys!

[Quote58]

I really like the icons you've drawn (especially the missile and ice beam ones). I too made some prime style beam icons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcSJjSubYms&list=UUTAESVvIGbbNlQF4rHB2fiQ
idk if you want the icons to look exactly like they do in prime, but if you do I have these still (well, probably. I might have deleted them or something...)

[TobiMikami]

The limitations with mine is that the HUD reflects over a vertical axis, with the exception of the Wave Beam which reflects over the axis vertically and then horizontally upwards which is why it got all messed up when I redrew it. I mean I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of a tweak with a little ASM/Hex editing nothing I can't do just gotta find the right tiles I can point to without screwing up my map data or anything else, the icons you have are actually exactly what I was somewhat free-handing from screenshots and Brainscratchcomms's play though of the game, they'd have been way better if not for that symmetry though, I'll try to tweak it a bit I'm pretty sure I have a guide or two on HUDs lying around, I probably won't tweak the colors exactly like they are in Prime, but the symbols are pretty kickass and they add to the feel of the game. (Although I will say I'm already sick of seeing TLP because of how many minor tweaks I've had to make to my Phendrana/Phazon Core tilesets, if it wasn't for Quote's Jungle graphics set and Kennon's Frigate graphics I'd be in a crazy hospital right now xD)

[personitis]

As far as the area names, they're just more interesting then the typical Zebes names, I'd name the planet something else but the ROM the lettering for "Planet Zebes" is represented as "PLANET ZBS" So with that "E" being reused it's hard to make a name unless it happens to be a letter then an E then another letter than an E etc, etc, it's just a pain in the ass so Zebes it is xD

The text for "SPACE COLONY" and "PLANET ZEBES" both deal with tilemaps. If you check out RaccoonSam's section on the main site, you could figure these out and change them. :)

That aside, I wish you luck in going the distance on this. It's been awhile since I recall seeing a topic with this much info on a hack. :grin:

[Quote58]

Since that's scyzer's prime hud you're using, it should be easy to find the tweak you need to make, but if you have any trouble I can show you what to change (I've made so very many huds lol). As for "guide or two on HUD's lying around", this may be of some help HUD reference doc
Also, about using my Jungle tileset as an overworld kind of thing. I was making a tileset much more fitting for an overworld for a large, prime inspired hack myself. However I don't have time to do anything on that for a while (though I'd already done quite a lot of it. Last thing I was doing though were bosses, which take a lot of time), so if you'd prefer to use this tileset:
[spoiler][/spoiler]
I was going to put it up on my site (along with quite a few other new custom tilesets), but I need to make a new site first (no more google sites), and to do that I need time that I don't have.
Speaking of other tilesets, I see you're using the phendrana tileset from metroidfanmission.com. Just so you know, I have a snow tileset with much more, snow-like snow on my site.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
I actually have a much more updated version of it that's not up there (again, I was going to have that up with the new site), that includes chozo tiles and better snow and all that.
Anyway, the point is I like what you're doing with this hack, but the gfx imo could use some work. So, if you'd like to use these tilesets (or others possibly), then PM me.

I too wish you luck with the hack, it looks good and I hope you see it through  :grin:

[TobiMikami]

Funny story about this hack actually, I'll make the game but I much rather watch other people play it, mainly for the commentary, which is why I love BrainScratchComms, one day bored watching their playthough of Prime when they got to the part with the Metroid fight in the Glacier One lab Ted says "Aww it's cute! I'm going to name it Sterence!" And then when it breaks free and they kill it he yells "Oh god Sterence why! He died so young" And then I thought to myself "What if some lazy bum made an entire Metroid game about this...wait...what if I'M that lazy bum!" After looking for inspiration for a hack after my three years of educating myself upon the subject before even starting my first serious hack. It was kind of a joke at first and I thought of making a mini-hack about it (Which I still might just cause boredom and I could make it in a day) But over time it expanded into what it is now, a work of art, my pride and joy. I'm very happy with all the support from the community, you guys are awesome! I'll try to release some works from the hack for public use considering this hack wouldn't be possible without elements from just about everyone in this community, whether it be guides, ASM, Graphics, advice, Hex addresses, even the pettiest stuff. As far as the planet name goes, that information is very useful, thank you! Quote, your graphics are quite awesome, I'll be sending you a PM within the time after I finally quit rambling xD I've seen a lot of people trying to make "Super Metroid Prime" or "Metroid Prime 2D" and those just set sail for fail, even if all of us in the community with the elite skills we possess tried to collaborate it, it's probably never gonna be all there, however, I still love the ideas Prime stands for, that's what makes The Doors unique, and I hope one day it'll inspire another up and coming hacker to build some greater hacker like MST's Fear and Drewseph's Redesign inspired me.

[Quote58]

and those just set sail for fail

*ahem*

"Quote58
SMP Team Member"

"Person701
SMP Project Leader"

lol thanks man :P

[TobiMikami]

You guys are a different story, you're a team of people with the best capability of doing such a thing, I'm more refering to those guys with 2 posts saying they're making an MP2D hack and they make some room with Crateria and a shitload of tiling errors that looks like a first tinkering :P

[MetroidMst]

refering to those guys with 2 posts saying they're making an MP2D hack and they make some room with Crateria and a shitload of tiling errors that looks like a first tinkering :P

I'll stop posting rooms. I would also like to say I am no great hacker. I just work with SMILE, am just now sort of understanding a little bit of code, and DSO is amaze.

[TobiMikami]

There really is no definition of a "Great hacker" or even a "Good hacker" every hacker has their own unique style, that's what makes hacking such an art, there's a certain signature of a hack that the hacker leaves behind that makes the work theirs like an artist who paints a picture. People say that they shouldn't compare by saying "*Hacker name* style room" which we shouldn't, but at the same time, we tend to say that because the room uses a theme similar to what that hacker's themes represent, personally, I admire each and every one of you, no matter how "great" or not you are, I see a uniqueness in the hacks you all build and it's inspiring to me, and with time I've developed my own signature trades in hacking, and still am, which really wouldn't be possible without everyone's support and help.

[TobiMikami]

Crystallite.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
IPS patch now in Collaboration thread.

[Grimlock]

Is it possible in SM to have different door tube graphics for different areas or are you limited to one graphic for the whole game?  If you could I think your graphics/tile set would benefit from area specific tube graphics.

The deep blue used for the bubble doors looks nice.

[TobiMikami]

Well as far as the bubbles go, that's really limited due to animations and such. Everything behind them can be added in as gfx into each area's tile table, but the door bubbles still need to align with it correctly. I've mainly just been screwing around with random graphics and such seeing what kind of cool stuff I can throw in here or there

[Quietus]

Yeah, the main problem with altering the door graphics is that the edge of the tube just behind the bubble is part of the bubble's tiles.  It means that if you change the main chunk of the tube, you still have that edge bit left, and it requires messing around with the animation to get it right, so there's no easy fix.  On a related note, SM does allow you to not have a door, and just have an open entrance, which is good for outdoors, caves, etc.

[TobiMikami]

The number 1 rule of asking questions about SM, listen to Quietus, he's like a guru of the trade. On that note however, the thing about the CRE in SM is the way it works is different, it appears with the same graphics setup in each tileset, but the palettes are different, however, if you set the CRE to palette 1, usually a yellow power bomb door, it will be set to palette 1 of each sets palettes since CRE doesn't have a separate palette, this is important to keep the first 4 palettes in tact usually unless you're altering things in the CRE, and if you do like I have with my hack where you repoint CRE palettes to a different set like palette 7 you need to keep CRE colors for those things (In my game it's E-tanks, Missiles, and Supers) in the same palette the same way or it won't display properly, that is, if you plan on using them in that room, I.E. Ceres is a good example, you wouldn't find any items there so an absence of those is no problem (Besides the fact Ceres removes the CRE from its graphics all together :P)

[Quote58]

this is important to keep the first 4 palettes in tact

Sure, or you could just make a better cre that only needs one line for all the door bubbles and other things. Then you can have a whole line for the hud too! Well that's the set up in one of my wip hacks anyway.
The actual point though, is that as long as you know what uses which colour on which palette line, you can use anything. The only important colours that are hardcoded to be where they are, are in the first line, and the last part of the second line. Everything else is fair game for the most part.

[Mon732]

Well you can have unique doors per tileset you just need enough space in the area GFX.
http://www.metroidconstruction.com/uniquecre.php?x=top

[TobiMikami]

Quite useful information for the most part from both of you, thoughts I shall keep in the back of my mind. As of this moment I'm being kind of a laze when I should be working on that Impact Crater theme tileset I was starting on before I got side tracked by bullshit xD I'll try to have something interesting soon, hopefully.