[SM] Essential patches to start a hack

[CrAzY]

I am at a point in my beta hack where I am not sure how to continue. I have been testing out a lot of things (such as patches, adding PLMs, adding doors, room expansion, etc), & I have most of it down, but before I start filling free space, I want to know what are the essential patches to apply first.

My hack will need to have some of its graphics edited (as in level tiles), it will need new rooms, it will need some way to trigger certain events (Maridia tube broken if entering from above, etc).

Is the Yellow Scrolls patch recommended? Or would it be better to do it the old fashioned way? (I'll only need ten new rooms, at most). Should I use the Tileset repoint if I am only editing existing tiles/adding a few? Is there some event patch I would need? Or are there some other useful patches I might be overlooking?

I just want the hack mostly modified first to have a base to work off of, & am eager to add rooms.

[Quietus]

To be honest, it's all personal preference. :neutral:

If you're only doing minor graphical edits, then you won't need a patch for it.
If you're only adding a few rooms, then it's not a mountain of work to add them, though it may be easier to use a patch to add them in.
The event can probably be incorporated relatively easily by anybody who knows what they're doing, but this may also be easier with a patch.
For the scrolls, I have always used it, since it saves messing about with scroll PLMs.

That probably doesn't sound like much help, but the short answer to your question is that none of them are essential, but some may make your life easier. :^_^:

[Jordan5]

I'd say it's better to be safe than sorry. So if you plan to edit tilesets and you haven't changed any yet then i'd recommend using a tileset repoint - in the future you may decide you want custom tilesets and need more space. I was in your position and now i want a few custom tilesets; things change so it's good to anticipate it.

You can add the events patch(es) whenever you want, so don't worry about them for now and just apply them if/when you need to.

I've never used yellow scrolls because i find scroll PLMs easy to use and they're more adaptable etc.

Useful patches are the scrolling sky error fix and if you want the door speed up patch.

I hope this helps :^_^:

Oh, just make sure you back up before applying each patch as some may conflict and cause bugs.

[Quietus]

That reminds me.  I meant to mention this the other week when it was released, but I forgot.  Somebody released a program that checks to see whether two .ips patches are compatible, or whether they're likely to conflict.  I'm not sure how much use people will get out of it, but for those who aren't into the more technical workings of the patches may save some time and trouble, instead of just patching and 'seeing if problems occur', because those problems are not always immediately obvious. :^_^:

[CrAzY]

I guess "essential" was too strong a word. I just wondered if most full hacks implemented the Yellow Scrolls patch, or if that any veterans would recommend it as being always useful for starting any new projects. Or if any other tweaks were truly useful in a similar way.

That door speedup is awesome, so is making the doors actually open/animate faster, which surprisingly still hasn't been made into a standalone patch for this site. If I was doing some full hack, that would definitely be in it, but since it's supposed to be a re-creation of the beta, nothing too game changing will probably make it in.

Thanks again, I know it's personal preference, but some of these patches really are time - savers when it comes to the whole process (mapping, graphic edits, etc)

[Lunaria]

I think most people with complete full hacks are from a time before most of these patches even existed. :p

And really, what you need or require depends entirely on what your design scope is. If you can't answer the question of what you might need for your hack, then I suggest taking some time to consider your design ideas and what you want in the hack.

[JAM]

Should I use the Tileset repoint if I am only editing existing tiles/adding a few?

You can just use SMILE JX. At least, for working on tilesets. Version 2.83 have limit checks when messing with tiletables. So, you'll not overwrite something accidently and can add few tiles to tiletable (up to 10, depends on tilesets) if you want to. If program warns you that free space is over, then yes, repoint patch is your friend. If not, you'll just waste about 100-200 kb of IPS space for relocating the data.

Is there some event patch I would need?

There are at least 3 of them:
1. Event PLM by squishy. Marks event as happened after touching.
2. FF events and tubes by me. Marks event as happened after cleaning the room from enemies or (if there are 0 enemies to clear) -- instantly after entering this room, also have support for multiple Maridia tubes.
3. Event doors by me. Makes some grey doors flashing only after certain event is happened.

But don't apply everything just for "future using prorably". Think of event usage and then make a desicion.