General Hack Ideas

[Quietus]

There's no need for extremes. I'm not talking about the entire screen moving around, but in general most hacks have very few, if any, animated tiles. There's no harm in adding a few placed in appropriate locations.

[Crashtour99]

If you make a patch with new grass sprites, and enter some code so that grass loads different sprites, it will be animated, like spikes and water, so it blows in the wind. It's just a completely aesthetic idea, but with the other animations, it makes me wonder why grass wasn't given an animation.

The thing to remember about animated tiles is that the gfx for them are uncompressed in the ROM, in a spot where there isn't an overabundance of free space.  Also all the tiles that use that animation will all have the exact same animation, so if you want to mix things up with different timing that requires a differently coded tile in the tiletable that also has to be activated with the fx flags (assuming you use the same gfx for a different tile).  So again, there's space, but not an overabundance, and it can get used up pretty quick.

It would indeed be great to see more animated tiles in hacks, but there are limits to just how much you can add.  Especially since relatively simple animations tend to work best.

[Mhx Air]

I'm surprised that more animated tiles haven't appeared in general, but I'd love to see them. Moving machinery, greenery, waterfalls, etc. :^_^:

There's no need for extremes. I'm not talking about the entire screen moving around, but in general most hacks have very few, if any, animated tiles. There's no harm in adding a few placed in appropriate locations.

I never even considered the fact that there are no water/lava falls in SM. That's so weird, now that I think about it. They would make really aesthetic background/foreground objects. Maybe we could repurpose quicksand, giving it a different palette in certain areas, and making it not affect Samus as heavily, so there's still the sense of water pressure, unless it's intended to be on a different layer.

All it does is clutter the screen and distract the player from what's important. Sometimes, animating everything can mislead the player, as people will naturally try to interact with anything that moves. This proves to be troublesome when the worlds in 2D Metroids are mostly static - it creates too much contrast and draws too much attention to itself. That can be advantageous when trying to make the player focus on something important (AM2R's water station fans/pumps), but animated grass is a distraction unless it's done in the landing site or in other areas where there's no pressure put on the player.

I don't know about all that. I don't think many people would try to interact with grass or waterfalls. There really aren't many places on Zebes with an abundance of grass, to the point it would distract them from anything important. Most of the time, I don't even notice the grass sprites. Anything in a Metroid game is either right in your face, or completely hidden in plain sight. Now in a game like Metroid Fusion, I could understand, since you would assume you could interact with other computers, had they been placed anywhere outside of the comms rooms. Even blinking lights may lead someone to think that there's something nearby to search for. However, I don't believe anyone will be suspicious of grass or water, and continue to focus on enemies.

[Quote58]

I'm surprised that more animated tiles haven't appeared in general, but I'd love to see them. Moving machinery, greenery, waterfalls, etc. :^_^:

There's no need for extremes. I'm not talking about the entire screen moving around, but in general most hacks have very few, if any, animated tiles. There's no harm in adding a few placed in appropriate locations.

I never even considered the fact that there are no water/lava falls in SM. That's so weird, now that I think about it. They would make really aesthetic background/foreground objects. Maybe we could repurpose quicksand, giving it a different palette in certain areas, and making it not affect Samus as heavily, so there's still the sense of water pressure, unless it's intended to be on a different layer.

All it does is clutter the screen and distract the player from what's important. Sometimes, animating everything can mislead the player, as people will naturally try to interact with anything that moves. This proves to be troublesome when the worlds in 2D Metroids are mostly static - it creates too much contrast and draws too much attention to itself. That can be advantageous when trying to make the player focus on something important (AM2R's water station fans/pumps), but animated grass is a distraction unless it's done in the landing site or in other areas where there's no pressure put on the player.

I don't know about all that. I don't think many people would try to interact with grass or waterfalls. There really aren't many places on Zebes with an abundance of grass, to the point it would distract them from anything important. Most of the time, I don't even notice the grass sprites. Anything in a Metroid game is either right in your face, or completely hidden in plain sight. Now in a game like Metroid Fusion, I could understand, since you would assume you could interact with other computers, had they been placed anywhere outside of the comms rooms. Even blinking lights may lead someone to think that there's something nearby to search for. However, I don't believe anyone will be suspicious of grass or water, and continue to focus on enemies.

Can we please stop using the noun 'aesthetic' as an adjective? I don't get why people started doing that.

I agree that too much animation can be very detrimental to a metroid game, but I also agree that a waterfall would be rad as fuck and not be a negative, especially if there's a little interaction to be found with it (moving behind it, shadows, even moving through the water.

for example, the waterfall recentally shown for am2r looks really nice and will hopefully work pretty well.

[Mhx Air]

Can we please stop using the noun 'aesthetic' as an adjective? I don't get why people started doing that.

I agree that too much animation can be very detrimental to a metroid game, but I also agree that a waterfall would be rad as fuck and not be a negative, especially if there's a little interaction to be found with it (moving behind it, shadows, even moving through the water.

for example, the waterfall recentally shown for am2r looks really nice and will hopefully work pretty well.

It is an adjective. The noun definition is fairly different.
adjective
1. Concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty.
"The pictures give great aesthetic pleasure."

As for AM2R, that waterfall looks great. I'd love to have transparency options in more than just the room FX.

[FelixWright]

So I know I've pestered Physix about this until he got it done, but I think it's time to pester everyone else about it too. :)

Remember how in Met: Prime, Space Jump provides some graphical changes to samus' shins? (most people will, I've talked about this a lot)

Originally for my "forum resources," I took matters into my own hands and "made" six four out of eight sprites, all to accomodate this change.

So for anyone who is up for it, all you would need to do is put these graphics in the game.

Included:

- Power Armour
- Power Armour w/ high jump
- Power Armour w/ space jump and high jump
- Power Armour w/ space jump, no high jump
- Varia/Gravity
- Varia/Gravity w/ high jump
- Varia/Gravity w/ space jump and high jump
- Varia/Gravity w/ space jump, no high jump

pics 4 clix:

[Crashtour99]

Just gonna plop this here...
[spoiler]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c19-jLS9gYU[/spoiler]

[Quietus]

It sounds pretty good, though it sounds more like a 'bounty hunter on her way to a mission' than credits (though you likely just put it there for an example). :^_^:

[Pikoss]

hello

I have some ideas for making metroid hacks i dont know how to make one but maybe somebody can do them.I play a lot of super metroid and also i like a lot of hacks that some people made and tnx for that and keep up the good work.I will share my opinion how super metroid can be better.

First thing i whant to talk about is map.Maps should be much bigger.Background should dark and scary
and it would be cool that there are some shadows with aliens that are moving and that it looks like perspective to other areas like when you come on planet zebes you can see in distant some fields and mountains.Also the background should be scary with lot of aliens going around or in shadows.In Hack Airy there is some area with very cool background who is flasing slowly in red.There should be much better background with horror elements.In hack Eris i saw a alien shadow in background and it was scary and really cool.
Bigger roms like in hyper metroid that is also very good.

Second thing is about aliens.There should be some good balance in energy.There should be week aliens medium hard and extra hard and even harder.I am not saying that if they touch you you are dead its about energy of aliens and with that comes more weapons bigger map,much more exploration and struggle thru game.It needs to be good balance and afcourse there should be also some bigger rooms with bigger aliens who are dangerous like boss fight but with some other aliens.Also some aliens who will hunt you thru room and that we can feel that we are in danger like some boss fights.

Third thing are items and powerups.All items and powerups should be upgradeable and if somebody can make some fucking experiance and levels so we can upgrade.Suits are fine but with upgrades and some rooms mabye its possible to balance suit upgrade for that room. Missile its ok to get in start like morph,morph bomb,super missile power bombs but graplle beam,x ray and fast runing simply feel that i need them litle bitt earlyer.Hack should have rapidfire that shit is fucking amazing in Airy.All items and powerups needs to be aquired thru game and also wall jump like in redesign.

4.Music:Music is amazing but wtf can somebody take music from metroid prime series and put them inside and mix all that shit together it would be cool but still super metroid music is amazing.

5.New story i can write story in few minutes its not hard we allready have main story make some story some hacks have good story like darkholme hospital.I think we need good and simple story that we know why are we there.One two scripts should be good like in first metroid you have one two script in start and thats it.Take intro and write some sick scfi shit.Or take story from other metroid games.

6.Coop if its possible two players it would be amazing

Maybe its to hard to make some things what i write but there are lot of hacks and if they are together mixed and adding new stuff it would be a much more.This is my opinnion i hope that somebody can make something like this.Still i love your super metroid hacks and i didnt finish a lot of them but what i played until now its great.

Moderator note: Please use stickied threads when applicable.

[interdpth]

What game has  huge maps, a "level like" progression system and great music?

Metroid Fusion is great and has all of this. Go play it

[Pikoss]

i play 1h and i didnt like the game and it dosent have all i write.read it again.This hacks are amazing i cant tell they arent i was just thinking about something bigger like x2 x3 maps then this ones in hacks now,more items harder enemys thru game understand what i mean.

[Quietus]

Here's one that popped into my head today. How about having the x-ray's beam interact with blocks instead of just making them visible? I'm thinking that you could maybe shrink the width of the beam and slow down how quickly it sweeps around you. You could then have some blocks that are only destroyed by this beam, and you can use it as something like a mining tool, or a means of opening certain door hatches, so you can access previously inaccessible areas. :^_^:

[Zero One]

I think Axiom Verge beat you to that idea :P

[Quietus]

Ah, OK. Well done, Axiom Verge for reading my future mind. :whoa:

[SupAymon]

I think people who make the super Metroid hacks should add a gamemode like Easy,Normal, and Hard I honestly think that would be an excellent idea! because you don't know if there's people very good or not so well at the game and this would increase the amount of fun in my opinion. when i first played Metroid on my Wii, I Raged so hard because i couldn't beat the first two bosses in Brinstar, well one of them is a miniboss, it was this green thing that opens up and you shoot it with missiles but i don't know whats it is called, and krain. well obviously I raged because i was really immature that time, but now if there's something like that i don't throw a big fuss about it anymore. Anyways back to the Gamemode thing, Easy mode will obviously give you lots of advantages to complete the game such as every place in the map mapped out also enemies, minibosses, and bosses do much more less damage than before, Lastly enemies, minibosses, bosses have less health than Normal. In Normal mode, its basically exactly the standard Metroid experience, and NOTHING IS CHANGED. In Hard mode everything is harder than before! enemies, minibosses, and bosses do much more damage than before! and have more health. By the way this hard mode difficulty changes things up a bit, map generators don't exist so when you look for those things you cant be told areas you haven't explored yet, and No tanks to heal you when you reach 0 hp. Lastly enemies,minibosses,bosses have an improved AI. I don't know about this being added if you ever wanted to add difficulties but here it is INSANE MODE, this mode is insanely terrifying to play with! item drops are more rare, enemies,minibosses,bosses do ENORMOUS amounts of damage. You also have NO MAP in Insane mode. Enemies, minibosses, bosses have a large amount of health than hard mode, Minibosses, and bosses have a special attack move when they get to low health! Also you know that little thing that's very important in most games? THE FREAKING INVINCIBILITY THING WHERE YOU TAKE DAMAGE! that is also removed so if you better stay the hell away from enemies or be very very careful. No tanks to heal you when you reach 0 hp. Enemies, minibosses, bosses have an improved AI. I don't recommend Insane mode to be added because its really hard and i think its impossible to complete. Thank you for taking your time to read this forum post I've made and funfact: this is my first forum post! if you ever use this idea in your Super Metroid hack ill be excited to play it if i ever find it. Anyways thanks for reading!


This post took me about 1 hour to make!

[Aran;Jaeger]

Sorry, but it isn´t quite as easy to determine/approximate the difficulty of a SM hack, and it will definitely not work like that (as in the way you described it).  :neutral:

[TheAnonymousUser]

I think people who make the super Metroid hacks should add a gamemode...

We seriously don't need to add another "difficulty change" hack to the (already unnecessarily large) list of difficulty change hacks. Just download one of those, and happy days.

Although, I believe only 1 hack has incorporated different difficulties into sm; that being "super made in metroid" (but that was a smaller hack, a much smaller hack). What you're looking for may not be possible (idk I don't even asm ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) but you'd be better off writing your own engine at that point (or just download a difficulty patch :colonrightv:)

[Mettyk25jigsaw]

I think people who make the super Metroid hacks should add a gamemode...

Although, I believe only 1 hack has incorporated different difficulties into sm; that being "super made in metroid" (but that was a smaller hack, a much smaller hack). What you're looking for may not be possible (idk I don't even asm ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) but you'd be better off writing your own engine at that point (or just download a difficulty patch :colonrightv:)

There is my hack with easy, normal and hard mode called Metroid Mission Rescue and this one is a lot bigger in area than the original with up to 699 rooms (depending on which version you play) the original has something like 254'ish rooms...My 2nd hack I am working on (Super Metroid Blackhawk Indi) will have easy normal and hard too...But that's years off yet...Planning to make about 750 rooms with this one...

[TheAnonymousUser]

There is my hack with easy, normal and hard mode...

iirc, those are seperate patches. And I can think of many hacks that do exactly that. Made in metroid was the first to incorporate various difficulties it into the hack itself, using each save file as a different difficulty.
If different difficulties via patches was what the op had in mind, then fair enough (I mean, I was more focused on vanilla difficulty patches). If it was more of a made in metroid approach, then we may have a technical challenge...

[Mettyk25jigsaw]

Ok, I more or less just skimmed read his post and read others and thought that's what he meant...

However I don't get how there would be any difference as you can do exactly the same thing either way, you just have to modify the rom on each separate patch mode, neither do I get how there would be any benefit of which way one does it...Except maybe saving you 5 seconds to patch another rom...Anyway I suppose there is something I am missing...

Edit:  Ok, just thought that it might be a lot quicker for the hacker to create it, in that regards it would be better...

[Kazuto]

We seriously don't need to add another "difficulty change" hack to the (already unnecessarily large) list of difficulty change hacks. Just download one of those, and happy days.

Although, I believe only 1 hack has incorporated different difficulties into sm; that being "super made in metroid" (but that was a smaller hack, a much smaller hack). What you're looking for may not be possible (idk I don't even asm ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) but you'd be better off writing your own engine at that point (or just download a difficulty patch :colonrightv:)

If there's one thing that attempting to play hacks has proven to me, it's that 99% of hackers have no idea how to balance difficulty.  Hence why there's such an unnecessarily large list of "difficult" hacks.  If they had the power to do 2-3 levels of difficulty in a single hack, I can guarantee that Easy would still be ridiculous in the vast majority of hacks.

Now, speaking as someone who is an ASM hacker, adding difficulty levels ala Zero Mission into Super Metroid would definitely take some work.  At it's simplest, you would have to pick an address in RAM to use as a difficulty flag and find any functions in the game that relate to dealing damage to Samus, or causing damage to enemies, and then modify all of those functions to adjust both causing and receiving damage in some way (half/double being the quickest method, but not necessarily the best).  Then you'd also have to modify the options menu somehow to add the ability to select a difficulty.  Not saying these things are impossible, but not necessarily worth it unless a hack is really that good that people will want to play it more than once.

But to make a hack truly Zero Mission-like would require a much more advanced modification to the game engine.  Zero Mission removes certain enemies based on the difficulty level you've chosen.  In Super Metroid, there's no existing way to pick and choose specific enemies spawning in a given room.  You could modify certain enemies appearing based on running code in a door pointer, but this is a tedious fix at best, because you'd have to write specific assembly for every room in the game in which you'd wanna do this.  There's no quick method to "flag" certain enemies as Hard-only, or don't-show-up-on-Easy-only.  Again, not saying it's impossible to do so, but well, if it were as easy as the topic creator probably thinks it is, every hack would already have it.

Indeed, I've given thought to trying my hand at Zero Mission-style difficulty select before.  =P

[SupAymon]

Maybe make 3 hacks with different difficulties that you patch?

[Kazuto]

That's the normal solution, SupAymon.  But of course, that's been doable since SMILE was released, and it's not the idea you originally posted about anyway.

I'll give you a heads-up if I ever do anything with difficulty levels in a single game, but I can't promise it'll be too user-friendly if I do.

[interdpth]

Pretty much have SA-X recreated, same assets. Still lots of decompiling, but the AI runs and jumps until it sees Samus, then it just runs in place. I didn't implement switching to shooting which is why it runs in place. But hey, progress is sweet. It seems the SA-X can pull whatever type of ammo it needs by just refering to a tile in the OAM memory. Hoping I can make it sling power bombs soon hah. Not sure how Palettes work for all that but we'll see.

[personitis]

Now, speaking as someone who is an ASM hacker, adding difficulty levels ala Zero Mission into Super Metroid would definitely take some work.  At it's simplest, you would have to pick an address in RAM to use as a difficulty flag and find any functions in the game that relate to dealing damage to Samus, or causing damage to enemies, and then modify all of those functions to adjust both causing and receiving damage in some way (half/double being the quickest method, but not necessarily the best).  Then you'd also have to modify the options menu somehow to add the ability to select a difficulty.  Not saying these things are impossible, but not necessarily worth it unless a hack is really that good that people will want to play it more than once.

Replace the moonwalk or item auto cancel options in the menu screen (who uses these anyway? :P) before starting game to set the "hard" flag. This still leaves option of the player changing difficulty mid-game. If that concerns you, have the afore mentioned flag mirrored somewhere and alter the SRAM routine to remember that flag while also using the mirrored address as the main flag for difficulty changes. This way, even if the player decides to scale the difficulty down, they can't do so without cheats.

Concerning enemy damages and health, that part similar if not just a bit more tricky. The simple way would be hijacking the routine which runs through every enemy index in the room on load (0-31, decimal), apply a formula based on the difficulty, and then storing those values back to health and damage. This doesn't apply to enemy projectiles, and I'm unsure how to go about that, but I'm sure something very similar could be pulled there.

But to make a hack truly Zero Mission-like would require a much more advanced modification to the game engine.  Zero Mission removes certain enemies based on the difficulty level you've chosen.  In Super Metroid, there's no existing way to pick and choose specific enemies spawning in a given room.  You could modify certain enemies appearing based on running code in a door pointer, but this is a tedious fix at best, because you'd have to write specific assembly for every room in the game in which you'd wanna do this.  There's no quick method to "flag" certain enemies as Hard-only, or don't-show-up-on-Easy-only.  Again, not saying it's impossible to do so, but well, if it were as easy as the topic creator probably thinks it is, every hack would already have it.

Why run code for every door when you could use the magic of room states? This would even allow the creator to change the layout of rooms ever so slightly (or drastically) to compensate for the difficulty. Granted, if you have a room state checking for say, Charge Beam, you'll now need two (or more) checking for each difficulty in addition to Charge Beam itself. Reasoning here is that different states can hold different arrangements/placements of enemies, PLMs, level data, etc.

All this said, it still wouldn't be a quick task for most, but I think this may be one of the best ways of going about multiple difficulties.