Super Metroid : Alternate Wind

[BananaSplit]

I'm going to show you my first serious hack.
I know smile and super metroid hacking for around 3 years, but I never got far. Most of the time it was little hacks that finished corrupted.

I recently discovered that site and the Hex tutorial helped me A LOT. With my new knowledge (repoiting stuff, adding doors, expanding rooms, scroll PLMs), I started this hack

Storyline :

It is fairly simple.

"After her adventure on Zebes in Super Metroid, Samus's Ship accidently went across a strange wormhole. When Samus gets out of there, she realizes her equipment is gone and her suit changed color. She also sees a strangely familiar planet : Zebes. Samus was shocked. Wasn't it destroyed ? Samus decides to investigate".


Infos :

This hack is supposed to be close to the original Super Metroid. Flawless maps and moderate difficulty.

There are some differences between this hack and Super Metroid though :

-Completely remade map. All rooms are remade from zero.
-Changed Beams Fire Rate : The Power Beam alone shoots extremely fast like in Metroid Prime, the Ice Beam is the slowest, 1,5x the normal fire rate. Spazer is at the normal fire rate. Wave Beam is a bit slower and Plasma Beam a bit faster. When beams are combined, the fire rate is always the one from the slowest beam.
-Changed Samus and Samus's Ship palettes. (for the lulz)

Techniques Needed :

Basic Walljump
Mid Air Morph (can be replaced by bomb jump)
Bomb Jump


Last thing :

I'm still working on how the hack will look like when finished, so it may take a certain time before there's a decent amount of content for a real demo.


Video :

Super Metroid : Alternate Wind

It shows the current progress of the hack. I started it 3 days ago. It's rather small right now. If you want to try it, don't watch the video since it reveals 2 secrets needed to complete this part. Homever I left 2 secret missile tanks and 1 secret energy tank. Can you find them ?

The patch is for un-headered roms. Stop at the brinstar elevator

Don't hesitate to post feedbacks on mechanics and level design.

[FullOfFail]

You seem to have a grasp on scroll editing, and door changing. So, I can really only recommend you work on the aesthetics. The landing site for example, it's way too flat. You're dealing with other hackers, and we're a tough bunch to please. Trust me, I'll spend hours on a room just to have it instantly shot down, which I kinda enjoy because I'm a bit of a masochist, but that's a different topic. Anywhom, the next step I'd recommend is becoming more fluent with Layer 2, it makes ALL the difference, aesthetically.

[BananaSplit]

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to fix that right away.

EDIT :
New Landing Site design

Alternate Wind : New Landing Site Design

[Qactis]

Even after that vid, I'd say your first 5 or so crateria rock rooms could use a lot more slope variation. As a rule, try not to have more than 2 or 3 straight rocks before adding slopes. You want it to be all over the place, and at the same time have a decent flow that doesn't require Samus to jump 24/7. The rooms after the first ones look a helluva lot better. Overall your level design is pretty decent though, I can tell you aren't new to this. Also your ship and suit palettes are awesome

[BananaSplit]

That's a lot of slopes.

I added more at the landing site,

There's a video with landing site and suit palettes.

More Slopes and Suit Palettes

[Qactis]

Now that's more like it. Use that design method on the rest of your natural-tile rooms

[FullOfFail]

I agree with Qactis, every 3-5 or so tiles should have a curvature change in natural rooms. Sounds like a good rule of thumb. And if you start messing with Layer 2, this is really great for optical illusions, you can start making multiple Layers or rocks, visually.

[BananaSplit]

I'm going to work on layer2 then I guess.

The problem with so many slopes is that looking at samus makes me dizzy  :<_<:

[FullOfFail]

lol, I can understand that. Not to be redundant, but with layer 2 you'll be able to make the ground more flat, while still having all the curvature aesthetically. Note that if you're putting layer 2 in a sky scrolling room, like the landing site, you have to take some extra steps and change some pointer values. I forget how to do it off the top of my head, though.

[BananaSplit]

I just tried to add a layer 2 but Samus goes behind some tiles. That really limits layer 2 usefulness

[Smiley]

1. Open graphics editor (in SMILE)
2. Find the tiles that Samus goes behind of.
3. Click on one of them.
4. Add 1-4 red squares to that tile in the Tile Table Editor by clicking in the parts of that tile. (it's in the same window.)
5. Save the changes.
6. Voila! Now the tiles go behind Samus! (Think that the red squares from earlier are Samus. Remember this simple thing.)

If you want to keep a copy of that tile which now goes behind Samus, simply copy it and remove the red squares from this new copy. (Be careful; you might overwrite the next tileset if you don't do some repointing.)

[BananaSplit]

Oh thanks a lot. I'm gonna work on that

EDIT :

First problem with layer 2 :




I'm not talking about the spring ball blocks but the right and left parts of the layer 2 that shows the normal background.
When  I go ahead and come back it gets normal though

[personitis]

Have you tried...
Tools > Background Editor > BG/Layer 2 SCROLLING

In the drop down box to "Layer 2 Background (Custom) and see if that fixes your problem. Note that if you're still getting that effect with using the Quickmet, walk out of the room and back in or move Samus to another screen and back.

[BananaSplit]

The scrolling was already on the Layer 2 Background mode, and even launching the rom without quickmet doesn't fix the problem. Maybe I should repoint the BG_data to nothing ?

[JamieWebb16]

If you going to use Layer 2 in your room, your going to have to change the bg_data to just 0000. That should fix your problem. I have done some layering 2 in my hacks that I have made, the bg_data should be nothing but described above.

[BananaSplit]

Well that worked perfectly. No more spring ball blocks and background pieces. Thanks alot

[JamieWebb16]

No problem, if you need help, let me know! I'll try to help the best I can!  :yay:

[BananaSplit]

Actually the spring ball blocks at still there. They change to morph ball if i pick it up. I don't really know how to deal with that problem

[Crashtour99]

That's because you used what looked like a blank tile from the CRE table.  This is because even though they look blank, they are used to load graphics for item pickups.  Just try using a different tile (or copy a blank air tile from elsewhere in the room) and it should go away.

[BananaSplit]

Well all Layer 2 problems are fixed now. thanks a lot.

I'm gonna work on the second room layer 2 so it looks decent

[personitis]

That's because you used what looked like a blank tile from the CRE table.  This is because even though they look blank, they are used to load graphics for item pickups.  Just try using a different tile (or copy a blank air tile from elsewhere in the room) and it should go away.

Hey, you just taught me something! :heheh:

[JAM]

Just try using a different tile (or copy a blank air tile from elsewhere in the room) and it should go away.

As far as I know, last tile of CRE is always OK to use for air blocks and last tile of SCENERY is OK to use for solid blocks