Super Metroid Infiltration (incomplete hack)

[Boostguardian]

Hello Metroid Construction forum! For those who are age old veterans to hacking some of you might remember me from Samus forum UK (where a lot of the super metroid hackers started!).

Back in the day I made some halfhacks such as The Darkness Spreads and Metroid Magma.

About half a year ago I decided to learn how to hex edit and make full hacks. Due to running out of time in my life for hacking I'm submitting what I managed to complete so that you can enjoy what I did manage to complete. There's about an hour or so of solid gameplay available. Here's some information about the hack:

SUPER METROID INFILTRATION

STORYLINE

Set between the Phazon wars (Prime trilogy) and Super Metroid, the hack acts as a side story to Samus investigating a pirate research facility set up prior to the events of Super Metroid. My intention with the hack was to set a scene for Super Metroid, which I always believe lacked a solid backing story (don't get me wrong - I think that's one of the things that makes SM beautiful - the mystery in the game is amazing). I intended to add backstory elements such as;

- Samus coming across pirate breeding facilities for mochtroids prior to their rejection in favour of metroids (included in hack)
- Samus coming across captured Evirs (included in hack)that would lead to the synthesis of Draygon (not in the hack) (who this hack alludes is actually an Evir mutated via phazon radiation)
- Another spore spawn in a laboratory (included in hack)
- Samus coming across a breeding facility for 'Stokes' (not included in hack) (this hack would then have featured a Crocomire fight that alludes to one of the other Stokes also escaping to Norfair who would later appear as a mini boss in Super Metroid)
- An encounter with Phantoon - who would be revealed as a consequence of a space pirate experiment to harness mother brains energy within an airbourne research station. Defeating it would trigger a 'mini escape sequence' that I was hoping to use Ceres to trigger and get back to Zebes for. This ship would then crash to Zebes and become the wrecked ship in SM
- Encounters with Kraid and Ridley prior to the SM confrontations. I was hoping to end the hack after the confrontation with Ridley by prematurely triggering the escape routine. I never found if it was possible, but I hoped to not have Zebes blow up to allow SM to connect!

GAMEPLAY

The hack plays in a similar nature to SM however I tried to make the level design more varied and a bit more different to Super Metroid. One area I include in the hack is quite unlike the other levels included in Super Metroid and I hope you enjoy it!

I included some custom graphics and mucked around with the physics a little bit. A lot of this was inspired by Redesign and for anyone concerned by this I received permission from Drewseph via email contact to use his custom graphics.

I tried to make searching for items an emphasis of the hack as I loved this part of super metroid back in the day. Enemies are tougher than their super metroid counteparts and hit a lot harder, and missile packs provide less ammunition which encourages the player to search harder rather than have 255 missiles they only really need 10 at a time of.

WHAT IS AVAILABLE

The hack finishes when you get speed booster. Before this point you can get;

- 33 Missiles (I think - might be a few more)
- 5 energy tanks
- morph ball
- bombs
- grapple beam
- charge beam

Once you get speed booster you can also access

- super missiles
- power bombs
- reserve tanks
- varia suit

Keep in mind I didn't actually design for the item process to escalate like this, I just wanted to make all completed rooms available for the release.


IN CLOSING

Obviously some of this was quite ambitious, but what I did manage to complete is still a fairly decent portion of full hacking I believe. I am putting it on the forums just so you can enjoy it - I will unfortunately be hanging up my hacking boots for good but it's been a blast.

I've attached the IPS that needs to patched over the JU ! rom and I've attached a few screenshots - although I prefer to only include a few to allow the player to find out what's in store as they go rather than have it all spoilt!

I've learnt a great deal from the people and resources here and I wish you all the best.

If you want to contact me outside the forums (as I'll be off here now as well) you can contact me at gavdaman88 @ hotmail dot com

See you next mission

BoostGuardian

[Retroo]

why dude whyyy!?
i think this would have been great if it was not for the fast falling that makes so i cant stand it i got morph ball and then i just eh fuck this.
Its super good design but please that fast falling!!!   :nowai:

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

As retroknuckles pointed out, the acceleration of gravity is too high.

[Metaquarius]

First impressions :
And they said my hack is frustrating...
There are grapple sections right from the beginning in this hack, and grapple + high gravity is nowhere near "fun". I don't mind much the enemy changes but I can see that becoming an issue later. I've been wandering aimlessly in Crateria, so far you can hardly say the level design is varied, it's almost the same tileset all over again. It reminds me of earlier hack designs when Crateria was made so much bigger to the point it gets annoying.
And Redesign. :mad:

Still playing though. Will see how it develops. :^_^:

[Quietus]

I'm not accusing you of copying Redesign at all, but can you clarify exactly what you used?  You mention the graphics, but so far the entire hack feels like it's a hack of Redesign itself.

Anyway, the fall speed doesn't bother me, as it feels exactly the same as Redesign.  The problem with it is that you have to account for this in your level design, jumps need to be placed with consideration for the changes in physics.  Samus having more of a vertical jump without a small run-up means that platforms need to be placed slightly closer together.  There are a few jumps in this hack where it feels necessary to get both a run-up and jump at the very end of a platform.  These are used sparingly in Redesign, and I feel you'd need to follow suit.

I agree with Metaquarius about the grapple sections.  Drewseph got a lot of complaints about grappling, and you need to be very careful with it.  Anywhere that grapple is needed becomes much harder due to the small window you have after swinging to grab another block before you fall too far.  Either break the grapple sections up with more platforms, or use longer strips of grapple blocks to make traversal easier.

Other than those gripes, I was quite at home, since I love Redesign. :^_^:

this would have been great if it was not for the fast falling

the acceleration of gravity is too high.

Respect your elders. :stern:
On a more serious note, if you don't like the fall speed, then I suggest you don't try Redesign, as it's a carbon copy.

Lastly, I didn't get as far as I'd hoped, as I got a seemingly random crash after entering the first room after the
[spoiler]room full of (currently) invulnerable mocktroids.[/spoiler]
I tried a few different things, such as climbing up, dropping down, and just moving around, but it crashed after a arbitrary number of seconds.  Sometimes it was only a second after entering, and sometimes I could move round for a while before it happened. :neutral:

Oh, and I had Springball, but it wasn't on your list. :razz:

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

*deleted post*

[Quietus]

And what I'm saying is that as long as the level design caters for it, then Boostguardian needn't change it.  I didn't have any problems getting around, and I'm normally one of the first to be put off by anything that has drastic changes to the physics.

[Retroo]

i have complete redesign but i dont like it  :pwuh:

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

*deleted post*

[Quietus]

There are tonnes of hacks that have steep learning curves, and for various reasons.  That doesn't mean that they should all have been changed.  The hack's creator felt that it was OK.  That's not to mention the work involved in rebuilding the entire hack again, just to compensate for the adjusted physics if they were changed again.  If some players don't get on with it, then they can play another hack.  Not every hack is going to cater to everyone.

Besides, all this waffle is pointless, since the hack has already been abandoned. :^_^:

[Boostguardian]

Gravity gripes I understand - it was something I probably got very used to after designing and testing the hack a lot. Probably artificial difficulty that wasn't too well thought through and yes it did come in a bit after some of my level design so it clashes with some of the room designs a bit - something I would definitely have reconsidered restarting the hack for if I had the time. It does take a very long time to adjust to if at all (it's even a little more heavy than redesign I think).

As for the 'crash' room another one of my friends had the same issue - no idea why but the ips patching causes this to occur! My copy of the rom works fine but when it's turned into ips and patched it does this. Is there a way I can transmit this to someone as an smc so it can be distributed to those who wish to play a working version? If not then it's a shame as that's roughly halfway through the rom...

I appreciate the feedback guys even if I am abandoning it.

Apologies again for the gravity if it frustrated people - creator's tunnel vision to blame.

Also yes as I wrote a lot was inspired by redesign in relation to physics and some of the graphic tiles. Some I made myself (energy tank, power bomb tank) whilst others were alters such as missile/super missile tanks. I don't mean to make a carbon copy in any way, and sorry if people felt this was the case. I actually like Redesign more than super metroid itself so I probably took influence from this more than SM physics and graphics. I still feel level design was moreorless my own however.

If people are concerned I've hacked a rom of redesign you're welcome to open it in SMILE and see a rom of super metroid sitting around what I've done!

[Metaquarius]

As for the 'crash' room another one of my friends had the same issue - no idea why but the ips patching causes this to occur! My copy of the rom works fine but when it's turned into ips and patched it does this. Is there a way I can transmit this to someone as an smc so it can be distributed to those who wish to play a working version? If not then it's a shame as that's roughly halfway through the rom...

In the 2nd scroll of that room, there's a rinka using SPECIAL GFX flag, change it to NORMAL GFX.
I also noticed some scroll PLMs were not working properly, just like the one located at the bottom of Pirates Lab's entrance (power bomb block)

Final thoughts : The hack is shorter than I thought it would be and that's a bit of a shame. While Crateria Zebes Canyon and Brinstar Chozo Ruins are annoying overall (the fact I don't like Redesign doesn't help either), they have interesting parts, Pirates Lab is really nice, in fact, that's the only area which feels truly refreshing.

Thank you for actually sharing your hack and not going for aegis' fashion, even in incomplete state, that's better than nothing.

[Lunaria]

>releasing unfinished stuff.

[Boostguardian]

Thanks Meta I was racking my brains over that one!

I've attached a fixed version.
I've also expanded the hack to include all available rooms and hid all upgrades across the hack.

Super missiles and power bombs are in the room right near speed booster, and it snowballs from there.
I've also included a warp zone to Tourain in the Chozo ruins that you can access using Wave beam - you'll need a fair bit of ammo to activate mother brain though so happy hunting!

From Tourain I tried to stitch in the rooms I'd prepared for the escape sequence (it's only a few).

[Zephoras]

you have to download the screenshots....?

[Quietus]

You should be able to open it in your browser if you've got the main reader installed.  Either way, it's only a few hundred KB, which for most people will take less than a second. :^_^:

[Zephoras]

Ah well i was just wondering because ii thought you can only post it if you have the pictures on the post (not attached)

[Quietus]

I think that only really applies to people creating topics for the hacks they're working on.  Since this hack is dead, I'm guessing it doesn't really matter how they're included. :^_^:

[DonnyDonovan]

How is this overall?  How big is it?  Other than several people not liking the gravity is it pretty fun? 

I ask because I liked some of Boostguardian's earlier stuff, but, and I know it's blasphemy to some to say, but I'm only so-so on Redesign.  I played and beat it but I have no desire to go back to it like I do with some hacks. 

[Zephoras]

Why not download it and try it yourself :) it will take longer to get a reply then trying it mate

[Quietus]

It feels very, very similar to Redesign, though the physics change is more obvious.  I'd say if you felt like had to battle through Redesign, then you may want to give this a miss.

[Vismund Cygnus]

This hack would rock if that goddamn jumping was toned down a little lot. Seriously, the jumping is on crack, and everything else in the hack is painfully sluggish and awful. Additionally, I dislike the amount of backtracking in the hack, given the slow movement and the silly jumping.

My other complaint is why the fuck is my weapon a goddamn peashooter? Making me have to shoot a Space Pirate 15 times to kill it is ridiculous, artificial difficulty that adds nothing to the hack, instead just making it boring. It's such a shame, this could have been so sooo good, but it falls short because of the excessive amount of niggly things in it.
also way to steal assets from Redesign. I personally don't care but I hope for your sake Drewseph doesn't see this.

[Quietus]

why the fuck is my weapon a goddamn peashooter? Making me have to shoot a Space Pirate 15 times to kill it is ridiculous, artificial difficulty

That's probably a lot of the Redesign influence, as that had you do the same.  You had to either suffer it, use Missiles, or wait for Spazer.

also way to steal assets from Redesign. I personally don't care but I hope for your sake Drewseph doesn't see this.

I included some custom graphics and mucked around with the physics a little bit. A lot of this was inspired by Redesign and for anyone concerned by this I received permission from Drewseph via email contact to use his custom graphics.

[Vismund Cygnus]

I included some custom graphics and mucked around with the physics a little bit. A lot of this was inspired by Redesign and for anyone concerned by this I received permission from Drewseph via email contact to use his custom graphics.

Oh, my bad. I should've read the initial post better  :blush:
I still stand by my belief that this hack would be better without the Redesign influence. I think I was especially harsh because I actually did quite like a lot of it.