The Super Metroid Challenge

[ThatNewGuy]

Wait, is there permastuck in the current version? If so, I really would like to fix that.

Also, I am still working slowly on a more polished version of the hack (items hidden in better places, less grinding and cheap deaths, etc).

[JAM]

What you should do for sure is changing item drop rate of these enemies: DC7F and DCBF. Just to give you less "nothing". It's annoying when you have full Missiles and Energy, but you need a Super Missile to:
1. Exit Kraid's lair.
2. Go to green bubble room.

So you're shooting and shooting them over and over, in hope to get Super Missile but getting nothing again and again. And finally, after 20th try you'll get the Super Missile.

I've played it yesterday a lot. In general, balance is good. Quite enjoying for me. It's hardened but it's not a spike hell. It's hard for most players, but it's supposed to be hard. For skill players like me, it's OK. For TASers it'll be even easy, I guess. =)

I'd say to most players, yes, it's hard. Try to play better or GTFO. Once you beat it, you'll learn to be more accurate (I mean, not like run and get damage from every enemy just because you have a lot of health) and the original game became very easy after that.

C'mon, people. When you play the brand new game, which skill do you select? Very easy? And after passing the game you don't even trying to play at Hard or Very Hard skill levels, considered the game was already beaten?

It's reminding me my own very hack called Nightmare. It's even harder. Most of enemies can insta-kill you in the beginning, acid can drain all your energy (full tanks) in 1 second. 4 seconds with Gravity Suit. But you're not supposed to perform an acid run or something like that to beat the game, so it's alright. Just don't swim there. =) It's really hard, so I also did 3 less harder hacks. Now, about the your hack:

[spoiler]
Space colony. It's OK. Timer gives you a lot of time. Ridley can be beaten if you really want to win.

Torizo fight. Awesome. You just can't blast 10 Missiles and kill him in 10 seconds like in original game. Now it's like "fire Missile, continue firing, take some damage, shoot the orbs, refill energy, got missile (prorably), repeat".

Spikes at the start. Finally!!! Someone is actually using few "low damage" spikes (aka Fool X-Ray; 02) in the beginning of the game.

Ammo quantity at the start. Well, in my hard hack I've used the same rate (1:4, sometimes 1:5). Maximum there is 50, 10, 10. And first missile upgrade gives you 5 Missiles. This is enough to open pink doors. In your hack you can get first missile upgrade, get Bombs, fight Torizo, collect Missile in old MB room, collect Missile in "Chozo scanner" room and return to blue Brinstar. With full health, you can shoot the pink door 3 times, shoot a Zoomer, take missile projectile (2 missiles) and shoot 2 more times to open the door. So, it's prorably will be OK to do what you've planned (set the quantity to 1, it'll be enough to open that door). In that room you can get 2 Missile packs, having 5 Missiles in total, which is enough to open any door.

Spore Spawn. A bit hard, but not enough to kill you if you're quick and accurate. Again, thanks to low damage spikes.

Mockball tunnel. Great. 10/10. Easy to perform if you know what to do. Did this at first try. This is how mockball trick should be used to perform by most players who can do it.

Sequence Breakes. Broken. I mean, you did all good here. Some items, I guess, are really hidden. Haven't found the Charge Beam and go further.

Path to Kraid. I have absolutely no problems in mini-Kraid room. So I don't understand why someone is stopped there. [spoiler]Use the bombs, mazafaka! Not Super Missile![/spoiler] Trick is to kill first 2 or 3 Space Pirates, run to the mini-Kraid, blast him with Super Missile and Missile and then return to last (1 or 2) Space Pirates. You can change their HP a bit to make them expload after 2 Bombs, not 3.

Kraid battle. You didn't change his HP intentionally or not? Anyway, not as good as previous bosses. Not hard, but annoying. Because Kraid's flying claws give you too much nothing. Change the rate of "nothing" to 01 and you can double Kraid HP. Battle will take the same time, but it'll be more fun.

From Kraid to Norfair. And SUDDENLY the game became HARD. Energy Tanks were hidden, so at that point I've got 149 Max Energy. No charge beam. 10 Missiles. 1 Super Missile. Kraid battle without Charge Beam is fun, but when you got only weak Power Beam, it's not so fun to progress. You've got Missiles to shoot strong enemies (and don't let them touch you), but you'll have to save most of them to open the doors. Played without savestates. It tooks about 40 tries to get Speed Booster. This is where I stopped for now.

Lava/acid placements. Excellent. First, nice trap in red Brinstar. Good motivation to not swim here. =) Second, the room in where lava is rising in the way to Speed Booster. Nice one too if compare with original. =) But I'd set delay a bit longer, but increase the speed instead. Because if you run too fast, the enemise can kill you with their blue fireballs. But once you're in the shaft part of the room, the lava will rise, but you can easily escape.

Spike placements. Very well! Mistress Spike will be proud of you. =) For not turning all the rooms into this:

In general, very clever placement. Just to prevent sequence breaks.

"Farming" as beign said above is bearable. Not so bad.

What I don't like:
Enemies (that I listed above) gives you nothing when you really need something.
Static spikes. C'mon, let them move.
[/spoiler]

Will play more. Also, I'm recording the movie of walkthrough.

EDIT: What also you can prorably improve is item % calculation. I mean, 100% should be 100%. Also, Crystal Flash conditions. From 10, 10, 11 to 5, 5, 6 or even 2, 2, 3 (because there are so little energy...)

[Quietus]

Try to play better or GTFO.

This seems a bit harsh, JAM.  Some people just don't enjoy hard hacks, and if they aren't enjoying a hack, there's no point in playing it.  Telling them to 'play better' isn't going to change anything. :neutral:

[JAM]

Quietus
I'm sorry, but that's true. Try to think about this hack not like a hack but like a hard mode of original game. Like the hard mode of Zero Mission. Reasons that there are so many hard hacks are:
1. There are a lot of techniques/glitches. Like walljump, mockball etc.
2. There is no hard mode of original game.

If you can't beat hard mode of any game, then you:
A. Don't play it.
B. Be more accurate/fast and try to beat it.

Am I wrong?

Telling them to 'play better' isn't going to change anything. :neutral:

Well, at least I could say that hack is possible to complete without savestates.

[Quietus]

I disagree.  A hack being designed as a challenge due to hard tricks is fine, as it's designed that way, and players know what they're in for when they start.  However, a boss with 1,000,000 HP where you never get hit, and have to shoot 1,000,000 times is not fun, or hard - it's just tedious.  I enjoy challenge hacks, but I won't play them if they have things like that in them.  Telling me to play better is going to fall on deaf ears, since I'm a very experienced player, who can perform almost all tricks with relative ease.  Tedious isn't hard, it's tedious. :neutral:

[crimsonsunbird]

You're right, some bosses were very tedious   :mad:

[ThatNewGuy]

Thanks for all the comments and for enjoying it, JAM. If you complete that walkthrough, I'll definitely be watching it all the way through and taking notes.  :^_^:
To reply to your comments:
[spoiler]
-I've been tweaking some of the drop rates to be a bit more forgiving (which will include those two enemies you mention). I'm also removing a few required uses of super missiles simply because they are so low in number early in the game.

-For some reason, I remember having trouble increasing Kraid's HP. Is there anything special you have to do to get his HP to rise? I'll try again and see if it works though, also I'll see if I can increase the drop rates on his flying fingers.

-I'm glad you found all the missiles in the beginning section, ammo is not nearly as big of an issue early on if do. The problem is that it was possible to move on with only 1 missile, creating some stupid situations later on. to help this, I've now made the first missile pack give 2 missiles instead of 1 and red doors now only take 3 missiles to open. I also moved one of the missile packs so 5 will still be the maximum missile ammo you can get at that point before heading to Brinstar.

-It will be possible and not too hard to get the ice beam in the next version after beating Kraid. This is because I agree, still having the power beam at that point is lame when enemies have so much hp.

-The rising lava room on the way to Speed Booster was definitely something I was a bit concerned about. I'll definitely raise the delay some in that room. I might put the enemies a few pixels higher as well so you can tell their fire will hit you without getting hit first. As it is their fire is kind of inside the floor but still hurts you.

-I'm glad you appreciate me not throwing spikes everywhere. I knew from the start that wasn't the hack I wanted to play.[/spoiler]

Regarding modifying Crystal Flash and item calculation, that's not something I know how to do. Can it be changed in SMILE or will I need a hex editor to get it to work? And if so, do you know where can I find the addresses that I'd need to change?

And to answer Quietus and Crimsonsunbird, I don't think the bosses are that tedious. Usually there is a fair amount of leeway for getting hit, it's not 1 hit and your dead. On top of that most bosses provide you something which can restore your reserves. The most tedious parts in my opinion would be collecting ammo and fighting certain enemies, not defeating bosses (except MAYBE the first chozo, who has quite a bit of health if you don't know how to kill him fast, and Crocomire who is just kind of annoying due to the game's programming and the luck element). On that note, if there is a fix for Crocomire's mouth that'd be an amazing thing to have... It's really annoying to shoot it while it's open and still miss somehow.

A few other things I'm trying to do with the next version:

[spoiler]-Palette changes. Nothing crazy, but I'll at least be changing the palettes of most areas somewhat, just to make things feel a little different. I might change the enemies' colors too, I haven't decided for sure yet.

-More unique item placement. In the original version you can find the same number of items on every screen as before. In the new version, that won't be the case. You'll be able to find some items hidden on totally new screens than before, and perhaps even some added sections to rooms that weren't there before to get them. I won't be going crazy with this because I don't want it to be too hard to collect items, but I wanted to make exploring feel a little more rewarding in the game.

-More challenges early on. The early game was a bit too unchanged, so I'm adding a bit more tricky parts early on to make it feel more consistent and different. Keep in mind the earlier challenges still won't be ultra hard to perform, but should improve the pace a bit and prepare the player better for when the game starts to get harder.[/spoiler]

I'm off work the next couple days, so I will be working on this hack a lot in that time. If anyone has any comments, or additional suggestions for the next version, let me know.

[Lunaria]

JAM: There is a huge difference between a game that is designed to be hard and a game that is hard due to poor design.
Furthermore, if a game bores you by being tedious then it's not the difficulty that is the issue, it's the execution.

[ThatNewGuy]

Regarding the whole "tediousness" issue:

While I'm certainly trying harder to design the next version better and to be less tedious, I think the reason me and JAM haven't noticed it as much would be the way we play the game. If you play certain ways, and cautiously (example, being sure to grab every item you can in each area, and to use ammo very carefully), then the tediousness is not nearly as apparent. This is why I didn't catch it on my test runs, because I was playing in such a way that I didn't really need to stop and farm ammo much, for example. However, watching your stream made me realize that it really can be pretty tedious, especially when you try to go through the game quickly and pass up on ammo upgrades, etc. This is why I'm going to try to make the next version a little less frustrating in that regard.

[MetroidMst]

To an extent I agree with this:

If you play certain ways, and cautiously (example, being sure to grab every item you can in each area, and to use ammo very carefully), then the tediousness is not nearly as apparent.

However, this is a half hack, and the layout is the same. I know where stuff is already, and that takes what could be fun, exploration, out of the equation entirely. In fact, one of the more infuriating parts of the hack to me was when you actually did move items. And even though I tend to be more cautious, I still spent plenty of time farming. (Also, refill bugs should only take one hit to destroy FYI, or give the player Grapple right from the start.)

[JAM]

Thanks for all the comments and for enjoying it, JAM. If you complete that walkthrough, I'll definitely be watching it all the way through and taking notes.  :^_^:

You're welcome! =)

I've played it a bit more. 3 more mini-reviews.
[spoiler]
Way to Power Bombs. Time to return to Brinstar. And, to escape you'll need Speed Booster. Awesome work! And if you failed, the Recharge Station is in the next room. You've also marked a spot on the ground in where you should start. Just one question. How much energy can you gain at that moment? I had 149 and it's not enough to break the upper block. So I had to perform starting from mid-air.

Spazer. Just in time! You'll need the Power Bombs to get it. More powerful shots with wide range is that I really needed at that point.

Crocomiro. When fighting him I had 13 Missiles. Without Charge Beam it was the great battle! Never give up! Trust your instincts as they said. And everything will be fine. Spazer really helps here to refill supplies (shoot upright, shoot right, shoot up, repeat 3 times). For me, it took about 10 minutes to win the battle. I had a feeling that I'm on war and I'm trying to hold the front line and move it forward. =) And it was moving back and forth a lot of times.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
I'm also removing a few required uses of super missiles simply because they are so low in number early in the game.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
You just have no idea how was I happy when finding the well hidden Energy Tank and Missiles, hidden in the room before Hi-Jump Boots using Power Bombs. And how was I anrgy when realising that 1 Super Missile is not enough to take them. Well, you'll see that moment on the video. =)

Good thing you can do is using missile blocks, a lot. That will motivate player to find more missiles. There is not such thing in the game, but I'll provide you the patch a bit later if you want.
[/spoiler]

-For some reason, I remember having trouble increasing Kraid's HP. Is there anything special you have to do to get his HP to rise? I'll try again and see if it works though, also I'll see if I can increase the drop rates on his flying fingers.

You'll need to change the HP of enemy E2BF. If you don't have one in SMILE folder (and it's prorably the your case if you're working on classic SMILE), you'll need to clone any other enemy. I mean, copy the gif of any other enemy in "SMILE/files/enemies/" folder, and name the new picture E2BF.gif. Now you can edit Kraid's HP in SMILE.

-I'm glad you found all the missiles in the beginning section, ammo is not nearly as big of an issue early on if do. The problem is that it was possible to move on with only 1 missile, creating some stupid situations later on.

Agree with you. If I was using the old pink door hit amount, I'd just place the pink door with room that have no enemies at all. Like "not enough missiles to proceed, sorry".

-The rising lava room on the way to Speed Booster was definitely something I was a bit concerned about. I'll definitely raise the delay some in that room. I might put the enemies a few pixels higher as well so you can tell their fire will hit you without getting hit first. As it is their fire is kind of inside the floor but still hurts you.

The problem in this room is that you must run really fast at the start. And if you succeed to reach the vertical shaft, you can move a lot slower there. So, raising the speed too will not be a bad idea.

Regarding modifying Crystal Flash and item calculation, that's not something I know how to do. Can it be changed in SMILE or will I need a hex editor to get it to work? And if so, do you know where can I find the addresses that I'd need to change?

You'll need to change some bytes in hex editor. All the work can be done in 2-3 minutes. Addresses are on the Hex tweak page on the main site. For the percentage, there is a Kej's doc about them on the Jathys page. You'll need to work in hex again, but you should know how the percentage works. In the end of the game, max values of ammo and energy are divided by numbers and summated. For Power Bombs, it's 50 / 5 = 10%. No matter, how much pickups you have collected. With current ammo and energy amount you can change divisors for ammo to 1, for energy to 25. But you'll get 103% as a result. Because for energy (99 + 25 * 14) \ 25 = (99 + 350) \ 25 = 449 \ 25 = 17% (not 17.96 because it's an integer division). Solution is writing short asm code to start percentage calculations  with -3% (-4 if first missile upgrade will give you 2 Missiles) of items (meaning that with Energy 99 and empty inventory you'll get 0%). I already did this in my own hack, so I'll help you with this.

The most tedious parts in my opinion would be collecting ammo and fighting certain enemies, not defeating bosses (except MAYBE the first chozo, who has quite a bit of health if you don't know how to kill him fast...).

[spoiler]
Should I've used the platforms on the ceiling? =) After you'll change the Missile amount of first upgrade, player will have 2 Missiles can could kill him even faster (if not using platforms). An evil joke will be make these platforms have properties of enemy-breaking block. =) You can sit there, but not for long. =)
[/spoiler]

On that note, if there is a fix for Crocomire's mouth that'd be an amazing thing to have... It's really annoying to shoot it while it's open and still miss somehow.

When he shoot the yellow fireballs to you? Of course you can miss then. You'd better to shoot them to refill the Missiles. =)

A few other things I'm trying to do with the next version:

[spoiler]-Palette changes. Nothing crazy, but I'll at least be changing the palettes of most areas somewhat, just to make things feel a little different. I might change the enemies' colors too, I haven't decided for sure yet.

-More unique item placement. In the original version you can find the same number of items on every screen as before. In the new version, that won't be the case. You'll be able to find some items hidden on totally new screens than before, and perhaps even some added sections to rooms that weren't there before to get them. I won't be going crazy with this because I don't want it to be too hard to collect items, but I wanted to make exploring feel a little more rewarding in the game.

-More challenges early on. The early game was a bit too unchanged, so I'm adding a bit more tricky parts early on to make it feel more consistent and different. Keep in mind the earlier challenges still won't be ultra hard to perform, but should improve the pace a bit and prepare the player better for when the game starts to get harder.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
1. Will be great to see these palette changes.
2. But keep in mind that you'll have to apply the KejMap in SMILE if you'll be using unused sectors of the game. Nothing too hard, but just keep that in mind.
3. Sounds good. =)
[/spoiler]

(Also, refill bugs should only take one hit to destroy FYI, or give the player Grapple right from the start.)

IMHO, no more than 2 hits. It's enough to hit these bugs 2 times if aim downwards. If 3 hits are required, enemy can touch you before you shot him. Although, for Gamets (Norfair bugs grouped in 5) 3 hits is normal because they took extra time to regroup.

[Lunaria]

If you play certain ways, and cautiously (example, being sure to grab every item you can in each area, and to use ammo very carefully), then the tediousness is not nearly as apparent.

If your design hangs on that players find the majority of the stuff then that's a problem.
Assuming you're creative with placement, assume that players find around half of it, and that will be a good balance.


Also, looking forward to seeing the palette changes. That's one thing I feel every half hack should have, as it's quite easy to do, but one the same time different the game from the original by a fair amount visually. I recommend posting some of your palette attempts for feedback before getting the update live, as you'll probably not hit a sweat spot if it's the first time you mess with colours.

[ThatNewGuy]

Crys:

If your design hangs on that players find the majority of the stuff then that's a problem.
Assuming you're creative with placement, assume that players find around half of it, and that will be a good balance.

I know, I wasn't necessarily defending the design there; just trying to explain how it happened in the first place.

Also, looking forward to seeing the palette changes. That's one thing I feel every half hack should have, as it's quite easy to do, but one the same time different the game from the original by a fair amount visually. I recommend posting some of your palette attempts for feedback before getting the update live, as you'll probably not hit a sweat spot if it's the first time you mess with colours.

Okay, I can do that.

JAM:

[spoiler]

Way to Power Bombs. Time to return to Brinstar. And, to escape you'll need Speed Booster. Awesome work! And if you failed, the Recharge Station is in the next room. You've also marked a spot on the ground in where you should start. Just one question. How much energy can you gain at that moment? I had 149 and it's not enough to break the upper block. So I had to perform starting from mid-air.

174 energy is possible at that point. Though now I realize that there is only one energy tank accessible from there... so if someone jumped over the first energy tank in the game and missed the second, they could potentially be stuck. But, I wonder if I should add another energy tank somewhere accessible there or should I just lower the top speed booster block so that it only requires 124 with a jump... hmmm... (I'm leaning towards the latter)

Spazer. Just in time! You'll need the Power Bombs to get it. More powerful shots with wide range is that I really needed at that point.

Yeah, at that point, I really didn't want to keep the Spazer from the player any longer.

Crocomiro. When fighting him I had 13 Missiles. Without Charge Beam it was the great battle! Never give up! Trust your instincts as they said. And everything will be fine. Spazer really helps here to refill supplies (shoot upright, shoot right, shoot up, repeat 3 times). For me, it took about 10 minutes to win the battle. I had a feeling that I'm on war and I'm trying to hold the front line and move it forward. =) And it was moving back and forth a lot of times.

I'm glad you liked Crocomire, he is a boss I was a bit worried about being too hard.

You just have no idea how was I happy when finding the well hidden Energy Tank and Missiles, hidden in the room before Hi-Jump Boots using Power Bombs. And how was I anrgy when realising that 1 Super Missile is not enough to take them. Well, you'll see that moment on the video. =)

Good thing you can do is using missile blocks, a lot. That will motivate player to find more missiles. There is not such thing in the game, but I'll provide you the patch a bit later if you want.

Yeah, I've learned that those kinds of things are bad the hard way. There will be no more sets of super missile blocks anywhere in the next version that require more than one to get through. Not to get the ice beam or any other item.

Missile blocks could come in pretty handy. I'd definitely use them if I had them.[/spoiler]

You'll need to change the HP of enemy E2BF. If you don't have one in SMILE folder (and it's prorably the your case if you're working on classic SMILE), you'll need to clone any other enemy. I mean, copy the gif of any other enemy in "SMILE/files/enemies/" folder, and name the new picture E2BF.gif. Now you can edit Kraid's HP in SMILE.

Good call, I didn't have that enemy. I'll be trying that out today. I currently use SMILE 2.5 because 3.0 doesn't work for me for some reason (after selecting a rom I get "Run time error '76': Path not found"). Hopefully I'm not missing out on too much there.

You'll need to change some bytes in hex editor. All the work can be done in 2-3 minutes. Addresses are on the Hex tweak page on the main site. For the percentage, there is a Kej's doc about them on the Jathys page. You'll need to work in hex again, but you should know how the percentage works. In the end of the game, max values of ammo and energy are divided by numbers and summated. For Power Bombs, it's 50 / 5 = 10%. No matter, how much pickups you have collected. With current ammo and energy amount you can change divisors for ammo to 1, for energy to 25. But you'll get 103% as a result. Because for energy (99 + 25 * 14) \ 25 = (99 + 350) \ 25 = 449 \ 25 = 17% (not 17.96 because it's an integer division). Solution is writing short asm code to start percentage calculations  with -3% (-4 if first missile upgrade will give you 2 Missiles) of items (meaning that with Energy 99 and empty inventory you'll get 0%). I already did this in my own hack, so I'll help you with this.

Ohhh boy. I'll see what I can do, but probably I'll save that till the finalizing process before my last test run(s). I've opened a hex editor before, but not really used it. I can probably figure it out though, with your above advice (minus the asm thing).

Should I've used the platforms on the ceiling? =) After you'll change the Missile amount of first upgrade, player will have 2 Missiles can could kill him even faster (if not using platforms). An evil joke will be make these platforms have properties of enemy-breaking block. =) You can sit there, but not for long. =)

I'm not sure what you mean here. Are you saying there were platforms on the ceiling or that I should add platforms to the ceiling? You're right though, I probably won't change his health now because the difference two missiles make compared to one is already big.

When he shoot the yellow fireballs to you? Of course you can miss then. You'd better to shoot them to refill the Missiles. =)

It was happening to me anytime his mouth was open, I'm 100% sure it wasn't from hitting his fireballs, though I'll test it again just to make sure it wasn't just the rom I was originally using causing the problem.

MetroidMst:

However, this is a half hack, and the layout is the same. I know where stuff is already, and that takes what could be fun, exploration, out of the equation entirely. In fact, one of the more infuriating parts of the hack to me was when you actually did move items. And even though I tend to be more cautious, I still spent plenty of time farming. (Also, refill bugs should only take one hit to destroy FYI, or give the player Grapple right from the start.)

Well, hopefully with the new version being a bit more generous with certain things and having more changes such as palette changes and moved items, it will seem less random and infuriating when you don't find what you think you will at a certain place. As for the refill bugs, I think I agree with JAM that 2 shots is fine for most of them. I think I'll make those annoying pipe bugs that swoop from the sides (GEEGA) only take one hit though, because hitting them twice is very difficult compared to the others. However, I think I will lower the damage of all the refill bugs for obvious reasons.

[crazyal02]

Good call, I didn't have that enemy. I'll be trying that out today. I currently use SMILE 2.5 because 3.0 doesn't work for me for some reason (after selecting a rom I get "Run time error '76': Path not found"). Hopefully I'm not missing out on too much there.

Try reinstalling  the latest version of SMILE. For some reason, if the first time you start the program you don't select a ROM, it causes this error to happen constantly until you reinstall. (Or you could just use SMILE JX)

[JAM]

Alright, played it a bit more.
Enemy D13F is giving me too much "nothing" too.

[spoiler]
174 energy is possible at that point. Though now I realize that there is only one energy tank accessible from there... so if someone jumped over the first energy tank in the game and missed the second, they could potentially be stuck. But, I wonder if I should add another energy tank somewhere accessible there or should I just lower the top speed booster block so that it only requires 124 with a jump... hmmm... (I'm leaning towards the latter)
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Another solution]
Or you could modify the room with "mockball challenge" to make extra space for Samus to run from there and perform this jump in 2 tries, refilling energy in that room. =) Can be possible even with no Energy Tanks, I guess.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
Missile blocks could come in pretty handy. I'd definitely use them if I had them.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
These block will be use BTS $0D of shotblock ($0C for respawning). You can set them already now like this:
1. Set block with right graphics at the place of future Missile block.
2. Change type of this block to Shot.
3. In the right part of SMILE windon click on "BTS" button.
4. Set BTS to $0D.
5. Drag the mini Metroid from image right below BTS word to your block.

Of course, these blocks will not be working without patch, but you could set them already now.
[/spoiler]

Good call, I didn't have that enemy. I'll be trying that out today. I currently use SMILE 2.5 because 3.0 doesn't work for me for some reason (after selecting a rom I get "Run time error '76': Path not found"). Hopefully I'm not missing out on too much there.

SMILE 2.5 is the last stable build.

Last version on Jathys' site is an unstable build. It's not v3.0. It's pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-release of alpha version of 3.0. I named it 2.75 in my revisions (between 2.5 and 3.0), but I guess, it better should be named v2.76 because of that error 76.

More stable is SMILE JX (upgraded version of SMILE). Last version is 2.83, but it's not as stable as SMILE 2.5. So, use 2.5 please.

By the way, all you need to do is place file E2BF.gif in the enemies folder. It could be ANY file with gif extension. Just to beign able to edit Kraid's real HP, After setting it, this gif can be deleted.

Ohhh boy. I'll see what I can do, but probably I'll save that till the finalizing process before my last test run(s). I've opened a hex editor before, but not really used it. I can probably figure it out though, with your above advice (minus the asm thing).

Once you get it, the whole work can take up to 10 minutes.
But remember, Hex tweaks should be applied only to unheadered ROM

I'm not sure what you mean here. Are you saying there were platforms on the ceiling or that I should add platforms to the ceiling? You're right though, I probably won't change his health now because the difference two missiles make compared to one is already big.

Nevermind. Platforms were in another hack.

[ThatNewGuy]

Hmmmm.... I seem to have broke Kraid's room when I changed his HP and drop rates. I'm not sure how this could have happened, but now it crashes with a black screen every time I enter the room. Comparing it with a clean rom's Kraid room, I can see no difference between the two. I even tried copying DNA and drop rates back from a clean rom but that doesn't fix it either. Is there a way to swap a clean rom's Kraid room over to the current rom? I'm running out of ideas on how to fix it. If worse comes to worse I can use my last backup and re-import all the palettes I've been making I guess, but that's my last resort.

Anyone with experience on this? Was there a way to fix it or did you have to just start over from the last backup?

Edit: I forgot to mention that I have NOT edited the number of enemies or PLM's in any rooms either. So there should be no data bleeding over from that (nor have I let any palettes data amounts go over their limits).

[MetroidMst]

Copying his room over from a clean ROM will be very easy to do.

Simply find the room header in the drop-down list, note it, and note the room header beneath it. Open in a hex editor, go to the location of Kraids room you just noted down, and copy it to the next room header, which you also noted down. Paste that into your ROM and save.

[Strokend]

What were the values by default, and what did you change them to? It's possible that you raised them too high, and it can't read it all.

[ThatNewGuy]

What were the values by default, and what did you change them to? It's possible that you raised them too high, and it can't read it all.

His HP I think I tried raising it to 500 or 700 something compared to his normal 3E8. The drop rates I remember just tinkering around with them to set missiles and large energy higher and everything else lower. I don't remember the exact values, though, and I've set them back to normal now.

Copying his room over from a clean ROM will be very easy to do.

Simply find the room header in the drop-down list, note it, and note the room header beneath it. Open in a hex editor, go to the location of Kraids room you just noted down, and copy it to the next room header, which you also noted down. Paste that into your ROM and save.

Thanks for the tip, and I did as you suggested but unfortunately I don't think anything was different. The crash still happens. The data from one room header to the next was only about 4 lines long though, so I suspect the rest of the room data is lurking somewhere else in the code. I guess I'll see if I can find/replace that next.

[Jiffy]

Copying his room over from a clean ROM will be very easy to do.

Simply find the room header in the drop-down list, note it, and note the room header beneath it. Open in a hex editor, go to the location of Kraids room you just noted down, and copy it to the next room header, which you also noted down. Paste that into your ROM and save.

Or you could just open the room in the clean ROM, open the new rom and click "Save".

[Quietus]

I did think that, but wouldn't it only copy the tile data, and not all of the other things, like scrolls, doors, PLMs, and stuff? :neutral:

[MetroidMst]

If he is looking to reset the room entirely without question, you copy it from a hex editor.

[ThatNewGuy]

Or you could just open the room in the clean ROM, open the new rom and click "Save".

I feel dumb now, I really should have thought of that.

Interestingly enough, that fixed the problem even though I don't think I changed any tile data (though perhaps I could have clicked somewhere by accident). Thanks a ton, Jefe962!

At least I got to learn a bit about hex editing in the process though. Still don't entirely understand banks, though my guess based on what I read is that one is supposed to use Lunar Address to find where a specific bank position actually resides in the hex code of the rom.

[JAM]

His HP I think I tried raising it to 500 or 700 something compared to his normal 3E8.

If you want to double it, use value 7D0. 1.5x will be 5DC.

To understand Hex values, simply use standart windows calculator in Hex mode and practice a bit. Because changing HP (or damage) from 50 to 100 will not double it, but will more than triple it instead.

[ThatNewGuy]

If you want to double it, use value 7D0. 1.5x will be 5DC.

To understand Hex values, simply use standart windows calculator in Hex mode and practice a bit. Because changing HP (or damage) from 50 to 100 will not double it, but will more than triple it instead.

I have no trouble getting Hex numbers, I understand the 16 numbers per digit [0-F] thing (for example, 100 is 256 while 50 is 80). It's mostly the banks that I don't understand right now, though it seems like Lunar Address can find those for you if you know what to do.

On another note, I can't really seem to get a very high drop rate on Kraid's fingers. Even when I set missile drop to FF and everything else to 00 (including "nothing") there is still only a missile drop every 2 or 3 kills of a finger. I'd like to increase it a bit higher than that if I can. For some reason doing the same thing with other enemies seems to drop ammo every time consistently, so I don't know where the problem could be.