General Hack Ideas

[Quietus]

Aha!  So it does work. :^_^:

[MetroidMst]

You just wanted to know for your own contest entry, right Quietus?

[Quietus]

I laugh at the idea that you genuinely believe my attention span to be up to a contest entry. :blush:

[MetroidMst]

With the amount of time you've waited for some hacks to be finished, I have no doubt you will be able to hold things together to make an entry!

[Quietus]

Maybe...  Once I get started.  I guess there are 13 days to go. :oh:

[The Monster of Surrealton]

Idea for a hack: Super Metroid...in Surrealton!!!

Samus chases Ridley to what she believes is Zebes, but in reality, is Surrealton, a place...that is surreal...very...very...very surreal...

Samus starts off with 10 missiles, 2 supers (on the fence about that), Morph Ball, and Spring Ball (because it's not worth picking up anyways)...once I learn how to hex code.

I need custom tilesets.

I'll use my own custom Samus palettes.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

SURREAL BRAINSTORMING

Area placement will be bizarre; You can enter Kraid's Lair deep into Brinstar, only to find a Mini-Kraid and that the real Kraid's room is under a Power Bomb-able floor in the starting area with a door that only unlocks when you defeat the Mini-Kraid.

In lieu of Metroids, Tourian is completely covered in spikes, rinka generators, those plants that chew on you, and those grabbing things (Space Jump-intensive). Metroids only appear in Mother Brain's lair.

Mother Turtles are in random places, including Tourian, because I like turtles.

Bubbles. Bubbles everywhere...in Maridia.

Enemies are placed in different areas (ex: Seahorse guys in Brinstar, Crocomire in Tourian)

AREAS
Crateria is a temple at night...with turtles.
Brinstar is a jungle.
Maridia is bubble land.
Norfair is a temple in a mountain past the Wrecked Ship.
Wrecked Ship is Wrecked Ship with Rinkas and Mochtroids
Tourian is a death trap.

There might be a new, small area above Crateria that can only be accessed with Shinespark + Grapple.

[Daltone]

oh man im so excited

[Mon732]

Mother Turtles are in random places, including Tourian, because I like turtles.

That caught my attention. :D

Also if Bosses appear in random locations like you said about kraid then I suggest having some sort of subtle hint. Just adding to ideas. :P

[Lunaria]

Missile upgrades:

When collected they boost missile performance in ways such as:
-> More damage.
(Which should stack based on how many of these upgrades you have picked up!)
-> Missiles possible to be on-screen on the same time.
(AKA: Fire rate.)
-> Chance to not use up missiles when firing.
(Odds could stack with more upgrades.(I know it does not make any sense from a realistic perspective.))
-> Size
(Large missiles with larger hit boxes. Would need extra graphics and would make the most sense if given on the same time as more damage.)
-> Speed
(How fast they fly. IIRC projectiles share speed in a lot of things though...)
> Armour piercing
(Missiles can damage enemies that would otherwise not take any damage from missiles; See enemy vulnerability.)

etc etc.

There needs to be more to do with missiles, they are often given out early and players seldom opt to use them over charge beam. (And the redesign approach to this is one I consider to be fucking shit.)

[Quietus]

I like the first two ideas.  It'd certainly make you feel like there was some point in collecting them instead of just collecting for percentage purposes.  Also, the fire rate and damage increasing would enable missiles to keep some usefulness, rather than being obsolete as soon as you get decent beams.

[Nikoshiba]

My hack idea of the night...

All the hackers of MetContruction are working on their own hack...
What if everybody works on one and only hack ?
A kind of Meta-Hack made by the Metroid Construction Community ! THE META PROJECT !

It could be the best hack ever released !!!

[Smiley]

I think we've tried doing that two or three times already. We never got anything done.

[Quietus]

Yeah, it's been tried many times, even on MetConst, but it rarely gets finished.  Project Base has been continued as a labour of love by Grime (probably with help from others..?), but I don't recall another major project that was ever released from a collaborative effort.

It could certainly be something to look into, now that the community has been galvanised by the recent contest.  Perhaps it would work if clear guidelines were laid down again?  I know that Red Monkey was looking at something like this a while back, and had offered to merge all of the rooms provided into a hack.  We'll see... :^_^:

[Nikoshiba]

... Hope ...

[FullOfFail]

Me and Digital_Mantra was throwing around the idea of making a collab hack. Probably get some others involved too, but it wont be nearly ambitious as the Project Base Collab was requiring. It'd probably mainly be a exploration mini-hack with nice aesthetics.

[Quietus]

Perhaps we could give it its own thread, and launch it as a proper community project?  As everybody to create any room they like, of any size.  The work comes in when one person has to merge them all together. :^_^:

I guess for some basic restrictions, you could keep the hack fairly linear, so each room would have just two doors, so the player is always moving forward.  It would also mean that every room would be seen.  I would suggest having players start with one set of each HUD weapon and the Grappling Beam.  They can also have any exploratory items that may stop players, so: Gravity Suit, Morphing Ball, Bombs, and Speed Booster.  Perhaps just Wave and Spazer as the weapon, so players aren't overpowered.  Each room could be restricted to expansions only, and the hack would be more about collecting everything and experiencing the different styles to the rooms than anything else.

Oh, and vanilla stuff only, with no hex or ASM, just for simplicity's sake.  And all rooms based in Crateria to avoid bitflag issues.  We can then rename the area as 'COMMUNITY'. :lol:

As usual, I'm just throwing ideas around. :^_^:

[Nikoshiba]

It'd probably mainly be a exploration mini-hack with nice aesthetics.

Oh great ! It could be really nice !

Oh, and vanilla stuff only, with no hex or ASM, just for simplicity's sake.  And all rooms based in Crateria to avoid bitflag issues.  We can then rename the area as 'COMMUNITY'. :lol:

Hum... I'm not so agree. Hackers there have many types of skills... Level design, Customings Tiles, GFX, ASM, Hex... and Music recently...! Imagine all theses skills in ONE hack ! (sorry fot my poor English, I'm French U__U )

[FullOfFail]

As much as I'd love to do something like that, I'm just not sure I could really manage it all. It'd be easier for me and Dman, and whoever else frequents the IRC daily to do, because we can constantly talk about what's going on, even if minor.

[MetroidMst]

Collab hacks generally never pan out for a reason. There are a bunch of factors that go into why they almost never work, and spread out between a bunch of people with different ideas, you would just end up with a cluster of stuff that doesn't fit with each other anywhere. Quietus's idea of two doors per room and pretty linear is about the best way to insure the least amount of headaches. But that same idea gets you a hack in which you go. . . Left to right, and finish. It would be a Metroid without exploration, and I will let that horror sink in.

I feel the best way to get a "collab" hack together, is to not actually do a collab hack. Instead, work on your vision yourself, and as you go, get help as needed. This way insures the hack has a clear direction and idea behind it, and that isn't messed with. Need some help with something you aren't able to do currently? Show your work, ask around, and if people like what they see, they just might offer to throw something together for it. Not to mention that there is already a bunch of stuff publicly available already. It might be better to try to put more into The Great Metroid Collaboration Hunt - Post Your Resources Here! topic to allow even more flexibility with a hack you are working on. You can get a huge list of credits just grabbing stuff from there.

[Nikoshiba]

It might be better to try to put more into The Great Metroid Collaboration Hunt - Post Your Resources Here! topic to allow even more flexibility with a hack you are working on. You can get a huge list of credits just grabbing stuff from there.

Working on a huge "collab hack" doesn't mean that the Collaboration Hunt is closed...
You can work on your own hack ang collaborate in a specialized domain. One hacker for graphics, one for items, I don't know... ^^

[MetroidMst]

Obviously it wouldn't be closed for that. However, there is still the issue of multiple people working on the same hack. I have this issue with Fear, despite the other person who actually works on the hack being my brother. Things have to be extremely simplified for any number of people to actually work together and make stuff that fits together, which then takes away a lot of creativity. Even if you have people working on separate things, and someone fitting them all together, you could end up with YPR 2.0. A hack filled with interesting ideas, but it just doesn't work well as a game.

Not trying to dampen any enthusiasm for this, but there is a lot to consider, and the more people you get in on it, the more confusing things will get. (And then people will have things pop up, they won't be able to do what they were planning on doing, and a number of other issues.)

[Nikoshiba]

I see, I see... It's sure a tough work !

[The Monster of Surrealton]

An idea.

Making it possibly to go out of bounds to pick up items.

You have to fall through the floor to land on top of the ceiling, pick up the item, then jump up through the floor.

Rough theory, but an area where in order to advance, you fall through the floor, land on top of the ceiling, then run up a ramp leading the other side of the area where you jump up back into bounds.

You can do it in SMILE by messing up with scrolling, but I'll have to test my ideas to make sure they work properly.

[Quietus]

Having Samus move through an area without scrolls could be used to hide items, but it would seem to defeat the purpose of having the item in the first place, since nobody is likely to find it.  Forcing players out of bounds wouldn't really work, since you'd still have to pen people in to some degree, in which case they're never really out of bounds, but in an area without scrolls.

[Mon732]

Not sure if this is what you meant Surrealton.
[spoiler=Warning, bad level design.]
The purple box is where Samus would start (too lazy to add doors :P)[/spoiler]

From the players point of view Samus would jump up through the hole in the ceiling and reappear through the hole in the floor. Samus would actually be on the top row of screens but because of the red scrolls blocking the camera and the way the Super Metroid Engine works Samus' graphics wrap around.

I didn't test it but enemies should work the same way (maybe use of geemers to show what to do).

You could also go the other way by having red scrolls beneath.