General Hack Ideas

[The Monster of Surrealton]

Dead on ideas for my current NEStroid hack right now, so I'm working on NEStroid Easy Type.

Something really simple. Pretty much NEStroid made slightly easier.
-More E-Tanks laid around so you don't have to grind for health.
-Tiles rearranged to make certain items easier to obtain early on (ex: the E-Tank in the ceiling)
-Recolored sprites and tiles.
-Extra room added before Tourian with an E-Tank and Ice Beam.

[Grimlock]

When my creativity bottoms out I tend to get into play test and analyse mode.  Usually it's in the area I'm working on.  Another thing you can do is work on another aspect of your hack such as graphics, or give your enemy placement a good look over.

I would recommend not starting another project while having a creative block, it'll pull you away from your main project (sometimes pretty far, it's hard to go back when you know you're stuck) and in the end maybe even kill it.

[personitis]

I would recommend not starting another project while having a creative block, it'll pull you away from your main project (sometimes pretty far, it's hard to go back when you know you're stuck) and in the end maybe even kill it.

I've had a few occasions where brainstorming for another, completely fresh hack has given me better ideas for my current WIP. So there's that too if you don't feel inclined to act on every idea you come up with. :nod:

[Strokend]

I've been getting all sorts of ideas of things that could be implemented into games, and while I forget many of them, I eventually decided to create this thread. Any ideas for any game are welcome here, people who use these ideas do not have to credit the original poster (though, unless a person outright states "I wish to remain anonymous" it may still be nice to credit them for the idea), and they can adapt the ideas to any game they want, even games that weren't what the idea was for. For example, my ideas are primarily for Super Metroid, but I won't mind if they get implemented into Wario, Mario, or Megaman games. Heck, you could even throw them at Rayman or Sonic and I'd be okay with that. It's the choice of the person who makes it, what they make it for.

Boost Boots: Based on the Space Boots from the Metroid Prime trilogy, Boost Boots would allow Samus to jump a second time. This would likely be handled by having her enter a pose when jumping WITHOUT somersaulting that permits another jump; a second jump, or exiting a somersault would leave her in the standard jump pose.

More weapons:  I would like to see more launched projectiles that would fit into their own bit on the HUD, as well as more bomb types, with their own ammo--Possibly shorten the list up by having both a bomb type and a missile type highlighted at the same time, since you can't lay a bomb without being in morph ball anyways.

Sticky Walls: From the Prime series again, when you get the screw attack (That game's version of the actual space jump), it lets you ascend upwards with a special sort of wall, which Samus will stick to for a second before she starts falling. Having a wall that you can stick to upon somersaulting into it (even if it needs a powerup to work), to make an easier walljump (or perhaps required for them!).

Scan Visor: I have no idea how plausible this is, but if a variation (or modification) of the X-Ray visor made it so that the first entity the visor detects shows a little bio screen while the visor is active (it pauses the game, after all), that would be AWESOME.

? Blocks: The very blocks from Super Mario, these guys would be an "enemy" that acts as a platform; shooting it will turn it into the brown, dead block, but spawn a refill above it. After some talking it over on the IRC, I discovered that as long as they use the same palette (up to a total of 16 colors between them), it's possible, too!

Beam Doors: We've had doors implemented that used a certain event-lock (See Super Zero Mission), but what about doors that respond to a certain type of beam? Preferably you would just need to have that beam in the mix, and it would be set to notice it even if you're using other beams, too, but if you want to make the player take time to unequip the other beams, that's perfectly fine.

X Parasites: This is something that can be tossed into Metroid 2 and work great, but it'll still work in Super Metroid or Zero Mission. X Parasites would work similarly to how they do in Fusion, where they fly around, imitate an enemy, and soak into Samus or any other entity they touch. Of course, since Samus wouldn't have the Metroid DNA, it would be an instant gameover.

• Alternatively, a Surge Hive based hack where they simply raise your corruption rate, and you could lower it at certain points, could work
  
• X Parasites should be stuned by beam shots, or frozen by ice beam. Missiles could launch them back, and if they happen to collide with a Metroid, the Metroid eats them up.
  
  Friendlies: Having the game pause itself to bring up a screen upon whatever method of interaction with an entity could allow the implementation of friendly NPCs, who could offer hints or sell stuff. I've been told there's a hack that implements currency for Super Metroid, though I haven't seen it yet, which runs to the next idea:
  Shops & Currency: Having an additional ammo type that starts out with a cap of 999 (No wallet upgrades, though) would mean the player doesn't have to unlock the expansion, just collect the money drops. When inside a store-based room, shooting certain objects would bring up a yes/no menu like the save rooms, with Yes removing that much ammo and giving the player the item (useful for refills if you want to make enemies not drop them)

[crazyal02]

There's already a thread for this.

[Scyzer]

More weapons? Let me stop you right there. That's gotta be the oldest line in the Metconst book. That's not an idea. That's not even a notion. An idea would be like "A new beam whose projectiles bounce off solid blocks", or "Bombs which detonate automatically when touched by an enemy".

Sticky Walls and Boost Boots, while valid ideas, have been tossed around so many times. I wouldn't be surprised if they've been mentioned at least 5 times previously in this topic. They've also both already been put into SM.

While "Friendlies" isn't necessarily a bad thing, they would need to be integral to the story to warrant having dialog in a Metroid game. Metroid is not an RPG, and there's no reason to have 50 characters to talk to for no reason. Friendlies which simply open a path or give an item or whatever (see Dachora or Etecoons), without breaking game flow with pointless dialog, would be good though.

Currency? Again, Metroid is not an RPG. There's one hack which has a currency in it, and it's quite small, so it can get away with it. I would never recommend any form of currency in a large Metroid game.

Scan Visor, X-Parasites and Beam Doors are just elements from other Metroid games. All of them have already been made in Super Metroid.

? Blocks would work in a Mario themed Metroid hack, but the idea of them seems kinda silly. Unless you made them look somewhat alienish and serious, then it wouldn't work. Metroid is supposed to be serious and scary, while Mario is cartoony and fun. I get what you're talking about though, by hiding items inside blocks. The thing is, they're already in SM. 1/4 of the items are hidden inside blocks.

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

*deleted post*

[Lunaria]

I'm fairly certain the GC and wii runs on an audio file based system rather than midi. :v

[Quietus]

On a related note, you may be better off asking over on m2k2.  There's been a fair bit of movement recently in relation to Prime hacking, and some of those more experienced with Prime (Paraxade, Antidote, et al.) have been active.

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

*deleted post*

[personitis]

Your best bet to find the soundfont, if it even exists, is to open an .iso file in Dolphin, right click and go to Properties, then tab over to Filesystem and poke around the file trees (is that what they're called?). My guess though is that you will not find the soundfonts and only the music files themselves, which may or may not be .bstrm as I'm unsure if that's a Wii-only audio extension. I'm also fairly certain you will not be able to rip the instruments one-by-one either due to the files being similar to .mp3 or .flac where only the final product is saved and stored as a waveform.

That's all I've got to offer. Have fun.

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

*deleted post*

[personitis]

My guess though is that you will not find the soundfonts and only the music files themselves...
...files being similar to .mp3 or .flac where only the final product is saved and stored as a waveform.

Again, there is your answer.

[JAM]

I saw this error in So Little Many Hacks... When someone uses that row of 8 black tiles to make air tiles.

So, I've got idea. What if turn that bug into feature? How? Let's say, we're planning a fork in the hack and we want to somehow inform player "don't go this way yet" or "item X required". Let's say that item is Varia Suit and without it there'll be a heated run.

Also, remember these useless monitors from Ninja Pirate room that shows you nothing? So, another "what if" is using them. Make room like this:

Now, to make this monitor works, we should place an unobtainable item in ball or hidden in scenery offscreen or to bottom line of screen and place the 1st "forbidden black block from CRE" to the center of this monitor. You'll get this:


Though, the image on this monitor will be static and you'll need to leave and enter this room if loading from SMILE.

[personitis]

That's quite clever. :shocking:
Gotta question why the pirates would leave such a hint around (or even pipes for that matter)...

[JAM]

Well, then it may be used to show which item is hidden somewhere in this room or a path to certain item. Like "Varia Suit is stored there". Then it'll be more logical for planet's navigation.

[Quietus]

Or perhaps something that displays NO ACCESS and ACCESS, or maybe just a tick and cross.

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

*deleted post*

[DSO]

There are both a music editor (thedopefish) and a new, more powerful sound engine (myself) in the works. There's also going to be a chunk of ripped sound samples to use from a wide variety of games. It's why I stopped work on that music guide. Also, Super Metroid uses a more advanced version of a common engine used in many SNES games known as N-SPC, and it's more advanced in a way that still allows it to play back other games' music as long as it wasn't the beta version of N-SPC used in Super Mario World and a few other games. I have tested that Super Metroid can playback SMW2: Yoshi's Island note data just fine, for instance. This ability will not be lost in the new sound engine, either.

[Quietus]

I can see the first few tentative songs being released, and being generally appreciated, before someone releases a god tier soundtrack that makes us all feel inadequate.  It'll probably be used in every hack for a while until it ends up as the new Crateria tileset, and we're all sick of hearing it. :^_^:

[DSO]

My plans for D-SPC (the nickname of my customized engine) release include porting over all the original songs as they were, as well as enhanced remakes utilizing the power of D-SPC, and also possibly some versions of songs made specifically to sound exactly the same as they used to... except now you can also choose to have certain enemies make their normal sounds with that music playing.

Then, my hack is planned to have a wide assort of songs including some tunes from metroid prime and other games done to the best of my ability, and I've been studying different SPC engines and learning how some people made the SNES sound so good and what I can do in my engine to imitate them. When it comes to making a 'godlike' soundtrack, I can't say at this point whether I have the talent, but I do have the knowledge!

(And the knowledge becomes open source with the release of the editor and D-SPC, so I expect awesome soundtracks to emerge eventually)

[Metaquarius]

That's some great news because SM really needs its own customized SPC engine. I mean, the original engine is not well optimized, it can be infuriating to work with at times.

[Crashtour99]

I'd say that the problem isn't so much with the SPC engine, it's just that there are no professional musicians with intimate knowledge of how it works in our community.  It's taken me quite literally months worth of playing around in FLstudio11 with the samples to figure out how they work together, and how to properly pan/fade/slide/etc. so that it doesn't sound like complete ass.  I'm certainly no musician, but I have a pretty decent set of ears and can tell when something doesn't sound right.  Mastering the music so it sounds good is the absolute hardest part of the entire thing.  And part of that is also instrument/sample choice, as not all instruments go well with eachother.  Take this song for example:
https://db.tt/8UNofbEX
It's a remix of music from Doom, FMA:Brotherhood, and a few other bits all in SM samples.  Unfortunately it's too big to fit in the SPC unless as title music or something, since the vocals take up 3 channels and the string harmonies take up 4 channels (as well as one channel for the bass tone, one for the drum, and 2 for the bells).  Because of the SNES shallow bitdepth for samples, really REALLY good sounds are hard to make.  There's also the way the instruments are used to take into consideration.  Horns and strings can start sharply, or they can fade in, and abruptly ending them usually sounds horrid unless done in the right circumstances.  It's a skill that takes time to learn, much like learning to play a real instrument (only this one is digital).

I have a feeling that when Dopey and DSO release the audio editor and engine, we'll see a flood of crappy music with maybe a few good ones here and there.  It will take quite a bit of time before dedicated individuals release mastered songs that really sound good.  But it will definitely be an amazing tool for those capable of using it to its fullest potential.

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

*deleted post*

[Vismund Cygnus]

I'm pretty damned excited for whatever music editor comes out, given that my total lack of technical knowledge means it'll be the only way I'll ever make anything custom. So basically, keep up the amazing work.  :^_^: