SMILE Make-My-Hack-Button?

[Jathys]

Basically, the question is this: If SMILE had a make-my-hack feature, but it was only for tiles and would only change one tile at a time, would you prefer it over no make-my-hack functionality whatsoever?

[spoiler]

«16:46:20»   <Nintendo69>   But I'm serious
«16:46:49»   <Jathys>   Seriously though, why don't you just make your own hack?
«16:47:20»   <1337FanBoy>   u r makeing a make hack button?!  SWEET!
«16:47:22»   <Jathys>   No, actually I'm not
«16:47:32»   <1337FanBoy>   SHIMMY!
«16:47:44»   <Nintendo69>   thank you SO much for this!!
«16:48:16»   <Nintenod69>   i'm going to rape the game so hard with this
«16:48:23»   <Jathys>   Please don't

[/spoiler]

[zephyrtronium]

A make-my-hack button would be awesomesauce.

aka in before lock

[Zhs2]

<Jathys> epicness cannot be locked

[Phazar]

Oh, what do you know...this topic has been unlocked.  In that case, I only have one comment about that Make-My-Hack-Button--PEDRO!

[Fizzer]

A make-my-hack button would result in an explosion of bad auto-made hacks, so no.

[personitis]

A make-my-hack button would result in an explosion of bad auto-made hacks, so no.

This and if you download SMILE, wouldn't someone have got it to make what they wanted, not what the program did for them.

Personally, I vote a button in SMILE to make it so no one else can open your hack in SMILE (when the patch is applied of course).

[Bioniclegenius]

If you could figure out a way that would stop them from distributing it, like doing something to the rom code that would stop a patch from being made, that would work. That way you could make it for personal use only. What errors does an patcher throw that would stop it from creating the patch?

[Zhs2]

Sigh. Locking roms was done long ago by the experts so you had to be forced to use a hex editor, not a level editing utility, to learn any of the secrets a rom's structure had to offer. Very few roms are locked today; I'd imagine any of the ones that are are unlocked by people who reverse engineer the system (Jathys removed lock protecting on SMILE a few months back, too. A load of good that does you without the correct MDB when you're opening Redesign. :)

On topic, this would be awesome. It'd certainly make things easier for the lazy people, but I can imagine it'd actually be a bit more work to do than you think than just placing tiles if it's going to "make your hack". Tile checks, level checks, door checks... Bit of headache, anyone? :icon_surprised:

[zephyrtronium]

If you could figure out a way that would stop them from distributing it, like doing something to the rom code that would stop a patch from being made, that would work. That way you could make it for personal use only. What errors does an patcher throw that would stop it from creating the patch?

You can't have the ROM stop anything from happening, except in-game. What you can do, however, is make an addition to the level-loading routines in the game to do something to make data be loaded in a different way, so that nobody without the motivation and skill to hack your hack (>_>) could do so. As for things that would stop a patcher from creating a patch, there really isn't anything except for machine errors, like a lack of available memory.

[Jathys]

A load of good that does you without the correct MDB when you're opening Redesign. :)

The mdb list is not a factor in ANY hack.  You can easily find the RoomID of a room in RAM with an emulator.  All you need to do is open ONE room, then the doors should lead you to all the others.  You could break into Drew's/Sigfried's house, hop onto his computer, and still not be able to open the rooms correctly if you didn't know how to unlock the rom.  Seriously, if you want a hack locked, do it the smart way.

[spoiler=BTW]The built-in rom protector was removed because:
1) People constantly told everyone how to unlock the rom, making it public knowledge.
2) ROMs were getting locked accidentally, locking people out of their own hacks.[/spoiler]

Seriously though, SMILE has a LOT of ways to crash.  Learn to abuse them (why do you think I include a text file outlining some of the more common bugs?).  Learn ASM too.  If SMILE opens something based on a pointer in the game, change the ASM so that the pointer is in a new location... SMILE won't know where to get the data, therefore it won't be able to open the data.  If a type of data is supposed to be in a specific order, change the order and smile will screw up.

Keep in mind though that there is no good way to protect certain things in a hack.  For instance, graphics.  Emulators open the graphics and some emulators can export that data (and if it can't be grabbed from the rom, it'll be grabbed from a savestate.  Seriously, the only thing people should be trying to protect with their rom (imho) is the joy of exploring a whole new world without cheating by getting sneak peaks in the editor.

When I release Singularity, I'm going to release it twice.  First time is going to be locked in a new special way that I challenge any ASM greats to try unlocking.  About a month later, I'll do a second release, all locks removed so people can freely use smile with it to their heart's content.  A month ought to be long enough to give most people a chance to play without being tempted by spoilers.

[Scyzer]

When I release Singularity, I'm going to release it twice.  First time is going to be locked in a new special way that I challenge any ASM greats to try unlocking.

I'm sure Kej will disappoint you :D. Lol

BTW when you say it like that, it makes me think Singularity is nearing completion (or at least past halfway). I thought you were doing all the ASM first though, but that might have been Kej with Insanity.

[Jathys]

I'm not doing all the ASM first, but a significant portion of it.

Singularity isn't near completion, sadly, but I have actually started having pieces of it (mainly enemies) beta'ed.  Fully intend on having the intro area start beta testing in August.  ("Intro" can be a misleading term... there's a real boss and a mini (which you fight second) in this "intro")