Cardweaver's Mini-hacks thread

2007-12-15 04:53:56 pm

Quote from Cardweaver:

The escape is even more fun when you're testing rooms to make sure they work, and midway through walking through brinstar, the world blows up. I nearly shit myself. I coulda sworn I still had a claw and some teeth to go before the timer went off...

Hahaha I can only imagine. :-D

Cardweaver

2007-12-15 05:02:47 pm

What makes it even more ridiculousis that I;'ve never actually had the timer run out before, so when it happened, I was like "WTF is wrong with my emulator!?!?"

Black Telomeres

2007-12-15 06:04:57 pm

Quote:

SMILE can be used to add or remove a header, and the unheadered version is the one I have been using for a while.

I know, but you're still making it more difficult than it has to be on the player side by requiring people to go download SMILE or another prog in order to remove their header, since most people will tend to have the headered one from all the other hacks.

Bolognab

2007-12-15 06:33:32 pm

Does your boss rush hack have puzzles to obtain items or items in just plain sight? or both? (i can't play, since my rom isn't cooperating)

Cardweaver

Edit history:

Cardweaver: 2007-12-15 07:03:48 pm

2007-12-15 06:43:58 pm

I'm pretty sure nothing in this would be considered a puzzle, the items are frequently quite visible and closely grouped.

~~Also, because BT is making sense about headered vs. unheadered, I've decided to release both versions of the ips from now on, and the first post will be updated momentarily.~~

Edit: I tried, I really did. I ended up making about 18 ips files to see if any of them would be smaller, but they were all huge. It might just be that I'm messing up soomewhere along the process, and I'll continue trying to get it to work, but as of right now.... hang onto some copies of the unheadered rom just in case.

Lance Uppercut

2007-12-15 06:51:48 pm

I agree with BT that headered rom would be better. Did you just arbitrarily pick a rom when you started your project(s) again? Gravy was headered (right?), this change really does not make any sense. Good thing you are fixing it.

I do not have SMILE, I do not know where to get one, I do not know how to use it, I do not want to know how to use it. Maybe for any person like me it is a good thing that we don´t have to play any tricks to get these hacks to work.

Well, I have never had any problems, but there seems to be quite a bunch who have.

Cardweaver

2007-12-15 07:09:00 pm

While it might seem that I just randomly picked a rom, I actually went and got the same one that I had used for Gravy (almost positive here), the only difference is that I never added a header to this one. When my computer crashed I lost all of my hacking files, and had to start from scratch, which meant new rom, new emulator, new SMILE, another new emulator when I got the wrong one the first time. Needless to say, in all the excitement, I never got around to adding headers to the roms. I also used unheadered roms for the patch because whenever I first tried to play redesign or SMI, they wouldn't work for me because they were headered and I had unheadered roms. I will definitely get the headered ips files to this thread, as soon as my computer stops thinking ips files should be over 2000kb large.

Bolognab

2007-12-15 07:21:37 pm

were most bosses in order?

Cpadolf

2007-12-15 07:33:29 pm

Almost happy

Quote from Bolgonab:

were most bosses in order?

All except crocmire was (he was in the escape) and the boos rooms where identical to the original.

Anyway the hack has existed for more then 12 hours already and no TASinput has been released yet for it. So I'll do that grin new

All the bosses from Super Metroid ridiculed in less time then it takes you to say... well... a really really long sentence. And without further ado here it is Or well, slightly below.

attachment:

Cpadolf-SMboss-TAS.smv

Cardweaver

2007-12-15 07:54:41 pm

9 minutes... TAS=Totally Awesome Stupidity. Seriously. Phantoon and Draygon never stood a chance, neither Torizo ever got a chance. I've seen the bosses TASed before, but not all at once in direct sequence. That was very cool. One question though, seeing as how Pseudo screw attack can be used to hurt GT before he "wakes up", why don't TASers use that to get in early damage while he's falling from the ceiling, or beginning to stand up?

I must say though, I had no idea a wave combo could even hit Draygon... Excellent job.

Edit: Well, my hack got TASed, now I guess I have no excuse not to finish up the next one...

Cpadolf

2007-12-15 08:17:35 pm

Almost happy

Quote from Cardweaver:

One question though, seeing as how Pseudo screw attack can be used to hurt GT before he "wakes up", why don't TASers use that to get in early damage while he's falling from the ceiling, or beginning to stand up?

I did not know that, JXQ did not use that in his TAS either so I don't know if it would actually save time. To save time it would have to make more then 900 damage though, or be possible to do more then once without loosing time on the charged shoots later.

Quote from Cardweaver:

I must say though, I had no idea a wave combo could even hit Draygon...

It's been used by TASers for quite some time actually.

Cardweaver

2007-12-15 09:20:54 pm

Well, I managed to get in three pseudos before he was vulnerable to regular charge, and I was waiting with a charge shot, so it sounds good in theory. as to how much damage it does... Without using the pseudo, it took 15 charge shots and with the pseudo it took 14 charge shots. I guess the time it would save wouldn't be much, but I know that TASes specialize in small timesavers, and I'm looking to help you TASers out as much as possible.

Edward_Tohr

2007-12-15 11:54:19 pm

Stuffs. Yar.

Short, fun, and completely lacking in spikes. :P

Bolognab

2007-12-16 12:22:56 am

I didn't think this warranted its own topic:

What values does everyone see as "hard" in a boss?

Cardweaver

2007-12-16 12:32:48 am

Depends on the boss.
For example, for really easy bosses like the chozo statue, spore spawn, and crocomire, I think the environment is what makes the boss harder.

However, for Ridley and Draygon, HP and what suits you have at the time can seriouly make the fight harder, though I wouldn't recommend suitless Draygon again.

Then there's GT, who unless you make the third block from the door a spike, he's almost impossible to die to.

MB is nearly uneditable.

Kraid is really easy if supers are allowed. But even without supers, he's a piece of cake. I definitely don't recommend using crumble blocks (worst idea I've ever had).

What would make phantoon hard would be if he was only weak vs charge beam, thus disallowing the 1 round kill.

There are a lot of options with Botwoon, but many of them have been done.

Over all, try to keep the spike count low, and if the boss is too easy, make it deal more damage when it hits or take away a safe spot or two. Just don't make the bosses have too much HP, or else people will think its not a challenge; its just annoying.
Amazing that I learned almost all of that from one bad hack...

Depends on the boss.
For example, for really easy bosses like the chozo statue, spore spawn, and crocomire, I think the environment is what makes the boss harder.

However, for Ridley and Draygon, HP and what suits you have at the time can seriouly make the fight harder, though I wouldn't recommend suitless Draygon again.

Then there's GT, who unless you make the third block from the door a spike, he's almost impossible to die to.

MB is nearly uneditable.

Kraid is really easy if supers are allowed. But even without supers, he's a piece of cake. I definitely don't recommend using crumble blocks (worst idea I've ever had).

What would make phantoon hard would be if he was only weak vs charge beam, thus disallowing the 1 round kill.

There are a lot of options with Botwoon, but many of them have been done.

Over all, try to keep the spike count low, and if the boss is too easy, make it deal more damage when it hits or take away a safe spot or two. Just don't make the bosses have too much HP, or else people will think its not a challenge; its just annoying. 
Amazing that I learned almost all of that from one bad hack...

ducknerd

2007-12-16 01:38:18 am

Eschews avatars

I'm fairly certain it's impossible to save the animals, unless there's some route back to the landing site that doesn't include fighting mother brain again, as that fight, including the cinema, takes nearly three minutes in and of itself. I've been testing and it just doesn't work. Nice hack, though. Thanks for the ROM.

Cardweaver

2007-12-16 02:24:22 am

Actually, before I added in Croco, it was very possible to fight MB an infinite amount of times because her eye beam resets the timer, but Crocomire takes enough time that unless you don't make mistakes, the time runs out before the eye beam.

However, there is another route, smv attached. Recorded with snes9x improvement 9

attachment:

rescue.smv

Kriole

2007-12-16 03:57:53 am

Meri Kurisumasu! ^_^

Quote from Cardweaver:

However, there is another route, smv attached. Recorded with snes9x improvement 9

I'm actually TASing this, so this new route means that I'll save the animals.

attachment:

Boss TAS.smv

Cpadolf

2007-12-16 06:17:56 am

Almost happy

Heh beat you to the punch grin new

About that hard boos hack, I would have nothing against seeing close to Impossible level difficulty on the bosses, with suitless draygon GT Ridley and all that. Just maybe a little easier, some more E-Tanks and supers before the bosses, GT voulnerable to chargebeam and perhaps wave/plasma on Ridley.

To make Kraid hard I think was done pretty perfectly in Impossible, no enviroment changes but he does a crapload of damage and has no health, and no supers on him.

Botwoon really needs to be suitless to be hard, unless you only make him voulnerable to bombs and deal a lot of damage which I think would not be as fun.

Lance Uppercut

2007-12-16 08:11:00 am

I don´t mind a couple of spikes in bosses, in some places they actually add a nice touch to difficulty.

Torizo: Maybe some spikes and added HP, nothing much to do with him.

Spore Spawn: Well, at least ensure there is not free corner to hide in. In other words, you have to keep on moving so you won´t get hit. Treadmills were nice once, but not anymore.

Kraid: What Cpadolf said. Maybe I would add something: With those platforms, the other block could be crumble block and the other could be solid. Makes it a bit harder to balance on them but still possible to stay higher. This can be compensated by not putting as much HP as in SMI.

Crocomire: Crumble blocks are not entirely bad, but you should leave solid blocks in between and also make the crumble blocks visible so there is a chance to avoid them beforehand. Also allow only few missiles for him and no charge beam.

Phantoon: What Cardweaver said will prevent easy solutions in TASing, but for regular play, missiles are the harder choice.... This is a tough call, because all the solutions have both good and bad sides. I think a few spikes (or bushes like in SMI) in the corners are good, that limits your movement quite well. Maybe one in the middle too... Or how about simply a few holes in the floor? I am not sure about that one, maybe it has to be tested to see if that is stupid or not.

Botwoon: Maybe suitless Botwoon is good, movement is more difficult but in that small room, it does not matter so much. One thing that is a must: Put some spikes on the left side of the room so that you cannot be safe there and just shoot without caring about dodging him.

Draygon: This is another tough one. Definitely easier than SMI, please :)
Suitless should be allright I guess, but at least give player a chance to disable those turrets, or at least two of them. Also don´t raise his HP, rather think about the amount of ammo available for him. Some refilling won´t kill.

Golden Torizo: Suitless is allright, just make sure you put plenty of e-tanks available before these challenges. You could make him vulnerable to charged shots, but there is a balance between too easy and too hard, it will be just hard to find. Too many supers are not that great too, at least if you keep the damage values the same. I think you will need some extra testing beforehand on this one.

Ridley: Suitless, definitely. That is the legendary challenge. This fight does not need anything else but perhaps a couple of beams more. Maybe the whole beam arsenal is too powerful if you allow the same amount of e-tanks as in SMI. Well, in SMI, with full arsenal you could allow to get hit a couple of times if you fought him fast enough, this one should be about the same, maybe one or two hits more. No extra difficulty needed.

Mother Brain: If you are going to make her do a shitload of damage, at least allow both suits and 4 reserves and a possibility to refill them. That was the only way I could make her royal rainbow attack at least somewhat controllable in my savestateless run, or in fact pretty much all my SMI runs. If you don´t have them, it is up to luck whether she will attack again with her deadly weapons after that eyebeam.
Maybe raising her HP or the damage caused by her weapons is not the only way to make her harder. Is it possible to allow her attack more frequently or something?

Also the escape in SMI was good, stick to it or something similar.

I don´t mind a couple of spikes in bosses, in some places they actually add a nice touch to difficulty.

Torizo: Maybe some spikes and added HP, nothing much to do with him.

Spore Spawn: Well, at least ensure there is not free corner to hide in. In other words, you have to keep on moving so you won´t get hit. Treadmills were nice once, but not anymore.

Kraid: What Cpadolf said. Maybe I would add something: With those platforms, the other block could be crumble block and the other could be solid. Makes it a bit harder to balance on them but still possible to stay higher. This can be compensated by not putting as much HP as in SMI.

Crocomire: Crumble blocks are not entirely bad, but you should leave solid blocks in between and also make the crumble blocks visible so there is a chance to avoid them beforehand. Also allow only few missiles for him and no charge beam.

Phantoon: What Cardweaver said will prevent easy solutions in TASing, but for regular play, missiles are the harder choice.... This is a tough call, because all the solutions have both good and bad sides. I think a few spikes (or bushes like in SMI) in the corners are good, that limits your movement quite well. Maybe one in the middle too... Or how about simply a few holes in the floor? I am not sure about that one, maybe it has to be tested to see if that is stupid or not.

Botwoon: Maybe suitless Botwoon is good, movement is more difficult but in that small room, it does not matter so much. One thing that is a must: Put some spikes on the left side of the room so that you cannot be safe there and just shoot without caring about dodging him.

Draygon: This is another tough one. Definitely easier than SMI, please   :)
Suitless should be allright I guess, but at least give player a chance to disable those turrets, or at least two of them. Also don´t raise his HP, rather think about the amount of ammo available for him. Some refilling won´t kill.

Golden Torizo: Suitless is allright, just make sure you put plenty of e-tanks available before these challenges. You could make him vulnerable to charged shots, but there is a balance between too easy and too hard, it will be just hard to find. Too many supers are not that great too, at least if you keep the damage values the same. I think you will need some extra testing beforehand on this one.

Ridley: Suitless, definitely. That is the legendary challenge. This fight does not need anything else but perhaps a couple of beams more. Maybe the whole beam arsenal is too powerful if you allow the same amount of e-tanks as in SMI. Well, in SMI, with full arsenal you could allow to get hit a couple of times if you fought him fast enough, this one should be about the same, maybe one or two hits more. No extra difficulty needed.

Mother Brain: If you are going to make her do a shitload of damage, at least allow both suits and 4 reserves and a possibility to refill them. That was the only way I could make her royal rainbow attack at least somewhat controllable in my savestateless run, or in fact pretty much all my SMI runs. If you don´t have them, it is up to luck whether she will attack again with her deadly weapons after that eyebeam.
Maybe raising her HP or the damage caused by her weapons is not the only way to make her harder. Is it possible to allow her attack more frequently or something?

Also the escape in SMI was good, stick to it or something similar.

Anima Zero

2007-12-16 09:27:19 am

0:22, 48%

Animals Saved

Nice Boss Rush mini-hack.

Cardweaver

2007-12-16 10:56:00 am

I'm glad the general reaction to this was good.

Kriole, watched your smv, I was entertained, but you should really mention that its only partway finished...

And thinking about the intended save the animals route... Would it be possible under TAS circumstances? I actually made it to MB and the time ran out with that first red blast just leaving her hand, and I make horrible mistakes like overcompensating for jumps, missing shots for doors... IT might be possible.

Also, did anyone try the pseudo screw attack GT in TAS conditions to see if its faster? It reduces the number of charge shots required by one, and I'd love to see it work in a TAS...

Cpadolf

2007-12-16 11:25:06 am

Almost happy

Quote from Cardweaver:

Also, did anyone try the pseudo screw attack GT in TAS conditions to see if its faster? It reduces the number of charge shots required by one, and I'd love to see it work in a TAS...

I will test that later, but anyway. If it works as you said it would depending on the flow of the battle save somewhere between 1 second and 10 frames. If the last hit as in my run is a single hit it would have been removed completely making it one less shot, if the last hit is a doulbe hit would save his invincibility time which would be something like 10 frames.

Also I think it would be impossible to kill MB again, you said that the rainbow beam resets the timer, well after that comes 2-2.5 minutes of cinema and after that crocmire who takes at least a minute to die and reapear as a skeleton.

Kriole

2007-12-16 11:25:55 am

Meri Kurisumasu! ^_^

Quote from Cardweaver:

Also, did anyone try the pseudo screw attack GT in TAS conditions to see if its faster? It reduces the number of charge shots required by one, and I'd love to see it work in a TAS...

I'm going to use that trick, it's bound to be faster.

And yes, I am aware that my TAS finishes halfway; it is not finished.

Cardweaver

2007-12-16 11:47:07 am

When I said "resets", I meant the timer stops. Then, the timer begins again when MB dies and the warning message appears. Sorry if I was unclear. Also, Crocomire doesn't come back to life.