Gammas are too hard...
Earlier today I posted a general information page written in spanish, this will help me write the updates in 2 languages.
Si buscas información en español, puedes hacer click en el link a la derecha. ->
The progress these days:
I´m constantly tweaking the Gamma Metroids AI. Right now they´re extremely hard to defeat. They have a couple of attack patterns, but they´re too difficult to hit, since the core is hidden deeper into the creature, compared to Alphas. And I haven´t coded the lightning attacks yet.
I have plans to redo the map screen display system. A lot of objects are used to draw the entire map, this causes a severe slowdown on older machines. I´m trying to find a way to use fewer objects (and I´m already using deactivation).
I know it´s not much progress, but work was unusually busy these weeks.
Like always, comments are welcome.
Si buscas información en español, puedes hacer click en el link a la derecha. ->
The progress these days:
I´m constantly tweaking the Gamma Metroids AI. Right now they´re extremely hard to defeat. They have a couple of attack patterns, but they´re too difficult to hit, since the core is hidden deeper into the creature, compared to Alphas. And I haven´t coded the lightning attacks yet.
I have plans to redo the map screen display system. A lot of objects are used to draw the entire map, this causes a severe slowdown on older machines. I´m trying to find a way to use fewer objects (and I´m already using deactivation).
I know it´s not much progress, but work was unusually busy these weeks.
Like always, comments are welcome.
Comments
avanzacho has long since started this project.
All look forward to having the game on our PC. I am sorry to hear that there are errors with the programming of the Gamma Metroids: (. We hope that this difficulty is resolved soon. I see that is missing almost half of the project ... No matter the delay, what good is having a good game Although the delay worth wait ^ ^.
gran trabajo!
a avanzado mucho desde que empezó este proyecto.
Todos esperamos tener el juego en nuestra PC. Lamento saber que hay errores en la programación de los Metroids Gamma :( Esperamos que esta crisis se resuelva pronto. Veo que le falta casi la mitad del proyecto ... vale la pena esperar ^^.
I'm guessing they have legs and jump from one place to another?
If it's that slow them down, or make them jump over Samus so she can get a clear shot from underneath.
Or if they charge at Samus, get tem turn round and rear-up like a horse does so you can shoot.
Hope you like my Thoughts Doc!!
My best wishes for you! (And sorry my bad english. ^^")
My friends and I are still cheering you on!!!
I personally dont like that idea though, i rather just kill them faster and get it over with to continue the exploration.
porfabor, demuestra un screenshot de el gamma metroid listo o no. Asi podemos ver a que te refieres quando nos explicas los problemas.
Hmmm... the idea of a breaking shell sounded good, but maybe after a few seconds after it's broken, it somehow gets it's shell back? That will make it a bit more challenging.
Ty ~bunnypoppop~
Maybe you can choose usign color or icon, just the one fit better
And yes, breakable shells are a good suggestion. Save the near invulnerability for Omegas and possible Zetas.
and if your really skilled you can still damage it the old way.
as far as your map issue...
you could keep the main tunnel and the queen's Lair on one map... leaving the other 4 areas on another map. If you do that I'd suggest the ability to switch between the 2 maps
Hope that helps
Can you please also post in portuguese? Very helpful for me!
he only posted in Spanish because he speaks Spanish. i do not think the doctor speaks Portuguese.
First and foremost, EXCELLENT WORK!!!
I am a diehard Metroid fan since "Super Metriod." "Metroid II: Return of Samus" is the only story in the series that I haven't experienced yet. I almost fell off my chair when I saw the trailer for this game while looking for info on "shine sparks" from "Zero Mission." My only problem is I have a Mac. But, no worries, I blew the dust off of my old Compaq. Now I just need to refresh the hard drive and install a copy of Windows Xp, I don't think I'm alone when I say Vista sucks (I didn't get a Mac for no reason).
So any way, I do have some things to point out to you.
1. In Super Metroid, the Spazer and the Plasma Beam would not work together. Do they stack well in this game or will they hold true and oppose each other?
2. I read somewhere that you are not stacking the 3 suits. That is kind of weird considering they always stacked in every entry in the series. I know this is your game and you are putting your spin on it, but I personally think that the suits got to be left alone and made the way they always have been.
3. I think it would be cool for you to add a weapon or an ability to Samus that you have created. Something that has never been seen in a Metroid game, 2D or 3D. That is probably easier said than done though, huh?
4. With the pick up locations on the map, will there be a marker to let us (the players) know there is something there to grab? I don't mean the Chozo statues, I'm talking about the many missile and energy expansions scattered about. And if you are planing it, will it be like "Zero Mission" and "Fusion" with the circle and it turns to a dot as the item is collected, or "Super Metroid" and it is a dot regardless whether the item is picked up or not?
5. Maybe some extra bosses? I'm not saying Ridley or Kraid, but something more... maybe just more metroids in your new expanded areas?
The last thing I must say is simply this; you can't rush greatness! the longer it takes you, the better it will be! You will never hear me complain that a game is taking too long to be released.
Also, in the original, the gamma had to pause in order to do its electrical attack, which leaves it vulnerable to counterattack. A good strategy would be to run in close, to trigger an electrical attack, then run out of range of the electric and blast the soft spot.
I'd say program out a rough version of the full behavior first before you decide to tone down or amp up stuff.
Oh and for fellow Mac users, Bootcamp and Windows XP works wonders. I wouldn't have bought a MacBook Pro if I couldn't run windows stuff like Gamemaker and various rom playing stuff.
Yo también quiero la idea de un esqueleto quebradizo, o por lo menos un esqueleto parcialmente quebradizo (despegando la cola blindada, lo haciendo tiene la vulnerabilidad en el fondo entero como un alfa, en vez de justo la frente inferiora (que adivino de la manera que la gamma vieja miró)
También, en la original, la gamma tuvo que detenerse para hacer su ataque eléctrico, que deja vulnerable al contraataque. Una estrategia buena sería de correr en el fin, para provocar un ataque eléctrico, entonces corre fuera del alcance del eléctrico y estalla el punto delicado.
Diría programa fuera una versión áspera de la conducta llena primero antes usted decide reducir o amperio arriba material.
How???
It comes standard with OSX (Leopard). Bootcamp partitions your hard drive into two separate computers, your Mac and your PC. When you boot up your computer, you choose which one to boot up, so when you boot up windows, it runs exactly like windows. I'm not too knowledgeable about doing stuff for earlier OS. Another option is running Parallels on your Mac which creates a virtual windows machine which runs while you run your mac, so no bootup is required, but it is slower then booting up in windows. The best part is, if you screw up windows side, it doesn't mess up your mac side.
That's about all I know on the subject, hope that helps. I know it helped me enjoy this game on my computer.
Anyway, you're doing great, and I really look forward to seeing a finished product.
porque no está donde se indica que deberia estar
bueno, que mal que el metroid gamma tenga errores, como fans esperamos que tengas buena suerte doc y que te salga todo bien
haz hecho un gran trabajo
saludos
Patronus
If you are thinking of making the easier for the newer players, then leave them as they are (hard to hit) on the higher difficulty settings. You've already stated that the game will not be difficult, just leave a small challenge for more experienced players.
As for the breakable shell idea... Well, it would have to be balanced. I'd have to try it out to give an opinion. Assuming you're considering the idea: Maybe you could just include it only in some difficulty options, or feature it in a new demo to test it, if you're making another version.
Easy Diff. - 20% - 30% Gammas have shells (maybe near the end of the gammas should have the shells?)
Normal Diff. - 35% - 50% Gammas have shells.
Etc...
(Regrowing shells could be for hard.)
Anyway you get the picture, as for the maps, split them two 2-3 areas.
1. Surface - The place were you land your ship. -_+
2. Underground
3. Deep Underground
Or is it like you can switch wich suit you want at any time (once you collected the suit) and make it harder for yourself by using for example the power suit instead of the varia suit when not in hot areas?
Gammas are a lot more balanced now. They don´t rely that much on charging against you like the Alphas, and they usually hover a little higher. This opens attack opportunities if you manage to avoid the Gamma´s own attacks. So, there´s no need for breakable shells. By the time you reach Gammas you have plenty of missiles, so there´s a fair chance you´ll defeat them.
>Pode também colocar em Português? Por favor?
No, my Portuguese is horrible, I can´t write without a translator.
>I can't go back to seeing those cheezy floating Omegas and Zetas. Please tell me they're gonna be bipedal, plea~se?
They are gonna be ground based bipedal creatures. Zetas might have a hover/jump attack.
>se supone que deberia haber un link para ver este avance en español
En el post en español está la noticia, en la parte de PROGRESO.
>as for the maps, split them two 2-3 areas.
No need. I redid the map screen, now instead of a ton of objects, it´s displayed with a ton of tiles. It´s really faster.
>1. In Super Metroid, the Spazer and the Plasma Beam would not work together. Do they stack well in this game or will they hold true and oppose each other?
They stack like in Zero Mission. Plasma Beam reduces the damage a bit, so you´ll have to make sure to hit the target continually.
2. I read somewhere that you are not stacking the 3 suits.
It´s weird, I know. But it´s a lot more practical. Stacking can lead to just three combinations, since Power Suit is, AFAIK, always enabled. The only weird combination would be Power+Gravity, and it doesn´t make much difference.
Having three separate armors make things easier to understand for the player, and easier to make for me.
3. I think it would be cool for you to add a weapon or an ability to Samus that you have created.
Maybe in a future project. I took some tiny liberties in the gameplay (I guess you saw the last video), but I want this game to be as close to M2 as possible.
4. With the pick up locations on the map, will there be a marker to let us know there is something there to grab?
It´s not implemented right now. But I could add it, even if it makes exploration a lot easier.
5. Maybe some extra bosses? I'm not saying Ridley or Kraid, but something more... maybe just more metroids in your new expanded areas?
There will be some new minibosses, but those are a secret right now.
A la gente que habla español: No es necesario que escriban en español acá, ya que es poco probable que gente que no habla inglés vea este post. Pueden preguntar lo que quieran en el post en español, para eso está.
Gracias.
how about making it optional, like you plan to do with the map screen.
just add an option to turn it on and off?
What's the plan for Omega Metroids? Since there is a lot more room in SR388 than in the BSL space station, maybe the Omegas can jump and cause quakes when they land. Are you using Fusion's Omega Metroid sprites? I was thinking the Omegas' move set can be based off of Fusion. In addition to the close-range slash, which could deal a lot of damage, they could walk a bit faster. Also, when Samus is too far for a close range slash, the Omega Metroid will then shoot fireballs, which would block any incoming missiles.
Heh. I need to stop being so specific and detailed about my suggestions. My imagination likes to work in overdrive.
will there be any more videos or screen shots of alphas or new pics of gammas any time in the near future?
Sounds... Secret...
Maybe there's a big Gunzoo type enemy.
Or a larger then normal
Alpha / Gamma. Hmmm I'm already thinking of cool new enemys.
So Doc. you have to tell us what they are sometime...
Hopefully...
Since its only in the 3D Metroids, it would be cool to see it in a 2D Metroid.
1) The gammas are bigger, so make them slower, maby take away the ramming attack
2)Because there so hard to hit, if you miss the core and hit there head, maby that could stun them but not actualy hurt them, giving you a better shot
3)They actualy have arms now, so maby they could grab samus and use that to suck her energyz with, or much later in the game, they get smarter, and they grab samus and drop her over a hazurdus(misspelled) area. (lava,bad plants)
4)these are metroids were dealing with! An extreamly dangorous being, not to mention its 3rd form. So dont make them to eay ether.
im a bad speller
Just to note and to get tecnical, the shell is the metroids
exo-skelton,it wouldent be able to live without it. And you see the whole core, it isnt a complete circle...
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8739/zam2r.png
The first image shows what happens when you are climbing up a ledge to a narrow passage and just before you morph an enemy hits you. You are left unmorphed inside the wall. It is possible to easily get out, and I wasn't able to go through walls.
The second one shows that the "spacejump sprite" (since I think it is the one that is usyally used for spin jump after you get the spacejump), drawn with transparency while pseudo screw attacking, spins the wrong direction when facing left.
Third one shows sharp edges for one step when shooting dirt.
Also when pressing the map button during the room changing translation it gets a bit messed up at the end.
When arriving a room the view doesn't immediately move to samus. (When on the right side of the room, the view manages to show at least 1 frame of the middle of the room while moving to samus.)
If you somersault to an enemy while having the speed booster on, you both take damage. (I think you shouldn't.)
Enemies could go outside rooms (should they?), and I'm not sure, but I think I saw 1 frame of samus only having her legs when unmorphing mid-air. (I couldn't manage to repeat it.)
You might have already fixed some of these, but I did not post this to say he'd be a bad programmer. Only to point out some errors. I visit the blog almost every day to read new comments (4 times today already), and I'm very happy about this project.
It's always those little things that make the difference between a polished, professional project and just another second-rate fan game. I'm just amazed you noticed all this stuff.
@Zas
You should use a Feed Reader to check for new comments, like Google Reader.
Luck wishes and greetings from Germany
oh, you are talking about X-Ray scope.....
I like the difficulty level of this game, I always like a good challenge when it comes to Metroid. You're doing a fantastic job, and by the looks of what everyone else is saying here, they all agree too!
But I understand how difficult it is to make a game, the pressure you're under to complete it and the demand of the fans. For that alone, you have my respect.
Keep up the great work and I hope we can chat again further sometime! :)
quote: "Maybe in a future project. I took some tiny liberties in the gameplay (I guess you saw the last video), but I want this game to be as close to M2 as possible."
I have another idea for when you might do a future metroid project: introduce the charge combo like the metroid prime series has into a 2D metroid.
And like others said don't rush it
No one wants a troll here.
I've only seen Kenji posting constructive comments and he is very good making sprites, so he's earned my respect.
Back to the X-ray scope. Visors of any kind have no place in the 2d games because they present a conflict of aesthetics. The Prime games are about exploration and interaction with your world. Fine and dandy. The 2d games, however, are about exploration and annihilating your world.
The Prime games are meant to be taken slow, while you take in the sights, but the 2d games are meant to have you search every area with as much brevity as possible. If you finish a 2d game as quickly as possible, then they provide you with that X-ray visor that sees right through her suit, so to speak, but you can't beat a Prime game in less than 2 hours. They rate you on how much your scan and collect.
The 2d games are all about action, plain and simple, but they're still tweaking their style.
Take Super Metroid for example, with its X-Ray scope. Essentially a precursor to the Scan Visor in Prime Games, it would temporarily disable one of the graphics layers and show hidden passages and destroyable blocks. Yes, it was a huge help, but you had to stop and select an icon (and I am aware that you can switch on the fly) in order to use it, you had to be stationary, it moved way too slow (although there's also such a thing as way too fast and the margin between the two is very slim) and you had to disable your sprint (also unnecessary in my opinion).
In later games, they got rid of it all together. Why? Because the development team knew it just didn't fit.
Now, I'll detail a few points as to why any visor/scope of any form is not needed.
a)Style and Aesthetic: Primes are walks through the park. Combat less about shooting (MP3 notwithstanding) and more about stopping to smell the roses or Bloodflowers, or whatever. 2ds are about running and gunning.
b)Pacing: Ties in to a. The visor wouldn't fit with the GBA control scheme, which as far as I know, is what the Doc is going for (if you are planning on changing it, please don't, i'ts perfect as is.). The scheme is designed so that you should never have to stop running to do anything.
c)Philosophical Quandaries: Samus's point of view is not a camera focusing on the side of her body. So, why would the camera see in the infrared spectrum, or in a radiological spectrum? You'd probably have to make a beam shoot from her eye and have that and only that display in the respective visual spectrum, which, in short, would be a total b****.
Wow, I had no intention of writing an essay, but here you go. Visors don't belong. At all. Yeah.
I am sorry, its all my fault. I was just remarking about boostball being in my fangame,and I was not trying to advertise it... just saying. that was the only time I said anything about it, thanks Rodrigo also. now back to the matter at hand... yes, visors do not belong, but what about power bomb? does that really belong? just think about it....
I WANT ONLY PLAY THE GAME!
DOC! Could put at our disposal a NEW DEMO?
THANKS IT ALL.
as it would delay the completed game.
i would however like to see more screen shots
i think the video outlined the new skills quite well and does not need a demo. do u want a new demo every time he shows off? this game would never get released.
Demos take a lot of time and hard work. i would be happy with some screen shots every so often just to see that the project is still alive till release.
That being said, locally released Exe's of just play-test rooms which are quickly put together in order to test out various ability mechanics, enemy design, etc. would be a good idea to gain feedback from everyone here on stuff that the Doc wants an opinion on, like are the Gammas too hard. Plop the samus object in a square room along with a Gamma object, make an exe, release and see what everyone else thinks.
It's not pretty, but as Zas demonstrated, any bugs will be found.
But I do not think you take much time to do a demo Doc only until the first battle against a meter alpha.
So do not get angry much, well if you do not like to get a demo because they do not receive it but I know I've heard many fans who wanted the project to have a demo of the game to see more detailed development and enjoy it ( apart from me).
>The first image shows what happens when you are climbing up a ledge to a narrow passage and just before you morph an enemy hits you. You are left unmorphed inside the wall.
I received an email a couple of weeks ago showing that same glitch. I solved it by making samus invincible just for the climbing animation.
>The second one shows that the "spacejump sprite" (since I think it is the one that is usyally used for spin jump after you get the spacejump), drawn with transparency while pseudo screw attacking, spins the wrong direction when facing left.
Oops. That was a missing minus sign. Fixed.
>Third one shows sharp edges for one step when shooting dirt.
That has to do with deactivation. The dirt blocks are updated when shot, but if they´re away from the screen border, they aren´t processed. I´m still trying to figure how to fix this.
>Also when pressing the map button during the room changing translation it gets a bit messed up at the end.
I couldn´t replicate this one.
>When arriving a room the view doesn't immediately move to samus. (When on the right side of the room, the view manages to show at least 1 frame of the middle of the room while moving to samus.)
I had to fix this bug when I expanded the transition system. When I added a crossfade transition for the map screen, this bug was even more evident. Now the camera is placed correctly.
>If you somersault to an enemy while having the speed booster on, you both take damage. (I think you shouldn't.)
Speed booster deals damage via an external object. If conditions are right, you can get hit. I´ll make samus invincible during speed booster to prevent this.
>Enemies could go outside rooms (should they?), and I'm not sure, but I think I saw 1 frame of samus only having her legs when unmorphing mid-air. (I couldn't manage to repeat it.)
I think they should... I don´t remember how enemies behave regarding this on the original metroids.
That was a great playtest, thank you very much!!!
>Wow, I had no intention of writing an essay, but here you go. Visors don't belong. At all. Yeah.
That was a very interesting read. I agree with your point of view.