Balance
During the last couple of weeks I was able to observe a couple of playtesters going through the current version of area 4. Luckily, this time the area miniboss isn't as unbalanced as Arachnus and Torizo were in their earlier versions.
In fact, quite the oposite happened with the overall battle difficulty with normal enemies. Samus has access to Plasma Beam and the Screw Attack in this area, like in the original. After getting these Samus is pretty much invincible, and enemies need to be very tricky or have annoying traits to pose at least some challenge.
I even added a new, original enemy. But I can't seem to find a middle ground between it being cheap and just being a moving target.
So, there's the posibility of moving one of those major items to be found on area 5. This might require the redesign of some rooms, and more testing.
By this time, in the original game, once you cleared the tower and chose your beam, you went directly to the Omega nest. It made sense to be fully prepared by that time.
Now, this is where I need to depart the most from the original level design, specifically with item placement.
In the meantime, Area 5 was redesigned from the ground up. It will have some unique events, like all the other areas do. The layout is on paper right now, and it will need to house the item moved from Area 4 too. But I was able to give the existing rooms a new location and functionality, so production of this area won't take that much, level design wise.
Things are going a bit slow, but any progress is good.
In fact, quite the oposite happened with the overall battle difficulty with normal enemies. Samus has access to Plasma Beam and the Screw Attack in this area, like in the original. After getting these Samus is pretty much invincible, and enemies need to be very tricky or have annoying traits to pose at least some challenge.
I even added a new, original enemy. But I can't seem to find a middle ground between it being cheap and just being a moving target.
So, there's the posibility of moving one of those major items to be found on area 5. This might require the redesign of some rooms, and more testing.
By this time, in the original game, once you cleared the tower and chose your beam, you went directly to the Omega nest. It made sense to be fully prepared by that time.
Now, this is where I need to depart the most from the original level design, specifically with item placement.
In the meantime, Area 5 was redesigned from the ground up. It will have some unique events, like all the other areas do. The layout is on paper right now, and it will need to house the item moved from Area 4 too. But I was able to give the existing rooms a new location and functionality, so production of this area won't take that much, level design wise.
Things are going a bit slow, but any progress is good.
Comments
Siempre siguiendo el proyecto, un saludo desde Chile.
(Y)
Game Maker Studio si no me equivoco soporta filtros gráficos como el Bilineal, 2xsai o HQ2x y eso harÃa que los sprites del juego se vean mejor (mas que nada en monitores grandes).
Bueno, espero que puedas contestar mi pregunta y ánimos!! XD
Given the beam combos mechanics you have and that it's much easier to (re)design enemies around a projectile, and that Plasma in itself could be rebalanced the same way it wasn't almighty in Fusion, I'd suggest it be Screw Attack what is relocated (since its point is to esentially trivialize minor encounters) and it is thematically fitting with Fusion giving it in the depths of SRX.
Of course, I'm looking forward to see the differences in Area 4 either way (given how particular the original area was) as well as the enemies in there.
[I may have accidentally posted this comment twice, my apologies]
Good luck with Area 5! o/
Just make those Zetas scary. I'm part of "never played the original M2" crowd, and so far, the suspense factor has been top-notch (I still get scared even though I've played the most recent demo twice)
the adaptor is quite cheap
but its what i use to play and i have no problems!
keep up the good work doc cant wait for the next demo :)
terra
But Samus would discover that they are vulnerable to the plasma beam she has just picked up, and by extension screw attack (since the fully charged gun creates a mock screw attack).
That might balance out the weapon a bit. You could also make the new SR388 animals found in that area vulnerable only to missiles at first but have Samus discover they can be brought down with the plasma beam. You could do that with some current and missing enemies too like the hard-shelled creatures in Area 3 and the side-armored creature that hasn't appeared yet. The plasma beam could cut through their armor.
One enemy I would design would be, for instance... have those plants that spawn bugs spawn a lot of them. The bugs would shield the plant from missile attacks by sheer numbers, but beam weapons being rapid-fired wouldn't hurt the actual enemy.
This would integrate Plasma very well, since you'd use it to much more easily dispose of the bugs to finish it off with a missile.
But I'll try to do it in a fair manner. Here goes. I think you should keep to the original as much as possible I do like the extra bosses and other boss alterations. But relocating items fully out of their areas in my book is a big no, no. I might sound a bit childish here but I just wish to speak from the side of the original creators. Well to a degree. The thing is that I enjoy a few variations like the mining tools. They are very well done. I will make a suggestion such as to ask if you'd redesign the Federal Galactic Marines base camp area. I feel it's not as detailed as the rest of the game. Maybe add some sprites from Metroid fusion, reworks from Super Metroid. After all there is a perfectly good dead FG soldier sprite before Kraids area. I'm not bashing on who ever did it I'm sure they tried hard. I'm not being sarcastic here either. But it kind of clashes with the rest of the games to simplistic. I also think the game is hard enough as is and the screw attack and plasma beam in their spots is just fine. I mean since you can't even attack any of the metroids with anything but missiles they're hard enough. And the idea of getting the screw attack and plasma beam in Metroid games at least in my opinion is to have an item that does make you feel a bit over powered. They are items made to breeze through enemies. I'm not trying to detour creative thought. I did enjoy the water drain area and those pipes puzzles and the big double fan you made along with the moving platforms. But I'm of a mind set that I really wanted to download your work cause it was the original game but with new graphics and color. Something that I wish Nintendo would do with the actual Metroid II game. I know the Zero Mission has alterations also but it's only rather minor in comparison. At least in my mind. And I'm talking about From the start of that game to Mother Brain not the extra level as much as I love it. But in all honesty I think you should stick to the formula a bit more or maybe if you'd be willing. I know this would be asking a lot. But perhaps an alternate version of the game where it's very much like the original just in level design and item placement and strength? I do love all the hard work you put into everything else. Like Samus's details like her movements and bored stance where she plays with her arm cannon, or the after glow that the morph ball and has. As well as the after glow/image that follows her as she jumps. And the biggest improvement by far is the item selection screen brought back from Meetroid games Super Metroid and up. And the ability to stack beams is wonderful! In those areas I do commend your and your cohorts work. Truly amazing in those areas. Love it even the changed Save Stations. As a redesign and as a weapon refill station.
P.S. Just curious is there any other Metroid 2 remakes out there? I would love to see how they look and work in comparison! :)
Progress is awsome and yes thank you for you work and Time as Always.
alexander.infantry11b@gmail.com
and i would be happy to help.
One being you can bomb jump while in the water, it's not as easy but in the originals, every time you used the bomb, you wouldn't even move.
The other being that when you jump from walls while having the high jump, you jump the same height as you are off of the ground. In the other games, you jump the same as if you didn't have the boots after jumping off of a wall. I'm not sure if this was intended or not, just giving a heads up.
A few other things I'd like to mention. You start with I think 30 missiles, and there are missile upgrades all over the place that are easy to get and require no backtracking at all. this makes the bosses a LOT easier than I would think they should be. I'd prefer to start with 5, or even none. I would also like to mention that in the Metroid games I have played, the enemies usually use some sort of attack that generates rubble or some other thing you can attack to recharge missiles while in the middle of the fight. The metroids certainly don't do that and they appear to be minibosses with no means of escape in some situations. I think if you cut down on the early missile upgrades and give them some way to recharge in the fight, things could be slightly more difficult.
A few other things I've noticed is that there don't seem to be many hidden rooms. I've bombed all over the place, and while I'm missing 5% in items, most of the power ups were blatantly obvious and easy to get. There were plenty of nice places where some shinespark maneuvers could have been used, and the spiderball was useful for only one powerup that I remember, maybe 2. You should put some bombable ceilings where you have to use the spiderball to bomb them, and then climb up into another room with it or something. I was also wondering if maybe there could be an option to make spiderball where instead of pressing down when you touch a wall/ceiling/etc, you could press against the wall and it would morph into the spiderball. There've been quite a few times where I would have liked to spiderball back onto a wall and would forget I had to press down.
I think these suggestions would help create a better difficulty without making it game breakingly hard.
Btw I also think there is a music problem in the areas around the boss for the spring jump. Can't describe it well, just suggesting you check it out.
Finished the demo ver 1.34 and oooooooo boy.
I think this is the best metroid fan-made game i've seen; the music, the enemies, the atmosphere, everything is just beautiful.
keep up with the good work :).
PS: Sorry if my english is a bit "poor" but is not my first lenguage.
Also several rather specific suggestions and bugfixes have been implemented.
He just doesn't take time off to reply.
Keep up the amazing work and I can't way to be able to finish the game! Thank you for carrying on the love of Metroid!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DOING THIS! I tried the demo, and it is excellent! It really feels like an official Metroid game, and the atmosphere is amazing.
I played until the breeding grounds, as I don't want to spoil the game before it's done, but my god, this is so good.
Keep up the good work!
Area 4:
Power Bombs
Plasma Beam
Area 5:
Gravity Suit
Screw Attack