899 replies to this topic

[chiefbigcalf]

I am now playing Zodiac in earnest.....I am a slow, deliberate type player with 3 yrs. of lovely retirement under my belt, so ...my style is what it is.....however, I beat the first corridor and managed to beat a mini-boss to get the pulse hammer (?) and have had a couple power and energy power ups.  This game is going to be a c-dawg classic just like DoY and SD.....you guys and gals (DFW for one) are so awesome for putting all that time and effort into quests for the people to play.....God bless you all!!!!

 

One question.....how do you open those  question mark boxes???

Edited by chiefbigcalf, 03 July 2014 - 11:25 AM.

[MaximumCDawg]

Thanks for helping with the beta test!  Please report both bugs and gameplay issues you encounter as you play.  Most of the games' balance issues will be sorted out only after I get the whole thing done, but if you find something simple I can tweak, let me know as you go.  The more people who contribute their thoughts, the better I can balance the game.

 

As for the question mark blocks - you hit them with any primary weapon.  The Pulse Hammer will do it just fine for you.

 

EDIT: Technically, the initial flying level isn't a "corridor;" it's just flying to reach the asteroid in the first place.  I take your point, though.  Getting used to this particular mix of SHUMP combined with ZClassic controls takes some time.  It's not as fluid as Gleeok's Ikaruga clone is.

Edited by C-Dawg, 03 July 2014 - 12:05 PM.

[ShadowTiger]

If anything, the most fascinating and divergent part of the initial experience is the "pause" when you use the lasers, which reminds the player that the weapon is based off of the sword item from TLOZ. Without that initial pause in ship movement, it would be an entirely different experience.

I think Graphics Gale may be a huge help with the animations. It even preserves the palette quite nicely. I've used it before, though not necessarily to animate images, but definitely to preserve a palette for use in importing graphics back into ZC. You can recolor an entire sprite sheet with it. Nick had a tutorial for this around here somewhere.

[MaximumCDawg]

I'm not sure about the pause. It seems mostly to be a hinderance to the player, who should quickly learn to just spam the cannon to avoid it. Then, by Virgo, the player finds that some corridors punish bullet spamming severly. Getting rid of the pause would be conceptually trivial - just change the item class. I might or might not end up doing that.

[chiefbigcalf]

Like I said, I am a slow and deliberate player, I like to check around....how do I get to the areas OB70 (I just about jump up to the ledge that appears to have a rocket waiting to blast off.) and OA70 ? I have a missile launcher and 15 missiles...I was hoping they would open some green doors but it isn't happening. Are there some green doors that I am not supposed to open?? ( Photobucket is being a regal pain in the arse for me so I can't post a pic). Thanks, as I said before, I am still the oldest nube on the block so forgive me my anal tendencies....

Then there are also green blocks that look like they have little small + marks like they would need a key ( although I have a few keys) those green blocks with the + sign in the middle aren't budging......any help with anything in general....I am still in the first part of the asteroid exploring even tho coordinates for scorpio have been uploaded to my system, or so I was told..thanks a ton and a half

I also spent 90 whatever they are called to activate something a couple of times......what did I activate????

Edited by chiefbigcalf, 04 July 2014 - 09:07 AM.

[MaximumCDawg]

I was confused, but now I think I understand what you mean. Let's start with a basic thing. The coordinates in the game only have two digits, in hex. The coordinates in the upper right hand corner, you see those? The top one is always there, and tells you where you are. The second one, below that, sometimes appears when a character uploads coordinates to you. The second one is your DESTINATION. It's a GOAL that you need to get to.

So you have collected the Pulse Cannon. The Spy has told you to go to Scoprio, and uploaded the entrance to Scorpio to your system. You need to travel to coordinates 7, 0 in Aquarius (which is where you are).

I was confused about the "rocket" you were talking about. Now I get it. That's a door. You cannot reach the door at 0, B currently because your character can't jump high enough.

The airlock doors open when you hit the corresponding switch. To open the door leading West to 7,0, try jumping down the waterfall below it and hitting the switch you find there.

As for the "green blocks with a plus in them," I'm stumped. Do you mean the green blocks that look like girders? Green/blue interior with white border and a crossed pair of lines through the middle? Those are just blocks. Some are breakable, some not. Do you mean the blue blocks with two straight bars through the middle? All blue, I mean? Those are also just blocks. Key blocks are unmistakable.

When you spent 90 to activate a machine, you got an item, right? Thats what they're for. They function as shops.

If anything, the most fascinating and divergent part of the initial experience is the "pause" when you use the lasers, which reminds the player that the weapon is based off of the sword item from TLOZ. Without that initial pause in ship movement, it would be an entirely different experience.

I think Graphics Gale may be a huge help with the animations. It even preserves the palette quite nicely. I've used it before, though not necessarily to animate images, but definitely to preserve a palette for use in importing graphics back into ZC. You can recolor an entire sprite sheet with it. Nick had a tutorial for this around here somewhere.

Seems like a good program. Do you have a download link that doesn't try to stick some executable download thing on my computer, though?

Edited by C-Dawg, 04 July 2014 - 11:54 AM.

[ShadowTiger]

Chief - Get Dropbox. That there is a "If you sign up with that link, we both get 500 MB of space!" so it works out nicely. I don't know if Dropbox is still free, (Probably is.) but it couldn't hurt. Dropbox is really handy, and it's where I'm currently linking to and storing my files. It uses the same interface as Windows Explorer does, sharing it in fact, so it's not going to rely on some external finnicky site. If you want to share it with the world, you go to the file, right-click on it, and select "Share Dropbox Link" from the context menu. Then go back here and do a Ctrl-V to paste the link, and you're good. It might be the best solution. Same thing for storing files like ZODIAC. You can manage your own storage. It's not like your computer needs to be on for it, as it's not stored on your computer specifically. I mean, it is, but it's also stored elsewhere, and that's the one you're linking to. It's also fantastic for sharing files across more than one computer. Dropbox folders are synchronized. It's the best thing since sliced tea.

---------------

As for GraphicsGale, I'm looking for an old version. New versions of software realize they're hot stuff and do like to include other programs with it. In the search, I came across this page. You probably don't quite have the time to go sifting through all of these, though. I haven't used any of them either.

Here is a link to the installer for Graphics Gale that I have on my system that I liked. I don't believe it drops anything onto the PC without you knowing. It's the free version, which can be acquired off of their website as well, I'm sure, though these days who knows.

[MaximumCDawg]

---------------------  UPDATE ---------------------

 

http://www.solidfile...2/ZodiacUpdate_(7-4-14).qst

 

------------------------------------------------------------

 

At long last, the Zodiac Project Bosses are complete.  In rough draft form, anyway.  Some of the earlier ones probably need a redraft to bring them in line with the quality of the later ones.  But whatever.  Capricorn Zodiac Project Boss is complete, Capricorn Wave weapon is accessible.  Big thanks to Saffith for assistance with the algorithm used for the projectiles from this boss.  

 

Next thing for me to do is to link up all of the new doors and rooms accessible during your "kill all the Zodiac bosses" quest, and then begin the next area... Sagittarius... which will answer some big questions posed by the game. 

 

Here's the checklist for game completion:

 

1) Finish filling out all doors and rooms in the Zodiac zones.

2) Finish Sagittarius and the plot associated with it.

3) Add some secret events I have in mind.

4) Code the last six or so Corridors

5) Code the final flying levels and final battle with the game's last bosses.  

 

Note that step 5 is actually a big, big deal since one thing that will happen at that point is that Iron will be fighting alongside you.  That's going to take some interesting code to get working.

[ShadowTiger]

That last sentence just gave me the joy-shivers, which is totally a thing.

Would you prefer that we give you a list of non-functional warps that clearly and obviously haven't been worked on yet, in case any of the actual myriad of fun-filled places to go was simply easily overlooked in favor of something else? Because I feel like that would be insulting if we did. It's also really easy to miss one, at least that's how I would feel if I were the designer of a massive project like this.

[MaximumCDawg]

Its up to you. It can't hurt to tell me about nonfunctional warps, even if they are on the agenda anyway. And, if you were able to reach the warps prior to getting super missiles, they should work anyway by now.

[MaximumCDawg]

==== UPDATE =====

http://www.solidfile...f/ZodiacUpdate_(7-7-14).qst

================

 

Another two corridors done, Aries 2 and Capricorn 1.  Recycling old bosses in stronger, faster, regenerating forms!

 

Also tweaked pattern of some bosses a little bit.

 

UPDATE: Been doing some tweaks, but mostly fleshing out the areas of each Zone that you can get to in late game.  I might be basically out of commission this weekend, as a friend from out of town is visiting.  Will get back to coding some of the next plot related stuff, and Sagitarrius, by Monday.  You can expect the next version uploaded when I get that far.

 

But, seeing as no one has given me any bugs even as far as the first trip to Taurus, I think I'm pretty safe laying off for a few days to let the testers catch up!

Edited by C-Dawg, 10 July 2014 - 11:12 PM.

[ShadowTiger]

Yeah, I have a little document running. Here's what I have up until I get into the Cancer zone.

Spoiler

When you first start the game, enemies drop bomb ammo. We don't have the tool that fires it.

The first time you fight Iron, (and likely every subsequent fight as well) when you enter melee range, a strange red sprite appears in front of him. It can even appear in the middle of the stage, even when he's not near the middle.

His health bar disappears before he is actually defeated. He can take one more hit.

Screen 4:17 needs special attention again. Thanks for giving the player a way back up on the left side. The room you can access by slashing the rock near the sandfall appears to be a "Shop" type room, also with a strange string, and even one of those "Pay money to make the item fall from the box" type rooms. That's three weird things in one room.


Money display with any size of wallet displays black characters. I guess this can be considered a major bug.

4:45 needs a "Cancel Sidewarp" to the east side.

IMPORTANT: Scorpio Bomb boss still triggers, even after defeating him.

On 1:4F, the point in which you enter the screen from the top side has an interesting unwalkable combo which prevents you from jumping back up.

The screen above it, 1:3F, the player is able to bomb that and drop down, but may not have hte high-jump boots at that point to jump back up. But they will need the Super bombs to progress anyway. So they are stuck at that point.
One of the strings from 10:0E has a different text border than the rest of the text.

On 17:0A, I was able to bypass the pink bombable blocks by using the jump trick. It happened quite by accident, actually. Not a big deal, but apparently really easy to do.
17:6B, a little piece of the bombable area in the lower left corner extends to the screen to the west. There doesn't appear to be any reason for this.
25:1D - It can be next to impossible to jump out of this room without the dash boots, but it's easy to get here without them.

17:33 - How does one escape from that room once they've completed the corridor? F6 is the only way?

[MaximumCDawg]

Thanks, ST!  Will get to fixing those issues tonight.

 

Progress is continuing, but slow.  I don't think I'll be updating the quest file for you folks again until I'm done with all the linking of new areas in the Zones, and moving the plot along a bit.  I've also written a function that lets me use SHMUP enemies in the Zones outside of the Corridors, so that will help spice things up a bit in terms of custom enemies.   Many early areas that previously lacked custom enemies are being supplemented to include some of these.

[chocobothief12]

I've picked up this quest and enjoyed what chunks I've gone through. I've grown attached to the 3 way spread weapon, but havent found the rest. I did manage to find a good chunk of bugs though, most of which y horrible memory wont allow me to remember. I did find a super game ending bug though, or game ending plant thing, whichever you prefer. While going through leo zone and progressing through the first few screens, you come across a gate. After going through that gate and progressing, you find yourself on the opposite side of another gate, with a switch. I hit the switch and went to the next screen, going into a door that led to a dark area. After exiting the area, I was immediately thrown into a 6 mouthed super cheap floating plant boss. F6ing just restarts the fight and the only way out is to revert to an earlier save. I have found many of these dark rooms, and most ended up bugged. Another such case was a room in taurus. after exiting, you reappear stuck in the top left corner of the map, once again only fixable by reverting to an earlier save. Sorry, I'm not super specific on where these bugs are, but when i go through the game again I'll see if i can redo the bugs.

[MaximumCDawg]

Chocobo, that's interesting.  A few questions:

 

1. Are you cheating, or playing through legitimately?  Getting to Leo is pretty far along.  Did you get to the buggy areas walking through any walls, or did you play it straight?

 

2. I will do my best to check into bugs you describe generally, but it's totally better to give me coordinates because then I can immediately fix the problem.

 

3. In addition to actual bugs, to the extent you have been playing normally, do you have any gameplay questions or concerns?