237 replies to this topic

[DragonDePlatino]

With that in mind, I recommend having two shields for each level: one for physical projectile deflection and one for magical projectile deflection.

 

I think you're onto something there! Magic/physical counterparts of items sounds like a great idea and I've decided it's something I'll definitely be doing. But on the other hand, for the sake of simplicity and all the Link tiles I'd need to make, I'll just be sticking to six shields. Two for each level.

 

Honestly, DDP, I like your sprites as they are. They don't have to be exactly as in other quests/tilesets because this is basically a new graphical style.

 

Thank ba-jesus! I've been trying to find how to put it, but you said it better than I. Left and right, people have been complaining how my designs don't look canon enough, but really, when almost every single tileset that's ever been made so far (yes, including Firebird, which I've been given) has been made of recolored or touched-up existing graphics, I suppose it's a bit jarring for some.

 

OK, now with that out of the way...

 

Today I took a break from progressing on the tileset to simply retouch my old enemy designs. I noticed that a lot of them don't properly fill up the entire tile and look pretty small as a result. I've fixed this, as well as Link's tiles, so now everything should completely fill up it's 16x16 space and have more detail as a result. Really, it's something that EZGBZ, Classic and BS do, so I don't see why I shouldn't.

 

And working on these enemies has got me thinking...What would you guys think about custom enemies? I know custom enemies and items will move away from Koten's user-friendliness, but who's to say I couldn't release two versions of Koten? One would be "Koten Basic" which would be released as soon as I've finished retexturing all of Classic's tiles. Then there would be "Koten Advanced" which I'd continually work on and add whatever strikes my fancy. And speaking of which, here are some ideas for Zelda enemies, no scripts! I have a ton of these ideas, but these are my four favorite few of my favorites...

 

Spoiler

Bees

 

Bees emerge from either nests or cuttable bushes. Nests and bushes are immobile, harmless enemies that tribble into six bees when slashed. Nests usually hang in trees near high-combat areas (so Link might accidentally hit one) and the bushes spawn randomly among other bushes. When the bees (quick-moving keese) are released, they will hone in on Link.

 

Terrorpin

 

Terrorpins are completely immune to everything except the hammer. When hammered, they fly backwards and tribble into a terrorpin (flipped). Once flipped, Link must quickly kill it before it flips back over (tribbles back into unflipped terrorpin). Higher levels of terrorpin flip over more quickly.

 

Death Sword

 

An aquamentus reskin which is immune to ranged weapons. Very tough, invisible, and fires three swords instead of boss fireballs. There is a second level that can only be damaged by reflected swords.

 

Aerofols

 

A very quick flying enemy (keese or Other (Floating)?) which will dart around until stunned with the hookshot. They can be defeated without the hookshot, but they take a ton of hits so it's pretty much necessary to stun them. When hit enough times, they tribble into an Aeralfos (grounded) which behaves like a darknut except it's shielded on the front and left.

 

Oh, and one last thing. What are the "projectile shooter", "Other (Floating)" and "Other" types for?

Edited by DragonDePlatino, 06 May 2014 - 11:06 PM.

[anikom15]

Just focus on graphics. Let users decide how they want to extend Z1's gameplay. Too many additions can get in the way and will be removed by minimalists like me.

Two tilesets would be confusing and may make it seem like they have different graphics. What you could do is include an 'expansion' pack which would come with the tileset as a separate quest file.

[kurt91]

As long as they don't require scripts and can be used just as easily as the default enemies, why not add them in as additional enemies on top of what ZC already provides? If people don't want to use them, they won't, and it's not like having them in will make it any more difficult to use the tileset.

 

Although, even if you don't use them, I'm stealing a couple of those ideas. I love the Bees and Terrorpins.

[Cjc]

  

I think you're onto something there! Magic/physical counterparts of items sounds like a great idea and I've decided it's something I'll definitely be doing. But on the other hand, for the sake of simplicity and all the Link tiles I'd need to make, I'll just be sticking to six shields. Two for each level.

Sounds good.  Limiting to three levels will also keep the 'magic/physical' separation from breaking down at high levels.

 

 

Spoiler

Death Sword

 

An aquamentus reskin which is immune to ranged weapons. Very tough, invisible, and fires three swords instead of boss fireballs. There is a second level that can only be damaged by reflected swords.

Have you been able to get something like this to work?  Because I found Aquamentus particularly stubbon when it comes to non-fireball projectiles.  If I remember correctly, the default behavior when set to swords is to shoot them perfectly vertically, perpendicular to the direction of its mouth.

 

I'd say add as many enemies as you like to the basic quest package, provided they're not scripted enemies (or if scripted, loosely scripted with the script in the buffer.  I'm talking about the ghost settings that use @ScriptName at the end of the enemy's name).  If a user finds an enemy they don't want to use, they can rename it with a 'z' at the front of the name so that it doesn't pop up in the list when they're populating rooms.

Alternatively, if you're really concerned that the new enemies will interfere with the accessibility of the set, then you could preface their names with a lowercase 'z' so that users that wish to make use of them can choose to mix them in as they please.

[Shane]

I like the idea of having a basic and advanced version. I appreciate your thought and efforts with this tileset.

[DragonDePlatino]

Well, progress with Koten has been going absolutely rotten today. I mean, I dived into the subscreen editor, moved some stuff and...oh geez, I think a picture would suffice best.
 

 
Good grief...where do I even begin? The magic meter and 1/2 icon are golden, my rupee icon is golden, and the entire freakin' screen was changed to Link's gold ring palette! And on an unrelated note, my test octorok has somehow found a way to climb it's way from the center of the screen to the top of the cliff. That's just great.
 
So since my sprite palettes are suddenly dancing the tango with my Dmap palettes and all reality is breaking down, progress on Koten has come to a screeching halt. I've looked all throughout the shardstorm wiki on how subscreens and palettes work, but I can't find any explanation for this.

 

So if they could, is anyone interested in taking a look at this .qst file to see if they can help me? If they seem trustworthy, I can PM them the .qst file.

[anikom15]

Subscreens use the same palette as the screen.

[Demonlink]

DragonDePlatino, on 09 May 2014 - 7:24 PM, said:

Well, progress with Koten has been going absolutely rotten today. I mean, I dived into the subscreen editor, moved some stuff and...oh geez, I think a picture would suffice best.



Good grief...where do I even begin? The magic meter and 1/2 icon are golden, my rupee icon is golden, and the entire freakin' screen was changed to Link's gold ring palette! And on an unrelated note, my test octorok has somehow found a way to climb it's way from the center of the screen to the top of the cliff. That's just great.

So since my sprite palettes are suddenly dancing the tango with my Dmap palettes and all reality is breaking down, progress on Koten has come to a screeching halt. I've looked all throughout the shardstorm wiki on how subscreens and palettes work, but I can't find any explanation for this.

So if they could, is anyone interested in taking a look at this .qst file to see if they can help me? If they seem trustworthy, I can PM them the .qst file.

I could try to help, but it's up to you.

You see, I think the problem is that you used Cset 6 for some of the sprites. Cset 6 is Link's palette, which means this: if Link picks up a ring item, CSet 6 changes to the ring's palette, So, if you used Cset 6 for these sprites, and you equipped the Gold Ring, that explains on why the whole frickin screen turned into money gold.

Edit: And what Anikom said might also be true, you should never use Csets 2, 3, 4 and 9 for anything else but overworld objects (Cset 9 is an exception if it's the same CSet for all palettes, then you could use it )

Edited by Demonlink, 09 May 2014 - 08:18 PM.

[kurt91]

Couldn't you set all of the subscreen stuff to 8-bit so that it can't change palette like that?

[Lightwulf]

Hey, the octorok may be able to walk onto the cliff if only the top half of the cliff combo is walkable.  Enemies can walk all over combos as long as the lower half is walkable.

 

You'd best find a way to make the top of the cliff completely solid. (If it's already completely solid, then that's a mystery to me!)

 

Yeah, if you used colors from CSet 6, then that explains the color change.

Edited by Lightwulf, 09 May 2014 - 09:23 PM.

[DragonDePlatino]

Hurrah!

 

 

Thanks for the help! I'm glad to see that so many people are eager to help a guy out. As you can see, I managed to fix the palette issue. It wasn't the most elegant solution (tacking on 3 extra colors to Cset 06 and using those for Link and the rings) but it kept me from having to go back and completely redo everything I've drawn so far. And now that that's fixed, I'd just like to showcase something tiny here that will be in Koten...

 

All heart/magic icons will be accurate to the 16th! It was kind of hard fitting that amount of accuracy into an 8x8, NES-restricted space, but I think I handled it well. In the life bar, you can see 2/16 of a heart on the end and in the magic bar, about 12/32 of a magic jar. It's something small, I know, but I was really happy when I got it working. And that I know of, this is one of the only tilesets with 16/16 hearts and 32/32 magic jars.

 

I could try to help, but it's up to you.

 

Oh, and hi, DemonLink! I forgot to tell you, I got your PM and I'll get on it as soon as possible. It's just, you know, palettes and...hee hee... 

[Demonlink]

Hurrah!

 

 

Thanks for the help! I'm glad to see that so many people are eager to help a guy out. As you can see, I managed to fix the palette issue. It wasn't the most elegant solution (tacking on 3 extra colors to Cset 06 and using those for Link and the rings) but it kept me from having to go back and completely redo everything I've drawn so far. And now that that's fixed, I'd just like to showcase something tiny here that will be in Koten...

 

All heart/magic icons will be accurate to the 16th! It was kind of hard fitting that amount of accuracy into an 8x8, NES-restricted space, but I think I handled it well. In the life bar, you can see 2/16 of a heart on the end and in the magic bar, about 12/32 of a magic jar. It's something small, I know, but I was really happy when I got it working. And that I know of, this is one of the only tilesets with 16/16 hearts and 32/32 magic jars.

First thing is first: I'm glad you managed to find a workaround man! And yeah, just be careful with Csets... 2, 3,4 and 6, don't ever use 8 bit with those csets on non Overworld objects (as I said 9 is an exception if it's the same cset for all of your palettes). 

 

Oh, and hi, DemonLink! I forgot to tell you, I got your PM and I'll get on it as soon as possible. It's just, you know, palettes and...hee hee... 

Why U no respond?  Nah, just kidding. As said, I understand, so there is no problem, focus on your stuff first, that request can wait if you want (And I also understand about them tileset probs I need to reorganize some stuff (mostly the combo table ) since I added some tiles). 

 

Great look so far on Koten! I wish to see more of your stuff!

[DragonDePlatino]

Hey, looks like it's time for one last update before Koten goes into it's initial release! All that's left are NPCs and effects. I'll also be touching up some of the enemy designs to bring them up to Koten's current style by making them a bit wider, like I did with Link's newest tiles. Oh, and speaking of which, I've finished Link's tiles! I already have a system set up for making the shielded versions, and the sprites look quite nice when animated in-game. I'm pretty proud of them, considering how far I've come since my first Koten Link...

 

And in other news, I've been toying with the idea of making a custom subscreen after the initial release of Koten. I wanted to keep in line with Zelda's style of GUI, but "upgrading" it a bit and taking some liberties to save on space. The result is a tight, NES-faithful subscreen with a strong emphasis on black so that item anti-aliasing works. Here's a mockup, with items updated according to everyone's critiques:



Some facts about this planned subscreen...

• The frames are very compact. Total, they would only use 10 8x8 NES minitiles.
• Max HP and MP are 32. With tweaking, there is enough room for 36 each. You know...for ambitious quest-makers!
• With a bit of tweaking, there would be enough room for 7 more rings, 4 more upgrades, 3 more items and another scroll.

Edited by DragonDePlatino, 12 May 2014 - 03:10 PM.

[Koh]

I can't really say anything about Link; the blurriness is hurting my eyes XD.  I understand why you did it, though.

 

As for the SS, it looks good.  The only thing that's saddening for me is the lack of the spot that would tell you the name of the items and such, like the Z3 Inventory.  Btw, if you really wanted more item space, some of these could be combined into a little pop-up sub-menu like the Oracle games did for the Seed Satchel, such as the three spells and the two bombs.

 

You know what would be cooler?  The ability to press something like Space to slide the screen between two inventory screens.  Active items and passive items.

Edited by Koh, 11 May 2014 - 06:08 AM.

[Geoffrey]

That looks fantastic, DragonDePlatino.  I especially like how you've handled the health and magic bars.