899 replies to this topic

[ShadowTiger]

Oh, since you're here'ish, I'll post the other half of what I'm finding.

Spoiler

MAJOR: Cancer Corridor Boss leads to a black screen.

I'm pretty sure I only damaged Iron halfway to the end of his health before he gave up the fight and triggered the screen's secrets or so in the fight in Cancer.
Scorpio Boss on 4:50 lives -long- after his health meter is gone.

Scorpio Corridor Boss (The skeleton snake - Totally awesome, by the way.) needs side warp cancels. It's easy to go south back into the first corridor stage of Scorpio.

19:31 - The Blaster upgrade room doesn't display at all. No items or string.
13:2C - Boss Health Meter doesn't show up. Also, what the hell is that thing?
Killing the wind boss of Aries in the upper right'ish corner somehow warped me to the save room in the very start of Aquarius. I have no idea how it did this, as all of the warps appear to be set properly.

!!! String 264 loops to itself! !!!

Magnet Man in Leo still takes plenty of hits long after his health meter empties and disappears from being empty.

11:77 - The upper-right most combos on the screen, the ones that look blank or black, are unwalkable. I got stuck in those.
11:58 -> 57 -- There's a transitional combo error you can walk into in the middle of the screen.
29:18 - The player can apparently jump to this area alright, (if awkwardly) but just needs to be able to jump one tile higher to get out of here if the gates aren't open. Also, since keys drop from enemies, having a key as a special item / reward is interesting.

The Super Missile item needs to have its "Left" subscreen assignment changed to the item to its left, rather than to itself. This stops the Stun Beam from reaching the Missiles prematurely.

Cancer screen 73, there are some weird combos popping up to the left of the water(?!)fall.

I pretty much start a new game file with each new version, and whatever I post will always be from the most recent one, if it makes a difference.

Also, just for fun, I configured the subscreen items inventory order to have vertical functionality, not just going left and right which will eventually go to the next row, and it makes it a ton easier to navigate. Going from bombs to the side-arm all the time is probably annoying enough without the use of L or R.

Also, just a thought - The very first screen we fall to after flying through Space into the asteroid, if you bomb that, you get to a screen where you need the Voltiac Key. Why do we need regular bombs and not super bombs for that? Is it for suspense, or a "preview" as it were? Or is it to hide something in plain sight? I don't know if you're worried about revealing something like that early on. Almost all of those odd computer-like devices that need the Voltiac Key to get to are impossible to get to for a hella-long time. Except that first one in Aquarius. I found that one by accident early on. O.o

[chocobothief12]

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?

 

I am playing through the game legitimately, having no idea how to access cheats, which I am never a fan of using in any game.

 

Each of the buggy areas I encountered, were mostly from exiting the dark rooms, or having no way of escaping some of the areas that I got to with wall jumping (one area in cancer comes to mind after you get through the multiple screens of being chased underwater by the red jelly-like blob that does 128 hp damage to me.) The game is very exploration heavy and i take full advantage of that with the equipment given at the time. I did stumble upon a few corridor levels that seemed completely unfair at the time, swarming the screen with enemies that I couldn't kill fast enough with my level 3 ship cannon. If leo is indeed far into the game, then I'd say the difficulty seems like it picked up significantly, especially in terms of the insanely damaging spike tiles and tricky platforming with those pesky fans. I currently have no idea how I am supposed to progress (this is my second trip to leo, with my objective pointing to coordinate 0F) and was given a message about boarding a ship (which led me to discover that one bug with the plant boss). My internet situation is horrible at the moment so giving regular updates may take time. Quick question though. I read through all the posts and saw you mention something about taking out the means of lighting the dark areas. Did you actually end up taking it out? Or is it still somewhere in the game world waiting to be found?

 

Just thought of another thing I wanted to say. I find one of the main reasons for getting stuck in certain areas, is having multiple continue points in random rooms, which if a player entered one out of sequence without their knowledge, they would need to revert to a previous save to fix the situation. In my opinion, I would much rather have myself starting over from the area entrances when you die. The levels may be huge, but after learning the hazards, the risk of dying becomes minimal at best, also giving you a quick escape for those who dislike backtracking, or merely got themselves lost and unable to return to the entrance.

Edited by chocobothief12, 17 July 2014 - 12:32 AM.

[MaximumCDawg]

Thanks for bugs, I should be able to correct them tonight.

 

Second trip to Leo, eh?  Man, you've eaten up the game so far!  Well done.  To get up to the ship, you have to open the hatch that's just above where you enter Leo from Aries.  The switch to open it is above the long shaft you can climb with the wall-cling, being zapped by the energy draining things. Some of the computers reference a bombable wall at the top of that shaft.  Pass through that, proceed along, and you'll hit the switch eventually. Then it's back down to the base of the shaft, East and down to the room will spikes all over the place, and work your way East from there (carefully) to the hatch leading to the new area.

 

Difficulty:  I designed the game in stages.  Aquarius is kind of the baby level, and the game does a lot of hand holding as you take your first tours through all of the Zones that are directly connected to Aquarius.  The Zones beyond that -- Leo, Libra, Taurus, and especially Virgo and Capricorn -- are meant to be substantially more difficult.  If you think Leo is bad, just wait till you hit Capricorn.  

 

That said, it is entirely possible to hit corridors that are far too difficult for you to handle when you can first get to them.  I certainly will take a look at balance issues as I go, so if you tell me specifically which one you hit and when, I will see what I can do.  There is some level at which I want the player to note which places are too intense for the moment and come back later, better armed.  Again, just wait till you try to deal with the Virgo and Capricorn corridors, when the gloves basically come off completely.

 

The Candle was removed because it was a stupid and annoying item.  There should not be any more dark rooms.  If there are, thats' a bug and I need to remove them.

 

I could replace all the Entrance warps in doors with mere direct warps... but that would cause problems if a player wanted to save progress to Continue while fighting a boss.  As it is, if you want to get back to the beginning of the Zone, just save and reset.  

 

Have you knocked off any more of the Zodiac bosses (other than Pisces) since last post?  If not, you're horribly overpowered for some of them at this point.

Edited by C-Dawg, 17 July 2014 - 02:30 PM.

[MaximumCDawg]

Okay, I fixed all of the bugs that I could identify from the last few posts.  A few elude me, either because I cannot recreate them, I don't understand your comments, or I do not know how to fix it:

 

1.  Wallet upgrade changing the text color.  I didn't even know that the Wallet did this, and I don't know how to change it.

2.  I can't figure out how the Scorpio boss is resetting for you.  You mean the Ghoma-like thing that runs off to sic it's Mama on you when you hit it a few times, right?  Everything seems to be set up correctly here.

3. I can't figure out what Chocobo means when he is talking about the warp from Leo to the Zodiac Boss of Virgo.  Can you give me more details?  Coordinates?

4. Gemini Screen 31 and the associated Dmap seem to be set up correctly.  I dont know why the upgrade room isnt working for ya.

[ShadowTiger]

I really do feel like some of these are unique to me, but I have nooo idea why the engine is modifying things as they are. Having enabled "No Screen Scrolling" and each Dmap spacebar-map wouldn't make a room string not play, they wouldn't make Stair{A} combos not warp you when walking through them for a while, but then work seconds later, and they shouldn't make stair{A} combos send you to the {C} arrival point, that's for damn sure. I've got all of that.

Honestly, I think it might be best to ignore those bugs from me. If anyone else experiences them, then there's a problem. If it's isolated to just me, that's likely .. fantastic? Eh. Bridges shall be crossed as they arise.

Anyway, The Wallet items need to be adjusted so that their "Infinite Supply" value is 0 for both the 500 and 999 varieties. It's likely what's causing the value to vanish in the passive subscreen when you get them.

Spoiler

Scorpio 1E's sand doesn't have the "poof" animation on slashing it.

Cancer 13 - The inside room has sideview gravity off.

I hit the switch on Cancer 7A, and the door on 62 didn't open for some reason. Can anyone confirm this? The door also doesn't have a door on the other side of the screen when you scroll into it.

The "Choose Sidearm upgrade" room on Gemini 0F doesn't offer anything. No text, etc.

Gemini 5E - Although you can bomb that one spot in the lower left, you can fall through the spikes far more easily to accidentally find the secret. It's how I found it.

The item room in Taurus: 21 doesn't release the item when you successfully pay the amount required to get the item.

The item room in Taurus: 44 doesn't release the item when you successfully pay the amount required to get the item.

Scrolling from Taurus 34 to 33 gets you stuck in a block.

Scrolling from Taurus 34 to 35 gets you stuck in a block too.

Can't get back up from Taurus 43. Probably isn't a bug.

The Taurus Corridor Boss from screen 15, when he does, reveals a bunch of ascending numbers.

The same boss also doesn't drop the screen's item.

After going to Taurus 72, (you don't have to go there to fix anything here.) it's evident that the missile upgrade item animates slower than the other two items when they're next to each other like that.

Taurus 73 - I appeared in the upper left corner of the screen after leaving the computer room despite the warp coordinates being properly set, and the exit being Stairs style A. Very strange. I wonder how that could have happened. I hope there's nothing wrong on my end. In a way, I hope there is.
On screen 25:27, there is a "NOT IN USE" item in the corner.

The string from 25:5D seems to pause the player at the end for some reason after the string disappears. Interesting. Actually, this happened on every string after I got the Red ring.

What's up with that switch on 23:49? It doesn't seem to link anywhere.
Can't get up from Taurus 5D if you accidentally found it without a way to get back up.

There is a bomb block on 7E that requires the Super Bomb but is colored like a standard bomb block. Same for the screen on 7F.

Taurus boss from 59 took a ton of damage after its health meter was emptied before it actually died.

On screen 49 of Taurus, there is an invisible unwalkable combo on the bottom edge of the screen.

Taurus 2B - Cannot get back up to 1B if you fall. -when- you fall. Ick. Is there even a point to that area that you can reach?


Strings:
332 - Propaganda
338 - convenient

I take it that the Freeze Ray is necessary to get the Wall-Cling Boots? the Libra zone is a nightmare to navigate, initially.

What's the point of 29:07, anyway? It's just a big empty room.

[chocobothief12]

Okay, I fixed all of the bugs that I could identify from the last few posts.  A few elude me, either because I cannot recreate them, I don't understand your comments, or I do not know how to fix it:

 

1.  Wallet upgrade changing the text color.  I didn't even know that the Wallet did this, and I don't know how to change it.

2.  I can't figure out how the Scorpio boss is resetting for you.  You mean the Ghoma-like thing that runs off to sic it's Mama on you when you hit it a few times, right?  Everything seems to be set up correctly here.

3. I can't figure out what Chocobo means when he is talking about the warp from Leo to the Zodiac Boss of Virgo.  Can you give me more details?  Coordinates?

4. Gemini Screen 31 and the associated Dmap seem to be set up correctly.  I dont know why the upgrade room isnt working for ya.

 

theres an upgrade room in leo, I forgot the coordinates, but I'll map them once i load up the game again. What happened was, I'd go into the room and then f6 out of it, causing the warp to the virgo boss. I did finally manage to figure thing out though, and got the ice beam, super missile, and wall cling boots. I managed to find the lens of truth after some ridiculously precise wall jumping, and it helped with the passages I missed. turn out virgo was the next destination for me regardless of the silly bug, and capricorn is to follow. I did find a room in scorpio on i think 4 or 5 screens to the right of the 1st entrance (the screen has a single doorway on the far right, and a sand waterfall for you to fall through, with the room directly below hidden with rocks) inide the room was an item shop, selling bombs, a life tank, and some kinda stick for 250. but what i found strange, was the room was probably meant as one of those "pay to release the item upgrade" as you can see the station on the left costing 90 rupees, with a missile expansion hovering in a glass case. Also on mmy exploration to virgo i found a ton of bugs. made a note with them in notepad but then my laptop shut down. one that I remember for sure, is the stop boot boss. not only does it not die after draining its life, but if you move to a specific spot on the left, the boss completely resets, as if you never initiated it. I somehow tricked the game and snagged the boots by getting close enough to the trigger and then just dashing before the game noticed. I really do love this game and yes I've found the aries sword, the aquarius bubble wand thing, and the spread shooter. I may take a mini break and restart the game though. I was barely scraping by bosses such as iron and I never keep my life tanks long enough. Im sorry I can't be insanelt specific with all the bugs I find (btw there are a ton of dark rooms all over the place, which is why I wondered if you forgot to take out the torch) I have no internet connection at the moment, save for 1 random unsecure connection that shows up when it feels like it, so communication will be extremely slow. I in every way though definitely want to see this game polished to perfection and will play through it 100 times if needed.

 

update:

this games difficulty just ramped up to "abandon all hope" mode.

In other news, I restarted another file and the game is definitely easier when you go for the blue ring and aries sword as soon a they;re available. Then I was reminded how heartbreaking the jumps on the path to the ice beam were. I also feel the giant ghoma type boss has way too much health, making the fight feel more choreish, as opposed to a fight for survival. Another boss comes to mind, only being vulnerable at a certain point and looking insanely scary at first, but then it was made trivial with the wall cling boots, making me wish the fight would just hurry and end instead of dragging on. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if there was an actual pattern to the boss, but the randomness is strong with this one, and i sometimes waited minutes before it actually exposed its weak spot. It was definitely a cool boss though.

 

I did open up notepad and jot down what I found in the new file. so far, I stumbled into dark rooms in the following areas Gemini 69, Pisces 32 and 65 and cancer 80. Another thing I noted, in cancer 00, theres a trigger for destroying all enemies to proceed, but once you go through, it locks up again with no way for you to get back. saving and quitting doesn't work, and I was wondering if the trigger was meant to be permanent, or if there was some other way to get back through there. I did manage to figure out how to fumble around with zquest, and had to wall clip through there after obtaining the ice beam. If there is another way to do it, please tell me, as I prefer my run through to be completely legit, and have found no other areas so far needing such a task. Also, The corridor in cancer 6E once completed, sticks you in the fair top left of the screen, instead of the usual exit screen. with that, its possible to move about freely through a few black screens, leading to the boss at the start of the game, a squid boss that  you remain stuck and unable to move in, and an actual safe screen that warps you to the scorpio corridor that give you the 999 wallet after completing. Theres also the corridor in pisces 33, that when I enter it, I pawn at the top of the screen unable to move at all. Hopefully some solution can be found for those.

Edited by chocobothief12, 20 July 2014 - 01:42 AM.

[MaximumCDawg]

Okay, I've fixed most of the things you guys have listed off for me.  Some of them I cannot recreate.  

 

If anyone has input on the Taurus Corridors carryover, I'd love to hear it.  Neither one seems to be carrying secrets over properly - in game that means you don't see the item drop.  But everything seems to be set up correctly in Zquest.  So... I'm kind of at a loss.  Any ideas?

 

I've gone through and substantially reduced the difficulty of the jumps leading to the ice beam.

 

How did you manage to the the Wall Cling without the Ice Beam?  

 

As for the boss guarding the Ice Beam, I take your comments.  I think that this will be something I do on the second-pass through the game though, after it's fully functional.  I will probably make a greater variety of attacks and make the eye open more often; that should make him more fun.  I appreciate and understand the criticism, and I'll get it fixed, but I'm going to focus on more functional things for now.

Edited by C-Dawg, 20 July 2014 - 01:16 PM.

[ShadowTiger]

... damn it, I had to make five pounds of sushi today, and I was just about to leave. Haha..

Before I start, here's more bugs. Sorry to pile it on like this.

Spoiler

Libra 31 - This inside room's arrival coordinates are in front of the computer, rather than near the entrance door. Also, on leaving the cave, if you don't hold a button, you immediately slide back into the room via the icy floor.

Libra 2B - When you get the powerup hidden in the lower right corner, the ice block beneath the powerup is actually walkable, and you fall through it to the screen below, where you definitely shouldn't be yet. Also, maybe the snow on top of it should disappear, considering there's nothing holding it up anymore.

Libra 2D - There are two bombable spots on the ceiling in the middle fo the top of the screen. They don't appear to lead anywhere. The screen above doesn't have matching holes for them.

When using the Ice Bream on an Aquamentus type insect thing, like on Libra 2D, the normal enemy appears in the upper left corner, and the enemy from its original position is reduced to a 1x2 block.

The Engine Core in the top of Taurus is another of those bosses that seem to take more hits than its health meter indicates it has.

Leo 33's Inside room has weird combos appearing in mid-air.

Combo 1020 is walkable at the moment, and likely shouldn't be. Leo 69 is impacted by this, as you can somehow climb through it to the next room above.

The door in Leo 27:67 animates improperly when the door trigger is opened.

Going from Leo 77 to 78 can get you stuck in a brick.

Leo 3C doesn't have sideview gravity on.

Aquarius 4F still has an unwalkable combo at the upper entrance to the screen, blocking upward jumping.

The Gemini Zodiac weapon boss (Which is very, very awesome in concept.) managed to get one of those blue worm things stuck in the upper left corner, which is preventing me from progressing. Even after killing it with the Taurus weapon, the screen's boss wouldn't be defeated. I had to use the cheat "Kill all enemies" to advance, which worked.

There is a block on the left side of the screen on Pisces 30 and 20 that can be fallen through while scrolling the screen downward to 30.

What's going on with Pisces 71? There's no way east.

The boss on Pisces 72 needs some boss music.

The boss on Pisces 0D also lasts well beyond their health meter's presence.

Capricorn 78 has the screen arrival position in the upper left corner.

Capricorn 64 - In the lower right, there are unwalkable combos in the water.

The coordinates of the FFC #2 (The Hacking Message one) needs to be set for 37:20 and all of them to the right of it.

29:75 needs a jump script.

29:51 also needs one.

Is combo 656 supposed to be solid? Because it was all over the place in southwestern Capricorn for some reason, blocking progress.

33:74 - There's a scrolling misalignment in the lower left corner.

33:20 and 33:10 - There is a misalignment in the left side between these two screens with a bubble.

33:4B needs to connect the waterfalls from the screen below to the ceiling of that screen.

Magnetman green version got stuck in the corners of the room in Capricorn's upper left corner. He's moving kinda fast, and tends to

Capricorn 00 - There is a combo missing from the wall in the lower right corner. Small potatoes, I know.

33:09 - What's the point of that bombable block up top?

The Taurus Corridor rooms need side borders to stop the player from leaving the screen.


Spelling:
356 - occurrence
156 - government
538 - cellular



I'll repeat this list as much as necessary.
List of "inside" rooms that lead to nowhere likely due to incompletion:
Taurus 0:0 (Also, the return point is apparently inside lava.)
Taurus 7:D
Taurus 27
Taurus 1F
Virgo 15
Leo 3C, 2A, 1B
Aries 0F
Gemini 5F
Pisces 32
Pisces 64
Pisces 65
Capricorn 45
Capricorn 6A
Capricorn 64
Capricorn 52
Libra 70

Well, the good news is that the Taurus Corridor isn't being affected by any other events. I just started a new game and went straight there. The item didn't drop, and the door didn't close behind you.

I wonder if it's a level number thing. I highly doubt it though - That would have farther-reaching effects than just one screen.

Though on 16:6B, the enemies->Secrets aren't enabled. Then again, they aren't enabled on most of the other corridor bosses either. The one remaining factor may be a script thing. It's triggering secrets?

I wonder what would happen if there was a "Trigger" enemy on each of the Corridor boss screens, and the reduction of the Bosses' HP kills all on-screen enemies, which causes the screen's secrets to trigger, and therefore the "Next" screen as well? (which is set correctly, aye.)

[chocobothief12]

I found another bug in aries. In coordinate 14 after blowing up the supermissle block coming in from 15, you immediately get stuck in an endless loop of back and forth warps between that room, and a corridor boss with each step you take. also, if you jump fast enough before you warp, you get sent to the gemini mini boss that guards the lens of truth.

[ShadowTiger]

^ I can confirm that bug.

[chocobothief12]

As for the boss guarding the Ice Beam, I take your comments.  I think that this will be something I do on the second-pass through the game though, after it's fully functional.  I will probably make a greater variety of attacks and make the eye open more often; that should make him more fun.  I appreciate and understand the criticism, and I'll get it fixed, but I'm going to focus on more functional things for now.

no worries

fully functional is what we are all shooting for, so that others can realize just how awesome this quest really is.

 

oh also forgot to mention, though it isnt anything major. On my second run through the game, I managed a few strange warps after some of the bosses that didnt happen the first time. What would happen, is as the boss was exploding and i do my little victory shimmy, I randomly get warped to some other room. Now when a boss explodes, I just stand still til its completely gone just in case.

 

update:

i just passed through the taurus 49 screen, and there is an invisible platform on te left when coming from underneath, but the right is fine. I also randomly swung my saber, and there was also an invisible switch trigger that appeared out of nowhere. I don't recall shadowtigers note mentioning that so I'll post just in case

Edited by chocobothief12, 20 July 2014 - 02:36 PM.

[MaximumCDawg]

========= UPDATE

http://www.solidfile...9/ZodiacUpdate_(7-20-14).qst

 

 

Thanks guys, keep it coming.

 

So here's an update with most of the bugfixes you provided, save the later ones.  You can now access Sagittarius if you defeat all of the Zodiac Project bosses by visiting Dr. Mo in Capricorn.  

 

I also have started implementing SHMUP enemies outside of the Corridors, but for some reason this is suppressing the player's jump function on screens where I use it.  Sometimes.  I havn't figured out this problem yet.

 

Also, WARNING - this update adds Global Variables, so it may not work on earlier saves!

[chocobothief12]

========= UPDATE

http://www.solidfile...9/ZodiacUpdate_(7-20-14).qst

 

 

Thanks guys, keep it coming.

 

So here's an update with most of the bugfixes you provided, save the later ones.  You can now access Sagittarius if you defeat all of the Zodiac Project bosses by visiting Dr. Mo in Capricorn.  

 

I also have started implementing SHMUP enemies outside of the Corridors, but for some reason this is suppressing the player's jump function on screens where I use it.  Sometimes.  I havn't figured out this problem yet.

 

Also, WARNING - this update adds Global Variables, so it may not work on earlier saves!

 

Link doesnt work for me. I just get a blank screen.

If i end up needing to start over, I wouldnt have a problem with that at all, but I definitely look forward to going through it again with said fixes

[Erased Memory]

The robot at the beginning of Scorpio, the one that brags about testosterone.. it was handing me my ass the first couple of attempts, and then the third attempt I just seemed to randomly warp to the cutscene at the end of the fight. Are you supposed to deplete its life entirely? I really wanted to prove to myself that I could beat him, but somehow the fight felt incomplete.

 

This was in the previous version. I'll give it another go with the update.

 

EDIT: Now in the new version the big ship boss guarding the entrance just disappears mid fight and leaves me flying perpetually upward.

Edited by BigJoe, 20 July 2014 - 03:16 PM.

[ShadowTiger]

There definitely does seem to be some sort of ongoing bug where any fight with Iron past the first one or two ends prematurely.