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Zodiac, Story of the Guardian


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#1 C-Dawg

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Posted 28 May 2014 - 10:28 AM

==============DOWNLOAD=================

There is now a Quest Project page on Pure ZC where you can download the latest demos.  It's the last one in the Project list alphabetically.  Easy to find!

 

=============INTRODUCTION=================

 

"Zodiac, Story of the Guardian" is a tribute to the best games I remember playing on the NES as a small child.  Megaman, Blaster Master, the Guardian Legend, Metroid... games that reward tough memorization of enemy patterns, deep exploration, and scary bosses.  This uses the Zelda Classic engine, but don't be fooled - it has more in common with Symphony of the Night than it does any game in the Zelda series.

 

The game mixes side-scrolling exploration with overhead-view shoot-em-up levels, like The Guardian Legend.  Also like TGL, the introduction level will dump you into the action, and you may find it overwhelming at first.  I assure you, once you learn the patterns and develop a plan of attack, it is completely beatable.  It will not, however, be easy.  

 

When you open the quest, you're en route to an Asteroid that is bearing down on Earth, having been engineered to do so by Earth's enemies in an interstellar conflict.  You are one of many Guardians, transforming robots that have been deployed to attack the incoming Asteroid.  Most of your companions will not make it past the defenses.  You might not, either.

 

But, assuming you do, you will infiltrate the Asteroid, learn more about the enemy's operations and the origins of the strange creatures that live there.  

 

=========== CONFIGURATION ==============

 

The game expects your buttons to be laid out this way:

 

A  B

L  R

 

A and B are used for your items, as normal.  

 

L is used in flying levels to deploy a massive laser blast which clears out enemies but also consumes your energy at a very fast rate.  The key to doing well in the flying level is knowing when to hit the blast so you can refill your energy with drops from the result.

 

L is used in side-scrolling levels to jump. 

 

R is used in side-scrolling levels to activate the dash when you have it.  Holding R will allow the Guardian to move at double her normal speed, but it consumes Energy to do so.

 

=========== ITEMS ==============

 

While I take advantage of the Zelda Classic engine to handle lots of basic things, very little in this quest is normal.  Just about everything has been revamped and retooled for a new purpose.  As you explore the Zodiac, you will find the following items:

 

Sidearm - Your trusty plasma pistol.  Starts out pretty slow and weak, but you can collect upgrades as you go.  Power and Speed upgrades do what you think they do, but they also increase the energy requirement of each shot.  Energy upgrades decrease the cost.  You want a balance that allows you to spam the shots, which is very useful in clearing out small enemies, while also making your sidearm strong enough to tangle with bosses.  In addition, collecting large number of Speed upgrades will increase the number of bullets that fire with each shot.  

 

Missile Launcher - Roughly ten times as powerful as your starting sidearm shot.  Missiles have limited ammunition but deal much more damage. 

 

Life Tank - Refills the Guardian's health.  You can carry up to 9 at a time, and picking up new Tanks stacks with what you have.  Beware; if you get more than the cap of 9 tanks, any additional tanks will be wasted.

 

Shield Module - Halves the damage taken by the Guardian.  Be wary; there are some weapons your enemies will use that will cut right through your armor and deal continuous damage if you remain in their area of effect.  Such attacks are not affected by shield upgrades!

 

Pulse Hammer - Your first "main" armament.  Spits out a high energy pulse a few blocks in front of the Guardian to deal reasonable damage and shatter cracked blocks.  

 

Explosives - An infinite number of explosives that you can drop and forget.  As with the games that inspired it, Zodiac makes heavy use of bombable walls.  There always hints to point you towards critical bomb points, but many upgrades are hidden behind walls with no hints at all. Make a map!

 

High Jump - This does what you think it does - the Guardian's jump doubles in height.

 

Disintegration Beam - Produces a short range energy beam that vaporizes rock and sand, and emits a twin stream of high-energy particles to damage creatures at a distance.  Replaces the Pulse Hammer.

 

Explosive Missiles - Upgrades the Missile Launcher.  Now it does more damage and explodes on target, damaging creatures in an area of effect and triggering anything explosives could trigger.

 

Dash Jets - Hold L to move twice as fast, allowing you to make much longer jumps and evade enemies.  If you were not bothering to get Energy upgrades for your Sidearm, you will probably find you don't have enough energy to use both the Sidearm and Dash during the same encounter!

 

Zodiac Weapon - Aquarius Bubble - Fires a bubble which spins in a circular pattern in front of you.  Where the bubble is emitted, you can still break rocks and dissolve sand.  Replaces the Disintegration Beam.  If you replace the Bubble with another Zodiac weapon later, you can always return to the pickup room to swap.

 

Zodiac Weapon - Scorpio Sting - Fires an energy blast that moves in a wave pattern.  Still breaks rocks and sand, replaces any other Zodiac weapon you have.  Replaces the Disintegration Beam.  If you replace the Bubble with another Zodiac weapon later, you can always return to the pickup room to swap.

 

Stun Beam - Fires a halo of stunning bolts all around the Guardian.  Consumes energy.  Stuns most enemies temporarily.  Also can be used to wake up some enemies who need a jolt of energy to hatch,

 

Grapple Beam - Shoots a grapple line out in one of eight directions, and if it connects with a grapple hook, will pull the player towards it.  

 

Zodaic Weapon - Aries Saber - Slashes three tiles in front of the Guardian.  Deals decent damage if you glance something, but where it really shines is if you get close enough to hit the enemy with one of the closer tiles of the saber.  The enemy will get hit by the other parts of the blade as it is pushed back, resulting in massive short range damage.

 

Life Re-charger - Slowly recover health over time.  Comes in 2 levels of power.

 

Ship Upgrades (Gun, Bomb, Speed) - Upgrades a part of your ship in the flying levels.  Gun upgrades the ship's main weapon.  Bomb makes the Energy Eraser, the "L" button blast, more powerful, but also makes it consume more Energy.  Speed makes the ship move faster.  There are five levels of Gun, four levels of Bomb, and three levels of Speed.

 

Double Jump Boots - Allows the Guardian to jump a second time in mid-air.  The second jump is substantially less high than a jump off of the ground, but allows you to maneuver into spaces you could not otherwise.

 

Advanced Comsat - Allows you to access communication systems and the contents of computer drives even with the CPU disabled.  Also, once you have this, you will be told exactly where (By coordinates) a switch made something change in the Zone you are in.  It will display when you are on the screen with the switch.  

 

Black Hole Armor - The Guardian takes only 1/4 normal damage.  

 

Ice Beam - Replaces stun beam.  Fires the same spray of stunning energy, but also fires a projectile that encases enemies in a block of ice that you can climb on to reach higher places.

 

Wall Cling Boots - Cling to walls by pressing against them while you are NOT holding the jump button.

 

Zodiac Weapon - Gemini Twin - Fires three powerful lasers; two in front and one out the rear.

 

X-Ray Scope - Reveals secrets in a radius around the Guardian.  Consumes energy.

 

Zodiac Weapon - Cancer Charge - Hold the button to charge up the power of the projectile, release to fire. Potentially the most powerful single-shot weapon you can have, but slow.

 

Super Missiles - Massive, powerful explosion that can clear out blocks too tough for regular explosives and deal huge damage.  However, each shot consumes 5 of your missiles, so it does not replace your Explosive Missiles.

 

Zodiac Weapon - Virgo Whip - Play Simon Belmont!  The whip strikes 3 spaces in front of the Guardian for moderate damage.  If it connects to an enemy, it will strike repeatedly, draining the enemy's health.  Whenever the Whip deals damage, the Guardian gains life.  Keen!

 

Energy Recharger - Increases your natural energy recovery rate.  Available in two levels of increasing power.

 

Zodiac Weapon - Taurus Torch - Fires a spinning fireball upwards at an angle.  Very powerful.

 

Zodiac Weapon - Libra Crystal - Fires two diamonds that ricochet off of walls.  Moderately powerful alone, but it is possible to slam all three crystals into an enemy in a single shot that will deal large damage.

 

Anti-Gravity Device - Consume energy to propel yourself straight up.  You cannot move horizontally while ascending.

 

Overcharge Adaptor - Consumable, and you can only carry one at a time.  When you use it, your health and energy regeneration go absolutely bonkers for a short period of time.  This makes you into an unstoppable killing machine in the corridor levels, where you can spam your giant laser.

 

Stomp Boots - Destroy enemies by hoppin' on em.  

 

Zodiac Weapon - Leo Laser - A.K.A. the Murderbeam.  Activating the laser shoots a persistent beam that causes damage over time to any enemy caught in the beam's path.  Absolutely devastating to enemies that can't get out of the way, including bosses who have a consistently vulnerable weak point.  Some bosses are particularly vulnerable to the Laser, and some are not very vulnerable at all.  

 

Zodiac Weapon - Capricorn Wave - Fires a single large projectile in a straight line, can be fired at a shallow diagonal.  Deals the most damage of any Zodiac Weapon in a single hit, but lacks the repeated-hit ability of some other weapons.

 

Voltaic Key - Does two things.  First, it can power machines and cause certain alien technology to phase out of existence.  This opens up the Warp Zone so you can quickly get around the Zodiac to find  the final corridors.  Second, it will create a field that neutralizes incoming fire.  Potentially very handy for the Corridors that get spammed with bullet hell. . 

 

Interdimensional Shifter (Dash Jets 2) - What is better than Dash Jets?  Dash Jets that let the Guardian punch right through any solid wall that is exactly one tile wide, that's what.  Phase your way to new secrets and the final corridors.  Technically, this is the last item you should actually need to finish the game. 

 

Supernova Armor - The Guardian takes 1/8 damage.

 

Spin Attack - When double (or infinity!) jumping the Guardian creates a damaging field around her that will continuously damage enemies in close range. 

 

Grapple Beam 2 - A Grapple beam that works on any solid surface, not just on grapple points.  Play Tarzan today!

 

Zodiac Changer - Isn't it irritating that you can only have one Zodiac weapon at a time, and have to backtrack to replace it if you need something else?  Wouldn't it be handy if you had a way to swap between Zodiac weapons on the fly?  Yes, that would be nice.

 

Infinity Jump Boots - Jump, jump, and jump again.  Combine with the Spin Attack to create ye ol unstoppable ball of death.

 

==========  QUEST FILE AND SCRIPT ===============

 

This quest is un-passworded for the moment, but once I start working on the end-game stuff, it will probably get put under lock and key.  The ending should be preserved for those insane enough to try to finish this entire game, after all. 

 

========== FINAL WARNING ===============

 

Hack computers often and repeatedly.  You may gain critical information cluing you into where you need to go next or what you need to do, although the game will stop holding your hand and trust you to search every nook and cranny for the way to proceed fairly quickly.  While some messages, e-mails, or notes you discover are just lore, many of them have clues to the Zodiac hidden inside of them.  Pay attention.  This is the kind of game that might require a note or two.


Edited by C-Dawg, 01 March 2015 - 04:11 PM.


#2 Moosh

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Posted 31 May 2014 - 01:45 AM

zelda084_zps6009bef3.png

Well this is awkward...

 

I've played up through the second flying level. That was intense! If there's one piece of criticism I'd give, it's that so far I've had some trouble telling what's intended and what isn't. I suppose in part that's because it's an unfinished build and I came in with the mentality that there'd be bugs everywhere. The wall climbing ability struck me as especially strange. Maybe you could add an animation or something to indicate that the player is supposed to do that?



#3 C-Dawg

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Posted 31 May 2014 - 02:30 AM

Hah, how did you wind up as the ship there?  I'll add it to my bug fixes.  Can you tell me what you did immediately prior to end up that way?

 

And the Guardian's wall climbing gets better once she actually has the Wall Cling ability.  What you see in the game now, where she can scoot up into the underside of walls, was more of an organic effect of my jumping code than anything else.  I kind of liked it, so I left it in.  I think what would make sense, though, is to fix my design so that the player never HAS to use that ability.  I've been trying to change design with that in mind.

 

What kind of stuff are you wondering about intention?  Let me know and I'll try to either clarify things in the game or fix it if it's a bug.  If you stay on the rails (its easy to go off of them if you don't pay attention to the characters) then you might find areas that are not finished yet.  On the rails, though, you should be more-or-less bug free.



#4 Moosh

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Posted 31 May 2014 - 03:55 AM

The bug there was triggered by saving during the second flying level near the beginning. I don't know how I expected you to magically know that from just the screenshot. :P

The stuff that I was wondering if it was intended mostly involved bizarre ZC engine interactions: Stuff like clipping partially into push blocks when pushing them or using the wall climbing ability to hop across screen borders where it looked like I was intended to fall, or any place where I'd jump off the top of a screen and get my head stuck in a solid combo before falling back down. I also recall strange behaviors with the sandfalls. Sometimes I could jump up them and sometimes I couldn't. On one screen I wasn't able to walk into one without tanking a couple hits on a cactus. Then in the area I'm in now, I used screen transitions and the wall climbing to pass some screens where the blocks were cycling against me and used some sneaky bomb placement to blow up a wall above me when the bomb kept falling through. Fortunately, if any of these things are sequence breaks, none of them appear to be crippling.

One thing I do think is probably a bug is that you can jump off the bottom edge of the screen, kind of like the Space Jump in the Metroid games. It requires frame perfect timing it seems, so I haven't been able to chain these jumps together. If you're using the default CanWalk() function in std.zh, that's probably what's doing it.

#5 C-Dawg

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Posted 31 May 2014 - 02:03 PM

Yeah, I know what stuff you're talking about now.

 

1) Clipping into push blocks.  I don't have a good solution to this beyond scripting my own blocks, and push blocks are not really very relevant for the game anyway, so what I'll probably do is just remove them entirely.

 

2) Hopping on the bottom of the screen.  Yep, I know about this one.  I will add a fix that checks whether the player is at the absolute bottom when checking for canMove(x.y).

 

3) Bomb placement inside solid combos.  I'm fine with this.  There's no other way to bomb above you in side scrolling areas, after all.

 

4) Wall clinging (mentioned above).  This was originally a mistake, but so far I've left it in as a "feature."  I design with it in mind, though, so you shouldn't be able to break sequence using it.

 

5) Quicksand.  I made these things by using cycling combos that toggle which side of the combo is walkable and down-conveyors to pull the player down.  I've never actually seen someone be able to climb against the flow if you're in the sand, but you can if you're at the end of the column.  What screen were you on when you were able to jump up the sand?

 

Is the coordinate system working well enough?  Are you able to find your way around without a graphic map?


Edited by C-Dawg, 31 May 2014 - 02:05 PM.


#6 Moosh

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Posted 31 May 2014 - 08:02 PM

5) Quicksand.  I made these things by using cycling combos that toggle which side of the combo is walkable and down-conveyors to pull the player down.  I've never actually seen someone be able to climb against the flow if you're in the sand, but you can if you're at the end of the column.  What screen were you on when you were able to jump up the sand?

Looking in the quest file it appears you have the tops of the sandfalls set up differently than the rest of them. I wasn't able to tell when I was playing, but that would probably explain how I was able to jump my way out before getting sucked in completely. The screen was 4:06 I believe.

 

Is the coordinate system working well enough?  Are you able to find your way around without a graphic map?

The coordinate system works fine for me. It encourages exploration and wandering about while at the same time keeping me from getting lost to the point of frustration.



#7 C-Dawg

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Posted 01 June 2014 - 10:30 PM

I uploaded a new version.  Changes to the script mean you probably should start a new save.  You don't really NEED to, but if you do not then the script fix to your primary weapons going offline when you continue won't go into effect.

 

You can now progress all the way to the Grapple Beam.  Some of the corridors along the way are sort of jacked up still, working on the enemy transitions.  I did a lot of fixing with the early game stuff, including small redesigns on things Moosh mention, and other annoyances I noticed.

 

New quest file here:

 

http://www.solidfile...cf/ZodiacUpdate(6-1-14).qst

 

Edit: Moosh, if you're still playing through, I have a few questions:

 

1. Cancer is the first place that you get "off the rails" in a big way.  There's no direct explanation about where to go; you need to explore and figure out where you need to be.  Is this area too obtuse or frustrating?

 

2. Assuming you get as far as Gemini, is the battle with Iron there too difficult?  Even with the Explosive Missiles, he has a lot of health, and I'm wondering if he has crossed a line at that point.


Edited by C-Dawg, 02 June 2014 - 11:21 AM.


#8 Moosh

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Posted 02 June 2014 - 02:56 PM

zelda085_zpsd2bfd55d.png

Explode, dammit!

 

So yeah, this guy didn't explode when I killed him the first time. It worked fine on the second attempt.

 

I took a short break from the Mega Man zone (Aries I think it was?) to play another quest but now I'm back to it. I'll give my thoughts on Cancer and Gemini when I get to those. So far I feel like the early game ground bosses were a bit too tanky and this one I just fought feels like the first one that had a fair amount of health. Mr. Robot Testosterone felt especially bad although that might also be because he was the first boss I actually had to actively dodge.



#9 C-Dawg

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Posted 02 June 2014 - 03:10 PM

I'll check into the script for that boss.  Because my scripts evolved over time, I'm working with several different methods of finishing each fight.  They're slowly being standardized.  I wonder how it's possible to hang like that, though?  Have to check into it.

 

"Mega Man" zone, huh?  I thought it was more LOTW than anything else.  If you think Aries is like Mega Man, wait till you get to the Gemini Zone.  There's a connection there, somewhere, somehow.  You won't see a nod to one of the Robot Masters until Leo, though.  And, when you finally get into Libra, there are some nods to other characters from an entirely different franchise...

 

Robot Testosterone = His name is Iron, but I don't think you learn that for quite some time, yet.  And he feels bad?  Sheesh, I couldn't have put him any closer to a continue point, could I? 

 

I'm holding off on doing balance-based edits in a big way right now (enemy health and so forth) because the location of items and upgrades is still in flux.  If the early bosses are not tanky enough, then getting a few upgrades makes them laughable.  By the time you reach this boss, you can have upgraded your side arm to deal close to missile damage.

 

You're still fighting easy bosses, incidentally.  Each of the early bosses has a pattern you can find to avoid them entirely. Even Iron has a super-cheap pattern you can use to beat him with no sweat at all.  After the boss you just beat, Iron returns for a rematch where the window to spam him is much smaller.  And after that, you shouldn't be able to spam bosses at all anymore.  


Edited by C-Dawg, 02 June 2014 - 03:13 PM.


#10 Moosh

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Posted 02 June 2014 - 05:59 PM

You're still fighting easy bosses, incidentally.  Each of the early bosses has a pattern you can find to avoid them entirely. Even Iron has a super-cheap pattern you can use to beat him with no sweat at all.  After the boss you just beat, Iron returns for a rematch where the window to spam him is much smaller.  And after that, you shouldn't be able to spam bosses at all anymore.  

Actually that's exactly how I beat him in the end. His attacks still really hurt when he did manage to land a hit, though. I think it dealt like a third of my max HP with every hit or something.

 

Anyways, I killed the lazy chase plant and got the dash jets, but I believe I was told I'd need the disintegration beam in order to get those. Was that left over from an older version of the quest or did I sequence break something?



#11 C-Dawg

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Posted 02 June 2014 - 06:37 PM

Ooohh yeah that's not right. How did you get the door to the plant open?

#12 Moosh

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Posted 02 June 2014 - 08:23 PM

Ooohh yeah that's not right. How did you get the door to the plant open?

I shot the switch through a wall I believe. I thought I was able to get to it by taking a different path, but it appears it was actually supposed to be completely blocked off. Whoops.



#13 C-Dawg

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Posted 02 June 2014 - 11:36 PM

I went back in the quest file and I don't know how you managed to do that.  The switch in question is not in a room you can reach at all, even to shoot it through a wall.  You have to bomb through a wall based on a hint you get, and both the hint and the wall are behind sand.



#14 Moosh

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Posted 02 June 2014 - 11:55 PM

It was screen 4:5D which opened the hatch on 4:29. I fell from screen 4:3B and took the side path on screen 4:4B to get there. I had assumed the other branch at 4:4B lead to the switch, but it looks like I was wrong. I imagine some block all combos above the switch will solve the problem.



#15 C-Dawg

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Posted 04 June 2014 - 12:23 PM

I can't see how you got there.  Maybe you are using an old version?




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