2 replies to this topic

[KingPridenia]

Okay, so level 3 is finished. I would say done, but the word "redone" would make more sense since I pretty much made the dungeon all over from just a basic map shape. So, thanks to Linkfan212, Eddy and kurt91's suggestions, I remade it such that is has three sections. In one section, you fight through enemies until you eventually make it to the dungeon item. In the second section, you use the dungeon item to continue onward towards the boss key. In the third section, you complete a maze and have pretty much a straight shot to the boss. However, you do have to attempt to explore the two later paths first for keys needed to progress through the first section. Maybe a bit too linear, but better than spamming boss enemies throughout, having a room with invisible Blue Bubbles that serve no purpose than to annoy you while you look for a push block to unlock the door and having a Touhou room with TWELVE statues shooting at you.

In summary, there are four brand new enemies introduced in level 3; three new types of Wizzrobes and a lesser Gibdo. This helps to give level 3 a much better enemy variety without making the player facepalm every time he/she sees a Manhandla, Aquamentus or Moldorm. In addition, I am no longer going to limit enemies to ones in "Darknut dungeons" or "Wizzrobe dungeons" like I did in the original. At least effective level 2 anyhow. I also completely overhauled the random spikes and put in a few rooms where you have to avoid stepping on spikes. Failure to do so properly will result in 1 heart of damage. Of course, there is always the issue that people could simply just tank spike damage, but there really isn't much I can do about that. Besides, I think people would rather attempt to avoid the spikes entirely than simply tank a couple hearts worth of damage.

As for the overworld up to this point, I added in a few new secrets and made a brand new hole sprite since the staircases in Koten just don't look right on the overworld. The ruins area is being worked on, as well as the pay for info guy that tells you how to get past the maze. The ruins are being redone entirely, since in the original, it was incredibly boring. Just a ton of free Rupee drops, boring design, a screen that gave you the Letter, a much harder one that gave the Small Wallet (required for the Blue Ring and mind you; you have to fight Blue Darknuts early) then an Armos maze or two for good measure. YEAAAAAH.

This time, the ruins will contain something different in place of the Small Wallet (unsure of what yet; you actually begin this quest with the Large Wallet, so you have a 999 Rupee cap) and as for the second item, it won't be there. Like before, there are two shops; an item shop and a potion shop. I thought about adding in one of the Blue Potion shops in as well since you won't have the Letter yet and leaving the other one closer to the entrance as the traditional potion shop. Regardless, I will play around with some of the tiles in the Koten tileset and see what looks good for such an area.

As for other changes to the quest in general, I changed this quest to being an "NES-style" quest instead of a "Dungeon Romper". I am also strongly considering making water drownable. See, I made the water solid since I remember in AQII I had non-drownable water that was fully walkable enemies were freely walking on. Being solid, you have to walk against it to use the flippers and it blocks usage of the Hookshot. However, this would open up a lot of new frustration as well, namely enemies booting you into the water. Then again, might as well.

Anyway, now that all that is out of the way, let's talk about the demo. I am considering releasing one soon. However, I would need to do another test run, fix any bugs or errors and finish up the overworld areas that are unfinished. I am a bit worried about the demo though, as it's either going to make me or break me. Should a demo be released, I will do my best to answer any questions ASAP and provide help as needed. If any bugs come up, please inform me with as much information as possible. Do note I am using version 2.50 for this quest. I don't know if 2.50.1 will have any issues or not, so I can't promise I can give support if it's a version specific bug (i.e something is messed up in 2.50.1 but fine in 2.50). If it's a bug that is just due to my incompetence, I will fix it ASAP. Again, bear in mind it is meant to be more Z1 styled, so don't expect a ton of super fancy scripts or freeform dungeons (yet; I'll try to make at least one or two like this). Expect more Z1 dungeon design and completion mentality. However, there are hardly any bombable walls and only a couple walkthrough walls that shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Like always, feedback as welcome and thank you for your time.

[Eddy]

As far as changes goes, that's some good stuff you got going there. It seems to make Level 3 a lot more different than what I remember so nice job on that.
 
As far as the demo...

 

I am a bit worried about the demo though, as it's either going to make me or break me.

You should honestly never be worried about demos. Think of it as a learning experience. If you get a lot of positive feedback, then that's great. If you get a lot of negative feedback, try to make it positive and work on the suggestions or criticisms they might have stated as most of them SHOULD make the quest even better. Obviously you don't need to listen to every piece of critique and you can choose what you want to be changed but just remember negative or postitive feedback can always help your quest.

 

As for everything else about the demo, I'll be playing it on 2.50 if it comes out just to be on the safe side of things. I'm looking forward to seeing how much you've improved over the original and I will hopefully give some feedback if the demo comes out.

 

I hope this helped.

[Erdrick]

Eddy pretty much summed up what I was going to say. I do have a couple points to make myself...

 

I consider demos the learning blocks of quest making. If you do make any mistakes in your demo, don't feel too bad. Ironing out any quests' issues, such as bugs and design oversights happen, and it takes time to flesh out completely.

 

I'm going to be using 2.50 to test as well. Good luck on this quest, Adam!

Edited by Reimu Hakurei, 08 April 2015 - 12:20 AM.