Power Cut Peril

[cheat-master30]

Oh boy, the coolest but potentially hardest mini fort level in the game, and a replacement for Super Mario World Easter Eggs. Now, before you start, I will say that there are two REALLY annoying things in each section of this level, one of which is the level theme.

Section 1- Downwards in a Hurry

Like in Ludwig Von Koopa's Castle in Super Mario World, there's a spike ceiling coming down and you have to get to the bottom of the mini shaft! Now, sounds quite easy right, ignoring the Kaizo esque obstacles? Wrong! Here's where the name sake comes in.

As you go down, slightly to the right or left is a shell going down a near identical type of shaft, with it stopping every now and then when you also need to hit a switch to unblock the main path. But it's bouncing off, in various sections the light switches that activate and deactivate the darkness, so in other words... the light near randomly goes on and off, causing the level to be plunged into darkness and out of it every few seconds or so. How's that for a REALLY annoying distraction while trying to get through Kaizo type traps against the clock? Or the spike ceiling, whatever you prefer to say.

Part 2- RUN!!! (and jump!)

Oh my... This is just hell. Basically, take the premises of those REALLY annoying levels in both Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong Country with rising lava or death from below (Toxic Tower and such like), AND combine it with Kaizo type hard jumps requiring save states AND have randomly flickering on and off lights via some method. Sound difficult enough?

Then consider that as usual, it has the annoying Mario castle enemies and lots of climbing.

I don't have a level design for the level, but I can get one made. No idea what to use for the boss/mini boss battle in this.

[Phantom link]

this sound as if it could really boggle the mind... coooool

[cheat-master30]

Yes, it will be cool, albeit annoying as hell.

[mariowings77]

Hahaha well if I ever regain my sanity from Creepy castle, then i'll test it out:P

[cheat-master30]

It's technically not designed yet, but good luck on the sanity, since you will need it!

[mariowings77]

Hahaha We will see then won't we? XD

[cheat-master30]

You're going to be terrified when you see the boss battle (Boss Fishin' Boo by the way, which exists on Super Mario World Central, with a very evil twist).

[mariowings77]

*twitch twitch*
Oh cheat!!
Off topic:
I got cam studio and as soon as I get the lag fixed, then I'm going to make a vid of my demo and put it up here. just thought I'd let you know:P

[cheat-master30]

If you want to know the twist... There's a spiked ceiling going down, and deadly lava rising from the bottom of the arena. At the same time. With no off switch. So you need to hurry or else.

[mariowings77]

ummm... not sure about doing that XD

[cheat-master30]

It's world 7, so it's meant to be insanely difficult.

[Zexis]

I'll be interested in your level designs for this, cheat.

[cheat-master30]

That's the thing so far, I'm trying to come up with a good design for things like the boss arena, but some of them were just... wow, insanely hard and almost required slowdown or the like (although it is world 7).

[kyledude92107]

Needs a visual.

[cheat-master30]

^Which is where, with me currently not feeling great and having some kind of creative block is causing a problem for this level and several sections of the Dreadnought level.

[cheat-master30]

Like this music idea for the level? It's kinda obvious why I chose the Toxic Tower/Castle Crush theme from Donkey Kong Country 2 as a possible music choice, the level concept was based off those levels:

Wjl4V_G8Fws

[cheat-master30]

Area 2 map now up:

http://www.dsultimate.net/photoplog/images/1/1_PowerCutPeril.PNG

Now, it looks easy, right? Well wrong! The green acid stuff (or lava, depending on whoever creates it) constantly rises upwards, and instantly kills Mario if he touches it. PLUS, see those red switches? The shells going between them turn the lights on and off every single half a second in various sections. This then means those gaps in the nets become very hard to see and... guess what happens to many players at those sections...

Oh, and that bit leading to the boss door? Mario has to use a P Balloon to navigate it. And yes, the deadly rising substance... still rises!

[cheat-master30]

Oh, and this is just the latter of two long tower sections in the level.

[Yoshi987]

So, you want to be that insane, huh?

[cheat-master30]

Yes, yes I do want to be that insane.

[Yoshi987]

I hate "rising death" levels...

[cheat-master30]

As do a lot of people. And that's partly the point.

[Zexis]

Not bad. Not insanely difficult, but that can be fixed. :) Not to say that it's easy. And I do loving "rising-death." We might need to put a warning about the possibility of inducing seizures, though :P

[cheat-master30]

Don't worry about the warning, I have another half of the level to put that in (I'm still thinking though, how the hell am I meant to get a falling ceiling spiked ceiling or rising spiked floor working for this?)

As for the difficulty being not insanely difficult... There is a reason, and that's why each section of the level has a scrolling death mechanic, which if you've seen past levels in various games, often means there are less insanely hard traps in between simply because you have to basically outrun the hazard through the level, and that alone causes enough panic induced suicidal leaps of faith as it is. That and the constant on and off darkness will make Kusottare World type precision jumping just plain mean to the player.

I'm still interested in how you'd make this section more dangerous though Zexis.

[Zexis]

It's hard to say what'd I do to increase difficulty without first building the level. But, like I said, this alreay looks to be plenty tough. There's just always room for improvement. But little things like, say, a homing Bullet Bill here and there, or a moving spike, would be the little tweaks that could send our players into a coma.

I like your suggested music choice ("Krook's March.") It's a nice piece. What do you think of this one? It's called the "Flight of the Zinger." The vid isn't quite as good as the original (which I have a copy of), but this is another of my favorite pieces by David Wise.

feoFZIRuic0

[cheat-master30]

I've now finished section 1 of this level:

http://www.dsultimate.net/photoplog/images/1/1_PowerCutPerilPart1.PNG

There are two sections, this one then the one I posted before with the rising poison type stuff. This one only has a falling ceiling near the top, but is WAY harder platform wise.

[cheat-master30]

So what's new about part 1?

Well first off, see those red eyed Thwomps? They aren't the actual graphics, but they represent Power Thwomps. I think those make an earthquake when they hit the ground that stuns Mario if he's standing on it, like a Sledge Bro. Note also the carefully placed Bullet Bills in one area to hit him just when the player can't react.

Same with why they're under the falling spiked ceiling, but for both random enemies and the ceiling to potentially hit Mario.

Some Thwomps fall UP. Which is interesting I guess. Like the upwards apples in I Wanna be the Guy I guess...

Oh, and the Thwomps in the shaft section with winged platforms? They shoot across SIDEWAYS. Yeah, Thwomps in this section go in all four directions.

Yellow shell? You have to bounce on that across spikes while dodging fishbones, falling spikes and giant metal smashing down spikes. It's kinda Kaizo like.

Did I mention the same annoying light on and off repeatedly trick is happening in this section as well?

[mariowings77]

I might be able to do this if I used the slowest possible slowdown available in zsnes XD

[cheat-master30]

Well I wonder how the typical player will do with just save states? And I'm curious, do you think when it's finished, people will actually try to do a TAS run of this game/hack?

[Yoshi987]

TAS? What's that?
Also, how hard would you consider this level?
Like, Kaizo hard?

[cheat-master30]

I'd probably consider it Kaizo hard, yes.

[Yoshi987]

And what is TAS?

[cheat-master30]

Tool Assisted Speedrun. Kinda hard to define really. But bump because I've added the first of two areas maps to this topic, now I just need the boss battle.

[Yoshi987]

Yeah, I'd risk my sanity to try it out.
Once someone makes it, of course.

[cheat-master30]

This may help, the Wikipedia article about Tool Assisted Speedruns:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool-assisted_speedrun

[kyledude92107]

Nice.

I'm taking until after Christmas off of working on the hack, though.

[cheat-master30]

Don't worry Kyle, no one's pressuring you to make anything until after Christmas. Just take as long as you need. But thanks Kyle, I thought personally this was a nice level myself, it just needs a nice boss battle to go with it.

[Yoshi987]

A better boss battle than the original ones, that's for sure. They aren't even close to challenging.

[cheat-master30]

And I've just finished designing that hard boss battle. Next post.

[cheat-master30]

http://www.dsultimate.net/photoplog/images/1/1_FishinBooBoss.PNG

And here's the boss! It's gonna be this Fishin' Boo boss from Super Mario World Central, with a massive ton of arena tweaks:

http://www.smwcentral.net/download.php?id=221&type=sprites

Okay, so where to start. First off, that green acid from the last section, based on Toxic Tower in Donkey Kong Country 2 is still there, and still rises. If you don't get to the top of the tower and defeat the boss with the Throw Blocks before hand, Mario basically gets instantly killed by the rising death water stuff.

Secondly, there are spikes on every wall of the tower.

Thirdly, there are semi random Bullet Bill generators in the dozens, sending Bullet Bills every single which way, getting in the way in the worst possible times and places.

The usual annoyance from the Fishin' Boo is back, in that it follows Mario constantly.

Those Koopas still cause the power cut effect which annoyed you in the whole rest of the level. Random switches between light and darkness! Yay!

That difficult enough?

[mariowings77]

ummm... what about sprite limitations?

[Yoshi987]

I don't think that will be a problem.
Hey, I just thought of a good way to start the section, before tower one.
You wanna hear more, or are you good, cheat?

[cheat-master30]

I don't think that will be a problem.
Hey, I just thought of a good way to start the section, before tower one.
You wanna hear more, or are you good, cheat?

Okay? Can you post the idea?

ummm... what about sprite limitations?

I don't think that will be much of a problem, as only a certain amount of objects will be on screen at any one time. It's not like the whole boss room will be one screen.

[Yoshi987]

So, my idea is to start at the bottom of one tower, but the only way to get up is one long, unending spin jump. During this time, you would have to bounce off, say, Thwomps, Thwimps, Hotheads, Chargin' Chucks, etc.
Would that be a good idea? If so, I'll start working on a diagram...

[Zexis]

So, my idea is to start at the bottom of one tower, but the only way to get up is one long, unending spin jump. During this time, you would have to bounce off, say, Thwomps, Thwimps, Hotheads, Chargin' Chucks, etc.
Would that be a good idea? If so, I'll start working on a diagram...
It's been done before (but what hasn't?), so it'd have to be something somewhat original. In other words, not just a simply vertical shaft...maybe even something like a maze. And seeing as you already had a topic on mazes, I don't think you'd have a problem with anything like that.

[cheat-master30]

So, my idea is to start at the bottom of one tower, but the only way to get up is one long, unending spin jump. During this time, you would have to bounce off, say, Thwomps, Thwimps, Hotheads, Chargin' Chucks, etc.
Would that be a good idea? If so, I'll start working on a diagram...

To be honest, it's a good idea, but not for this particular level. Because Power Cut Peril, with it's standard design needed for the whole pseudo power cut random light activation would need to be massively complicated to add such a section, and it would also just annoy a lot of people by making an already annoying and tough fortress level even longer.

However, it would work GREAT as an individual level concept another level could be based off of. In fact, design THAT. Design a level based on the concept, maybe with a maze type layout for another part of this game, because the idea itself is fine (and despite supposedly not being that mega original, it's not been done in Brutal Mario, VIP 1-4 (5?) or any of the hacks any LPer I've seen has played, so it's original enough as a feasible level design in the kind of clever semi Kaizo difficulty game this is. And considering how clever with the gimmicks some of those mentioned hacks were, then the fact this hasn't been done is kinda shocking.

And in all honesty, I've only seen a similar concept in a couple of ridiculous TAS only hard hacks. So go for it, make a GOOD level based on the concept of using enemies to get past obstacles, but make it so it's NOT for once just a sea of Munchers and spinies.

So, my idea is to start at the bottom of one tower, but the only way to get up is one long, unending spin jump. During this time, you would have to bounce off, say, Thwomps, Thwimps, Hotheads, Chargin' Chucks, etc.
Would that be a good idea? If so, I'll start working on a diagram...
It's been done before (but what hasn't?), so it'd have to be something somewhat original. In other words, not just a simply vertical shaft...maybe even something like a maze. And seeing as you already had a topic on mazes, I don't think you'd have a problem with anything like that.

Hey Zexis, by the way, like the new sections I've added to this level, like the boss battle?

[cheat-master30]

Oh, and for anyone who's interested, I was planning map wise for them to have to beat The Mansion, then The Dreadnought, then this level in that order with no other levels in between. Sound like a difficult enough progression?

[Yoshi987]

To be honest, it's a good idea, but not for this particular level. Because Power Cut Peril, with it's standard design needed for the whole pseudo power cut random light activation would need to be massively complicated to add such a section, and it would also just annoy a lot of people by making an already annoying and tough fortress level even longer.

However, it would work GREAT as an individual level concept another level could be based off of. In fact, design THAT. Design a level based on the concept, maybe with a maze type layout for another part of this game, because the idea itself is fine (and despite supposedly not being that mega original, it's not been done in Brutal Mario, VIP 1-4 (5?) or any of the hacks any LPer I've seen has played, so it's original enough as a feasible level design in the kind of clever semi Kaizo difficulty game this is. And considering how clever with the gimmicks some of those mentioned hacks were, then the fact this hasn't been done is kinda shocking.

And in all honesty, I've only seen a similar concept in a couple of ridiculous TAS only hard hacks. So go for it, make a GOOD level based on the concept of using enemies to get past obstacles, but make it so it's NOT for once just a sea of Munchers and spinies.

All right, I'll start working on it.

Oh, and for anyone who's interested, I was planning map wise for them to have to beat The Mansion, then The Dreadnought, then this level in that order with no other levels in between. Sound like a difficult enough progression?

What makes you think it isn't? However,we would probably want to save sometime inbetween, because one of those levels might take 3 hours.

[cheat-master30]

The last two of those levels I think activate save prompts when beaten. So you save after the Dreadnought and Power Cut Peril levels.

[kyledude92107]

I think I have a way to make that boss battle worlds harder... >=)

[Zexis]

We can add save prompts whenever necessary. Though I don't think we should have them too often, even if the levels are hard.

I'll go back and look at your designs in a second, cheat. ;)

[Zexis]

I think I have a way to make that boss battle worlds harder... >=)
Care to share?

[Zexis]

http://www.dsultimate.net/photoplog/images/1/1_FishinBooBoss.PNG

And here's the boss! It's gonna be this Fishin' Boo boss from Super Mario World Central, with a massive ton of arena tweaks:

http://www.smwcentral.net/download.php?id=221&type=sprites

Okay, so where to start. First off, that green acid from the last section, based on Toxic Tower in Donkey Kong Country 2 is still there, and still rises. If you don't get to the top of the tower and defeat the boss with the Throw Blocks before hand, Mario basically gets instantly killed by the rising death water stuff.

Secondly, there are spikes on every wall of the tower.

Thirdly, there are semi random Bullet Bill generators in the dozens, sending Bullet Bills every single which way, getting in the way in the worst possible times and places.

The usual annoyance from the Fishin' Boo is back, in that it follows Mario constantly.

Those Koopas still cause the power cut effect which annoyed you in the whole rest of the level. Random switches between light and darkness! Yay!

That difficult enough?
Looks good, but question; does that Fishin' Boo move vertically? Regular ones only move horizontally with a slight up and down motion, and would never reach the top.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good, with LOTS of obstacles. And I enjoy acid. The whole idea of a flashing level is enough to get me excited.

[cheat-master30]

We can add save prompts whenever necessary. Though I don't think we should have them too often, even if the levels are hard.

I'll go back and look at your designs in a second, cheat. ;)

I was just guessing based on the kinds of levels they are, because I'm assuming you'd make this a fortress level on the overworld and the Dreadnought, while not technically represented as such would be world 7's non Bowser castle, replacing Larry's, causing the dialogue to appear. But you can move those prompts? Cool, even better!

http://www.dsultimate.net/photoplog/images/1/1_FishinBooBoss.PNG

And here's the boss! It's gonna be this Fishin' Boo boss from Super Mario World Central, with a massive ton of arena tweaks:

http://www.smwcentral.net/download.php?id=221&type=sprites

Okay, so where to start. First off, that green acid from the last section, based on Toxic Tower in Donkey Kong Country 2 is still there, and still rises. If you don't get to the top of the tower and defeat the boss with the Throw Blocks before hand, Mario basically gets instantly killed by the rising death water stuff.

Secondly, there are spikes on every wall of the tower.

Thirdly, there are semi random Bullet Bill generators in the dozens, sending Bullet Bills every single which way, getting in the way in the worst possible times and places.

The usual annoyance from the Fishin' Boo is back, in that it follows Mario constantly.

Those Koopas still cause the power cut effect which annoyed you in the whole rest of the level. Random switches between light and darkness! Yay!

That difficult enough?
Looks good, but question; does that Fishin' Boo move vertically? Regular ones only move horizontally with a slight up and down motion, and would never reach the top.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good, with LOTS of obstacles. And I enjoy acid. The whole idea of a flashing level is enough to get me excited.

Oh crap. Okay then, change of plan. Fishin' Boo boss at the top, normal Fishin' Boo at the bottom. Normal one will then get insta killed by the acid/poison when it rises far enough, since I'm assuming we'd have some kind of edited lava type substance for it, which insta kills sprites. Good job you spotted that, the current layout would make it really easy because you could retreat and watch the boss get vapourised by whatever the hell the green stuff originally found in Toxic Tower and put in this level is supposed to be.

And yeah, I see the flashing lights and random Bullet Bills as a major pain, as with the acid quickly rising up at a brutal speed.

P.S. Kyle, how would you make it more difficult?

[Yoshi987]

Wait, so Fishin' Boos could be killed with throw blocks?

I think I have a way to make that boss battle worlds harder... >=)

What is it, oh evil one? :)

[cheat-master30]

It's actually a Fishin' Boo downloadable sprite from Super Mario World Central, not the default one.

[Zexis]

I've now finished section 1 of this level:

http://www.dsultimate.net/photoplog/images/1/1_PowerCutPerilPart1.PNG

There are two sections, this one then the one I posted before with the rising poison type stuff. This one only has a falling ceiling near the top, but is WAY harder platform wise.
Is that P-Switch in there just to be mean to the player?

Let's start with the bad and get to the good. The main problem I see is a high potential for sprite overloading. As is, some jumps are impossible, but I don't expect anyone's designs to be perfect. And, lastly, I have no clue on how to make a falling spike ceiling. But I'm sure it can be done.

Now for the good stuff! I don't know how much will needed to be added to this section, honestly. There are so many spikes, thwomps, and other crap flying around that this is plenty hard enough without the flashing lights.

Now, the way you have the lights set up right now is...hmm, oh dear. THIS is going to be a big problem in the level design. If you give me some time, I'll upload a video to show you why.

EDIT: Corrected that last sentence.

[cheat-master30]

I've now finished section 1 of this level:

http://www.dsultimate.net/photoplog/images/1/1_PowerCutPerilPart1.PNG

There are two sections, this one then the one I posted before with the rising poison type stuff. This one only has a falling ceiling near the top, but is WAY harder platform wise.
Is that P-Switch in there just to be mean to the player?



I was originally going to use it but changed my mind. But I'm keeping it in to be mean.



Let's start with the bad and get to the good. The main problem I see is a high potential for sprite overloading. As is, some jumps are impossible, but I don't expect anyone's designs to be perfect. And, lastly, I have no clue on how to make a falling spike ceiling. But I'm sure it can be done.



Can you point out the bolded? I need to fix these, because I can't really judge by a drawing. And the spike ceiling was found in Ludwig Von Koopa's Castle in the original game, see this video:

7ggfoInF-ps

Note the second room.



Now for the good stuff! I don't know how much will needed to be added to this section, honestly. There are so many spikes, thwomps, and other crap flying around that this is plenty hard enough without the flashing lights.



Good point. Like the other direction Thwomps? All can be found on Super Mario World Central.



Now, the way you have the lights set up right now is...hmm, oh dear. THIS is going to be a big problem in the level design. I'll you give me some time, I'll upload a video to show you why.

I'd like a video to be honest, because I've not tested the effect. I based it off a clever gimmick found in one room of Yoshi's Island DS with some on and off platforms (although the same level also had a room with much the same concept as this level, except you hit a switch, it lit the room for about 3 seconds and then the lights went out again). If necessary, maybe I should request some custom ASM or a sprite or something, because it might be useful about now.

[cheat-master30]

Crud. I just realised about three of the Koopas don't have a shell to kick at the switch.

[Zexis]

Crud. I just realised about three of the Koopas don't have a shell to kick at the switch.
Erm, well, it's a lot worse than that. You'll see once the video is uploaded.

[cheat-master30]

I know it probably is, I posted that because I realised I screwed my map anyway.

[Zexis]

Now, the should be fixable, but it may require ASM. We'll see. Or, perhaps there is a sprite that I've haven't seen that will fix this. But I doubt it. The video is almost finished uploading...

[cheat-master30]

Considering something similar is used in VIP 4 or so, or maybe 2, or whatever, it's obviously possible. Maybe it might be in STARSW.zip?

Here's the link to that:

http://exp.if.land.to/smw/view.cgi/1179998074/

[Zexis]

Well, I don't know about that (I haven't looked at the link yet) but I ran a test in Lunar Magic. Want to know the results?

It's short, only about 24 seconds or so, but you'll see the problem fairly quickly.

pUpg-VVvdpc

And I even decided to make a bit of my own acid, heh.

But, here are the problems:

1) No collision detection between shells and the switches

2) The switch only toggles the spotlight, and not the whole room.

EDIT: I'm going out to eat now. I'll be back later to answer any comments or questions you make.

[cheat-master30]

Oh crud. This is a problem. The spot light not so much, I don't mind only a spot light. We do however need collision detection, which is missing. Have you tried asking for some help at Super Mario World Central about this?

Oh, and awesome, you've figured out already how to make the acid type stuff in the second area. Just make it rise and you are a master of this!

[Yoshi987]

But are you really that desperate for the whole "light the room" effect?

[mariowings77]

Yes!! It will drive anyone who plays it to the very brink of insanity XD

[Yoshi987]

Well then...
How could we check for collisions?

[cheat-master30]

Well then...
How could we check for collisions?

I'd say some kind of custom block might work. We'd probably need the disassembly for both the normal question block and the light switch for it to work though.

Yes!! It will drive anyone who plays it to the very brink of insanity XD

That's exactly the point of this level. I've seen more annoying stuff though.

[mariowings77]

Ok, so cheat, today, i'm going to post up some speed runs of my levels and I've fixed the music problem... hehehe... also, today when i find some time, i'm going to make a speed run for creepy castle and the dsultimate hack demo. Would you mind if I made an official thread for speed runs of hacks? (I'll be willing to do a speed run of anyone's hack.)
and yes, I know it's a bit off topic, sorry:P

[cheat-master30]

I'd like it if you made another topic for speedruns. And Creepy Castle and the DSU Hack demo? I'd like to see a speedrun of that, it'd be nearly impossible! Seems cool though, especially as I might get to see more of your level designs.

[mariowings77]

Yeah, there's a preview of world two but something's wrong with the water level that I'm working on:/ I'm trying to get that fixed. Also, I'm done with the first level of the dsu hack and hopefully i'll have the creepy castle speed run done during winter break!!

[cheat-master30]

Yeah, there's a preview of world two but something's wrong with the water level that I'm working on:/ I'm trying to get that fixed. Also, I'm done with the first level of the dsu hack and hopefully i'll have the creepy castle speed run done during winter break!!

You should post some more information about the not working level here to see if someone knows how to fix the problem. Maybe Zexis or Kyle know the solution to this problem, or someone else...

Good luck with the DS Ultimate hack so far, Creepy Castle had to be toned down for people that beat Kaizo 1 and 2 to be able to beat it even WITH slow down! I guess Zexis really can make a level ten times more evil than even the base design...

[mariowings77]

Lol XD
Well at first, I had just a yellow dot tile for the level but when I got either the regular or secret exits, it wouldn't go anywhere. Then I switched it to the Red dot tile and when I went to test it on a new file, the tile was nowhere to be seen. Now I'm testing it with a big red dot XD

[cheat-master30]

That sounds like a weird glitch with the overworld. Not sure what would have caused it to be honest though.

[mariowings77]

Yeah, i don't get it either:/
So, it might just be that I need to rearrange the paths:/
It could possibly be because It might be over where a pipe used to be... who knows:o

[cheat-master30]

That should make no difference whatsoever though. But yeah, may want to start a new topic, as this one is getting rather cluttered.

[mariowings77]

Ok, waiting for my second vid to upload. then i'll start the topic