My contributions to beta 15

[_L_]

As you know, beta 15 has been released, and with it a surprising torrent of new stuff. What you may not know is that, not too recently, I was recruited as a developer for Zelda Classic. I've kept a low profile about it, but now I guess I have no choice but to embrace my new identity. (This, by the way, is my excuse for slow work on NeoFirst and scripting and such.)

Here's nearly everything I've single-handedly contributed to beta 15:

* New item: Roc's Feather. Link can jump over enemies, weapons, items, conveyor belts, damage combos, slow walk combos and warp combos. Currently cannot jump into water. Link can also swing the sword in midair, or use items. (Bombs, bait and candlefire fall to the ground if dropped in midair.)
* New equipment: Hover Boots. It extends the functionality of the Roc's Feather. When Link reaches the apex of his jump, he will hover for 40 frames before falling.
* New equipment: Small Shield. Considered to be initially present for all quests prior to this. Its default Link Tile Modification is 0 - you'll have to change this yourself.
* New equipment: Spin Attack Tiger Scroll.
* New equipment: Cross Beams Tiger Scroll. Requires Spin Attack.
* New equipment: Quake Hammer Tiger Scroll.
* New equipment: Super Quake Tiger Scroll. Keep holding down the button to activate. Siphons off a bit of magic.
* New quest rule: Enemies Move/Jump Through Z axis. This changes enemy behaviour such that when an enemy jumps, it is considered to be "in midair", and can neither hit nor be hit by Link until it returns to the ground or Link jumps upward toward it. Currently only affects Pols Voices, Peahats and Vires.
* New quest rule: Can Safely Trigger Armos/Grave From The South. Link can't be hit by Armos or Ghini (or teleporting Wizzrobes) as they appear.
* New quest rule: Boomerang/Hookshot Grabs All Items. The boomerang or hookshot can be used to collect any screen item, not just ones with timers.
* New quest rule: More Sounds. All of the below sounds except WAV_HOVER and WAV_JUMP are activated with this rule.
* New quest rule: 4 Heart Container Pieces Do Not Make 1 Heart Container. This was originally going to be "Heart Container Pieces Increase Life by 1/4" until I discovered that the current item editor can already do this.
* New quest rule: Can Use Items On Screen Edges.
* New quest rule: Like Likes Eat Small Shields.
* New enemy pattern: Enter from Sides (Random). Enemies enter from sides randomly rather than deterministically.
* New enemy pattern: Fall from Ceiling. Similar to Random, but the enemies fall from varying heights above the screen. Only certain enemies and bosses are capable of falling.
* New screen flag: Item Falls From Ceiling. When the screen's item appears, it falls from above the screen, much like the keys in the Game Boy Zeldas, or the crystals in LttP.
* New screen flag: Sideview Gravity. A room with this screen flag will have the following features:
- Most sprites will fall toward the bottom of the screen unless solid combos are in their way.
- No shadows, even if the "Shadows" Quest Rule is set.
- Roc's Feather moves Link through the Y axis instead of the Z axis.
- The "Enemies Move/Jump Through Z Axis" quest rule has no effect.
- The "Fall From Ceiling" enemy pattern and the "Item Falls From Ceiling" screen flag have a different effect.
- Some combos will have an effect if they are solid and Link stands on them. Left and right conveyors and slow walk combos are currently implemented like this.
* The combo type "FFC Attribute Change" has been removed. Instead, FFCs now have the flag "Is a Changer" which enables their attribute-change functionality.
* New sound effects: WAV_DINSFIRE, WAV_FARORESWIND, WAV_CHARGE, WAV_SPINATTACK, WAV_ICE, WAV_FALL, WAV_FIREBALL, WAV_GRASSCUT, WAV_HAMMERPOST, WAV_HOVER, WAV_JUMP, WAV_LENSOFF, WAV_LENSON, WAV_NAYRUSLOVE1, WAV_NAYRUSLOVE2, WAV_PUSHBLOCK, WAV_ROCK, WAV_ROCKETDOWN, WAV_ROCKETUP and WAV_SPLASH.
Currently WAV_LENSOFF, WAV_LENSON, WAV_CHARGE, WAV_SPINATTACK, WAV_ICE and WAV_FALL are unused in the game, and WAV_DINSFIRE and WAV_FARORESWIND do not have any default sounds.
* Also added "Default" and "Default All" buttons to ZQuest SFX editor.
* Also changed the label for a combo's combo-cycling from "Next" to "Cycle".


What I'm currently working on now:
* String expansion/markup (dialogue). The hard part is making it backwards-compatable.

What I might be working on in the future:
* Cliff jumping
* New item: Water Walking Boots. (L2 Flippers)
* A way to charge up the wand to shoot a concentrated blast.

[Dlbrooks33]

Sweet, I appreciate your work too :D. Nive job. BTW, could you make the shield be equippable instead of mandatory ???

[jman2050]

Excellent. Now everyone will know what features not to bother me for :D

[Freedom]

Excellent. Now everyone will know what features not to bother me for :D



Not only that but, we know who to blame all of the bugs on too. :sly:

[Nick]

* New screen flag: Sideview Gravity. A room with this screen flag will have the following features:
- Most sprites will fall toward the bottom of the screen unless solid combos are in their way.
- No shadows, even if the "Shadows" Quest Rule is set.
- Roc's Feather moves Link through the Y axis instead of the Z axis.
- The "Enemies Move/Jump Through Z Axis" quest rule has no effect.
- The "Fall From Ceiling" enemy pattern and the "Item Falls From Ceiling" screen flag have a different effect.
- Some combos will have an effect if they are solid and Link stands on them. Left and right conveyors and slow walk combos are currently implemented like this.


I think that this would be better as a quest rule with the screen flag acting as a toggle, much like the No Diving setup.

Overall, I like what I am seeing with these new features. :)

[Nimono]

I disagree with your "Water Walking Boots", _L_. Seriously, that makes no sense. What makes more sense would be making L2 Flippers be the Mermaid Suit, much like in OoA. Remember the fun you could have with it? It was harder to control than the normal Zora's Flippers, but you could go faster, safely swim in Deep Water, and even go into underwater areas and use certain items. I'm sure you couldn't do the ability to use certain items underwater, but I know you can make some L2 Flippers that react to a certain "Water 2/Deep Water" combo. ;) If you made drowning effects, you could make water better, but I won't bother you with that. Oh, and one other user on PureZC disagrees with your "Water Walking Boots" idea. :uhoh:

[The_Amaster]

L, you are....brilliant. Truly, this stuff is amazing. Keep it coming.

[C-Dawg]

* The combo type "FFC Attribute Change" has been removed. Instead, FFCs now have the flag "Is a Changer" which enables their attribute-change functionality.

You mother fu.... well, away I go to change every FFC in my quest file.

[Dlbrooks33]

^
Don't do that :/

[_L_]

I disagree with your "Water Walking Boots", _L_. Seriously, that makes no sense. What makes more sense would be making L2 Flippers be the Mermaid Suit, much like in OoA.

Not really. First of all, the Mermaid Suit's main effect (moving on the ocean floor) can already be done using a combination of Dive Warps (and/or scripts) and (optional) Link Tile Modifications.

Also, I dislike the Mermaid Suit's movement method, which, if I recall, requires you to mash the A button in order to move forward.

Doublealso, I disagree with Deep Water because then the L2 Flippers would just be another lock-and-key equipment item, much as the L2 Bracelet doesn't really make Link more versatile (like, say, that the stepladder does) but only serves to open various locks - Very Heavy Push combos - that the L1 Bracelet cannot.

Meanwhile, the Water Walking Boots make Link more versatile because they allow Link to use weapons and items while standing on water combos. Slashing Zoras and hitting switches, for example.

Of course, one negative feature is that you can't dive while wearing the boots, so you'll have to design your quests around that. (Or, we could implement "equippable" equipment, but that doesn't seem very likely at the moment.)

Actually, maybe I'll implement the thing as a "Free-moving Raft" instead. Then you can produce Water Walking Boots by simply replacing the raft sprite. It'll still override the Flippers, though.

[Nimono]

Well that's... weird. Couldn't you accomplish that by simply making the Water Combos fully walkable? Oh well. No sense in arguing. You won't listen anyways... -_-; Though, if you DO impliment those Water Walking Boots, I can predict that no one will use them because you can't dive. O_o People like dive warps. O_O

Now here's what I think would make more sense (to me, at least): Drowning. Lots of people want it. You know it's true. Of course, we all do for that matter. >_< Anyways...


I'll leave you alone now. -_-;

[Tygore]

Actually, maybe I'll implement the thing as a "Free-moving Raft" instead. Then you can produce Water Walking Boots by simply replacing the raft sprite. It'll still override the Flippers, though.

Now, wait a minute. The idea for a level 2 raft item sounds really good and seems to work better as a Raft upgrade rather than flippers. It would activate at the dock, but allow free movement over water combos instead of following the raft path. It all seems to fit together better that way.

[Dlbrooks33]

yeah, but don't need the waterwalking boots, cause that would get annoying and would definitely not be Zelda related anyways -.-

[ShadowTiger]

Now, wait a minute. The idea for a level 2 raft item sounds really good and seems to work better as a Raft upgrade rather than flippers. It would activate at the dock, but allow free movement over water combos instead of following the raft path. It all seems to fit together better that way.

When / if water conveyor combos are designed, you can make real waterfalls that you can't swim up, but can raft up. (Maybe you can poke the little oar into the water to move or something.)

[mikepjr2]

I think i would just like to be able to move faster in the water, maybe a L2 flipers could be used to move you faster.
I hate how slow he moves in the water as it is.. ya know.

[Jigglysaint]

I like the idea of eqippable boots. Basically there could be a new area in the subscreen where you have several pairs of boots you can equip. Think OOT. Regular boots for walking, Pegasus boots for dashing, water walking boots for walking over water(It could be useful in side scrolling areas as it would cause water in side areas to act like solid blocks), and hover boots which should actually be a roc's feather upgrade rather a stand alone item.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

yeah, but don't need the waterwalking boots, cause that would get annoying and would definitely not be Zelda related anyways -.-

Uh, didn't you ever play Zelda 2 for NES? That game had water walking boots in the fourth dungeon.


L, for the "4 HCP do not equal one FHC" rule, there is no doubt an option to set how many do equal a full HC, right? Is there also a method of selecting sprites to show your current pie percentage, so to speak? Naturally, this will be more difficult if you choose to have 10 HCP's per unit, but unless you choose to make them HC halves, there's going to need to be custom sprites.

[_L_]

L, for the "4 HCP do not equal one FHC" rule, there is no doubt an option to set how many do equal a full HC, right?Wrong! The point of that particular rule is that once you set it, you then go to the Item Properties Editor and change it so that picking up one HCP instantly increases your health by a quarter-heart.

[ShadowTiger]

Wrong! The point of that particular rule is that once you set it, you then go to the Item Properties Editor and change it so that picking up one HCP instantly increases your health by a quarter-heart.Yeah? .. and which tutorial did you write that in? :blah: ... ... (The following is about 8% off topic: --> ) I was looking in the actual Item Properties area (Where you define sword strengths and medicine qualities and hookshot lengths, etc.) and found nothing extra. You mean the Quest--> Graphics--> Sprites--> HCP item, right? Is that the fullmax or .. .. .. er .. there was nothing out of the ordinary in any field other than Class and Counter (-1) when I looked there.

So I'd assume that you need that .exe file jman provided to patch ZQuest?

[_L_]

Yeah? .. and which tutorial did you write that in? ... ... (The following is about 8% off topic: --> ) I was looking in the actual Item Properties area (Where you define sword strengths and medicine qualities and hookshot lengths, etc.) and found nothing extra. You mean the Quest--> Graphics--> Sprites--> HCP item, right? Is that the fullmax or .. .. .. er .. there was nothing out of the ordinary in any field other than Class and Counter (-1) when I looked there.
WHAT TO DO:
* Go to "Quest"->"Graphics"->"Sprites", "Heart Container Piece" and click the "Action" tab.
* Set "Increase Amount" to 4, "Counter Reference" to 0, and "+Max" to 4.
* THE NED. (http://www.greyfire.org/~l/natureofemotion.png)

P.S: I forgot to do this in the NeoFirst quest file. Or rather, I forgot to set the Counter Reference.

[skateboarder11]

I think that this would be better as a quest rule with the screen flag acting as a toggle, much like the No Diving setup.

Overall, I like what I am seeing with these new features. :)

If this were to be done, however, there would have to be a "Toggle Sideview Gravity" screen flag as well. For areas like in LA, for example.

[C-Dawg]

Can we vary Link's jump height in sideview areas, yet?

[ShadowTiger]

Better yet, on a room by room basis. :naughty:

... I'm being completely serious. Anti-gravity rooms and whatnot.

[beefster09]

Better yet, on a room by room basis. :naughty:

... I'm being completely serious. Anti-gravity rooms and whatnot.

BRILLIANT!!