ZCG: Zelda Styled Gameplay?

[HeroOfFire]

A look into my latest crazy idea made real...

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG001.pnghttp://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG002.pnghttp://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG003.png

ZCG is short for Zelda Classic Gauntlet. The game takes place in what appears to be a massive dungeon composed of many smaller dungeons, including the familiar shapes from the 1st and 2nd quests. But this is no ordinary quest.

The story breaks the fourth wall as Ganon, tired of constant defeat in all these ZC quests, pulls you, the player, into a hectic mess of dungeons. Why Ganon wants revenge on you is not said, but that doesn't matter anymore. You must traverse the mess of dungeons to find Ganon, defeat him, and then hope that action leads you back home.

Since the player is you, the sprites for your avatar can be decided on to your liking. This is why each screenshot has a different "Link" in it.

The quest is a blend of the gameplay physics I created back in ZCB, traditional ZC engine physics, and a few new twists.

First, you gain experience from most enemies. Level up to get skill points, which you can spend in a series of stats and skills, similar to Zelda 2 gameplay.

Second, all attacks cost magic, also called energy, but your life and magic slowly regain no matter what.

Third, enemies drop coins on occasion. Lets just say "Think Mario..."
EDIT: Well, it seems Mario wanted his coins back. So, force gems and fairies instead.

Attacks are used via my ZCB input system: "A" will perfrom different attacks if you're in the air or moving, instead of standing still. In this quest, you can choose what each attack is at any time. "L" is still jump, and "R"... will be discussed in detail later.

As for the graphics, they are mostly standard pure graphics with custom palettes that could be a Pure/DOR hybrid. The screens will look rather simple, as a slight reference to the simple design of the original NES quests, but later dungeons will have additional variety as well as scripted obsticles.

Perhaps the most notable feature already finished and displayed here is the script for the doors. All of these screens are interiors, which normally means standard NES-dungeon doors are impossible. The script actually simulates the door types, including enemy-based shutters and locked doors that open on both sides. Also, these scripts do support having a door that isn't centered.

For once, I'm posting about a quest without any playable demo, but don't fear. Once I script the functionality for several of the weapon types and add in the weapon data screens, I'll release the first demo. At current moment, the demo will allow full leveling (up to the planned maximum of level 99), fully functional skill point spending (and most of the results from the spending), and about 7 weapons scattered within 3 almost complete dungeons (they will lack only their scripted bosses, the rewards for beating the boss, and any of the fancier scripts such as those seen in my holidy gift scripts quest). I will post updates over time, and I will discuss why "R" is significant.

[Gleeok]

Looking good! I do like lots of dungeons. Keep us updated on the demo status.



A look into my latest crazy idea made real...

Attacks are used via my ZCB input system: "A" will perfrom different attacks if you're in the air or moving, instead of standing still. In this quest, you can choose what each attack is at any time. "L" is still jump, and "R"... will be discussed in detail later.

I'm assuming 'R' is for magic here. ;)

[Din]

Well, this sounds fun! I'll be looking forward to both ZCB and ZCG.

;)

[HeroOfFire]

A little update about how you (the in-game avatar) compare to Link.

Swordplay:
Link can often shoot off sword beams from even the first sword in the quest, and may even start the quest with a slashing attack style.
You don't seem to be capable of producing sword beams with the Wooden Sword, your attack is a simple stab, and it even costs magic to attack. On the other hand, you can be either left handed or right, which is a nice personal touch to youself. You can eventually get swords that you slash with, though they will cost more magic per attack...

Shield:
Link almost always starts with a Wooden Shield.
You literally start with nothing. Not even a Shield. You can get one very easily though...with a special advantage too.

Jumping:
Link needs the Roc's Feather to jump.
You can jump by default, although it costs a little magic too (no surprise...). Plus, you can look forward to some great jump upgrades later in the quest.

Inventory:
Link is almost always stuck with a sword and only one modifiable weapon slot. He stores his items, both passive and active, on a subscreen.
Your subscreen is lacking any active weaponry. Somehow, you carry all the weapons you find, and can assign them to six different button combos. None of these even need to be a sword.

Ammo:
Generally, Link needs bomb and arrow ammo to use those weapons.
You never run out of ammo, since every attack simply consumes magic, which slowly regenerates.

Life:
Link usually starts with 3 hearts and gets more by finding Pieces of Heart and Heart Containers.
You start with a life bar that is the equivilent of 3 hearts. Instead of items, you use your skill points to get more hearts. Plus, you have a slow life regen.

Death:
When Link runs out of hearts, Game Over!
When you run out of life, you simply reappear in "safe rooms" with full life and access to a fairy to regen life, magic, and remove jinxes. What a deal!

I'm making progress on the attack sytem: now weapons can be assigned to slots and the slots are filled with the first weapon you pick up in the quest.

This quest has several dungeons of different shapes and difficulites from many of the "classic" NES quests. In addition to the 18 dungeons from the 1st and 2nd quests, another 18 are confirmed from my Lost1st and Lost2nd quests. I posted a seperate thread about these quests earlier this year, so go there if you want to pass the time or get a heads up on what those dungeons will be shaped like.

Also, "R" is not magic, but it can relate to using magic. Perhaps next update, I can show how "R" is key to gameplay.

[HeroOfFire]

Didn't want to have to double post, but there is much to show and tell here.

A demo is nearly ready. The size of the demo has, er, more than doubled. Now the basic layouts* of levels 1-8 are in, and you can also see thr... I mean two rooms in level 9. Each level except level 9 contains 2 weapons. Combined with a weapon given to you right off the bat (you can guess what it is), there are 18 different weapons to try out in the demo!

*Basic layout means all main items, doors, passages, etc. are in, but no custom bosses or fancy scripted obsticles yet. You may note the out-of-date boss enemies in this demo. They will be replaced over time.

And now, what does "R" do?

THIS.
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG004.png

This... is the OVERSCREEN. It is the focus of the gameplay, as the subscreen only shows passive items (such as the wallet) and the dungeon items (map, compass, and boss key). It uses a cursor moved by the mouse, but selections are made with "A". Beware. If you take damage while the overscreen is open, it will close automatically.

There is a lot to it. First on the left, the leveling/skill point system.
Every level, you get a skill point. Spend it in any of the 15 catergories.

The 6 Stats, which can be trained in 9 times each.
Life: Gain 1 Heart per Skill Point
Stamina: Improve Life Regain.
Energy: Gain 1 Magic Bar per Skill Point.
Technique: Improve Magic Regain.
Agility: Enable/Improve Running Speed. To run, first put a skill point into this stat. Then, quickly press in the same direction three times to start running.
Acrobatics: Improve Jumping Height.

The 9 Skills, which can be trained in 5 times each.
Melee, Ranged, Explosive, Spells, and Motion: Put skill points in these to be able to use more advanced weapons of that type.
Attack: Increase all Weapon Damage by 1 per skill point (Note: It takes 2 damage to kill a Lv1 Octorok. It takes 4 damage to kill a Lv1 Stalfos.)
Special: Improve the features of all weapons (ranged weapons go farther for example.)
Efficiency: Reduce the energy cost of all attacks by 2. An attack will always cost at least 2 energy.
Defense: Gives you shields and mail (armor rings). The first point gives you weak shields. The third point improves the shields. All other points improve your mail.

Now the other menus.
Weapon Selection: Used to choose what weapon each button combo uses. In order, A, B, A while moving, B while moving, A while in the air, B while in the air. The red menu to the right appears when you select one of the button combos. Use the arrow keys and "A" to change the weapon. You can only change to a weapon that is usabe (you have the weapon and you have enough skill points in the appropriate attack type.)

Equiptment (Center Bottom): Shows passive equipment not in the subscreen.
Shield: Appears when you have a skill point in defense. You can select it with "A" and then use the arrow keys to cycle between three variations that each block and deflect different weapons.
Mail: Shows any mail upgrade you have from your defense skill.
Empty Vial: Opens a potion vial menu. Potions will not be in the demo though.
Triforce: Opens the Triforce/Artifact menu. It shows your progress on completing each of the trifprces/artifacts from each of the 9-dungeon sets.
Magic Key: Shows all the Magic Keys you have obtained. You can find one Magic Key in the demo, but no doors specific for it.
Force Gem: Opens a force ability menu. Spend your force gems on the abilities by selecting them. By default, you have only one ability but another can be obtained in the demo.

Other Things:
I replaced the coins/1-up mushrooms with force gems and fairies. Force gems randomly drop and are used to pay force ability costs. Fairies will revive you when you lose all life, but none can be easily found in this demo.

Also, scripted custom doors, including bombable walls FTW!
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG005.png

*The silver topped door means it connects to a different dungon. Keep an eye out for these.

The purpose of the upcoming demo is to introduce you to the basic gameplay. Although 60% of the weapon types are implemented, only 34% are represented in the demo. Also, shops are planed in the future where you can buy extra keys, potion vials, faries, and larger wallets. Custom bosses will come over time, and staircases to different floors will be added too (each 9-dungeon set is on a differnet floor. The 2nd quest dungeons are the floor below the 1st quest ones.)

But before I release the demo, I am pondering something. But will anyone like it?

[Banon]

DANG IT! I was gonna use that magic meter idea!

*sigh

Looks great, I especially like the choose your own character idea.

[HeroOfFire]

http://www.mediafire.com/file/neitztut5ty/ZCGDemo001.qst

Well, that went fast. Here's the demo. I've been developing it in a somewhat older stable version for some time, so build 910 or later should play it fine.

However, I wanted to do something different. Something unexpected. Then it hit me.

Most quests have a dark overtone in their palettes. So for something different, I spend the last several hours redoing the level palettes into something more bright and cheerful.

But that made the quest look like childs play. So I borrowed a 3rd quest tactic and began replacing blocks with statues. This is what it now looks like.
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG006.png

All I can say is good luck. Beware of Arrows, Passwords, Rocks, Ice, Lava, Fireballs, Octoroks, Overheating, Levels, and Swords. Oh, and remember that mouse clicking isn't supported in the engine. So if you have a cursor, move it with the mouse but "click" things with "A".

[C-Dawg]

Your screenshots and quest description remind me a lot of Deadly Towers.

Good luck with that.

[Gleeok]

I am downloading it now. :)

ps; thank you for not using crappy file hosting this time.

[Din]

Same over here. This looks promising. Plus, no more rapidshare! Heck yeah! :D

[Russ]

I'm downloading it right now. Thanks for using MediaFire this time. :)

Out of curiosity, when you said that you can choose the character's sprites, does that mean you get to pick from a list of sprites when you start the game, or that you can open the file up with Zquest and change the sprites.

[HeroOfFire]

The character sprites are an... interesting method of customizable characters I developed a long time ago... I think I even used it in my first sprited game. It's basically a layed sprite where each layer can have it's tiles swapped out. By seperating out the sprite, it makes it easy to have a million+ variations without using anywhere near as many tiles. Unfortunetly, ZQuest doesn't have the convenient "DrawTile with shading a,r,g,b", so there are multiple nearly identical tiles used for the characters with the only difference being the color used from the CSets. I plan to add another male hairstyle to the character appearance (darn 3 to 1 ratio), but it won't be easy since distinct male hairstyles are rare in most tilesets.

Now that people are getting into the quest, here are a few points of interest.

This quest is non-linerar. About 3 minutes of play will make this a no-duh.

But did you know it has a few 1st-quest gameplay options in it? Not to mention a few surprises. Try a few of these experiements if you wish.

Self-Unlocking Door: Altough the first locked door no longer does this, my door script factors in the slim chance that you end up on the other side of a closed door and opens it for you, free of charge. Right now, I know of one instance of this.

Swordless? Try Meleeless: You can ignore any of the weapons that come from the sword-shaped items and still complete the quest. This will include Ganon, who will be scripted and thus not require a sword or silver arrows.
But to go meleeless, you need to figure out what alternate weapon you can reach without killing anything (tip: look for easy to get keys). As for enemies resistant to arrows, try bombs.

Secret Abilites: Just like the Link's Awakening bomb arrows, there are special abilities not mentioned yet (and even if I mention them, they will be in super-cryptic riddles). Right now, there are two, both with involve a specific attack type and having trained a lot in a certain stat.

Sloof Lirpa?: If you examine my previous post, you may notice something funny. However, that screenshot is 100% possible. Try to figure out how, if you don't mind losing your sense of reality...

They Don't Make Shields The Way They Used To: Your shields are always active, yet invisible. Go figure! The default shield has been nerfed a bit from normal quests. Even upgraded, it can't block fireballs or magic. This emphasizes using the right shield for the job. What? Fireball statues in a room with Goriyas? Pick the lesser of two evils and use a shield to block the other one's projectiles.
On the other hand, Like Likes seem to have lost their appetite.

Take a Running Jump!: You jump higher while running. Thank you Mario-styled physics.

Hey, This Isn't 2nd Quest Yet!: One of the greatest tricks in the 2nd quest already appears in a few select locations. If you were ever lost when you first played the 2nd quest, this is one of the things that might have tripped you up.

You Don't Belong In This Dungeon!: There are 8 enemy sets that assign six enemies that will appear in a dungeon. Each set appears once for each set of Level 1-8, and then a set appears again in Level 9. However, some rooms in dungeons have enemies that don't appear to belong. They are enemies that have migrated from a nearby level, and always appear exactly one screen away from the screen with a doorway to their dungeon.
Also, each enemy set has 4 difficulty variations. The enemies that appear in a dungeon will use the difficulty variation of that dungeon, even if they are supposed to be from a nearby, easier or harder dungeon (Red Darknuts and Bats show up only in certain locations because of this).
*Oh Snap! I missed this detail in a room in Level 8! I'll have those Pols Voice replaced with hard Goriya in 002.

Placeholders: Although the bosses are completely unedited, you can see placeholder boss rooms with placeholder boss FFCs that do absotutley nothing!

I Can Do This All Day: Damage will force the overscreen to close so you can react. Bubbles don't do damage. Do the math.

A Reference: If you look closely, enemies turn into gravestones when they die. You do too, although you somehow auto-revive.

[Din]

Wow, ouch. I died like 50 times so far. It's apparent that the ZCB and ZCG universes are much different then the regular ZC universe.

As for those Aquamentuses, I look forward to see how they turn out. Do you maybe need Tomahawks to beat them? (Zelda Game & Watch Joke) ;)

Okay, well, I'm level 22 so far. I've found quite a few items as well. The only problem is... well... I can't use some of them. Are they perhaps not yet implemented? The bomb with a glove, (I'm guessing to throw bombs) the candle, grey boots and brown boots, (the brown boots have a sword in front of them) and the potions when you choose the empty beaker (what are those for, anyway?).

If it's of any help to the circumstance, I have only put points into regular attributes, not any weapon skills (with the exception of the first sword, but why isn't it raising the amount of damage any of my swords do?).

And a suggestion. Perhaps there should be some sort of penalty for death? Maybe losing experience points equal to your level?

And a question that has been picking at me. What are the rupees for, anyway? Is there a shop somewhere? Does an item use it in any way?

Well, you've hooked me on yet another quest HeroOfFire. I'm off to continue my adventure.

[HeroOfFire]

If you think about it, ZCG is closer to typical quests than ZCB. Both just use similar player mechanics.

Focusing on stats? High health is good when facing water or lava, since mail doesn't reduce that damage. For near invincibility, try putting lots of points into health regen and a few points into defense. Reduced Damage + Fast Healing = Godlike Immortality.
Of course, invincibility alone won't kill hordes of Gray Darknuts quickly.

I only used the same boss graphics in all 8 levels because they are the only boss graphics converted to the quest palette at the time. Aquamentuses will only appear in levels appropriate to them, such as levels 1 and 7.

I realized less than a day after the release that trying to understand why a weapon is unusable would be a problem. I already have fixed this in 002.

The first sword item is the melee skill. Placing points in it allows you to use a larger variety of melee weapons (melee weapons are obtained from the large sword items you pick up). If you have 1 point, you can use the sword in level 3 and the awsome melee weapon in level 5. 2 points let you use the spin attack, and 4 points are needed for the hammer. Put points into the red sword icon (attack skill) to improve damage.

Ironically, there will be a circumstance where weapon skills do increase damage of attacks of that type. It's even implemented in 002, but hidden for now. To say the least, it will be a prize for beating a specific level 9 (not the one you get a glimpse at in the current demo).

Rupees are more than common enough to have penalized on death. Once I add shops to the safe areas (in version 002), then rupees will have a use and both fairies (instant revives) and potions will be available.
Aside from that, death can still be a penalty when you have a long distance to go to get back to where you died. At least the self-revival is faster than going through the game over screen.

The potion menu is misleading right now. Version 002 will display numbers over each potion to show how many of each you have left.

Just so you don't get thrown off, there is an exp balancing system in place that reduces your experience gain at higher levels. It starts at level 25 and applies additional penalties at levels 50 and 75. In reality, it just means you can't grind levels off of common 1 exp enemies anymore.

These issues are exactly what I expected and have already started working on. I'll have the next demo 002 out ASAP to adress these minor quirks. This is more of an introduction demo to let you play around. Feel free to play a bit from level 1, then quit without saving and try again until you find a balance you like. The ability to control how you level up means you can make your avatar a custom fit...once you understand how things work.

Also, fun fact: Wallmasters defy the logic of last-visited safe zone. They will instead take you to the safe zone you were in when you first load up the game (either new game or saved).

Note to self: Have a tomahawk weapon somewhere...and look up that joke.

[Din]

Well, I'm Level 30, and I completed the demo, (I found the dragon dungeon evil, by the way). It was really fun! I'm keeping this quest on my watchlist.

Ah, and the Tomahawk was a weapon in Zelda Game and Watch that you used to kill the boss (which was always an Aquamentus).

[HeroOfFire]

The new demo is out. It addresses some bugs from the first demo, adds plenty of new content, and is a bit larger too.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/2kzzmwmlonh/ZCGDemo002.qst

First off, some nice improvements. When you select a weapon that you can't use, a small prompt appears to tell you what weapon skill you need more training in. The downside is you must select a weapon that is useable to close the submenu.

Rupees are now lost upon death, and are used to buy items in the safe areas. Keys and the reviving fairies are in every "shop", and the remaining items are either various potion vials or wallet upgrades. Later levels have more expensive prices, so beware.

7 New Levels and 14 New Weapons! Now you can explore the nightmare-causing Level 9, travel downstairs to the "easier" 2nd quest dungeons, or go deep to the early leveled dungeons from my Lost 1st and Lost 2nd quests. Some new weapons can be used without any training, such as the Wooden Arrows or White Sword. Also, the White Sword is different from the Wooden Sword, if you use your skill points in a certain way.

Some of the new weapons are really impressive. Hate fireball statues? Find weapons that act as your own personal fireball statues! Find a familiar boomerang that DOESN'T fly straight! Fire unstoppable fires! Swing a poorly drawn axe! Or even use bombs with shrapenel! If my memory is correct, at least 75% of the weapon types are now implemented, and most of them show up in this demo.

Also, the Lirpa Sloof Weapon has been moved, but is still somewhere in Level 9. Even worse, it has developed a new trick. Use your knowledge of the original Level 9 to find it.

Finally, the Magic Key in Level 8 is used in Level 9 for special doors. You also need the completed Triforce of Wisdom to open some doors in Level 9.

Now, my goals for the next demo.

Custom Bosses
An Ending for Completing Level 9.
4 additional levels, 1 each in the later dungeon sets plus the first level in a new dungeon set. All these levels will have Medium-Difficulty enemy sets.
A special passive item/Ability in Level 4 of the 2nd Quest Dungeons.
And of course, more weapons, including at least 1 new weapon type.

Still build 910, but I am watching the new builds. Those additional input commands could be of use...

[Din]

Okay, let's download this thing.

*clicks*

I'm looking forward to the next set of dungeons in this quest...

[Miragos]

The latest demo is really awsome ;) !
How this project is going on?

[bigjoe]

Any chance you could repost the latest version?(There was one that got deleted with the threads)

I got a friend who I want to check it out.

[HeroOfFire]

Okay, the cliff notes version of my lost 3 posts:

Download for version 003, play in windows build 1074:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zyll0kh2vmm/ZCGDemo003.qst

Screenshots:

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG008.pnghttp://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG009.png
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG010.pnghttp://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG011.png

Control Notes:

Weapons (As Seen In the Overscreen)

A A Ex2 Ex2
B B Ex3 Ex3
Ex1 Ex1 Ex4 Ex4

The first of a button pair is the assigned weapon used if standing still; the second is used if moving (except straight up).

L = Jump, R = Overscreen (Warning: Overscreen does not pause game, use ENTER for normal subscreen)

Other:

You can buy potions in shops. White cure bubble jinxes, Orange give temporary bonus damage, and Black are random.

Putting 2 points into a weapon type unlocks its synergy bonus. These bonuses either improve or allow use of some weapons of different types.

Force abilites cost force gems. Many of the abilities give bonuses for a short duration.

Changes In 003:

Upgraded to build 1074, and now uses the Ex buttons. Build 1099 has major bugs that make the quest crash, so avoid using too recent a version.

Replaced the useless speed stat with the damage stat (increasing it's max from 5 to 9) and added the force stat. Force stat generates force gems over time for the force abilities.

36 complete dungeons, with custom bosses, 2 items each, at least one of every item type appearing, 5 total force abilities, 4 special equipment, and 4 endings.

New Enemies, and Like Likes now poison you since they can't eat your shields.

Better introduction/menus and "cinematics" (so to speak).

A secret to everyone in each ending...

Subrosian smithies... secret weapon combo... reforged shields... rest of the notes missing.

A super-ultra-mega secret already spoiled for you (and it gets better in later versions).

Um... What else...

Contest! I want 10 fan-inspired weapons. Tell me what weapons you would like to see in the quest. All 10 will be among the final weapons obtained, so they will be very powerful and expensive to use (regardless of what they are).

Limitation: 1 Melee Weapon, 1 Ranged Weapon, 2 Explosive Weapons, 4 Spell Weapons, and 2 Motion Weapons. Compare your weapon idea to pre-existing weapons (in the quest) for better odds of getting what you expect.

Known Bug: Currently buying wallets doesn't effect the rupee max. I will be reposting this bug shortly.

Not A Bug: Bosses never go away, you just get redirected around them after getting a triforce/artifact piece.

The Future: Version 004, or 005, or whatever I feel like calling it. Minimum 18 new dungeons, maximum all 37, I mean, 36 remaining ones.

Now the final question: did I remember everything from my lost 3 posts?

[bigjoe]

Here's an idea for a spell weapon:

Bat form- Turns the player into a bat and raises his Z, so that he can fly over obstacles such as water and lava.

[Din]

Melee: Fairy Sword: Straight from Link to the Past. The Fairy Sword does a quick half-circle slash, unlike other swords which only do a quarter-circle slash. Additionally, by putting 3 points in the Magic Skill, it can shoot sword-beams, much like the Magic Sword. By putting 5 points, the sword beams always fire. Although it consumes a bit more magic than the Magic Sword, it's a much faster weapon, and can be made into one of the best weapons in the game.

Ranged: Fire Bow: The ultimate in bow technology. The Fire Bow has the capability of shooting through enemies and obstacles, no matter what they are. Additionally, each attack shoots with the speed of the Longbow. This weapon is special in the fact that if an attack hits, eight fireballs spread out from the point of impact.

Explosive: Black Hole: An extremely useful bomb. If this attack is used, it consumes great magic. A small hole will appear on the ground. Should an enemy wander into it, it will grow into a Black Hole, dealing serious damage multiple times.

Explosive: Cross Bomb: When used, a golden bomb is laid on the ground. After a few seconds, it will detonate, and a giant cross will completely extend to all sides of the room, (the width of the cross will be 1 tile). This is extremely powerful.

Magic: Power Shield: When used, a barrier forms around the player. The barrier time is relative to the amount of points put in special. This lasts approximately 2 seconds per special skill. What does it do? When fireballs, fire, or magic attacks would hit you, they would do damage. With the Power Shield, you are immune to magical attacks! The problem however, is that nonmagical attacks, such as spears and swords, still deal you damage. The other problem is that the Fireball 2 attack that bosses use isn’t canceled out. Still, this would make fireball filled rooms much easier. However, be careful, for this consumes much magic.

Magic: Thunder: When used, the screen flashes, and all enemies on the screen take immense damage, like AoL. That’s all there is to it! However, be wary about using this attack, for at maximum magic efficiency, this consumes four whole magic containers! Oy, that’s painful.

Magic: Laser: This is like a better version of lightning, (not thunder,) in which a laser two tiles wide emits from your finger. Any enemies caught will take damage and be stunned. This takes up a bit less magic than power shield, but should still be used efficiently.

Motion: Teleport: When used, the avatar will teleport two tiles in any direction they are facing. This may seem simple, but it has many hidden advantages, such as being able to escape from baddies swarming them, when a jump would just make you run into a stray peahat. Plus, this takes place instantly, unlike the jump.

Motion: Tornado: When used, the avatar will need 2 seconds to spin around. If the avatar succeeds in this, it’ll soar high into the sky. While in the sky, it’ll soar down gently, and by pressing the weapon button again, the avatar will break out of the tornado. The advantage of this comes with the L2 Stomp Boots. While in a tornado, the avatar is too high up to be hit with projectiles. Yet by breaking out of the tornado and successfully stomping the enemy, the enemy will take extra damage. This can be quite handy in jumping and stomping.

Well, those are my entries. I just completed the demo, and I'm impressed! That was quite fun. I especially enjoyed the bosses. So, will there be any of those "scripted obstacles" you talked about on your first post? I enjoyed the conveyors, but I am just curious if there will be any more of those.

[HeroOfFire]

Okay, I have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is, the latest versions still have the bugs that cripple the quest, meaning I'm still using build 1074 for the next version. For now...

The good news is, I have noted the advanced enemy editing and plan to take advantage of it when a much less breaking build comes out. Currently, the weapon damage types are Sword, Arrow, Magic, Bomb, and Super Bomb, due to how the items are managed (scripts don't support Hammers or Hookshots well). I plan to make the few Magic-damaging weapons more useful by making the Lv.2 Pols Voice the new Magic Variety (Weak to wand), but will allow Arrow-damage to still hurt them. I also plan on at least 1 enemy immune to Sword-Damage, to avoid leaving that damage overly useful. Also, maybe a Bomb-weakened enemy or two... Despite this nice new feature, I don't plan on adding any more enemies than initially planned.

Once again, I made a contest for ideas without fully explaining what limitations of what weapons can actually do (though the ideas may still be useful one day...)

First, my opinion on the curent ideas:

Fairy Sword: Easily the best suggestion of them all. Right out of a Zelda game, a sword with a larger swing than normal with sword beams (currently all weapons with that arc don't get beams). The only flaw is that the beams will always be unlocked at 2 Spell training, and only shoot at full life. This is for balancing, because the beams have infinite range and damage equal to the "sword", making them overpowered to several ranged weapons. Also, they can be spammed easily. I also will make the Fairy Sword look closer to the Majora's Mask version, since the Magic Sword (Original Zelda) and Imbued Sword (slashing version of the White Sword) look similar to the Fairy Sword from LTTP.

Fire Arrow: On one hand, the Golden Arrow (which will appear in the next version) already has the "pass through" feature. On the other hand, the fireball shooting isn't supported in the scripts. What I can make it do is EXPLODE on the first enemy it hits, similar to the Bomb Arrows, but then the Fire Arrow keeps going (it just won't explode again, for balancing reasons). It would go well with the Fire Blades and Fire Boomerang. If a better ranged weapon is suggested though...

Black Hole: Sounds like a Mine-type weapon, only with a Super Bomb explosion. Considered, since the only mines in the quest currently have normal explosions.

Cross Bomb: Unfortunetly, this isn't a SHMUP (or however it's spelled), so fancy explosions are not possible. It can explode with Cross-Shaped shrapenel fired in, yes, a cross shape. Considered.

Power Shield: The existing Barrier-type weapon deflects a set number of projectiles before automatically dissapearing, and dissapears when an attack is used (though a certain attack type has an additional effect with the right conditions). Nayaru's Love is planned to be the ultimate version of this, but adding the option for the barrier to NOT dissapear when attacking is being considered.

Thunder: I could always make the ultimate Spell weapon be a Room Damage-type and have thunder be one of them. Considered, but this would not only add a new attack type, but also include the request for a second weapon of this type (I want at least 2 of each weapon type).

Laser: I was hoping for a Beam-weapon suggestion, but the current second one (not in the demo) is very close to the idea suggested: long duration to do constant damage (the opposite of the low duration, high damage lightning currently in the demo). Can I have a slightly more Zelda-themed beam?

Teleport: Not likely, the Switch Hook is already sequence breaking bad, but hard to use.

Tornado: Why am I suddenly thinking of New Super Mario Bros. Wii? Interesting, but a bit odd to implement.

Bat Form: Alas, the current engine doesn't support changing the character appearance THAT dramatically. The Dash-type weapon is close to what this does as well.

To give you an idea what the existing weapon types are:

Melee Types: No more suggestions needed.

Ranged Types (Most can Rapid Fire or Explode is desired):
Shot: A standard, stright line projectile.
Throwing Object: A weapon that moves in an arc as if thrown. Both current weapons of this type are a Thrown Hammer and Jar.
Slowing Shot: Moves like a candle flame.
Doble/Triple Shot: Two or three weapons fired in a line.
Three Way/Four Way Shot: Weapons fired outward in a + pattern. Three Way doesn't fire behind the player.
Unstoppable: Keeps going after hitting an enemy.
Consecutive: Two or three weapons fired with different speeds and durations, all in the same direction though.
Spread Shot: Three weapons fired in a fan pattern.

Explosive Types:
Bomb/Super Bomb: They do what you expect.
Thrown Bomb/Super Bomb: Launched in an arc like the Throwing Objects.
Shrapenel: A normal bomb with shrapenel in either + or X directions.
Mine: A bomb that explodes when an enemy is close.
Remote Bomb/Super Bomb: Bombs that don't explode on their own. After setting down a certain number, the next press of the button explodes all of them at once.
Instant: A Super Bomb balst at the player's location. Has bad cooldown.

Spell Types:
Aura: An expanding aura that deals damage to enemies within it. Does Type damage, such as Arrow damage to OHKO Pol Voice.
Barrier: A temporary barrier that blocks a set number of enemy weapons before dissapearing. Dissapears when the player attacks for balancing.
Weapon Shield: Four weapons spin around the player, who can still move around and attack. Think Mega Man shields here. Beam: A laser/lightning the goes across the entire screen, damaging enemies in it with Type damage.
Summon Turrets: Creates a non-moving object that fires weapons toward enemies. The advanced version fires weapons at exact angles.
Summon Attackers: Summons an object that attacks for you. Melee types do collision damage, Ranged Types take aim to fire weapons, and Exploding get close to do a Super Bomb explosion.

Motion Types (a.k.a. the Other category)
Boomerang: Moves like the standard Zelda boomerang.
Dash: Moves the player forward quickly. Ignores gravity when used in the air.
Curve Boomerang: A more 3D-styled Zelda boomerang.
Charge: Like dash, but with a weapon in front of the player. Gravity will affect the player.
Overhead Boomerang: A Mario Bros. 3 inspired boomerang that curves in the Z axis.
Hookshot: Acts like a hookshot, except it does pull items toward the player (Arrow-types do get the items though).
Switch Hook: Like the Hookshot, but can switch the positions of Link and an enemy. Very risky, as you can get stuck using it. Trap: A non-moving weapon that is used as a trap.
Grab and Throw?: Functions a bit like the Gust Jar. Hold down the attack button to suck, release to fire. Enemies near the weapon when sucking lose health, regardless of most invulerabilities, and released projectile gains power from drained health. Hard to use.

I can make minor adjustments to some of the weapon types, but not too dramatic. The Hookshot-types are currently underpowerd because there are no hookshot blocks (or that part of the script implemented), and the Grab and Throw type is designed mainly for the Gust Jar weapon (it doesn't show any sucking animation) and may be buffed to pull nearby items closer. Also, Ground Pound is a melee type weapon, even though it sounds like it should be a motion type weapon.

Still Looking For:
1 Ranged Weapon (Optional, since the current suggestion for it isn't too bad).
0 Explosive (unless a better suggestion is made).
4? Spell (I want a Zelda-themed Beam, the suggested barrier may make it in, and a new Spell weapon type may be created).
2 Motion (Don't suggest any standard boomerangs though. I have at least 4 of them).

Familiar Weapons to look forward to:
Magic Sword (Stab-type Melee)
Golden Arrow (Unstoppable-type Ranged)
Biggoron's Sword (Long Stab-type, due to tile limitations)
Wand (Shot-type Ranged, only the projectile, not the Wand itself)
All 3 Goddess Powers (in the appropriate weapon types. Din's Fire is an aura, Faore's Wind is a dash, and Nayaru's Love is a barrier)
Fire Boomerang (Boomerang-type Motion, damages enemies including Wizzrobes, but doesn't collect items or OHKO Pol Voice)

Other Things to Look forward to:
Power Bracelets (yeah, even though they're boring)
Timer Force Ability: Summons a clock for temporary invincibility.
Sword Force Ability: All attacks shoot a sword beam (for no good reason). This stacks with normal sword beams, leading to a silly situations.
Improved Top Secret Weapon: It will futher imitate something from LA. And finally be able to damage enemies.
Two Level 9 bosses that are not Ganon (guess which two this pair is..)
Eventually the 4th Quest dungeons, which is where the 10 fan-suggested weapons will appear. Ganon is the Level 9 boss, with a high chance of another boss battle after his.

Also, the previous post was short a screenshot due to the new forum limitations, so...

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG007.png

Finally, a little note about the scripting/puzzles in the quest.

I plan to make all the currently solid "pits" instead act like the bottumless pits from other Zelda games.
The other planned trap is a seemingly innocent object that "reveals" an enemy when close. A rupee becoming a Like Like would be devesating and a good reference, except rupees normally don't appear in the open. Instead, expect keys that are enemies in disguise, or statues that really are not. Later themed dungeons may bring back some of the previous gimmicks, or have new ones.

In the distant future if I have time, I'll make the "Oracle of Ages equilivent", or in other words, a much more complex, less combat (or rather, enemy) heavy version of the quest (for reference, Oracle of Seasons was the more action based of the two).

[Din]

Hmm, okay then. So far, there's only one Zelda beam I know of.

Magic: Beamos Eye: Yep, the infamous eye of the Beamos statue. When used, (hmm, now that I think about it, the previous laser didn't seem to have much of an effect) the player and their laser spins counter-clockwise. This is kind of hard to explain, so I'll do a visual.

P=Player.
B=Beam.


PBBBBB

B
B
B
B
B
P

BBBBBP

P
B
B
B
B
B

Then the attack ends. This is all in one button press, and thus, it's basically a beam, but the player stays, shooting the beam, the player turns once, and the beam turns with the player. So, the player doesn't shoot again in between. It isn't too quick, though. The player stays, shooting the beam for at least half a second in each direction. The reason for this is that the Beamos' eye turns in Zelda games, so the eye turns here as well. How does it sound?

One last thing, what are the codes for in each ending? I notice that there is a spot to enter a code on the front screen, and the code fits perfectly in there, but I'm guessing it isn't implemented, because the computer wouldn't accept a code I had gotten earlier. Also, a suggestion, could there be a backspace button? It was quite frustrating when I missed one symbol and had to start all over. :P

[HeroOfFire]

Last year, I had a bunch of scripts for a holiday gift. This year...

http://www.mediafire.com/file/y1m2cyflymn/ZCG004Demo.qst

...I defied all time and logic and made the next version in only a month.

For Windows build 1082 and Mac Build 1076 (you didn't misread that last one)

What's new?

I rearranged the weapons a bit. Now the ground pound and thrown objects are Motion-type weapons. This also swapped the Melee and Motion type weapon orders in regards to how much training is required for different weapons.

I added the fan suggested "Screen-Damage" weapon, and one instance appears in this version.

18 new dungeons in 2 new dungeon sets. These are natually more difficult, but offer some very fun new weapons. Also, 2 new force abilites, both very interesting.

Bottomless pits are now in, meaning you can jump over them. Just don't miss...

Another new scripted feature shows up in a late dungeon. It will catch you off guard.

Some new enemies, many quite nasty, show up. Such as Bombchus and very powerful mini-dragons.

A minor tutorial accessable from the start, which simply describes the controls (loosely) and a room that lests you browse through the weapons to see what they are and their powers, along with their required training.

The password screen has an icon to indicate which digit you are inputting. You can use the cursor to select a different digit if you make a mistake. The password screen starts you off in a new game plus, with your saved appearance and any weapon you obtained. Each ending gives a password for a different new game plus; the Power Ending has the new game have double damaging attacks at double the cost for example.

I'm not going to work on the next version until after the holidays, as I plan to start on a non Zelda-classic project that in inspired from the game system in this quest, only more and not Zelda based. The next version should have the rest of the dungeons, weapons, and bosses in, and will thus be an official beta. Just don't expect it in only a month.

I still want fan suggested weapons though. Currently, I want 3 more explosive type weapons (considering 2 suggestions right now), 3 more spell type weapons (one needs to be the Screen Damaging Type), and 1 additional weapon of any category. Once I have all the weapons planned, I'll rearrange the weapon list to place same weapon-types after each other (Wooden Sword followed by White Sword for example).

Until then, enjoy the holidays!

[Din]

Well, this demo is pretty phun so far. There were only a few bugs I ran into:

1. In Level 9, the Patra miniboss has a somewhat odd bug. When killing the outer "eyes" of the patra, the death animation continues permanently where you slew it, not vanishing. That means that a puff of perpetual smoke remains on the floor, that is, until you damage the actual boss.

2. Whenever you use a weapon, then immediately afterward shift into the overscreen, your avatar remains in the stabbing animation. Only when you press a button to move or use a weapon while out of the overscreen will the avatar leave the position, and continue to function as normal.

3. A few problems with the walk-through walls. If you go through one, and out the solid wall, a shutter sound will play. Then, if you go through one, you have to keep moving forward to actually walk automatically. If you go through one and press nothing, the avatar remains in the wall, and you can even press the button in the opposite direction of the wall to go back through the walk-through wall.

4. It's possible to gain levels quickly with tribbles. If you let them respawn enough to flood the room, you can hide in a doorway and attack to kill hordes of them, and gain quick and easy experience. My suggestion would be to give tribbles (in general) one experience only. As far as I know, there are not many of them in the early dungeons, and you'll likely be at level 25 already when you encounter one. Even if you're not, it won't give gold-mines of experience if you abuse this trick.

Also, a question. Were those levels in dungeon-set 4 in when you released the demo? :laughing: If so, I couldn't find them at all. So, where might one find the blue key? You did a good job at hiding that thing.

[HeroOfFire]

Dispite dissapearing for a while, I have kept up on development. Thanks to some suggestions, I have added all the weapons and fixed several obscure bugs. The next version should be released shortly.

I have much to show...

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG012.png
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG013.png
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/HeroOfFire/ZCG014.png

What you can expect:

Eig.. er.. SEVEN complete dungeon sets, each with an ending. Each set comes with a Special Ability, a colored Magic Key, and a Force (Gem) Ability. You knew this already from previous posts. But now, everything is in. No weapons or special abilities are left to add, and the only thing left in future versions are bonus dungeons and staying up to date with the builds. Meanwhile, I've added several scripted traps, as per request for more... intersting things to be added.

Speaking of which, its still builds Mac 1076 / Windows 1082. Alas, an unfortunete number of bugs still make the later versions less than favorable to use, meaning no fancy enemy editor yet.

In other news, I've taken a look at the quest and noted countless refrences to other Zelda games. I doubt its a record, but given what games some of the bosses are from...

"SECRETS APPEAR WHERE BOSSES ARE NOT" - Abei, Lv.8 Raft Factory Clue

[Din]

Yay, extra obstacles! Sounds like you've been busy with this quest. Also, thanks for that hint. When I get a chance, I'll be sure to look, though I'm a bit busy with a project of my own.

[HeroOfFire]

At long last (well, not that long), the next version of Zelda Classic Gauntlet! And just in time to be a birthday present. Somehow...

Mac Build 1076 or Windows Build 1082

http://www.mediafire.com/file/vyunzhwmnyj/ZCG005Demo.qst

As of this point, I could safely call this a beta, since no more major content remains. In fact, besides any future bonus dungeon and an as yet to be revealed approach to giving thanks to currently unofficial beta testers (there technically are none), all that remains are bug fixes and keeping up with the builds (including the eventual update to use the new enemy editor features).

What is in this version? 19 brand new complete dungeons (some bonus dungeons), all 128 weapons (now arranged by type instead of dungeon location), all 9 force abilities (the last is the best), all 8 new game plus modes, several impressive custom bosses, and three new scripts focused on adding traps to the dungeons.

While I've intentionally made some secrets hard to find or figure out, I will give a little information on something important. Several hidden special abilities exist in the game that can help out greatly, but occur in strange situations. To make figuring them out easier, I've brought in an expert to give out clues without giving the secrets away.

"YOU HEAL BETTER WHEN YOU PROTECT YOUR WOUNDS"

"REMAKE YOUR SHIELDS IN THE HEAT OF A CONTAINED EXPLOSION"

"CRYSTALS SHATTER FROM LARGE SHOCKWAVES"

"SWORD BEAMS ARE MADE OF MAGIC"

...perhaps I should have hired a lawyer instead. Either way, Abei has spoken and left clues to some really interesting secrets. Except the last one, as its easy to figure out on your own.

The newest dungeon set of interest, now located at the deppest level, is the dungeons based on my 4th quest submission from almost a year ago. Not only are all the weapons very powerful, some are clearly "inspired" from other games, some are fan suggested, and some have additional abilities that make them different from other weapons of the same type. For example, the fan suggested Beamos Eye, complete with directional control! Or the Sword... Barrier... Thing... that further rips off, I mean, shows inspiration from another game series by allowing the barrier to be launched as shrapenel! And the Slime Bomb... it has a use, if you think about it for a bit. Meanwhile, some of the bosses are quite interesting, and you won't see one of the refrences coming.

And if you are good at following the clues, you can even fight a mythology gag boss...

[Gleeok]

Cool. I'll play some more when I have time. Right now I'm in 'taking the tour' mode. :) I'll chime in again later.

Minor nitpicks: Some of the palettes are kind of 'mushy'...Don't know hot to describe it very well. How about a global force something that takes weak items and rearranges them into more powerful versions as you progress?

EDIT; Suggestion: Early on it takes forever to wait for your magic to go back up before going into the next room. Maybe make it so that it increases much faster while standing still?

Also, I got what what appears to be a silver knife and a hookshot(?) but can't use them. Is there some trick to it?

[Orithan]

This is my first QD reply (Shoot me if this is gravedigging)
@Gleeok: Those items give you access to more weapons and you can use them when you have trained enough in each of thier categories, the silver knife is sword type, and the hookshot is other attacks like the charge attack.

I have played this for quite a while, gotten to LV: 60, collected all the triforce fragments in sets 1 and 2 and many in the others, gotten to 1st quest Level-9 without dying once (although I came close when I stumbled into the Potion factory) before my sav. file became corrupted (Stupid Sav. file). I'd say that Z.C.G. is by far the best quest to utulise the first-second quest dungeons at AGN, even though it seems to still be in the beta stage, to my taste, thats my 2 rupees.

Edit: There was an uneeded line break. I fixed it.
Edit2: Edited out a punctuation mistake

[Wolfman2000]

Gave this a quick run in build 1274 (Mac OS X). The first door in Eagle Palace won't open right: I can open it, but then I'm immediately locked by the "door" on the other side and I can't break it.

[Nicholas Steel]

try build 1076 like it says in the authors signature?

[Wolfman2000]

Already got it soon after. Very nice demo so far, but the "info" screens are a bit lacking. I may have to look into a YouTube video to help explain it.

I think the white key doors/blocks are intentional demo stoppers...nice idea.

Hmm...HeroOfFire, any updates as of late? I haven't seen any responses from you in awhile.

[HeroOfFire]

At last, I'm getting responses again. I do browse the forums often, and noted the lack of traffic combined with that other quest getting released around the same time (Was it Freedom's Quest? I think it was.), I figured it would be awhile before I'd get some feedback.

The quest is in a wierd state of limbo-beta. On one hand, all the main content is there. The odd colored doors are unlocked using the same colored magic keys, every empty weapon slot gets filled, etc. On the other hand, every build since the ones I mentioned have had changes that broke the quest. As of the latest Mac build, the doors still don't work, now jumping is broken, and some bosses don't fire projectiles correctly (luckily, that one is an easy fix I can do). Also, the enemy editor improvements have happened since then, meaning some enemies would have their weaknesses changed. I've made posts to attempt to fix the other bugs.

At current moment, my to-do list for non fixes:

Add any missing animations to the player avatars.
Add a well-hidden developer room.
Add minor bonus dungeons that have no purpose other than bragging rights (mainly a boss rush dungeon).
Maybe add NPC player avatars, to let the player know they are not alone (story-wise).
Figure out a better tutorial for newcomers (a tutorial dungeon may be nice, but I can't use normal strings due to scripts drawing the character; strings would render the player invisible).

Gameplay experience wise, has anyone:

Seen all the endings? (Spoiler: all 8 of them.)
Tried out the new game plus modes? (Passwords rewarded with endings.)
Beaten the well hidden dungeon that is a major mind screw? (Location of entrance shown on this thread and hinted in-game.)

Also a gameplay hint: the magic keys are collected in a specific order, always in the 'Level 8' of a dungeon set, and the order is the same as the difficulty curve. (1st->2nd->etc)
And another: The floors don't match up with the dungeon set order.

4F -> Invalid, please refer to Level 7-9 for details.
3F -> 6th
2F -> 5th
1F -> 1st (1st Quest)
B1 -> 2nd (2ndQuest)
B2 -> 3rd
B3 -> 4th
B4 -> 7th (4th Quest)

One final detail, since my last post, I no longer have access to ZC on a windows, so I can only update based on when Mac builds come out and can't test to see if the following windows build will work.

[Wolfman2000]

Sorry for the unintentional limbo causing on my end: I wasn't fully aware of this quest at the time of limbo.

I haven't tried any of the passwords yet...honestly, I've been afraid to. For one, I don't know if the 0s are really Os. For another, I've noticed that I could always just walk DOWN from the password screen and resume that way. Since I can always re-fight bosses, it's not like I can't get the passwords again. However, since I'm getting a new Macbook Pro soon...well, it would help if I could find a way to be sure the passwords work as intended. Most of my playing has included cataloging all that I could to make sure i didn't miss any items or passageways.

Would you happen to know the FIRST Mac build where things get screwy? Maybe if that point can be figured out, we'd know what would have to be adjusted in the scripts.