Zodiac, the Side-Quest

[C-Dawg]

==========UPDATE UPDATE===============
If you're visiting this thread for the first time, read on. But the latest version, and the only download that will work, is located HERE:

http://www.solidfiles.com/d/4c6a2679..._(6-21-14).qst

it uses the public version of 2.5 available at ZeldaClassic.com.
=====================================

This quest is not complete.

This quest features heavily scripted side-scrolling goodness drawing inspiration from the likes of old-school Metroid, Blaster Master, Cave Story, and the spirit of The Guardian Legend. The main quest features a series of side-scrolling levels and shoot-em-up style corridors.

------ Universal Changes to Note

I've scripted some basic changes to the way the Zelda Classic engine normally operates to try and get a more action-based and fast-paced game.

1. Many of your abilities and weapons (except the primary weapon) use up Energy. Energy constantly refills at a slow rate in side-scrolling areas. In flying areas, due to the increased energy needed to fly, your energy initially won't refill at all. You can pick up energy refills, though, and later on you'll get items that will give you steady energy refill even while flying.

2. Your health and energy bars are proportional. That is, they stay the same size regardless of how many life or energy containers you pick up. The additional points are being counted, you just can't see them. Life is also displayed numerically on your life meter, and you can see how much damage various enemies do to you.

3. Some of your buttons are adapted to new uses. L and R no longer select weapons. In side-scrolling areas, the L button jumps. In flying areas, the L button fires a massive beam blast that clears out enemies. This beam uses up energy at a fast rate. In side-scrolling areas, hold the R button to dash when you get the item that lets you do this. Dashing uses up energy.

================= Items

Here's the current list of items. They're fully implemented unless otherwise indicated.

-- Weapons

PRIMARY WEAPONS

All primary weapons break some blocks at close range. In flying levels, your primary weapon is replaced by the ship's cannon.

1. Pulse Hammer - A short range (2 tiles) energy blast. Low damage.

2. Disentigrator Beam - A short beam (sword) that shoots twin projectiles a moderate distance. Medium damage. Can dig through sand (all higher level primary weapons share this feature).

3. Zodiac Weapons (11 different) - Each Zone has a Zodiac Boss guarding a special weapon. These weapons vary widely in power and ability. You can only have one Zodiac Weapon at a time. If you collect a new one, the game will prompt you to decide whether to replace your current weapon permanently. You can always go back and get an older weapon later. Eventually you will get an item that lets you switch between Zodiac Weapons on the fly. It's not in the game yet, but certain Zodiac Weapons will be more effective against certain bosses, ala the Megaman series.

The Zodiac Weapons are:

a. Aquarius Bubble - Shoots a bubble in a circular pattern in front of the player.
b. Scorpio Sting - Shoots a projectile in a wave pattern.
c. Aries Saber - Slashes three tiles in front of the player.
d. Pieces Spread - Fires three projectiles in a spread pattern.
e. Gemini Lazer - Fires two projectiles straight ahead, one straight backwards.
f. Virgo Whip - Whips three tiles in front of the player. If it damages an enemy, refills player's life.
g. Leo Beam - Fires a solid beam across the entire screen in front of the player.
h. Capricorn Wave - Fires a large singularity straight front of the player, but can be directed somewhat by controls.
i. Taurus Flame - Fires a spinning flame that moves upwards.
j. Cancer Charge - Hold button to charge up, then fire a single blast straight in front of the player. Variable strength.
k. Libra Eye - Fires a diamond that ricochets off of solid surfaces.

SIDEARMS

The sidearm is a gun that uses Energy and shoots energy pellets of variable power and speed. You'll collect bonuses during the game that increase the power, speed, or energy efficiency of the sidearm. The formula for how much Energy each shot uses is: Speed + Power * 2 - Energy. The pellets get bigger as the power increases.

1. Single Shot Sidearm - Fires once per button press. Tap button for rapid fire.
2. Rapid Fire Sidearm - Hold the button to fire repeatedly. Rate of fire depends on Speed.

MISSILE LAUNCHER

You'll find Missile Packs throughout the game. Each one contains five missiles. Missiles are (usually) the most powerful weapon available at a given time, but they have limited ammunition. Some enemies are immune to missiles.

1. Concussive Missiles - Fires one missile at a time. Penetrates walls, but does not explode.
2. Explosive Missiles - Fires one missile at a time. Explodes and deals damage over an area on contact with a wall or enemy. Affects more types of enemies that Concussive Missiles.
3. Super Missiles - Fires five missiles at once. Causes a massive explosion dealing heavy damage over a large area. Because it uses up more missile ammunition, it does not replace Explosive Missiles in your subscreen - you can always choose to use the lower level missiles if you like.

BOMBS

Good ol' bombs. Works the same way they work in Zelda Classic. Eventually, they'll bump the character up a bit just like in the Metroid series.

1. Bombs
2. Remote Bombs

BEAMS

The beam uses more energy than the Sidearm and fires a more powerful blast.

1. Electric Beam - Fires a damaging beam. Activates some electronics, hatches space fish eggs.
2. Freeze Beam - Freezes enemies for a short period of time, letting you walk on them to get to higher places.

----- TOOLS

1. Torch - Works exactly like the Red Candle.
2. Volt Key - Opens doors and activates technology designed by the former inhabitants of the Zodiac asteroid.
3. Grapple Beam - Works sort of like the hookshot, but in 8 directions. Pulls you towards grapple-able surfaces and holds you there as long as you hold the button. A second level Grapple Beam, which works on all solid surfaces, is planned as an optional item.
4. Detector - Works exactly like the Lens of Truth.
5. Health Tank - Consumable. Works exactly like the Water of Life, except you can stockpile up to 9 of them. (Needs scripting to get the higher level pickups to work correctly).
6. Overdrive Adapter - Consumable. Temporarily (20-30 seconds) boost your energy and health regeneration through the roof. Can only carry one at a time. Handy for carnage against bosses in the flying zones, or for constant dashing.
7. Sagittarius Changer - Use this item to switch your Zodiac Weapon.
8. Bullet Eraser - Clears the screen of enemy bullets. Consumes energy and missile ammunition.
9. Warp Pod (not yet implemented) - Consumable. Acts just like Fayore's wind; creates a portal, use again to return to that point. Carry up to 9.

----- BODY (passive equipment)

1. Armor. Three levels, works exactly like Rings.
2. Health Dynamo - Recharges hit points slowly.
3. Energy Dynamo - Increases energy recharge speed. Two levels. Less effective in flying levels. (Needs work)
4. Spin Attack - Changes the double jump into a spinning attack like the Screw Attack in Metroid. (Needs some work)
5. Communicator - Not yet implemented. Will let user hack into computer networks at different levels. Levels 2 and above will also display to screen the "Screen-Next" information, showing where on the map secrets and switches have triggered changes.

---- PROPULSION (passive equipment)

1. Hi-Jump - Doubles jump height.
2. Dash - Level 1: Hold R to double running speed. Level 2: Hold R to triple speed and move through vertical walls one tile thick. Dashing uses energy, double so for Level 2 dash.
3. Double Jump - Level 1 - Jump again once in the air. Level 2 - Infinity Jump - Jump repeatedly.
4. Wall Cling - Press towards a wall to cling to it. You can jump again from the wall.
5. Stomp - Exactly the same as Stomp Boots.

----- SHIP

Ship items are only relevant when you're flying around.

1. Ship Cannon - Five levels. High levels shoot faster, deal more damage, and have greater range.
2. Ship Jets - Three levels. Increased levels increase ship speed.
3. Ship Bomb - Four levels. This determines how powerful and how much range your ship's mega attack (hold L) has.

This quest file is unpassworded, so you can get access to my scripts. This is your best access to custom boss and custom enemy scripts.

Cheats are enabled so you can explore.


Download Link: http://users.sephiroth.ws/C-Dawg/zodiac.zip
(Thanks to user "Sephiroth" for the hosting space)

A few screenshots for flavor:

[DarkFlameWolf]

you sir, are awesome.

[Sam Atoms]

High time we saw these new betas in genuine action.

We need more threads like this one, we really do.

[C-Dawg]

One other note about the way the character jumps. If you start your jump about two pixels inside of a block, you'll "grab" the side of the block as you go and be able to slide or jump up the side. It's unintentional, but it's predictable enough to leave in as a feature. Experiment a little and you'll see what I mean.

Here's a brief walkthrough for those who don't want to cheat to explore. There's no plot elements added yet to direct you.

(1) Complete the opening flying level.
(2) Fill up at the recharge station (ammunition is limited) and head East, then down.
(3) You'll decend into an underwater area. Defeat the little jellyfish boss by jumping over him and shooting it in the head.
(4) Work your way up from this area to the Aquarius temple area.
(5) On the same screen with the room that gives you a hint to destroy the floor, fire at the floor.
(6) Defeat the bee queen. Let her spawn little bees, then hit her exposed birthing hole when they've cleared out.
(7) Take the Concussion Beam; now you can break the blocks throughout Aquarius.
(8) Head back to the start, go West, hitting switches to open doors.
(9) Optional: Head down to the deepest part of Aquarius. Break open a block in the celing where the hint tells you, and ascend to fight a really nasty boss. Defeat it to get the Level 2 armor.
(10) Go as far West as you can and descend to enter Scorpio.
(11) In Scorpio, work your way down, opening doors with switches (the main switch is hidden behind a wall in the same screen as the room with the fairy who doesn't talk yet.)
(12) Defeat the souped-up Ghoma to collect the Bombs.
(13) Back to Aquarius, use the bombs to get to Aries.
(14) In Aries, find a secret wall to access the lower-West portion of the map. Defeat a boss here for the High-Jump boots.
(15) Back to Aquarius. Use high-jump to get to the switches above the starting location. You can get to Scorpio this way.
(16) Head West through a newly opened door to get to Cancer.
(17) Navigate Cancer and defeat several bosses to get the Disentigration Beam.
(18) Return to Scorpio, digging through the sand with the Distentigration Beam. Find some new switches.
(19) Go through a newly opened door in upper Scorpio, beat the Cactus Blossom (most advanced scripted boss yet!) and earn the Dash Engine.
(20) Back to Aquarius. Head to the far upper East screen to access Pieces (currently called Ocean Zone).
(21) Use Dash to avoid the spitting squids, head East. Defeat a grub-spawning boss to get the Energy Beam.
(22) Return to Aquarius. Head to the middle of lower Aquarius to find Gemini.
(23) Use the Energy Beam in Gemini to hatch the fish eggs and explore.

Thats all there is for now.

[Mega Link]

Awsome!

...

Can I use some of the tiles?

Edit: I try to open the file but it says it's 'invalid'.

[C-Dawg]

You can use whatever you want. I noticed there was no viable side-scrolling tileset in Zelda Classic yet, so I've been making everything from scratch. Not a rip in sight, just pure unadulterated C-Dawg. (Although you can tell that some tiles, like the Gemini Zone, were certainly inspired by tiles in commercial titles.)

You should be able to open it without problems. Unzip the file and use Beta 254 or above. It was created in 254.

[Sam Atoms]

Yeah, this stuff is wicked sick. There are quests that make you wonder, "How did he do that?" and then there are things like this where you just know there's no point in asking.

I have an issue to bring up though. About 10 or 15 minutes after I arrived in the first true side-scrolling area (when you're on foot), the fire button stopped working for some reason, and shortly after, the jump button stopped working as well. Do you know anything about these things tending to happen in 254 quests?

[C-Dawg]

I can half answer your question.

The "fire" button stopped working because you ran out of ammunition. The normal gun is actually the bow and arrows, and true arrows are used to track ammo. Ammo refills at the energy stations with your hit points. I'm not sure whether to keep ammo limited for the player (as it's really irritating to run out) or not. I will probably eventually set it up where, as you run down to 10 or below, the ammo will slowly recover using your energy. Sort of like Earthworm Jim's main weapon, if you remember.

For now, just hit level 4 cheats and refill the player's arrow stock. (Starting arrows, I think it's called.)

As for the jump button - no idea why that would stop working unless you found a room with an error. The jumping is scripted for each side scrolling room, it should never turn off.

Also, here's some shots of the next area Im working with. Those flame jets move in and out, ala Fire Man's level from MM1. The sparky things hug the walls. (Although there's nothing special about it, they're just following an FFC changer path.)

[Gleeok]

You sir are the man... the awesomness, the awesomeness.......
later i'll be bugging you about this enemy spawner thingy, but right now I gotta go play some Zodiac so I can't be bothered.

[_L_]

So, the initial sh'mup level was nice, albeit a bit, umm, repetitive. Perhaps some damage combo FFCs for asteroids or debris to punctuate the enemy waves. I'm also thinking: maybe you could make the landing-area background more detailed (and less obviously tiled) by using appropriately synchronised FFCs (of larger than one tile in expanse)?

I'm not sure how I feel about using the Cave Story music - the leitmotif of the game itself - for the first zone. I have a habit of cringing whenever music that has a great significance to and within its original context (like the Song of Healing from MM, or nearly any track from Chrono Trigger) is used in a ZC quest for considerably less grand purposes. On the other hand, the track itself does give a certain subdued but optimistic atmosphere that the alternative track lacked. (But, I'm still of the opinion that you should used this [ ]http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/n64/SamusStage2.mid[ ] similar-but-different track instead...)