The screenshots here are actually from (my implementation of) Sonic Jam's Normal mode. I have the Easy layouts in too, but they only exist for approximately every other act, so I need to add in the act skipping to get Easy going correctly. There should also be a reduction in boss hit count for Easy, but I'm currently mulling over how much of that I'm going to put in, given that it does actually cause at least one major bug that I'd need to fix to match it exactly (specifically, you can break the final chase in Death Egg by beating emerald-carrying Robotnik too fast!) The layouts are all based on the S&K ones, even if you play S3A in Jam. Also in those modes, the special stages always stay at the starting speed; I've added this too. I've never actually played Jam other than to try and figure out what I'm doing here, so if anybody knows of any other changes I should be looking to emulate, please let me know! You still seem to need all 14 emeralds from what I've seen so far, which would explain why both acts of MHZ seem to have Easy layouts... As for Flying Battery, I'm afraid the option to move it around still won't be in the next release, but I've started work on it - you'll be able to see its nighttime form if you search around. I do hope to have a look at the MHZ boss scrolling soon, but no promises. I have a bunch of little bits half done at the moment that are going to need finishing up.
Another question: Is there going to be an obvious way for us to tell that we're currently in "S3A" mode from the title screen? (It's currently quite easy to differentiate S3C from S&K due to the very different tiitle screens, naturally.) Will there be some sort of a menu interface and stuff, instead of the current setup?
Yes, there is a menu before the title screen to allow you to select which game to play. As of now it looks like this: You can force the game to start up into S3C mode, or any of the other game modes, in which case there's less of a clue - but you can press B to get back to the master menu if you're not sure (or just examine the save screen).
Probably a bit late for that, since it looks like you already worked on that and this is just an suggestion after all, but it isn't better to change the "Sonic 3 (Part One)" to something like "Sonic The Hedgehog 3". Kinda feels more natural, and if the problem is to be more specific, well remember there is already a Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and a Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (yes the Hedgehog it's still on the tittle screen) And it's hard to confuse to something that have "Complete" after it.
Dunno about that, but maybe (ORIGINAL) would be better than (PART ONE). And hey, Tiddles, give yourself some credit in that copyright notice! :P
That is pretty sweet, I have to say. Also, I always feel a bit weird in asking for features, but it would be kinda cool if there were an option to swap out with a code or something (a la TAILS/MILES) the music cues from "Sonic 3 style" to "S&K style" for the full-version (or, heck, any of the modes, I suppose). After all, sometimes I prefer the S&K Knuckles and title screen music (and I've been keeping it in the game as the S&K mode default as well, so it's not like it's not there in the first place). It's in the ROM anyway (well, at least if certain options are picked). === I guess I'll also ask about whether or not you'll be making it so the continue count on the data select menu can be updated between levels (I believe that right now, as in the original, it only updates after getting one in a special stage). This has always kinda bothered me, given the slot machine bonus stage. Also, I was curious if you were aware (it was a particularly minor bug but as long as I'm commenting I may point it out) that if you go into the HPZ Special Stage option on the select screen when there are no "gray" super emeralds, after taking the teleporter back out, when the reloading happens the camera coordinates aren't vertically locked any more. This isn't a problem when taking an emerald out of the level, though. Again, very minor issue, and I'm actually more glad that it's even there in the first place. (Speaking of which, did the fact that the gray emeralds still showed up while playing through HPZ, even if you never entered one of the super-emerald rings, ever bother you? It did for me.) === And, as long as I'm going to be crazy/anal-retentive, this here's a super-crazy idea I really don't expect you to implement, but you know how Knuckles in S&K doesn't actually have an ending screen for the "between 7 and 14 emeralds" ending? Maybe this is a cool place for his grinning-while-juggling-emeralds pose from Sonic 3. But yeah, this especially is very minor, don't expect you to implement it, etc. f you've toyed around with ways of putting in the End of Act Results music at the end of LBZ2 (is there a way to restart a song somewhere in the middle? Restarting from the beginning of the boss music after that would seem weird, but I don't think there's another way to do it; all the simple solutions seem unsatisfying).
Jeez, why so aggressive, I was just pointing out, guess that sort of response deserves an aggressive response to you too. We all have eyes Mr. Oldbie, thank you, now the reason behind the changes was the real point here, including the three little rings up there. :v: Warning: This post is also not meant to take seriously.
Because you sound like a douche. Then use those eyes to see that he asked if people could find them. Pointing this out makes you look like an idiot. He asked if anyone could recognise the changes, not to explain why he made them. Eat shit.
...Just...wow. ...Are you actually serious? Well if you are genuinely offended by that, I'm sorry. Well it was really as I was saying, I was just pointing it out, nothing more, no bad intentions.
One little thing has always bothered me about S3&K which hasn't been addressed in S3C. I haven't gone through this entire thread, but I don't believe the the issue of the "Eggrobo rising from the scrapheap" ending has been brought up. When you finish vanilla S&K as Sonic with all the Chaos Emeralds, this is the ending screen that appears: I feel this was really important, as it was one of the few obvious things that bridged Sonic's story into Knuckles', signifying to the player that the story isn't really over yet. Unfortunately, this ending screen was not used in Sonic's good ending in S3&K, instead being replaced with the "everyone standing triumphantly in front of the logo" screen, and that motif has carried into S3 Complete. I would really like to see this screen restored for Sonic's (and I guess Tails') good ending. The fact that it doesn't seem to appear in the mod anywhere is really one of my only complaints about the project so far. It would also be nice to have an option to disable bonus stages completely, since I've always found that they make the game a bit too easy. Apart from those things, I really appreciate all of the hard work that's gone into Sonic 3 Complete. It's nice to see that so many others are on the same page as me as to how S3&K could've been much better, and it's been a real treat.
That screen does show up in S3&K and S3C, but only if you complete Sonic/Tails's story with at least all the Chaos Emeralds, but not all the Super Emeralds. Beating the game with all the Super Emeralds brings up that "everyone standing triumphantly in front of the logo" screen.
While I'm not entirely bothered by this, upon looking at the image again, I do admit that usually when I play this game, I can't help but to really try to "complete 100%" the game and thus get all the emeralds and never see this ending. Even though everyone knows Knuckles goes on to fight the egg robo, it would be neat if the egg robo ending would actually be an "additional intro" to Knuckles's story. This could help point out a bit more why Knuckles goes on to fight Eggrobo. Putting aside the "it's an ending", this alternative would make the scene stand out. Which bonus stages? the ones in the sign posts or the giant rings? In any case, both can be avoided completely, and the inclusion of using an alternate button to go super/hyper can help you go "hard" mode without needing the emeralds and just collect them for the sake of 100% completion.
I meant the bonus stages accessed through Star Posts. It would also be nice to have some kind of optional ring number requirement in order to access Special Stage warp rings (ie: 50 rings), but as you mentioned, you could just as easily make the game harder by avoiding Star Posts completely and then, say, avoiding all warp rings in Angel Island Zone and Mushroom Hill/Valley Zone where there are way too many. Oh wow, either I never knew this, or that is one detail I had completely forgotten over the years! Well, I still think that it should appear in some form of Sonic and Tails' perfect ending... maybe as an additional screen after the standard ending screen with the logo? But as long as it is in the game, I suppose it isn't as huge a deal as I thought.
I think this was suggested once before, somewhere back in the thread. I'm in two minds about it. It's a shame that you don't see the link to Knuckles' story if you happened to get all the Super Emeralds; on the other hand, I don't want to take out the victory logo, or make that segment too long, and I'm not sure how I feel about "You did everything right, but here's an ominous portent anyway, the meaning of which isn't particularly obvious until you've played all the characters." So I think on balance I'm probably about happy with how it is. I will probably change my mind again eventually... I chose "Sonic 3 Part One" for the menu title because it's the closest thing I have to being official (see the extended EU boxart pic) without calling it plain "Sonic [the Hedgehog] 3". I didn't want to call it just that because, within the hack itself, I'm pushing the notion that Sonic 3 Complete is the proper Sonic 3 - hence the lack of "Complete" identification in the full game. This has been fixed, but IIRC you're still going to need to finish the zone you're in to save them. I want to do that eventually. Since 110623 all the music options are switched in RAM, so you can do something like this with savestates if you want to - take a savestate from a version patched the way you want it and load it onto a different patched copy and it'll retain the track selection from the version it was saved on until you reset. I want to make a decent selection mechanism rather than stick in button codes, so it'll probably come later. Will all patch options eventually be controlled this way? I doubt it, due to a massive shortage of free RAM to store option selections, and because some upcoming changes would require massively more space in the ROM for all options to be available at once. Layouts/Jam mode and track selections are the ones I definitely want to do this way at some point. There's a more general issue there that's also affecting the bonus stages when they loop back into themselves (you only really notice in Gumball). I might get to the bottom of it eventually, but it's a low priority, especially given that you're pretty much stuck anyway once that happens! Hmm, that does seem to be a mistake. I'll try to sort that out. I can't think of a better way to finish LBZ in S3C than I already have - I'm pretty happy with losing the victory music there as a compromise between getting the zone results and not interrupting the scene. By the way, there's a minor change to the S3A version of that to make it more consistent with the full game; you'll also have the opportunity to see Knuckles juggling emeralds again there, of course, albeit with the emerald palettes actually correct now...
Again, forgive me for bringing up something that's likely been brought up before, but for the Sonic and Tails playthrough, has any consideration been given for having Tails stay behind with Knuckles in Sky Sanctuary Zone instead of coming with Sonic to Death Egg Zone? Something just seems so wrong about the idea of Tails being alone on board the Death Egg as it explodes. How did he escape and get the Tornado to rescue Sonic in the end? I realize that Tails' presence there is very much a part of the game (to the point where certain parts, such as the sub-boss in Act 2, are redesigned to accommodate him!), but having him not go through Sky Sanctuary and Death Egg just makes so much more sense to the game's flow.
