[DigitalDuck]

Brainulator, on 28 April 2017 - 03:08 PM, said:

Also, may I ask what palette variants exist for Green Hill Zone? I want to have documentation of them. :-P

I assume you mean something like this?

[JojHeywood]

Act 2, if you keep going right the game spawns some objects in front of the player before not generating any more chunks

https://www.dropbox....rl-v01.gs0?dl=0

I had 930 rings and the sudden halt in generation killed me. still yet to have 999. :^(

[DigitalDuck]

JojHeywood, on 28 April 2017 - 07:53 PM, said:

Act 2, if you keep going right the game spawns some objects in front of the player before not generating any more chunks

https://www.dropbox....rl-v01.gs0?dl=0

I had 930 rings and the sudden halt in generation killed me. still yet to have 999. :^(

Yep, that's the bug where objects stop loading because of dodgy checkpoints. It's in the bug list and I know what happens, I just can't figure out why.

The way to get around it, at least for the moment, is to regenerate the level with start+A.

[JojHeywood]

Didn't see a mention of the level generation completely stopping in the known bug checklist, didn't know the object spawning was a symptom of that, my bad />

edit: I'm an idiot, it is there. whoops.

This post has been edited by JojHeywood: 28 April 2017 - 08:15 PM

[null1024]

Really cool. I absolutely hate that 2 left springs and an up formation, though (it was basically the only time I died, however).
Played for like 24 minutes before finally stopping because there really wasn't any end in sight.
I got totally stuck at one point, here's a Fusion savestate:
https://my.mixtape.moe/kzhymg.gsx

Also, is it just me, or do speed shoes and invincibility last really, really long?

[DigitalDuck]

null1024, on 28 April 2017 - 08:15 PM, said:

Really cool. I absolutely hate that 2 left springs and an up formation, though (it was basically the only time I died, however).
Played for like 24 minutes before finally stopping because there really wasn't any end in sight.
I got totally stuck at one point, here's a Fusion savestate:
https://my.mixtape.moe/kzhymg.gsx

Same bug again. I didn't realise it was this common.

null1024, on 28 April 2017 - 08:15 PM, said:

Also, is it just me, or do speed shoes and invincibility last really, really long?

It's just you, it's unchanged from the original.

[Brainulator]

DigitalDuck, on 28 April 2017 - 04:37 PM, said:

Brainulator, on 28 April 2017 - 03:08 PM, said:

Also, may I ask what palette variants exist for Green Hill Zone? I want to have documentation of them. :-P

I assume you mean something like this?

Thanks!

This post has been edited by Overlord: 01 May 2017 - 02:29 PM
Reason for edit: Removed unecessary screen-sized image for a single word post

[DigitalDuck]

Status update:



When starting the game, you're presented with a series of menus to help customise your game to your liking. Not all of them work right now, but they will.

You might notice the length is given as 1.7km - this is because I've also implemented a distance tracker:



Possible level lengths are 500m, 900m, 1.7km, 3.3km, 6.6km, 13km, and infinite. For comparison, the three acts in v0.1 are 6.6km, 13km, and 26km; the original GHZ1 is 300m.

I've also fixed a number of bugs: checkpoints should no longer prevent the level from loading; signposts should load when they're needed, and only when they're needed; the demo now locks Sonic's controls, and pressing START ends the demo and returns to the title screen; and the ring counter holds four digits and is capped at 9999.

There are other changes to the way the level generation works behind the scenes. I've done some preliminary work and Labyrinth Zone looks like it'll have a lot more variety than Green Hill Zone does. I'm also working on fixing the most annoying parts of the Green Hill Zone generation (yes, I'm talking about those three springs) and adding things that should've been there in the first place. There's still a bit more to do, but I'm happy that it's coming along smoothly.

I also streamed a complete playthrough of the release version a few days ago, and I've uploaded the recording to YouTube. I wouldn't watch it unless you really want two hours of Green Hill Zone, though.

[Chris Highwind]

If I might suggest something, perhaps you can also have the option to change how many lives you have, e.g. 1 life, 3 lives, infinite lives, etc.

Because with infinite lives and infinite length, the only way a run would end would be if someone was too sick of the level to go on and wasn't going for some record.

This post has been edited by Chris Highwind: 21 May 2017 - 09:09 AM

[DigitalDuck]

Chris Highwind, on 21 May 2017 - 09:09 AM, said:

If I might suggest something, perhaps you can also have the option to change how many lives you have, e.g. 1 life, 3 lives, infinite lives, etc.

Because with infinite lives and infinite length, the only way a run would end would be if someone was too sick of the level to go on and wasn't going for some record.

If you want the run to end, don't choose to make it infinitely long.

I won't be implementing lives, for many reasons:
1. Having multiple lives then leaves open arguments on whether rings or score (or even distance) should award extra lives.
2. Given the nature of the hack, deaths can often not be the fault of the player. It wouldn't be fair to have a harsh punishment for doing so.
3. If the level needs to be regenerated, should that cost a life? If yes, see 2. If no, it's a pretty easy way to save yourself a life when you're falling.
4. There's a time limit (24 hours), and in the future I might provide options to change this limit instead. I'd rather use this to limit length than the lives system.
5. If you want to play on a single life, you can do it anyway. When you die, don't continue - make a note of the distance you reached and go back to the menu.

[Brainulator]

I'm curious about the Item options... and A E S T H E T I C O P T I O N S

[MainMemory]

I think it could be neat if the hack kept a record of the furthest you've gotten without dying, maybe even with an online high score table.

[DigitalDuck]

Brainulator, on 21 May 2017 - 10:51 AM, said:

I'm curious about the Item options... and A E S T H E T I C O P T I O N S

Item options control which item monitors can appear.

ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ　ＯＰＴＩＯＮＳ is the screenshot on the right of the three, controlling palette progression, day/night cycle, and music.

MainMemory, on 21 May 2017 - 12:07 PM, said:

I think it could be neat if the hack kept a record of the furthest you've gotten without dying, maybe even with an online high score table.

I have a few ideas for highscores in the hack, but they'd be limited for multiple reasons.

If I have an online high score table it wouldn't really matter if it was implemented in the hack or not. And I wouldn't mind doing that for any of the weird challenges people set themselves.

[DigitalDuck]

Status update:

I was fully expecting to be done with Labyrinth Zone by now, but I'm not even close.

Firstly, somehow I landed a short-term job over the last month that's taken most of my time. Which is a good thing for me, but a bad thing for S1RL.

Secondly, even when working on this all of my attention has gone to Green Hill Zone; as far as setting up the data for generation goes, at the moment it's incredibly unstable - removing those three springs that everybody hates has required me to completely rewrite the data collection algorithms to not get stuck all the time, and while they're becoming more stable, they're still not quite there yet.

As for Labyrinth Zone...



If you'd seen the screenshots in the previous update, you'll notice that I wanted an option to have bosses at the end of the act. I've removed this option - getting the boss to work right is incredibly difficult, and the end result is just an underwhelming wait before you can finish the level; the signpost is just a much better way of ending and it's much more reliable from a programming perspective too.

I do have an idea for a replacement option, though. It changes things up a lot more - stay tuned for that.

My current plan of action:

On the 26th of July, I'm off to Japan on holiday; following that is the release of Mania, and I'm going to be busy towards the end of August. Essentially, there's a whole month where I'm not going to be able to work on this at all.

Before I leave (probably around the 23rd), I will patch it up and release whatever I have at that point, Labyrinth or no Labyrinth. It'll definitely feature an improved GHZ, although whether it's one I can make changes to without it falling apart remains to be seen.

[Brainulator]

Eh, I'm more neutral on those three springs.

I have thoughts on how bosses and infinitely-long levels could be handled, but I'd like to see where you go first. Good luck regardless!