[Plint Michigan]

Okay, so I've been playing the Luckyman Megaman 5 hacks, and to be honest, I may sound crazy but they do intrigue me a bit. It might just be the fact there's seven of them and beating all seven sounds like a fun challenge. The problem is... the game is very poorly designed. The graphics, I'm assuming have to do with Japanese memes or something, but the insane difficulty stems from a plethora of cheap hits and flickering sprites, slow down, excessive use of pit traps, and just over all poor design. So... just now I started hacking the game in order to make a more reasonable difficulty for the hack.

There are plenty of good hacking tools that will allow me to edit the level layout, sprites, and enemies placements. However I'm worried the only way to edit the AI of enemies is through rocket science (hex editing). I especially want it for this one boss who places these devices that petrify Megaman and can infinite trap him. He can actually shoot these devices too. I don't mind having them petrify Megaman, but I think it's bull**** when he simply places these objects. I want to make it so he ONLY shoots them to make things more fair.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Honestly, I don't think it's worth the effort to fix. The hacker of that one, Chiko, has dozens and dozens of very low quality hacks and has stolen music, graphics and code changes from other hackers and used them in his awful hacks.

If Chiko is involved, chances are the hack isn't worth your time.

[Plint Michigan]

That's kind of the point, though. I want to remake them BECAUSE they suck so badly. I don't mind the music so much, or even the graphics, but the cheap-shots and poor level design choices shouldn't be too hard to fix. The only thing that should be hard is fixing the enemies who shoot bullets at random speeds, and often shoot things at 0 speed.

[Scio]

To edit the enemy AI you need to know ASM. No other way around it, and there's no tool to do it. You'll have to learn ASM and try it.

Honestly, like Satoshi said, it's not worth the effort.

[Plint Michigan]

I don't see why not. Most of the problems are easily fixable.

Still, is ASM anything like Hex editing?

In the first game, I've only fought Mame Marble, Mame Neon, Mame Runner, and Mame Crab. Mame Marble's main challenge is the lowered roof. Without it, he's still formidable, but much more reasonable. Mame Neon uses a strict pattern which isn't too hard to crack, so he's not too bad. Mame Runner is SERIOUSLY difficult because of his high-speed attack where he dashes back and forth across the room really fast, but since you can air slide to keep yourself in the air long enough to outlast the attack, it's fair enough that I'd keep it that way. ...But Mame Crab... Ugh! I tried secluding him to his starting area, but he can STILL infinitely petrify you. To make matters worse, he always summons his waves in front of you or behind so you can't count on his attacks freeing you either. All you can do is wham that keyboard in hopes you can break free. So far, Mame Crab is the only one that needs serious dire change. And I haven't even fought the other bosses. But one of them is called Mame Death, which I cannot imagine being a fair fight.

[Scio]

ASM is in a whole other level above HEX editing. If you're going to learn it just to change some enemy behavior, you'll already have some knowledge to make a game yourself.

[Zynk]

Mame Marble, Mame Neon, Mame Runner, and Mame Crab

What the hec--those creatures have names? 

[Plint Michigan]

Hmmm, Luckyman 1 seems to be do-able, but Luckyman 2 seems to be even worse with the cheapness factor.

[Plint Michigan]

Hmmm, Luckyman 1 seems to be do-able, but Luckyman 2 seems to be even worse with the cheapness factor.

Alright, I have ultimately decided I will be stopping after the first one. I've done everything I could for the first game, and except for a few of the later bosses, I've managed to make the game more or less perfectly fair and beatable. But the second one? The second one is beyond fixable by common utilities. I mean, in the first one at the very least the enemies themselves were not overly cheap, and most of the ones that were were are fixable through editing the layout of the stage. Even Mame Crab was made relatively fair by adding plenty of platforms, providing a trick to beating him that involves standing on the top platform and alternating between that and the lower platform to shoot Mame Crab when he does. But in number 2, we have erratic swinging hammers that instantly kill, spouts of death that are impossible to bypass, enemies that shoot endless streams of un-dodgeable bullet hell, it's just way too much. It would actually require HEX and ASM editing.

Anyway, Satoshi suggested I work on other hacks. He brought up (I think) Megaman Hyperion, and how it's stages have a lot of areas that require the Rush Coil. That might be what I will work on next.

[Plint Michigan]

I have no idea if this is relevant anymore, but I just might resume part of the project. I am hesitant on submitting my first hack, and a lot of the Luckyman hacks seem beyond repair, HOWEVER I do have plans on trying to fix Luckyman 4. It not only seems to be one of the only hacks in the series that actually seems fixable, but their seems to be other interesting things in this hack as well, such as alternate paths and a powerup that lets you air-slide as long as you can stay in the air. ...Actually, the airslide is one of the few things I like about the hacks is the fact they incorporate them.

Maybe I should submit my first edit before I work on the edit for the fourth game, but... I don't think this was a popular idea to begin with, which is why I was so hesitant on submitting the first one.

[Zynk]

Don't forget to categorize it as an Addendum & crediting that devil, CHIKO.