Sonic 5 - Improvement Vol.2 (Nes)

[sics]

No!!! my whole answer was erased

In short, Thank you very much for the messages of support!!!

Yes, the enemies have been partially edited, because at the moment there are some details that prevent me from making great modifications. hopefully in the future you can do an update just of that

Nop, there is no new music in this hack, remember that I am not a composer, although the update of the music engine of Ti_ sounds great!

I must admit that that cover looks great, although I feel that you should have chosen a font similar to "in the world", if you look at all the small text share that font

_{Note 1: The Marble Zone craterkiller was not moved, not because it could not, just because of evil.}
^{Note 2: Excuse me for the bad translation, my session expired just before I published my original response and got lost in infinity}

[Spooniest]

Note 1: The Marble Zone craterkiller was not moved, not because it could not, just because of evil.

Your translation is excused. I don't know a bloody word of Spanish, myself.

However if you are bored, the name of the enemy is "Cater-killer," not a "Crater-Killer."

There is an insect called a caterpillar. It is what asks Alice to recite a poem, in Alice In Wonderland.

So, the name of the enemy is a pun, instead of a "Caterpillar," it is a "Cater-killer."

Because it kills you. And yes, they are evil little bastards.

[duiz]

I must admit that that cover looks great, although I feel that you should have chosen a font similar to "in the world", if you look at all the small text share that font

Oh the "Improvement Vol 2." part uses the same typeface font as the original Japanese did on the original since I managed to locate it.
I actually remade each component in vector rather than just using a scan, so it can be scaled proper to print sizes and whatnot.

[darthvaderx]

I'm sorry for my ignorance but you can explain these two options to me:

STH - Block Extra animatios.ips

Menu Code - Select (Others).ips

Are they not already included in vol. 2?

[sics]

Sorry, the project has a temporary readme:

STH - Block Extra animatios: It was made to order, removes all extra animations from the backgrounds, such as clouds and diamonds in Marble zone, for example.

Menu Code - Select (Others): It was also made to order, simplifies the trick of the zone selection menu at the press of the select button.

As soon as possible I will add an update to it, I am currently complicated, sorry

If someone who has followed this project wishes to volunteer to help in this regard, I would greatly appreciate it

duiz That's the attitude!!! , if you have a deviant or blog please share it, everyone should know your work, on the other hand I do not plan to make reproductions or anything like that, I'd love to have one I don't deny it, but I'm on the side of the world that grew with dendy

Spooniest Oh, interesting

[NiO]

I havent played yet, but I read about a guy who play it and said nearly the exact same thing Spooniest said.

Enemies are hard to avoid because as soon as they are on screen they already attacked you.

Just leaving this as feedback if an update is in your mind.

Congrats on the release.

[peixemacaco]

Hi Sics... Congrats on the rom finished! 

Just to understand.... the final rom, not yet with Sonic or I'm doing something stupid?  Lol
I'd used first this ips Somari to Somari (As) 

Now I had applied all others (some have 2 options) and now Mario changed to the Family Kid

Thanks,
Nelson

-----
Hola Sics, felicitaciones por su projecto finalizado!
Apenas para entender.....la rom final, hasta ahora no tiene Sonic ou estoy haciendo algo stupido?  Jajaja
Jo usei primero lo ips Somari to Somari (As)
Ahora jo ha aplicado todos los otros (alguns tienen 2 opciones) , Mario ha cambiado to Family Kid

Gracias,
Nelson

Thanks,
Nelson

[G30FF]

I've played up to Spring Yard Act 1 so far, and I like the visual tweaks you've done so far! It's looking very good. However, a lot of the underlying problems of the game are still there. If you have any ability to adjust the game physics, or enemy behaviour, then I have the following suggestions:

- Tweak Sonic's movement a bit. Right now, there are points where if he has any momentum, he will move at full speed even if you release the d-pad, and he will unpredictably accelerate rapidly in the air if you try to steer his jump, or will creep along at a snail's pace another time. It's inconsistent, and for a game that seems designed around precision jumps, this leads to a lot of deaths.
- Change the behaviour of buzz bombers and crabmeat badniks so that they don't fire their shots as soon as they scroll on screen (or so they don't fire as often), and/or slow down the speed of their bullets to give you more reaction time. This is part of the imprecise controls from before, because as it is right now, you can often end up running right into a bullet you could not have known was coming without memorizing enemy placement, and even if you knew it was coming, the loose controls mean you sometimes can't react the way you need to.

Even if the former suggestion won't work, tweaking the timing/speed of shots coming from badniks would go a long way to relieving frustrations with the game. You've done an excellent job of this so far, and it's definitely a much more enjoyable experience than it was before! Keep up the good work!

[peixemacaco]

I've played up to Spring Yard Act 1 so far, and I like the visual tweaks you've done so far! It's looking very good. However, a lot of the underlying problems of the game are still there. If you have any ability to adjust the game physics, or enemy behaviour, then I have the following suggestions:

- Tweak Sonic's movement a bit. Right now, there are points where if he has any momentum, he will move at full speed even if you release the d-pad, and he will unpredictably accelerate rapidly in the air if you try to steer his jump, or will creep along at a snail's pace another time. It's inconsistent, and for a game that seems designed around precision jumps, this leads to a lot of deaths.
- Change the behaviour of buzz bombers and crabmeat badniks so that they don't fire their shots as soon as they scroll on screen (or so they don't fire as often), and/or slow down the speed of their bullets to give you more reaction time. This is part of the imprecise controls from before, because as it is right now, you can often end up running right into a bullet you could not have known was coming without memorizing enemy placement, and even if you knew it was coming, the loose controls mean you sometimes can't react the way you need to.

Even if the former suggestion won't work, tweaking the timing/speed of shots coming from badniks would go a long way to relieving frustrations with the game. You've done an excellent job of this so far, and it's definitely a much more enjoyable experience than it was before! Keep up the good work!

G30FF as you'd said , you played with Sonic...

What do I need to get Sonic instead of Family Kid or Mario? I had applied all ips (message above yours)

Tks,
Nelson

[sics]

Sonic improvement has too many changes to be presented in IPS, it is distributed in xdelta.

At this time I can not answer the other queries I am on the street sorry for the inconveniente

[Googie]

Congrats on the release, sics. I'm gonna give it a spin later om tonight. 

[Spooniest]

G30FF as you'd said , you played with Sonic...

What do I need to get Sonic instead of Family Kid or Mario? I had applied all ips (message above yours)

Tks,
Nelson

There is a program you can get, in the "Utilities" section of RHDN, called

xdelta UI

Made by KaioShin, one of the founding members of RHDN.

It's a simple program. It will ask you for the .xdelta patch file, the file you want to modify (Somari), and then ask you to name the new file which will be produced when you combine them.

You don't actually have to use any of the other files, to make it Sonic Improvement. Just Sonic Improvement 2.0.xdelta.

I hope this helps you.

---

sics ¡Mucho mejor! This is a lot more consistent, and the music sounds perfect. I am not having as much trouble with running into enemy shots as with Version 1, but I feel it's still too much. Also, the Buzz Bombers are way too high on the screen. I can't reach them with Sonic's jump. I don't know the details of it, but I agree, perhaps making them a little less "Gatillo fácil" (trigger-happy) would help.

The problem is that Sonic is made to go fast. If a shot is already being fired at me before I can see it, I will run into it. Making shots come at me like it's a Gradius game doesn't feel right for a Sonic game. Most of the time I played (Up to Spring Yard Act 2) was spent either dodging Buzz Bomber and Krabmeat shots, or (In Marble Zone) trying to figure out which way I was going ( Heh).

I do have to say that the levels are kind of long, and they feel that way because I can tell that certain sections are being re-used again and again. Maybe it needs some of the fat trimmed out, I would say, but from everything I can tell you've done, this might be a big job, so for now I will say what I came here to say:

Even with these issues, I still feel that this slaps the Master System version in the face. If this had come out in 1992, when the NES was still just barely alive, it would have been a hit. I don't think Yuji Naka himself could have done a whole lot better. You get a cookie. 

[duiz]

Made a full printable box for whenever I get around to making a repro of this. I did get a chance to play the hack today and it is significantly improved indeed! I understand the enemy patterns and placements aren't perfect but modifying that would probably require way more complicated modification so I get why that can't be fixed.

[Queue]

Wow, I did a basic playthrough. More than anything, it was actually fun. The original Somari is pretty dumpy and unpleasant to play but you've polished it into a legitimately good game. Obviously there are issues here and there but I'm sure you know them better than any of us, and there's nothing that makes the game unplayable. Thank you for your work!

[peixemacaco]

There is a program you can get, in the "Utilities" section of RHDN, called

xdelta UI

Made by KaioShin, one of the founding members of RHDN.

Thank you Spooniest!!!

Never heard about this tool... lol

Nelson

[Dreamwhale]

Thank you so much for this massive update. Love the new soundtrack! 

As people have already pointed out there's still room for improvement when it comes to physics and difficulty balance. But the fact that everybody who's contributed to this has turned an almost unplayable game into something legitimately decent is pretty impressive.

One thing to consider for potential future updates, that hasn't been mentioned yet, is graphics contrast. While as a whole everything looks rather pretty, some stages lack distinction between fore- and background elements. Labyrinth Zone especially suffers from this, since the same shades of green/beige are used for either. If picking another color for them isn't an option, sacrificing background detail for the sake of playability might be the way to go.

Anyway, congratulations for reaching this milestone!

[Prince Manic]

I have a Flash based Cart of this and I just updated it to this version - its becoming more and more like a nes port of Sonic 1 from Genesis to NES!

Oh there ever be Scrap Brain Zone the level that's been cut out on this? I feel this isn't complete without this missing level there's even a nes version of Scrap Brain Zone in the sound test that is left out.

I'll share this Via Twitter to get the word out on this new and improved version! - just look for the handle @AIHoloLynx (I returned to it recently)

[sics]

First I must clarify that the publication of this hack was advanced to accompany people in quarantine, so in this sense I was working to bring many other interesting improvements that have not yet reached the final cut

But in the same way I must state that I have never studied assembly code, moreover I have learned everything by analyzing the game in Fceux while it was running.

So although I know where the programming of practically any element is located, I only change the things that I am one hundred percent sure of what they are and what they are for, so I cannot promise reprogrammed enemies

On the other hand, there is another hacker who has already done this, but at the moment I never publish his work, perhaps analyzing this project could transfer these changes, but obviously it is still not something that I can assure

On the levels I manage practically all the parameters to modify them, but I do not finish understanding the operation of the list of enemies.

Since it is not enough to establish the attributes of the enemy, the list of objects must follow a correct order to be able to load all the objects, otherwise there will be blocks of enemies absent.

That is why, not knowing what that ordering criterion is, currently the only way to make a drastic edit to an object is to change its position in the list until all the enemies work, which translates into hours of trial and error

Another problem with enemies is that they are automatically loaded when their level block is active, so considering that the game is loading four blocks simultaneously, it is logical that enemies have so much advantage when attacking you.

On the other hand, there are also enemies anchored to one level block, but moved by coordinates to another, which seems to make them react as if Sonic were in front of them.

For the moment until I can figure out what I am missing, the best I could do was try different positions for each enemy until reducing their lethality, but I came to the conclusion that until the technical aspects of them were changed, almost in any place are a pain a nuisance

Although when you master the strange physics of the game, you will see that there are only 3 enemies that cannot be reached, what happens is that the physics of this Sonic definitely do not respond to common sense, which by the way is the most common of the senses.

That's why about reducing the extent of the levels, although I can practically do it, the lack of freedom of positioning of the enemies still prevents me from doing

Unfortunately those who follow this project will know that except for some very great contributions, practically everything else is carried alone, it is sad but it does not seem to be such an attractive project for everyone

There is much more to explain, but despite myself I have just arrived and I must rest to get up early
March 29, 2020, 03:06:19 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Thank you all for your messages, especially Spooniest for solving the peixemacaco question!

duiz


Prince Manic + duiz


Dreamwhale
I can modify the palette that loads any of the blocks, but I am daltonic I do not have the ability to perceive what you say :/

[peixemacaco]

Only to say that this port of Sonic MD to Nes is wonderful! 
I have no complains about it... 

And you don't never studied Assembly 

So... we both

Lol

Nelson

ps: Sics, you're from Spain? T.A. Marcos , from Spain is my partner on romhacks ,Super Monaco GP and Fifa 2020, and he consider your hack one of the bests he ever seen.

[Ti_]

I think it's a bit early for 'final' update.

First, sound effects still as in ver 1.0.  ( example for rings, I used key from little nemo, сan't we find something better? )

Second, I also have an other idea - to change scroll/render to remove side artifacts.

What I don't like, it's a new rings. They are too big. When Sonic get damage, it drops small rings.
This looks stupid, when you collect big rings, but drop other small rings. I prefer v1.0 rings.

new sonic game demo:
https://yadi.sk/d/p4BM-MLcdp3aYw