=Metroid Vanguard= Samus.pk3 (Huge update!)

Thanks a lot for the advice! I'm a mindlessly bumbling idiot when it comes to working on HUD stuff. The only way I get anything done at all is by constant trial and error until I seem to get things where I want them....and then figure out it still breaks in netplay/splitscreen/weird resolutions/certain addon combinations. It's been a nightmare, but I plan on addressing as much as I can in future updates.

Sometimes I find myself farming a monitor for a power up I want to have only because it keeps giving me pickups I already have maxed out (missiles/morphball bombs). Maybe adding checks on the player's arsenal to prevent such scenarios would be good.

Everything Samus gets is a luxury, so not getting exactly what you want on the first try shouldn't be an issue. There's already checks for some monitors that basically guarantee powerup drops depending on the player arsenal, but that's not the case for more rare/powerful drops. If I guaranteed drops for everything depending on what you had, you could be at full power easily at the end of GFZ2. Getting too much ammo should be an encouragement to use missiles/powerbombs. They are still stronger, after all. Only giving you tanks/powerups just because you're stingy and maxed out would be nuts. Also, respawning monitors are only in multiplayer coop. You won't get that luxury in Single Player. Now I could make monitors ricochet shots from players who've already opened them before in coop, but I feel like that goes a bit too far just to prevent camping...?

I also don't know how difficult it would be to implement, but having a system that saves your abilities similar to KeepStuff.wad if you are to get synched out of a netgame would be very neat, as I can see stuff being very detrimental to a player who just got a fully powered suit and happens to get synched out because someone has terrible internet.

If I can do it, I more than happily will! Been looking into something like that for the autospeedbooster and swapfire commands too.

This wad is amazing, man! I remember hearing about the Metroid Dreadnaught mod and being disappointed that I couldn't buy the game required to play the mod. But you, Golden Shine, made my dreams come true! I've played this mod a lot, and I gotta say, you did an excellent job!

I do wonder what your future plans for the mod may be. You plan on adding stuff? Or just a couple of bug fixes and balances to the character? Possibly even... including her grappling beam?

Thanks a ton, I'm glad to make people happy! I've been thinking about the Grapple Beam, but I feel like in this kind of game it'd be waaaay overpowered. I could limit it's use, maybe, but how? Grapple Beam "ammo"? In general a powered up Samus already borderline breaks SRB2....still, that said, I do have at least one little extra ability in mind. Also been considering beam combos like in Metroid Prime, but ooooo boy....would be a bitch to balance those....
 
There seems to be an issue when it comes to playing as Samus in pre-2.1 Special Stages. Not matter how many rings you collect, you'll never reach the requirement. Any way to fix that?
 
This is probably a bad question, but when did SRB2 stop allowing save files when character WADs are loaded in? I'd love to play through all of the game with Samus, but I'm not up to doing it all in one run. Is this problem local to me, or does everyone experience it?
 
There seems to be an issue when it comes to playing as Samus in pre-2.1 Special Stages. Not matter how many rings you collect, you'll never reach the requirement. Any way to fix that?

Since Samus doesn't use the ring system, it simply never counts rings. Pre-2.1 special stages never even came to my mind since they're not used anymore. That said, I know some ways to get around this, so it'll get fixed.

This is probably a bad question, but when did SRB2 stop allowing save files when character WADs are loaded in? I'd love to play through all of the game with Samus, but I'm not up to doing it all in one run. Is this problem local to me, or does everyone experience it?

It's been an issue for a long time. If the game thinks it's modified, it simply refuses to save anymore.(though you can cheat this limitation by adding a character and then some mod with a custom save) Even if this wasn't a thing, though, the problem is that it won't save any Lua data anyway, so you'd still spawn without all your collected powerups.

Closest thing you can do is use the level select and SamusPowerDrop command to bring you to the level you used to be in and give yourself the powerups you used to have.
 
Alright so I've just come back to play this wad once again, I figured something like Mystic Realm would be good to play through with it since it feels very exploration heavy.

Within the first level I went out of my way to find every single monitor I could and get what I could from them. Out of all the monitors I destroyed only one of them had an upgrade (the Ice beam) and two of them had missile drops, not expansions, drops. The rest consisted entirely of just gold health pickups.

Please increase the rarity of these golden health drops and maybe swap their chances of dropping with the purple health drops.


Also, I'd like to report a bug that the high-jump doesn't actually make you jump any higher than usual, it just gives you the spring ball ability and that's it.

One last thing, could you make it so that energy tanks perminantly increase your health in Single Player and make them the only thing that drop from 1-up monitors? perhaps making it so that you don't actually die from pits and such and instead get warped back to the last checkpoint you touched with a chunk of your health taken away? I played through the entire single player campaign and I had an incredible amount of difficulty defeating the final boss even though I went out guns blazing with super missiles and power bombs.
 
I just finished the vanilla map-pack with Samus and holy crap do I love this WAD. The way that most SRB2 maps are made translates very well to a Metroid-y character. The way the upgrades work makes me actually want to explore the levels, and when I got a fully powered-up suit in CEZ2 and that pumped-up brinstar music started playing I got the most amazing sense of joy and awe.
I had a blast playing this, but I do have a bit of feedback and nitpicks. First of all, as other people have stated, some of the upgrade items' icons don't make sense. Second of all, increase the amount of height the springball can jump, because in Metroid 2 and Super Metroid the high-jump boots increase the springball jump height as well as the regular jump height, and in Zero Mission the High-Jump boots grant the springball, and its jump-height is as high as regular high-jump-height. Third of all, is there a way to diagonal shinespark? I know you can do it vertically and horizontally but I couldn't do it diagonally.
 
Third of all, is there a way to diagonal shinespark? I know you can do it vertically and horizontally but I couldn't do it diagonally.

All you have to do is press back instead of forward to diagonal shine spark, this doesn't work in analog mode though (and really, why would it?)
 
Within the first level I went out of my way to find every single monitor I could and get what I could from them. Out of all the monitors I destroyed only one of them had an upgrade (the Ice beam) and two of them had missile drops, not expansions, drops. The rest consisted entirely of just gold health pickups.

Sounds like really specific RNG. I'll continue to fine-tune monitor drops bit by bit.

Also, I'd like to report a bug that the high-jump doesn't actually make you jump any higher than usual, it just gives you the spring ball ability and that's it.

Are you absolutely sure? I have GIFs from the current Samus version with the High Jump and without the High Jump and it works exactly like it should. Did you add any other wads other than Samus and Mystic Realm that could've interfered somehow?

One last thing, could you make it so that energy tanks permanently increase your health in Single Player and make them the only thing that drop from 1-up monitors?

I'll keep it in mind, at least for the Single Player campaign. For the final boss, I suggest saving your powerbombs/super missiles for the last few hits to kill him before he can blast you off the stage.
 
Sorry, the high jump not working was a bug with one of the wads I'm working on that I always load with the game and I just realised that it was the cause a few days ago when working on something else.
 
Some bugs to be fixed:


Samus cannot shinespark in lower scales, and can shinespark without speed booster in higher scales (Could not replicate latter)


Samus can clip through elevating terrain using morph ball against walls.


Boss knockback from power beam can make scripted bosses impossible.


ACZ upper path merge double spring really just doesn't function without morphing. Samus gets a spontaneous amount of bonus momentum mid-flight, causing issues in that specific spring string.


Morph Ball allows wall clipping at high speeds.


Energy Tanks are not remembered between levels.



Some suggestions:


Minor visual indications for charged boost ball and power bombs. (Red and green glows)


Use grapple beam to grab onto objects like Tails automatically when shooting at them.


Special beam attacks from Super Metroid? I don't know how'd they trigger...


Crystal Flashing. Just, crystal flash.


Give more velocity out of wall jumps in 3D to allow easier wall jumping, and ignore back inputs unless a parameter (ex. expertmode) is activated to override easier wall jumps.


In 2D, allow automatic aiming with forward and backward buttons to direct to up and down immediately, like in the games.
 
Samus.wad 2.2 is being worked on!

Hey everyone, I've been working on Samus again recently! The update's already taken me more time than the entire initial release, so expect it to be a big one....and probably also take a while longer! Also, I realize OpenGL and some resolutions got screwed up even more in recent SRB2 updates, but I managed to redo the way I've written the HUD for the next release. Until then, I suggest using 1080*1920 in software.

==============================

Some bugs to be fixed:
Samus cannot shinespark in lower scales, and can shinespark without speed booster in higher scales (Could not replicate latter)
Surprised you even found this out. Putting that on the to-do list.
Samus can clip through elevating terrain using morph ball against walls.
SRB2 never expects you to switch scales anywhere other than in controlled environments, so it acts wonky sometimes. I put a safeguard into the new version to try and prevent this, mainly to prevent accidentally crushing yourself, but I can't promise it'll be perfect.
Boss knockback from power beam can make scripted bosses impossible.
You mean custom bosses? I'll put in an exception to not push them back.
ACZ upper path merge double spring really just doesn't function without morphing. Samus gets a spontaneous amount of bonus momentum mid-flight, causing issues in that specific spring string.
Considering it's extremely rare and easy to work around, I won't mess with that. I'd likely just cause bugs with other springs if I tried.
Morph Ball allows wall clipping at high speeds.
As in actually clipping past walls? I'm not sure what you mean. Can you show me?
Energy Tanks are not remembered between levels.
That was intentional. They were only for Match/CTF. Due to high demand, though, I've recently implemented them as a system for Coop replacing lives.
Minor visual indications for charged boost ball and power bombs. (Red and green glows)
Already a variation of that implemented in dev version!
Use grapple beam to grab onto objects like Tails automatically when shooting at them.
That's a cool idea. The Grapple Beam isn't a high priority yet, mainly because I'm trying to think of a good way to translate it into SRB2. There's no items to grapple to or pits you have to cross with it, and grappling any random ceilings or flying Tails' could quickly become either too situational or overpowered.
Already implemented in the dev version! They're Metroid Prime-styled Beam Combos, using up excess missiles for special attacks.
...not a priority, but who knows? An extra easter egg can't hurt.
Give more velocity out of wall jumps in 3D to allow easier wall jumping, and ignore back inputs unless a parameter (ex. expertmode) is activated to override easier wall jumps.
Walljumps have always been a bit of a secret bonus for the ones truly trying to master Metroid. I know Samus Returns made it supereasy, but I'd prefer to keep it a reward for skill.
In 2D, allow automatic aiming with forward and backward buttons to direct to up and down immediately, like in the games.
I never even thought about up/down aiming. Will definitely put that in.


 
Interesting that you're continuing to work on this despite Kart taking all of the glory compared to SRB2

I'm not complaining tho, Samus is a fantastic character that I enjoy playing with, but the only problem I'm seeing, which is probably not even a fixable issue due to how complex the character is, a more simplified control scheme.

It feels weird that I have to get all new binds set up just to play as him, the way his controls are setup are not at all SRB2-like, and as a result, I have to rebind some things back to normal whenever I have to switch to say: Sonic during ringslinger modes (why would I ever do that :V).

Hope that issue is at least considered when she will eventually get the update she needs atm
 
I'd say a temporary fix would be to set up some sort of exec file where you have all your Samus binds in one and your non-Samus binds in another, then use the exec command to rebind on the fly. This may be more work than you wanna do though.
 
Interesting that you're continuing to work on this despite Kart taking all of the glory compared to SRB2

I'm not complaining tho, Samus is a fantastic character that I enjoy playing with, but the only problem I'm seeing, which is probably not even a fixable issue due to how complex the character is, a more simplified control scheme.

It feels weird that I have to get all new binds set up just to play as her, the way her controls are setup are not at all SRB2-like, and as a result, I have to rebind some things back to normal whenever I have to switch to say: Sonic during ringslinger modes (why would I ever do that :V).

Hope that issue is at least considered when she will eventually get the update she needs atm

I'm not doing it for popularity, I'm just not really into SRB2 Kart. Not calling it trash, but there's a lot of Mario Kart clones. There's only 1 Sonic game like SRB2.

Anyway, the major focus on the upcoming update is actually accessibility and options! Autospeedbooster and swapfire are implemented into the new ship system for easy access. Weapons can be instantly switched to with numbers, and the Screw Attack can alternatively be activated by double-tapping jump.(Meaning the CUSTOM buttons are entirely optional now)

Analog mode is now also supported and has close range aim-assist on anything that's not a player.

The Screw Attack can be alternatively angled up and down with spin/jump. Shinesparks can alternatively angled diagonally now by pressing spin.

If there's any other binds you find troublesome or wish there was an option for, let me know! Right now in development the only buttons necessary to play Samus are jump, spin, fire, and normalfire.
 
I rarely check forum notifications, sorry.
Morph Ball allows wall clipping at high speeds.
I don't even remember this. I do know that dropping out of morph ball in certain situations, or unmorphing when hitting a wall can clip you in slightly and trap you, but I might've meant actual full-on clipping and don't remember.


=====================

Anyway, I came to this in order to address a few new issues I found, and a few more suggestions.

- Shooting a missile in too close range results in passing through the intended target. Happens significantly more often with supers.

- Very minor and specific, Samus does not appreciate Labrynth Zone from Sugoi.

- I seem to remember a gamecrashing bug with Jasper, and another with Dirk's ice rings.

- I also think something goes wrong with power bombs and super forms. - Samus also really doesn't appreciate Skylua or other mods with recurls or shield modification.

- Breaking a teleportation monitor in Match deletes the monitor permanently.

Now for some suggestions.

- Add a new command to allow us to individually toggle powerups, and allow us to see the powerups we have in multiplayer.

- It's kinda annoying when people disconnect only to lose all their powerups. Probably not fixable without some sort of I/O.

- Add some minor sprite changes based on Samus's aiming direction? She's always aimed in weird ways, and it'd make it feel more like Metroid.

- Let us modify the monitor respawn time like we can for normal characters?

- Samus V Sonic match balancing idea: Give the normal amount of points for the projectile (instead of 50), and allow non-samus characters to have a reduced ring-loss dependent on the damage of the projectile, with Power Bomb direct hits instakilling. Also allow Samus to drop ammo when hit hard enough to knock her back to keep her from spamming Power Bombs to kill everyone at all times.

- Give us a command to give an item directly to a player rather than dropping it.

- In reference to the people before me who have suggested removing lives and using health instead, I have a similar suggestion: life monitors always grant powerups that Samus doesn't already have instead, and instant-killing situations cause Samus to respawn at the last checkpoint and lose 75% of her health and ammo.

- Give Samus a similar death animation to Super Metroid/GBA Games or... um... she hasn't had anything else decent really.

- Grapple Beam could be used for more than grappling random Tails's, as she could grab item pickups with it and grapple onto places where other characters normally grab on or get swung around (CEZ chains, ACZ conveytor lines, old-brak missiles). Those situations are mostly escapable, otherwise possible, or avoidable, so restricting those solely to Grapple Beam would be just like how some levels in Sugoi and Subarashii are nigh-impossible without Space Jump, but can be avoided until later. Power Grip could be used as a weaker version of it, as well.

- Allow Hyper Beam to have boosted ammo/damage/blast radius if it doesn't already have it after getting the Chaos Emeralds.

- On the previous one, Hyper Beam is almost impossible to beat without 3+ people immediately attacking the wielder. Maybe you could restrict the emeralds to only being collectable by the Samus who already has the Hyper Beam, and have the hyper beam be more similar to its SM counterpart (tiny focused beam with the same damage) until they collect the emeralds a second time to gain the explosion, and a third time could make the explosion trigger multiple times or be much bigger and stronger?

- Give us a command to disable Custom Button use individually, as removing the use of those buttons would allow her to interact more with other mods.

- Beam combinations? I don't know how it'd be implemented without some sort of menu... Maybe a command like the first suggestion in this list? Also definitely don't allow all beams together, maybe limit it to 3, counting charge beam, or 2 if you don't wanna count hyper beam.

- Let us rapid-fire weapons automatically if we disable/don't have charge beams, like in Super Metroid?

- Add long beam as an upgrade to reduce the default beam range? Could help match balancing too, and it helps enforce missile use if you add a beam range cap.



I seem to have come off a bit complainy in my previous reply. I really really really like this character in SRB2, and I appreciate the way you've translated her. I hope you update her soon, or give us more previews, cuz she makes SRB2 a much more full game.
 
Samus.pk3 for SRB2 2.2 is almost done!

I actually found the Hyper Beam a little weak in Match, but then again, I run my tests with beam combos. Not having the Long Beam in the new Hyper/Fusion modes would make them impossible, and it seems pointless if it only applies to the power beam. Beam stacking would be hard not to make OP(plasma+spazer) and would clash with the new weakness/resist system enemies have. With Samus' item system I have no way of toggling items atm without screwing over the RNG or redoing everything, so I'm sorry we gotta skip that luxury as much as I'm fond of it. Could delete items individually, though. The other things I'll keep in mind or are already implemented!

Anyway, Samus is REAL close to being done, but here's some previews still.

Shinesparking in Transfer Lock
1st Person HUD improvements
Shiny lights be shiny
Example of world changes that only appear when all players are Samus

Just to let you know how close to done this truly is, I just set up this big changelog. I'd say I care about spoilers, but if you're curious, go nuts.


All that's really left is me deciding if I should start up the public netgame tests so I can release this for 2.1, or wait until 2.2 and maaaaybe get some stretch goals like the grapple beam done and pray it'll let me make a save function? It's up to what you guys want! I know SRB2 2.1's a bit of a dying horse, but I'd be down to make it go out with a powerbomb!


 
I can tell you now that because the framerate will be 70 FPS and there's probably gonna be a lot of changes to lua, Samus might break. On the other hand, 2.2 has been stated to be out around the end of the year so... If you want to have to rework some things and wait, then that's fine, but if it's done and you want to get it out while it's still "done" then go for it!

EDIT: Holy frick that is SO COOL LOOKING!
 
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