[Open Assets] = Metroid Vanguard = Samus Aran in SRB2 [v1.5c] v1.5c

v1.5's interior code revamp was massive, so I was ready to patch many inevitable new bugs in a week or 2.

Then the "shoot anyone to break the game" bug showed up....yikes. Let's think of this as the first actual patch and pretend v1.5b was just v1.5.

MISC CHANGES:
-Replaced SRB2's default crosshair graphic with the intended one. This is a little brute-forcey, but I can't currently affect player's cursors otherwise with Lua's new restrictions.
-Added a Charge Cursor that blinks yellow when you're fully charged. Inactive if your crosshair is "2" or your visor's set to hidden.
-Added your visor color's name alongside it's color number in the Gunship menu.
-Added some HUD static to respawning from "instakill" damage.
-Lockon compensates more for target movement. (Change does NOT apply to player targets)
-Projectile sliding mechanics no longer occur for 2 frames if you've fired a locked-on shot.
-Created hyperspecific lockon detection behaviour to ignore monitors, IF it's below a platform, IF it's in a cramped space, and IF it's below Samus. (GFZ1's invulnerability monitor being locked onto from above the bridge bugged the crap out of me, lol)

BUGFIXES
-Fixed the MetroidSkins toggle not applying to every function correctly.
-HUD zoomlines now again only activate on green resolutions and 1920x1080, the main supported resolutions.
-Fixed the Spazer Beam's regular shots not firing correctly in 2D.
-The Wave Beam's Charged Shots no longer shift a bit too far left.
-Fixed Morph Ball sometimes becoming inaccessible until a stage restart.
-Flung TNT barrels no longer interact weirdly with SA-Sonic and vice versa.
-Brought back spike destruction for Super Missiles/PowerBombs/HyperBeam explosions.
-Reduced jitteryness when standing on top of your Gunship.
-Fixed some misc damage related errors.

Godspeed, galactic hunters!

Hunters broke if you shot someone. ...this fixes that. That'll be all.

If you're missing SamusMusic.pk3 and couldn't find the tinyurl, you can get it here, or in this update post itself.

Here's an unexpected update! For v1.5 I reorganized, rewrote and sorted at least 60%+ of Samus' Lua. Performance and netgame strain should have made large leaps, but this might've brought about new bugs too. The good news is that this'll make maintaining Samus in the future less of a pain.If something acts different but is unreported, it's probably because of the code remake.

Spoiler: v1.5 Changelog:

MAIN/MISC

Spoiler

-Improved performance all across the board.
-Improved support for dedicated servers. Things should be tracked better now even without a player 0. If you join an empty dedicated server without admin, YOU'll be considered the host and can manipulate Samus' admin settings.
-You can now view your item-screen in multiplayer too. (hold the score button) This feature is COOP-only!
-Non-Samus players now also drop Samus-specific items when they open monitors, and their destroyed monitors respawn quicker.
-Some VFX improvements, like new 3rd person charge VFX, Speed Booster windlines, improved boss Shields, Final Boss debris, etc.
-Minor HUD QoL improvements, like ammo flashing red when used up, active, beamswitch icons, etc.
-Added extra Samus' hurt SFX so they don't get as repetitive and work better for Morph Ball.
-Samus' low energy alarm now shuts up after 6 seconds.
-Changed Spiderball meter drain a little. (Buffed...somewhat?)
-Added more HUD elements to aid with Spiderball mechanics.
-Added ForceSamusSkin, SamusNetSaves, SamusCampaign, MetroidSkins, and SamusDifficulty commands. They do what the gunship already does, although ForceSamusSkin is a new console exclusive command. It's useful over the regular forceskin since Samus is technically 2 skins.

GAMEPLAY TWEAKS

Spoiler

-The Spider Ball now recharges very slowly in midair, and has improved wall-tracking.
-Samus' Ice and Hyper Beam shots now scale with her movement speed!
-Rebalanced monitor item drops a bit in all gamemodes. 1-up monitors can now drop a ammo/health buffets, for example.
-The Gattling Vortex now halts firing when Shinesparking/Screwattacking with reduced drain, rather than canceling the combo entirely.
-The Gattling Vortex no longer drains missiles when you're in a knockback state.
-Improved Travel paths of Ice Charge Combo blasts and Wave Charge Shot explosions.
-Improved 3rd person autoaim & lockon. (Samus remains recommended for 1st person!)
-Spazer Shots, Spazer Charge Shots, and regular Plasma Shots now have mild "floorsliding" properties.
-Your Power Beam Combo meltdown is now much quicker if it's your only beam. (20 seconds > 5 seconds)
-Changed Spiderball meter drain a little. (Buffed...somewhat?)

CAMPAIGN:

Spoiler

-You may now quick-travel to checkpoints in DSZ4/ACZ4 after getting there, even after a game-over.
-You now respawn with full health + some ammo in DSZ4/ACZ4 when dying to the boss.
-In Multiplayer Coop, grabbing checkpoints now heal you to a minimum of 50 energy.
-MT_BLUECRAWLA now has nerfed speed & range on the flamethrower. (Hyper/Fusion Difficulty)
-MT_MINUS and MT_VULTURE now deals more damage, while MT_BUGGLE deals less.
-MT_UNIDUS is now huge, faster, and deals more direct damage.
-MT_ROBOHOOD now shoots a ricocheting fire arrow volley to be more thematically accurate.

HUNTERS & MATCH MODES

Spoiler

REBALANCING:
-For a battle's first 90 seconds, the Power Beam will need to boot up its "Long Beam" properties. This is to encourage upgrading ASAP, and allow easier getaways in the initial parts of a match.
-You now start off with the Power Grip, unless you're in Challenger Mode.
-Scanning now reveals monitors in Matches too! Also, for a Match's 1st minute, scanning now ONLY reveals monitors.

CATCH UP MECHANICS:
-If you join late into a Match, you'll start with extra ammo tanks assuming the other players are far ahead on score.
-Everybody but 1st place now (re)spawns with their Scan Visor Radar active.
-You can now only scan for players who are of equal score to you or higher.
-Ammo-refill amount on death is now based on how far behind you are on score.
-Getting killed by players when already far behind on score late in a match now grants missing equipment.

BOUNTIES:
-Added sparkling Bounty Target icons to the Radar. Bounty Targets are players in 1st place or using Challenger Mode. The player that last killed you also becomes a personal Bounty Target. Bounty Targets grant +25% score and may drop prism orbs. (*orbs only you can see and grab*)

BUGFIXES:

Spoiler

-Made an incredibly hacky method to prevent netgame desyncs when Samus' camera auto-switches. Please notify the SRB2's github that camera.chase does NOT sync unlike the original chasecam toggle that got removed from Lua's access for no valid reason.

-Limited enemy-sprite rollangles to prevent SRB2 2.2.13's gradual memory leak from crashing SRB2. Notify SRB2's github of this rollangle memory leak to ensure 2.2.14 ACTUALLY fixes it.

-Samus' shots now won't get stuck on walls to your right as easily.
-Samus' shots are more accurate when fired at extreme angles.
-Fixed a few cases where projectiles with floorsliding properties acted funky.
-Fixed some color and cross-netplay-emerald saving issues. (...again)
-Fixed the Save Menu crash. At least, I assume so, since I've never seen it happen to anyone since the code redo.
-Fixed Achievements only being awarded on 100% playthroughs since 1.4. (whoops...)
-Forced Egg Colosseum to end the level if he gets literally flung into hell, buried thousands of meters below the ground.

Though I'll be occupied with other things for a bit, do let me know of any issues that come from this big shift!

Here's a new item for you, the Power Grip from Metroid Zero Mission and Metroid Prime 3! v1.4 also brings some more QoL changes, optimizations, and bug fixes.

Read over the changelog for specifics! ...though I forgot to document a bunch of changes. Like the Charge Beam graphics being transparent & additive now.

Spoiler: v1.4 Changelog:

ITEMS:
-Added the Power Grip! Grab ledges by holding forwards. Leap off with a well timed jump press (Like Metroid Dread), or morph onto a ledge with spin. Stacks with high jump and other boosting items. Found commonly in whirlwind and ring monitors!

-I've changed the amount of item % completion some items give.
-Hyper Beam: From 6% to 10%.
-Ice Beam Combo - From 3% to 2%
-Screw Attack - From 3% to 2%
-Space Jump: From 3% to 2%
-Boost Ball: From 2% to 1%
-High Jump: From 2% to 1%.
-Power Grip: New item that adds 1%.

For the <5% save file achievement, you want beat the main campaign on 5% item completion or lower! These changes should allow more creativity on how players want to tackle this challenge.


SAVE FILES:
-Fixed bug where exiting the game with supercolors selected messed with your settings.
-Slightly decreased chance of savemenu crash through performance increase.

Saves are auto converted on changing settings/stage, and are probably not compatible with previous Samus versions


GAMEPLAY:
-You now retain your Charge Beam when walljumping, like in most modern Metroid titles.
-The Space Jump now lets you space jump or walljump after having run off ledges, like in Metroid Prime Hunters.
-The Spider Ball now stores any higher charge you had when you unmorph.
-After a game over, Samus now regains all missiles/power bombs you had before dying. If you die with more missiles/powerbombs than you had, you'll retain the higher amount.
-Purple health(lowest tier) drops tend to be much rarer now if you're below 50% of your max energy.
-Added more falling GFX+SFX for extra landing clarity.
-Placed true Final Boss on it's own dedicated map. You may forcefully warp there to start the fight, but keep in mind it's explicitly designed for a Fully Powered Samus. No concessions were made, so don't expect to be able to win with most characters! The campaign still automatically funnels you there once you reach 100%, so don't worry about manual warping.
-Morph Ball bombs now dispel the ACZ4 boss' homing mines.
-Extra visual support for the uncapped framerate.
-Minor optimizations.


BUGFIXES:
-Issues fixed from the transfer to SRB2 2.1.11 include: The slew of error messages, uncapped FPS rendering effects wrong, the true final boss breaking completely, improper ship rendering, a remade fps camera system to fit 2.2.11's new restrictions, and various effects breaking.
-Fixed Screw-Attack walljumps having buggy detection in automatic mode.
-Disabled jump-buffer inputs when holding jump out of a spacejump.
-Samus no longer interferes with Adventure Sonic's GFX if added after him.
-Removed all instances of music fading to reduce odds of crashes related to Lua's music system.

Just to give notice, I'm stepping away from this mod for a long time, so keep SRB2 2.2.10 and v1.3a in your back pocket if v1.4 doesn't work out. Another update might not happen.

Here it is, the anticipated hotpatch to fix a crosshair desync. Comes with a few QoL features as apology for the re-download!

One of the prominent changes is a messy (but effective) way to squash that persistent lag-related save menu crash once and for all.

Spoiler: v1-3a Changelog:

-Disabled the "cross" crosshair type's aim-adjust when in netgames to avoid desyncs. Though I really recommend using any other crosshair in general.
-Added a special optimized level you may enter before save files show up to avoid crashes. This auto-loads in single player. In netgames you may select it at your whim. The save menu pretends this stage doesn't exist and will treat the last level or boot level as the "current level".
-Added stage preview pictures for DSZ4, ACZ4, and the Safe Save Load level.
-Added jump buffering from falling & pain states for easier player control.
-The Wave Beam charge shot no longer self-inflicts damage when shot at certain angles in coop.
-The Plasma Beam now has a seperate explosion hitbox for opening monitors easier.
-Players now respawn with an increased amount of minimum ammo if they Game Over to bosses in DSZ4 & ACZ4.
-Improved performance when other players all spam missiles or wave shots.
-Removed compatibility with Duke Nukem mod in favor of compatibility with upcoming Duke update.
-Random misc minor stuff
-Added compatibility to use Samus' custom dialogue system on non-Samus characters. All you need to do is add player.mo.forcesamustext = true when calling the function. For examples on actually using the function, enter LUA_SAMM with SLADE and use the CTRL+F feature to look for "example part 1" and "example part 2". The Samus Dialogue function on line 1500 also gives extensive detailing on its variables. Requires knowledge of Lua.

2.2.10 breaking Samus forced my hand into an update, and then I got carried away.

1.3 is a sizable update improving gfx, performance, gameplay physics and adds new tricks like Screw Attack walljumps and omnidirectional walljumps. Still a bit rushed, so we might need a 1.3a hotpatch someday.

Spoiler: v1-3 Changelog:

Spoiler: SAVE MENU

-Optimized save & loading code to be less intensive.
-Saves no longer instantly auto-loads save 1. Wait as you long as you think you'll need for your game to catch up.
-You now have to play the Metroid Vanguard campaign for achievements. Make sure "World Events" are not disabled!
-If your savefile has the "cleared game" achievement, story dialogue will now stop appearing on that save.
-Game now autoselects current-level if you're a netgame joiner.

Spoiler: SETTINGS & MENUS

-Samus now shoots a little higher if the player forces the crosshair to 'cross'. Personally I still recommend the Angle Crosshair.
-The default setting now lets joiners join with their personal save files. Enter your ship to turn this off or on. Does not override your old save.
-Improved custom skincolor detection for Samus' "custom suit" options. Custom skincolor mods no longer need to be loaded in any specific order to work properly either.
-Autobrake no longer applies to the morph ball regardless of setting.
-You can now reset the first time setup menu in the ship options.

Spoiler: GAMEPLAY

-Updated Morph Ball physics. Speed retention massively improved.
-Updated non-morphed physics. More responsive strafing and momentum redirection.
-You can now morph from springs and when walking off ledges, but vertical momentum is cut.
-Beam Combos and Hyper Beam are *much* less performance intensive.
-Samus' viewpoint is now higher in first person to reflect her actual height.
-Minimum spiderball charge increased from 38% to 50%.(Happens when morphing in midair.)
-Boost Ball now draws in ammo/energy pickups and no longer drags down the spring ball effect.
-Added a framejump system (5 frames of coyote time) to make jump timing windows more generous. Does not apply to the Spring Ball.
-Removed Crystal Flash's instant Shinespark and Screw Attack. They caused players to accidentally fling themselves into the stratosphere too often.
-Some of the Wave Charge Shot's diffusion blasts will home into nearby enemies or monitors now. (But never players)
-Added fall height stun. Doesn't apply to morph ball.
-Removed Crystal Flash scroll text. The player's likely too overstimulated at this point to take all that in. Just mash that missile button!

Spoiler: VISUALS

-Updated the look and feel of most weapons, their impact, explosions, etc. The new visuals are purely cosmetic and do NOT affect hitbox or damage balance.
-Morph Ball leaves a Metroid Prime style trail now when moving fast.
-First person arm cannon now angles itself based on your movement. Can be turned off in the Ship Menu.
-Explosion glares now reflect Samus' face in her visor like in Metroid Prime
-The main Spider Ball HUD now shrinks rather than disappears whenever you're not actively using the Spider Ball, sparkles upon a full recharge, and now also blinks and glows purple when the Spiderball is unusable. -Added extra graphics when the speedbooster activates.
-HUD now encircles the lockon health meter, and displays a small graphic of said enemy + their weakness.
-Scan visor icon pops up when it's usable.
-Minor update to Samus' walljump animations
-Frozen enemy Ice Blocks are now true 3D thanks to 2.2.9's splats.
-Stole SA-Sonic's saloon door bust gfx.
-Enemies now catch fire from plasma beam kills
-The main Spider Ball HUD now shrinks rather than disappears whenever you're not actively using the Spider Ball, sparkles upon a full recharge, and now also blinks and glows purple when the Spiderball is unusable.

Spoiler: HUNTERS MODE (And Match/CTF/Team Match/etc)

-Boost Ball tackle damage nerfed (*36 to 30*), but granted a missile tank steal mechanic! The odds are based on the victim's max missiles. IE: 11% success chance if victim has 20 missiles, but 71% if they have 200. It always fails against a max count below 20.

-Hitting players with much higher score than you in Hunters with charge shots now drops prism orbs. Only you can see these and pick them up. They replenish 5 energy and 1 missile, are slightly magnetic, and disappear within 8 seconds. Their magnetism can be strongly amplified with the charge beam's pull-in effect.
|Power Beam charge shots grant 1 orb, Spazer and Ice grant 2, Wave and Plasma grant a large prism.
|As an exception, Bombs and Boost Ball tackles also grant prism orbs (*with a 1 second cooldown*)

-Nerfed the Wave Beam's Charge Shot/Beam Combo damage(46 to 39) and slowdown debuff(80% to 30%), but added the status effect "Wave Overload". Wave Overload lasts for 2 seconds and makes Samus:
|Uncontrollably spam missiles and beams if not Morphed, otherwise spam bombs.
|Randomly and instantly swap beam weapons |Randomly start a beam combo if you have alot of missiles (50+)
|Unable to charge, use Power Bombs, Super Missiles, the Speed Booster, Spider Ball, or the Boost Ball.
|Able to Screw Attack instantly, instantly dispells the effect. However, your launch angle will be uncontrollable.
|Forced to turn your shinespark charge into an instant Shinespark/Ballspark forward angled directly at your shooter. This can backfire at the shooter, but also be used purposely to make someone fly straight into a pit or crusher

-Death Ball:tm: impacts now make the user recoil, but fires flaming bolts across the field and inflicts Wave Overload status.

Spoiler: BUGFIXES

-Updated a few admin-intended functions normal players were able to access.
-Monitor respawn custom time menu option works properly again.
-Beams and explosions no longer clip into walls when fired from point blank range.
-Fixed 2.2.10-update related HUD errors
-Fixed a 2.2.10-update related glitch where you'd lose the ability to fire/morph.
-Fixed 2.2.10-update related immortality glitch.
-Patched out rare crusher softlock in Eggman Castle 3
-Changed methods so mods trying to force SF_SUPER and transform sectors won't bug out.
-Misc minor bugs.

Screen tilt & arm cannon tilting can be turned off in the ship options menu if it makes you nauseous.

Just a minor update I worked on this evening. Fixed that persistent .bat file mistake and the custom color crash bug, plus a few more things. Check the main post for a changelog!