SRB2SuperSonic
Member
How many of you have heard of the ROM Hack for Sonic 2 on the Genesis called Knuckles' Emerald Hunt?
To provide some context in case you haven't heard of it, it's a ROM Hack of Sonic 2 that recreates Knuckles' Master Emerald hunting mechanics into the levels of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It focuses on Knuckles going through every level of Sonic 2 (except Sky Chase and Death Egg for obvious reasons), hunting for Chaos Emeralds that are a different color depending on the stage. Three zones from Sonic 1, and a restored Hidden Palace, were also added to the mix of stages.
I quite like this ROM Hack, but I also think much more could be done (and apparently,.so does MainMemory, the creator of the ROM Hack, who decided to port the entire hack with some new bells and whistles to the 2013 version of Sonic 2 under the name of "Knuckles' Emerald Hunt DX", which was submitted to the SHC last year.), and I think the emerald hunt feature for custom levels in SRB2 opens up a world of opportunity in this regard. I think you can see where I'm going with this.
As someone who likes treasure hunting in both SA1 and SA2 (fight me if you got a problem with it), I've been considering porting the features of the ROM Hack to Sonic Robo Blast 2, hence the name "Knuckles' Emerald Hunt 3D". As the title says, this is just a concept. I plan on making this myself after getting my hands on a decent computer.
With that disclaimer out of the way, here are the planned features:
- Knuckles will be given a multiglide, his punching ability, and a dig ability to be able to search for emeralds underground.
- A new character will be available to use in this mod: Tikal! She behaves exactly the same as Knuckles, except she can jump higher, allowing access to areas Knuckles can't search for emeralds. The tradeoff is that she cannot break strong walls or punch.
- All of the levels available will be the same as in vanilla, but remade to include locations to hide emeralds.
- The entirety of all levels will be available to search for emeralds, not just one massive area. Hey, the ROM Hack did that, too. Don't come after me for that.
- Boss acts are gone from this mod. They were removed in the ROM Hack, why not here?
- The emerald radar and emerald placement system will be the exact same as in SRB2, except the radar will be adjusted to function exactly like in Sonic Adventure without borrowing any code from it, and the emeralds are the Chaos Emeralds, but colored differently depending on the stage, by using skincolors to color the emeralds in other levels. The radar still has six stages to how close you are to the emerald. In order, they are: gray, blue, green, yellow, pink (replaces the orange stage included in the vanilla Emerald Hunt gimmick), and finally, red. Additionally, the sound effect for the Emerald Radar will be changed to the exact one in Sonic Adventure.
- The SA2 scoring system is back, and you'll get more points the faster you find an emerald.
- The 1UP monitors are replaced with Random Ring monitors, which work exactly as in SA1. The lives system is still intact, however.
- The Silver Ring monitor from the Final Demos is getting re-added, too.
- If the biggest area in a map has the signpost, it's entry is getting blocked off.
- The emerald tokens are removed, and their locations are possibilities for emeralds to spawn in.
- Players start with a pity shield after taking a death.
- Completing an act will give you a rank from A to E. These have the exact same function as they did in the hack.
- Difficulty modes will be included. These are relatively the same as they were in the Final Demos.
- Cakewalk: The radar points to where the emerald is exactly, and the emeralds spawn closer to where the player spawns. Infinite lives are given here.
- Easy: The radar points to where the emerald is exactly, but their spawn positions are the same as normal. 10 lives are given on start.
- Normal: Basic play. 5 lives are given on start.
- Hard: The emeralds are always in annoying places, but the radar acts as normal. More enemies and less monitors are applied, and 3 lives are given on start.
- Very Hard: The only difference between Hard and Very Hard is that lost rings are not spilled. Otherwise exactly the same.
- Ultimate: Functions exactly like the base game's Ultimate Mode, plus the radar is removed entirely.
- Music switching in stages is possible. clairebun's music_remade tracks will be included to swap out the base game tracks (except THZ, ACZ2 and 3, and ERZ.), as well as the OST from 2.1 and earlier (No MIDI here, unfortunately.) Additionally, tracks from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 will be ported to give a listen while hunting for emeralds.
- In addition to the bonus stages (except for Techno Legacy), the multiplayer stages will be affected by the stage changes, and added to the level select after completing the main campaign.
- The challenge stages, due to having multiple large rooms, will be unaffected when being changed unlike the rest of the game. They will, however, get their own changes specific to the stage.
- Haunted Heights: All enemies are removed, and in their places are Eggman monitors. Otherwise unchanged from vanilla.
- Aerial Garden: The Hive Elementals and Bumblebores are removed, with Jettysyns, BASHes, and Crawla Commanders in their place. Additionally, a rain effect is getting added, and the sky texture will be adjusted to match it.
- Azure Temple: All of it's water is getting removed, and the Buggles are going along with it. Bottomless pits will have acid in their place, and it's the same acid as in Techno Legacy Zone.
- Other level campaigns can be supported, too. You'll just have to figure out how to add support for this when this releases. So far, this is just a concept.
- All levels will get a change in their sky and weather if Encore Mode (the campaign to be more specific) is loaded.
- Greenflower Zone is at sunrise, but the water is replaced with the lava from Final Demo RVZ. Elemental Shields are useful here.
- Techno Hill Zone now looks like it's former self from the Final Demos, with a rainstorm happening after finding two emeralds.
- Deep Sea is at sunset, but since the biggest room in the level is the area with the signpost in Act 1, the water will drain slowly.
- Castle Eggman is at night, now, but instead of a rainstorm happening, a snowstorm happens instead. The mud is replaced with the snow from Frozen Hillside Zone to fit the theme.
- Arid Canyon is morning in the first act and at sunset in Act 2. There are TNT Barrels everywhere, so watch your step.
- Red Volcano is at night. The lava is blue, meaning it's technically hotter. Because of this, all lava is now instant death.
- Egg Rock is unchanged from Encore Mode, due to the fact that it's hard enough as it is.
- Many other characters are able to take on the Emerald Hunt, but it's more suited to people who can glide and climb. Gamma might prove useful for taking out enemies, but the E-Series robot is still under a set time limit like he always is.
- The ranks play a part in unlocking levels. If all of the levels have the same rank letter in the Statistics screen, you'll unlock extra levels added into the mod after the multiplayer stages. What will these stages be? That's up to you to determine.
Any other suggestions you guys have? I'd like to hear them!
(SeventhSentinel, don't lock this thread up as I have stated this mod is just a concept.)
To provide some context in case you haven't heard of it, it's a ROM Hack of Sonic 2 that recreates Knuckles' Master Emerald hunting mechanics into the levels of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It focuses on Knuckles going through every level of Sonic 2 (except Sky Chase and Death Egg for obvious reasons), hunting for Chaos Emeralds that are a different color depending on the stage. Three zones from Sonic 1, and a restored Hidden Palace, were also added to the mix of stages.
I quite like this ROM Hack, but I also think much more could be done (and apparently,.so does MainMemory, the creator of the ROM Hack, who decided to port the entire hack with some new bells and whistles to the 2013 version of Sonic 2 under the name of "Knuckles' Emerald Hunt DX", which was submitted to the SHC last year.), and I think the emerald hunt feature for custom levels in SRB2 opens up a world of opportunity in this regard. I think you can see where I'm going with this.
As someone who likes treasure hunting in both SA1 and SA2 (fight me if you got a problem with it), I've been considering porting the features of the ROM Hack to Sonic Robo Blast 2, hence the name "Knuckles' Emerald Hunt 3D". As the title says, this is just a concept. I plan on making this myself after getting my hands on a decent computer.
With that disclaimer out of the way, here are the planned features:
- Knuckles will be given a multiglide, his punching ability, and a dig ability to be able to search for emeralds underground.
- A new character will be available to use in this mod: Tikal! She behaves exactly the same as Knuckles, except she can jump higher, allowing access to areas Knuckles can't search for emeralds. The tradeoff is that she cannot break strong walls or punch.
- All of the levels available will be the same as in vanilla, but remade to include locations to hide emeralds.
- The entirety of all levels will be available to search for emeralds, not just one massive area. Hey, the ROM Hack did that, too. Don't come after me for that.
- Boss acts are gone from this mod. They were removed in the ROM Hack, why not here?
- The emerald radar and emerald placement system will be the exact same as in SRB2, except the radar will be adjusted to function exactly like in Sonic Adventure without borrowing any code from it, and the emeralds are the Chaos Emeralds, but colored differently depending on the stage, by using skincolors to color the emeralds in other levels. The radar still has six stages to how close you are to the emerald. In order, they are: gray, blue, green, yellow, pink (replaces the orange stage included in the vanilla Emerald Hunt gimmick), and finally, red. Additionally, the sound effect for the Emerald Radar will be changed to the exact one in Sonic Adventure.
- The SA2 scoring system is back, and you'll get more points the faster you find an emerald.
- The 1UP monitors are replaced with Random Ring monitors, which work exactly as in SA1. The lives system is still intact, however.
- The Silver Ring monitor from the Final Demos is getting re-added, too.
- If the biggest area in a map has the signpost, it's entry is getting blocked off.
- The emerald tokens are removed, and their locations are possibilities for emeralds to spawn in.
- Players start with a pity shield after taking a death.
- Completing an act will give you a rank from A to E. These have the exact same function as they did in the hack.
- Difficulty modes will be included. These are relatively the same as they were in the Final Demos.
- Cakewalk: The radar points to where the emerald is exactly, and the emeralds spawn closer to where the player spawns. Infinite lives are given here.
- Easy: The radar points to where the emerald is exactly, but their spawn positions are the same as normal. 10 lives are given on start.
- Normal: Basic play. 5 lives are given on start.
- Hard: The emeralds are always in annoying places, but the radar acts as normal. More enemies and less monitors are applied, and 3 lives are given on start.
- Very Hard: The only difference between Hard and Very Hard is that lost rings are not spilled. Otherwise exactly the same.
- Ultimate: Functions exactly like the base game's Ultimate Mode, plus the radar is removed entirely.
- Music switching in stages is possible. clairebun's music_remade tracks will be included to swap out the base game tracks (except THZ, ACZ2 and 3, and ERZ.), as well as the OST from 2.1 and earlier (No MIDI here, unfortunately.) Additionally, tracks from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 will be ported to give a listen while hunting for emeralds.
- In addition to the bonus stages (except for Techno Legacy), the multiplayer stages will be affected by the stage changes, and added to the level select after completing the main campaign.
- The challenge stages, due to having multiple large rooms, will be unaffected when being changed unlike the rest of the game. They will, however, get their own changes specific to the stage.
- Haunted Heights: All enemies are removed, and in their places are Eggman monitors. Otherwise unchanged from vanilla.
- Aerial Garden: The Hive Elementals and Bumblebores are removed, with Jettysyns, BASHes, and Crawla Commanders in their place. Additionally, a rain effect is getting added, and the sky texture will be adjusted to match it.
- Azure Temple: All of it's water is getting removed, and the Buggles are going along with it. Bottomless pits will have acid in their place, and it's the same acid as in Techno Legacy Zone.
- Other level campaigns can be supported, too. You'll just have to figure out how to add support for this when this releases. So far, this is just a concept.
- All levels will get a change in their sky and weather if Encore Mode (the campaign to be more specific) is loaded.
- Greenflower Zone is at sunrise, but the water is replaced with the lava from Final Demo RVZ. Elemental Shields are useful here.
- Techno Hill Zone now looks like it's former self from the Final Demos, with a rainstorm happening after finding two emeralds.
- Deep Sea is at sunset, but since the biggest room in the level is the area with the signpost in Act 1, the water will drain slowly.
- Castle Eggman is at night, now, but instead of a rainstorm happening, a snowstorm happens instead. The mud is replaced with the snow from Frozen Hillside Zone to fit the theme.
- Arid Canyon is morning in the first act and at sunset in Act 2. There are TNT Barrels everywhere, so watch your step.
- Red Volcano is at night. The lava is blue, meaning it's technically hotter. Because of this, all lava is now instant death.
- Egg Rock is unchanged from Encore Mode, due to the fact that it's hard enough as it is.
- Many other characters are able to take on the Emerald Hunt, but it's more suited to people who can glide and climb. Gamma might prove useful for taking out enemies, but the E-Series robot is still under a set time limit like he always is.
- The ranks play a part in unlocking levels. If all of the levels have the same rank letter in the Statistics screen, you'll unlock extra levels added into the mod after the multiplayer stages. What will these stages be? That's up to you to determine.
Any other suggestions you guys have? I'd like to hear them!
(SeventhSentinel, don't lock this thread up as I have stated this mod is just a concept.)
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