311 replies to this topic

[skunkchop]

NOOOOOO!!! HELP ME PLEASE!
Okay, before I get to my problem, I love this game. It's really amazing. The dialog gives personality to the characters. The story is very nicely paced. The pixel art is breath taking. The engine is as smooth as butter. I like the leveling-up system, and the combat.

Now for my huge issue. I AM STUCK. I think I got somewhere where I wasn't supposed to get (until I get a jump upgrade) and now I can't get out. I am quite a bit in the game, so I really don't want to restart.
Here is a picture showing where I am:


See that little dent in the wall? I went inside that dent, and I did a really precise jump FROM the dent to get over the wall.
The next room has a save point, which I used. It also has blocks that I can't reach because I can't jump high enough. Thus, I think I got here earlier than I should have.
Is there a way you can update the game to put a block or something that would let me get back out?

[Yal]

See that little dent in the wall? I went inside that dent, and I did a really precise jump FROM the dent to get over the wall.
The next room has a save point, which I used. It also has blocks that I can't reach because I can't jump high enough. Thus, I think I got here earlier than I should have.
Is there a way you can update the game to put a block or something that would let me get back out?

Let the rooster in the ceiling release a small bird, lure the bird into the area where you are (jump a lot. Sooner or later one bird will get trough the gap), and jump into the bird from below. The impact should boost you upwards, and you'll get some extra jump height (the upwards motion from damage is relative as opposed to absolute, so if you get hit just after jumping you jump really high). That's called "damage jumping" and can be used to reach areas before you should.

In fact, I was 100% sure that it was impossible to jump while standing in that dent. It's friggin' a single block tall. It's there to give you a safe spot from the lava and enable you to check the area on the other side out. Makes you remember the area to come back later.

Anyway, try damage-jumping out of the place. It's your only option for some time.

@Captain Cook:

Spoiler

The first group that was sent to the city was just ten or so people, and George Norris, Jack Deadwater, and Donald Smith was in it. Perhaps Voice was in it as well, in disguise, but that wouldn't explain how she came back. I'm not really done with that part of the story, but there'll be more in the 2.0 update.

The zombies in the Heart Of The City are people that lived in Columbus back in our days, and the main reason they attack you is... they want to eat brains, perhaps? *shrugs* I don't really find it useful to motivate every single type of enemy (I mean, bullet bill cannons in a greenhouse, come on?). Since zombies aren't really "living", they don't need very much power to get reanimated. In fact, the zombies consist of two 'beings': the armor-like bones are in fact specimens of a parasite called "Spine Crab", that uses corpses to protect their vulnerable heads while they digest the bodies from within. When treathened, they will control the corpses and use them to fend off invaders. Since Spine Crabs are full of decay gases, they will explode when hit by projectiles, sending off sharp bone parts in all directions.

[skunkchop]

Thank you! I will try that.

EDIT: It worked. I don't know why I didn't think of that before. Brilliant.

EDIT 2: The game has no sound now. Why?

EDIT 3: Sound is back.

EDIT 4: Weird thing happened. Not a big deal or anything, but while I was doing the Rat Nest scavenger hunt, I went up a pipe and entered a dialog sequence. I saw the picture of his face as he talked, but in-game he was a gold brick of some kind.

EDIT 5: I got to the hovercraft part. It's really fun, but I THINK I found a tiny glitch. When you get to the end, you initiate a dialog sequence. I managed to initiate this dialog sequence without getting the two girls to the end. I got to the end on my own using the other vehicle.
Basically, I was talking to the girls without them near me.

Edited by skunkchop, 21 February 2011 - 02:54 AM.

[Captain Cook]

Didn't think about it that way.

Not that I expect everything to be explained to the most minute detail, but that thing just bugged me. Thanks.

[Yal]

EDIT 4: Weird thing happened. Not a big deal or anything, but while I was doing the Rat Nest scavenger hunt, I went up a pipe and entered a dialog sequence. I saw the picture of his face as he talked, but in-game he was a gold brick of some kind.

EDIT 5: I got to the hovercraft part. It's really fun, but I THINK I found a tiny glitch. When you get to the end, you initiate a dialog sequence. I managed to initiate this dialog sequence without getting the two girls to the end. I got to the end on my

Noted down. I'll fix those glitches. The first issue is about me forgetting to give that character (Cain, right?) a sprite in the room editor, which leaves him with the default NPC sprite. The second one is just a design mistake - I didn't think that anyone would try to get to the hovercopter landing site without a hovercopter. I think I'll design that issue away by simply making it impossible to get there without a hovercopter. Walls are such a nice invention.

Speaking of which, I've added some new tiles that enables you to get out of that area without cheating. So this issue will be gone in v2.0.

Oh, and thanks for the PM with your opinion of the game, too. I really appreciated reading it

Thanks.

You're welcome. Questions like that make me have to think about the game world, and when I do that, chances are that I'll come up with an explaination that'll be in-game later on. Questions improve the game eventually, it's that simple.



Oh, and for all fans of the Cave Story Bubbler (Zeddi in particular), I can reveal that in v2.0 it'll be possible to upgrade the Fairy Pistol so that it gets the Lv3 Bubbler attack pattern.

[Captain Cook]

Now that I think about it,

@Captain Cook:

Spoiler

The first group that was sent to the city was just ten or so people, and George Norris, Jack Deadwater, and Donald Smith was in it. Perhaps Voice was in it as well, in disguise, but that wouldn't explain how she came back. I'm not really done with that part of the story, but there'll be more in the 2.0 update.

The zombies in the Heart Of The City are people that lived in Columbus back in our days, and the main reason they attack you is... they want to eat brains, perhaps? *shrugs* I don't really find it useful to motivate every single type of enemy (I mean, bullet bill cannons in a greenhouse, come on?). Since zombies aren't really "living", they don't need very much power to get reanimated. In fact, the zombies consist of two 'beings': the armor-like bones are in fact specimens of a parasite called "Spine Crab", that uses corpses to protect their vulnerable heads while they digest the bodies from within. When treathened, they will control the corpses and use them to fend off invaders. Since Spine Crabs are full of decay gases, they will explode when hit by projectiles, sending off sharp bone parts in all directions.

Spoiler

Those corpses were pretty darn well preserved, then!

... Now that I think about it, how did the Heart of the City become that organic hellhole?

And I'm wondering how centra-rats work (or at least the zombified ones)--the bones go everywhere, but for them to be bloated due to decomposing that fast...?

... Yeah, I'll probably wind up asking a lot of these questions.

[Zeddy]

It's a post apocalyptic world, which means there's radiation everywhere. Everyone knows that radiation turns creatures into all kinds of physics-defying stuff in a matter of minutes. Why, it can even grant sentience and laser-shooting abilities to lightstops! (I love that enemy!) Don't you know anything about science?

I can reveal that in v2.0 it'll be possible to upgrade the Fairy Pistol so that it gets the Lv3 Bubbler attack pattern.

^_____________________________________^

[Captain Cook]

Radiation violates the laws of thermodynamics?

Cool!

[Dannerz]

Hi Yal. I am playing the game. I got two lores and i got to the place with the fans, the basement i think.
I like minimalism in games sometimes, but you put lots of detail into how much everybody talks and stuff,
so that was interesting. How long did it take you to make this game?

Edit:
I'm finding some of these jumps difficult. Like in the vegetation room trying to climb up is hard for me.
I hope i can beat the game but we'll see how far i get.

Edit2:
Ok i talked to the shop guy that didn't have any items, at bottom of green house.
Now I don't know what to do next to get farther in the game.

Edited by Dannerz, 22 February 2011 - 11:43 PM.

[Yal]

Hi Yal. I am playing the game. I got two lores and i got to the place with the fans, the basement i think.
I like minimalism in games sometimes, but you put lots of detail into how much everybody talks and stuff,
so that was interesting. How long did it take you to make this game?

Edit:
I'm finding some of these jumps difficult. Like in the vegetation room trying to climb up is hard for me.
I hope i can beat the game but we'll see how far i get.

Edit2:
Ok i talked to the shop guy that didn't have any items, at bottom of green house.
Now I don't know what to do next to get farther in the game.

I'm not entirely done with the game, but... I sorta began working at it a few weeks into the summer holidays of 2010. So it's about nine months old now.

If you think those jumps are difficult, you might as well stop playing at once

Talk to the shopkeeper again. The first time you talk to him, he will just introduce himself. The second time you talk to him, you can buy items from him. Buy a Keygun. It'll let you get to new places.

... Yeah, I'll probably wind up asking a lot of these questions.

It's a post apocalyptic world, which means there's radiation everywhere.

Do I even need to say something more? I love the "post-apocalyptic radiation" argument. No further need to motivate the japonesque fun ideas I cram in everywhere.

But yeah, the Centra-Rats are a blatant rip-off from the Centra Rabbits from Gun-Princess. Those didn't explode in a burst of bones, but they turned into gorey zombie versions of themselves once you shot them enough, and then dashed towards you in thrice their normal speed. My main explanation to why the zombie rats explode: they contain explosive gases (that form inside them quite quickly once you shoot them into their zombie form: this punches holes in their guts and kidneys, both of which contains chemical body fluids (absorbed from the often contaminated and pretty poisonous food the rats eat) that when put together immediately reacts and form unstable (explosive) gases. Current science haven't revealed exactly what gases form, since it's nearly impossible to survey the rats since they're damn rabid. But it's likely nitrogen based).

[Simaster48]

Hmm, maybe we'll end up with a monsterpedia for final columbus here

At least i hope so

[Captain Cook]

I think I might eventually take the initiative to start the webcomic version, but that wouldn't happen until after 2.0. I'm not sure if it's going to be word for word faithful or really far out like Eight Bit Theater is to Final Fantasy... I'll probably settle somewhere in between until it grows the beard.

Also, if I could have the set of MIDIs, I'd like to try to remaster them. I would also like to try composing replacements for some of the stuff (primarily the boss theme) which I don't like too much; however, most of my attempts at making boss music wind up being too serious/epic... *shrugs*

[skunkchop]

Some stuff I noticed...
The main character's name is Mario?
The shopkeeper is from Resident Evil 4.
The weird windmill-enemies are from Cave Story. Their attacks are similar too.

[Yal]

The shopkeeper is from Resident Evil 4.

You're the first one to notice! +1'd.

The weird windmill-enemies are from Cave Story.

Windmill??? They're fans. And yes, the Rusty Whirr is one of many enemies/things that are very inspired from other games. Have you seen the enemies of the Grass Dungeon yet? Have you seen the pipes in the Fire Plant? Have you given much thought to the air-swimming square enemies in the Gray Tunnel? Have you noticed the firebreath-spinning enemies of the Misty Cave? As well as their bethren with and without shields?

Somewhere at that point, I started to come up with more original ideas (Anti-Pillar Dispenser, Pool, Seaworm), as well I reused the old ideas by releasing enemies that's just powerful versions of early enemies (Centrat, Bubble Whirr, Flying Rooster, Sand Snake).

I think I might eventually take the initiative to start the webcomic version, but that wouldn't happen until after 2.0. I'm not sure if it's going to be word for word faithful or really far out like Eight Bit Theater is to Final Fantasy... I'll probably settle somewhere in between until it grows the beard.

Also, if I could have the set of MIDIs, I'd like to try to remaster them. I would also like to try composing replacements for some of the stuff (primarily the boss theme) which I don't like too much; however, most of my attempts at making boss music wind up being too serious/epic... *shrugs*

If you make the webcomic, you decide what is the most suitable. As long as you don't go way too far, I'll accept more or less anything. But I'll find jokes about "flawed game context" the most fun (such as when Zeddi made a comic slate called "The adventures of a perfectly ordinary snake" to point out that you could talk to the soldiers in TimeSnake in your snake form, and they'd still talk about you being "that assassin HQ mentioned" even if they hadn't seen you transform)... Typical examples in Final Columbus I could come up with...

- When Cain follows you around, he never reacts upon Mario being able to absorb blood. If you drew some giant effect where all the blood would, sort of, jump him (looking kinda like the animation when Smith explodes, if you get what I mean) so that it would be pretty obvious that he absorbs it (it's not that obvious graphically in-game, but you hear a recovery sound and see your HP increase)... Then various allies could just stare on Mario or something, and he goes "Yeah? What?" or something. I don't know if that's fun, but something among those lines could be fun.
- Speaking of blood, it would be fun with Tallie holding a monologue on the subject why enemies' blood drops are the size of tennis balls.
- Tallie and Fox' attempts to ride the hovercopter themselves (and getting angry on each other) could also provide multiple fun episodes.

As for the MIDIs... I kinda want to make this game myself, entirely. I could make one "special version with CC's Soundtrack" and have a link to that among the mirrors and stuff (just like there's a version of Iji with the special soundtrack that's twice the size of the normal soundtrack), but the YYG main version will be Yal-only. If you just point out what tunes you really want changed (I don't like the boss theme either) and why, and how they should sound to fit the area better, I'll try to compose some new ones for those.

Lemme see... I'm not 100% satisfied with:
Boss theme, Hidden Area Music (Electric Jazz), Underwaste swimming (Coral Sway)...

That's all from the top of my head. I've composed a new underwaterish theme lately that I've been thinking about swapping Coral Sway for, named Chiyn Shark.

I have a better boss theme somewhere; I could swap the Boss Theme for that one and let the current boss theme be used for "Panic" situations. The neo boss music wouldn't fit those passages properly.

If you PM me your email, I could send you some of the MIDIs. Just remember the following:
- MIDIs sound different on different computers (or so they say; I've never heard my music sounding different on any other computer than they do on mine)
- I absolutely hate midis with anything other than note events in them. I only use the "velocity" of the notes as means of changing volume, and I have no idea what "panpot" and "sostenuto" does. It just messes up the song and makes it loop improperly. The first thing I do when I edit a midi from VGMusic for one of my fangames is to remove all effects.
/rant

I'll keep working on 2.0. I've just had a lot of schoolwork lately. Haven't turned on my computer in 48 hours... and counting.

Edited by Yal, 24 February 2011 - 08:57 AM.

[Captain Cook]

I should have explained what I meant with "remaster": to open it in SynthFont and apply a SoundFont to it, then export the song as a mp3, ogg, or whatever. Although I would like a shot at improving some of the stuff in other ways, that's basically what I meant. I could probably try a remix as well.

This is an example of something I tried to do for that Kirby fan game in my signature:

Edited by Captain Cook, 24 February 2011 - 02:14 PM.

[Yal]

then export the song as a mp3, ogg, or whatever.

Drastic filesize increase FTW!

Well, if I release it as a "Special Edition" I assume a bigger file would be acceptable.
I'd prefer being able to mail you the files, so if you PM me your email address sometime I could send you them. I think. How would you prefer to be credited in the special edition? A splash screen of "Soundtrack by Yal, Edited by Captain Cook" beyond the "Created by YAL" splash screen?

Oh, and remember that you cannot use the midi files I send you for anything - nor projects, no nothing, no nohow, without me allowing it. Not that I think you will, but just in case.. (I hereby allow you the use of it in webcomics/flash movies provided that they are about Final Columbus)

Edited by Yal, 24 February 2011 - 03:37 PM.

[Captain Cook]

Speaking of that, you also might want to get familiar with icuurd's FMOD wrapper or some other sound extension, otherwise I'd have to give you WAV files.

Granted, using the right encoding the WAV can be much smaller at the cost of quality (a 44.1kHz ADPCM recording is 176kbps, or a bit more than 1 MB per minute) and GM supports looping WAV files... blah blah blah blah

Basically, don't expect this version to be on any portables.

You could just credit me however you feel is appropriate. Speaking of Flash, would YouTube music videos be allowed?

[skunkchop]

I got trapped here. Luckily I saved right before, so no big deal. It's just something you might want to update if you're still polishing the game up, which I think you are.

[Yal]

Speaking of that, you also might want to get familiar with icuurd's FMOD wrapper or some other sound extension, otherwise I'd have to give you WAV files.

Granted, using the right encoding the WAV can be much smaller at the cost of quality (a 44.1kHz ADPCM recording is 176kbps, or a bit more than 1 MB per minute) and GM supports looping WAV files... blah blah blah blah

Basically, don't expect this version to be on any portables.

I realized the same thing myself, and I was actually going to tell you "STOP! No MP3s! I want WAV files!"... I've actually experimented a bit with WAV files as BGM myself, and since they work nicely (I hope sound_fade(), in particular, does - I've not tried that out yet - since I happen to use that a lot and having to change that function call to something similar that works for non-built-in-music in all the places would be super tedious )

So, um, WAVs would be just fine

You could just credit me however you feel is appropriate. Speaking of Flash, would YouTube music videos be allowed?

Erm??? Could you explain that bit a bit more?

*Ponders*

...Hmm... I guess the answer is "yes". As long as you don't claim the music to be your own compositions - I understand if you want to showcase your remastering ability. You could make a video featuring (the beginning of) the original MIDI, played trough GM or something, then fade that one out and play the entire remastered version. "Only Captain Cook could take THIS mere scarn, and remaster it into THIS marvelllllllllous MP3!"

I got trapped here. Luckily I saved right before, so no big deal. It's just something you might want to update if you're still polishing the game up, which I think you are.

Yup. Version 2.0 is being worked on as we speak. Or, um, not really, but, well, you get what I mean. I'll fix that until the next upload. Collision problem with 1-tile spaces.

[IQbrew]

I don't know if you were trying to be funny, but the dialog is just painful to read.