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Well, I'm very interested in seeing the final product! Do let us know when you got it animated and how it looks!

Hmmmm... unless I actually see that in animation, I'd stick with having a high layer with transparent water tiles. So far, I feel that it looks better than that. Maybe when animated that would look better, but I've been experimenting with making Iron Boots and that's what been working for me.

I think that would be your best bet. Honestly, it should be pretty easy with animated tiles and the high layer transparent water overlay. Have you tried it out yet?

I see what you mean. But if you look closely, only the map tiles are distorted. Maybe you could do the same with animated tiles?

I still think it will look pretty decent. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't most SNES games simply simulate the "underwater effect" with sprites? Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Mega Man X, etc. just had the hero enter the water but it didn't distort any of the images yet you could still tell they were underwater. At least, with having the transparent water tiles as a high layer over the entire map you want submerged, you get a better illusion of being underwater than those previously mentioned games because 1) Zelda is viewed from a bird's eye view camera angle and 2) you actually see the water moving over the level. So I think it's a good thing for the moment and just as aesthetically pleasing.

Yes! I too would like to make the shovel item, but I came across the same problem you did: the entire map would be filled with either dynamic tiles or custom entities. Surely, there must be some easier way.

What I was thinking of at the moment was a tile like the tall grass that would interact if you used the shovel item. So basically, the hole would already be on the map and above the hole the ground tile. When the shovel is used above the ground tile, it disappears producing a treasure (like the tall grass) and then revealing the hole (much like the tall grass would be cut to show the cut grass or the bush cut to show the stump).

True, but at least you get an underwater effect in the mean time

It's very possible to do.

Use the transparent water tile over the entire area on the highest layer. That way it will appear that you're underwater.

[I will soon share an example of that.]

Exactly. And it is much easier to edit the entire floor on a single map rather than having 20 maps open in the editor.

Separators don't reset enemies, pots, etc but it is possible to use their on_activating()/on_activated() events to automatically save and restore entities. I will soon share an example of that.

The problem DementedKirby mentions about map coordinates can be solved by setting the location property of both maps. If a map is 240 pixels below another, the scrolling will be correct as long as their relative location reflects that.

Does that mean that we'll be getting a new tutorial soon discussing separators? Joy!!

I think it has to do with teleportation. If you want it to be fluid you need the scrolling transition (which is what's used in A Link to the Past). Having the hero simply blink to an adjacent map isn't ascetically pleasing.

Another reason may be because then all dungeon rooms would have to have to same dimensions in order to teleport from one to the other if you're side scrolling. For instance:
    ____
[ ]|      |[ ]
[ ]|___|[ ]

In that scheme you have a large center room equivalent to 4 small rooms. Each block on either side is a small room. If you try to enter the large room from either of the bottom rooms, you'll teleport to where you'd enter from the top rooms (if you're teleportation is scrolling). Likewise, if you enter either of the bottom small rooms from the large room, you'd go to a place on the map not on the map and it'll look like the hero disappeared and you can't move because the hero would've appeared somewhere not defined by tile on the map. So it's easier to just have one large map and separate the rooms by walls and doors, giving the illusion that the rooms are separated.

If you want things to respawn when moving from one room to the next on the same map, you can maybe use sensors within the spaces between the doors coded to respawn whatever you want to be reset as the hero changes rooms.

Hope that answers your question.

Actually, I found that the error message is not due to having 2 npcs overlapping but because the item.lua has two different dialogues. The engine thinks it's an error but it's actually doing what I want it to. What I need to happen is one of two different things:
If the hero hits action to activate the sign, it reads untranslated.
If the hero uses the book in front of the sign, it reads translated.
If I try to read the sign nomally (with the action key), nothing happens; the untranslated message should happen. However, it only happens with the book and it only reads the translated message. If I place one npc above the other, then the sign with the action key works and not the sign requiring the book.
I want the same effect as the Book of Mudora in ALttP. You should be able to read the sign normally but get an untranslated message. If you use the book in front of the same sign you should get the translated sign.

Yay! A scripted bow will allow for custom arrows! Alright!

I don't mind the built in items (boomerang, bow, hookshot, etc.) because it makes it very easy to program a quest. It's actually appreciated.

I really like this idea and want to implement it! How about instead of making the water layers into low when making the map, you change the hero's layer to high (and make the platform become high as well) when the hero activates the platform? That way it's gonna move in the high layers. Then, when the hero dismounts the platform, you can change the layer settings back to normal for both the hero and the platform?

Just as the boomerang has speed and distance parameters, it would be nice to have at least a distance parameter for the hookshot. That way it can be enhanced into the longshot or something similar. I know it was mentioned by Christopho that the hookshot isn't customizable yet. Maybe this can be something for a future version? Something along the lines of hero:start_hookshot(max_distance).

Also, a customizable bow. The engine has the bow shoot an arrow entity. But maybe there could be a selection of entities to choose? At least entities of type "arrow"? That way one could have a bow that shoots regular arrows, silver arrows, fire arrows, ice arrows, light arrows, bomb arrows, etc. Maybe there could be a specific entity called "arrow" and it has some variants that can be edited? That way the command could be hero:start_bow(variant) and the variants chosen in the graphics for the arrow sprite. I think that would be awesome. Of course, this wouldn't just be for graphical effects. Since the bow will have variants there could be scripts that call this variant in order to check and reduce for magic when using a magic arrow, or checks for bombs also when using a bomb arrow. The entity could also have scripts that check on it in the case of a fire arrow, ice arrow, light arrow, etc.

Well, I gave everything except the "header", lol. Here's the whole code:

Code Select Expand


local item = ...
local map = ...
local game = item:get_game()

function item:on_created() 
   self:set_savegame_variable("possession_book")
   self:set_assignable(true)
end
     
function item:on_using()
   item:get_map():get_entity("hero"):set_animation("book")
   game:start_dialog("book.test", nil, function ()
   item:set_finished()
   end)
end

function item:on_npc_interaction_item(sign,item)
   if sign:get_name() == "ForestSign" then
      item:get_map():get_entity("hero"):set_animation("book")
      game:start_dialog("book.translation", nil, function ()
          item:set_finished()
      end)
   end
end


It works wonderfully. However, I can't have it both ways. What do I mean:
Okay, so the sign is supposed to read gibberish when not using the book. Then, if you use the book in front of it, you get a translated message. However, you can't have an entity on top of the other because then you get the error of trying to retrieve two dialogs at once (which is what I tried: a spriteless npc on top of the sign (one gave the untranslated message with the action and the other the translation when using the book)).

Does the engine have any way around this?