Insane Difficulty: Version 9 Beta Public Beta Test Download - Insane Difficulty

Merry Christmas.

Version 9 Beta will be public download until tomorrow evening. Of course, there are a few special members who I will send the link to personally should they miss the deadline. The game will say version 8, I just haven't edited the title yet.

Most people here know the basic rules of downloading and playing this hack by now. If not, just ask on this thread, they'll explain it to you.
RULE NUMBER 2, DON'T HACK THE GAME UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. One mistake and the whole game can bug up. RULE NUMBER 3, fresh start of course. This can never be controlled.

[Edit: Removed message about using using distributed rom files. Insane Difficulty does not tolerate such activities. - Hart-Hunt]

Keep in mind that this beta is based on the normal difficulty. You are free to do videos/walkthrough as you please.
Just be sure to title it BETA so the viewers know that it's still in the making.

I've been working on this thing all month. As usual, bugs sometimes appear out of thin air when you change things. I think I got all the hazardous ones out. I'll fix a bug during beta testing only if it completly prevents story completion but this shouldn't happen. There are a few things that are not final..mainly the ally stat growth past level 30 due to a new feature. I'll explain why later. And I still have to add a few new sound tracks.

The purpose of this public beta test is to check for deadly bugs and monster balances There's a major change to monsters that's going to shake things up a bit, and I haven't had time to balance this yet. Some might be too weak, while others might be far too strong.(Please excuse me should this happen...)Never fear, your allies have awesome changes as well. Here's a tip...MAKE SURE YOU DO THE 3D MAZE!! Everything else should be final unless something horrible goes wrong.

This project has consumed me completly, and after 8+ years of working on this thing, it's finally time to put it to rest. This is the grand finale...the last upgrades will be to fix any bugs and monster...and perhaps any great last minute suggestions should it be in our power to add it. Nothing seems impossible to Doomsday.

Thank you for your patience. Merry Christmas everybody! Be safe out there.

UPDATE: FIxed massive EXP bug.

Link will be down until final non-bugged game.

I found the problem...
When I made new spells, I added more text...which carried over to the EXP needed to level up. It's amazing how something this small can bug up the WHOLE game. NOW do you understand why it took me so long? Little things like this happen all the time it might happen again later on with dialoge and such...

Merry Christmas indeed!

I'm flying to my parents tomorrow, but until then I think I'll stream some SMRPGA v9b! I'll post a link when I'm about to start.

Doomsday, on 24 December 2016 - 10:45 AM, said:

Sorry it took so long, but you finally get to see all your hard work in action!!!

Thanks a lot DK!

I'm looking forward to have a sneak peek, even if it's just the beta. I would like to congratulate you DK for everything you've done to make this hack the "real deal".

Merry Xmas to everyone!

Doomsday, on 24 December 2016 - 10:45 AM, said:

I wouldn't miss it for the world. Sorry I'm late at getting this thing out.

Merry Christmas and whatnot.

Also, this will be fun, actually being in a beta since like V6 or something lol. And just in case something goes wrong with the files and it goes into private beta testing, i got the files.

(M.Bison voice) YESSSS, YESSSSSS.

No seriously though, been waiting for this for really long, thanks alot DK, this hack is very underrated, looking forward to playing this beta, merry christmas!

Thanks for releasing it publicly this time, as well as putting forward all the effort you have to make this potentially the best version of the game you could.

I hope I'm allowed to stream the beta publicly. If not, I'll refrain from doing so. I'm hoping to show a friend or two the game while I play it.

Darkkefka, you really don't seem to understand. You MUSTN'T INCLUDE ROM FILES IN YOUR DOWNLOAD. Please fix it ASAP.

Just did the intro fight with Bowser and wanted to post a few thoughts.

I don't know if it's just me, but for some reason I seem to have difficulty blocking Bowser's claw attacks, the timing for it just doesn't seem to be where I feel like it would be, either not or it's just a really narrow window. (And I was able to block both attacks from the Jaggers just fine.)

The other is I think it could be better communicated that Bowser is going to use his Fire attack and that you need to use the Defend command to survive.
So like instead of Bowser saying "What a joke! Put More Muscle into it!" it might be better if he said something along the lines of "What a joke! It's time to burn!" to better indicate that he is going to use a powerful attack, and maybe also have Peach say something the first time like "His Fire is too strong, you need to guard!" (Like she would say this either before or after mentioning hitting the Chandeli-ho.)

I like this guard mechanic for the intro fight, I just think it could be a bit smoother with some better communication.
I died the first time to this since I didn't know he used Fire after he taunted, which gave the fight a more trial and error feel since I would have no way of seeing that coming. (Sorry if I'm nit-picking here, I just see this as an area that could be improved some for a better introduction fight.)

---

Is level 13 too high for ending Bandit's Way with?
Croco just felt rather easy at that level, I didn't grind to that point either, as I got about 5 of those levels just from using the Starman in that area to beat like 10 of those bandit enemies.
Might I suggest changing the enemies in the room with the Starman to something that gives less EXP like Spinies so this spot isn't such a big EXP dump?

the amount of exp given by using a star to kill an enemy is fixed regardless of what type of enemy you kill. If you got the levels by a star massacre it wouldn't matter what type of enemy is in the room.

Ah ok, I didn't know that.

Then I guess the actual thing to look into would be seeing if the exp gained from killing enemies with stars can be reduced at all, maybe to 2 or 3 exp since that's how much you get from most of the fights in Bandit's Way.

Gonna try to download this tomorrow night. Really want to give this a try.

Ironically, Peach told the player to defend in v8.5b, and I complained that it didn't make sense for her to keep telling Mario to defend every single time. I do agree about the importance of the warning at least the first time, though.

As for Croco, DK didn't really balance the beta, so a lot of monsters will be either too easy or too hard. Certain allies, spells, and items are likewise broken.

Playing the v.9b, I ran into the same problem I had when I played v8: when I reach a save point i save normally, but if i close snes9x and open it again, my save file is gone, making me rely on save states the ENTIRE game in order to keep my progress.

Anyone knows how to fix this?
I'm playing version 9 beta and it is running on snes9x 1.54.1 for windows
Thanks!

What a great way to start Christmas. Always have seen the Armageddon mod, but have never actually played it. What better time than now? Just wanted to ask how you go about patching and playing the game? Any help would be much appreciated!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Okay. I think I figured it out. On the title screen, however, it says Easy Mode v8. Does that mean I'm not playing the right version?

Edit: Nevermind! Just saw that DK said in his original post. Don't mind me...

Merry Christmas everybody!

Pretty amazing stuff here, darkkefka! I'll definitely be checking this out soon, game and code. This is great to finally get my hands on a copy!

I keep telling you this but if you need any assistance with code or sprites, contact me.

I'm in the Mushroom Kingdom now. When Mack and the Shysters attack.