BTB

Hey, there everybody. As most of you are aware, Brave New World 2.0 has been in development for awhile. And now, the beta is finally here. This is a thread specifically for the testing process and to track the bugs that occur. If you are interested in playing the 2.0 beta please hop into our Discord and request the tester role - you'll be notified when the beta is released and the role can be used to report issues/concerns and communicate with the other testers. Otherwise, the CURRENT STABLE VERSION OF BRAVE NEW WORLD IS STILL 1.9. CURRENT BETA VERSION: RC-27-Bro --- (check the pinned post in Discord for a link) (NOTE: editing the ROM in FF3usME disables all custom event scripting within a certain range at the end of bank CC, causing game crashes - DO NOT EDIT THE ROM in usME) MAJOR BUGS: • The vigor/stamina variance formula breaks at 85, leading to characters taking much more damage than intended (fixed in RC-27-Bro - will require re-testing in RC-28) • Intangir's (AKA "SrBehemoth") mid-battle switch can crash the game if the "esper" spell select is being loaded at the same time (fixed in RC26) • Tier 3 in the final battle has the incorrect stats, making death mostly an inevitability (fixed in RC-25) • RC-22/23: The fight ends prematurely during Intangir's transition to Intangir Z (fixed in RC-24) • If Intangir is imped when transitioning to Intangir Z, the latter's sprite will not properly load and can cause softlocks (can't be duplicated) • RC-21: Steal does not seem to be working properly (fixed in RC-22) • RC-19: Mind Blast is looping for every possible status, making any boss that uses it (Atma Weapon) essentially unbeatable (fixed in RC-21) • RC-19: the Imperial Camp sequence is (practically) unwinnable due to Soldiers having corrupted stats (fixed in RC-20) • Cleave and X-Zone were very buggy and could potentially softlock the game (fixed in RC-18) • Rages are not listed alphabetically in battle and some are not displaying out of battle (fixed in RC-18) • Sap damage is much lower than it should be on player characters (fixed in RC-18) • RC-15 would crash if the Imp effect was ever applied (fixed in RC-16) • RC-14 was missing an important piece of code for bosses (fixed in RC-15) • RC-13 was cursed (solution: skipped ahead to RC-14) • All outgoing damage from players is ~10% higher than it should be (fixed sometime between RC-11 and RC-13) • Items are sometimes not dropping from enemies as they should (fixed in RC-13) • Unusuable "dummy" items randomly populate in the player's inventory (fixed in RC-13) • Damage/healing numbers occasionally/frequently do not show up (fixed in RC13) • There appears to be some pretty heavy lag after most/all attacks (fixed in RC13) • The third fight with Ultros is unwinnable due to an error in his script (fixed in RC-12) • Game just crashes in battle for no reason (RC-9 only; fixed in RC-11) • Blackjack (the slot result, not the airship) crashes the game (fixed in RC-11) • Enemies do not seem to be taking extra damage from fire elemental weaknesses (elemental mixing hack removed from RC-9; re-added in RC-14) • The game softlocks after any battle after obtaining espers (RC-7 only; fixed in RC-8) • Game is randomly(?) softlocking after battle (fixed in RC-7) • Terra softlocks the game in the intro flashback sequence (fixed in RC-7) • Regen ticks are very low (fixed in RC-7) • The crane battle never ends, thus softlocking the game (fixed in RC-6) • XP gains are lower than they should be, significantly so at higher levels (fixed in RC-6) • "Slots" crashes the game when used (fixed in RC-5) • Whatever the fuck is going on here (fixed in RC-5) • Damage is VERY low (ex. Dadaluma) in some cases (fixed in RC-5) • The in-battle status display is incorrectly reporting several statuses (Muddle -> Rerise; Shell -> Stop; Haste -> Sap) (fixed in RC-5) • If you save at the point after the minecart ride and relaunch the game entirely, everyone gets innate slow (fixed in RC-5) • Characters seem to be taking much lower damage in battle than intended (fixed in RC-4) • Melee counter-attacks are not correctly targeting the attacker (fixed in RC-4) • Drain effects are not working properly (fixed in RC-4) • Goggles (possibly other status relics) are not blocking the intended statuses (fixed in RC-3) MINOR BUGS: • Some formations will look weird as pincer attacks (please post any that you find) • Magic attacks have an effective 1% miss rate against enemies (RC-28 will fix this by setting the accuracy of all relevant magic attacks to 101) • The "unequip imp" in the scenario select screen is sometimes not being hidden when a scenario is selected (may be fixed in RC-28... or the game might explode) • It's still possible to enter the South Figaro basement early (fix pending) • Dying the Guardian as Leo still results in a game over (may not fix) • The Ancient Castle Basement is still locked by default (will either fix or make the hidden switch visible) • Intangir Z does not have a Sketch assigned (will be fixed in RC-28) • Jackpot and Stray are not correctly targeting dead allies (fixed in RC-27-Bro - will require re-testing in RC-28) • Multi-elemental attacks (i.e. Giga Volt - Wind/Bolt) are not dealing half damage if one of the two elemental are resisted (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • Aurabolt/Empowerer are not doing halved damage from the back row as intended (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • When the Rage status is removed via a Green Cherry, status resistances are not properly recalculated (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • Dragon (the Bushido) does not have the correct rate for random petrification (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • The Witch enemy's special attack is improperly flagged and will thus always miss (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • The Ragnarok equip bonus (+25% magic output) is not functioning (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • Stamina dodging for MT attacks does not appear to work as intended (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • Grav Bomb always misses on non-floating targets (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • Seraph is not properly blocking the "Zombie" status (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • Fenrir incorrectly adds +1 M.Evade (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • X-fight is disallowing MP auto-crits (i.e. Daryl's Soul cancels the special effects of the Viper Darts) (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • Carbunkl, Seraph, and Phoenix are incorrectly giving 20 MP per EL instead of 25 (Carbunkl) or 15 (Phoenix/Seraph) (fixed in RC-27; Ph/Se are giving 14 MP, fixed in RC-27-Bro) • The random encounter rate sometimes skyrockets right after the Mine Cart Ride for about eight battles (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • Edgar, please, not in front of the children (should be fixed for good in RC-27-Bro) • Brushes re-target to enemies instead of friendlies on death (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • The Demonsbane and Tarot "kill undead" procs are not using the correct animation (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • The Chainsaw and Ichimonji/Zantetsuken death procs are not using the correct animation (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • Kaiser's script has a nested conditional that is causing problems (fixed in RC-27) • Lakshmi doesn't appear to do anything during her turns (fixed in RC-27) • The Kagenui has the incorrect stats before recruiting Shadow (purely visual bug; fixed in RC-27) • Puff Goo incorrectly hits itself when blinded (fixed in RC-27) • Manticores do not have MP to use Aqualung in the Colosseum (fixed in RC-27) • Face and Short Arm (final battle, Tier 1) have swapped positions (fixed in RC-27) • The solution to the Tombstone Puzzle in Daryl's Tomb is backwards (fixed in RC-26) • The in-battle "Rage" scrollbar stops one quarter of the way down the window (fixed in RC-26) • Mudcrabs are not properly flagged to not appear on the Veldt (fixed in RC-26) • ??? is not properly flagged to ignore defense (fixed in RC-26) • Intangir Z is dropping 2 Kagenui's (fixed in RC-26) • Behemoth/Diablos are incorrectly vulnerable to Bserk (fixed in RC-26) • Chimera/Manticore/Sphinx are incorrectly vulnerable to Sleep (fixed in RC-26) • Scan will sometimes spit out garbage after appropriate scans (could not replicate) • Ultima hits itself with Full Force (fixed in RC-25) • The "unequip" NPC in the scenario select screen does not unequip Cyan after Sabin's scenario (fixed in RC-25) • Final Kefka's script has an error causing his counter-attack routine to cease after the first cycle (fixed in RC-25) • The "Blind" status is causing the "Jump" command to do half damage from the back row (fixed in RC-24) • Imped enemies are not properly reverting to their original sprites when cured (LeetSketcher's hack was not working; removed for now - RC-28 will have a fix for Tonberry/Master T) • RC23: the Noiseblaster is (randomly?) Chainsawing enemies to death (fixed in RC-24) • Bouncy Balls do 0 damage (fixed in RC-24) • An error in their scripts cause Asura and Isis to never enter their final attack phases (fixed in RC-24) • Landslide will still inflict the "Slow" status on floating targets that it misses (fixed in RC-23) • The "Hobo" line of enemies may attempt to use a Tonic on dead allies instead of properly re-targeting (RC-23 has healing items re-target on death) • The Soldier rage has Cure 2 as the uncommon attack instead of the common (fixed in RC-23) • There is a small error in the Sphinx enemy script that affects its behavior (fixed in RC-23) • The Diablos enemy in Kefka's Tower is using the incorrect targeting for Cyclonic (fixed in RC-23) • Inferno's arms are less aggressive than intended due to a scripting error (fixed in RC-23) • Incorrect dialogue appears in the Guardian and Final Kefka battles (fixed in RC-23) • There is a small error in Kaiser's script which may make it more difficult for players to figure out how to fight him (fixed in RC-23) • The "unequip" NPC in the scenario select screen appears on the same tile that Mog spawns on (fixed in RC-22) • The Tzen relic shop has the wrong wares in the WoR (fixed in RC-22) • The Tentacles will not correctly update the position of characters when grabbing them and will drop them off to the top left of the screen (fixed in RC-22) • The chest that should contain Setzer's Viper Darts instead contain a second Tarot (fixed in RC-22) • Tentacle B has the wrong elemental settings (fixed in RC-21) • 024 does not properly respond to having Dispel cast on it (fixed in RC-20) • The Atlasphere enemy is not correctly updating its AI (fixed in RC-20) • The Royal Jacket still blocks fire damage (fixed in RC-20) • RC-19: a certain zone in the (WoR) Serpent Trench has no enemy encounter data (fixed in RC-20) • The Haste status (invisibly) cycles through with the Safe/Shell/Reflect statuses (fixed in RC-19) • MP damage is incorrectly triggering melee counters (fixed in RC-19) • The select button acts as L/R for multi-targeting (vanilla behavior, but it conflicts with the HP/ATB view hack; fixed in RC-19) • Exploder is randomly targeting the entire party when Gau rages Bomb and is also doing the wrong amount of damage (fixed in RC-19) • The Bserk spell animation is slightly buggy (fixed in RC-19) • Green-D's timed attack is misspelled (fixed in RC-19) • Antlion's special attack is not correctly flagged to deal no damage (fixed in RC-19) • The 777 Slot spin has the incorrect name (fixed in RC-19) • Lv. 9 Mages, Didalos, and Phunbaba have no Sketch attacks assigned (fixed in RC-19) • Tiny Tims have no common steal set (fixed in RC-19) • Banshees have the incorrect status immunities (fixed in RC-19) • The Mantra formula is broken (fixed in RC-18) • The Monet and Dali brushes have the incorrect spells (fixed in RC-18) • The armor shop at Thamasa sells two sets of Gold Armor (fixed in RC-18) • The 7-7-7 Slot spin is not targeting live characters as it should (fixed in RC-18) • Chesticle incorrectly drops two Frostgores (fixed in RC-18) • The guest in the Wrexsoul fight incorrectly spawns on top of a Soulblazer (fixed in RC-18) • A bug in Zone Eater's AI causes it to hit itself under certain circumstances (fixed in RC-18) • Mind Blast was causing issues with turn order after being used (hack removed from RC-17 for debugging) • Chesticle has no MP to cast its spells (fixed in RC-17) • One area of the Serpent Trench has the wrong pack assigned and another zone near Kefka's Tower has none at all (fixed in RC-17) • The "Empty" inventory command did not work in RC-16 (fixed in RC-17) • Shadow initializes with 999 MP (fixed in RC-13- will require a new save to be effective) • The 3x Wasp formation is improperly flagged as leapable (fixed in RC-13) • Bedevil (dance step) is missing the "redirection" flag (fixed in RC-13) • Terra's attack in the flashback sequence has no name (fixed in RC-12) • Fire Dance engulfs the targets in a cleansing warmth that soothes their wounds (fixed in RC-12) • Two NPCs in the Beginner's School are calling the wrong captions (fixed in RC-12) • Terra uses weird/wrong attacks in the flashback sequence with Kefka (fixed in RC-11) • Terra and Celes learn several incorrect spells through leveling (fixed in RC-11 - will require a new save to be effective) • The Rizopas fight can be trivialized by paralyzing with Suplex (fixed in RC-11) • “Gauge: Off” config setting doesn’t work in battle (maxHP shows briefly, then switches to ATB gauge as default) (fixed in RC-9) • The new save point in the Ancient Castle has no assigned sprite (basically: it's functional, but invisible) (fixed in RC-9) • Weird graphical errors with the Bushido meter flashing (fixed in RC-7) • The second (new) save point in the Cave to the Sealed Gate does not work (fixed in RC-7) • The Apocyllumina event is broken due to a blank caption where a choice is supposed to be made (fixed in RC-7) • Fanfare music plays in Terra’s flashback after killing soldiers (fixed in RC-7) • Cyan cannot equip Crusader; can equip Alexandr instead (fixed in RC-6) • Ghost Rings/Ribbons do not protect against Stop as they should (fixed in RC-6) • Empty enemy formations appear in the Serpent Trench (WoR) and Cave to Figaro Castle (fixed in RC-6) • The Magitek menu (appears in the first fight) has a bunch of "???????" options (fixed in RC-5) • Antlions (enemies outside Figaro Castle) have no regular battle script (fixed in RC-5) • The Shell spell sets Stop instead of Shell (fixed in RC-5) • Fire Dance (Blitz) does nothing (fixed in RC-5) • The special attack on Gau's "Soldier" rage does nothing (fixed in RC-5) • Kefka uses the wrong line if beaten at Narshe via an alternate win condition (fixed in RC-5) • When Giants use Magnitude on death, the targeting is incorrect (fixed in RC-5) • The armor shop at Narshe starts selling Antidotes post-IMTRF (fixed in RC-5) • Banon is wearing a "dummy" item instead of armor (fixed in RC-4) • Zeigfried is dropping a "dummy" item after he dies (fixed in RC-4) • Several NPCs in Mobliz are exhibiting... odd behavior (fixed in RC-4) • Spirit Claws are randomly casting Stop instead of Slow (fixed in RC-4) • Characters with the "Vanish" status may have it randomly removed for no reason (fixed in RC-3) • Terra, Biggs, & Wedge do not properly have the MagiTek status in the game's intro (fixed in RC-3) • The config menu is displaying the wrong version (BNW 1.9.0) (fixed in RC-2) NOT BUGS: • All of the special MagiTek commands are gone except for Tek Laser and Heal Force • Whelk dies in one round; there's no need to drag this fight out to "teach" players about ATB • The ATB bar no longer turns yellow when full; rather, the design of the end-caps will change • Enemies beyond the ones outside of Narshe/Figaro Castle no longer counter Steal by murdering Locke • You no longer wear MagiTek armor in the third segment of Cyan's Nightmare • The Cranes have no death animations (RC-24 adds text boxes to indicate that they have been disabled) KNOWN ISSUES (WILL NOT BE FIXED): • Banon will show up in the back row if Wedge was placed in the back row during the opening sequence • Rizopas can be skipped entirely if the last Piranha is killed with a counter-attack • The "shop preview" hack looks a little wrong for tools and causes some slowdown • Enemies will not counter dual-wield melee attacks if one of the weapons involved ignores row OR if the last weapon strike procs a spell • The new save point at the Ancient Castle is grey for some reason • Certain enemies can die individually under certain circumstances instead of simultaneously; can be annoying if they appear in large groups (*) *This is fixable but requires scripting space; therefore, only the most egregious cases will be addressed; please post any that you think need it BALANCE ISSUES: • Character ATB bars start half-full in back/pincer attacks, which is actually a stealth buff to slower characters (fixed in RC-27-Bro) • Blackjack (the Slot spin) is a little overpowered against most randoms (RC-27-Bro lowers its power back down to what it was in 1.9) • Many random encounters in the mid-WoR are a little too easy to steamroll with AoE damage (RC-27-Bro bumps up enemy HP in some places) • The Autocrossbow's low hitrate makes it scale poorly in the later game (Schematics now also set it to perfect accuracy - I have no idea when this got added in) • Shadow is a tough sell for Zozo because of the hiring cost (RC-27-Bro lowers his asking price to 1,000 GP) • May need to edit the scripts of the "Rain Man" line to make it more obvious when their AI has been changed (declined) • Intangir's tendency to counter with Meteo can be bad if the RNG is streaky (dealt with... sort of) • The "Robot" line of enemies respond extremely negatively to being hit by an elemental weakness (declined) • May want to (slightly) increase the HP of the "Jinn" line of enemies (declined; the Blackjack nerf addresses the possibility of OHKOing Jinns) • Sun Bath/Harvester are very weak when regular enemies use them (addressed in RC-27) • The Nightshade/Belladonna enemy group is too easily disabled by hitting an elemental weakness (addressed in RC-27) • The Ninja / 2x Dactyl formation on the Floating Continent has too much AoE damage (RC-26 lowers Dactyl's magic power) • Atma/Ultima counter Raid/Osmose/Empowerer as they would any other MP damage (addressed in RC-26) • Dullahan's S.Cross does a lot of damage (RC-26 lowers Dullahan's magic power) • Enemies on the Southern Continent are overtuned (Wyvern and Chickenlip are nerfed in RC-24) • Kaiser can be (somewhat) cheesed through a particular strat (fixed in RC-24) • Heartfire casts Regen on itself, but cannot be sapped (fixed in RC-24) • Ultros 2 may need lower HP (declined) • The Flan rage needs nerf (RC-23 changes the secondary attack from Life 2 to SlowX and move the Flans to after the Ifrit/Shiva battle) • Celes can be back-attacked during her solo segment of the WoR (addressed in RC-21) • Back attacks and pincers are still very overpowering even without taking extra damage from behind (RC-21 increases party's starting ATB in pincer/back attacks) • All incoming magical damage is lower than it should be (this was an error with in my damage calculator, RC-19 adjusted enemy magic power to compensate) • Shiva and Ifrit use Ice 3 / Fire 3 too frequently (addressed in RC-6) • The Telstar fight is a PITA (addressed in RC-11) • The Phantom monster-in-a-box in Locke's scenario (addressed in RC-5; further edited in RC-6) NEW FEATURES: • RC-27-Bro: Celes/Edgar/Setzer/Sabin to re-average to level 18 in the WoR, everyone else to 21 • RC-23: Healing items now re-target on death • RC-26: Enemies that can counter ANY attack no longer counter Scan

While BNW 2.0 isn't yet "officially" released, the beta version is currently largely finalized with only inconsequential changes left to be made and we've reached the point of steering all new players towards playing it. So with that, I unveil the brand-new MVP thread for a new version, now with more voting options! Please do take a minute to vote for your favorite character(s) after playing (and please do actually finish the mod before you do) since it's more than just a popularity contest - it's extremely useful feedback for gauging how well the characters are balanced.

As anyone who spends any amount of time in our Discord is aware, I've been quietly working on what has turned out to be possibly the biggest update for Brave New World so far. While we do have some fun new features in store from every major contributing coder we have (Seibaby, Think, DN, and GrayShadows) as well as the much-requested "vanilla" translation courtesy of Deschain, a lot of this is just rebalancing based on my observations from watching countless players stream on Twitch - as well as my own experience from my aborted developer commentary run. To all of you newer/less in-the-loop folks out there, the CURRENT VERSION OF BRAVE NEW WORLD IS STILL 1.9. Otherwise, if you're interested in playing the 2.0 beta please see this thread What's new in 1.10.0 2.0:

It's fixed in 2.0

[10:57 AM] BTB: Just an update... y'all can safely expect development to be stalled for the next little bit, and that's on both fronts - Bropedio and Synchysi. I'm still poking my head in here, but as far as I'm concerned we're about ready to wrap things up. The beta has everything taken care of save for a few minor bugs and I'm calling it on any new features from this point forward. [10:57 AM] BTB: The current beta is for all intents and purposes what you'll be getting in 2.0, minus some minor changes. [11:08 AM] BTB: Quckfill - in [11:08 AM] BTB: Colosseum alternate - out Weapon swap - in if it works Flee changes - uncertain Translations - untouched

Party comp was a concern when coding Kaiser, and I realized that every possible party has access to at LEAST four elements.

It's not intended.

You're welcome. Glad to oblige! Interceptor uses stamina for damage. I *believe* that his chance to block is a straight 50% if regular evasion fails (hence why Relm sees him more than Shadow does). But I could stand to be fact-checked on that.

This is the second time I've seen you mention enemy behavior that, by design, should be impossibly fast. There is no way that the battle timer can reach 20 before your party takes an action, even during back/pincer attacks, and if this ever does happen it would be considered a bug to be looked into.

Hey, man, glad you enjoyed things. I could write a more detailed response, but I can mostly sum it up with that most of the issues you had are things that are addressed in 2.0. Some key points: • Stamina contributes far more heavily to regen ticks, allowing low HP characters (Strago/Relm) to regain much more HP with high stamina • Mantra got buffed • Bio Blaster isn't sold until after K@N • Enemy AI was rewritten entirely • Most boss fights were rewritten, Kaiser being a notable standout • Dispel is no longer required/useful for any boss fight where Shadow/Celes are not forced (except for MagiMaster) • Merton is now Fire/Dark (i.e. poison) • Flash is now more useful by virtue of blind being more universally effective; WoR humanoids have less magic resistance to the Bio Blaster • The Jackpot bug is going to be fixed

That is possible and that's what I've been doing. When I say it's not possible to fix the problem, I mean it's not possible to eliminate the need for that workaround.

This is true.

Well, therein lies the issue. Most people who realize this already ARE playing (or hacking) the SNES version. The select few who are dealing with the Steam version seem to be specifically interested in it... why, I couldn't tell you. But there's definitely a draw.

So... imagine trying to translate the Bible into Klingon, except I'm pretty sure some crazy bastard has actually done that. So also imagine you don't know Klingon or anyone who does. There is interest in modding the Steam version, but almost all of that interest lies with making it not look like shit. There's been very little progress from what I've seen into the nuts and bolts of the actual game mechanics (which is hilarious since from what I'm told it's literally just a FF6A ROM). And I'd wager a guess that's because most people who ARE interested in the game mechanics are working on the SNES version instead.

Not only is it unfixable, I'm really not sure how it never cropped up in the past.

At some point in every game developer's career, they're legally required to write an essay explaining why Super Metroid is the gold standard of game design because when your game is so well-made that it names an entire genre, it deserves to be examined. While my previous article took a look at Final Fantasy VI and pointed out a long list of game design "don'ts”, this one is going to tackle the "do’s”. But instead of following same format as the FF6 article, I'm going to start out with a single point, the thesis of this piece if you will, and then I'll spend the rest of my time coming back around to it. "People like playing games, but they don't like being reminded that the game was designed by someone." Now, that's going to sound kind of hypocritical coming from me given how much Brave New World leans on the fourth wall, but there's a huge difference between the initial impact of that statement and what I'm actually talking about here. Self-awareness in games is not a bad thing - the greatest thing about Hideo Kojima (or, for a more contemporary example, Toby Fox) is his unrivaled ability to stay one step ahead of the player, anticipate their actions, and react accordingly. Although my point does concern the narrative of your game as much as it does the mechanics, the intended takeaway is that it should always be the player initiating the action rather than the game itself. Of course, a game does need to give the player some direction or else you end up either lost or, in the worst case, with what Penny Arcade once referred to as a "quicksand box". The goal is to direct players without making them aware of the fact. Playing a game is a personal experience, and so players are naturally inclined to want to make the game their own. Being a part of someone else's vision places you in a box with restrictions and limitations, so it's of great importance that those limitations are kept hidden from the player. It's because of this that I prefer to avoid "artificial" boundaries wherever possible, such as an invisible wall at the edge of a map or a game that's designed for the player to hit a hard level cap instead of a "soft" one. Anything that highlights a limitation in what the game is or has to offer will pull a player out of the experience just as much (and arguably more) than a bad joke will, and the best-designed games are the ones that make you feel like no matter how much you've discovered, there's always something more just out of reach. So, back to Metroid. The original game pioneered the ideas of open-world exploration, upgrades that open up new areas in addition to making you more powerful, and backtracking through old areas to access the new ones. It dropped the ball quite a bit due to the hardware limitations of the time - the entire game was a whopping 128 kilobytes - and the fact that it was the first of its kind. There were only a few upgrades that allowed further progression and so a lot of the world opened up very quickly, leading players to get lost more easily. This was compounded by the repetitive map design that, again, existed due to hardware limitations. Damningly, the game failed to telegraph its secrets well and made the fatal error of gating progression (which will be discussed just below) behind one such secret. (Fun side note: did you know that the origin of Samus's iconic "morph ball" is that the developers of the original game couldn't be assed to come up with a "crawling" animation that wouldn't set the NES processor on fire? Goes to show you how good ideas can be born out of limitations, even if that limitation is laziness.) See, there's a difference between figuring something out from a clue and being given no clues whatsoever and stumbling across the answer by, as Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw once put it, "...carting a truckload of miscellaneous knick knacks around, patiently rubbing them all one by one against everything else in the hope of hopping on to the train of logic unique to the game's designer." One gives a sense of accomplishment, and the other is literally brute-forcing your way through every possible option until you land on the right one. Super Metroid made an important compromise in this regard by adding a map system, which in the hands of lesser developers would ruin the core exploration aspect of the game but was instead used to great effect to hint at the game's secrets rather than laying them bare. Compare how the entrance to Kraid's Lair is discovered in Super Metroid by means of the in-game map system revealing its location, but not how to get there, to the original game requiring you to bomb nondescript tiles at random to find your way into lower Norfair. One might be critical of Super Metroid's above-mentioned approach for making things a little too easy to figure out, but bear in mind that this occurs very early in the game in what can still be considered to be its "tutorial" segment. Later puzzles are more subtle, such as the broken glass tube in Maridia hinting at the player to blow up the other one in order to continue(*). But the important thing to note is that the game never flat-out tells you where to go, but rather invites the player to explore the path leading forward through its level design. Where the original game stumbled with this by opening up too much of the game too soon, Super Metroid presents new players with a deceivingly linear path for its first act, only opening up the bulk of its world after it's taught you how to properly explore it. (*The Mandela Effect shows up here seeing as a lot of people - myself included - recall the game pulling a Hideo Kojima on this one by showing off the solution in its "attract mode", which it doesn't. It does, however, act as a comprehensive tutorial of the game's basic and intermediate mechanics for a new player, which is pretty damn ingenious.) Of specific note in the above paragraph is the term "new" players. In the beginning of its second act, Super Metroid teaches you two tricks - not by text, but by literal example - that can be used to break the game. And while there's nothing that kids enjoy more than breaking things, what's important is that at no point were we actually told to do so. The game simply gives you a pair of neat tricks that the astute player realizes can be used to skip the game's "intended" sequence of events. And one of the most beautiful things about Super Metroid is the ambiguity about where the line lies between what its developers intended and what paths the players have since forged for themselves. Now, contrast the next two games in the series. Fusion saw how Super Metroid could be broken, scoffed, and then proceeded to railroad you so Goddamn hard that you had to pay two hundred dollars every time you landed on it. Following massive fan backlash, the following game went to the opposite extreme but continued using the same flawed method of heavy-handed delivery. Rather than Super Metroid's subtle approach, Zero Mission beat you over the head both with directions and sequence breaking tools to the point of requiring them to get the best ending - which really begs consideration of whether or not it even qualifies as sequence breaking if the developers overtly intend for you to do it. However, one thing that Zero Mission shoots for with this approach and actually succeeds very well in accomplishing is highlighting the "easy to learn, difficult to master" gameplay design that Metroid is equally known but rarely lauded for. Super Metroid is very approachable to the casual player, but it is one of the most brutally unforgiving games ever when played for score. And that term is very important here, because the idea of score as a measure of performance in games has been a joke since the early 90's. The modern era has seen "challenge" runs, often of the self-imposed variety, replacing the bragging rights of holding the "high score" at your local arcade. Upon completing Super Metroid, it presents the player with a screen detailing the percentage of items collected and the time taken to finish, thus providing both the basis for and a means of tangibly rewarding what would otherwise be completely arbitrary challenges. More importantly, it does this without ever explicitly issuing a challenge, thus going back to my earlier point about the difference between the game initiating action versus the player doing so. This is by far the biggest area in which Super Metroid succeeds where Zero Mission fails. It's worth discussing the purpose of challenge in video games. Something that I've written about before is that many ROM hacks fall into the trap of making challenge their primary - and often only - notable feature. By contrast, Brave New World was developed to focus primarily on the fun of character development and the challenge is simply a means to an end: an obstacle that warrants that development to overcome. A good game is designed as a vehicle to present the player with opportunities to use the tools that they're given, while a great game creates a seamless divide between the level of skill with those tools it demands in order to complete it and the level of skill that it inspires in order to master it. A good (albeit not infallible) litmus test for how well-designed a game is in this particular aspect is to look at how many of its tools, skills, and/or abilities remain useful in its final stages. A proper climax should be a culmination of everything you've learned in a game up to that point, testing all of your skills and knowledge in more complex ways. A typical role-playing game will fail this test miserably: players spend the entire game collecting a veritable plethora of skills and abilities only to spend its closing moments spamming nothing but the strongest ones. The idea of "situational" skills that are only useful when the circumstances allow are often overlooked by developers and players alike, leading to games that marginalize them since the ones that aren't situational end up being all that you ever need. The Metroid series as a whole avoids the above issue by designing the game around the core concept of Samus's abilities as a means of both combat and exploration. Going back to the "challenge" aspect mentioned above, it's entirely possible to complete Super Metroid with only a handful of its upgrades, but doing so requires a combination of great skill and mastery of the ones you do collect. And again, all of this is accomplished by means of the game inviting the player to probe its depths without outright saying so. The "fun" of the Metroid series is derived from two sources: exploration and the player's movement. These two things go hand in hand; backtracking through previously-explored areas in order to progress is one of the chief defining characteristics of the Metroidvania genre, which draws extra scrutiny to the means by which the game is traversed. Done poorly, this can be seen as padding meant to artificially increase the game's runtime. Done well, however, the thrill of blasting through an area that once proved difficult with a completely new set of skills becomes its own reward. Another thing that Super Metroid is particularly well known for is the laconic nature of its player character; aside from a brief introduction at the outset of the game to set the stage, Samus does not speak at all and the entirety of the game's plot is presented through subtext. Now, I'm of the opinion that stories in video games are like panties: they can be interesting, but I'm much more interested in ripping them off to get at what they're covering up. Super Metroid, for all of its sparsity, managed to present one of gaming history's most memorable plot twists completely inline with its gameplay. Eight years later, Metroid Fusion showed us why Samus should never be allowed to speak. Fast-forward another eight years and Other M showed us that nobody on Nintendo's current writing staff should be allowed to eat with a fork. Ultimately, Super Metroid highlights something I believe to be not only a good game design principle, but a valuable life lesson, as well: show, don't tell. People will rise to far greater heights if simply given the tools and encouragement to do so rather than being explicitly shown the way. It was true in 1994, and it's still very true now 25 years later. Case in point, this article has been floating around in my head for awhile now, and it was playing a certain modern game that manages to encapsulate and build upon so much of what made Super Metroid great that inspired me to get off my ass and write it. And what more could an artist possibly hope for if not for their work to inspire others? (Oh, yeah... groupie sex. Definitely the groupie sex.)

When did you start your save file? The problem was related to his MP being affected whenever certain attacks were used, so it could have been affected long before you ever reached him.

They served no real purpose. There was no point to them, not even from a flavor standpoint, since no OTHER MagiTek armor ever used those attacks.

The alternative is every fight taking forever because your regular attacks have been replaced with Tek Laser.

Yeah, I realized that when my spellchecker rejected the former >.> 'tis fixed now.

Well, if that's the case, it should be pretty easily checkable since instant death and sleep are different immunity packages. I can't say for sure thinking back to 1.9 if that's the entire issue or if it seems like there's something else... definitely something to add to the testing notes, though!

Click the "Chat" link above.

Just an update to anyone who doesn't hang around in our Discord... the beta is still forthcoming, pending getting all of the very many external hacks tetrised into place and some initial checks to make sure nothing is making the game crash. Hopefully it won't be too much longer - thanks everyone for your patience. If you are interested in joining the beta, please hop into our Discord and request the tester role - you'll be notified when the beta is released and the role can be used to report issues/concerns and communicate with the other testers.

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed the mod. Let's see what I can say about a few things... Despite what I will say in-game to justify its existence, the "no exp." option exists solely because of LLG crazies (although veteran players also seem to like capping their levels at 30). It's not something I'm fond of, but it is an option I just like to pretend doesn't exist. I'm... not really sure how you missed the three items specifically that you mentioned, since none of them are particularly difficult to locate. The Thief Glove is behind the clock puzzle in Zozo (the time is unchanged from vanilla; the switch to roman numerals was strictly a space-saving measure in the dialogue bank), while Umaro's relics are in Gogo's Cave/Mog's Cave, respectively. The Hero Shield requires 64 battles to uncurse in BNW instead of 255 in vanilla (this is what the guy means when he says "power of six"). Dispel DOES help against Atma Weapon...part of the changes in 2.0 are to make its effects a little more transparent. For that matter, pretty much every boss in the game got rewritten either a little or a lot for 2.0, and Kaiser was by far the biggest rewrite of the bunch. I wasn't happy with any of the Wallchange bosses as they were in 2.0, but I especially did not like Kaiser. Wrexsoul is annoying, yes. It's because of this that he has an alternate win condition in BNW - just kill the soul fires. 2.0 will add ina way to make the "intended" way of killing him less annoying, as well.

For a more tangible example, 2.0 changes the addresses of quite a number of spells, so a lot of those will be in the wrong spaces if you try to load a 1.9 save file.