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Quest for Calatia = overworlds by Gamemakr24, dungeons by Erockbrox

Hey now, let's not get crazy.    Erock has submitted quite a few general concept tests as well as puzzles, but the dungeons are still all mine.  

From my own experience, the biggest hurdle in Zelda3 hacking has got to be overworld editing. This is a result of the way hyrule magic does tiles of course. It makes one of the most basic and iconic things about any zelda game very difficult to do in a decent time frame. I end up having to take notes on what tile is what just so I don't use it again and mess something else up as a result. This is probably why getting back into quest for calatia has been difficult for gamemakr.

Absolutely!  Being forced to adhere to a 32x32 grid is like treading through tar!  I have a huge system in place that tracks (a) standard overworld pieces I'm not editing and (b) pieces I'm overwriting to make new buildings.  Nothing could ever be so fun AND tedious at the same time!  (I actually considered putting Link through a tar area, but there's no way to make it look like he's covered in black goo.)

Btw welcome gamemakr24, hope the community helps you in making your game reality

Thank you!  Very glad to be here!

Believe it or not, GameMakr made a list of All overworld tiles which exist in Alttp, just under 9000 (64x64 tiles). I've also seen some gfx studies (16x16 tiles, that's why it is called 16-bit by the way). I wonder if he documented the 32x32 also.

Yep, I documented all the 16x16 blocks in terms of what elements they contain.  For example, grass, dirt, water, rocks, house, East Palace, sky, etc.  I did not document all the 32x32 blocks individually, -- they're all made up of 16x16 blocks, so with my tags in my program, they're already searchable.

As for light world / dark world, my approach so far has been to work on them concurrently whenever it makes sense.  I often have to because I reuse some graphics in the alternate time period, but those graphics need some extra tiles to show damage or modifications over time.  (Dark World = Bad Future in Zelda3C.)  The last time I was doing major overworld work, the efforts were concurrent because your ability to travel is so dependent on which time period you're in.

I need to play Oracle of Ages again for more inspiration, lol!

I actually wish there was a user-friendly way of finding those "unused" tiles on overworlds... as it's sometime a much tedious job of not overwriting anything already done. Your excel editor (while looking a bit complicated) seems to have a least that benefit over HM

For exemple, for the last few months in my hack, I've often overwritten many overworld tiles already in use.. at first when starting a z3 hack, it can be easy to look for free tiles but the more time that goes into it, the more it becomes a game of trial and error!

In that regard, I actually wish your excel editor wouldn't look so complicated so that a private release wouldn't be off the charts.    Oh well, if at least you know how it works enough, that's a good thing I guess!

Well, I'm just going to say something.......

What is the point of having Hyrule Magic, but people refuse to release the source code and can't develop it any further???

And what's the point of making an excel editor, but only keeping it to yourself???

Sorry if I offend anyone.

Erockbrox wrote:Well, I'm just going to say something.......

What is the point of having Hyrule Magic when we don't have the source code and can't develop it any further???

And what's the point of making an excel editor, but only keeping it to yourself???

Sorry if I offend anyone.

Here's my personal opinion on the matter.

What is the point of having Hyrule Magic's source code if MathOnNapkins made it evident that it's difficult to read and very sloppy in nature. I don't know how good you are at programming but MathOnNapkins prefers making a whole new editor than fixing hyrule magic so that's saying something.

And as for gamemakr24's excel editor, it is his. He made it for quest for calatia. I mean just like sephiroth3 chose not to release the source code I'm sure gamemakr would prefer to keep his editor to himself. It's probably complicated and difficult to use anyway. 

Considering that parallel worlds was completed even without the source code or the excel editor, hyrule magic must work well. I personally have come to love the editor the way it is. But just my 2 cents

As far as HM, Moegami already gave a great response and I second that motion.

As for my Excel editor, it is indeed very complicated to use -- I sometimes have to re-learn my own procedures whenever I'm away from it for awhile. And you know what happens when you release a program... (1) "How do I do _____?" and (2) "Can you add _____ and/or improve _____?" People would be begging for support, and Erock, you of all people know I'm sometimes cursed with limited free time.

I decided long ago that I could either be a ROM hacker or a ROM utility writer, but given the choice, I'll choose actual game design every time.