The Gloaming Realm

Daring Tombstone · Postby **Daring Tombstone** » Sun Mar 31, 2019 7:52 pm

Far from the Mushroom Kingdom lies a land where corruption is spreading. Waking with slight amnesia you find Peach laying on her death bed in what is only known as the divine realm. With her very soul lost in this strange realm, you seek the divine traveler to begin your search with hopes of saving the princess. But can she really be saved?

Welcome to the Gloaming Realm. This episode came as a result of me learning how to lunalua. This episode REQUIRES SMBX 2.0 beta 3. Don't have beta 3? Visit the link below for the forum page and official download link.
SMBX 2.0 Beta 3 - http://www.smbxgame.com/forums/v ... hp?t=16814

Below are a few screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

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I wanted to create something different so this is the result I came up with. This episode has a world map but doesn't really feature "worlds". Don't expect a water world or desert world here.

Download-https://www.dropbox.com/s/1hnvvl6r8syge ... m.rar?dl=0 87.7 MB

New Update 2/17/20

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-Most levels now have more obtainable 1-ups.
- Twisted Tower now has a platform to stand on during the boss for a more easier experience. (The original plan was to lower it's health but I couldn't figure out how to do that so this was done instead.)
- The cave in Foggy Way is not as dark as it used to be. The fog now looks better.
- The fog is Speedy Zone is also better. Minor fixes.
- The pipe exit to escape A New Start is now placed at the end of the level rather than near the beginning. All cloud backgrounds have been removed so a signpost hint will no longer mislead the player. Removed a circling moving platform.
- The rotating section in Mystifying Stars has been removed. The boss now shows a warning to where he will spawn after the first knockout. Ice and fire flowers now spawn more frequently. The soundtrack during this level has been changed (because I was told aquatic ambience for a space level was weird).
- Starry Showdown now has an option to skip Celebi's cutscene and open the pipe to Ariel immediately (this of course skips over the flee ending). Fixed an issue where Ariel's fight could softlock in the end.
- You no longer must collect coins to make power-ups appear in Haunting Road. Instead power-ups have been placed in boxes and collecting coins in certain spots will reward the player with a hidden 1-up. Minor fixes in various spots.
- Final Gambit now has two fire flowers when you reach the second phase of the boss's fight.
- The re-fight in Final Gambit for the true ending also has these flowers. One of the boss's attacks during the second phase has been edited slightly for a easier time (hopefully).
- In the level "Another Memory" a signpost has been placed to let the player know that crouching in the windy sections will negate the wind's force while crouching.
- A Familiar Dream now cuts to the chase faster during the weird section (you know the one).
- Rebirth Island has more light and no longer becomes as dark in the later sections (you can see what?).
- The Final Mystical Challenge has very minor fixes. The sound queue for the reverse gravity blocks is now louder as well as the music being lowered during it. Some red death blocks were moved around in an attempt to not clip the players head as bad if he/she's big.
- The episode maxes out at 98% with 2 obtainable stars. One from the Final Mystical Challenge, the other from the "To Live in Peace" ending. I tried my best to get it to go to 100% but I don't know why honestly. There's no leftover pathing on the world map.

Past Updates
9/29/19 - The level "Mystifying Stars" now has an additional checkpoint. The boss at the end was slightly redone so power-ups could be obtained more easily.
- Added a thank you note to the episode folder.
- Added a ▓▓▓▓ to th-
4/15/19 -The episode will now max out at 98% completion rather than 67% with two obtainable stars.
-Upon completing the "Stay Here" ending the world map now features a shortcut back to the true ending castle so you can see the other ending without fighting the last boss again.

Any bugs you find please let me know and I will try to fix them the best I can. Thank you so much for giving this episode a go. For anyone curious this took approximately eleven months to create. Below is some graphics packs that was used. If there was a graphic in this episode that isn't credited let me know.

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I have decided to add the music used in this episode. Note that this isn't every single track used (because I couldn't remember where some of them came from or find them on the internet).

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Have a lame support code if you want it.

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KNOWN ISSUE
This episode uses the altpsystem script in most levels. This script is designed so you will take less damage (if you have a fire flower and get hurt, you go to big mario as opposed to being completely shrunk). This script apparently has a flaw though (I'm assuming no one answered my question about it). Taking damage gives you invincibility frames but gaining a power-up will not grant invincibility frames. Please keep this in mind during your playthrough if you like to abuse I-Frames.

Also I'd like to thank the people in the "need help with lua?" forum. They helped me understand how some of the lua scripting worked. Thanks for reading.

Postby **Eri7** » Sun Mar 31, 2019 7:56 pm

OH, I am going to play this and provide you with a review of it! Also nice, someone finally used some of my graphics (looking at the beach screenshot)!

Daring Tombstone · Postby **Daring Tombstone** » Sun Mar 31, 2019 8:18 pm

Those graphics go well with the music used in that beach level. Also that level was my first time using paralax so it was fun making that one.

Postby **Kley** » Sun Mar 31, 2019 10:37 pm

This is awesome so far! I'm gonna keep playing this.

TheNewGuy · Postby **TheNewGuy** » Mon Apr 01, 2019 2:54 pm

Looks much better than your first episode, if it's not an april fools joke ofc.

Cedur · Postby **Cedur** » Mon Apr 01, 2019 3:43 pm

I'll do this and test it some time soon. Not immediately.

Emral · Postby **Emral** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:27 am

My thoughts after playing, spoilered for people who wanna maintain the surprise:

Spoiler: show

Postby **Mario_Increible** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 12:21 pm

This was a very enjoyed experience, i had to download a old SMBX2 version was worth it.
The story resembles a offcial game, and it just stand out.
Problem was, final level was way too long, i needed No Clip and God Mode, and even that, it was still too bored.

Daring Tombstone · Postby **Daring Tombstone** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:35 pm

Enjl wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:27 am
My thoughts after playing, spoilered for people who wanna maintain the surprise:

Spoiler: show
-Very obvious nods to the future arc of the explorers games...
-A tad TOO edgy sometimes? The badly looping beep while faceless peach talks to you is just a nuisance
-Enemy variety 0: I think I've fought enough Dry Bones, Goombas, Koopas, Spinies, Thwomps and Boos for a lifetime.
-The levels feel incredibly long with not much going on! At the first space level (with the wonky gravity) I started cheating because it was getting late and I wanted to see it through to the end, and the nauseating screen rotation section just went on forever even with sonicstooslow active.
-Fairly disappointed in the colour palette... Levels are either green or drab, with only a few exceptions.
-In the new beginning level, I kept thinking the BGO-clouds were meant by the hint.
-Couple of instances of "spot the 2k1x code" in this game, heh. I believe the final boss arena is straight-up copied from Redemption too.
-At some point during the ending I lost track of where I was in context to the whole game, since the game made me replay parts and then a new choice and then the ending still didn't happen? I rebounded shortly before the credits
-The reveal that the ending is in the past is pretty damn genius, I really like that
-Some ideas in levels were cute. The sound effects for the sewer level's yoku blocks stuck with me, and the Layer 2 was cute while it's something I dread seeing again in SMBX2.
-Slowly rotating SMB3 forest background is a great aesthetic.
-Dimentio is a meme so when he showed up, Waddle and I laughed for a minute straight. The chess pieces were cute though.
-I'm sad I couldn't fight Jirachi.

Yeah 2k16 to be accurate. When I finished my last episode I gave it a run through as saw the powers of lua. I wanted to learn more about it but the thing is I've never coded or scripted anything in any language before in my life. So I taught myself but dissecting some script and throwing them in levels. You can see the result here. I've credited the episode in the script I used for it (in this case "the graveyard level"). I did learn a lot about scripting and lua because of it.

Also,

Spoiler: show

Emral · Postby **Emral** » Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:16 am

Daring Tombstone wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:35 pm
Yeah 2k16 to be accurate. When I finished my last episode I gave it a run through as saw the powers of lua. I wanted to learn more about it but the thing is I've never coded or scripted anything in any language before in my life. So I taught myself but dissecting some script and throwing them in levels. You can see the result here. I've credited the episode in the script I used for it (in this case "the graveyard level"). I did learn a lot about scripting and lua because of it.

All good! No hard feelings at all. I'm glad you were able to learn more about scripting from this endevour.

Spoiler: show

Daring Tombstone wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:35 pm
Didn't know Dimentio was a meme I thought he was from a Mario game I've never played lol.

Yeah he's from Super Paper Mario, but he, due to various circumstances, achieved meme status in a circle that Waddle and I are in (I screenshared the thing to him in a voice call). Looking at things in the big picture, he's a pretty decent fit for the circumstances of the game, considering Mario never really dealt much with Time Travel outside of E. Gadd.
I personally thought the twist would be that Jirachi was evil and corrupted since he didn't show up for half the game at that stage. I thought that would close the loop of the game back in on itself in a way.

Daring Tombstone wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:35 pm
I've also never played Redemption.

Good. Keep it at that. We're remaking it from scratch at the moment due to its poor quality.

Daring Tombstone wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:35 pm
I also have a problem with my levels being too long.

One thing I tend to impose for my levels is this set of rules:
1) One checkpoint maximum, two if there's a boss
2) a total of 4 powerup resting spots before the boss checkpoint/end (2 between checkpoints)
3) If the level gets too hard or keeping a powerup for a certain stretch gets tough, or the last midpoint was a ways away, it's time to switch things up or make a segment easier
4) The end result often comes out to something like 4 sections, each a minute or so in length, though as long as the relative time spent per half is consistent, the amount of sections can vary.
5) Autoscrollers always break this format though, and should be measured by their difficulty and time it takes to get through them if you die near the end (keep it from being frustratingly long!)
6) The final section (before the boss?) should wrap up everything the level has tried to do. Be it a gauntlet with all the ideas, an autoscroller creating a contained environment where timing is key, etc... Something that tells the player "I'm almost at the end!" rather than making them question how long it will go on.
7) Ideally, other sections also tell a story that aids the progression. You did a great job at this in the level with the wolves, where the player entered a cave section and then got trapped in the den.

Another set I sometimes try (for contests, mostly) is: One checkpoint at the start of each section, one idea introduced per section, and then they're mixed and matched until the finale section wraps it all up. This one heavily relies on 6) and 7), with 6) even bleeding outside of the FINAL final section and more stretching across all sections, with all ideas introduced getting developed further. Jorfrey and Juggle physics are the two levels that used this.

Maybe you can try out some of these for yourself sometime.

MegaDood · Postby **MegaDood** » Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:40 am

The text boxes remind me a bit of an RPG. I like them.

MegaDood · Postby **MegaDood** » Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:37 am

This may sound weird, but what do you need to do to progress in the target level? I can't seem to work out what to do or how to do it...

Postby **Eri7** » Thu Apr 04, 2019 6:47 am

MegaDood wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:37 am
This may sound weird, but what do you need to do to progress in the target level? I can't seem to work out what to do or how to do it...

Destroy all targets and a message will pop out saying that you have to go talk to peach, then you talk to her to progress further.

MegaDood · Postby **MegaDood** » Thu Apr 04, 2019 7:44 pm

Eri7 wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 6:47 am

MegaDood wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:37 am
This may sound weird, but what do you need to do to progress in the target level? I can't seem to work out what to do or how to do it...
Destroy all targets and a message will pop out saying that you have to go talk to peach, then you talk to her to progress further.

I understand that, but the targets seem unreachable...

Daring Tombstone · Postby **Daring Tombstone** » Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:57 pm

MegaDood wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:37 am
I understand that, but the targets seem unreachable...

You should begin the level automatically with a hammer brothers suit which should have no problems hitting those targets. If you don't start the level with a hammer bros suit something is very wrong.

MegaDood · Postby **MegaDood** » Thu Apr 04, 2019 10:17 pm

Daring Tombstone wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:57 pm

MegaDood wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:37 am
I understand that, but the targets seem unreachable...
You should begin the level automatically with a hammer brothers suit which should have no problems hitting those targets. If you don't start the level with a hammer bros suit something is very wrong.

Ah that must be the problem. I started as Small Mario. I recently got MaGLX3, and I know that has LunaLua installed, so what would the problem be?

Daring Tombstone · Postby **Daring Tombstone** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:38 am

The API's in the script most likely try to look for stuff that would be in beta 3 but in MaGLX3 seem to be moved/missing/etc. I brought it up myself and that seems to be the problem although a lua master would definitely know if this is the case or not. Beta 3 seems to be the way to go for this particular episode right now.

MegaDood · Postby **MegaDood** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:26 am

Do you think this would work in Beta 4 then?
Also here's the screenshot just for reference.

PdizzleParker · Postby **PdizzleParker** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:46 am

MegaDood wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 10:17 pm

Daring Tombstone wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:57 pm

MegaDood wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:37 am
I understand that, but the targets seem unreachable...
You should begin the level automatically with a hammer brothers suit which should have no problems hitting those targets. If you don't start the level with a hammer bros suit something is very wrong.
Ah that must be the problem. I started as Small Mario. I recently got MaGLX3, and I know that has LunaLua installed, so what would the problem be?

I have the same exact problem. I also recently got MaGLX3. Now, I know literally nothing about Lua scripting, But it might be because the scripting API is slightly different, and it's looking for files that are apparently no longer supported.

Added in 2 minutes 47 seconds:
I also have the issue of not being able to get past the first castle stage. I think the stage is supposed to loop vertically at one point but when I fall down I just lose a life.

Postby **ElectriKong** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 2:31 am

thegameseum wrote:
MegaDood wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 10:17 pm

Daring Tombstone wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:57 pm
You should begin the level automatically with a hammer brothers suit which should have no problems hitting those targets. If you don't start the level with a hammer bros suit something is very wrong.
Ah that must be the problem. I started as Small Mario. I recently got MaGLX3, and I know that has LunaLua installed, so what would the problem be?
I have the same exact problem. I also recently got MaGLX3. Now, I know literally nothing about Lua scripting, But it might be because the scripting API is slightly different, and it's looking for files that are apparently no longer supported.

You shouldn't use SMBX2mx3 for playing episodes since it contains bugs that may cause compatibility issues.

Although fewer compatibility issues should occur when porting the episode to beta 4, you should make a local copy of the beta 3 APIs in the episode folder to ensure that everything still works.