Turn-based Boss Battle! VS Dark Bowser

[willie870307]

I wanted to make a turn-based RPG boss fight long time ago, just like "Mario & Luigi" series. I worked hard, and finally did it.
I made this level on v1.3.0.2 using a bunch of events and layers. The level was done on December 2019.

Introduction
Your goal is to defeat Dark Bowser, obviously. Each turn you can choose to fight, or eat a mushroom. After that, Dark Bowser will attack you.
To land a successful hit on your opponent, you have to pay attention to the timing. You should hit the ? block only when the indicator reaches the rightmost box.
You have 3 tries each turn, meaning that you can deal at most 3 damage each turn.

Spoiler: show

As for Dark Bowser, he has several attacks. Each turn he chooses one of his attack randomly.
Dark Bowser will use his special attack once his health is below 50%.

Spoiler: show

Playthrough

Spoiler: show

This level use custom sound effects, so you should play this level either on v1.3.0.2 or SMBX2 for the full experience.
Hope you enjoy it!

Download

[FireyPaperMario]

I was hoping for someone in the Smbx community to make a custom level that's a turn-base battle! ^_^

[Emral]

This looks very neat, good job! I presume you used lua for random attacks? I wasn't able to make random attacks with just layers and events when I made a turn based boss in 2015 in smbx 1.3. So in future turn based bosses I ended up re-routing the events through a randomizer in lunalua :p
If no lua is involved, I'm curious to know how you did it. My best guess is it decides which move to use based on whether you attack or heal, and the super move is done by killing an enemy with a moving lava piece that travels as the boss loses hp.

[Cedur]

I made this level on v1.3.0.2 using a bunch of events and layers.

Nobody really uses that version. Can you eventually port this to SMBX2 Beta 4?

[willie870307]

Nobody really uses that version. Can you eventually port this to SMBX2 Beta 4?

As I said in the post, you can play this level on SMBX2, no problem.
The fact is, this level was done on December 2019, I didn't use SMBX2 to make a complete level at that time.
But don't worry, since beta 4 was released, I'll try to use SMBX2 from now on. Next time I'll share a SMBX2 level with you guys!
I hope you enjoy this level nevertheless!

Added in 51 seconds:

If no lua is involved, I'm curious to know how you did it. My best guess is it decides which move to use based on whether you attack or heal, and the super move is done by killing an enemy with a moving lava piece that travels as the boss loses hp.

Actually, it's not truly random. It's partially. If you wish to know how it works, here it is.

Spoiler: show

To begin with, there're shy guys placed on blocks. You can't see them because I hide them with black background. The setup is shown below.



Which move does Dark Bowser use is based on which shy guy's death. I used many layers and events to make sure there's only one shy guy fall each turn. After a shy guy's death, the move to use is decided, and a new shy guy will be spawned. But then another blocks layer is shown to prevent any shy guy fall. (This block layer is also shown when it's player's turn or the game ends.)
Also, the blocks under shy guys are not at the same layer. Let's say there're four blocks. Block 1 & Block 3 is at Layer A, while Block 2 & 4 is at Layer B. (These blocks are gray blocks.)
Every time it's boss' turn, Layer A & B are shown alternately using toggle layers.
But only 2 layers won't be enough to decide the move. I need another four blocks at another layers. This time, Block 1 & 2 is at Layer C, and Block 3 & 4 is at Layer D. (These blocks are note blocks.)
Layer C & D are also shown alternately using toggle layers, but not every turn. I use another NPC to decided whether Layer C & D are going to switch or not. This NPC is spawned every player's turn, and it moves either left or right (It's random). When it fall to death, trigger the event to toggle Layer C & D. Otherwise it will go into the "U" hole and not trigger the event. This is what makes the system looks like it's "partially" random. In fact, Dark Bowser's first move is always the same.
As for the special attack, I use the fifth shy guy. (The rightmost one) The blue block is disappeared only when the first Dark Bowser is defeated.
That's all. I tried my best to explain it. And yeah, I know it will be easier to implement such system using lunalua, I just haven't studied how to use it. Maybe I will in the future. But I think making this without lunalua is quite cool, right?

[Emral]

That is a very impressive setup. Super cool!

Just played it. Works perfectly in SMBX2 Beta 4 due to how it's backwards compatible. A few thoughts:
- The pollen attack is very difficult because of the short notice at which the laser is fired at the end. Removing the exclamation marks and instead doing something like having the telegraph on a moving layer that comes from Bowser and gives a bit longer time to react might help.
- The switch in the cage must be hit a very large number of times in order for the attack to end. It gets a bit repetitive.
The rest is pretty marvelous. The layer setups you've done are still difficult for me to wrap my mind around. Back when I attempted this all I didn't manage to establish a proper loop, so my fight ended up running out of events after 6 "turns" :p If you wanna take a look, here's a video.
Keep it up!

[MegaDood]

Extremely well made and clever, the fight system is not like anything else I've seen before within an SMBX level that uses events and layers. Well done.

[willie870307]

That is a very impressive setup. Super cool!

Thank you, Enjl. I appreciate the compliment. Also thanks for your suggestion.
By the way, your RPG battle was well-done. Actually, I thought I've watched that video long time ago. Squishy Rex's attack is super cool. I also like how you show the damage dealt, just like Mario & Luigi series.

Added in 4 minutes 27 seconds:

Extremely well made and clever, the fight system is not like anything else I've seen before within an SMBX level that uses events and layers. Well done.

Thanks for your approval, MegaDood. I spent much time to finally made this fight system works fine. I'm glad you enjoy it.

[MECHDRAGON777]

This might be worth a recording. This looks Super cool. I can not wait to play this later this month.