The Conquest [1.0.4]

[Emral]

Hey everyone! Weekend's just about over for me, so I present you another update. In addition to crash fixes, this one includes a handful of balancing changes across the game.

The new star display on the map stats menu will require you to re-collect the stars in those levels if you wish to see them filled. You don't really have to do that, though, if you don't mind the indicator being inaccurate. Sorry for the inconvenience there.

Downloads
Version 1.0.3 (Full Game) (June 30, 2024) [SMBX2 Beta 5 Patch >=2]

(Patch only) for upgrading from older versions (June 30, 2024)

Changelog:
1.0.3:
- The stats menu now displays stars on levels that have stars
- Tuned difficulty in some levels and puzzles
- The game will no longer deadname your player character (it will try to derive the costume name from the costume folder name)
- Fixed a camera glitch in the desert world's final level
- Fixed certain secret areas being accessible too early
- The game will now warn you if you are running an unsupported version of SMBX2
- Fixed a certain level having its main hazard be turned into switch blocks in certain conditions
- Fixed an issue where a level using the Dithered Gameboy shader would silently crash SMBX on certain graphics cards

[cato]

An Invasion 2 Spiritual Successor, or a milder, more vanilla Betterified VI: Bestified?

I have just finished recording the episode, including the secret boss. This question popped into many people's minds on what it is as an episode. Here are my thoughts that answer the question.

General

Spoiler: show

It presented itself relatively straightforward at the start with the standard structure. World 1 is simple with the overall structure, 2 castles, 3 Star coins per level, and one star per world. There are also shortcuts to other worlds and split paths in the caves. Most levels overall are pretty great in displaying what Beta 5 is capable of in a short, and simple way. Certain levels too are very creative and innovative that leave an impression.

As you dig deeper, you will find Betterified had a powerful influence on the design philosophy of this episode, including a mix of jokes/weird levels and serious/technical levels, as well as an overarching world-building involving many secrets. The difficulty is also a tad more difficult than expected, which the Star Hub and Toad houses give accessibility and easier options to choose from. Save for some chaotic yet frustrating late-game levels whose design screams "You are going to need the flying blue boot to skip the level", which I didn't enjoy much. A bit ambitious with the cool setups but not as complicated and overwhelming most of the time. I would have wished there were fewer custom assets in the episode. It made me wish for some of those unique features, graphics, or objects to be in the base game. The helpful comments in the scripts are appreciated, for those who want to use those assets.

On Open world

Spoiler: show

I am a fan of the open-world design that connects places such as the forest world. Contrary to deice, I didn't think it was executed too well. The number of exits, including certain Star coins (bait-and-switch, powerup locked, one-shot only) that make you redo the whole level, artificially doubles the playtime of the episode. It is either starting level from the beginning (not from the checkpoint) for the exits, or quick-reload the level when you feel like missing something important. At times it is quite exhausting.

It went downhill since World 4 as I kept reloading old save files for the recording. It was better to play with prior knowledge of the levels than to splice the pieces from time to time, player deaths included. In addition, there would be missable secret exits not indicated on the map have I not realize from looking at the editor. The Star Coin Gates are fine I guess, they don't do much in my playthrough. I liked the map design though.

On Overarching Secrets. Spoilers ahead.

Spoiler: show

I think The Conquest executed this kind of secret better than Betterified VI: Bestified. Everything is optional as opposed to having the final (and the secret final) boss and other worthy content locked behind certain hidden variables. The puzzles and hints here (such as the digits, the red blocks, and the map) are cleverly and naturally designed without much confusion. It just makes sense afterward. As opposed to having to check every level and script in great detail in Betterified, I only need to check a few here to confirm my suspicions. When you see something familiar, something clicks in your head and you know where to look at. It genuinely felt satisfying when it worked.

I suppose the only confusing part is the sequences on whether you get the ruins exit or white pipes first (the white pipes didn't show up in the other levels). It took me two hints (a Toad telling you about the exit and who to look for, and another Toad telling you the interactions of the Yoshis) for me to do the former one first. The map could do a better quality too, outside of the more specific level characteristic given by the hints. Nonetheless, you did a great job designing the world.

Final thoughts

Spoiler: show

The Conquest is a Betterified VI: Bestified, but a milder and more vanilla version. While the levels are aimed to showcase Beta 5 assets in a creative and fun way, it gets quite technical and ambitious at times. The Betterified released just a few months ago certainly has a large influence on this episode's making and design philosophy. It is not as complicated and overwhelming, but it sure has a lot that doubt itself being an Invasion 2 Spiritual successor. It isn't perfect, as shown by recent patches and concerns/bugs faced by others, including mine highlighted in future videos. It is still a great episode to enjoy and take inspiration from in the future.

By the way, I got only v1.0.2 after World 6, and v1.0.3 just after World 9.

[fnafan88888888]

Hello, first of all this episode is one of the best episodes I've ever played(still playing rn) I hope it become the default episode to SMBX2.

I found a bug in the level "SMW isn't real"

The bug is that I can stand on these wooden tiles even though there're from SMW.

Also by mistake I didn't grab the 2nd star coin(not the moon) in "Mystery of the White Pipe" level and now its gone whenever I play the level again and in the level hud it says 2/2 but in the stats & the map hud it shows this

which means it's incomplete. Is there a chance I can complete it or do I have to start over?

Regardless, thank you and everyone else who participated in this episode.

[cato]

Also by mistake I didn't grab the 2nd star coin(not the moon) in "Mystery of the White Pipe" level and now its gone whenever I play the level again and in the level hud it says 2/2 but in the stats & the map hud it shows this

which means it's incomplete. Is there a chance I can complete it or do I have to start over?

Regardless, thank you and everyone else who participated in this episode.

Backread the posts. The 2nd Star coin doesn't exist and gets permanently removed. If you go to the editor with the 2nd Star Coin section, the "Star Coin" you see is a red coin, and the real Star Coin is above and offscreen.

[fnafan88888888]

Backread the posts. The 2nd Star coin doesn't exist and gets permanently removed. If you go to the editor with the 2nd Star Coin section, the "Star Coin" you see is a red coin, and the real Star Coin is above and offscreen.

What happened is that I played the level a 2nd time and entered the normal pipe that replaced the white pipe and saw the 2nd star coin besides the chain chomp but then accidently pressed down so I exited the section. After entering again and playing the level multiple times I can't seem to find the 2nd star coin, it's completely gone like you said, maybe if I actually grabbed it it would be a red coin.

Regardless, thanks for replying.

[Murphmario]

The pause menu and star coin post scripts do not seem to like Mario Challenge. Everything else seems to work fine with it though.

[Alagirez]

Aight, guess my first impression was wrong.

This is actually a sweet episode! It definitely has the same vibe with TI2 but with SMBX2 assets.
...though I haven't beaten the episode yet because I don't have much time haha

[Emral]

Episode updated! Here are the new changes:
1.0.4:
- Balancing tweaks in various levels
- Fixed some oversights in various levels

[paaolasantanaa]

Please. Could you tell me how many star coins th l,evel "Mystery of the whit pipe" has? When im in the level it says that I have collected 2 out of 2 but in the stats menu it says Ithat there are 3 and I have collected the first and third ones.

[mariobrigade2018]

Hey Emral you might want to add a disclaimer about the that level. This is the third person who has asked that question here (me included) on the forums alone.

[Emral]

No lol this is funny

[mariobrigade2018]

Fair enough

[Marioman2007]

Playing this was really fun! Definitely one of the best episodes I've played.
Found a few minor things and one softlock.

Spoiler: show

1. In the horse factory, if you drop your reserve item after hitting a block, a baby yoshi might eat the item and you lose your item and the yoshi too.

2. In "Woody Wood Woodland", you can freeze the spinies attached to the blocks and move them both by grabbing the freezed npc.

3. You cannot exit Mirage manor's building without using the exit level option.

4. In "Attack Bowser's Army", the warp to exit the first battle room sometimes doesn't appear.

5. This graphical issue in "Little Black Holes".

Spoiler: show

6. Softlock in "Real water level", if you collect the exit from the top, this happens.

Spoiler: show

[fnafan88888888]

Here are some more stuff I noticed after completing the episode.

Spoiler: show

In the final level "Palace of Nightmares" the POW block in this section doesn't do anything, so unless you're having a powerup or playing as Wario\Link you'll be stuck here because the POW block neither destroy the bricks not damage the pigs beside them

Spoiler: show

While checking "Star Palace" in level editor I noticed that there's a hidden layer at the Lakitu Shoe room that lets you unlock Rosalina as a playable character. Is there actually a way to unlock her because it not even included in the default 100-save file

Spoiler: show

4. In "Attack Bowser's Army", the warp to exit the first battle room sometimes doesn't appear.

I noticed it too but as far as I know it doesn't appear if you used the ice flower at the beginning of the level to freeze enemies. if you fought the enemies as if you don't have the ice flower it should appear normally

[DRACalgar Law]

Hey I just noticed that my Morton Koopa in this episode could get one or two shot by hammers. I believe this would be the case to my other SMB3 Koopalings except Lemmy. So I am currently tweaking my Koopalings and am gonna put this download link for Morton Koopa that I am done revising: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zXXJDD ... sp=sharing

[computerfan0]

The whale graphics in Everfrost Peak are glitched for me. They were fine at one point but an update broke them.

EDIT: Starting a new save file fixed them. Strange.

[Invelios]

I've been running into a consistent crash when I complete the first Airship level. It seems it happens when trying to load the cut scene after that level. It is some sort of shader related error coming from the ffi_graphics.lua file. The error says " return with wrong type int, in function "filmDirt" returning float". This unfortunately prevents me from getting past this level. I am playing on a Steam Deck, so the game is playing on Linux through Proton. It could be an OS specific issue, although I haven't had an issue with anything up until that cutscene.

[MegaDood]

Here's something cool, for anyone wanting to use the custom NPCs from this episode, Emral has given me permission to upload them here as an easy way to access and use them. Just remember to credit Emral for anything that gets used. Also includes some npcs from 2k1x since I had those on my pc and they work standalone, but if requested I can just remove those.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QfOb2D ... sp=sharing

[Turtle Guy]

How do I make the white pipes appear? Ever since I found the one in Deep Drainways (and in that level i removed the white and no white layer, so i could've broken it) it's me bugging me. And everything was pointing towards these pipes.

[Turtle Guy]

HELP THE SAVE FILE GLITCHED I LOST THE STARCOINS AND THE STARCOIN BARRIERS ARE BACK, IT RESET THE GAME BEING BEATEN