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Status Bar

I would also support the item box being used only for purchaseable items (and perhaps some items found in rare bonus areas and minigames).

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I think I'd rather see an indicator of SMWC coins if there will be more than one in the level. Actually, I'd like to see an indicator regardless of the count just so I'll remember to stop looking for it. xD

As for TIME, I think we should leave it in, but disable it in normal levels and only have it appear in segments that are specifically timed.
And maybe in the status bar should be a SMWC logo or word?
Originally posted by Mineyl
I think I'd rather see an indicator of SMWC coins if there will be more than one in the level. Actually, I'd like to see an indicator regardless of the count just so I'll remember to stop looking for it. xD

There will be three coins in every level. And a system will be made to show which coins you have gotten(on the OW)
We might want to put it in the statusbar too, tho



Originally posted by Piotrek1113
And maybe in the status bar should be a SMWC logo or word?

The coins already have smwc printed on them. Any more than that would be overkill =/
Originally posted by Noobish Noobsicle
Originally posted by Uhrix
Make a statusbar that only appear when you gain/ collect/ recieve something, I've seen something like that before.

I personaly get the fully feel of a level if I'm not disturbed by a bunch of status that I most of the time doesn't care about.
You mean like this? I'm just going to say right off the bat that that was one the most difficult things I've ever coded, even topping SNES homebrew. I suppose it would be a bit easier if we were to use sprite status bar as a base, but it's still a very hard thing to do.

What exactly made that so hard? I guess I see how in yours it might be (I still can't see it being as hard as snes homebrew, but I haven't tried coding it yet) because you needed to have your deaths and your health come down separately, but I don't think we'd need anything that extreme. I mean, all you would need is a RAM address for new layer 3 position within NMI, and a countdown that get's set whenever someone collects an item (likely by checking if your couns/lives/etc. are different, not within the item collection code itself). Then we could easily edit the sprite status bar to use the exact same address's for those levels that use layer 3 and hide the status bar. To make a terrible joke preying on the naivety of 8th graders, "I'd code dat". Actually, I just did. I left some debug code in there so you could test it out, see if it's what you are looking for, just press R to bring it down, obviously you are going to want to delete that. Simply put, just store a value to !FreeRAM2 whenever you want to show the status bar (My suggestion is coin/SMWCoin/Live collection, powerdown, death, and level entry, but I'm sure you can decide on design choices), and that will be how long it displays itself. If this is decided to be a good idea, I could edit the sprite status bar to follow the same pattern.

Edit: I should note that everything needs to be restored upon return to the OW and that it doesn't work with SMW's standard message boxes, but there is nothing one can do for that except putting it on the sprite layer so... (I mean, I could just make it so IRQ fires at a different time depending on the position of layer 3 in NMI, but that causes it's own message box problems [Namely that the message boxes store the layer 3 Y position to 00 when they spawn, which makes it so the status bar will appear anyways. I could take apart the message box routine though...])

Edit2: Know what? We'd be better off making the sprite status bar global.

Edit3: Actually, I'm not sure where it went on VWF dialouges, but if you are using that, it should fix everything except the level fadeout, which should be pretty easy to fix anyways.
I honestly think that a really cool touch to the status bar would be to include the level author's name kind of like how it's done with the levelnames patch. It gives the creator a sense of ownership of their level, acts as a form of credits that everyone would read, and would give the hack even more of a collab feel. Granted this would detract from the end-user seeing the hack as one cohesive unit - if that's how we plan on taking it.
Your layout has been removed.
Originally posted by spigmike
I honestly think that a really cool touch to the status bar would be to include the level author's name kind of like how it's done with the levelnames patch.

I think it'd look awkward if it were a part of the status bar... Maybe we could stick it on the pause screen instead?

Like...you pause the game and see this:

- PAUSE -

1-2: Plain Plains

Author: Joe Somebody

Of course, obviously formatted a bit better than this variable width font allows. :)
Originally posted by spigmike
I honestly think that a really cool touch to the status bar would be to include the level author's name kind of like how it's done with the levelnames patch. It gives the creator a sense of ownership of their level, acts as a form of credits that everyone would read, and would give the hack even more of a collab feel. Granted this would detract from the end-user seeing the hack as one cohesive unit - if that's how we plan on taking it.

Being forced to see the level designer's name throughout the entire level is a terrible idea. If we HAVE to put it somewhere, do it on the overworld, during "MARIO START" or a Sonic-esque level title card.

Anyway, I think we should get rid of the status bar altogether. When collecting SMWC coins, they could briefly appear like KONG letters. As for the timer, I vote without hesitation for killing it in normal levels. For the occasional level with certain timed areas ("self destruct initiated"?), one could show a sprite timer in the upper right corner or something during that level. DKC-like "show amount of lives on level start/death" that someone showed in a video could also be added for good measure. Coins... I guess they could work like DKC bananas.

I vote for removing the status bar altogether from Layer 3 so we can fully use it for background effects etc.
I honestly wasn't thinking about the Mario start screen when I thought of that... but that sounds like the perfect place for the author's name.

In terms of removing the status bar altogether... it's a great idea but I have a little reservation about it, that having collectables in a status bar kind of adds to the leveling/collecting/etc. process that makes games addicting and fun to play. Now this could be executed well in a pause screen instead, but people rarely pause SMW, so it would have to be brought to the forefront somehow to be seen as a worthy replacement.
Your layout has been removed.
Using p4plus's potential method (the DKC status bar, which only appears when you collect something), we can:

-Only have a couple important counters on it (coins, SMWC coins)
-Leave "Lives" on the map only (or when you pause)
-Free up room, as stated, for Layer 3 shenanigans.
-Have the status bar be "invisible" most of the time and not obstructing the game.

Yep.
Originally posted by S.N.N.
Using p4plus's potential method (the DKC status bar, which only appears when you collect something), we can:

-Only have a couple important counters on it (coins, SMWC coins)
-Leave "Lives" on the map only (or when you pause)
-Free up room, as stated, for Layer 3 shenanigans.
-Have the status bar be "invisible" most of the time and not obstructing the game.

Yep.


I'm all for it, but don't just make the status bar invisible. Totally remove it; get rid of its stripe image, stop its DMA routines, prevent the IRQ from firing there, everything, so that we can go crazy without anything in our way.
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.
Sounds OK to me, but it should be expanded so that all counters are shown when you pause the game or something like that. I just don't like being unable to see my progress in the game.
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Originally posted by RPG Hacker
Sounds OK to me, but it should be expanded so that all counters are shown when you pause the game or something like that. I just don't like being unable to see my progress in the game.

I agree. A DKC status bar sounds fine to me, but I've always thought the DKC games should have displayed the entire set of status-bar collectibles when you pause.

As for author names when you enter a level... is this a game made by SMWC, or a collection of levels made by various people from SMWC? Which impression do you want to give? Just something to think about.

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Just an idea, but maybe a Paper Mario 2 style status bar, where you press a button (whichever it would be set to), the status bar comes down, with everything, and pressing that button would cause it to go away again?
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I was thinking this can be an idea:



netcvb for Admin 2011
Originally posted by netcvb
Created By:
(user here)

I dislike this idea. Credits should go in a spot specifically made for credits, not scattered across the entire game.
Also many of our users have nicks that are too long to fit on any sort of status bar. For example these two.

Edit: It'd also give unpropotionally much credit to level designers. Why not "Your current powerup is coded by Lucas", "Custom FG graphics by Iceguy, background ripped from Yoshi's Island by Zeldara109", "The custom block to your left is coded by Lightvayne, and the one on your right is coded by Leod", and so on until it looks a little like this (aka huge mess)?
<blm> zsnes users are the flatearthers of emulation
Originally posted by Alcaro
For example these two.

*cough**cough*

But yeah, that should be reserved for the credits.

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Dropdown status bar? Only updated counters drop down?

Yes. Yes. And double yes.

I've wanted to see that for a long time. It's a perfect way to make a hack look nice and updated without silly crap. And hey, you could actually use more colors in the status bar.
Sometimes the Statusbar annoys...what's if it only appears if you collected something?

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Originally posted by Rockythetigre
Sometimes the Statusbar annoys...what's if it only appears if you collected something?


That is exactly what people are talking about.