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Midway Points

This is actually more important than it may sound~

So, I am now officially close to finishing them darned smwc-coins. I have only one patch left to make, but before I can start on that one a quick decision has to be made.

It's about the midway point. Or more correctly, about the amount of midway points the player can have stored at any given time.
To explain better, here is a hypothetical story: You enter level 105, get the midway point, and die. next, without re-entering 105, you enter level 106 and die. Now, if you were to re-enter level 105, what should happen? Should you load from midway point(since you collected one last time you were there), or should you have to start the level anew?

With the former option, where you can store several midways at once, you might end up with a situation were you leave a level where you have collected a midway, spend the next hour completing a whole bunch of other levels, forget about the original level completely, and then re-enter the level to find yourself spawning from the midpoint.
>_____>

Personally I prefer having only one midway point stored at the same time

And before someone argues that the former is better in case you have to visit the shop while in the middle of the level, please note that it would be fairly easy to make a white-list of levels that don't clear your midway point.

And since this is a level about certain midway point decisions anyways, feel free to discus other aspects of it as well. For example if it should be a bar like in smw, or a flag like in NSMB series(or perhaps something original); Whether or not it should make you big; etc.
I also think there should only be one midpoint saved in the RAM. Saving multiple ones just sounds like trouble. Of course, we could always compromise and make it so that the midpoint stored in memory isn't erased unless another level's midpoint or goal is activated.

As for what the midpoint actually should be...I was just pondering that myself earlier today. Personally, I could go either way as I like both the gate and the flags. The only things I want to push for in the midpoint design is for them to always be visible and optional, though. The additional midpoints added in the first SMWCP were often invisible and could be activated an infinite number of times (not to mention were always impossible to avoid), which honestly seemed a bit tacky to me.

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Originally posted by Mineyl
Of course, we could always compromise and make it so that the midpoint stored in memory isn't erased unless another level's midpoint or goal is activated.


I'd go with this method if possible. If not, I say only one checkpoint can be active at a time, but notify players at the fist checkpoint in the game that if they hit one level's checkpoint, but leave to visit another the original checkpoint will be removed.

As for the graphics, I personally favor the flag-styled ones, especially since SMWCP's not using the goalpost/tape method, so that frees up even more space to set one up without too much trouble.

How about a button for the mid-point, one with either the striped patterd or a white m on a blue gradient.
Or mabye a technilogical pad that you have to press some button on, probally start, to activate the mid-way pont, and of course it is a one time only deal on that playthrough of the level, and the pad sort of lights up once activated.
I actually feel something like this should have an original midway-point, atleast by smw-hacking standards.
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Also, still alive, just lost in life stuff
last edited March 7th
I fear the only problem with a button design is that it'd be...well, weird for the button to be floating in the air, so it'd pretty much have to be on the ground which'd make it simplistic and potentially even very unnoticeable for the player.

If we go with a button, we'd have to find some way to make it stand out like the midway posts/flags do.
Originally posted by mineyl
I fear the only problem with a button design is that it'd be...well, weird for the button to be floating in the air, so it'd pretty much have to be on the ground which'd make it simplistic and potentially even very unnoticeable for the player.

If we go with a button, we'd have to find some way to make it stand out like the midway posts/flags do.

1.I figured people would understand that the button would be on the ground in the first place.
2.How so to a button being simplistic? I figure people will have it wired in them to notice p-switches and what not, and this would be no different. Infact, the only way I see that someone could miss a button is if it blends in with the background, they aren't paying attention, or they're relativelly new to the whole "buttons do things" concept. Would you mind shining some light on you angle of this matter?
Jujubes!¡!¡!


Also, still alive, just lost in life stuff
last edited March 7th
Hmm. I never really thought of it being raised up like a p-switch.

Anyway, I was just approaching it from a different viewpoint, but I see what you're saying now. Carry on.
I actually like the fact that you can have multiple midways. Why? Life grinding.
If you get to a midway and run out of lives, you can still go back and get more lives. But if the midway is cleared, then you're out of luck. I guess I still like the idea of scrapping lives, but since that's been decided against, I think I oppose modifying how midways are stored.
I like the idea of having only one midpoint stored at one time but that it doesn't clear the midpoint until a new one is activated, because I know if people need to go buy/find lives after getting a midpoint, they wouldn't like it if they come back and their midpoint progress is gone.
Originally posted by FirePhoenix
I like the idea of having only one midpoint stored at one time but that it doesn't clear the midpoint until a new one is activated, because I know if people need to go buy/find lives after getting a midpoint, they wouldn't like it if they come back and their midpoint progress is gone.

Which is why we could make is so that certain levels (i.e. the hub) don't delete your midway point. This way, if a player enters a different level to grind for powerup or whatever, his/her save will be deleted, but he/she could instead go to the shop and buy powerups or whatever, then re-enter the level from midpoint.

this would also increase the usability of the coins

I think logically, just having 1 mid-way point that deletes if you leave makes sense and I like Sind's idea with the hub. It shouldn't be too hard to create that.
Layout by LDA during C3.
I definitly agree with Sind about the hub stuff, and I have an idea of my own. Perhaps a Midpoint BLOCK that you have to hit to activate.
No signature here.
Why must we change the midway bar anyway? The original… thing is pretty good as it is.

The only thing I could really see working is a(literal)flag.
There was a signature here.


It's gone now.
Originally posted by Shellface
Why must we change the midway bar anyway? The original… thing is pretty good as it is.

The graphics, you mean? I suppose they could be redrawn. We could even use sprite midway points like Yoshi's Island does. If we used something like a Middle Ring, it might require only one 8x8 tile's worth of space anyway. In fact, we could use the original game's sparkle tiles.

I don't see the problem with having more than one midway point active, though. Even the original SMW did it that way, although I guess Yoshi's Island didn't. They probably don't need to make you big, though.

What checkpoint system are we using, anyway? Kaijyuu's multi-midway patch? My multi-midway patch? Or something else?

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I'm working on a hack! Check it out here. Progress: 64/95 levels.
Whatever the newest multi-midway patch is (yours, I guess). It's already patched to the base ROM, and details on which blocks to use will be given upon level signups starting.
So it occurred to me. I've seen Flags, Mini-Goal Posts and Invisible Check-Points in most hacks beforehand, but I have never never seen any Check-Point platforms.

Perhaps we could use those in our hack?
I never liked the idea that the midway for a level is never deactivated once exited - I think that should be the case. The midway point flag should get overwritten if the midway point is obtained in another level or if another level is beaten.
<TLMB> I use YY-CHR to edit DNA
I love the idea of a check point platform. Maybe we could have a few different ones for different areas?

Something like This? (Yeah, pretty rough.)
Originally posted by phenolatukas
I love the idea of a check point platform. Maybe we could have a few different ones for different areas?

Something like This? (Yeah, pretty rough.)

Yeah, the light goes from orange to green when it is activated. It probably does need different versions for all the tilesets, but I'm sure simple palette swaps can save space in the long run.

Is anyone else interested in my idea?

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I should have something witty to put here (even if it's just to update dated info), shouldn't I?

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I feel that making a checkpoint platform that does this and that when jumped on is just over-complicating things for no worthwhile reason. I still prefer the idea of just making a flagpost if we insist on changing it's design.