[justin3009]

Version 3.0 is in progress! There is going to be massive amounts of data shifting for modding in the future!

Version 3.0 WIP
-------------------------------

1. Completely redo animation/sprite assembly data to be loaded as whole separate tables that are independent. In doing so, all animations and data of any type will HAVE to be redone. Things will be changed to two bytes of data instead of 1, thus allowing much more freedom to add new animations and sprite assembly data.

2. Levels hard-coded VRAM graphics. Seriously. This has to go. The VRAM should be loaded depended on the enemy present, not based what's on a table that's hard-coded. Seriously, this ruins level editing to a whole mighty hell. *This is proving to be a lot more difficult than anticipated.. Everything is pre-loaded into the level but the enemies are loaded on the fly. I'm really REALLY unsure how to go about making this work especially since VRAM is loaded right away while enemies are loaded much later..*

3. VRAM usage for X and Zero is too confined. They need to have more room to add whatever is needed. - Routine is updated to accommodate for new location and X/Zero's VRAM graphics are now open to more sprites. X should have room for at least 100 more sprites, Zero the same. Both X and Zero's Z-Sabre Sprite data has room for over 210(!!) sprites each!

4. Adding new features.. Need to discuss this more.
---> Secret Ending: WIP

Quote

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/888/ - Version 2.2 is out!

This requires an unheadered rom! Also, it does NOT work on BSNES or possibly console!
******************************************************************************
Features For Fully Playable Zero (FPZ Project)
-------------------------------

1. Play as Zero anytime except areas where he's unavailable such as the introduction stage.
2. Zero is able to use sub-weapons.
3. Zero is able to air-dash.
4. Zero can scroll through sub-weapons with any method.
5. Z-Sabre damage is varied depending on boss strength. (Based on speed/power combined)
6. Zero is able to gather Heart Tanks, Energy Tanks and Ride Armor chips. He's able to fill sub-weapons and energy tanks while also able to use them.
7. Zero can use Ride Armors.
8. Slightly updated dialogue to reflect both characters being playable.
9. Zero can use Capsule upgrades to a certain extent.
10. Zero has 4 more health pieces than X.
11. Hyper Cannon can be used regardless if it's full weapon health or not and it heals 2 bars per hit with or without a sub-weapon on.
12. Zero cannot use the Z-Sabre while Hyper Cannon is in use.
13. Zero has new animations for charged Triad Thunder, Ray Shot & Gravity Well. There's a new damage animation when you've obtained the armor capsule.
14. X and Zero are swapped during events. If you're Zero, X will appear, vice versa. If Zero is destroyed for the ending then Doppler will take his place.
15. Menu has slightly alternate X/Y coordinates of sub-weapon data to match X2's style. Also it's now Z-Buster in the menu for Zero.
16. Energy Tanks work like MMZ. If you're full health during a sub-tank use, it will stop healing.
17. X and Zero have separate dialogue loading. Dialogue also spans across 2 banks so there's more than enough room.
18. The game remembers who you played as last after you've beaten a level or died.
19. X2 Feature in which you can shoot both buster shots at once and both will deal damage instead of the large wait time.
20. X's buster is slightly nerfed. The helix pellets on the cross-over shot now do one damage on bosses instead of two due to being overpowered.
21. Quicker Z-Sabre movement on Zero.
22. Quicker Tornado Fang/Frost Shield.

Other Features
-------------------------------

1. New dialogue for Zero. (Thanks to Shadow MH and many others for helping!)
2. Nerfed Z-Sabre on bosses to make it more interesting and difficult. (The projectile has the same power if you decide to get the Sabre for X)
3. Separate ladder coordinates for X/Zero to make it look more smooth and not a jumpy animation.
4. Character select on Stage Select screen. The Giant "X" at top center is the character select. Buster noise for X and a Sabre noise for Zero.
5. Updated some buster code that uses Tsuraranoma's details. It's quicker, better and less laggy. Thank you very much for that Tsuraranoma!
6. Quicker screen scroll in menu.
7. Faster dialogue in menu when swapping characters.
8. Extended credits at end for a quick 'Special Thanks' sequence.
9. Golden Armor is savable. (Thanks to Tsura. Compared code and it was just a simple byte change)
10. New Portrait palettes if you have Golden Armor/Black Armor.
11. New Feature in which before the Z-Sabre boss if you're playing as Zero, X warns him to be careful.
12. No more force field generating on Armor. Not really needed.

Sprites for usage later!
-----------------------
- Victory
- Attack
- Aerial Slash

If there's any suggestions or anything, feel free to post on them and they will be taken into consideration.

[JediLink]

I love you.

[justin3009]

- Alternate capsule dialogue for Zero. This has been fixed, cut down, more to the point and still fitting for the characters. The dialogue was written by Thanatos-Zero and fixed by other people who are willing to help.

Thanks to Red X for helping find damage offsets on weapons.
Thanks to john for helping me with some code.
Thanks to Zarradeth for writing code to save Zero's Life to Memory and work with Heart Tanks.
Thanks to everyone that wants to help with this project or even stops by and says hi or good job.

[Silver_Stryker]

And I respect you and everything you've done.

This is really interesting though; I never saw any point to switch to Zero during X3 at all, do yea.


Will there be an alternate ending or with X and Zero's positions be swapped like everything else?(don't remember the ending; assuming its another scene in which they stand at a cliff and look at crap blow up)

Oh, and Zero's saber in X's hands is still as devastating as it usually is, right?

[justin3009]

Positions will be switched depending on what character you are. So the ending dialogue will be different and if you play as Zero, X will be switched with him.

Sadly no. Sabre Damage is the same for X and Zero minus the beam that's sent out. I can leave that the same if people wish, but the actual sabre damage has been heavily nerfed to make it a more feasible option, not a one hit kill.

[Saiba-Elves]

I have no talent at judging whatsoever,yet this edit seems....soooo exciting. Good luck.

[The World Warrior]

Wow. Never thought I'd see the day. You're doing an excellent job. Keep it up sir!

[Thanatos-Zero]

Greetings Justin.^^
I never thought you would come to this place to make your modification here public, but that will make things easier.
Since you are here the loremasters Zan Sidera, Hypershell and Marshmallow Man (I haven't seen him here yet) could lend you a hand in creating a trustful and believeable script for Zero.

[Jeff]

Absolutely amazing work! If there's any way I can help I'll be glad to do so.

[justin3009]

The biggest thing that's needed is dialogue for Zero for all capsules minus the Leg Upgrade, for Vile, Sigma, Bit/Byte, Bit/Byte Combined, Dr. Doppler, Ending, when you climb up the wall after killing Sigma, etc..

That's the biggest things we're missing. After that, we'll be just doing bug fixing and release what we have :D

[Lunar Rabbit]

Ah, so this is the project you were working on. This is excellent. A fully playable Zero? Wow!

Schala can wait! I want this now!

[Jeff]

justin3009, on 20 August 2010 - 03:13 AM, said:

The biggest thing that's needed is dialogue for Zero for all capsules minus the Leg Upgrade, for Vile, Sigma, Bit/Byte, Bit/Byte Combined, Dr. Doppler, Ending, when you climb up the wall after killing Sigma, etc..

That's the biggest things we're missing. After that, we'll be just doing bug fixing and release what we have :D

*calls for Zan* XD

[justin3009]

- Arm Capsule text for Zero, beta phase.

The dialogue was written by Red X. I changed some of his text to trim it down and make it less sarcastic than what it was. I'm still not really sure on this though. Some of it is pretty good, but some seems..off.

I also noticed that I'm running out space for the extra dialogue ._. Might need to move ALLLLLL the dialogue again into a huge slew of new empty space just to make more room. Or I might be able to re-write the table code so it reads from another bank..just not sure though.

[Thanatos-Zero]

Hm... This dialoge could be better, but now I have nothing special at hand besides better lines.

Red X dialoge:

Dr: Light: Zero... we meet again.

Zero: You have quite the sense of humor, doctor.

Dr. Light: ... In any case, download this arm upgrade for X.

Zero: An arm upgrade? What does it do?

Dr: Light: (explaination of the upgrade)

Zero: I see you put a lot of faith into X.

Dr. Light: He is the possibility of my dream coming true, a world where humans and machines can live together peacefully.

Zero: I... don't think that will ever happen. Sorry to disappoint you...

Dr. Light: I feared a time of crisis would come, and it did. This upgrade will be recogniseable by your system also. Please continue to support X.

Zero: I would even, if you told me otherwise.


My version:

Dr: Light: Zero... we meet again.

Zero: You surely know how to hide these capsules.

Dr. Light: ... In any case, download this arm upgrade for X.

Zero: An arm upgrade? What exactly does it do?

Dr: Light: (explaination of the upgrade). This upgrade will also be recogniseable by your system.

Zero: I see. You put a lot of faith into X, as much as I do.

Dr. Light: He is the possibility of my dream coming true, a world where humans and reploids can peacefully coexist.

Zero: This is also X's dream which I believe in, but as long mavericks exist, peace will be out of reach for everyone.

Dr. Light: That is certain in a time like this. Please continue to support X with your strenght.

Zero: I would even do, if you told me otherwise doctor.

[Vile]

Thanatos-Zero, on 19 August 2010 - 08:33 PM, said:

Greetings Justin.^^
I never thought you would come to this place to make your modification here public, but that will make things easier.
Since you are here the loremasters Zan Sidera, Hypershell and Marshmallow Man (I haven't seen him here yet) could lend you a hand in creating a trustful and believeable script for Zero.

Honestly there isn't much to change for Zero's story. He and X went together on these missions which is why you could originally switch between them. The only odd one I can think of would be Gravity beetle due to him wanting revenge on X for killing his brother. (Boomer Kuwanger)

Also, if your trying to keep this in the SNES style, remember there were not many conversations like we have in our future games. It was mostly just the NPC telling X this or that.


Now, my questions on this mod.

1: Is Zero's buster and X's saber going to be a new slot in the weapon section? Will you charge to use the opposite weapon?

2: Will Zero get his own moves, or will he get the basic weapons we've had for years?

3: When you say places that Zero cannot go, what do you mean? Can I not fight Bit and Byte with him? If I fight the green bug as him will he still 'die'?

4: When you gather heart tanks, will it upgrade both or only one members health bar?

5: Will Black Zero be in it? Perhaps as a replace capsule for Hyper Armor X?

6: Will the first stage change at all?


Dialog

I can make some dialog, it isn't that hard to look at the game, look at the manual and figure out what kind of talk Zero would have. Most of the bosses have set personalty's. As for capsules, why wouldn't Light just say what they do like he does in X5 and X6 for Zero. Only start it like "Zero, This is an upgrade for X. [insert what they do] Please give them to him, and please watch over him" Then if you do the Black armor idea I mentioned earlier
"Zero, inside the capsle I have arranged an upgrade for you. You will be able to block enemy attacks with your saber, as well as be able to jump higher. The choice is your if you want this upgrade" (it would be longer if I knew what all you'd want black Zero to be able to do)

Another idea I have on the spot is for Vile MKII

Vile: hehehe, its been awhile... Zero
Zero: Vile?! How? X and Myself defeated you!
Vile: You think you can keep me down, Zero? Your nothing. I won't rest until I finish off X, but first I'll prove that I'm the strongest by take you out!
[battle]
Zero win's with out weakness
Vile: Your still strong Zero, but I'll be back to finish you. For now lets see how fast you can move, this factory is set to explode in [timelimit] Gahahahahaha

Zero wins with weakness
Vile: No way that I could lose to you.... This factory is about to explode... I won't stop until I achieve my goal... I'll haunt you and X till the day you die......
[vile blows up]



Food for thought

[justin3009]

Quote

1: Is Zero's buster and X's saber going to be a new slot in the weapon section? Will you charge to use the opposite weapon?

2: Will Zero get his own moves, or will he get the basic weapons we've had for years?

3: When you say places that Zero cannot go, what do you mean? Can I not fight Bit and Byte with him? If I fight the green bug as him will he still 'die'?

4: When you gather heart tanks, will it upgrade both or only one members health bar?

5: Will Black Zero be in it? Perhaps as a replace capsule for Hyper Armor X?

6: Will the first stage change at all?

1. It'll eventually be like that. But right now, it's just like the normal X3 settings. "Will you charge to use the opposite weapon?" - I don't quite understand what you mean there.

2. He'll get his own moves once I figure out how it all works.

3. Areas you shouldn't have him at. Like the intro stage when you start as X. If you fight the green bug with him, yes, he will still die. That's the only way right now to obtain the Z-Sabre for X.

4. It upgrades both members health bars.

5. Black Zero will be in it most likely as a replacement for the Hyper Armor.

6. The first stage won't change at all right now. In future versions, depending if we ever create a level editor and such, there will be a whole slew of areas for Zero to discover on his own rather than going through X's stages.

[Vile]

Quote

"Will you charge to use the opposite weapon?" - I don't quite understand what you mean there.

What I mean, is will you have to charge your attack to use the other weapon. Such as how X has to charge up 3 levels to use his saber. Likewise, even though Zero can triple slash can he also charge the attack to use his buster? Or are you going to venture and made the unused X button be able to use the sub-weapon?

[justin3009]

That's actually a really good idea. I originally planned to have the buster be a Sub-Weapon but maybe if I can figure out how to make a global check for the button, it could do that. Yea, I like that idea a lot.

And what I'm planning to AFTER the fully playable Zero one, just X3 but him playable and such, is having X's main weapon be the buster but have the Z-Sabre be the sub-weapon. So he'd still use the buster to those charge up levels, minus the Sabre, that'd be on it's own league.

[Jeff]

justin3009, on 21 August 2010 - 06:03 PM, said:

6. The first stage won't change at all right now. In future versions, depending if we ever create a level editor and such, there will be a whole slew of areas for Zero to discover on his own rather than going through X's stages.

I'll pay you if you make a level-editor that works similar to that Super Mario World one. Exactly $1,000 on behalf of the MM/MMX community. 100% serious.

[Mac]

Wow, can't believe I didn't see this sooner! I applaud this project in it's entirety. I always felt the minimal use of Zero to be such a tease and almost not even worth it in the official X3. Having that been said, I feel you are creating exactly how MegaMan X3 should have been from the start. It's almost like rewriting and perfecting video game history! I cannot wait for it to be completed! =D

Maybe after it's done you could possibly look into porting the game image into SNES carts. Like how the people do it at RetroUSB and how modders make their own "English versions" of games never ported, just by using translation patched ROMs. It would be the same principle and method, right? The only hindering factor might be the the storage capacity. Maybe you should pay for that rather than the level editor, Jeff! Although I can only image the ease of access such an editor would make. The Mega Man fan game community would bustle with creativity!

If there's anything I could possibly do as well, I'll try without hesitation. I'm pretty fond of writing so I could try my hand at the needed dialogue. How's this for example...

Dr: Light: We meet again, Zero.

Zero: You sure made a lot of these capsules, Doc.

Dr. Light: That I did. In any case, download this buster upgrade for X

Zero: More firepower, huh? What can it do?

Dr: Light: It will increase X's offensive capabilities by allowing for stronger charged shots as well as a combination shot.

Zero: I see you place a lot of faith in X.

Dr. Light: I believe he is the the key to unlocking a world where humans and machines, reploids, can peacefully coexist.

Zero: It sounds like a wonderful world, but I doubt it'll ever exist. Not yet anyway.

Dr. Light: My greatest fear was a world that is now reality. It's hard to accept, but it's the reason I left these capsules. Please continue to support X and if you can, utilize this upgrade as well.

Zero: Thanks, I'll give it a "shot". Don't worry about X, you can count on me.