Alphas are alive...

I won´t be showing you screens yet, the sprites are being tweaked.

I´ll share with you some info about the current state of the Alpha Metroids:
  • Their behavior is very different from the original, since Samus can aim diagonally and you can see a larger portion of the level on the screen. Alphas charge at you at great speed.
  • They can´t be damaged by frontal hits, you have to hit their core, this means you´ll have to avoid them and hit them from their back, or bottom.
  • They are going to be more agressive as you progress. Later Alphas will take more damage to defeat, they´ll use a charge attack, and some will dodge incoming missiles.
  • Alpha Metroids can´t be hit while stunned. You´ll make sure you aim every missile, instead of firing a barrage and depleting your supply in seconds.
  • Super Missiles deal 2x damage to Metroids, instead of the normal 5x. Stun time is slightly longer, so if you want to keep attacking, you´ll have to time your shots differently.
  • PowerBombs, ScrewAttack and SuperJump/Shinespark won´t have any effect on Metroids. There were cool ideas around about using any of these to temporarily paralize them, but they would be easily abused.

Right now I´m coding the intro sequences: Coming out of a Metroid shell, and normal encounter. The AI is quite challenging, I´m trying to minimize the possibility of cheap fight tactics to kill them. Battles are unpredictable so far.

I´ve read many cool comments suggesting cool abilities in the last post. Energy leeching grab attacks are planned for later evolutions, since Alphas have very small claws. Zetas and Omegas will be mainly walking, Zetas will be able to temporarily float, Omegas will jump.

I´ll mention this once more, just for the people who ask this every day:
NO SPACE PIRATES ON METROID 2, NO SPACE PIRATES HERE
This also means no Ridley. Sorry if you were excited about him.
It´s not that it wouldn´t be cool to make them part of the story, but I already have a lot of game to make, including pirates would make me take even longer to finish.

About the third area: Mining facilities is the best option I´ve read. Thank you all for your great ideas and thoughts.
It would make sense to gather minerals that deep into the planet, a processing plant could be a good part of those ruins too. I´ve been thinking of some mechanical puzzles, I even came up with a drill machine that, when activated, drills a path for you to collect an item. I have many ideas on paper right now, if you think of something cool, I´d love to hear it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I have an idea for gamma metroid design. In the original Metroid II, gamma metroids are able to use a string of electricity to block missles and deal a moderate amount of damage. I think that in the remake, the gamma metroid should launch the electricity (similarly to a bio-door from Metroid Fusion), and it can only be harmed in its frontal area, after it launches the electricity.
Anonymous said…
A digging machine ? This sounds like the one from Super Metroid in Maridia, where you get the Spring Ball. I suppose this is where you got that inspiration from, right ? Anyway this is good to ear news (i keep coming and see if there are news from the project like the good Metroid fanboy i am ^^), i'll keep coming and see if there are news.
Oy said…
Woo! Yay for Mines!
The idea of the Drilling machine for an Item sounds good.
If you're thinking about some mini-bosses, other than the Metroid, maybe you could have some AI controlled drilling machine as one.
Actually, that gives me a thought.
What if, when down in the Mine itself (those tall areas) as opposed to the Mining station above, you encounter a Metroid feeding off of a Drilling machine (can they do that...I'm not 100% sure...if needs be, you can make it a cyborg style machine). Because it's feeding, you can't harm it. So you have to work you're way into the Mining Station and deactivate the power for the Drill...facing the AI drilling machine on the way. Then, when you get back to the feeding Metroid, you get there just as it evolves from Alpha to Gamma.
Think about it...it might work. :-)
Anonymous said…
im glad that you have decided that there there are no space piraits in your game i hope that it becomes a great sucsess.
Anonymous said…
I have an idea for the design of the metroid queen. In the original Metroid II, severe damage can be delivered to the metroid queen by shooting a missle into its open mouth, then going into its stomach in morph ball form and using a bomb. I think that in the remake, the metroid queen should only be harmed by placing a bomb in its stomach, after (instead of firing one missle) firing 30 missles or 15 super missles at (or in) the metroid queen's mouth. The metroid queen can be killed after five bombs.
Anonymous said…
I have an idea for the drill. Maybe you can add special switches that can only be activated by the spazer beam (by making them three parallel switches that have to be hit at the exact same time [power bombs won't affect them]).
Anonymous said…
I Think that your idea of the metroids is cool, how they loos there flight as they evolve. The queen cant fly, so your idea might be what Nintendo had originaly planed.
Anonymous said…
Pleas dont over do the dead corpeses if you do it, because in Zero Mission in Tourain it was to much and didnt look good.
Anonymous said…
Are the players going to have the option to turn on/off their abilities, like in super metroid?

Think of how mindblowing it would be if you had to turn an item OFF in order to go far. I don't remeber if there's any ice area's in metroid two, but one such puzzle would be to turn the ice beam off so a heated beam would have the ability to melt ice. I'm sure there's lots of other ways you could go with this too.

In all the metroids, there's no profit to turn off items (except for bragging rights and a few tricks in super metroid). It would totally play with the players mind for at least a few seconds.

Good luck with the game!
<3 Danie
Anonymous said…
I agree with the idea of turning abilities on and off to progress, and for other good reasons; think of how annoying it would be if you had the spring ball, along with you needing to get out of spider ball form, and there were spikes a few inches aboove you... Believe me. You would want to turn off the spring ball, or the spider ball.
Anonymous said…
On the other hand, maybe turning off abilities isn't such a good idea. It would seem like too much trouble to go to the ability menu again and again. It would be best if the beams stay stacked, and it would take longer to make the game if the beams' powers and designs were each seperately programmed. Besides, I doubt that spikes would be direcly above you when you're using the spider ball.
Unknown said…
A new beam would be cool,
and pulling a zero mission, and adding a extra storyline and area close to or after the queen battle.
Anonymous said…
I know for a fact that most games in the Metroid series have at least one countdown to do a certain task, defeat a boss, or escape to your ship. The original Metroid II is the only game in the Metroid series that doesn't even have one countdown! In the remake, could you make at least one countdown? I don't know what to use it for, so I'll leave that idea to you, and the idea of how long the countdown is.
Anonymous said…
Wait. I have an idea for a countdown, if you can't think of an idea. Maybe, at a certain part of the game, when one more metroid needs to be destroyed to enter the next ruins, a tremor can occur, and then the screen can say that the magma level is going to increase, and that you need to destroy another metroid to prevent it (and, though it won't be stated on the screen, diminish magma level and allow access to the next ruins). I don't know how long the countdown should be set, or what stage of evolution the metroid should be, so I'll leave you to figure that out.
Anonymous said…
If your going to do the countdown then have it be a highly evolved metroid, and have the countdown be like 5-7 minutes. Also the good Dr. already said that you would be able to equip and un equip beems on the fly. I think that they should all be a different button, like 1,2,3, or 4 for the order you get them in. I agree with having to equip and unequipped wepons for certain puzzles. (i wrote this on my wii and it took like a half an hour!) heres my proof: »«¿¡±§∞$¢€£¥#*♪♭©®ªº~™ you cant make those symbols on a normal keyboard.
Anonymous said…
I think a countdown would be a bad idea for this game... however if its stuck in your mind the only 2 things i could see there having a countdown working is if....

area 3 you kill the drill mech/computer and its exploding

area 4 the weapons research facility
would be a good spot for a computer boss which would then explode

however i again say that having a exploding part in this game would be a mistake. (I'd still play cus i am addicted to Metroid games)
Anonymous said…
dude, i'm happy. This is my favorite metroid game, i hope you finish it for good, but i was thinking on the end, would you use a % end, or time end, or both??. I hope you can do somthing really great, i believe taht all teh fans from Metroid are waiting like this is a original remake lol, anyway, sorry my english (=P) but i'm from Chile, Latin America, and we're very excited. keep workin'. C - U
;)
Anonymous said…
Yah if there was a computer or robot boss and then there was a countdown, you should have to leave the area.
ώΐί!
Anonymous said…
About the alpha metroids not being hurt by frontal attacks, i recommend actually just reducing the damage, so that you can kill an alpha that way... if you have gazillions of missiles, hitting alphas in the back or bottom would be too hard.
Oh and I have an idea for the 3rd ruins, some sort of plantation or something relating to vegetation and over the ages it died, so it ended up being a desert, which could be why the breeding area has plants, so i recommend using dead vegetation wasteland for the 3rd ruins. If you want to ask for anymore advice or anything like that, email me at Digger Thornburg@gmail.com
Anonymous said…
Ahem, I think that you should keep the weeknes of the metroids where they where intended to be. The core. Nintendo said that the week spot on the metroids where the nuclei spots and became harder to hit with every evoloution. There should also be a specal son for when you fight a metroid and a victory chime also, like in the first one. Make the metroids hard to fight, seeing as them, and the arachnu-whatever are the only bosses in game so far. I don't actually know if the metroids are actual bosses, thats just what people have said in the past. But if you ask me, id say that the roley poly thingy, and the queen where the only offical bosses. The omega metroid, maby mini boss.

ώΐί
Anonymous said…
Song not son
Lazure said…
Heh, this will support gamepads, correct? With customizable buttons.

This is really neat! You can do all this with just gamemaker? I can't program, I always wanted to make my own platformer, so that's fascinating.
Anonymous said…
I don't like the idea of Super Missiles being less powerful against Metroids. Metroids being able to take more damage is okay, but it's the damage relation to regular missiles that worries me. Super Missiles are a LOT harder to come by, and are essentially worth a LOT more than regular missiles. If you make it so using a Super Missile against a Metroid only does 2x damage, who on Earth would ever use a a Super Missile? It'd be a waste, since its damage would be reduced by 60%.
Anonymous said…
Like i said earler, have the super missles shoot the metroid back to the edge of the screan like 2-3 times further than a normal missle.
Anonymous said…
even if its reduced they still die faster. I think what Dr.M is doing is trying to keep the challenge of killing a Metroid a... well.. challenge i mean.... if a 20 health Metroid was taken out by 4 shots... that would be way too easy and the game would get dull.
Anonymous said…
gah...

"a challenge"

...killing a Metroid a... well.. "challenge" i mean....
hipnotyq said…
cannot wait for this to come out :) thank you so much for making this game!!
Anonymous said…
Dudeman, that's why the health could just be increased overall. If it has so much health that using missiles takes forever to kill it? Well, that's what makes Super Missiles so valuable. I can understand what's happening, in that if you have a bunch of Super Missiles it might become too easy, and if you only have regular missiles it would drag on forever, but I think there are better ways to mediate the problem. Actually, it's not that big of a problem at all if the player manages his/her weapons well enough, but again, it's up to the game designer. Good luck, dude.
Anonymous said…
I want the metroid fights to be challenging...
Oy said…
I've noticed that a lot of people are complaining and about ammount of damage that the Super Missiles do to the Metroids.
I think the obvious thing to do would be to have a difficuty level in the game.
Easy - Super Missile would do x5 Damage, and Metroids would be slower.
Medium - Super Missile would do x3 Damage, and Metroids would be quick.
Hear - Super Missile would do x2 Damage, and Metroids would be fast.

There'd probabley be other changes too, but that's just an example...
Anonymous said…
oy, that might sound good, but think about it. And I want everyone to hear this: the problem isn't lowering the damage Super Missiles do! The problem is lowering Super Missiles without lowering regular missiles! If you lower Super Missiles so that they only do double of regular missiles, since Super Missiles are so rare, there'd hardly be much reason to use them. Well, I guess you'd still use them just the same against bosses, but still. The point I'm trying to make is that if Super Missile damage is lowered, then so should Missile damage, and so should damage from your regular beam. All of that could be done with just raising the health of the enemies. However, I have one thing I'd like to say, and this is my own opinion: 5x damage from Super Missiles is too much, I think. 3x would be good, but right now, being able to do a missile-pack's worth of damage with a single shot is a little silly, don't you think?
Lazure said…
This all depends also on how many super missiles will be available in this. For all we know, the author could make them a lot more plentiful than Super Metroid did.
Anonymous said…
The super missles in metroid fusion where 3x damage and replaced normal missles, but the enemys in the game got a lot stronger the farther you got. Super metroid had the enemys get stronger as you went further, so strong in fact that the enemy became much easet to handle once you got a new beam. So what im saying is that all of the enemys should and the metroids should get much stronger. the good Dr. should try our ideas on acouple types of metroids, with diferent helth and balence it out. Or he could re-release the demo with the metroids so far and give 3 alphas with diferent helth or with different super missle damage and everybody can choose which one is the best.
ώΐϊ
Anonymous said…
One thing that bothered me was how useless (well not exactly useless, but much less valuable) missles got with the expansion of the beam since towards the end of most metriod games, a charged beam shot was worth the same, if not more powerful than a super missle. Maybe another question for debate is whether or not metroids should be hurt by all attacks, just missles, or whatever?

(by the way, I'm totally in support for creative new minibosses. Nightmare in fusion was awesome because of the gravity inducing power. Maybe there can be a few special torizos that flip gravity, making you fight on the cieling? Or maybe on like in zero mission where if you hurt it, you hurt yourself? Anything different then just the usual missle spamming would be awesome)

best wishes!
<3 Danie

oh, and about the whole super missle damage debate, I think it should be figured out looking at the missle to super missle ratio as lazure. If the Dr. decides to have three missles to every super missle, then the damage ratio should be 1:3
Anonymous said…
You do have a point, lazure. It's up to the developer to make those decisions, but yeah. Whether Super Missiles are more plentiful or not, there needs to be a good balance, and I just strongly believe that suddenly making Super Missiles 60% less powerful against Metroids isn't good balance at all. Whether it's 2x, 3x, or 5x damage, it needs to be consistent, at least that's what I think.
Namagem said…
Perhaps missile combos should be added, from prime; after all, this is not long after the primes.
Anonymous said…
Will there be a rom version for DS, SNES, GBA or so? I don't wanna play it on a PC ;/
Erick Luis said…
I'am Brazilian,
I see the Enemy's Metroid 2 Sprites Very COOL!!!

http://www.spriters-resource.com/nintendo/metroid/customs/m2enem.png

This is the link!!
Anonymous said…
Maby the super missles should be 3x stronger? But just on the metroids. Oh and by the way, i was playing prime the other day. I was in the space pirates research lab Ather, where they hold metroids, i shot a missile at a metroid in a statis tank and let it free. It made short work of the 2 space pirates i was fighting, so i decided to scan it while it was attacking a pirate and the scan said that it was an alpha metroid! It was clearly a larva, but it was much faster, stronger and apparently smarter, as it found me quickly after i hid in the room. a normal metroid would just give up or take longer to find me.
Anonymous said…
I personally think Alpha's should also have an energy-draining attack of some kind. Maybe a power-draining energy beam, like the power grapple from Corruption?
Anonymous said…
I Played Metroid Redemption and it isnt all it was cracked up to be... But the demo was all it was crakced up to be plus more!! Keep it up Dr.!
Anonymous said…
AAAAHHHH!!!!! When will there be another update!?!?!!?
Anonymous said…
Any chance that in addition to your new version of Metroid II you will also release a version more true to the original with just updated graphics?
Anonymous said…
I'm glad to see you've made such magnificent progress in you valiant effort to recreate this classic! Kudos to you and your hard work! I look forward to playing this game when it is completed!
Anonymous said…
Kudos?... Anyway i want to see some pics of the meyroids so far!
Got Phazon?
Anonymous said…
Metroids... woh, i spelled that wrong.
Ω
Anonymous said…
I noticed that the Hornoad in the demo is the X infected Hornoad instead of the non X infected Hornoad that is also in Moteroid fusion,found in Sector 1 (SRX).I hpoe you do use the non infected Hornoad Sprites in this game instead of the X infected Hornoad.
Anonymous said…
Hmm. The Metroid: SR388 project already has an area with full mining facilities and drilling machines.
Lazure said…
Is that even being worked on? Vonrichter never updates his blog about it. Is development on it silent/secret?
Anonymous said…
Yeah... the last update was his video, and i didn't see any drilling machines there.
Anonymous said…
Correct me if I am wrong but, I thought "Metroid: SR388" was not a remake but a new storyline
Anonymous said…
i think there is a strict no spoiler policy in effect but vonr posts to mdb alot
i kno for a fact there is a mining zone with drill machines because ive seen them and vonr posted plans for the area on his old forum_ i just wonder if someone who was on his forum is who suggested the ideas here or just coincedence but it sounds exactly the same

im looking forward to all these projects i hope they get finished
Anonymous said…
Um... isnt this blog about AM2R, not Metroid: SR388. Anywayz the metroids should make noises. Like when they see you, suck your life, or cant get to you. (If there blocked by a wall, like in super metroid.) The alphas should have a diferent sound from a larva, and gamma should be more deeper and longer. The zeta can be a shorter and squeker version of the omega.
Anonymous said…
hey heres a cool idea instead of shifting intomorphball mode all the time maybe add sliding like say you have a metroid with armor(don't know if thats possible)you could slide under and shoot up or in a time attack mode ;) instead of clicking down down you could just run and then slide under an obstacle to save time (unless you entered the hi-speed mode that way it wouldnt conflict the shine sparking)
C. M0use said…
Good call on the Space Pirates and Ridley, man. Don't let a bunch of 14 year olds pressure you into jamming cheesy retconned stuff into the game.
Anonymous said…
Good call on the Space Pirates... but have you considered having some Space Pirate corpses in the background for a good, eerie effect?
Anonymous said…
I read your last post q i think the name of the meter can be like Metroid: fury of Samus Aran
Unknown said…
vc ja esta quase para terminar ou faltam algumas areas?

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