Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Fate of the Master Emerald

[Damizean]

Also, thanks DimensionWarped for telling me about the handpicked palette. That had to have been a lot of work for Sonic Team to change the color of all those sprites just for an underwater level.

Not at all, as they didn't have to replicate sprites or anything. The Genesis' VDP palette had a maxium of 64 different color, and all the graphics had to be adapted to those. They just changed the colors in realtime when the VDP approached the water horizon on the Y scan.

[DimensionWarped]

It's a lot cheaper on the processor than a big block of transparent blue green stuff.

[VectorSatyr]

Especially when you have direct access to video memory.

[Blue Emerald]

I took a short break from the engine for a day, but in the meantime, I believe I've fixed the Buzz Bomber sprite. I took the feedback I recieved from Slingerland (the Advance Badnik just doesn't click) and Cyber Rat (it fits with the vivid environment) and put it to good use. I took the Advance Badnik, used Sonic CD's Gunnerbee model for it, and created this:

Originally, the stripes were going to remain black and yellow, but after experimenting a bit with the sprite, I decided the blood-red stripes looked so much better, and gave it a more dangerous appearance. The screw in the center was changed from gray to red to give it a more exciting appearance.

The helicopter part I took from a Tails sprite. I assume the Nexus team did the same when making Bumblecopter (which has a neat shade of blue), but there are differences in our helicopter pieces. First, the propeller is white-and-gray, remaining close to the palette of the Sonic Advance Buzz Bomber. Second, I added a transparency effect, which was not only a slight nod to Advance Buzz Bomber's spinning propeller animation (though Advance's isn't transparent), but also a nod to the pseudo-transparency effect commonly found in the Genesis Sonic games.

The yellows have been brightened from yellow-and-ochre to yellow-and-orange, which creates a vivid honey color -- most appropriate for this particular Badnik.

Anyway, I'm still having issues with getting the Crabmeat Badnik to launch its bullets. I read the help thread about the bullets, and I tried the sound test and created two separate bullets, but nothing is getting me results. If anyone knows how I can get the bullets to work, let me know, because I've tried setting the bullets to different alterable values, and none of them work. However, I did find that some of the commands were set to Buzzbomber's bullets instead of Crabmeat's, but that only helps me a little.

In the meantime, I'll be working on more Badniks and finding more songs to add to the game. I work by the motto I've adapted: just because one part of my project stops, doesn't mean the rest of it stops with it.

Another Update Today (You bet I'm busy):

After looking over my zones, and holding to my promise that I'd try to keep this from looking like S3K as much as possible, Electric Carnival Zone is going to have a complete redesign, and will now be known as Techno City Zone. Only one thing bothers me about this, however, and that's the fact that I now have two city zones. Of course, there are other Sonic games that have had more than one city zone, for example, Sonic 1 (Spring Yard and Star Light) and Sonic 2 (Chemical Plant and Casino Night).

Also, Techno City focuses on the city's active nightlife, while Sky District focuses on its bright and futuristic city environment. So, for now, the zone setup is quite good.

[Felik]

I'd suggest you to make this buzzbomber badnik drop bombs from his stomach just like 2 act boss of hydrosity from sonic 3. I mean they drop bombs straight downwards and after a while or when sonic touch bombs they would blow up. It would add a lot of diversity for a REALLY low price (in fact you don't have to draw any sprites or anything).

What do you think about it?

[DimensionWarped]

I took a short break from the engine for a day, but in the meantime, I believe I've fixed the Buzz Bomber sprite. I took the feedback I recieved from Slingerland (the Advance Badnik just doesn't click) and Cyber Rat (it fits with the vivid environment) and put it to good use. I took the Advance Badnik, used Sonic CD's Gunnerbee model for it, and created this:

[qimg]http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k151/cloudstrife2006/buzzbomberPL.png[/qimg]

...

Alright, I'm calling you out on this one.

There is such a thing as too derivative to not be suspicious.

[LarkSS]

Isn't the only reason they're similar is because pretty much the whole sprite was just taken from a Sonic game and you both added a tails' propeller tails on top? =/

I mean, if they were both custom badniks that looked almost exactly the same, then there would be a reason to call it out.

In this case, I don't see the resemblence as that big of a deal.

[DimensionWarped]

It just annoys me that when he gets advice from Brad, the first thing he does is makes a carbon copied ripoff.

[Blue Emerald]

DimensionWarped, yes, I know that they're alike. I won't lie; I was inspired. While we both used the same sprite pieces, I already explained why mine was different. On top of that, of all the Genesis sprites, the CD one was the closest to being a Genesized version of the Advance Badnik, and I wanted to use it. (Also, I had the idea of using the Buzz Bomber with the propeller before I learned about Bumblecopter) I couldn't find any other good Sonic-related propeller sprites that looked like the Advance Buzz Bomber's propeller, so I tried the Tails sprite (the spinning part was what I wanted from it), figured out when I saw the Tails sprite that that must have been where Nexus got their propeller, and thought, "OK, I guess I'll use it too, but I'll make mine noticeably different; I'll make it look closer to the Advance Buzz Bomber's propeller."

Don't worry, I'm definitely not going to copy your attack pattern, or even call mine something like "Bumblecopter 2.0." I like some of Nexus' ideas, but I'm not going to go so far that Team Nexus ends up getting really furious with me. (I have high hopes for Nexus, and I support them, so the last thing I want is their development team angry at me) My Buzz Bomber will be like every other Genesis Buzz Bomber. And, if it'll make things better between our teams (well... you have a team, and I just have me), I'll see if I can alter the eyes on it.

Anyway, after a week of slow progress (and a truckload of homework that took me until midnight each day to finish), I've finally got another update for Sonic 4. I'll upload it very soon.

UPDATE: New Badniks (Told you it'd be soon)

So, before I show off the new Badnik, I'll first show a revamp of a familiar foe, Bioslug:

These are subtle changes, but I altered the eyes a little, and improved the shading. Now for the new Badnik:

This guy's name is Antron. It doesn't do very much; it simply patrols its surroundings much like the Motobug from Sonic 1. An easy Badnik to destroy, Antron will feel right at home in Summer Forest. Well, of course, until Sonic crushes it!

UPDATE 2: Guess I'm Not the First...

What exactly do I mean by this? Well, tonight I was checking YouTube for a while and found some videos involving a large series of Sonic-hack playthroughs, when I found one about a game called Sonic Remastered. Apparently, this game plays like Sonic 1 with the newer Sonic 3 graphics, but here's the real kicker: the Chaos Emeralds in Remastered grant new abilities to the characters.

Sound familiar? Well, if you've been reading my posts in this thread, it definitely should. This has me a little disheartened, but not so much when I found out some of the unlockable abilities, most notably Spin Dash and Super Peelout. Well, now I have a fun fact to share with my readers: on my first day of working on Sonic 4, Spin Dash was originally planned to be an unlockable ability via the first Chaos Emerald, but I decided to change it because I thought it would make the rest of the game too difficult and put a limit on the level design.

Of course, for Remastered, unlockable Spin Dash makes sense, since it's based off of Sonic 1. Still, it has me a little discouraged, as I thought I was going to be the first to have ability-granting Emeralds in a Sonic game. (Another fun fact: I was inspired to make ability-granting Chaos Emeralds after remembering an episode of Sonic X; remember when Sonic used the two Chaos Emeralds to fly through and demolish Eggman's sound robot?)

Nevertheless, I'm keeping the Emeralds the way they are, but for now, I'm keeping the unlockable abilities under wraps. The first Emerald ability should be revealed when I can get the first demo out. (Still having problems with that darn Crabmeat Badnik in Sonic Worlds, too; I need to get that issue out of the way)

[DimensionWarped]

It's not a unique concept (abilities per emerald). Hell, I myself had plotted to use a similar concept back when I was working solo. In fact, Aytac had done it in Sonic Chaos back in the early Klik 'n Play days.

[Guest Shadix]

It's not a unique concept (abilities per emerald). Hell, I myself had plotted to use a similar concept back when I was working solo. In fact, Aytac had done it in Sonic Chaos back in the early Klik 'n Play days.

It's still a really cool concept though that seems like it would be a logical step as far as expected improvements would be in a Sonic 4.

I also can't think of any games that have utilized that concept in the post static or even the post-worlds era.

[Cstyler]

Blue Emerald, I guess you can use my old badniks fusion.

Check it out:

[Blue Emerald]

Those are neat fusions, Cstyler. I especially like the gold Blastoid/Spiny fusion at the bottom.

Unfortunately, they aren't exactly what I'm looking for, as I've already planned and drawn out all the Badniks I'm going to use for the game. However, I might alter that Blastoid fusion to replace the altered Spiny I was originally going to use. That gold color also gives me an idea on how I might sprite the shinier Badniks.

Thanks for the contribution to the game. If I find a way to alter the Blastoid fusion, I'll definitely add you to the credits.

[Felik]

Actually those spiky slug badnik looks awful. You'd better replace him with something else. The other one looks well.

P.S. So what do you think about my idea?

[Serephim]

People, please stop bickering over Sonic the Hedgehog Badnicks. They're nothing more than sprites that move in a repeating, simple (or annoying if you want to add "difficulty") pattern. Nobody really cares what they look like, im going to jump on them and they're gonna turn into a gray cloud of dust anyway.

Sonic Badnicks really have nothing to them, unless they are like the weathervane thing from S3&K or something. Unless he just stole the design of a badnick you had programmed to DO something interesting, like blow sonic away or bind him in an electric field, nobody really cares which sprite he used.

[DimensionWarped]

Speak for yourself Sereph.

[Serephim]

Saying all that to say that in the end, it really isnt the sprite that matters.

[Cyber Rat]

People, please stop bickering over Sonic the Hedgehog Badnicks. They're nothing more than sprites that move in a repeating, simple (or annoying if you want to add "difficulty") pattern. Nobody really cares what they look like, im going to jump on them and they're gonna turn into a gray cloud of dust anyway.

Sonic Badnicks really have nothing to them, unless they are like the weathervane thing from S3&K or something. Unless he just stole the design of a badnick you had programmed to DO something interesting, like blow sonic away or bind him in an electric field, nobody really cares which sprite he used.

It's kinda um... 'ironic' (?) saying that something you will encounter throughout your game in a quantity that easily exceeds 3 digits, is, in fact, completely useless. (To be honest, I never pay attention to badniks in Sonic games, but then again, I would notice if they sucked.)

[Blue Emerald]

Actually those spiky slug badnik looks awful. You'd better replace him with something else. The other one looks well.

P.S. So what do you think about my idea?

The bomb idea? Actually, I already have a Badnik that will drop bombs in the game, so having Buzz Bomber do the same thing just wouldn't do it for me. My aim is give all my Badniks different properties (movement, attack patterns, location), so I don't want to have two different Badniks dropping bombs.

As for the slug, I can't think of any way to improve it further; but personally I think it looks pretty good for a mechanical slug. Of course, that's my opinion, and I was the one who created it.

[Felik]

The problem is that it doesn't look like a robot. It looks just like some creature from Spore

Could you robotize it a bit? For example add some screws or metal plates.

[DimensionWarped]

The key is in plain geometric structures. Having weird curves doesn't characterize the sonic style of robot.

[Serephim]

It's kinda um... 'ironic' (?) saying that something you will encounter throughout your game in a quantity that easily exceeds 3 digits, is, in fact, completely useless. (To be honest, I never pay attention to badniks in Sonic games, but then again, I would notice if they sucked.)

Well, that was my point really. Its pretty hard to tell when they suck, because although they are a required aspect of the level, they almost never hold attention for more than a couple of seconds, if not miliseconds unless its a Miniboss.

Dont mean to mingle but i just find it kind of petty to argue about them. If he had stole a unique pattern someone created, then he could say something. But when they both do nothing but move back and forth and occasionally charge you, there's nothing to argue about. >_>;

[Blue Emerald]

The problem is that it doesn't look like a robot. It looks just like some creature from Spore

Could you robotize it a bit? For example add some screws or metal plates.

I don't think screws are going to work for this Badnik, but maybe metal plates will; I think I'll try that and see how it goes. I just don't want Bioslug to look too cluttered.

The key is in plain geometric structures. Having weird curves doesn't characterize the sonic style of robot.

I see what you mean. I never noticed that before, but that's good advice. I'll try that, too.

OK, I tried it out, and I got this:

I'm just worried that it looks too rigid. The original one I made was supposed to be able to crawl around, but this one just doesn't look the part. And, as for the first one not being robotic enough, the red veins were supposed to make it look robotic, but I guess it didn't do enough justice to the Badnik name.

Well, what say you guys?

[Cuda Ahbuda]

I'm just worried that it looks too rigid. The original one I made was supposed to be able to crawl around, but this one just doesn't look the part. And, as for the first one not being robotic enough, the red veins were supposed to make it look robotic, but I guess it didn't do enough justice to the Badnik name.

Well, what say you guys?

Do you like how the badnik looks now or before you changed it? Cause straight up this is just a start in makings, so i don't see why you changed it?

[Damizean]

Hey Blue Emerald, out of boredom, I've tweaked up your badnik sprite... Even though I didn't know it was supossed to be a slug (I assumed it was some sort of caterpillar, like in the original games), so well.... I only realized that after I had made this.

Use it if you like, anyway:

I have one big suggestion for your future works, though. The colors you choose didn't have enough contrast between them, so they're pretty much unnoticiable. Try using more contrasts on the colours if you want to make shadows and highlights.