Solved Climbing stage

[mulambo]

As in the example, I know the direction of a stage can be up, and I know how to change player according to stage with skipselect, but how do I set up a vertical stage like the one shown in the figure?
I mean, what I want is the stage to scroll up and have 3 kinds of enemies: first kind is falling rocks (or other stuff), the second one is flying enemies, the third one is climbin enemy.  This should be "easy" task (just didn't try it yet), but the real questions are:
- how to limit the x scrolling to the "playable area"
- I can make a hole at the bottom of the stage so if the player reaches, he falls and die, but how can I make the enemy with a critical attack (the one that makes the player fall) make the player fall down a bit (not totally, just a bit so he gets in a lower position (closer to the hole at the bottom) ?
- how to expand the z scrolling? as for now, I can only make player scroll till 160 px, how to extend it to 240
- how to make the player scroll both up and down (so he can re-gain position, unless he goes too beyond the bottom limit of the stage because of enemies) ?

 

[Bloodbane]

Here's example of vertical level :

- how to expand the z scrolling? as for now, I can only make player scroll till 160 px, how to extend it to 240

This vertical level has wide z setting:

z	1562	1562
file	data/levels/skywall.txt

This wide z setting allows player to move up and down in both z and y axis
In this old mod, I haven't forced camera to start from below but in newer mods I usually force camera to start from below with script

Even though the example is for 2D mod, the z setting can also be used for regular mods to create vertical stage

but how can I make the enemy with a critical attack (the one that makes the player fall) make the player fall down a bit (not totally, just a bit so he gets in a lower position (closer to the hole at the bottom) ?

It depends on how you set player's climbing model. If you gave him strong resistance to knockdown attack, you could use PAIN animation which pushes player down a bit

- how to limit the x scrolling to the "playable area"

Simple, just limit the length of your panel . IOW the length of your panel or combined panels (for multiple panels) defines length of level

- how to make the player scroll both up and down (so he can re-gain position, unless he goes too beyond the bottom limit of the stage because of enemies) ?

You need to set cameratype 1 to allow moving camera up and down

 

[mulambo]

thanks a lot, i'll take note of this as soon as I make the stage, just more two questions

you could use PAIN animation which pushes player down a bit

I know about move so if the player can move a bit like " move 1 " depending on number of frames and delay, but how to make the player move in pain animation down (usually I know "move" makes the player move forward)

Simple, just limit the length of your panel . IOW the length of your panel or combined panels (for multiple panels) defines length of level

does it mean I have to make the n01.gif panel with transparent part and it's already interpreted by non-playable area by the engine? or is there a command/value to add on the right of  the panel file path? sorry I'm kinda noob at this

 

[Bloodbane]

but how to make the player move in pain animation down (usually I know "move" makes the player move forward)

There are movea for moving in y axis and movez in z axis

does it mean I have to make the n01.gif panel with transparent part and it's already interpreted by non-playable area by the engine?

No. Just limit the length of your panel
As example, the vertical level I've shown above uses panel whose size is 320x1600. The mod's resolution is 320x240 which means the panel doesn't allow scrolling left or right but allow scrolling up and down

 

[mulambo]

so, this is the stage

music		Data\Music\final1\ambient1.ogg
background	data/bgs/ff1/stage2-2a/back.gif
panel		data/bgs/ff1/stage2-2a/n01.gif	  
direction	down
cameratype 1
order		a
spawn1 100 195   
settime 0
notime 1

but the player is still moving like a normal horizontal stage (with 160 height limit), he can't scroll down or up the stage
I've tried making two layers for bg and the crates so the bg could scroll at different speed, but it was scrolling automatically (also tried with bgspeed and vbgspeed to stop it, but it doesn't work, the bg is still scrolling)

about the " z 1562 1562 " in levels.txt, does it affect also the other stages in the list? how to set to default setting after the stage ends? I've tried it, but the player doesn't show neither on the screen (while it's there on the stage, maybe down or up off the camera as the enemy attacks him, I can see it because of the sounds and life decreasing).


the bg file  is a  320x2000 image (sort of climbable surface), I basically want the player to scroll down starting from spawn1 position.
about enemies spawning, the "at" value sets when the enemy is spawned according to x position, what about z position (or "y", I haven't figured the difference in this case as the stage has supposed to have no depth, just vertical y scrolling)? example when the player reacheas 0,1900 position the last enemy should be spawned

 

[Bloodbane]

the player is still moving like a normal horizontal stage (with 160 height limit), he can't scroll down or up the stage

That's because the size of your panel is small. As I've posted above, you need panel (not background) whose length is limited and width wide enough for moving vertically. IOW try declaring background as panel instead

about the " z 1562 1562 " in levels.txt, does it affect also the other stages in the list?

Yes, that's why it's suggested to define z for each stage. Here's example from Contra:

...
z	1562	1562
file	data/levels/indtower.txt
branch	SkyWall
file	data/levels/skywall.txt
branch	Boss3b
z	222	222
file	data/levels/boss/boss3b.txt
file	data/levels/industop.txt
...

I didn't declare z when a stage has same z as previous stage

about enemies spawning, the "at" value sets when the enemy is spawned according to x position, what about z position

Unfortunately, for that, since spawning is x axis based only, enemies can't be spawned per y or z axis
The only way to solve that is by using script.

 

[mulambo]

I see, thanks again Bloodbane. You've been credited in my new game, btw, thanks for all your help so far
Maybe one day I'll learn scripting, for now I just want to release the game as I've tested it and even without climbing stages it's fine this way imho. For now it's topic solved, I guess.