NoName (OoT Mod) [Cancelled, source available]

[CloudMax]

This project is no longer being worked on. The source is available for download at http://cloudmodding.com/zelda/mod/noname

I've always been wanting to make my own mod, but never really took the first step. Well, I've finally took that first step.
The project itself does not have a name yet, so I'm just calling it NoName for now (Really, I do. My files, notes, etc.)
So, the goal of this mod is very simple. I do whatever the hell I want. If I want to code something for whatever reason, I do it, and put it in.
This leads to all kinds of interesting things which I can expand on later.
At the moment I have absolutely no progress whatsoever in terms of storyline, or actual gameplay content.
I have however started writing the base for the mod, which is to say how the game will handle equipment, items, and even save files.
This is hopefully what will make my mod unique compared to others. The fact that the game itself is being altered on a deeper level, to the point where it may not even feel like you're playing Ocarina of Time, but rather a new game based on it. (like Majora's Mask)

Now, one of the first things I decided when I started the project was the fact that I reaaaallly don't feel like making a huge overworld where you travel forever to reach your destination, etc., etc., so I wanted to have one central hub where everything in the entire game is quickly accessible. I initially thought of something like Ganon's Castle, where you have one main room, and then you'd have the entrance to all dungeons around it, and when you've done them all, you unlock the last one.
I eventually came up with this (which was totally by mistake, I only made the desert section at first to get the hang of how google skatchup worked)

Now, that's just something I made when learning sketchup, I'll most likely rearrange and move things over time, and have stuff transition properly.
So the overworld will be one central hub from which pretty much the entire game is accessible very quickly. This is great, as the mod will not feature warp songs, and most likely not even the Ocarina.

The mod will only feature Child Link. Reason behind this is because I like child link more.

And now the more in depth stuff. The equipment system. I totally scrapped the one that is already in OoT. I just removed it. gone. I didn't like it, so I rewrote it. (Originally the game had a equipment mask table, an inversed equipment mask table, and a equipment bitshift table, I removed all that, made it use a little math instead)
While making this change, I also rewrote how the game handles the Sword, Shield, Tunic & Boots. They now function the same way any other Equipment does. When you receive an upgrade, it is permanent. Imagine it like how it is in Majora's Mask. once you gain a new sword or shield, you can't choose to equip your previous one again.
And with these changes, I also modified the equipment screen to reflect these changes, and here is the result:

Now, my mod is not going to have a Zora Tunic, so what will I do about under water levels? Well, the silver scale now serves that purpose. No need to swap tunic.
The tunics will now serve as armor upgrades instead, similar to that of for example A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds.
Bigger wallets are available. They now come as 200r, 500r, 2000r and 5000r wallets.
The Hylian Shield has been modified to be one-handed as Child Link now, you don't have to feel that upgrading your shield adds more restrictions.

Now that that's out of the way, lets quickly move on to the inventory screen. This isn't really a big change, but the inventory now support selecting empty slots, just like in Majora's Mask. The cursor will no longer jump around trying to find the first available slot that isn't empty. You'll have full control.

Many items will be cut from the mod (Farore's Wind, Nayru's Love. Possibly Ocarina of Time and Din's Fire. and more). However, new items will be available. One of which is the "Escape Rope" (temporary name). The name may sound familiar to all pokémon fanatics out there. Reason I'm calling it that at the moment is because it will serve the same purpose. It is an item which can only be used inside dungeons to get back to the entrance.
I am still working out the details and making sure that other items are actually do-able in a good way before announcing them. (and I'll obviously want to keep some things a secret)
Here's a quick example item I threw together just to try things out (which will not be available in the mod) It creates a crate right in front of you.

Now on to another big change. This mod will feature a harder difficulty mode. Exactly how it will be more difficult, I don't really know. I may go the same route as recent zelda games and make it so that you take double (or even quadruple, we'll see.), or come up with some other solution.
To go along with this feature, I've made the necessary modifications to the File Select. When you choose the name of your file, the backspace button has been replaced with one that toggles between normal mode and the more difficult mode. You'll notice which one you've currently selected by the color scheme of the menu. The more difficult mode will make it much darker.

The same applies to the file select. The more difficult file will have the darker theme applied to it, and when it is selected, the file select will change to reflect the currently selected file.

The textures and colors of the file select may change later.

Also, saving will be changed so that you appear at the last entrance you saved at. Does not make sense to send the player away from the location they're at. (unless you're intentionally providing them with savewarping to reach locations faster)

I also want to be clear that this is just a personal project of mine. This is not going to become some big project where I recruit people to join some team. People are free to contribute if they want though.

I also want to be VERY clear with the fact that this mod is a long, long way from being finished. Could take months, could take years, heck, I may never even finish it. I do however want to say that even if I do cancel this project without ever finishing it, I will release the latest development build for people to play and try out.
I also plan to (hopefully) release a tech demo within the next half year so that people get to see and try out the new systems that are available. This will be something relatively small. As an example, say that you'd only have access to kokiri forest in OoT, but get to start with a bunch of items & chests in the area.

[xdaniel]

Besides the usual thoughts that this project sounds quite cool, and that I wish you the best of luck with it, there's one other thing...

 

The Etrian Odyssey player here was thinking: "Escape Rope" -> "Ariadne Thread"? Or "Warp Wire", depending on the EO game and/or translation, but that's really not much different from Escape Rope.

[Jason777]

I'm loving all the tweaks you've made to the engine!

 

Also, for starting at the last exit: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~jason777/Izou%20Zelda%20Research/Misc/Hacking%20Notes/Starting_Exit_800A854C_800A860C.txt

[NoSkinnedKoopa]

Sounds awesome! Defiantly wanna hang on to this project.

[Your Local Cultist]

If you wanted some inspiration for various things like a small hub with everything in it, you could look at old arcade games like Gauntlet legends. However I am just saying that because I'm a sucker for games like that.

[CloudMax]

I've started designing the hub in photoshop with the general layout for things. (I try not to rush things now, and actually make concepts before starting the modeling)

I expect the hub to be bigger than previously. Imagine something like Castle Town in twilight princess (in terms of size, not visuals), where the entire town is accessible and split into districts for the gorons, kokiri, zora, gerudo, hylians. The districts are themed for each race.

I will not put up any concept s of it here until I'm sure of how I want things to be, otherwise everything will become chaos and people start expecting things which may never happen.

[Mallos31]

I always felt that castle town in TP was somewhat based off of Clock Town anyway. So that works. 

[CloudMax]

 

 

So this is pretty much what I have in mind for the districts. Familiar places, with a new touch, all thrown into one big city. (I'm obviously starting with the Kokiri District as that's where you'll be starting)

I'm not ready to show off more than that for now, as most of the things that isn't in view most likely will change. (things in view will most likely also change, but not as much)

 

 

is the current layout I'm going with for the city. There are plot reasons involved in the positioning of things, as I've written down the basic plot up until when you receive the sword (*hint* which may not be as early as you'd expect *hint*).

Note that the shape of that mockup is not how thing actually will be shaped, it's just the layout of things. There will be small paths inbetween them, connecting things.

That's all I'll be sharing for now.

 

Also, another thing I've been considering lately.. I've been thinking about reducing max heart containers from 20 down to 16, and have you start with 6. This will result in 10 heart containers total obtained ingame. If I were to have 5-6 dungeons, that'd leave me at 16-20 heart pieces, which is a hell of a lot anyway. So yeah, the start amount will be increased, and the max amount will be decreased. I am pretty certain about this. By how much, I can't really tell, it'll most likely change over time.

Edited February 5, 2014 by CloudMax

[Your Local Cultist]

Just as long as you have lots of actor trees in the kokiri part I approve!

[CloudMax]

I'm not really sure if I'll be able to do that to be honest.

I've pretty much finished the kokiri district, save for some details (screenshots of my progress has only been shared in an IRC channel to prevent a major shitstorm incase I make a change others don't agree with)

I'm not really sure if there's a single place in the entire area where a tree would look good to be honest. and when you do add a tree, you need multiple trees, which makes placement even more difficult.

I'll most likely be finishing up some details among other things today, maybe then I'll be able to provide a screenshot with a full view of the place. (it is probably about 2/3 the size of the kokiri forest main area)

I will most likely include greenery though, perhaps that's a good substitue for a tree? xD

 

Edit: I double-checked the post after actually being awake, fixed a lot of incorrect words, lol.

[Your Local Cultist]

Aw ok. Still, I can't wait to see where this mod is going.

[CloudMax]

So, I never got around to finishing up the details of Kokiri District yesterday as I decided to organize my project instead.

This post will mostly contain some technical info on how I organize things. Go down to the modified debug screen if you want to skip the technical stuff.

Previously there wasn't any table content lists for my files. Things were all over the place.

When I were going to recombine everything in a clean ROM yesterday I couldn't even locate some of the things I had written. It was split across roughly 9 different text files, with random documentation in the middle of everything.

Now I've sorted things up.

One file containing everything equipment related. The equipment screen, the modified systems, modified equipment, etc.

One file for everything item and inventory related. (free inventory movement, item usability, sling&bow as adult/child, etc.)

Then there's a file for everything related to the save file setups & file select.

Also a file for all User Interface changes, such as changed button colors, etc.

And lastly a document containing all of my debug feature patches, as well as modifications made to several debug menus.

Here's what my documents look like now:

 

 

Part 1 Documentation [DOC]
	1. Addresses and Info
Part 2 Setup [SET]
	1. Equipment Screen
Part 3 ASM [ASM]
	ovl_kaleido_scope (33)
		1. Custom Equipment Screen
	code (28)
		1. REPLACE EQUIPMENT SYSTEM (Ammo Display)
		2. REPLACE EQUIPMENT SYSTEM (Set Ammo)
		3. REPLACE EQUIPMENT SYSTEM (Wallet Display)
		4. REPLACE EQUIPMENT SYSTEM (Sword, Boots, Tunic)
		5. REPLACE EQUIPMENT SYSTEM (Strength)
		6. Four Rupee Counter Digits
		7. One-handed Hylian Shield
Part 4 Tables [TBL]
	ovl_kaleido_scope (33)
		1. Equipment Screen Column Positions
		2. Equipment Screen Display Data
		3. Remove Slot Usability Table
		4. Set up Equipment Usability Table
	code (28)
		1. Wallet Sizes

 

Now It's actually possible for me to instantly locate all my patches, and I can instantly see which file the code belongs to.

 

When I want to assemble everything, I just have to paste each ASM hack into Reneage64, have it generate a gameshark code, then I put that in a prepared patch file for my ROM patcher (http://cloudmodding.com/app/rompatcher I'm using an unreleased version with a few additional features to allow me to recombine my mod quicker) and it automatically do the rest.

All texture modifications are kept as a texture pack for my texture packer (http://cloudmodding.com/app/texturepacker) to allow me to recombine a clean ROM in a quick and smooth way.

So I can recombine my entire Mod, including all ASM hacks & textures in roughly 1 minute now.

 

Here's an example of a (slightly) modified Inventory Debug Screen:

 

 

(At the moment I've changed and moved some text around. I rewrote the Equipment (originally upgrade) part to have 12 numbers instead of 8, as the sword,shield,tunic&boots is now part of it, and modified it to work with the new equipment system I've implemented)

Some may wonder why I would even bother with this. There are 2 main reasons. I'll be getting an everdrive64 very soon, and having this available when I'm testing stuff on console is just great.

I am also considering including a modified Stage Select & Inventory Debug Screen for the tech demo that I'll be releasing, to allow people (including me) to test things out easily.

 

At the moment the plan is that the demo will feature the Kokiri District. plot related elements will be removed, and you will only have access to the district and the buildings within it.

Which is why the Inventory Debug Screen will be handy. It is a quick way to let people try things out.

As mentioned in the main post, the idea is to release the tech demo within 6 months of development time, which is before august.

I do not expect it to take that long at all, but you never know what may happen.

 

And lastly, here is the latest sneak peek of Kokiri District:

 

 

As you can see, it isn't complete. No paths on the ground, no details to fill out empty space, and ofc no actors.

 

Edit:

To have 3 wallet upgrades, you actually need icons and & names.

 

 

I'll be going with Small Wallet (default, not displayed anywhere), Medium Wallet, Big Wallet, & Giant Wallet.

Medium Wallet has a Purple rupee, Big Wallet has silver and giant has gold.

The sizes are 200, 500, 1000, & 2000.

The rupee colors match the sizes, purple rupee is 50, silver rupee is 100, gold rupee is 200.

If I do decide to display the small wallet at some point, it'd most likely be a red rupee, as it is worth 20.

[NoSkinnedKoopa]

I love it! Keep up the great work man!

[CloudMax]

The Silver & Gold scale have now been changed to act as the new Zora Tunic.

When you do not have a scale, you *always* have 30 seconds breathing time under water. It is not affected by your health.

When you have the silver scale, it will be increased to 60 seconds.

When you have golden scale, you can breathe under water infinitely.

Along with this change I made it so that your diving distance always is 5.

This will actually make the scale useful, and will be actively used in underwater areas.

 

Iron Boots will be available as a C-Button item. (I wrote an ASM hack for this months ago, so it's already done. Must port the iron boots display lists over to child link though.)

 

And I've changed the UI to properly display 8 hearts per row instead of 10, so that two full rows equal 16 hearts. (this can be seen in the last picture of my previous post, I updated it)

 

That's about everything I've done today. I spent a lot of time adding some functionality to my ROM Patcher to make it even easier and faster for me to recombine all the things I've made.

[Airikita]

Good job making it not calculate the health, can't wait to see what other stuff you have. That Iron Boot hack must have been a bit tricky.

[skilarbabcock]

Can you post a pic of young link holding the hylian shield one handed? You may neee to make it a bit smaller in size though s when s put away you xam still'see link

[CloudMax]

The display list port for the hack is not done yet. If fact, no display list port is done.

This is the best I can do in terms of a picture. It was taken right after I found out how to make the shield one-handed. I used the display list from when the shield is on links back, causing the size and rotation to be quite horrible.

 

 

SanguinettiMods is being awesome enough to do the porting for me so that I can keep working on my mod, and he is very experienced when it comes to display list porting. He came across a problem the other day though, delaying things.

Now, the Hylian Shield will actually be the Hero's Shield from Majora's Mask. If I later on decide to replace the texture on it with a Hylian Shield texture, I don't know. (may actually be better to use hero's shield, as the mod does not seem to take place in Hyrule?)

Razor Sword and Gilded sword will go over Master Sword & Biggoron Sword.

Mirror Shield will also be ported over from adult link and reduced in size.

Hookshot from MM will be ported.

And Iron Boots will *hopefully* be ported from Adult Link.

I think that's about it for now.

 

I were not going to share these details until it was actually done (which should be this weekend), but seeing as people may start ask questions regarding it otherwise, I guess I'd better do it now.

[â–²ChriisTiianâ–²]

Q: With the Hylian Shield on right hand, if you have a Deku Stick in the hand, how Link is cover?

I see this problem on the Deku Shield too.

[CloudMax]

I've actually planned to not have the deku stick act as a weapon for a while now. It has always annoyed me that it's more powerful than your sword.

I have been thinking about making it literally worthless as a weapon, so that it can be used for what it was created for. Picking up a flame and set something on fire.

In other words, you're not supposed to have to defend yourself when the deku stick is out, as it is an accessory to solve puzzles rather than something used in battles.

 

Edit:

There turned out to be an issue when I had a 3 digit wallet. If you had 0150 rupees, it'd display the first 3 digits and show "015" rupees. The same goes for 2 digit and 1 digit wallets ofc.

I've resolved the issue now. It turned out to be a very simple fix (there was a table right before the digit length table that decided how many steps to the left the digits should be shifted, just needed to set the 3 digit wallets to 1)

Edited February 8, 2014 by CloudMax

[Airikita]

I've actually planned to not have the deku stick act as a weapon for a while now. It has always annoyed me that it's more powerful than your sword.

I have been thinking about making it literally worthless as a weapon, so that it can be used for what it was created for. Picking up a flame and set something on fire.

In other words, you're not supposed to have to defend yourself when the deku stick is out, as it is an accessory to solve puzzles rather than something used in battles.

 

Edit:

There turned out to be an issue when I had a 3 digit wallet. If you had 0150 rupees, it'd display the first 3 digits and show "015" rupees. The same goes for 2 digit and 1 digit wallets ofc.

I've resolved the issue now. It turned out to be a very simple fix (there was a table right before the digit length table that decided how many steps to the left the digits should be shifted, just needed to set the 3 digit wallets to 1)

You'd likely have to nerf the Deku Stick then. Removing it isn't a bad idea, but you could probably just weaken its damage.

[CloudMax]

You'd likely have to nerf the Deku Stick then. Removing it isn't a bad idea, but you could probably just weaken its damage.

Yeah, I'll either make it super weak, or just do no damge at all.

 

And on another note, I received my EverDrive 64 and will be fixing things to be hardware compatible. At the moment everything except for 2 minor things appear to work perfectly.

My modifications to the Inventory Debug Menu causes the game to crash on boot.

The part of my free inventory movement hack that causes the "(<)(v)(>) to Equip" text to disappear when putting the cursor on an empty inventory slot causes the game to crash on boot.

It is a small piece of code, but I'm having trouble locating what is causing the issue in it.

 

And here's a picture I took, showing the mod running on console:

 

 

[skilarbabcock]

I have a name idea. How about. Legend of Zelda Districts of Hyrule or Legend of Zelda hylian districts. Or Legend of Zelda Hyrule chronicles.

[Conker]

This all looks great, CloudMax. Keep it up.

[CloudMax]

I have a name idea. How about. Legend of Zelda Districts of Hyrule or Legend of Zelda hylian districts. Or Legend of Zelda Hyrule chronicles.

I've considered a few somewhat similar names, but I decided to hold back until I've written more of the plot. I haven't even decided what you'll be collecting at the end of the dungeons. Or if there'll be a "main item", similar to that of the Ocarina of Time, or the Majora's Mask.

My original idea was that you'd be collecting pieces of a tablet or something along those lines, and call it "the missings shards", "the missing pieces", etc. But like I said, I want to hold back on a name until I am actually sure what's going to happen in my mod. I do not want to rush something as important as the name.

Also, the current idea is that this does *not* take place in Hyrule. It's some new weird place link has ended up in. if this link actually was born in this place, or if he's from hyrule originally, I have no freaking clue about, because I will be avoiding any kind of backstory and connection to other zelda games, at least for now.

 

This all looks great, CloudMax. Keep it up.

Thanks a lot!

[skilarbabcock]

You should give Link the razor sword and hero's shield from MM. I love those two items.