Topic: Solstice (NES) *Abandoned*

[TerraEsperZ]

This is another project of mine, but one that has a much better chance of being finished given how I've already mapped about half of the game. Since the whole game is basically one huge interconnected map, I've decided to separate the maps by overall location and gave them the official names from the manual. The name of the third map is still tentative since the manual wasn't really that clear about the whole "gardens" thing. Anyway, I went to great lengths to make sure that all the doors are perfectly aligned between rooms, which meant a lot of moving stuff around until everything lined up right.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome!

Caves of the Doomed Souls:


Fortress of Kastlerock:


Gardens of Pain & Blood Gardens:


I was planning on making one huge map for the finished product, but I'm still not sure how practical it will be given the fact that there are several instances of rooms one over another, as well as the Caves of the Doomed Souls being located under everything else. Bah, that's a problem better left for later, or else I might seize t as the perfect excuse *not* to work on this further

[Maxim]

I love the isometricness of your current maps

[JonLeung]

Looks incredible!  What's the ETA of this? 

I'd love to see Solstice done this way, but I've never seen actual screenshot maps.

A run of Solstice using your maps would indeed be pretty sweet.

[TerraEsperZ]

Looks incredible!  What's the ETA of this? 

A few months, maybe...? I don't know honestly. It's not so much how long it will take but rather how long I can stick to that particular project and how much free time I'll have for the coming weeks.

Fun fact: I easily found the "official" number for every room in the game which is located at address $0015, which also allowed me to determine that there was a total of 253 rooms in the game, not counting one only seen in the introduction and the final one where you no longer control anything anyway. By changing the room number at the right address, you only have to go through a door to enter the desired room provided there is a door in it for you to enter from that direction. The three missing room numbers instantly froze the game when I tried entering them from any angle.

As for a run of the game, make sure to remind me about it once I'm done because it would indeed be really cool. There aren't enough maps of isometric games on VGMaps

[sanjuro]

Hi there,

I thought you might want to know that I completed a full isometric Solstice map for my website 1UP (in French, about retrogaming). I stumbled on this forum page while I was working on mine. Here it is:

http://www.1up-games.com/nes/solstice/map.html

There's some programming involved, you'll see why. I didn't exactly follow the same method as you but I think the result is pretty accurate all things considered. I never found more than 252 rooms in this game though, and I chose to remove one that was superfluous/erroneous.

I have other maps too on my site, I've been thinking of getting in touch with VGMaps for some time. Actually I think one guy took one or two maps from me, I'll explain later.

[TerraEsperZ]

Wow, that is gorgeous ! And of course, with programming it gives a much better understanding of the vertical relations between rooms with holes in them.

I... can't realistically compete with that. And everything's perfectly aligned (or at least as perfectly as the game allows) since you didn't place the rooms so all the doors are aligned vertically since they aren't meant to be.

Are you planning on submitting graphic files of this to VGMaps? If you're not, I might try and finish my maps once I'm done with my current project, but there's no way they'll be able to compete with yours.

[sanjuro]

No, I don't think I will submit any files for Solstice. It's better if my map stays on my site as it is and if you complete your separate maps for VGM, they look great. That way, people on the web can see two different isometric versions: one big map with floor alignment, and area maps with door alignment.

I had started like you, by putting door thresholds on the same level, initially that seemed the most logical thing to do. But after a while, it didn't feel right, so I started anew by focusing on a single plane. With this new direction I gained space and some rooms connected better.

There might be some advantages with doorways alignment though, maybe the Caves of Doomed Souls will connect better vertically with the Gardens of Pain and the Stonehedge Garden; that's obviously the flaw in my map: there are huge gaps there, while in the game you just transition from one room to another. It's because, as you probably know, the game makes no sense vertically, you can fall 4 rooms underground and come out to the surface just by climbing one.

[DarkWolf]

Interestingly enough I've been playing around with the idea of using Javascript to control "layers" for some Phantasy Star II maps.  Cool to see someone else thinking along those lines.

[TerraEsperZ]

Referencing this post in your Duck Tales map thread, I already feel I have to justify one thing I had planned for my maps which might resemble something in yours.

I had no clear idea on how to make one single map of the whole game without having higher rooms obscuring other rooms under or behind them. At least being able to see a lower room through the holes in the floors is such a good idea that I feel stupid for not thinking about it, but I'm not going to imitate it. I'm still not sure how I'll handle the separations between the levels and/or the areas but I had planned on at least making a custom mini-map in the corner where the main area would look like in the game but with the lower levels aligned under them in darker colours. It's a bit like yours but only for the mini-map to get a general sense of where you're located in the overworld.

Aside from that, you mind helping me by confirming how to separate and label the various areas? Going by the manual, here are all the ones mentioned and where I would put them:

-Fortress of Kâstleröck (thanks for the spelling): I'm considering the actual castle and its three towers to be this;

-Caves of the Doomed Souls: The whole underground area under the castle;

-Gardens of Pain & Blood Gardens: Those two outside areas are located to the west, but I'm having a hard time separating the two;

-Mines of Insanity: I'm guessing they are the mines next to both gardens since the small mine area to the east doesn't exactly inspires insanity;

-Slaughter Yards: Northern outside area;

-Tower of Tears: The tower at the end of the Slaughter Yards;

-Stonehedge Gardens: The western outside area which, appropriately, has standing stones bordering it;

-Tower of Ultimate Terror: The last tower including the final room

Is that about right?

[sanjuro]

@DarkWolf Yeah, it was fun to use Javascript to make a more dynamic map. However, it's not something I'd be willing to do every time ! Too complicated.

@TerraEsperZ I'm not sure seeing the room below is such a good idea actually (unless you can isolate each room like I did) because you can't tell which block belongs to where. So you're probably right not to do it anyway. A mini-map is a good idea !
Haha, I made one, too, on the page preceding my main map, maybe I should have posted that before: http://www.1up-games.com/nes/solstice/plan.html

As you can see, I agree with your naming scheme for the most part, safe for a few locations:

- I assume "Fortress of Kâstleröck" is the whole area; a fortress being "a fortified place, especially a large, permanent military stronghold that often includes a town" that would make sense if it encompassed everything. The central part is the castle of Kâstleröck, with the 4 towers, or as it is put in the manual: "the four deadly towers of the main castle".

- I don't know either how it's possible to distinguish the Gardens of Pain from the Blood Gardens. Perhaps the Blood Gardens just comprise the rooms with the snake gates, on the westernmost point. Or then the Gardens of Pain are just made of the green rooms with the tree walls.

- I'm pretty sure the small area in the east is the Mines of Insanity. The description in the manual follows a direction, it goes from West to East; that would be strange if suddenly the writer came back to the West just to talk about the mines. Also, just a guess, but I think the insanity is about the enemies' patterns rather than what the player has to go through. And this is the only place where you meet those weird "Big Foot" enemies.

-Stonehedge Gardens: The western outside area which, appropriately, has standing stones bordering it;

You meant eastern, right? or else you lost me.

Now that I think of it, I wonder if the Slaughter Yards could also include the gardens after the mines.

[JonLeung]

Hey, I was randomly thinking about Solstice.  Whatever happened (or is happening) with these maps?

[TerraEsperZ]

Hey, I was randomly thinking about Solstice.  Whatever happened (or is happening) with these maps?

...Do you really have to ask :S ? Some issue came up that annoyed enough to take a break (in this case, separating and naming the game's areas but also that my maps weren't that necessary since someone else did a full set already), then some other game caught my attention and I started mapping something else (Final Fantasy Legend back then, and a few more by now). I know how much that sucks, but at least I've decided to only go back to previous projects instead of starting new ones (let's see how long *that* lasts). I might come back to this project, but the way things are going, don't expect anything this year, sorry.

[TerraEsperZ]

Well, time to abandon this project since Guillaume Saint-Amant just submitted his own map. I'm far from sad though considering he achieved with his map everything I hoped to do with mine, only even more so. Kudos to you my friend!

[Peardian]

Now that is a beautiful map!

This makes me want to play the game now.

[JonLeung]

I've certainly heard and seen lots about this game, but I've never seriously played it.  I don't know if the complete map entices me to do so, or intimidates me from doing so.  It looks so...intricate.  And difficult.

But then again I guess a lot of NES games were pretty tough.  Looking back, I wonder how I finished some games.  Like for example, I have trouble finishing the two NES Zelda games these days...maybe modern games are indeed easier and I've gotten soft...

We should also get some Equinox maps here, too...