Topic: Mega Man IV (GB)

[TerraEsperZ]

As promised in the Mega Man Maps thread, here are all the finished maps for Mega Man IV (GB).



Bright Man:





Pharaoh Man:





Ring Man:





Toad Man:





Wily's Fortress Stage 1:





Charge Man:





Crystal Man:





Napalm Man:





Stone Man:





Wily's Fortress Stage 2:





Wily's Spaceship Stage 1:





Wily's Spaceship Stage 2:





Wily's Spaceship Stage 3:





The only thing to note is that Wily's robot in the last stage doesn't fully appear all at once as on this map; rather, you see the full body in a cutscene and when you get back to the game, you only see its chest and whenever they come on screen, its fists. I thought it would look better to enlarge the area to show the whole robot body along with both fists. A case of Aesthetism > Accuracy.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



Current projects: Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Sonic CD (Sega CD)

[Rew]

Wow, those look great, Terra! An excellent addition to the GB Mega Man map collection. Can't wait to see MMV!

[marioman]

Congrats Terra.  Can't wait to see the rest of your Mega Man maps finished.

[Ryan Ferneau]

Where are all the enemies?

[TerraEsperZ]

I don't include enemies on my maps unless they are integral to the gameplay (like the finite number of guards in the Prince Of Persia games) or they have precise starting positions because I hate having to guess where any specific enemy is located. Most of the time I only include enemies that I would consider obstacles rather than active enemies (like sub-bosses that block your way in Mega Man games) because in my mind, an obstacle is more integral to a stage while a moving enemy simply inhabits it. In any case, it's more a justification to not put in the more difficult-to-track enemies.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



Current projects: Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)

[Ryan Ferneau]

Oh, okay.  It's just my philosophy that all enemies deserve to be included to give you the full picture of what you're up against, unless they're randomly generated.  And even then, if it's something like The Legend of Zelda where the enemies are in random places but there's a certain number or a certain kind in each area, then I think that should be indicated somewhere.



And in classic MegaRockMan, the enemies don't even exist until the edge of one appears onscreen, so it should be easy enough to find their starting positions.

[TerraEsperZ]

Let's just leave it at "our philosophies differ"



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



Current projects: Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)

[Ryan Ferneau]

I just had another thought: Since this game includes the Flash Stopper, you could use that just before encountering the enemies to catch them at their exact starting positions, or catch them in a more interesting frame of animation.  ...if you decided you wanted to add the enemies...

[TerraEsperZ]

I don't. Really. I understand your feeling on this, but I gave up long ago on including enemies in any of my maps because my need for perfection compels me to put them in their exact starting position (down to the pixel) which is often hard to determine because they usually start moving a bit before they appear on the screen. Imagine how long it would take if I waste 15 minutes for every enemy in an entire game!



It's hard enough when I include moving platforms and dynamic objects for the same reasons; their only advantage is that they usually move in a set pattern so it's easier to determine a standard for where to put them on a map (like the highest position for a vertical moving platform).



Also, I want my maps to look *good*, even if it means leaving normal enemies out if they clutter the map too much. And in some maps like for Battletoads (NES) which I'll resume working on someday, there are just to many enemies. While the screen stands still, you'll be attack by 3 or 4 enemies appearing on the borders of the screen, then while it scrolls slowly, more enemies appear on the border, but when placed on a map, you end up with 4 or 5 enemies right next to one another, which looks stupid and ends up hiding the stage itself.



And in the end, it comes down to not wanting to bother with the trouble really. I once wanted to include all the enemies all the time, but it took me twice or trice as long to finish some maps, and considering that some of them took me several weeks already without the enemies, you'll understand that it's a compromise I've made with myself so that I would accomplish more (and since I already start a lot of stuff and never finish 90% of them, you can see why any tiny amount helps).



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Current projects: Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Bucky O'Hare (NES)

[Maxim]

I try to compromise by saying that the enemy is best placed in the first place you ever see it, so you just screengrab the instant it appears (probably cut off) and fix the sprites up to be the same frame later on. But it's certainly more work.

[TerraEsperZ]

Well Ryan, if you're reading this, you might, *might*, just get your wish after all. At least, you might one of these days.



In short, I've started mapping all the NES Mega Man games (and eventually the GB ones too), for my personal fun. I just like the sprite art too much, otherwise I'd never waste time mapping games without having any intention of submitting the resulting maps to the site. I've made it a challenge (thanks to you) to try and make additional versions which include all the enemies in their most probable starting position, sometimes adjusted to the nearest horizontal 8 pixels multiple (to fit with the stage tiles better). The only ones I'm not including so far are those that appear from outside the screen (like Bombombs in Bomb Man's stage), unless they then quickly settle to a set position (Prop-Tops in Mega Man II). Eventually, I'll get to Mega Man IV and V on Game Boy; might take a while, but when I do I'll submit separate maps with the enemies included, provided JonLeung accepts them. At any rate, they'll definitely be posted in their own threads.



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Current projects: Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Bucky O'Hare (NES)

[Revned]

Funnily enough, I started remapping Mega Man III, mostly to add in the missing border pixels, but also for fun. They're looking a lot cleaner than my originals.

[Maxim]

I ought to publish my magical automatic border pixel fixing tool.



TerraEsperZ: don't you think you have enough large mapping projects to be working on?

[TerraEsperZ]

Yeah, but I also map whatever I fancy and the large number of projects I have going on are a reflection of that. I can't "force" myself to work on something until completion, I need to have fun doing it, and right now this is fun! Heck, I'll probably drop this too soon, but I wanted Ryan to know there was at least a possibility of getting what he wants.



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Current projects: Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Bucky O'Hare (NES)