Post by darkfalzx in Castlevania AGA comments

Viewing post in Castlevania AGA comments

Fantastic work! It's definitely "getting there"!
Here are a few minor bugs and annoyances I noticed in the January 2025 build:

When jump and attack buttons are pressed simultaneously, the jump command is ignored. This makes the controls feel a bit unresponsive.
When landing with extended whip, the animation doesn't immediately switch to ground attack, leaving Simon "floating" for a few frames.
Stair access hotspots are too small and aren't always placed in natural locations, often requiring finagling.
Couldn't reliably use sub-weapon when running on FS-UAE emulator with CD32 pad selected. Would it be possible to add an option for UP+Attack sub-weapon use if UP-to-jump is disabled?
Title screen goes into attract mode very quickly even if directional inputs have been made, and attract mode goes straight into the game if a button is pressed.

Dante Retro Dev3 days ago (3 edits)

To answers your questions, it depends on what conditions are you playing. Is real hardware? If so, what spec? Is it on the FS-UAE build? That has notorious issues with two buttons pressed at same time, specially if you use keyboard Z and X.

The stair access hotspots are limited to a 16x16 tile, always the 1st tile and last tile of the ladder. They are like this in most Castlevanias, I never liked stairs handling in most title of the series (no wonder they dropped this on SotN, it's just a slope skinned as stairs there), so I added the ability to just jump on top of it and move ahead.

But it's a valid point, and I can make tests with portals. "Portals" is a feature that I started to use on CD32 and they are spots that are not limited to a 16x16 tile. It's a ton of work to swap all spots for portals and that will likely add further, unexpected issues. So, I have to ponder a lot about it!

Sub-weapons on FS-UAE/CD32 pad: why you couldn't reliably use sub-weapon, what happens? Is it a USB controller plugged on PC? You can edit all button bindings in the file Default.fs-uae located at Game dir\FS-UAE\Configurations

And you can always press and hold (like a charge in MegaMan). It's better than up + fire because you can fire while crouching. ;-) But the ideal and recommended way is to use 3 buttons (attack, jump, and sub-weapon).

Simon taking a few frames to switch back to stand after landing goes down here as low priority, like anything that's just aesthetics. Everything written above was higher on order of priority. Attract mode goes straight into game by design, no frills. Could be readjusted, but again, low priority on the list and likely for 1.1, not 1.0.

Thanks for the feedback and thanks for playing!

darkfalzx3 days ago

Playing on FS-UAE v3.1.68, using a DS4 controller set as a CD32 pad in the emulator. Don't remember having any controller issues with other Amiga or CD32 games, but I might be mistaken.

Maybe its more about stair hotspot positioning? Not sure how it is set now, but I feel like it should protrude more "in front" of the step.

Dante Retro Dev3 days ago (1 edit)

Edit: regarding your request (up + fire for subweapon), I did an experimental version that does that. Tested only with knife at beginning, but in theory it should work with all weapons. It's activated by default if up_for_jump isn't enabled. Download link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12BFGB7o4H1CjYthFyHLb4otyP5rXjij0/view?usp=shari...

Stairs tips and hints: what most people I see playing do (me inclusive) is to just keep pressing right and up at same time a couple of meters before stairs: Simon keeps walking towards the stairs and as soon as you're on the spot, he'll snap on the ladder and go upstairs. To get down, you don't do anything, it just goes downhill like if it's a 45-degree slope down. You can move right and left on a ladder, not just up and down (same as SNES Super CV).

Check picture below, I hope it shows the spot clearly: there's a hard limit regarding spot position (the grid is fixed, it is not flexible, grid size is fixed by the Amiga's blitter at 16x16 pixels in size and you have them at position 0, 16, 32 and so on). I'm afraid I can't do much more in that regard, I did my best.

But I'll check the DS4 controller issue on FS-UAE 3.1.68, and I at some point I may implement the up+fire for subs because it's been requested often. Thanks again!

itch.io

Viewing post in Castlevania AGA comments