egomassive's Knytt Stories Plus mod

Options -> Play Music doesn't work. Also, Ctrl+S shortcut doesn't work in full-screen, it only changes the menu item state without stopping sound.

Options -> Play Music doesn't work. Also, Ctrl+S shortcut doesn't work in full-screen, it only changes the menu item state without stopping sound.

Oops, I was relying on a global variable. I can't recall why I didn't share globals between the parent and child windows, but there was a reason. Anyhow, I've fixed that issue and discovered a related weakness with the rendering and mapping options which I also fixed.

I've decided to allow players to choose the render method for KS+ games. I tired the quick-death setup in KS Ex and I didn't like it myself, so I'm not inclined to add it. I'll have to think about it a bit longer. I blundered into a custom font error during testing. If you tell it to load a file that doesn't exist, it loads garbage and displays it! While adding error checks for that I made it accept both "Font" and "Sign" as viable pointers to a custom sign font. Now, I wont have to fix the Editor too.

Some of these changes were insanely complex, so I want to test them a bit more before making a release.

The delay value could be an ini option. I find it really important for Lunatic levels where original death animations may take half of playing time. There no Lunatic levels for KS+ now though.

The delay value could be an ini option. I find it really important for Lunatic levels where original death animations may take half of playing time. There no Lunatic levels for KS+ now though.

I was thinking of lunatic levels when I made the cheat-save save to the exact pixel. I suppose an optional quick death would be a good companion.

Apparently I'm having server maintenance, so for the time being here's a hot-link to...
edit: I present to you...

Knytt Stories Plus 1.1.1 4.4 MB

There are some bug fixes with the sound options, and tweaks to the behaviors of the other options. Double-pass rendering is now available for KS+ levels. An exciting new option is an alternative death sequence which is faster than the original. You can choose your preference in the options menu.

@GrayFace: This may not be as fast of a death recovery as you wanted, but I like a little separation between death and re-birth. Also, I couldn't pass up the nostalgia!

Also, I couldn't pass up the nostalgia!

I like it! I hope a small dissolve animation is planned too. It could easily work with custom sprites if designed as a grey box that fills in over the top of the sprite.

Regarding these three preference settings in the options menu, I wonder how you feel about letting level designers specify states for them, which would grey out the option and prevent the user from altering it (I see this kind of happens already with the map, maybe there's a trigger for rendering too that I'm unaware of).

While I don't like the idea of restricting the player needlessly, I could see each of these potentially breaking certain (future) levels. To give some idea, Don't Stop Running requires double pass rendering for music synchronisation, while I imagine enabling it for plural's current efforts would expose the dreaded tick. There are also a few levels which specifically allude to the default death animation, or reveal signs only upon dying, which the alternate death animation prevents from appearing.

@ Sergio: It's an age old debate, designer's intention -vs- user's preference. I hope that people realize using these options will change their experience. I originally made single-pass rendering compulsory for KS+ levels, so that designers could know their levels were being experienced as intended. But, in the same way that single-pass rendering can enhance the experience of old levels, double-pass rendering can enhance the experience of some new ones.

Maybe I should approach these features a little differently. Right now rendering method and death sequence are set for all levels. I'm thinking I should start with standard behaviors based on format. Then, allow designers to set their preference for their levels. Finally, allow players to adjust the settings on a per-game-save basis. That's basically how map-forcing works already.

I'd forgotten about the fade out. I wasn't trying to emulate any specific game perfectly; Nifflas uses that sound in several games. It could probably use a little something more. Maybe I could use the tint to emulate the red flash from Saira.

I'd like to add in a vote to allowing the level creator to prohibit the alternative death.  I'm currently working on a level that uses the dynamic music trick I used in "This Level Plays Itself!"  Whenever the player dies with the normal death animation, that white screen makes it so the player can, unfortunately, hear both ambiance tracks, but with the alternative death animation, the time where both tracks are audible is considerably longer, which I'm really not a big fan of.

Speaking of the alternate death, it turns out there's another way it doesn't play nicely with the level I'm making.  There seems to be a bug where, if the player shifts themselves into a killblock, that entire screen will turn gray and the player will fall into the screen below it (if there is one at all).

To better illustrate my point, I have an image:

@Ultigonio: This is a problem because you're using Mute-Ambiance and Area-Ambiance objects, right? If I maintain the current volume levels during any death sequence that should fix the problem for you. Also, how does the death sound playing into the new life affect you?

This other bug is definitely a problem. The Shift must be reactivating the movement engine post-death. It has delays built in, so it can work after the player has shifted to a new screen. Nice catch. *gives star*

@Ultigonio: This is a problem because you're using Mute-Ambiance and Area-Ambiance objects, right? If I maintain the current volume levels during any death sequence that should fix the problem for you. Also, how does the death sound playing into the new life affect you?

For now, it's just the Mute-Ambiance object, but yes, that's correct.  And that fix would be fantastic, thank you!
As far as I'm aware, the death sound playing into a new life doesn't cause any sort of issues, so, provided I understand your question, I'll say "not at all."

To address some of Ultigonio and Sergio's concerns I've put together this preview of the next release. (I should be more careful not to make buggy official releases in the future.) If anyone would like to test it out and give me feedback, it would be appreciated. This version changes the way options are saved and implemented. It also fixes the bug Ultigonio found, and prevents ambiance volumes from changing during death sequences. It does not feature any visual changes to the alternate death sequence.

Special new instructions for the World.ini:
[World]
SinglePass=False
AltDie=True

Starting a new game should always start players with the default settings for the level's format. Original KS levels should use double-pass rendering, have the map off but available, and use the standard death sequence. KS+ levels should use single-pass rendering, have the map on and not alterable in the menu, and use the standard death sequence. Designers of KS+ levels can change how these options are set when starting a new game. Then, players can potentially break levels by changing them.

Alright, so I gave the preview a shot.

Good news:

• I'm not briefly hearing the other ambiance track after I die.
  
• No more falling through screens!

Bad news:

• Until the first time I die, the ambiance seems to be... a tad buggy.  I started the level up, the music* played much more quietly than it should.  When I went to the screen where the other ambiance is on (and the ambiance that I started the level with is muted), the music* cut out entirely.  After dying once, though, everything is normal and good and fine, as far as I can tell.
  

*ambiance, technically.

EDIT:  Oh, I also noticed that, in that same state where the music* is at half-volume, it seems that the ambiance won't fade out when I fall into an abyss.  Weird.

The way you did it is almost right, but levels that don't specify AltDie setting should start with user's default setting. Not sure about SinglePass, perhaps it should also behave like that.

I am having a major issue with The Level Editor Plus, any help at all would be great.

I'm making a level, and all has gone well, until today. When I opened my level (in Level Editor Plus of course) I noticed some options were missing (see attached pic, especially the red square). It seems that my options for "Trigger" and "Misc" have vanished. Also, my custom character option is gone. All of those options were present until today, when I opened my map I noticed they were just....gone. I don't think that I did anything that might've changed any settings, and I have no idea how this happened. This has been a KS+ map from the very beginning, I have had no problems until just now when these features seemingly vanished into thin air.

I will have to totally scrap this map unless something can be done. Help! Is this a bug or did I accidentally press the wrong button? I can find no solution.

You must have poked the 'Original KS' option when loading your level, instead of 'KS+'.

I loaded a level with the original KS option and it showed those tabs missing just like in your picture.