36 replies to this topic

[Noxid]

Please use this thread to post your micro-tutorials. The OP will be used to index all tutorials sorted by category

A microtutorial is a short, concise explaination of how to acheive some common task in the world of Cave Story modding. They should be no more than one post, images should be used where clarification is needed. Think of a FAQ, and a microtutorial would answer a question.

will add more later

[Kanpachi]

I'd love to know how to keep the game the same but edit the text

[Shane]

Simply modify the files with a ".tsc" extension (if they haven't been opened with another file, or the "Hide extensions for known file types" box in Folder Options isn't checked, it's visible) using a script editor such as the one built in CaveEditor or the one in Sue's Workshop. Four .tsc files are in the "data" folder of Cave Story, and the ones for the maps are in the "Stage" folder. A list of commands should come with both CaveEditor and Sue's Workshop, but the latter I'm not certain about, and the former is in the script editor itself.

[Noxid]

This is kind of a place for people who actually know what they're doing to contribute useful things, not ask questions. There are more than enough topics to cover that we don't really need suggestions, if you need help go here and if you still can't figure anything out by yourself then give up use the quick answers thread

Edited by Noxid, 25 February 2012 - 08:44 PM.

[HaydenStudios]

Door tutorial. Feel free to use it in whole or in part in the tutorial built into Booster's Lab.

Spoiler

Doors are among the most fundamental of Cave Story modding operations. Creating your own door will be one of the first steps in learning to modify Cave Story. With that said, let's begin. Start by building your own map, and placing a door in your desired position.

After that, go to the entity's its flag properties. Be sure to tick flag number 2000 (PC presses down to run script). Next, give it an event number no lower than one hundred. Then, in your script, add an event corresponding to the number you assigned to your door; in this example, we'll set this door's event number to one hundred. The first thing to do is use either the <PRI or <KEY command, which will keep our hero from moving. Next, we want to use the <CNP0100:0000:0000 command. The first parameter corresponds to your door's event number, so make sure they match. This part animates the door to look like it's opening. You could use the <DNP command, but it's generally better yo use <CNP for doors. Next, put <SOU0011, which will make the opening door sound play. Then, make the room fade out in your desired direction. In this example, we'll make it fade out from the center. So we'll add <FAO0004. Finally, we need to add the command that makes you go to the next room. In this example, we'll use <TRA0012:0094:0037:0011. The twelve means it will send you to room number twelve, the ninety-four is the event that is ran upon arrival in the next room. And the thirty-seven and eleven are the respective X and Y values for where you are teleported in the next room.
So, in the end, your script for the door should look like this:

#0100
<PRI<CNP0100:0000:0000
<SOU0011<FAO0004
<TRA0012:0094:0037:0011

An extended bit added in by Noxid:

It's important to never forget to have an event on the map you need to go to. Pixel had a set of generic receiving events that he more or less copy-pasted across all his scripts, those being #0090-#0094. You can follow the same technique, or use seperate events for each door / situation - it is up to you. This receiving event would relate to our code above:

#0094 <FAIxxxx<CMUxxxx<END

It doesn't matter what the x's are, but the receiving event must have an <END or equivalent (<EVE, <TRA, etc.)

Edited by HaydenStudios, 01 April 2012 - 04:54 PM.

[ShinyElectricBlueTiger]

It's fine but he only thing that's missing is the event that runs on map 12.

#0094
<FAIxxxx<CMUxxxx<END

It doesn't really matter what there is but there has to be an <END to it.

Edited by ShinyElectricBlueTiger, 26 February 2012 - 01:07 PM.

[HaydenStudios]

Ah, yes. Maybe I'll add something to it about the event on the next room... That would be wise.

EDIT: Yeah, I realized this a while ago, but I took till now to make this edit. I see that Noxid implemented it. Thanks.

Edited by HaydenStudios, 01 April 2012 - 06:01 PM.

[Noxid]

This tutorial is for flags
maybe I'll format it into a post later

Attached Files

•  flags.htm   7.79K   29 downloads

Edited by Noxid, 29 February 2012 - 04:16 PM.

[Shane]

Thanks. Now I can finally use flags for something in my mod without worrying too much about forgetting about the flags.

[Lace]

This is something that has been known about and on the forums for a while, but somehow people are ALWAYS SURPRISED when they are informed of it. This is probably because the information in question is three pages deep on a thread which people mostly go for for the first link, so here is a consolidated and conveniently located version of it.

HOW TO GIVE EXTREMELY LARGE AND/OR NEGATIVE NUMBERS AS ARGUMENTS TO TSC COMMANDS:

Spoiler

Just use symbols that aren't letters. Like <AM+0002:00/0. CE will tell you you suck at TSC. You don't. Or you might, but it's not because of this.
Here's a table saying which ascii values correspond to which numbers (from -16 to 16. they go way higher, but meh):

(space)	-16	|	1	1
!	-15	|	2	2
"	-14	|	3	3
#	-13	|	4	4
$	-12	|	5	5
%	-11	|	6	6
&	-10	|	7	7
'	-9	|	8	8
(	-8	|	9	9
)	-7	|	:	10
*	-6	|	;	11
+	-5	|	<	12
,	-4	|	=	13
-	-3	|	>	14
.	-2	|	?	15
/	-1	|	@	16

The mechanism by which the real number is calculated is the same as always. Numbers that are in the ones place get multiplied by 1. Those in the tens place get multiplied by 10, etcetera.
A result of all ascii characters working as input is that there are multiple equivalent ways of stating each number. 0012 is 000<. 0000 is 00\: is 001&. Because of this, superfluous ascii can yield complete obfuscation. While you might think 000@ is prettier than 0016, I recommend that you just use standard decimal unless you have sufficient reason (you need a number larger than 9999 or smaller than 0 as an argument).

There are only two real uses for this I can think of. The first is decreasing max health or ammo without assembly hacking. Note, however, that the game was not engineered to do that, so there can be some buggy behavior (setting your health to zero is sorta wonky). The other use is changing bits of memory by using extremely oob flags (you modify data up to 10382 bytes ahead of the first flag and up to 2222 bytes before it. I don't recall what data this is off the top of my head, but it might be useful).

Here's an ascii table. Subtract 48 from the dec value of any ascii character to get what the game interprets it as.
Yeah

Edited by Lace, 29 February 2012 - 09:39 PM.