Seasons Hacking... And Important News

[Lin]

Well, in my undergoing project with adding Seasons compatibility to ZOLE 4 I guess most of the maps have area changes and only some maps are different. This means more assembly is required to add customization. But truthfully, Ages is much better for hacking.

Soooo I've come to a decision. ZOLE 4 is being dropped. I might fix some bugs in it like the newly discovered side room warps not working, but ZOLE 4 1.09 will never come, and neither will Seasons compatibility. But instead, I've decided to start something... fresh. Instead of ZOLE just editing raw values, I want to make it so everything is easy... Instead of having to know that the unknown is to be 93 in a warp and the entrance type is 4 to make a dungeon-style entrance, I want it to be so you click "Add Warp -> Big room entrance" and decide where it goes and be visual.

The only problem with this is people like Jigglysaint might know of something else that ZOLE doesn't do, because it would be all automatic and that'd be pretty inconvenient. But, a count seems more people would like this instead of instead of typing everything in from experience.

I don't know when I'll start this project, but I'm going to keep the forums and everything posted in them. One of the main reasons I've decided this is I made ZOLE as I learned, and in result it became buggy and not coded the best way. So, whatever the next tool is for Oracles hacking, it will surely be better.

~Lin

[Jigglysaint]

What exactly is the problem with Seasons?  If you mean that on the overworld, between seaons there are some screens that change and others don't, I'm sure there is a way to create an editor that fits within that limitation.  It's true that you won't get the same amount of customization that you can in Ages, but as long as people understand that limitation, there's no reason why they can't at least try.

I suggest then that along with showing the current map number, you also show the map pointer and the bank number so that people can be aware that certain screens are located in certain banks.  It would also be easier to actually change what screens come from what map.  In the end the game will always require lots of supplementry hacking, but as tempting as it is to create somthing user friendly, this game does have a big learning curve that I am always able to help people with.

I do though support making the Ages edtor alot easier to use.  Anyway, if you can think of anything to help with Seasons compatibility, I am always on hand to find data or suggest things.  Remember that I started hacking with Seasons.

[Klavice]

ZOLE4 was a nice tool, but there was a lot that required knowledge of a hex editor and ASM.

Maybe you could try for a tool similar to Fusoya's Lunar Magic?