A series of "How did you do that?" questions (Possible Spoilers)

[DragonXVI]

EDIT #1: Added a new question

Currently my modding tests consists of singing songs at floating Naija heads and getting them to follow you about. Soons as I get my art trousers on I can try my hand at custome graphics. However, there are various things I've encountered playing Aquaria and thought I'd ask about the best ways scrpiting them.  Granted I haven't dived into *all* the Commands yet as they're still being documented, but I thought up a few specific examples and I was curious of their implementation

The Caped Crusader
Naija's Cape - Is it built in or is it using something similar to entity_initHair (Which I've yet to get to work...). A little example of how to get something trailing like this would be quite handy for what I have in mind in the long run, particularly if you can specifiy a) What graphic to use and b) what bone to attach it to

Forms
While I could jimmy-rig this using the character replacement technique (Which would result in that odd flip transition thing) and various state changing, I'm wondering if there isn't a reccommended system in place (Or failing that, how does Naija go about it).  IN a similar manner as Costume changes the graphic for Naija changes but her skeleton remains intact.  What would be the easiest/best way to go about doing this? Creating new forms is surely something a lot of people would find interesting (Shadow Form, Speed Form, Cake Form, Anglerfish Form, Flight Form etc)

Veil Bubbles & Waterfalls - Answered!
One of the coolest (And most sadistic) areas I found was Turtle Cave and its Waterfall/Bubble jumping airborne fun.  Are these shapes classed as Entities or Tiles? If the latter, is there a flag to set them as a swimmable surface? Failing that, and they're entities, how are they scripted? I'd be lying if I didn't say I wanted to include a fair bit of Veil-Surfing action in potential mods

Water Level Changing - Answered!
Seen frequently in the Sun Temple, haven't messed around much with the water level setting but I'm guessing there's a way to trigger a change in water level over time? You could do all sorts of crazy nonesense (The Boss that raises and lowers the water level, Draining an entire lake, Flood-Gates/Reservoirs etc) so I was curious about this one too

Everyone Loves Slow Motion - Answered!
The first time you dive out of the water in the Veil, you're treated to a (Rather Nifty) bit of Slow-Motion Monologue goodness.  You also get this when near death.  Any tips on the command for this one? A Song with the ability to slow time has obvious advantages

Custom Recipes & Ingredients
Worth asking about. Partially because It could be viable to create some kind of basic Crafting objective for a mod (IE Find 3 rare ingredients to eat something that makes you immune to a particular kind of boss/enemy, allowing you to pass by safely)

That's all I can think of for now Not essentially they're all answered but any nods in the right direction would be handy

[Dolphin's Cry]

Re: Veil Bubbles & Waterfalls
Create a node with the name WATERBUBBLE. Use the Y key on a node to make it circular. Don't forget to put in an appropriate tile (sun-bubble) to make the bubble visible. I haven't tried to make a waterfall yet, but I guess it's just another tile, and you may want to add an overlapping CURRENT node.

Re: Water Level Changing
There is a Lua function called setWaterLevel(), described under Map Functions.

Re: Everyone Loves Slow Motion
See the setGameSpeed() function.

[Lambchops]

Water Level Changing
Seen frequently in the Sun Temple, haven't messed around much with the water level setting but I'm guessing there's a way to trigger a change in water level over time? You could do all sorts of crazy nonesense (The Boss that raises and lowers the water level, Draining an entire lake, Flood-Gates/Reservoirs etc) so I was curious about this one too

I sense a level of Ocarina of Time Water Temple frustration levels! I would love it.

Everyone Loves Slow Motion

Hell yeah.

[DragonXVI]

Excellent, Cheer's Dolph!

Is there a list of the standard Node types anywhere? (Current, WaterBubble etc) T'would be handy, and didn't spot any on the Wiki.

I'll give waterfall/Bubble a test once I get home, also found some Avatar Functions I want to mess about with

[Don Andy]

There are like 4 in the tutorial mod. Two of them were "pe sparkle" and "pe bubble01"
The other two where for sitting and lying.

I'm pretty sure either Dolphin or Burton can give you the full list, though. :p

[Dolphin's Cry]

There is no list of special nodes on the wiki yet. The ones I know about are (of off the top of my head):

• CURRENT <strength> <alpha> -- creates a water current effect
• NAIJASTART -- sets the initial position of Naija in a level
• PE <effectName> -- spawns a particle effect on the node
• SAVEPOINT -- you guess it
• SETENT <entityName> <amount> -- short for "set entity", <amount> is optional, does nothing by itself, used by songbulb etc.
• SETING <ingredientName> <amount> -- short for "set ingredient", <amount> is optional, does nothing by itself, used by songbulb etc.
• SIT -- makes Naija sit when activated
• SLEEP -- makes Naija lie down and sleep when activated
• WARP <mapName> <?> -- warps Naija around, possible to another level, no idea what the second parameter does exactly
• WATERBUBBLE -- creates water bubble behaviour, no visible effect
• ZOOM <zoom> <transitionTime> -- overrides the zoom within the node

[silverkitty]

Maps
How do I make it so that double-clicking the minimap brings up a big map?
How do I make a "multi-part" big map?

[Alec]

Maps
How do I make it so that double-clicking the minimap brings up a big map?
How do I make a "multi-part" big map?

Can't yet, I'm going to add that in later.

[DragonXVI]

Figured out "Hair" too, so that opens the door for a replacement cloak (Although I'm still pondering Costumes/Skins and how they work)

What would be really handy is a way to override the Avatar skin without having it classed as a Costume, but I guess for the sake of small mods it won't be too big a deal

But yes, that brings me on to my next question: How do Skins/Costumes work: What does a typical file look like? I could create a graphic with *All* the animation copied in but I'd have thought there'd be a way that simply replaces the graphics of the bones, but keeps the animation

If not, I can probably figure something out...

[Danger Mouse]

Maps
How do I make it so that double-clicking the minimap brings up a big map?
How do I make a "multi-part" big map?

Can't yet, I'm going to add that in later.

Hope to see this in the next release. : ) I'm going to need it for my mod!

[silverflagon]

I don't know how to mod but I often read these threads and this post caught my eye and made me smile

Water Level Changing
Seen frequently in the Sun Temple, haven't messed around much with the water level setting but I'm guessing there's a way to trigger a change in water level over time? You could do all sorts of crazy nonesense (The Boss that raises and lowers the water level, Draining an entire lake, Flood-Gates/Reservoirs etc) so I was curious about this one too

I sense a level of Ocarina of Time Water Temple frustration levels! I would love it.

Everyone Loves Slow Motion

Hell yeah.

Now there is a word that I never expected to see here, do you know what an ocarina is? I got this question thrown at me once by someone who wanted to see me stuck for an answer for a change, and they were sorely disapointed lol
I will always say if I don't know so I don't know why some people think that I am a know it all, because for a start I can't do what you are doing

[Danger Mouse]

How did you Animate the Deep Jelly fish? It doesn't even look like bones and yet instead looks like an animation. I'm not talking about the tails, but the actual body of the jelly.

How did you Animate the Simon Says boss eyes colored eyes? I'm trying to get the best feel for the animation process before I start on my animations. I've got most of  my stuff setup as bones now, but I'm sure they would look a little stiff if that's the only method for animation, it almost looks like you used some other techniques to pull off these animations. What's your secret?

[silverflagon]

How did you Animate the Deep Jelly fish? It doesn't even look like bones and yet instead looks like an animation. I'm not talking about the tails, but the actual body of the jelly.

How did you Animate the Simon Says boss eyes colored eyes? I'm trying to get the best feel for the animation process before I start on my animations. I've got most of  my stuff setup as bones now, but I'm sure they would look a little stiff if that's the only method for animation, it almost looks like you used some other techniques to pull off these animations. What's your secret?

Look at the code that makes the weeds wave DM

[Danger Mouse]

That only works on tiles, not entities silverflagon.

[silverflagon]

That only works on tiles, not entities silverflagon.

Are you absolutly sure DM, only I swear that some entities move just like that?