JCS levelbuilding tricks

[Fawriel]

A thread to post all the great tricks you know to use in JCS in.
I don't know many myself, but if many experts decide to post, this could turn into a great collection of useful tips!

I'll try to think of some that I know myself..

<b>Custom enemies</b>
You can create custom enemies by using animations and hurt sceneries, however, this only works in a tileset that supports something like that. By making your own tileset, you have many new possibilities using this idea.
For example, a walking enemy walking three tiles could be made by using animations as follows:
( 0 = empty tile, 1 = enemy animation )
10000
01000
00100
00010
00001
00010
00100... etc.

This can also be used for guns shooting bullets, things like meteors, moving spikes, etc.

<b>SFX</b>
You can create a temporary rumbling sound by placing several rocks behind 3rd layer tiles in a closed space and placing an activate rock scenery close to them. The rocks will go crashing against each other for a while, then stop.

[LittleFreak]

I didn't know the second trick, not bad at all. The first is well known, but cool!

I'm not really a JCS master, but I'll post here anyway.

The Beeboy event is a swarm of bees which wasn't used in any official level, and which can be very annoying when used in the right environment.

I know, that's not really a great trick, but I'm too lazy to think of something better. :-P

[cooba]

that's not really a great trickThat isn't even a trick.

Better SFX
Place one rock in closed space; put strong wind events nearby the walls. It will rumble and shouldn't stop.

[White Rabbit]

I know both of them, Fawriel, I played SCE where they were both used. :p
Don't forget to use beeboys as hurt events on roof spikes! ;)

Also, swinging vines make you go through walls and so do floating cheshire cats (the ones with the tail you can climb on to).

[cooba]

Don't forget to use beeboys as hurt events on roof spikes! ;)Not "Beeboy"s, but "Bees".

Also, swinging vines make you go through walls and so do floating cheshire catsCan you stop posting false information?

[White Rabbit]

Floating cheshire cats do make you go through walls. Look at some lvls in FSP: Rent Collection. When you get climb on to the tail and the cheshire cat floats up, you will, if there's a wall above you, fly into the wall and eventually out again (provided the cat doesn't disappear before you're out).

[LittleFreak]

I now it's not really a trick, but I couldn't come up with something better. >_<

You can control the Rocket Turtle with Area IDs. Don't exactly know how though.

If you are a frog and meet a witch, she floats away laughing, which can make a cool effect (see Disguise' single player pack).

In SP, you can disable the player from shooting with Bomb Sceneries.

[cooba]

In SP, you can disable the player from shooting with Bomb Sceneries.Or placing Generator event somewhere. That prevents anything from shooting though.

[LittleFreak]

Or placing Generator event somewhere. That prevents anything from shooting though.

Since when? That's new to me. Are you sure that works? I mean, if I put regenerating froots in a level I can still shoot.

I probably misunderstood you though. ;-D

[cooba]

fruits* level,* thought* ;D*

^{If you look in your JCS.ini, you’ll see that Event 216 is something called “Generator”. It has two parameters, Event and Delay. Generator is not a normal event, as it will not appear in the main list no matter how you edit JCS.ini, but a generator event is created every time you ask JCS to make a respawning object. A little thing in the top left corner of the event name appears to indicate that you have placed a generator event, and then it uses the name of the object you want to generate. There is no real explanation for how this works other than that JCS is just built to give special attention to Event 216.
The reason for this is that when you want a generating event, JJ2 does not just take a normal event and say “Hey, if you’re destroyed, reappear”. Instead, it makes the special generator event and gives it two parameters – which object should be generated, and how long the delay is. No more, no less. A few generatable objects manage to sneak in other parameters somehow – Trigger Crate is always TriggerID 31 when generating, and Spike Bolls use the Delay value for all of their parameters – but for the most part, you are unable to set anything for the generating object. A shame, but that’s the way things work, and you don’t seem to be able to change that by adding more parameters to Generator in JCS.ini.
(If you want to look at a generator event not actively involved in the process of creating something, create a normal generating event and change the EventID to 216. The non-generating generator has some fun features like temporarily disabling JJ2’s ability to create new objects, which can be fun when you’re fighting Bilsy and he’s unable to actually create any fireballs.)}

There.

[LittleFreak]

Huh? Cool! I didn't knew that. 8D

[Violet CLM]

Floating cheshire cats do make you go through walls. Look at some lvls in FSP: Rent Collection. When you get climb on to the tail and the cheshire cat floats up, you will, if there's a wall above you, fly into the wall and eventually out again (provided the cat doesn't disappear before you're out).
No, that's the One Way event. Either that or you were using nowalls.