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« on: May 19, 2014, 01:15:44 AM »
I know that MM8BDM v4 was just released, and no one wants to detract from the general excitement. I chose this moment because now, all of CutStuff's most experienced devs are unoccupied (Aside from looking into bugs), and may thus consider this more thoroughly.
For the most part, the Rockman No Constancy Expansion Pack was enjoyed. When it came out, it was the thing to be hosted; it seemed like every server had it installed. But when mods like VSH came back to the top, they never became compatible with the expansion pack; and thus, it faded into obscurity, and shortly after, unplayability (With updates).
RNC will need an update and a once-over just for compatibility purposes; and, I know of no one that would object to having any more content, let alone the content of the RNC Expansion Pack, in the core. And it is for this reason—that more people may be able to enjoy it—that I propose that the content of the RNC Expansion Pack may be amalgamated into the core MM8BDM game.
It comes to my attention that some people may not want any fanmade content alongside the core, which is, apparently, supposed to only feature content from official Mega Man games. They may not want any RNC weapons in their core maps to damper their "official game" experience. I once recall CutManMike saying that once the official games, he would look into adding core content for fangames, ROM hacks, et cetara; but beyond that, who said they had to put any RNC content in the core maps? By all means, leave the RNC weapons out of the core maps; they don't belong in there anyway. Some server RCON dedicated to adding its weapons in/taking them out of LMS's weapon rotation would be ideal, but if not, I would be satisfied to leave them out entirely (For, undoubtedly, someone would make a mod for it). Beyond skins and bots (Which no one cares much about anyway), adding RNC's content into the core does not have to have any sort of notable impact.
But how are we supposed to incorporate the RNC campaign into the main one?
Like the weapons in the core maps, you don't. My proposition is thus: create a new branch of the Light Laboratory map, which can lead to Rockman No Constancy's campaign (And, presumably, the campaign of other fanmade expansions at a later date). Its structure would likely be changed to the "save after every level" method that MM8BDM has used since v3, for constancy *Shot* with the rest of the game, if nothing else. It could be managed by some friendly side character; perhaps Mega Man himself, or Fan or Kalinka (Mega Man being replaced with one of the other options when he gets grievously injured by King in the MM&B campaign). They would explain that the new campaigns are new circuits for the Robot Master Tournament, which would allow them to stay topically relevant while still remaining unobtrusive to the plot as it currently stands (The Robot Mater Tourney having not been a plot point since all the way back in v1).
What about the MMPU Expansion Pack? Why do they get left out in the cold?
Unfortunately, MMPU Expansion Pack became little more than a glorified Remix Map Pack when Time-Man and Oil-Man were added to the core. While the MMPU content wasn't bad in any respect, it rings of redundancy, and it's not fully 8-bit besides (The music from MMPU would have to be chiptuned first). While its campaign and maps were enjoyable, I am, in truth, unsure with how to proceed adding its content to the core.
The only objection I could think to raise against this proposal is that the content of the Rockman No Constancy Expansion Pack is too low-quality (Though I don't see how it could be; many of the A-list mappers that have been called upon to help official Expansion Packs had a hand in RNC) and would need reconstruction to the point of distracting the team from working on bug fixes and balance tweaks. With that in mind, I think the only question left for me to ask is who agrees with me, as one thing I failed to do in preparation for this post is poll the public.
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