Mario's "Balanced" Stage Pack v2.0 (for Project M 3.5)

[TheMarioaddict]

(Someone on Reddit said I should post this here, so...)

HEY, YOU!

Yeah, you there, with the face!

I'm Marioaddict, here to fill the hole in your competitive heart!

A short time ago, I posted the most AMAZING PROJECT M BUILD TO EVER GRACE THE FACE OF THE EARTH.*

*may not actually be all that amazing

However, a mere FOUR DAYS LATER, what happened?

THIS HAPPENED.

And it was GLORIOUS. But it caused a dilemma: people had to choose between playing a game with TONS OF AMAZING STAGES or playing the MOST updated version of THE SAME GAME.

Well friends, no more is this a problem! Introducing MARIO'S “BALANCED” STAGE PACK - 2.0!!!!

"But Mario!" I hear you ask. "What's different about THIS version?" Well, I'm glad you asked, loyal players! Here’s the amazing things you can expect to find in this stage pack:

• INTENSE 3.5 ACTION! This build has been updated to work with Project M 3.5!
• TONS OF STAGES! Every stage from Smash 64, Melee and Brawl has been included! (…Except Pokefloats and Mute City. Sorry.)
• REBALANCED STAGES! All the stages no one wanted to play on, remade for competitive play!
• BRAND NEW STAGES! The finest selection of fan-made stages, straight from the BrawlVault!
• NEW MUSIC TRACKS! Several stages have been given new tracks to replace songs that were relocated to other stages, in addition to the new songs added for the new stages! Here's the full list!

A full stage list can be seen in this conveniently placed imgur album!

Everything you loved from the previous version is still there! Rebalanced stages, epic music, and that Project M gameplay you all know and love! How can you beat that?

And no, since some people have been asking, the characters have NOT been changed in any way, shape, or form.

Now, before I give you a download link, let me give you an IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This is NOT an add-on. This is a separate Project M Build. I know that the PMDT included a convenient add-on feature so that you can just pop in little modifications without having to rewrite your entire SD card... but I'm not an intelligent man, so I don't know how to do that. And, as a result, this build has been made via the old tried-and-true method of modifying the **** out of the base Project M game.

So there you have it! A new-and-improved build for Project M! What's not to love? If you'd like to get the earlier version of the build, you can order here!

But let's be honest, folks: who wants an old version when they can have a NEW one? So what are you waiting for?!? Go, and continue to fulfill the desire your competitive nature demands! Get Mario's "Balanced" Stage Pack 2.0 today!

Here's how to order!

~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, so there are a few things I should note about this version of the build. Firstly, some of the stages have issues that I don't know how to correct (for instance, Brinstar has a REALLY low ceiling, Icicle mountain has really close side blast zones, Mercy Hospital has spawn issues with more than 2 players, and there's a bizarre flash of light occasionally on New Pork City). Additionally, there are two stages I could not find in any capacity on the internet: Mute City and PokeFloats. For now, selecting those stages just takes you to the Training Room.

Also, the reason this is a "balanced" build instead of a Balanced build is because some stages, despite not being balanced, have been left in their original incarnations (for instance, Flat Zone). This is because I could not find a rebalanced version of the stage. Additionally, some stages have different layouts, but since I don't actually know a whole lot about competitive play, I don't know if those new layouts are balanced.

Please though, help me out! If you want to leave feedback on things I should change, then please do! If you find a bug I didn't know about, let me know! If you know where to find one of the two missing stages, that would help as well! If you know how to edit blast zones, I'd love to hear! And if you'd like to go the extra mile and actually re-balance a stage in the build yourself, I'd love you forever!

Lastly, for anyone who doesn't know how, here's how to install my build:

• Step 1: Download the zip file I've provided.
• Step 2: Extract the zip file's contents. Inside will be a text file and a folder called "Mario's Balanced Project M Pack".
• Step 3: Open the folder. Inside will be the typical project m stuff - 3 folders, boot.elf, that kind of stuff.
• Step 4: Insert SD card into your computer.
• Step 5: Delete everything on the SD card.
• Step 6: Copy the contents of the "Mario's Balanced Project M Pack" to your SD card.

(also, credit to this guy for making the stage expansion template)

 

[Willsaber]

Awesome. I'm gonna HAVE to try this out!

 

[igglybiblyjiblet]

What has been done to make flatzone, pictochat, and venom more competetive?

 

[KingDozie]

Can you please make a wifi version of this, it seems prettty cool and i would like to try it out?

 

[Narpas_sword]

have the levels been made Stamina compatible? (ie have a celing collision underneath the stage so wrapping from top blastzone doesnt get you stuck?

Can you please make a wifi version of this, it seems prettty cool and i would like to try it out?

I'm not sure if you quite understand what a 'wifi' version entails...

 

[TheMarioaddict]

What has been done to make flatzone, pictochat, and venom more competetive?

Unfortunately, not much. I didn't make the stages, I just found them online, and as such have very little control over how much some stages have changed. Amongst the three you mentioned:

I think that Flatzone has the wrenches removed, but I'm not sure (I haven't played on it enough to find out).
Pictochat is the same as Project M's, which to my understanding has already removed a lot of unbalanced transformations.
Venom... that one's unchanged. Sorry.

have the levels been made Stamina compatible? (ie have a celing collision underneath the stage so wrapping from top blastzone doesnt get you stuck?

I'm not sure, but I don't think they have. Like I said, I'm limeted by what I've found online, and most of these stages were made before 3.5. However, most of the stages I added don't go all the way to the blast zones, so they should be fine, and any stage in Project M 3.5 is unchanged, meaning they should still have the collision changes.

Can you please make a wifi version of this, it seems prettty cool and i would like to try it out?

...wat?

 

[KingDozie]

A homebrew wifi pack, it lets you play online

 

[Cuban Legend]

awesome! Thanks for posting this here! I'm glad that the Project M customization community here can be exposed to your great build!

quick question, is random stage select working? I know that when you add a stage expansion it sometimes breaks random stage select because all the custom stages are added to the pool for selecting a "random" stage, and cannot be controlled. I believe this would be under the control of the stage expansion creator to implement this fix, if it's possible.

aside from that, I love the stage selection, it really gives my buddies a chance to pick some other stages besides the typical 3-4 we always play on, without worrying about unbalanced stages/hazards!

 

[Cuban Legend]

sorry for the double post, but I have a suggestion for this pack. Have you thought about how to organize the stages locations on the SSS in this pack? I noticed they were kinda all over the place and some were hard to find, so i have a suggestion to make things easier to find:

-leaving the original 3.5 stages on on page 1 and 2 in their original locations?
-use the extra rows on top of page 1 for all the rest of the balanced 64 and melee stages/remakes?
-use the extra rows on top of page 1 for all the rest of the balanced brawl remakes and new stages?

 

[TheMarioaddict]

sorry for the double post, but I have a suggestion for this pack. Have you thought about how to organize the stages locations on the SSS in this pack? I noticed they were kinda all over the place and some were hard to find, so i have a suggestion to make things easier to find:

-leaving the original 3.5 stages on on page 1 and 2 in their original locations?
-use the extra rows on top of page 1 for all the rest of the balanced 64 and melee stages/remakes?
-use the extra rows on top of page 1 for all the rest of the balanced brawl remakes and new stages?

Beleive it or not, they ARE actually somewhat organized. Here's how:

Upper left of page one is the N64 stages

Upper left of page two is the Project M & New stages

The right side of both pages are melee stages that were not in brawl

And the rest of it is the stages that were in brawl to begin with, with a few exceptions (Fountain of Dreams, Bowser's Castle, Dracula's Castle).

I have thought about organizing it better, it's just that I can't figure out how to move things from page one to page two on the SSS manager, and that puts a big restriction on what I can and can't do.

 

[Cuban Legend]

using the Latest Brawl Manager load up the SSS Editor in the root of the SD card containing your mod (backup the common5.pac and the RSBE01.gct before hand)
1. use tabs "Preview1" and "Preview2" to preview both SSS pages and choose 1 stage to move and 1 stage to swap locations with it.
2. Once youve chosen your 2 stages to swap (from page 1 to 2 or vice-versa) find one of them on the tab called "SSS #1" and swap it's HEX ID with the other stage you find on "SSS #2".
3. Then verify that their positions were swapped by using the Preview Tabs, then Save Codeset.

IF you want to move stages around on a single page, just select a stage on either tab called "SSS1 or 2" and use the Up and Down arrows to move it up or down the list, then verify it's position in the "Preview" tab, and Save Codeset.

 

[TheMarioaddict]

using the Latest Brawl Manager load up the SSS Editor in the root of the SD card containing your mod (backup the common5.pac and the RSBE01.gct before hand)
1. use tabs "Preview1" and "Preview2" to preview both SSS pages and choose 1 stage to move and 1 stage to swap locations with it.
2. Once youve chosen your 2 stages to swap (from page 1 to 2 or vice-versa) find one of them on the tab called "SSS #1" and swap it's HEX ID with the other stage you find on "SSS #2".
3. Then verify that their positions were swapped by using the Preview Tabs, then Save Codeset.

IF you want to move stages around on a single page, just select a stage on either tab called "SSS1 or 2" and use the Up and Down arrows to move it up or down the list, then verify it's position in the "Preview" tab, and Save Codeset.

Thank you! I knew how to move stages on the same page, just not how to swap between pages.

 

[TheMarioaddict]

I need to amend something I said earlier in the thread. It turns out there IS a big difference to Flatzone, in that the layout of it is static. It doesn't change, no hammers fall, none of that. It's just one static layout. I didn't realize because I didn't play melee much, nor did I play the Flatzone stage much before releasing this build.

So yes, there was a change to Flatzone, @ igglybiblyjiblet .