Smash 4 Stage Builders Guide Part IV - sections G and H

(G) Layering

What I mean by layering is when two or more pieces over lap, or when they are used to create a multipart structure, where one piece is at least partially overlapping another. But first I want to talk about . . .

(1-G) Naming Layouts and Skins: I wanted a one-syllable name that describes each layout; this may not prove useful but I like naming things. The layouts in order of appearance when choosing from the start menu are (1) Sky, (2) Fire, (3) Isle, (4) Star and (5) Play. Each layout has five different skins to draw with. While it may not be necessary to name the skins, I do want to point out certain properties of each. But, we will end up giving names to the few we examine. The first two skins are the same with all layouts. Below is a pick of the skins for Isle.

(3-1) Earth, (3-2) Masonry (3-3) Mossy Rock (3-4) Topped Clay and (3-5) Board. The bottom row of the skins in the picture above shows off all three types of edging, and these edges definitely need to be named. With (3-3) you have a beveled edge around the entire block, let’s just call this a Bevel. (3-4) Features a beveled edge around just the sides and bottom, and the side bevels taper to a fine point at the top, where they vanish into a flat top. We’ll call this a Flat Top. And in (3-5) we have a squared edge block, with no bevels; we’ll call this a Square. Only counting Earth and Masonry once, even though they appear in each layout, you have a total of 4 bevels, 10 Flat Tops and 3 Squares in all.

When drawing a bevel or Flat Top over another piece, the beveled edges will recess into the first piece, obscuring its edges. Below is a picture of all three of these skins being drawn on top of a larger piece. Each of the three smaller pieces are a 4 x 4 square, but notice how the beveled edges make the pieces look like they are different sizes and shapes, even though they are all exactly the same size and shape. Bevels will appear smaller all the way around, Flat Tops will have sides that taper in toward the bottom, and Squares will appear true to their actual size. Keep this in mind when drawing layers.

Making Torches using the LaW trick and a Flat Top Skin: I’ll skip the explanation and just get right to the step by step.

(1) Place a solid mass of any size or shape. (2) Draw a torch sized mass using a flat top skin. The bevels of the Flat top will cause the sides to angle to a point, giving a torch handle look. (3) Draw a new shape to the design of the flame. (4) Paint lava over the flame. (5) Use the eraser to delete the lava on all pieces except the flame. (6) Is how the final, in-game result will look.

(2-G) Sharing Edges: You can use the beveled edges to your advantage. The topside bevel of a beveled piece is brighter since the light source hits it more directly, while the sides are a bit darker, and the bottom bevel is the darkest, being the most obscured from light. The light differences of these bevels can add a lot of depth to a stage when used properly.

Below are two practically identical drawings. The first (1) is done with a large Masonry base and stairs drawn over it with Topped Clay, while (2) is the same basic design, except that the bottom edge of the Masonry follows the top edge of the stairs, creating depth with the shadows of the bottom bevels on the Masonry. Try and use this to your advantage. Of course (2) takes up a bit more weight due to the larger amount of directional changes in its edges, so be aware of that.

(3-G) Problems with Layering: The way the layering works is strange and it can be frustrating. For example, in (1) above I can draw as many shapes as I want on top of the stairs and the new pieces will overlap the last, so that you can see each new drawing; example below.

But, if I were to delete the Masonry (the first piece drawn), then any new drawing on top of the stairs will now end up behind them, unseen. The trim along the top can still be seen during a match, but it will not look the same as it does above. This can present problems, so be aware of it while building your stages.

(4-G) Bevels and Platforms: Since the topside of Bevels are angled, they will not line up with platforms properly, see picture below. This won’t affect game-play, but it does look a little funny, so you might want to try to find a way to avoid this.

(5-G) Optical Illusion: This is just a trick I found while making my stage called “Mined The Moon”. See the image below.

In (1) above you see the final result. It looks as though the blue octagonal piece is a hollow ring instead of a solid piece. In (2) you can see that the blue shape is indeed a solid piece. The center cut-out-looking portion in (1) is actually just a hexagon drawn with the moon skin over the blue piece. In (3) you can see why in this particular build it was best to use a Bevel rather than a Flat Top or Square, although they could come in handy in some scenarios. (4) shows the in-game appearance of (3).

Mined The Moon - https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHkNx1s_Lg

(6-G) Background Layering: Another technique I found while working on my stage Tefilla Wings is one I’m calling Background Layering. In (1) I’ve made a shape that will soon be deleted. It must occupy at least some of the space that your permanent shape will soon occupy, and it must extend past it a bit so that the temporary one can be deleted, once the permanent one is drawn. In this case I made my first piece (1) the exact same size and shape as the one I’ll be keeping, and I’ve added a small tab on the bottom left that will extend past the permanent shape. In (2) the green line shows you that I’m about to finalize the second piece, the one I’ll be keeping.

In (3) the temporary shape that we drew first has been deleted, and now I’m drawing a random shape over the permanent block. Once it’s finalized, you will not be able to see it while you are in the stage builder, but as you can see in (4), while playing a match only the trim of the ground that can be walked on is showing. This can be helpful if you only want that portion to show through.

Here’s an example from Tefilla Wings.

The white line near the top of the masonry is a solid shape (the wooden plank skin) but none of the wood is showing through.

Tefilla Wings - https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHkOUZnNWQ

(7-G) Changing Normal Layering to Background Layering: Let’s say you have a piece that has normal layering but you want to change it to the BGL style, well here’s one way to do that. Below is a before and after shot of my Tefilla Wings stage. The picture on the left is the before. Notice that under the white trim, which makes up the detail in the wings, you can see the wood planks and the shadows they create? This isn’t exactly ugly or messy, but the BGL version is noticeably cleaner, and depending on what skins you are using, this change may even be necessary. I did alter the lines slightly on the right side picture, but that only affected the line design, not the layering style.

Here’s how I did it. First I erased the main background piece. I redrew it hoping that it would now be on top and the detail lines in the back, but that didn’t happen; it was the same as it was originally. So, I erased it again and drew a temporary piece that crossed over where the main chunk would eventually be. I learned that this temporary piece can’t also cross over the detail bits, or else they too will be sent to the background, too far for even the trim to show through. Below is a diagram showing exactly what I mean.

In (1-a) you see the original from the builder’s menu. In (1-b) I have deleted the main piece that was in the background, added the temporary piece that crosses over where the redrawn main piece will be, and I’m one step away from finalizing the new main piece. In (1-c) you can see the way the new piece looks in the builder’s menu; the detail pieces are now hidden. While playing a match, you will be able to see just the white trim of the detail pieces, as you do in the right picture above.

In the picture below, you can see the results if I had allowed the temporary piece to overlap the detail pieces. As you can see, one of the detail pieces is totally obscured. I’m not sure why only one piece is affected, but I assume that it was the furthest back among the detail pieces.

(8-G) Deep Layering: First let me talk about something I call Jumping. Below is an illustration of this phenomenon. In (1-a) you see me about to finalize an octagon that will fill in the empty space within the other shape. In (1-b) you can see that when finalized, the octagon has jumped over 2 grid blocks.

The way I found to get around this is illustrated in (2-a) and (2-b). I started by erasing the first shape, and drawing another, then redrawing the box with the octagon hole in the center. Now, illustrated by (2-b) the octagon will stay where it is supposed to, with a normal amount of grid shifting.

While making my stage Concert of Three, I began with the stage SkyTrain: Engine, attempting to solve the problem of Jumping that occurred when I tried to draw the trains’ octagonal wheels. While doing this I found a technique that I call deep layering. What I found is that when grid shifting occurs the pieces are actually moving toward the builder. The more temporary pieces you stack over the first permanent piece, before you place the second permanent one, the more depth there will be between the two.

Below are two, essentially identical structures. Notice how much more recessed the dark skin on the left is, and how the purple trim isn’t showing through?

In (1) below I have drawn the dark inner part of the cave design, and then 10 identical, temporary pieces that were actually drawn within the same grid space (you can see how disjointed things can get with so many layers). In (2) I have drawn the outer cave, and in (3) I have erased the temporary pieces. I only included (3) to show you just how shifted that last piece is. Notice the upper right corner of the cave. It was drawn to the grid lines, but has shifted that much. Also, even though you can’t really tell by the photo, the left and lower edges of the cave are hugging their grid lines perfectly.

Along with the ground that lies under the outer portion of the cave but over the inner portion, you have quite a nice looking sense of depth.

(H) Good Tricks and Glitches

(1-H) SIG (Sloping Intersection Glitch): This glitch allows you to clip inside of a structure by means of one sloping mass that intersects with another. The concept is simple, but making it efficient requires a little more finesse.

I believe this can happen with any type of terrain, but for the sake of making this easy to understand, I’ll be specifically referring to the terrain used in the pictures above and below.

Notice how the slope of the grass meets the dark stone incline? What seems to happen is that running down the stone slope, causes you to occasionally (not always) walk right through the grass portion. If there is no ground to walk on inside the wall, you will simply either fall to your doom, or until you hit a surface. The thin green line inside the dirt portion is a platform that is there to allow you to walk around inside the ground. I haven’t experimented much with this, but it seems to me that the higher up on the stone slope that it met the grass; the more frequently I would clip into the grass when running toward the right.

Here are some pictures demonstrating this. In the first one Dedede is walking down the stone slope, and beginning to clip into the grass.

And here he is playing around in there. By the way, this glitch works on a slope that faces either direction.

(2-H) RAGS (The Right Angled Gap Slide) Glitch: This glitch happens with any space between two solid objects, provided the gap is a slide that angles down and to the right. As with the platform problem, simply landing precisely on the space between the two pieces will cause you to fall into the gap, but I’m going to show you a way to construct things that makes for an easy entrance.

The key is to create a slide that goes down to the right. I’ve tried and tried to clip into the stage using a slope going the opposite direction, but I could not get it to work.

You are going to need a grid formula for your slide. For our example, we’ll use 1R / 2D. I believe you can pretty much use any formula, as long as the slope is a slide.

(1) Draw a slide (1R / 2D), and then double its length, which for this example would be 2R / 4D.

(2) Now draw the ground and wall to any shape or angles you like, as long as the ground of the bottom surface can be walked on. This works with a 45-degree angle, but the example below is going to be a straight horizontal line.

(3) Make a line parallel to the current slope that is also half it’s size. We need both edges of the gap to be parallel to one another; this is why we doubled the first number, so that we could get the second gap wall to be perfectly parallel, but shorter than the left wall.

(4) Then finalize the second shape.

Notice the gap between the two pieces? This is what we need. Sometimes two pieces will fit together with no gap, so either redraw the shapes, or you can draw the first shape with the grid on, to get the correct angle for the gap, and then draw the second shape with no grid, allowing you more control over the gap size. Drawing with the grid off will likely require a few attempts, but this way you can make a space that is wide enough for anyone to fall into, without trapping the smaller characters. You’ll have to experiment with what size truly fits all. I recommend Charizard to test for the biggest and Pikachu for the smallest, and I’ll explain why in just a bit.

Now then, simply walk into the gap (the walk off method), or land on the slope from the air and slide down into the gap (the slide method), and your character will slide to the bottom, hopefully clipping into the wall, ready to cause some trouble!

Making a gap that is compatible with all characters is the tricky part. In making my stage Jurassic Park, I tested each gap with every character to make sure that no one would get stuck, and that all characters could use all of the gaps. There was one gap (labeled (1) in the picture below) that all characters could get into, except for Charizard, leading me to believe that he is the largest of all the characters, at least in relation to this glitch. In the same gap, Pikachu and Lucario would get stuck inside, without clipping into the wall leading me to believe that one or both of them are the smallest characters. The current version posted online should not have those two getting stuck, but Charizard still can’t seem to make it in. My point is that these three characters may be enough to test your gaps, since they seem to be the biggest and smallest in terms of gap interaction and clipping ability using the RAGS method.

If you are having trouble clipping in, once inside the gap, here are some ways I have found useful to get troublesome characters into the walls: (1) walk off the lower mass into the gap; do not run. Some can run full speed, others will just bump into the wall without falling or fall into the gap without clipping into the wall, unless you walk instead of run. (2) From inside the gap if you are not clipping in, a short hop NAIR (neutral air), with some characters will help. If NAIR doesn’t work, try some other aerials after a short hop. (3) Short hop fast fall into a crouch. It seems that this method works best if your back is facing the wall that you want to clip into.

Wall clingers will stick to the sloped wall if you do the walk off method, so just press down on the control stick to dislodge them; any other direction will cause them to jump out of the gap.

One thing to note is that when a character has a buddy, like Olimar with his Pikmin, and Rosalina with Luma; the buddies don’t seem to want to come with you. Olimar can whistle and the Pikmin will come in, but it can sometimes take two or more whistles to get them inside with you. Luma doesn’t seem to be able to enter at all, but this can actually lead to some interesting simultaneous attacks both inside and outside of the walls.

Jurassic Park - https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHj_XNRlhg

Alternate RAGS Construction: The walking surface of each piece that makes up your gap can be close to level with one another (as opposed to the left piece being twice as tall, the way we did it earlier), as long as you have a slight downward slope on top of one of them. See below. In this case, running and dodge rolling during normal play are not hindered, they can be done from the grass to the wood and back, but getting in the gap is a little trickier.

In Smash 4, landing on a sloped surface will cause your character to slide down the slope. If it is angled toward your gap, then the character will fall in. Fast falling will cause you to slide right over the gap.

This is a little trickier to get right, and to get into, but it has its benefits in that it can be played on top of, without interruption, if you’re looking for a somewhat level playing field.

I can’t figure out exactly what makes RAGS work, but here are a couple of experiments where I could get into the gap, but I couldn’t seem to clip into the stage. And like I said before, a leftward facing slope (not pictured below) also will not allow you to clip into the stage.

Danger: I found another means of getting into a solid structure that can lead to you getting permanently stuck. See below.

In trying to recreate RAGS during my early experiments, I ended up making the structure above. From a hanging position like where Mario is in the picture, you cannot clip into the stage by a pop up or a jump; but with a dodge roll or get up attack you can, with just one problem. Once inside, you can roll left and right, and you can attack, but pressing the jump button while inside the stage will cause you to become stuck, and nothing will get you free. Not rolling, not attacking, not jumping. Based on what I’ve seen, it appears that the character is actually stuck in a freefall state, but pressing down doesn’t break them out of it. I waited for quite some time with no changes, but it is possible that they could eventually “land” if they are indeed in freefall.

I tested the typical RAGS method for clipping, just to make sure it wasn’t a problem with this particular build or gap size, compared to the original one, but the RAGS method worked just fine here. It’s just the ledge hang approach that gets you stuck. You could turn ledge grab off if you wanted to have a structure like the one above that didn’t cause people to get stuck. I’d assume that someone could possibly clip in by hitting the lower edge with an up-B or similar move, which might lead to the same problem, but I’ve tested this as best I could and it seems to be safe, at least with Mario.

Strangely enough, when trying to recreate the above shape, I couldn’t get it to trap me in the same manner. It was done on the same updated version of the game but on a different layout (Sky instead of Isle). This time, I could get it to a point where I couldn’t attack or dodge roll into the stage from a hang, but I could do a pop up to get in. This is the opposite means of entering as the design above. Once up, I couldn’t jump up through the stage as with the RAGS method, but I could initiate a jump without getting stuck (unlike the above shape), and I could move around and attack. Perhaps each stage layout has slightly different properties, or perhaps it can be attributed to something else.

(3-H) UMPS (Uphill Moving Platform Stack) Glitch: Another means of clipping into the stage that I’ve found is by having a stack of moving platforms traveling up a hill. The picture below shows the shallowest hill that I could get this to work on, but it tends to work better with a steeper grade. The side of the movers that is nearest the slope needs to be at least partially inside the hill for this to work.

You can either run uphill past the movers as they are traveling up, or you can ride them, and drop down to one of the lower platforms and run uphill from there. It appeared to me that there is a sweet spot for the number of platforms in the stack, which seemed to be 4-5. This was discovered accidentally while making my stage Picasso Escalate. This can also be performed on a slope facing the opposite direction.

As a reminder, here is the formula for creating a stack.

1 The first one is laid down and needs no adjustment.
2 The second is laid down (grid on), and then with the grid off each end is shifted up by 2 pixels. Be sure that it doesn’t shift left or right.
3 The next is only shifted Down 1 pixel.
4 Up 1 pixel.
5 Down 2 pixels.

Picasso Escalate -
https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHkId4SJbA

(5-H) Pie Slice Glitch: This is where there is a crack in the ceiling that allows you to jump up in between the two pieces and clip in. See an example below from my stage Skygarden.

This glitch is comprised of a normal sliver gap, with a pie slice shaped, wide mouthed bottom that tapers in before it reaches the surface. This wide bottom is to allow your characters to easily make their way into the tiny sliver portion; the result will be that they clip into the stage. The trick to making this glitch work is placing the platform that will be stood on while inside the wall, at or very near the top of the slice. The side of the wall that the gap is on makes no difference, the mirror version of the construction above will function the same as this one does.

Skygarden - https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHkKMGBSuw

(6-H) Clipping Anomalies: There are two more scenarios I’ve noticed where clipping can happen. One of them I’ll call the Footstool Glitch. This happens when a fighters head is protruding through a thin solid wall (see Bowser in (1) below), and another fighter is in a position above the characters head for a footstool (see Mario in (1), and for some reason the one doing the footstool clips right through the object (see Mario in (2). This glitch works on anything other than flat ground as long as one player’s head is protruding through the solid mass.

I couldn’t even footstool on the set up below, let alone clip though the floor.

But even on a vertical wall, as long as it is thin enough, it can be done. I managed to do it with the setup below.

The other anomaly is even more strange and unexplainable. I’ll just call it Ghosting. In my stage Jurassic park, there was one gap where Sheik and Pikachu would pass right through the solid piece at the bottom of a gap, but only occasionally, and I can’t be sure why this happens. Below is a picture where the gap in question is circled. The tiny ledge underneath that gap was specifically put there to catch them.