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So act 5 wasn't as tough as I thought, I didn't really have to slow down at all. Vacuum wave is becoming my favorite weapon, I spammed it out through all the tough parts. I used it on the boss and got the 2 for 1 hits like devindotcom described. Both waves don't hit right away because we are both jumping up and down, but the fact that there are 2 hits at some point from the wave really helped. I killed him so fast I that found out there is in fact a waiting period between hits on the bosses. So thanks for the tip. I might try it on the final boss too, but I still don't see any benefit on the others. At this point I am about 30 seconds ahead of my initial run which finished in 13:15. Well, act 6 boss could potentially be tougher than before, I got a lucky break and it's hard to manipulate things in this game. Hopefully there will be a submission soon...
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Run is going well, I have completed act 4 and am getting into the real interesting parts. I have managed to outdo myself in every section so far. Stepping through frame-by-frame is really the only way to go. A4 was easy because necessary waiting for the platforms and spikes made speed less critical. 5-1 will be a bit tougher...
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I'm pretty happy with my speed on the bosses in my v0.1 run. I'm sure that the correct strategy is using your ninja power to hit him when it's not possible to use the sword. All you get from using the wave next to a boss is an extra hit, and you can get that extra hit while he is jumping or out of sword range. I do end up with the wave on a couple bosses, but I don't think this is necessarily the best way to use it. There might be a place for this on 5th lvl boss.
One more thing, your ninja gets more horizontal movement while falling if you hold down A. Strange but true, I get some good effects out of this, eg in lvl 2-1B and 3-2A. Hmm, I think I've given away all my tricks now. :)
Wait, an update on the "stunted" jumps. This only happens if you hold down B or use turbo B. Very good news.
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I have started another run and hopefully this will produce a submission. I want to do no-damage, there are very few places it helps, and it just looks cool in this game. The subtleties to address:
-Perfect wall climbing requires using frame advance. After some experimentation, I have found the optimal point to kick off the wall. Interestingly, your character never goes into the "holding onto the wall" animation, so it has a pretty sweet flying effect. This is also visibly faster than previous efforts by me or devindotcom.
-Jumping and slashing immediately stunts your jump and slows you down. If you wait until you stop flipping there is no penalty. This does not apply to jumping from a wall or overhead hang. However, you must complete the slash before you hit the ground or you'll stop until you finish the slash.
-Reconsidering weapon choices. In my first run I was kinda random, and devindotcom overused the windmill. Now I am using windmill more but looking at the big picture to make sure I do things right. I've found that in some cases it is possible to get some good action with the windmill without sacrificing speed.
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When working with FCE Ultra, I noticed that with sound disabled, the speed never really goes under about 12%, even if it says it is. When enabled, it does, and it also works fine if enabled but muted. I've tried the throttling option under timing, it doesn't seem to do anything. Well, when I was using an older version it would crash with sound enabled at low speeds, so I had to disable it. No problems yet with the newer version, so I guess the mute will be fine. Just wondering if I did something wrong or found a bug.
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Overall very nice, but I've been working on my own run on FCE ultra and my preliminary version beats you by about 20 secs with at least 10-15 secs of refinement left. I take no damage and miss some shortcuts you take. It might be a while before I can finalize this, it took some time to do. I want to make mine a no damage run, so there's room for both of us. Anyway, improvements are:
-I beat several bosses much faster by killing them before they put up their guard.
-I get super sword on every lvl but 3 sometimes it adds a sec or so but I think it is worth it.
-I use a much wider variety of special weapons. You do can do pretty well with the windmill and it has some really amazing moments in your run, but the wasted motion to keep it going adds up. In some situations other weapons are just more appropriate. Probably a few places where I should use the windmill (5-1!), but for the most part I was able to go faster with the other weapons.
-there were a few places I used the terrain more effectively, sliding on the ice, letting the water push me backward so I can fall the other way, etc.
<a href= "http://home.comcast.net/~f_amoroso/Ninja_Gaiden_3_-_TheAxeManv0.1.fcm">Here is what I have so far</a>
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Also during the second boss battle would firing missles diagonally when moving from statue to statue speed it up, or would waiting for the impact acually take more time?
I'd thought about this, and because the missile refire rate is based on how long it takes for the missile to explode, you want your missiles to have short tragectories. In the time I have to wait for the missiles to explode I am able to move enough that I can go from statue to statue with no extra waiting.
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Are the bosses, at the end of the first, second and last levels invincible to machinegun fire?
The first lvl boss tanks are not, I use it on them where possible. Since gun always fires up, it's useless on the ones that come from the bottom. Also, I am right next to the other ones when I shoot so you don't really see it, but you can tell because it would take 2 missiles otherwise. Second-lvl boss heads are invincible to gun, but I use the gun to shoot down their homing missiles so that my rockets can do damage. Last boss first form is also invincible to gun.
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To answer some questions..
Why pick up the POWs? Does that increase your offensive capabilities?
Yes, this is what powers up the missile. First one changes grenade to missile, second adds horizontal explosion and third adds vertical explosion. So full powerup with three. There are regular POWs and flashing (officer?) POWs, the regular ones are packed several to a house and just give you points, the officers each have their own building and up your weapon.
a well-placed rocket or two might reduce the number of sprites on screen, avoiding the slowdown dilemma.
Actually, because the rocket creates multiple sprites for the 4-way explosion, it's often the culprit for slowdown. I use the gun as much as possible to avoid this, but there may be places where I can gun down some enemies or use a rocket to kill others before they start following me.
with the first boss(the tanks) you destroy some way quicker than the others, and also some come from a more easily accessable point.
The boss tanks don't wait for you to kill the earlier ones before they come out, they will gang up on you if you let them. So I can waste some time on the earlier ones and have fun racing their bullets, and I make sure to kill the last one as fast as possible.
Or sometimes you use a missle to hit an incoming projectile(you do so sometime during the 2nd boss I think)
If you are talking about the 2nd boss, it is hard to see watching full speed, but I actually use the gun to shoot down the homing missiles that the heads spit out. All of my rockets hit, each head takes 3 shots. The gunshots come in between rocket shots, so this doesn't slow down the killing at all.
Well, I'm glad that everyone enjoyed this, it was a pretty fun ride.
