It's been a couple months since anybody has updated this thread. Lemme see, two things...
First, Mikwuyma and I chatted over AIM about a month ago. He had found that you can spam-attack using the Triple Rod as well and we was able to drop the time from my 8-Headed-Dragon fight (although there was a considerable amount of damage taken.) I said I would update with that info here... I am. Useful to know.
Next, I'm being my usual self and starting new projects before finishing old ones. I stopped data collection for a Rockman & Forte 100 CD run and started a warp run through this game. I've thus far gone through the intro stage, but I'm going to try something after I get a good night's rest. The WIP:
http://www.kraftfam.org/~erk/nesvideos/mmz-gigafrost-warp.zip
The "warp" path involves canceling key missions in order to go straight to the end of the game. For those who don't know (and don't want to look at my comments earlier in the thread) the path is like so:
-Intro stage
-Aztec Falcon
-Shuttle Mission (desert)
--[Escape]; cancel mission
-Fefnir Mission (desert, again)
--[Escape]; cancel mission
-Hanumachine
-Neo Arcadia 1
-Neo Arcadia 2
-Neo Arcadia 3
*fin*
I've already implemented the MMZ universal reset to start sooner (hold ABLRSs, brings you to main menu from anywhere in the game.)
I've played with taking damage during the intro level to save time. Looks like there are 4 conditions which end the "can't win" part of the golem fight:
-Wait long enough
-Deal enough damage
-Get dealt enough damage (~8)
-***After a damage be low enough on health***
The 4th one is special because I took advantage of that one specifically. Basically, you damage yourself so that you can only crash into the golem twice. When the fight starts, you crash once, and since you can't survive another hit (and because you did it before the Golem had a chance to attack) it instantly goes into the scripted sequence.
16 health, Golem deals 2 damage, so you need to go in with 4 health. That means you need to loose a total of 12 health:
2 bombs deal 3 each for a total of 6
webs and elec-drones deal 2 each, get hit by 3
If the boss gets to do his floor attack once, it'll be 384 frames before the scripted sequence. If you use the above strategy, it'll be 35 frames before the scripted sequence. Getting damaged so much cost ~86 frames in my wip. This means there's a net gain of approximately 263 frames, or 4.3 seconds.
I've also studied the leveling system a bit. Here's what I found:
0202b72c - gun exp (+1 normal, +2 charged) (16bits?)
0202b72e - total swings (16 bits?)
0202b73a - total dash swings (8 bits?)
0202b73b - total air swings (8 bits?)
Z Saber:
Double Slash - Total 40
Spin Dash - Dash 60
Air Spin - Air 100
Triple Slash - Total 160
Charge - Total 560
Fast Charge - Total 1680
Z Buster:
Double Gun Charge - Gun exp 400
Faster Gun Charge - Gun exp 1200
Buster experience isn't gathered until sometime after Z Saber. I start the Aztec Falcon stage with 2 AIR SABER and 2 TOTAL SABER because I hit both Ciel and the golem, I believe.
As you can see, there are special counters for dash-slashing and air-slashing, but there's a total-slashes counter as well. Here's some math to worry about:
Let's say you want to use charged slashes against bosses. My experimenting shows you need to hit enemies 560 times to get it. Since one causes 4 frames of delay, that adds up to approximately 2240 frames of delay, or 37.3 seconds. Ouch. That's how much time you'll have to *save* with the charge in order to just break even.
I have doubts that it would pay off to try and get the charge in as short a run as I'm planning. I'll think about it some more.
