meh, Spyder's sac requires 10 hits... unfortunately pretty much any action (movement included) introduces lag :/ (up to half a second *per hit*), so I gotta decide whether i go for fast and boring or have some 'fun' with the mirror and move around
edit: come to think of it, I've gone for 'a few frames faster' in the minetracks which looks worse so I'm going with pure speed again
edit2: after more detailed tests, i only have to to test the 1st and 5th pass2B versions (already have 4th)
v2 and v3 just dont make any sense when the data is available
v6 is very similar to v5 and, with the data, clearly slower
edit3: right, turns out v5 is faster than v4... it reaches Spyder (the actual load-point) 360 frames faster, after which both routes need to 'deathwarp, switch to above ground' and use 1 teleport...
v4 needs to walk from Gzone's udnerground entry to G and from E to rainbow.... 360+54+88 = 360+142 = 502 frames
v5 needs to walk from IJLO's UG entry to J and from D to rainbow... 76+344 =~= 420 frames
v5 is 82 frames faster than v4
now to compare v1 to v5...
essentially the only difference is that v1 does IJLOentry to IJLO_UG_entry and IJLO_UG_entry to I
versus
v5 does J to IJLO_UG_entry and back (not the same as twice)
all measures from freeze-on to freeze-off
v1 338
72 = IJLOentry to IJLO_UG_entry
266 = IJLO_UG_entry to I
v5 354
200 = IJLOentry to I
78 = J to IJLO_UG_entry
76 = IJLO_UG_entry to J
v1 should be 16 frames faster than v5 /lol
edit4:
v1 granted another unexpected advantage... because Spyder is done first, the underground is already initialized which means walking from CF to K is a bit faster (an ant does not have to crawl-out-of-the-ground/spawn anymore clearing my path earlier)
expected time saved v1 vs v4: 16+82 = 98 frames
actualy time saved v1 vs v4: 131 frames
edit5:
I found a somewhat decent purpose for the last available break-out-of-a-freeze... it can be used to 'undo' a time-stop (the effect of the hourglass)
basically the idea is to use hourglas, break out of it, wake dragon up by casting on him (lightning or snow... Li is faster) rather than by waiting, cast again to actually damage him
doesn't save much but so far it's the only use i found :P
edit6:
Hmm interesting, found a way (quite obvious, don't really see how I missed it last time :lol:) to glitch the final minecart that looks very promising... I can't wait until I have more time for testing :D
edit7: :(
edit8: best use for it so far is the ability to instant-suicide after picking up the 16th heartpiece (after finishing the 3d door/boss, drive to 4th, then hop back on and collect heartpiece, suicide asap and deathwarp back to 4th door)... obviously a better timesaver than the attack-dragon-slightly-faster one, yet still disappointing for such a massive glitch
edit9: currently fighting the dragon, it's possible to freeze him in a certain frame such that merlin can walk through him as if he isn't there... but that doesn't grant access to the dungeon unfortunately (the trigger simply doesn't work while the dragon is alive). still havent found a better use for the cart-glitch or a way to bypass the trigger that makes merlin get on the cart :(
edit10: driving into a 'get off the cart' trigger from the non-intended direction still makes merlin jump off at the correct (doorway's) side :( doing this at a bouncy ball will simply make merlin bounce as expected
found that its possible to drive through walls and springs and re-track behind the walls... but thats the case in many places :P
might be fastest to do this at the very start, pick up heartpiece, bounce @ 4th door, drive to door 1. Either that or the suicide-early plan i said earlier
edit11: some realtime testing clearly indicates the wall-ride to be faster :) hurray getting from start to door #1 takes about 1700 frames if i dont pick up the heartpiece (yet) and less than 2100 if i glitch through the wall, pick up the hearpiece and then head for door #1... I don't think there's any other way of getting that heartpiece within 400 frames.
edit11: I've tested ways of breaking all bosses except the final one, found one nice cutscene-skip (on the pig.. same one as at the start with a tiny twist). Bloop doesn't have a cutscene and his parts can probably be manipulated to gather up at the very door. I couldnt find any break on Spyder unfortunately, also not when using the lake-lady's-press-start-to-continue (all i can manage is getting stuck in an infinite loop (same as at the tree trump) :P)
final boss i can use the start-break to get behind him, but shooting the blue energy ball before the intended moment does nothing... so that's useless. Will do some more testing on him before continuing, but i dont expect much to come up, after that the run should be finished quite fast
edit12: heh another idea came up with nice results that will be visible in the end product :)
edit13: last few things I'll have to figure out are
* can i make bloop split up earlier? and how to get the parts to line up nicely so i can kill them simultaneously, like before.. mustn't forget to check whether they can travel/hop through walls
* how to take out final boss' eye-bats fastest (combinations of star and matchstick?)
* determine how the heart-locket works exactly (how to get the maximum number of hits per charge, the invincibility drink might come to use here) boss starts with 32 hp... smells like 6+2, 5+3 or 4+4 hits using 2 charges (1 hit constitutes 4 units of damage)
edit14: reached final boss :) seems like it might be possible to get 8 hits on just 1 charge (the one you start with)... at least i know there's 8 zaps on every charge (might look like less when 2 zaps are in the same direction... but a new one is started every 12 frames)
edit15: I was wrong, i cannot ever get over 4 hits