Bump, for great justice.
Someone set us up the
Zelda 2 Improvement.
I am without the internet right now. It's surprising how much free time I have without it. Since I was so bored, I worked a bit on Zelda 2. The above link is from power on until the end of Palace 1, using Rising Tempest's route and level up strategy (so I wouldn't have to figure out a strategy cold).
Since I don't have the net at the moment, I couldn't download the current published run's fcm. I couldn't compare frame counts, so I can't be sure if I've done every room at least as fast as it, (especially before getting downstab) but I think I am about 5 seconds ahead at this point, based on the avi. I don't want to be basing a run off of an avi.
As the movie goes along, I get better at killing 'big' enemeis quickly. I'm at the point now where I can kill most enemies without losing any forward momentum using the downstab.
For all these reasons (and since I just downloaded Rising Tempest's .fcm to a floppy disk so I can make sure every room is at least as good as his) and since my Palace 2 boss is visibly slower, I'm stopping this test run here and starting a really real for real run. I'm just looking for a bit of feedback.
Also, I've managed to get 600 extra exp in on the way to the hammer, and if I could get the drops from the small enemies to cooperate, I could feasibly get another 200 or so. I'm hoping for some ideas on how to incorporate this exp in the strategy, or else I'm going to try to find ways to avoid about 6 of those axe... guys... I know I can pass through the red ones while they're flashing, at least, with good timing.
Okay, I shut up now. Any ideas/comments/places I messed up would be appreciated.
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Edit: I've had a chance to crunch the numbers. I'm 420 frames ahead overall. 325 if you don't count the different (ie lack of) name.
The places that I've done a room slower than Rising Tempest are as follows:
Jump cave 1 and 2: I lost 3 frames on each of the goriyas. I know why this happened, and it was worrying me before I looked at the frame count. Should be a cinch to fix.
Cave maze 2: I lost 8 frames. How did you make the Octorok not appear at the end, Tempest?
Cave maze 5: I got the level-up Sword dialogue in this room, and Rising Tempest declined a magic level, so I'm not 100% sure. The numbers say I'm 157 frames behind, but I suspect it's more like 5 frames behind, ignoring the dialogues.
Hammer cave 2: I lost a mystery 10 frames. I guess my fight was bad?
Otherwise, I did just as well if not better in all of the other parts up to getting downstab and Fairy. Overall, I am ahead by 79 frames from when you can first control Link to this point.
Palace 2 is where things start to pick up. Besides one or two stalfos, I manage to keep my momentum with downstab.
I do lose 3 frames in the glove room, because I have to wait so I don't get hit by falling bricks in the next room.
I lose one mystery frame in the room before the boss fight.
My biggest loss is the palace 2 boss, where Rising Tempest gets him 20 frames ahead of me. I also lose 5 frames after getting the key, so I must not be getting it as far forward as possible.
All in all, I gain 205 frames on Palace 2, and in Palace 1 I only gain frames, even on the boss.
Therefore: My run can be 56 frames faster, based on just the numbers. I suspect I can kill a few Stalfos in Palace 2 a little better. And who knows what other minor optimizations I might come across.
So, the prospect of starting over is a bit of a bummer, now that I see there's only a few small blips compared to the published run. But it will amount to about a second. And since I know it's there, I don't really have a choice, I think. I'll start when I figure out what I'm doing about the extra exp.
I shut up now.
