Messages

[maybe]

Mmm, I don't think so. No matter what, Pump seems to be the best to do first. Especially when you're Bass, he can shoot through Water Shield easier than the others.

Bass is naturally equipped to utterly destroy Chill Man and his stage as-is though (diagonal fire FTW), and Sheep Man's aerial assault isn't capable of standing up to the Bass Buster either (the cloud state doesn't make him invulnerable to anything, it just puts him out of range of the Mega and Proto Busters; Bass can easily shoot Sheep down).  You can definitely make a case for Nitro (just went through as a first stage, not bad at all), and maybe Blade as well.  I think in Bass's case, it's less the bosses that are of concern and more which stages are the fastest from a given starting point.

For Proto Man though, I can only disagree on the point that he can't shoot through the Water Shield at all without getting hit, which he definitely shouldn't be doing in the first place.  I don't know who he should start with, I just don't think Pump's the right choice.

As for Mega Man, no argument here.

[Proto Man]

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/4333/protoh1.png
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/24/protoh2.png

I'm just happy I was able to finish at all... though this is actually the second time I finished Hard w/Blues.  I accidentally lost the photos for my 3:01:01 blind run finish and had to do it again. I chose to start completely over, though, just so my time wouldn't run over two hours.  I was honestly expecting a 1:45:XX time.

So yeah.  I earned my Superhero crown with Proto Man.  I feel completely awesome!

EDIT:




This is what Blues mode should've been like in 9!

[was]

Wily Castle 4 TA, 3:56:41.  Hopefully a watchable video will inspire some competition on this leaderboard, since it kinda sucked last night.  The top two legitimate times were about half a minute apart!  Someone had to do something about it (well, once I saw the board anyway; I was just going to upload my 4:28:XX replay), even if I went back in without reviewing anything for optimal strategies (so I'd say there's at least 10 seconds to be gained here, and I would not be surprised to see ~3:36 at some point with massive luck manipulation)....

On MM8, I decided to take on the Tengu Man challenge of not killing the miniboss's minions.

It wasn't all that hard (disclaimer: I had a lot of practice on speed running MM8 and I've been practicing for a Super R-Type run, and both helped GREATLY for this):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYLJnfqWPPI

The secret is that the cannon is weak to the Mega Ball.  You wouldn't have needed Beat had you just played more with the special weapons.

I had this tagged on G'FAQs for some time, but it didn't get answered:

There's a little characteristic of early Mega Man artwork, where characters are seen making a hand gesture (all fingers spread out except middle and ring finger) that was quite prevalent until Mega Man X3. The gesture made a return with MM9, and I've always wondered if there was anything behind it.

Now, an artwork from prominent Mega Man manga artist Hitoshi Ariga that seems to explain this has come to my attention. Problem is, I can't read Japanese. So I would like to respectfully ask anyone here fluent in the language to translate this artwork for me. You don't have to translate everything, just the gist of it.

http://www.ancient.co.jp/%7Eariga/cgi_bin/c-board/data/diary/file/080809.jpg

If I had the slightest clue what to look for, I'd search myself.  It's not a big deal, but I'm cleaning out my tagged topics and thought I may as well give this board a shot before I delete the link and forget about it.

Oh I forgot to hint this to you, ZED. I did try another Rush Coil run.
No matter how many times I miss with Rush Buster, it still counts as a missed accuracy. >.<

Two more failures, huh?  Ah well.  Noted and changed in the guide for the next version.  Thanks guys.

Oh, and along with clarifying how Encore works, kuja, you've also reminded me to correct my mistake about the Rush Buster's availability.  It actually doesn't matter whether or not Rush has energy left, you can still use the Buster with him at any time.  That kinda makes the whole Bust A Move thing suck worse since you could've just drained Rush Coil to nothing and turned that into a "pure" Mega Buster... which could be the reason it doesn't work for Bust A Move now that I think about it (you probably wouldn't think of it for Encore, but the testers likely thought it was pretty obvious for Bust A Move, and since obvious errors get tackled sooner than obscure ones...).

wat? There's a "Back" button in the Weapon Screen? Funniest thing I ever heard.

Is Start (+) button not good enough? o.o

That's not what Satoryu meant; the Back button is used to access the Weapon Select screen.

IOW, if you had to use Select (-) on the Classic Controller.

[especially]

Well, if you want input, here's my take (though some of it assumes this project becomes more than vaporware):

1. If you're gonna create really difficult crap like in the Endless hacks, separate them via a difficulty option.  I prefer the way MM9 did things, though I guess the hacks appeal to someone out there.  Heck, the way I'd do it is more like how 6 had optional paths for four of the bosses to get Beat; with this method, the player could dictate the difficulty at pretty much any time provided they had what it took to reach the optional teleporter, which would be awesome.  To this end, I would *NOT* require special weapons as much as possible on the easier levels for Mega Buster-only junkies.  I prefer to use the Buster as much as I possibly can in Endless, which is why my EA compilation only uses Laser Trident and Concrete Shot when required for no damage purposes except in two instances (one where the Trident is required just to proceed and the other for an easier path that isn't possible to avoid taking damage on without using a special weapon).  For harder levels?  Sure, why not, I'm not playing those.  Whatever you do, DEFINITELY make boss damage invulnerability time setting an option.  2 and 9 did it right, but I hate the other games in this regard, especially MM&B.
2. Along with a fully customizable button config, include individual sound volume (people do want to hear something different from time to time yet want to keep the sound effects, despite what Japanese game companies like to believe).  A game that does not give you these simple choices can easily be considered garbage faster than a game that has them.  In fact, forget music for now.  Players can supply their own.  You can add a soundtrack later.
3. Timer/energy loss option.  Should a timer make things harder, or should the energy loss be increased?  Why not both, or perhaps neither (sometimes I just want to play, challenge be damned)?  Again, this should be an option.  A timer by itself should not be considered "hard mode."
4. Physics choices!  Separate by Mega Man and Rush.  Some people might like MM2's crappy slide to a halt, while I really like 9's stop-on-a-dime method and horizontally faster jumps.  I'm all for freedom of choice in my gaming, if you haven't noticed.  Sure, it'll be harder to make, but to me, it wouldn't be worth it otherwise.
5. Bonuses would be nice, but I hardly think they're necessary.  If you do include them, I'd rather you did something unique instead of *just* harder bosses and such, like maybe take a reference from Kirby Super Star and have an MMBN-like level for instance.  You could even do a level where weaker RM's make up the regular enemies.

I can think of more, but that's enough for the moment.

That's pretty awesome. It's too bad he won't do full tracks for the stages.

Well, some of them are full already IIRC, you'd just need to put them on a loop.  I forget which ones are complete; I think Wily Machine is one of them (or it was really close).

My only complaint was that he dropped Strange World, but it turns out he had the same problem with it that I did (that it sucks the first few times you hear it).  Can't really blame him for that.

[I never used Rock Buster at all.]

Master ZED... Mission Failed...

I only used Rush Buster and the special weapons. I never used Rock Buster at all.

Crud... it didn't occur to me that 0 shots might be the same as 0% accuracy until you said that.  You never missed, sure, but you never hit either.  It's unfortunate that the game doesn't clarify that you have to use the Rock Buster at some point.  Logically if you never used it, you never missed with it either, and that's all it appears to ask of you.  Then again, Conservationist specifies weapon energy and not the amount of times special weapons are used, and using Rush Coil just for the free buster managed to ruin that without a drop of energy lost.  I've rewritten my description as a result.  I'd be rather surprised if the failure didn't stem from that.  What sucks is that if accuracy is what it's going for, one lone hit would have been enough to get Bust A Move.

I can't very well ask you to do the test again because of my own blunder though, so I apologize for wasting your time and thank you for what you were able to provide.  I've also mentioned you in the credits anyway because the fact that the Mega Buster must be used is new and relevant no matter the inconclusiveness of the test.

though if you want to see what challenges i have gotten, i should still be on the All Clear Top 10.

How do you think I got the idea to heckle you about it? Besides, Vixy is the one I'm asking anyway because she's the only one who would have a reason to care.  Kind of a longshot either way though since her interest appears to have waned and I knew there was a good chance you didn't care at all, but the only other way I can get an answer is to put the Rush Buster idea in my guide as a fact and see if I get any angry e-mails about it.  Unethical, yes, but in video game experiments, my moral compass is rather broken, and I have all the reason in the world to think I'm right anyway.

If you still plan on doing this again Vixy, perhaps you could do a test for me (or maybe I'll get Satoryu to do it... gotta love being able to see other players' challenges in the All Clear rankings)...

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=950625&topic=47321366

Bust A Move: Can't miss with the Mega Buster. But it doesn't matter if you miss with a special weapon. Does the Rush Coil/Jet count as a special weapon for the purposes of this challenge as it does in encore?

Well, I'd assume if it works in one, it works with the other. I say this only because it's a known fact that Proto Coil and Proto Jet are different from the actual Proto Buster, and the same may apply here (Rush's buster isn't the same weapon as the Mega Buster despite being virtually identical). I know this is the case in Conservationist, as I tried to do it and Encore on the same file through Rush, and despite not using a drop of weapon energy for Encore, it wouldn't give me the former. That's why I say Conservationist has nothing to do with weapon energy and everything to do with the amount of times you use special weapons. I summoned Rush a lot for Encore, which is free, and didn't actually use him, but the mere act of summoning him apparently counted as a special weapon use.

If I'm right about Bust A Move (that Rush's buster can miss all it wants because, despite being absolutely free and totally identical, it is NOT the same weapon), you may be able to add Encore in on top of that as well... though that looks like it'll be tough to work in.  Splash Woman and Magma Man look okay for Encore (good Mystery Tank usage should guarantee Quick Draw M in WC4), but the other six look a little iffy, and you need two of those.

For Mr. Trigger Happy, you'd need another test, whether hitting the spike balls in the WC1 fight counts as a hit when there's no spike shooter behind them.  If it does, you could get that, Eco Fighter, and Marathon Fight all from the same battle with no risk to Bust A Move.  You could continuously hit the balls for no effect as long as a shooter exists somewhere else, so you could dwindle the boss down to one and leave him to rot for several minutes while you rack up the 500+ Mega Buster shots.  If everything works out, that would upgrade the percentage to 66% for only a little time lost (64% if Encore can't be done).  If summoning Rush is a problem, just run him out of energy first.  The buster part will still work.

It's a thought if you're still interested.  I'm really itching to confirm that Bust A Move theory, but I'm not willing to delete my save file for it.  Mr. Perfect was quite hard to do, after all.

Not much of a reason to considering it's just something you can do on revisits.

common knowledge. and actually, Mazooka at point blank can do three damage.

Not in my experience.  All three hits have to connect separately to do three damage.  This is usually accomplished by standing about (probably exactly) one tile/block/whatever away from the target, which is rather difficult to do.  I've never seen point blank do three myself, while my Wily Castle 4 vid shows Galaxy Man supporting my hypothesis by getting hit by one bazooka shot, leaping into the other with damage invulnerability, and still dying from it (you can hear the separate impacts if nothing else).