Project ZM

[FelixWright]

Project ZM v0.7.2 -- 10/16/2020
Screenshot Gallery with Captions Here (Imgur)

R toggle has been cut as an option from Project ZM. SM controls make it redundant.

Fixed the following:
- Using Kraid C as an area shortcut was unintended. This room has been updated.
- The doors Tourian 0 connected to had inconsistent connections, making the power bomb shortcut a mess. Now, only the first save station (Tourian B, door 18) uses an event connection, and all doors will eventually connect to Tourian F.
- Demo A in Kraid needed samus' Y position updated as it was out of bounds.
- Chozodia 1F was not possible to perfect-stealth due to projectiles hitting the ceiling above the pirate. The breakable wall has been shifted down one tile, and the pirate moved forward one tile.

Gameplay changes:
- Removed autocharge beam.
- Doubled charge beam damage, to make it a worthwhile ability.
- Text messages can be instantly closed.
- Undid statue swaps in Unknown Items.
- Mecha Ridley's "100% mode" threshold is increased from >10% to >30% items.
- Moved first seen space pirate in Chozodia 5 back to his original spot, he still patrols the room.

World Design Changes:
- Redid super missile door for Crateria E in unknown items patch variants.
- Removed Unnecessary chozo statues from the unknown items patch variants.
- A small shortcut was added to the hidden missile tank in Norfair 2F.
- The bottom crumble block in Crateria 8 (outside power grip) has been changed to a slow crumble block.

Aesthetic Changes:
- Slightly improved Deorem's graphics.

Known Issues:
- [UNK_ITEMS] Completing the chozo trial acts as though you didn't have the fully powered suit.
- (Vanilla bug) Every certain number of frames, you cannot exit the zipline.
- Demos need to be updated due to the physics changes.

[FelixWright]

Thanks to the help of @GRBow from the Zero Mission Speedrunning community, Project ZM has a speedrunning.com page!
https://www.speedrun.com/project_zm

Main Categories are:

Any%
100% (Hundo)
4% Low - Morph Ball, Missiles, Bombs, Ice Beam

Misc Categories are:

100% Map Completion (Mapo)
Challenge% - Play the game 4% up to Mothership power bomb tank, then complete the game with 100% items
All Major Upgrades - Complete the game after viewing all of the item text boxes that appear when grabbing a new item
69% - Complete the game after obtaining 69% items, what those items are does not matter.

Main categories have difficulty subcategories (Easy Normal Hard) and Unknown Items subcategories (Unknown Items Easy, Unknown Items Normal, Unknown Items Hard)

Misc categories have 2 subcategories: Normal, and Unknown Items (Normal)

[FelixWright]

Project ZM v0.7.3 -- 10/27/2020

Fixed the following:
- [UNK_ITEMS] Unknown items were given, but had the wrong message, played the wrong jingle, could not be toggled and did not change samus' appearance.
- In the status screen, weapon descriptions were not control ambiguous.
- Brinstar 2 had leftover long beam hint statues in other spritesets.

Gameplay changes:
- Zero Suit samus now also has a 3-frame walljump animation, matching the power suit.
- Status screen, World map (A on map screen), and Sleep screen can now all be left with START.
- Any button can be used to resume after using a save station.

Aesthetic Changes:
- Title screen "ZERO MISSION" graphics updated to "PROJECT ZM"
- Title screen year "2004" updated to "2020"
- Save stations given a second line of text: "Press any button to continue."

Known Issues:
- [UNK_ITEMS] Completing the chozo trial acts as though you didn't have the fully powered suit.
- (Vanilla bug) Every certain number of frames, you cannot exit the zipline.
- Demos need to be updated due to the physics changes.

[FelixWright]

Project ZM v0.8 -- 09/20/2021

Fixed the following:
- [UNK_ITEMS] Brinstar 26 had leftover wave beam statues in other spritesets.
- Increased Ridley Aggro threshold to >2 missiles
- Missing clipdata top right of Chozodia 3E (C3 D3 E3) and Kraid 1C (C5)
- Crateria 8 still had a locked door
- Brinstar 0 Tiling error
- [Unknown Items] Crateria 9 -> E door was green inside which soft locked people without super missiles
- Attract demos were messed up by the new physics
- [Unknown Items] speedbooster hint statue was still placed in Hard difficulty
- Kraid 7's Mua skip shortcut would make acid in the room transparent until the room was reloaded
- map station downloads had map tile 0 on the bottom edge of the screen
- changed palette slot of shadows in tileset 4A from F to 5
- Crateria 8, 10 morph maze changed from bg2 to bg0
- changed palette slot of BG2 elements in tileset 10 from 3 to 6
- [Unknown Items] Fixed a Misplaced door in Tourian D
- tiling error @ crateria 9, F
- tiling error @ chozodia D
- Removed drops I previously added from sprites A6, A7 (chozodia security eye lasers) due to drops breaking their AI on death
- Bunch of sprites still had maroon outlines

Gameplay changes:
- All Charge beam damage doubled in standard patch (No Unknown Items)
- [Unknown Items] Plasma beam damage further reduced. Plasma Charge shots deal Vanilla damage.
Plasma = 1_______________________(3 in Vanilla)
Plasma + Long/Wave = 2__________(4 in Vanilla)
Plasma + Ice = 2_________________(4 in Vanilla)
Plasma + Ice + Long/Wave = 2____(5 in Vanilla)
All beams = 2____________________(6 in Vanilla)
- Power Bomb Vulnerabilities added to Primary Sprites
    16, 17, 71 (Brown/Purple/Jet Rippers)
    61 (Ridley)
    65 (Frozen Metroid)
    67 (Ball Spitter)
    73 (Atomic)
    75 (Mother Brain)
    7D, 87 (Zebetites)
    86 (Imago)
    BD (Mecha Ridley)
- Power Bomb Vulnerabilities added to Secondary Sprites
    3 (Kraid)
    A (Deorem)
    20 (MB Jar)
    27 (MB Turret Shot)
    36 (Gadora Eye)
    44 (Mecha Ridley Glass Cover) [This doesn't work yet]
- Removed Deorem tweak: Deorem will once again run away like in vanilla
- Removed Charge Beam vulnerability from Sprite 86 (Imago) due to it softlocking the game if the final blow is Pseudo Screw Attack. Recover ammo by shooting his stinger projectiles!
- Mid air ball spark is once again possible without hi jump (Another way to get early Power Bombs)
- Respin out of a shinespark (credit: Captain Glitch)
- Retain shinespark charge after taking damage (credit: Captain Glitch)
- Shinespark in 2 block tall passages (credit: kiliwily)
- Screw attack and speed booster reveal hidden tanks (credit: kiliwily)
- Screw attack breaks bomb chain blocks (credit: kiliwily)
- Separate weapon highlight colors (credit: raygun)
- Beam burst (Fire charged shots with B while PBs selected) (credit: raygun)
- Bomb jumping in water (credit: somerando)
- Ingame message close timer set to 0x32 (up from 0) for readability. Still 0 for unknown items

Aesthetic changes:
- Ridley boss tile adjustment (credit: somerando)
- Replace "New" in file select with "New Game+"
- Applied MZM recolor patch to standard and Unknown Items
- "Crateria" text added left edge of Chozodia map
- Title screen overhauled with version number & date
- Low energy red digits (credit: raygun)
- added bg2 behind pit blocks in norfair 22/2B/36

World Design Changes:
- Removed power grip barrier in Norfair 4 for all difficulties in standard patch
- Reverted the locations of Space Jump and Plasma Beam to their original locations
- Allow Norfair before bombs
- Allow early PBs from Norfair 37 (lava pit) (lock Crateria 1 Hatch 2, 7 hatch 1, and 9 hatch 1 before event 43)
- Crateria 8, 9, 10, 11, Norfair 1, 2F made easier for Norfair before bombs
- Removed power bomb shortcut in Tourian 0/F (main elevator)
- Moved Tourian map room to be optional again (behind missile hatch)
- Map and room adjustments for bottom of Norfair 2B and Ridley 2 to have arrows connecting the areas (Kiru Giru -> Imago)
- Norfair 5: changed reforming shot block at the top of ridley shortcut and by bottom missile tank to no reform
- Simplified Ridley B (Ridley farm room) and Crateria 0 (Landing Site)
- Norfair 38 (Kraid <-> Norfair shortcut) Replaced Power Bomb blocks with Screw Attack blocks
- Kraid C: (Escape zipline) Undid one way exit, replaced with gray door (unlock Kraid 0 Hatch 5 when event 1E)
- Replace 1x platforms with speed booster blocks in Kraid 0 (Main elevator)
- Brinstar 3 and 7 partial shinespark shortcut (Blue + Brown brinstar vertical shafts)
- Landing site PB moved to Crateria B (Ripper pool)
- Crateria 7, 9, A, D power bomb doors changed to regular doors (Locked, unlock after fully powered suit obtained)
- replaced solid blocks in center of Ridley 5 with speed boost blocks
- added exit for potential softlock at Chozodia 47 energy tank (Next to Mecha Ridley)
- [Unknown Items] Crateria 7 super missile door changed to regular door

[Pethronos]

Just started a game and went straight to Norfair with only morph ball and missiles. Can't go to the left without long beam. Can't return back to Brinstar. I reached Ice beam, but no way to continue. I think making possible reaching Norfair so early is not a good decision. Or have I overlooked something??

Edit: Ok I can go to the left, but nothing to do in Crateria/Chozodia without bombs. I can freeze the enemies but I can't jump-morph SM style, so I can't return to brinstar either.

[FelixWright]

Just started a game and went straight to Norfair with only morph ball and missiles. Can't go to the left without long beam. Can't return back to Brinstar. I reached Ice beam, but no way to continue. I think making possible reaching Norfair so early is not a good decision. Or have I overlooked something??

Edit: Ok I can go to the left, but nothing to do in Crateria/Chozodia without bombs. I can freeze the enemies but I can't jump-morph SM style, so I can't return to brinstar either.

you can go left by using missiles. in crateria you can get power grip and return to brinstar. the level design is changed so the morph tunnel doesn't require hi-jump or bombs.

you can also go right with some well-placed walljumps which lets you get ice beam. you will be forced to use speedbooster chozo hint statue though. I might shift it down next update so it's not required.

I made the decision to do it because NEStroid lets you go to norfair before bombs and it gives the player just a smidge more freedom.

[Pethronos]

Right, I'd overlooked the beam breakable blocks next to the first unknown item room. Reached power grip and could continue. But maybe that freedom is somwhat double-edged. If a not experienced player reaches Norfair without knowing or mastering walljumping, maybe he/she will not know how to reach Power Grip. Maybe a slightly modification of the platform in the capture would be a solution.

[FelixWright]

Right, I'd overlooked the beam breakable blocks next to the first unknown item room. Reached power grip and could continue. But maybe that freedom is somwhat double-edged. If a not experienced player reaches Norfair without knowing or mastering walljumping, maybe he/she will not know how to reach Power Grip. Maybe a slightly modification of the platform in the capture would be a solution.

i may just change the bomb blocks to be something else like shot blocks or shot 2x2.

[Pethronos]

But, on the other hand, you should't open the entire world to anyone. Those are the risks of making changes to offer different ways of progression or very low level possibilities. You can break the sense of cohesion or the very essence of the metroidvania genre's philosophy.

Anyway, if you open that route to anyone, there is no way to go back for bombs, so that bomb blocks don't make sense anymore.

[FelixWright]

But, on the other hand, you should't open the entire world to anyone. Those are the risks of making changes to offer different ways of progression or very low level possibilities. You can break the sense of cohesion or the very essence of the metroidvania genre's philosophy.

It's still pretty strict about where you can go, despite this extra route.

Anyway, if you open that route to anyone, there is no way to go back for bombs, so that bomb blocks don't make sense anymore.

You can go back for bombs by re-entering Brinstar from Crateria.

[Pethronos]

You can go back for bombs by re-entering Brinstar from Crateria.
[/quote]

Via Unk Item and Power Grip zone, so wall jump is needed in my screenshot room, and bomb blocks don't make sense.

Or am I overlooking something again?

[FelixWright]

You can go back for bombs by re-entering Brinstar from Crateria.

Via Unk Item and Power Grip zone, so wall jump is needed in my screenshot room, and bomb blocks don't make sense.

Or am I overlooking something again?

You will need to perform that wall jump for now, but those bomb blocks will be changed to shot blocks in a future update. Shifting the platforms would make them either be too short or tall for platforming up, so that's why I will change the blocks instead.

[FelixWright]

Project ZM 0.8.1 -- 10/17/2021
IMGUR Gallery of changes here

Fixed the following:
UPDATED THE README/OP! PLEASE TAKE A LOOK
- Softlocks in Norfair 1 and Norfair 8 related to norfair before bombs
- Fixed new physics knockback
- Fixed softlock caused by killing Imago with pseudo-screw attack (kiliwily)
- Tiling errors in Crateria 7, 9, F

Gameplay changes:
- Power bomb jumping (kiliwily)
- Room transitions added back in for standard patch

Enemy changes:
- Imago is once again vulnerable to charge beam
- Mecha ridley harder fight check changed from >30% items to >=60%

World Design Changes:
- Crateria 9 path up is more obvious
- Norfair 0 redesign for Norfair before bombs
- Standard patch: shifted speed booster hint chozo down 1 block for Norfair before bombs

[TP10]

So you're the one behind me getting all this fun!

I must admit it, at first when I saw this hack on romhacking, thanks to those reviews I thought this was just another day full of glitchy games. Then somehow I came here and looked at all the features and man I had a lot of fun.
I'll point those awesome things I found in the hack.
*I liked a lot the idea of being able to use unknown items right when you get them, this saved me a lot of backtracking in some areas.
* A movable shinespark! This saved me a lot of almost impossible puzzles I tried for a 100%, specially the fact that running and jumping can gather energy for the shinespark (even in Morph Ball!!!)
* Snes controls were a good addition too, it would be perfect if you could cancel selecting a missile, instead of pressing select two times to be able to use the normal beam again (I'm playing on a 3Ds) but I know too that maybe a quick cancel button can be impossible bc game system
* Skipping cutscenes: even though some are short, this was awesome, I hope someone implements this on Fusion too.
* Time attack: Just when I thought I saw everything, Time attack appears! Of course it's the normal game, but it's the first time I felt proud of finishing Metroid in 1 hour!
* Idk if you did something with bomb jump, but now I feel it's a lot easier than before.
* Single wall J U M P I N G ! My God, you're my hero along with the guy who made Fusion special edition!
What else can I say? You're awesome! I'm hoping to see the next release of this project, and as a suggestion... Would it be possible to make Crocomire usable as a boss fight? It would be neat to use him instead those kinda greenish spiders next to wave beam

[FelixWright]

Update time

Project ZM 0.8.2 -- 11/06/2021
IMGUR Gallery of changes here

Fixed the following:
- Norfair 6 - Ledge at first lava pool was too high to get out without power grip or wall jumping. Lowered ledge.
- Norfair 8 - Softlock if player enters without long beam, bombs, or missiles. Added shot block behind Chozo statue.
- Messed up particles + droplets due to 4th minimap color and yellow power bombs. Edited graphics.

Gameplay changes:
- Power bomb jumping now activates morph ball launchers.
- [Standard patch] Room transitions 3x faster.

Aesthetic changes:
- Outline of screw attack kill particles changed from green to purple.
- [Standard] Rewrote fully powered suit message to be more like vanilla.

[ShadowOne333]

Been having a blast with the latest version of ZM as of late.
One thing I'd like to suggest, and I'm not if it's possible, is if the opening/starting image of Samus can be reimplemented in the new Crateria starting place.

I'm talking about this one:


Other than that, everyting has been going well!
I'll report back if I find any non-reported bug or issue.

[FelixWright]

Late reply but a couple things

* Time attack: Just when I thought I saw everything, Time attack appears! Of course it's the normal game, but it's the first time I felt proud of finishing Metroid in 1 hour!
* Idk if you did something with bomb jump, but now I feel it's a lot easier than before.
* Single wall J U M P I N G ! My God, you're my hero along with the guy who made Fusion special edition!
What else can I say? You're awesome! I'm hoping to see the next release of this project, and as a suggestion... Would it be possible to make Crocomire usable as a boss fight? It would be neat to use him instead those kinda greenish spiders next to wave beam

- Time attack is actually in vanilla, too. It's just not really mentioned anywhere. In an official capacity, it was used in japan for a contest to win a special metroid zero mission edition GBA SP. You just need a save file that has beat the game (samus symbol) and use up left right down to select it. It saves any% and 100% IGT but not low%.

- Nah bomb jumping should be vanilla. That being said the updated physics might make it feel a bit better i.e. having some momentum left over when midair morphing/unmorphing

- Single wall jumping is actually in vanilla too. The only thing I changed here is that I made walljumping 50% faster than before, and also let you walljump with spacejump.

- I probably won't be adding crocomire to this hack. For one, his AI was never completed, and for another a lot of the custom code used in the hack actually overwrites his unused code and graphics. There are patches that complete his AI, and I could with effort make that custom code use the end of ROM instead of crocomire, but my mission with project ZM is simply to make vanilla have more tricks, routes and mechanics. I don't want it to differ too much from the original game, hence why there is still the stealth segment and you cannot go to chozodia early.

I appreciate the feedback though! If you come across any problems please say something about it.  :colonrightv:

Been having a blast with the latest version of ZM as of late.
One thing I'd like to suggest, and I'm not if it's possible, is if the opening/starting image of Samus can be reimplemented in the new Crateria starting place.

I'm talking about this one:


Other than that, everyting has been going well!
I'll report back if I find any non-reported bug or issue.

Good point! I may bring this back in the future, though that cutscene is actually fairly tricky to work with. When those graphics are loaded they tend to overwrite palettes (and graphics? maybe both) until the room is reset. I will look into it though.

[LetsPlayNintendoITA]

hey the discord link is invalid. is there a new one please?

[FelixWright]

Updated discord link

[firvulag359]

Sorry to necro this thread but I need some help!

Playing through the game and I'm near the end, I've just completed the test to get Samus her suit back but getting to this point I didn't get the spacejump Unknown Item; as such I can't get out of this room, I'm completely stuck.

Am I screwed here or is there someway around this? 

Otherwise great hack!  This is my first time playing and until this point I was really enjoying it :)

[FelixWright]

Sorry to necro this thread but I need some help!

Playing through the game and I'm near the end, I've just completed the test to get Samus her suit back but getting to this point I didn't get the spacejump Unknown Item; as such I can't get out of this room, I'm completely stuck.

Am I screwed here or is there someway around this? 

Otherwise great hack!  This is my first time playing and until this point I was really enjoying it :)

It's a bit difficult but what you can do is infinite bomb jump (IBJ) upwards. You can do this by entering morph ball, laying a bomb, waiting, then laying another bomb immediately after the previous one explodes, that way instead of falling all the way down, you get launched back in the air. You can chain this to give yourself infinite verticality, hence the name of the trick. It will take some trial and error to understand, but fortunately metroid zero mission is the most forgiving game for IBJ. Once you get the hang of that, You can also start laying a bomb near the peak of your bomb jump, this is known as double IBJ. It gives you fast verticality.

Here is a video showing how this looks: https://youtu.be/pmSsEuVMIVg

For the future, I may look into a way to let players exit the room without space or IBJ.

[firvulag359]

Just did it!  You're not wrong about it being forgiving, essentially just mashed the button and eventually got out :)

Thanks for the reply and your great work on this hack, much appreciated.

[FelixWright]

Project ZM 0.8.3
IMGUR Gallery of changes here

Fixed the following:
- Misplaced chozo statue in Norfair 6
- Slippery platforming due to physics changes
- Missing elevator in Tourian after MB dies

Gameplay changes:
- Missiles and super missiles now also reveal breakable blocks.
- Gallery is now always available.
- Fusion gallery is now accessible without system link.
- Time attack records are now viewable before completing a time attack run.
- Moved all difficulty changes to the enable unknown items patch.
- [unk_itm]Mecha ridley also has a 100% items check for his glass cap, which now matches the check % of his body.
- significantly improved tractor beam.
- minimap increased to 5 x 3 dimensions.
- shinespark impact reverted back to its original pose, instead having a reduced delay after impact.
- delay before ballspark reduced to match delay before shinespark.

Aesthetic changes:
- Charge beam muzzle flare visible while spin jumping a la AM2R.
- Background of west brinstar was made dark blue.
- "Connector" room between brinstar east & west was made to have a more natural transition.
- In place of the Gallery unlock message is a message for how to play Time Attack.
- New slightly smaller escape timer graphics.
- Less obnoxious title screen. Version is in bottom right corner, and a "V" is in bottom left for the enable unknown items patch.

Level design changes:
- Added mothership shortcut to Chozodia 4E. Requires early power bombs and shinespark knowledge.
- Changed missile tank lava trap in Ridley to use fake lava, so it's less unfair for players who skip grip.
- Power bomb block shortcut in mothership was widened.

[djcdubz]

Pretty sure I have a soft lock that needs fixing.

Started the game. Was able immediately to grab morph, plasma (was tricky!) and power grip. Proceeded to grab ice beam but got locked in that room as I needed either a super missile or the long beam (if this will even work; blocks may be bomb blocks) to exit. I had neither so I had to reset.

[FelixWright]

Pretty sure I have a soft lock that needs fixing.

Started the game. Was able immediately to grab morph, plasma (was tricky!) and power grip. Proceeded to grab ice beam but got locked in that room as I needed either a super missile or the long beam (if this will even work; blocks may be bomb blocks) to exit. I had neither so I had to reset.

Check behind the chozo statue.