Okay, firstly posting the thing here I wanted to post, just so it is not lost:
After playing, it bothered me a lot that DB+A, using the go-to poke button, gives me an overhead leaping divekick (or a DP) that gets me hit, instead of anything resembling a crouching jab. If the game MUST stick to directional overloads on two buttons rather than dedicated L/H/Special buttons, then as a player I'd at least like my directional overloads to be similar, and I'd like DB+button not to be different from D+button.
So I thought about control schemes, and came up with:
Two buttons, Poke and Special.
Standing Poke = standing A
Down or Down-Back + Poke = crouching A
Forward + Poke = standing B
Down-Forward + Poke = crouching B
and then specials are F/B/D/N + Special button.
This firstly gets rid of DB+button being vastly different from D+button, and secondly gives each button a dedicated theme, meaning you are not suddenly going to be soaring across the screen when you intended to do cr.A. It also helps teach fighting game concepts a little bit because one button represents the "all normals" group of attacks that you are using for footsies.
And oh, someone @'d me a while ago.
(also,
@Mike_Z )
[snip]
Not Every Element In Your New Game Has To Be Like In Some Other Game Before, unless there's a good justification for it.
Alrighty.
So first, I don't use "it's not like this in another game" as JUSTIFICATION for why something shouldn't be changed. I use the other game as an EXAMPLE of how I think the thing should be handled CORRECTLY,
because that game already happens to handle it correctly. It's easier to see something work in a game than to read an explanation.
Third Strike happens to handle a large number of game-mechanics-things in ways that are, to my mind, correct!
All the other Street Fighter games that
don't have parries handle crossups the same way, as do the Versus series, anything else made by old Capcom, Skullgirls, and KOF. It has nothing to do with the parry OS present in SF3, and everything to do with where your character goes after being HIT or blocking. I just happened to pick 3s because whenever I can pick 3s, I will. It's a wonderfully-put-together game, as well as being easily emulated with hitbox display and frame-by-frame functionality as well as other amazing tools that show parry timers, juggle frames remaining, and so on.
And secondly, there IS a good justification for it: that behavior is the behavior I AGREE WITH as a designer.
If you are jumping to the right, and you hit the opponent normally from the front, they are moved to the right. That makes sense. If you are jumping to the right and cross them up, they would STILL MOVE TO THE RIGHT, because you are also moving to the right. That way, you don't cost yourself distance for hitting with the same attack at different times.
BlazBlue, for example, handles crossups in a way that - to me! - is incorrect. After landing a hit that required precise spacing and timing, you end up further away than a hit that did not require those things. To me as a designer, that's totally backward. I have provided that justification plenty of times, and if you think I'm talking out my ass
here's the relevant section of my UFGTX talk from two years ago covering this exact subject.
I have never, not ONE TIME, done anything "just because that's how another game does it" without considering whether I agree with the choice, and WHY it makes sense or does not.
And if you respond, try to be less insulting, please.
