Umbrella Alpha Gameplay Discussion Thread

[Cattfish]

To keep tech, questions, bugs, feedback, and miscellaneous discussion about Umbrella's ongoing gameplay development in one accessible location for HVS, here is the the ordained Umbrella thread.

>>>>> This is NOT a thread to discuss balance changes or feedback for characters other than Umbrella. <<<<<
​

Umbrella was released in Alpha on August 31st, 2021. Here is a brief FAQ for users that I will try to update as more gets added:

Q: What are those little squares in Umbrella's Portrait?
A: This is Hungern's status bar, which affects her moves in a variety of ways. 0-2 Pips is "Overstuffed", 3-6 Pips is "Satiated", 7-9 Pips is "Ravenous", and Maxed out is "Starving".

Q: Do the puddles from Umbrella's Air Throw do anything yet?
A: Hold tight. There are more fun things to be implemented shortly.

Q: Can I set [4]6 LP+LK as an assist?
A: Coming soon!

Q: Where can I find those COMBOS?
A: Try the Twitter hashtag #SG_ UMB for what people have been uploading! Please post your tech here too, so we can look back fondly on original Umbrella development.

Q: Will the Mizuumi Wiki update with Umbrella data?
A: Once Umbrella becomes finalized, expect the wiki to fill up with information. Patches will frequently alter data, and it is incredibly difficult to maintain!

Q: Let's discuss PALETTES!!!!
A: That's not a question, but go here for fan discussion of palettes. https://skullheart.com/threads/umbrella-palette-ideas-for-fun.11640/

https://twitter.com/x/status/1432919053438537729

As a starting point of discussion, what are your thoughts on the Hunger meter? Location, readability, etc!

 

[Fumako]

Haven't gotten the chance to play her yet,
but I dislike where the hunger meter is.
This is specially considering how important
I assume it is/will be. Having to take your
eyes so far away from the centre of the
screen, the locus of action, can be detrimental.
This is alright for the super meter as its use is
pretty simple and cut and dry: see the big
number, know what super you can use, mostly
for combos which makes it even simpler.

But the hunger meter?
The fact that you have to take into account
how many pips you have makes its faraway
location and size a problem, I think.

The fact that it changes colour for each of
the states is nice and really helps with my
issues helps

HOWEVER
I'm still personally not a fan?
It feels like such a busy area of the screen
even if you disregard its distance from the
locus of action. It contests with the portrait,
the super meter, the super meter's number,
the name of the character, etc.

My thoughts may change once I get the
chance to sit down and try her out.
Keep in mind that what I've professed
here so far is just issues I foresee myself
having based on previous experiences.
I personally am horrible at reading screens
and keeping track of resources, often losing
track of my meter in GG Strive.

 

[Chrono_Tata]

HOWEVER
I'm still personally not a fan?
It feels like such a busy area of the screen
even if you disregard its distance from the
locus of action. It contests with the portrait,
the super meter, the super meter's number,
the name of the character, etc.

Personally I think the location is good. I've always been a fan of Skullgirls' UI that put all the important UI information in one section of the screen and not all over the place. I guess it's a personal preference but I don't think it's too busy. It is on the character portrait and name, true, but that's not information you pay attention to in the game (you know who you are playing right). It's near enough to the super meter which is something you will need to pay attention to anyway so I find it helpful that I can just look there and see both.

The Hunger bar could definitely be made clearer which is something a lot of people pointed out and some of us have suggested ideas to the UI designer per the tweet above. Once you get a chance to play and see the bar in action, you could add some feedbacks if you have any.

 

[tristePinguino]

Having to take your eyes so far away from the centre of the screen, the locus of action, can be detrimental.

I agree with this sentiment, but thankfully, Hungern changes visually depending on his Hunger Status, so there isn't always a need to glace at their portrait.
While OVERSTUFFED, Hungern gets the meat sweats (as a particle effect) and is paler in color. He briefly flashes orange upon reaching SATIATED, but otherwise looks "normal". While RAVENOUS, Hungern's eye veins become visible, he gains a red Fukua-esque aura, and a red vein-like pattern across his canopy. Upon reaching STARVING, tears/scars (?) appear across his canopy, his irises grow duller in color, and bits of his canopy/skin will flake off (as a particle effect).
The colors I mentioned probably aren't accurate across all palettes, but the idea is there.

I think the eye above the meter is a cute touch! But I'm kinda bummed that Umbrella's sigil isn't visible, lol.

 

[sheep]

personally want 46 lp designated to a different button

whenever I want 6lp I usually get 46lp because of my charge habits, but I could probably just do 6lp > 5mp x2 > 46 lp

 

[tso]

^ Bite special will likely have M/H variants if that affects your thinking of the move.

I like the hunger meter. It's good redundancy with the hungern visual effects. As long as you're not looking for something with very specific meter requirements you can totally eyeball your meter without looking at the bar. And that might be easier to do the more finished she gets. Pop those dividers on the hunger-bar that have been tossed around and it's great.

 

[missingno]

To get extra hits from throw and [4]6LP+LK, you mash LP+LK. To get extra hits from [4]6LP, you mash 464646. Took me forever to figure out and I am very confused why it's not one consistent input, please just make them the same.

 

[Liam]

I am very confused why it's not one consistent input

Well, Hungern chomps (throw input) with LP LK and grates his teeth left and right (his jaw moves in the stick direction), so they're different. However I know a lot of people are requesting LP HP for [4]6LP, like Beat Extend, so that will probably arrive at some point.

^ Bite special will likely have M/H variants if that affects your thinking of the move.

Umbrella is like Squigly in that she just has the one version of each Special Move, but it's impacted by other stuff, like her Hunger. That's the plan right now at least, but we'll see how things develop as they are added.

personally want 46 lp designated to a different button
whenever I want 6lp I usually get 46lp because of my charge habits, but I could probably just do 6lp > 5mp x2 > 46 lp

Yeah, that makes sense. If you play charge characters you'll probably run into that a lot. I'll give it more of a think.

 

[tso]

Expected Squigly arranged specials but was unsure. Can always swap them around when more get added. Any charge move on 6lp/hp is going to have that issue.

 

[Liam]

3.3.2 is now live, please restart Steam to grab the update.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/245170/view/2941401988338680907

Changes:

Spoiler

UMBRELLA

• While the tongue from Special Move A is rolling out, it will destroy projectiles it collides with.
• Temporarily disabled Umbrella's additional taunt effect that would adjust her Special Move A functionality. This will likely return later.
• Taunt now builds Hunger over time instead of all at once, and it builds less Hunger overall.
• Fixed a bug where JLK could cancel into Air Throw at any time.
• JLK adjusts upwards and downwards momentum further along in the animation compared to before.
• Fixed a bug where hitting Umbrella as she caught the opponent with Special Move A's tongue would not release the victim.
• Fixed a bug where heavy air normals were building incorrect Drama (Undizzy) values.
• Fixed a bug where her Burst was not correctly tagged as a Counter Hit state.
• Fixed a bug where some of Umbrella's effects would not be adjusted by vibration during heavy hitstop.
• Umbrella's dash jump speed has been increased by 10%.
• All chewing and chomping (Throw, Air Throw, Special Move A and B) can now kill the opponent and will play their death scream, instead of waiting for them to be spit out.
• Air Throw will no longer trap dead characters in the Bubble.
• Fixed a bug where cHK would spin characters around during blockstun.
• Umbrella starts with 4 hunger pips, down from 5 and a half.
• JMP hitbox extended slightly downwards, to reliably hit all characters crouching if she is in the Ravenous state, as originally intended.
• Adjusted Hungern's eating intro animation.
• JLP now hits Big Band while he's crouching even if she is rising, but it is still mid while rising against all other characters.

BIG BAND

• Fixed a bug where H Brass Knuckles hit sound effect was not playing.

 

[hategirlism]

I personally think it feels a little bit weird that when the hunger gauge is full, it means that Hungern is starving, but when it's empty it means that he's full. I feel it would make more sense to change it so that when the bar is full, Hungern is full and vice-versa. It'd feel more intuitive and easily understandable like that in my opinion.

I like that [4]6 requires 464646(etc) to get the extra hits, it feels like a nice detail that made sense when looking at the animation of the move. But I wouldn't have a problem with any changes that people want to make it more consistent with other moves like Beat Extend or her other throws.

I also like [4]6 being on LP. That makes it so you can't super easily throw out a 6LP right after blocking, which I think is really interesting.

 

[tristePinguino]

To get extra hits from [4]6LP, you mash 464646.

I did not realize that pressing left & right (4 & 6) is what made Hungern grind his teeth; I thought any input direction would do. I've been rotating my control stick like I'm playing Mario Party, lol.

I also really like the idea of the Hunger Meter being empty when Hungern is STARVING.

 

[Stuff]

Is there any chance the Hungern eyeball can show the 4 different states umbrella is in for short hand glances? Currently the colors are really useful but I'm a little concerned I might confuse ravenous for my level 3 bar color, or level 2 for overstuffed. It's kind of an extreme case in all honesty. I think I can see her bar just fine and the animations and added effects (and the sound effects for ravenous normals) are really helpful too but idk I just figured I'd mention it anyway. Different colors on the bar may help my very specific concern I guess maybe an added effect of stomach acid or something idk.

Maybe an extra effect can go on the bar? Like sweat droplets, a content eye, a swirling eye, and an x eye kind of like "x_x" but one eyeball since that's the eyeball on the portrait over the bar. I'm assuming the resource bar already comes with a lot of compromises (I'm assuming it's designed this way on purpose 'cause I don't think portrait stuff can be dynamic but I could be wrong, that's how assuming is) and that might not be possible.

Also empty bar for starving makes sense to me too

Also also, I like that hungern stuff is all on punches, it's a cute touch and easy to remember maybe her 6LP can be a 4LP, a bit nontraditional but at least this way she keeps the cute consistent thing she's got going on the only downside I can see is that on ground block you could os 4LP and blocking for AA but if what needs to be AA'd is already in the air well there's no preblock in that case iirc though I suppose it still could be possible to os that as well.

 

[Chrono_Tata]

Is there any chance the Hungern eyeball can show the 4 different states umbrella is in for short hand glances? Currently the colors are really useful but I'm a little concerned I might confuse ravenous for my level 3 bar color, or level 2 for overstuffed. It's kind of an extreme case in all honesty. I think I can see her bar just fine and the animations and added effects (and the sound effects for ravenous normals) are really helpful too but idk I just figured I'd mention it anyway. Different colors on the bar may help my very specific concern I guess maybe an added effect of stomach acid or something idk.

In Ravenous state, the eye indicator on top of the bar already becomes bloodshot, so I think that is pretty clear? Maybe certain effects for other states too might be helpful, like a closed eye for Overstuffed so that the difference between Overstuffed and Satiated could be clearer.

Regarding the bar indicating whether Hungern is full or empty, I think there are good arguments for both sides so I'm pretty neutral how it should be. I think the argument for a "Fullness bar" as opposed to a Hunger bar is semantic, and it's easier to explain to people when full bar = full Hungern. Like if I say "that move has that property when full", do I mean full bar or full Hungern? Having "Full" indicating both things remove the ambiguity.

On the other hand, the pips in the bar, at least the way she works right now, indicate a resource that can be spent for extra damage via the "chews" on her throws. Gameplay-wise I think it makes more sense in term of the Hunger bar being a resource bar. I think once the player gets used to the sematic around the Hunger system, the current way makes a lot more sense. If you're a Robo-Ky player it is probably already intuitive.

 

[Fumako]

I've finally managed to sit down
and play with Umbrella and now
I can see that my initial concerns
were definitely overblown. It's not
as hard as I thought to see and I
think it comes through very clear.
In the heat of action I can still very
easily lose track of it, but not to
the extent that I've feared.

My current biggest gripe right now
is just her [4]6+lp and having to grind
it left to right. I get and appreciate us
having to mimic the motion but having
any direction besides left or right
cancelling the move has been very
annoying for me and frequently causes
me to drop it early. I get that this is just
because of my crummy execution but
I would appreciate something akin to
Big Band's DP where the shake can be
done with the buttons.

 

[KassRigaya]

So i randomly discovered that during a combo overstuffed and ravenous can't change to satiated and starving until you drop the combo so it goes like this:
mid combo
overstuffed CAN'T become satiated
satiated CAN become ravenous
ravenous CAN'T become starving
starving CAN become any of the others by spending hunger

thought it would be useful if someone wants to do a full overstuffed or ravenous route

 

[BallotBoxer]

Yeah, I'm on team "empty = hungry" too. It should fill as Hungern gets full.

The Hungern color-coded status:
OVERSTUFFED
SATIATED
RAVENOUS
STARVING

It is okay because it tries to relate to Hungern's appearance, but I prefer a smaller ramp:
OVERSTUFFED ▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉
SATIATED ▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉
RAVENOUS ▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉
STARVING ▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉

Yellow to red, with black to represent the empty feeling of hunger.

Incidentally, the air-grab bubbles are so cute!

Spoiler

 

[Triviality]

Ravenous-

maintaining ravenous is incredibly fun like wow. I think the sweet spot of 2 pegs to stay in that mode is the most fun I've had and this character rules but in concept there are certain things I feel should make maintaining this mode more worth it.

Basically she needs someway to combo into 5hk, and her jumping heavy punch should bounce a little higher or have some form of aerial control. Her routing feels weird atm, probably as a result of her not being complete but I thought I'd put my feelings on that out there

Also her inputs are wack im so bad at charge motions daddy liam pls :(((

 

[Cattfish]

Her combo routing is going to change once more is implemented. (Ie. her command grab will always wall splat, not wall bounce, and you'll spend a bar to convert midscreen.)

 

[Nuuance]

bit o' feedback edited to shorten a bit

Can we please get small but noticeable visual & audio tells soon as new hunger level is reached

For example, beo, squigly have audio & visual flourishes on their character model getting charge/hype. I find myself looking up in upper left a lot more than id like & i know partially it's getting used to things, but there should definitely be something like a glow/aura (like the pushblock spark) or something fitting with the flavour...maybe a bunch of water/liquid spurts from hungern...use the banana asset from filias j.hp & put it in a speech bubble. just something as resourceful/dope as eliza's droplet pickup animations. Or gushh liquid when ravenous. Also, making the visual state of hungern more differentiated...overstuffed & satiated (apart from checking meter) are very close. also perhaps more droplets/flakes falling from starved. again, just more actual 'at a glance' gameplay to supplement the meter (which i like) -- Can definitely see that helping flow of battle much more & using meter more intuitively. basically: Make overstuffed bulbous THICCC & other stuff.

Also believe hunger states could be a little smoother

for example w/nagoriyuki/roboky have attacks & whatnot starting out slow(er) & w/less damage, but as bloodlust/heat grows, they get more damage & range, but of course closer to raging out/exploding. with robo ky & nago, theres some sort of...'explosive' double-edged element you can at least use where youre strong, but hurts you. Youd expect hungern to go berserk in some fashion...not just get tired. feels a bit counter intuitive at least to me. i say this conservatively as its barely day...3/4? but a thought for later, maybe 'starving' should actually be the first level as in starting out really weak. and when meter reaches max something happening that gets worse if you let it go on too long.

Rn it gets to full bar & meters blinking like....ummm what now? bit worse frame data doesnt really make me panic as much. slower moves kinda make things cumbersome, but nothing band or other players arent used to. I could understand if 'something happened' then your bar flashes for a bit & you lose all resources for dancing on the edge too much - not saying it should be that - but I guess what im trying to say is theres usually a punchy climax to reaching max meter for this type of thing. But Right now, the actual drawback at full feels oddly empty. look forward to extra moves tho for sure.

with that said, thank you everyone for the feedback & HV/Liam for the hard work

 

[Golbat]

Happy with the Hunger meter as it is right now. I think if you tried to reverse visuals "empty=hungry" you'd run into readability issues where doing things like consuming pips for her grabs makes her meter go up, which goes against the general practice of how resource bars work in fighting games.

 

[Nuuance]

didnt want consuming to make pips go up, it stays the same. tried to clean it up to be more clear.

 

[Liam]

there are certain things I feel should make maintaining this mode more worth it.

Ravenous will most likely make some of her missing specials very powerful, so I'd like to wait for them to arrive before balancing on this incomplete data.

im so bad at charge motions

I believe in you, you can learn!

there should definitely be something like a glow/aura (like the pushblock spark) or something fitting with the flavour

Unless you're running into a bug where it doesn't display on Mac, there is at least one visual effect whenever Hungern changes state.
Do these show up for you?

However, we have more FX planned for the transformation moment to make it easier to spot. Also, to your other point, she has zero sound right now - she will have unique sounds implemented in the future.

 

[Liam]

Also, making the visual state of hungern more differentiated...overstuffed & satiated (apart from checking meter) are very close

We're currently looking into unique frames for Overstuffed, so that none of the 4 states look the same at all during her idles and movement. During attacks, however, he's always going to use the same sprites.

 

[Bankenstein8]

We're currently looking into unique frames for Overstuffed, so that none of the 4 states look the same at all during her idles and movement. During attacks, however, he's always going to use the same sprites.

One way that could work for overstuffed is making it look more visibly stuffed (sort of like how Ravenous looks only without the bloodshot eyes and rapid movements) to give a more bloated appearance, which would also fit with most of the attacks being slower but more powerful.

 

[Stuff]

View attachment 15821

is there any way these could work with the steam launch option -disablelighting ?
I can't see these because of that but I don't want to remove the launch option because the flashing lights from certain moves hurt my eyes.
So a way to still have the flashy fire, electricity, etc effects off but still be able to see neat indicators like that, I wasn't aware she had them

 

[Nuuance]

Ravenous will most likely make some of her missing specials very powerful, so I'd like to wait for them to arrive before balancing on this incomplete data.

I believe in you, you can learn!

Unless you're running into a bug where it doesn't display on Mac, there is at least one visual effect whenever Hungern changes state.
Do these show up for you?

View attachment 15821

However, we have more FX planned for the transformation moment to make it easier to spot. Also, to your other point, she has zero sound right now - she will have unique sounds implemented in the future.

they show up, but they're fairly short/faint & i only just noticed after you said something. Something anyone even a viewer can notice just glancing i mainly meant. Feel like a little mini-flash isn't enough at least for me. squig/beo, there's confetti, a shockwave for squigs, those vibes/FX (i think you said you were looking at that above). I like the idea though!!

sidenote overstuffed feels great w/the slow but hard hitting normals. Hoping overstuffed normals are just as interesting as ravenous! Really gonna have to learn how to get this movement down…looking forward to the depth.

will she have any hunger increasing (or decreasing) moves in addition to her taunt like feeding the ice cream cone?

 

[PaperBag_Sniper]

One way that could work for overstuffed is making it look more visibly stuffed (sort of like how Ravenous looks only without the bloodshot eyes and rapid movements) to give a more bloated appearance, which would also fit with most of the attacks being slower but more powerful.

Same, I think it should look like Hungern is holding back from blowing chunks.

 

[Liam]

is there any way these could work with the steam launch option -disablelighting ?

Not really, disable lighting disables lighting, and those are lighting effects. =(

 

[Stuff]

Unfortunate, but I can still distinguish Umbrella's 4 states without it for what it's worth

 

[Liam]

Hello, figured I'd post a small development update! I wouldn't expect an update today, but sometime next week after September 13th. It may not have all of the things discussed in this post, too.

At the moment, we're working on...

PUDDLES!

We're adding interactions with Umbrella's puddle that is currently spawned from her Air Throw bubble when it pops. You'll be able to interact with the puddle using sMK and cMK. (Note: She will be able to create puddles from other moves in the future, not just Air Throw)

"SUPER MOVE [A]" PROGRESS
We're also working on the projectile part of Umbrella's Super Move A, which at the moment is called "Retina Reflector". It will shoot out a shield that does a lot of stuff... more than you think. This super is shaping up to be very complicated and will take awhile to implement. We'll likely be splitting it up a bit so that it does more and more things with passing updates, as it's too much to deliver on all at once. We want to make sure we have time to work on her other tools and maintain a steady flow of updates.

UMBRELLA'S HUD
We (especially Brady) have been going through all of your feedback sent in on Twitter and this thread and figuring out next steps for any adjustments that we'd like to make. We've got a lead on some promising changes, so look out for those in an upcoming build sometime.

FURTHER BEYOND + MISC

• New unique frames for Hungern when he's Overstuffed! He'll look different from his regular "Satiated" state once this is finished.
• We're still working on her missing specials!
  • Some of them are physical hit attacks that are better when she is Ravenous, and some are projectile spawning attacks (related to bubbles) that will likely be better when she's Overstuffed.
• Bug fixes!
• (Serious balance stuff comes probably much later, once she has more of her kit working.)

 

[Svierrod]

I want to weigh in on the bit about 6LP overlapping with her charge move real quick. I think that, especially for anti-airs, charge characters and forward command normals don't get along super great, since 6LP gives you one of two moves depending on whether you have back charge or not. One solution is to change the inputs.

When theory-crafting fighting game characters for fun, I've found this problem on a charge character in my notes, and fixed it by pushing her HP inputs back one position. So her old 5HP became a 4HP command normal (this is more "default" for her, since she's nearly always holding back anyway), and the old 6HP command normal became her 5HP. Now, with back charge, 4HP gives one HP normal, 5HP gives the other, and 6HP gives the H Sonic Boom special.

Another solution would be to find some way to allow the player to ditch their charge. I wouldn't know how to do that, especially in this engine, in a way that doesn't interfere with regular charge moves. But even if some specific input sequence like 646LP or 623LP always gave the command normal, you could do some series of inputs to always get the normal when you have charge, while keeping it a simple 6LP if you haven't been blocking recently.

Or possibly something like Val's Dead Cross throw with a vial loaded, where holding/releasing the button and/or negative edge somehow comes into play. I'm not pitching any of these in particular. Just want to get some ideas cooking. I'd like to see SOME kind of input that consistently gives the command normal, even if you have charge.

About the only thing that would really disappoint me would be "literally no solution at all". I've witnessed an exchange regarding Them's Fightin' Herds, where a player complained about literally this exact problem in that game, and the response from whichever dev member answered could basically be paraphrased as "Well, it doesn't really matter if you accidentally get your teleport when you try to anti-air with 6A. Just anti-air with 2B instead; it's a better anti-air most of the time anyway. There's no real problem here. Just don't 6A." It's technically correct, but it's not a satisfying answer.

 

[Chrono_Tata]

I feel like her command normal being on f.LP is probably intentional? Her sister Parasoul is also a charging character and has all her punch command normals on forward. It seems like it's specifically to prevent you from having the option to throw out the command normal if you are holding back. I don't play Para though so correct me I'm wrong.

 

[wonderland]

IMO the overlap between 6LP and [4]6LP is pretty cool and adds a bit of depth to the character, but if that isn't intentional 6LP could be changed to 4LP/3LP or something.

I'm definitely all for hunger being flipped(empty = starving, etc), it's kinda confusing as is.

Just a few ideas for umbrella I haven't seen mentioned yet:
-make it so HP~4xN/LP~6 doesn't mash B special, like beat extend. Currently, mashing with HP~LP and then holding back to charge can result in spending hunger unintentionally. Not that big of a deal, but it would be nice for precise hunger management.
-hold j[LK] on whiff/tech off j[MK]. I think whiff j[LK] would make for a fun movement option/punish tool. I've heard that j[MK] is supposed to(?) interact with puddles at some point, so changing that might not be necessary.
-236PP allowing unscaling DHCs like Para sniper, once it becomes a projectile. Obviously the super is going to change a lot, so this might not even be relevant in the future.

Overall, I think Umbrella is already shaping up to be one of the most interesting FG characters I've ever played. She's incredibly fun, even with a ton of her kit missing. Amazing job, HVS/FC!

 

[Liam]

-236PP allowing unscaling DHCs like Para sniper, once it becomes a projectile. Obviously the super is going to change a lot, so this might not even be relevant in the future.

This is just how supers work so there shouldn't need to be anything done here.

Once you DHC out, scaling is reset to 70%, so when the projectile hits after the DHC it's unscaled and uses up your once per combo assist action.

 

[Bookworm]

Feel like I missed the boat, thought I'd mention that at a glance it's not particularly intuitive. The bar lacks flavor connecting it to the mechanic and it doesn't stand out particularly well as it blends into the rest of the HUD. A radical change that might help this (as well as future HUD stuff) would be to remove the name plates from the HUD across the board. They're extraneous because the portrait already conveys what character is on which side, and removing them would free up a ton of HUD real estate for more important things. You also wouldn't have to crop portraits so harshly, so I think it would look a lot prettier too.

 

[Lex]

Feel like I missed the boat, thought I'd mention that at a glance it's not particularly intuitive. The bar lacks flavor connecting it to the mechanic and it doesn't stand out particularly well as it blends into the rest of the HUD. A radical change that might help this (as well as future HUD stuff) would be to remove the name plates from the HUD across the board. They're extraneous because the portrait already conveys what character is on which side, and removing them would free up a ton of HUD real estate for more important things. You also wouldn't have to crop portraits so harshly, so I think it would look a lot prettier too.

Names on the portraits helps with the casual viewing experience imo. It makes it easier to identify and familiarise yourself with who is who when watching matches. Eg watching Tekken online matches as someone who doesn't play Tekken, I find it hard to know which character is which aside from the flagship names because they don't show the character names.

 

[Bookworm]

@Lex

For the name to be important to an casual viewer you need a bunch of things to be true at the same time:
- The user hasn't seen the characters enough to learn their names.
- Commentators either exclusively use the character's name OR the player's name while describing gameplay.
- Commentary is vague enough that a watcher could misconstrue the description of one character's actions over another.

The first automatically corrects itself over time, and the second and third are only going to be true if the commentators are bad at their job. Good commentary requires description of character tools as well as the players use of those tools. If they aren't doing that there are bigger problems than new observers not knowing the character's names. This makes it a super small use case for a very short period of time, inference and natural memorization should be coming into play pretty quickly.

For a player the information is totally extraneous. If you play a character, you're going to know their names and you're going to know which side your HUD is on via the player portrait. You're also going to know the names of the whole roster realistically, especially if the roster is small like it is in skullgirls. A name is not something that you need to check mid match, it provides the same information as the portrait less efficiently and it doesn't have any effect on gameplay. For a player it's a visual flourish and nothing else, if anything it adds visual clutter by taking up precious real estate that could have been used to make existing HUD elements more visible.

For better or for worse, the principle UX design of SG is that the HUD should have as little clutter as possible. This makes these sorts of small design decisions way way more important to consider; the nameplate takes up like 5% of the hud, and it also slightly obscures the super meter. It's also going to make it so any character with a meter will have a really constricted portrait like umbrella's, which I think is pretty ugly. Trimming names would have very little impact while making tons of room for extremely important system tracking. Efficiency requires a lot of small concessions and I don't seen another HUD based solution that wouldn't force a larger size.

 

[Liam]

Hey everyone, 3.3.6 is live, you can download it now.

Skullgirls 2nd Encore - Beta Mode Update [2021-09-17] - Steam News

Hello, Liam here. Today's update includes some new moves for Umbrella, and various bug fixes and game improvements. KNOWN ISSUES: Valentine's Level 5 can cause the game to abruptly close. (Fixed in 3.3.6.1, which is now live if you're reading this!) Umbrella's HUD isn't working quite right on P2...

store.steampowered.com

Brady is asking for more feedback on the updated HUD by the way, you can find the Tweet here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1439031561719095303

 

[PaperBag_Sniper]

Already liking the new UI much more. In a future update would it be possible to make it so that in training mode setting for Hungern now reflects the change from hunger to fullness? With 8 being max full instead of 1.