Thoughts on an A3 remix I was having at work this week.
(to clarify, I don’t think it will happen, but just thinking about tweaks to A3).
Much like [ST]HD Remix, I was thinking more in terms of character tweaks instead of big system changes, but one sorta turned into the other.
In no particular order:
Using Alpha Counters to ghetto patch A3:
-Akuma and Sakura take Alpha 2 damage if they get hit by an AC while V-ISM is active.
-Ditto Zangief, but for the jumping body splash. I’m not even sure if this is ultimately a bad thing for Zangief, as it encourages him to jump in empty, and he can dodge a lot of attacks by doing that. As it is people will be waiting for the splash so they can AC anyway, so Gief gets free SPD when he lands.
-Chun takes A2 damage from ACs on close standing Fierce. Again, I’m not sure if this actually mkaes her much worse; you lose a chunk of your guard bar and a level of super meter when you do ACs anyway.
-Dhalsim takes A2 damage from ACs during far standing Roundhouse (see above), and when he has less than 25% meter while V-ISM is active.
Infinites, etc:
Crouch cancels remain. Despite the fact that they’re a complete accident, I think they’re interesting. As far as infinites go, my idea was to introduce temporary stun damge. After the VC ends, basically your attacks will do stun damage as necessary to dizzy the opponent before you can re-activate, or build meter on the ground.
Let’s say it takes Sodom 10 jumping Fierces to recharge his meter for his infinite- the character he’s fighting will artificially become dizzy after 7, or after his meter gets to 35%, or however it would work out (it’s the MvC2 undizzy principle). So there would be no combination of whiffed special moves or combos after that, which would allow him to continue the infinite without the opponent being able to escape. This would be different for different characters, obviously, and many of them wouldn’t need it at all, just the half dozen or so with recharge infinites.
For those with regular cc infinites (Vega, Cody, Ryu, etc), it’s the same idea. They get some amount of meter back, but particularly in Vega and Cody’s cases, it’s more based on stun damage, since 75 jumping Shorts only gets you 8% meter. This stun damage would reset after the cc combo, and whatever the legit stun that the character had before the cc would return. Guard meter doesn’t normally replenish while you’re being hit, though I considered if it should in these cases. I’m leaning against it.
So, basically, if you want to do 100% damage, you’ll need to land a VC twice. This characters who maybe aren’t that goodi n V, but have an infinite going for them (ie. Birdie, V-Gen, etc), but…hopefully they can be compensated with something a bit more practical.
-ISMs:
X-ISM has lost pretty hardcore to V-ISM since the game was new. X-ISM characters take a bit more damage, more block damage, and they can’t AC, so they have to put up with more stupid guard damage shennanigans. A couple of random ideas I’ve had about this: X-ISM characters do extra damage if they land a super on someone who has V-ISM active, which sounds nice, even if it isn’t perfect (ie. V-Birdie vs X-Dhalsim). Or, that X-characters should take normal damage from VCs, and not their higher X-ISM damage rate.
Misc:
-Balrog gets the hitboxes from his arcade version attacks, if not the animations. Arcade Rog > console Rog.
-Honda’s ACs to A2-style damage, regardless, and his guard meter gets to be one notch longer. Also, it actually hits things. And he can do the A2-style short Ground Recovery roll, and towards+Roundhouse is faster and recovers better. Crouching Roundhouse recovers a bit faster, standing Jab cancels, Oicho starts a few frames faster, 720+P Super in A-ISM has instant startup. Jab headbutt remains good as anti-air, but the other versions is invulnerable low at startup. Can hold the charge for the headbutt super, ST style.
-Rose gets to combo after her AC again, and her Soul Illusion super does better damage- not A2 damage, but more than 1 point of damage. 2 points of damage would literally be a substantial improvement. Also, A2 crouching Fierce or the old Soul Throw priority would be nice.
-Birdie’s Level 1 super recovers at 0 advantage/disadvantage if blocked. Towards+Roundhouse and far standing Fierce become overheads, and as much as I love abusing Bull Horn, a better AA would be nice, even if it’s just Level 1 super getting better invulnerability, or the other levels juggling consistently for good damage. Bull Head has better recovery and does more stun damage, even if it’s still punishable. Crouching Roundhouse is faster and has better recovery time. Also, the old middle finger win pose from the Japanese version of A3 comes back. Also, it would be nice if crouching Jab were faster (even if it kept the crappy recovery time) so he could do crouching Jab -> Bull Head after activation. Would be nice if you could link crouching Short -> Jab or Short -> Bull Head off of a counter hit. Also, he can do the A2 style short Ground Recovery, since his roll is so horrifically slow.
-X-Sagat Tiger Uppercut does more damage and is 1-hit, OG style, also his Tiger Shots have better recovery time, though not quite O.Sagat level. A-Sagat’s crouching Fierce cancels, only into Level 3 supers, and Tiger Shots are less bad.
-Adon’s crouching Fierce recovers faster, standing Roundhouse recovers faster and hits crouchers. Overhead can be linked after with standing Short etc into super. Crouching Forward cancels into level 3s Roundhouse Jaguar Kick has better recovery time.
-Guy’s crouching Fierce can be cancelled. Takes A2 damage from ACs if hit during standing Strong.
-X/A-Sodom’s far standing Fierce becomes and overhead if the button is held down long enough, like A-Dhalsim’s Jab. Standing Forward hits crouchers. V-Sodom gets 2 versions of Tengu walking- the normal version, and the conditionally invulnerable one but which walks for a shorter distance.
-Charlie’s flash kick (Short, Roundhouse, whatever), works better as anti-air.
-Bison’s Psycho Crusher hits more consistently, and works better as anti-air. A-Bison maintains charge after Alpha Counter, and can return in the same position, behind the opponent, or a few steps back. Knee Press recovers more quickly, and is mostly safe on block. Level 1 Knee Press Nightmare recovers at a small frame advantage, and Level 2 is mostly safe. X-Bison’s Knee Press recovers at a small advantage, and Psycho Crusher moves and recovers faster. Fireball recovers faster. Knee Press starts a few frames faster, making it easier to do VCs with V-ISM Bison, even though nobody plays him, except this guy:
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-Rolento’s knife super starts faster and tracks a little better.
-Blanka’s jumping Fierce, Forward and Roundhouse hitboxes are changed so they hit more consistently; sometimes if you jump straight up with Forward for example, you’ll miss someone who’s standing/crouching beneath you, becasue the hitbox isn’t wide enough. Crazy guard break electricity thing is in effect. Rolling super can be done at an up/forward angle, or straight up, depending on what you do during the screen freeze. Crouching Fierce is a little more Cv2ish and recovers a bit more quickly, but keeps its anti-air properties. Crouching Strong recovers much more quickly, crouching Jab is quicker, close standing Strong is an overhead. Jumping Fierce crosses up more easily, d/f+Fierce slide recovers more quickly. Rainbow roll is faster, AC can at either the vertical angle it goes now, or something more like 45, like the rainbow roll. Both recover a bit more quickly than before. X-Blanka’s vertical roll hits on the way down, HF style. Yes. A-ISM fruit super has about half as much startup before/after the screen freeze.
-X-ISM Vega gets the flipkick back, and crouching Roundhouse knocks down from further away. Level 3 stab super actually hits things. A-ISM AC actually hits things. Jumping Roundhouse hitbox altered, crosses up more consistently, and both it and jumping Short have their hitboxes altered to hit more consistently (see notes on Blanka’s neutral jumping Forward/Roundhouse). Flipkick super hits for full damage more consistently when used as anti-air, instead of bouncing people away. Towards+Roundhouse becomes towards+Forward, regular Roundhouse becomes something more like the ST/CvS2 standing Roundhouse, and towards+Roundhouse is A3 standing Roundhouse, which is an overhead
-Cammy gets her SF4 divekick which is too good. Killer Bee Assault can’t be damage-reduced, V-Cammy’s counters actually work. Roundhouse Cannon Spike bounces away when blocked and is safe, except vs Psycho Crusher, Dash Punch, Rolling Attack etc. Backspin Knuckle is faster. I don’t really play Cammy enough to know what would help her. X-Cammy says Cannon Drill/Spin Knuckle/Thrust Kick (trivia: this audio was actually recorded for A3 but wasn’t used).
-I have no idea what Cody needs. Cody gets Haggar Assist.
-Mika gets Haggar Assist…? Crouching Forward, crouching Short and standing Roundhouse cancel, startup for kick super variations is faster. 360+P hop has better startup/recovery, Shooting Peach (the one that doesn’t turn aroud before) has faster startup by a few frames, and can actually be used like a Turn Punch etc to dodge/attack things more effectively.
-Balrog’s Turn Punch actually dodges thigs, on occasion, and then hits them; less startup time, moves faster, HF/ST/SF4 style, with X-Rog’s being a few frames shorter recovery. Crouching Roundhouse slightly faster, hitboxes a little better. Standing Fierce and/or Roundhouse hits hits crouchers. X/V-Balrog get the headbutt as a regular move and not just a Reversal; A-Balrog’s Reversal version has an input which is a bit wider, and does more stun damage. He also keeps the rising headbutt as an AC, and it does stun damage. Recovery on low Dash Punch a few frames shorter, X-Rog’s floating neutral jump Fierce moves further forward/backward. Level 2/3 super better vs low attacks, loses/trades less often and level 1 recovers at 1 frame advantage. Jump Forward or something else crosses up. Gigaton Blow has shorter startup, more like Blanka’s super without holding the charge. Crouching attacks hit Ground Recovery rolls more easily. Some sort of overhead would be nice.
-Juli’s Sniper Arrow has start up time more like Cammy’s Cannon Drill, and her Short DP bounces her away on block, making it hard to punish. Spin knuckle move is faster, standing Roundhouse and crouching Forward cancel, And she can do the Juli/Juni team-up supers as a level 3 720+P or K. Overhead allows a link crouching lights xx super, or crouching mediums xx Sniper Arrow etc on Counter Hit. Has the pushblock while jumping, for no good reason. AC in A-ISM actually hits and does stun damage. Psycho Charge like in Dramatic Battle; doesn’t build meter anymore, but reduces stun damage, sort of like a 3S taunt. DP auto-tracks to hit crossups.
-Juni gets an overhead punch out of her Hooligan for mixup purposes. Spiral Arrow has less recovery on block, Short is generally safe. A-ISM AC actually hits and does stun damage. Can do at least one of the Juli/Juni team supers as a 720 at level 3. Teleport has less recovery time and/or less startup time. Wakeup DP auto-tracks to hit crossups. A-Juni’s Psycho Streak super has faster startup, and if she’s hit in a trade, the Psycho Crusher continues forward (hitstun is altered so they can’t air-recover between hits when this happens). Works as anti-air.
Console characters I don’t know about. Fei was pretty good IIRC, though it would be nice if he had the heel hook move from SF4 for shits and giggles. Guile sucked in the PSX and Saturn versions, I don’t know if his hitboxes got better later. Short version on Guile: let him keep his ST stepkick in V-ISM, make his super hit for full damage on anti-air like his SF4 ultra, and make his flashkick actually good as anti-air, etc etc.
Believe it or not, this is a somewhat abridged version of my thoughts on changes to A3.
Thoughts?