I had a few ideas on Team Aerial Combos and X-Factor…probably not great ones but ideas nonetheless.
X-Factor (EDITED)
Completely change the system into a new one that I call (for the sake of this post, the name isn’t all that important) Adrenaline Rush. A 5 second, 20% buff across the board (the final numbers can be decided, the ones I chose are just for discussion’s sake) that allows you to cancel out of combos, increases the user’s chip damage by 50% and decreases incoming chip damage by 50% (that way, if both players decide to use it at the same time, they cancel out for the most part). Only 3 charges per player per match, it cannot be used until 5 seconds into the match, and, once used, it cannot be used again for 10 seconds.
TAC (EDITED)
Make it a bit risk vs reward. My idea is that have all 4 directions do a decent bit of damage and gain 50% meter. This meter gain cannot be used during the combo but is rewarded upon successful completion. The attacker can tag in any direction to get the next character out, but two things: they cannot use that 1/2 meter they gained and also they cannot tag with the same direction. Since the attacker can TAC twice, this can result in either a full meter gained. However, if the defender counters the combo, one of two situations should occur (I’ll leave that to the community to decide but I am partial to the former, honestly): that meter gain should go to the defender or the defender can start their own TAC against the former attacker. The same rules apply, but if the former attacker (now defender) counters this combo, both players reset and meter that could have been gained is now lost, making the situation a tie.
Example for clarity (I’ll use team Wesker/Dante/Sentinel against team Wolverine/Akuma/Dr. Doom): Wesker begins a TAC against Wolverine, he does his combo followed by the Up + S tag and it is successful, and +50% appears above his team’s hyper gauges. Dante is now tagged in, he does his combo followed by the Left + S tag (he can no longer do the Up + S tag since Wesker did so) but it is unsuccessful against Wolverine. Now, based on the description above, two things could happen for Wolverine: he could gain the 50% meter that Wesker gained for tagging in Dante successfully, but in addition another 50% (for a full meter) for countering and the TAC ends, or he could take the 50% meter gained from Wesker -> Dante, start his own TAC against Dante, combos and tags to Akuma for another 50% (again, for a full meter). Also, if Akuma tags in Dr. Doom successfully, that could mean a 1.5 gauge gain for his team; that way, team Wolverine/Akuma/Dr. Doom gained something from the unsuccessful TAC of Wesker/Dante/Sentinel, putting the attacker into a perhaps disadvantageous situation.