Question about priority in fighting games

[Ultima]

I posted this just the other day:

re: priority

With few exceptions, there’s no such thing as priority as it’s commonly used. Priority is a vague term that generally refers to how often a particular attack will beat out another attack. It’s a relative term that’s a combination of the following factors:

Start up time: The shorter the start up time, the faster a move is. Faster moves have a better chance at hitting than slower moves, so faster speed is associated with higher priority.

Active time: The longer a move remains active, the greater the chance of it actually hitting an opponent. So longer activity can translate into higher priority.

Recovery time: The shorter a move’s recovery time, the less vulnerable it leaves the character. Faster recovery is associated with higher priority.

Hit box: This is the part of a move that can actually hurt an opponent during the active phase. In 2D games this is usually some form of rectangle, hence the term “hit box”. The large this box is, the greater the chance of it making contact with the opponent. Hence, bigger hit boxes are associated with higher priority (insert gif of CvS2 Sagat c.HP here).

Vulnerable Box: This is the part of the character that can be hurt by an opponent through out a move. The smaller this is, the less likelyhood of the character being hit by an attack during the move. Hence, smaller vulnerability boxes is associated with higher priority.

Invincible frames: This is more a subset of the vunlerable box factor, but worth a mention on its own. Moves that are considered to have invincibility on certain frames have NO vunlerable box, meaning they cannot be hit at all on those frames. Classic example is the Sf2 shoto Shoryuken, which was invincible on the way up. Some moves don’t have full invincibility, but rather invincibility only in certain areas. Like for example, Gief’s KKK Lariet in Hyper Fighting is invincible from waist down. This means that there is no vulnerable box for his waist and below; his head, however, still has a vulnerable box.

So priority (or lack thereof) is really a combination of factors.

I didn’t realise that VF used a priority system. BUt meh. This is how it works for most fighters (2D fighters anyway).