AARGH! I’m not arguing that, should have he recieved a nerf at all I won’t say, but fei has been argued to death. I kind of agree with you and kind of agree with the opposite view, but the fei discussion just needs to relax awhile.
We need to stop dragging NKI in here too so he can work on that epic post. :]
Alright fine I’ll cool of this topic…
Err dude that was an deliberate ironic comment that I made, I think your the only person that didnt realise that, so dont worry mate, no offense taken.
Also I love the new flash kick, but I find not very useful against characters that have slides, most of the time they have time block it and then guile is left totally open. What was the justification for for leaving guile so close to his opponant after performing the new flash kick, was it a trade off for the range?
I know you mean sonic booms but the C. Forward can be linked to C. MP > C. Forward Flash kick. Just saying. 
I made Guile a QCF character in Mugen. The results were deadly lol.
Is there some kind of record what any of the people who playtested HD Remix in development said regarding what should and shouldn’t be changed, or that of various character experts who were approached? It would be very interesting to see ideas from the most well-informed sources that we haven’t heard so much about.
Again, I disagree with that. It’s just a part of game design when making a Fighting Game. I’ll get into why a bit more later.
I disagree with this statement. Let’s take MvC2 into account as a prime example. MvC2 is one of those games that’s well-known to be a super-dexterity game, right? That you can’t win unless you are a crazy finger God or something where you can do crazy Magneto Infinites.
But my main point is that dexterity is no more a “segregatable” category than simply being good at reading other people. Why don’t we segregate players based on their intelligence too? Finger dexterity is just another skill, not one that is needed to be learned in most games, least of all ST. The reason I can say this is because Justin Wong is NOT the greatest finger dexterity player in MvC2. In fact, he’s far from it. Guys like Yipes and Soo and Smoothviper and such are SO FAR ahead of Justin on the finger dexterity ladder, it’s not funny. I actually rate Justin on the LOWER end of the finger dexterity category in MvC2 amongst the top players. I know it sounds crazy, but if you watch Justin’s matches in MvC2, he RARELY does anything that requires crazy muscle memory stuff. About the only thing he does is Sentinel fly/unfly stuff, and he’s second rate at that compared to Sanford Kelly.
So I just think it’s an excuse for people to accept that they can’t win when they say they can’t compete because of finger dexterity problems. Street Fighter IV, everyone complains about that kind of thing. But the tricky thing is there are TONS of characters you can play without that sort of finger dexterity. Again, Justin plays Rufus. Shock? Not to me. Rufus is probably the lowest on the totem pole of finger dexterity characters in SFIV. Justin is, again, NOT a paragon of technical skills, yet he wins everything. Rufus has only ONE thing that can be considered difficult that’s good to know how to do, and that’s EX Messiah Kick FADC into Ultra, and his is 10 times easier than Sagat’s or Ryu’s because you have 80 years to get ready for the FADC. You can even not use it at all and still win because he has at least 3 or 4 REALLY GOOD OTHER WAYS to land that stupid Ultra. Zangief requires no finger dexterity in SFIV. Bison requires no finger dexterity. Chun Li requires no finger dexterity (unless you count mashing three kicks as finger dexterity). Balrog requires almost NO skill whatsoever (sorry Balrog players). Blanka needs very little finger dexterity. So where is this “barrier” coming from?
And learning FADCs with Ryu and Sagat to me is no different than learning how to do Low Short x 2 into Super with Ken. Ken simply is not competitive at high levels without that. I’ve brought up these examples before, but Bison is MUCH more deadly if you can learn his Cross-up links… they amount to free wins. Fei Long Meaty Fierce into Fierce into Rekkas is another high dexterity level skill that will give your Fei Long WAY better chance of winning. Not to mention pianoing Reversals… that’s a universal skill that you have to learn with EVERYONE that, in SFIV, is a cake walk.
I think people are just used to the skills required in ST. That game is as obtuse as any other fighting game, more so than SFIV. I can more easily teach a person who has never played Street Fighter before how to play SFIV than ST or HD Remix. I will get shot for saying this, but SFIV simply has far less execution barriers. ST is FAR more conceptual than SFIV.
Can you imagine this conversation? “Why did I throw?” Well, you were too close. “But I thought when I got close, I did close-up moves.” Well, you have to not be holding the controller at left or right when you wanna do a close-up move with that button. “But I got the close-up attack one time and didn’t Throw while holding Forward on the joystick.” Right, well, some people have close-up moves that trigger from farther distances, father than their Throw range. “But when I was using Blanka, I was right next to them and hit Forward on the stick and Strong and that didn’t Throw.” Well, only certain characters have throws with certain buttons. “So how do I know which ones are throws and which ones aren’t?” Um… memorize it.
It seems funny when you state it like that, but we’ve known it that way for 15 years. But try teaching someone that as opposed to: “Get close and hit Jab + Short when you want to throw.”
I’ve already stated that I highly disagree with that. It’s funny to me how some people hate SFIV because the controls are too lenient and other people hate it 'cause it’s too finger dexterous. I just don’t see it. When I play Bison, I hit Roundhouse a lot and win. I don’t see where the “universal” dexterity comes from.
I think it does, though. Let’s look at Alpha 3 as another prime example. Whenever someone gets anti-aired by a Custom Combo, what usually is the reaction? Groans from the crowd. That’s because everyone knows that Custom Combos are the stupidest activation “motion” ever. It takes NO skill nor foresight to use them. I’ve always claimed that to fix Alpha 3, one of the first changes I would put in is to make Custom Combo activation QCF x 2 + the two buttons to activate the Custom. Almost IMMEDIATELY, Customs went from being completely broken to now they are almost fair.
Is that bad game design? What are the alternatives? Make Customs weaker because they are so powerful? But if you make them that much weaker, like taking away invincibility, now do they become useless? So do you make them comboable into now so they have places to be used? But then, doesn’t that make them too powerful again? So we lower the damage on them? And so on and so forth. It’s a huge chain of tweaks and balances. It throws the whole balance of the game off kilter. But one simple change to its execution can leave them as they are but allow them to automatically be more fair because they now require way more anticipation rather than just pure, blind, reaction time.
That to me is NOT bad game design. I don’t think there’s a really good way to make Customs more fair by tweaking them and leaving the command simply two button presses. I just don’t. It’s a horrible weakness in their design and leaving the command as is will prevent you from ever finding a good middle ground to fix them.
In your example, giving Guile a longer ranged Low Forward with a code is perfectly acceptable to me. It’s about time they gave Guile a new special move! 
Forget “winning”, a large percent of the general gaming playerbase can’t PLAY MvC2 at a level you would consider basic.
Furthermore, MvC2 at the arcade or online (I’m assuming since I don’t have the game) is not a game that segregates its players by skill level to ensure “contained” playgroups of casual vs. hardcore.
So casual players are going to play offline, play with people they find at their level, maybe try to go hardcore, or quit.
You can segregate dexterity in games.
You can segregate skill levels in games.
There are many ways to do it.
You can do it through performance tracking like Championship mode (or the GRE) where performance groups people in different categories.
You can do it through self-segregation like Magic Online where you provide “casual” and “tournament practice” rooms and players select the rooms that provide them the experience they want.
(while you might think hardcore players would terrorize the casual room for fun, it just doesn’t happen frequenlty and when it does players can ban other players and never worry about playing them again)
You can do it through offering a no-dexterity-required optional mode so that players can choose which format they want to play.
(one of the modes in the SF4 trials removes FAs, Ultra, Dashes, etc. and plays like ST… I wish that was an option to play in actual head-to-head play)
You can segregate on intelligence/performance if you want to.
Mostly similar to methods described above for dexterity.
If you were to develop a head-to-head Jeopardy game online, you’d likely want a way to separate trivia masters from the masses to ensure an enjoyable experience for players.
(hardcore find playing casual a waste of time, casual find hardcore ruin the fun of the game)
ST DOES require dexterity skills.
Twitch, Muscle Memory, and some Piano Recital.
Many players CANNOT play certain characters or perform certain specific combos/moves because they do not have the dexterity.
When designing a game, you SHOULD take a look at your entire potential playbase and figure out what % max out at each tier of requirement to play.
Example:
WoW looks at all PC users and makes a game that requires LOW specs to play: they keep a VERY large % of all PC owners as potential plaers.
Another MMO makes a game that requires HIGH specs to play: they immediately reduce their potential playerbase to only those users who have a high enough system (or who will purchase one) to play their game.
Michael Jordan was not the tallest basketball player in the NBA.
But at 6’6", Jordan is still a ridiculously tall guy and was taller than 95% of the population aged 18 and older in 1980.
(source: http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/230_cumulative_percent_distribution_of_population_by.html)
I’m not speaking to the benefits of having super dexterity vs. super-super dexterity.
I am speaking to a high value requirement being something that will set a hard ceiling on the max proficiency of a certain % of your playerbase.
And, to a lesser extent, I am speaking to the concept of segregating players as a way to ensure they do not negatively affect each others play experiences.
Bison in SF4 uses a lot of links in his combos.
Many people cannot hit the links… which is why you see a LOT of casual players using their turbo button for the links.
I HATE turbos used for throws in ST.
But I FULLY CONDONE the use of turbos to help casual players get out what you would consider basic combos.
When players have to resort to using turbos to land what are supposed to be “bread and butter” combos, I think the game is tuned too hard.
(especially with online lag playing havoc)
If Balrog/Boxer is the only SF4 character not requiring non-dexterity players to use turbos to execute bread-and-butter gameplay, then you have reduced the game (for them) down to one character.
AND, the max potential of those players to compete is totally dependent on how effective Balrog is. (and heaven help them if their opponent can counter pick them in a tournament)
Do you have any idea how many players can’t do ST’s Low Short x2 into Super with Ken?
In ST, players who cannot do it can switch to other characters who do not have that combo.
In SF4, players CANNOT switch to a character that doesn’t use benefit from FADC.
As a designer, if my playerbase is locked into a specific perspective on gameplay, I will try to “speak their language” in developing a sequel so that I can appeal to their tastes.
I had heard that SF4 tried to copy SF2.
But SF4 is full of “break the rules” (add armor to specials, move cancel, etc.) tricks that nullify the basic conventions of SF2.
And SF4 has a different set of skill requirements (dexterift and other) than SF2.
I haven’t had that type of problem in explaining throws or gameplay to new people in the game.
But I generally am very good at speaking to people 1-on-1 with instructional information.
I could activate CCs in A3, but I couldn’t perform the actual combos to any material effect.
For the record, I wasn’t alone.
Are infinites bad game design?
Answer: Depends.
I depends on what you want out of a product. Who you are designing for, the play experience you want, etc.
Making a DP have variable frame windows is an odd design right?
Not if the game makes money off players spending quarters to learn it and making a variable window causes players a false sense of learning progress and to spend more money trying to learn the move.
You make a change relative to how you want your playerbase to behave.
There are MANY ways to tune CCs or any other variables in these games.
Do you want that mechanic as a core component of the game?
Do you want it to be “balanced”?
Is it a trivial component that perhaps can be removed?
etc.
I played A3 locally until our playgroup was introduced to CCs.
This broke the game, we played for a brief period with CCs in the gameplay (though none of us were especially good at them), and then we quit playing altogether.
A solution for my playgroup would be to remove CCs from the game.
Apparently, for your playgroup, the solution is to modify CCs.
In A3, at least you could choose characters that didn’t have CCs. (unlike SF4 where you cannot choose characters without FAs, etc.)
IF your solution makes playing (lots of) non-CC characters viable, then effectively it could work.
IF your solution does not make playing (lots of) non-CC characters viable, then I don’t see that as a solution. (in the eyes of my playgroup… however perhaps your playgroup finds an all CC cast with more difficult CCs is a solution)
You could tweak CCs in many, many ways.
You could effectively make them do no damage whatsoever.
You could give them a start-up time of 5 seconds.
You could do what you suggested: require a traditional super execution to get it started.
You could force it to start with a set combo sequence before the player got control to customize their combo.
You could just keep the character normal and give their sprite trails.
These will all have different consequences.
Whether each of these consequences “works” depends on what user behavior you are trying to provoke.
The bad design comes from the tuning, NOT the mechanic.
hehe, funny man.
This is a pretty poor example, because michael jordan was arguably the most athletic player in the league for many years.
Alright…thought you lost it for a second there. It was just me.
It would have to be. I’m pretty sure Sirlin made mention of that.
Thanks Decoy. That proves exactly how brokenly good that would be. I’m glad Irrepressible was joking.
Jordan was “Most athletic”/Best among a subset of FREAKISHLY TALL PEOPLE.
Jockeys are in a subset of FREAKISHLY SMALL PEOPLE.
Sumo’s are in a subset of FREAKISHLY HUGE PEOPLE.
MvC2 players are in a subset of FREAKISHLY DEXTROUS PEOPLE.
Great for watching as a spectator.
Lousy for anyone wanting to compete who does not have that key attribute.
Congrats to:
Muggsy Bogues - 5’3
Earl Boykins - 5’5
Spud Webb - 5’6
Greg Grant - 5’7
Nate Robinson - 5’7
Wataru Miska - 5’7
Calvin Murphy - 5’9
… you can play as Point Guard. (Shooting Guard? 6’0"+)
Forward? 6’5"+ (Power Forward? 6’7"+)
Center? 6’7"+
Hell, I can’t play MvC2 at a level that is considered basic. My main point is that those who are willing to get good at a game don’t have to consider execution as a barrier. You can learn what you need to learn and still win if you are smart enough. Many of the top players aren’t execution savvy guys.
Yeah, I may have just explained myself poorly. I meant that segregating by dexterity is the same as segregating by intelligence. They can both be done and both accomplish the same goals. My question is why do some people seem to imply that dexterity is more segregation-worthy than anything else?
Yeah, I’m just arguing that ST is no different than SFIV. Many people complain about Links and FADCs as execution barriers to playing SFIV. I just don’t agree. There are plenty of ways to play the game without needing those.
Do you really believe that there is a hard value requirement for playing SFIV at a high level? I’m asking because I’m really curious. I don’t see it at all. To me, there is very little about SFIV that’s actually that difficult.
Someone I play with a lot never uses Links with Bison, and he wins just fine. I’ve lost to a LOT of Bisons online who never use Links. They are simply overrated. The only time a Link is necessary with Bison is the same time it’s necessary in ST: on Cross-ups. And the Combo you can do with Bison in SFIV is WAAAAAY easier than the Combo you have to do with Bison in ST.
Again, I think people are putting too much emphasis on the Links. For some reason, people seem to think that they’ve become requirement. I use Cammy and I never do Links, even though I’m actually good at them (outside of the Low Jab, Low Short into Drill Link, which cannot be done with a Turbo controller anyhow). When I use Rufus, I never use a link. When I use Bison, I only am forced to use Links on Cross-ups. Otherwise I do them because they are fun for me. When I use Gen, I only try one Link, and that’s not a BnB by any means. It’s just something stupidly fancy I like to try to do that doesn’t help me win at all. When I use Gouken, I don’t use Links (he has none). When I use Fei Long, there’s only one Link I try and the situation where it works almost never comes up.
Again, these are the main characters I use. I don’t see where Links are necessary at all. I don’t use them, some I avoid on purpose (like Cammy’s Low Fierce to Low Forward Link) because I have trouble with them. I’ve never felt like I’ve lost a match because I didn’t do a Link that “I should have.”
Lots. Most people. What I’m trying to say is that there are a LOT of ST players complaining about SFIV and its execution barriers, when ST has execution barriers everywhere.
Ryu benefits. Rufus benefits. Sagat benefits. Abel benefits. Cammy benefits. Everyone else can win without them.
Dhalsim doesn’t need them. Honda doesn’t need them. Blanka doesn’t need them. Zangief doesn’t need them. Chun-Li, Guile, M.Bison, Vega, Balrog, C. Viper, El Fuerte, Akuma, Gouken, Seth, Dan, Fei Long, Gen, Rose, and Sakura don’t need them. FADCs do not help any of these characters to the extent that you claim. That means 1/5 of the characters actually benefit from them to a large extent. That’s nothing.
Right, neither have I. I’m just giving examples of how I think people are over simplifying ST and over complicating SFIV.
Guh. I feel dirty. ST is BETTER than SFIV. ST is BETTER than SFIV.
I really don’t like SFIV all THAT much, but the way people talk about it being “too hard” or “too simple” or what not just baffles me. That’s all I’m really ranting against.
That’s not my point. My point is that you can completely affect the fairness of CC’s by adjusting their input. And to me, it’s not a bad game design method to do so.
Okay, right, we are arguing different things now. I’m saying that if we were designing Alpha 3 HD Remix and wanted to figure out a way to balance CC’s for tournament play at the highest level (not for your play group or my play groups or whatever) and keep them relevant, trying to tweak them by all these different ways would be a lot more headache and complex than changing their activation inputs. I know there are an infinite amount of ways you can tweak CC’s, but in terms of trying to make them not dominate Alpha 3 but at the same time still allow V-Ism to be useful, there isn’t many good ways to do so.
I think it will. CC’s biggest threat is their ability to anti-air. A-Ism and X-Ism become non-viable because the only solution to anti-air CC’s is a counter CC from the air. It’s a lot easier, in ST, to jump at a Ryu and surprise him and make them block instead of DPing than it is to surprise a Gief and have him not Lariat. It’s the motion that does it (or rather, Zangief’s LACK of a motion). So by forcing users to do a more complex motion to get the CC to activate but leaving its inherent abilities intact (so that the game hasn’t changed drastically from what we know), it would allow A-Ism characters to compete more because the threat of an anti-air CC is the same as Jumping at Ken who Level 3 Shinryukens you or a Chun who Level 3 Kikoshous you. Right now, CC’s being too easy to activate IS what makes them too good.
Okay now I’m really confused as to your point James. Might be cause its early though.
This is off topic, but none of these players are really good, maybe muggsy bogues at above average.
Yes, he wasn’t really tall, but jordan had super duper athleticism, and would compete against players mostly his size. You r example is still poor.
On the Throw part of your discussion i have run into that problem trying to teach my girl ST.
This was extra confusing for her when she was trying to learn to do Ryu’s standing overhead or the towards fierce punch.
Probably also because I wrote that post at 3 a.m. I’ll have to read through it myself, again, to make sure it makes sense even to me.
So the three main points I’m trying to make are:
Thinking that removing execution barriers helps a game is incorrect. Those who will get good at the game will get good at it. If execution discourages them, they probably didn’t have the drive to get good at it even if the controls were easier.
Thus, making moves “harder to do” to balance of their effectiveness IS a valid game design. Making SPDs purposefully longer to do than DP codes is not bad game design.
ST has just as many execution barriers as SFIV, so those who claim SFIV is “harder” and more restrictive to play because of execution, I believe, are over-exaggerating SFIV’s difficulty to play, considering they are using ST as an example of how a game should be more “simple” and “approachable.”
This really hit home for me. Every time I hear people bash 2 button throws and go on about how ST or classic SF throws were fine I think back to how much they used to (and to some extent still) frustrate me for the exact reasons listed above. Then again I’ve never completely understood why toward + punch isn’t consider 2 buttons, I can throw in SF4 regardless of what direction my analog stick is pointing if I hit the correct two buttons, your still hitting 2 buttons in ST/HDR, there just on different sides of your stick. I think long time veterans who dislike 2 button throws don’t quite understand how the average joe views the ST throws, and I think JChensor summed up how I always viewed them pretty accurately. It was a confusing mess that left me often wondering why I did or didn’t throw in certain situations, and even though I was never really upset when I got an unintended throw, it felt like it took some of the skill out of the game. With 2 button throw games there’s no confusion, I can try to throw when I want to throw and I never throw when I don’t, if I throw when not in range I get a whiff animation and then likely get punished for it as I should be.
In general I feel that simpler motions are better, the nature of fighting games is such that no matter how simple you try to make things physical skill is still going to play a part. Even with SF4s “I think I know what you meant to do” special move system I still goof up a simple hadouken input every now and again, its part of the game and in my opinion it should be. But the only part of a move’s execution that should effect its power/effectiveness is how long it takes to input (if it takes me 2 seconds to charge my move before it’ll work but you can do yours instantly at any time, the charged move sure as heck better be superior), not how hard it is to input. Having the physical skills that I don’t to truly get the most out of the move is already advantage enough, the fact you can consistently or quickly do it shouldn’t give you further reward with the move being more damaging or quicker.
Personally I feel a move should never be so hard to input that an average joe can’t start getting it with decent consistency within 10 or so tries. I know people who can’t do hadoukens, and that’s fine, but the average joe, given direction and 10 or so tries, will be able to pull it off, thats what makes it a great choice for move input. Still the average joe isn’t going to be able to machine gun them off, executing each new one in the exact first frame possible, thats where physical skill and practice comes in. Its that little X-factor that makes fighting games unique to chess and makes them interesting. Then again now adays most chess games are timed, you could argue time gives unfair advantage to quicker minds over slower minds that could come to better answers then the quick minds if given the time.
Anway back on the main topic of rebalancing ST Remix, I really liked JChensors suggestion earlier on Cammy’s SBF. Here’s my take on it:
-All 3 versions go through fireballs still.
-Jab is still hit immune below the neck during hop, Strong and Fierce are once again hittable at all times as in ST.
-First hit now comes immediately after landing the hop, speeding up all 3 versions of the move slightly.
-Jab version is know a jump rope hop, that is, it hops up but does not move forward at all. This allows it to be used at a distance to “punish” fire balls in that, while your not dealing any damage, you can keep jab SBF through them to generate much more meter per fire ball then they are while remaining out of punishable range. The damage is ever so slightly reduced to compensate for it being the only SBF that’s still lower body immune.
-Strong version is now a replica of the old Jab version, only with the punch coming out a tiny bit sooner and having full body hittable during hop as mentioned above. At the right distances you can punish fire balls on reaction every time. Of course if ryu draws one of these out with a fake fireball expect to be smashed during your hop.
-Fierce version is now a replica of the old Strong version, only with the punch coming out a tiny bit sooner and having full body hittable during hop as mentioned above. Even with the slight speed boost you’ll usually have to psychically predict a fire ball to get anything out of this move, but the damage is now much higher then old Fierce versions damage.
I love JChensors idea of a jab SBF that goes no where, allowing you to safely build meter from a distance. The move is still pretty slow so I don’t know how useful it would be to apply pressure at ranges close enough for it to hit, but by leaving the lower body invulnerability it not only feels more ST like (where only jab went through fireballs) but allows you to potentially hope over sweeps with the only version of the SBF you’d probably ever want to use when at sweep distance anyway. Not sure how effective that’d be, but figure the potential is there enough to warrant a slight damage reduction, and I figure its primary use will be for building meter at a distance anyway. The strong version is basically exactly what JChensor suggested, the current jab version sped up just slightly by the fact her punch comes out immediately after the hop, but she’s once again vulnerable to non-fire ball attacks during the hop. Fierce version still seemed kind of meaningless so I figured up the damage on it to give you a real reward for successfully predicting a fire ball. I suppose the damage buff might also make it her best option for use as a meaty attack on opponents wake up.
1 + 2. agreed 100%
And Chun. I mean really was she THAT good? lol
James, I will respond to your longer post later when I have more time.
I am a fan of “where there is a will there is a way”, but I think it has its limits.
When I watch “Rudy” it makes sense to me, I don’t think “that guy didn’t have the drive to play as a starter”.
“Harder” is far too ambiguous a word here.
I agree with what DanTheTimid says: a move that is more cumbersome to use in-game (not perform, but to use) should (as a general rule) have a corresponding advantage to it.
I do not agree that making a moves physical execution harder should get a corresponding advantage… as a general rule.
Especially, as DanTheTimid pointed out, because ability to execute the move quicker or more reliably already gives an advantage to the player.
NOTE: IF the game/character is DESIGNED to be specifically dexterity based, then I DO understand tieing in an advantage to dexterity.
I generally support making a subset of dexterity-centric characters in a non-segregated, head-to-head game for general audiences.
I DO NOT generally support making a dexterity-centric, non-segregated, head-to-head game for general audiences.
I think it’s important to note the TYPES of dexterity used in SF4 and SF2.
SF2
Most frequently cite Muscle Memory as the dexterity difficulty: performing an individual uppercut, SPD, etc.
ST also has Piano Recital (Guile’s cross-up Short, cr.Short, cr.Shrt, Flashkick) and Piano Recital + Muscle Memory (Ken’s cr.Short, cr.Short, Super) difficulty.
ST also has some twitch.
SF4
Most agree that the muscle memory required for move execution in this game is much simpler.
HOWEVER, the Piano Recital (precisely inputting a string of attacks) and Twitch (need to react to instant game changes) requirements are much higher.
My Muscle Memory is generally strong.
My Twitch is pretty decent.
My Piano Recital is TERRIBLE.
So, for me, SF4 is much more difficult for me to play.
Oh, I do want to comment on one section of James’ post here while I have some time…
I’ve only spent much time in SF4 with Bison and Seth, so I can comment on this some.
Bison needs links for:
#1 applies (as you mentioned) to cross-ups.
But is also applies to dash towards, opponent does a move which switches sides but leaves them vulnerable, or any instance in which Bison is placed next to an opponent and does not have a charge.
Links let Bison start the combo, charge for his Special/Super, and then tack his special onto his combo or at least have his charge when his string finishes.
#2 applies to keeping an opponent locked down so Bison can safely push away to a specific/safe distance (vs. Zangief, etc.; sucks when you miss a link and Zangief grabs you), keeping an opponent pressured so that Bison can mix-up a throw/dash/dash+Ultra/etc. or other move into the string.
#3 applies to letting the Bison player see that his moves are hitting or not hitting.
If the attacks are hitting, Bison can tack on a Special/Super that will hit.
If the attacks are not hitting, Bison can go to a plan B: push away, throw, etc.