So, what are the things you would like to see happen in terms of gameplay features, characters or otherwise in the next installment of Street Fighter?
If it were up to me, I would take 6 Chars from SFII{Guile, Bison, Vega, Blanka, Cammy and Dee Jay) and 6 from SFIII (Alex, Sean(with new moveset to compliment his higher level of Shoto mastery), Toned down Gill, Dudley, Yun & Yang) and then add Ryu and Akuma to the mix since they are the two constants. I would give all 14 of those characters new sprites, and on top of that add 10 all new chars for a cast of 24 characters which features an interesting mix of the old and new.
Also, while understanding that playability and balancing are paramount to any good fighting game, I would also add a certain amount of detail the the stages, making them multifaceted and sometimes even allowing them to alter during the course of a battle, this includes but is not limited to the return of objects in the stage that are brakable upon impact. As part of my vision for the games detail, I would also make it so there are no interruptions between rounds. The character that is defeated simply gets up as his life is restored, and the two characters either salute or taunt each other depending on the relationship they share.
As for the new system, I have played around with Ideas of having a character have around 4 or 5 supers, of which any two are selectable. The first super you select will be placed in the “utility” slot, which indicates that the super you have selected can be used with only one level, however the damage on it is decreased(out of a maximum of 2 medium sized super bars). The second Super is placed into the Overdrive slot which indicates that the attack can only be accessed when two levels are reached, however that super will do more damage relative to the type of attack it is. You can also select the type of discipline your character has, you can choose to have your character disciplined with either Traditional, Power, Speed or Defense. Traditional keeps your character operating with his normal strenghths and weaknesses and is the only discipline that allows you to use EX moves. Power slightly increases your attack power but decreases your combo options. Speed increases your characters overall speed and combo options, but reduces their attack power and their vitality slightly. Defense allows your character to air recover, take less chipp damage and air block, but the characters speed and power are decreased.
So the order of events would go like this:
1)Select your character
2)Select your utility
3)Select your overdrive
4)Select your discipline
I designed this system in my Imaginary version of S4 (I constantly desing games and write stories when im not playing or working) because I feel it gives the player the freedom to truly play his character according to his preffered style with a variety of characters instead of having to pick a character just because that character is the only one who has the necessary options to make a good turtle. And for those who want to play there character with his original options and attributes, strengths and weaknesses can choose to as well. The overdrive system allows for any character to have a high damage option, which goes along with my theory that more broken characters is a better way to balance a game.
Anyways, this was my dream version of SF4. If you have any comments on it please feel free to do say them, and also make sure to also post the things YOU would like to see in the next Street Fighter.