Aerials doing higher damage after spending some time in the air

[Chibi-Chan]

I've played smash bros regularly since 64 and I've never heard of a mechanic like this.

Today, while testing out Wolf Bair in training mode, I noticed that when sending the opponent up into the air then hitting a high Bair, the damage was increased (From 15% to 18%). The bonus ends up at a consistent 18% damage increase for all moves I tested.
Testing with other characters proved this to be mostly universal, though sometimes not every hitbox seems to get the boost.
While testing Peach and Daisy differences, I noticed that floating immediately awards this bonus damage to all her aerials even against grounded opponents.
Further testing revealed that full-hopping aerials is enough to get the bonus, you can full-hop then hit it on the way down and you'll see the increase.
In other words, SH aerials do less damage than FH or double-jump aerials.

Was this mechanic announced and I missed it? Has it existed previously and I somehow never noticed? Did someone already discover and post this?
It seems like it has the potential to change a lot!

EDIT: Someone ebat me to the punch. https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/8zffsv/ruben_smash_ultimate_introduces_a_new_damage/
Has this been discussed?

 

[Amazing Ampharos]

Yes, it has been discussed; I think we've known about it for a month or so? There's a short-hop damage penalty for aerials. I think double jumping or getting hit remove the penalty, but obviously I can't test it yet because the game's not out yet. It's worth noting that a 1v1 match with no items has a 20% damage bonus for everyone which actually slightly more than negates the SH damage penalty; you'll find SH aerials do pretty close to the damage/knockback/shieldstun they did in 4 while all other moves will do 20% more.

 

[Chibi-Chan]

Yes, it has been discussed; I think we've known about it for a month or so? There's a short-hop damage penalty for aerials. I think double jumping or getting hit remove the penalty, but obviously I can't test it yet because the game's not out yet. It's worth noting that a 1v1 match with no items has a 20% damage bonus for everyone which actually slightly more than negates the SH damage penalty; you'll find SH aerials do pretty close to the damage/knockback/shieldstun they did in 4 while all other moves will do 20% more.

Yeah, pretty much what you said. Full-hopping, double jumping, falling off ledge, probably getting hit too, is enough to negate this penalty. When more than 2 players are involved it still applies, making SH moves really weak compared even to smash 4. What weird design choice!

 

[Al-kīmiyā']

Yeah, pretty much what you said. Full-hopping, double jumping, falling off ledge, probably getting hit too, is enough to negate this penalty. When more than 2 players are involved it still applies, making SH moves really weak compared even to smash 4. What weird design choice!

Unless you hate competitive Smash, look at what the top players do, and say, "**** you, I'm nerfing that."

 

[Chibi-Chan]

Unless you hate competitive Smash, look at what the top players do, and say, "**** you, I'm nerfing that."

The tried and true Sakurai Method ™?

 

[Amazing Ampharos]

That seems highly inaccurate. The real reason is probably to avoid them being too crazy with the landing lag reduction with a balanced game actually being a pretty pro-competitive thing (competitive players will certainly just play top tier and abuse whatever is overpowered, but they'd prefer if more choices made sense). If you watch some of the combos that are already being found, you really begin to understand the idea; SH aerials look WAY better overall in Ultimate versus 4 because the damage penalty is far smaller in significance than the landing lag reduction.

 

[Al-kīmiyā']

That seems highly inaccurate. The real reason is probably to avoid them being too crazy with the landing lag reduction with a balanced game actually being a pretty pro-competitive thing (competitive players will certainly just play top tier and abuse whatever is overpowered, but they'd prefer if more choices made sense). If you watch some of the combos that are already being found, you really begin to understand the idea; SH aerials look WAY better overall in Ultimate versus 4 because the damage penalty is far smaller in significance than the landing lag reduction.

Comparing Ultimate to 4 isn't saying much.

Anyway, I think it's far more likely that Sakurai saw short hopping as a skill gap and decided to penalize it. Otherwise, why not just balance the moves' base properties?

 

[SvartWolf]

Dunno.. short hops aerials are usually the more powerful tools on a lot of kits, and considering they got buffed in ultimate with the jumpsquat reduction and landing lag reduction... i actually llike this nerf.

If you think short hop aerials arn't still useful you are kidding yourself. yeat the other options have a little extra. i like it.