Sorry I took so long to post about Lucas. Here's where you're going to see a point Thinkaman and I differing on; I think Lucas is better than "mid-tier".
Lucas is a very "bread and butter" type character. By this I mean that Lucas played well isn't flashy... at all. He relies on simple things, but those simple things work very well for him. Lucas's jab is fast, safe, has good hitboxes, and does 12% with the full combo. That is amazing. I jab to a fairly obscene degree with Lucas; there isn't a circumstance in which jab is not among the options I consider. I honestly probably jab as much if not more with Lucas as with Ike; it's that good. Lucas has a great ftilt too. It's not anything easily advertisable about it so much as ftilt is just a really good poke. If my opponent starts outspacing my jab on the ground and such, I can just ftilt, and it's pretty effective. Then they can try to avoid that and I can jab more.
Lucas has a ridiculously amazing pivot grab. In general, Lucas's grabs are really quite good; he's actually one of the main characters I think of when I think "wow, tether grabs are really underrated". His grab has great range, and while it's hardly a speed demon among grabs, it is honestly not that slow. He can enjoy the extra range when shieldgrabbing, when he needs to dashgrab it's honestly just barely slower than for some other characters with normal grabs except with a ton more range, and otherwise he can just abuse his ridiculous pivot grab. I mean, I don't even know how to describe that pivot grab other than to point to Yoshi and say "Lucas can do the same thing". In any matchup in which playing really defensively and grabbing a lot seems like a good idea, Lucas has one of the best pivot grabs in the game to do that and do it very efficiently.
Lucas's recovery is really good. I can't do it because I'm not very technical, but proper use of zap jumping and magnet pulling lets Lucas get back from almost anything. His aerial tether is honestly a pretty good tool that lets him do a lot of precision recovery work near ledges. Pk Thunder is hardly even necessary for recovery, but if he does need to use it, it gets a ton of distance and gives him that same amazing helpless state Ness does (same air control as he has when not in helpless... which is for Lucas about average air control I think).
Lucas's fsmash is just an amazing kill move. It's really disjointed, pretty long range, and has good power. The speed is really not bad for that; it's very practical to land this move a lot. Lucas does have the issue that this is really his only general purpose kill move, but for a character with only one, at least it's a good one.
Lucas has the best overall spotdodge game out of the cast. His spotdodge is one of those amazing 22 frame 2-20 invincible spotdodges in Bbrawl (see also: Link); spotdodge to jab is "boring" but really easy to do as a general purpose answer to wide varieties of things and is a match winner. If the opponent tries to use spotdodges against Lucas, his down smash was basically built just to counter that. Down smash is not a move I use much, but it does eat spotdodges very efficiently so I don't find many opponents willing to make more than sparse use of spotdodging against Lucas in general. Note how things are all related; opponents scared to spotdodge are easier than normal to pivot grab, right?
Lucas has fairly ridiculous air to ground with his dair. It controls the space below Lucas for a long time and hits in very favorable ways with the potential to do a lot of damage. I'm pretty sure it has gimping potential off-stage too, but my weak technical Lucas hasn't been able to explore that. Seriously, dair is just ridiculous on Lucas; I worry it may be an overbuffed thing no one noticed because no one likes Lucas. Lucas can also mix up with his solid nair in circumstances he likes to go for dair so it's not like he completely telegraphs himself when going for it even.
PSI Magnet is amazing protection against certain types of camping. If you have a 1% lead against Falco on the Bridge of Eldin with 7:30 left, he has to approach you. That's a big deal.
Lucas has more stuff in his game too, but I feel like just those fundamentals put him in such a good position. He can rack damage very efficiently, maneuver well, and has no particular issues recovering (actually a blatantly above average recovery). Against really disjointed characters, he can just use Pk Fire to throw off their spacing (the best is to use Pk Fire to force them to do a deep approach and then jab right before they would hit you). If that's not working, pivot grabs are pretty good against Mr. Game & Watch I know. The way his fsmash is so disjointed means he can reach into enemy range get that kill when he's looking for it. I really just doubt that those matchups actually go worse than 60-40 for Lucas; Lucas doesn't have poor range or poor mobility, and he has a few tools that are specifically very obnoxious for characters who rely on their range (I really can't stress enough how Yoshi vs G&W in standard Brawl would be something like 80-20 G&W favor [pick whatever number you like that means "free win"] if not for pivot grabs that make it only barely in G&W's favor and how Lucas has access to an only slightly worse version of that).
We're looking into those sort of bug fixes. On that note, does anyone know if we're close at all to the ability to alter hitbox data on projectiles and Nana attacks via file replacement? If we could, we could strip out the hitbox code entirely which would be a big start in just making bugs disappear.
As per Port Town Aero Dive, that's very interesting, but I wonder with the ability to mess with the cars like that, how far are we really from just straight up editing of the hitbox they make?
Lucas is a very "bread and butter" type character. By this I mean that Lucas played well isn't flashy... at all. He relies on simple things, but those simple things work very well for him. Lucas's jab is fast, safe, has good hitboxes, and does 12% with the full combo. That is amazing. I jab to a fairly obscene degree with Lucas; there isn't a circumstance in which jab is not among the options I consider. I honestly probably jab as much if not more with Lucas as with Ike; it's that good. Lucas has a great ftilt too. It's not anything easily advertisable about it so much as ftilt is just a really good poke. If my opponent starts outspacing my jab on the ground and such, I can just ftilt, and it's pretty effective. Then they can try to avoid that and I can jab more.
Lucas has a ridiculously amazing pivot grab. In general, Lucas's grabs are really quite good; he's actually one of the main characters I think of when I think "wow, tether grabs are really underrated". His grab has great range, and while it's hardly a speed demon among grabs, it is honestly not that slow. He can enjoy the extra range when shieldgrabbing, when he needs to dashgrab it's honestly just barely slower than for some other characters with normal grabs except with a ton more range, and otherwise he can just abuse his ridiculous pivot grab. I mean, I don't even know how to describe that pivot grab other than to point to Yoshi and say "Lucas can do the same thing". In any matchup in which playing really defensively and grabbing a lot seems like a good idea, Lucas has one of the best pivot grabs in the game to do that and do it very efficiently.
Lucas's recovery is really good. I can't do it because I'm not very technical, but proper use of zap jumping and magnet pulling lets Lucas get back from almost anything. His aerial tether is honestly a pretty good tool that lets him do a lot of precision recovery work near ledges. Pk Thunder is hardly even necessary for recovery, but if he does need to use it, it gets a ton of distance and gives him that same amazing helpless state Ness does (same air control as he has when not in helpless... which is for Lucas about average air control I think).
Lucas's fsmash is just an amazing kill move. It's really disjointed, pretty long range, and has good power. The speed is really not bad for that; it's very practical to land this move a lot. Lucas does have the issue that this is really his only general purpose kill move, but for a character with only one, at least it's a good one.
Lucas has the best overall spotdodge game out of the cast. His spotdodge is one of those amazing 22 frame 2-20 invincible spotdodges in Bbrawl (see also: Link); spotdodge to jab is "boring" but really easy to do as a general purpose answer to wide varieties of things and is a match winner. If the opponent tries to use spotdodges against Lucas, his down smash was basically built just to counter that. Down smash is not a move I use much, but it does eat spotdodges very efficiently so I don't find many opponents willing to make more than sparse use of spotdodging against Lucas in general. Note how things are all related; opponents scared to spotdodge are easier than normal to pivot grab, right?
Lucas has fairly ridiculous air to ground with his dair. It controls the space below Lucas for a long time and hits in very favorable ways with the potential to do a lot of damage. I'm pretty sure it has gimping potential off-stage too, but my weak technical Lucas hasn't been able to explore that. Seriously, dair is just ridiculous on Lucas; I worry it may be an overbuffed thing no one noticed because no one likes Lucas. Lucas can also mix up with his solid nair in circumstances he likes to go for dair so it's not like he completely telegraphs himself when going for it even.
PSI Magnet is amazing protection against certain types of camping. If you have a 1% lead against Falco on the Bridge of Eldin with 7:30 left, he has to approach you. That's a big deal.
Lucas has more stuff in his game too, but I feel like just those fundamentals put him in such a good position. He can rack damage very efficiently, maneuver well, and has no particular issues recovering (actually a blatantly above average recovery). Against really disjointed characters, he can just use Pk Fire to throw off their spacing (the best is to use Pk Fire to force them to do a deep approach and then jab right before they would hit you). If that's not working, pivot grabs are pretty good against Mr. Game & Watch I know. The way his fsmash is so disjointed means he can reach into enemy range get that kill when he's looking for it. I really just doubt that those matchups actually go worse than 60-40 for Lucas; Lucas doesn't have poor range or poor mobility, and he has a few tools that are specifically very obnoxious for characters who rely on their range (I really can't stress enough how Yoshi vs G&W in standard Brawl would be something like 80-20 G&W favor [pick whatever number you like that means "free win"] if not for pivot grabs that make it only barely in G&W's favor and how Lucas has access to an only slightly worse version of that).
We're looking into those sort of bug fixes. On that note, does anyone know if we're close at all to the ability to alter hitbox data on projectiles and Nana attacks via file replacement? If we could, we could strip out the hitbox code entirely which would be a big start in just making bugs disappear.
As per Port Town Aero Dive, that's very interesting, but I wonder with the ability to mess with the cars like that, how far are we really from just straight up editing of the hitbox they make?