HideousBeing
Smash Ace
I had a thought that Brawl might feature something I'll call Bi-Planar Play. The idea is that each stage has two fields of play. Here's what I mean. Now, instead of a sidestep dodge, it would be a planar switch. You would do it, and you would step back to the second plain of play. Here, anyone on the first plain would be unable to attack you. Basically, it would be adding almost a semblance of depth or 3-Dness to the game, but not quite. It wouldn't be like SoulCalII, where you can avoid attacks by circling your opponent. You could just switch to the secondary plain of play, which would be a little further away from the primary plain. Characters could have attacks that affect both plains. For example, Link's spin attack could still not be avoided by the sidestep- it would hit both plains. As well as the planar swith, there could be an attack that you do to switch plains. Get behind someone in the secondary plain, and return to the primary plain with an attack of some sort.
The terrain could change with the plains too. Maybe your standing on a platform, and you do a planar switch- the platform is narrow, so you drop off on the secondary plain. There would also be areas where you could not do a planar switch, because there is a wall directly behind you. At such areas, the secondary plane would have a boundary where the wall is- where you could wall tech, wall jump, etc.
Below I have a couple of 3D images I modeled for better understanding:
So, these pictures show the two fields or "plains" of play I am describing. The transparent strips represent the 2-D fields of play. We can see that character B on the primary plain cannot do a plain switch, because there is a wall behind him. We can also see that this wall serves as terrain on the secondary plain for character A. Character A could jump up onto the block. Character B cannot interact with it, because it is not in his plain. If character A were to jump up onto the block, and plain switch, he would fall to where character B is. I hope those visual aids help.
So this would lead to some weird possibilities. Imagine if the edges of a certain stage were at different spots on the separate plains. You would have to edgehog the right edge. Also, would they have to include arial plain switches? Othewise, if the stage has a base platform that only spans one plain, an accidental plain switch would mean instant death. Or they could just avoid that scenario. Also, the developers would have to define appropriate hit lag, or rather, "switch" lag settings, or the move would be a concrete way to dodge always. You would get an imbalanced pattern in which your opponent performs an attack, you plain switch and return with a plain switch attack to punish. Maybe they could even keep sidestep dodges in. You would return after your sidestep as always, but anyone on the other plain could hit you while you're "invincible" on the initial plain. Also, there would have to be a clear way to tell which plain a character is on. You couldn't just keep track of how many times they've toggled the move. It would have to be obvious somehow. Otherwise, two players could easily lose track which plain they are on. So, thoughts?
The terrain could change with the plains too. Maybe your standing on a platform, and you do a planar switch- the platform is narrow, so you drop off on the secondary plain. There would also be areas where you could not do a planar switch, because there is a wall directly behind you. At such areas, the secondary plane would have a boundary where the wall is- where you could wall tech, wall jump, etc.
Below I have a couple of 3D images I modeled for better understanding:
So, these pictures show the two fields or "plains" of play I am describing. The transparent strips represent the 2-D fields of play. We can see that character B on the primary plain cannot do a plain switch, because there is a wall behind him. We can also see that this wall serves as terrain on the secondary plain for character A. Character A could jump up onto the block. Character B cannot interact with it, because it is not in his plain. If character A were to jump up onto the block, and plain switch, he would fall to where character B is. I hope those visual aids help.
So this would lead to some weird possibilities. Imagine if the edges of a certain stage were at different spots on the separate plains. You would have to edgehog the right edge. Also, would they have to include arial plain switches? Othewise, if the stage has a base platform that only spans one plain, an accidental plain switch would mean instant death. Or they could just avoid that scenario. Also, the developers would have to define appropriate hit lag, or rather, "switch" lag settings, or the move would be a concrete way to dodge always. You would get an imbalanced pattern in which your opponent performs an attack, you plain switch and return with a plain switch attack to punish. Maybe they could even keep sidestep dodges in. You would return after your sidestep as always, but anyone on the other plain could hit you while you're "invincible" on the initial plain. Also, there would have to be a clear way to tell which plain a character is on. You couldn't just keep track of how many times they've toggled the move. It would have to be obvious somehow. Otherwise, two players could easily lose track which plain they are on. So, thoughts?
