Extent of Custom Modes?

[Doc.Pringles]

It has been quite awhile since a Smash release, and we all knowssb4 has been in development for quite awhile. One of the major upgrades I've noticed this generation is the level of customization the game allows. I feel it's fair to say Stage Builder will be implemented, Miis's are in the game with 3 styles of play and varying stats, alt costumes have doubled with many alt's being genuine model swaps, custom pieces of gear to enhance fighters, and the obvious introduction to custom moves.

So how much do you think custom matches have been altered? How sweet would it be for a 'mode creator' that allows you to modify a number of details simultaneously, while also saving and sharing them as well? Such as:

• Speed adjustment sliders
• Physics adjustment sliders (such as gravity, knock back distance, weights)
• Starting damage %age and handicap adjustments
• Character size adjustment slider
• Hell, item/Pokemon/AT size adjustments (longer melee items, larger projectiles, etc)
• Special, neutral, aerial, throw, and item/Pokemon/AT damage adjustments
• Special, neutral, aerial, throw, and item hindering (for example allow/disallow special and/or neutral attacks, as well as item use)
• Invincibility frames after spawn
• Invisibility mode
• Roster limitations (ie Pokemon only, Lil Mac only, no MK, melee/range only) similar to how you can choose specific items allowed
• Stamina-mode
• Enhanced item spawn controls (such as allowing constant bobomb spawns similar to sudden death, or a similar spawn method for other items such as food, poke balls, etc). Hell, it'd be badass if you can do this with poke balls that auto-open to neutral Pokemon, liable to damage any character on the stage, having no 'master'
• Increase/decrease attack speeds
• Increase/decrease projectile speeds

I honestly have not out much thought into this, and was able to come up with above. Just imagine the possibilities being able to manipulate any and all of this, creating very unique matches. You could create a poke ball-only battle where all attacks are forbidden. You can put emphasis on certain fighting styles only, such as aerial-only battles. Adjusting physics and gravity can promote more of a Melee-style of combat. The results are endless, and can stage for interesting tournament modes. Currently we can only forbid or promote most of the above with humans (verbal understanding to only use items, no grabs, etc), but you can't limit a CPU. With the above system, you force the CPU to obey custom rule-sets.

Thoughts?

 

[S2]

I think this stuff is fun and I'm glad it's there. Honestly though, while it's fun to play the occasional crazy custom match, my friends and I have always gone back to stock matches. Either playing tournament rules 1v1s or teams with the occasional for fun FFAs.

Like I said, I think this stuff is fun. It's definitely casual fun. And yeah, I've always enjoyed doing stuff like items high with pokeballs only. Is it balanced? No, but it's lulzy and fun to play if you bring the game to a party or event with a lot of people who haven't played the game much.

 

[KaZe_DaRKWIND]

The modes are always fun but they are really only things I played every once in a while.

 

[allison]

The modes are always fun but they are really only things I played every once in a while.

This would probably change that. Fox only, no moves, Final Destination.

 

[Doc.Pringles]

I agree with above, the modes have always felt like novelty. They were fun here and there, but ultimately it always came back to standard Brawls.

But the above idea can be implemented as a whole to include items, smash ball occurrence, stocks, time, etc. You can then 'save' templates so you don't have to manually turn all items off, smash balls off, stock/time every time you're looking to setup a tournament style match. It would allow you to swap modes on the fly.

On top of this, you can simply modify attributes to small degrees so it's not quite as overwhelming as novelty modes like lightning, or giant. A small adjustment in speed and gravity to axe floatiness can make for a highly attractive mode for the competitive scene. Specific tournaments can choose to adopt these templates and share them publicly so entrants can practice them. Do you feel like maps are too small? Simply reduce all weapons and sizes to 90%. Don't like the floaty? Add 15% gravity strength. Sick of overpowered recoveries? Reduce the blast zone radius. Turn the game engine into YOUR ideal engine..

Maybe I'm taking crazy pills, but i think implementing this wouldn't require a significant amount of development, but would change the face of Smash as a whole and create a much more future-proof game (essentially Sakurai's goal).