Veril
Frame Savant
Cape, who has long been the driving force behind B+ development, will be stepping down as project leader so that he can focus on his career: hunting terrorists... what a bad***!
As some of you already know, I will be the new brawl+ project leader. This is both an incredible honor and a daunting responsibility, one that I am proud to take on. I have watched this project grow and blossom, despite the many obstacles that we have encountered along the way. Cape truly was the man for the job, taking the mess of 5.0 and turning it into something we are all very proud of.
Our differences in personalities, as well as the fundamentally different challenges I am facing compared to what Cape dealt with, dictates that our respective leadership styles will differ substantially. Keeping in mind the amazing work that Cape did spinning the dross of RC1 into "near gold", there are a number of changes I feel all of you should be aware of.
How, and when, balance-sensitive changes will be made to the official codesets:
With GSH2, there were an enormous number of changes that had to be made quickly. The testing and implementation had to focus on efficiency and precision, ie. fast but not sloppy. His team put in an enormous amount of work, without all of us being humanly capable of following every single change. 6.0 provides an infinitely better set to work with, and thus my approach will be far more conservative, standardized, and more visible publically.
The actual means by which a suggested balance change becomes official will follow a standardized process:
1. The problem is brought forward and discussed by the voting body, as well as publicly and with other extremely knowledgable players.
2. The exact mechanics of the problem are determined and potential means to deal with them are proposed. (I must stress that with any nerf, I will attempt to apply the minimum possible change to achieve my desired results.)
3. My team of research ninjas and I will determine the exact properties of the change through rigorous testing... ie, I run everything through a math/research gauntlet. Each individual change is a "measure" of a "balance-sensitive proposal.
4. The measures are put to a vote, with majority support required for implementation. In the event of a tie I will cast the deciding vote.
5. A new .pac is produced, evaluated and replaces the existing one.
But, what about letting the metagame develop? This is, of course, of paramount concern. Thus balance changes are only made if it is determined that without the change, the problem would only continue to grow, making any future change that much more difficult and detrimental to the affected character. I strongly disagree with releasing nightly sets. I promise that changes will be very few and far between, and I will inform the public whenever they are made.
This process will be streamlined only in the event of combos that "loop" ie, self combos (not necessarily one move) and infinites, or highly disruptive glitches. Fixing these does not necessitate a vote if doing so is near-universally accepted.
New directions:
Just because character balance nearing "gold" status doesn't mean we are done. Quite the contrary. With the most important components of the game out of the way we will be able to focus on:
1. Stages: finalizing stage hacks will allow us to achieve something of a smasher dream. A competitive stage roster than will satisfy most conservative tournament players without being extremely limited. There are a lot of very talented people at work on increasing the competitive viability of many stages, without homogenizing the game.
2. Issuing and updating the official competitive rulesets: this is typically the primary task of a backroom, along with releasing a tier-list (something I do not intend to pursue for at least a few months after the gold set is released).
3. The "Manual": Getting accurate, detailed and complete frame data, hitbox images, information on advanced techniques and making it all publicly available. This will coincide with the creation of an official "manual" which will cover the basics of gameplay in Brawl+ and serve as a repository for information useful to more advanced players.
4. Aggressive Public Relations: Reaching out to Melee and Brawl players who may have been turned off to B+ in the past.
On a personal note:
When I first hacked my wii, it wasn't to play Brawl+. I merely wanted access to frame advance... but I downloaded the official set at the time and was immediately hooked. This project has always been a labor of love for me. Despite the drama that came with working in the backroom, and later for Cape, it has been infinitely rewarding to me. I would like to acknowledge all of the players who helped me get to where I am now, but they are too numerous to list. This community, for all its problems, has been good to me, better than I ever had hoped.
Thank you all. <3
Selected Quotes from Character Discussions:
As some of you already know, I will be the new brawl+ project leader. This is both an incredible honor and a daunting responsibility, one that I am proud to take on. I have watched this project grow and blossom, despite the many obstacles that we have encountered along the way. Cape truly was the man for the job, taking the mess of 5.0 and turning it into something we are all very proud of.
Our differences in personalities, as well as the fundamentally different challenges I am facing compared to what Cape dealt with, dictates that our respective leadership styles will differ substantially. Keeping in mind the amazing work that Cape did spinning the dross of RC1 into "near gold", there are a number of changes I feel all of you should be aware of.
How, and when, balance-sensitive changes will be made to the official codesets:
With GSH2, there were an enormous number of changes that had to be made quickly. The testing and implementation had to focus on efficiency and precision, ie. fast but not sloppy. His team put in an enormous amount of work, without all of us being humanly capable of following every single change. 6.0 provides an infinitely better set to work with, and thus my approach will be far more conservative, standardized, and more visible publically.
The actual means by which a suggested balance change becomes official will follow a standardized process:
1. The problem is brought forward and discussed by the voting body, as well as publicly and with other extremely knowledgable players.
2. The exact mechanics of the problem are determined and potential means to deal with them are proposed. (I must stress that with any nerf, I will attempt to apply the minimum possible change to achieve my desired results.)
3. My team of research ninjas and I will determine the exact properties of the change through rigorous testing... ie, I run everything through a math/research gauntlet. Each individual change is a "measure" of a "balance-sensitive proposal.
4. The measures are put to a vote, with majority support required for implementation. In the event of a tie I will cast the deciding vote.
5. A new .pac is produced, evaluated and replaces the existing one.
But, what about letting the metagame develop? This is, of course, of paramount concern. Thus balance changes are only made if it is determined that without the change, the problem would only continue to grow, making any future change that much more difficult and detrimental to the affected character. I strongly disagree with releasing nightly sets. I promise that changes will be very few and far between, and I will inform the public whenever they are made.
This process will be streamlined only in the event of combos that "loop" ie, self combos (not necessarily one move) and infinites, or highly disruptive glitches. Fixing these does not necessitate a vote if doing so is near-universally accepted.
New directions:
Just because character balance nearing "gold" status doesn't mean we are done. Quite the contrary. With the most important components of the game out of the way we will be able to focus on:
1. Stages: finalizing stage hacks will allow us to achieve something of a smasher dream. A competitive stage roster than will satisfy most conservative tournament players without being extremely limited. There are a lot of very talented people at work on increasing the competitive viability of many stages, without homogenizing the game.
2. Issuing and updating the official competitive rulesets: this is typically the primary task of a backroom, along with releasing a tier-list (something I do not intend to pursue for at least a few months after the gold set is released).
3. The "Manual": Getting accurate, detailed and complete frame data, hitbox images, information on advanced techniques and making it all publicly available. This will coincide with the creation of an official "manual" which will cover the basics of gameplay in Brawl+ and serve as a repository for information useful to more advanced players.
4. Aggressive Public Relations: Reaching out to Melee and Brawl players who may have been turned off to B+ in the past.
On a personal note:
When I first hacked my wii, it wasn't to play Brawl+. I merely wanted access to frame advance... but I downloaded the official set at the time and was immediately hooked. This project has always been a labor of love for me. Despite the drama that came with working in the backroom, and later for Cape, it has been infinitely rewarding to me. I would like to acknowledge all of the players who helped me get to where I am now, but they are too numerous to list. This community, for all its problems, has been good to me, better than I ever had hoped.
Thank you all. <3
Selected Quotes from Character Discussions:
You're correct in your assumption that nair was not changed.
Now that I am part of the WBR though, I suppose I should make my stance on the issue clear.
First and foremost, it would do well to remember what the new WBR's policy on balance changes are. That being, a change should now only be made under one of three conditions:
1. The aspect in question is obviously and blatantly overcentralizing to the character's metagame. A good example is D3's bair and Marth's FHDF, both of which could shut down a number if the cast through just using those moves. A more relevant example considering the topic is Falco's old SHDL which could also singlehandedly shut down a good chunk of the cast.
2. The aspect in question had an undesired side effect or did not work in the manner in which it was intended. Jigglypuff's new u-throw comes to mind.
3. The aspect in question is an infinite or very long-lasting loop that works on a number of the cast and that leads to either a very high accumulation of damage or loss of a stock.
Falco's nair has never been, to my knowledge, part of and infinite or loop, so that rules out #3. Any changes that have been made to it have worked in the desired manner, so #2 goes out the window. You probably want to argue for #1, but the nair being completely overcentralizing is simply not true. It singlehandedly shuts down a grand total of 0 characters. Hell, it's not his most central move (lasers) or even his best aerial (dair). You would be better off trying to make a case for either one of those two than you would for Falco's nair.
Don't get me wrong, nair is a very good aerial (though worse than dair/bair), and it definately has its niche that it can fill nicely (it is Falco's best shield poking aerial and a great cross-up attack that can be followed up with nicely given it's autocancel and low natural endlag). But let's entertain for a minute that the WBR had its old balance change policy. I recall at least 2 complaints of yours about the nair: that it could combo into whatever it wanted (nair->usmash in particular frustrated you), and its priority, shared with a good number of Falco's moves. On the first point, other characters can do falling multi-hit attacks into more potent kill moves, such as Fox's fair->usmash and G&W's nair->dsmash (which was possible even in vBrawl). Falco's nair is hardley unique in that respect, and isn't even the most deadly of the ones that are still in the game. Dealing with priority, it's true that Falco has very good priority...but next to no true disjoints. In a game where most likely a little under than half the cast has some sort of disjointed aerial (usually by way of sword, pikmin, turtle, or silly coding). Characters like DK also have just as good priority, but like Falco, he extends his hurtbox as well. In that respect, Falco in general falls a bit above just average as far as priorty is concerned with most of his attacks (barring his true disjoints: lasers and shine). Nair itself, as mentioned by another poster whom I've forgotten, mentioned that Falco's nair only really has range in front of him (give or take. For as bad as his fair is, his nair has nothing on his fair as far as forward range is concerned...or even most other fairs).
But that is all hypothetical anyway. I don't think Falco's nair is so overpowered that is needs to be changed right now. The most important thing for the WBR right now is changing as little as possible to establish a metagame, which has been a growing problem for Brawl+ and a source of frustration for potential Brawl+ players. First and foremost, Veril wishes us to keep to this mentality rigidly. When we have an established metagame and we have a little more leeway for balance changes, I would be happy to sit down and talk with you about potential nair changes (though I still don't see a need for it to be changed). I've been pushing against a shine buff Cape thought of for the very same reason, and perhaps we could work out some sort of trade off between the two to please both sides.
But right now, Falco's nair is not nearly broken enough to warrant any change. I do not see any need to alter it in any way.