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Melee Stage List

Varist

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 7, 2011
Messages
1,603
Location
Austin
Well one player will HAVE to approach if they don't have the lead, so I don't see how a stalemate could happen except at the very start of a match.
This is exactly the problem. One player will have to approach. He will be approaching on far more unfair terms than if he were approaching on a neutral stage. A stalemate will not happen. However, one player's enjoyment of the match will be neutered based either on his character choice, his sense of honor, or what happened within the first few seconds of the match.

Camping on the rock arguably makes only one aspect of play king: timing. If the opponent can time his attacks adequately, you cannot touch him or her without putting yourself at great risk of losing a stock. This degenerates quality of play and enjoyment of the game. It is undesirable in a counter-pick, because it does not counter the other character, it makes them nonviable.
 

Hax

Smash Champion
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
2,552
Location
20XX
Battlefield only, because a player should never have to deal with uncontrollable variables in a competitive game. that notion eliminates YS, DL64, PS, KJ64, and FoD.

PS's transformations are completely random so no argument there

while YS, DL64, KJ64 and FoD follow set patterns, it is unreasonable to expect people to look at the timer and calculate when the stage obstacles will come into play. this essentially makes their stage obstacles random, because don't kid yourself; when people recover on YS/KJ, they don't calculate that Randall/the barrel will save them, they pray Randall/the barrel will save them. same goes for people praying that the wind on DL64 won't skew someone's lag frames by pushing them off a platform, and praying that FoD's platforms don't screw up a combo. while all of the aforementioned obstacles follow set patterns, literally everybody views them in a luck-based manner because calculating their patterns is unreasonable.

FD/Brinstar/Rainbow Cruise make several matchups ridiculously unfair by opening the door for techniques that are low-skill, high-reward. FD permits chaingrabs, Brinstar allows Peach and Jiggs to dominate any character, and RC strongly favors faster characters. extremely degenerate gameplay goes down on these stages.

i didn't put much effort into this post cause i know nobody's gonna heed my advice lol. i'm expecting responses like "luck is part of the battle; deal with it" or "it takes skill to play Jiggs on Brinstar." those are literally the responses i got last time i tried to change the stage list.

****ing smashboards
 

_Rocky_

Smash Ace
Joined
Jun 14, 2009
Messages
783
Location
611
i think that whining like that is a disgrace to falcon as a character is all
 

tickytoc

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
104
Location
Atascadero California
I will never go to another tournament if battlefield is the only stage to play on haha. I get it might be more fair and it makes it so you arent fighting the stage as well but i mean counter picking adds a whole new element of strategy to each series

I am fine with battlefield maybe being the set stage for all first matches but after that we need more counter pick stages. if you are a peach playing a fox and you win on battlefield and he takes you to say corneria, if he wins take him to brinstar or dreamland and so on.

that's how it used to be and was tons of fun. i feel there are about an equal amount of counter picks for both floaties and fast fallers to choose from if you use the stage list from like '06
 

Kal

Smash Champion
Joined
Dec 21, 2004
Messages
2,974
What's the pattern for Randall?
It comes out every 30 seconds or something.

Battlefield only, because a player should never have to deal with uncontrollable variables in a competitive game. that notion eliminates YS, DL64, PS, KJ64, and FoD.
If something is random, negatively effects the outcome of a match, cannot be accounted for, and has a significant impact on the game, then it should be banned. In general, you shouldn't ban something just because it's random, or just because it's out of your control. The wind on Dreamland has almost no effect on the outcome of the match. The same holds for the cloud on Yoshi's Story.

The mantra of the scrub is to ban things despite the fact that they're not broken.

while YS, DL64, KJ64 and FoD follow set patterns, it is unreasonable to expect people to look at the timer and calculate when the stage obstacles will come into play. this essentially makes their stage obstacles random, because don't kid yourself; when people recover on YS/KJ, they don't calculate that Randall/the barrel will save them, they pray Randall/the barrel will save them. same goes for people praying that the wind on DL64 won't skew someone's lag frames by pushing them off a platform, and praying that FoD's platforms don't screw up a combo. while all of the aforementioned obstacles follow set patterns, literally everybody views them in a luck-based manner because calculating their patterns is unreasonable.
I don't really care how everybody views them. Everyone also views Wobbling as broken despite the fact that it's clearly not. Your entire premise for banning a stage falls upon "well everyone acts like it's random," which is, on its own, a totally absurd reason to ban a stage, even if you think randomness is inherently bad. Of course, whether something should be banned because it is random is at least open to debate.

And no, I don't think it's unreasonable in the least to expect people to look at the timer and calculate when stage obstacles will come into play.

FD/Brinstar/Rainbow Cruise make several matchups ridiculously unfair by opening the door for techniques that are low-skill, high-reward. FD permits chaingrabs, Brinstar allows Peach and Jiggs to dominate any character, and RC strongly favors faster characters. extremely degenerate gameplay goes down on these stages.
First, you've only said that the gameplay is degenerate in certain match-ups (e.g. when characters can be chaingrabbed), not in general, except for Brinstar, which you've claimed causes degenerate gameplay in general as a result of Peach and Jiggs strength on the stage. Second, I don't buy any of this. The gameplay hasn't been shown to degenerate in any sense. I haven't heard of players consistently forcing wins in matchups that they should most certainly be losing by making use of these stages.

i didn't put much effort into this post cause i know nobody's gonna heed my advice lol. i'm expecting responses like "luck is part of the battle; deal with it" or "it takes skill to play Jiggs on Brinstar." those are literally the responses i got last time i tried to change the stage list.

****ing smashboards
It's easy to dismiss our disagreement by making blanket statements without actually reading our arguments. I would expect no less from someone who wants to ban everything, though.


I will never go to another tournament if battlefield is the only stage to play on haha. I get it might be more fair and it makes it so you arent fighting the stage as well but i mean counter picking adds a whole new element of strategy to each series

I am fine with battlefield maybe being the set stage for all first matches but after that we need more counter pick stages. if you are a peach playing a fox and you win on battlefield and he takes you to say corneria, if he wins take him to brinstar or dreamland and so on.

that's how it used to be and was tons of fun. i feel there are about an equal amount of counter picks for both floaties and fast fallers to choose from if you use the stage list from like '06
Yeah, those times were fun. I largely feel that the tendency to ban stages arises from the way we've played the game for the past half-decade. We have always played with only neutral stages in friendlies, and so we show up to tournaments and lose on these counterpicks, which makes us think that they must be gimmicks or "janky." And sadly, rather than take the time to learn these stages and either:

1) prove that they're broken in tournament, which would convince almost all of us in disagreement to add them to the ban list, or

2) in the case that the stages are not broken, become proficient enough with them that they're not viewed as gimmicks

we have instead just decided to ban these stages. It's completely ridiculous.
 

Hax

Smash Champion
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
2,552
Location
20XX
If something is random, negatively effects the outcome of a match, cannot be accounted for, and has a significant impact on the game, then it should be banned. In general, you shouldn't ban something just because it's random, or just because it's out of your control. The wind on Dreamland has almost no effect on the outcome of the match. The same holds for the cloud on Yoshi's Story.

The mantra of the scrub is to ban things despite the fact that they're not broken.
don't put words in my mouth, because i didn't even elaborate on the impact of the stage hazards on PS/YS/DL/FOD in my last post. these hazards are anything but harmless.

i'd be lucky if i ran a match on YS or KJ without Randall/the barrel saving somebody. at a fest yesterday my edgeguards literally backfired more than 10 times over the course of 3 hours because my opponents landed on Randall when he wasn't even visible on-screen. you would be 100% correct in telling me that i would have been able to calculate Randall's position on-screen by subtracting multiples of 12 seconds (i believe that's how long he takes to pop out on either side?) from the 8 minute timer, then calculating how far the current time is from the closest multiple of 12 in order to determine exactly where he is. i would respond by laughing at you.

melee is a draining game; edgeguarding often requires pixel and frame-perfect execution within small time frames. say i bair fox on yoshi's and he's forced to up-b; in the ~1 second i'm given to plan my edgeguard while fox charges his up-b, do you really expect me to do the aforementioned calculation just so i can eliminate the possibility of Randall saving fox? i don't think the average person (i sure can't) could calculate it in 1 second without simultaneously playing smash; now you're expecting us to do it while playing one of the most demanding games of all time?

the answer is no; the average person would much rather run the risk of Randall saving the opponent, because eliminating that risk is far more work than it's worth. i shouldn't need a college degree in math to edgeguard.

this same logic applies to any stage that follows a pattern. it is simply unreasonable to expect people to be able to subconsciously do these calculations while they play a match, essentially deeming stage hazards as luck-based.

as for the rest of the stages...

FoD
my character isn't playable on this stage LOL. that should give you a good idea of how "neutral" this stage is. in general, aerials are constantly interrupted by the moving platforms. dash animations can be halted as well.

DL64
this is the 2nd most neutral stage in the game, but it is made obsolete by Battlefield. while the wind doesn't have a significant effect on most matches, i've been screwed over by it countless times. why play on this stage when it virtually has a clone in Battlefield, minus the small luck factor?

Pokemon Stadium
whenever Jman and i play on this stage, i can only pray it doesn't give him the Fire or Rock transformations. as good as the neutral transformation is, the Fire/Rock transformations are among the worst stages in the game. Fox and Falco (especially Fox) are sooo heavily favored on those transformations due to their ability to quickly combo off of walls (and in Fox's case, perform infinites on walls).

i'll get to the rest of the stages later, i gtg.
 

Niko45

Smash Master
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
3,220
Location
Westchester, NY
I like the small medium large thing that YS BF and DL have going on but the cloud is really kind of a problem. It effects outcomes like crazy and some characters (spacies) are way better equipped to take advantage of the cloud than others.

Dreamland's wind is wack but not nearly as influential on total outcomes and is not worth giving up a really good stage for imo.

:phone:
 

Roneblaster

Smash Hero
Joined
Apr 16, 2009
Messages
6,041
Location
#MangoNation
Kal i dont think u have ever played in a tournament. If you have, i know for a fact youve never been the best player in the room. People in tournaments play to win and make money. I know the best people in every room would prefer to never have to worry about jankiness of stages.

Jank gives undeserved and uncontrolable opportunity for the better player to lose. THIS ISNT OK in competitive games.
Inb4 u say it affects both players. NO ****. Jank is just another variable. Do i deserve to beat hax because i clocked randall correctly 4 times? No ****ing way. Do i deserve to beat some1 because the platform i fell on changed height 6 times in a match? **** NO.

Also i know ur a worthless troll because u expect people to know where randall is based on the timer, in the middle of a tournament match.

I agree with aziz, GG smashboards.

:phone:
 

Doser

Smash Ace
Joined
Nov 23, 2010
Messages
572
Location
Lincoln Nebraska
Let's say in a normal 2D fighter there are 5 stages.

One of them is the normal type of stage, just flat with two walls on either side.

Two others have a random effect of changing the players traction while otherwise the same as the above.

Another one randomly contracts to 4/5ths of it's normal size (the normal size being the same as the first one)

The last one has lightning that randomly hits players taking a twentieth of their health.

What reasons are there to play on any of these stages besides the first one? What added depth is there by changing the scenery yet adding in factors that worsen playing the game?

Also KJ64 DOES NOT FOLLOW A SET PATTERN, the barrel moves back and forth rhythmically most of the time but at random times it will stop and spin for an arbitrary amount of time and then continue on, and with the barrel out of sight during most of the battle it is pure chance. That is, unless you go fixed camera mode and look at your characters from a mile away.
 

Grim Tuesday

Smash Legend
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
13,444
Location
Adelaide, South Australia, AUS
Banning randomness is silly.

Player vs. player combat is, at the most basic level, random, because there is no way of predicting all of the other player's choices . Should we ban characters too?
 

Hax

Smash Champion
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
2,552
Location
20XX
are you calling smash (or any game) a matter of luck, Grim Tuesday?

there's a huge discrepancy between something that is truly random, and something that can be conditioned (not random)

unlike stages, people are able to analyze our actions and respond accordingly. that's the nature of a competitive game - conditioning opponents to do what you want them to do, recognizing weaknesses and responding accordingly, etc.

just because you don't have full knowledge of your opponent's actions doesn't make their actions random

on the other hand, a random aspect of a stage is always gonna be random. for example i can't condition Pokemon Stadium to not transform into its Rock transformation.
 

Rockenos

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Feb 20, 2011
Messages
181
Location
Atlanta, GA
I don't really think PS should be neutral, it's highly advantagous for characters like Fox. Especially against characters like Puff. The low ceiling in general means we die to up smash around 50%, and some of the transformations can be gay to us as well.
I feel like FoD is pretty neutral, but that's only cus I'm a puff main... And for us it tends to be pretty neutral.

:phone:
 

KirbyKaze

Smash Legend
Joined
Nov 18, 2007
Messages
17,679
Location
Spiral Mountain
I think the acceptance of Peach (and similar characters with "chance-based" mechanics) demonstrates we're willing to tolerate some level of randomness.

I think the real question is, "How high the acceptable level of randomness?"
 

Niko45

Smash Master
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
3,220
Location
Westchester, NY
I think the acceptance of Peach (and similar characters with "chance-based" mechanics) demonstrates we're willing to tolerate some level of randomness.

I think the real question is, "How high the acceptable level of randomness?"
Exactly. It's not possible to remove ALL the randomness or even worth it imo.

However Randall, which will have a changing effect on a match I will say roughly once per match, is too high imo.

So I personally draw the line somewhere between Randall and DL64 wind (which I would say, even generously estimating, effects 1every 20 matches).

@Grim - If you don't think Randall effects high level matches, here's one right off the top of my head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC8moKgpl9s I'm sure there are many more out there if you really looked.
 

Bing

Smash Master
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
4,885
Location
St.Catharines, Ontario, Canada
I like the stage list. I think the more it gets shrunk down the more issues people will find with every stage.
I.e: say all current cp's are removed, leaving YS,FoD,BF,FD,DL64. It wouldn't surprise me to hear like, Lets remove Yoshi's because randall's a **** who just moves around and ****s up my combo's. Battlefield, has ****ty ledge, dont want to deal with it. DL64, the wind messes me up. FoD: Cant stand the moving platforms. leaving FD. no platforms, just a flat stage with a cool background. yay. Leave the current list, maybe remove 1 or 2 of the cp's.(Not KJ64 because its my favourite pick.)
 

mers

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 25, 2008
Messages
997
Location
Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
Randall isn't random. Just because it's difficult to predict doesn't mean it should be banned.

Seriously, if we're banning stages because they're difficult, there's no end to the argument. Every stage that is banned has been banned because it favors certain characters much too strongly, which is a much better reason than because it's hard to predict.
 

Ace55

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
1,642
Location
Amsterdam
@Hax

Randall comes out every 10 seconds. You don't have to do any math to know where it is.

0:05 Comes out on the left
0:10 Goes back into the stage
0:15 Comes out on the right
0:20 Goes back into the stage
0:25 Comes out on the left

Etc

Even number +5 it's coming out on the left, odd number +5 it's coming out on the right. It's not hard to memorize and it's not hard to use.

Basically every recovery I make on YS I'm perfectly aware where the cloud is, I wouldn't know why other people couldn't do that. Seriously, it pisses me of when the timer isn't on when I play friendlies on YS because it feels like a handicap not knowing where the cloud is.
 

Niko45

Smash Master
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
3,220
Location
Westchester, NY
Just knowing when the cloud will come out does not stop randall from influencing the battle in ways that no one can control.
 

Max?

Smash Champion
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Messages
2,255
Location
Falco Bair
PC has stated that he just camps the side of the stage where the cloud is going to and that's why it tends to save him so much. Pretty freaking genius if you ask me.
 

tickytoc

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
104
Location
Atascadero California
Let's not forget about ken vs. kdj on YS. . .
exactly! and it's one of the best matches ever imo... sure ken was probly pissed that randall screwed him but how many other times has it helped him... i mean randall is pretty much owned by ken so my point is the cloud doesnt give an advantage to one character vastly greater to any other.
 

Ace55

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
1,642
Location
Amsterdam
Just knowing when the cloud will come out does not stop randall from influencing the battle in ways that no one can control.
Actually it does...

YOU control when you hit someone off stage. Just because people don't/can't keep this in mind where the cloud is while fighting (I'm not claiming I do this) doesn't make it 'out of your control' by any means.
 

Max?

Smash Champion
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Messages
2,255
Location
Falco Bair
LOL those were his words not mine. I got so tight at him one day because he got saved by the cloud 3 or 4 times in one match and I was like "How do you keep doing that". Lo and behold, the mofo chills where the cloud is going to end up.
 

HomeStylePie

Smash Cadet
Joined
Apr 23, 2011
Messages
40
So what if Randall ****s up one edgeguard per match? You can still get KO'd while you're trying to get back from Randall to the main stage. Maybe it actually does affect nearly every game (dubious), but it's pretty rare that Randall actually changes the outcome, and even if it does you can't argue that the person who recovered was only able to do so because of pure dumb luck.

With Battlefield's ledges, I think it's impossible to argue that there's a single 100% neutral stage. If you don't like the game the way the developers made it, maybe you should play Brawl instead.
 

Winston

Smash Master
Joined
Aug 13, 2006
Messages
3,562
Location
Seattle, WA (slightly north of U-District)
Actually it does...

YOU control when you hit someone off stage. Just because people don't/can't keep this in mind where the cloud is while fighting (I'm not claiming I do this) doesn't make it 'out of your control' by any means.
You control when you hit someone offstage? Really?

Sure, you can choose not to hit them offstage if you have an opportunity. But if someone really controls when they hit their opponents offstage, then why aren't they always winning by always choosing to hit their opponents offstage?

Opportunities arise in smash in a pseudorandom manner with respect to randall's intervals. Obviously the player does have a part to play in it, but saying that he "controls" it seems pretty absurd.
 

Metal Reeper

Smash Champion
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
Messages
2,285
Location
Abington PA
Just knowing when the cloud will come out does not stop randall from influencing the battle in ways that no one can control.
I always know where randall is....and i use this to my advantage all the time. I make him save me on purpose all the time, don't take me to YS

IS it really that hard to cover the Randall option? lol
 

Niko45

Smash Master
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
3,220
Location
Westchester, NY
Okay, so yea Winston is right and you all should have common sense.

If you really fail to understand how the cloud is not something the players have complete control over please watch the match I linked between swift and macD. Should cover it. If you still don't understand, I don't really know what to say.

Even if you want to argue that macD could "know" the cloud was coming and therefore him just knowing makes it okay - no. The fact is the cloud came *exactly* when he needed it to within a ~1 second window and it allowed him to survive in a situation where he would normally be dead. I don't think macD "planned" to get shined right at that exact time that would correspond with that exact cloud save. Whether you know Randall is coming or not is completely irrelevant.

Also, to whoever said it, being on the cloud is generally very safe. Trying to approach someone who is on the cloud is generally really stupid and dangerous.
 

Doser

Smash Ace
Joined
Nov 23, 2010
Messages
572
Location
Lincoln Nebraska
General Information

The cloud begins at the bottom left, just entering through the stage when the match begins.
X and A are variables used in place of minutes or seconds when they are not factors in the timing.
All numbers are not perfectly exact, but should be within half a second.
It is assumed that the match is using a timer and is set to 8 minutes, following standard tournament rules, which allows the player to count the time for the cloud.

Cloud Pattern

The cloud is inside of the stage during these times

X:59-X:54
X:49-X:44
X:39-X:34
X:29-X:24
X:19-X:14
X:09-X:04

Or more generally X:A9-X:A4

The Cloud is to the left of the stage during these times

8:00-7:59
X:44-X:39
X:24-X:19
X:04-X:59
Or more generally X:A4 -> X: (A-1)9 (Where A is a non-odd natural number)



The Cloud is to the right of the stage during these times
X:54-X:49
X:34-X:29
X:14-X:09

Or more generally X:A4 -> X: (A-1)9 (Where A is a non-even natural number)

Because the cloud moves at a constant rate, it is possible to track its position even more accurately than simply what side of the stage it is on. In general it takes about 2 seconds from the time the cloud leaves the stage to when the cloud is the farthest from the stage.
The cloud has come out of the stage and is now on the right side (Bottom part of the track) at these times:

X:54
X:34
X:14

The cloud has gone the farthest to the right and has risen halfway at these times:

X:52
X:32
X:12

The cloud has come out of the stage and is now on the left side (Top part of the track) at these times:

X:44
X:24
X:04

The Cloud has gone the farthest to the left and has dropped halfway at these times:

X:42
X:22
X:02
 

Ace55

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
1,642
Location
Amsterdam
You control when you hit someone offstage? Really?

Sure, you can choose not to hit them offstage if you have an opportunity. But if someone really controls when they hit their opponents offstage, then why aren't they always winning by always choosing to hit their opponents offstage?

Opportunities arise in smash in a pseudorandom manner with respect to randall's intervals. Obviously the player does have a part to play in it, but saying that he "controls" it seems pretty absurd.
You control if/when you try to hit someone, so that part is fully in your control. It's not like someone else is gonna knock your opponent offstage. Obviously you don't control Randall but he's a completely linear obstacle so it's a completely non-random situation.




Even if you want to argue that macD could "know" the cloud was coming and therefore him just knowing makes it okay - no. The fact is the cloud came *exactly* when he needed it to within a ~1 second window and it allowed him to survive in a situation where he would normally be dead.
The cloud moves at a easily traceable set path, there is nothing stopping Swiftbass from taking notice of it. The cloud didn't come out because macD needed it, it's there every twenty seconds. It's comparable to not knowing when something is gonna pop up on RC/Pokefloats, it's stage knowledge. Lacking stage knowledge is not a reason to have something banned.

Also, to whoever said it, being on the cloud is generally very safe. Trying to approach someone who is on the cloud is generally really stupid and dangerous.
Meh, it's high risk-high reward for both sides, but yeah it's pretty dumb situation.
 

Kal

Smash Champion
Joined
Dec 21, 2004
Messages
2,974
Guys, here's some basic probability theory:

The "expected value" of something is the product of its payout and its probability. Let's suppose, for example, that we bet on a coin flip. Suppose I pay you $50 every time you flip heads, and you pay me $25 every time you flip tails. Then my expected return is:

(.5)($25) = $12.5

And my expected losses are:

(.5)($50) = $25

And my total (holy **** math) expected payout is $12.5 - $25 = -$12.5, i.e., I lose $12.5. If you're not mathematically ********, you can do the other computation and see that you'll gain $12.5. This means that, on average, I will lose $12.5 per coin flip, and you will gain $12.5 per coin flip.

Now, the impact of the cloud is not simply equal to its most drastic impact; this would be like saying Peach's down-B is broken because she's able to pull out a Bob-Bomb. You need to consider the various impacts the cloud can have, and the corresponding frequencies with which these impacts occur.

Sure, sometimes the cloud can have a drastic impact. But the overwhelming majority of the time, it has absolutely no impact at all on the outcome of a match. I can't believe people want to ban Yoshi's because of the cloud, FoD because of the rising platforms, Dreamland because of the wind, Pokemon Stadium because of the transformations (no one even mentions the rather low ceiling), and FD because there are some chaingrabs. It's ****ing absurd.
 
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