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Multiple beams...?

lukifer

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Messages
75
Does anyone know if Brawl differentiates between left and right inputs on the d-pad? Or does it just get registered as a side taunt input? I recall reading somewhere in Warchamp's AMA that they were considering adding more beam types in the future. If you can't switch between any two beam types like you could in Prime though, I think I'd rather it just stay at two. Having to cycle between different "stances" is kind of clunky imo, similar to the Pokemon Trainer's down-b in Brawl.

Regardless, this change is super hype. Dec. 9th can't come soon enough!
 

br8k

Coolkid
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Jan 21, 2013
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Charlottesville, VA
Does anyone know if Brawl differentiates between left and right inputs on the d-pad? Or does it just get registered as a side taunt input? I recall reading somewhere in Warchamp's AMA that they were considering adding more beam types in the future. If you can't switch between any two beam types like you could in Prime though, I think I'd rather it just stay at two. Having to cycle between different "stances" is kind of clunky imo, similar to the Pokemon Trainer's down-b in Brawl.

Regardless, this change is super hype. Dec. 9th can't come soon enough!
It can definitely distinguish between them, because Snake can grab people and drag them left/right with the side taunt buttons in Project M.
 

lukifer

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Messages
75
It can definitely distinguish between them, because Snake can grab people and drag them left/right with the side taunt buttons in Project M.
Oh right! I totally forgot about that. Hopefully we'll get to see wave beam someday too.
 

ph00tbag

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But it's not an Easter Egg type of tool. It's being added to broaden her game. You see this entire addition as a novelty item which I don't understand because it has use. It gives her versatility. It's not added to pay homage to the idea that Samus is a trick-shot character, as much as it's added to give a character more versatility and options. The change alters the knockback of her attacks with is a potential boon to her spacing game. I think that this addition should be viewed from the perspective of it being a large addition to her existing meta game.
This runs directly counter to the thrust of Shell's post. So either the move is an Easter Egg that inadvertently shifts the focus of the character, which makes it a poor inclusion on that front, or it's an intentional shift of the character's focus, when her playstyle needed no shift of focus, and was in fact rather open-ended and deep to begin with, which makes it an utterly baffling inclusion. Either way, the inclusion of the mechanic doesn't strike me as defensible except with the "well it doesn't seem to be hurting anyone" mentality that also led to Ike's walljump, and Lucario's... whatever. And given the stuff that that mentality tends to yield, I just don't find that to be a substantial defense. Indeed, I find it to be a pretty good alarm bell that the idea may not actually be a good one.

Also with the Super Wavedash, it's something that the fans wanted, that could only help her game, that required solely time on the dev's part. I don't understand your outlash at that as it's simply a requested readdition to her tool set and doesn't hurt the character at all. Even if it's a novelty thing, it's something people wanted and the devs delivered, which doesn't adversely effect your interaction with the character or the metagame for that character besides your disdain of it's inclusion.
Okay, so when someone's point is that popular demand is not a valid basis for a mechanic's inclusion, "but it's popular" is not a response that will gain you any traction. Just... food for thought.

Think not of these changes as emblematic, but instead as what they are. Additions to the existing strategy Samus employs, which are currently unaccompanied by debufs of any sort. I don't see how this news is not cause for rejoice.
It might be because they're completely uncalled for, and I'm inclined to provide criticism for unnecessary things showing up in this game. Your entire argument here is "it's not hurting you, so you have no reason to complain." The problem with that argument is I'm not challenging anyone to spout fallacies against informed critique; I'm challenging people to actually explain to me why dev time needed to be spent on these mechanics to begin with. And once again, "it's popular," will absolutely not convince me.
 

KariteSama

Smash Apprentice
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May 6, 2013
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It's a silly mechanic introduced mostly because "lol look what we can do!" and not because Samus needed it, or because it made any kind of sense in the context of Samus' fighting style. This and the reintroduction of SWD are just developer ******y where I'd really hoped the PMBR had learned to start approaching the design of the game with a sense of professionalism.

Alright. I'm no Samus main but here's my thought. They seemed to do a good job of maintaining what Samus capable of i.e. they didn't take anything away. However, we all know that there are certain matchups that Samus gets bodied in.

Her Fair, for instance, was very weak against certain characters because of its low knockback and it just didn't lead to much at times. I was watching some Samus play tonight and the stance switch simply gave her more options. Fair becomes a powerful combo finisher against some characters (ice stance) and great for creating followups in other matchups (fire stance).

To me it's not about them trying to fundamentally change the character but simply broaden her options and expand her viability. Whether or not you think that is necessary is a different story altogether.
 

GeZ

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This runs directly counter to the thrust of Shell's post. So either the move is an Easter Egg that inadvertently shifts the focus of the character, which makes it a poor inclusion on that front, or it's an intentional shift of the character's focus, when her playstyle needed no shift of focus, and was in fact rather open-ended and deep to begin with, which makes it an utterly baffling inclusion. Either way, the inclusion of the mechanic doesn't strike me as defensible except with the "well it doesn't seem to be hurting anyone" mentality that also led to Ike's walljump, and Lucario's... whatever. And given the stuff that that mentality tends to yield, I just don't find that to be a substantial defense. Indeed, I find it to be a pretty good alarm bell that the idea may not actually be a good one.


Okay, so when someone's point is that popular demand is not a valid basis for a mechanic's inclusion, "but it's popular" is not a response that will gain you any traction. Just... food for thought.


It might be because they're completely uncalled for, and I'm inclined to provide criticism for unnecessary things showing up in this game. Your entire argument here is "it's not hurting you, so you have no reason to complain." The problem with that argument is I'm not challenging anyone to spout fallacies against informed critique; I'm challenging people to actually explain to me why dev time needed to be spent on these mechanics to begin with. And once again, "it's popular," will absolutely not convince me.
As logic is clearly your forte I'll try again, but simpler. It can only ADD depth because it is only an ADDITION. As ADDITIONS to Samus' game, they are welcome by virtue of being simple ADDITIONS. They were added, to bring greater DEPTH to the character. To chastise a team of developers for making ADDITIONS to their project, at the request of the fans the project is CATERED to as well as their own professional opinion on the VALIDITY of these ADDITIONS is bluntly asinine. My argument is not, as you would phrase it "It's not hurting you, so you have no reason to complain." but rather, it's simply an ADDITION to the character/ strategy/ project/ game so you have no reason or grounds to complain about the adverse effect is has on your mental state, to the community and developers it is made for, and by, respectively.

As your perception of inclusion necessitates
fun and or for the community =/= reason to program
which would exclude a large part of this project, if not the project in its entirety.
At this point I'm going for the nuclear option because, as far as I can tell, you'd rather these were excluded simply because you don't understand or believe the use/ utility, and think that a combination of demand and creativity to innovate or improve upon a character is not worth the effort because of the aforementioned reason and because it seems to cater too much to the fans.
 

MattNF

Smash Lord
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And you do have to go through the whole animation for it to change, not just start it.
I don't think this is true. In the stream today, GimR was taunt canceling the animation and he was able to switch beams instantly.
 

ph00tbag

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As your perception of inclusion necessitates
fun and or for the community =/= reason to program
which would exclude a large part of this project, if not the project in its entirety.
At this point I'm going for the nuclear option because, as far as I can tell, you'd rather these were excluded simply because you don't understand or believe the use/ utility, and think that a combination of demand and creativity to innovate or improve upon a character is not worth the effort because of the aforementioned reason and because it seems to cater too much to the fans.
Y'know I've avoided trying to insult you. I'd appreciate it if you did the same for me.

Adding depth should absolutely not be the only criterion for including something. Otherwise we'd be playing Brawl-, not Project M. And I've been playing Samus and thinking about her as a player, opponent, observer, and even armchair designer, longer than you have, I can guarantee it, so don't even start with me not understanding the impact of these mechanics. I know perfectly well what their impact will be, and that is why I consider their inclusion to be a poor decision--at best a waste of time. They are improvements, yes. But I view them as improvements in the wrong direction.

And I also get the sense you want to make a strawman out of me, as well. Note that I'm one of the strongest supporters of Samus's new crawl--indeed I harassed Yeroc constantly about focusing on the morph ball, because I saw it as a way to make Samus more canon and giving her options that coincided with the way she plays the game. There was a point in development where fire-fair had the same animation of the ice-fair you see, and it semi-spiked, and I supported the decision, because yeah, fair has extremely limited use, even if that use is something Samus mains are accustomed to by now, so something different was probably worth-while. I've long been a proponent of changing usmash. I'm not complaining about mid-air charge on Charge Shot, since even if I don't think it's a buff she needed, it's a buff that fixes some major problems she had. I'm not making a wholesale argument against the Samus buff that were made. I'm leveling a criticism against two changes, one which will have no impact, and was a waste of time, and one which I'm sure will change Samus on a fundamental level, and thus was a poor decision. I'm not mad. I'm not shouting. I'm not mentally distressed. Honestly, I think you're projecting on those last three.

Go get yourself a glass of water, and come back when you're ready to talk like a civilized human being.
 

GeZ

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Y'know I've avoided trying to insult you. I'd appreciate it if you did the same for me.

Adding depth should absolutely not be the only criterion for including something. Otherwise we'd be playing Brawl-, not Project M. And I've been playing Samus and thinking about her as a player, opponent, observer, and even armchair designer, longer than you have, I can guarantee it, so don't even start with me not understanding the impact of these mechanics. I know perfectly well what their impact will be, and that is why I consider their inclusion to be a poor decision--at best a waste of time. They are improvements, yes. But I view them as improvements in the wrong direction.

And I also get the sense you want to make a strawman out of me, as well. Note that I'm one of the strongest supporters of Samus's new crawl--indeed I harassed Yeroc constantly about focusing on the morph ball, because I saw it as a way to make Samus more canon and giving her options that coincided with the way she plays the game. There was a point in development where fire-fair had the same animation of the ice-fair you see, and it semi-spiked, and I supported the decision, because yeah, fair has extremely limited use, even if that use is something Samus mains are accustomed to by now, so something different was probably worth-while. I've long been a proponent of changing usmash. I'm not complaining about mid-air charge on Charge Shot, since even if I don't think it's a buff she needed, it's a buff that fixes some major problems she had. I'm not making a wholesale argument against the Samus buff that were made. I'm leveling a criticism against two changes, one which will have no impact, and was a waste of time, and one which I'm sure will change Samus on a fundamental level, and thus was a poor decision. I'm not mad. I'm not shouting. I'm not mentally distressed. Honestly, I think you're projecting on those last three.

Go get yourself a glass of water, and come back when you're ready to talk like a civilized human being.

I don't really follow your comment in addressing adding depth, because Brawl is lacking a great depth that P:M has added. I appreciate the changes that add complexity to the game because that in and of itself is what P:M has been doing over all of its builds. I understand that you've devoted more time and thought into the changes impacts upon the character, but I think that you may have a strange view of these changes because your position of being well versed and knowledged about the character has given you a different perspective. I don't see how these improvements are in the wrong direction in that the old systems are intact.
I also played the build where Fire Fair functioned like the current Ice Fair. I understand that Fair has some limited use, but I think that removing that use, or changing it completely is a bad idea. When things are removed from characters in Project M it's because it's completely unnecessary. Even then it's usually replaced by something that fills the same role, but just does it better. So I think that the Ice Fair and Ice Usmash are good additions because they're what you want, change, but they're change without exclusion of old tools that some Samus players might like, or at the very least use well because of their time using it.
I may seem to be putting much more duress on the issue than it warrants, but that's because your claiming that these additions are a waste of time, which is ****ty for the developers who spent, or as you would consider, wasted, that time on these changes, as well as the fans and other players who are currently hype for these new things that are coming with the character that they've been waiting for. I can assure you that I'm not trying to make a strawman out of you because their is no one else to discourage with such an act. As far as I've seen, you are the the only one advocating your current point.

I'm having trouble getting a grasp on your argument because it seems that a lot of it is "these are changes, yes, but their not how I would've handled the changes."
I've heard similar things from other players before, but it's a statement that precludes the idea that the Project M developers and backroomers do everything with the community and competitive validity in mind, so it would be very difficult for this one to slip under the rug.
 

KariteSama

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I'm leveling a criticism against two changes, one which will have no impact, and was a waste of time, and one which I'm sure will change Samus on a fundamental level, and thus was a poor decision.

If it won't have any impact then why is it a problem? It's just a nostalgia factor. Is that so bad?
 

shinhed-echi

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I love the concept of switching between beams. Heck, if I had the knowledge and time, I would give her the Wave Beam as well. :D

The developers have outdone themselves with this. They could've stopped at giving her an Ice version of the Neutral special (charged shot), but they changed all of the arm-cannon based moves while they were at it. And best of all, it's optional.

This is the kind of changes I encourage and welcome.
Samus has turned into a favorite character of mine to use in ALL SSB versions. But this looks like the sickest, and definite version of her.

I guess this totally makes up for the fact that I won't be able to turn into ZSS through Up+Down+Up taunts. XD
Or who knows, maybe that stayed, and I'll be the happiest Samus player alive.
 

QQQQQQQ7777777

Smash Champion
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I love the concept of switching between beams. Heck, if I had the knowledge and time, I would give her the Wave Beam as well. :D

The developers have outdone themselves with this. They could've stopped at giving her an Ice version of the Neutral special (charged shot), but they changed all of the arm-cannon based moves while they were at it. And best of all, it's optional.

This is the kind of changes I encourage and welcome.
Samus has turned into a favorite character of mine to use in ALL SSB versions. But this looks like the sickest, and definite version of her.

I guess this totally makes up for the fact that I won't be able to turn into ZSS through Up+Down+Up taunts. XD
Or who knows, maybe that stayed, and I'll be the happiest Samus player alive.
actually her neutral special stays the same no matter what beam your using
 

shinhed-echi

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actually her neutral special stays the same no matter what beam your using

What? Really? That's... odd?
But I guess freezing opponents would've been too much as well. Although a fully charged B freezing opponents doesn't sound too OP imo. I guess they can't change the charged shot's properties with Stance mechanic.

Oh well, at least the new Ice moves and air-charging is there.
 

MVP

Smash Ace
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Aug 24, 2012
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641
all this hate for samus' new tech really needs to stop. you guys hateing haven't even played her yet and you're criticizing her new abilities. her new ice beam plays differently from her fire. fire is better for comboing, and ice is better for killing. i can see myself switching multiple times in a single match. And the complaints about her SWD, are you kidding me?? As a samus main, i was shouting for joy when i saw that. Everything i've ever wanted samus to have the PMBR has implemented into PM samus despite her difficult coding challenges. This is literally a dream come true for me and other samus mains. The comparison of samus beams to shiek and zelda is a poor comparison. Completely inaccurate. While zelda and shiek change characters completly (along with completly different moves, characters size, physics, playstyle, EVERYTHING) samus' beams only change 4 of her moves. Up-smash, F-smash, D-tilt, and Fair. Changeing the priority of those four moves.

Shell said all this the best:

The fire/ice stance swap system is certainly equal parts style and substance but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t tackle fundamental design issues first. Sorry more substantial stuff wasn’t covered in the video but frankly we chose to demonstrate the most visually interesting changes (stance system, air charging, crawling) in our limited amount of video time.

Not shown in the video are newly animated rolls. With the ability to freely crawl about in ball form having ball rolls was not only confusing visually, but her melee rolls were actually so bad that they transcended being a good character weakness and cut into her viability a little too much. Her new rolls aren’t stellar, but provide another welcome (but situational) pressure relief tool.

Additionally, her grabs are slightly faster in startup, duration, and cooldown compared to Melee. Again this works in conjunction with the roll changes to mediate some pressure, and also boosts her offensive options without homogenizing her too much. After a lot of discussion between Samus testers Grabs + Rolls were generally agreed to some of the most important and sensitive components of Samus’s viability fulcrum.

Getting back to the stance system, we felt like PM Samus was losing access to some cool Melee tools – including Extender and Melee-styled wall tethering. We wanted to craft another cool niche tool that was *roughly* lore appropriate to make up for these losses and variations of a stance system were commonly requested by community members. Granted they’re not equivalent in function or role by any means. The stance system isn’t intended to overhaul or totally replace her existing moveset, but acts as one way to give it a slightly different optional flavor. Did she -need- this? No, but since we addressed what we felt she truly needed first with core moveset tweaks and offered this as a purely optional, straightforward tool I don’t really see any reason to get too upset.

As for Super Wavedash, this was a massively requested AT since day 1. Sorry it doesn’t fit into your ideal Samus but we do have to cater to a (relatively) large community, and the majority of the community seems pretty set on this.
 

shinhed-echi

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Interesting read there.
Question: Is it EASIER to perform Samus' Super Wavedash this time around?

Also... did the Grapple Beam extender mechanic come through? O.o
 

MVP

Smash Ace
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Interesting read there.
Question: Is it EASIER to perform Samus' Super Wavedash this time around?

Also... did the Grapple Beam extender mechanic come through? O.o

the SWD has a window of 2 frames instead of melee's 1

and sadly no, extender didn't come. but her grabs are slightly faster in startup, duration, and cooldown compared to Melee
 

Veishi336

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@MVP: lol there was only one section of hate from one person. I think everything about samus is great
 

Vashimus

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I agree with most phootbag's points on the Ice Beam stance change. It's a novel addition, but it was ultimately an unnecessary one, and unlike the Super Wave Dash, Samus now has another variable to take into account when balancing in the future (though I'm sure the PMBR tested these extensively to see if they were the right fit). I'll still play the character regardless, but I feel the change was a bit misguided.
 

ph00tbag

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I don't really follow your comment in addressing adding depth, because Brawl is lacking a great depth that P:M has added. I appreciate the changes that add complexity to the game because that in and of itself is what P:M has been doing over all of its builds. I understand that you've devoted more time and thought into the changes impacts upon the character, but I think that you may have a strange view of these changes because your position of being well versed and knowledged about the character has given you a different perspective. I don't see how these improvements are in the wrong direction in that the old systems are intact.
Brawl- is not Brawl. It is Brawl-. It is a game where whateverthe**** was put in just because the devs could figure out how to do it on the faith that everything would be so broken that it would balance out in the end. The whole "well it's not hurting the character, so why not put it in?" mentality is symptomatic of this approach, IMO, and it has most consistently yielded results that I find to be ugly additions to P:M, overall, out of all other approaches to character design.

I also played the build where Fire Fair functioned like the current Ice Fair. I understand that Fair has some limited use, but I think that removing that use, or changing it completely is a bad idea. When things are removed from characters in Project M it's because it's completely unnecessary. Even then it's usually replaced by something that fills the same role, but just does it better. So I think that the Ice Fair and Ice Usmash are good additions because they're what you want, change, but they're change without exclusion of old tools that some Samus players might like, or at the very least use well because of their time using it.
Like I said earlier, the problem is that the change comes in the form of a mechanic that is distinctly un-Samus. I'd rather have a fair that is strictly better, even if it lacks a niche use of a previous version, than have both if I utilize a shoehorned stance-change mechanic. In fact, rather than that mechanic, I'd rather keep the bad fair that I know how to use. If nothing else, a fair with a much higher bkb and slightly lower growth would probably be fine by me.

I may seem to be putting much more duress on the issue than it warrants, but that's because your claiming that these additions are a waste of time, which is ****ty for the developers who spent, or as you would consider, wasted, that time on these changes, as well as the fans and other players who are currently hype for these new things that are coming with the character that they've been waiting for. I can assure you that I'm not trying to make a strawman out of you because their is no one else to discourage with such an act. As far as I've seen, you are the the only one advocating your current point.
Well, I agree it sucks to be told time was wasted on making a particular change or adding something. I'm not really saying this to mollycoddle anyone, though. Indeed, I'm saying it to kick their asses. Critique is something I consider myself to be rather adept at, and part of that is because I treat it as a situation where if someone's feelings are hurt by what I say about their work, then maybe they should consider that I might have a point. Like I say below, I don't really care if I'm alone in saying this; if I bring forward valid feedback it shouldn't be discounted simply because I'm the only one saying it.

If it won't have any impact then why is it a problem? It's just a nostalgia factor. Is that so bad?
Well, to be fair, my critique of SWD is tertiary to my critique of the stance change. Ultimately, my problem with SWD is more based on the aesthetics of the dev process (I get really meta about this stuff sometimes). The inclusion makes the dev team look like they're spending time attempting to emulate glitchy properties of Melee that never impacted competitive play simply because fanboys, rather than competitive players, clamored for it. I simply find that to be coincidental with the approach that led to the stance change. The most support I could have ever ginned up in myself for such a decision is, "well, I guess it's your game, so do what you want," but I've always had a personal conviction that P:M could be better than something so superfluous, so I've frequently voiced my opinion when I think the developers are spending time on things that they shouldn't be spending time on. Maybe I should just accept that I have no involvement in the game, but I love the fundamental concept behind Smash too much; and since I don't feel like the perfect Smash game has been made yet, I don't see why P:M should strive to be anything but that. I don't really care if I'm the only person that thinks that; this is a public forum, and I'm going to say it because it's really not that offensive a position to take.

all this hate for samus' new tech really needs to stop. you guys hateing haven't even played her yet and you're criticizing her new abilities.
I've played a build that was rather close. Calm down and stop taking a critique leveled at someone else so personally.

her new ice beam plays differently from her fire. fire is better for comboing, and ice is better for killing. i can see myself switching multiple times in a single match.
Yes, that. That. That right there. That. That is the problem. Thank you.

And the complaints about her SWD, are you kidding me?? As a samus main, i was shouting for joy when i saw that.
Good for you. But answer me honestly; if it were not in, would the game have been even a smidgen worse for you, and if they could have completed the character in time for 2.6b because they had been focusing on fixing double jump, or figuring out how to keep Samus from freezing the game every time she exited crawl, rather than trying to figure out how to include SWD and make it look like the Melee iteration, would you have rather they did that?

The comparison of samus beams to shiek and zelda is a poor comparison. Completely inaccurate. While zelda and shiek change characters completly (along with completly different moves, characters size, physics, playstyle, EVERYTHING) samus' beams only change 4 of her moves. Up-smash, F-smash, D-tilt, and Fair. Changeing the priority of those four moves.
Where have I compared the stance change to Shiek/Zelda? I know I compared it indirectly to characters like Gen from Street Fighter, or Amaterasu from MvC3, but I don't remember comparing her to Shiek/Zelda.
 

Shadic

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You realize that SWD took like, 20 minutes to code, correct? It's actually been in the character file for Samus since before the Demo 1.0 days.

Fixing the fact that Samus at her core was not compatible with the engine changes we had made to the game took a lot longer.

And the Stance Change system was implemented entirely after 2.6b released, so it had utterly no impact on her delay into the game in any way, shape or form.

Saying "Ice is better for comboing and fire is better for killing" isn't necessarily true, either. Just saying.
 

GeZ

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You realize that SWD took like, 20 minutes to code, correct? It's actually been in the character file for Samus since before the Demo 1.0 days.

Fixing the fact that Samus at her core was not compatible with the engine changes we had made to the game took a lot longer.

And the Stance Change system was implemented entirely after 2.6b released, so it had utterly no impact on her delay into the game in any way, shape or form.

Saying "Ice is better for comboing and fire is better for killing" isn't necessarily true, either. Just saying.
I was going to say, I got a rather different impression of fire and ice's uses from playing with them.
 

GeZ

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Brawl- is not Brawl. It is Brawl-. It is a game where whateverthe**** was put in just because the devs could figure out how to do it on the faith that everything would be so broken that it would balance out in the end. The whole "well it's not hurting the character, so why not put it in?" mentality is symptomatic of this approach, IMO, and it has most consistently yielded results that I find to be ugly additions to P:M, overall, out of all other approaches to character design.


Like I said earlier, the problem is that the change comes in the form of a mechanic that is distinctly un-Samus. I'd rather have a fair that is strictly better, even if it lacks a niche use of a previous version, than have both if I utilize a shoehorned stance-change mechanic. In fact, rather than that mechanic, I'd rather keep the bad fair that I know how to use. If nothing else, a fair with a much higher bkb and slightly lower growth would probably be fine by me.


Well, I agree it sucks to be told time was wasted on making a particular change or adding something. I'm not really saying this to mollycoddle anyone, though. Indeed, I'm saying it to kick their *****. Critique is something I consider myself to be rather adept at, and part of that is because I treat it as a situation where if someone's feelings are hurt by what I say about their work, then maybe they should consider that I might have a point. Like I say below, I don't really care if I'm alone in saying this; if I bring forward valid feedback it shouldn't be discounted simply because I'm the only one saying it.


Well, to be fair, my critique of SWD is tertiary to my critique of the stance change. Ultimately, my problem with SWD is more based on the aesthetics of the dev process (I get really meta about this stuff sometimes). The inclusion makes the dev team look like they're spending time attempting to emulate glitchy properties of Melee that never impacted competitive play simply because fanboys, rather than competitive players, clamored for it. I simply find that to be coincidental with the approach that led to the stance change. The most support I could have ever ginned up in myself for such a decision is, "well, I guess it's your game, so do what you want," but I've always had a personal conviction that P:M could be better than something so superfluous, so I've frequently voiced my opinion when I think the developers are spending time on things that they shouldn't be spending time on. Maybe I should just accept that I have no involvement in the game, but I love the fundamental concept behind Smash too much; and since I don't feel like the perfect Smash game has been made yet, I don't see why P:M should strive to be anything but that. I don't really care if I'm the only person that thinks that; this is a public forum, and I'm going to say it because it's really not that offensive a position to take.


I've played a build that was rather close. Calm down and stop taking a critique leveled at someone else so personally.


Yes, that. That. That right there. That. That is the problem. Thank you.


Good for you. But answer me honestly; if it were not in, would the game have been even a smidgen worse for you, and if they could have completed the character in time for 2.6b because they had been focusing on fixing double jump, or figuring out how to keep Samus from freezing the game every time she exited crawl, rather than trying to figure out how to include SWD and make it look like the Melee iteration, would you have rather they did that?



Where have I compared the stance change to Shiek/Zelda? I know I compared it indirectly to characters like Gen from Street Fighter, or Amaterasu from MvC3, but I don't remember comparing her to Shiek/Zelda.

You pride yourself on your ability to critique, but the problem I see is that you critique in the worst way possible, which is solely rooted in your own perspective without taking into account how it could be viewed from other's perspectives. Each of your critiques that I read are very solely rooted in what it seems you see as the crux of the matter idealogically as apposed to functionally. I can't take your spite of this addition at face value because it comes across as so silly. You'd rather have the worser tool rather than the option to switch between two improved and diverse tool sets because you feel it doesn't fit your version of how you view this character. It's bonkers man.

I didn't realize you were talking about brawl- earlier but now that I do it's a great thing to compare to. That project was all the ideas that the devs could cram in, that's true, but as you view it, any addition that doesn't abide by the usual conventions falls into that category.
I worried the SAME THING when I saw the alt costume engine. I was thinking from the frame of "this project is great and well handled but won't adding alternate costumes and other goofy things like that detract from its serious tone?"

But I realized that that's wrong. It's a project made by the community for the community. Someones signature on here reads loosely "Project M must be developed for the people who already play it" and I think that it warrants the developers making it a wholly different experience, with the distinctive flavor they see fit. One of my favorite parts of following this development cycle is how hype the developers are to hype the fans! Everyone is a fan of this project, and as the lovechild of many MANY programmers, testers, and ideamen /women they try desperately to do it well.
They've approached it so professionally that it outstrips other entries in the smash bros series by merit of the love that went into it. I think that these janky, easter egg seeming, goofy additions are a large part of the heart of this project. It gives it that noticeable touch of fan involvement on a final, whole project.
 

ph00tbag

C(ϾᶘϿ)Ͻ
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You pride yourself on your ability to critique, but the problem I see is that you critique in the worst way possible, which is solely rooted in your own perspective without taking into account how it could be viewed from other's perspectives. Each of your critiques that I read are very solely rooted in what it seems you see as the crux of the matter idealogically as apposed to functionally. I can't take your spite of this addition at face value because it comes across as so silly. You'd rather have the worser tool rather than the option to switch between two improved and diverse tool sets because you feel it doesn't fit your version of how you view this character. It's bonkers man.
Well, part of the problem is that you are taking my observation of an ideological coincidence between the twin follies of the SWD, which I find merely stupid on a larger level, and of the stance change, which I find to be ill-advised on a more pragmatic level, as the crux of my argument. I'm actually trying to get across that the stance change is a bad thing to introduce because it is creating an entire new focus to her gameplay when she didn't need one. This isn't like Bowser's super armor, or Zelda's traps, where characters who had anemic or non-existent game plans, respectively, were given actual game plans. Samus has a very robust game plan. She has so many options that are absolutely amazing, and even without the stance change, she's been given so many new options that really caulk all of the leaks in her game plan that I really thought were problems. She didn't need this. You keep kind of glossing over that one thing, and I think you don't really comprehend why to some people it carries weight. It's like giving Marth a command grab, or giving Jigglypuff a dp. Yes, it's better. But the didn't need it, and in the meantime what have you sacrificed from your design philosophy in order to add that?

But I realized that that's wrong. It's a project made by the community for the community. Someones signature on here reads loosely "Project M must be developed for the people who already play it" and I think that it warrants the developers making it a wholly different experience, with the distinctive flavor they see fit. One of my favorite parts of following this development cycle is how hype the developers are to hype the fans! Everyone is a fan of this project, and as the lovechild of many MANY programmers, testers, and ideamen /women they try desperately to do it well.
They've approached it so professionally that it outstrips other entries in the smash bros series by merit of the love that went into it. I think that these janky, easter egg seeming, goofy additions are a large part of the heart of this project. It gives it that noticeable touch of fan involvement on a final, whole project.
But you still have to have a point where you say, "no, that's dumb." Even if that point is on the other end of adding a stance change from me, there has to be a point where some stuff is just totally absurd to you. If not, then P:M is developmentally no better than Brawl-. I think that point has, for some time, been too close to the minus side of the spectrum in practice. I think a lot of the ability to say P:M is as high-minded as it is fun is lost with that point as fargone as it is right now. And when you tell me that that point is right where it needs to be, that the desire to be able to say P:M is high-minded is something that P:M doesn't strive to fulfill, it makes me wonder if I've ever really been a fan of P:M.

You realize that SWD took like, 20 minutes to code, correct? It's actually been in the character file for Samus since before the Demo 1.0 days.
I'm well aware. It gets away from the reason I said that, though; Even those 20 minutes probably could have been devoted to something else. In about 5 seconds, I can reach the conclusion that in the long run SWD was really stupid looking and pointless anyway. That leaves me with 1195 seconds to start trying to figure out how to make double jump give Samus actual height without her having to do an aerial. At no point did anyone stop and ask, "was that really necessary?" Ultimately in the case of SWD, the impact is negligible, so it just turns out to be a silly waste of time, admittedly probably done when the coder wasn't expecting to get anything else done. But in the case of this stance change, a lot more of my respect for the dev team's ability to proofread their decisions has been lost, because I feel like the weight of the decision hasn't been given sufficient thought.
 

Shadic

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I hope you seriously aren't expecting people who do this stuff for fun in their free time to have perfect foresight and mystically efficient design techniques. Especially in a realm full of "gray-areas" such as game design. Doubly-so in an hugely uncertain development environment largely dependent on specific talents and certain individuals, and the occasional "Eureka!" breakthrough allowing us things previously thought of as impossible.

Not to mention that we've "wasted" countless hours working on moves, reworking those moves, and sometimes scrapping ideas entirely. This is not an uncommon aspect in game design, as you should be aware. Any sort of art is basically an iterative process where we build upon previous trials and failures to make something better in the end.

Project M is no different.
 

GeZ

Smash Lord
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Well, part of the problem is that you are taking my observation of an ideological coincidence between the twin follies of the SWD, which I find merely stupid on a larger level, and of the stance change, which I find to be ill-advised on a more pragmatic level, as the crux of my argument. I'm actually trying to get across that the stance change is a bad thing to introduce because it is creating an entire new focus to her gameplay when she didn't need one. This isn't like Bowser's super armor, or Zelda's traps, where characters who had anemic or non-existent game plans, respectively, were given actual game plans. Samus has a very robust game plan. She has so many options that are absolutely amazing, and even without the stance change, she's been given so many new options that really caulk all of the leaks in her game plan that I really thought were problems. She didn't need this. You keep kind of glossing over that one thing, and I think you don't really comprehend why to some people it carries weight. It's like giving Marth a command grab, or giving Jigglypuff a dp. Yes, it's better. But the didn't need it, and in the meantime what have you sacrificed from your design philosophy in order to add that?


But you still have to have a point where you say, "no, that's dumb." Even if that point is on the other end of adding a stance change from me, there has to be a point where some stuff is just totally absurd to you. If not, then P:M is developmentally no better than Brawl-. I think that point has, for some time, been too close to the minus side of the spectrum in practice. I think a lot of the ability to say P:M is as high-minded as it is fun is lost with that point as fargone as it is right now. And when you tell me that that point is right where it needs to be, that the desire to be able to say P:M is high-minded is something that P:M doesn't strive to fulfill, it makes me wonder if I've ever really been a fan of P:M.


I'm well aware. It gets away from the reason I said that, though; Even those 20 minutes probably could have been devoted to something else. In about 5 seconds, I can reach the conclusion that in the long run SWD was really stupid looking and pointless anyway. That leaves me with 1195 seconds to start trying to figure out how to make double jump give Samus actual height without her having to do an aerial. At no point did anyone stop and ask, "was that really necessary?" Ultimately in the case of SWD, the impact is negligible, so it just turns out to be a silly waste of time, admittedly probably done when the coder wasn't expecting to get anything else done. But in the case of this stance change, a lot more of my respect for the dev team's ability to proofread their decisions has been lost, because I feel like the weight of the decision hasn't been given sufficient thought.

But it's not taking away focus from her game! Her game plan has not been changed by the inclusion of a stance change. Her moveset and its effects are achieving the same thing. Her having a few additions to that moveset is not a distraction or a shift of focus. You're also making insane comparisons. These are moves that interact with her ability to control space. They are cannon friendly as they integrate smoothly into her strategy. Their is no taking away from her core game by adding to it. That fundamentally doesn't make sense. It's not like giving Marth a command grab or Jiggs a DP because it is relevant to what she wants to be doing.

You're terribly far gone at this point. Things can be high minded and fun. I think that the stance change hasn't strayed too far into that realm because it's fun, as it is a robust addition to the characters tools. Not unnecessary. Not distracting. An addition. SDW was something many players wanted. Since it's some added utility, and wanted by the people the project is being made for, it's inclusion makes more sense than it's exclusion because in your eyes it moves to far into the realm of silly additions. P:M is highminded, a very well thought out project, that is made by fans for fans. That's its magic. I already perfectly articulated the wonder of a game having shows of affection and inside perspective in its design.

Ultimately this discussion is useless for you because you're so wrapped up in the professionalism of this project that you preclude the inclusion of fun. Fighting games are made for the competitive play in most instances, but they all have these little touches, bits of character, that give them things to like that aren't just the raw game. The personalities of the characters. The reasons behind stages, or taunts, or any of that. You don't enjoy that, as you see an excess of it as an attack on the games ability to be functionally professional and viable. You're straying towards not liking this project because it's finally including all of the withheld fun. All the little bits and pieces that were kept out in favor of raw matchups and viability in earlier patches is finally making it in and giving this mod its soul and you feel like that detracts too much from the entire experience.

I could say that it's difficult to expect a team of unpaid workers, working out of love, to not include their own little tidbits, things that they always wanted in, or thought would be novel additions, but you've already outlined your expectations perfectly.


This conversation can actually be summed up very easily, and in many less words, and was, earlier in this thread as
#nofunallowed
 

Qzzy

Smash Journeyman
Joined
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I agree with a lot of ph00tbag ideas. The beams seem kind of like an unneeded addition. I always felt like Samus was such a subtle character, who didn't really need more things, just an alteration of properties. Also, adding things does add depth, but not all depths are equal. This beam thing looks like it might get in the way of itself. Like, why not just put in the ice moves that are probably or obviously better than their normal/fire counterparts? Eh, I'm not going to go further with that.

Also, a little unfair to call him out on speculating so much on a feature he hasn't even play yet. I mean, why even have this character forum if not to speculate?

I'm not very good at any of of the smash games, but been in my life for as long as most yours, and am a fan, more or less. I also don't know much about the design of games, even though I do read about it often. I am a writer, and do know a little about editing, that I feel has some similarities to creating games. And when editing, you can certainly add parts, but just as valuable is the option to subtract sections and words, along with rewriting and moving parts. But mostly, I want to put emphasis on the subtraction of editing/design. As they say, sometimes less is more?
 

Fortress

Smash Master
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Kalispell, MT
This beam thing looks like it might get in the way of itself. Like, why not just put in the ice moves that are probably or obviously better than their normal/fire counterparts? Eh, I'm not going to go further with that.
The normal power beam tilts smashes (whichever) are better for comboing and stringing in quick damage, where the ice beam attacks are much better for killing and finishing, at least from the look of things. Racking up damage with the power beam and having the option to have a quick set of finishers or spacing moves with a punch will be beneficial to Samus.

Besides, we've seen this new mechanic in action in the reveal for 3.0, Dec. 9 is still far off.
 

Qzzy

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Apr 27, 2008
Messages
208
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Hawthorne, CA
You realize that SWD took like, 20 minutes to code, correct? It's actually been in the character file for Samus since before the Demo 1.0 days.

Fixing the fact that Samus at her core was not compatible with the engine changes we had made to the game took a lot longer.

And the Stance Change system was implemented entirely after 2.6b released, so it had utterly no impact on her delay into the game in any way, shape or form.

Saying "Ice is better for comboing and fire is better for killing" isn't necessarily true, either. Just saying.

I don't know. It's all good.(!)
 

hemisphere

Smash Cadet
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Messages
31
Where have I compared the stance change to Shiek/Zelda? I know I compared it indirectly to characters like Gen from Street Fighter, or Amaterasu from MvC3, but I don't remember comparing her to Shiek/Zelda.
He wasn't directing this at you, but to JRC LSS on the first page. You should know, since you liked the post.

Let's just see how these changes to Samus go when 3.0 is actually released. After all, it's not final, so it may not even be in later versions.
 

KariteSama

Smash Apprentice
Joined
May 6, 2013
Messages
89
Location
York, PA
Like I said earlier, the problem is that the change comes in the form of a mechanic that is distinctly un-Samus. I'd rather have a fair that is strictly better, even if it lacks a niche use of a previous version, than have both if I utilize a shoehorned stance-change mechanic. In fact, rather than that mechanic, I'd rather keep the bad fair that I know how to use. If nothing else, a fair with a much higher bkb and slightly lower growth would probably be fine by me.

I don't disagree with anything you've said up to this point, however, I think much of it is speculation. I understand that you have a crazy in depth knowledge of Samus that I don't have of any characters but frankly I feel like it's a bit early to jump to the conclusion that it is fundamentally changing her meta-game. The stance change is unlike anything else in PM. That we can agree on. And from what you've said Samus wasn't fully understood as a character until '06-'07 which was years after the original release. So I feel like we won't know the full effect of the stance change for a long time and it may end up being more of a buff and less of a fundamental change. I get the caution but maybe it's not as cut and dry as you make it seem.
 

jtm94

Smash Lord
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I don't even main Samus, but I've been interested by the new mechanics which brought me here.
Regardless of whether valid points ar ebeing made on either side, it is still all quite thought provoking and the fact that such a little change can be so talked about is remarkable in its own right.

I do see the view point on how the stance change thing does indeed change Samus' meta game away from what it was instead of reinforcing it, BUT I also am fully willing to grasp all of these new changes such as Kirby's horizontal final cutter and Mewtwo's teleport. The way that I see it is that it is hard to really reinforce her meta game because it was never really existent in the first place. I have seen some melee vids of Samus putting in work, but regardless of that she still needed a helping hand in order to be competitively viable. As far as the ice stance being needed, there was absolutely no need to add it at all, and that can't be argued, BUT, it is an amazing idea to me and the inclusion of it is completely indifferent to me.

The biggest thing that people need to understand is that Project M is NOT just Melee with new characters, or Melee over top of Brawl, but it is vying to be the best/most balanced version of both. This means that things can be added or dropped as the devs see fit. Sure they aren't gods with the final say, but they are the ones putting effort towards this whole ordeal. And I believe they will use their better judgment in order to complete the game on a balanced basis, and if it is not balanced they will make it so.

It just bothers me that people will be turned off from P:M because Fox or Falco may be a tad different and aren't complete Melee clones, P:M is meant to be a balanced Melee/Brawl, not Melee. And in order to achieve balance I do agree that some of the top characters definitely need rounded out, all while the lower standing characters are given tools for true competitive play. People say they dislike P:M because the meta is pre-defined, but if it really was would the previous versions of Sonic or Ike have existed? The game has tons of tech skill and individual flavor on every character that the meta is still player defined and that is what makes it all so legitimate. While P:M may lose some hardcore Melee players, all of the new mechanics and character additions are attracting so many new fresh players to the game, keep it up guys!
 

roymaster803

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
144
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South Carolina
If I had to guess about the beams/missiles I'd say that the missiles won't freeze characters but I Bet it will have some hit lag to emulate being frozen or slowed down from the ice. It would be a good substitute for being frozen since frozen mechanics in PM are really really strange and broken. If there is a fire beam/missile I'd imagine it would simply be more explosive and do a little more damage. We'll just have to see though.
 

MVP

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 24, 2012
Messages
641
i love it when people can make my argument for me. GeZ, Shadic, hemisphere, fortress

But i still don't understand the argument about her ice beam. "it is unnecessary" umm ok. maby. SO WHAT??

the argument is that it effects her meta game so much that it isn't samus anymore. I know people haven't outright said that, but thats the undercurrent of their statements. honestly until we see her meta develop in a few months this argument is up in the clouds. i'm not disregarding this argument as a valid argument. But there's too many unknown variables that will only be solved with time. My personal opinion? i'm sure everyone knows by now

But in retrospect i will be happy (and so will other samus mains) cause we'll have ice beam in 3.0
 
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