New Survival Mechanic In Smash 4 - "Vectoring"

[TehMrMeow]

you guys, if you keep playing melee just for that, you got a problem.

Melee will always be the best and my favorite game to me, as well as to many, many people, there's no way we'd not keep playing it even if a newer game did come out. It's all because of the years of community, skill, and story behind the game that it has formed the golden place in my heart it has today

 

[Maxoxpower]

my bad, YOU CAN play melee but :

you guys, if you boycott SMASH 3DS/wII U just for that, you got a problem.

 

[Rock & Roller Wabbit]

Theres no need to get pissed off about people's opinions ( even if the majority of them are simply following the trend and not thinking for themselves.) Also for the record, that video is a horrific example of anything, i mean those arent even followups dude is just arbitrarily throwing out attacks. there's exponentially better combos/strings/DI traps that have been showcased than that. That very video is counter-productive to your cause. Straight up dude lol. If smash 4 was really like that, no one would play (clearly a hyperbole).

I mean you can't get aggravated at people for their opinions and have that as your evidence. If thats your basis for your claim then you are more blinded then they are. As far as I'm concerned this mechanic isnt not contributing to bettering the game aside from making DI more intuitive to the casuals seeking to transition into the competitive community ( which is actually 1 pro of this technique). However, vectoring seems to not be remotely as powerful in early percent which is where the crux of Smash combos lie period. So that may be a saving grace. Also current combos and strings found at this time are being done with lackluster controls, and the frames lost in all this make up all the difference.


VERDICT: Majority of the people complaining on here are basing the entire end metagame for this new smash on 2 weeks of VIEWERSHIP ( most havent played the full product) of this game. Secondly, the majority of the people watching the game also have NEVER played smash competitively. Last but not least, even the top echelon of competitive smash or gaming in general can't not accurately predict the definitive end game in terms of the meta. What does that mean? The gross majority doesn't know a damn thing. This also tie into real life applications but thats a whole other tangent. I'm sure a ton of people hear love scream out they are pro-science so how 'bout you use it and hmm idk WAIT FOR A GREATER SAMPLE SIZE?

Sorry. :T
Sakurai can't read horrible stuff like this, and even though I'm no Social Justice Warrior, sometimes I think "What if Sakurai could read English?"
Then again, he'd probably troll everyone really hard, lol.

 

[Kuragari]

God forbid people have to learn something NEW in the NEW Smash Bros...

 

[LydianAlchemist]

Can we all just agree that "Vectoring" is unintuitive, and will cause uneeded explanations of what it is? Seriously, let's just call this Smash 4 DI, it's clear as to what game you're referring to, and there's no mixup with the previous DI.

Smash 4 DI = 4 syllables and cannot be said quickly in the heat of the moment. We don't call it "melee Z canceling"
imagine D1 commentating, and its super hype.. he either has to try to force "smash4DI" quickly, or just say DI. which is confusing especially to people just joining the stream. VI is quick to come out, its indicative of how the mechanic works, and its unique enough to not be confused with traditional DI.
this is just my opinion. But we should strive for elegant clarity by using and employing succinct terminology.

Let me just add to this by pointing out the number of people in this thread that don't even know what DI is or how it works. Calling this DI will only make that worse.

 

[Ryu_Ken]

Here are my suggestion for alt. names:
AT= Aerial Traction
DD= Directional Direction (wait, what?)
AR= Aerial Resistance
KO Resistance
These are from the top of my head. Probably terrible, but Vectoring doesn't really have a good jingle to it, either. Maybe we'll get used to it, idk.

 

[ViRuSy]

What is this "rage" effect that you are talking about? Just asking.

The more percent you have, the more knockback your moves will deal, just like lucario's aura (without increased damage)

 

[JayTro8]

Here are my suggestion for alt. names:
AT= Aerial Traction
DD= Directional Direction (wait, what?)
AR= Aerial Resistance
KO Resistance
These are from the top of my head. Probably terrible, but Vectoring doesn't really have a good jingle to it, either. Maybe we'll get used to it, idk.

AR sounds simple, and self explanatory. I like it!

 

[JayTro8]

Was never that good at DI, so I always use to do this. If only I, too, had a fancy graph to explain to push the circle pad in the opposite direction.

 

[Commander Hen]

I've been doing this since Smash 64, didn't know that isn't how DI works hahaha!

 

[THE_MAAFIA]

First of all I never said fans who dislike something are Melee fans so I don't know where you got that from, I was talking about the fans that compare Smash 4 to Brawl which it's not, every little thing that is bad in smash 4 is a brawl 2.0 to you guys, and about the combos the guy who said that combos are ruined got proven wrong by many people make videos about it, you guys have no solid ground to be complaining about something because most of you haven't played the game yet.

Where the f*** is all this "you guys" coming from? I never called the game brawl 2.0, haven't played the game? I played the demo at best buy AND got the demo 1 week earlier then every one else, I know how the game feels, and the thing that frustrates me about the combos is, if you up smash, you might want to do an up air to continue it, bam, pikachu air dodges, so now you want to catch pika with a back air after the dodge is finished, oh look another air dodge, you land, trying to hit pika once again quickly, but no, he jumps and air dodges, things like this makes fans get mad at 'Brawl' mechanics, because the infinite air dodge came from brawl, melee had risk to the air dodge, 64 had no air dodge at all, think about that

 

[NotLightningRunner]

This "Vectoring" seems interesting.

 

[Chibi-Chan]

After playing the demo, I'm sure we all got a good test of how the mechanics work... Gotta say it feels great, a mix of brawl and melee, or just somewhere in the middle. So honestly... I'm fine with this mechanic. In fact I think Smash 4 deserves to be competitively played because its faster then brawl, and a LITTLE slower then melee... and if you got an issue with that... ok, just don't discredit the game itself for being slightly slower.

I hear this argument a lot... Name one thing it has that is taken from Melee and not Brawl. (Not including momentum cancel or lack of trip)

 

[Aninymouse]

Can we all just agree that "Vectoring" is unintuitive, and will cause uneeded explanations of what it is? Seriously, let's just call this Smash 4 DI, it's clear as to what game you're referring to, and there's no mixup with the previous DI.

Do you know what a vector is? Legit question. If you knew what a vector was and how they work in the real world, you wouldn't say that the name "vectoring" is unintuitive. "Vectoring" is literally applying a player-defined vector to your launch trajectory. A VECTOR

Theres no need to get pissed off about people's opinions ( even if the majority of them are simply following the trend and not thinking for themselves.) Also for the record, that video is a horrific example of anything, i mean those arent even followups dude is just arbitrarily throwing out attacks. there's exponentially better combos/strings/DI traps that have been showcased than that. That very video is counter-productive to your cause. Straight up dude lol. If smash 4 was really like that, no one would play (clearly a hyperbole).

I mean you can't get aggravated at people for their opinions and have that as your evidence. If thats your basis for your claim then you are more blinded then they are. As far as I'm concerned this mechanic isnt not contributing to bettering the game aside from making DI more intuitive to the casuals seeking to transition into the competitive community ( which is actually 1 pro of this technique). However, vectoring seems to not be remotely as powerful in early percent which is where the crux of Smash combos lie period. So that may be a saving grace. Also current combos and strings found at this time are being done with lackluster controls, and the frames lost in all this make up all the difference.


VERDICT: Majority of the people complaining on here are basing the entire end metagame for this new smash on 2 weeks of VIEWERSHIP ( most havent played the full product) of this game. Secondly, the majority of the people watching the game also have NEVER played smash competitively. Last but not least, even the top echelon of competitive smash or gaming in general can't not accurately predict the definitive end game in terms of the meta. What does that mean? The gross majority doesn't know a damn thing. This also tie into real life applications but thats a whole other tangent. I'm sure a ton of people hear love scream out they are pro-science so how 'bout you use it and hmm idk WAIT FOR A GREATER SAMPLE SIZE?

If this would fit in my signature, it would go there. Thank you.

 

[elitex12]

I hear this argument a lot... Name one thing it has that is taken from Melee and not Brawl. (Not including momentum cancel or lack of trip)

errr... sorry for not understanding what you mean, mind defining what you mean?

 

[Capt. Falconminetor]

The more percent you have, the more knockback your moves will deal, just like lucario's aura (without increased damage)

...Oh, never mind my post then. I'm just going to go out through the door for my stupid brain fart.

 

[PlateProp]

Do you know what a vector is? Legit question. If you knew what a vector was and how they work in the real world, you wouldn't say that the name "vectoring" is unintuitive. "Vectoring" is literally applying a player-defined vector to your launch trajectory. A VECTOR


If this would fit in my signature, it would go there. Thank you.

You do realize that a majority of the people who are going to be playing smash will be new, and that people instantly understand "influencing your direction" instead of vectoring?

Seriously, vectoring is unintuitive, awkward to even try to say during commentation, AND makes less sense than DI, which this is just a simpler, more intuitive form of.

 

[Joe73191]

I hear this argument a lot... Name one thing it has that is taken from Melee and not Brawl. (Not including momentum cancel or lack of trip)

THANK YOU!!!! I get so frustrated when people say it is in between Brawl and Melee because it is NOT. It may be in between 64 and Brawl but not Brawl and Melee, there is basically nothing brought back from Melee that was taken out in Brawl.

As far as vectoring is concerned it accurately describes what it taking place better than DI in this game. I think that people want to call it DI instead of vectoring because they don't want it to seem too different. If it appears too different then it makes it sound worse.

People who want to like the game don't want other people not to like it because it makes them feel like it lessens the significance of their enjoyment. They want to fit in and so if they like it everyone has to like it. They don't want to seem wrong and if the consensus turns out to say "it isn't competitive enough" they feel like it will make them seem wrong for defending the game for so long so they hold on and fight all the more instead of accepting it for what it is, competitive or not.

 

[～斬～]

(FOR TL;DR PEOPLE, PLEASE CHECK BOTTOM OF POST)

My basic understanding of this situation is that it is Nintendo's stance for Smash to be a more accessible game, especially for potential newcomers to the community. They've demonstrated this time and again by altering, and even taking away both accidental and previously intentional aspects of the game's mechanics we now affectionately refer to as tech skill (I.E. the mechanical paradigm shift between Melee and Brawl's development). Their lack of intent to bring back things like Wave Dashing and L-Cancelling into Smash 4 further reinforces their stance of universal accessibility so that newcomers to the community could feel like they could potentially be the next competitor or even champion without being blown away by seeing what the pros do.

How this factors into the disappearance of Smash DI and the major alterations of Trajectory DI now being referred to as Vectoring when taking Nintendo's developmental standpoint into account is the notion well reflected said standpoint of accessibility. Essentially, I'm arguing that this new "Vectoring" mechanic is the product of Nintendo's developers trying to create "DI made Easy" by making the way it works much more intuitive. For people who will pick up the game and get the hang of it for the first time, they will intuitively learn to "Vector" without any kind of teaching or otherwise. The only real group of people this will pose a difficulty for are those who have mastered and grown accustomed to the previous game's Smash and Trajectory DI.

This being said, I'm seeing that a lot of people are rather dissatisfied with calling this new (or better put, altered) mechanic "Vectoring". So to those who read this through, with my rudimentary analysis in mind, I'd like to propose that the name of this mechanic rather be called something on the lines of "Natural DI", or "Intuitive DI" seeing as it is still very much a "DI" mechanic.


**TL;DR = Vectoring is basically the Newbie friendly Nintendo brand "DI made Easy". If you don't like the name "Vectoring", I suggest the alternative name "Natural DI" or "Intuitive DI"...or something like that.

 

[doubleTheFries]

Think of it this way guys: the smash community will increase because how easy it is to slip into the competitive side of smash. Meaning more newbs to give us free money at tourneys ^~^

 

[Aninymouse]

You do realize that a majority of the people who are going to be playing smash will be new, and that people instantly understand "influencing your direction" instead of vectoring?

Seriously, vectoring is unintuitive, awkward to even try to say during commentation, AND makes less sense than DI, which this is just a simpler, more intuitive form of.

Quote me what D1 and Scar have to say about Vectoring. Are they refusing to say the word?

If you can't offer any proof to support your claims then please stop holding up your bias with false claims.

Also, is your argument that vectoring is difficult to say or not? You claim that it's hard to say, but then you offer a solution that takes even longer to say! "Influencing your direction." That takes over twice the amount of syllables to say, versus vectoring. Also, who's to say all Smash competitors are too ignorant to know what a vector is? Are you really implying that? A vector is not some obscure scientific jargon, it's a basic principle and is fundamental in understanding how to safely drive your car. Most driving schools will briefly teach you about vectors when explaining to you why head-on collisions are so much worse than others. Most high schools in America will teach you about vectors by the time you graduate in math class as well. How low do we need to set this bar? If someone actually doesn't know what a vector is, they can learn. They will gain knowledge and become smarter for it. If they are lazy and don't want to learn, **** them. I don't see what the problem is, other than you must have some kind of a bizarre personal hatred of this vectoring concept. We should call it vectoring or VI.

If everyone just wants to keep calling it DI, that's fine too. But that is the only other name I would stand by.

 

[PlateProp]

Quote me what D1 and Scar have to say about Vectoring. Are they refusing to say the word?

If you can't offer any proof to support your claims then please stop holding up your bias with false claims.

Also, is your argument that vectoring is difficult to say or not? You claim that it's hard to say, but then you offer a solution that takes even longer to say! "Influencing your direction." That takes over twice the amount of syllables to say, versus vectoring. Also, who's to say all Smash competitors are too ignorant to know what a vector is? Are you really implying that? A vector is not some obscure scientific jargon, it's a basic principle and is fundamental in understanding how to safely drive your car. Most driving schools will briefly teach you about vectors when explaining to you why head-on collisions are so much worse than others. Most high schools in America will teach you about vectors by the time you graduate in math class as well. How low do we need to set this bar? If someone actually doesn't know what a vector is, they can learn. They will gain knowledge and become smarter for it. If they are lazy and don't want to learn, **** them. I don't see what the problem is, other than you must have some kind of a bizarre personal hatred of this vectoring concept. We should call it vectoring or VI.

If everyone just wants to keep calling it DI, that's fine too. But that is the only other name I would stand by.

Saying "Influencing your direction" was when explaining the act itself, not how commentators say it.

All of this is ****ing stupid honestly, I no longer care, and i'm just gonna call it DI. Because that's what it is.

 

[Thor]

THANK YOU!!!! I get so frustrated when people say it is in between Brawl and Melee because it is NOT. It may be in between 64 and Brawl but not Brawl and Melee, there is basically nothing brought back from Melee that was taken out in Brawl.

As far as vectoring is concerned it accurately describes what it taking place better than DI in this game. I think that people want to call it DI instead of vectoring because they don't want it to seem too different. If it appears too different then it makes it sound worse.

People who want to like the game don't want other people not to like it because it makes them feel like it lessens the significance of their enjoyment. They want to fit in and so if they like it everyone has to like it. They don't want to seem wrong and if the consensus turns out to say "it isn't competitive enough" they feel like it will make them seem wrong for defending the game for so long so they hold on and fight all the more instead of accepting it for what it is, competitive or not.

- Higher lag when airdoding into the ground (Melee = 10, Brawl = [I believe] 4 or 8 depending on height of fall and if fastfalled or not).
- No RCO lag [that's Melee and 64, but whatever].
- Apparently safer shield pressure (or no less safe), but no true shield break combos that we have discerned (that would be Melee/Brawl, not 64).
- You can grab the ledge with up+B facing the wrong way (while primarily known as a Brawl mechanic, this was doable in Melee, most notably with Captain Falcon, and this was never present in 64).
- Combos do not require rapid inputs to avoid certain follow-ups (SDI was your only choice in 64, in Melee and Brawl simply holding a direction could limit if not eliminate follow-up options, and the same is true here).

That said, I think the game is Smash 4 - we can compare it to the other games, but as I've shown above, it has elements of each previous iteration in it, and new ones as well (tethers, new ledgehoging prevention mechanics).

I want to call it DI because I don't feel like switching terminology - and the abbreviation is perfect for the mechanic - distance influence.

 

[Shaymin slicker]

I almost found this confusing thanks to the big chart. I don't see how this could be such a bad thing.

 

[The 0ne]

...Am I the only one who has been "vectoring" (terrible name please spread it no further lol) since the first smash not knowing that it wasn't a real thing until now? lol. I always assumed that pulling in the opposite direction you are flying had at least minimal influence on negating some knock back lol.

And how's that been workin out for ya?

 

[doubleTheFries]

I almost found this confusing thanks to the big chart. I don't see how this could be such a bad thing.

it just makes things too easy to DI out of combos. Some people that are die hard melee fans feels as though this is just Brawl 2.0, the Smash game that not many people liked. I feel as though it just gives more room for reading the DI because this time you know exactly where they are going when they vector out of combos.

Also the discussion is the name the Nintendo gave DI, which is now Vectoring. I like it because this time DIing/vectoring out of combos makes sense logically and mathematically. Shoutouts to physics class.

 

[mochiasta]

vectoring saves my hide more times than 1

 

[EnthusedPanda]

Well at least DI/Vectoring actually makes sense this time around.

We all know fixing glitches and making sense of things is The Devil

 

[Browny]

Do you know what a vector is? Legit question. If you knew what a vector was and how they work in the real world, you wouldn't say that the name "vectoring" is unintuitive. "Vectoring" is literally applying a player-defined vector to your launch trajectory. A VECTOR

Do you know what a vector is? Legit question. If you knew what a vector was and how they work in the real world, you wouldn't say that the name "vectoring" is intuitive. "Addition" is applying a player-defined vector to your launch trajectory.

You can not 'vector' a vector. the act of changing a vector is not vectoring. It is called 'addition'. You know how when you consume food, you are 'eating' it and not 'fooding' it? You know how when you change the direction of your car you are 'turning' it and not 'directioning' it? You can not add 'ing' to a noun to turn it into a verb, thats not how english works.

When you change the direction of a vector, you are 'adding' to it, not 'vectoring' it.

 

[Rambeard]

I'm interested in what we'll find next.

 

[Aninymouse]

Do you know what a vector is? Legit question. If you knew what a vector was and how they work in the real world, you wouldn't say that the name "vectoring" is intuitive. "Addition" is applying a player-defined vector to your launch trajectory.

You can not 'vector' a vector. the act of changing a vector is not vectoring. It is called 'addition'. You know how when you consume food, you are 'eating' it and not 'fooding' it? You know how when you change the direction of your car you are 'turning' it and not 'directioning' it? You can not add 'ing' to a noun to turn it into a verb, thats not how english works.

When you change the direction of a vector, you are 'adding' to it, not 'vectoring' it.

I'm well aware of all of that, actually. Even so, when describing things that exist outside the realm of reality, I find it acceptable to abuse the English language a bit. English has worked that way in popular literature for centuries, actually. Whether it was Shakespeare making up new words or canonizing what can be assumed to be slang words at the time, or popular novelists transforming nouns into new verbs at the turn of the century, this is hardly a new thing.

Hell, 2000 years ago, people were making the same linguistic leaps as "vectoring" in the Greek language. It's really not a big deal.

I think calling it DI again is fine too, but do enjoy the linguistic context of "vectoring." Yes, "adding a vector" would be the proper English in most cases, but it lacks pinache and is not entirely correct all the time, e.g., if you are adding a negative vector, you are subtracting, essentially (holding down when popped straight up). This assumes that the base trajectory and knockback are construed as a positive vector to begin with, though I don't see why you wouldn't see them as such.

You are not so much pushing your character with any kind of real-world force so much as "pushing" time/space/magic against them to change their direction and air friction/velocity. Such things don't exist. Using make-believe words should be fine.

 

[Hyruleslink]

Maybe we should research "snobbery". It's a condition brought on by Melee and shows severe resistance to change. If something is unlike Melee the afflicted will immediately rant that the game is broken. Serious side effects include Project M. See a Dr. for rants lasting over four hours.

 

[The 0ne]

We should call it VI. Vector or Velocity Influence. Like if you agree! It even rhymes!

 

[LydianAlchemist]

Do you know what a vector is? Legit question. If you knew what a vector was and how they work in the real world, you wouldn't say that the name "vectoring" is intuitive. "Addition" is applying a player-defined vector to your launch trajectory.

You can not 'vector' a vector. the act of changing a vector is not vectoring. It is called 'addition'. You know how when you consume food, you are 'eating' it and not 'fooding' it? You know how when you change the direction of your car you are 'turning' it and not 'directioning' it? You can not add 'ing' to a noun to turn it into a verb, thats not how english works.

When you change the direction of a vector, you are 'adding' to it, not 'vectoring' it.

i read this while pooping.

 

[kaliskonig]

And how's that been workin out for ya?

Pretty good seeing as how I assumed it was working all of this time lol

 

[kaliskonig]

THANK YOU!!!! I get so frustrated when people say it is in between Brawl and Melee because it is NOT. It may be in between 64 and Brawl...

So this game is just like Melee than?

 

[Neos]

I'm kinda confused about one thing though. I understand Vectoring for the most part, but then again you can still DI at low percent. In fact me and a friend of mine tested this out by DI-ing Megaman's up-throw and you can still move where you want to go. So is there DI AND Vectoring in the game? or is it easier to DI at low percent and easier to Vector at high percent?

 

[McX]

I tried to use a set of diagrams to explain what's going on, in a video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RyySEP2ywY
SDI is still in the game. DI may or may not exist but it doesn't matter because of vectoring.
In my graph in the video, SDI has a bigger influence at lower percentages than vectoring.

 

[LydianAlchemist]

I'm kinda confused about one thing though. I understand Vectoring for the most part, but then again you can still DI at low percent. In fact me and a friend of mine tested this out by DI-ing Megaman's up-throw and you can still move where you want to go. So is there DI AND Vectoring in the game? or is it easier to DI at low percent and easier to Vector at high percent?

traditional DI refers to altering your initial launch angle only. any movement after that isn't what I know to be DI. maybe I misunderstand..

 

[THE_MAAFIA]

traditional DI refers to altering your initial launch angle only. any movement after that isn't what I know to be DI. maybe I misunderstand..

That's SDI, normal DI is when you're about to hit the blast zone and you mash the stick in the opposite direction to survive