Unofficial patches becoming official

[SageX3]

Recently there have been many new unofficial patches looking to balance out Smash 4. One such patch that is being discussed right now is the Unofficial 1.1.7 patch. ttp://smashboards.com/threads/sm4sh-mods-unofficial-patch-1-1-7-the-fan-patch-name-pending.436970/ I would like to discuss the probability of these patches being used a tournament. Will we see something similar to PM or not?

 

[Frihetsanka]

I don't think this is a good idea for a few reasons. Could some local tournaments decide to run some unofficial patches? Sure. Anything larger than that and you run into a bunch of potential problems.

#1: Unwanted attention from Nintendo. As far as I know, they never did anything about Project M, but that doesn't mean they never will do anything. Seeing how they've cracked down on Let's Players it seems somewhat likely that they might not be too happy about mods either.

#2: Split community. Some will prefer the vanilla and some will prefer the unofficial patch.

#3: Perceived balance issues. Perhaps some characters will be considered overbuffed, or perhaps some other changes in the patch makes it controversial.

#4: Ease of getting into. Getting a mod to work is a lot more complicated than just booting a Smash 4 copy and playing. Not to mention that you'd have to manually update, while with official patches you can just download them through the Wii U.

Smash 4 is much more balanced than Brawl was, and is generally better received by the competitive community. There is much less demand for a "PM"-like project. The unofficial patch could help make more characters viable, but it's not strictly needed right now

 

[Xermo]

Not in this lifetime

 

[SageX3]

I don't think this is a good idea for a few reasons. Could some local tournaments decide to run some unofficial patches? Sure. Anything larger than that and you run into a bunch of potential problems.

#1: Unwanted attention from Nintendo. As far as I know, they never did anything about Project M, but that doesn't mean they never will do anything. Seeing how they've cracked down on Let's Players it seems somewhat likely that they might not be too happy about mods either.

#2: Split community. Some will prefer the vanilla and some will prefer the unofficial patch.

#3: Perceived balance issues. Perhaps some characters will be considered overbuffed, or perhaps some other changes in the patch makes it controversial.

#4: Ease of getting into. Getting a mod to work is a lot more complicated than just booting a Smash 4 copy and playing. Not to mention that you'd have to manually update, while with official patches you can just download them through the Wii U.

Smash 4 is much more balanced than Brawl was, and is generally better received by the competitive community. There is much less demand for a "PM"-like project. The unofficial patch could help make more characters viable, but it's not strictly needed right now

Oops. You bring up some good points. My main concern would be ease of access. But it most likely would cause the same problems as PM.

Not in this lifetime

What if I die and come back to life.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Basically, the main problem with unofficial updates in tournaments is that you'd more than likely draw Nintendo's attention, and that's not a good thing. You pretty much have to use Nintendo's official updates, which can be rather sad if your main fighter excels poorly in the competitive scene.

 

[SageX3]

Basically, the main problem with unofficial updates in tournaments is that you'd more than likely draw Nintendo's attention, and that's not a good thing. You pretty much have to use Nintendo's official updates, which can be rather sad if your main fighter excels poorly in the competitive scene.

True. But recently Nintendo has been supporting the competitive scene. They are now sponsoring CEO. This could be a sign.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

True. But recently Nintendo has been supporting the competitive scene. They are now sponsoring CEO. This could be a sign.

Even so, the tournament community would have to play by Nintendo's terms, which means that any unofficial updates will pretty much be banned from competitive play.

 

[SageX3]

Even so, the tournament community would have to play by Nintendo's terms, which means that any unofficial updates will pretty much be banned from competitive play.

Most likely, but there is still that unpredictable nature to Nintendo so maybe one day they would change their minds.

 

[FalKoopa]

Oops. You bring up some good points. My main concern would be ease of access. But it most likely would cause the same problems as PM.


What if I die and come back to life.

Just a warning.
Please don't double post. Use the 'Edit' button.

 

[LancerStaff]

Nintendo's isn't going to change their minds. They're never going to support the modding scene as it's only a step away from piracy. I'm pretty sure there's mods that unlock the DLC for free, even... Who'd turn that down?

 

[Matt11111]

Nintendo's isn't going to change their minds. They're never going to support the modding scene as it's only a step away from piracy. I'm pretty sure there's mods that unlock the DLC for free, even... Who'd turn that down?

Right. I've heard you can't even say PM on Miiverse, even if you're referring to Paper Mario or the afternoon.

 

[LancerStaff]

Right. I've heard you can't even say PM on Miiverse, even if you're referring to Paper Mario or the afternoon.

At one point yeah, though that was only for a little while on the SSB community. Saying PM now is fine as long as it's obviously Paper Mario or a time, and talking about Project M is still forbidden.

 

[Matt11111]

At one point yeah, though that was only for a little while on the SSB community. Saying PM now is fine as long as it's obviously Paper Mario or a time, and talking about Project M is still forbidden.

Oh. Well thanks.

 

[Ravengeance]

Even though I think a fan patched sm4sh would be more fun (at least for me personally) I'm afraid the cons outweigh the pros. The OP characters have been fairly sufficiently nerfed. You can't ever please everyone but the main issue would probably be Nintendo. If you even mention project M in sm4sh like for example in the description of a custom stage Nintendo bans your stage (I've had it happen to me and I think it's really stupid. I recreated Project M stages and shared them and said Project M in the description and got a notification that my stage was removed bc of criminal activity. Not kidding, it is that absurd.)

As much as I would like to see some characters buffed and changes to levels to make them competitive it prob isn't the greatest idea to try to do that for tournaments. PM can't even be streamed on twitch anymore and it's been that way for a long while now. Prob best to leave sm4sh vanilla competitively.

 

[LancerStaff]

I recreated Project M stages and shared them and said Project M in the description and got a notification that my stage was removed bc of criminal activity. Not kidding, it is that absurd.

When the other option is Nintendo potentially losing their IP at worst it's really not that weird...

 

[Eugene Wang]

When the other option is Nintendo potentially losing their IP at worst it's really not that weird...

Copyright doesn't act like that.

 

[Deleted member]

After what happened to Project M, this almost certainly isn't going to happen. Too much hassle for most players, too many risks, not enough interest.

Don't get me wrong, I desperately want a decent Smash 4 mod. I'm tired of waiting for Nintendo to realize that they suck at balance. I want my buffed Zelda, and if Nintendo won't give it to me, I'll go elsewhere.

 

[Matt11111]

After what happened to Project M, this almost certainly isn't going to happen. Too much hassle for most players, too many risks, not enough interest.

Don't get me wrong, I desperately want a decent Smash 4 mod. I'm tired of waiting for Nintendo to realize that they suck at balance. I want my buffed Zelda, and if Nintendo won't give it to me, I'll go elsewhere.

Balancing a fighting game is no easy task. Considering how many different types of characters are in Smash Bros, there's almost no way to make sure every single matchup is even. Imagine play testing a game where you have to do thousands upon thousands of matches in order to make the characters as fair and balanced as possible. It's no easy task, and there'd probably be a ton to fix, even after a year and a half of balance patches.

 

[LancerStaff]

Copyright doesn't act like that.

Isn't that what happened with Calvin and Hobbs or whatever?

I'm no expert but I'm told there's a lot of legal problems with this regardless... Nintendo wouldn't ever go for it.

 

[Deleted member]

Balancing a fighting game is no easy task. Considering how many different types of characters are in Smash Bros, there's almost no way to make sure every single matchup is even. Imagine play testing a game where you have to do thousands upon thousands of matches in order to make the characters as fair and balanced as possible. It's no easy task, and there'd probably be a ton to fix, even after a year and a half of balance patches.

I never said that balancing a fighting game is easy. I also never said that "balance" is the same thing as "every single matchup is even." That is not an attainable goal. However, there are characters who are clearly lacking in several areas.

This is why I support the modding community - to make the game more enjoyable for me. I do not expect it to catch on competitively. I just want it for my own personal use.