Thursday, July 24, 2008

Going Good

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And going strong. Seriously, it has been a good month or so since the release of of v2.9. And by good, I don't mean in time frame. It really has been a good month. Let me tell you why.

Amongst all of the typical small hitbox tweaks, and random small stuff where there is really just too much to list, I've been working hard on improving the overall play of the fighting system. The major change is one that should make fights more varied and interesting: multiple body hitboxes.

These are the blue hitboxes you see when you have hitbox display turned on. Before, only one large rectangular hit area could be applied to various animations. But I've modified this portion of the game engine, and it now allows me to apply up to 3 of these hit areas on any given animation. This really is awesome, because it allows me to give new shapes and designs to various attacks. Take for instance Jiro's standing Close Kick. He would kick pretty high, leaving quite a large area of empty space underneath his leg. Perfect for a sweep attempt. Well, I wouldn't go for that sweep attempt anymore. The changes allow for that area to be completely void of a hitbox, he can now only be hit overall on top of his sprite, and only on his standing leg. These changes should really allow me to apply deeper strategy.

Of course that really isn't all, or it would have been a boring month. A few other small (but important) tweaks have been made. Lots of Normals now have lower damage output. Its not much lower, most only have about 1 or 2 less overall damage. But, this goes hand in hand with the new lower block damage, and shorter block stun. Before, all of these in combination made defending virtually useless. The game was a constant rushdown attempt (which is probably what made Aroon feel so powerful). But these changes help reflect a slightly more defensive game. I know you will all enjoy it more.

Recovery from Guard Crush now restores 21 Guard (which is 1/3 of the total Guard Meter), whereas before it only restored 15. This increase feels much more fair and rewards the attacker a little less than it did before.

Certain moves were unblockable before, due to an overlooked design flaw. I've figured out how to work my way around this flaw, and the following moves are no longer unblockable: Jiro's Circuit Kick and Dash Attack, and Aroon's Dash Attack.


Just thought I'd inform you.

-GStick