Garou— Blue Mary + system updates (1.1)

[Bannana]

The character and system are designed for a 4:3 environment. Playing in 16:9 may cause issues visually.
A note to any Ikemen users, I have not undergone any major tests with the engine, so any issues are the result of my code being incompatible, which will have to be fixed in the future.

Blue Mary

Spoiler: Shion (click to show)

Spoiler: extra images (click to show)

The final "test" character for the system, where I was able to add in certain SNK animation standards that were missing in previous versions due to character choice. I simply wanted to make a Shion for a long time and I know the character so well I knew that it would be one of my fastest works I've ever done--though it was helpful I didn't need to do any data mining for XI and could use my backend to replicate most of the velocities relatively close to source while making something a bit different. He was essentially done in 3 days but I needed to work on a lot of backend and make some big breakthroughs on the input reader, which I now think is much closer to a usable system than the one packaged with Satsuki.

Working on this one has revealed a lot of interesting quirks with my gravity system that led to certain pretty messed up corner juggles, but I find that could be interesting as I make more characters. Any necessary tweaks are a few system file edits away so it's not necessarily a difficult fix, and since I did some major cleanup and reorganizing of the system files it's now a lot easier to update and upload system backend files instead of whole characters. Realistically any strange or weird interactions you might find will be more a result of the backend code than what's in the character's states.


For this build I've added a few things that I think might flesh out the normals a bit more.
The punch button now has a close version, but kick retains the "far" only, which gives you a safer move than throwing out far pokes that would be unsafe up close. Since you can freely cancel A into B, kara, whiff, or contact, I felt that might offer a more strategic distinction than both buttons having close versions, and to me it gives a bit more emphasis on the cancel flow found in SNK games.

The Escalation mode A chain has--and will have in the future--different inputs, this time being 6A > 4A, and these correlate to the moves in source for Shion's throwing dart.

Spoiler: Universal Normals (click to show)

A - Punch (CLOSE OK)
B - Kick
⮩ 6B - Universal Command Normal (NOT HIT BY STANDING NORMALS)
C - Strong
⮩ 2C - Universal Pursuit (ON HKD) (FROM ANY DISTANCE)
⮩ 6/4C - Redirect - instead of a normal throw, characters have redirects that turns the opponent around
D(Z) - Quick Sway - taking the place of lanes is the quick sway

Spoiler: Meter Specific Normals (click to show)

Heat OK - moves available when heat is max
AB - Heat Blow - reset your opponent to neutral during hitstun at the cost of very little damage, can't be used on trip
ABC - Escalation mode - changes the properties of special moves and how hittimes are calculated

Escalation Mode - moves available when escalation mode is activate
AC - Feint cancels the current move, regardless of its cancel status
5A
⮩ 6A
   ⮩ 4A

Spoiler: Specials (click to show)

Break - A special with two levels of power mapped to A and B, can be canceled early by breaking with AB
Nan Ken - 214 A/B

Escalation - Two different specials mapped to A and B respectively, upon entering escalation mode the properties of these change.
Mukade Taihou Ken - 623 A
⮩ E. high invuln, air unblockable
Ryusei Kyaku - 623 B
⮩ E. low invuln, ground unblockable

Heat - A special mapped to C, at Heat OK this move becomes an overdrive version of itself.
Futa Hazaki - 214 C
⮩ EX - fully unblockable

Spoiler: Cancel Chart (click to show)

All moves that can cancel may be canceled into any special, heat, etc.

5P - on hit
5K - on hit

2P - on block
2K - X

S - on contact

j.P - X
j.K - X
j.S - X


5A can be freely canceled into 5B, and 5B can be freely canceled into a command normal
Command normals can be freely canceled into any special
5AB can be canceled on hit

Spoiler: Tung (click to show)

Fatal Fury Special Tung, my main.

Tung was always generally a low-mid character, though in Real Bout he suffers the most because he has one or two actual chain combo routes (meanwhile Blue Mary has a Ninja Masters esque flowchart), and his moves tend to be very stubby so he has to just bulldog in. Using the FFS commands emphasizes this aggressive nature by returning to a charge format, leading to the good old slowly force yourself in while blocking. The only exception is the original [1]9 Ressen Kyaku input. That sort of input is very dated, so I replaced it with 41236, which is a pretty standard garou command grab input. My other change is that Gekihou isn't a mash input, but the RB2 236, however, how can mash to make it an anti air.

I wanted the emphasize command inputs a bit more. It's something shion lacks due to limited sprites but is an important aspect of the game idea since the specials and combo routing out of normals is more restricted. Jump normals may be altered on neutral jump, but hop neutral will be the same as any other jump normal.

Spoiler: Universal Normals (click to show)

A - Punch (CLOSE OK)
⮩ 3A
B - Kick
⮩ 6B
⮩ 4B - CL stun
C - Strong
⮩ 2C - Universal Pursuit (ON HKD)
⮩ 6/4C - Redirect - instead of a normal throw, characters have redirects that turns the opponent around
D(Z) - Quick Sway - taking the place of lanes is the quick sway

Spoiler: Meter Specific Normals (click to show)

Heat OK - moves available when heat is max
AB - Heat Blow - reset your opponent to neutral during hitstun at the cost of very little damage, can't be used on trip
ABC - Escalation mode - changes the properties of special moves and how hittimes are calculated

Escalation Mode - moves available when escalation mode is activate
AC - Feint cancels the current move, regardless of its cancel status
5A
⮩ 6A

Spoiler: Specials (click to show)

Break - A special with two levels of power mapped to A and B, can be canceled early by breaking with AB
Shou Ha - [4]6 A/B ([1]6 OK)

Escalation - Two different specials mapped to A and B respectively, upon entering escalation mode the properties of these change.
Senshippo - 214 A
⮩ E. further, hard knockdown
Ressen Kyaku - 41236 B
⮩ E. double damage

Heat - A special mapped to C, at Heat OK this move becomes an overdrive version of itself.
Gekihou - 236 C (MASH OK)
⮩ EX. overhead, CL crumple

Spoiler: Cancel Chart (click to show)

All moves that can cancel may be canceled into any special, heat, etc.

5P    - X
cl.5P    - on hit
5K    - on hit

2P    - on hit
2K    - on hit

S    - X

j.P    - X
j.K    - X
j.S    - X


5A can be freely canceled into 5B, and 5B can be freely canceled into a command normal
Command normals can be freely canceled into any special
5AB can be canceled on hit

Spoiler: Tizoc (click to show)

sort of a mix between the XI and Garou iterations. The idea is to not limit him to the "big grab" and give more options, but still reward landing it. Essentially I want to buff Tizoc by giving him some extra tools.

Main distinction is having a very fast, but small distance dash for throw setups. He gets a bigger reward off redirect than other characters with a shorter recovery mixed with a quick dash-in. He has unique command move properties, different jump normals for neutral and directional, all of his commands have unique interactions with CH and CL states. His punish can be used at about mid range, giving him very strong reward off his knockdowns.

His break is a bit non-normal, you can't break it on whiff because it's a throw.

I was very happy with how he came out until I tested with AI. I've never had AI break out of grabs before, ever, but I've been having issues with it a lot in playtesting here. This is really a BETA build because there's a lot that I can't confirm, my normal playtesters are too busy, and I'd rather not release a 1.0 build of a character with busted throw states. Otherwise he's done outside of some tweaks with command normals, damage, and probably just FX.

I recommend the mugen input parser for this, I need to tweak the custom to read unclean half circles.

Spoiler: Universal Normals (click to show)

A - Punch (CLOSE OK)
⮩ 1A (float launcher)
B - Kick
⮩ 66B (CL stagger)
⮩ 3B (CL crumple)
C - Strong
⮩ 2C - Universal Pursuit (ON HKD)
⮩ 6/4C - Redirect - instead of a normal throw, characters have redirects that turns the opponent around
D(Z) - Quick Sway - taking the place of lanes is the quick sway

Spoiler: Meter Specific Normals (click to show)

Heat OK - moves available when heat is max
AB - Heat Blow - reset your opponent to neutral during hitstun at the cost of very little damage, can't be used on trip
ABC - Escalation mode - changes the properties of special moves and how hittimes are calculated

Escalation Mode - moves available when escalation mode is activate
AC - Feint cancels the current move, regardless of its cancel status
5A
⮩ 6A (OH)

Spoiler: Specials (click to show)

Break - A special with two levels of power mapped to A and B, can be canceled early by breaking with AB
Hercules Throw - 41236 A/B

Escalation - Two different specials mapped to A and B respectively, upon entering escalation mode the properties of these change.
Icarus Crash - j.236 A
⮩ E. doesn't pause air momentum, can grab enemy in hit state
Griffon Tower - 63214 B
⮩ E. faster startup

Heat - A special mapped to C, at Heat OK this move becomes an overdrive version of itself.
Justice Hurricane - 63214 C
⮩ EX. faster startup, damage

Spoiler: Cancel Chart (click to show)

All moves that can cancel may be canceled into any special, heat, etc.

5P    - on contact
cl.5P    - on contact
5K    - on contact

2P    - on contact
2K    - X

S    - X

j.P    - on hit (neutral jump)
j.K    - on hit (neutral jump)
j.S    - X


5A can be freely canceled into 5B, and 5B can be freely canceled into a command normal
Command normals can be freely canceled into any special
5AB can be canceled on hit

Spoiler: Universal Mechanics (click to show)

7/8/9 - Jump
tap 7/8/9 - Hop
tap 2
⮩ 8/9 - Super Jump

Unique to this system is jump drift: holding any direction other than 789 while in the air will alter the jump arc. This allows for further/shorter/faster jump arcs, and, thanks to the inherent quirks of my input parser, is even pre bufferable, allowing for very low to the ground hyper hops.

tap 4 just before being hit - Just Defend
tap 4/8/6 during ground JD - Passing Bonus
tap 8/2 during air JD - Passing Bonus

The standard aspects of JD apply to this system, but with a slight twist. Since Heat Blow already presents an offensive option out of a defensive situation, and this system is very much tied to movement thanks to the way Heat meter functions and the unique ways in which my buffer works, I though it would be best to not double dip and present guard cancels into attacks. Instead, tapping a direction during JD will preform an evasive maneuver in that direction, which occurs during hitstop, meaning that all movement is essentially unpunishable and gives the defender the ability to alter the situation in a way similar to garou.

Spoiler: Training Mode (click to show)

When in training (or when you press spacebar before a match) certain options are available to you for ease of testing

Instantly enter Heat O.K. by pressing X
Set next move to counter hit status (if applicable) by pressing Y

All of these indicators will light up when active, e.g. the Counter Hit O.K. will always flash if the opponent is put into the counter hit state, even if the counter hit status is not activated, revealing what moves have natural CH properties.

Spoiler: Counter and Clean Hit states (click to show)

Standard interactions (Counter Hit)
Counter Hits will cause the opponent to enter a certain state depending on the properties of the interaction, and will reward you with roughly a block of heat. All normals follow this list.

stagger (SCA v SC) - pushed back
up (S v A) - up into juggle
trip (C v A) - up into knockdown
float (A v A) - slower version of up

Special movies do not recieve the benefits of counter hit.

Unique interactions (Clean Hit)
Clean hit is applied to certain normals at point blank. This leads to 1.5x damage and forces a unique counter hit state. For example, Shion's cr.B will cause a crumple CH state on hit.

stun - forces longer crouch hittime, pushes back into a standing recovery
crumple - collapses in place (only works vs characters with cheap ko animation 5950, otherwise gives trip)
smash - slammed into a hard knock down

A clean hit will not occur if the opponent is in these states:
Air
Crouching
Recovery

Special interactions (Launcher)
As in KOF XI, making use of advanced jump movement puts you into a CH OK type state, where being hit will put you into a unique CH state for each form of jump. This makes aggressive movement much more unsafe and rewards premptive attacks and whiff punishing.

stall - frozen in place and then floats
screw - spins into the ground into a bounce
wire - bounced off the edge of the screen


All three of these states can interact with each other in unique ways, so depending on the hitflag of a move, a juggle state or combo extension can occur out of a counter or clean hit situation, i.e. Shion's cr.B can initiate a screw state on an enemy in crumple, while other buttons will whiff (assuming outside of a fullgame environment the opponent has the animations the states require, otherwise it'll whiff anyway). Another move might be able to create a wire from a screw, or a stagger from a stun, etc.

The hierarchy of CH states is as so:

Counter >
                > Launcher
Clean     >

A counter hit state can always be timed so that one get a clean hit if timed properly, but a clean hit state will never be linked into a counter type state, e.g. a crumple will not go into a stagger, but will always be turned into one of the three launcher states.

Spoiler: Heat Mechanics (click to show)

At the beginning of a round the heat bar begins at zero and builds up slowly to half on its own. It also maintains this when the bar is more than half full by slowly draining back down to half. This rate of growth is compounded by momentum: moving forward builds the bar and moving back drains it, both at the rate of movement (that is, the x velocity).

The Heat bar determines all major mechanics of the system. Not only does filling it allow for extra damage and escalation mode, but draining it to zero causes overheat, a dizzy state forced until your heat bar refills back to halfway, though in this state the rate of growth is tripled. Overheat occurs out of these three situations: after getting hit at zero meter, upon wakeup after getting knocked down with zero meter, after blocking with zero meter. The last is akin to a guard break, and is prevented by Just Defending, which grants roughly 1 block of heat.

If you are using Ikemen, the color select code does not visually work properly (the palette change does though).
This character uses a WIP input parser system.
In the config file you can turn these off and use normal mugen command inputs and color mapping.

Code Select Expand

[State dipswitch]
type = Null
trigger1 = (var(46) := 0 )||e ; color select? 0 = On, 1 = Off
trigger1 = (var(48) := 0 )||e ; Input parser type? 0 = Custom, 1 = Mugen
trigger1 = (fvar(27) := 0 )||e ; Overheat? 0 = On, 1 = Off

get them on the webzone

[Bannana]

Quick hotfix because I noticed that the flat health proration wasn't being applied, also added in part of the new system update for feint cancel and escalation mode combo rules

Spoiler: 7/18/22 (click to show)

- flat health proration now will be applied
- hitbox modifications
- fixed some indexed sprites
- altered combo rules & new feint cancel rules:
   - any ground normal can be feint canceled
   - command normals cannot be feint canceled
   - chains can only be feint canceled
   - specials cannot be feint canceled except for escalation specials on startup

todo
modify CH system and introduce unique CH properties to different moves

[ROS]

Not sure if these are an oversight but:

• 5C on block jails into 214A/B, which is unblockable
• Shion can break 214A/B during the first part and the stun is enough to loop 5C xx 214A/B (BREAK) xN

I am enjoying both Shion and Satsuki, looking forward to when you start converting more FF characters to this system. 

[Bannana]

Oh no that's a Kevin style break loop, I had a feeling that would happen if I set the cancel to on hit instead of on block. I'm gonna be tweaking 5C's properties in the next update so I'll go back and change that.

[Bannana]

Fixes the highlighted issue, changes how the strong buttons works, and adds in a new version of the counter hit system

Spoiler: 7/20/22 (click to show)

- System information file added
- CH modifications
- Clean Hit added
- SJ and Running jump CH states added
- Fixed hitsounds not playing due to a missing varrandom
- Shion's strong now has these properties:
   - Natural wire
   - Clean hit stagger
   - Cancel on block only

todo
Messing with velocities on CH/Clean hit
FX for wall bounce and stuff

[ROS]

I like the changes, ran into an issue w/ kara cancelling from 6B however.

Oddly if you kara cancel 6B into a special move, you can cancel the special move into Escalation or while in Escalation, you can cancel moves into normals.

Another example.

[Bannana]

Oh that's interesting, I wonder if kara canceling the command causes the cancel flag to persist instead of change, I'll need to run some tests.

[Bannana]

Belated update because I was looking to update the backend as I was working on Tung.

Fixes the kara bug, adds some additional fluff, and changes jumping CH states.

Spoiler: 7/29/22 (click to show)

- anims 5970 & 5975
- cancel flag not turning off on special cancel should be fixed
- some changes to CH states
- SFX for wire and screw
- wall bounce FX
- removed pushback on CH states because it seemed weird (and also you should't be punished for these in the corner)
- extra bar FX, fixed some random stuff
- allowed to throw clean hits
- changes to air CH states from jump
   - light causes stall
   - medium and hard cause screw
   - back,up,diagup cause wire

Tung is about 99% done, I just finished all the FX and SFX for him so I'm working on the final touches with intros/outros/palettes etc. Took longer than I anticipated as, though I've made two (unreleased) Tungs in the past, I needed to do brand new FX work specifically for his Shou Ha. Should be out in a day or so and I'll throw that here and modify the thread to suit it. I think with the essential animation updates a lot of what comes after this can be updated via backend so you don't have to download every character over and over.

Tizoc will be after and that should be relatively quick since I won't need custom FX.

[ArtistofLegacy]

5C > 2B seems to break the opponent and continuously pushes you away until you hit them or press 5C again.

EDIT - Actually it seems to be just linking 2B off of any CH doing it minus the pushing away bit which seems exclusive to 5C?

[Bannana]

might be a cornerpush error, I've found a few with certain interactions, can you record a clip?


Oh I see what you mean, I'll need to change some rules in the backend then

I just found a bug with 2B testing this lmao


Replace the character specific folder with this, it should fix it, I can't upload the whole folder right now because I'm in bracket but I'll modify the link later
https://mega.nz/file/2BYTTIiJ#vVhbj7pe-vg2XDd2mOjt0LBCo5m8B_cgNHpCtkppswY

[Bannana]

Some slight modifications following that typo bug fix

This features the final mechanic for the heat bar that I didn't want to add until I had the fundamental system figured out. This is mostly because this is a universal mechanic that is the opposite of how you code guard crush for mugen-- having it placed upon your opponent and not upon yourself--so I didn't really want it to be in an open setting. I added it to the config as a toggle option because that's the best way around the issue.

Information will be in the main mechanics in the first post, but a quick summary is that if the heat bar is drained you get put into a dizzy state on either hit or wakeup from knockdown until the bar fills back to the halfway resting point, which is the standard way it works in Wild Ambition. I also decided it could act as a guard crush, but that is more experimental because I'm not sure how it might be abused yet.

I also altered hitpause times a bit

Spoiler: 8/2/22 (click to show)

- slight modifications to 6A
- Overheat mechanic added
- trimmed down character specific SFX
- changed hitpause times for p2
- new hitpause times
   - close A < far A/B < chain < command < strong
      This also should buff escalation mode

[Bannana]

Tung released. Feels pretty stable, but can never be totally sure

Shion updated with latest system mechanics

Spoiler: 8/16/22 (click to show)

- some changes to heat gain/loss
- jump drift only affects standard jump
- changes to air CH states from jump

Might end up changing certain backend in the future because I'm not too happy with the friction and overall "slipperiness"


will start compiling Tizoc next as I fix any issues with Tung.

[SquidlyPoli1]

I don't know if you've noticed this or not but sometimes counterhitting airborne moves in a mirror match will cause this to happen.

[Bannana]

huh, that's a weird backend bug, I wonder if something was overwritten somewhere while I was recoding the counter hit decision code

This is really strange, I can't seem to recreate it, the counterhit works properly every time, maybe it has something to do with you using the dodge prior to that.

AH it's the startup of the senshippo, it might be the state between stand and air

[Bannana]

Both characters updated to deal with this CH bug in the backend and fixed some slight oversights in Tung, just winquotes and some slight animation changes for guarding

Spoiler: 8/18/22 (click to show)

TUNG
- fixed some guard animation bugs
- winquotes
ALL
- fix to CH bug

[ROS]

I like the input revision on Tung's command grab, it allows for 412366B, which is dash buffered.

Some other things I managed to come across:

• Tung can't seem to do 4B while in Escalation
• CH Throw seems to bug throw a bit
• CH 236C doesn't seem to crumple

[Bannana]

normal 236C doesn't have any unique property, and that's intentional because it's like a blowback, so only heat 236C has the crumple on clean hit

Spoiler: 8/22/12 (click to show)

- 4B esc fix
- set CH flag off for cmd throw

[ROS]

So I realized I meant Heat 236C and not regular 236C.

But Heat 236C only causing crumpling on clean hit addresses what I came across, as I was under the assumption that comboing into it from cl.5A/2A would allow for both hits of the Heat version to hit outside of the corner.

Also CH Redirect seems to push Tung instead of the opponent.

[Bannana]

I should have expected that the CH flag and the p2statetype !=H would clash.

fixed for both shion and tung

[Bannana]

Tizoc out on a beta build because I noticed some grab bugs with AI that really bother me. Everyone else updated with the backend, some good essential updates fixing some hitdef bugs and the color select text ending up everywhere.

Spoiler: 11/1/22 (click to show)

- TIZOC
- fixed(?) hit bug on roundstart
- fixed text on colorselect
- backend stuff

notes
- unedited AI
- Might want to use the mugen buffer for this build, the input recognition for halfcircles needs more work.
- AI can get out of the grab hitstate (super armor?). Didn't seem this issue with some of the grabs I've coded in the past. Need to look into it more, but it shouldn't really be on me to have to code failsafes for this type of interaction.