The Smasher's Resource [Program]

[Ploaj]

Might be a bit early to show, but gotta get started somewhere. As the title implies, this is for a Smash ripoff styled engine I started working on using the assets from tFR. I don't believe it's a rule that is has to be in traditional fighter format, so I thought "why not?"

Currently planned are 4 characters.
(Gilbert, Neko, Chris2Balls, Bombergirl)

They will be implemented in that order. Gilbert will take the most time as I get the engine together.


And that's it. No stages nothing. I want to get 4 working fighters and go from there.





I want to include most of smash's mechanics.
To get an idea here is my current to-do list. In order of priority, probably.

Progress

Implemented:-------------------------------------------------------------------
Jumping / Double Jumping
Short hopping
Fast falling
walking/dashing
Crouching

Regular Attacks

Hitboxes (spheres?)-
Hit Stun
Hit Lag
Base Knockback
Knockback growth
Knockback Angle

Landing Lag on air attacks

Dead Pose
Getup
Getup Attack
Shielding
Rolling
Teching
Air Dodging (Brawl/Smash4 version)
Ledge Grab
Get up from ledge
Jump from Ledge
Drop from Ledge
Grabbing

To be Implemented:-------------------------------------------------------------------

Auto cancel window on Air Attacks
Directional Influence
Ledge Attack

Pummel
Up throw
Down throw
Forward Throw
Back Throw

Taunts / Appeals

So why the topic now?
I wanted input on characters and their design and properties.

For example, here is what I currently have planned for Gilbert.

Gilbert

Current plans:

Jab:
Gilbert has a kinda bad jab. It's slow, but has okay range and a bit of start up.

Nair:
It's hitbox lingers out for a short time. It's Gilbert's best approach tool.

Bair:
Wasn't planned this way, but in game it feels like Jigglypuff's. I don't think giving a tanky character like Gilbert a wall-o-pain is a good idea :p
It is fast and pretty powerful, but has a kinda small hitbox.

Fair:
A really quick attack that when sweet spotted has a small semi-spike. Nair is more useful is most situations.

Up air:
One of Gilbert's best aerials. It has a decent sized hitbox above him and is quick.
Base knockback and knockback growth are low, so it's best for building up damage.

F-tilt:
Kinda slow, but has great base knockback. Better for getting some distance than anything else.

F-Smash:
A very powerful smash. Not the fastest, but not unusable slow. Leaves you open for a short bit.

Up-Tilt:
Really fast but abysmal range. I "get out of me face" attack.

Up-Smash:
It's okay. Nothing special though...
Not a lot or horizontal range.

D-Tilt:
Not very good.

D-Smash & D-Air: No animation yet currently.


No idea for his specials yet.
Side special will probably be the bullet head.

This post will be updated and organized as stuff is added and fixed.

And that's all for now, Thank you.

[The Phinx]

Cool. It would also be cool to see characters that aren't already made in the not so turbo version like icicle and bombergirl. That may grasp peoples interest since its almost like new fighters being introduced instead of a different version of the same fighters. But by all means this sounds cool.

[recme]

can controller support be added to this? i'd love to test this out with my gcn controller!

also, which smash bros will this be based on? i already noticed you made air dodging like brawl/ssb4, so i was kinda wondering how will this work. it would be cool if this was a hybrid of all games or something (melee's AT + ssb4's throw/tilt combos)

[Ploaj]

I'm using an xbox controller for testing
The gamecube adapter should be usable with a little setup, although I have yet to test.

As for the which game it's based on, it's kinda a hybrid. Air movement is a little floaty, but I might change it around until it feels nice. I want every character to have some guaranteed combos at some percents and stuff. Right now, Gilbert has a really neat up-tilt -> up air ->  up air ->  semi-spike fair at low percents that's pretty fun. The spike is DI dependent, however. His down tilt is pretty good for setups too. It can link into most of his aerials up until mid percents.

Rolling will probs be brawl, and shield smash 4. The reason being that when playing with a keyboard, you can't tilt your shield. You rarely, if ever, need it in smash 4 because shield pokes aren't that common. I will make them deplete easier though, so the game doesn't become too defensive. I want shielding to be useful, but not over-centralizing.

I was thinking of added l-canceling because why not. There was no reason for it not being in brawl/smash4 anyway.

Obs no melee air dodge means no wavedashing or variants. But who knows, maybe some other techniques will pop up.

And Brawl tripping. It's best feature. The only change I'm making to it is change the chance of tripping to about exactly 0%. Yeah, sounds good.

[recme]

cool info! i know that wavedashing/l-canceling are very well known for ATs, but i was just curious if stuff like moonwalking, dash dancing, and powershielding are in consideration. i shouldve been a bit more specific

other than that, im pretty excited about this! cant wait to try out a build

[Kosheh]

Oh, finally. A TSR fighting game I can play C:

If I could make a suggestion: I'd suggest making it not 100% like Smash - heck, it'd be nice if you stole a bit from Playstation All-Stars, but like...found a way to make it work

basically, have Smash Bros, but instead of Smash Balls, characters build up a super meter (Rep). On top of that, characters have basic combos that loop into their super attacks, which can be used at three different levels. Landing a super attack is the only way to KO the opponent.
The higher the character's Rep gets, the gauge builds, a different special is executed:

lv1 is a Really Nice Special that can tag a few people (i.e. Chris2Balls' Dat Ass Special)
lv2 is a harder to escape "actual super" (his Gognio special where he bounces around on the ball, can guarantee a few KOs)
lv3 is more comparable to a Final Smash (think Chris' Absinthe Fairy spritality, except Chris becomes temporarily invulnerable and the Absinthe Fairy is briefly playable, soaring about and destroying enemies with her ample chest)

The only thing about PS All Stars is that no one has a healthbar, but instead landing hits depletes the super meter, so there's not really much motivation in that game to actually land attacks but instead dash around and grab orbs that increase meter.


Personally though, I'd LOVE a RaveMaster type of premise but it's kinda fundamentally broken (tug-of-war health meter, winner can "blast away" the enemy with a finisher once they amass enough meter and wins a tug-of-war button-mashing contest)

It'd be cool though to have a system of advanced techs and whatnot though to give it more of an "authentic" fighter feel, though IMO those are the kind of things that develop out of the basic engine, not purposely programmed in beforehand.
tl;dr program the physics engine and let us find the cool techs to abuse and adopt as our own advanced play techs thx

[Ploaj]

I'm not a fan of super bars in general. I do have an idea similar to that for a smash ball replacement, though. I'm going to wait until I get to testing it out before I get feedback.

i was just curious if stuff like moonwalking, dash dancing, and powershielding are in consideration.

Power-shielding is just part of how the shield works. It will probably have that, although it's not implemented yet.

The thing to consider with movement techniques is that this game is made with the keyboard in mind, and it's sprite based. Moonwalking with keyboard input won't work out to well, or at least not be easy. Dash dancing maybe/probably, but it won't have the same kind of feel it does in actual smash games, so I dunno if it would even be useful.

When you said AT earlier I was thinking mostly of character specific ones, which this game obviously won't have. Perhaps it will have its own. It's too early to tell currently.

[Kosheh]

I'm not a fan of super bars in general. I do have an idea similar to that for a smash ball replacement, though. I'm going to wait until I get to testing it out before I get feedback.

Oh, yeah yeah that's fine I was just explaining how PSAS did it. I liked how PSAS tried to establish unique gameplay that was a mashup of Smash Bros. and actual fighting games, hence the suggestion :V

What I'm saying though basically is, don't literally copy Smash (which you're probably not doing anyhow, anyway)
But it'd be really interesting if there was an alternate means of core gameplay besides "knock the enemy off the screen", but still keep all that brawler gameplay intact (stage hazards, item drops)

It'd be cool if the only way to knock the enemy offstage was off the top of the screen, and combos relied on bouncing enemies around the screen like racquetball (but that's just wishful thinking on my part )

[Ploaj]

I'm back working on this some because of some short free time I've had this week.

It's usually confusing to look at code you wrote a while ago to figure out how it works, but I did a good job of making notes everywhere. I even put them in places that seemed obvious then but isn't as much now.
I'm excited to see it starting to come to fruition. I may dable with some networking stuff, but I fear it may be difficult to make lag minimal and keep in sync. I'll try anyway, though.

So far I think Gilbert's back air may be a bit over powered.

Funnly enough I was adding that sour spot to weaken it bit :<
It just wants to stay the best move in the game...

[TheShyGuy]

For networking, how are you handling connecting to friends or other players? Do you use a server, do you try NAT punch through?

__

For keeping in sync, you should look into making your game deterministic. Then, you just have to send player inputs to each other.

[Kitsu]

hmm something not entirely related to this project specifically, but as an alternative to PSAS superbar and SSB smash ball
but like a king of the hill capture point where you have to stay near it to get points or something

or even like, instead of the standard "knock 'em offscreen to kill" you could just have it that they lose HP whenever outside of the capture point area
so then the game is just a big game of keepawa- this doesn't actually sound that good lol

[Ploaj]

Update time:



I implemented the basis for a lot of attacks now. First post is updated.

Remaining:

• Auto cancel window on Air Attacks
  

• Directional Influence
  

• Ledge Attack
  

• Pummel + Throws
  

So it's getting there.

I created a tool for editing and creating frame data that really speeds up the process.
I managed to fix all of Gilbert's hitboxes within minutes as opposed to an hour!

The engine feels a little snappy in places, but I think it's just because the animations are limited. The physics seem to work out okay. I even created tether-to-ledge physics for if it is ever needed. Therefore it seem to be shaping up nicely all things considered.

I also made a CPU to fight with. He switches from being okay to just standing completely still in front of me and jabbing me out of any attack. Just like a CPU in melee :p
When I actually get to AI, I want to give each character some specific strategies that they may employ. Right now it's just basically defend, chase, and stand still and jab like a maniac.


So yeah, that's where this stands now.
I wanted to have the first playable test be a target test stage, but if I get the CPU ready enough, I'll include it as well.

[recme]

this sounds very exciting! i wish to try it out with my gcn control once a demo is released

[The Phinx]

They have GameCube controllers for PC?

[Kosheh]

They have GameCube controllers for PC?

What a post. Yes. They do.

Retrolink also makes clear ones now with LEDs built in so it lights up and looks hecka cool. The build quality isn't 1:1 so you'll probably wreck the controller if you play like a typical Melee player on it. They have them for pretty much the entire Nintendo console line (N64, SNES, NES) but I can only really suggest the N64 one out of all 4 :/

There's also adapters for the PC too so you can go authentic and use your actual controller. SUPPOSEDLY there's drivers for the official one, but Mayflash's adapters were always pretty good.