Idea for combo assist that forces players to get better over time!

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When I tried to get my friends past he inputs for fighting games like KI I was estatic to hear about the combo assist feature. However, the teaching value is rather shallow as there is no incentive to get better. Instead, it degrades the depth of the system into an button masher.

So, what can be done to improve the teaching ability of the feature? Well the biggest deterrent to traditional fighting games are the joystick inputs. Namely, mid combo.

So, why not just develop a strike system? In other words, you still have to attempt the input in the combo but if you mess it up a sound plays but continues the combo with the linker of that weight.

The game would read the auto double after the opener and look for a directional input signaling a linker. If none are found combo is dropped.

FOR EXAMPLE

So, say the player works off of a hit confirm, opens a combo, autos then goes for a wind kick but goes too far up back before pressing MK. The combo assist should know what he/she is trying to do, give them the wind kick of that weight, sound an ring to let them know they got a strike, and continue the combo.
Medium and light linkers with a tap, hold like you normally would for heavy. For an ender, same system applies except with heavy inputs. Just like normal.

If there is no joystick input attempted then the combo is dropped.

Alright, so how this should transfer to online? Here’s where it becomes a teaching tool.
Starting at bronze rank, players get three strikes in each combo.
=Two linkers and a ender. If you try the inputs we’ll give you the combo.

Silver rank, two strikes
Gold rank, one strike
Killer rank, no strikes essentially it’s not allowed at high-level. If you put this much time to get to killer you should be able to pull off a combo.

AND they rank up at half the speed. Give more XP with less strikes. So even with it on, if the player doesn’t mess up then he or she gets Full XP.

This allows for a smoother curve and removes the button mashy-ness of the current system
What do you guys think? Not sure if this has been brought up before but when you’re new at the game and want to practice, the current combo assist does not help!

1 Like
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It already is there in a way. They need to learn certain enders regardless.

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The above is a false/fictional statement.

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If you do this now, it still registers as a successful move (a windkick, using your own example). In fact, a lot of characters can use that additional “up” to get in-air moves to work from the ground and do so low to the ground. For example, if you perform Hisako’s on-ryo-zan special move, she does the grounded version, but she can also do this in the air while jumping. However, if you wanted to do the air On-Ryo-Zan from the ground by barely leaving the ground, instead of painstakingly trying to figure out the timing by jumping and then doing qcf+P, you can do this instead: :arrow_down::arrow_lower_right::arrow_right::arrow_upper_right:+P.

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Depends on what you’re interested in having them practice. If they want to learn manuals (which they will need at higher levels of play), then CAM actually does force them to learn timings and such. If you’re just interested in them learning linker motions, then no, CAM does not in any way incentivize this.

I don’t personally think this is much of an issue. CAM is there to let people play and have fun. If they want to get better (heck, even just do their “best” enders), then they’ll need to do motions at least sometimes. But overall, the motion inputs aren’t really what will make them better at the game anyway - just means they’d stop dropping combos. Neutral and combo-game decisions are more important for long term success in this game, and I don’t think CAM really affects these one way or the other once you get past the beginner and low-intermediate levels.

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I’d suggest chaning the OP title to make it less exclamatory and forceful/threatening by removing the exclamation mark would be a good start.

On the topichowever, Combo assist doesn’t need to be more complicated than it already is compared to its s2 iteration. I have played using both and being able to reliably hit confirm and not having to mash buttons helped my game and my confidence within it during S2, so much so that I got to Killer rank using it. However, S3’s change of combo assist requiring forward to continue a combo before the button press has made me miss my previous capitalisations on a good few opportunities.

It’s not as clear cut as some people think it is - there are those of us who use combo assist to actually make startegic decisions more accurately and not have to focus on extra inputs. The changes that have already been made (making it so that the system wasn’t universally damage ender=f+p and meter ender=f+k for S3) have hurt my gameplan and continued to do so. They’ve actually, I feel, fixed something that wasn’t as broken as they made out it was.

TLDR: this change would just make things worse for those of us who either need or want to work with combo assist.

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I’m sort of confused. Are you advocating for some sort of combo grading system for CAM? Like depending on how well they perform a motion in combo, during the combo there would be some sort of “ring” to let you know if you did something wrong? And at the end of the match there would be some sort of info dump to tell you how you did? \

There is already something like this in the game, but not specifically like you’ve put it. I mean you can already customize your CAM settings to make it respond how you want it to, and at the end of a match they already tell you the stats of you combo completion and the like. Honestly though, IMO, the system that you are outlining wouldn’t work. I seems as though you are trying to throw even more stuff at the “new player” for them to pay attention to, and try to assimilate while they play. If they aren’t absorbing what is already there, throwing more stuff at them probably isn’t the answer.

FYI: in game there already exists the “Custom CAM” setting where you can choose what part of the CAM system you want to be active. With this you can choose to have assisted openers, or linkers, or shadow linkers, or enders on or off, meaning depending on your settings you’d have to perform a motion in order to complete the combo. With Custom CAM you can tailor the assists to your liking, the only issue that there may be is that the player still has to know something about the game, and be able to suss out how best to use the system for themselves.

IMO they should make some sort of CAM tutorial to best teach people how to use it, but then again I don’t even know how many people use it, and whether or not they now how to tailor it them to make the best of it.