PaulB Talks: Season 3

Hey guys! I usually don’t come around much, but people keep asking me to spread the word about this video and post the link on the forums. So here it is!

Reminder: These are just the opinions of one man: me. I don’t claim to speak for anyone.

Enjoy!

10 Likes

I agree with mostly everything, particularly about all the crazy shenanigans and Season 2 eliminating any footsies the game had. What’s wrong with footsies?

1 Like

I agree with a lot of your points, Paul. Yes, shadow canceling unsafe moves is stupid. Yes, some of the changes to characters may not of been the most ideal. Yes, lower skilled players get scared off by certain characters.

But the thing is, Paul, is that some of the changes you’re asking for sort of change KI’s core a little too much, which is what the devs are scared of doing. I also agree with the person in chat (I think it was Sajam) who said that for a game to have entirely even match ups, the character would end up playing too similarly. No game is perfect, and that’s sort of a sad truth.

2 Likes

I always loved the combo breaker system but when you put in the way that; the fact that people are actively trying to avoid the system, (unbreakable / 1 chance breaks), shows something is wrong. This makes me realize the breaker system could be better.

I think damage should be proportional to break opportunities, maybe ender level should be increased by break opportunities instead of white life. I think we need more ways to bait combo breaks, (like Hisako’s delayed doubles but with some sort of instinct meter cost), as an easy alternative to counter breakers… but should every character have this? I don’t know all the match-ups so I couldn’t say.
I suggest this option costing Instinct meter because I feel trying to pin down an opponent should take away from your own comeback mechanic.

I just came up with this on the fly, if I am missing something in my logic forgive me

The problem is that everybody has the street fighter mentality “I earned to open you up so its very offensive to get broken by a random guess”

If combos and breakers had been a mechanic present in all games since the 16 bit era, the mindset would be different.

Anyways I agree that instinct after breaker has to go, I’ve always defended that.

Maybe KI needs a system that punishes failed breaker attempts. A lockout is not enough, make the player lose shadow meter or something

3 Likes

Not me. I didn’t play SF4 competitively, and I have played almost every fighter on the market, at least casually, since SF2. I’ve been exposed to a lot of different combat design decisions - including the original Killer Instinct which I played religiously in the arcades and on SNES.

My opinions have ZERO to do with Street Fighter or expectations from other games. I simply speak about what I enjoy and what drew me to the game in the first place. It’s why I don’t play many games for long. I don’t enjoy most of them. I think most of them are poorly made and/or not that interesting. KI wasn’t one of them.

And I’d be cautious saying things like “everybody has the street fighter mentality” because you’re putting words into peoples’ mouths.

2 Likes

I wasn’t specifically talking about you with the “sf mentality”. In your video, even you speak about how street fighter players quit the game after being broken by guesses. It’s a sentiment I have seen in other forums, and mostly from SF players.

I’ve defended in the past that combo breakers should cause damage. Adam Isgreen argued against this but I think it would be a good trade. Failed breaker attempts cost shadow or instinct meter, and breaker into instinct cancel dissapears from the game.

In exchange, breakers deal now 3% damage, potentially ending a fight.

Okay, I watched it (the whole thing). First, props to @UAPaulB for sharing. Secondly, I agree with most of what he said - the balance of characters like Sabrewulf and Kan-Ra, as well as the unbreakable projectiles, the advantage off of combo-breakers into instinct, and the lack of footsies for the most part. As for what I disagree with - he says that “we” don’t want to play the combo-breaker game. I actually enjoy it very much and more often then not, go for large-damaging combos just to see how far I can actually take it (and as a result have had frequent double or triple counter-breaker lockouts for 78%+ damage out of my opponent’s health bar).]

1 Like

I like that idea make them loose shadow meter and abit of instinct.

Currently you gain instinct by breaking combos so it would be a good balance trade off

2 Likes

Totally got your finger on the pulse of the matter, regarding the combo breaker into instinct/shadow/juggle/unbreakables. Free meter for Spinal and auto 1/3 life bar for Jago. DUMB!!!

Your talk about feral cancels was right too and as you were saying it, I was thinking a crazy instinct dash would be better for the zoner match up.

I don’t think there is any way to solve the Combo breaker problem that you mentioned though. There’s no way they’re going to go back to the rock, paper, scissors form of combo breaking like KI 2/Gold had. Though it will really show who has skill in this game, no one is going to be able to pick it up on a casual level.

But who are the two characters they are reworking? hmmm…

Instead of that, a failed combo break attemp deals a 3% of potential damage.

Easier to get aa lvl 4 ender combo, but you cant directly die for trying a combo break, not frustrating newcomers but giving veterans better punish tools.

4 Likes

I like this idea.

So, your idea is to have you take damage if you don’t combo-break or take even MORE (potential) damage if you fail? I would think that would give people incentive to NOT combo-break, as it creates a scenario where you have 2-negatives (lots of damage or potential damage) vs. a single positive (I stop his combo). Personally, I don’t like those odds and it doesn’t seem like a sound idea to me. And for the record, with your idea, you could directly die for trying a combo break if you fail because you’ll still be taking combo damage for a further 3 seconds - speaking of which, since you’re already taking direct damage from the failed attempt anyways, the 3% of potential damage, IMO, seems a bit redundant. Finally, something like that would most definitely frustrate newcomers.

There should be no penalty to combo-breaking, because doing so would discourage players from using it, and it’s THE central mechanic of the game. If anything, I like the idea of simply having it put both players at neutral at about mid-screen away with no chance for unbreakables, instinct activation, or juggles immediately after - kind of like when you tech a throw, but further apart. This way, the defensive player breaks his opponent’s combo and gets another chance to go on the offensive without automatically getting it (as in the case of activating instinct for example). It also gives his opponent some breathing room to realize what happened and to do the same. In this way, the game is kept offensively-minded, but is not necessarily guaranteed towards 1 player or the other (the counter-breaker will still, of course, be an option to keep this mindset in play as a sort of double-or-nothing scenario).

100% yes he’s right!

Not 100% he isn’t…

it’s an over exaggeration XD but a lot of the stuff is pretty accurate to what should changeContinuing the discussion from The current state of the game, and what needs to change:

My issues are

  1. combo break > instinct

  2. That combo breaking is very low risk, I feel a yellow lock out should cost a little instinct and meter 5-10%

  3. Leave red lock out as is

  4. Stop don’t allow breaks to occur on frame 1

  5. Don’t don’t consume my shadow stock or activate instinct if they break the manual before.

  6. if a character is easy to break eg jago or riptor they should break the rule by one strength.

But if they are hard to break they should have the current restricted manuals.

Just my opinions of what I’d like to see.

For the record @GalacticGeek, I think that the actual system its ok.

Maybe the instinct cancel should go, but Im ok with the rest. Just throwing some ideas for disscusion

1 Like

…and that’s perfectly fine, but for the sake of the game’s balance, I’m going to shoot holes into ideas wherever I can to prevent a potentially bad idea from taking root. :herb:

2 Likes

He’s not putting names out there but I’m sorry for the void nades Paul :wink: