I’m currently interested in working on something new for fightstick function.
As everyone who uses a fightstick knows that when you move the joystick you can usually feel a square pattern upon which the its movement is restricted. The piece responsible for the movement restriction is called the gate, which is what most people may not know. Sanwa sells multiple types of gates such as square (usually on most major fight sticks sold), octagonal, circular, and diamond (square rotated 45 degrees).
I’ve been thinking about trying to make a homemade hexagonal gate that is mostly square, but has feint recesses in the middle of the left and right sides to mark mid point, which should be the point where if the joystick were moved into this small corner, the character on screen should always be in back or forward position, not down-back, down-forward, up-back, or up-forward. This small extra corner would allow for a perfect horizontal movement in the given directional press.
The reason being, sometimes, like when I play against Shadow Jago, I have a habit of over extending the motion to go from crouching block to standing block, and I get caught in pre-jump frames instead of having a standing block, having accidentally gone to far up on the square gate and moved the joystick to the point where the directional reads an up command.
Muscle memory should be a priority at times like this, but I do think a hexagonal gate would also be an advantageous setup for the joystick in such situations as well.
What do you guys who use fight sticks think? Do you think it would improve your game? Do you think it’s more or less a crutch rather than a tool? Do you think it would throw off your motions somewhat maybe?
It’s not really a crutch, you gotta go with what fits you best and is comfortable.
I do however feel that if you put in enough practice with your square gate you’ll be perfectly fine and will have no need for spending time on modifications. I have played this game on pad, fightstick and hitbox. I can safely say that the game is easily playable on all of those input devices.
Speaking from my own experience over time, I think it’s easy to fault an input device for erroneous inputs and believe that the grass would be greener with something else but at the end of the day no matter what you choose to use it’s going to require practice.
I used to have that problem back with USFIV, but it worked itself out with time playing the game. If you’ve tried to get the muscle memory down and just can’t quite do it consistently, then go for it; there’s nothing wrong with using a hex gate.
The thing is, hex gates don’t really exist, so I would technically have to make it myself. I’m thinking I could take some measurements and maybe get one 3D printed. Still kind of an experiment at the moment.
I don’t blame the device at all, it’s my lack of muscle memory that I over extend the upward movement to get an up-back instead of a back command. I just felt like maybe it would help bypass the muscle memory issue for a quicker and maybe easier result. I know people mod fight sticks all the time, I’ve just never heard of anyone using a hex gate. Thought I might get some opinions from people who may have experimented with different gates or things like that. I’ve heard Zangief players tend to use Octagonal gates for 360 motions.
I didn’t mean for you to really get defensive about it. I was just saying it’s a common occurrence. There is one thing that’s really nice about a square gate for fighters, DP’s are incredibly easy because you can short cut them by riding the bottom of the gate to the corner. So instead of doing forward down diagonal you can ride the bottom of the gate and just go diagonal diagonal in a dash motion.
I wasn’t getting defensive. I understand what you were trying to say, I was just offering a counterpoint. If you sensed any hostility or ill will, none intended man, or now either. We all wanna get better and have fun, I’m more or less thinking out loud, maybe asking if anyone has used anything other than the square gate for their experience. I only have the square one to go off of.
Any way, like I said, kinda looking for a way to shortcut the muscle memory issue, but I guess it’s just an issue I can’t shortcut. I would like to try to 3D model a gate though, give my friend a chance to make something neat with his 3D printer.
Also, the special inputs aren’t really the problem, it’s more or less adjusting from a crouching block to standing block. I can see the overhead coming, but I guess I panic a little and overdo the switch and hit the jump back instead of the standing block.
I bought the circular and octagonal gate to try them out a long time ago, put I chose to stick with the square gate. Mainly because I feel I can do DPs and quarter circle movements mor fluently. With the octagon gate I kind of always felt the gate and it made me think too much about it and my moves instead of relying on my muscle memory. And the circular made it hard to find/stay in the corners. But this is just my opinion.
My advice is get a octagonal gate and try it out first. It might actually help with your problem because I think you will feel the standing mid point quite well. And I’m not sure if there is enough “travel/space” for the joystick to do a hexagonal shape. Maybe you could try out to dremmel out a little notch in the middle off a regular square gate.
Hope I could help a little, but listen to a couple more stick users before you do anything rash to your gate. I’m by no means a pro stick user or fighting game player. I’m a casual player with a big love for KI, modding fightsticks and fighting games in general. One more advice is to try out a bat top. It gives the feeling of more stick travel and could perhaps help your control of the stick and more regularly hit the sweet spot you are after. Good luck experimenting, witch is half the fun, and let us know the result 
Oh yeah! Go and check out Shoryukens sub forum tech talk. There you will find everything about fightsticks and modding them.
http://forums.shoryuken.com/categories/tech-talk