Stances + Transformations; PLs & KI/Stamina Efficiencies

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Okay, here's a re-write. Some of this is common knowledge, some of it is tweaks, etc etc. I'm considering how the entire game would look with these changes, not just a couple of factors, thus I mention them briefly and if I would change anything about them.


The main focus of these concepts revolves around making Turbo and Charged Turbo more influential on the fluctuations of Power Level; more so than Transformations. There would also be benefits to choosing not to Power Up, which would be circumstantial. Using Turbo would improve a couple of factors: Swoop Speed, Power Level, and the BP bar. The more the player charges Turbo, the more these factors improve. I'll summarize the pros and cons of everything below:

Non-Turbo
Higher Natural KI Regeneration
-This reduces the Recharge Frequency, or in other words, how often they would need to Recharge.

Higher Stamina Recharge
-Stamina can be recovered more quickly, but most of it must be recharged manually. This would prevent players from Tele-spamming without having to Recharge at all.

Slower Flying Speed
-Base Flying Speed. Varies between Transformations and Characters very slightly.

BP Bar = 1
-Auto-regenerates to 1, but is capped at 1. BP-1 attacks are Fast. They can be used in between Simple Melee to reset the knock back and allow Combo chains.

Reduced Power Level
-{Base PL} minus 10% or so

Stance Summary:
Non-Turbo allows chaining Simple Melee combos, but with a penalty to Power Level. Thus the attacks won't deal as much damage, and damage received by the player is increased. That's why avoiding contact by using Natural Regeneration is important. Since Flying Speeds are reduced, a player can run, but will always be within reach. The best strategy when Non-Turbo is to attempt to do a Combo Chain of Simple Melee hits to buy some time for your stamina to recover.

Optional:
Powered Down player must rely on sight alone
-All Player Dots are removed from the Radar, but opponent can't see them on the radar either. This allows some minor sneaking around and makes opponents harder to track.

Delay on Teleporting
-If Tele-spam becomes a problem, delay how often it can be used, and/or how long it takes before the player actually teleports.


Turbo
Increased Power Level
-{Base PL + Transformation PL} plus 30%

Increased Flying Speed
-Varies from Transformations

Average Regeneration Rates
-If you don't go overboard, you can sustain KI and Stamina easily enough

BP Bar = 2
-Allows 2 BP bars to be earned. Auto-Regen to BP 1 removed. All BP attacks are Medium and deal increased damage.

Stance Summary:
Average fighting Stance which can be maintained with a balanced play style. Offers balanced gameplay.


Charged Turbo
Greater Power Level
-{Base PL + Transformation PL} plus 70%

Greater Flying Speed
-Turns 'Swoop' into 'Charge." A faster Swoop with a different animation.

Note:
As shown in ESF 1.2, greater Swooping speeds increase the likelyhood of head-on attacks. This is why most skilled players would insist on dueling when Untransformed. By making Swoop into a "Charge" when using Charged Turbo, we can turn head-ons into a game play feature without writing it off. Charge can break blocks and cause players blocking to be knocked back. Results could vary based on PL differences.

Blocking will always completely negate damage and prevent knock back
-Unless they are being Charged, which requires the enemy to also use Charged Turbo

BP Bar = 3
-Allows 3 BP bars to be earned. BP 1 = Medium, BP 2+3 are Heavy attacks.

Severe penalties to Regeneration
-KI Recharge Times remain the same, but without Nat. Regen, the player must Recharge more often. Stamina has a negligible Nat Regen, and the Recharge Times are drastically increased. It could take half a minute of Recharging just to replenish your Stamina.

Stance Summary:
Charged Turbo allows distances to be closed quickly with Charge. This will often catch the opponent off-guard and allow for easy follow-up attacks. If BP 3 is earned, a Heavy attack will deal a great amount of damage to the opposing player. The Power Level boost will allow all attacks to deal more damage, including Beams. All incoming damage would be reduced as well.

Advanced Melee is most useful when using Charged Turbo since you'll want to Max your BP as soon as possible.

Optional:
-'Heavy 2' attacks could deal Stamina damage to potentially force off an opponent's Turbo (IF they've used too much Stamina). This would be the ideal time to use Charged Turbo and pursue them.

-Players can Ascend instantly when using Charged Turbo. Once Ascended, they can disable Turbo if they want.

Transformations
Improve Overall Flying Speeds

Improve the KI & Stamina Capacities
-Consider KI and Stamina are like 'action' bars. This would allow more actions to be performed at once before a player needs to Recharge.

Recharge Times and Frequencies increased
-A bad thing. Transformations follow the same format listed above, except the disadvantages are more apparent. On a player's Final Transformation, if they aren't a Perma-trans class, they will feel the KI & Stamina Regeneration reductions much more heavily.

Greater Power Level
-When using Turbo/Charged Turbo, players gain relatively more PL. SSJ1 may gain 1 million PL when using Turbo, while SSJ2 may gain 2 million.

Note:
Transformation PL Gain is a percentage of the player's Base PL; it's not static. This allows everything to scale together simultaneously.


Perma-Trans
They gain less PL from their Transformations, but their KI/Stamina efficiencies are only slightly reduced. They still gain more Max KI and Max Stamina. So this is a considerable advantage in itself. This supports the idea that Buu can fight with his Maximum Power Level easier as Kid Buu, but he's not as strong.


Play Styles
The ability to match up Power Levels more easily from different Transformations allows a variety of benefits and consequences. If SSJ1 using Charged Turbo = SSJ3 with No Turbo, then consider what the benefits would be. Instead of SSJ3 having a great deal more PL, he would have a significantly greater Nat. KI Regen compared to his opponent, which allows him more mobility. SSJ3 could use Fast attacks and Simple Melee to create Chain Combos which could deal some decent damage. It'd be fun for skilled players who gain PL fast, while their opponents are a bit slower.

If Heavy 2 attacks dealt Stamina damage, then a player with Turbo could quickly Charge Turbo so that it would turn into a Heavy 2 attack. If timed when the opponent used a lot of their stamina, it would force the player to Power Down. This would offer a segueway into continuing to Charge Turbo to press the attack.


Game Mechanic Modifications
Ideally everything would work together with this format if these mechanics were also modified:

Power Levels are all based on a percentage of Base PL, so that everything scales correctly. SSJ1 would offer +10% of Base PL, and then Turbo/Charged Turbo would add a percentage based on that total. Static numbers would ruin the marginal benefits.

Maximum Stamina would increase when Transforming, and the amount of Stamina which carried over would depend on the previous level of Stamina. Meaning if Untrans Goku = 100 Stamina, and SSJ1 adds 10 Stamina, then he would become SSJ1 Goku with 100/110 Stamina. That way if a player completely Untransforms and plans on jumping back into SSJ3, they'll be in for a big surprise when they start off with half of their Stamina. It gives players an incentive to staying in Transformation States longer, so that they can fight effectively with more stamina in their Final State.

Note:
0 stamina wouldn't make a player Untransform. They would have to Descend manually. 0 Stamina doesn't allow a player to Power Up, which is where most of a Transformation's benefits come from, and it wouldn't allow them to Teleport or use Quick Stop either. Since they regenerate stamina slower, it would be beneficial for them to Descend, but not mandatory.

Quick Stop would replace the normal automatic stop that's currently in place.
It would instantly stop the player at a cost determined by their current momentum. It would be used for hardly any stamina cost when under a certain momentum speed. KI could be used to slow the player, meaning QS could be used almost all the time when timed correctly. This would require timing and experience. The natural stop would kick in automatically after the momemtum was completely stopped. Not really ideal when in a fast-paced combat.

Throw would be useful against players who Quick Stop really well. Throw can't be slowed with KI, only Quick Stop can be used. Thus this forces a player to consume stamina to Quick Stop or opens up a possibility to chain attacks without worrying about them QSing on you.

Grab & Smash would simultaneously reduce yours and your opponent's stamina levels at the same rate. This is strategically good for two different reasons, as it can be used both offensively or defensively.

If you know your opponent has BP 3 and they're about to use it on you, but they have a lower stamina level than you (maybe they used too much stamina to earn it), then you can reduce their stamina, forcing them to Power Down. Powering Down drops their BP to 1 and their PL with it.

If you know your opponent has less stamina than you and you have BP 3, you can Grab & Smash to make them Power Down before using your attack on them. This would be a great way to maximize your damage output.

Grab & Smash would work differently for Transformations as well. Since higher Transformations have more stamina, they have a greater potential to outlast their opponent. However, because they have a reduced stamina recovery, it increases their potential vulnerability to it as well. Lets say SSJ1 and SSJ3 both use 50 stamina. Who will recover from that faster? SSJ1. So not only does SSJ1 have more stamina, but SSJ3 has less as a result. Thus a delayed Grab & Smash, or more frequent Grab & Smashes, will wear SSJ3 down relatively faster.


To sum it all up, this concept model considers player input above all else and attempts to include it at every possible turn. Everything has strategic purpose to it. You Throw because it's harder to Quick Stop. You Grab & Smash to prevent/open up the use of BP. Turbo/Charged Turbo have a greater influence on a player's PL, allowing them to turn the tides. Transformations carry both pros and cons, with the pros outweighing still. By incorporating Natural Regeneration more into the game and differentiating the 'Stances,' how often a player must Recharge becomes a controllable factor.
 
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Yeah it's called the 'Summary' at the top of the post.

Non-Turbo gives more Natural Regeneration, Turbo is average with lower Stamina Regen, and Charged Turbo has little Natural Regen. As players Transform, the differences in Recharge Times and Frequencies increase, making KI/Stamina management increasingly important.

NT/T/CT determine the level of BP, so it's more than just Power Level. NT = Low PL, T = Decent PL, CT = Higher PL. Transformations are based on a percentage of Base PL so that Turbo and other Transformations scale appropriately.

SSJ1 with CT could equal the same PL as SSJ2 T. But SSJ1 T will never equal SSJ2 T. In short, if people want to pump up their Turbo to gain more PL over the opponent, then they can. If the opponent wants to respond by increasing their Turbo, then they can as well. But SSJ1 will have a KI/Stamina efficiency benefit, while SSJ2 will have a PL benefit. The more skilled a player is, the more they can negate the KI/Stamina "deficiency."
 
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This is as summarized as it gets.


To make ESF more skilled and balanced, players have more control over PL differences with Turbo/Charged Turbo. Currently Power Level is too linear and doesn't vary enough through player control. Transformations, aside from SSJ3, have no penalties. If players cant control PL enough to change how it works in the fight, then it just becomes biased for or against without considering player input. Player input is what makes a great game, such as The World Ends With You (just started playing it yesterday). The more player input you have, the more fun it is.

Non-Turbo, Turbo, Charged Turbo are like different stances. When powered down, the player is more mobile and regenerates faster. When he uses any form of Turbo, that mobility and regeneration lessen in exchange for Power. Players who are good at landing hits won't need more mobility. Players who suck at landing hits can use that extra mobility to maneuver. If a Powered Up player misses the hit, chances are he'll be vulnerable because he'll need to Recharge. He might want to block.

Blocking would be based on PL, so that if it's higher, it can block without being knocked back. This way, while a player might be more vulnerable to attacks, he can completely block and negate damage this way. Powered down players will want to rely on Teleporting instead of Blocking.

BP is based on stance. NT = 1 bar, T = 2 bars, CT = 3 bars. By using Turbo, a player gains more than just a Power Level advantage. They can use the BP bar to deal stronger hits.
 
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well if it helps balance the game I agree, even though I think ESF:F will be soooo different from 1.2.3 that at first everyone will be just nabs.
 
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arent you a beta tester still Disguise?

and anyway, GATE, 1.3 will literally change the way you see ESF forever. trust me.. lol.
 
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Will we be able to use any of our current 1.2.3 skills on ESF:F?
like I mean... that terrific ground combo, the ceiling combo, the angle hits and blocks/counter attacks?
 
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that ceiling combo is bug a very bad bug
 
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lol no, Dark. I wasn't really on very often, so I agreed to stop testing. No point in having inactive people there.

Wouldn't mind joining back up to work on the XML Numbers and balancing, as mentioned above. Might be cool if I could show you guys what I'm talking about in game as opposed to text.

I'll do a re-write on the above post. I'll link a document with the numbers and demonstrations for people who want to read further.
 

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