Q: Okay, then what about frame-by-frame animation theater as unlockable prize? Is it possible now or later?
A: At this point in the dev cycle, unless a request was either A) already planned by us, or B) we can do it in five minutes, it's unlikely to make it into the first game.
Via a patch, though, anything is possible, and an animation theater is certainly easy. :^)
Q: Any plans to have an announcer speak the fighters name upon selection? (on char select screen, of course) I've always thought that was a nice way to add character to a fighting game via a subtle inclusion.
A: Yeah, the announcer will say their name when you select them. I prefer it to the characters since it's consistent, rather than a ton of different characters/tones saying things.
We're working to make the announcer funny, too, with "rare drop" lines for the start of battles, wins, etc.
Q: So about the 2D on 3D models, is this an original production technique, or was it taken from the field of animation? If so, what films/shows/commercials have used this before, asking from an animation junkie here.
A: We do use 3D models to help with animating mechanical or solid things - Photoshop has a feature where you can load a 3D model and rotate it, etc. to draw over it.
They load the model, position and rotate it so it's over their hand, and then draw over it to get the details and perspective correct.
We've only done this three times, so far - Peacock's gun, Parasoul's umbrella and Painwheel's blade.
Q: Two questions for Mike,
1. Do you plan on making combo and tutorial videos for SG like you have for other fighting games.
2. Do you plan on competing in the tourney scene?
A: Vids yes, sleep first though. :^)
Competing, yes if I'm allowed. I have a feeling random people will be upset if I do. Heh.
Q: So Mike, when 2 single characters double KO each other, do both parties get a point or do neither get a point?
A: Double KO's and draws will give both people a point, but only if it won't win anyone the match. If it would win someone the match then neither side gets a point, because that way if you were up by a round you stay up by a round.
Q: When you eventually do patches, will you guys release the change log to the pubic?
A: We plan to do release notes - there will be other patches, such as to enable DLC and add other things, too.
Q: Two characters do the same super on the exact same frame. Who super flashes first?
A: Simultaneous superflash will be P2 first, but after both they will be on the exact same frame, rather than P2 being a frame ahead like some games.
Q: How do you do a THC (Team Hyper Combo)?
A: There aren't any THCs. The short answer to why is, all the art doesn't fit in memory at once. :^P
Q: Is it possible to tiger knee an assist?
A: You can't TK assists.
Q:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47uFyQDPoyQ
@ :56 ... what the hell?
Cerebella punched her and then a cat randomly appeared and walks off screen... >_>
What's going on here?
A: The artist for the frame had doodled a janky little cat in the corner and forgot to remove it, so Mike put it in the game. It has like a 0.2% chance of appearing, I believe.
Doesn't serve any purpose except to amuse us.
Q: *Online questions here*
A: How 'bout some honesty...I'm not answering any online questions, simply because online (especially matchmaking) is very hard to do, let alone to do right, and we're still messing with it and will be right up until the end. Plus I am 100% sure the very vocal annoyed people on the internet won't be even close to satisfied when the game comes out so we'll fix things until everyone is pleased. I'm just glad it works. (^.^)
Q: Will IPS trigger if you just do something like LP LP LP LP or LK LK LK LK?
A: IPS doesn't trigger in the middle of a chain, so LPx4/LKx4 won't trigger it unless the first one would. Though you only get two in a row maximum anyway, mostly.
Q: Is it possible to hold a push-block to negate more red life damage?
A: You can't hold pushblock, but you can do it more than once...
Q: At one point at SB I did Cerebella's Diamond Dynamo and caught two characters with it. I seem to remember it bouncing them in an alternating patteren while her arms were swinging. Would each character take half the damage they normally would have or were they both taking full damage?
A: Cerebella's super hitting two characters, if they aren't hit at the same time, would do half damage to each. One hit will only damage more than one character if it connects on the same frame, like MvC2. Hopefully that makes sense.
Q: You think they will ship an arcade mode without a boss?
A: I'm going to respond to this. Given the choice between doing anything at all to make the versus/multiplayer aspects of SG better, or spending time on a boss...I would choose to skip the boss in a heartbeat.
This is all IMO, so don't take this as "there is no boss", just saying I object to your comment because it assumes priorities I personally don't have. (^.^)
Q: What about mashing to tech throws?
A: You can hit tech more than once, but since CH throws are untechable, mashing and mistiming it by even a frame gets you untechably thrown. It also eliminates the crouch-tech OS, hee hee.
*further elaboration*
Oh, sorry, by "it" in "it also eliminates the crouch-tech OS" I meant SG. D/DB/DF+throw won't throw, but it also won't tech. Bleh, lack of sleep.
Also, I'ma make the tech period 8f. Yay for 3s.
Q: I see that you can dash with 2 punch buttons, but can you also dash by pressing forward twice?
A: Yes, you can dash as either PP or F,F.
Q: Does any of this sort of stuff change when I inevitably bind my assists to the unused buttons right of fierce/roundhouse on my TE stick?
A: Nope, button bindings just count as those buttons being pressed, they're not separate inputs like they are in some other game engines.
Q: What is the actual hard number for the amount of health that everyone has in SkullGirls (at 100%)?
A: 14,300 per character, at 100%.
(143 = health from old Capcom games. :^)
Q: And what minimal fraction of damage is? 100? 50?
A: Minimum damage is 1 point, but per hit the minimum is 15% of base damage for hits under 1000 base damage, and 25% for base damage of 1000+.
Damage scaling is flat 85% per hit after the 2nd hit.
Q: Is one able to call an assist during a special move?
A: No, you can't call an assist during specials, supers, hitstun, blockstun, knockdown, while thrown, while in superjump, or if you have already hit with one during your current combo.
Q: *Questions about European release*
A: Eh, there aren't many facts to know until the game is localized and approved by Sony/MS Europe.
We're targeting a simultaneous release, and the much longer approval process in Europe may or may not hinder that. If for some reason we can't make it launch simultaneously, it should be a pretty short delay.
Q: Why the meter-y stuff? The idea of gaining less meter than my opponent from my combo is eww. Before this note, it seemed the opponent already gained a good amount meter for being hit
A: So...you want to do damage, get the advantage and get more meter? Generally that's not the case in Guilty Gear, and it's not even the case in MvC2! Interestingly, it is generally the case in MvC3 and BB. :^| This just serves to make a big imbalance even bigger.
I always liked MvC2's meter system. (With certain exceptions, like Tron's drill giving the opponent a full bar.) If you got beat down, you a bit more of a chance to do damage afterward than your opponent had. Not Ultra-meter levels, just slightly. As it was in SG, if you got beat down - even if your oppponent used meter! - you still had much less.
It starts out with them not getting very much, so if you do a 5-hit combo, you get way more meter than they do. It scales up over the course of the combo so if you do a 40-hit combo, they get slightly more meter than you do if you used all normals. Previously the attacker got somewhere around twice to three times as much meter as the victim did, no matter what. Note that the attacker's meter gain isn't affected by this, only the victim's.
Q: Whats the meter gained on block and while blocking? is it a fraction of what it would be on hit?
A: Meter gain on block is the same as before - 3/4 what the attacker would get if they hit, and the victim gets 1/4 that.
Q: If I snap back MF's head will it cause snapback the entire time it's bouncing around?
A: Yep, it's a snapback the entire time.
Q: Any chance of a 'Concede' option during multiplayer (online and off)?
*Reasons for it to be in*
A: I like this idea. I dunno if we'll be able to do it for the initial release, but I'll see what we can do.
Q: question: is ms fortunes level 3 considered a head move? can she do it if someone is currently hitting her head but not her body?
A: You can do it if someone is hitting your head, yes.
Q: Anyway, actual question. A while back it was said that Skullgirls would have the ability to analyse your match and suggest tutorials to you after you lose. Did this manage to make it in for launch, or will that be a post launch update, or was it ditched all together?
A: Analyzing your performance...very sadly will probably not make it into the initial release, but it almost certainly will be a patch later. Mostly got overshadowed for time.
Q: Also, a question about characters being hit by supers after time up. Will they actually go through the "death" animation if their life is reduced to zero, or will they reach zero and not die if time is up?
A: You will still take damage and really die after time up, but the outcome is determined when time up is called so you can still win.
Q: As for meter gain, I understand why you would want it so that the opponent gets more when they get hit but does the meter they get depend on damage or the number of hits?
A: Meter scaling is based on damage scaling.
Q: Isn't meter based on damage or some independent value that increases/decreases based on team size like damage and health?
A: No, meter is based on meter value, not your ratio. :^)
Q: Say there is two seconds left one the timer and me and my opponent are at basically the same life, can I do a projectile move or super before the time runs out which will hit the other opponent?
Could I not just do that anyway, if there is almost a time up just activate a bomb cart or parasouls level 3? Does the opponent just auto block that? Do they receive chip damage?
Or is it after the hits post time out is just for things that where already hitting?
A: You will get hit post-time-out by whatever (helps validate the "OH THAT TOTALLY WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU!" thing), and it'll do damage. It doesn't change the outcome of the round, though - that's determined on the frame time runs out.
Q: *round count toggle discussion*
A: Well of course it'll be an option*, that wasn't really ever the question. :^)
The point is what the default should be...because lots of people don't touch this setting and it influences what everyone thinks of as "regular play".
I'll give "aways 2/3" a shot.
Q: Are any moves air unblockable?
A: Nope! Well, there are air throws, and there's Cerebella's antiair throw which is unblockable if you're on the way up (and not in blockstun), but nothing that's just "Oh you're in the air? Free hit."
Q: question: i know weve talked about chip damage before but i dont think this was covered. each move does X amount of chip. does X scale with ratio? eg. does a ratio 1 cyber peacock do more chip than a ratio 4 cyber peacock?
A: Yep!
Q: What is it in this engine that triggers the "blocking" animation. Is it possible to block without contacting a move, or does blocking only execute on contact?
A: Distance to point character while they attack. Assists and projectiles don't count. However you don't have to be in the blocking animation to block, which actually fixes a ton of problems.
Q: Zero throw invincibility once you recover from hitstun, blockstun, or knockdown. Once you can move/start to jump, you can get thrown.
Throw tech window changed to match Third Strike. A tech is possible from 2f before you are thrown to 6f after.
Does this mean you can escape 1st frame throw resets or tick throws by inputting a throw at the end of hitstun/blockstun?
A: You mean without attempting a throw of your own? On exactly the last frame of stun, yes. Any earlier and it doesn't last past the end, any later and you do a throw attempt/whiff. Same in 3s.
Q: Can you burst through supers?
A: You can burst anytime after an infinite is detected, including during supers, except if you're currently being thrown.
Q: Do throws have startup/active/recovery in SkullGirls? Are they different for each character?
A: Yes, and yes
Q: Are all air moves overheads?
A: All air moves are overheads with the exception of supers, Fortune's axe kick, tag-ins (so far all mid) and the following general convention: if an air normal is multi-hit, only the first hit that makes contact with something must be blocked high. That means if the move is 5 hits, and you first get touched by the 3rd, that hit is an overhead. The 4th and 5th will be mid. This is true for most, but not all, air normals...and is the same for most multihit low moves also.
Q: How invincible are tech rolls?
A: Ground recovery is completely invincible until you're able to move/block again.
Q: Mike, have you tested jump cancelling normals other launchers on hit and block? I especially like to jump cancel moves on block since you can create really nice pressure situations with it.
A: JC on block - that's exactly why I dislike it, making safe blockstrings out of stuff that's not safe. :^) Personal preference.
Q: If you dash, and then cancel that dash into a normal or whatever, do you keep some of the forward momentum and "slide" a bit as you do the move? I always liked this mechanic in Vampire Savior and the various Marvel games due to the really fun frame traps/tick throws/neutral approaches it allowed. I think I'v seen something like this in a few gameplay videos, but it's hard to tell since most players just iad everywhere.
A: Dash momentum - yes, you gain momentum even if your character hasn't started moving from the dash yet.
Q: Also, why was the original select screen altered? Was it just preference, or did something not work right? *Fan of original select screen*
A: Original like (a) the black background with text? Or "original" like (b) the concept art for the final screen, with the diagonal boxes?
If you mean (a), because that was always designed to be replaced. I made it in five minutes, one night. LOL
If you mean (b), various things ranging from the space to fit more DLC characters to the fact that it's always unclear which way up and down go when boxes are arranged diagonally. 3s does a decent job, but still...
Q: Actual question: How big is the window for left/right autoguard? What game might it be best compared to?
A: Maybe I misunderstood the question...there's nothing in SG protecting you from left/right switches. You always have to block the point character, but of course you'll keep blocking if you're already in blockstun and they cross over you. It can best be compared to MvC2.
Q: So which of Papasoul's eyes is officially supposed to be covered by here hair? There seems to be an incongruity between her character portrait, character artwork, and right facing character sprite.
A: Alex says it's her right eye, 2p is the 'real' one.
Q: By how much can you reduce the stagger stun by wagging the stick?
Do you plan on giving a little helper animation to remind you you can do just that a la GG?
A: 15f max, out of the throwable section. Stagger is 60f throwable + 20f unthrowable.
I'd like to add a helper animation if it's necessary, but probably not initially.
Q: So it's safe to say down the line we can expect a technical character(s)?
A: Down the line? A special move whose only use is to cancel things, a controllable head, run-stop shenanigans plus command throws, resets, item drops and teleports, or any of the other options currently available aren't technical enough?
Although yes, there are plans for some pretty crazy stuff later, which I'm really looking forward to. :^)
Q: Are there any characters that have special move chains/followups, a la Ralf and Clark from KoF?
A: Fortune has rekkas with 3 different branches, Cerebella has run-followups, and P...someone else has something with a choice you can make in the middle. Not sure if any of those count for strictly Ralf/Clark style, though.
Q: Anyone with a full-screen hitting super (Hailstorm-esque, not sniper shot)?
A: Like must-block-everywhere? Sniper shot is basically that, and Peacock's beam is instantly fullscreen horizontally, but nothing else really Hailstorm-y.
Q: Any characters that have moves you could use to ignite Parasoul tears if you have her assist set to tear toss?
A: Sorry, only Parasoul herself can ignite her tears. They ARE sentient, you know...we just have a lot of them...
Q: Can assists only be set to command throws, or are normal throws an option too? Is the scenario Block -> SD to Peacock grab -> Lv. 3 possible?
A: Normal throws are possible, so yes.
Q: could there be any options to have more than 2 players? like maybe for only teams of two can have the option of an additional player. it would be kind of gimmicky but good for casual players
A: That's been a desired feature for a long time, it'll get added eventually. (^.^)
Q: About how many combo descriptive adjectives are there in the game? How high do they go?
A: Over 250. The first 110 are unique, and they go up to 999.
Q: I've heard people say you can punish bursts with armor. So I would assume you don't get the invincible burst if the hit is absorbed by the armor.
A: Then "people" are wrong. (^.^) As long as it touches anything, the burst is invincible and recovers to regular air state. Simple.
Q: does the saxophone guy in the Anti skullgirl labs have an official name? Big Band and Detective Sax have both been bandied about.
A: Yes, and it's not "Detective Sax." I just like that that's the name Dustloop came up with for him.
Q: *more IPS questions*
A: First off, it's not kept track of by loops. :^)
The order is always: free chains [moves ignored] -> bonus chain or jump [moves kept track of but not triggering it] -> able to be triggered.
Q: If... hypothetically... a character were designed, either now or sometime in the future, to be a "boss only" character, is it... hypothetically... possible that they will be rebalanced for actual play somewhere down the line.
A: Hypothetically, if that happened - yes, they would either be rebalanced or redone as playable. Bosses are less work because they can get away with things like not crouching and not jumping, so all that would have to get added, but yes.
Q: Ms Fortune's head still snapbacks if you hit it with the golftail, right?
A: Yep.
Q: I have a question... Newest FNF there are some pretty white hitsparks on light air moves(I think)... Can you explain those a bit?
A: We finally got to put in the rest of the hitspark types we had made forever ago - bladed, blunt, directional, area. Filia's s/j.LP/j.MP and Peacock's j.MP and Avery's hits are sharp.
