Didn't get as much done as I hoped. Was working on another project with a friend. Refined what was already there in some ways, and added air normals. Give it a look!
Y.O.M.I Hustle Unofficial Character Concept Document: (UNFINISHED DRAFT, Version 0.2)
The "Soldier"
The Soldier is a, well, soldier by trade. Wielding a rifle, a small tactical handgun, and while a not particularly excessive, still oddly large spoonful of explosives, as well as a metal exoskeleton under his uniform. Which allows him to do goofy ah super soldier shenanigans. As God intended. The soldier's animations of course should reflect a slick special operator personality. Maybe he's a little full of himself, but it's not unwarranted, he's goofy with it in a good way. If anyone wants to make this character a reality and wants to draw the sprites, if you really hate yourself, you could totally give him stupid comical hair for him to mess with in his taunt. As God intended. But that's optional as I value human life. But above all else I would want him to match the other characters aesthetically. And really I'd rather see him become functional, and then be given proper animations and whatnot after, god forbid animations come first and they have to be changed. That sounds hellish.
Appearance (in the context of gameplay):
Obviously the character should have some defining traits but fit within the artstyle. This is all conceptual, I'm no good as an artist. Just basing everything off of the principals of the other characters. Though I feel this character is going to be a bit harder to make work in this style due to his nature as an "arsenal" character with guns that are meant to be more on the modern or even sci-fi side. Much like the cowboy he's going to have a weapon (two and a half weapons worth of work really) that need to be their own color compared to the main body. Which of course should probably be about the same as the current 3 characters. Though you could incorporate the boots and/or combat uniform to further differentiate the character from the others. He has prominent kicking moves so boots might be warranted. I deliberately detail that the exoskeleton is under an outfit specifically because I'm sure it'd be an inconvenience to animate otherwise. There should also be a small holster on his waist somewhere. Somewhere for him to put and draw his handgun from when going in between stances. Speak of the devil, I'd like the handgun to be either a modern blocky Glock-esque pistol, or a funky sci-fi pistol. If the former, it's a little 9mm. If the latter, it's a funny little laser gun. Either way you get the idea.
The Soldier also has a rifle on his back. You prolly won't be seeing most of it in his normal animations but for the record, I imagine it being a modern looking bullpup rifle. I decided it should be a bullpup for multiple reasons. For one, bullpups are cool. That’s a valid reason right? Secondly, it can be shorter that way, rifles tend to be big and long, but the rifle's overall size can be made smaller and still make sense if it's a bullpup. This makes things easier. Thirdly, to justify the long reload. Bullpups aren't as quick to reload because of the placement of the magazine. I want it to be believable that this super soldier is super skilled and whatnot because that's the aesthetic. And a skilled soldier can totally reload a mag well in front of the trigger comically quick. But I think the reload for balance sake should be something you have to commit to. But not comically long, the rifle is already not gonna be very spammable as is.
Main thing here, that is required for this to function; the rifle should be a different color from the main character color, and the handgun and holster should be different colors from that. I imagine the handgun being a darker grey while the holster is a lighter grey for example.
Universal Shenanigans and Mission Statement:
Blocking, tech rolling, and getup and all that sorta stuff is the same as the other characters. Frankly if it's not mentioned generally speaking assume it acts as you'd expect from other characters.
Just so you are aware, the idea behind this character is a character that demands good movement and skilled positioning. As well as management of resources, and preparation paired with the usual prediction. This character is acting as both a movement based rushdown character and the """""""charge""""""" character of the game. Switching between the two when he needs to.
Stance Overview: Standing Stance (Default Stance):
Standing stance is the default stance of this character. In this stance the Soldier's rifle is slung on his back and his handgun is drawn, but held closer to his chest than anything. The moves this stance is capable of doing is as follows:
Movement:
March: Simple cowboy esque walk, but extra controllable and able to be acted out of any time after a little bit of startup for the first step or so. You can't use it recklessly at close range or anything but it's good for more precise positioning.
Super Sprint: A more powerful version of the "Sprint" movement tool I'll talk more about later. The animation I have in mind is most similar to Iron Man's dash from Marvel Superheroes. Using the exoskeleton for a big burst of speed. However this is slow to recover after the fact. In return it's free cancelable. It is very fast and covers a lot of ground though.
Jump: Duh, jump. More like Wizard's jump than Ninja's jump though. No flippy spinny. Maybe his max jump height would be worse than average too.
In the air Soldier can do the following movement shenanigans:
Exo Double Jump: Very precise and controllable double jump Works off of an "air" meter the exo suit runs off of rather than air actions. Recharges slowly when you are on the ground. I'm half tempted to come up with some sort of way to refuel mid air for an air action and meter, but I think using a resource that's more limited than air actions is a notable weakness I feel this warrants having. You use more air the higher and/or further you jump.
Exo Air Boost: Uses a lot of air, but launches Soldier in a manner similar to Ninja's momentum release. Except you can actually control the direction and speed directly. In the same way you'd control teleport or a double jump. Meaning it’s basically an air dash you can react out of very quickly. Very strong, probably in every situation. Should use a lot of air in return. Note that you cannot use this on the ground, that and the air meter are the balancing factor here.
Exo Air Blast: Uses a ton of air, but in return sends opponents hit in a direction based off of their position relative to yours when they are hit. Basically, if they're below you or something, launch 'em down. And vice versa. Also deletes all projectiles within range of the blast. It deals no damage but can spike your opponent off of the ground and into the air. Maybe useful in the right scenario. Kind of just a burst with no invincibility though. Maybe it could get a hit of armor for initiative though.
Back to movement on the ground:
Sprint: Sprint causes you to enter a "sprint" stance. Where you start moving at a relatively fast pace, but it has a fair bit of startup, but you can react afterwards at any time with a turnaround, a sprinting jump that keeps your momentum and lets you do air stuff but returns you to sprinting when you hit the ground, a shoulder tackle (free cancelable) that would act much like Ninja's drop kick in function (but obviously grounded the whole time) and finally, attempt to aim your handgun. Which would essentially end your sprint right then and there. Sending you back to standing stance. But at the cost of lots of recovery. But not as much as the super sprint's recovery.
Ducking is an important "movement" action but I'll talk about it when we get more into relevant attacks.
That's it movement wise. Obviously backwards movement should have the penalties like everyone else has. This is supposed to be a rushdown character after all. Maybe even make his backwards movement cost air lol. In general I'm trying to make sure that running away and doing shenanigans with his longer ranged attacks isn't valid as a response to the neutral. It should really only be an option when Wizard and Ninja start spamming their projectiles, or they start running away. As this character specializes in anti projectile shenanigans.
Normal Attacks:
(These are all free cancelable unless stated otherwise.)
Pistol Whip:
Duh. I think this could have a cool animation. But it's basically a pommel, or at best a pre buff ninja punch.
Exo Punch:
Uses a little bit of air, and has a fair bit of startup. In return though it gets extra range via a burst of air in front of the fist. But also sends you sliding backwards a bit. Decent damage combo ender and poke. Initiative could maybe give this a hit of armor or something. However, in the range where the fist and air hit together, you get a nice sweet spot, which would send the opponent at a nice angle into the air. I think to balance it, it could maybe be just slow enough that if you predict it coming you can wait and do nothing for a turn and parry the hit if they don't whiff cancel. High risk high reward for all parties involved. Using it proactively and predicting it proactively with stuff like initiative DP is the goal here.
Big Ol Roundhouse:
It's what it says on the tin. Think a Terry Bogard standing forward medium kick in Garou if you know that game. Don't whiff it, you'll die. But it's a nice combo starter with good range. Instant cancels out of this would be good. But I see it being predictable to parry if used unwisely. Free cancel resource sink.
Shoot!:
"Today is Friday, in California." "Guh?" References aside relative to what you're used to this is a weird projectile. You cannot aim it, and it doesn't auto track onto enemies. It fires a noticeably slower bullet than cowboy's, in a cone of random spread in front of you. With each shot getting less and less accurate than the last if used repeatedly in a combo or in a row. Low damage, low base knockback. Prolly good at mid range, if only as a pestering tool. More likely to hit the ground or sky than your enemy if you use it dumbly though.
A knife!:
It’s a knife, basically a cowboy slash, but with much, much, much worse range. Maybe better frame data in return? But you basically have to be point blank for this one. Having worse range than even the pistol whip. But in every other way it’s a good move. This is the combo starter you wanna go for on the ground. Most of the time though you’ll be coming in from the air.
Rifle Butt:
Lunging attack with poor recovery on whiff. Kind of like ninja nunchucks, but not attached to a stance. This move exists to be instant canceled for the most part. As it's a slow recovery from having to throw the rifle (which is on a sling mind you) back over your shoulder. But, surely it can work just as well in the corner or with some additional setup, right?
Grab:
Grab.
Normals are a bit different in the air of course:
Dive’n Slide:
Soldier does a diving kick that keeps his momentum upon activation without changing that momentum whilst in the air, when he hits the ground he does a slide, the slide goes a different distance depending on distance fallen. This has a hitbox obviously but is mainly a movement thing to chase after people after a conflict in the air. Not super safe if whiffed, hits as a low, but is pretty good on hit. But obviously reactable. This is free cancelable. Because that'd be cool.
Sky High Shoot!:
Shoot diagonally upwards in an inaccurate cone of fire. Basically a standin for air punch, and would shoot at a similar angle, at close range that's basically be what it amounts to in function. But you could roll the accuracy RNG and see if you can scare your opponent out of the air as well.
Freedom Knee:
Free your soul from your body. Basically, a captain falcon esque swaggy knee attack, as an aerial combo ender.
Parachute:
Doesn’t slow your descent as much as you’d hope. Above the head combo ender, that launches downwards on hit and doesn’t let you act until you hit the ground. May seem weird, but you can cut the cord with an instant cancel (IC would cost an air action in this instance), and re-create an aerial fight scene post parachute failure straight out of an action movie! To clarify, this wouldn’t slow your fall much, that’s not how soldiers use parachutes. My father was in the 82nd airborne and they practically hit the ground at 30 MPH, which causes 82nd airborne fighters to lose inches of height due to bone loss over time.
Air Stomp:
Spikes the enemy directly into the ground, if it hits a grounded enemy, spike them into the air.
Daring Dive:
Downwards knife thrust, basically a kick equivalent.
Airborne Cartwheel:
Basically, think an aerial spinning multi hitting neutral air from smash brothers. Like a chuck spin, but with less horizontal range and more coverage around the body. Which would synergize more with Soldier’s kit.
Special moves, very cool! I'll have much more eventually but in the meantime I'm dying.
Bionic Uppercut:
This move has a switch you can flip that allows you to use it in conjunction with a chunk of air bar to give it a dashing forward effect. Something in between an electric wind god fist, and a Balrog rushing uppercut. A combo starter and a good combo tool in general. Have it send vertically at a suboptimal angle if used repeatedly in one combo though. Give it a hit of armor for initiative and it instantly becomes a big scary ground tool. But pretty rewarding to block or parry. Honestly reckless use prolly wouldn't get good players unless it was used as a initiative read. It'd prolly be at it's best as a whiff punish tool and combo tool.