Heyo! Sorry for no updates for a handful of days. I've come up with nothing quite groundbreaking sadly. So, I think it's about time I start work on crouching stance and it's moves. I hope to have a finished draft in mere days now. But that doesn't mean I won't add onto the draft if I come up with more moves. In my eyes the character isn't finished until I can play them as a mod and they feel satisfactorily fun and balanced. So until then things are subject to change.
When I get to a finished-adjacent draft I'm happy with, I will finally post the link to the google doc here for you all to see!
In the meantime I've actually been working on a different character, and helped another person with their character. I won't talk about either here, I've moved to the modding discord for most of my shenanigans. But I'm going to keep doing updates here out of sheer obligation. I will see this to the end. In memorium of the steam release inevitably turning this Itch page into a graveyard, I must do it. It's a moral obligation. This is my preverbal homeland, I'll be the last to see it off.
As I write stuff up I will of course post it here. As per usual. So stay tuned!
Viewing post in Character Concept: The Operator (Formerly "Soldier")
Heyo, thanks for 1.5K+ views lol. I've been working on stuff but a little slowly, I've had a couple technical difficulties as of late that have stalled me but I'm working on stuff now.
Someone suggested to me that a 5 second in real time timer on the grenade was too long and would make timed grenades not worth using. I'm brainstorming a solution to that.
Also, will note, something I've forgotten to mention up to this point, the concussion and ice grenades have a much larger and slightly larger explosion radius compared to the frag respectively.
Here's the first crouching moves!
Movement:
When crouched the Operator has no “movement” tools besides blocking, dodge rolling, and ect universal stuff. The Operator can also uncrouch and draw his handgun fairly quickly. The game will keep track of how long you’ve been crouched in real time and after a second or so in real time you will be “charged” which allows you to do one charged Special or Super move before having to recharge. This is the gimmick of the stance. Crouching stance is more defensively oriented compared to standing stance and it’s unga adjacent shenanigans. And obviously has no access to the air. And so it consists exclusively of grounded moves. But there is no backwards movement while crouched.
Movement from Standing Stance that carries over with stipulations:
High & Low Block:
Low block retains and continues your charge when you use it and while it's active. It also can block “mid” attacks on initiative. But not “high”/overhead attacks. High block retains charge unless by the end of it’s duration you haven’t parried anything. If you fail to get a parry you go back to standing stance and lose your charge.
Moves that require charge should have slightly different colored icons to differentiate them from the regular moves in this stance. They are meant to be rather special after all.
Dodge Roll:
Acts as normal. You keep your charge if you aren’t hit out of the tail end of the roll, and come out of the roll crouched.
Movement exclusive to Crouching Stance:
Draw!:
The Operator very quickly stands up while drawing his handgun. Returning you to the standing stance.
Super Duper Jump (Requires Charge):
A more powerful and safe version of the super jump. Giving you access to a way to jump you’d otherwise not have. Charge requirement being it’s only weakness.
Normals:
You lose out on a fair bit of normals when crouching. Mainly moves relating to the handgun, because you holster it while crouching. But in return you get a few exclusive useful normals.
Normals from Standing Stance that carries over with stipulation:
Exo Punch:
Same as the standing variation, but with a different animation low to the ground. Still hits mid. Beats low block on prediction, even at medium range.
A Knife!:
A stand in for this stance’s obligatory fast but poor range mid. Beats low block on reaction, if you’re close enough. Same properties as the standing version, but obviously a different animation.
Rifle Butt (Requires Charge):
A version of the move that has much quicker startup and much better recovery on hit. If you whiff, it does the normal recovery animation, and you are sent back to standing stance. This is one of the few charge moves that doesn’t consume your charge. As it's a normal and not a special move. It’s faster because when you are charged you pull out the Operator’s rifle. Besides that it works the same as the standing variation. Making it an incredibly threatening combo tool.
Normal Moves exclusive to Crouching Stance:
AP Knee (Amplified When Charged):
Bazooka Knee esque attack. Moves you forward, without losing you your charge. If you hit someone during the air portion of the attack, you can cancel into an air attack and sacrifice your current charge. Or fall to the ground and keep your charge. When charged, the move starts up a little quicker, moves faster and further, and “Armor Breaks” armored moves. Essentially ignoring their armor and hitting as normal. Hence the name. When charged there should also be rocket launcher SFX and fire particles following the Operator. This doesn’t consume charge mind you. The only two weaknesses of this move is that it cannot be flipped (no backwards burst movement allowed), and is its mild amount of recovery frames if not free canceled. Which can easily leave you open to attack if you whiff.
Here's the rest of the crouching normals, excluding grab, because it's just grab tbh.
Claymore Punch:
A lunging punch, with shockingly good range, hits low. Fast enough to not often get caught in the middle of its animation, but obviously pretty parryable. An all rounder move. Should feel pretty meaty to hit. But its greatest strength is that it can be normal and special canceled on hit. It can chain with itself a couple times and then into more stuff. Or you can spread out your use of this move and use it more as a bridge to chain otherwise unchainable moves. (Based heavily off of Guile’s Crouching Medium Punch.)
Shin Beater:
A point blank range, incredibly fast little kick that hits low. Faster than vanilla jabs. But only active for a couple frames. It also has poor combo scaling. A last resort point blank mixup, when all else fails it, or simply the threat of it might just save your life.
Subsonic Sweep:
A sweeping double kick with quick startup but long duration that makes it horribly unsafe on whiff. The first hit doesn’t knock down but does combo into the second hit which does knock down. If the first hit connects, you can cancel out of it into other moves. But if it’s blocked or whiffs, unless free canceled, you have to sit through the long animation.
I have the solution to the grenade timer being potentially too long to be usable all thought up. Just gonna go add it, stay tuned for that lol.
NOTE: When holding any grenade that is not thrown instantly, you enter a stance where you have access to no attacks or blocking, but you do have access to movement and a few unique shenanigans. There’s a way to decrease the timer on the grenade to make it explode sooner. While standing, you can punch the grenade, and while crouching, you can stir it around in a pan. (Funny taking a phrase too literally moment). This causes you to be inactionable for probably about 5~ and 8~ frames respectively. But rounds the timer on the grenade down to the nearest whole number. If the timer is down to less than a whole second, it’ll just go down to 0.1 seconds if you attempt this. The crouching version, while having a slightly longer animation, acts as a projectile counter. When hit by a projectile while doing this, you’ll swing the pan at it, sending it flying away.
You can also use a bar of meter to use “Fast Hands”. A Technique that lets you reset the cooldown of the grenade, as well as (if you choose) throw the grenade with much fewer negative frames immediately. Good for getting the thing out of your hands in an emergency or keeping it in play for longer.
This was easier than I thought lol.We are very quickly reaching the end here. I just finished the special moves, and that was the last major thing I needed to do, besides obviously making what's already written better and more understandable. But that comes with time. I think very soon I'll be ready to post the doc, after 26 days of work lmao.
Here's what we have for special moves while crouching. If you wanna give feedback on anything up to this point, now's the best time lol.
Special Moves:
Special Moves that carry over from Standing Stance with Stipulations:
Bionic Uppercut:
Same as normal, except on whiff you lose your charge and go back to standing.
Frag Grenade:
Same as normal, except for obviously the different animation for “cooking” the grenade. That also acts as a projectile reflector.
Knife Throw:
Same as normal.
Special Moves exclusive to Crouching Stance:
Automatic Shotgun (Not Charged Only):
Enters a new stance like the Shotgun Blast. The Operator pulls out an automatic shotgun and chambers a ground by racking the slide. Which is significantly quicker than the shotgun pump he does with the Shotgun Blast. You cannot use this move when you have charge because the Operator draws and shoulders his rifle when charged.
There’s a few moves to choose from. Snake-Shot, which essentially fires a burst of 4 hitboxes at the end of the shotgun that reaches out decently far before ending. Which can do plenty of damage, but it's a free meter for the opponent if it’s parried. Frag Shells fires 2 explosive shotgun shells at the ground slightly ahead of the Operator which have a small AOE effect that sends the opponent slightly into the air on hit. Extra damage on direct hit. The final shotgun shot is a flechette shot that fires one flechette shot. It does poor damage on direct hit and has poor ballistics at long range, but will attach to any surface it lands on and create a caltrop esque projectile that disappears after a while. After firing any of those shots the Operator tosses the shotgun away in disgust. Finally, you can swing the shotgun around you and then throw it away in front of you in an arc. The attack with the greatest effective range, but also has a melee hitbox while you swing it around, that combos into the throw, you also have armor during the duration of the melee hitbox.
Burst Fire (Requires Charge):
When you are finally crouched long enough to achieve charge, the Operator will quickly draw and shoulder his rifle in a completely actionable animation, or instantly have it drawn after recovering from a move. At which point you gain access to a spoonful of moves. Burst Fire has the Operator very quickly take aim and fire a projectile bullet with a very fast velocity. Each bullet can destroy 3 enemy projectiles on the way to its target, being deleted after destroying a fourth. You also aim the shots like Ninja’s quick slash. You get to fire 3 bullets one after another, in total if you can hit all 3, it’ll do really good damage. There’s notable downtime at the end of the move where he shoulders the rifle quickly, draws the handgun, and returns to standing. This isn’t much of a combo tool as much as it is a “if you refuse to fight me I’ll use my inescapable super death gun on you” tool. And since the move can be manually aimed there’s a fair bit more mindgames and skill, you can whiff a shot if you predict a parry attempt, and then punish the parry for example. This is The Operator’s single most powerful tool, that against good players he shouldn’t often get to use.
Sniper Bolt (Requires Charge):
A long range scope pops out of the Operator’s rifle and he takes aim with incredible speed. This is also a gun move, but it’s one bullet that is stupidly fast, obliterates all projectiles along its path, and does a fair bit of damage. Not as much as all 3 burst fire shots combined, but this is the easier, simpler solution to some problems. If you are willing to risk it all on one shot. After the shot you remain crouched but of course your charge is consumed. Meaning you’ll have to recharge to use the rifle again.
Match Grade Cutter (Requires Charge):
This move is angle-able with the same GUI as Ninja’s shadow clones, cowboy’s gun throw, ect. It’s essentially a flash kick, but a VS game style flash kick. Where it leaves a lingering slow moving projectile in the air alongside the kick. You can angle the kick to go more forward, go up, or go diagonally up, as well as down, which lets you do a shorter version that doesn’t take you as far off of the ground. During the active frames of the attack it’s projectile and grab invincible, and the hitbox is big enough to beat out most strike moves. But it’s pretty punishable on whiff. And could be parried easily if used predictably. This move is very threatening at closer ranges. Just another reason why you shouldn’t give people playing this character too much room to breathe when crouching.
If this doesn't seem like much, do mind that this stance obviously cannot go into the air, and that if you count all of the charge moves and the automatic shotgun (even though the two never co-exist) this technically has one special move more than the standing stance, in the air, on the ground, or both combined. Even if we have some "returning" moves, they work a bit different lol. It was always apart of my plans to carry over certain specials from the default stance to this this stance. Giving both exclusive tools, as well as stuff they share lol.