4. The Low Hold
In regards to low holds yeah, they limit the attackers options. The thing is though not having them tech crouch makes no sense. At least to me. The answer is in recovery. I would much rather see however many active frame of the holds tech crouch and have X recovery frames in standing state. (I consider this a compromise since you could add more recovery and just make wiffed low holds punishable by anything. Like nh launchers or more then enough time to low throw. Given how fast they are) With standing recovery frames you can 12 frame punish low holds....seems scary enough.
I've always felt this was more of an aesthetics issue than a gameplay issue. For this reason, I feel they shouldn't tech crouch. There's plenty of ways to make the move not tech crouch, and I'm pretty sure Low Reversals don't TC in VF either.
Just getting rid of the high kick should open the game up quite a bit I would think. In Doa4 and Doad I thought they should have to pick between range and invulnerable frames. Without playing any of the new bulids I will trust that removing the high kick will help.
It'd make it easier to deal with, that's for sure. Still, it'd only be acceptable because of counter holds, and you really have to use crushes or whiff punishing to scare people out of it unless your character actually does counter damage.
This was a biggie for me. It take like what? 5 frames to block low unless you tap 3 (33?)into a low block? If you get rid of the delay wouldn't it remove fuzzy guard as well though? It can be a pain to deal with but it puts you in situations (like on a wakeup tech) that you have to guess between standing and low guard.
That's disgusting. Fix that nasty block delay. Even if it removes fuzzy guard, in a game with as fast mix-up as DOA, you can't block low? Who's idea was that?
I like the way Rikuto put this. (Can't remember where) light stuns are just Doa's frame advantage. Now some stuns are heavy and scary enough that it is still in the attackers favor anyway.
Now 1 and 2. They are related....at the most maybe tighten them up *slightly* and give some characters better delays. You have to remember that if you mess with the free system juggles will be affected. (Unless they make it otherwise.)
As far as I'm concerned, breaking this nasty system is slightly more important than the juggles that will be affected. Offense in DOA is stupid in so many ways. Almost as much as holding in stun.
Safe moves dont make the game any less of a 50/50. Unless they give frame advantage. Moves that leave you at well, negative 4 or 3. After the attack is blocked it is still a 50/50. I may not get anything guaranteed but you still have to guess. At plus 4 I wouldn't be afraid to throw unless you always attack at a disadvantage.(If you do then you will eat counter hits all day.) Yeah, I agree having throw safe options are very nice. Still, the reward can go to either player.
It wasn't to make it less of a 50/50, though. Technically, it makes it more. But ONLY because it adds a Neutral Game, and that's what neutral game is at certain points. And there's nothing wrong with that. There should be some pokes with frame advantage, because the counter hold exists, but definitely not all pokes. I agree, the reward can go to either player, but that's much better than getting throw punished for doing nothing and having no chance at all, right?
Overall I'm just saying that system changes will bleed into each other. I think it would take actual hands on testing and tweaking from people who understand everything to make it worth. Still sharing ideas is never bad I guess. That vison of Doa does conflict with my own though...I admit.
Wow. Long post. Those are just my veiws.
Since everything is so integrated, yeah, stuff will bleed into each other, I know. Honestly, I think this is more important though, getting the ball rolling. TN gets a couple free patches on the M$ version, so I don't think it's that bad of a deal, as long as we get the ball rolling. Even if certain things in the game are a little janky on release because the ball has started rolling like a couple juggles being harder to pull off.
Ya no thanks. 3 point holds can go to hell.
3.1 had 3 point holds. Why is everybody so against them now? VF has 3 point holds. I mean, personally, I don't mind the 4 point at all, but this isn't a battle of 3 point vs 4 point, IMO. It's a matter of not only how you put the holds in the game, and the fact that you can hold in stun. If not for those two things being audaciously stupid, it'd be fine. And VF pretty much proves that.
9 times out of ten you can't beat both of those options. So by making more moves safe and tightening up the string delay, it will make the game play out as said situation. A move being safe or not should depend on its function. Every character should have some safe options though.
Back Dash cancels? The game does have BDC's...