WIP Character Update SEP-02-2024

As promised, here's the free update for current patrons.

Download attachment at bottom of post.
IKEMENGO ONLY. (nightly build may be required)

So, this update has a handful of smaller updates I've made over the last couple of months. AS HAS BEEN USUAL, I've been a bit of a scatterbrain with juggling tasks and my game work kinda fell into the background. I was looking to charge for this month, but eh, one more freebie until my gears shift for new life changes as I mentioned a bit in my post a couple days ago.

Ciacyl's and Shiren's AI have been polished up a bit more from the pre-AnthroCon Update I posted a couple months ago. Ciacyl's AI does not use his new projectile yet tho. It might still use the Dropped Spark Burst attack.

MANGO:
Mango got a small change, I got rid of his unique parry. This is in preparation for the new update to universal guard I would like to make that has a sort of "perfect" defense option. I also think that Mango's defenses are already really good without it, so I'll instead convert some of that idea over to the new universal defensive gimmick.

FELIRO:
Feliro got a small tweak to Dust Devil slightly increasing the startup a small amount. I also increased the mid-air recovery of it to hinder stalling ability a bit more.

I may later end up building in a universal anti-stalling mechanic that starts taking meter away if a character refuses to engage with a target for too long. I don't want to hurt zoners, I just want to discourage playing keep away over long distances without interacting with a target. But this is a task for a later day.

RAEL:
Rael is holding a new experimental universal mechanic I've put in to avoid allowing characters to move too fast horizontally for too long. It is a soft limiter that starts reducing speed (currently 5% per frame) if over the threshold. Doing this to avoid additive and motion canceling from gettin out of hand. When I finish tweaking this, I will be putting this in onto the rest of the characters and adjusting some things on them as needed.

Rael's main update is a new experimental air-jump cancel to most of her air normals (excluding her down 1 and down 2 air attacks). I THINK that this route is FINALLY starting to feel more right for her. I may give some other characters an air-jump/air-dash cancelable normal here or there, but I wanted her kit to center around the gimmick.

The current Power button attack she has is a projectile idea I wanted to test out for her. I'm going to be replacing it with something different to be determined.

I have dropped the Kick ender to her Jab combo for now. I might give this a new ender option that acts as a simpler, but fast grounded combo option that isn't as rewarding as a juggle starter like her up-1 and up-2 attacks on the ground.

Grounded Up-2 jumps slightly lower.

In trying to figure out more what to do with her, I kinda looked at more material and I think maybe something like some of Alfred's gimmicks from Real Bout Fatal Fury might be interesting for her.

I instead might drop that long jet punch (or move/repropose it) in favor of a unique angled or U-shaped arching flying attack.

Rael does have a different functioning Super now, which is a large fiery version of the flying punch, which will be staying.

I tweaked the upward knockback of Rael's air-back-2 to better work with jump/dash cancel chaining into a Jigglypuff styled "wall of pain" style latter combo with her 2 air-jumps. It's a light skill-based timing combo that I think is rewarding enough to currently net about 300-350 damage without meter, pending on the move used to start the juggle latter and finished with The "heady-copter" special move.

Rael also has an experimental placeholder projectile in place of [D,DF,F + 1 ]. I'm going to make a new graphic and animation set for this attack, but the idea is to be just a basic, short ranged projectile. I'm going to call it "Wing Slash" where she'll do a two-handed swing to generate a quick swirling vortex that hits a few times before fading. It can be a basic ground combo ender, or a possible juggle tool.

CIACYL:
Ciacyl's changes are small so far. I've droped the "Spark Burst" special attack to drop some redundancy in the moveset, but the BURST [x+y] version of it is still there.

Ciacyl has a new experimental projectile that he can use independent of the Psy Spark. It has two input commands: [B,D,F] OR [B, U, F] + 2. Performing the UPWARD half-circle throws the disk at his chest level. doing the DOWNWARD half-circle throws it low at a crouching position.

Ciacyl can now use Teleport even while the Psy Spark is in "Bound Mode." This opens up some fun movement options along with a fun way to cancel air-normals and play around with more combo options while it's still bound to him.

Ciacyl now has a rough draft of an Ax Kick that starts a juggle as his UP-2 attack. It's slow, but it hits hard and is a great combo tool.

Teleport now always makes Ciacyl airborne for consistent interactions.

Teleport now has a limiter to only allow it to be used once until he lands.

While the Spark is in "Away Mode" the spark somewhat follows his motion at about 67% speed.

THAT'S THE JIST OF THIS UPDATE.
 I think there might be a few small tweaks I made to other characters, but I honestly can't remember everything in all the business and how touch and go my updates to it have been.

With my new life changes, I'm intending to work a lot more consistently on this project once the rest of my commissions are finished. I really want to make my personal projects more the focus of my art time while doing commissions here and there in small bits instead of constantly like I have been doing. The fulltime Job I just landed will allow me to avoid art-related burnout while giving me a great personal gain of a good consistent income with a predictable steady schedule for once.

Any questions, feel free to contact me.

Thanks much everyone <3