WIP character Update Jan 01 2024 Real + Shiren

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
As usual, download ZIP file, with included custom tag.zss file is included.

Also a quick note, I was wrong about my tag glitch with my characters AI, it's still there when they tag out will trying to block. I still haven't it figured out but will try for the next patch so that the AI don't risk soft-locking the matches.

So, I did a lot of work this moth to progress Rael and Shiren, but much more was done on Rael as I'd been experimenting a lot to feel out ideas for her, and I think I settled on the key aspects on her special attacks. Shiren got 2 new rough draft animations for attacks I changed and some experimental changes to try feeling out her design concept more and trying to make her better.

Both of these characters still use a ton of borrowed assets from Gejhi and Aurumo as placeholders until I crank out more assets for these 2. I'll go on now about the changes in this update.

NOTE: RAEL MIGHT CRASH MUGEN. I'm currently using an IKEMENGO trigger in her main code line for her sticky bombs to stick onto stage walls AND her boomerang to bounce off the stage walls. I MIGHT change this over to another section in a later update to maintain SOME backwards compatibility. IF YOU ARE A PATRON I CAN GIVE YOU A PREBUILT IKEMENGO LINK. Just contact me in PMs and I'll pass it over to ya.

RAEL            
She has received 3 more special moves to fill out her command moves. I'm opting to embrace the zoner archetype for her. She now has 3 projectiles specials and an evasive attack that can end with a pseudo-grab.

Quarter circle + 1 : Baton Boomerang
is now a boomerang styled projectile. It will pass through targets on hit and apply another hit as it comes back.

This attack has a temporary animation I'm using as a placeholder for an attack concept I dropped.

On block or hitting another projectile, it will just bounce back. The projectile itself can also be hit away but normal attacks.

It can be directed upwards or downwards with up and down inputs during the start-up. It will bounce off the floor and the stage walls (IkemenGo only).

The projectile will attempt to return to Rael, but it can miss if she moves. She will then have to wait for the projectile to despawn off screen before she can use it again.

There is a minor issue I need to fix with this where sometimes it gets stuck treading the floor on the way back, preventing it from properly returning to Rael.

Quarter Circle + 2:  Laser Gun
is still her laser gun, but some changes were made to it. The gun takes 4 ticks longer to fire off both forms of the shot. Rapid fire shoots faster. Charged shot stuns longer. The gun still has a hidden recharge time for shots that I'm going to eventually tweak, and visualize some way I haven't figured out yet.

There is still a 3 stock charge to the shots. Charged shots need all 3.

I also added in a custom get-hit state for these shots to uniquely effect the target's knockback momentum but instead, only slowing down the horizontal motion they were in before the shots landed.

Quarter Circle 3: Sticky Bomb
Is now a sticky bomb projectile. This is a small bomb that she will lob at 3 different arcs based on forward, back, or no direction input being held during the startup.

Forward throws it as a low arc, and forward.
No input will arc it more upwards and slower.
Holding back will make it arc more more up and closer to Rael.

This attack has a temporary animation I'm using as a placeholder for an attack concept I dropped.

If the bomb misses and hits the floor or a stage wall, it will stick to the spot it lands until it explodes. If it hits an opponent that wasn't blocking, it will stick to the target, marking them until it explodes shortly after. If the target blocks the attack, it will explode instantly, I might change this to just make it softly bounce off of them and land on the floor. If the bomb is attacked while it's mid-flight, it will explode.

The explosion from this bomb can hurt anyone on both sides, including Rael, so be careful when attacking a marked opponent up-close.

The bomb's explosion can be nullified by the marked target tagging out.

There is still some issues with this bomb I'm trying to work out, where sometimes it gets stuck floating in place when it hits other projectiles, or gets parried/reversaldef'd.

Down-Up 2: Barrel Roll -> Headicopter
Is a dodging jump move. Rael is strike and projectile invincible (she can still be air-thrown)  while she is traveling upwards until just before she starts to fall back down. She is granted much tighter left/right air-movement control during this move.

On the way down, she has an attack box that is just under her, which is a blockable pseudo-grab attack.

When the attack hits, she latches onto the target and spins around the target's head, helicoptering around and carrying them upwards for several hits before letting go.

If the attack is blocked, she'll bounce back up from them.

The animation for this is still dummied with recycled assets I made for other stuff, but I wanted to get the concept working.

I might add a fake-out rejump this attack can be canceled with, where she'll instead shoot a few shots downward with her laser gun, but I will still keep the punishable aspects of the main attack, if I do add this idea. I want to keep things balanced, but I'll liking the slippery aspect of this attack a lot.

OTHER NOTES:
So from this point, I made some other small tweaks to some of the normals I gave her so far. I think I'm going to have to move her down-2 low kicks over to button one, and make them less stubby, and I feel the range is so bad on them they are useless.

I changed air-1 from the spinning taser baton to having her do a double-fisted spin that hits twice. I liked the baton attack, but felt it was a bit too much? I might integrate elements of it into her spin, or make  something similar to it, but less... big, over to another command.

I took the spinning baton attack and made it her 1+2 burst attack instead, but made the taser MUCH bigger.

I changed the command from the previous "air-grab" taser and just moved it to air-3 for now, as I think I'm going to make this type of thing part of her power attack set for button 3 I have planned. I dummied up a ground version of this attack as well. I'll probs end up making some kind of usual charging gimmick she can play around with for this attack BUT, I'm also looking to make a "tool switch" gimmick for her power attacks, where these grappler tasers are swapped with a laser blade set of moves instead, changing the utility of the button for something like a ranged/up-close mode change.

SHIREN         
Shiren's update here not as big as Rael's as I've still been stuck on figuring out the specifics of how I want her to work, and Rael took most of the attention. BUT, there are changes. I changed her standing animation to be slightly taller and wider in keeping with her canon size. I still need to change some other anims to fit this.

Auto combo changes
Changes made to this were mainly on the last attack. She now has an over-head punch that slams the target down onto the ground. Small tweaks were made to the second hit to apply less knockback for more consistent follow-up to this new third punch.

This new overhead punch was given it's own unique command, holding down-forward+1. I MIGHT change this command a lil bit, but it was the first thing that came to mind as I wanted a good stand-alone form of this attack.

Target combo stuff
I made a lil bit of a couple new combos for her from her (dummied) down-2. Her down-2 will eventually be a spinning low-kick that trips. It's still using Aurumo's down-2 assets. But this low attack will now combo into her standing 2, but also the new over-head punch (down-forward + 1) for a low-high mix option.

(Names for following attacks will be changed, just naming them for what they do)

Half-circle + 2: Flip Tackle
I changed this attack away from the spinning downward kick into a flipping tackle instead and I felt this was much more of what she would do. This new tackle can hit opponents laying down, which is a good follow-up to the new overhead punch.

This new attack has super-armor before the attack is active.

F, D, DF + (2 or 3): Leaping Leg Grab
I gave these moves some small changes. Both versions move forward a lil bit more, fixed an issue with hitboxes still active and animations being a lil screwy on the way down.

Quarter Circle +1 : Burst Hook
I made some small changes to this move. Knockback isn't a clear juggle anymore, it hits lower and further away. It has some projectile invincibility now. It moves forward a bit more as well. When combined with dash buffer canceling, she'll slide pretty far into this attack.

Other small stuff or to-do:
I made her command grab (R,L,R or L,R,L + 3) more lax on the time to do the move. It's still using Aurumo assets as a placeholder, but a lot of her kit still does.

I messed a lil bit with her forward-2 into dash cancel slightly. I wanna do more with this gimmick, I just didn't have the time yet.

I generally want to give her more tools for gettin in closer to her opponent, as I feel like she's struggling a lil too much with this for what I'd like for her. I don't want her too dodgy, but more armor might be in order for her. She's big and I want to kinda have a bit more brute force to some of her attacks to over-power her foes. Mobility is generally really strong for a lot of my cast. My slower more power oriented characters will need that extra oomph to keep up. I might beef up her damage a lil more too, but I'm reluctant to take that too far when thinking about some of my other, even more power oriented characters. Shiren still has a lot of combo routes, so I'll find the balance on that for her as I progress.

SO I think that's it for now.  
I think that about wraps it up for now. I had a lot of fun working on these two this month. I think I'm working on the kinks I was stuck on for Shiren especially. For January, I think I'll focus on filling out a bit more of there moves with proper rough-draft animations to get rid of some placeholders, but I also might go ahead and add in a 7th WIP character to the mix. I have a few in mind I've had ideas I'm itching to start working on.

Thanks all! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!