WIP Character Update NOV 01 2022

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So this update isn't as big as I'd have liked it to be, but I'm still coming off of a commission grind. I'm still gonna need more commission grinding thanks to tablet issues I've encountered, but I'm going to try to make more time for these updates either way.

Personal stuff update in this part:
I'm going to FurPocalypes tomorrow (and sadly looks like I wont have an artist alley spot) but also I'm having tablet trouble now, right after my dang birthday. >:( The tablet still works fine, but the pens made for it are shotty and this is the 3rd one I've had bust on me. I still have my original pen working, but the powersaver is broken in it, so I need to unscrew it to preserve battery, not the worst thing. I'm gonna be looking into buying a new tablet at some point, because the stock on these bad pens seems to be running dry on the only distributer I could find, so I'm on limited time. It's just really bad timing but what can ya do?

Other small personal news is that I'll be gettin a small surgery next week to rid myself of a curse I've had for most of my life. Nothing huge, just a small thing that I'll be stuck recovering for 2 to 4 weeks after, but I'm expecting a nice quality of life boost with this stupid lil curse on my tailbone gone.

Game file updates here:
ANYWAY, this update is mostly just a mechanical change that's universal.

JUGGLE SCALING.
I've separated the knockback scaler to it's own variable, no longer links to the damage scale. This scale only get's applied when hitting a target that's mid-air OR in lay-down state. 

I did this to simplify certain aspects and make some combo behavior more predictable. So starting a longer combo on the ground wont instantly kill juggle ability. This makes everything a bit more stream-lined and also lets me more easily scale the x and y values in different ways. 

COMBO LIMITERS are now more strict though (and fixed). A SPECIAL KNOCKDOWN state is forced on the target once either:

The damage scaler hits 24 steps.
OR
The juggle scaler hits 12 steps.

This special state will force the target to fall at 2x speed into a hard knockdown state.

Damage scaling now starts right after the 1st attack, rather than the 2nd. I did this to scale stuff slightly harder in the damage area, especially because I feel like jabs are too easy to start combos with, so I'm playing around with ideas to make heavier hits more valuable to use raw.

I THINK I managed to catch every move that used the old juggle system and route them to the new variables. If I see more later, I'll fix them. I know Shiren still uses the old system, but she's still in her very early stages, as I've not been able to progress her much lately.

Later on I may also add another special action for when ground combos exceed a certain number of attacks. Something to possibly limit grounded loops that'd hit the 24 step mark. Something like forcing a normal fall for juggles at 12 steps so you MUST juggle to continue the combo.

I know Mango's corkscrew is still broken in this way, but that attack itself needs the adjustments to prevent that. 

MANGO TWEAKS
Mango got some small-ish changes to push him more into a zoner-game. I changed the way his juggle abilities work to make them shorter and more to create distance. I still kinda want him to be an annoying but squishy all-rounder, but I felt like some of his combos were too long. So he does a little more damage now on various moves, but can chain together less of them, and most of his enders now create distance for him to be annoying with his projectiles and Mango-ball attack.

BONUS WIP experimental forest stage included.
I tossed in another experiemtal stage into this bundle of a forest scene that I used to try out a different approach to stage creation for Mugen/IkemenGO. I'm probsbly gonna drop my insistence on the "as 3D as possible" I've been trying to go for because it just takes too long to make work as I'd like it. I'll save the 3D approach for later on when I start working inn Unreal Engine for my full game later.

IKEMENGO tag.zss included in zip file, as usual to make use of my tag-combo system.

SO that's about it for this update. It's not huge, but it's something coming off of my quiet period and the no-charge month I did last month.

I'll Likely be stuck home a lot after the surgery, so should have a lil extra time to squeeze in more work on these projects.

Thanks all for the continued support!