evo 2k11 stuff

Another evo has gone by, with another round of Combovid-associated videos.

This year the big collaboration was ComboVid.com DAMAGE exhibition v.one, with editing by Snoooootch. The idea was big damage over style. Problem with that is, it tends to not be stylish... Anyway, I had a few clips in this, all scripted with macrolua.

0:15 — Street Fighter Alpha 3 — V-ism Gen & Chun-Li vs S-ism Sagat

Gen: (VC2) KKK:c.HP, (PPP,) HP Hyakurenkou, full HK Gekirou
Chun-Li: (VC2) j.HP, HK Hyakuretsu Kyaku, HK Tenshou Kyaku

Unlike supers, there's nothing preventing both partners in Dramatic Battle from using the full bar for VCs in V-ism. The drain rate is the same if one or both characters are in VC, and they can activate at the same time. (Not exactly the same time.) Sandwich a dummy between two partners with button mash specials and you have a recipe for massive damage.

The massive counterhit damage bonus of Gen's KKK-stance c.HP doesn't apply in VC, but it doesn't knock down either. I was going to open Chun's part with her double hitting j.HK but was having trouble getting all the hits to connect because of Sagat's crazy reeling from getting hit on both sides, so I went with fierce.

There are so many hitsparks that they override the HUD sprites and make the super bars flicker, in addition to overloading the sound buffer or something. (It can happen against Blanka with V-Gen all alone.) The pushback from Gen's HP hands is so intense that the best way for Chun to counteract it is to simply continue doing HK legs. If she just walked forward she'd be losing headway even faster. Gen still has to take a little step forward to get the gekirou to connect. Timing the gekirou hits with the KO slowdown in the middle is not something you'd want to try without tool-assistance.

1:54 — Street Fighter Alpha 3 — A-ism R.Mika & Cammy vs Shin Bison

Cammy: j.HP, close HP xx Killer Bee Attack
R.Mika: j.D+HP, c.HP xx lvl3 Sardine Beach Special > (long delay) > super dropkick
Cammy: LP Spin Knuckle, LP Hooligan > Cross Scissor
R.Mika: super Wingless Airplane, Wingless Airplane

You're not supposed to be able to use the same A/X super meter for both characters in Dramatic Battle. If you try two supers on the same frame, one character spends the meter and the other is left with less than a full bar. One way around this is to make one character do a super that doesn't immediately drain the gauge, and execute the other super during the delay. Cammy's Killer Bee is one such delayed super. Mika was chosen as the partner because the business part of Sardine Beach can be delayed long enough to connect after Killer Bee is done. Many supers could have connected at the same time as Cammy's, but this arrangement is only possible in a Dramatic Battle setup. (A variety of c.HP xx Sardine > immediate followup combos have been explored as well.)

I didn't want any normals except heavy attacks, both to minimize damage scaling and because heavies have a more painful sound effect and more impact freeze. Since they all do the same 8 points of stun, and I need to keep the dizzies to a minimum to avoid protracting the clip, it kind of limited my options in how to arrange the attacks. R.Mika's c.HP is unusual in that it knocks down, so it had to come after the other normals. The Killer Bee hits do no stun, which is typical of Alpha supers, and the Sardine dropkick does a massive 28 points. (That's a lot but if it fails to dizzy the opponent, Mika is in trouble.)

The spin knuckle does tiny damage because of combo-count scaling, but the rest of the hits are partly exempt from scaling because they are body slams. The Wingless Airplane followup was chosen for its quick recovery, its long animation (allowing time for the Hooligan setup) and for its high knockdown arc. The last hit is Mika's air-to-air command throw, though one of her normal air throws would have worked. The lightning strike at KO was coincidental.

One of the peculiar challenges of SFA3 combos is ensuring they are actually legit, by avoiding neutral state and denying the opponent the opportunity to flip. I think in Dramatic Battle the lone fighter can queue a flip if either of the partners has been in neutral state since the last hit, but in this case it doesn't matter because Bison isn't allowed to reach the peaks of his knockdown arcs, and recovery cannot occur until after the peak.

2:12 — Vampire Savior 2 — Pyron vs Bulleta

(Dark Force) j.MP > j.MK, F+HP(1) > s.HK, Cosmo Disruption (DF punch version), ES Zodiac Fire

This combo relies on a glitch reported by felineki: If Bulleta does Cool Hunting, then Pyron does Cosmo Disruption, the explosions in that and any subsequent Cosmos can hit many more times than normal. (This clip was separated from its sister combo, which should surface in another video sooner or later.)

I built the meter and did the setup in the first round. The Dark Force alters Cosmo by making it full strength with no need to charge and arranging the stars in a sort of circular pattern, which makes it easier to connect with multiple explosions. The opponent will flip out and be reset if hit by any other attack while being burned, so Pyron can do little more than laugh. (If Hell Pile is executed with two kicks instead of three Pyron won't show his visage but otherwise it's the same.) At the last possible frame, Pyron busts out the wheel at full screen, showing some rare post-KO hits. Unfortunately impact sounds don't get played during someone's death yell.

It's hard to see due to the nice dissolve from the Brawl clip, but Bulleta started out in the delayed whirly basket animation, and it originally wasn't just for show. None of Pyron's air attacks is suitable as a crossup, but you can set one up by making the opponent reach up and back. (See also "Xcutioner vs Sanford".) I was gonna make Bulleta get behind Pyron during Cosmo startup, start the basket, then get crossed up and pushed into the explosions with a ground chain. It's not really a waste of a good setup because I couldn't use it: the explosions come out too quick, plus the recovery of Cosmo is fast so trading with Pyron wouldn't help. Instead I took this chance to show vsav2's air chains, which are only allowed in Dark Force. Pyron's vsav2 air attacks come out so slow that you can't chain into an air heavy except against a tall dummy. There's not even enough time for more than a short ground chain, but at least the hits are good and hard.

3:51 — Bushido Blade 2 — Red Shadow (longsword) vs Hongou (nodachi)

Each character has a unique throwable subweapon and a few of them are lethal, including the saber of Red Shadow aka Hotarubi and the tomahawk of Hongou. It's easy to set up kill-trades in a variety of ways. (This game kind of sucks.) The castle rooftop is one of the nicer stages.

3:54 — Tekken 3 — Gun Jack vs. Panda

The silly choreography kind of speaks for itself. This was sort of a joke. There's a slowdown at the beginning of the clip due to bad video dumping which I thought I corrected. Hm.

Also don't miss out on the Balrog: Behind the Glory mockumentary, created by Maj and his peeps, and Vanilla was Awesome by desk and error1.