[C] Walker - 2.08

[支倉凍砂]

He feels great so far! I really liking his >>A, D^A and DvJ, he has excellent follow-up attacks.
>>A+A (this is a great way to stun, then grab or pause before using Super)
AAA+A + D^A (+JA) + A/DvA
AAA+A + D^A (+JA) + D^A + >>JA
Grab >A >JA (throw, dash attack; much more doable than normal LF2 characters)
>>JD^A >>JA (not too useful because AI tends to punch you before you can hit)
(note: can use DA instead of JA in midair for the same punch)

As I am a combo-fighting-game player, I am glad you find his combos interesting.
I am however not really an ace LF2 player, so I had no idea you could add so many dash attacks to them. : O

You are aware that JD↑A is invulnerable until recovery? If you time and space it properly you cannot be punched out of it.

Understandably, D>J isn't complete yet as Louis' sprites are still being used. Too bad he can't use moves during grab.

Are you suggesting that he should be able to do the Louis Hurricane Throw and the counter-throw as specials from his normal grab?

Initially I didn't understand why JD^A costs more mana than JDvA until I noticed its better combo potential.

As I mentioned above, JD↑A is invulnerable until recovery, hence the greater cost. (same reason why Davis' dragon punch cost more than similar moves). Your enemy can flip after JD↑A anyway, so I wouldn't count that as combo potential.

Some issues I have:

1) His running looks odd to me because the crotch area's borders aren't highlighted as much as when he's standing, making it look like he isn't wearing anything there.

If I can ever get Gad back to finish Walker for me, I'll be sure to mention it.

2) Left is normal max jump height. Right is just after I use JDvA. I find it very odd that the character would suddenly appear above his jump height before diving downwards.

It is patch work, as it surely is possible to miss the enemy depending on height. As the D↑A is an anti-air, it is supposed to also work against airborne enemies where this extra height will help out (in the last patch it got a steeper angle). However, I'm not entirely sure this move will be left. It uses the same sprite as his dash attack, and I don't find it particularly interesting in its current iteration. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears.

3) DvJ throw - the victim will appear in the above-pictured falling frame for an instant after he lands on the ground. It looks weird because of how fast it shows up and then into normal lying frames.

I tried dealing with the fact that the ground smashing looks a little weird, however if I increase the bounce height the opponent can flip and that looks even worse at such a low height, so I found myself just dealing with the fact that it looks bad... for 1F.


...


The silence from my side these recent weeks isn't because I'm really busy or have lost interest... it's just that I'm not sure what I want to do with Walker at this point. Walker wasn't conceived through a coherent theme, so I'm hesitating about what to change and/or add.

My current thoughts:

1) The second air move
Because Walker actually can use special moves from his dash, I want him to have more than one special to choose from. Right now he has a steep kick. While it has some theoretical uses as a cross-over due to the nature of LF2, I find it rather useless apart from the fact it adds more damage than a regular jump attack. YinYin and Nyamaiku both seem to prefer the old ~45° angle, but I still find it uninspiring.

My latest thought was a command throw instead, something easy just for the damage and an unblockable option from his dash, that can still work as do-more-damage-than-jump-attack for the standard combo.
Another thought I had was if he could have an counterattack in the air maybe? My own testing shows that my frame 110-111 trick doesn't work if a character isn't grounded in frame 110, but maybe that front/backhurt-trick works even in air. Does anyone know?

2) His legacy
As I mention in the History in the opening post, Walker was originally a ghost character named Phantom that couldn't drink bottles (as he had no body). While, I'm not going to do that again, I was wondering if one could make Walker more... ghostly?
Maybe like after-images, or illusion moves? Would that be interesting?