How would you imagine an official LF2 update?

[JCostal]

Many things I would like to see improved are in different ways. But, I can define the essentials in three main points: Graphics, Mechanics and AI.

Graphic:
More different enemies and NPC characters in Stage-Mode.
More animations for the characters in general.
MP bar that clearly shows how many skills the character can perform.
It would be a dream run in HD resolution and read other file formats. The LF2 has a fixed camera and, therefore, transparency would help a lot to create more complex scenarios without ruining the gameplay.

Mechanics:
Level system. All bugs fixed. Friendly-fire off (except fire-state). Rebounce projectiles off. More Fall values options.

AI:
It is already dated and needs to be improved as a whole. It would be fun to have some enemies with a different personality in Stage-Mode.

---

I have my own vision that I'm working on, but I'll give my two cents for Stage Mode:

[Stage/AI]
1. LF2 is hardest alone, but significantly easier and optimal at 2-3p.
2. Difficulty ramps up too much between stages.
3. Tendency to deny players a chance to rest/drink milk during tough segments.
4. AI is too stupid: in 1v1 they are easily beaten, and also too easily lured by weapons which can be exploited massively by high-level players. They are also way too scared of state 3000 projectiles but can't detect any other state (other than state 3 from a character).
5. AI is also too aggressive unlike traditional beat'em up. When the number goes up, they have a tendency to juggle/combo players mercilessly, leading to a very spiky damage curve.

Point #5 is why I'm not happy with the trend of having super-strong AI, in the same way people treat characters as an arms race to create the most OP character. They may be a good opponent for 1v1, but they absolutely do not make good Stage minions. Even as a Boss, they are still questionable if they are used alongside multiple minions. Games are meant to be beaten, not to show the creator's own cleverness.


[Overall gameplay]
What I find most fun about LF2 is being able to perform a satisfying full combo on enemies. Having too much focus on big groups of AI, enemy or ally, breaks this enjoyment.

I also enjoyed PvP, but mostly because I enjoy fighting an opponent with personality. I do not think AI is a suitable replacement, but a reasonably competent AI that doesn't feel like it can input instantly/perfectly will significantly improve the gameplay variety outside of Stage mode.


Misc Thoughts:
Stage 1 is way too easy.
Stage 2 is okay for average player.
Stage 3 is a huge difficulty spike largely due to suddenly having 2 extra projectile users as soldiers and becomes an endurance without milk in 3-4 and 3-5.
Stage 4 and 5 becomes a true army vs army fight.
People rarely get past Wave 20 of Survival unless they are LF2 gods, and Wave 41-49 is a major breakpoint even for competent teams(unless abusing weapon lure) due to spamming waves of more than 5 heroes at once.

Very good observation about Stage-Mode.
I think army battles become less intresting because it should be a manageable issue. Every character should overcome this army challenge either with pure power or using elements in a more complex scenario.

My suggestion is to connect them through the character settings of each version,and as you know,through time lapse to make these characters move in a world,it will be very interesting like mugen.

I fully agree.
Im only against texts-dialogues. Not fun.

In my opinion, we can design sprite animations to make the plot more exciting and for all languages.