Ideas for traits/moves/instincts - Post them Here.

What a lot of comments-thread-haters don’t understand about KI is that one of its core advantages is that every character in the cast plays in a totally unique style, while also sharing an identical combo system. This is a great balance of gameplay
features – making every character totally different, yet also totally familiar at the same time.

As the cast continues to grow, IG are left with the serious challenge of continuing this in the same vein. Looks to me like they have made an amazing start with Combo’s auto barrage and aerial recapture, but for the 8 characters to come and (hopefully)
8 more the next year, I though the community could help out by throwing a load of ideas out there that aren’t yet in KI. Really if this game is going to get to 3, 4 seasons and maintain the same kind of variety and lack of clones, then they need to throw everything
and the kitchen sink at it in terms of both stealing from other games, and creativity too.

I had something similar on the DH forums, although I can hardly remember half of them now. So here are those I could and some new ones I’ve thought of since.

These could be trait ideas, instinct ideas, styles and moves for KI, all proposed as character specific rather than applicable to the whole cast.

Most of these are things from other fighting games that could be appropriated, some just stuff I’ve made up.



Air Dash

Kind of explains itself, like in Guilty Gear games, character can boost horizontally backwards or forwards through the air. Think it would work great in KI as a character special trait.

Wall Bounce

As old as SF2 but not in KI yet (although Sadira has moves and a double jump to mimic it), at least one character should have this classic trait of being gifted a double jump if on the edge of the screen. Would be good in combination with the above
mentioned air dash as a second aerial rushdown character that was different enough to Sadira.

Counters

Like those in VF and DOA, and used a little in 2D fighting games too.

Push Block

Not sure this one is 100% applicable due to the existence of the shadow counter already offering a strong option from block, but thought I’d stick it in all the same as extra utility for a defensive character.

Parries

Much like in SF3TS, it would be good if a character had a parry mechanic as their unique trait. I actually have a whole character type worked out based on this – their openers would have painfully slow start-up from open play, but if cancelled out
of a parry would connect instantly. This would be a way of working a counter-attacking/defensive character type into a game based around a combo system: they do their damage in combos like everyone else, but in order to start attacking, they need to successfully
defend first. Their instinct would write itself – their openers all transfer to having super-low start up until instinct runs out. You could almost give one character the counters, push block and parries and that would be a pretty unique and interesting, highly
defensive/reactive character for the cast.

Stances

As used in many FG, we are yet to see a character with moves spread across a range of selectable stances. Like all the best stance characters, they would be underpowered within any one stance, but incredibly powerful if all stances are used together,
the skill being in smart use of stance changes, and buying yourself the frames to change stances. Instinct mode writes itself – the moves of all stances are available at once until instinct runs down.

Grapple chains

Like in VF and Tekken, in KI it would be a grappler who can use command grabs as linkers. Thunder has a
little of this going on with his damage neutral combo throw, but not bonafide damaging grapple chains like those found in some 3D fighters.

Advancing Block

Trying to think and I’m not sure I know of a fighter that has done this before, could be wrong. Would be a special character trait, imagine it could be activated by tap back-to-hold forward for high advancing block and tap downback-to-hold downforward
for advancing low block. Basically lets someone close distance while blocking would suit a very heavy, slow brawler or grappler type.

Pick up

Would be better served as an instinct ability for a grappler, an ability to grab a character off the ground after certain knockdowns and continue a combo. Had this idea few months back on DH forums, but there is some cross over with TJs aerial recapture
mechanic.

Auto Singles

As a unique character trait, you could have a character being able to cancel the second hit of an auto double by quickly tapping LP+LK after the double. This would essentially bait a lock-out. It could be limited to being used once per combo, or balanced
by the single adding double the KV of a double and doing half the damage, leading to less damaging but very hard to break combo opportunities, or maybe both depending on how powerful it turned out to be in practice.

Opener and “Ender” Grabs

More of an idea for a unique move set than a trait – an attempt to make more of a “pure” grappler archetype. Have a character with a series of command grabs most of which aren’t that damaging on their own, but have a wide variety of functionality.
Some would grab from air, some from range, some close-in, but all would do different things. At least one could be used as an opener, but there would also be a range that had similar properties to the game’s enders - one could start a juggle, one build meter,
one do big damage, one wallsplat. Essentially it’s making grappling a core part of every aspect of the character’s game. With Thunder he is a strong and slow pressure/rushdown character who also happens to have a command grab, I think more can be done to bring
grapples into the game.

Damage neutral evade

I guess Sabrewulf kind of has this with the invincibility frames of his dash, and Thunder has it with his instinct, but I would like a character whose style was entirely based on a defensive evade move.

Corner Escape

Well suited to a zoner this special trait would allow the character, when they reached the far end of a stage could walk back/jump back/back dash, and ghost through the boundary, appearing back out of the other side of the screen like pacman or the
original Mario Bros. Would need to be balanced like the teleports are by having vulnerable frames on one side or both to stop it being overly cheap.

Rolling wakeup

Straight out of 3D fighting games, a good unique trait for a character to have would be the ability to opt to roll backwards or forwards after a knockdown, essentially a further range version of a forward or backdash wakeup that could be cancelled
into certain moves, offering greater mobility options and offensive options.

Un-tech-able throws Instinct

Does what it says on the tin. For a grappler, while in instinct their normal throws can't be teched. Simple, but powerful.

… OK well that’s me spent for now. I know I had more before but can’t remember them. So please, use this thread to throw ideas out at MS/IG. Sure they will have thought of 90% of them already, but every little helps.

:)

 

Ground Rolled Free Kick

Power free kick trait & LB (Whatever button you use for skill moves)

 

My wants for Killer Instinct Season 2.

Let's see I would like:

1. The remaining cast members Riptor, Ciner, TJ Combo, Maya, Kim Wu, and Tusk.

2. At least three more NEW characters. Two of them females.

3. I think Riptor should be a "status" character. Would be cool if her Instinct mode allowed her to poison her opponents. She should spit "spores" at her opponents and, like Spinal, she should be able to stack the spores. The more spores she stacks the
faster you health drains.

4. An expansion of the story mode

5. Another Ultra Collector's Art Book

6. More premium costumes

7. Please continue to keep each characters fighting style unique as well as their instincts and combo traits.

 

Just remembered another one, an instinct ripped off the elemental damage weapons in the Borderlands games, so every hit leaves a little ongoing damage and the damage stacks up. Opponent can put out the the effect by hitting the attacker, much like Spinal's
skull drain is cancelled.

 

I can see air-dash fitting Cinder since all his best moves in KI1 were moves that got you in close and air dash was a neat tool in KI for navigating around the field. I can imagine he'd have elemental damage along with it, but I do believe it should only
be don on successful hits and on enders.

I can see evade and or parry for Kim-Wu's fighting style.

As for Riptor I think either pick up or un-techable grappling can work

Stance sounds a lot like Tusk's thing

 

@JEFFRON27

I was thinking of the parry/evade/counters character being Kim Wu as well. Stances could work for Tusk, especially given his sword. good idea.

As we were discussing in the other thread, I see Cinder as a Zoner (we'll wait and see what IG think) so don't think the air dash would suit him in my mind anyway. Gargos, if they brought him back, would be an obvious option.

Thought of some more possible Instincts by the way:

Instincts

- Un-blockable: Renders the opposing character unable to block until instinct expires

- Free Flight: Does what it says on the tin. Character can fly, and moves gain new properties in the air

- Shadow Realm: Shadow Meter continually recharges for the duration of instinct

- Infinite: Allows the character to reset KV mid-combo with the instinct command. With each reset a greater proportion of damage is potential and actual for balance.

- Get over here!: Other character is constantly in a vortex, being sucked toward the opponent for the duration of instinct

- Trance: Characters d-pad/stick is inverted on Y and X for the duration of instinct.

- Beast: Character movement and openers remain the same speed strength, but once in combo his movement is slowed down by half, but every hit does massive extra damage. The idea being that it’s easy to break, but if you make a lazy mistake then you will pay
for it heavily.

- Lifeforce Vampire: Like Jago’s health regain, but drains opponents bar in equal measure (down to danger when it stops)

- Grounded: Opponent can no longer jump until instinct runs out

 

I like how a lot of these look but my only issues are how the Un-blockable and infinite a little worrysome

For UnblockableI think it should have the shortest Instinct duration out of all the characters because they cannot have their attacks blocked I feel that 2-3 seconds should be fair considering that if you do your counter breakers well you can cash in massive
damage.

Infinite I feel should also have a very short instinct duration, maybe the time it takes is a little onger than unblockable. Honestly the infinite reminds me too much of Marvel vs Capcom3 (my least favorite game when it comes to fighters due to bad experiences)
however I'd like if you could explain to me more on the balance aspect.

Trance might be a bit much I think but is there way to balance that one?

As for Beast the slow movement thing I can see working out, in this case you may wanna counter break as part of a habit when using Instinct mode.

 

@JEFFRON27

Well they are just ideas off the top of my head, it would only be once they got into the game that you’d see how balanced they were and tweak them till they worked. I don’t expect all would work, I just started this thread so people could just throw any
old idea up there for IG and MS to see and think about.

It is good to discuss them though and see if we can develop them more hypothetically. In terms of your questions –

All characters have instinct that lasts the same time, and I think that should continue, but characters powers are balanced sometimes through cool down so that could be an option. So in terms of your points –

- Un-blockable, if it proved overpowered then it could be something that took effect only if hit by a move they gain through instinct. We were talking in the other thread about the idea of Riptor’s acid being an instinct projectile and having some “venomous”
power – that could be it. Personally I think for the length of instinct not being able to block? It would be interesting. Certainly that length of time goes by without people blocking in real matches, this would just force the opponent to play that way and
make mistakes. It would suit a zoner in a way as it would force an opponent to try and cross the screen to attack, leaving them open to all kinds of ranged attacks when they try.

- Infinite could be limited to just using it once in any given combo, or once alone, but I think it is balanced already by the risk/reward and the timer clock of instinct anyway. The longer you combo, the greater risk you have of being broken – so it’s not
an all-out super power like it would be in other games when an “infinite combo” bug is found. When you think about it, it’s probably less powerful than Sabrewulf’s super strength, as instinct lets Wulf get more damage from a combo with less risk, whereas this
lets you get more damage from a combo with more risk. If it did turn out to be unbalanced though, this could be tempered further by saying that each time you popped it the percentage of permanent to potential damage shifted in favour of potential damage. So
if you went for a 100% combo, by the end of it, it would be 100% potential damage and if you got broken just before you ended then you’d lose it all.

- With “Trance” I agree it is a bit of a crazy one… actually thinking about this, could this be a much better contender for the effects of Riptor’s venom? As its effect would be so much more catastrophic to the opposing player than just not being able to
block, it would certainly be fairer that you’d have to hit them with something to make it activate.

- In terms of Beast, I hadn’t thought about counterbreakers, you’d perhaps have to say that if you popped a counterbreaker the effect ended, otherwise it would be overpowered. In my mind the strength increase is really quite massive, so if you don’t break
early you’d be a goner, so if the effect continued after a counterbreaker it would basically be a free kill. Thinking about it, maybe this one just wouldn’t work, although it was a nice idea.

 

I guess when ya put it that way the infinite doesn't sound as bad as I thought but then again: if you counter break successfully a bunch of times you can do infinite combos anyways.

My issue with the "trance effect" for Riptors venom: People are gonna cry quickly about the OP. Especially in cases where now you have to quickly adapt if you get hit with the venom spit attack.

Now that I think about it, maybe for Riptor's instinct she could spit her venom in the same way as Fulgore's laser canon but like Glacius there's a limited amount of times you can use it, and there's also a cool down period between the spits so you can't
spam it to much. But when it hits it does 25 percent damage but if ya miss, there's a good recovery time to, so you have to make the shots count. And like when Fulgore does his canon attack it shows a close up of her puffing out her snake like hood before
firing out the venom which should travel on the screen twice as fast as Jago's heavy endokuken, but just like I said before slow recovery and plenty of cool down time.

If not that I'd be up for maybe a speed increase in Riptor's attack and movement

Beast at least makes a tons more since now with that explanation.

 

Yeah maybe Trance is just a bit too weird. I do like the idea of Instincts which affect what the other opponent does rather than just what the aggressor can do. Maybe Trance could be balanced by it just inverting special moves rather than mobility? So a
forward q-circle kick becomes a back q-circle punch? Or maybe I just need to give up on the idea!

I do like your idea of Riptor's acid just being a powerful move with a cool down but, thinking as I'm typing here, what about if the spit was mixed with the Bordelands-style 'elemental damage'? So she gained her spit projectile and every time it hit the
opponent it continued to take a small amount of damage until they hit Riptor or break a combo, and the damage stacked. I think that would be a good instinct and not too powerful.

 

@Stefraki if the spit damage over time instinct becomes a thing for Riptor that would actually make it very possible to make her a rushdown/zoning archetype... rush normally and then defensive zoning on instinct

It's a good idea, but there's a risk it will take to tempo out me the game... rushdown/zoner is a dangerous combination... no place is safe, which I also find cool and interesting

 

@Lord Crisp In my mind I imagine the spit projectile going in an arc - so it could catch someone anti-air on the end of a jump in, hit someone on the juggle, or would hit about midway across the screen if used as a straight-up projectile.

I don't think it would be good if it was a horizontal cross-screen projectile. I wouldn't want Riptor to be cowering on the other side of the screen just throwing stuff out. Leave that tactic to lazy Jago players, I want Riptor to be all about aggression.

 

@Stefraki you have a very good point there, was just thinking for varietys sake with the rush/zoner, I agree Riptor should be more aggressive than anyone else... although fantasy wise a werewolf should be a lot more aggressive than a reptile.

And agree with the arc path of the spit, horizontal is not gonna suit neither spit as a general thing nor Riptors "feel"

In my head the "not being safe anywhere" thought was actually also to capitalize on her aggressiveness and that she's dangerous ANYWHERE

 

Now that I think about it... that particular instinct would actually character wise fit Cinder better... then instead me poison/acid damage it would be fire... he fits very well being a rushdown but his "condition" suits zoner better than anything... so
he could fit that rushdown/zoner archetype...

just a shame it's probably too late to give any ideas and input on him :-(

Plus, I have the feeling that IG isn't looking in here... every time they mention feedback they're talking about Maximilian's channel, twitter and Facebook... haven't heard Xbox forums anywhere in there at any point... not even mention of any forums at all
actually :-(

 

@Lord Crisp That's my biggest problem with this forum - the sense that we are just throwing bottles in the ocean and no one is getting them. The DH forums were excellent in the level of developer participation. We knew that someone from DH was reading everything
we wrote and it really benefited the game.

Since DH left there's this sense that we've just been shoved in here and forgot about. Most of the regulars from that forum don't post here any more or never started posting here in the first place.

I would love someone from MS or IG to start posting in here and give us some indication that there is any point in our participating...