Keep the Puddle Timer - But Puddle Doesn’t Expire#159

As an Orcane main, I think that the puddle change was really good conceptually. Having an incentive to replace puddle is definitely needed, but there was definitely some blowback with the current changes. So I want to reccomend an idea I had to try to appease both sides. Keep the puddle timer, but once it expires, have the puddle change into a different type of puddle with its own properties: similar to Gouie’s active an unactive mires. I’m going to dub it an “unstable puddle” for the rest of this concept. This unstable puddle will be much weaker than a standard puddle, forcing orcanes to reapply it in order to make full use of it. However, it will maintain enough functionality so that it doesn’t impede with Orcanes going deep offstage for edgeguards. And to visualize this change, the puddle could maybe have some translucent bubble effects coming out of it, as if the puddle is evaporating.

Firstly, we need to address the puddles forcing recovery mixups. When trying to recover into an unstable puddle, the Orcane will be put in an immense amount of endlag. I’m thinking up to five seconds worth, to the point where the opponent always has a chance to punish the orcane with a charged strong. However, this would cause the opponent to be able to punish the Orcane from the angel platform, so we’ll have ko’s refresh the puddle. This way, the Orcane can continue to go deep offstage as it is in the current version, but if they refuse to replace the puddle, they can no longer force a recovery mixup. Also delete the hitbox when recovering from an unstable puddle to further reinforce the idea that this type of puddle is weaker.

If we’re going to make this new type of puddle, we might as well change how it interacts with other moves. When popping an unstable puddle with down special, either less bubbles come out, or none at all. When using side special in the unstable puddle, it consumes the puddle, but doesn’t place a new one / place a droplet offstage. And when you use a strong on the puddle, it will consume the puddle without granting a size increase. If you really wanted, you could put orcane in increased lag for using all these moves in an unstable puddle to further reinforce rhe idea that these puddles are worse, but I think removing the benefits should be enough.

What makes the unstable puddle work is that it stays on the field. When a puddle dissappeared with the puddle timer, there was no way to remember where it was, so there’s functionally no way to allow for deep edgeguards. By staying on the field in a weaker state, it’s the best of both worlds. While I’m not a gamedev, maybe some of the code for Gouie’s mire can be reused to make it happen (they are both stage conditions that have different forms). I just had this idea and wanted to throw my hat in the ring of ideas to fix this. I love my whale dog, and I just want to see him succeed. Thank you devs for being so connected to the community, and I apologize for the backlash and harrassment recieved both before and after the reversion. It must be stressful, but I’m sure y’all will find a solution. But in the meantime, know that we’re so lucky to have you working on the game, genuinely some of the best game devs in the fgc, if not the industry <3