Please revert the shield actionability changes#185

I was one of the people most insistent about making defender actions bufferable out of shield stun in the first place, and I’m extremely disappointed by the decision to take two steps backward on it this latest patch. This is better than requiring frame perfect precision like it was originally, and it is more even than it used to be since it applies to the attacker too, but it feels extremely bad to operate around.

Without going into a diatribe about game design and feel, limiting or removing the ability to buffer actions that are bufferable elsewhere in specific situations does nothing except skew the game further toward inaccessibility while making it feel as though inputs are being ignored. Competitive video games have to walk a fine line between balance and feel, and while this may be balanced, it feels bad.

I think the reasoning behind this change was that grabs are now active a frame earlier. However, given that shield grabs have already been nerfed with the range reduction, I’m not sure why this additional change was also necessary.

This game has a tendency to take two steps forward and one step back in terms of gamefeel. This last patch is the greatest example of this I’ve seen in a long while. The changes to buffering techs during hitpause were a great step forward. The changes to tech rolls and rolls in general, allowing all characters easier access to tech chases was a great step forward (and it seems like there was a visual change to directional techs as well? They look better). The change to parries and ledge grabs was good. All of those addressed feel problems people had with the game. This buffer change, on the other hand, makes interactions feel far worse than they did before. Please consider reverting this change.

Agreed. I still think shieldgrabbing was too strong, but this was not the way to fix it, because it sacrifices gamefeel. It’s frustrating when I’m successfully “locked in” to the game’s input buffer timing, but then a shield grab doesn’t come out at all, because its buffer is different.

Instead of adding exceptions to the buffer system, just make shield grabs come out later and their animation slower, or something.

It feels so bad when a shield is flickered for just a few frames in a scrap and because a stray hit clipped it we both just stand there like idiots bc the whole game decided that that meant the entire input system has to work differently in that moment. I also hate the proposed dynamic of doing something barely unsafe on shield just to guess that the opponent will misinput when trying to punish it, if I mess up I want my opponent to be able to do the correct response, I made a mistake and should get punished and it doesn’t feel good to do someone like that (especially when it’s a worse player who’s now learning incorrect things about the game and what’s safe or punishable)