Capcom Details Super Street Fighter IV: AE v.2012 Patch

[Earnest Cavalli]

Capcom Details Super Street Fighter IV: AE v.2012 Patch


December 13 will see a huge patch for Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. Via trailer and massive .pdf Capcom has laid out what's in store.

Dubbed Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Version 2012, the verbosely-titled update brings with it a frankly huge number of changes to the fighter. Granted, that includes no new characters or levels, but the host of changes to the existing cast will greatly affect the overall feel of the game as well as how it's played.

Read: Yun and Yang will no longer be the only viable characters.

That video embedded at top-right offers a nice primer on the changes, but to see the full scope of what Capcom's done, you'll have to have a look at this recently-released .pdf file that explains the alterations to each of the game's characters in detail [http://www.capcom-unity.com/gregaman/blog/2011/11/29/ssfiv:_arcade_edition_ver._2012_complete_change_log].

While this sort of transparency is unheard of in the world of fighting game upgrades -- in the past changes like this were a mystery until players themselves put in the effort to discover them -- rumors are already swirling that the massive .pdf doesn't include the full scope of Capcom's changes.

Professional SSFIV player Kim1234 recently tweeted the following [https://twitter.com/#!/Kim1234_ALL_DAY/status/142906969878036480]:

There are hidden buffs and nerfs in AE 2012. Bison's ex psycho often whiffs from full screen ish distance.Headstomp trades a lot in the air.

So while Capcom (specifically the company's fighting game guru Seth Killian) deserves a high-five for its efforts to enlighten players, it would seem that the firm still has a few secrets hidden up the sleeves of its gi.

Permalink

 

[StriderShinryu]

Damn Cashcom and their always charging players for content upgrades and patches!!1! MegaMan!!1!!!! Boycott!!!111!!

Oh wait, this is a free download.

Sounds good to me. It's doubtful that many of these changes will mean anything to casual fans of the game, but there have already been pretty notable changes in who the top players are planning to play going forward. It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out.. but at the least we won't be seeing nothing but Yuns and Feis at or near the top any more.

 

[Scrythe]

So... are we or aren't we getting challenge modes for the AE characters?

 

[weirdee]

Well, yeah, balance updates are always for hardcore players. I don't think most people even know what "whiff" refers to.

 

[Caliostro]

Wait, the escapist is reporting this kind of stu-...Ohhhh. Had to be Nex.

I FUCKING LOVE YOU NEX!

That is all. Yes, I am free. Shut up.

For the unaware, this is going to fix a lot of balance issues inherent to AE. AE2012 is fucking HYPE!

 

[Haz88]

I don't play fighters, but for some reason balance patch notes always fascinate me a little. "Extended hitbox upward in 3rd active frame" on Metsu Shoryuken and "Changed light/medium/heavy version damage from 60 to 70. Chip damage is the
same as SSFIV AE, at 15" on Hadoken. No idea what it means in practice, but a lot of thought has gone into balancing and tweaking.

 

[Caliostro]

No idea what it means in practice, but a lot of thought has gone into balancing and tweaking.

Actually... Yes and no.

There are a lot of legitimate changes, but there are also a lot of changes just for the sake of showing changes. So less knowledgeable people will go, like you did (no offense) "oh look at all the detailed changes!".

Examples:

C.Viper - Burning Dance - Changed damage from 380 to 410.

...Who the fuck cares? It still does less damage than Burst Time, and Viper doesn't really need the "air to ground".

Zangief - Far Standing Heavy Punch - Made opponent get knocked down on a hit.

A knockdown normal!? Aweso-... oh it's that shit one. It's a 12 frame attack, with a relatively "meh" hitbox. Nobody uses that move because there's quite literally no situation where Zangief SHOULD use it. His St.Hk is 1 frame faster, has 1 more frame of active period, has MUCH better range and frame advantage on block.

There's also some relatively token buffing and nerfing in some cases, BUT, for the most part, the balance will significantly improve... Which isn't all that hard considering AE was unbalanced on purpose... Apparently Yoshinoro Ono (series producer) thought that was be a good idea for some stupid reason. Overwhelmingly negative feedback showed him otherwise.




.......But I'm ranting, I'm guessing you don't care about this. Sorry.

 

[Haz88]

No idea what it means in practice, but a lot of thought has gone into balancing and tweaking.

Actually... Yes and no.

There are a lot of legitimate changes, but there are also a lot of changes just for the sake of showing changes. So less knowledgeable people will go, like you did (no offense) "oh look at all the detailed changes!".

None taken at all I play League of Legends on a casual basis, and I love to mess around with masteries, runes, and gear, and every time a new patch is rolled I start optimizing my damage output again, trying to push the limit of the characters. Then again, I suck extremely bad at pvp so it is a bit for naught^^.
It just fascinates me that minor tweaks to the size of a hitbox or the removal of a frame in an animation has big impact on how some characters function.

 

[Hitman Dread]

There are a lot of legitimate changes, but there are also a lot of changes just for the sake of showing changes. So less knowledgeable people will go, like you did (no offense) "oh look at all the detailed changes!".

Examples:

C.Viper - Burning Dance - Changed damage from 380 to 410.

...Who the fuck cares? It still does less damage than Burst Time, and Viper doesn't really need the "air to ground".

Disagree. C. Viper's over all damage has been nerfed quited a bit when you consider the total damage per combo over the course of the match, and the damage difference between Burning Dance and Burst Time is now in great perportion to how safe it is to land. Execution is actually more important to balance in practice than people give it credit to. People still drop the burst time combo at high levels, and then die.

 

[Caliostro]

None taken at all I play League of Legends on a casual basis, and I love to mess around with masteries, runes, and gear, and every time a new patch is rolled I start optimizing my damage output again, trying to push the limit of the characters. Then again, I suck extremely bad at pvp so it is a bit for naught^^.
It just fascinates me that minor tweaks to the size of a hitbox or the removal of a frame in an animation has big impact on how some characters function.

Consider the following: a single frame can be the difference between your move being able to punish another move before it recovers, or hitting the opponent before his move touches you. In SF 1 frame can make or break a move... Sometimes even a character.

Disagree. C. Viper's over all damage has been nerfed quited a bit when you consider the total damage per combo over the course of the match, and the damage difference between Burning Dance and Burst Time is now in great perportion to how safe it is to land. Execution is actually more important to balance in practice than people give it credit to. People still drop the burst time combo at high levels, and then die.

-10 damage on ABK, -20 on EX Seismo. 2 of her moves. Pffffffffft. Big deal. One more hit to kill at the end of the match. Considering Viper is a high damage output mix up char, that's like...not even a slap on the wrist.

The most serious nerf she DID get was the loss of throw invincibility on ex seismo... Which admitedly was necessary. Free wake up was free, etc.

That said, Burning Dance is still wank. If you're playing Viper you need good execution, and it's not like BD is actually easier to combo (still requires super jump canceling and instant air / tiger knee inputs to combo out of normals/seismo, can't be combod out of an air hit hp thunder knuckle, so it fucks up one of the common ultra setups, etc). At the end of the day it's less damage and less setups available. No thanks. Viper already has a premium air-to-ground, and she can combo ultra out of that.