DMT

Hax$ & B0XX

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Regarding Controller Legality (retweets appreciated) I am writing this post in the hopes of educating people on my stances on the Melee community's decision to implement firmware-side B0XX nerfs. For those who don't know, these nerfs are currently in the process of becoming official. I've posted a handful of videos explaining why I disagree with the nerfs, but I think that in retrospect a write-up would have been more effective for distributing information. For those who don't have the time to read this post in full, I've included a recap at the very end. Yesterday, I saw that someone had created a Slippi tracker which identified non-nerfed B0XXes as "cheating." I decided to write this post largely because of that phrase. In my opinion, the B0XX can be considered "cheating" regardless of whether the firmware-side nerfs are being used or not, as these nerfs fail to create balance between the GCC / B0XX in any meaningful way. Furthermore, whereas all of the nerfs I gave the B0XX back when I designed it are gameplay-side, the new firmware-side nerfs are different in that they hinder quality-of-life in several ways. I'll eventually explain that there is no need to compromise the B0XX experience in this manner, as there remain viable ways to balance the GCC / B0XX while improving the gameplay experience instead. I'll start by elaborating on all of the current B0XX nerfs being gameplay-side. This means that the nerfs pertain to in-game mechanics. Adjusting the angle of airdodge/up-B, banning pivot tilts, banning shield drop down, etc., are all examples of gameplay-side nerfs. Back when I designed the B0XX, I made sure to nerf every single gameplay-side aspect of it in order to create as much parity between the GCC / B0XX as possible. The controller committee's firmware-side nerfs, on the other hand, are NOT gameplay-side. The reason these nerfs aren't gameplay-side is because there are no gameplay-side nerfs left to give. This is why the committee has resorted to nerfs such as neutral SOCD and coordinate fuzzing. Unfortunately, these types of nerfs are detrimental to the B0XX's quality-of-life to a degree which isn't reasonable. I'll start by explaining why neutral SOCD is detrimental. Something that many people fail to consider is how neutral SOCD affects ledge dashing. On the original B0XX firmware, you are able to ledge fall with back, then override it with forward in order to jump toward the stage with 1.0 trajectory. On the nerfed B0XX firmware, however, an additional input is required if you use this method. This is because you have to let go of back in order for the forward input to register with neutral SOCD, and so the sequence becomes more difficult. The catch is that this difficulty increase can be avoided by ledge falling with C-stick down, left, or right. Since these buttons aren't affected by neutral SOCD, they become the ideal ones to use. The problem, however, is that these buttons are in unergonomic locations for a ledge dash sequence. Whereas ledge falling with back allows your right hand to float freely for your Y and R inputs, the C-stick buttons force your right hand to be anchored down. This means that neutral SOCD incentivizes you to "fight against your controller," as an uncomfortable input sequence becomes optimal once it's enforced. The next example of a disagreeable design decision is the implementation of coordinate fuzzing. For those who don't know, coordinate fuzzing adds true RNG to the B0XX. Coordinate fuzzing does this by making it so that whenever you attempt to pinpoint a coordinate, a random coordinate within a surrounding 3x3 grid is chosen instead. One of the main reasons this shouldn't be implemented is the fact that there is no way to rationalize the size of the surrounding grid. For example, a grid size of 5x5 or 7x7 could be used instead of 3x3. Since the size of the surrounding grid is purely arbitrary, coordinate fuzzing should be avoided altogether, as it goes against the trend of the B0XX having concrete rationale for all of its design decisions. Finally, I'll go over what I believe to be the most disagreeable gameplay change of all on the committee's patch. The committee's patch buffs airdodge by a couple of degrees, which is a mistake that should NOT be underestimated. On the original B0XX firmware, the airdodge angle of 30.5 degrees is used because it is the bare minimum angle that Fox can use in order to viably ledge dash. The committee has carelessly improved this angle by a few degrees for reasons that I am unaware of. This gameplay-side change may very well outweigh all of the nerfs the committee has given. This is because the B0XX's airdodge angle largely dictates the strength of the controller. Whereas a shallow airdodge angle takes skill to pinpoint on a Gamecube controller, it takes no skill to pinpoint on the B0XX, and so I recognized early on in the design phase that airdodge ought to be kept as weak as possible. The committee has violated this careful rationale by buffing airdodge for no particular reason. Between the quality-of-life infringements and disagreeable airdodge angle buff, the committee's patch is a step in the wrong direction overall. That brings me to the alternative approach, which is to buff the Gamecube controller. The reason buffing the Gamecube controller is the superior approach is because it achieves balance in a manner which doesn't compromise quality-of-life. Buffing the Gamecube controller also achieves GCC / B0XX balance to a stronger degree, as the remaining buffs which can be given are actually meaningful. What all of this means is that we must turn our attention to UCF. I'll start by advising that there are very huge problems with UCF that the public has been unaware of from the start. For one, people rarely ever consider why UCF was proposed to the public in 2017 specifically. The truth - contrary to what the public has been led to believe - is that the B0XX was in the process of being legalized back in 2017, and that process required the Gamecube controller to be buffed. This means that UCF's inception never had anything to do with "solving the controller lottery," despite how it was branded. The truth is that the B0XX requires the game to be played on a modernized patch in order for there to be true GCC / B0XX parity, and so it became necessary to fix some of the more glaring flaws in the game (e.g. 1-frame dash back window) in order for the B0XX to be legal. The issue is that the community would inevitably come around to believing that the B0XX is still overpowered (which it is). This has manifested in more recent years. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people are absolutely convinced that the correct way to achieve balance is to nerf the B0XX further when there is no reasonable way to do that. Instead, we MUST look toward achieving balance without compromising quality-of-life. There are still many ways to do that by buffing the GCC. I was well aware of this ever since 2017. Back then, I privately advised the UCF team that they shouldn't launch their product without addressing less well-known mechanics such as 1.0 cardinal and dash out of crouch. In general, the team distributing the community's standardized patch had an obligation to educate the public on less well-known mechanics, as well as an obligation to continue to find all of the faulty mechanics in the game. Although the UCF team disregarded my advice at the time, they have clearly trended toward agreeing with it in recent years. UCF .84 addresses mechanics such as 1.0 cardinal, dash out of crouch, and smash DI on frame 2 of hitlag, for example. All of these were disregarded back in 2017. The issue is that there are even MORE mechanics that are still being disregarded on the current version of UCF. Some of the more meaningful ones are vertical throws, ADT shield, smash DI remainder, and an improved shield drop range. These are all addressed on 1.03, which is a mod I developed with Altimor. 1.03 addresses all 13 faulty mechanics in the game in total. The 4 mechanics I listed are the missing ones which I believe create a considerable amount of parity between GCC / B0XX, although there are some less important ones that are missing on UCF as well (such as Doraki walljump). That brings me to implementation. I believe that the best approach for the scene would be to sample 1.03 on a local level. Whatever downsides or risks there could possibly be to testing this out would be greatly exceeded by the increased stream viewership that locals would receive (since there would be a lot of eyes on the test phase), as well as the potential benefits for the scene in the long-term (introducing a revolutionary new mod, just like the UCF revolution in 2017). I've been raising these suggestions for a few years now, but things weren't as urgent back then. With the firmware-side nerfs on the cusp of being implemented, I figured I would raise them again. I truly hope I can remain involved with the scene in some capacity because I was always successful in the ruleset department. Examples include the B0XX ruleset (2017 - 2018), ledge grab limit (2019), and stage mods (2019). 1.03 is the final contribution I want to make sure reaches fruition, as it has the potential to revolutionize the game. For those who are curious what the endgame looks like on 1.03, I actually believe the GCC to be stronger than the B0XX on it. This is mainly because of the B0XX's 13.7° airdodge angle nerf. Once all of the faulty mechanics in the game are fixed, I believe that the airdodge nerf single-handedly makes the B0XX worse than the GCC. This helps create the endgame people want, which is for the GCC to be the best controller while having the B0XX remain a viable alternative. Recap: -The approach of buffing the GCC further is superior to the approach of nerfing the B0XX further because it achieves balance without compromising quality-of-life -The committee's firmware introduces several quality-of-life hindrances which negatively affect the B0XX experience -The committee's firmware introduces an airdodge angle buff which makes the B0XX's airdodge too powerful -UCF is currently lacking in many areas (most notably vertical throws, ADT shield, smash DI remainder, and shield drop range) -1.03 achieves the true goal of UCF by addressing all 13 faulty mechanics and fixing them in the correct ways -Testing 1.03 on a local level would reap huge benefits for the scene (similar to the UCF revolution of 2017) -The GCC is most likely more powerful than the B0XX on 1.03, primarily due to the B0XX's 13.7° airdodge angle nerf -I hope I can remain involved with the scene in some capacity so that I can make this final contribution to the game Thank you for reading! I hope this was helpful.