Spuccington
New member
Ali is a female alligator that runs around on her hind legs, and has an important hook in her tail which plays a part in one of her abilities. In terms of other design details, I envisioned her as a sort of comic relief style character with her only discernible design idea being thick black sunglasses and perhaps a tacky gold chain around her neck that has initials for something, I did think she might contrast too much with Vyper so the design isn't really the focus of this post, more so the ideas I had for her kit.
After playing Apollo I thought there was room for more skill expression in attacks, like how Flawless Advance has a perfect zone when charged. As a result, Ali has two abilities that function with a similar mechanic, but the characteristics of these attacks change when charged into said perfect zones. Her ultimate is also very interactive, but I'll get into that later.
I wanted to create a character that had a lot of skill expression with a lot of possible interactions and combos, but she also requires quick thinking to fully utilise. I think the vision I have for her in my head is a very rewarding and fast paced character with abilities that flow seamlessly and nicely into one another.
Basic attack
Ali snaps her jaws with so much force that the air itself becomes a projectile.
Ability 1
By default, Ali charges forward and stops at the first enemy hit, biting them upon impact. However, if charged into the yellow zone, the property changes and Ali will now assume a prone position and dash forward on her back with her limbs and tail pointed upward, like a bowling ball she rolls through any enemies caught in the path of the attack, knocking them up. The counterplay to this is seeing that her animation has changed, so you can avoid it if you're paying attention, however upon chaining attacks together the speed at which the bar fills is increased, rewarding fast, planned ability usage on Ali's part.
Ability 2
Ali whips her tail forward, knocking back any enemies caught in the cone and stunning any enemies that come into contact with other enemy players or walls. If you charge this attack into the perfect zone, Ali will instead grasp the enemy at the centre of the attack with her tail before proceeding to throw them backward, behind her head.
Ability 3
Since Ali is all about getting up close and personal I feel like she needed some kind of sustain ability, so there is no fancy charge mechanic for this one. Ali assumes a powerful stance (think Ki Charging from Dragon Ball, if you like the comedic effect style for the character perhaps it could even feature something visually similar), gaining health, speed, and an increased charge speed on her charge based abilities. You can tell she's currently buffed in this way based on the "aura" radiating from her. As a side note I considered including a charged effect to this ability as well, it would be identical to the base version but with the addition that the effect of her attacks changes, so the perfect version comes out instantly, meanwhile the default version needs to land in the perfect zone. I thought this might be a bit too complicated though. If you like this idea though perhaps the colour of her aura could change to correlate to the type of buff she's currently under.
Ability 4
Ali dives forward on her stomach, initiating a death roll on the first enemy hit and knocking back any enemies nearby. There are four rolls in total, but it isn't just a matter of hitting someone and waiting for the animation to end. As soon as you latch onto someone you need to immediately press four directional keys, and the enemy caught in the attack needs to correctly guess the directional keys you press in order to break out. It's possible to break out of this attack before it even gets a single spin off, but if you don't manage to get out at all, you'll take quite a lot of damage. For example, the instant I latch onto someone, I need to press my direction keys. I'll choose A, S, W, D. Abrams presses W, W, W, W, and he takes the full amount of damage because not only did he get a prompt wrong, he inputted the same prompt more than once, and you're also not allowed to spam the same input. Every input has to be unique, you can't brute force it. This is a very fast interaction to avoid it being a guaranteed death sentence regardless of escaping or not.
Perhaps using this ability while buffed by her third ability can guarantee a single spin to prevent it providing zero impact.
Quick melee
Ali does a pathetic double slap with her tiny hands
Heavy melee
Ali chops downward, viciously taking a bite out of whoever is in front of her.
Dodge
Ali bounces forward onto her tail, using it as a springboard to move in her chosen direction.
Parry
Ali whips her tail in front of her body, using it as a shield.
I hope you like the concept!
After playing Apollo I thought there was room for more skill expression in attacks, like how Flawless Advance has a perfect zone when charged. As a result, Ali has two abilities that function with a similar mechanic, but the characteristics of these attacks change when charged into said perfect zones. Her ultimate is also very interactive, but I'll get into that later.
I wanted to create a character that had a lot of skill expression with a lot of possible interactions and combos, but she also requires quick thinking to fully utilise. I think the vision I have for her in my head is a very rewarding and fast paced character with abilities that flow seamlessly and nicely into one another.
Basic attack
Ali snaps her jaws with so much force that the air itself becomes a projectile.
Ability 1
By default, Ali charges forward and stops at the first enemy hit, biting them upon impact. However, if charged into the yellow zone, the property changes and Ali will now assume a prone position and dash forward on her back with her limbs and tail pointed upward, like a bowling ball she rolls through any enemies caught in the path of the attack, knocking them up. The counterplay to this is seeing that her animation has changed, so you can avoid it if you're paying attention, however upon chaining attacks together the speed at which the bar fills is increased, rewarding fast, planned ability usage on Ali's part.
Ability 2
Ali whips her tail forward, knocking back any enemies caught in the cone and stunning any enemies that come into contact with other enemy players or walls. If you charge this attack into the perfect zone, Ali will instead grasp the enemy at the centre of the attack with her tail before proceeding to throw them backward, behind her head.
Ability 3
Since Ali is all about getting up close and personal I feel like she needed some kind of sustain ability, so there is no fancy charge mechanic for this one. Ali assumes a powerful stance (think Ki Charging from Dragon Ball, if you like the comedic effect style for the character perhaps it could even feature something visually similar), gaining health, speed, and an increased charge speed on her charge based abilities. You can tell she's currently buffed in this way based on the "aura" radiating from her. As a side note I considered including a charged effect to this ability as well, it would be identical to the base version but with the addition that the effect of her attacks changes, so the perfect version comes out instantly, meanwhile the default version needs to land in the perfect zone. I thought this might be a bit too complicated though. If you like this idea though perhaps the colour of her aura could change to correlate to the type of buff she's currently under.
Ability 4
Ali dives forward on her stomach, initiating a death roll on the first enemy hit and knocking back any enemies nearby. There are four rolls in total, but it isn't just a matter of hitting someone and waiting for the animation to end. As soon as you latch onto someone you need to immediately press four directional keys, and the enemy caught in the attack needs to correctly guess the directional keys you press in order to break out. It's possible to break out of this attack before it even gets a single spin off, but if you don't manage to get out at all, you'll take quite a lot of damage. For example, the instant I latch onto someone, I need to press my direction keys. I'll choose A, S, W, D. Abrams presses W, W, W, W, and he takes the full amount of damage because not only did he get a prompt wrong, he inputted the same prompt more than once, and you're also not allowed to spam the same input. Every input has to be unique, you can't brute force it. This is a very fast interaction to avoid it being a guaranteed death sentence regardless of escaping or not.
Perhaps using this ability while buffed by her third ability can guarantee a single spin to prevent it providing zero impact.
Quick melee
Ali does a pathetic double slap with her tiny hands
Heavy melee
Ali chops downward, viciously taking a bite out of whoever is in front of her.
Dodge
Ali bounces forward onto her tail, using it as a springboard to move in her chosen direction.
Parry
Ali whips her tail in front of her body, using it as a shield.
I hope you like the concept!
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