What makes a good M.U.G.E.N character?

Hey guys!

So, i'm not exactly a long time user of mugen in general, and as someone who wants to contribute to the mugen community as a good character creater, I wanted to know:what makes a mugen character good?

now, when I say "good" I don't mean a character that is unbeatable. I'm talking about a character that is, fair, balanced, and a character that people will want to play as a lot. anything that can help me in this regard would be super appreciated, as I'm making a character myself at the moment (thanks to the people who helped with my character scaling issue by the way), and want to know the do's and don'ts of making a good mugen character (other than the obvious "don't make him op" factor lol). any advice in this regard would be very much appreciated.

Much respect also goes out to the M.U.G.E.N community in general for being awesome and making such an amazing character roster with amazing spriting abilities on the level that i can never hope to accomplish and equally as amazing A.I!   

Well, a good sprites & and its animation is one for sure.

Krishjan1980 wrote:

Well, a good sprites & and its animation is one for sure.

well, I'm worlds away from being able to hold a candle to what i see as "good" so far (being part of this site just makes me realize how bad i am at spriting compared to other people xD), so unfortunately the world will have to deal with my sucky animation until i get to your guys' level, or unless someone of the pro level decides to remake my sprites lol.

XxDragoulxX wrote:

Krishjan1980 wrote:

Well, a good sprites & and its animation is one for sure.

well, I'm worlds away from being able to hold a candle to what i see as "good" so far (being part of this site just makes me realize how bad i am at spriting compared to other people xD), so unfortunately the world will have to deal with my sucky animation until i get to your guys' level, or unless someone of the pro level decides to remake my sprites lol.

. . Why do you underestimate yourself . .you can be an advanced sprite artist and char maker if you try . In the beggining , everyone has low quality sprites . . I am trying to make cvs zombie liu kang in mugen . .and the sprites edited by me are not as good as Chuchoryu does . .. . . But i am trying my level best . . . .So dont underestimate your skills friend

bull demon wrote:

. . Why do you underestimate yourself . .you can be an advanced sprite artist and char maker if you try . In the  beggining , everyone has low quality sprites . . I am trying to make cvs zombie liu kang in mugen . .and the sprites edited by me are not as good as Chuchoryu does . .. .  . But i am trying my level best . . . .So dont underestimate your skills friend

"underestimate" isn't exactly the word that i would use for my skills as a spriter lol. I properly gauge my abilities and compare them to works I have already seen, and my sprite that I have shown here (that represents my only work i have done, btw) is only done better by probably 99% of them (the only one that I think I've done better than in terms of a character sprite so far is the supposedly first sephiroth mugen character at the moment. if i find anything else, I'll let you know xD).

I know that spriting isn't something you start out good at, and that practice makes perfect, and when i get to god status, i'd love to revisit the character in question that i'm making and redo the sprites to make it look the absolute best it can be and properly portrait the love i have for the character in the confides of my mind, but I know that i'm not there as of yet is what i was trying to get at with what i said to krishjan i'd also like to see what you have done by the way. do you have anything on here? (i know this is off topic, but don't kill me mods. pls <3)

I make stages here in HD . .I also make screenpack .(but not released any yet) . .and I am trying to make a char as I told . .note it . . I am trying . .not making my friend . . .nice to see new members here . . I am not new to mugen . .but new to MMV . .And this is a great place for mugen . . .. .

XxDragoulxX wrote:

Krishjan1980 wrote:

Well, a good sprites & and its animation is one for sure.

well, I'm worlds away from being able to hold a candle to what i see as "good" so far (being part of this site just makes me realize how bad i am at spriting compared to other people xD), so unfortunately the world will have to deal with my sucky animation until i get to your guys' level, or unless someone of the pro level decides to remake my sprites lol.

I don't know about the others but to me I am just like you, But in time I manage to get it (but I must Admit I am also had a lot to learn, I'm also an amateur). So I would like to say you can also become good creator for MUGEN just be determined In time you will improve so keep doing it no matter what. I'm sure you'll notice that improvement in time.

Krishjan1980 wrote:

I don't know about the others but to me I am just like you, But in time I manage to get it (but I must Admit I am also had a lot to learn, I'm also an amateur). So I would like to say you can also become good creator for MUGEN just be determined In time you will improve so keep doing it no matter what. I'm sure you'll notice that improvement in time.  

then it looks like there might be hope for me yet lol. doing this for the long haul was something that i wanted to do from the start, so i hope i see at least a little progress by my 5th character (fingers crossed here folks ;D)

I'm looking forward to it

AI and no KFM sounds

XXDreamBrotherXX wrote:

AI and no KFM sounds

that'll be another issue. i need to either find a good site for sound effects or make my own (probably the better route for voice acting if i had a decent mic, but definately not good for everything else lol). anyone got any recommendations for sound sites for mugen? i'd like to ask the same thing with a.i, but i don't think a.i is a thing you can exactly look up and find a good one for any character xD. if it is, i'd love to give it a shot, though :3

Sounds you can find here, there and everywhere.
In terms with the AI my advice would be look at what other creators do (E.g. POTS, Infinite, GM)

Wanna make a good character?
Have the sprites ready an all and wanna make a MvC2 character, for an example?
Go play MvC2.
Play the game for a long while until you get the grip of how a MvC2 character should play.

Then start making your character(Don't forget to use onion skin while making an .sff file to make sure everything is aligned,also you need to have ALL the required sprites,and don't fuck up when choosing sprite groups)

When making the .AIR file NEVER leave the animation speed at 10.Be sure to make the animation as smooth as possible,don't forget to have a animation after the attack that will make it look like the character is going back to his stance.ALSO,when it comes to CLSNs you need to remember that its always FUNCTIONALITY over REALISM.Your character got hit on his sword and felt pain,so what?Thats just how it is,and how it should be in order to balance stuff out.

Never forget to put Blue CLSNs on projectiles,it is required to make projectiles hit each other.Also,dont ever use more than 3 blue clsns for the body.3 should be max.
Don't forget about Infinite Priority either,Blue CLSNS should always be OVER Red ones so the character can get hit on the leg that he is attacking with.

When making a custom character think of what role do you want him the fill?
Less damage but fast?Slow but good range?Slow with a lot of health?Can get in and out easily? etc.
Its good to find a fighting game character and build your own character based on him.
Also I noticed something you comic fans do a lot is add like 10 projectiles to the character.
When adding custom moves to your character never add 10 lasers and projectiles,like i said above.
1 of the same kind is enough.
You're probably gonna say stuff like WHY DOES DANTE HAVE 2 IN MVC3 THEN
Well,he has a slow one that allows him to run in there safely and control space,while the gun one is there to come out quickly and try to punish enemies that fucked up but are too far,or to just keep pressure,so those 2 do completely 2 different things.
However,having 5 lasers that do completely the same thing is kinda dumb and unnecessary.

Also,this is something that pissed me off,especially when Ax kept claiming that its OK.
INFINITES are a NO NO.Imagine playing a game with your friend and he finds out that crouching low kick can be spammed to ensure 100% victory on his end.Its dumb.
So what if games like UMVC3,HnK and so had infinites,those were not there on purpose.

Lets say something about AI now.
AI is completely unnecessary.
Thats it.
Yes it is kinda nice to have an enemy that gives you a challenge,but holy crap,an AI does not make a character.
If you are worried that your character will be bad because he has no AI then dont worry,AI is something a good character does not need at all.

'Bout the .SND,your character will need some sounds.Any sounds.
Like if you cant find a good voice for Guts from Berserk(Example) then just go and take a random japanese characters .snd who's voice fits him and use it.
While it may not be the best course of action,it definetly is better than having no sound at all.

When it comes to the .cmd dont make the commands WAY too complicated,like F,D,B,D,D,a,b,y.
Also,the longer and more complicated the command is,the higher it should be on the .cmd file.
If you don't do that there might be some problems with the commands.

uhh I think I covered some stuff ,might have missed something here and there

Erroratu wrote:

AI is completely unnecessary.
Thats it.
Yes it is kinda nice to have an enemy that gives you a challenge,but holy crap,an AI does not make a character.
If you are worried that your character will be bad because he has no AI then dont worry,AI is something a good character does not need at all.

Totally disagree but that's probably obvious...
I loathe when you have a beautifully sprited/animated/whatever char then when you come round to versing them they either stand there and do nothing or randomly punch the air, jump for no reason, etc. In my opinion, it totally ruins the character.

For example, there is a certain creator out there that I am a huge fan of and absolutely love playing with their chars but when it comes time to go up against them they provide little to no fight which = no fun

Then just set it so he doesn't appear on arcade mode if his AI bugs you that much.
My most favorite character is Kliff Undersn by Muteki and he has no AI at all.
You could also always wait,because if the character is really good but has no AI he will probably get an AI patch by someone else(Like Onodera Ren by Daniel999999 for an example)