[Custom] Quick-Toggle Laser Falco

[Bent 00]

I don't really like slow lasers, but if they're staying in Minus, I figured I might as well try to make their trigger/animation/SFX/etc. more sensible.
Falco kicking around his reflector via Up-Taunt should have no effect on his blaster's mode of fire. That doesn't make any sense.
So, now Up-Taunt itself is just a taunt. It no longer toggles laser speed.

To switch between fast and slow lasers, you must hold Up-Taunt when a laser would normally fire during Neutral-Special.
If you do this, instead of firing a laser, Falco will toggle his blaster mode. A sound will play that lets you know which mode is active.
In effect, this allows Falco to toggle laser speeds much faster than he could via the old Up-Taunt method.

Is this a Buff? I'm no Falco main, but it feels more like a "quality-of-life" improvement to me.
IIRC, someone (Thor?) once told me that neither laser speed is superior to the other; each speed has its pros and cons.
So, it doesn't need to take so long to toggle.

Is this kind of a lazy fix? Sure, a new animation would be better. But this is at least better than having the toggle on Up-Taunt itself, IMO.

I think it would also be a good idea to add some kind of visual cue that lets opponents know which laser speed has been toggled to.
No time for that now, though. Later, perhaps?

I also fixed a minor SFX bug that caused the laser SFX to sound even though no laser fired, when Falco lands during specific frames.
With precise timing, it's now possible to fire a silent laser by landing mid-shot, but I figure that's better than having the SFX play without the laser.

Without further ado, here's the download:
4.1 Quick-Toggle Laser Falco v1.0

Tag, Survivian, Thor

 

[Bent 00]

OK, here's an updated version.

There were some concerns about Falco being able to toggle laser speeds on the fly being too powerful. So, I made it so the toggle can now only be done on the ground, NOT in the air, and now it's only about 16 frames faster than the old vanilla 4.1 Up-Taunt method. It takes about 1.7 seconds to toggle laser speeds. Quick enough to switch at the begnning of a match, without leaving yourself too open for punishment. At this toggle speed, if you fire some slow lasers from one end of Final Destination, then switch to fast lasers, the slow lasers will be passing over the other end of F.D. by the time you can fire the first fast laser. By the way, did you know that Falco can only have five lasers active on-screen at once? Fire a sixth, and the first laser vanishes.

The input for laser toggle is no longer "Up-Taunt when a laser would normally fire". It is now "Attack (A) when a laser would normally fire".

I also widened the window that the game listens for additional Special (B) presses -- to see if you want to keep firing lasers -- from 10 frames to 24. This is only intended to make continuous laser fire easier (less rapid mashing required). If this negatively impacts some other aspect(s) of Falco, let me know. I checked to see if it made it harder to fire a laser, then use a different Special immediately afterward. It didn't feel any more difficult to me.

4.1 Quick-Toggle Laser Falco v1.1

I tried adding a GFX cue for laser toggle, but it kept crashing Dolphin, so nevermind that for now.