Tips & tricks part 2

The truth is that there are really 3 main states that
need to be learned (and depending on the character
they may all be used over and over again).

The first state is the HitDef. This is used for
attacks where the opponent is hit (usually punches
or kicks but also can be used for other contact
type states). A velocity attack (dash attack or
velset attack) uses a HitDef with a velset to make
the character move and then hit. HitDefs are what
make up most of the .cns file and are most common.
The best way to learn about all the stuff in a
HitDef is to read the sctrls docs under HitDef.

The second most common state (especially for DBZ
characters) is the projectile. This state launches
a projectile (missile, beam, fireball, energy ball,
etc.). Most of the stuff used for the projectile
state is the same as the HitDef state but there
are added things to know for a projectile state.
The best place to learn about projectiles is in the
sctrls docs under projectile. Remember also to not
let your character shoot a projectile and then
immediately be able to go into another state. This
is kind of difficult for the other player to be
able to respond to too many attacks at once.
Launch a projectile and then make your character
pause a little before resuming the beatings. This
makes it fairer.

The third type is the helper state which usually
creates a helper which the helper uses a HitDef
to attack with. These are good for tracking
(homing) type fireballs, and returning boomerangs,
and other non-straight moving projectiles.
Another use is for strikers but because of the
fact that the character doesn't take damage when
hiding behind a striker character most strikers
are considered cheap. There are some however who
have figured out how to use parentvarset and
gethitvar(damage) and lifeadd (in the -2 state)
to cause damage to the character when a striker
gets hit. These character are rare however and
the cheap invincible strikers seem to be all
over the place. I don't like strikers because
people need to learn to fight their own battles
and not hide behind others. Strikers are those
characters that seem to pop out of the side of
the screen and shoot off a high damage attack
and then disappear back off the screen again
(or get hit then disappear). It's bad enough
fighting one character without an invincible
one popping in and making lots of damage while
the other player doesn't take any damage from
this. VERY, VERY CHEAP.

There's also a sort of fourth state used mainly
for taunts (and please don't make invincible
taunts) and for powering up (don't make attacks
for power up states either). These are known as
idle states because the player isn't attacking
anyone. These don't have HitDefs or Projectiles
or Helpers but usually changestates and a few
other states also. Taunts (in non-DBZ games)
and powerup states (mainly DBZ with the flames
around them) are supposed to increase the 
player's power bar but at the same time leave
the player vulnerable to attack. By increasing
the power bar you gain more powerful moves to
use but at the same time, to increase the power
bar you are supposed to be vulnerable. Gaining
power and being invulnerable is REALLY CHEAP.
It is known as a trade off and the trade off is
the vulnerability for the ability to use
stronger attacks. Don't make invincible powerups
or taunts (unless in the original character
which I have yet to find a single character that
uses an invincible powerup or taunt).

There's also guarding states where you aren't
really attacking but are trying to minimize
the damage done. These are defending states
and usually involve lifeadd and
gethitvar(damage).

Then there's the specialty states which don't
fit elsewhere (like invincibility and armor 
type modes).

Then there's the common states like walking,
running, jogging, fetching the paper, roll over,
play dead, etc.

It takes quite a bit but after you get used to
what states to use for what type of attacks you
begin to look at characters and say hey, that
uses a HitDef, or hey, that's a helper, etc.
At this stage you start to become an intermediate
coder and things start getting much easier since
you can look at a move in a non-MUGEN game and
figure out possibly how to make it happen in
MUGEN. An advanced coder knows which type as
well as the state controllers, etc. while seeing
the move in a non-MUGEN game and can write the
move from their heads with only a possible
occasional reference to look for odd values or
triggers. Beginner is beginner. None are stupid
and none are brilliant (except maybe Elecbyte
themselves since they wrote the codes). 
Experience and knowledge are what make the 
difference. A lot of my experience came from 
coding in BASIC on a TRS-80 Color Computer and 
transferring that knowledge to MUGEN coding. 
Most in MUGEN don't have a coding background 
which means more work involved to learn coding 
than what I needed to do. Those who call others 
stupid but yet can't teach others how to become 
smarter are the stupid ones. If a man gives 
another man a fish then he may feed the man for 
a day, if he teaches the fish to sing then the 
man may become rich yet starve to death (you 
can't eat most money and who would eat a singing 
fish?), if a man teaches another man to fish 
then the man who taught has more free time 
to cruise for babes. Or something like that.
But then there's that Fish Mafia thing going
around so be careful where you sleep.

Remember also that triggers decide when things
happen but sometimes you also need to make things
happen in a certain order. It takes experience 
and knowledge to figure out what to do. Both
experience and knowledge take time and happen at
their own speed. If it gets too much take a break
and go fishing for babes at the local mall. On
second thaught, if you're reading this then
you're probably a geek and not much of a babe
magnet. Go surfing for lonely posters somewhere
on the net then. Or if you really need to get
away from the pooter for a bit then go pee on
your teacher's flowers (you know the teach that
gave you that F in gym class because you wear
glasses). Don't get caught though and I never
said any such thing as to pee on a gym teacher's
flowers (hahaha).

So really the truth is that you need to think of
this as fun and to take your time and go at YOUR
own speed (and stay away from crystal Meth). No
one's a genius at this overnight and no one
stays uninformed forever either. It always takes
time and patience like anything else worthwhile.
And what's common sense to one is like "you say 
what?" to someone else.

Now remember to use power management well also.
Power management is letting your character get
some power but not too much. By doing this then
big multidamage moves become acceptable since
you need to build up to make the move. Characters
that start off where you can do humungously
powerful moves don't teach skill and strategy and
become deleted quickly to those who don't like
cheapness. Use getpower and givepower well and
think about making power available but not
abundant. Make a person have to work to use a
really powerful damaging move and don't just give
the move to them. Of course there does seem to be
a lot of those out there who like cheapness so
use your own judgement and remember it isn't your
character if you do it the way someone else wants
and not what YOU feel is what should be done.

Many character makers wouldn't be very good if
they gave in to the demands of others. Make
YOUR character the way YOU envision it and you'll
be happier. Bug reports are great but whining
can be a pain to deal with. Try to avoid the
"I want it my way..." type people. They are
real pains to deal with at times. Try to ignore
them if possible (which it usually isn't) and if
that doesn't work then hopefully someone else
will come along and tell them to do it themselves
(as a char maker try not to say this yourself to
someone though because it makes you look arrogant
and uncaring - hope someone else does it to shut
them up for you). You'll notice these people by
the "You should try to make him more..." or "I
would do it this way instead..." or "Your char
sux, lol" (<--- reference by Silent Storm to
The Necromancer's Broli circa October 2000 at
Mugen Dev Forum). Listen to people but also
remember to be yourself and make what you like
the way you like it. Also, go at your own pace
and learn what you do to make it easier when you
do something else. 

Also, coding teaches you structure and order which 
can serve you well later on in life (like when 
someone yells "the STRUCTURE's moving" at a 
construction site start running away from the 
structure and of course "I'll have a shake, baby, 
to go with that ORDER of fries" at a nearby
restaraunt. See structure and order). Coding takes
organizational skills because if you don't put
things the right way at the right time they won't
work right (and you'll be debugging looking for
moths in your vacuum tube oriented world).

Another couple real things (I got kinda silly and
so should you at times). If you mess up some stuff
on your printer or mess up some homework, etc. then
set the paper aside and use it as MUGEN scrap paper.
And please don't let your dog eat it (this actually
happened to homework of mine once and the next
day the dog started to chew and I grabbed it then
turned it in teeth marks and all) Scrap paper is a 
good place to write down ideas and set them aside 
for later (like when doing hit spark alignment and 
such). Just make little notes to make it easier to 
remember what you need to do (like y up -5 for 
moving the y value up 5 (-5 in MUGEN terms)). 
Another great thing if you have the paper and a 
notebook is to print out at least the sctrls, 
trigger, and cns docs in the MUGEN docs directory. 
It makes it easier than opening the files up all 
the time and trying to switch between open text 
windows (can get confusing). Print other docs out 
too if you feel you need to (like maybe exp.txt). 
A notebook makes it easier to flip through the 
pages. When a bunch of us old timers started out
in MUGEN there wasn't the sctrls files and it was
added to the bottom of the cns.txt doc file (and
incomplete too). In v01.01 docs they did have the
trigger.txt file though. v01.01 Kung Fu Man was
an extra download available (imagine MUGEN without
a character) and Kung Fu Man was pretty basic.
How times change. With better docs and better
programs for making characters came better coding.
Remember too the tools that make things possible.
The world was really different before many good
tools came along to make it easier to make chars.
Try to pay proper respect to others who work hard
(or harder) also.