Axel Stone - Updated 7/28/2015

[Алексей]

# Preview #

# Download #
http://mugencoder.com/authors/details/291

# Info #
Hey Everyone,

Here's the third (and probably final) installment of Collabs with Omega. Today I bring you Axel Stone: that rough, tough brawler from that game that everyone loves: Streets of Rage 3. Here's what to expect:

- Mugen 1.0+ only
- Custom gameplay model, much like Hannah and Red Ranger
- Custom palettes (and sprites in areas)
- Weapon system
- Configurable options

Enjoy!

# Changelog #

 

Spoiler

07/26/2015
- In the intro, thugs are kicked farther
- In the outro, Axel runs in the direction he kicked the thug
- Grand hook changes
    - Hits on more frames, up to 4 times
    - Final verion in Dragon Smash is unguardable, has no juggle points and does more damage
- Various AI changes
- Added a light version of Grand Upper
- Added a light version of Dragon Wing
- Bat Swing and Super Bat Swing changes
    - Sped up the release animation by a bit
    - Holding "x" to charge no longer automatically releases after 40 ticks. You must let go of the button.

07/24/2015
- Initial Release

 

# Readme #

 

Spoiler

# Axels's Readme #

## Information ##
Name: Axel Stone
Game: Streets of Rage 3
Version Date: 7/21/2015
Description: Axel Stone is the leader and main character of the Streets of Rage group. He's got a slight temper and specializes in hand-to-hand combat that's mostly close range.

### Credits and Special Thanks ###
Me: for coding and effects
Omega: for sprite rips, custom sprites, edits, and moveset.
Capcom: for Capcom Fighting Jam sounds.
Balthazar: for the portrait artwork and random support
Chamat: for animating crouching kicks and a heavy aerial punch.
Buckus: for various open source sprites.
QuickFist: for creating the palettes.
Elecbyte: for M.U.G.E.N
You: for playing

## Moveset ##
Axel is a brawler who likes to fight up close, but also with weapons. He closes gaps fairly well with his advancing Grand Uppers and Dragon Wings. He's a 4-button character who uses x, y, a, and b for her moves.

### Legend ###
[Move Name] - [Command] - ([Power Requirement])
([Description])
([Notes])

### Commands and Terminology ###
x - Light Punch
y - Heavy Punch
a - Light Kick
b - Heavy Kick
QCF - Quarter Circle Forward
QCB - Quarter Circle Back
x2 - Do the preceding command twice
OTG - Off the ground; can hit an enemy while they're lying on the ground

### Weapon System ###
Axel is unique in that he has a special weapon system implemented. At the start of round a random enemy is spawned holding a weapon. This weapon is and enemy type is chosen and persists until you restart the round through the select screen. I did this so that the weapon would remain a constant as the rounds went on. Makes sense, no? Axel disposes of this enemy quickly, causing them to drop their weapon. From this point, the weapon will glow a certain color, indicating that it can be picked up. Pressing the Start button when near a weapon will allow Axel to pick it up. He can also chuck it at the enemy by holding Forward and pressing Start. Each weapon has it's own lifeforce of sorts. When it reaches 0, Axel will drop the weapon he's holding. Note that weapons can only be hurt while they're wielded. If Axel is holding a weapon, he gets a specific stat boost based on which weapon he's holding. This also corresponds with the enemy spawned.

Dwight - Pipe - Defense boost
Ash - Sword - Attack boost
Thug - Knife - Movement Speed boost

There are configurable options for the weapons. See config.txt for more info.

### Specials ###
Throw - x+y OR a+b OR a+x OR b+y
Bat Swing (While not holding a weapon) - QCFx ("x" can be held down to charge for more damage. At max it breaks guard.)
Weapon Strike (While holding a weapon) - QCFx
Grand Upper - QCFy (Hits OTG)
Dragon Wing - QCFa
Grand Hook - QCFb

### Supers ###
Super Bat Swing (While not holding a weapon) - QCBx2x - 1000
Axel swings his bat with all his might, knocking the enemy back.
- Holding "x" will allow Axel to charge the attack for damage. After it gets to a certain point, the attack is released automatically. 
- At max charge, it breaks guard.

Super Weapon Upper (While holding a weapon) - QCBx2a - 1000
Axel goes into a stance and charges at the enemy. After a short time, he swings his weapon forwards and upwards, launching himself into the air.

Super Grand Upper - QCBx2y - 1000
Axel lunges forward with a mighty uppercut. The enemy goes flying back and upwards if hit.
- Hits OTG.

Super Dragon Wing - QCBx2a - 2000
Axel focuses his Dragon Wing causing it to do more damage. The enemy will collapse upon impact.
- If the enemy is in the air, the attack will knock back instead.
- Good for a combo finisher.

Dragon Smash - QCBx2b - 3000
Axel charges at the enemy in an attempt to close any gaps. If he arrives successfully, he opens with a small flurry of attacks that turns into a faster flurry, ultimately finishing with a Grand Hook.
- If Axel misses, he'll recover into his idle stance.
- If guarded against, Axel will stop his attack by using Grand Hook early.

## Conclusion ##
Axel Stone is one of those characters that I came across and chose out of others as a last resort. I had a select few to choose from as this is my last project character collab with Omega, at least for now. Axel was... ugly to me. I had a very difficult time finding the motivation to work on him. I know it wasn't for me, but his sprite style irked me so much that it was extremely grating. I got over that selfish bout and decided instead to look at it in a new light. I came up with his weapon system while trying to get to sleep one night. Little sleep was had, but hey, at least I remembered that idea. Ever since, I've had a really passion for making him into an awesome character. It's probably the best on in this 4-button style as of late. I hope you all enjoy the rocky mountain of a hike that is Axel Stone.

[Doomguy]

1. Can he be resized to normal character size?
2. Is this better than the Axel made by Dick Buckus???
If 2 is yes, then please answer
3. What makes him better?

[Laharl]

"better" is opinion based and is also quite rude to ask a person in their OWN release thread good lord learn some tact. Try the damn character and you decide who you like more or you could just keep them both cause they play totally different and have different mechanics.

 

I still don't know why ppl hate chars who are ya know the size they were in their game makes no sense. You can localcoord him and make him larger if you want but it will make him really pixely.

 

 

[Cayne]

I loved streets of rage. It was right there on the back of my genesis box. I feel old lol

[BrawlTheMan]

The link leads to a 404. Although it still links to the site, it doesn't link to the character page.

[Laharl]

fixed it not sure why that was happening.

[Алексей]

1. Can he be resized to normal character size?
2. Is this better than the Axel made by Dick Buckus???
If 2 is yes, then please answer
3. What makes him better?

1.) Yes, just remove the localcoord line in his .def file. I use 426, which is for widescreen mugen. I probably forgot to remove it myself, because I was doing some final testing before release, in widescreen.

2.) I'm not sure to be honest. I make things in my own way without referencing other characters. That's for you to decide. :)

3.) You tell me. :P

 

fixed it not sure why that was happening.

Thanks. I didn't notice because I was going to bed right after I posted it. I guess the new site does something with the conversion of copy-paste from MFG. :S

[Алексей]

I added a preview video by Omega and added credits for Buckus, who I was unaware had any part in this. He did and is now credited appropriately.

[Doomguy]

1. Localcoord numbers don't like my Mugen for some reason.
2. Dick Buckus was involved somehow
3. I'm an arse.

[Алексей]

1. Localcoord numbers don't like my Mugen for some reason.
2. Dick Buckus was involved somehow
3. I'm an arse.

1.) Don't worry about it. Removing them will make it default to 320, which is what looks normal in 640x480. If there's something else wrong, please explain. I'm sure we can solve it.

2.) Yep, Omega used a few of his sprites.

3.) Don't be, lol.

[OldGamer]

yeah this old man took the time trying this character and Its just awesome. finally a decent Axel for my collection. Oh just remind my self that I need to get a hold  of Omega XD.

Oh almost forgot to tell you guys that I join your site but I never got a register replay from mugen coder site Alexei and Laharl :(

[Laharl]

That is quite strange. Alexei will have to check into that.

[Алексей]

yeah this old man took the time trying this character and Its just awesome. finally a decent Axel for my collection. Oh just remind my self that I need to get a hold  of Omega XD.

Oh almost forgot to tell you guys that I join your site but I never got a register replay from mugen coder site Alexei and Laharl :(

Awesome, glad you like him! :D

I saw your newly created account and activated it manually just now. You should be good to go. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be a very common issue of users. The site doesn't send out emails. I'd use a 3rd party email service, but they cost money. :\

[Алексей]

Since Axel's size seems to be an issue for some, I want to back up my statement before with the actual solution. I did some testing and found that a localcoord of 240 keeps the pixels looking crisp, while scaling the character up to about KFM's height. If you're unaware of how to change that, it's easy. Simply open the axel_stone.def file add this

under the "[Info]" section.

localcoord = 240

I hope more people try him out. If you don't know by now I'm very open to feedback and make changes as I see fit.

[Chimoru]

As far as the character goes, I think he plays well, really smooth and quick. An awesome project.  However, if I had to pick something I didn't like, it would be the gay bashing.  If it were a random baddie every time, that'd be one thing, but you singled that specific one out for both the intro and win pose.  Not cool.

[Laharl]

it does cycle depending who the person is they run into that person. it just so happens everyone seems to only get that guy lol.

[Алексей]

As far as the character goes, I think he plays well, really smooth and quick. An awesome project.  However, if I had to pick something I didn't like, it would be the gay bashing.  If it were a random baddie every time, that'd be one thing, but you singled that specific one out for both the intro and win pose.  Not cool.

Hey now, I'm not bashing any gay people. I didn't single him out in the video. Omega took that video. I don't know if he configured it to use the Sword (causing Ash to spawn) or if it was just by chance, but the weapon, nor character change out per round. It's chosen once and stayed. It was just meant to be funny. Each character has a different trope/sterotype that they follow. They're just thugs. Don't think too much about it. I seriously meant no offense.

I am glad that you like the character though. Thanks for the comment and I'm sorry for any misunderstanding. It really is just supposed to be a funny thing. All of the thugs are treated that way, so it's equal. :)

[Chimoru]

Hey now, I'm not bashing any gay people. I didn't single him out in the video. Omega took that video. I don't know if he configured it to use the Sword (causing Ash to spawn) or if it was just by chance, but the weapon, nor character change out per round. It's chosen once and stayed. It was just meant to be funny. Each character has a different trope/sterotype that they follow. They're just thugs. Don't think too much about it. I seriously meant no offense.

I am glad that you like the character though. Thanks for the comment and I'm sorry for any misunderstanding. It really is just supposed to be a funny thing. All of the thugs are treated that way, so it's equal. :)

Like I said, if it's a random equal thing, I'm not upset.  But you couldn't tell that based on this one video. :P

[Алексей]

Like I said, if it's a random equal thing, I'm not upset.  But you couldn't tell that based on this one video. :P

No worries. It's random, trust me. That info is in the readme too, which I always include in the download archive and in the opening post. What's kind of odd is that Ash and Thug 3 (dude with the knife) show up a lot more often than Dwight (the guy with the pipe) does. I guess that's just RNG. :S Thanks for understanding. :)

[BrawlTheMan]

I'm a bit late to this. Great job as usual. Sucks that this is you and Omega's last collaboration. You guys made pretty good chars. I don't have much to say, but I think you should make light and heavy versions of each of the specials. I think that:

1. The light grand upper should have a shorter range, but be faster and harder to punish.
2. The light dragon wing should be just the punch part, while the heavy version involves the spin. The heavy part would do more damage but would be slower.
3. Light dragon hook should give him less damage but be quicker.

4. The light version of the bat charges up faster, but it doesn't have guard breaking qualities when charged up all the way.

5. The Light weapon would be the swinging, and the heavy weapon attack would be throwing.

The thing about giving him light and heavy Special move versions isn't mandatory, but it would make him a lot more versatile with more options to choose from. 

Also, the spinning around part of the dragon hook should be able to do damage. 

Can't wait to see what you're planning on next :D

[Алексей]

I'm a bit late to this. Great job as usual. Sucks that this is you and Omega's last collaboration. You guys made pretty good chars. I don't have much to say, but I think you should make light and heavy versions of each of the specials. I think that:

1. The light grand upper should have a shorter range, but be faster and harder to punish.
2. The light dragon wing should be just the punch part, while the heavy version involves the spin. The heavy part would do more damage but would be slower.
3. Light dragon hook should give him less damage but be quicker.

4. The light version of the bat charges up faster, but it doesn't have guard breaking qualities when charged up all the way.

5. The Light weapon would be the swinging, and the heavy weapon attack would be throwing.

The thing about giving him light and heavy Special move versions isn't mandatory, but it would make him a lot more versatile with more options to choose from. 

Also, the spinning around part of the dragon hook should be able to do damage. 

Can't wait to see what you're planning on next :D

Hey, no problem. Better late than never. :)

1, 2, and 3. That's doable.

4. This would be redundant. You can achieve the same affect a light version would have by letting go of the button earlier. Only full charge breaks guard. Lesser charges do less damage and release the attack quicker.

5. There's already a command for throwing the weapon, but I guess giving it a normal command wouldn't hurt.

I didn't want to add extra hitboxes to Grand Hook, but I've been told more than once, so I don't mind putting them in. It's not a big deal.

As for what's next, I might be updating other characters. I seem to keep forgetting about that, but note that Axel had a strict deadline whereas the others did not.

[Алексей]

Axel has been updated. Check the changelog in the first post for details.