To Myke:

This is a lengthy write-up, as I would like to convince you the positive features of the proposed addendum to VFDC outweighs the negatives.



CURRENT FEATURES OF VFDC
First, an overview of the main contents currently available on VFDC and what I think is lacking about those sections.

1) Command Lists – the black book translated frame data with VFDC updates/revisions. This section of VFDC provides the standard move list, relatively easy to print format, and the useful sorting feature. Negative—not much negative with the current command lists. The organization of the move list could be altered to be more intuitive and comprehensive (see flow charts).

2) Wiki Sections — where Wiki authors can write up more detailed, organized VF information. The organization makes it a wonderful general VF reference or encyclopedia for those that do not look at the forum boards on a regular basis. The format also makes it relatively print friendly. Negative—this section is highly dependent on selected Wiki authors time and effort (for example, I have not contributed to the wiki for a while now, doing other things. In addition, there are certain parts of the wiki I don’t feel comfortable working on). At the moment, there are certain sections lacking in content . With time, those sections most likely will be filled out;

3) Forum Boards — where the VF community can freely discuss about the game, gatherings, etc. Negative—the freedom to post anything in the forums, unfortunately, also lead to a lot of noise and makes it difficult to find certain topics of interest if you do not look at the forums on a daily basis.

PROPOSED ADDENDUM TO VFDC
To me, the three listed contents above are great features of VFDC, but lacks “interaction”—they are relatively independent of each other. This brings to what I am proposing as an additional feature to VFDC—“Flow Charts” and “Topics”—in what I hope would be an “interactive” way of combining certain positive aspects of the three current features on VFDC.

1) Flow Charts — this section would basically be the alternate command lists in what I hope would be an intuitive/interactive way to look at a character’s move list. A very rough example of a “Flow Chart” is attached as an excel file. Organization of the flow chart is prioritized by –
a) the situation it can be used
b) action property – high strike, mid strike, low strike, opponent defense dependent moves, opponent attack dependent moves, opponent independent moves.
c) speed of the move
d) strength of the move
Links to and from the topics. For example, Pai’s to Bokutai. Clicking on Bokutai would bring you to the Bokutai section of the Flow Chart or the Topics section of Bokutai. Negative — not print friendly. Designed mainly for computer use. Does not have frame data or other information immediately available.

2) Topics — links to and from the flow charts. This is where the community as a whole can contribute. Basically Topics are single forum topics for each move. The first two posts are reserved to the moderators. The first post is the “Facts” post of the move providing summary of all information that is purely factual, for better or worse. The second post is “Applications” post for a “frequently asked questions section” and suggestive information. Anyone can post in the topics, asking question or discussion specific to the move, application of the move or dealing against the move. Unlike the regular forum boards, these topics will be heavily moderated to keep these topics from being cluttered in the long run. Negative — Similar to the wiki it depends on the VFDC community to be contributing. However, the advantage is that the Topics are already pre-organized allowing the whole community to contribute rather than a select few wiki authors. This also may alleviate some of the redundant threads in the Forum Boards. The Topics section can also be the backbone to complete the Wiki sections.

SUMMARY / OUTLOOK
I am not trying to replace the features currently available on VFDC, but to add new features that can flesh out VFDC. Note, we are all busy people and this email is not an attempt of me asking you or others to take the time to help get the project up and running. What I will be doing for my own purpose is the flow charts first, then the “facts post” for each topic.

The main negatives about the proposed feature is 1) the time required to actually get the core of the Flow Charts and Topics completed, and 2) time required to actually maintain/update it. No estimated time of completing the core of the flow charts and topics, at the moment. Ultimately, this could be a prelude for VF5:R(of course this is assuming the version will be released to consoles outside of Japan).

If this is something you would like to implement into VFDC, great, let me know what I should have to modify, so that It can be adapted for website use. I have no experience on making web pages or how much work it will take to set it up. If this is something you don’t think is suited for VFDC, that is fine with me also. But, if you don’t mind me asking once in a while about formatting once in a while ie, how to get the command input images to replace text code we use? Or if this spurns a new/different way of improving VFDC, I am up to hearing about it (for example, don’t like the flow charts, but like the topics idea…integrate it to the current command lists…).

If you have questions on what the project actually is, please ask. Hope this was not a complete waste of your time and thanks for reading this,

- Akai