I'm pleased to announce that the new VFDC Combo Lists are now live! You may have seen a teaser dropped via Twitter, but read on for a full feature breakdown.



Access
You can access the new Combo Lists via the Combos menu in the top navigation bar. Selecting Combos will immediately take you to the default index page, however, the drop-down menu allows you to jump directly to a character's combo list.


Index Page
When viewing an index page, you'll be presented with a list of characters to choose from for that given version.


In the side bar, you'll also get a summary of how many combos there currently are for each character.



Also in the side bar are links to past VF versions that have combos defined.



New Layout
Once you've selected a character to view, the major difference you should notice is the layout. Firstly, categories are now organised in tabs, allowing for quicker access to specific areas and reducing the need for vertical scrolling.



Secondly, I've completely changed the way in which different properties of the combo, such as hit types and the characters it works against, is shown. To illustrate, let me describe what I felt was a problem with the old Combo lists and how I set about to improve them.

Problems with the Old Combo List
The original combo list format tried to cater for every possible situation, every time. That is, for every character I tried to show not only the Hit Type (NH, CH, RH), but also which stance the combo would work in. This made it possible to capture to most complex of combos that would work on different characters, in different stances, under different hit types. But the reality is, this type of complexity and obscurity for a user is quite hard to "read", let alone memorise.

Take, for example, Jacky's Smash Upper combos:



At a glance, can you tell me the characters and conditions the last three combos work for? If, you're like me, you have to do some eyeball gymnastics aligning half-coloured cells with the header row multiple times until you finally "get it". I've always felt this could be improved, so one of the challenges that I set for myself was to try and making the combo list easier to read. No optical trickery, and no cross-referencing was the goal, and I think the new combo lists are a step in the right direction.

The New Combo List Format
Let's compare the same combos (Jacky's Smash Upper) in the new format:



Again, if I ask you to tell me the conditions for the last three combos work for, you'll hopefully have a much easier time. If a character's cell is filled in, then the combo works against that character, and the hit and stance conditions are now embedded within the combo itself. For reference:

Hit Types:
Counter Hit
Recovery Hit
* No icon is shown for Normal Hit (NH)

Foot Stance:
Closed foot position
Opened foot position
* The stance symbol is based on a line drawn between each character's left and right foot.
* The stance symbol is shown after the launcher to make it clear that the stance condition applies to the follow-up combo.

Now there's no need to look up and down columns and headers to cross reference characters and stances. Much simpler, right?

Sorting
If a column heading is clickable, then you can sort by that column. Click the column again to toggle between ascending and descending order. Clicking the main Combo column will revert back to the default sort.



Flat List View
If you prefer to view all the combos in one flat list, select Flat List from the view menu.


This Flat List view is also suitable for printing (Note: in some web browsers, you need to enable the option to print Background Graphics in order for the command graphics to show up in the print):


Mobile Friendly
The new Combo Lists are also mobile friendly.



Future Upgrades
With this initial release (finally!) out of the way, some future enhancements I plan on working on include:

• Filters: ability to filter to only show combos that work against "all" characters, or specific characters.
• User submission: ability for registered users to submit a combo. All submitted combos will be subject to Content Manager approval before they're published.
• Watch Lists: ability to watch a character's combo list and receive alerts when combos are updated or added.

Feedback
So, there you have it. What do you think? Hopefully you'll agree it's an improvement over the old format making it much easier to read and understand at a glance, both for new and veteran players alike!

As always, if you experience any issues with the new combo lists then please let me know here.

Version History

Version 1.0.0
Initial release of the new Combo Lists.

Version 1.1.0
This release includes a number of enhancements including:

• Category Icons
• Improved Stance Info
• Hit Type and Stance Exceptions

Category Icons
In a response to user feedback, the Combo Lists now have the ability to display the starter command alongside the category tab title. This should make it easier to identify specific categories if you aren't familiar with their official name.

Note: At the time of this post, not all characters have their Category Icons defined. The respective Content Managers will be updating these soon.​

Improved Stance Info
I wasn't entirely pleased with how the combo's stance was designated. If a combo was stance specific, then an icon representing the stance was display as shown below:

As you can see, after the combo starter, there's a right arrow ► followed by a stance icon. The perfectionist in me didn't like how the combos didn't quite "line up", and I felt this could be improved. The solution I came up with was to incorporate the stance info within the first (and new) right arrow, as shown below:

Now the combos are better aligned, and there's a reduction in clutter.

Hit Type and Stance Exceptions
When a combo is documented as working for a particular hit type (Normal Hit, Counter Hit, Recovery Hit) and a particular stance (any, open, closed), the characters that it works against are shown in a filled colour. However, those who have played VF long enough will be aware that combos can also work for certain characters under different conditions as well.

So whenever there's an exception to the hit type and/or stance for a particular character, as shown for the main combo, then these exceptions are shown in the versus character cell.

For Hit Type exceptions, the colour will vary appropriately:

As an example, the following combo:

Works on Normal Hit for all characters up to Jean, but requires a Counter Hit for Jeffry and Wolf.

For Stance exceptions, a small stance icon will appear super-scripted to the character cell:

As an example, the following combo:

Works on Normal Hit in any stance up to Vanessa, but only works in Closed Stance for Lau, Kage, Lei, Brad and Goh.

Version 1.2.0
This release includes the following new features:

• Versus Character Filters: click on a character cell in the Versus grid to only show combos that work against that character.
• Default View User Preference: if you prefer the Flat List over the Tabbed view format, then you can now set a default in your User Preferences. Also available for Command Lists!
• Category Notes: General notes, if defined, that apply to all combos in a given category will now be visible in the category header bar.

Version 1.2.1
This is a minor update with the following changes:

• Versus All Characters: click on the "Versus" header cell to filter for combos that work against "All Characters". This essentially finds all combos that work against the entire cast (as well as the entire cast without Taka). This filter should be helpful for players learning a new character!
• Versus Character Cells: a cosmetic update including a different colour shade when hovering over the cell, and a more prominent and descriptive tool tip.
• Guide to Reading and Using: on the Combos index page there is now a guide which explains how to read and use the various features found within.