User:JeffreyLau/SC2/Engine basics

SC2 is a 3-d fighting game. It might be more accurate to call it 2.5-d, though, since the Z-axis only matters for the three discrete attack heights in practice (air is not nearly as important as in 2-d fighting games). You need to have a solid understanding of engine fundamentals before you can be good, and once you do, you can be good with any character.

Round mechanics

All characters in the game start with 240 hitpoints (if no handicap is set). All characters take the same damage from a given attack, i.e. no character has more "armor" than another.

Play takes place in a bounded ring with walls and cliffs. A round ends when one of the players reaches 0 hitpoints or leaves the ring (referred to a ring-out or RO).

Movement

See Notation for a guide to notation.

Tapping 6 makes your character step forwards, towards her opponent. Tapping 4 makes your character dash backwards, away from her opponent. 2 makes your character move towards the camera, while 8 makes her move away from the camera. If your character is on the left side of the screen, then 2 makes her step to her right, while 8 makes her step to her left. 1, 3, 7, and 9 make her step in diagonal directions (e.g. 9 makes her step diagonally forward and to the left if your character is on the left side of the screen).

"Side-stepping" refers to tapping 2 and 8. It is extremely useful for dodging vertical attacks (more on that later).

You can jump by pressing 7_8_9G, and crouched by pressing 1_2_3G. You remain crouched as long as you hold the directional button. While you are jumping or crouching, you have access to a different (and smaller) moveset than while standing. Thus, jumping and crouching can be viewed as stances.

There is an intermediate stance between crouching and standing, called While Rising (abbreviated WR), which is accessed by crouching, then letting go of the directional keys. Your character will stand up, and while she's standing up, she'll have access to a few moves unique to this stance. Of course, the stance ends once your character is fully upright.

If you hold any of the directional keys for about half a second, your character starts to run. This stance is called 8-way run (abbreviated 8WR), so named because you can smoothly roll your d-pad in all 8 directions without leaving the stance. Try it. While you are in 8WR, you have access to a different set of moves than while standing. You can also execute 8WR moves without entering 8WR by double-tapping the required direction. For example, 8WR 8B can be executed from a standing stance as 88B, without causing or requiring you to run first.

Attacks

All attacks have several fundamental properties:

• Damage
• Attack height
• Frame advantage (more on this below)
• Execution time
• Physical motion (broken into horizontal coverage, vertical coverage, and range)

In addition, some attacks have special properties, like stunning your opponent and lifting him into the air.

Attack height

All attacks hit at one of five heights: high, mid, low, special mid, and special high. There is an intimate relationship between attack height and movement, summarized by the following chart:

Note: all attacks, of course, can also be evaded by being out of range

Attack height	Hits...	Evaded by...	Block with...	Comments
High (H)	Standing, jumping	Crouching	Standing guard
Mid (M)	Standing, crouching, jumping	None	Standing guard	Most mids are verticals, and so can be sidestepped
Low (L)	Standing, crouching	Jumping	Crouching guard
Special Mid (sM)	Standing, crouching	Jumping	Standing guard or crouching guard	An inherently weak type since it can be blocked standing or crouching
Special High (sH)	Standing	Crouching, Jumping	Standing guard	All throws are Special High. Very few moves are sH besides throws. Take note that throws are also unblockable, so you can't block them by standing.

As you can see, horizontal mid is the most powerful inherent type. Horizontal mid attacks cannot be evaded by ducking, jumping, or sidestepping, and they can only be blocked standing (they hit crouchers). There are, consequently, very few horizontal mids in the game, and most are impractical for some reason (like being slow or only being accessible in certain stances).