- Inputs are the physical controls/buttons pressed that can trigger an action.
- One input triggers one action, the only exception being composite parry (A+B).
Combining inputs means combining their respective action: up to three input groups can become a combined action.
- Modifier
- Primary Action
- Horizontal Attack (A)
- Vertical Attack (B)
- Dodge (D)
- Skill (F)
- Ultimate (V)
- Parry (Composite / Quick Parry)
- Grapple
- Switching Weapons
- Using consumable
- Direction
- Forward
- Backward
- Strafe Left
- Strafe Right
A valid combined action must always contain a primary action:
- If no primary action was found, the game will consider the modifier as a primary action.
- If no primary action and no modifier was found, the buffered input will be rejected.
There are different ways that you can send an input to the game.
- Timed
- Input once at the earliest recovery frame.
- Does not leverage input buffering if done correctly.
- Mashing
- Input multiple times.
- Will leverage input buffering whenever possible.
- If input buffering is not possible, mashing can be technically as fast as a timed input, but will usually be slower.
- Held
- Preinput
- Input early (once).
- Leverages input buffering.
- Next action will not come out if buffering was not possible.
When to use one over the other comes down to preference mostly but might also fall down to situation.
The period of time during one animation where the game will accept the inputs for your next action.
- Once buffered, this next action starts at the earliest possible frame (if applicable).
- Buffered inputs will cancel the animation of the first action during its recovery frame.
- When input buffering is possible, it's more reliable and as fast as timing the input perfectly.
The inputs are generally stored into the buffer during the active frames of an animation: any inputs prior to this moment will be discarded.
The input buffer will trigger an action based on the last input for each group.
- Longer animations (which in turn means longer active frames) gives more time to change the buffered action.
- Buffered actions cannot be cancelled altogether: buffered actions can only be replaced.
Input buffering does not work for all action combinations.
A timed action can trigger different moves compared to its buffered counterpart.
For example: a buffered dodge after another dodge will perform a roll, but a timed dodge after the first dodge will perform a second dodge.
- Input buffer is more reliable than timing an input on lower framerates, especially when playing with variable low framerates.
- Input buffering makes sure actions is done at earliest possible frame, but if that frame is late due to rendering lag, the action will still happen later than intended.
- Actions will still be slower due to low framerates: higher framerate players still have advantage over lower framerate players.