SF4 Damage Scaling Breakdown

[Tizoc]

SF4's damage reduction scale works as follows:

100% damage for the first two "moves" of a combo
80% damage for the third move of a combo
70% damage for the fourth move of a combo
60% damage for the fifth move of a combo
50% damage for the sixth move of a combo
40% damage for the seventh move of a combo
30% damage for the eighth move of a combo
20% damage for the ninth move of a combo
10% damage for the tenth move of a combo and every hit thereafter

Multi-hit attacks count as a single increment on the reduction scale. There are a few exceptions, such as Bison's j.MP and Abel's rekkas. Ultras and Focus Attacks incremement twice, so FA x3 + ultra brings the ultra down to 30% damage because it registers as the eighth move instead of the fourth.

An additional modifier is applied based on the opponent's lifebar percentage immediately before the attack connects.

95% damage if they're already below 50% vitality
90% damage if they're already below 25% vitality
75% damage if they're already below 15% vitality

That means if you have an attack which can deal 16.5% damage at 90% scaling, it will kill them if it connects when they're at 16% life but not if they're at 14% life. And obviously this means the same combo will show a higher total number against Zangief than against Seth since Seth's lifebar-based reduction kicks in much sooner.

Counterhits reward a 25% damage bonus for the first hit only - not the entire first move.

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Here's a thought; what say we assess how much damage combos in SF4 do using Garou MotW's damage scaling?
This site-
http://homepage3.nifty.com/gore/mow/damage.html
Shows that at the 17th hit, every attack will do 50% damage. So...
1st hit= 100% damage
2nd hit= 90% damage
3rd & 4th hit= 80% damage
5th-16th hit= 70% damage
17th hit and onwards= 50% damage

Do you think this would allow characters with long combos to do big damage?

[Maj]

Actually i'm fairly certain that SF4's combo reduction works based on moves, not hits. So for example, Chun Li's Lightning Legs count as one move until she stops, no matter how many times they hit. But there are a lot of arbitrary rules, like Abel's rekkas count as three separate moves instead of one continuous move and a lot of air chains count as separate moves too. I don't really think there's a way around the damage scaling issue. Some characters can do a lot of damage with few moves, some characters have to use a lot of moves so they get owned.

[error1]

ultras and focus attacks count as two moves, but otherwise one input counts as one move, so Bisons Double Air Punch counts as two, but ryus j. mp counts as 1. Not to mention the arbitrary scaling when your opponent gets less life. And some mysterious scaling that can make the damage increase by 20% mid combo.

[Maj]

On second thought, i think Tizoc might have been asking what SF4 would have been like if it used the MOTW scaling chart. To be honest i think the SF4 formula is (almost) perfectly suited for the kind of game that it is. I mean, if you cap the damage minimum at 50% then a LOT of characters will have easy touch-of-death combos. Also SF4 has a lot of infinites and pseudo-infinites which aren't that problematic now but they'd absolutely break the game if it wasn't for the damage reduction.

The bottom line is that SF4 isn't meant to be an elaborate combo game. Everything about the basic game engine is geared towards keeping the playing field level so that combos don't get out of hand. You can't cancel chains, you can't cancel into ultra, you can't combine supers with any other meter usage, and so on and so forth.

It might be a little boring, but you have to admit that it works. I wouldn't call it an elegant solution but it's certainly an effective one.

[Tizoc]

Actually i'm fairly certain that SF4's combo reduction works based on moves, not hits. So for example, Chun Li's Lightning Legs count as one move until she stops, no matter how many times they hit. But there are a lot of arbitrary rules, like Abel's rekkas count as three separate moves instead of one continuous move and a lot of air chains count as separate moves too. I don't really think there's a way around the damage scaling issue. Some characters can do a lot of damage with few moves, some characters have to use a lot of moves so they get owned.

First off, nice to see you making it a thread; I myself considered making a thread about an alt. damage scaling settings to see how it'd go from there.
2ndly- Yeah I know about the moves thing, and one could apply the damage scaling based on that if using the Garou formula.
3rdly- Been busy with college and have now thought up of a possible new combo vid that I forgot to jot down some combos and test the Garou formula in it, or any other one.

Also I agree with your comment about the ToDs though the 50%-ish average damage from combos in SF4 might annoy some players.

[Maj]

Since we don't have these numbers listed anywhere else, i added them to the first post above. Dunno why i didn't think of this sooner.

Did i miss anything?