Summary

In some situations, an intended skill input may be replaced by a normal attack, which is extreme during the game play. This bug happened on all players because none of them never pressed Attack/Select key. This bug is a bit complicated and caused by multiple reasons.

Key Terminologies

Action vs Free State

In this context, the terms action and free state describe opposite states of a character:

• A character is in a free state if a skill input at the current frame will start the corresponding animation on the next frame.

• A character is in an action if a skill input at the current frame won't start the corresponding animation on the next frame.

Buffering

Buffering allows skills to be queued slightly before the end of an action, so that they activate immediately when the current action ends.

• A buffer window is a fixed number of frames at the end of an action where skill inputs are stored.

• A buffer skill is one that is input during this buffer window.

Buffer windows are designed to make it easier to perform frame-perfect actions without needing to time inputs precisely. They give players a window of opportunity to enter an input, and the game will automatically execute the action on the first available frame.

Normal Attack Activation in Free State

• Normal attacks can be activated when the Attack/Select key changes its press/release state within 24 frames.

This means both press -> release and release -> press can activate normal attack.

Attack/Select Key (Press -> Release) with Arrow Key

• The arrow key can be pressed either before or after pressing the Attack/Select key. As long as the interval between presses is short enough, the corresponding skill will be activated correctly.

Attack/Select Key (Release -> Press) with Arrow Key

If the time interval between pressing two keys is short enough, it depends on which key is pressed first.

• If Attack/Select key is pressed first, the normal attack will be activated immediately, so the arrow key has no effect.
• If Arrow key is pressed first, the inputs sometimes activate the corresponding skill, but sometimes activate the normal attack. This behavior seems to be random and not tied to game mechanics, due to the Select function also works.

Buffer Skill Activation

Buffer Skill Registration

• If the Attack/Select key is pressed within the last 24 frames of an action, the skill inputs are registered as a buffer skill.
• Pressing the Attack/Select key again during this period overwrites the previous buffer skill.

The skill buffer window is obviously 24 frames, and only the skill decided by the last press of the Attack/Select key will be registered.

Specific Activation Windows

Even if a buffer skill is registered, it won't always correctly activate unless the Attack/Select key is pressed within a tighter frame window.

• For one-arrow-key skills, a buffer skill will be correctly activated only if the Attack/Select key is pressed within the last 12 frames of the action.
• For two-arrow-key skills, the above 12 frames changes to 18 frames.
• Except for these situations, all buffer skills will be changed into normal attacks.