It occurs to me that there's no reason why have the stagelist that we do except that there are only a certain number of "non-jank" stages.
Why don't we completely optimize the stagelist? With the custom stages, we can tailor stages to be "tournament-optimal," and then share those stagelists.
We could start by just tweaking existing stages. Warioware was banned because the side blastzones were to short--well, why don't we re-create the stage but with modified blastzones? PS2 has platforms that stop Kirby's downthrow combos, so what if we made an identical custom stage with those platforms slightly re-positioned? (it would also get rid of that annoying background). We could create a Castle Siege that doesn't have that view-blocking foreground element, and we can make a "hazardless" smashville that still has a moving platform.
And of course we could take it a step further. We can break down the elements of stages and develop an ideal list that includes these elements in a utilitarian way.
Here are the elements I've identified (let me know if you can think of more)
We could even have a massive stagelist and ban based on properties. For example, we could have archetypes of "triplat," "biplat," "monoplat," and "FD." Then we could have Small, medium, large horizontal/vertical blastzones, and maybe even a toggle for moving platforms and stage walls.
This would be a LOT of work to create 144 stages (although its' only 36 if we assume no stage walls and only still platforms). But then banning could be entirely different. No you ban based on stage properties that you want.
Now you ban monoplat, I ban triplat and large horizontal blastzones, you ban FD (locking us into biplat) and small horizontal blatzones, etc.
At the end of the day, suppose we ended up on a 1) biplat, 2) medium horizontal blastzone, 3) medium vertical blastzone stage. We would then have an official stage that represents this (it would be identical to the other biplat stages except for the M/M blastzone sizes, and it would be identical to the other M/M blastzone stages except for the number of platforms).
This system may prove too tedious to do convenient banning in large tournaments (or, possibly to make such accurate stages with the tools available right now), but from a theoretical standpoint, what do you guys think?
If that's a step too far, we can just go "back" to having a set list of ~8 stages, but this time they're custom stages and have small microimprovements over the current stagelist (a few examples of which I mentioned in the beginning)?
Why don't we completely optimize the stagelist? With the custom stages, we can tailor stages to be "tournament-optimal," and then share those stagelists.
We could start by just tweaking existing stages. Warioware was banned because the side blastzones were to short--well, why don't we re-create the stage but with modified blastzones? PS2 has platforms that stop Kirby's downthrow combos, so what if we made an identical custom stage with those platforms slightly re-positioned? (it would also get rid of that annoying background). We could create a Castle Siege that doesn't have that view-blocking foreground element, and we can make a "hazardless" smashville that still has a moving platform.
And of course we could take it a step further. We can break down the elements of stages and develop an ideal list that includes these elements in a utilitarian way.
Here are the elements I've identified (let me know if you can think of more)
Length of main stage (ground)
Shape of ground (yoshi’s brawl, lylat, etc)
Distance from ground to side blastzones
Distance from ground to top blastzones
Distance from ground to bottom blastzone
Number and position of platforms
Stage walls
Shape of ground (yoshi’s brawl, lylat, etc)
Distance from ground to side blastzones
Distance from ground to top blastzones
Distance from ground to bottom blastzone
Number and position of platforms
Stage walls
We could even have a massive stagelist and ban based on properties. For example, we could have archetypes of "triplat," "biplat," "monoplat," and "FD." Then we could have Small, medium, large horizontal/vertical blastzones, and maybe even a toggle for moving platforms and stage walls.
This would be a LOT of work to create 144 stages (although its' only 36 if we assume no stage walls and only still platforms). But then banning could be entirely different. No you ban based on stage properties that you want.
Now you ban monoplat, I ban triplat and large horizontal blastzones, you ban FD (locking us into biplat) and small horizontal blatzones, etc.
At the end of the day, suppose we ended up on a 1) biplat, 2) medium horizontal blastzone, 3) medium vertical blastzone stage. We would then have an official stage that represents this (it would be identical to the other biplat stages except for the M/M blastzone sizes, and it would be identical to the other M/M blastzone stages except for the number of platforms).
This system may prove too tedious to do convenient banning in large tournaments (or, possibly to make such accurate stages with the tools available right now), but from a theoretical standpoint, what do you guys think?
If that's a step too far, we can just go "back" to having a set list of ~8 stages, but this time they're custom stages and have small microimprovements over the current stagelist (a few examples of which I mentioned in the beginning)?