Toribash Rundown: How to manipulate the physics of the Aikido mod and why this is important.
Hi hello hi. I'm here because I'm a wannabe Toribash player who thinks he has a few tips to pass on to new players that may ease the introduction period in aikido a bit. These tips may be applicable in other mods as well. I dunno, I don't play other mods very often. Well, time to get started I suppose.
Please make note of this thing of pure AWESOME (created by Fear and Qubic, but I can’t find the version that was updated by Qubic, so this’ll have to do). It helped me immeasurably. You guys are the best, Fear, Qubic.
Aikido: Aikido in Toribash is a rather popular mod, likely the most popular out there. To understand the mod, you have to understand why certain things will not work in this mod, and why other things work particularly well. To start this off, I'll state the conditions you play under. Aikido is played at -30 gravity, with 350 total match frames and staggered turn frames in the form of 10, 20, 20, and 30. Dq, Dm, and fracs are all turned on, and the threshold for fracs is 200, with Dms being 325. This means that it requires a harder hit to dm than to frac. The engage distance in Aikido is 90, with a 15 reaction time being the standard. Right, all that technical shpeel is done with.
Wait I lied. Definitions!
Dq- Disqualification
Dm- Dungeon Ma- I mean… Dismemberment. Heh.
Frac- Fracture (when the joint goes all purple)
Match frames- Total amount of frames in a match.
Turn frames- The amount of frames gone through in a turn.
Threshold- The amount of force needed on a specific joint to cause a specific reaction.
Engage distance- How far away from the other player you start.
Reaction time- How fast your joints take to react to your commands.
Mana- How much magica-… I got off topic again.
Now it’s all done.
Part 1: Introduction
First we need to ask ourselves, what is the purpose of the game mode aikido?
Well, winning is. Got it? Good.
We know what we have to do now, but we don't know how we go about doing it. So, how do you win in aikido?
...
Well, you win by Dqing the enemy, or Out-pointing him. Dqing is by far the safer (and more skilled unless you’re like a fucking mathematical prodigy that can calculate things that are ALMOST so complex as to make them random to the average person) route to take, because it gives you more control over your situation, since you can probably move your tori better than you can read how many points this hit or that hit will give you (again, unless you’re a supercomputer in your own right).
Wonderful.
So, we know we are trying to Dq the enemy, and that is our one purpose and goal in life.
After we do this, we can die happy.
So how do we Dq our enemy?
By forcing his arse to meet the cold, hard, unforgiving ground.
"But... I just fall over every time I play."
Oh? Well then, we should fix that first.
What I want you to do, right now, before you touch anything else, is just press c. Nothing else. Just press c. Well, would ya look at that! You're standin’! Congrats.
"So... The hell do I do from here?"
Well, first off, your positioning, as it is right now, is just plain stupid. So we can try to fix that. Contract your pecs. Why you ask? Because that guy in front of you, just over there, is gonna try to knock you on your ass before you land there by yourself. So, get something between him and your body, the most reactive part of you. You moved your pecs? Good.
That move still looks rather silly though, doesn't it? Don't disagree with me, It is silly, you poppycock. Why is it silly? Because you're still standing there like a stone wall. Now, it may have worked for Jackson, but today your opponent is not the Union army. No... they are much more capable.
They are 14 year old Cynics. AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
So how do you defeat these incredible foes!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!:3!?!?!?!?!?
Just... grab. It's amazingly simple, and most beginners, including yourself, if you’re reading this, have no idea how to manipulate their own tori’s, let alone another person’s.
However... this doesn't work too great against people with more than 5 brain cells. So you have your arms extended, and you're grabbed, but you face someone that can do things! Welcome to the world of the Orange Belt! So here's what you do.
First, let us get something straight. Not every move works every time, in every situation. That would be silly. The things I'm telling you to do are not amazing, they are not great, and they are not wonderful. You will fail before you succeed. The things I tell you to do now? You're gonna be throwing them outta the window in a few days, even within a day. Using your tori is not as simple as learning a bunch of shitty moves and styles that make you "unique" and "special". It's very complicated, and very, very hard to explain. That's why you get a bunch of people saying "you've just gotta play, the more you play, the better you get". This is true in MOST circumstances, but not all. There is a ceiling to this technique, and once you hit it, you have to find other ways to get better. This first part will cover basic moves, however, the further you read, the more I will go into exactly how to play better, not just more complicated movements and whatnot. So with that little shpeel outta the way, let’s get back to business.
So that orange belt over there has ya in a bit-o-a-pickle, doesn't he? Well no need to fear, you just spent your entire turn reading this, which means...! Oh. Yea, well that will happen when you read in the middle of a match, bucko.
Welp, you have a bit before you’re playing again, so now you can read! Everyone loves reading! So here's what you do. If letting them kill themselves is... no longer a viable option (although I contend I had a 70% w/l ratio up until 2nd Dan with this tactic, make of that what you will) then you actually have to learn how to move! Yes, move! That thing you were so frickin’ afraid of up until you were 2, and now you hate doing it again ever since you (re)discovered the computer! So, what do you move? Well, let’s start with getting you a better stance. Use your glutes! Open your legs! No, not like that, you and your naughty mind. Extending your glutes widens your stance, making it more secure. The wider your basing, the stronger the building. It's even shown in the Great Pyramids for cryin’ out loud.
Too wide, though, and your ass is on the ground of your own volition. So don’t widen too much.
However! You can't JUST widen your stance, because that helps you for naught when the force is hitting your stance from the un-widened side. So, how do we present your widened stance to the enemy?
Use dat chest! Yes, the one you store all your loot- I mean, get the hell off Skyrim while I'm teaching! Geez, you have a lot of nerve. Anyway, your chest is going to be invaluable here. First rotate your chest (either direction is fine) and then relax the knee that shares the name with your chest direction. It's not much widening, but you now have a more stable stance. When you’re more capable, you can figure out the other ways to widen your stance. For now, this is simple, easy, and competent.
"But, this stance doesn't have much potential for hitting things! I wanna hit things!"
Woah, slow down there. Ya’ can't hit things if you're just gonna take a plunge every time you manage a good shot to the face. You know what this stance does give you a lot of potential for though? Sending that SOAB that's facing you right outta the arena. And you don't have to do diddly-squat! So, the turn after you make that stance, I want you to hold your glutes. Yes, I do see that kick you really want to pull off. I'm telling you not to do it. Why? Because it's obvious and bad.
You're gonna do it anyway, aren't ya? Fine. I can wait.
...
...
...
...
Oh, hi! Welcome back to reality!
Now, extend the hip and pec that are furthest away from the enemy. This will draw them towards you, which is good. It's good right? Yea, it is, don’t fricking argue with me. It gives you more control of the match. From here, just try to make sure you put them between the floor and you. Chances are this kid hasn't learned how to suplex yet. Wait no, scratch that. I have a better idea! Lift your shoulders. Trust me, only good things will come of this. See that line on the ground, the one that is always confining you to this miserable little piece of the hell-scape that is the world of Toribash? Put that guy that you are lifting up... outta that line. You will win every time!
Huzzah! You're beating orange belts! Now keep reading, cause there's more information in here- Wait, where do ya think yer’ goin'!? Get back here! I'm not done teachin' you!
Ohhhh, you'll be back. Give it a few belts, you'll be back.
Part 2: Basic Physics and why you need to know this
…
Welcome back. I like that shiny black belt cha' got there. Nice rank too. So you're a pro now, arent'cha? Indeed, you even have that fancy new head texture that you always wanted. You ready to rock with the pros? Aight, let’s go!
Hey, you're doing pretty well actually. Looks like you picked up a few things. You've got that opener that nobody's seen in a while, good. Fightin’ black belts is significantly harder than using one opener, you got any more that you can pull out?
...
...
Boss, that opener is only gonna get you so far. Soon someone will counter- and here it is. Ya’ won a couple of games, and that's pretty good, but you won't be able to tango in the big leagues just yet. Alright, we can work on this.
The first thing I want you to do, right now, is start clickin’ randomly on joints. Why? It's the best goddamn practice there is for both balance and striking. The concept of this is to see what you can learn about joint behavior when different interactions are utilized. The more fucked up your stance is the first turn, the greater the potential to learn. At least in theory. Ok, in MY theory. I dunno if anyone else holds that opinion. However, here’s my reasoning; if you know your joints well enough to save yourself from that major fuck-up in the first turn, (I like to do it for 2 turns, just for funsies) then you probably do have at least base knowledge on how your joints interact with each-other. BASE knowledge, kid. You ain’t ready to step to the beat yet. I’ve gotta teach you how to dance first. Lindy-hop or Tango? Your choice.
Ok, so you’re clicking randomly. Seems that you have a bit o’ a predicament there, with the situation you put yourself in. Never fear, I’m about to teach you basic PHYSICS! Class starts at 0800. If you’re late you run laps.
So Physics! Didn’t think you’d need math, didja? Forget your calculator? Welp, can’t do anything for ya then.
Kiddin’, obviously. What we’re doing here is Laymen’s physics. Which means no math involved. Wow, you look so relieved at that. Anyway, let’s begin.
What you need to realize here is that we are getting far more into concepts that will always be applicable in any situation that you come across in the game, regardless of the joint cluster we happen to be discussing here. The same physics can be applied elsewhere on your tori. Got that?
“OMG just teach me already!”
FUCK OFF I DO NOT HAVE ISSUES. *cough* ahem.
So first thing first, let’s talk about the six classical simple machines.
“GROA--*SLAP*”
Sit down and shut up, this is important.
The six classical simple machines are as follows: Lever
Wheel and axle
Pulley (Will talk about this sorta kinda. It is part of TB, but not in its entire sense.)
Inclined Plane
Wedge
Screw
The ones we have to worry about are bolded. The ones we really have to worry about are italicized. The ones that are SUPER DUPER important are also underlined. Got that? Ok cool.
Here’s a YouTube link because there’s someone more intelligent than me in it- Here
WAIT DAMN WRONG LINK- Here
So let’s start with a random one… hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I know!
Levers.
Levers.
The single most important thing in Toribash, the fucking lever. Everything you do is a lever movement. Every joint you move acts as a lever. Your entire tori can be used as a lever. WE ARE LEVER. WE ARE ONE.
…what was I talking about? Oh right.
Levers are everywhere in Toribash. Let’s start with what levers are. Levers, as per Wikipedia (Wiki) and what my memory of kindergarten tells me, can be used to make it immensely easy to move a large amount of force a small distance using a minimal amount of force over a large distance. So in Laymen’s terms: Big object moved with little effort. OMG HOW WE DO DIS?!?!?!?!?!
Well first we establish a pivot point. Simple enough: put yer arm on the ground. Make it rigid. We have our pivot point now, it’s the shoulder. Now, a lever isn’t much use if we don’t have an object to move, right?
“Well you could alwa-*SLAP*”
Shut the hell up and agree with me.
So in this scenario, the Tori itself is the beam, so we need a weight to move. Let’s use that other guy over there. Grab him with your other arm. Ok cool. We have the weight we need to move, and we have our pivot point and beam. So Toribash is a little different than a normal lever, but we can make this as simple as possible. Raise the shoulder that is attached to the arm on the floor. Good! Now that motion might not be enough to lift the guy off the floor depending on what position you’re currently in (That will literally almost never work because other physics reasons), but that’s the basic premise of the lever. Move stuff. Like that guy. Out of the arena.
Now practically for that move to work, you’re using at minimum 2 levers. Yer’ gonna have to make a COMPOUND Machine. Both shoulders. Raise’m both. 1 time outta 10 you have a successful move in that situation. Probably not.
Again, I want to clarify, I’m not teaching you moves here. I’m teaching premises. It’s up to you to figure out how to use these things in game. Everything you are doing is using levers. Trust me.
Planes.
So let’s learn about plains.
So tapping WW2 allows you to play Wrath o-… What do you mean we’re not playing MTG?
You’re beautiful bby, never change.
Planes. Inclined Planes (I like Wiki). They’re freakin’ awesome. I’m here to tell you why you should be excited about them. See, in Toribash we use them only a lit- ALL THE TIME. Lemme show ya. Imagine someone attempting a suplex. What’s he look like? Is he standing straight up?
“Yes”
You’re a fucking liar.
He’s at an angle. Now since he’s at an angle, he’s actually exemplifying an inclined plane. Inclined planes are used to make it easier to move an object to a higher position (or lower). This is crucial in many aspects of Toribash.
Did you clap? Inclined Plane.
Kick? Tons of Inclined Planes.
Relax all? Inclined Planes.
Do something random as all hell? Inclined Plane.
Pressed C? Fuck you for pressing C and not doing anything.
My point is, we use them for a lot of things, usually (almost ALWAYS) in conjunction with the lever. If you’re moving your tori, you’re making an inclined plane somewhere and are utilizing levers somewhere. Get it-Got it-Good. Now why are we using them?
Well it makes it easier to move an object in a vertical motion, especially with Toribash’s friction setup. If you have a contact point on the ground, you can effectively stop a momentum several times greater than the force that is applied between your contact point and the ground. You have to get them off their contact point, and the easiest way to do that is straight up. This is only one of the reasons it’s important, but that’s all I’m going over because I’m lazy. Also the rest you should eventually be able to figure out on your own.
Wedges.
Now let’s talk Wedges.
Actually before that, lemme state something. The above 2 machines are the basis for literally every other machine I’m about to speak on. They are the most important. Do not forget that.
Wedge. Stability. The DM master. All of these are acceptable titles for this majestic object.
So a wedge is a beautiful little machine. It’s what allows us to rip our opponents apart, what allows us to tripod, and is just… so… solid. Lemme explain.
“Boooooooori-*POWERSLAP*”
DON’T MAKE ME GET THE PADDLE.
Ahem. The wedge is literally the one thing that we use when we contact the opposing tori. Don’t believe me? Well, lemme show you something that will BLOW YOUR MIND.
When you use your foot, your hand, your elbow, knee, head, chest (ok maybe not chest), wrist, etc., to hit the opposing player, you’re exerting force against an object. That force shoves against the opposing player at a specific point, forcing separation at the point of impact. Even though Toribash doesn’t have any objects that are actually inclined by default, using an object with a smaller surface area against an object with a larger surface area produces essentially the same effect. People that do SP boom-hit replays will know this really well. They focus on getting their hands and feet wedged into the opposing joints before the game registers the impact, so that when it does, the foot will inflict more damage against the joints and break them apart, essentially using the foot as a wedge.Shook has a thing on this somewhere. Oh look, he also covers momentum. I’ll cover that later, but yea, Shook’s awesome, and better than me, go learn from him for a few minutes.
Oh hey welcome back.
I have some more examples of wedging as they occur in Toribash for you.
Hand as wedge:
Head as wedge:
Screw
Ok so we’ve covered wedges. Let’s talk Screws. Screw you. (Hah I’m hilarious)
So a screw. It’s really not in Toribash in the traditional sense. However, the ability to emulate one is very much present. So what does a Screw do? A screw is basically taking an inclined plane and actually compacting the horizontal distance an inclined plane needs to travel the same amount of distance vertically.
“…What?”
Sigh. It makes things go up faster. Happy?
“No this fucking thing is way too long nobody’s gonna read it.”
Well fuck you too.
Anyway… How is it used in Toribash? Well, it’s more common than you might think. In fact, whenever you rotate your chest and lift your arms, you are technically using yourself as a screw. See, you are adding a rotational force to your lift, making it easier to get the load (aka the other tori) off the ground. This is also true with the usage of the pecs, and… well, if you have a force going up and a force going left or right, you are technically using a screw. As long as you have a force and another force perpendicular (more or less) to the first force acting, that is technically a screw.
So yea. Screws. We covered that. On to the one that is going to be literally glanced over, because of how absolutely situational the concept is in Toribash and there’s really no great way to explain where to use it.
Wheel and axle
Da WHEEL
…and axle. (We don’t like to talk about him too much though)
So…yea. This thing exists. And it’s only SLIGHTLY more relevant than the pulley. Alas, we still must discuss it.
The wheel and axle is a simple machine that allows rotation along one plane. It’s a fucking LEVER. Or, a series of lever movements centered around one point. That coincidentally also ends up making all those lever movements inclined planes. Why do you need to know this?
You don’t. Literally if I was going to give examples you’d find it’d be the same as the lever explanations. Every joint functions as a wheel and axle, rotating around one point. Ok done with this section.
Pulley
On to pulleys.
…
We have just covered pulleys. Congrats.
Part 3: Joint Dynamics
Joint Dynamics
For fucktards.
Right, this is a big topic. At least the way I want to explain it.
Most people would tell you one of the following things relating to playing:
“Play and you’ll get it eventually”
“It’s alright, everyone is new at some point”
“LOL, git gud, U FuKiN SCRUb!”
“M8 I fukd ur Mum”
I say Duck all that shit. There is a way to get better fast, and it’s something I learned fairly early on; joint dynamics. What is joint dynamics? It’s a phrase that I just made the fuck up as I was writing this because joint manipulation is already taken. It is also (and more practically) a phrase that is intended to illustrate that moving a joint will inevitably have consequences on other joints. Including the opponents joints. Now, everyone generally knows that moving a joint will cause other joints to rotate. The reason we need to cover this is because people need to realize that some joints will have a greater effect than others, some joint combinations effectively cancel each other out (therefore leading to wasted movement), and some combinations complement each other really, really well. Being frank, the concept of joint dynamics is what allows people to execute power in their punches, smoothness in their spars, and quickness in their kicks.
Another thing: Proper knowledge of joint dynamics allows you to be able to play WITHOUT using the ghost (disclaimer: results may vary. If you cannot maintain proper gameplay for 30 minutes, It’s just that your game is small and probably very weak. It is not the fault of ghost-less action.) effectively. Let us get down to brass tacks, shall we?
First, we’ll learn about joint effectiveness.
Joint Effectiveness
Joints are not created equally. Some are more necessary, some are less. The more a joint can affect other joints, the more useful you will find that joint to be. Henceforth, this effect will be referred to as joint effectiveness.
Joints all have the same capacity for lifting, surprisingly enough. The major difference in determining whether you can throw something in Toribash is not how powerful the joint is, but how long the joint connector is that is attached to that joint. This is why, when the tori is holding a Uke above the head with a contracted wrist, it can actually “flick” that wrist quite effectively. Now if the joint trying to be moved is the elbow, and that is already contracted, you will find it much more difficult to extend that elbow, because of the distance from the pivot to the load. Along this line, the reason that wrists break more than other joints is not because they are weak, but rather because they have more conflicting force applied to then than any other joint in the game, by both the Tori and the Uke.
Remember though that every joint will have some effect on the rest of the body, so experimentation is needed. For example, everyone that played this game, at the beginning, tried to punch their opponent at least one time. AT LEAST one. Now, what did you do to punch? Probably contracted an elbow, contracted a pec/chest, then extended them on the next turn. However, if you contract the elbow, wrist, pec, and rotate the chest properly, you get a stronger hit after you extend everything on the next turn. Add the lumbar in for some control over where you hit them. Add the abs for even more control. Extend the opposite pec for even more power, get some knee and hip movement in there too for extra power and direction. Geez, add the neck in while you’re at it, it can’t hurt. Arms? Throw that opposite one up and away, it’ll add spin to your first turn and land the hit more solidly. Now you have a pretty powerful friggin punch.
WIP. (More pictures, more sections to come, Part three is incomplete, needs visual aids and more in-depth coverage, but if I don't post what I have I never will.)
Last edited by Templar; Jun 14, 2017 at 11:32 AM.
Reason: Holy shit these spoilers are fucking annoying.
FREE-SPEECH CAUSE FUCK YOU
ONLY COMMIES CHANGE AVVYS
Tl;dr: I hate Tl;dr's. Also thanks guys, If you see anything I can improve on or cover better, please let me know, I plan to expand this heavily and in great detail at a later point.
Last edited by Templar; Jan 8, 2016 at 05:07 AM.
FREE-SPEECH CAUSE FUCK YOU
ONLY COMMIES CHANGE AVVYS