Things that would improve HD

[Flashback Jack]

Enough reasons for you?

Not at the moment, because without the option of switching barrel rolls to the input one finds most comfortable, the entirety of this debate circles back to a contest pitting those that can do them against those that can't, for whatever their reasons. As an analog user, your argument is legitimate, but then it becomes a contest of does one adapt to using the direction pad to solve his problems, offer the option of remapping one's controls, or have the method of input changed entirely?

The only half-way point in this contest is to offer the player the option of remapping his controls for that purpose as you say. That I could live with as a d-pad user who takes no issue with barrel rolls, but we need to remind ourselves that barrel rolls themselves aren't the problem. Those in your position need to make up your minds about what you want -- either you want them removed or you want an easier means of executing them given your preference for the analog stick. I could probably say one thing with some certainty -- of the nearly 2,300 members here, I know of only two people that use or have used non-Negcon analog -- yourself and Lunar, and as far as I recall, Lunar holds the same opinion on barrel rolls that you do; you're in the minority.

I understand this about your position -- as an analog user you want to equal the playing field with respect to barrel rolls. I'm not sure how switching input to the airbrakes for those would serve to do that, because I can see there still being a disparity in the number of rolls landed using the airbrakes versus those using the d-pad. Barrel rolling d-pad users will likely succeed more frequently, causing them to come out on top in the long run. I find it hard enough to land barrel rolls on the first jump on Vineta K; I could only imagine how much more difficult it would be to do so with the airbrakes.

But I personally think switching the barrel rolls to the airbrakes would kill off the fine mid-air control I've become used to. The direction pad simply can't cut it for the kind of last second mid-air maneuvers a hotlapper might be familar with boosting out of the Synchro loop on Talon White into the bend, or on Metropia Black, into the bend. For example. In those cases, I use the airbrakes in mid-air to avoid slamming into the walls. That's one major functional tradeoff I can think of if barrel rolls were on the airbrakes. To solve that tradeoff, track design would have to ensure there are no instances where there are sharp inclines that ultimately lead to bends like in Talon White and Metropia Black. Frankly, those tracks would not at all flow smoothly because, in my experience, the direction pad doesn't afford the hard turning response of mid-air braking and I sure as hell don't want Wipeout turning into a Mortal Kombat-style combo fest just to link a turn into a barrel roll if I elect to use the airbrake for hard mid-air turns. We must consider the repercussions of such changes, things that could conceivably alter the core gameplay for the worst.

- F