Official Custom Moveset Project

The Official Custom Moveset Project was a project based in SmashBoards to create preset custom moveset combinations for every character in Super Smash Bros. 4, in an effort to make the use of custom moves logistically viable in tournaments. It allowed players to select from a number of pre-selected custom movesets for characters, as well as providing a number of preset Mii characters.

The project was started by former Balanced Brawl developer Amazing Ampharos in 2014, and it was accepted by a large number of local and regional tournaments in March 2015, with EVO 2015 being the largest tournament that used the project. Following EVO 2015 in July 2015, it was decided by the majority of tournament organizers to place a general ban on custom moves, for a variety of different factors. As a result, the Official Custom Moveset Project was officially discontinued in late 2015, though a number of custom move side-events have continued to use the original project.

History

Adoption

One of Smash 4's selling points was the ability for characters to utilize a variety of different special moves compared to their usual moveset. This was also prominently featured in reveal trailers for the Mii Fighters and Palutena, who had completely unique special moves available as custom movesets. As a result, smashers were interested in seeing how the metagame of Smash 4 could change in response to custom movesets, though it was debated as to what the best course would be for custom movesets. The Official Custom Moveset was produced in response, as it was believed allowing only certain movesets could prevent logistics issues in tournaments regarding players wanting to select specific movesets, as well as providing "groundwork" for potential matchup analysis. The Official Custom Moveset Project later gained approval from the Smash 4 community and a number of tournament organizers, and tournaments began to use the ruleset in March 2015. In addition to a number of local and regional tournaments, EVO 2015 stated their intention to use the project's list of ideal custom moveset combinations as part of their ruleset.

Controversy

Custom movesets, however, proved a controversial topic in the timespan from their legalization to EVO 2015. While some players thought it helped to make the metagame of Smash 4 deeper, a number of players felt that the inclusion of custom movesets in tournaments hurt the integrity of the game, as it introduced far too many potential matchups, and it provided opportunities for players to use movesets that their opponents may not have had any experience with.

Some players also claimed that the extent custom movesets helped characters was unfair. A number of bottom-tier characters, such as Zelda, Jigglypuff and King Dedede, were argued to gain little to no benefit from custom movesets, and some top-tier characters, such as Diddy Kong and Sheik, were also argued to actually gain even further benefits from their custom movesets, leading to further imbalance in Smash 4. Some custom movesets were also argued to have created degenerate gameplay for some characters, with characters such as Sonic and Donkey Kong gaining powerful options that most players found unfun or frustrating to deal with. Villager especially became controversial for his custom movesets, with Mew2King citing him as the reason certain custom moves should be banned, specifically referencing a match where ADHD defeated Nairo with a custom Villager, despite considering Nairo the stronger player. The release of Mewtwo, the first DLC character, was also claimed to have created further imbalance, as Mewtwo and all other DLC characters lacked custom moves of any sort, preventing DLC characters from gaining any potential benefits.

Tournament organizers also felt that the need to create custom movesets, regardless if they were pre-set or not, reduced the number of potential setups players could bring to tournaments, as unlocking all the potential custom moves required considerable time and effort from players; unlike unlockable characters or unlockable stages, custom parts could only be attained through specialized methods that did not guarantee a new custom move. As the Official Custom Moveset Project also required a "master" 3DS console for each Wii U setup, this meant that players who owned a Wii U, but not a 3DS, would be unable to use their Wii U as a setup. Furthermore, the laborious process of unlocking custom moves was made slightly more efficient with the 3DS version of the game, meaning that players without the 3DS version of the game would likely have greater difficulty in unlocking all the custom movesets.

Outside of the above, there was debate over how effectively the Official Custom Moveset Project could police itself; on top of having 52 characters with 8 movesets each, it was questioned how well the staff behind the project could monitor which movesets proved too weak or strong, as well as who would get a say in what moveset combinations were too strong.

In conclusion, Custom moves were by far one of the most unbalanced things ever introduced in any Super Smash Bros. game in general, leading to random kills to degenerative gameplays that caused frustration and rage through the first years in Smash 4 competitive lifespan.

Discontinuation

A majority of tournament organizers moved to place a ban on all custom moves following the conclusion of EVO 2015, beginning with majors such as Low Tier City 3 and Smash Factor 4. Custom movesets have not appeared as part of a ruleset in major tournaments (including EVO 2016) since, and the Official Custom Moveset Project was discontinued in response, with the thread on the project later locked.

Despite the ban, some tournaments, such as Glitch and Glitch 2, have allowed the use of custom movesets with the original Official Custom Moveset Project, though only in separate side events. A few regions, such as the Australian scene, have also allowed the use of custom movesets in varying degrees, but this is generally only restricted to Mii Fighters and sometimes Palutena.

Format

Each character has ten preset custom moveset combinations available in addition to the default combination (except Mii Fighters, who additionally have more movesets available), transferred from a master 3DS with every custom unlocked, all without equipment and named by number of the combination's neutral special, side special, up special, and down special, respectively. The combinations were chosen with input from each character's playerbase, to be the 10 most competitively-viable move combinations possible, and thus be the moveset combinations the vast majority of players would use if given their own free reign to select. These combinations can be selected immediately via the character select screen on each Wii U that has been set up to accommodate, which not only eliminates the time that would be spent by players putting their custom moveset together manually, but also ensures players do not run into issues with their preferred custom moves not being available on a Wii U setup. Smaller tournaments may still choose to allow players to replace the last two custom moveset combinations with their own preference, which is explained further below.

Previous formats

Before the 1.0.8 update, characters only had eight custom moveset combinations, with the two empty slots always being reserved for players' preferred combinations; this was changed in order to accommodate EVO 2015 and their stance against allowing players the ability to add their own combinations. In addition, two of a character's combinations were always all of the second available options and all of the third available options; however, these combinations were no longer required and the majority removed in the update as few were considered viable sets.

List of available combinations

Character	Custom sets available
Bayonetta	N/A
Bowser	1211	1311	3211	3311	1212
	1213	1312	1313	2211	2311
Bowser Jr.	1113	1121	1123	1211	1213
	1313	3111	3113	3213	1112
Captain Falcon	2111	2112	2113	2121	2122
	2123	2221	2211	2133	3111
Charizard	1311	1313	1331	1333	1113
	1211	1213	3311	2311	1321
Cloud	N/A
Corrin	N/A
Dark Pit	3111	3112	1113	2113	3113
	2111	2112	1112	3311	3121
Diddy Kong	1121	1123	1113	1131	1133
	1211	3111	1213	1112	3121
Donkey Kong	3233	3231	3232	1233	1231
	1232	2233	2231	2232	1333
Dr. Mario	2312	2332	2212	2232	2211
	1311	1332	1212	1211	2322
Duck Hunt	3121	3123	3122	1121	1123
	3132	1132	3111	3221	3323
Falco	1123	1121	1133	1131	3123
	3121	3133	3131	2123	2133
Fox	2132	2332	3132	2122	2322
	3322	1131	1331	2131	3131
Ganondorf	2121	2122	2321	2322	2132
	2332	2222	3122	3121	3112
Greninja	1112	3112	3111	1312	1311
	3312	3311	3113	2112	2111
Ike	2222	2122	2212	2232	3222
	3122	3212	3232	2111	3111
Jigglypuff	1121	1122	1321	1322	2121
	2122	2321	2322	3121	1221
King Dedede	3112	3122	3312	3322	1122
	1312	1322	2112	2122	2312
Kirby	3231	3232	3233	1231	1131
	3133	3131	2231	3221	3331
Link	1211	1213	2211	2213	1311
	1313	2311	2313	1231	3211
Little Mac	2111	2113	2112	2211	2213
	2212	2311	2313	2312	2121
Lucario	2111	3111	1112	2112	3112
	1211	2211	1121	3121	1311
Lucas	N/A
Lucina	3113	3123	1123	3133	1133
	3121	1121	3111	1131	3131
Luigi	1311	1211	3311	3211	3111
	1312	3312	3212	2311	3231
Mario	2312	2332	2212	2232	1312
	1313	1332	1212	1213	2213
Marth	3113	3123	1123	3133	1133
	3121	1121	3111	1131	3131
Mega Man	1313	1312	1311	1323	1322
	1112	1122	3323	3313	1333
Meta Knight	1211	1311	2211	2111	2311
	1212	1312	1121	1112	3111
Mewtwo	N/A
Mii Brawler	2122	1122	2132	1132	2222
	1222		2232	1232
Mii Gunner	3122	3121	3123	3112	3111
	3113	3322	3321	3323	3312
	3311	3313	1122	1121	1123
	3132	3131		3133	1312
Mii Swordfighter	2131	2111	2132	2112	2133
	2113	2231	2211	2232	2212
	2233	2213	1332	1312	1132
	1112		1232	1212
Mr. Game & Watch	3331	3321	3311	1331	1321
	1311	3323	3131	2331	2311
Ness	1112	1121	1122	1311	1312
	1321	1322	1212	2111	1113
Olimar	1112	1311	1312	1212	2112
	2212	2211	2312	2131	3312
Pac-Man	1132	1131	1122	1121	2132
	2131	2122	3131	3132	3121
Palutena	2322	2312	1322	1312	2122
	1122	2332	1332	2313	2323
Peach	2111	2211	2311	2112	2212
	2312	1211	1311	2331	2332
Pikachu	1311	2311	2312	1312	1313
	1331	2313	2331	3311	1321
Pit	3111	3112	1113	2113	3113
	2111	2112	1112	3311	3121
R.O.B.	1231	1233	1331	1333	1332
	2233	1131	1133	1221	1223
Robin	2111	3111	2311	3311	1311
	2132	3132	1132	3113	3131
Rosalina & Luma	2311	2313	2321	2323	2111
	2121	2211	2221	1311	2331
Roy	N/A
Ryu	N/A
Samus	1211	1221	1231	1212	1222
	1232	2211	2231	3211	1213
Sheik	2211	2111	1211	2311	1311
	1213	3213	2212	2312	2231
Shulk	1113	2113	3113	1123	3123
	3213	1122	3122	1213	2123
Sonic	1213	1211	1313	1311	1113
	1321	2213	3213	1223	1331
Toon Link	2111	2121	2131	2113	2133
	2112	2211	2213	3131	1113
Villager	1122	1322	2322	1121	1321
	1312	3322	1332	2122	2121
Wario	1211	1212	1213	1112	1113
	1313	2211	2111	1221	1122
Wii Fit Trainer	2321	1321	3321	3221	2221
	3323	1323	1121	2322	2311
Yoshi	3111	2111	1311	1211	3211
	3311	2211	2311	2113	3112
Zelda	1213	1313	1212	1312	1223
	1323	3212	3312	2213	2312
Zero Suit Samus	1311	1312	1112	2311	2111
	2312	2112	1211	1332	1132
Notes:

External links

• The Official Custom Moveset Project's movelist
• The original proposal for the Official Custom Moveset Project