User:Toomai/Cloneosity

NOTE: This page is currently being rebooted from scratch. For the previous full version, see this revision.

What is a clone? What is a semi-clone? Is there any meaning to "echo" aside from PR? This page attempts to answer these questions via careful analysis.

Developer intent

For most games, we have official confirmation of which characters the developers consider to be clones. By their definition, the following characters, and no others, are clones:

	Unknown

	None
		DLC character status is unknown
		potentially more unrevealed

This setup leads to the following wordy but fairly accurate definition of "clone":

A clone is a character whose moveset is mostly visually identical to another character's, with most (if not all) attacks and special moves of similar (if not identical) mechanics and operation. Differentiation is primarily by tweaks to physics, alterations to attacks' hitboxes and timings, and unique non-combat animations, though they may also have a few unique moves.

So what does this mean for the term "semi-clone"? Not much really. It's used fairly consistently by the community to refer to characters that would be clones if they didn't differ from their parents in more substantial ways, such as having more than a few unique attacks or a different gimmick altogether. Clearly it's a continuous scale, even if the terms are used in a fairly hardline fashion.

System

This is the system I'm using to determine how much of a clone each character pair is.

For each attack that the clone shares with its potential parent, add 1 point. Most attacks and special moves are weighted equally. The exceptions are:
- Neutral attacks are worth 1 for the entire combo as a whole. For example, if the first two hits are the same but the third is different, the total score is 2/3. Neutral infinites plus the finisher counts as one part. Similar applies to multi-part forward tilts and forward smashes.
- Floor attacks and edge attacks are only worth 0.25, as there is significantly less room for designing such attacks.
An attack is "shared" if any of these apply:
- The animation is similar or identical. (Does it look the same?)
- The animation is not too similar or identical, but the move's function is, or the special move's mechanics and operation are. (Does it do the same thing?)
In the case of custom special moves:
- If a clone has a different custom than their parent, the move's score is softened by -0.125. So having both customs be different is a soften of -0.25.
- If the clone or their parent has a custom that replicates the other, the move's score is penalized by +0.25.
An attempt will be made to avoid hedging - a move either is cloned or it isn't, there's no middle ground. But there may very well be cases where it's impossible to accurately describe something with only 0 and 1. If so, there will be an accompanying explanation.
A difference in access to non-universal movement abilities is worth -0.25 for each difference. This includes wall jumping, wall clinging, crawling, and access to a grab aerial. A difference in number of jumps is worth -0.1 per jump if both characters have more than 2, or -0.25 if either has only 2.
If there is a substantial difference between a clone and its parent not otherwise covered above, it may be worth up to -1. For example, a parent might swing battering items twice with a smash attack, while the clone swings only once. This is a highly judgemental category that is not expected to be used much - only to cover exceptional cases.