[Open Assets] Super Mystic Sonic [SMSreborn v3-2: Boundless] v3-2

The overall design ethos of the character in Battle makes enough sense -- the player must collect 30 rings as a standard Sonic with a nerfed thok and no Super Jump / Ground Pounds, and once he transforms, he completely sacrifices any ability to use shields. In theory, this makes SMS the most fragile character in the game, and it forces downtime on the player every time they get hit.

The issue is that the downsides need to be proportional to the strengths, and while on any other character this could be potentially crippling, SMS has such an incredible toolkit that a skilled player can potentially negate these downsides with ease. For example: his mobility is extremely dominant, which means he can control the terms of engagement easily; he has at least one projectile at any given moment, which gives him a method of applying pressure against defensive characters; his standard homing attack, while possible to be countered by certain melee attacks, applies incredible amounts of pressure against some characters due to its lack of downtime when clashing against attacks.

This is all to neglect mentioning Hyper Mystic Sonic, which, while rare, can lead to SMS completely shutting down any possible attempt at engagement on a Control Point due to its lethality, area of influence, and the duration of the attack.

One move that I absolutely cannot stand is the Comet Haymaker and how it interacts with enemy players by forcing them to respond to a Quick Time Event. Never do this in an online environment like SRB2's. Any player that's sitting above 115 ping is simply trashed due to the fact they physically cannot respond in time to defend against the attack. And even if that weren't the case, it's impossible for me to describe just how obnoxious it to be on the receiving end of this, as I get BTFO'd and my extra shields removed at random if I get hit, and I'm pretty much just forced to respond to a single move in SMS's kit with an arbitrary button press which is completely detached from the rest of the game's logic or physics. Furthermore, I don't understand what the appropriate counterplay is supposed to be for a move like this, since he's apparently invulnerable for the duration of this attack and all you can do is QTE if you want to avoid it; based on what I've seen from its abuse online, my current assumption is that there isn't a counterplay.

With all of this on the table, losing shield abilities and asking the player to recollect thirty rings when they get hit really isn't a big ask. For comparison, Tails requires thirty rings just to carry his maximum amount of buzz sentries, and while that allows him to apply a decent amount of pressure safely, it's nowhere near as powerful as what SMS's thirty rings allows him to do. And once Sonic transforms, the challenge becomes about being able to hit him at all, and while this is possibly more doable in modes like CTF and CP which have centralized objectives, an additional +25 points is something of a joke reward in Battle -- especially since a rival SMS is probably going to get those points off of him anyway.

There are counter-relationships to the character as-is, though it's a bit situationally dependent. Amy is a great counter-pick since her twinspin out-prioritizes SMS's homing attack and her charm beam de-transforms SMS entirely. Fang's cork is largely ineffective against an aggressive SMS, but his bombs are fairly decent at playing keep-away. Metal Sonic cannot catch SMS, but he can at least tank hits and retaliate with energy blasts in close quarters. On the flipside, vanilla Sonic seems to be at a total loss, as SMS's homing attack does not seem to suffer downtime during conflicts. Tails vs SMS is something of a stalemate. I haven't had enough time to gauge Knuckles' relationship.

In summary, the core transformation and anti-shield system applied to SMS is actually a good system to use for him, but there are certain variables and attributes to his collective toolkit that I think need to be re-examined before I could ever personally consider adding him onto one of my servers.

• Comet Haymaker outright needs to be removed from his options or its player interaction entirely redesigned for these modes, and the homing attack ought to have enforced downtime when hitting foes.
• SMS players should not receive any points bonus for de-transforming an enemy SMS, since all this is doing right now is encouraging SMS players to farm off of each other for points. Additionally I would consider raising the reward from 75 to 100 points to make the cost-benefit more proportional. (After all, de-transforming SMS is basically akin to "killing" him, isn't it?)
• I would reduce HMS's transform time from 20 seconds to 8-10 seconds. That's still plenty of time to clear out an area and kill at least a couple people, 20 seconds is just complete overkill.
• I would consider upping the initial transform requirement from 30 rings to 50 rings.