Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram/System
Victory conditions
Matches are won by winning the specified number of rounds. By default a match is won by taking two rounds.
Rounds are won by:
A. Depleting the opponents health to 0%.
B. Having more health remaining than the opponent as the round times out.
Default round time is 80 in-game seconds. In case of a draw both players gain a round. This timer is faster than real time, it’s around 70 real seconds.
Draw conditions:
A. Round times out while both players have the same amount of health.
B. Both players health reaches 0% on the same frame (1/60th of a second).
- Timeout play is common and the round time is quite short.
- Some communities/arcades use non-default settings like first to three rounds when not doing tournaments
- Double KO’s are extremely rare since attacks dont cut health instantly but drain over a split second. For example if you take a massive hit at 5% it will drain to 0 faster than a light hit that does exactly 5%.
Lock-On (targeting) system
Targeting the opponent
There is a system in place to determine if your attacks can target the opponent.
Normal attacks will only target the enemy when they are “locked on”. Otherwise the attack will fire off to the current facing of the camera. There are some exceptions* To gain a lock on your target they must momentarily be vertical to the targeting reticle at the middle of your screen.
Lock-on can be obtained by: Usual methods
1. Performing a Jump Cancel or Jump.
or
2. Performing a Dash Attack, which automatically locks the target.
Advanced / alternate methods
3. Performing a Jump into Air Dash Cancel. 4. Performing a Quickstep. 5. Manually rotating enemy into field. (usually ignored)
Lock-on is lost by: Opponent leaving your screen / field of vision.
Essentially you only need to worry about lock-on when you have lost it.
- If you need it in a normal situation, perform a jump cancel. A jump cancel only takes a fraction of a second.
- If you want to attack the enemy without vision or just do a dash attack, then perform a dash attack.
- You can also perform an air dash cancel instead of jump cancel to avoid the short period of staying still; for example when under fire or in a close combat situation.
As mentioned in the rotation section, manual rotation can be used to keep the opponent from exiting the screen.
!Some special projectile attacks do not require lock-on. Some attacks will always target the opponents vertical axis regardless of lock-on.
- Firing without lock-on is still used for manual aiming attacks on the ground plane. For example laser or explosion type attacks.
Double lock / melee range
When close enough to an opponent the lock-on reticle will expand into a large square shape. This indicates that you are in Close Combat range and able to perform melee and other close combat actions. Range is character specific, and corresponds with one of your weapons being able to perform melee attacks.
Double lock can be active even if the opponent is behind you, provided you are close enough. Use this to your advantage: you can start a Quickstep when the enemy is right behind you.
Range counter
Near the middle of the screen around the lock-on reticle there is a number display that shows your distance to the opponent. This is always accurate even if the opponent is offscreen and includes altitude if they’re above you.
Tracking off-screen opponent
When the opponent is off-screen their position is indicated by an orange arrow. Since enemies can often exit the screen while being in close range or high up in the air, try to get used to keeping track of the arrow to know opponents rough position without direct vision.
Paying some attention to the range counter lets you gauge distance without vision on the opponent. It can also give an idea as to how close they are to landing to the ground if they are in the air. You can also can keep track of various audio cues corresponding to ground dashes or attacks.
Damage scaling, Recovery & Knockdown states
Damage & knockdown calculation
- All damage and knockdown taken is reduced when in a crouching state.
- All damage and knockdown taken is reduced when in the approach phase of a melee attack: the movement towards opponent, before attack initates.
- Knockdown taken is reduced while ground dashing.
These factors stack. Reduction rates are character specific.
Damage is dealt by draining the players health over a split second instead of instantly cutting health on hit. This only really affects timeout and near double KO situations (it makes double KOs extremely rare)
Damage of various projectiles differs upon range (more damage the closer the hit). For some projectiles that actively float around the stage, their damage varies over time.
V-Armor system
In VOOT all characters start rounds with a full gauge of V-Armor, similar to health. V-Armor is an additional defensive stat that determines if certain projectiles can get deflected at range making them not deal any damage. On the flipside characters often have moves specialized for stripping V-Armor and softening the opponent.
In most cases this V-Armor mechanic has a minor effect. Unless your attacks are getting deflected you don’t need to worry about it.
The strength (ability to deflect attacks) of V-Armor is character dependant. The strength of armor is further attenuated by the state of the VR: V-Armor ability is increased the further the projectile has flown. V-Armor ability is reduced while in the air and increased while crouching.
As an example Dordray and Angelan have high V-Armor while Cypher has almost no armor.
Deflectable attacks
Generally basic type attacks like Temjin RW are deflectable by V-Armor.
Armor piercing attacks
Melee attacks, grenades and various character specific moves pierce through V-Armor and always do damage.
V-Armor stripping attacks
Left turbo attacks often drop the targets V-Armor, but this is only a general rule.
Knockdown & knockdown values
See Movement / Wakeup options for additional details.
After reaching a knockdown treshold (character specific) you lose control and your VR gets knocked to the ground.
Knockdown values reset if you don’t get hit for a while.
The enemy can hit you with any attack as you are knocked down as long as the hitbox can connect. Damage is heavily scaled down but remains relative to the damage of the move. Even though the scaling is heavy these hits can make a big difference in a round as a single grounded hit can range from around 3% to 10%.
The enemy can perform a OTG melee for highest possible damage. But these are rarely guaranteed, usually they cannot hit a player who mashes out fast enough with safe(!) wakeup.
Options after safe wakeup
You have a moment of full invincibility that is not interrupted by any action. Use this to move around or attack. If you wake up into a hitbox (for example a grenade or laser net) you will remain invulnerable until the attack is gone.
Wakeup & okizeme in general
Generally the player who got knocked down is always safe on wakeup and gets to do some attack during invincibility.
A universal method to gain a slight advantage on the knocked down opponent is to move behind them right before wakeup (usually using quickstep). They lose vision on you and to regain it will be forced to jump cancel, move into the air or perform a dash attack. That means they cannot act first or have to perform a risky move or blind attack. Some VR can set some kind of wakeup pressure like delayed attacks. You can set up an area denial attack like a grenade so the person waking up can’t shoot anything for a moment after wakeup. All these factors can be combined to make stronger & more confusing okizeme.
Hitstun, Stagger & Stun states
Hitstun
Projectile invulnerable, melee vulnerable: VR blinks transparent eg. cypher daggers.
Usually accompanied by the players actions getting interrupted and a short flinch animation. The flinch can be comboed from or just used to continue pressure.
Advanced note: invulnerability continues indefinitely until there is a break in the attack. This was initially added to avoid guaranteed wakeup setups. It can be used for the defenders advantage by staying inside a long-lasting hit area.
Stagger / ‘Electric’ stun
VR goes in a special stun animation emitting sparks.
Player loses control of their VR for a duration. Attacks during stun add no knockdown value, making the target susceptible to large combos.
Mash directional and rotation inputs to speed up escape of any instance of this kind of stun. Can be escaped much faster than with no inputs.
A midair stun causes a heavy landing state similar to falling from a platform, with uncancellable landing recovery.
VRs have attacks that always cause stun, and ones which cause range specific or random stun. The latter ones usually have a short/minor effect.
Advanced note: you can jump on the first frame after escaping staggers even while airborne.
Slow state (Dordray Claw/Drill, Cypher Dagger, Apharmd C)
Projectile attached to VR.
VR movement speeds are slowed down during this state, effect depends on attack.
Confused state (Fei-Yen hearts)
Manual rotation and jump movement speed reduced. Can be shortened by mashing any actions.
Frozen state (Angelan RTRW)
Similar to Stagger, but cannot jump from the escape frame.
Matchup Specific Mechanics
Things regarding the game system that change drastically depending on your opponent.
Character Health Values
Character health pools are matchup specific in VOOT. This seems to be a last step of balancing the game. But in some cases the health changes make matchups less balanced.
(For example Raiden having low health against Fei-Yen)
Name on the left is the used character. Vertical columns match opponent characters.
Projectile priority
Projectile attacks have a priority system, where one attack might go through another, cancel eachother out or get eaten by a stronger projectile. These change how a matchup plays and may limit viable moves.
This also applies to explosion type attacks. Most projectiles will be destroyed by explosions but there are attacks which can pierce through them.
- Example 1: Specineff’s basic RW shot pierces through laser attacks. It’s dangerous for Raiden to throw out lasers as they lose their blocking property.
- Example 2: On xbox 360 version Bal-Bados’ basic mines destroy Angelan LTCW shield in one hit. The shield becomes basically useless.
- Example 3: Grys-Vok and many other VR use explosion type attacks for self defense. Firing explosion piercing attacks can counteract this.
Miscellaneous System Details
Movement system
Movement speed is relative to distance
- All movement speed is slowed down relative to how close you are to the opponent. The closer you are the slower you move.
- As such it’s easy to get stuck in a close ranged battle or maintain a long distance battle.
Precise function of jump and jump cancel to lock-on
- During the rise of a jump and the falling part of a short jump cancel your VR very quickly rotates towards the opponent. This isn’t done in an instant fashion.
- If you cancel a jump very quickly to an air dash no rotation is done. If you do a very short jump cancel you will rotate less than 180 degrees.
- These traits can be used intentionally to control rotation further.
Character jump height
Maximum jump height varies between characters but this is generally insignificant.
| VR | Jump Height | Relative Height |
|---|---|---|
| Cypher | 84.6 | 100.00% |
| Bal-Baros* | 98.11% | |
| Angelan | 77.6 | 91.76% |
| Temjin | 74.6 | 88.23% |
| Apharmd C | 74.6 | 88.23% |
| Specineff | 73.8 | 87.33% |
| Apharmd B | 73.5 | 86.88% |
| Apharmd S | 73.5 | 86.88% |
| Fei-Yen Kn | 66.7 | 78.90% |
| Grys-Vok | 66.7 | 78.90% |
| Stein-Vok | 66.7 | 78.90% |
| 10/80 Sp | 66.7 | 78.90% |
| Raiden | 62.3 | 73.65% |
| Bal-Bados | 59.4 | 70.26% |
| Dordray | 58.0 | 68.64% |
| Ajim | 55.0 | 65.03% |
Jump height table gathered by sixfortyfive.
Projectile & hit system
- Certain projectiles damage varies over range. This can be either close or far range and range from 0% to full damage.
- Some projectiles constantly gain damage the further they are active. (things like Specineff and Stein-Vok homing orbs)
It’s common for projectile speed and homing to vary over range.
Projectiles that usually cause knockdown can hit at the same time with all of them dealing full damage. For this to happen they need to connect with the opponent on the same frame (1/60th of a second). Easy to reproduce on a still target. Just like knockdowns, projectile hitstun ability varies depending on the opponent VR. Lightweight VRs will get stunned by lighter attacks. This creates character-specific interrupts and combos.
Damage system
Damage reduction modifiers for each character
| VR | Crouch | Melee | Crouch Melee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fei-Yen Kn | 80% | 40% | 32% |
| 10/80 SP | 80% | 40% | 32% |
| Cypher | 80% | 60% | 48% |
| Temjin | 80% | 70% | 56% |
| Apharmd B | 80% | 70% | 56% |
| Raiden | 80% | 80% | 64% |
| Grys-Vok | 80% | 80% | 64% |
| Stein-Vok | 80% | 80% | 64% |
| Apharmd S | 80% | 80% | 64% |
| Apharmd C | 80% | 80% | 64% |
| Bal-Series | 80% | 80% | 64% |
| Dordray | 80% | 80% | 64% |
| Angelan | 80% | 80% | 64% |
| Specineff | 80% | 80% | 64% |
| Ajim | 80% | 80% | 64% |
Melee defense modifier applies during the approach phase of the attack.
Notice how much the damage is reduced with crouch melee with the characters with the 3 highest modifiers.
Examples on how to utilize this defense boost in Advanced Techniques.
Match timer damage bonus (10%)
Damage in a match is slightly increased over time passed. This adjustment reaches its maximum of +10% after 60 seconds. It carries between rounds. This property can usually be ignored but it’s good to know that damage dealt is a little lower on match start.
