1.0.3 out! Finishing Touch goes up slopes on the ground, the entry animation has been improved, and Blade Beam in the air has been changed so that you have to be on the ground to even swing the sword, but you can air dodge-cancel the charge.

Hmm... will fix Finishing Touch in the morning. It's like a 2 second fix. Small oversight. Meteorain, however, will not likely change in range. Would a knockback growth boost make up for it? I could increase its grounded range by making him jump higher, but its aerial range would be kind of cheap if it was any bigger. Thoughts?

Ok, everyone, this is it: the final version! Many of you complained about the super scope shot on Blade Beam, so I decided to give the people what they want. Blade Beam no longer uses the super scope and is much more impressive in terms of visuals and sound. The CSS images have been completely redone in much higher resolution and a new pose. This is the last update as far as I'm concerned, so I hope everyone enjoys it.

On Blade Beam:

  The reason I insisted on using the super scope shot, despite constant criticism, was that it was an actual projectile. The way Blade Beam is now, it can go through walls, slopes, and what-have-you. Originally, I felt that a real projectile was better, even if it didn't look good, but working on the new blade beam has changed my mind. Sure there might be some BS stuff you can pull with it on some stages, but overall it makes Cloud feel less like a hack, which is always better in my mind. Thanks again for your input, everyone, and I hope this makes a lot of people who wanted this change happy.

OK, so I'm making one more adjustment to the moveset and releasing it tomorrow alongside the new, higher-res css stuff.

I'd certainly like to see one.

Cloud has been released! Thanks everyone! (There are some really minor sword glow changes in the release version, as well as the FFVII victory fanfare victory theme, so make sure you download it from my vault.)

Haha, yeah, I'm embarrassingly old to be doing this, and I must say, congratulations on what you've accomplished. Never would have guessed you were a teenager.

And, about clean, that sounds like it would have saved me a lot of time, as I went through my animations by hand removing unnecessary key frames. Good to know, although I think I'm quitting when Cloud is done. Except for a Sonic project that I'm probably the only one interested in. I'm giving him a short range spin dash for f-smash instead of the punch, and changing his jumps/falls so that he falls in a ball, and giving him a hit box that will enable him to bounce off of enemies like in the genesis games. You know, because I'm old.

Actually, no, as far as I could tell, the clean button didn't seem to do anything, so I never use it. How does it work o.O?

Edit:
[If I had to guess why my animations look good, I'd probably give 3 reasons:

1. I did a 6 1/2 minute stop motion animation for my animation final in college with clay and model gundams, so I've got a pretty good understanding of animation. (That's 9,360 frames for those playing along at home.) Stay in school, kids!

2. I teach Tae Kwon Do, so I have a pretty good understanding of how the body moves. Don't neglect your exercise, kids!

3. I have ADD, which is often mistaken for a short attention span, but it's actually an inability to control the focus of your attention, which enables me to work tirelessly on anything I'm really interested in. (But really bothers my girlfriend.) Take your meds, kids!]

Glad to know you like it! Just to be clear: the CSPs and stuff are all right, too, or has anyone even tried them yet? I plan on posting to the vault tomorrow, when I have time to put together some good pictures, and I want to make absolutely sure that everything is in order first. Thanks again!

Just downloaded for me, SDoom. That's odd. And like 7 other people, it says.

The final version is done! Check the OP to download and make sure everything works before I make an official post to the vault. Thank you again, everyone!

Thanks, Sdoom. Your feedback, and the feedback you got from your playtesters has been extremely helpful. Thanks to the rest of you guys, as well. Everyone's criticism only motivated me more. Making this PSA was a learning experience for me, as I am completely self taught by reverse engineering Brawl's existing characters, and every road block was a unique problem to overcome.

What I'm saying is, I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it. It will be out as soon as I'm sure there are no errors in the final version. Thanks, guys! (And someone should make a video of this Cloud, Sdoom's, and .Fade's fighting using the clone engine. It'd be a riot.)

Annoying, but at least I figured it out quickly. I'll be sending out a tentative final version today or tomorrow that includes the models and CSS stuff. Hype! Sorry about time-thiefing you, anyone who wasted any time going "why won't it work for me!?"

So am I the only one who was too stupid up to this point to realize that the filesize limit is not per file, but it's total for all files loaded for a character? Just had to delete a bunch of unused animations to save some filespace to make new textures work. Feeling like an idiot. Also feeling like I might now know why Apprentice of Death was having problems...

YES. You're my hero. Releasing it with the models and everything will really make it. Thank you so much.