With more use of his current side B Frost shield dont know if its that much of a drastic or hard change and noticing how weird his movement is in the air i think holding down should either put X into free fall or just have him not be able to use it in the air at all, the way it currently is and how you can use it (again dont know if it will change like a lot of these things have any planned changes) you can currently stall a lot with it and if you hold down your falling speed is absurd and as it currently is if used correctly to make ice shards in the ground it can promote a lot of camping just limiting your opponents movement forcing them to approach even if they don't do a lot of damage it can still be very annoying.

Strike chain and aiming laser is to me quite literally the same purple alt. if anything i would like to see a light blue alt for more variety say with like Frost Tower. And as for the MMZ alts i also think X should have alts referencing the 4 Guardian's (although the red and green alts kind of reference Fefnir and Harpuia respectively so even just a name change would be cool for them) a Zero alt would also be cool considering Zero has an X form in Zero 2 so that could be a nice reference. And a Copy X skin referencing his ultimate armor i think would also be a nice reference to top it all off.

Recolors
As for recolors (although again idk if these all are finals but ill still make some suggestions) The Zero alt looks really weird in terms of colors i personally think it has too many uses of the color black and i think would benefit with more whites and golds to bring it closer to Zero. Gold armor however i think uses the color black perfectly however i think should have the shine effect (Similar to the silver command mission alt) I also think that alt should be brought back as well for the CM skin as well to compliment the Gold alt.

The charge shot sprites when he goes into his charging stance looks a bit thin around the legs it almost looks like his legs looked like they have decreased in terms of width so i think making them more bigger towards the heels of the feet could also make it more consistent with his idle and more animations

However i think the biggest problem i have with the idle is the head and thats due to his crouch... at a standstill it looks completely fine and even with most animations it looks fine and smooth as well however i think it looks weird with the crouch and again stiff, compared to the old one that looks more in motion and almost 3D so maybe some more flair can be added to that animation as well or maybe even just have him look straight again whilst he crouches so it has just a bit of movement.

The idle sprite looks kind off (although thats not to say it looks bad far from it) in some places I think its a big improvement over his current almost hunched one (although idek if X has taken this stance before in ANY X game if anything it looks more like Zero's MVC3 stance which also makes it look a bit off) (also this im gonna keep this as if he was facing right) The legs portion i think looks completely fine if not better and to an extent his left arm is in a way better position however i think the right arm looks a bit awkward and almost a bit stiff (i think it may look better if it looked like how it was in his stance in X4 with the arm more tucked in and more battle ready rather than hanging out and on top of that make it more closer to his iconic stance) and i also think it would help some animations say his jab look snappier and to an extent his walk and run ending animation look less awkward due to how instant those animation are.

Sprites (and hopefully this doesn't come across mean as well because ik art is VERY subjective and the sprites do look really good)
The lighter color choice of X's i think is a very good change and honestly probably one of my favorites so far and the trail effects and the motion lines on moves say like forward air look really good as well and i hope they also get added to moves say like up tilt and even jab
Frost shield i think should have a hover sprite in the air (akin to X4's hover) just so the movement doesn't look as jank and the hovering kind of makes sense

Bugs
Speed Burner im not sure if the update took effect or if there's an error he could use it 3 times before and the patch said it was increased and he still only has 3 so idrk if thats a bug
Since Ground Hunter has 2 shots it can combo into itself thus can combo into up air for potentially early kills depending on the stage so do what that knowledge as you wish to balance it

Down air could just be me but i think the knockback should be buffed cause even at 300 percent and above this move does barley any knockback and cant kill at all (and maybe a look at the start and end lag because this move is very jank to use with the new nerf and the reward just is outweighs by the cons just makes me feel like its not worth using)

Another suggestion for the issue for Down B swapping is maybe seperate the two types by coding in a system of when you taunt during the countdown you can choose between wether to tap or get the weapon wheel (similar to samus) just so they dont interfere with each other as easily

The current way of swapping special weapons is very weird... the way you find charge shot through the weapon wheel is not really clear and i almost thought wasnt a thing so i dont think its that beginner friendly so i resorted to just spamming down b a bunch (and also doing this is very jank as well because if you hold down b for too long you get the weapon select wheel so sometimes it doesnt even register but ill get more on that as well) and with no graphic of the next and previous weapons it gets very annoying to try to find it in a pinch and again i think this is also another reason why i think the special weapons should just be changed to side b with charge shot just left to neutral B for just less complication. and also because of this i tend to swap special weapons a lot less because of how easy it is to get screwed over so hopefully this gets looked at more

(Buster being nuetral B might help it by being more of a ranged weapon with the knockback however i still think it should just be replaced by frost shield and moved to side B however that also brings in what im gonna talk about next)

The air buff is really great his speed feels like it actually carries over and he feels a lot better to control and less of a tank in the air
Back air i think should get a small knockback buff to distinguish it a bit from forward air and to potentially help it kill better (because i have had some instances at 120 percent and above of it just having trouble killing)
Ray splash has more of a use kind of however it only has that use upon X hitting there opponent upclose first (which kind of removes it of being a ranged weapon at least to me) and only then can he get knockback on it which means at range its still better to do buster spam and even then if you get a hit up close it can easily be DI'd both in and out only getting little damage compared to what you can get off a normal combo so i still think has little use.

Overall he feels a lot better to play with all the current changes and feels a lot more polished overall. and after this update i still have a lot more suggestions after the update (and i also want to make suggestions to the sprites and recolors considering we have a better look at them and because i think they could also be improved as well cause some of them look a bit off at least to me) 1000 character limit be damned

and a suggestion for up air (although this is mostly just a brain storm) is if the bug still continues you could potentially make up air similar or the same as it was before and make rising fire kill considering its stationary and he would have to rely on reading his opponent (although that probably wouldn't make much sense considering up airs Wind Spiral a projectile meant to send you up) as for everything else good luck with the rest of development and good luck with college although ill still give criticism/suggestions as per usual.

Glad to know my criticism was heard (and didnt come off as mean) and im also glad to know this rough state hasnt been the main focus if that makes sense, My view of it is you need to make options all good in there own way so people dont rely on one thing solely (but of course they can have there downsides). As for your concerns about his camping hes been changed quite a lot (both Charge shot and Special Weapons wise) and as for his N special being changed to side B i think the green charge shot not having a ton of knockback and having longer charge is already a big and really good change (and people were probably frustrated with that the most cause of how early as killed) and makes it less oppressive but if your still worried about it still being very campy you could try making it so he doesnt keep any charge shots at all apon damage that way he more has to commit to charge shot and doesnt make him have it at all times (although idk if thats too drastic)

X is in a pretty rough state right now in terms of balance because that hasn't been the focus yet (not to excuse any poor design) which is why alot of his damage / killpower is overtuned atm
also up air is broken as hell rn due to a bug with the push effect, the kb on that isnt intended to be nearly as high as it is in game right now

I'll adjust his movement speed but I'm worried that given he has zoning tools people will just camp heavily with him

I guess X is in a weird place right now because he's intended primarily to be a zoner with tools to get in and deal damage if he needs to, I want to try and discourage camping with him though

Complex coding related progress will probably slow down for a while because college started back up though

1000 character limit gonna split this up into 2 or so posts
Hi kamui
Thank you again for the criticism, I plan on pushing a smaller update today (mostly just new sprites for X) and i'll try to address most of the things you pointed out with it
Also I'll add my own thoughts on a few things here

I'm not against putting the weapon change mechanic back on fspecial, if that happens i'll probably have frost shield replace ray splasher. In my head it sounded frustrating to fight someone with the ability to store a charged shot and also have 1 of 4 zoning tools just available at all times on his fspecial, and I've also heard alot that his zoning was extremely oppressive (but i guess thats the point of a zoner to be fair).

Runes Suggestion:
X has a large amount of swapped or cut moves over his time in rivals so i feel adding them as runes would make X more customizable and unique as a fighter and would even encourage a lot of creativity with his current kit (and wouldn't require to have different versions of him to be released say if some people were use to how he use to play although i get you would probably have to recolor the sprites to fit with the new colorscheme) some that come to mind are his old: F smash, Up tilt, Up Smash, Up Special just to name a few, and another suggestion if he is gonna be completely different in terms of playstyle i suggest still adding runes that allow people that make him how he use to play some that come to mind are: Speed buffs, Shorter Buster Cooldown, ETC...

Charge shot
I think needs a nerf as well although just a slight one to make it work well with the new "MVCI Buster System" he has, With how powerful charge shot is and how lack luster his speed is there will no doubt be buster camping... (and ive also been doing this a lot as well) Being able to do 20-28 damage for just properly spacing is just appalling and thats probably more than you can get with a single creative combo with him currently due to his speed. I think the Green buster shot should go from 8 damage to 6 (and maybe get some more hitstun to make the dash worth while into more unique combos) and the Fully charged shot going from 12 to 10 and the Buster Hammer X does also going from 12 and even 16 to just 10. That way he can do a way more reasonable 16-20 if you choose to do the Buster Hammer combination and reduce the buster spam that will (most likley) occur

if anything i hope it gets its original/MVCI angle back to hopefully make it easier to use. Ray splash ive already said but gets outclassed by more consistant buster camping again i would (in general like to see special weapons moved to side B because its also weird to swap between buster and special weapons and not only that its hard to tell which weapon is coming up next) Either see it replaced with frost shield again with an ammo count or have the buster be single shot with stun and then we can see if it could POTENTIALLY have a use cause theres no way in hell raysplash should get hitstun lol, I also think weapon energy should be regained on death as well.

Special Weapons
Special weapons all have design flaws... some i think NEED to have more uses other than they can kill or lead into kill set ups (2 of these come to mind with Speed Burner Ground hunter) i feel like there needs to be more uniqueness to each weapon akin to: Speed burner having its kill power nerfed but having it be able to use one more time while Ground hunter having its launch angle nerfed so it not ONLY setting up to up air (and even then ground hunter is extremely janky to the point near frustration) Boomerang Cutter is in its own unique category of "useless" however thats not the weapon ITSELFs fault... its because of how its thrown from bottom to top both having a hard time leading into itself and if it DOES hit it leads the opponent into the ground instead of up in the air which makes it harder to BOTH hit anything and combo off of... and even worse is your opponent can just tech the ground and you get nothing from it.

I would like to see a big nerf to his overall kill power (and to extent kill set ups which ill get into) X has a lot to almost overkill amount of kill power but it makes him also a nightmare to play especially notable with his speed to the point where its hard to again get damage off (although some reasons are not his fault) so i think there needs to be a balance of it cause currently one severely outweighs the other some that come to mind that aren't necessary are his F air and Up air (this one also just being extremely broken)

General Critiques
Movement speed i would really like to see a buff even if he is slower than how he is with the current update, With the current movement and air speed (and even jump height) it overall really makes him a nightmare to control and to even try to hit things and as well to recover and get out of hitstun (again to the point where he doesnt feel the same so i think its a bit drastic) almost to the point of frustrating

and as well but im still gonna treat him like he was listed at launch originally to be a fast combo focused character and i will treat him like this is how he is gonna be as a final design but i hope this advice even if this is not what your going for helps as well(although ill have to split these up but ill just categories them)

I think i was a bit too harsh with critism before (almost to the point of nitpicking) and i would like to address what i would like to see changed the most with the rework because there are A LOT of good ideas although hes in a very weird state and almost unrecognizable in some ways... but theres also the problem is idrk what your going for anymore and idk if hes missing content (say like the ultimate armor or even more special weapons)

RaySplasher i agree has nothing unique to it gets out classed by the buster (if N special gets put into Side special i would just make that Frost shield and just give it an ammo count)
I still think the normal buster should be single shot with stun (Might give ray splasher more use but no idea)
Weapon energy at least imo should be gained apon doing damage or at least regenerate Fully apon death having no way to recover energy is more of a nuisance and again just gives more priority to the buster
Up air sending you so high makes it harder to use even if it is a kill option now i think it shouldnt send X as high and maybe even a slight bit less knockback

Having the down B also be a menu but toggle able via button press is really good although considering how we cant see whats next in terms of weapons what i suggest is maybe having a small graphic saying what weapon is next and whats previous
Back air having less endlag than before is a nice improvement
Up tilt having knock back scaling is a nice addition however i think it should send more up so it could have more variety in combos because it only really sends straight which leads into F air but it cant even combo into F air at over 40 percents so it just seems useless (although this could be adressed with a speed buff) however i think it should send more up to more lead into things like rising fire and to potentially up air or even F air more consistently

Considering how i cant send over 1000 characters ill have to split this up

Just First Impressions
His movement speed feels a bit weird being more like smash mega man if anything i think making his movement speed and air speed more like mega mans a lot more hindering in terms of his kit and does not translate well to rivals at least i think he should have a little bit of a movement speed up both on the ground and in air would help a bit (and it could give him more variety with combos)
The UI is a lot cleaner and a lot simpler and i think its a good choice to only give him 4 special weapons and ammo instead of 8. however i think the weapon wheel should be moved back to side b instead of neutral B with the buster staying neutral B (considering the buster has infinite ammo and it just adds unnecessary complexity to swap back to the buster) so it just seems silly to have it even included in the weapon wheel when itself can just be moved to side b rather than making it a neutral b move

also, ray splasher is all around useless. very much outclasses by regular buster spam-

Hey, just got the new fstrong- it looks awesome, but i recommend giving it a different sound on hit. It sounds kinda wimpy.