Jumpman Ladders

As someone who *has* played Jumpman against some friends quite a few times, I can give some proper, thought out reasons for why some sort of limitation of the ladders. I mean to be civil with my feedback, and want to genuinely improve the character, rather than shouting for changes without giving any support for why you should. (Also, sorry if a couple sentences are phrased oddly/abruptly end, I kinda jumped around while writing this so I could've went somewhere else in the middle of a sentence and never caught it while rereading)

1. General Filler
To put it simply, you can just make a whole bunch of ladders that can only be removed on death. This alone has several issues. For one, too many ladders can result in performance issues, as its a bunch of things running code at the same time. Especially online, the game can certainly begin to slow down at a certain point from that. Speaking of online, the game does not handle certain interactions with semisolid platforms as good as it could/should, resulting in common desyncs if they're present. Making an unlimited amount of platforms exponentially increases the probability of that happening in certain matchups. Platforms also mess with the flow of battle in many ways such as: preventing characters from falling with aerials, blocking projectiles that don't ignore platforms, giving more room to move which can result in camping, etc. Think about how messy Steve's blocks are in Smash, and they're *already* limited in several ways. While the ladders are not fully solid like Blocks, they have much less limits than the Blocks, meaning that you can place these platforms down and effect the match's progression until you die. It also just is basically painting the stage, many people probably wouldn't appreciate the background being plastered with ladders.

2. Unfun side effects
As mentioned in the prior section, ladders can promote a lot of negative things in the game, but there's other things like that it can cause aside from their permanency. Since they last forever, one could simply stand offstage anywhere they want, with any character without a launching projectile at the mercy of how easy they can reach the ladder, and projectiles typically have a limited trajectory and Jumpman commonly has time to react and move away or use his invincible jump. As well, the only limit in their height is that you can't go too far high (and take this with a grain of salt, but i feel like you may still be able to create a short ladder even if you're past the threshold). While making tall ladders means its easier for the opponent to reach you, that doesn't take away the fact that you can still go really high, and climbing the ladder isn't instant, giving Jumpman plenty of time to move elsewhere. I understand that the Bonus mechanic instantly kills Jumpman if it reaches zero, but that doesn't change the fact that he can control the pace of the battle like that. If an opponent is going to just let you die from bonus, Jumpman can choose to come back, and if the opponent is attempting to reach Jumpman, he can stall them out; the pace of the battle is up to Jumpman for the most part.

I understand that a lot of these aren't inherent flaws of the ladders, but choices that players choose to make, and that someone who doesn't want to play cheesey doesn't have to play that way. However, knowing from experience, it's important to consider what *is* possible, and how easy it is for it to be done, not what you would personally do. An annoying attack could easily just not be spammed, but the issue is still on the attack itself if someone does choose to use it that way. If something can be exploited, someone *will* exploit it, and people won't like fighting characters that have things that people exploit. Even if it's a detriment to himself due to the bonus, that doesn't change it from being unfun to fight; I typically *lost* when fighting my friends and it wasn't even from the bonus, but it still wasn't fun for them. You could argue they could've just let me die from bonus if I was ever far from the stage on the ladders, but is that fun? I'd argue not, just because you win doesn't mean it's fun to just sit there and do nothing, you came to play the game, didn't you?

Now, I wish to be constructive with my feedback, so I will give suggestions of generally specific ways you can implement limits on the ladders so they can still support Jumpman as his recovery while not having all of this baggage on it.
1. Implement a limit of how long each ladder can be. It's a very straightforward idea. While you may be concerned on Jumpman's ability to recover, *most* stages shouldn't require you to recover with a ladder that goes to the top blastzone in one go. There definitely is a decently wide sweetspot for a ladder-height limit that doesn't make it too hard for him to make it back, especially considering his back air, which, combined with a jump, easily lets him gain plenty of height from any grounded surface.
2. Make ladders decay overtime. This prevents all of the issues mentioned with how long-lasting they are. To discourage far-away camping, you could make them decay faster if further away from the center of the stage, and, like Steve Blocks, they could also decay faster if standing on them for an excess amount of time. You may be concerned that it prevents others from getting to him, but firstly, Jumpman would end up falling himself as the ladder he stands on would also decay, but secondly, point 3.
3. Limit the amount of ladders. This limits his ability to run away and block falling projectiles and falling aerials.This can be done in several ways that don't greatly hinder his recovery. Firstly, the amount could refill/refresh upon landing on the stage, like airdodges. This means that he isn't helpless for the rest of his stock if he uses up his limit. Secondly you can delete older ladders if he has ladders available when the ladder limit is reached, preventing him from covering the stage with them while still keeping them always usable if he has them in store. You could also make it so he stops making a new ladder if he overlaps with another ladder, to prevent janky overlapping platforms and such. If balanced correctly, these limits would ensure that Jumpman can't easily abuse ladders while still

There are reasons why Steve's blocks and things like Kragg's pillar have limits on them, and many of those reasons are ones that I've listed here and that Jumpman's ladders have currently. The fact that getting hit offstage limits your ability to place ladders, as well as the bonus death, definitely is an effective way of limiting them, I acknowledge this. However, at least in my personal opinion, I feel as though the changes I have suggested would be more than enough to replace the former, as it is pretty punishing, especially if these limitations were put in place, and the latter doesn't prevent anything as much as it just makes it so doing slow,
Again this feedback is from experience of both playing the character and making characters. It's coming from a place of love and I enjoy this character outside of these faults! I just hope you understand what's being said.

Also, on another note, I've noticed that the Bonus timer does not stop after death, meaning that, in an FFA, if you're out first, the Bonus can run out while you're dead. While I'm not sure exactly what the bonus death *does* in function, this oversight does seem to cause some odd effect, such as him being able to win the match *after* he's died (this has happened on at least two separate occasions)

Again, this all comes from a place of love and I don't wish to needlessly criticize, I do like this mod! If you have any counters to my arguments or if you're confused on anything, please tell me, just please try to be civil; I understand you've gotten a bit tired of comments asking to limit the ladders, but I'm trying to give proper, thought out feedback here.