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Is there any detailed discussion or articles about Compatibility? I think this is an important part of powerscaling that I have trouble finding info/ discussion about on this site. I think it's a concept I've struggled with in powerscaling alot, only recently getting a better handle on it, wonder if I'm the only one, and want to check my understanding.
Compatibility I think is defined is how well a character's style of fighting or particular attribute matches up with another character's within a certain realm of power, such that if it's more effective against that person's preferred and strongest style of fighting, like rock paper scissors logic.
All else equal between them, a character who specializes in and relies on stealth and can hide from their opponent's primary combat senses ( eyes and ears) has an advantage against a person not skilled in stealth or lacking extrasensory abilities or other heightened senses and who relies on head-on fighting.
Between two peak human level fighters, an outboxer generally has an advantage over an infighter in boxing due to reach and agile footwork advantages and not sticking around to fight the stronger and more durable infighter at close range. This does not mean that the infighter can't win or can't land some hits or evade some hits, but it's generally an uphill battle. Whereas an outboxer vs and outboxer or infighter versus infighter is generally a fight on even terms.
Another classic example is the long range fighter with flight vs a close range fighter.
Compatibility can also take the form of experience and knowledge. lacking specific but nearly required knowledge or experience against a particular ability or style can make someone less effective against a particular character than they otherwise would be.
So in terms of powerscaling, it should be context dependent. For example, if every character in a verse is made of kryptonite and exudes kryptonite attacks, throwing a kryptonian into that universe would make him near auto-lose against everyone else in that verse, so he's a bad matchup against everyone but that would just make him weaker than everyone also. But in the DC universe, not everyone has kryptonite on hand or is made of kryptonite, so superman and other kryptonians will have some bad matchups and kryptonite does not affect all characters of different types the same way, so it's a specific advantage only against a particular set of characters.
So I think it's an important piece of context and it's easy to mistake the victor of a fight for being overall stronger if they only win consistently due to having a type matchup advantage that trumps theirs. Of course, if the stealthy fighter in my example above could also beat the head-on fighter with stealth abilities restricted and when fighting on the terms of the head-on fighter for example, then they were just overall better.
Similarly, if the infighter was say as fast as the Flash, then being a peak human outboxer wouldn't help as the difference in speed means they aren't playing the same game anymore. The reverse is also true, if the outboxer is the Flash, then simply having a style advantage over the infighter doesn't matter as the sheer speed discrepancy means there is no chance of a remotely fair fight, the flash would also be too fast to hit even if he fought the infighter on his own terms.
I think in terms of durability and power, if a character is too durable to ever be hurt (like superman vs peak human) they are just stronger. but if a character can be hurt but it takes a lot of effort, it could just be a compatibility thing as the durability difference isn't that wide. Similiarly if you can one shot your opponent with physical strength that's just being stronger, but if your power is just above average compared to peers and makes taking hits more troublesome, but still doable, it can be just compatibility. In practice though, it's difficult for me to determine how big this gap needs to be. A classic example though for the durability example of compatibility is like Rei vs Saw Paing's skull in Kengan Ashura.
I think that also, if a character has two compatibility advantages over the other character (like being a long range fighter with ranged aerial attacks vs close range martial arts fighter, but also being a stealth specialist vs the same close range fighter who is lacking the senses needed to detect the stealth movements at the same time), they are still stronger if restricting one of their advantages is still not enough for the other character to win. I think once you have to take away more than one advantage from a fighter, a compatibility advantage or just an overall power advantage or not, for them to lose then they were just better and can be said to be overall stronger.
Thoughts?
Compatibility I think is defined is how well a character's style of fighting or particular attribute matches up with another character's within a certain realm of power, such that if it's more effective against that person's preferred and strongest style of fighting, like rock paper scissors logic.
All else equal between them, a character who specializes in and relies on stealth and can hide from their opponent's primary combat senses ( eyes and ears) has an advantage against a person not skilled in stealth or lacking extrasensory abilities or other heightened senses and who relies on head-on fighting.
Between two peak human level fighters, an outboxer generally has an advantage over an infighter in boxing due to reach and agile footwork advantages and not sticking around to fight the stronger and more durable infighter at close range. This does not mean that the infighter can't win or can't land some hits or evade some hits, but it's generally an uphill battle. Whereas an outboxer vs and outboxer or infighter versus infighter is generally a fight on even terms.
Another classic example is the long range fighter with flight vs a close range fighter.
Compatibility can also take the form of experience and knowledge. lacking specific but nearly required knowledge or experience against a particular ability or style can make someone less effective against a particular character than they otherwise would be.
So in terms of powerscaling, it should be context dependent. For example, if every character in a verse is made of kryptonite and exudes kryptonite attacks, throwing a kryptonian into that universe would make him near auto-lose against everyone else in that verse, so he's a bad matchup against everyone but that would just make him weaker than everyone also. But in the DC universe, not everyone has kryptonite on hand or is made of kryptonite, so superman and other kryptonians will have some bad matchups and kryptonite does not affect all characters of different types the same way, so it's a specific advantage only against a particular set of characters.
So I think it's an important piece of context and it's easy to mistake the victor of a fight for being overall stronger if they only win consistently due to having a type matchup advantage that trumps theirs. Of course, if the stealthy fighter in my example above could also beat the head-on fighter with stealth abilities restricted and when fighting on the terms of the head-on fighter for example, then they were just overall better.
Similarly, if the infighter was say as fast as the Flash, then being a peak human outboxer wouldn't help as the difference in speed means they aren't playing the same game anymore. The reverse is also true, if the outboxer is the Flash, then simply having a style advantage over the infighter doesn't matter as the sheer speed discrepancy means there is no chance of a remotely fair fight, the flash would also be too fast to hit even if he fought the infighter on his own terms.
I think in terms of durability and power, if a character is too durable to ever be hurt (like superman vs peak human) they are just stronger. but if a character can be hurt but it takes a lot of effort, it could just be a compatibility thing as the durability difference isn't that wide. Similiarly if you can one shot your opponent with physical strength that's just being stronger, but if your power is just above average compared to peers and makes taking hits more troublesome, but still doable, it can be just compatibility. In practice though, it's difficult for me to determine how big this gap needs to be. A classic example though for the durability example of compatibility is like Rei vs Saw Paing's skull in Kengan Ashura.
I think that also, if a character has two compatibility advantages over the other character (like being a long range fighter with ranged aerial attacks vs close range martial arts fighter, but also being a stealth specialist vs the same close range fighter who is lacking the senses needed to detect the stealth movements at the same time), they are still stronger if restricting one of their advantages is still not enough for the other character to win. I think once you have to take away more than one advantage from a fighter, a compatibility advantage or just an overall power advantage or not, for them to lose then they were just better and can be said to be overall stronger.
Thoughts?
