Controls Proposal for Grabs and Foot Plants. Inverts Maybe Too? Airwalks?

[artao]

I come not simply with complaints, but with an actual and practicable proposal.
These ALL sorely need to be implemented as they are all classic and essential parts of skating; grabs in particular from the very beginnings in the 70s. Putting feet on the ground and inverts came with Dogtown and the like. And airwalks are just ... freakin 80s awesome! Especially when properly done kicking the feet to the sides and then to the other side (walking in the air) before putting the feet back on the board.
"But this is a 90s skateboarding game." is irrelevant, cuz it's not like plants and grabs disappeared in the 90s. Or vert for that matter. Sure, tech tricks became more popular; but that doesn't mean that's ALL people did in the 90s.
Besides, to capture the soul of skating you can't just limit it to a single era. The game currently really only does one style of skating well: Tech tricks and flippy tricks.

Foot plants:
Press and hold either stick, and press a direction on that same stick while holding to determine on which side the foot comes off the board. As long as the stick is held (not directionally, just held down), the foot stays on the ground.
If press-and-hold is awkward, then perhaps a single-click would plant a foot and another click would put it back on the board. That may be more comfortable than trying to hold a stick-button down the whole time; and possibly less stress on the thumbs.
Another option would be to drop the (virtually useless) mongo push and foot slide controls (as mentioned in a separate post) and use those two buttons - conveniently placed as left and right - to act as putting a foot on the ground.
HOWEVER, see further below regarding those two buttons. One COULD be used to pump and the other to do inverts.
This alone would allow for no-complies AND foot plants.

Grabs:
As you had it before. The shoulder buttons. Along with stick input as to front or rear foot (left or right hand) and direction on either stick for WHERE to grab the board.
For instance, front-foot stick forward with front-hand grab would be a nose grab. Back foot stick back with back-foot would be a tail grab. Back stick forward with rear hand grab would be a crail grab. Front-hand grab with front-stick "inside" would be an indy grab. Etc. With 4 directional inputs on each stick, and two buttons for grabbing with either hand, that's 16 potential grabs.
Just a quick stick-flick input while holding the button. Once the grab is grabbed, all the player would do is hold the shoulder button. THEN the sticks could again be used as normal.
Including pressing them for foot plants. And, of course, releasing the shoulder button would release the grab
This would allow for things such as boneless ones. Possibly even 'thread the needle.' And, again, foot plants combined with grabs. Possibly even AIRWALKS with a nose grab and kicking BOTH feet off the board in oppositeded directions.

It's even conceivable that grabs combined with SLIDE input could be used to do moves such as the classic Bertleman and layback slides.

Perhaps alternately the foot plant and grab control ideas could be swapped. Shoulders for planting feet and mongo/drag buttons for the grabs (hands).
Only if mongo and foot drag are dropped, obviously. But seriously, what percentage of players actually use those? Currently goofy-foot skaters are forced to use "mongo push" for regular push, and vice versa. But everyone knows goofy-foot is totally F-ed, so the re-code on that would be a great time to implement the proposed changes for foot plant and grab. One button for pushing is plenty, along with a menu option to push regular or mongo.

As to inverts: The mongo/drag buttons could be assigned to that, along with the appropriate grab input. Perhaps immediately preceding a grab so the game can interpret the input more consistently correctly that any following input is to be done while inverted.

A nice thing about using one of the buttons to do an input is that the other button could then be used as pumping, instead of the current very awkward method. The skater crouches and stands so slowly it is VERY difficult to pump well. Tho in this last update I do notice that pumping works better; it is still quite awkward and ridiculously difficult to get the timing just right.

What issues does anyone see with this scheme?
Obviously, it's not possible to come up with a control scheme that pleases or suits everyone. That's why MANY games have multiple control schemes for the player to choose from; if not outright button re-assignment by the user. In the case of Session, user-assignable isn't really practicable as the controls have a more "intimate" relationship to what the player's virtual skater is doing.

It's disturbing that grabs have been removed, and disconcerting that the missions pop-up box is assigned to left-stick click. (About which I made a separate post) This then potentially conflicts with using stick button for planting feet. Altho, as described above, foot planting would involve click-and-hold, not just click.
But, in general, on all controllers I've used, the sticks are too easy to press and very often result in inadvertent pressing which can interfere with game play.