Are there any ringouts or stage hazards that follow you across the stage though? To me a ring out is a different beast from projectiles and things of that nature.
What do you mean by follow? Most of the environmental hazards in Injustice appear to remain stationary in that the area from which you must interact with them does not change. This creates a lot of predictability and consistency so composing strategies based on spacing is less reliant on luck. You can account for them quite easily.
If you're speaking purely of functionality, like how a projectile can be thrown across a stage unlike a ringout; a single projectile in a game with teleports, airdashes and other ridiculous abilities is far less damning than the most classic of all stage hazards: the corner. Same with Tekken walls or SC Ringouts, which straight up end the match.
A projectile, when several characters have some off of which they can begin combos, isn't the kind of thing I'd be worried about, especially when you know exactly where and when it spawns; however, I love that it gives characters without projectiles a chance to return fire in certain situations. Most of these appear to become unavailable after a single use anyway.
I think if you're going to make a comparison, Smash Bros would be more accurate. And after a lot of experience with the game, there were a lot of things that were turned off in competitive play due to random advantages. At the end of the day, players wanted to focus on fundamentals and core gameplay rather than dodging random items.
I understand this misconception. As a long time Melee veteran, let me clarify the fundamental difference between most bad Smash hazards and Injustice hazards.
In Smash, the worst hazards happen
to you regardless of anything you've done in the match. You can get shot with a laser, sucked up by a tornado, or in the case of items, have a full heal spawn right next to you. Nothing you have done makes any impact on this, you are left as a
reactive force trying to simply survive the environment.
In Injustice you must seek out and utilize the environment on your own account, casting you as a
proactive force. Stuff wont just fall on you out of nowhere in Injustice; you must strategically position yourself in order to use it and find an opening. Like ringouts in SC, the ring never creeps up behind you randomly and sends you tumbling off. If you end up near the edge of a stage it's based on your own poor footwork.
This is why other hazards in Smash, like platforms, aren't banned. Inherently platforms don't do anything
to you but they dramatically impact the players' combat mentality because of how platforms supplement mobility, combos and traps. I hope this clears things up, we spoke a lot about this on early episodes of InjusticeLive and it's actually a fantastic discussion point.
...The Superman I knew is gone.
