Epic name FTL.
But yes, let me just get this started. Though i understand fighters in particular SF (I’ve played several iterations of the game for quite a while) I am as people here call them, an 09’er in regards to competetive play, i live in England so the arcade scene is near non-existent so online is all i have (bitch whine etc add infinitum)
On top of this i never had a Dreamcast & they never released third Strike on any other console here meaning i never got to play that which brought alot of current mechanics & standards in balance. (Though SF has always remained comperatively balanced in regards to the amount of characters it often has per game)
In terms of my skill level i acknowledge i’m not pro, i’ve currently just hit G1 about 2 weeks ago for anyone who can get a basis off that, i play Akuma & can consistently do his usual combos & have a mild -> Poor knowledge of matchup specifics. this bit is added purely so people don’t get the wrong idea that i’m a complete scrub thinking he’s some kind of pro etc etc.
Shortcuts.
though other games have had a few basic shortcuts or have reduced how stringent they want the input to be SFIV has kinda made a big “lol pwned” to all of them by making some rediculously crazy shortcut availablities. If someone asked you how to do shoryuken did you ever think you’d tell them “lol df,d,df P” or any of the other combinations there are. the Question is:
Do people like this?
feel this is fair? Now i originally thought that this shortcut mechanics was implemented to this extreme so poor players could perform shoryukens by mashing QCF repeatedly. However if this was made for that purpose then why do characters like Vega & Guile - 2 unanimously bad ultra combos as it is - have an input that even decent players have a hard time performing? After thinking, my guess is they made this shortcut system so people could cancel easier. It still means bad players are getting the lenient treatment, but even i confess i find it difficult to do a Shoryuken off of a crouching low punch without the shortcuts. they may have done this for Xbox/PS3 control players as, from whatr i here it is easier to do quick motions on sticks. (But i have never used stick so could be completely ignorant & am only going by here-say.
imo it’d be nice if they restricted the shortcuts to things a bit closer to the actual input, rather having some moves be capable of performing from an input that is barely recognise as the move being performed. The downside to this is, kids play SF to & restricting them from doing these moves from a money standpoint is not exactly wise. Certainly it’s unlikely any game company would restrict an audience for the sake of the veteran players. (As sad as that truth may be) Hoever i do recall an old SF game (Capcom VS SNK 2 for gamecube?) had a 1 button special setting. why they couldn’t implement that, or something similair seems strange to me. (Certainly not a function for competetive play of course, but a “kids mode” kinda thing)
Plinking
could be a touchy one this. Now i’ve played RTS’s for a good amount of time & things that make your life easier are always worth having. Why select a building, then a unit, then click them 5 times when you can hotkey the fucker & hold shit + click once. (Never mind the analogy if you don’t play RTS’s) & though plinking makes an easier time out of linking i am concerned as to whether it was an intended gaming mechanic. In general.
Was Plinking in Third Strike?
do the Pro’s Daigo/Wong etc use this method?
Do you think it’s fair?
Basically, if a game has a mechanic within it that is unintended, then depending on how beneficial that mechanic is or how easy it makes an otherwise difficult function leaves me to consider whether it is justifiable to use. In terms of fairness i guess you could say Stick players have an unproven advantage over controller players as it’s far easier to plink on sticks (Bare in mind i am going by what i percieve here, perhaps i’m horribly wrong) Button layouts on controllers do not handle plinking well & sticks off are pretty much predesigned for the dexterity you need to do such things. I’m certainly not saying stick makes it godly easy, links are & always will be a difficult thing to time. & again i don’t think this matters anyway, it’s quite clear that pad players are not the elite players & thus will probably not play the elite where such a marginal benefit will warrant any afterthought. That & it’s common knowledge Sticks, once propperly accustomed to can improve peoples game. It’d be like someone losing a game of pool & complaining he only lost because he was hitting with a golf club. (Yeah, my analogies suck) But the other point is intention, clearly capcom intended for 1 frame links to be 1 frame links, so to me a function that widens this margin seems to be more of an exploit than a legitimate ability. It does potentially mean that someone with more skill can lose to someone with lesser skill purely because they are not aware of plinking or are unable to use it.
Rage/Ultra Mechanic
It’s kind of debatable whether rewarding a player for getting his ass kicked is a fair mechanic, certainly in my own opinion i feel it adds a degree of cautiousness to the game, in which so long as a character has Ultra you can be very limitted in your options. (Say, Abel with fireballs or Seth with; nion anything) But this also leeds to characters with poor Ultras in a kind of negligent loop in which they gain no benefit for having an Ultra available. (See, Vega, Guile, Fei Long) However it is entirely possible that the characters have redeemable qualities that makes the lack of scare-tactic in regards to ultra a void point. (Like Akuma who has a warehouse of options but has a very difficult to hit ultra against a competent player)
do you think Ultra should be gained by being beaten up? Or by some other method?
As i said in this it seems to break more to the balance among ultras, which is still surprisingly better than i expected, i certainly didn’t expect them to make every Ultra have a consistant balance.
Damage Scaling
Personally when i learnt exactly how Damage scaling worked i do think it is well implemented, going on a move by move basis means hard hitters don’t get a general advantage & reasonably lengthy strings can still be effective. the Ultra coutning as 2 attacks ensures you will never get a full Ultra off of a link or combo. The downside here is that lengthy strings which can take incredible skill can do less damage than a Jump RH -> fierce -> shryuken but this has been somewhat of a fault in the majority of fighters & is not limitted to SFIV.
Do you feel they have a better way to implement Damage Scaling?
Custom Combos?
Nothing really to add here, but i’m curious, like i said before the competetive side of the SF genre is pretty new to me & my tampering with Custom mechanics in previous games led me to believe they where good but not great, or perhaps if used skillfully better than the Super moves that we can consider there counterpart.
anyone explain why custom Combos are considered an abusive mechanic?
like i said i’m not trying to say they’re good/viable, my ignorance on this subject removes me from that privelage. I’d just like to know why they are so “WTF Pwn”
I guess thats it really, i thought i had more to say on the subject of mechanics but that’s all i can remember at present. Keep in mind that in regards to plinking i’m not trying to take some elite moral high-ground, if i played stick i probably would use it. Cheers for reading if you did. & hopefully this doesn’t turn in to an "I’m sick of these threads/fuckin 09’ers/your everything thats wrong with the planet reply fest.
PS - I apologise for any typos, in this post.