OPnoobs (https://www.twitch.tv/opnoobsonline) just ran their 2nd online FS tournament. Currently only in their twitch archive but hopefully it will be up on youtube too soon. I recorded and edited my matches here:
Iām hoping to want to do an analysis video soon too
And hereās a great article about how to improve at FS and at FGs in general, with interviews with 2 of the top current FS players and Sirlin himself:
Sweet jeepers, the October update has a COMPLETELY INSANE new feature: hitsparks that show frame advantage or disadvantage, calculated in real time, for every hit. The examples shown on the writeup include projectiles being blocked from different distances, to demonstrate that the game actually takes everything into account in real time.
Also now thereās ranked mode, which uses a tournament structure similar to the cool thing vanilla SF4 had in the Championship Mode update (which they then ABANDONED FOREVER???), but honestly I think the hitsparks thing is a way bigger deal overall.
Its not really the first game to let you know about if youāre safe or not is it? Maybe the way they are doing it is new, but I feel like Iāve played games that let you know this info somehow. Only close thing that immediately came to mind was Pocket Rumble with its meter to show recovery for both players. I suppose that doesnāt tell you if youāre safe or not as it requires you to look at both meters.
Anyone know if there are other games that did this? How much of this feature has truly never been done?
Yeah, Iāve played with the new feature for a couple hours and I can safely say:
This is new stuff. The closest anyone has come has been training mode features, butā¦
Itās done subtly enough that it can easily be ignored if you donāt care.
Itās not as though learning frame data and learning to recognize frame traps is some arcane, unknowable black magic, but this lets even fairly new players āsee the Matrixā if they pay attention.
Although in practice, I still get caught by frame traps. ^^; Frame traps are generally tight enough that you canāt really fully react to the frame data hitsparks while playing, so much as just subconsciously notice the color as you do whatever reaction it was that you were going to do anyway, and then go OH NO WHY DID I DO THAT a moment later after your brain gets around to processing what just happened.
Yep Iāve found using the frame data sparks in real-time isnāt especially effectiveā¦ BUT, itās really a nice learning tool for figuring out what you did wrong (or right) much more quickly without having to back out and lab things afterwards.
So itās more like, you still get hit by a frame trap, but then you noticed the spark at the time, so you know for SURE if it was a legit frame trap, rather than wondering if you just were slow or pressing the wrong thing or whatever.
It also makes it more fun to play vs the AI for me, as I can ālearnā frame data as well whilst playing the CPU.
When looking at Sirlinās web site, I was reminded that SRK did a short interview with Sirlin at the beginning of this year about the subject of loot boxes in Fantasy Strike. (Sirlin hardly ever posts updates to his site, so it wasnāt like it was hidden or anything.) Sirlin was very pro-loot box, and particularly heaped praise on Overwatchās loot box system.
I was wondering, did anyone ever follow-up on this interview after various commissions started ruling that Overwatchās loot box system violated their countriesā gambling laws? And we got a few more studies directly denouncing loot boxes for their intentional psychological manipulation and potential harm? (Or even to ask Sirlin, with his praise for Overwatch, how he felt about how Blizzard had fought to keep Overwatchās odds hidden.)
Iām considering running some Europe-only online tournaments for Fantasy Strike.
It wouldnāt be anything serious or with prizes or anything or (usually) streamed or as professional as the E4i ones, and I would likely have to run it on a weeknight evening at an EU evening friendly time, most likely 7-9pm UK time (Mon-Fri), most likely a Tue or Thur.
Assuming it went well it would be a semi-regular occurrence but on no fixed schedule per-say, just whenever I could do it. Format of the tournament would vary (team or single character, and double/single elim or round robin, swiss etc, maybe some other wacky things).
The reason for making it Europe-only is so itās an acceptable timezone for people in Europe, and to ensure a reasonable standard of connection quality between opponents.
Itās also because this would be intended to be a European FS community-building thing as opposed to anything ultra-competitive (especially as the top players are pretty well known at this stage anyway!). I have experience with this working well from other fighting games too.
Feedback Iām looking for is:
Would you be interested in this?
If so, any strong preference for time or weeknight to play it?
