yeah i don’t want the SF series to be catered towards casual players. beginners sure, but not casual. they ruin everything. this game is made to be this way and that’s what makes it fun and attractive. if you put some bullshit tap forward and a button to do srk, then i know i’m done with this series and i know tons of people will lose interest as well. there’s always something challenging to learn in fighting games that are a little on the hard side.

Careful, with that kind of talk, you’ll be labeled an elitist.

Maybe Mad Catz should just create a macro joystick that noobs can program commands, combos and joystick + button sequences so that they can feel good about themselves. Play just like Daigo for $150!..but GTFO if you’re trying to enter a tournament with it.

Mad Catz can call it the “U Mad Broz TE Stick”. TE standing for “Theory Execution”.

Older Capcom games did not have practical 1 frame links because of frame skip. Smooth, consistent frame rate was not a thing until SF3(Well, I guess World Warrior and Championship had smooth frame rates since they predated Turbo). You also wrote this post seemingly thinking links and 1 frame links are the same thing when they’re not. One of Cammy’s most important B&B combos in ST is low strong, low forward xx Spiral Arrow. This combo is a 4 frame link. IIRC, and if I don’t someone will correct me, but this combo was one of the more difficult B&Bs. Sure, the game had frame skip because of turbo, but that means sometimes it was a 3 frame link instead. Links were not the part of SF2 that were hard, the small, and often random input windows for special moves was.

Frame advantage on attacks in the older games is the same on hit or block, the only moves that were safe on hit but not on block were attacks that caused knockdown. That’s also something that overall made entry easier - combos and block strings were the same fucking thing unless you were specifically attempting a frame trap.

Chains not being able to special cancel unless specifically marked out as a “target combo” is archaic as fuck, and there was no reason at all to deliberately go back to that time.

SF4’s initial “ease of access” came from making special inputs easier, and everything else harder.

Edit:

I have no idea how you can even come to this conclusion when they adjust the amount of start up, active, recovery, and stun of multiple moves each revision. A move has exactly as much recovery and stun as the developers want it to have. This is really easy to see in the MvC3 series - some moves in vanilla have higher recovery than in Ultimate, and still have that full same amount of animation too them in ultimate if you let them play out, but you’re considered recovered and can cut them off into moving, not canceling them in other attacks, but moving, much earlier than their animations would allow if things were as rigid and unintended as you seem to think they are.

Non-juggle links don’t even exist in 3d games in large part, because the devs have every move set to be very slightly positive or negative on hit, such that there is never enough frame advantage outside of special states to combo moves that are not specifically intended to combo. Frame advantage in games is not in anyway shape or form determined by how pretty an animator wanted to make a move.

Additional Edit: I wish people would actually look what up “dial a combo” fucking means before using it. Chains are not dial a combo by nature, chains still require timing, it’s possible to do them to fast and skip hits, or to cause them to drop, and sometimes even have to be slowed down deliberately to account for how a characters hurtbox reels on hit. Dial a combo is MK3 style - no matter how fast you enter the combo inputs the entire combo will still come out flawlessly, it’s impossible to skip inputs, and the only timing ever required is to be fast enough to do it.

Quality of life improvements won’t wreck anybody’s precious and totally arbitrary difficulty thresholds.

Re: chains: they aren’t “dial a combo.” The reason chains rock and are way better than links is because they can have varied timing and different branches. Links are harder to perform, usually ways more static (much more “dial a combo,” just with stricter timing), and dull from any standpoint that isn’t consistent performance.

Okay, so let’s say that the next Street Fighter game does away with those evil links, makes inputs even easier and cuts the cast in half so that we have to learn less match ups. In addition, combos will be easier to perform due to buffering windows and further increased hit stun…what’s left?

New players seem to think that execution, dexterity and precise timing are unfair barriers that are keeping them from attaining the success they feel they deserve, but in reality, that same dexterity, execution and precise timing is what makes the game competitive. Those elements that the new players hate so much are the very things add human element and temporary excellence to a fighting game player.

Why temporary? Let’s take any and every top player. We’ve all seen them win countless victories due to great reads, reactions and execution…but we’ve also seen them fudge inputs, drop combos, or make wrong reads. All those things come together in a perfect blend and bring an actual physical element to video games, which are usually static, or at least require only a few button presses and nothing more. Yes, top players are amazing, but they are also susceptible to missing links, combos and commands…once you get to a certain level, it doesn’t mean you never make mistakes. The demands some folks are making are taking away any chance of human error or mistake. Why would a clutch combo, come back, well-timed reversal or amazing read under pressure be amazing if there were no room for error in them?

Can you imagine what a match would look like if execution, errors and physically demanding elements were taken out? It would just be a game of turtling until someone did something absolutely stupid, which would then get punished by an obviously long and optimized combo that wouldn’t have a chance of being dropped. After the knockdown, a jump in would either lead to another optimized combo or a flawless reversal, which would lead back to turtling and waiting for another super mistake to punish.

The human element of video games is expressed almost perfectly in fighting games, with a great mix of physical training, mental quickness and strategy. Why does everyone want to turn it into either a turn-based theory fighter card game or lower the bar so as much that there’s no room for excellence?

If players are getting frustrated because they’re losing, it’s obviously because they’re trying to bite off more than they can chew and trying to stand toe to toe with someone more experienced. Instead if demanding experience, dexterity, knowledge and skill not be a factor, why not admit they’re not as good as they want to be (yet) and play against someone their level until they get a better grasp of the game?

.

Did you even read this shit before you posted it? Making moves and combos more intuitive, fluid and yes, easier, does nothing to remove player reactions, tendencies, reads, or baits from the game. No one goes into a an intermediate or higher match of any FG and says “I’m going to go balls in and not turtle because there’s a chance my opponent might drops his combos!” People will always make judgement errors, get baited, or simply not react fast enough no matter how low the execution barrier is.

Chain combos get dropped all the time. As as much as people often say they want to “make their own combos instead of using the ones the devs put in for us” links are every bit as predetermined as chains, unless hitstun values are assigned by throwing darts at a board. Chains tend to offer more options than links, because they’re designed around flowing through paths. BlazBlue and GG are actually vastly easier at the “I just picked up this game for the first time” level because of their overall intuitive chains for moderate rewards, yet GG especially is harped on as being the hardest fighter of all time rather often. Vampire Savior chains are not only simple and intuitive, but tend to actually represent the characters B&B combos at all levels of play, the difficultly in Vsav comes from defense far more than offense. The only reason these games still have smaller communities is that they aren’t Street Fighter. The main stream recognition to the IP is just not out there enough, and their publishers aren’t throwing enough money at advertising to get them to even register on the gaming radars of non-FG players.

I think your argument would be valid if we were still back at SF2. But it’s 20+ years later and we’re at the tail end of SF4, and the concept of footsies is almost as old as the series itself. Having a bit of the tutorial that talks about controlling space and the various concepts of the game like Counter Hits itself wouldn’t hurt and it would be simple to make. It’s not like you have to create any new in-game property for it. Capcom’s just lazy. Other games have touched on it, why won’t Capcom, especially when they’re the maker of the most popular fighting game that isn’t Tekken? Capcom said initially that SF4 was going to help teach a new generation of players how to play fighting games (in so many words anyway) but they have the most bare-bones tutorial/trial mode of probably any game this generation (of the ones I’ve played anyway.)

There are plenty of worthless combo and link trials, why not use some of that space to say, “Hey, your low Forward kick is good when your opponent is here, and is quick/Low Fierce is good when your opponent is jumping at you/etc.” How hard is that? Footsies is a bit of an abstract idea, but trying to make some sense of it and presenting even a basic idea of what it is will go a long way. It doesn’t have to be complete and really long, just touching on it would help a lot.

It seems like you’re on the “well, I had to do it that way, so why shouldn’t they?” bandwagon, and you have yet to provide a reason as to what would be wrong with an in-game tutorial other than, “fuck new people, let them hunt for that shit.” Do you drive a horse & buggy instead of a car because “that’s how they did it back then?”

Honestly, what methods that Capcom took to “make the game more accessible” actually did as such?

I know fucking up the inputs didn’t do jack shit for it.

I don’t really feel much of a difference in difficulty getting into CvS2 as I did this game. Honestly learning CvS2 might have been easier.

My horse is perfectly healthy, thank you very much! No, seriously…

I agree, the series has been around for 20 years, and as such, the concept of footsies has also been around for years. The thing is, like I mentioned, it’s a concept that is applied to the overall approach of the game rather than a built-in game mechanic. As a video game, it’s not necessary to learn in order to play the game, just like it’s not necessary for someone to learn how to learn the triangle offense in basketball to play a pick-up game or shoot around. As a competitive game, it’s absolutely necessary, but if a player is seeking competition and to elevate their game, then that’s when their time and effort would be better spent interacting with actual players as opposed to doing tutorials.

Speaking of tutorials, if a player needs a tutorial to know how far a normal move will hit, well then I’m at a loss. It’s a leg. It sticks out. If that leg comes in contact with the opponent, it will register a hit. Do people really need a tutorial to show them how to walk up to an opponent and then crouch and hit a button? Even if it was provided, unless every game is played on a stage with built in rulers (training stage) then it all comes back to being eyeball the distance on the fly. It would be faster to just play the game and just press the button. You can see how far the move goes and go from there. See? Simple =)

I thought that I had provided an explanation as to why a footsie tutorial wouldn’t be prudent, but in short, it would have to be character specific, both with the users character and the opponent. What works for one may not work for another. In addition, footsies isn’t just about knowing what normals are good, but also when to use them, how to bait and how to punish a whiff. It’s also about spacing and taking up space. It would save everyone (programmers and players) time if they just went to sonichurricane.com, or the character specific forums for that information. I honestly don’t think it’s that hard.

Again, I’m not against new players…hell, I’m labeled a dirty 09’er (despite being 33). I would lover more people to pick up the game, but at what point is accessibility going to affect longevity and competitive play on a high level?

People will always feel like they should play at high a level because they think they can see the game at a high level, and so they want to eliminate the physical element of the game, and I simply disagree. My opinion won’t sway Capcom as much as the next guy, and maybe when SFV comes out, I’ll pull a Kuroda and stay with the prior interation, but that’s why we’re on the forums, right? To talk about the game?

P.S. leave my horse out of future comments.

I cracked up hard at this :lol:

Maybe the idea is to take existing things like have a top player do a video that’s sort of an overview of the SonicHurricane article and say, “Hey, use moves that extend upward to anti-air” etc. I don’t think it would really even have to be that in depth or character specific. I think just introducing new players to the concept that a punch isn’t just a punch, it CONTROLS SPACE and they could do the math themselves and figure out how it works for the characters themselves. It’s not actually a hard concept, just one that most people don’t think about really. Even after all the years of playing SF2, I never really thought about the footsies thing. I mean, I KNEW a lot of that stuff already before i saw the SH article, but it came as a result of playing the game for a long time.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with at least streamlining the information so that players have it available rather than having to scour the net for it. If anything, when Capcom releases patches, they could update the trials to better reflect the current meta of the game.

I think if the games have decent tutorials that concretely explain the concepts, then the sky’s the limit on complexity as long as players like the game. Personally, I think Tekken’s too complicated, but it’s one of the most played fighters in the world so I don’t think it’s a matter people not liking the complexity of it, it’s just that a lot of the concepts that we take for granted as FG players are pretty foreign to people who don’t play them at all or just started playing them.

[quote=“Time_pants, post:155, topic:170024”]

[quote=“grumpy64, post:153, topic:170024”]

actually yes i did read the entire post but it’s the first few lines that i would like to discuss. A poster above u pointed that u indeed can mash and play sf. You then asked if a player playing that way won tourneys The simple fact that u asked the question implies that u think they should or that u think noobs and scrubs not being on equal footing with experienced pros is somehow a flaw. While i respect your opinion i can’t agree with it. Lets use BB as an example they said the guy that won literally plays thousands of hours. Frankly i think it would be disgusting if a player with that much dedication had no advantage over a casual

oh i love both tekken and sf and i can tell u sf noobs have a lot more resources then tekken noobs

oh do any of u remember the old days when tech was guarded and nobody shared? I remember back when people put their coat over the stick just to hide their motions

As you said in your post, Vampire Savior, Blazblue, Guilty Gear and hell, I’ll include Marvel are all based on chains with their combo systems, they are different games than Street Fighter, why does Street Fighter have to change? There’s already chain-based games out there, leave this thing alone.

Because most casuals won’t even touch it, that’s basically the point of it. Casuals don’t go in-depth in games, casuals don’t go to tournaments, casuals don’t try to play at a high level. Casuals play casually and most people playing the games are casuals, the people who will stick with the game are the people who either already know how to play or who will try to get to their level, in the 2nd case there’s a ton of user-made resources out there. Is it lazy by Capcom? you bet, are there a ton of answers to those player’s problems out there on the internet? of course there are.

If a player wants to learn, they’ll learn. You don’t need Capcom to get better.

I don’t think Street Fighter needs chains, but bufferable links would serve the same purpose in terms of execution and flow while keeping the actual gameplay the exact same.

The simple fact of the matter is that you need the human element to sell a game of Street Fighter. New players play because their friends play. Nobody is going to buy a copy of Street Fighter with no friends to play it with, and enjoy it. Street Fighter is a community game and always has been. Everyone I’ve introduced to the game, I’ve always had to walk them through it and give them “training with sensei”, then suggest an opponent of a similar level to spar with. There’s an entire process to getting people interested in the game.

Humans are low tier.

i was surprised how good the BB/p4a/KoF tutorial system is compared to sf.

I wish Sf had a better tutorial trial system, release new trials regularly, hell make your own and share them.
CAN YOU DO THIS COMBO BILLYFAGHAMMER6969 CAN DO, DOWNLOAD AND SEE.
etc
Capcom needs to get with the times, their franchise is old and is starting to show its age, which is shitty because IMO it is the best one.

After rereading a lot of the comments on here, I just want to say i do not want Capcom to change links or chains, or make it easier. Or harder.
I just want a better trial mode.
Where i live atm it is hard to get people on XBL and I just really want to level up so when I move back to civilisation I can join a FGC in my area.
What is right for me might not be right for you.

-my 2c

Hell, add Skullgirls to the list.
People won’t automatically go to the trials because its under the Challenge option. If I’m starting a new game, I certainly don’t want a fucking challenge right off the bat, I want to learn what buttons do what things and when.
I don’t think that custom trials are needed, and neither are new trials. I think that if Capcom made new trials, it would take away from the desire to try to learn what moves should be done when because you’d just bang them out like Ono said to. I think that they just need a simple tutorial like Injustice did ("Hey, its your first time playing, do you wanna learn the basics?) so that they can get players in the door. From there, with that little bit of knowledge, you feel that the game is accessible because you learned the simple stuff instead of having to figure the simple stuff out on your own.