Is it too late to get into SSF4 AE?

Ive been playing UMVC3 and skull girls for some time and I feel like taking on another fighting game. Im thinking on leaning towards SSF4 mainly because I heard that SFXT didn’t go so well. Is the SF4 community noob friendly? is the community more varied? or is it only populated by veterans? in other words, are people still playing SF4?
UPDATE:I just got my hands on SSF4 AE yesterday, The online is great and the replays are a great learning tool when I lose (6 losses so far lol) I’m Just wondering, what should I look up to improve my skills?

There are hella people playing SF4. Best part about is that there are these great threads you get to read before you make a post. So as long as you aren’t making a thread for question that’s already been answered, feel free to pick up the game.

I think that people are always going to be coming into SSFIVAE, because of the quality of the game, and the fact that it’s the main SF game at the moment.

There’s lot of veterans, but I keep seeing lots of “noobs” as you put it, also. As for the friendliness, well I’ll leave someone else to make that comment. But yeah, I think people will keep playing SSFIVAE until the ‘next big thing’ in Street Fighter comes along.

Is it too late to become king of SSF4AE and win EVO? Maybe.

Is it too late to pick up SF4 and become amazing, having fun at being good, and generally enjoying your time with a huge number of people still playing: not at all! :smiley:

There was a huge steam sale for SF4 a few days back so there is a large influx of new players on the PC version, and generally the skills are more varied in the PC or Xbox version (one being cheaper, the other being the more popular console) - it’s not full of super pros. That being said online play isn’t really the best place to do a lot of hardcore learning because the lag and general feel of “GOTTA GET MY POINTS!!!” seems to override proper gameplay.

Not really, you just pick someone called Fei Long.

Nope. The game still has a ridiculous amount of players.

But wouldn’t proper gameplay beat anyone that is just “GOTTAGET MY POINTS” ? because they are playing carelessly and stupidly?

Never too late. Ever. If you do get it the one piece of universal advice I can give you is that points are a lie. There is a ton of 0PP heroes floating around out there. The amount is equal to the number of people with 5000+PP who boosted the holy fuck out of that rank.

And gordon that mind set only pertains to ranked. There is a reason I only stick to endless battle :slight_smile:

no.

this is still one of the easiest games to pick up.

Yeah, you’ll find a lot of people who have never even fought a ranked match, and stick to endless battles, and have a 0PP, and I’ve seen them whip a 3000+PP like they were standing still. So yeah… there’s all different walks of players still out there. And after EVO, there’s always an influx of new players.

Oh yeah, proper gameplay would beat the people mashing stuff out but there is a time while learning fighting games that you think mashing h.SRK will win every time - and for a majority of the time online it DOES work. Beating these people means playing super boring and letting them whiff everything. While playing fighting games the only thing that matters is getting a win - but it’s very important to know WHY you’ve won.

Take an example of “shitty online tactics” (terrible term, they don’t exist) done well:
[media=youtube]4C0F_aVAnFU[/media]

In this video IronFist looks like he’s just mashing out uppercut, and it KEEPS WORKING. The reason it keeps working though is nobody expects to be met with a SRK on every mixup, let alone 12 mixups in a row. A lot of players will just jump around trying to land a heavy kick, then go right into heavy SRK over and over and over. This isn’t how you play Street Fighter, and until you’re good enough to know how to properly punish this - it just feels unfair and isn’t very fun to play against. It just takes a different mindset to beat someone who is literally mashing buttons.

I don’t know gordon saying that just means you can’t adapt to their newb playstyle, and figure out a way on the spot to beat it. I would still have to disagree, the better player will always find the hole in the masher/so called newb tactic style.
And if they can’t beat it, then maybe your propergameplay isin’t so proper :0

SFxT is actually fun, don’t let anyone lie to you.

Proper gameplay will usually win, but what I think he means (and what I’ve found) is that you’ll come across a lot of high level players who are absolutely merciless.

What it means for me is that I’m often afraid to use any alts, because there’s a good chance the other player is just going to destroy me, so I stick with my main. Which is not good in the long run.

I don’t care about points, they’re not real and don’t mean anything, but noone wants to get smashed when they feel like they don’t have a chance.

It’s unsportmanlike. Paradoxically that probably means it’s extremely e-sportsmanlike.

But I encourage everyone who likes fighting games to play SF4. It’s an excellent game. And if you read the threads, and do some research, you can become quite solid quite quickly.

Sxio

If you are going into every game against someone who you think is better than you with that kind of attitude, how will you ever learn from experience? Basically you are going to play a passive/reserved playstyle against any high level player, but that limits your chance to get better. You want to play these top players and experience for yourself which tactics and strategies will work or not, watching videos and doing research is not going to give you the real understanding of why doing certain things against a high level player isn’t the right choice.
And the high level player just smashing you is anything far from unsportmanlike, why would they take it easy on you? so you can learn to be a batter player?

-I’m really unsure what you’re on about. Have you actually played this game before? If you haven’t, then you should understand that you will get smashed when you first start playing. That’s not having a bad attitude, that’s a fact. There are players who’ve been playing for as long as street fighter 4 has been out. If you’re starting off cold, you’re gonna get beaten. Full stop. I don’t know where you got this info about MY attitude from. I haven’t spoken about that. I’m just saying what happens to brand new players. It sure happened to me when I started.

  • Playing the game will only get you so far, to get to the next level you really need to read the forums about your character at the least. I personally don’t watch a lot of videos, because I just like to play. That’s why I stayed so average for so long, because I didn’t understand why I was losing. I entered the tournament scene, met a lot of other players, started a bit of research and I am much, MUCH better now. That would not have happened so quickly if I’d still been just playing the game, trying random stuff against people. Now I can actually understand why I got beaten, because I have a better understanding of the game and how it works.

Do you know why they have divisions in Tennis? Because A grade Vs D grade is a bad idea. the A grade player gets bored and an easy win, the D grade player doesn’t learn anything because they just get smashed.

It’s the same reason why white belts don’t fight black belts in martial arts. The white belt learns nothing, the black belt learns nothing. Their skill levels are too different. So why do you think it’s a good idea to do exactly that in street fighter?

gordon has a point. under lag its hard to adapt. no lag = you whiff a lp srk, i make you pay. lag = you whiff a lp srk, i punish but due to lag you sucessfully mashed out an ultra. This will force any player to simply not do anything anymore (It becomes hell because you’re now playing a diff game and you cant fight under these conditions. i fought these fights were it seems like there’s no lag, but the input delay is crazy.) this happens more often during ranked games. Offline, or even online with no lag, this would never happen. Either way, it still makes for a boring game, as all youre reduced to is punishing. there’s no fun in fighting those pointless fights where youre gifted wins. i rather work for my wins, out thinking a smart opponent, even if his/her level is not great

Play any game you like. If you put the time and practice in and have a legitimate will to get better, there is no too late.

AE 2012 was the most played fighting game at EVO. Of course its not too late.

I’ve had it with the SF4 line-up once Super and Arcade Edition came out. You now have to learn the entire cast of THIRTY NINE characters just to compete. You can easily screw someone up if they don’t know how to deal with your character. In addition, the mix-up opportunities are endless so it’s possible to win by doing random shit once your opponent is knocked down. In other words, the game caters specifically to the new crowd by giving them a wide arsenal and easing the gameplay to compensate for their lack of knowledge.

There is alot more that i want to talk about on the subject of SF4. You’ll think its a sweetass game at first, but it will go downhill fast once you explore the stupidly large amount of crap you can do.

Here is an example of what I’m talking about:
[media=youtube]f6QiUqzwmVo[/media]
Guys, please respond to me about what you just saw. By the way, DSP(Darksydephil) is a veteran competitor. He made it to the finals of ST on evo '07 and lost to David Sirlin.