So do you guys think one can level up enough in a game by playing it an hour a day, 90 minutes tops, only against the A.I? I am away from SFxT for a month but I could bring it with me but my playtime would be limited and regulated to offline. It would be a great hassle, however, so unless it would do good benefit for a scrubbish player like me I will just forget it.
I lack the experience (first real fighter) and execution that comes from playing it a lot, I want my hands on the DLC, and am transitioning onto fightpad. If my mechanics improve from this sweet, but I do not want to isolate myself so long with the a.i and cement bad habits that kill me when I move to PvP next month.
Assuming you’re not at some sort of high level “my execution is 99% flawless” level (and based on your repeated comments about being ‘scrubbish’ I suspect you’re not), then the answer is yes. Unless you’re at that level, you can always improve your combo execution, hitconfirms, and punishes by playing against the AI and/or in training mode, and 90 minutes a day is a pretty solid training regimen - well more than a lot of us ‘casual’ types put into our games.
It won’t make you a god amoung players, because there will be a LOT of experience you’ll be MISSING - resets, mindgames, setups, and honestly, real matchup experience, but you will be able to improve in the categories listed above.
Also, if SFxT has a non-crap training mode, you can probably even work on your blocking, but I dunno if it does.
Combo practice. Execution helps a lot in PvP and so having the execution down better than the people you play against means an automatic advantage. You’ll still need to learn mindgames in PvP matches, but the execution makes those easier anyways. I’m better than my friends at BlazBlue because I don’t drop combos nearly as much as they do. My mindgames still have a long way to go.
You can do fairly well playing 90 minutes a day. It definitely helps to have specific goals in mind whenever you train, so that you’re not wasting your time playing in a random fashion.
This can help iron out your basic execution, matchup experience, and use of combos. At some point, you’ll have to eventually play against a human player though. The AI can teach you how to deal with certain moves, but all AI falls under the same pattern of algorithms that you’ll begin to pick up on, whereas a live human will teach you how to deal with a variety of playstyles, as well as the psychology of how to combat another person.
Basically mind games. Mind games don’t work on AI, but they’ll work on a human.
practice situation stuff as well, sometimes you land a stray hit but are too far out to complete the combo, so train hit confirming a couple of moves from max range then hit launcher since the launcher moves forward
The training mode is all right. Has your autoblock for hit confirming and blockstrings, something I have not learned yet, and a record mode so I can practice perceiving the game’s mixup strings. Just wish I could vary the strings randomly.
As for my experience, I’d say I am one of the most knowledgeable sfxt players, I follow its development religiously, but my actual skills are very low. My plan is to join the NYC scene in September, but was largely worried so much a.i time would make me a worse player.
Thanks for the persuading, I’ll clear room in my bag for it.
Right; BlazBlue Extend has a “record up to 4 recordings and play them back randomly” feature in training which is really nice. I guess SFxT doesn’t have that.
^^^^ BBCSExtend has one of the best training modes ever. Period. Fighting the AI will help a ton, but they are very algorhithmic. It’s just like standardized tests, you might ace them, but it doesn’t mean you can apply the knowledge. I am playing SSFIV on Hardest level now (haven’t upgraded to AE yet) and I can mow through it for the most part. When I get online though, my ratio is ballz. I would highly suggest breaking up the AI play with PvP as much as possible. It will at least get you thinking about the advanced tactics humans use. For example, the SF engine doesn’t recognize ibuki’s kunai as a projectile like it does hadouken, but the AI does. The AI will let it pressure them. An advanced player (or at least someone who knows the matchup) can parry kunai with a jab. It makes the AI a lot easier to deal with. On the other hand, sometimes you can get away with using stupid tactics on people because reaction times can be slower, don’t know the match up, other generic human flaw sentences., etc. Just keep this in mind while you are training. It will make you better, it won’t make you the best.
The problem is I just do not have humans to play against yet, unless you count my 12 year old cousin, which is actually teaching me about bait and punish.
I do not know if I have been using my time wisely. Since new characters are out for SFxT I have been exploring oki setups and tech with all of them, while my fundamentals are continuing to stagnate. It might even be a problem that I know so much about sfxt, since I know how it should be played at an expert level yet never played enough myself to execute in this way: like there is a period of playing a game wrong first before you play it right.
You’re probably over-thinking it. Fight the computer. I haven’t played SFxT but you can definitely bait and punish them because of the algorithms. Oki setups and tech are fundamentals I would think? I think you gotta keep things in perspective. When you practice, naturally you will become better. It just happens. You don’t have any humans to play with right now so you won’t really be able to gauge whether or not you are “playing properly” or whatever. So, what I would say is that whenever you get hit with an attack, try to think of ways to prevent that from happening, and whenever you hit the opponent, think of ways to make that happen again. Obviously there is more to it, but I promise you will pick up on it. Playing fighting games is a process. The only way to get better is to play. There are good ways to play, and there are better ways to play. When lacking the better option, play the good way. Slap the game on hardest or whatever and hop to it. When you can beat the hell out of the comp. Then, when you get to fight people, you will know all of your options and such and you can adapt. Adaptability is always key and if you are sucking at that, look up the video in the Beginner videos stickied in the Newbie Sakiyo Dojo. Don’t sweat all this shit though mang. Play the game. Enjoy:)
Another idea I just had is: if you don’t have friends that play sfxt or an online connection or whatever then you can easily find people. If you are from a bigger area, check the match finder threads. See if they are non-insane and want to meet up to play IRL. If you aren’t from a bigger area, go to the nearest game stop or game store and ask them about the game. The great thing about Street Fighter is that every fighting game fan has played it. Ask them if they want to play. I don’t know how old you are or whatever, so if you are like 16 or something it might be weird, but I guarantee you that you can find someone who wants to play. Again, don’t overthink it. You can have a passion for it, but it ain’t life. It’s a game.
Unfortunately atm I am in Bumble**** Rhode Island, but starting September I am living back in NYC. If there is not a sfxt scene there, there isnt one anywhere…
Think I may just have problems going from PS3 pad to the sfxt fight pad. 3 fingers on the face buttons is tricky but I am already liking it, it makes links inexplicably easier, but the dpad is really getting to me. Might just be this model, but much harder to do qcb.
Essentially all I’m sayin is that you will probably get better by playing the AI, but you almost defintely won’t get better by NOT playing the game. I thought about getting the PS3 fight pad, but I went ahead and grabbed an arcade stick. I am very happy with that decision but there was one fight pad with an analog stick instead of the D-Pad that I definitely had my eye on. I can’t use the actual pad for fighting games. I think it comes from playing guilty gear on PS2. The 632146+attack motion just felt like I was just smashing my thumb across the directions.
