Hey guys, so as the title says I’m completely fresh meat to the genre. The reason I never played fighting games before is because I didn’t own a console, I just played PC games. With SG on steam now I can play online! Plus with my mechanical keyboard it feels nice using it for a fighting game. I finished the tutorial modes, played a bit of arcade, and got my ass whooped a lot ( A LOOOOOOT) online. But it’s a ton of fun, I play mostly RTS and FPS games so this is a huuuge new experience to me.
ATM when I’m not getting destroyed online I try to practice combos I see people put up on youtube. I’m mainly just playing Filia solo since I like her air combos, good/bad beginner choice? I’m looking for any pointers to help me be a bit more competitive online. In the games where I’m not getting completely dominated I try to knock people in the air a lot with with cLK,sMK,sHP and then do jMP,jMK. When I pull it off it’s nice, but people seem find it pretty predictable @_@.
Anyways my other general questions.
Is the match making system cross platform? Meaning PC players can play vs console players (concept from CS:GO).
Is the match making system really working? One game I’m playing another noob like me, the next I get HAMMERED by some guy doing infinite combos and then does his special to my dead body as a parting gift.
Are there any balance issues between using one, two, or three characters?
Should I consider switching to a fight stick or pad? Doing Cerebella’s 360 thing is pretty awkward (I still can’t do it) with arrow keys. Plus mine are kinda busted so I’m using numpad arrow keys.
I’m really feeling the game so far, looking forward to any advice you guys can offer. Thank you!
-Parasoul and Cerebella are probably best for beginners, they’re the most straightforward characters out of the current nine, but there’s still stuff to learn, I would still try them all to see how they fit your playstyle.
-The character ratio system works so that the player can choose between more health and power, or assists which give you more options. So it’s pretty balanced. Solo teams get the most health and damage. Duos get less health than solos but they get an assist and another character. Trios get two more assists and characters but the least amount of health.
-Arcade sticks, control pads, or keyboards are all up to player preference. I know a few Cerebella players that don’t use 360 super at all.
Also: Can’t tell if you’re a guy looking for attention, or girl looking for help. Some of the context is kinda weird.
Edit: The game’s tutorial mode is amazing, especially if you’re new to fighting games, if you haven’t tried it yet.
Haha, I should have given my name a bit more thought before joining a forum and making a thread with my first post. It was actually a joke between some of my friends and I like to use it occasionally, especially in games I haven’t played.
I’ll try to stay away from playing so much Filia and give the others a real shot. Thanks for the tip.
Looking at all the different combos and tactics, I figured that I have to keep playing more obviously, but I want some structure to it too. The reason being is because I’m getting absolutely murdered by players who are waaaaaay better than me. You don’t get better playing more when the game begins and ends in their long ass combos. It literally happens like every 2 - 3 games.
I’d hang out in training mode and learn another character that compliments Filia. You should try to get your character(s) to the point where movement and combos are second nature. You don’t need a lot of combos just start off with one that you can do consistently and gradually add more. Next, I’d wait for lobbies to return and play people in there. Those matches aren’t ranked so the competition shouldn’t be as fierce. Keep in mind that rank matches are merciless and people are preparing for the beta tournament coming up.
Be prepared to lose. A lot. Not only are you playing catch up on a year old game, but people are also going to have X years of fighting game experience over you as well. You gotta start from somewhere so don’t let it discourage you. Just keep at it, continue to practice and most of all have fun (which you already seem to be so that’s good to see).
How good you’ll be all depends on you. There is a plethora of information out there to help you do so. Don’t be afraid to seek it out or ask questions when you need to (which again seems to be what you’re already doing so that’s already a good step in the right direction). Try to hit up locals if you can. Nothing levels you faster than having someone show you the ropes in person.
It’s only been about three or four years since I picked up fighting games on a more serious/competitive level. The community is fantastic and generally very helpful, unlike a number of others I can think of. As far as learning goes, I’ve got a few personal tips from how I went about it, seeing as it’s still fresh in my head.
Learn your basics. Your normals are the most important part of the game. At one point in time I believed the more specials I did, the better I was preforming. Your normals are your safe transitions into combos that lead to those specials, or supers, and at the end of the day, they’ll be what do the most damage to your opponent, and remain the least predictable.
Learn your basics pt2. It’s super, unimaginably important that you practice basic inputs into the ground. Being able to preform quartercircles, dragon punches, and all other basic special inputs on command is the difference between being able to preform a combo 1/10 times, and 10/10 times. These need to be second nature to you. You can’t be sitting there thinking “I need to do a quartercircle now”, it’s just, “This move comes next,” and bam, it’s out.
Stick to your basics. If you pick up 2-3 basic combos, no more than 4-6 hits a piece, and can consistently land them, you’ll be doing better than a good number of people. It doesn’t take much, and it definitely doesn’t take any flashy over the top half HP or infinite combos to be winning with fair consistency. Those will come with time and practice. There’s far too much to learn about these games to just pick up everything you need in a week.
Mixup and converted damage. Try to learn which of your moves have cross-up, overhead, and low properties to them. Then figure out which ones are the least punishable, or quickest to come out. You were saying you felt predictable, and that’s likely the case if you always start with, say, lows. Standing Block and Crouching Block deal with all types of attacks, but standing can’t do anything against low, and crouching can’t do anything against overheads. Mix it up a little, and figure out how to convert that first hit into a combo. Cross-ups, if you aren’t aware of what those are, are attacks that have a hitbox on the back-end of your character. I.E., if you jump over your opponent at just the right angle and throw one out, it’s very difficult to read which side of them it will hit, making it difficult for them to know which way to block. Additionally, on the topic of mixups, figure out your throws and see what kind of combos you can pull off from there. You really only need a few options to have a well rounded game.
If you can manage to get those four points down, I promise you’ll see a huge improvement in your game. One step at a time though.
@LayZ Yeah I think I have a lot more to work on than just combos… I spent probably over an hour yesterday working on Parasoul combos I found in the forum. I nailed down the basic gist of it and went on to try it out against other people. If I was lucky I could dish it out on someone 1 or 2 times before losing haha. What I’m seeing from other people is the way they move around, block, and anticipate what I do just shuts me down. Perhaps I’ll look around for a more in-depth movement and blocking guide to help me out. Just from playing other games competitively, I know that the fundamentals are a huge factor to your game.
@beesuit Being completely new this genre, I find it really refreshing to play fighting games. In the games where I get combo’d to heaven and hell I pretty much just spam block with one hand and rest my head in the other and laugh. Losing is really not bad at all when your competition is that good. For the close games against fresh meat like me it’s just sooo much more fun because you can actually play the game. The tension you get when both health bars are low is cool too, it’s different from Quake 1v1 just because your opponent is there in your face and you both know that the next hit may decide the fight.
It’s good to see you’ve got a light heart about losing. That’s normally a huge issue with people who wade into the FGC expecting to just ‘get it’. And the Lobby system is coming. Since it’s Beta they have some things they want to thoroughly test out, and they feel the need to funnel your only option into it, lol
Whoa… You should ignore some of the advice in here. Filia is a great character for beginners. And lol at Valentine for beginners. She has some of the most awkward combos in the game, requires longer than normal combos to do good damage, her supers are on the wrong side of the neutral game utility spectrum (though air scalpels has gotten better since vanilla), and she needs an assist to truly shine. (All the opposite of Filia). In short, there is no need to drop Filia. She is a great character for all levels of play, and was specifically designed that way.
Also, there are no infinites in this game. And since you’re playing on the beta I can almost guarantee you that they didn’t do a touch of death combo. (Unless maybe you’re using a team of 3). Watch out for the recovery spark. I think it’s currently blue, and it shows up at the center of your character when you have recovered from hitstun. If you see this in the middle of a combo it means it wasn’t a combo at all, and that you got reset (they stopped their combo and quickly started another). You have the ability to block or interrupt resets, though some can be pretty tough to deal with (because you generally have to guess between blocking high/low, left/right, or teching a throw).
Oh right, that was the other thing. To hell with what character you pick, sans a select few. If you put the time and effort into the character of your choosing, you’ll be just as good with them as any other character you invest that much time into. Filia is a great character, and a blast to play.
@Dellingr Wow, really well put together post man, thank you! I believe that every new player should read into something like that. My last game that I played super competitively was SC2. Going into the game I already had a lot of RTS knowledge from playing Brood War so I completely blasted through entry level competition, but teaching a beginner and watching them struggle as a beginner told me that I was reaaaaal lucky to have jockeys in the game as my irl friends.
The problem that comes with learning something new from scratch in any area of life is that you will make mistakes, and the mistakes will make your experience and of course your results less than desirable. That’s why I always try to reach out and ask for advice along with reading guides, because there’s always someone out there who went through the same things I had and know the mistakes they’ve made along the way that stunted their growth. So instead of practicing long ass chain combos I see on youtube all night, after work I’m going to work on a few simple ones and master them, and move on from there. I also noticed that you joined the forums to make that post thanks .
@Dude Thanks, I really do like Filia so it’s nice to know that she isn’t insanely hard to pick up. I also DID NOT know about the blue spark thing, that’s pretty damn important since I bet a few of my opponents have probably dropped their combos lol.
It’s really nice to see the game coming to PC, us folks who only play PC pretty much accepted the fact that we may never see genres like Fighters really pick up online. Sure there was SF4 but I don’t think that one went too well, I’m not sure. SG on the otherhand suits my tastes (lol), the competition at least to me looks great too. I’m pretty sure I faced some names on this forum, I do remembering Zidiane only because I thought he had misspelled “Zidane”, then of course I got trashed by him…
I think that other than fortune and painwheel, you pick up and play any of these characters. Especially when you still just trying out basic combos into supers.
Even with Fortune and painwheel, I dont think execution requirements are too high, its more that they’re odd characters, that might seem confusing at first. But even so its possible.
No worries, man. Always glad to help. If I’ve learned anything massively important about the FG scene, it’s that it’s 90% fundamentals, and that last 10% is the fancy shit. Like I said, just try to learn your mixup options, and possibly try to figure out a few combos from each. If you can do that and vary it up enough, I’ve had games where not a single combo was blocked, and vice versa, I didn’t manage to block a single one. Just became impossible to read.
If you ever need any help, just lemme know. I’m still in the novice area, but that’s exactly the advice you need. Trust me, my high-level friends try to suggest shit to me, and I just sit there like, ‘wut?’
Blocking is also an essential skill to develop and very underrated by most newcomers simply because there’s no real readily apparently reward and gratification from it. Learning how to block, keeping patient and overall just reacting and defending yourself will be able to take you a long way. Generally, the harder it is to open someone up, the more frustrated the opponent will get, causing them to over extend and providing you with more opportunities to capitalize on in the end.
For now I’d second Dellingr’s comment on just getting your execution down pat. Just like in BW and SC2, before you delve into the more strategic aspects of the game you need to make sure you get your multi-tasking and macro abilities to a decent level first (i.e your execution and understanding of special moves/combos in fighting games). You don’t have to read this now, but I suggest bookmarking this for later reading as advanced learning material down the road. http://sonichurricane.com/?page_id=1702
You have the right attitude so you’re off to a good start, glhf.
Hurf durf, I can’t believe I didn’t cover that. Thanks, Beesuit. Learn to block. That’s essential. There are a few tricks to it that make attacks easier to react to, but by no means are going to work 100% of the time.
Most overhead’s come from jumping attacks, so always stand-block jumping attacks.
Lows can only come from grounded, so you have to pretty much guess from there, but the safe assumption is to crouchblock.
One last point of information on the subject. Don’t mash. Even if the game seems to reward it to a degree, it’s a nasty habit to break when it doesn’t. Get a general feel for timing, and don’t press more buttons than you have to. Same goes for punishing blocked assaults. Try to find your opportunity. Don’t get caught pressing buttons, or you’ll be the one getting punished.
In 2D fighters 90% of all attacks are either lows or mids which can both be crouch blocked. This is done to prevent the games from becoming too much about guessing.
In 3D fighters(like tekken and SC) its the opposite and most attacks are blocked while standing and lows are the less common attacks.
Still practicing combos and branching out into my other moves that help me move around. I went back to Filia and I gotta say, learning how to use hairball without having to think about it helps out a whoooole lot. Despite the initial shock factor of getting my ass thrown around, I’m starting to get the hang of it and the games aren’t completely walk overs now. Also have you guys played against the computer AI? I think it’s a safe bet that beating the arcade on Nightmare would be a good thing to do before really focusing heavily on online play. I’m still having trouble with Ridiculous atm.
The ai seems to be able to pull off long ass combos the same way people do, but people are a bit smarter and pick up on your weaknesses. Played vs a Cerebella today and we were pretty equal, except he was good at throwing and I had no experience preventing it so he just abused that flaw in my game =_=.
Also even though I said I wanted to get an arcade stick, I gotta say, the keyboard doesn’t feel all that bad. Especially a mechanical one. Are there any known veteran players out there who use keyboard or is this completely new territory?
Practicing against the AI to develop fundamentals and confidence in your abilities is a great way to start out imo. Just make sure you’re aware that AI’s due to their predictable pattern can sometimes teach bad habits by abusing it so don’t carry that aspect over into your real matches, since like you said real opponents will change and adapt accordingly. But for hit-confirm practice, getting a feel for characters and such, AI practice is always a good option.
Most players starting out tend to get thrown a lot as well, but the more you play, the more you’ll recognise common situations where someones more likely to go for a throw. Throw-teching has a lot to do with experience and recognising player tendencies.
I’ll have to second Dellingr’s don’t mash advice as well. I have a friend who’s a little too button happy when playing fighters and he can’t really link his combo’s that well as a result.
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