So I’m starting from ground zero with the exception of watching tons of SF4 tournaments. I really got hooked through watching Gootecks and Mike Ross’s show on youtube along with watching almost every tournament I could over the past year. Recently I took the plunge and bought a stick which is currently in the mail. I ended up purchasing this stick in anticipation of SF5 and since I’m already a PS4 owner. Despite the complaints about USF4, I’m hopeful issues will be resolved with it soon though I do own the game as well on PS4.
My questions go as follows, and if you’re kind enough to help a brother out I appreciate it:
Being in the army, it doesn’t leave me a lot of options to go to any kind of scenes where fighting games are prominent. I was stationed in South Korea from '13-'14, and I’ve been in(and am currently) in Germany from '14- Jan '16. I’ll be going back to South Korea in January '16 so I’m hopeful I can actually find something there.
With that being said, what will be the most effective way to teach myself in the training area given my situation?
Is the stick I invested in worth my money or should I start looking in another direction and use the stick I ordered as a short term solution?
With the learning curve seemingly brutal for beginners, when should I expect results from the hours and hours of practice? I plan to invest the time in considering I’ve already invested the money and patience shouldn’t be an issue.
Is online play an acceptable form of practicing what you’ve learned or will this just reinforce bad habits I may develop early on?
I think this is all I have for now, but I’m sure I’ll think of follow on questions as these first few are hopefully answered. Thank you very much for your help.
It’s similar to a gamepad with analogues but if you startin from zero, just practice the motions as capcom games are the easiest to learn the specials since most of the cast share em. And basically follow the clicker.
A gamepad gate is basically a circle gate while arcade stick gates vary from square all the way to circle.
Although I will say the square gate seems more comfortable because it feels “restricted” and quick.
The other gates were alittle too “soft” in comparison tbh
If you don’t mind going to the wolves’ den wearing a wool coat, get Fightcade and play the older games there - Super Turbo, 3rd Strike, KOF98, KOF 2002. The older games are simple, focusing more on movement, space control and using them to land hits rather than the combo centric stuff more modern games do. The stricter input systems also force you to do stuff cleanly, which translates better over different games. The player base is often dedicated and cutthroat, so you’ll be exposed to silly gimmicks less.
HRAP 4 is a good stick and very much worth the money.
The results don’t come in the way of wins, not immediately anyway. These games have a lot to grasp, and even if you improve in some area an experienced player will just find another and trounce you there. The metric you should be looking at is “did I do Thing X better than I did yesterday/last week / last month”? Because that is what the true measure of improvement is. The wins will come as a side effect. That said, expect to invest hours upon hours until you “get good”. Though mostly it’s not about the hours, strictly, but how you spend them.
Depends on how you do it. Playing ranked on SF4 will just show you stupid shit. Best way is to find acquaintances on some online service or at/near your base, play, and discuss the games with them to see where you could improve at. That, and thinking about losses critically.
I’ve put together a resource pack for learning fighting games, should include a lot of useful things: http://pastebin.com/AxJ7USsJ
I especially recommend Patrick Miller’s wonderful ebook, it’s really comprehensive and really shows you well what makes these games tick:
