No it’s still a choice. Just because it’s better in particular situations doesn’t make it not a choice, you still have to pick which Ultra you want.
So I like the idea that you want to challenge the “never nerf anything, buffs only” status quo, but I kind of have a problem with this right here:
See, I think that one of SF4’s big problems is they aren’t willing to rethink these 1991 character designs, which is how we end up with these characters who don’t quite work right – be they way too good or helpless. In most games, headbutt does absolutely nothing for Honda in his bad matchups and is the solution to almost every problem in his good ones. I know it’s SF tradition, but seriously, HF and ST and everything aren’t going anywhere and sometimes I feel like we got cheated out of a genuinely new game. They seem to have prioritized preserving a character’s signature playstyle over making sure they actually work with the new mechanics. Look at Gen, who lost his awesome unique gameplan because it “didn’t feel like Gen.”
I mean, I look at the SF3 incarnations of classic characters and they have tools they never had in the old games that make them work well with SF3’s stupid parries and more interesting stun mechanics. I really don’t understand why they never did this for SF4, and then they were surprised in vanilla when characters whose ancient designs just happened to synergize well with FADC ultra, focus attacks in general and terrible blockstun were rolling characters who didn’t have the right tools for the game.
If I were to fix SF4, though, I’d make a lot of system-wide changes. The character tweaks are a band-aid on a game that’s had problems with its mechanics and its design philosophy since day 1. People talk about how they want every character buffed to promote variety, but does the SF4 system itself promote variety? With the ridiculous difference between hitstun and blockstun, how do you make a character with frame-trap-based offense without completely ruining their momentum on block or making everything link into everything? With this mortal fear Capcom has of giving their characters usable launchers and comboable overheads, is it any surprise that the offense is as linear as it is?
Just to clarify, I want every character to be broken too. I just think band-aiding individual characters isn’t a very good way to achieve that. Maybe open the game up a little bit so there are some decent tactics besides meaty crossup fireball, divekick and hit confirms off of jab. If all of the characters could be as unique as Viper, I’d like this game a lot more.
Yep.
U2 by itself makes the Akuma matchup so much better; it doesnt by any means beat all vortex options, but it removes a LOT of them, and makes Akuma have to play around it.
Complaining that you can’t use U1 (which you can) because U2 is much better in a certain matchup doesn’t make sense. Ultras were designed to change a facet of your gameplay. With U2, it makes Hakan have an amazing defense vs air options, rather than having a powerful ground throw in U1. You choose which one best fits a given situation, not which one you like more.
True, but then it becomes a question of “Do you want to win or lose?” Again, until I see someone doing well with Ryu U2 or something comparable, then I’ll be 100% on board. But right now it just seems too situational when choosing one
More like a choice of “do you want damage or scare them from using particular moves” and weigh the choice.
I could pick Dudley’s Ultra 2 in every match and go for the for sure damage but sometimes I like to pick Ultra 1 in some fights to passively make some characters stop using moves or punish things I can’t with Ultra 2.
Thanks for the reply! To clarify, all I meant was that if I run into an Akuma in blindpick, or ranked online, I’m screwed because I’m using U1 for all my match-ups. That’s one round gone (theoretically of course, I do win when I guess right thank you).
Still, Phoenix vs Haggar, ya know? Boom. One sweep from Akuma and Hakan’s lying on the floor for half damage (possibly). I think the Vortex should be effective except that it’s overpowered in that one instance and that’s all I meant with that example. That there are character specific traps that look really ugly compared to the balance everywhere else in the game.
p.s. I don’t think reflecting on an oversight means I don’t learn the game and work on my character. I’m pretty confident in my Hakan thank you. Also, let me know your opinion on this:
A lot of people have talked on the forums about the idea of the EX bars reseting each round as a way to spice up the game. I have a similar idea - what if every character could use both Ultra’s? No picking, you just have both Ultra’s for whatever circumstance arises? I can’t say if it would break the game or give it some spice for people that like a little more crazy. Thoughts? I know everyone’s first thought is “no way”, but if you think about it could be really interesting. If you say it’s a broken concept, site a character or example.
Gotta say you make some valid points. I agree with the Viper notion and the overhead thing. But I do like SFIV’s mechanics and I like that Cap was bold enough to be a bit slow in the face of most games these days, fighter or not.
The following eventhubs story lays it out. If they’re popular, then they’re kinda like Capcom’s Mickey Mouse and they try to preserve the character. If they’re not, like Hugo, then the character gets a touch up. Honda and Ryu are popular but I guess Honda’s not beloved enough to retain.
You can wait to see who they pick before selecting Ultra you know
Wish random select didn’t randomly select the Ultra to be honest.
Seriously. Agreed. “Random” and all but, well, I’m with you there. It sucks but it makes sense. lol.
I’m in the view that AE is balanced, Yun, Yang, Fei just mess it up. Without those 3 characters that game is fairly balanced. I feel that all ver. 2012 needs is nerfs to the S tiers, buff some of the weaker characters and just overall small tweaks to the rest of the cast. I think people are throwing it out of proportion of how unbalanced AE is. Dont get me wrong it is, but its mostly because of Yun, Yang, and Fei.
This post really gave me a headache
Have you ever tried playing viper? you make it seem like her seismo has the start-up and recovery frames of a sonic boom.
For the record, I don’t think AE is horribly broken either, I hope that was clear. But still, they just announced location tests and I am EXCITED.
I never mind Honda/Blanka vertical ball dmg/hitbox/hurtbox/etc. I only mind the armor breaking property that these moves have.
Remove it please!
Blanka vertical ball does not armor break except as a reversal. Just like all physically hitting 1 part moves that are reversals.
If you meant horizontal ball, blanka would get blown up by focus dash though ball into ultra all of the time, which would be hilarious but a messed up nerf.
I wonder though… Liquid and Snake were also a case of recessive vs dominant genes… Snake was, in fact the inferior one but he proved to be the better soldier…
A classic example of a player winning the game?
I am pretty sure (most of the reason) AE is how it is because of the feedback on the previous versions. If more players didn not focus on what was “too good” and needed to be nerfed and instead thought about of what was “bad” and could be better… As it stands now when AE is rebalanced and the new high-tiers are established people will instead focus on those characters and only how good those characters are compared to theirs (or the rest of the cast) and not how they could most effectively counter the character. I am not saying that there are not things that should be changed but instead there are things that people need accept before requesting nerfs…
Also, people seem to shy away from unexplored characters who have little information to go on and do not think instead that *no one will see this coming *when he/she/it shows off some new tech.
fei was already good why did they buff him?
Yang isn’t up there with Yun and Fei at the moment, people need to stop doing that.
They need to balance around A tier, not B tier or C tier like before. Too many weak and ineffective characters imo.
How is Yang not in the S tier?
Do I mention a tier list, tourney results or how he doesn’t have the same hitboxes or frame data as Yun?
People see Yun running train on players and then automatically say both characters are a problem. They are different characters, they are played different, they have different matchups. If Yang was just as S tier as Yun/Fei, why would tier whores drop him for them?
And I actually agree with that. There are a million j-fighters out there, MVC3 is out etc. SF4 feels like it’s the only thing on the market that moves at the pace it does and I wouldn’t touch that. I just wish it felt less samey.
It’s funny, because I wonder who this is for… true scrubs probably don’t notice the subtle properties of a move like invincibility frames anyway, and maybe I’m just giving people too much credit but I think the majority of serious players would mind the characters being reworked on a fundamental level if they remained viable and interesting. It’s like, ST Ken doesn’t play anything like 3S Ken and ST Chun doesn’t play anything like A2 Chun, but the scrubs never really noticed and competitive players didn’t really seem to mind.