10

learning to play against the computer is almost a waste of time. useful for execution but thats about it. you can’t trick the computer.

11

could be a personal goal right? also there arent ways of tricking the cpu but you can exploit it. sometimes the cpu is smarter than a person, other times the person does more to preserve themselves than the cpu would.

12

I think that’s what they mean when they say “trick” the CPU.

Another shoto trick on Gill is if you’ve knocked Gill down… if you walk up right next to him and time a DP correctly as he’s getting up, the DP will always hit him. Slightly early or slightly late and he’ll block or parry or interrupt you. I’ve gotten double perfects on Gill like this (easiest with Ken; kara DPs and corner DPs). Never tried this on arcade btw, only on PS2. If you’re at an arcade, just play people…

13

The computer is never “smarter” then a complainant player.

the computer is only hard if you try to play against them like they were a person by mixing up your options. While in reality you should just keep doing the same thing over and over again.

IE

makoto can keep doing command grab->st. fpxdash punchxn (aka the scrub infinite) to beat every character in the game

Ibuki can beat every character that can’t duck her standing jab by holding forward and repeatably tapping jab.

BTW these to options take little to no skill to preform and hell in mak’s case you will get a nice high grade too.

14

It could be a personal goal in the same way anything that won’t help you get better at beating living breathing people can be a personal goal. It’s still virtually useless for becoming a better competitor. This should be pretty obvious.

15

This is why I said they are two different things, you are still contradicting yourself.

To me it sounds like you’re trying to make an easy transition into competitive 3s by training in 1p mode, then using those skills so that you’re a little bit more familiar with the game by the time you play other people. This might work to a very small degree, but in terms of relative skill level it won’t help you much at all. Like pherai said it would help your execution a bit but it would be pretty useless otherwise. To really get a feel for the game and play the way they do on youtube, you gotta skip the 1p mode step and just get beat down by other people, try your hardest and learn from your mistakes for a long time.

16

learning combos in arcade >>>> learning combos in training mode.

17

ya definitely. my training method for learning new, difficult combos is start in training mode, and once i had it at a very high rate of execution in training mode, practice it against the computer until i can get a comparable level of execution i had in training mode.

18

playing the computer can make you better than you think but you have to do it right.

only whiff punish its normals, don’t attack and don’t take advantage of the computer doing stupid shit and don’t abuse shit the computer doesn’t know how to stop.
you’ll get better.

even against humans reactive play is better than tricks. tricks are cute. reaction punishes are DEATH.

19

Note: I want to be good at the two different things, Im not saying one comes from the other. Just a matter of preference. Get that part down. I want to be good at both, even if they are not related.

I noticed this a few years ago but completely forgot about it. Also for some reason, Gill is more open to jump in HP than jump in HK. Maybe because of the distance. So I am often comboing HP directly to DP.

And the video I saw where the guy gets near multiple perfects on CPU Gill was pure skill, timing, and memorization. Had something for everyone one CPU GIll’s tricks. I will check to find the video.

Also cheap tactics are ok against the computer but not against other human players. Personally I hate doing cheap or salty moves when playing either, but against another person I really hold off on that. They always have something to say even if you used it once, early in one round.

Im also trying the training mode practice for combos and parrying. Though I can almost never ever parry anything unless its slow moving. As for the combos, Im at the level where if I see a combo tutorial on youtube, I will NOT be able to do all of them no matter how many times I try. Maybe Im missing a few of the game mechanics for some of them. Still learning.

20

Playing cheap is essential. 3s gives you an option out of anything, so theres really no reason to ever whine, but players really good at playing cheap eliminate all but the riskiest options. We should all strive for that.

Make sure you’re learning the most practical combos first. Don’t get caught up in wild KYSG kinda stuff. Just start with hit confirms and basic punishes. Parrying is better to start training in actual matches. You get a lot more mileage out of learning just how to parry a normal than (red) parrying supers.

21

Before you start, watch a few videos and try and get an idea of who you want to main. Once you have that, start searching the top players of the character you picked. Practice THOSE combo’s, their much more practical and not ridiculously hard/flashy. Once you master practical combo execution, watch those videos again and see when he uses combos, try to understand why he hits buttons and when to hit them. Remember that you honestly have everything handed to you on a silver platter, matchup discussions, practical combos, setups, ect ect, the majority of that is on SRK. Then you have Japanese top player videos that are still pumping out every damn week. I still find myself lucky to be the new gen, I don’t have to work as hard as the OG’s.

22

I can’t believe people are saying Gill is hard. If you jump to him, he almost always does does a sort of anti-air which you can parry and punish every time. Also, he barely parries anything himself, so you could just anti-air him as well, lol.

23

good advice. Each individual bolded sentence pretty much outlines how you should practice, and probably represents months of work per sentence.

24

jesus, am so glad to hear you say that. i really really hate him.

25

Using Ryu. He is mid tier. But I just feel like using him. Im shocked at how functional the tourney players make every move of his.

Gill

I really hate Gill. I always feel like I am developing a strategy for CPU Gill, because I will beat him with relative ease when I use that strategy. Then I pop the game in again, and that same strategy doesnt work so it feels like luck.

On average I can beat him with 4 quarters. But there was a period of time where I could almost always beat him in 2 quarters.

Here are strategies Im used to with Gill that may apply to other characters:

  • There is a strange angle at which you can Jump (not D,U jump in, just regular lazy jump) and HK him without any tradebacks. I cant seem to find it anymore, I have to try it again. I remember getting near double perfects on Gill with Ken just by Jumping Forward + well timed HK, then immediately Jump backwards + HK. After Gill got hit with the first powerful HK, he would try to retaliate right away, but the Jump Backwards HK would always hit him. I need to find this and exploit this one more.

  • Just a lot of jump HK’s will work in general (especially if he’s in the air.) Definitely not enough to make a huge difference, just an option thats open. I think same goes when you jump in deep with a HP, he seems to be vulnerable to those as a CPU.

  • Strategy from today, not so well tested: I do the F+MP double hit while he’s in the corner (for some reason the computer gets hit often by the last hit of it) and then duck down and HK. Repeat. You will not link the two together, there is a gap. But with the way he moves after the F+MK in the corner, often he will trip over the D+HK.

  • Poke with a Down + MK and go directly into Tatsumaki. Horrible in the corner since, if he blocks it in the corner (which he often will) it brings you so close he’ll grab/ piledrive you. But in the middle of the ring getting to the corner, it pushes him back even if blocked. Whats nice is that this is a great way to fill meter. I dont often hit him with this combo but, even if blocked it builds meter and it sends him to the corner (where you have to stop doing this technique, or he’ll make use of the close distance and grab you.) Also it is one of the easiest motions to perform.

  • Cheap and noob trick: With Ryu, jump in deep with HP and fiddle the joystick as if to do a Shoryuken motion a bunch of times before you land. Press the HP repeatedly like a beginner trying to do a dragon Punch. It often does Jumping HP-> D+HP(uppercut) -> Shoryuken… not intentionally. Because Gill is vulnerable to jumping HP or HKs, this will often connect (but not everytime.) It’s really more beginners luck or beginners guess and check. I remember the only time I ever beat him in one try with Ryu was getting lucky with this and I remember he didnt get to resurrect himself it killed so fast.

  • Cheap down + HK trip: Gill is notorious for that horrible footsie combo where it feels, no matter what you do he always smashes you into ice. At a certain distance though, similar to SF2 the way you can attack Dhalsim’s limbs, you can sweep Gill from afar. His attack (if you’re lucky, since this is hard to do 100% of the time) will bridge the gap and you can trip him from a far distance.

  • Dragon Punch on wake up??: I used to do this a long time ago but now I cant seem to get it to work. Either I have to work on the timing or this is just better done with Ken, since I remember last time I did this repetitively with success, was with Ken.

Really nothing new just discussing what Ive been using lately against the CPU.

I cant parry any of his attacks functionally. I can parry his fireball so I dont get any damage, but he’s really fast and hard to parry.

Gouki

Another one I seem to lose consistently on. When I beat the game with 2 - 4 quarters, theres always at least one spent on akuma. I used to think I was finding new strategies against CPU Akuma but you try them the next day and realize its probably luck. Sometimes the CPU just dumbs itself down.

  • Rarely throw him: Situations where you’d be able to throw other characters, the CPU seems to love Akuma and doesnt want him getting thrown. Always manages to cheaply parry your throw. Ie not trying to throw him really helped

  • Holding down, Tap LK twice and then HK/Sweep. The tapping of the LKs will push you away from him safely. Like Gill if you try to Sweep with a HK, too close, he will just waste you. For some reason after two hits of the low LKs, he will try to advance and you can sweep him with HK here. I dont know why this works, but it does. So its pretty blind and noobish. You are just repeating this until you get lucky enough to sweep him with an HK.

  • Sokuto Geri: If you judge the distance most of the CPU (even Gill) is vulnerable to this. If you judge the distance so that the end of the kick will connect right where the opponent will soon be it almost always hits. Sounds like common sense but what Im saying is even if you think the computer would see the donkey kick coming from a mile away, it rarely blocks. Whereas if you suddenly did this with a human player, they would definitely be able to see it coming and blocking it.

As for other cheap tactics against Gouki, I cant really remember any.

In General

  1. Also in general, the second I feel like I am making progress the next second that gets taken away. I cannot finish Level 2 Bonus Parryin Stage, is that a big thing I need to work on?

  2. In terms of effectiveness, I did some training and looked at the Attack Data. Often times when you can finish a juggle in the corner, with lets say either a Dragon Punch (which most guides recommend) or a simple standing HK I notice the Dragon Punch does a tiny bit of extra damage, where as a surefire simple standing HK seems to do almost as much. I thought DP would do much more, but the attack data shows relatively the same. …?

  3. Also what is the hardest difficulty in terms of CPU skill? I remember hearing 8 stars only makes the CPU do more damage, but 8 stars feels easier than 6. Is 6 the hardest skill-wise?

26

Not really

What juggles are you talking about? This is a character specific question.

27

Oh and thanks for all the input and advice btw. I dont have many friends who are into SF3, besides button mashing, and the arcades here dont really have it anymore, that is why I am putting off the VS training for now. Its not like Im gunna master the CPU and try to walk into a SF3 tournament. I need to find a way to play better players without driving far out to where they have tournaments. They dont even have many arcade tournaments in general in my area.

Lets say its Ryu, Shinkuu Hadouken in the corner. As they are in the air, you can Fierce Shoryuken them to juggle. Or you can press HK for a roundhouse that does nearly the same damage. That is what I was trying to mention.

28

Fierce shoryu will give you knockdown, RH will reset.

I’d personally go for the knockdown. I feel better about going for the wakeup pressure.

29

This all really just depends. This isn’t a religion, there isn’t any one way to do things. The reset would be my favored option in this situation because after eating a big combo (or super) people tend to freak and start using the little time they have to plan something (or uppercutting) but by using roundhouse you cut into their thinking time and set up for some more damaging situations.

Wake up pressure is a difficult thing to work on early on because you don’t exactly know all your options and a reset puts you back into the most familiar option for all HEAD2HEAD!