…no they don’t. First character does a small damage combo and sends the opponent to the partner who does their regular super and then continues the fight.
PROBLEM: I want to include gems in my local tournies, but the gem selection takes too long, especially with button checks already taking up time.
SOLUTION: Set up each character with a basic gems setup. I know it sounds like it would take forever but if the people bringing the consoles could go through and give every character a 3 power, 3 defense and 3 meter gem setup then we wouldnt have to worry about people taking too much time with gem selection for people who dont know their gem numbers or are too lazy/dont care enough to make a specialized gem setup for their team. I just went through on mine to see how long it would take and it took less than 15 minutes to set up all the chars with 3 full setups thanks to the gem log. Too easy. One time setup for each console will save tons of time while adding in one of the main mechanics of the game and making it tourney viable. I hope this gets picked up at least after evo.
I have been saying this since day 1 too (Even though I would want to choose gems that fit my style, the pre-set atk def and speed gems option is the next best thing). I was lucky enough to play around with the game like 2 weeks before it was released, but it was an earlier version of the game, and in that version, what you just described was defult in the game. Then they released the complete version with defult 2x gems and one empty slot. I have no idea why they changed this.
True. That one “investment” of time making a default gem load out for all characters can avoid the whole hassle of people having to set up their own gem set up. The activation conditions can be set the same for most gems too. Why does it seem to be such a deal?
The biggest issue that I have with the online aspect of this game, and the one that made me rage quit for awhile, is whenever I went for a cross-up, if I missed, or if it even connected, my opponent would be mashing out jab chain into launcher for a seemingly free punish nearly 90% of the time. It was unbelievably frustrating! So I went for fake cross-ups, the same thing! Mashing Jab. While I’m far from a seasoned veteran, I’m not an idiot when it comes to fighting games. And, maybe it’s hurting me that I’m playing SFxT more like SF, with footsies, pokes, zoning, that kind of stuff. Just a bit disheartening when I see my very basic fundamentals get destroyed by Jab chain confirms.
Tye@l: While zoning may have taken a little bit of a nerf, footsies certainly have not. As I said, I find them to be one of the most important aspects of this game, because the player who can outfootsie their opponent can not only get combos off them, they can also tag cancel out of danger. You cannot have those Mexican standoffs where you deal most of their damage by punishing their jump or walk-ins with a single attack (I actually saw a match where someone purposely let their opponent c.HP a-air them a few times to burn the clock when the latter should have been attacking), but you can use them in another way.
Also, if you dominate footsies, rolling becomes less annoying: they may have avoided your wake-up game, but you’ll have them on the ground again soon enough. On the flip side, it allows the better footsy player to attempt to bypass wake-up and regain a neutral position.
Problem: Zoning is significantly nerfed in SFxT.
Solution: While SFxT rewards aggressive play, I feel not enough attention has been paid to the advantages a War of Attrition can get you. The two person system gives the zoner opportunities they’ve rarely had. Some characters have difficulty getting in against a zoner, others do not. Use your zoner on the former and your anchor on the latter. Additionally, their partner can gain ground for the zoner, allowing them to walk back again and again. My Guile/Paul team operates because Paul Smashes the opponent into the corner, and gives Guile a whole field to play with he did not have to get himself. Lastly, once an opponent gets in, tag combos allow zoners to do more damage than ever before off their punishes, and some like Guile possess Alpha Counters that can be comboed with a tag cancel (I call it a Defensive Super, since it takes two bars and often does more damage than a regular super). And that’s not even going into the timer. The new mechanics not only turned zoners into damage dealers, it gave them an alternate win condition.
I’ve seen some incredibly dangerous Guiles and Claws out there, even Sagat’s weakened fireball game has its perks (low fireballs hit most of the tekken cast’s special steps), and he can do 600+ damage with a bar off a poorly timed jump.
I actually thought about making one, but being a lurker long before SF4 that’s not the best thing to do when wanting to be taken serious. One thing that is really interesting about timeouts in SFxT is that they are not just a viable victory condition, but that they couldn’t be like this in SF4. In SF4 you need to make 1 bar of damage to win. In SFxT it is something between 1 and 2+. So setting the timer to the same speed as in SF4 is working with how the mechanics work and not against them and adds more variance to the match-flow. It’s sad most people assume timeouts to be an ‘inferior’ victory condition and hate on this. I guess this will be one of the things that reminds of the whole hate about things in SF3 that people learnt to value later.
I liked how often the “there’s not enough time”-commentary was proven wrong at Season’s Beatings. And I think the timer puts the pressure on both players in an interesting way. You can see a lot of people starting to drop combos or rushing in all too recklessly when the timer is breathing down their neck, especially in pools. And you see people switching to ‘all defense’ with a life lead and the timer on their side just to lose the lead with 2 seconds left. As such the timer seems to be an amplifier for ‘tournament nerves’ and as always some people probably feel that it is the timer’s fault and not their own. Towards finals you don’t see people drop everything and give up because there’s 10 seconds left and their opponent has committed to ‘sit it out’, they react with ‘hey, free mixups’ and come back in time surprisingly often.
serious question, no troll. what would you guys suggest about the perceived “problem” that air attacks are too strong in this game?
the 2 most obvious answers that come to my mind are 1. pick at least one character that can fully exploit the weak ground AA options of most characters (like ken and air tatsu, or un-nerfed rufus dive kicks), or 2. pick at least one character whose AA options are blatantly stronger than everyone elses (juri, or ibuki for example)
am i missing something?
or is that just “the game” and its not like streetfighter, and i should pick my characters closer to how one selects a team in marvel based around assists and such. meaning i should pick them as much more of a unit as opposed to individual characters
I feel ya. But with the counter hits juggling, you can punish jumpers for a potential 60 to 300 damage. Super jumps with extra delay are pretty much free kind of. I’m very weary of air to air since I magically lose when I jump first. lol
There was actually just a very long discussion of just this point in the balance thread over the past few days. Go check it out, and see what you think!
Cliff Notes: I don’t really think that this is a problem. AAs are in this game, and they work, but overall the balance has shifted towards air-to-air attacks to beat out aerial offence. A couple of characters, specifically Rufus and Ken, have been given extremely powerful (slightly overpowered, in my view) aerial attacks which contribute to the impression that jumps are too strong in this game overall.
Like in any other game, if you’re playing a character with mediocre anti-airs, you need to play to his or her strengths rather than downbacking at half screen hoping he’ll jump wrong. Rush in if you’re playing a character like Law, and pressure with footsies. Hit them in their pre-jump frames with your long, frame advantage normals. If you’re playing a character like Guile, memorise the ranges where your good AAs (cr. :hp: and flash kick) work, and be very aware of the ranges where your anti-airs are not effective (basically anything that threatens a cross-up). Keep moving to prevent your opponent from getting to those ranges.
This is an integral part of the game. I have seen several extremely high level Laws and Kazuyas, both characters with terrible anti-air. Study their gameplay to see what they’re doing to stop people randomly jumping in.
On the flip side, Bob is built around an aerial offense, and look how many people use him. I think they made the air game a little stronger than usual because it’s not something the Tekken roster would be used to coming from the 3D plane (meanwhile they have advantages from that style). I agree with what is said above, it’s not so much a complete dominance of air game, just that a select few air moves are ridiculous.
On a side note…it’s rather odd that some Tekken characters(Bob, Lili, Asuka) have really good aerial offense yet their feet don’t leave the ground much in Tekken(well Lili is all over the place >_>).
About some reoccurring problems and misconceptions…
The first being Zoning not being effective o_O If they bothered giving all these moves projectile invulnerability in the first place, It’s pretty obvious it still works, when time outs became a factor in alot of peoples opinion, it was due to good zoning, it’s a solid and legit strategy. If being called a punk ass bitch for running, zoning, and wearing down the clock is the consequence for winning then, im a real bastard…but im sure Raven is the biggest offender when it comes to that.
Seriously though other issues like people not punishing shit correctly is more of them not doing their homework then a legit concern because…ok CrossRush isn’t safe…we know this, but alot of chains are not either, yet they go unpunished…but no one says anything about that. Meter Consumption is a problem but that is going to change as the game grows anyways.
This whole thing about if gems were in tournaments, people would need to find gem setups and load outs…this was shit i was saying way before launch, and yeah I know good gems can be…wait till those Collector Edition Gems get released on PSN/XBL you’ll see…80% C.Gauge Boost is fucking fantastic.
It’s good to see a thread trying to solve the common issues that are constantly brought up, but I think the character specific match ups should be left in those characters specific threads or their match up threads because im sure it differs from character to character, and to avoid that can of worms…I’d say just leave it as is for now.
Overheads are cheap and I can never block them, it’s just a guessing game.
Solution: Go into training mode whenever an overhead heavy character like Hwoarang or Heihachi beats you and learn their overheads. Really get familiar with them, and the way the look, and the range they strike at. After you’ve done this, for bonus points spend an hour or two on endless trying them out, to learn when you find yourself really wanting to go for the overheads. Once you do this, you’ll almost immediately find you’re better at spotting the patterns in your opponents’ play that typically lead to them trying an overhead, and when they do throw the overhead, you’ll be familiar enough with how the move looks that you’ll be able to block.
Almost every overhead is slow enough to be blocked on reaction.
Also, study what mixup options a character has. Many characters have strings that either end in an overhead or in a low, and these can be impossible to block on reaction. The key here is that in no case do both options (overhead and low) lead into combos. Typically, only one option (usually the overhead) will lead into a combo, and the other will just do a little bit of damage. In these situations, always assume that the opponent will go for the combo. If you’re wrong, you take 60-70 damage. If you’re right, you’ve avoided 350-450.
A notable exception, yes. Thanks for noting that, I’d forgotten about it. I tend to backdash and jump like a madman near Abel anyway, for fear of his command grab, so you won’t often catch me down-backing near him.
“Stop putting jabs in your juggle combos! Your damage goes to shit because of this, and it’s not exceedingly difficult to learn optimal combo options anyway!”
Actually, a question on that, as I noticed a few people in matches doing quite a few jabs or strongs in combos… is that to build more meter in that one combo? I haven’t been doing that too often myself but if it adds a decent amount of meter…
(Raw launcher) f. HP, cr. HP xx fddf. HK - 364 damage
Now let’s add a jab.
(Raw launcher) cr. LP, f. HP, cr. HP xx fddf. HK 317 damage, about 1/5th of a bar less gained than without the jab.
It is all around bad. Sticking a jab in your juggle decreases your juggle potential, adds to damage scaling, and doesn’t net you any more meter. There are very few exceptions.