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[Soulcalibur 5] SBO on Saturday. Character lock go!
Posts
Honestly? It just kinda feels like the game is dying off early. I find it takes me a couple minutes to get a game going even at primetime. Wait times for a game are already longer than SCIV's were on XBL this close to launch (even later into it's lifetime). Online is also starting to get plagued with "Network Errors" too that seemingly cut off all random matches.
I can only speak for my personal experience, but that's just my feeling. People are moving on quickly and with ME3 coming up next week I can see the online arena becoming a complete ghost town. I've got maybe 35-40 hours invested but I'm already starting to get sick of it (compared to over 500 hours in SCIV). Some of the new mechanics have completely alienated me and I often find myself playing, not having a whole lot of fun and thinking I should just trade it in.
Since none my friends want to play (many of them outright showing their disdain for SCV), this game may unfortunately get shelved far sooner than I had ever expected.
SCIV was the first Soul Calibur I got really into. I'm sure if I had done more than just rented the other iterations I'd have a different opinion. Don't get me wrong, SCV has more polish and a far better online infrastructure, I just don't like any of the new mechanics. I tried for 40 hours, but I don't think I can force myself to like them.
I just don't enjoy the new focus on offense/juggling and the watering down of the defense game. Soul Calibur offered something different from the hectic pace 2D fighters... now it's just much of the same. Getting juggled for 50% of your life while you watch in horror at your impotence has never been fun for me.
SCIV rarely put me in a situation where I felt completely out of control of my character. In SCV, the name of the game is to take control away from your opponent. The design of the game sees to it with defense options being tied to the same meter that lets you do damage or having single frame execution.
I'm going to try a different character to see if I can re-capture the lost magic, but I'm not holding onto hope too tightly here. I'm actually pretty choked up about this. I looked forward to SCV moreso than any title this year.
If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can learn to enjoy SCV more, I'd be happy to hear them.
And Soulcalibur 5 is still a game where defensive options are really important. It's just more active than it was in Soulcalibur 4. More zoning and stepping, less blocking and punishing. I've seen other people complain that it's too hard to turtle.
Although I have seen some other people complain that the overall damage numbers make it feel too close to a Tekken game. Which I can kind of see. At lower levels of play it's just 2 people circling until one of them gets to do their meter combo. I found playing online against people like that to be really lame, which is why I've gone back to offline.
Final Round top 8 will start on Sunday at around 3pm EST on the main stream: http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky
Meanwhile, the Singapore qualifiers for the official Namco sponsored tournament series should begin early in the afternoon, local time, which would be in about 5 or 6 hours from now. Their stream is here: http://www.twitch.tv/round1sg
There's also a Japanese stream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kouhatsu
Turns out at least some part of it turned out to be adapting pains, although I still can't use Alpha Pat's Sakura Twister or 8 way run attack reliably, which was the whole point of buying the stick at the first place.
XBox ID - therealmasume
Actually, they're just putting random matches on to fill time. It's pretty ugly and not really worth watching.
"Anything involving the B button is banned"
"Players must wear advertising t-shirts but will not be compensated for being used as billboards"
"Voldo is banned due to making us uncomfortable"
PAX 2013 STATUS - Badges: PURCHASED Hotel: RESERVED Vacation: Awaiting approval Plane Tickets: Waiting on vacation approval.
Since it looks like no one responded to this. The gate is the box limiting the movement of the stick. 4 Gates are square and have walls along the sides and corers in the diagonals (I beleive this is how all 4 gates work). 8 gates have corners in every major direction, so 4 at the diagonals and 4 in the up down left right as well.
All sticks should click in any direction I beleive because once you hit the diagonal right the click is the second directional being clicked in.
"Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are smarter than one man. How's that again? I missed something" Lazarus Long
DK takes out Mick. RTD out as well. Huge upsets.
Lolo getting on stream now. Time for some epic Yoshi gimmicks.
And lolo is out. :<
Omega still has this, though!
Top 8
Omega - Nightmare
Hawkeye - Natsu
Thuggish Pong - Leixia
Wing_Zero - Xiba
lolo - Yoshi
SwordLord - Pyrrha, Leixia
KDZ - Siegfried, Maxi, Astaroth
Dreamkiller - Natsu, Leixia
The bad news about the Singapore stream is that they had a lot of computer troubles. Apparently the venue gave them a pc to use and it was old and terrible and kept crashing. So they lost most of the archives. Too bad, because they're fun guys, but that stream started at 2am here and I couldn't watch it live.
Wish my bro could have made it higher I wish he would have stuck with aPat instead of switching to Pryhha. Going to get on him about that when he gets home.
Also:
The plus side is she is flashy looking as hell and when I am winning I get compliments on her all the time.
Look for a real response around 5 est.
Maxi just took a tournament here in SoCal. His mixups are quite strong, just that you have to be careful to not get stuck in loops and be aware of your options at all times.
The local community college I went to years ago had an SC2 machine and we had a pretty fun group of guys that would play. I'm most familiar with that Maxi, so hopefully it translates.
I'm gonna get this on PS3. Are there active players here for that system or is it mostly 360?
edit: One of my favorite things about playing with that group is that we got to know each other's style so at times we'd trade parries for a good 10 attacks.
"Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are smarter than one man. How's that again? I missed something" Lazarus Long
Viola Shit
Your entire game revolves around trying to find ways to land a launcher or moves that combo into a launcher. Also the fear of landing that launcher is what opens up all the other options.
Meter wise, you either use it on launcher setup moves like 22_88B BE or 44A BE. Or for the combo extension 2b+k BE (thats a small b+k cause its a quick input, you need to enter it quick to get the relaunch).
All your major combos involve the launcher, which for the most part should be 3B. The ones I use
3B AAB 2A+B - sets up good wakeup mixups. You can 1A+B (solid option to keep them grounded untill they learn to block it) or 66A+B B for grounded pressure. Also sets up the extension when you want to use meter.
3B AAB 66B 66A+B B - difficult to time, but the highest damaging non meter combo. Not as good of wakeup options though since they can ukemi the final B there for a neutral situation between you both
3B AAB 7_8_9K 2A+B - the basic combo the game gives you. Good for getting some distance between you so you can attempt to fuck with them using the ball moves (no orb 6B+K, 6A+B, 2B+K, 2A+B etc) untill they move in.
then you can use the extension (2b+k BE) to follow up the first one with any of the three for a solid amount of damage.
You can do most of those out of 33_99B, but it launches higher so you need to delay the AAB which I have a lot of trouble with, so I usually just 66AAB when i have to land this launcher.
If you land 22_88B BE you have to immediately follow up with 1B then 3B and you have yourself a free launcher for massive damage. 44A BE give you more time to react but you need to time the 3B with the last hit to get the launch. Too early and the last hit will ruin the launch and too late and they can block. There was some crazy shit that the kid from that earlier tourney did out of this move, but I never really was able to fully dissect it yet. I think it involved 2A+B but I can't remember which version of 2A+B causes the guard break. Finally your CE sets up a launch as well if you manage to hit with it, if not you get a completely free mixup of High/Low//Throw Especially useful if you have them at the edge of the ring for the throw RO. Also if you hit with the CE at close enough range, you can throw in a BB or two to really add up some damage.
As far as orb being set, while a lot of moves change most of them are nearly useless without the orb. However ones you will use in both situations
2B - this is your best poke by far. Nice speed safe and not terrible range. Without the orb its got ok range, but with it it has very good range for a 2B, and hits twice if close. This can lock down aggressive players that think they can keep attacking instead of blocking until you get enough distance to back off and force an even exchange
66A+B - you will use this to follow up many knockdown/crumple moves (like CH 1A, 1A+B, I believe CH 4B as well) with or without the orb. However With the orb it does a ton more damage and has a little more range. This is your best mid move for grounded opponents who try to get up into attacks or sit on the ground.
3B - while you have little options with the orb using the standard launcher (if you launch someone with the orb you basically have 66AAB for damage otherwise you just AA and use the chance to place the orb) the range on it with the orb is insane. You could theoretically use this to punish wiffs at mid range if you have the orb, which is a rare case but its a good opportunity for fair damage and to place the orb (66AAB places the orb)
Many people try to find ways to lock down people with her wierd orb shit (like 4A+B or 6B+K without the orb for example) and while these can work they are very bad at doing it and she simply isnt made to really lock someone down too much IMO. I use 1A+B against people who can't read it to keep them on the ground and that's the only lockdown I see as reliable. If you can cause them to fear lows or throws it makes them weak to that 3B. And if you made them stand and block high all the time take those free throws.
BTW, untill people get good at instant ducking the orb return of BBB/AAB, you can use this to set up a free throw with the orb for great damage. I BBB step in Throw and land it ALL THE TIME as long as I dont whore it. When they try ducking it you can 3B them usually as most people try to attack or simply dont instant duck quickly enough. so thats a solid way to piss someone off.
Speaking of throws, I do not know which one is which as I forget what throws I have mapped where, but her two primary throws without the orb are the one that pushes them forward while you jump back and the one that spins them.
The former rings out like woah, and you will cause people to fear the SHIT out of it. And if they learn to break it, the latter throw gives a few garunteed moves afterwards. Mainly 6K and 8A+B. Both of these ring out. However the spin around moves them to the side quite a bit from where you started, so it doesnt RO from the same angle. You need to account for that. Oh, and her back throw without the orb is a garunteed 3B so have fun with that.
The rest you need to just fiddle with yourself. Learn the moves that place the orb, and learn the ranges on your other moves cause Viola's moveset can be summarized as quick extremely short range moves, and moderate range but extremely slow moves. You need to learn what moves you can get away with to move in on someone because you HAVE to move in on them. I use 66AAB a LOT and its bad because while the first two hits are prolly her best advancing step killer, the B is duck and punishable, and if you are too close to the edge you RO yourself. I do this a lot. 22_88A with the orb is a great step move cause it has TONS of range, and you can place the orb with a B but if you didn't hit its risky as fuck. As mentioned without the orb, 4A+B causes it to spin around you twice while you fully recover before the first spin even lands, giving you some lockdown. However the orb hits a moderate distance away, and can miss completely too close and I think when blocked the second hit can miss outright, and its special mid so you basically just have some other attack uncontested. 6B+K causes a fairly delayed orb to swipe at them from behind, which up untill it appears should track but there is enough time before it hits to step it. However this hits special mid and its very good for mixups cause if they werent busy running around or doing quick dodging moves it will lock onto them and force a block. This can be useful if they are privy to standing straight up from grounded into a block.
"Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are smarter than one man. How's that again? I missed something" Lazarus Long
I have a question.
How do you fight Maxi?
Do you just have to get used to how his strings look? Because he is quite confusing.
Once he gets into certain loops you know exactly which options he has and can choose the most effective defensive counter according to how the Maxi player is trending.
Up close, when they know what they're doing, it's tough. Maxi is the best he's been for a while, and any time he has meter he can do monster damage.
If you're having trouble recognizing the exact moves but can at least react to their timing then consider more GIs. They're a really strong option for most characters.