Q: I got the SE, where are my DLC characters?
A: If you read the damn box, you'd know that even though you bought the SE, you still have to wait until March 15th to download them. You just get them for free. There's a code on the back of the comic you got with your SE. If you use the PS3, your PSN code is on there. If you have the 360 version, you need to redeem the code at
this website, you'll get your XBLM code in an email.
Q: What if I didn't get the special edition? How much are the DLC characters and when can I purchase them.
A: They are five dollars EACH. Special edition not looking so dumb now, HUH? You get them on March 15 like everyone else. You can purchase them separately.
Q: I can't get ranked matches, what the fuck?
A: The best way is to use arcade fight request mode, which you can do in arcade or training mode. The option is after you select your characters.
Q: What happens if I use super assist Hsien-Ko spam?
A: I fucking hate you.
Q: Oh shit Sentinel is in this game? He's my favorite Marvel character. Should I choose him to be the third character on my team and just use him to fucking bail me out of trouble with level 3 X-Factor?
A: See above question. Also, Sentinel is nobody's favorite. See above question again.
- You should read this.
If you can't find your answer here, or if you would like even more detail or examples, feel free to ask in the thread. Most of us here are fighting game vets. and don't mind sharing our knowledge.
Some secret videos given to us in advance (A PA timed exclusive!) by Seb.
Do I even need an arcade stick?
That really depends. How serious are you and how many games do you have that you can use this controller for? If you have a lot of games you would use your stick for then it's well worth the purchase of a quality joystick controller. Beat 'em ups (Final Fight Double Impact, Castle Crashers, etc.), fighters (Street Fighter 4, Marvel Versus Capcom 3, Tekken, BlazBlue, etc.), other arcade games (Pacman Championship Edition DX, Galaga, etc.) and more can all benefit from a good joystick no matter how seriously you take any of them at the competitive level.
If you want one because you heard it makes you better at fighters, or even any genre, well really think on this. I'm going to try and phrase this as well as it has been in threads before. Are you good enough at your game, and serious enough about your game, to understand why a joystick
might make you a better player? If the answer is no then you don't need one, not yet at least. If the answer is yes, you do understand why a joystick
might (might because plenty of people are good on pad at the competitive level for any genre) make you better, then a joystick is probably for you.
I now know I want an arcade stick, but there's so many options, where do I start?
The short answer is very easy, "Buy a God damned TE!"
Really? But there's so many options other than TEs...
The TE is normally the easiest stick to find that is on sale and comes stock with real arcade parts, both buttons and joy stick. Most people who have used a joystick will have used a TE and can tout it's quality, hence the above response you will hear over and over.
The slightly longer response is you want something that says Mad Catz FightStick Tournament Edition or Hori Real Arcade Pro on the box for your system of choice. These will have the best boxes to hold your PCB, stick, and buttons, the best build quality so it doesn't wear out, and the least hassle in terms of modding or replacing parts. All of this offers the most bang for your buck on your system of choice in the long term. If you're willing to shop around and plan you can get them for ~$90-$100, or less, when they go on sale making them cheaper than modding a stick that MSRPs for less.
HRAP and TE sticks go on sale all the time!How about some pictures? Show me what you're talking about.Mad Catz Tournament Editions, or TEs for short, with various models pictured below.
Street Fighter IV FightStick (Round 1 Tournament Edition)
Street Fighter IV Round 2 FightStick Tournament Edition
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Fightstick Tournament Limited Edition (White 360)
Super Street Fighter IV Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition S - White
Hori Real Arcade Pro Special Additions and Special Editions, or HRAP-SA and HRAP-SE for short, with various models pictured below.
Xbox 360 Real Arcade Pro. EX-SE
Real Arcade Pro VX SA
Real Arcade Pro V3 SA
PS3 Real Arcade Pro. 3-SA
Real Arcade Pro: 3 Premium VLX
Real Arcade Pro: EX Premium VLX
Hori Real Arcade Pro, or HRAPs for short, with various models pictured below.
Xbox 360 Real Arcade Pro. EX
Playstation 3 Real Arcade Pro. 3 Fighting Stick
Wait, why do you have two listings for Hori's Real Arcade Pro line? They, mostly, look very similar to the pictures you have for the SA and SE models.
There is one major difference between a HRAP and HRAP SA/SE, hence the separate listing. One (The Hori Real Arcade Pro or HRAP) has a real arcade joystick, usually a Sanwa JLF, and Hori buttons. The other (Hori Real Arcade Pro Special Addition and Hori Real Arcade Pro Special Edition; HRAP SA and HRAP SE) comes with a real arcade stick and real arcade buttons. In the past it was usually easier and more cost effective to replace the HRAP's Hori buttons with Sanwa or Seimitsu buttons due to the scaricity of SA and SE lines outside of Japan. Currently you need to price a HRAP and how many buttons you want to replace against a HRAP SE or HRAP SA to see if a current sale saves you money. Thankfully the SA and SE lines go on sale quite often now to save you from needing to button mod, even though it is very easy to do.
But Mad Catz and Hori sell cheaper sticks, what about those? Why pay more?
As already mentioned you're buying for the long haul, not the short term. Reliability, replacement, modding, quality, everything is better on a HRAP or TE. Some sticks, like the Mad Catz Fightstick, also known as the SE or Standard Edition, are very easy to mod. However, without a very generous sale, if you ever want to change your joystick and push buttons to real arcade parts, like the TE already has, the price of your SE purchase, joystick purchase, and push button purchase will be very close to totaling the cost of a TE. The TE saves you the hassle of modding as well, easy or not. As often as TEs go on sale you can buy a TE cheaper than you can mod an SE if you're patient and proactive about sales. TEs have been on sale for as low as two Round 2 TE's for $100 ($50 per stick) for one, albeit extreme, example.
For the cheaper Horis not only are they impractical to mod for experienced joystick makers, the quality of the joystick and buttons are abysmal more often than not. You do not want these. The buttons will wear down over time becoming unresponsive, they will start to stick like you placed gum under them, the joystick will eventually stop registering inputs cleanly, if registering inputs at all. These parts cannot take a thorough thumping like a real arcade part can either leading to the aforementioned issues very quickly if you treat them like you would real arcade parts. Having to play delicately and in fear of breaking your stick is not fun, no matter the genre of game being played. Some Hori products are better than others, the Tekken wireless controller for example. Fewer issues are reported with these, but most people end up modding them or getting a HRAP or TE anyway after enjoying their joystick more than they thought they would similar to those who get a Mad Catz SE.
Barring very specific circumstances you may see pop up in threads from time to time, just buy a HRAP or TE. For every post you may see of someone saying they are happy with purchase X, ten more will say they are happier with their TE or HRAP. We're/They're not schills, we make nothing from Hori or Mad Catz, but these questions get asked on a daily basis and most people, here and other forums, will say they are happier with their TE and HRAP than they are/were with other products.
But there's all these sticks that aren't made by Hori or Mad Catz, what about them?
These range from SE quality to far, far, far below the worst arcade stick Hori has ever made. Feel free to ask if it's offering real arcade parts, but if it makes no claim to be offering real arcade parts, avoid it. The few diamonds in the rough do not outshine the cesspool of this market, at least currently, for the audience of this FAQ.
Sanwa, Seimitsu, Happ, iL, Saulabi? Balltop, battop, convex, concave? Square gate, octo gate, round gate, circle gate, circular gate? Japanese, American, Korean parts? What does this all mean?
Rather than make a whole 'nother FAQ about the above questions,
I'm going to link you here to slagcoin's very informative website. He doesn't cover Saulabi, a Korean arcade joystick and push button maker popular with some American and a lot of Korean players, especially for Tekken, but he covers everything else. Because of how detailed and thorough one can be with questions like this if you can't find it on slagcoin, ask. Someone should be nice enough to answer a question not easily covered here.
Where should I look for TE and HRAP sales?
Anywhere and everywhere that sells them or would use the product.
Check. Everywhere. Constantly. Amazon, the MadCatz store, front pages of Shoryuken, IPlayWinner, Eventhubs, SDTekken, Tekken Zaibatsu, MarkMan's Twitter account, websites for fighting game tournaments, cheapassgamer, fighting game related threads here and elsewhere, etc. etc. etc. If you are proactive you will not miss the excellent deals like Amazon offering a Hori Real Arcade Pro EX-SE MSRP of either $139.99 or $149.99 for $79.99, $89.99 and $99.99 as it has been offered in the past. Mad Catz sold Round 2 Tournament Edition Fightsticks two(!) for $100 during a fighting game tournament over the course of Firday through Sunday or Monday a few months ago. That is two TEs for $50 each.
You can get these sticks as cheap or cheaper than modding other sticks, be proactive!All of that is good and all, but I already have a joystick. I need a converter, so hook me up...
Depending on the system the joy stick is for and the system you want to use it on you're going to need specific converters. You want to make sure your converter is lag less first and foremost. Just like TVs can cause lag when playing, converters can add lag and render your joystick useless. The most common situation are people wanting to use their PS2 joystick on their 360 and PS3. These converters(
PS2->PS3 and
PS2->360) are the easiest to procure, have been tested by
Kyle in SRK's TechTalk and
MarkMan of MadCatz and
SDTekken to be lag less, and are very reasonably priced.
Okay, revised ranbat rules for added clarification.
F
irst off, let's start with some definitions:
- RanBat - RANking BATtle. It's what you're reading about. Players compete in tournaments to earn points and get ranked based on how many points they have earned.
- Round - A single round. The announcer usually yells "ROUND X" before these start, with X being the round number. In between rounds, a player does not access any menus and cannot change characters.
- Game - A grouping of rounds, usually best of three or five rounds. After a game ends (online at least) both players are returned to the lobby ready screen and character select.
- Match - A collection of games against one specific human opponent during a single round or period of a ranbat.
Next: generic ranbat rules.
- 99 second, best of three rounds, best of three games in a match unless otherwise specified.
- All characters allowed.
- Only the loser may switch characters, the winner may not switch characters, but is allowed to change ultras if desired.
Nextly, scheduling and signups!
- All ranbats @9pm eastern!
- Xbox 360 ranbats on Wednesday
- PM ChaosHat on 360
- Log onto IRC at the start time!
Anyways, onto the actual RanBatting.
There are two phases to a ranbat night, the pools period, and the playoffs period. The exact structure of these is up to the organizer, but here are some formats you can expect. First, the pools period. There are two ways the pools period is run generally, depending on turnout. On especially low turnout nights, it is not unprecedented to skip pools. The pools period is meant to select the players who will go to the playoffs period, usually a top 4 (but potentially more in the event of large turnout). Regardless of whichever method is chosen, it is vitally important that you record your match wins and losses, as well as the games wins and losses, as the games wins/losses can be used to break a tie in the event two people have identical match records.
The Pools Period!
When the time comes, the RanBat organizer will randomize the list of entrants and post this random list. You will find your name on this list and play the three people above you and three people below you on the list. You will (as of season three) earn two points per match win at this phase. After this, you'll report your record (usually in IRC) to the organizer who will compile the data and determine who moves on to...
The Playoffs Period!
Playoffs will now be a single elimination bracket of the top four players, mostly to save on time. Just for making it to the top 4, you will earn one point. You will also earn two more points for each match you win while in the playoffs.
At the end of the season, the top players will be put into a big asynchronous RanBat finals bracket to determine the overall season winner!
So people know, we are naming ourselves LFG_YourName in irc if you're looking for a lobby, and LFM_YourName if you're looking for more people! Simply use /nick to change your name in chat. You should use a non web client because sometimes the web client breaks while the server is still up for some unknown reason. If you need help configuring IRC, Blackbeard made this super cool guide:
Know anything I'm missing? Let me know and I'll add it.
Posts
Considering every single combo on Trag's channel would kill her DP'd or regular P, some of them being very, very practical without xfactor, if you manage to get DP out it should mean something. Even more so if Jean's ability to run away isn't as strong as some people are hoping to make it.
Contemplating getting that rad fightpad.
GT: Tanky the Tank
Black: 1377 6749 7425
Heh, I was actually thinking of avoiding those characters if it was relied on heavily to be honest. The way I play fighters is far more reflex / reading my opponent / having built-in reaction time to expected decisions of my opponent rather then by being extremely technical on the buttons.
Unless the actual mashing required is at a minimum, anyways.
And for my pad using butt, my early thought based on MvC2 play (just running thru the magic series and such) is.
L H
M S
With R2 mapped to two attack buttons for Hypers, bumpers for assists, and....I dunno what L2 will be yet
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
I know =P It's being worked on. Fortunately I have nothing to do today. I guess that's one upside to being unemployed.
Also, yay, I'm picking mine up Tuesday and have the day off work to be silly and play.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Hit all four attack buttons together (L+M+H+S). And thread moves too fast.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Try mapping it to Special+X Biz. X being light or medium or heavy. I think someone confirmed in the last thread it was just special plus any attack for the old style smart bomb moves ie. short+fierce in MvC2
...hoping to get a little more use out of it this time around.
I am jealous
I hope my city gets this game on release date.
So R2, Special + X. L2 = all 4 buttons for X-factors?
I can't think of anything else I'd need, then. Looks like the 8 buttons works perfectly.
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
SRK is going to be more accurate and in depth. Eventhubs should be accurate enough and streamlined, enough, for simple special move lists. The official website still doesn't have everything on it does it?
You could do the character portrait thing to eventhubs since the shiny is what new people will click on. Then have an advanced tab or whatever you want to call it for the charcater forums, or just the MvC3 fourm where the character sub forums will be on top, for those wanting more indepth character specific info.
The wiki will return 2/15/2011! That'd be nice.
Likewise, there's this. Someone linked it in response to something last thread, you might as well add this to the two SRK links. It's IPlayWinner's fighting game glossary. I mean, why not? We even now know what Magus meant when he said Gortons!
I seriously know nothing about Dragon Age II at the except that I've already paid it off in full, but I know every character in this game and all their assists and special moves. Along with basic tactics for most of them.
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
Sort of the same here. I actually watched the giantbomb quick look and that's about it. Still have to beat all the DLC for the first game -_-
Consider yourself lucky. Every time I load that page the hate and disdain for DA2 makes people's needless Sentinel whining look like tears of joy.
Make sure it's something with an A in front of it, ie. A PA MVC3. SCrolling down to the M to use the thing makes people not want to use it.
Sigh.
That, + seeing a dude on friends list last night playing it, + getting a FB message from an old friend saying he's getting it tonight and driving down from New York to try and whoop my ass on Tuesday?
I am an idiot for looking into the game this early.
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
Make sure you start it with "A ..." or something so it shows up at the top of the list. Or maybe with a Z and a space so it's right at the bottom. Either way. If this is PA MvC3 I will stab you.
A THOUSAND TIMES this. Nothing worse than scrolling through a bajillion (or 50ish :P) names just to get to a meta-tag.
I 100%'d Dead Space 1 the other day and was about to get DS2 out of its shrinkwrap. Then I heard this game would be coming out today or tomorrow in nearby stores and, suddenly, other videogames aren't as fun.
DA with all the DLC and Awakening expansion are left unplayed for me as well. I'll get around to them when fighting games stop being so interesting.
I usually just friend people I know play a lot.
I haven't beaten all the DLC for it either. Up until this comment, I didn't realize DA2 was coming out in a month. Wow.
Just 5 more days until MvC3! I hope Amazon's release date delivery means the package is delivered in the morning/early afternoon rather than 8pm UPS usually does around here. Also not the "sorry you're package is undeliverable because we broke the fuck out of it" that was my most recent experience.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
That's also fine, but it needs to be one or the other. Anything that starts with PA is always annoying as hell to find, which leads people to use it less than they already do.
The usual stores in the usual places. Basically NYC and Cali. Ranced posted a few last thread for New York. I'm not sure I've ever seen someone be generous with the Cali information before. From there you have random places scatered in the states that will randomly break street date but aren't going to be guaranteed to do it like NYC and California always do.
Yeah, it's usually more useful early on. Later, kind of a waste, but for the first few months? It'll be nice.
I just wish spectator mode worked.
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
So, this is exactly how I want to play Cap.
The bounce off the shield coming back is AWESOME.
I like Buk's. More Damage and Charging Star always seemed cooler than Stars and Stripes personally. They both make Cap look good, and don't seem impractical either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huP-8sIGrow&player_embed
Or rather, I would do that if I ever get around to renewing my Gold sub.