GetTheTables

I love this:

Looking forward to trying that out tomorrow 👍

Haven't picked it up yet but I'm going to soon.

I'm not usually much for created characters. I have shit all for ideas. That said I do sort of want to make Laura in this game too so I can continue trolling with something like Voldo's move set.

Yeah and I feel like VT2 is actually pretty close to that. I don't know that anything is going to push it "over" VT1 - I think its just easier to go offensive than to try and pull off defensive reads as your comeback mechanic - but even now there are match ups where I think it could be useful. Its just a little too finicky at the moment.

Upside is that since VTs are a little more prominent as character features, the over-under on VT2 getting buffed (or at least tuned) ain't too bad.

Also fun fact: VT2 fucking rules in the Silver/early Gold levels. One thing that VT2 is fantastic as is fast, near flawless 2 button AA with great payout. Its a VT that you can get a lot of mileage out of if your opponent is jumpy and since it is two bars you can get to it faster and start choking frogs. 🚫 ✈️ 🚫

I had a similar thought initially but I think I understand why it is what it is. 

Laura isn't really someone who is supposed to control the neutral or even have a particularly amazing AA. Compare that to shotos/shoto spinoffs which are more based around that and the DP is like "the" AA move. Plus the input for it is slightly harder to do (ignoring shortcuts)  so its a little harder to react with. 

All in all I can see why HP Bolt doesn't have air invincibility. It still does good damage for an AA, leads to oki (not great oki, but still oki), and due to it being a hit-grab doesn't have the weird "fall out" issues that DPs/EX DPs have every once in a blue moon. Plus it has a really satisfying *smack* sound when you land it. 🙂 

Main thing I'm hoping for is a little more consistency with it vs some of the lower hitting jump in attacks. Though honestly I'd be shocked if anything changed with HP Bolt in S4. When it comes to Laura I'm expecting them to either leave her mostly untouched or tune  weird stuff like they do sometimes when it seems like they don't know or care how to balance a character (usually due to them having a contentious design; see FANG).

Actual Laura S4 changes:

 - cr. MP: collision box adjusted

 - st.LP: collision box adjusted

 - cr.MK: now 0 on block

 - cr.HK: now -13 on block

Laura buffs!....?....... 🙃

15 hours ago, Darc_Requiem said:

I was thinking about Alex changes but Vesper posted a video just about everything I was thinking about he mentioned.  I may compile them anyway but I don't know now. I'm glad you are looking into Laura. I have no idea what to do that would maintain her playstyle and not induce a mound of salt.

I agree with what Vesper said about Alex and Laura relative to how much you're ever likely to see them buffed. Both of those characters (and as he said all grapplers) are built in such a way that tends to piss people off, so the player base at large is usually overall happier if they aren't seen as especially good and/or show up a lot online. And happy players stick around longer to buy more costumes. 😉

I can't speak to Alex specifically, but from what little I understand about the character it definitely feels like Capcom has tuned him very, very weirdly. I think they got nervous when he had "good" neutral early on so they shithammered that just so he wouldn't become a problem in tandem with his EX moves and command grabs. Not that any of those are over the top in the grand scheme of the game - I think they just got scared about a character having good neutral and good shenanigans. Which is funny because that's where we are now with the TT anyways. Akuma even has a jumping grab/overhead special move. Suck it Alex! 

As for Laura, there is overall not a lot I'd change with her. Similar clause: if she ever ends up strong in the eyes of the meta again, they'll just take a bat to her knees in the x.5 patch or next season. Better to hope for QoL changes that don't rock the boat too much and that changes around her can bolster her up a bit (similar to what happened with Mika this season).

My super comprehensive expert Laura player list is:

• +damage or stun on Sunset Wheel, all versions. My original thought was +10 damage but +whatever stun would also be fine I think, and be a little less explosive. I think one of the reasons the weaker grapplers are where they are this season is because the risk/reward for their command grabs is off. For Laura I think Sunset doing a little more damage (so the cash out is more valuable) or more stun (more general pressure, possibility for big stun combos) would help to make Sunset a more effective tool.
• Buff st.MK. It is in a weird place now where the payout of the move honestly isn't too bad in a vacuum, but at 7 frames start up it feels just bit too slow to serve as the pre-emptive counter poke button I think it is supposed to be (and it is mechanically sort of overshadowed by cr.HP). Dial it back to 6 frames of start up and even revert the + on hit to +3 if +4 on hit is too gdlk.
• Buff HP Bolt Charge. This may be a personal thing but it bugs me how often I get trades with this move in "clean" AA situations, usually due to deep hitting jump in buttons. I think adjusting the hurt box would do it, or maybe bringing the hit box up a bit more so it hits earlier? FAT has said forever that it has upper body invincibility (though I don't see it anywhere else) and it shouldn't be as good as a DP but a little more consistency would be nice. Fun dumb bonus thought: break EX Bolt Charge into LP+MP = existing EX, MP+HP = EX HP Bolt with air invincibility.
• Buff VT2. I don't know that you'll ever knock VT1 off it's throne, and that is fine. VT2 is one of those VTs that is going to be more niche regardless of what you do with it, but it would be nice if it was at least a good fit for that niche. As is, it doesn't work as a defensive VT: the dodge becomes invincible too slowly to really work as a counter, the grab comes out too slowly to be used on its own (especially since you have to do it from Sway), and the projectile dodge property isn't amazing, though honestly this is probably the best part. I think this VT is a trap from a design standpoint because I don't know that Capcom would want to give an up-close pressure monster like Laura a good-to-great defensive VT. Plus it is only 2 bars. So speeding up the dodge may not be in the cards. What may be a good alternative is to allow Laura to raw dawg use Shock Choke (B/F+HP+HK) as a slower-but-higher-payout command grab. Just spitballing; I fully expect this VT to remain in it's bleh state going into S4.

That's pretty much it. In general I think Laura's design limits how much she will ever really get buffed, which is fine. I'll happily take sanding off some rough edges.

@Darc_Requiem This will be a fun thing to talk about while we wait for the 10/23 patch. 🙂

, engage

I don't have many other thoughts for other characters. I've been mulling over things I'd like to see for Laura in S4 but its honestly a pretty boring list and I've already typed enough for one day. 🙂 

10 minutes ago, Darc_Requiem said:

Honestly, I think it's mental. I think I'm pressing too hard. I just need to relax.

I hear ya. The mental aspect plays a big part. 

Like if you think you're doing worse on PS4, it can throw you off and end up making you play worse due to anxiety, a desire to compensate, etc. Not saying you are doing that but I get what you mean.

I had a sort of shitty session on Saturday. Felt kind of off the whole time and ended on a really shitty note - lost a set to an Akuma that I felt like I should be able to clean up, and I had lost to him earlier making it that much saltier. Going into the game on Sunday I had a lot of bad vibes about playing in general. I was able to shake 'em off and have a good overall session but it could have just as easily gone the other way.

And every time I fire up Ranked part of me always gets nervous about scrubbing right the fuck out and just chaining together losses for however long I play. I don't know that sensation will ever go away - part of it is a memory of when I first started trying to play online and that is exactly what happened and part of it is the desire to not have that happen again, which is the thing that keeps me practicing and learning.

The practice pays off as my sessions have generally evened out but more importantly I feel much better equipped to identify things that are giving me problems and come up with solutions. Even if I don't implement it during that game/set/whatever, I can work on it in the future and enjoy the benefits moving forward. So even when I get my ass kicked it isn't nearly as unpleasant as it was before.

Well if input lag is the culprit it seems like that may be getting addressed pretty soon:

I've only ever played on PS4 so I can't speak to whatever differences may be throwing you off. I do know that there are enough disparities that people do dislike hopping from one platform to another so maybe you are feeling what they are.

I'm happy to jaw over replays and stuff like that but since you're doing well on PC the solution may just be to keep plugging away on that platform and maybe PS4 gets normalized to however the PC is performing. Again hoping that the 10/23 updates does just that.

Been awhile, time for a  SFV post:

Managed to get in a grip of games over the holiday weekend (thanks US fed job!) Paid the iron price for a bunch of dojo points - glory to Susgang - and the climb up Ranked is real. I feel like actually holding SG once I get there is going to be tricky but I'm doing well enough against the myriad Golds and Super Golds I've been running into that it'll work out. Just gotta keep plugging away at it (though I'm splitting focus when SCVI comes out to see how that game feels to play).

Highlights:

 - The other Laura player I ran into that fucking rage quit on me in a Casual match during the second game. I've run into plenty of rage quits and 1-and-dones in my time online but usually in the mirror everyone knows the score. Ran into him later that day and he opted to suicide the match and bounce. Damn dude. Everyone else already hates Laura, we can't have infighting. 😦

 - Threw Menat into some Casuals and it went about as well as I expected. 🙂 Got mauled but it was a good learning experience if I'm going to play her more. The one set I did win with her was against an Akuma player I had sort of mauled earlier that day. I managed to pull the set back 2-1 and he seemed to be quite frustrated by the second game. Dude was missing inputs and everything. Few things as sad to an Akuma player than beefing up air fireballs left and right.

 - So many fucking neutral jumps. I understand it in "neutral" as a lot of people in the Gold ranks are dashing in or using forward moving specials/normals to get in, though it is still funny to see them chain like 3-4 together and fuckin' Kriss Kross for a bit. 

But what sort of kills me are how many people do it on my wake up. Again, I think I get the base reasoning - a lot of people still wake up tech/throw here - but it ends up just being a shitty throw bait that is easy to anti air. 
I can clearly remember at least 2-3 rounds and therefore games and therefore sets I won that I probably should have lost because the other guy had me dead to rights in the corner but opted to neutral jump and landed himself in a post-AA mix up into death.

Laura has a good/great AA normal for dealing with neutral jumps so maybe I'm spoiled. Just a funny phenomenon that I keep seeing over and over.

 - Online Alex continues to be my bane. Every time I feel like I have a good plan they throw another strain of crazy at me and I die. I think I am getting better at it overall though and the big takeaway is that I need to work on my defense especially in pressure situations. Most of the time I'm dying due to bad defensive choices and that carries over to other match ups so its a good thing to work on.

9 hours ago, Darc_Requiem said:

Seems like using 10 Fortune Tickets at once automatically gets you the costume now. I got it on the first time on PC and PS4.

That is good tech. I'll have to keep this in mind for if/when they put a costume in the boxes that I'm gunning for.

Network test this weekend on Xbox1 and PS4. Looking around online it sounds like folks can start downloading the client Thursday at 8:00AM PDT.

Test period starts Friday at 8:00AM PDT and ends Sunday at 8:00PM PDT.

https://www.bandainamcoent.com/news/soulcalibur-vi-network-test

Looking at the "control manual"s they have posted at the bottom it looks like the network test will include all characters announced through Tira (16 chars total). I'm gonna try to hop online and Voldo some folks.

Real talk if the character was Elizabeth Honda and looked like that she would have been in S1 no problemo. Think of the costume sales over the years!

Also that is some S-tier cosplay.

52 minutes ago, Darc_Requiem said:

I'm guessing @GetTheTables will call his dojo Team 3D  😉

If I had my way I'd form a Dojo straight up called the Dudley Boyz and everyone would have thematic names. I would become BFFs with whomever changed their CFN to "D-Von" and we would attend tournaments just on the off chance we could have the player listings one day read:

D-Von

GetTheTables

Its the little things that make life worth living.

There are a lot of great wrestling stable names that would make for good dojo names too. Unfortunately Froz is likely gonna make the SRK one so it will be called "CodyYaoiEnthusiasts" or something like that.

From that list I'd recommend Ken and Mika from my personal experience.

Menat is fun to lab but in practice she is a super boring character if you don't like needling your opponent to death and playing keepaway.

Mika is really fun to steamroll people with and her oki is pretty straightforward if that is all you need to learn.

Ken is probably the highest in terms of fun factor and output - not in terms of raw efficacy necessarily but if you're on point with him you're getting satisfying confirms, CH combos, and extended combo sequences in general - but I couldn't hang with him. I feel like to be really good with him you need to be skilled with stuff I haven't been naturally good at so I bailed.

I've always been a filthy casual with DoA but it seems like a game that could be very fun once you start getting the RPS system down. And if you like VF its the closest thing you have to a new one of those until Sega pulls an SNK/SamSho and pulls it from the grave. 

Honoka and to a lesser degree Marie Rose bug me for some reason and the series has a plastic doll look that sort of kills it for me. Hope the new one is good though for series fans. I'm curious to see if they'll bring VF chars back this time around.

Good shit fam. 👍

When fighting Cody with Laura I approach the fight sort of like a better Ryu, with the upsides being that his fireball being slower start up allows her to counter it better with Claps or EX Bolts, and that he has no real reversal. His VSkill can work similarly (and is a great reason to not get jumpy) but Laura's pressure tends to be tight enough that he can't really mash through it. And if you get a read that they like to try to VSkill to beat throws you can just pause a bit them blow them up for it.

It is one of those "maul or be mauled" fights because both characters can put the screws to the other if they get momentum going. Don't be afraid to VRev EX Zonk but try to do it early.

My last Ranked session was Abigail, Ryu, Ryu, Nash, Abigail from what I remember. I definitely remember there were two Ryus and two Abis in there. I always second guess myself when I do well and I thought "well maybe I just got a bunch of easy match ups" but at least for me those two aren't particularly easy with Laura. Been running into an oddly high # of Nashes lately across all online (as in > 0).

Cervantes definitely looks good. Lots more shooting than I remember but if I brought a pistol sword to a fight I'd probably shoot everyone a bunch too.

Season pass says 3 playable characters along with a bonus, which I thought was Tira. Will be interesting to see who the other 3 will be.

Shiki would be an interesting pull. She does have a cool design.

My favorite Samsho character was always Basara but it was also the 90s and I was young and loved The Crow.

I'm just gonna come at this new one fresh and see who works out. Assuming the game actually plays well (at least its looking good).

16 hours ago, ZioSerpe said:

How? 

I nearly only have fun doing battle lounges and even there being constantly jab AAd by @TWINBLADES_SRK Kolin brings high levels of sodium chloride.

I honestly can't remember having fun in ranked and casuals outside of the early Sagat matches. 

I honestly think that SFV and DBFZ are the least fun games I own. 

I also think I would deeply enjoy Tekken if I got into it, but it has a really obnoxious cast, there isn't a single character I find appealing. 

So find myself still here hoping that ArcSys finally hits it big or that SNK delivers a KoF that has Angel in it and doesn't make me wanna commit sudoku because of shitty graphics. 

SamSho looks legit, but I literally live in KoF town, and I doubt it will pick up here

Its sort of a lemons into lemonade situation.

There are some serious things about SFV I don't like. But I'm also still new-ish to playing fighting games online so most of my enjoyment comes from trying to get actually better (not "SFV online" better) and I'm having a decent enough time with that. It is also one of (the?) 2D fighter with the biggest "pick up and play" player base which is another reason I keep booting it up. I know I could probably get more out of UNIST if I did more with the discord for it but sometimes I just want to fire a game up and play some games (even at the cost of playing online randos).

Also every once in a rare while I'll get a Battle Lounge with a decent-to-good player with a stable connection and I have a legit great time with it. But there are a lot of rollbacky fights against online psychopaths to get there.

Part of it is taking the game not seriously (which can sort of conflict with trying to focus in and improve) because there are plenty of bullshitty things. Also where I can see the game becoming a drag: the main thing to do is play Ranked, but playing Ranked especially leads to running into the most irritating tendencies in this game over and over. And even when things are going well its a grind so you have to subject yourself to a lot of it.

Its weird and I try not to think too much about it and just play the game and enjoy my time. Sometimes I start to spiral out and eventually just end up doing something like playing Into the Breach for like a week straight. 🙂

KoF is very much its own style of game so yeah SamSho probably isn't going to convert many but they are both big SNK franchises so you never know. If nothing else it seems like whenever SNK gets around to KoF15 it should look a far sight better than 14.

1 hour ago, misterBee said:

I'd say SFV is the bottom of the ladder tbh. If it wasn't called 'Street Fighter' the game would have been forgotten already.

 

👼🏼

When he's right he's right.

I have fun with SFV but the game has a lot of fucked design decisions. The biggest upside it has is it's really active player base. Offset by the online being really hit or miss.

Sort of drives me nuts because SFV, Tekken 7, and DBFZ are probably the most active FGs out right now. I don't like DBFZ. I have a fascination with T7 but the wall on that game feels really high to climb and I still don't think I like 3D fighters that much. Which leaves me with good ol SFV. My kingdom for more popular anime. we

My current solution is to just chain run Into the Breach so I don't have to face the issue. 😛

14 hours ago, The_Weasel said:

I think I have hit my new low for SFV today. In exactly two hours of gametime, I have lost over 100 matches in a row between casual & ranked play and now have exactly 0 LP. To add insult to injury, the one person that I actually got a win on disconnected from the server like the pussy-punk Blanka-Chan playing bitch that he is.

 

Why? Why am I so free at this game? Why does everything I ever try get perfectly countered and turned into losing 60% of my life bar with a single combo? Why do I get thrown right on the start-up of EX moves over and over again? Why are Ibuki players pure cancer? Why do my results stay the same no matter who I play or whatever tactics I employ?

 

It honestly depresses the hell out of me. That for all of the hours I put into this game, I gradually end up playing worse and worse while those around me get better... It's not just fighting games anymore either; Anything skill-based I seem to enjoy has become a strain on my mind and more of a chore than any kind of enjoyment.

 

So, y'all better PM me for matches so you can get free points and stuff, because I'm in a funk that nothing is going to get me out of today.

I hear ya man. Between the online and how this game plays it is really easy to have some really bad streaks.

I also find that playing ranked/casual in general is a really hard way to really learn sometimes. Ranked players tend to be crazy and Casual players are still usually pretty nutty so much of those matches is more learning how to fight against crazy than necessarily learning any lasting lessons. 

I found that running more structured, learning based Battle Lounge sets was extremely helpful when I was trying to get more consistent at the game. I'm always up for running sets like that if you ever want to give that a go. Just let me know and we can try to set it up.

I sort of meant to play SFV yesterday but I just recently bought Into The Breach on Switch and I essentially lost a whole day to it yesterday. Damn that game is good. Gonna get back to SFV and UNIST this weekend while my wife is on night shift. 

On 8/29/2018 at 10:01 AM, misterBee said:

Any of you guys gonna check out Blade Strangers?

 

 

I probably will eventually. Seems like a neat, goofy game to mess around with.

I fell off of SamSho after 3. I've played all of them a bit but most of that series to me is 1 and 2.

Last Blade is awesome. Very different from SamSho and I think I'm with you in that I prefer Last Blade more. But hell I'll take either if SNK is looking to res something.

On 8/23/2018 at 1:44 PM, misterBee said:

I liked DmC.  It had a simpler fighting system and some silly character designs but I liked it better than all the older DMC games, which haven't aged as great and suffer from serious nostalgia shielding.

 

Fight me.

I don't actually hate DmC. I think there are some parts of it they could have handled better but I didn't hate it as much as the DMC faithful.

For me I like the way classic DMC games play more. But I also don't think they needed to kill DmC. There are a lot of people that enjoyed that game in general when it comes up (old school DMC fans don't but I don't think that game was made for them anyways).

In a perfect world I'd like to see DMC5 and DmC2. Why not right? Other than it's Capcom of course. 😉