GetTheTables

That is something I knew from +R that I let myself forget for this game. You want the opponent to be above you when going for air throws if you can help it. I try to be too pre-emptive/aggressive with it and it never works. Also pro tip from watching Ryan Hunter's channel: if you find you hit the diagonals on air throw attempts (can be easy to do in snap situations) hit the opposite direction to do the throw. Ex. on a forward jump to intercept you'd hit 4D. Helps to get the clean input consistently. Double also I double checked: Nago's sword normals actually do very respectable chip when he is kirked out. What I didn't realize is that they always do a little bit of chip regardless. So yeah those low life situations against him are pretty dangerous. Triple also this seems useful:

Yeah the biggest thing in my experience is that you can end up in a dolphin vortex (not vortex in the traditional FG term sense). It's not at all real but it is a really awkward situation that can quickly death spiral if you make a couple of wrong moves. Add onto that her j.H I think it is and her j.2H (or whatever her anchor drop air move is) and she has a lot of good approach options. The one big thing about her is that she has no reversal outside of OD so if you get on her you can (and should) maul her. Wake up OD is definitely going to be on the table at some point so you have to play around it. I think Nago can probably play it sort of like Ram can with his big buttons. Those can also be a curse though because you need to be really careful in the post S Dolphin situation. Sometimes those slower longer ranged buttons just get you whacked. Also more general thoughts after I finish cooking.

Unfortunately I'm outta time for today. Got 7pm ish plans so I can't afford to get sucked into the matches vortex. 🙂 I should be around tomorrow some time. Sort of depends on how the day shakes out but I'm definitely up for games.

In case you didn't find it already and for anyone else curious: it's under Settings-> System Settings-> Attack Button Display Format.

Maybe that is part of it. If you look in the SFV Lounge discord in the Strive Serious Discussion Volt posted up an early take as to what the wall mechanics may be. It is quite a read. I say may because hell if I know if any of it is true. Even if it isn't, it illustrates the point that they purposefully made something that initially seems really straightforward - hit into wall until wall boom - actually fairly complex. I don't think they did this to be unpredictable (though that is a side benefit), I think they did it to have it be something that has enough rules to it that as a mechanic it doesn't get stale super duper quickly. In ideal scenarios the wall can be pretty easy to manage. But the game rarely plays out ideally, so the offensive player needs to be mindful of the wall state, along with what offensive choices they are making and how they will interact with that state. It can also be a boon for the defender as well: if the attacker isn't mindful of the wall state, you can end up eating a splat/break situation that is much more bearable than what the optimal choice would have been (easy example is missing an OD break opportunity off a quick splat, or what is very common is the attackers route flounders and you get a chance to wiggle free). I don't think its super deep or anything. But I've personally enjoyed that extra level of engagement since the core offense in this game is more streamlined than something like +R (which feels much more like managing your core offense is like managing the wall situation, as a really rough and shitty analogy). Also yesterday I managed to improv a fat wall damage combo that looked cool so of course I'm positively disposed to it ATM. 😄 I may have lost that round and maybe the game, but that Alex Twitter Clip will forever be in my heart.

@MattatsuGGs man. You're definitely getting the hang of Millia. You did a great job playing around my ranges to start. I think once you get more comfortable dealing with my counter adjustments I'll be in a lot of trouble. Not that anyone likes being in the Millia blender but with Ram it feels like she can really dance around me if I let her get a foothold. @KingTubbYou are a magnificent Dolphin riding bastard. Never change. @M A R T I A NI appreciate the Axl beatings. And the Potbusters for awareness.

Damn I thought I had RC. Lol

@Mattatsu @KingTubb I'll be back an online probably around 10 EST if you guys still wanna try to game up. Goes for anyone really.

PC version download, PS4 version patched. Fuckin' ready to go. Except for all the preamble I need to do on PC. But after like 20 mins I'm in there.

Blue drift RC as a string extender. Derp. Never even thought of it. Cool stuff.

🤘🤘 This will inevitably taper off but I'm glad Strive seems like it is coming out of the gate strong. Like Tubb said I think the +R work is paying off. Playing +R made me realize all over again how much I love GG and I'd love for Strive to be it's T7.

That still sort of blows my mind to think about. Or when the UMvC3 roster got leaked because they posted up a bunch of the character stuff to their website. They just didn't link to it so I guess they didn't think anyone could get to it. Then people started typing in character names and they....got to it. Using that 5th grade hacking tech. 😆

Spoiler off!

Yeah the wall definitely takes a lot of getting used to. I think that is going to be one of the first breakpoints for players who really "get" the game and players who are kinda plugging along. You need to keep an eye on how many impacts your wall interactions are generating, and if you are trying to actively combo you need to know which of your hits are going to bounce vs stick. If you lose track you can beef it all up with an unexpected stick and miss your break opportunity, or worse. I was mostly working on "ideal" scenarios, which yeah aren't ever gonna happen. 😄 But just practicing in general does feel like it helps because part of understanding this mechanic is just trying stuff and seeing what happens. Literally throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Spoiling my response for purity:

Never let H Disk hit, got it. 🤓 I finally got some lab time in too. I basically just dove into matches during the online beta since time was so limited so it was a lot of flailing wildly. Now that the game is here I feel more comfortable taking an evening and checking stuff out. I may even have a corner combo! Though I'm sure I'll forget it/fuck it up come game time.

I'm helping a buddy install an A/C unit and hanging out with him for a bit after work but I'll be free after that. If you guys want to meet up later in the evening I'll be down. Get your Disco time in early Tubb then put the wife to bed and let the dolphin run free. 😉 And yeah that is interesting tech. I'm noticing more stuff like that as I poke around with the game. Like with fast RCs: since they don't scale the combo they're better in most situations where you're just RC'ing for an extension unless you really need the time slow. And due to the timing element of getting the cancel right it sort makes them like weird reverse FRCs. Its not a huge damage difference but its definitely there. Which is actually kind of nice because it adds a technical element to something that felt pretty canned.

Done. I've already got Volt from the +R times. Will be great to have another game with great netcode we can all play. 🤘

I doubled down so have it on both. I'll probably be on the Steam version more anyhow barring any port jank (though I don't anticipate anything). I'm literally up for playing anyone here, schedule permitting. 👍

@KingTubbI'm gonna share this here but I'm gonna caveat it with the WMAC Masters Rule: if you use this shit on me I'm gonna be so buttmadd:

Amen. Like I get why people dip, and maybe the connection was bad on their end or something, but most of it is just about nutting up and taking your loses like a man/woman/whatever. You can usually tell who is going to get squirrely on rematching because they tend to be gimmicky as fuck. Only ran into one person like that (3 guesses who they were playing). The park is what enabled me to play that 16-17 game set against a Nago player at the end of my time. In the Ranked lobbies one of us definitely would have gotten bounced before that (we both had streaks going here or there). I'm not sure how much it stabilizes over time. I know once you get legit into Heaven (win your 5) you're in there and can just play. I guess that is a decent end goal? Definitely feels like some dials can be turned on the Ranked system but hey, early days. Before they fuck with any of that they need to sort out the player-to-player connection issues that happen in the lobbies. That shit gotta go.

Too much Totsugeki for the server to handle. The floor shifting is a pain. It would bother me less if it was faster. I hope that at some point they cut out all the animation and just do the damn thing with a loading widget in the corner and a message. Maybe the load is such that they need the animation to hide it. I never thought I'd have left Mass Effect loading elevators for GG loading elevators. That was the main reason I went to the park after I went up and down a few times. I don't care about the rank itself, its way more irritating to have floor shifts break up sets/your momentum. I just wanna play and figure shit out! My favorite was when I played a decent Millia who knocked me down a floor. I then ran into a much worse Millia who....allowed me to go right back up a floor. If I had kept playing Ranked I'm sure I would have just kept bouncing between My Two Millias all night.

I just realized I'm going to have to go through that GD network mode setup process for the 4th time. 😒

I was just watching that. Love the shade at the beginning.

Played a long set against Nago at the end of my time yesterday. He has some big buttons and can do a lot of damage very quickly. He also has some easy day 1 mix ups/pressure that can blend you pretty quickly if you don't know when to interrupt or you interrupt at the wrong times. All of that is offset by his low mobility (still has a lot of screen presence due to buttons but his repositioning isn't as free as other chars) and greatly taxed by the blood mechanic. If you don't manage that resource well you will explode: his health bar super drains while he is kirked out and if it happens at a particularly bad time you can eat a combo while that drain is happening and you pretty much instantly die. Nago is still really dangerous in blood rage - lots of chip and scary normals plus the OD can easily one shot you - but it is very much something you want to work around strategically. The person I was playing would sometimes go totally ham to try and win the round, which would pay out every once in awhile but just as often he'd pop then he'd pop. He seems like a really swingy character in general. I think the more difficult part is going to be what his mobility and slowness means for his defense. It also seems like you can get stuck in a "No Man's Land" where you are near kirking out but don't have a good way to drain (he *really* wants to land the bite command grab here and there) which seems like it may be sort of paralyzing. All of this is from the other side. I was grateful to be able to contest his buttons with Rams, though I think being able to rush him down would be even better.