Ultra Street Fighter IV

[jiroczech]

Thread's always slow on a Friday. It's a tragedy.

Hey Jackson, I'll send you a friend request - and Pockets and 75DPI too, and anyone else. Friend requests welcome - always good to have Street Fighting friends on Live. Recently when there's been no rllmuk lobbies I've been playing arcade with fight request on, cos the random endless lobbies have looked rubbish. I tend to be on later in the evening.

Something funny? I'll tell you what's funny - it's pissing rain and the wind's gusting at around 90 mile and hour and I've got a 6 mile cycle to get home.

[Nate Dogg III]

Something funny? I'll tell you what's funny - it's pissing rain and the wind's gusting at around 90 mile and hour and I've got a 6 mile cycle to get home.

Hey, that IS funny. It's way windy out there. I went out for a sarnie and came back looking like Teen Wolf. Windswept. Can only imagine what it's like in the frozen wastes of the north.

I'm totally accepting friends requests too btw, think I've only a few spots but I'll have a wee clearout as all this new blood is great news. I love this game and this thread.

[Nate Dogg III]

Yup, rllmukSSFIV I believe.

[imp]

Hey, Jellum. Sorry I suddenly cut out earlier - my Halls internet went down and it's just come back up. I spent my time doing homework and food shopping for tonight. I will not leave the xbox for longer than I have to!

Anyway, thanks to our earlier sparring, I just managed to take down a pretty decent Sakura in ranked.

[DLNY]

Feel free to add me too, Endless has become the most joyless affair right now - just one-character ninjas who want to prove a point. I get it, you're great with Blanka/Ryu/Ken but can't you pick anyone else? And then comes the follow-up message when you get booted. Reading the thread makes me believe that it is possible to get some fun out of being destroyed.

I don't post too much in the thread. It's got a terrific sense of community but I won't even pretend to have the ability to chip in, the technical stuff goes over my head (I keep meaning to remedy that but I start work again on Monday which puts paid to afternoon sessions for the time being). I usually main Cammy or Juri but I'm really enjoying playing as Hakan right now.

[ah]

I don't post too much in the thread. It's got a terrific sense of community but I won't even pretend to have the ability to chip in, the technical stuff goes over my head (I keep meaning to remedy that but I start work again on Monday which puts paid to afternoon sessions for the time being). I usually main Cammy or Juri but I'm really enjoying playing as Hakan right now.

all you really need to do to contribute to the thread is have something interesting to say about some kind of foodstuff (coleslaw or burritos, usually) and pretend to hate someone else who also posts in the thread.

look at jlm - he mains chun and blanka (or whoever), literally hates combos and gets his internet by shouting down a tin can on a string to ask his deaf neighbour what button his opponent pressed, but just by talking some rubbish none of us understand and pretending he doesn't love carlito he's somehow become the most prolific poster in thread history.

JASON GET YOUR INTERNET SORTED I LOVE YOU REALLY.

new challengers: add up rllmukssfiv and check "his" friends list for people online and just spam lobby invites. the only other thing i'd say is don't feel bad if you don't really fancy a seven man lobby with the top tier players like me and kloid every night - perfectly acceptable to keep it smaller so everyone gets a game more frequently if you prefer.

speaking of food, i'm hoping to get online later after making the king of animal-free lasagnes, so maybe i'll see some of you fine chaps then.

[jiroczech]

Just fired off some friend requests, now I'm off to cycle home through a hurricane. If you don't hear from me in a week, I've been blown off the face of the earth.

[Uzi]

It's gonna need more than one day isn't it.

I've been playing SFIV since it came out and I still can't do it!

[A.C.R.O.N.Y.M]

Just off a tremendous losing streak, still need to improve more but while I'm doing more ranker matches as training still getting schooled pretty bad. Is there any PS3 users who could help out and train with me?.

[Uzi]

Oh fuck.

Don't worry. Most can, I just have cack hands and I played charge characters for the most part where FADC combos have nowhere near as much importance.

[Lyrical Donut]

Just off a tremendous losing streak, still need to improve more but while I'm doing more ranker matches as training still getting schooled pretty bad. Is there any PS3 users who could help out and train with me?.

What's your PSN ID? I'd be up for some training / sparring sessions to help you out!

There are a few other 'mukkers on my PS3 friends list, but they don't appear to be playing much SSFIV these days. I have a few PSN friends who get together fairly regularly for lobby action - if you don't mind getting slagged off in french, that is

[Fitzcarraldo]

If I ever came across a barrage of offense like that, I'd probably sell my stick and never play the game ever again. Not before having a cold shower and a little cry. That poor Sagat player was having a mental breakdown.

I'm around now for some games if anyone is in the mood.

[Qazimod]

Huge thanks to everyone for the games tonight; Joffo, Jonster, JLM, imp, Nate et al. Very good fun and some classic match-ups on random select as ever. My personal highlight was countering Jonster's Bison Ultra with Gief's how-the-hell-do-I-do-this-on-a-pad Ultra 2. But yeah, it was all great fun as ever.

[Lyrical Donut]

NATs.. bastard shitting NATs!

Sorry if I was fucking things up earlier, I did wonder why Imp showed as having no connection. My 360 is connected in a mildly wacky fashion, y'see. That and bt homehubs are pretty shit. But I've sorted it now, so I'll catch you again over the weekend.

Still kicking myself for squandering a juggle opportunity against Nate's Blanka that probably would have sealed the win for me. Awesome Dudley mirror with Joffo before that too, despite him nicking my pink threads...

[Jackson]

Took about an hour but I finally beat normal mode with Ryu! My attempts at Ultra I keep resulting in EX shoryukens (which I fluked a victory over Ken with, haha).

[ah]

things i just did in endless battle:

picked nobody but the big question mark

adon's fadc ultra 2

t hawk air-to-air jab-dive-360p TWICE

think it's safe to say that tonight i'll sleep the deep sleep of the man who wins at life.

i couldn't play with you guys last night because someone was watching silent witness on iplayer. needless to say that last nihgt i did not sleep the deep sleep of the man who wins at life.

[ah]

i spent ages (okay, 20 minutes) yesterday trying to do the most infuriating trial.

sagat trial 20: cr.MP xx low fireball xx focus attack (uses two super bars, connects for crumple before you dash out) > cr.MP xx tiger knee.

it wasn't so infuriating simply because i find it stupidly difficult to do the focus attack for long enough to crumple without leaving it so long it doesn't combo. no, i'm not going to complain about that. nor was it so infuriating because that cr.MP is so liable to whiff during dan's crumple animation (even with a dash out of the FA). no, it was infuriating because, were the super meters not set to auto-refill in trial mode, i would've landed the combo about a dozen times, but because they auto-refill then they were full again by the time i got to the end of the combo and i kept getting the super instead of the tiger knee. so, so tedious.

the rest of my afternoon [abridged version]:

i'd love to say i cancelled to super on purpose when i finally landed it, but it's not true

[joffocakes]

Lovely stuff Allie-Ballie-Bee. I remember finding Sagat's trials particularly frustrating for some reason. Maybe I wasn't taunting the static dummy enough.

I managed to get Akuma up to B a little earlier this evening; taking imp's advice about demon flippin' more really helped. Mostly half-arsed non-setups where I'd chuck them out over fireballs or after knockdowns than proper intense vortex pressure, but it was enough to shut a lot of ranked folk down and get some ridiculously overlong combo action going. I'm not an Akuma kind of guy at all, but I'm happy I've now got a half-decent feel for how he should be played in case I get him in random select.

Also, in another case of wanting to be imp, I wasted all my meter going for st.hp x gouhadouken FADC st.hp x gouhadouken FADC st.hp x lk.tatsu > SRK every single time I got in. I ate a lot of SRKs and mashed 360s as a result, but I think we all know who the bigger man is (imp).

A 59.80% win rate with him on hitting B as well, which is much better than the horrible 40% at C. Tempted to sneak it up to 60% for neatness' sake.

Also also, I played someone with a ridiculous 56% disconnect ratio last night, best of five. They ragequit after one round. Had two more wild disconnecters earlier today as well. One of those two disconnected just as I was about to finish them off. Who are these people and why do they play games at all?

[joffocakes]

Has anyone who plays a lot of Street Fighter on a pad played it on 3DS yet?

Not that it's gonna stop me buying the machine at launch if it plays horribly; I'm all over pilotwings as well. The more sedate the gameplay the better.

[imp]

Guys, I went to Mordor Mashup IX, and went out in the second round.

A Ryu player by the hacker alias of Madbeats10000 came back from the losers bracket to win against Mestizo in the grand finals, which were very very epic. I'm sure there'll be plenty video evidence, as every single match was recorded. And you will be able to pinpoint in 720p glory the very moment I cracked. Project 'learn Akuma in two weeks' was an abject failure by the way. I used him once to play Hylian Elf's sagat and got viciously bodied. I then used my Rusty Ryu for the rest of the tournament.

I'm going back to Ryu, I can't quit him!

It's okay though, there will still be plenty o flash. I spent about 30 salty minutes after going out trying to learn the 1 meter Ultra 1 Sako x JLM combo that actually hits anywhere on the screen:

f.HP s.MKxEX.Hadouken Ultra 1.

It's fucking sexy. It's actually not too difficult either.

Also, as ever, I did have an excellent time. I heart Thoroughfare Thwacker.

[imp]

http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2011/feb/05/ssf4-arcade-edition-tournament-stream-level/

Level up are streaming a 64 man invitational AE tournament to celebrate their 1 year anniversary. Get hype, Justin Wong, Alex Valle, Peter "ComboFiend" Rosas, Marn, fLoE, Mike Ross and several other big names are al there! Whoop.

[Mike1812]

£10 on 360 in Morrisons from Monday. I'l be joining you soon!

[Cherry_Pez]

Aye was a wicked day. Imp I'm all up for GO! GO! TEAM [?] if the next one or any of the future MM's!

After talking to you today I may even pod up and hit the lab. But I don't know with who... Same old issues, this game needs a large dose of Urien stat.

See y'all online sometime soon maybe.

[joffocakes]

I'm quite jealous that I can't go to those, even if my elderly ears would crumble to dust listening to Nick's intense playlist. I guess the next time i'll get to play any of you southerners in person will be at the next Super Versus Battle, and I fear I may be dead* by then.

*bored of games.

[FuntimeDave]

Guys, I went to Mordor Mashup IX, and went out in the second round.

A Ryu player by the hacker alias of Madbeats10000 came back from the losers bracket to win against Mestizo in the grand finals, which were very very epic. I'm sure there'll be plenty video evidence, as every single match was recorded. And you will be able to pinpoint in 720p glory the very moment I cracked. Project 'learn Akuma in two weeks' was an abject failure by the way. I used him once to play Hylian Elf's sagat and got viciously bodied. I then used my Rusty Ryu for the rest of the tournament.

I'm going back to Ryu, I can't quit him!

It's okay though, there will still be plenty o flash. I spent about 30 salty minutes after going out trying to learn the 1 meter Ultra 1 Sako x JLM combo that actually hits anywhere on the screen:

f.HP s.MKxEX.Hadouken Ultra 1.

It's fucking sexy. It's actually not too difficult either.

Also, as ever, I did have an excellent time. I heart Thoroughfare Thwacker.

sounds good. As ever I don't understand how the combo above hits anywhere on the screen, are you just saying its not a corner based combo not that my opponent can be on other side of the screen for it to work? Surely the f.HP s.MK has to hit?

I mean I dunno why I bother asking, the Viper vid above inspired me to try some Viper magic cause the idiot made it look easy - well I couldn't do any of the stuff after 20 minutes of trying so I gave up - I hope they make the learning curver easier in the AE edition so you can be godlike with any character after like 30 minutes practice, the game would be much better then if everyone was good. I may email them.

[imp]

sounds good. As ever I don't understand how the combo above hits anywhere on the screen, are you just saying its not a corner based combo not that my opponent can be on other side of the screen for it to work? Surely the f.HP s.MK has to hit?

Yeah, all I mean is that it's not a corner combo. Unless he's using the above combo, Ryu can only hit Ultra 1 from a EX Hadouken in the corner, or after FADCing it if he's mid screen (3 meters total). This combo is good because it allows you to combo into the ultra after the commonly used f.HP without expending lots of meter.

[Uzi]

After god knows how many hours of practice I can now do the second part of Ryus SRK FADC Ultra. Just need to get it working after a SRK now. And get the timing etc.

I do feel like I've really improved though. Is this the case with all aspects of the game? Just putting the time in in practice or are there some things that are just about being naturally good.

I mean, is it a learnable game in that getting the moves out on demand will help a lot or do you need much more than that?

It does help a lot, being able to punish when the oppurtunity strikes for the most possible damage is often the difference between winning and losing a round. I know this because I drop so many of said punishes and lose plenty of rounds simply due to my bad execution.

On the other hand, even more important I'd say is things mentioned before which aren't so much to do with execution or fancy combos but simply being able to read your opponent, play mind games, not be predictable, be able to defend yourself etc. These can't really be practised the same way combos can, you'll learn and pick it all up as you keep playing. The latter is the only reason I can hold myself in a fight somettimes against the far better players here. Playing charges characters like Honda did make me somewhat lame, but taught me not to be totally and utterly random which is how I used to play at first and was awful.

[ah]

the bits you're practising will help you a great deal in maximising the damage you do when you get an opening against your opponent, but they're only one element of the game - basically, being able to FADC into ultra every time you try it isn't going to help if your opponent just sits there blocking all your shoryukens. the game is learnable to a very large degree, but it's just like any other game (chess, tennis, whatever) in that if your opponent's execution and matchup knowledge is as good as your own then the winner will be the person who is best at reading what the opponent wants to do and countering it. or sometimes the person who gets lucky.

for example i played against carlito earlier and, as t.hawk, all i really wanted to do was air-to-air LP then dive to the ground and command grab him when he landed (because it's awesome), so carlito just stopped jumping at me unless i was grounded and that was that - he waited for me to jump and then did what he liked because he'd read me, and reading the opponent won the match (even though carlito's gen is terrible). in another match as rufus against his sagat he threw out a fireball from an unsafe distance because either he wasn't thinking or he didn't know that i could punish it, but i knew i could punish it with EX messiah kick and that the kick would probably build me just enough meter to FADC into ultra, so just by throwing one fireball from too close carlito ended up losing about half his life bar. both of us have shocking execution (carlito got his excuses in early with something about his house being cold, mind) but basically (by which i mean this next bit isn't entirely true but the idea is useful) it doesn't really matter if you can only do 50 damage every time you punish something if you never let your opponent hit you - you'll still be wearing them down faster than they can kill you.

i think you have to at some point say "okay this is how good i am at doing stuff in training, let's not worry about the stuff i can't do and just go use the stuff i can do in matches" and get player vs player experience. then later you can go back into the lab and see if you can improve on any of your combos once you're better at playing. if you only land srk fadc ultra 10% of the time but you can land cr.mk xx fireball 90% of the time then you should use the latter as your go-to combo even though it does far less damage.

kudos on the progress though. i suck at that combo!

edit: once you know a lot about how to play one character you can transfer a lot of that knowledge to other characters with just a couple of bits of know-how specific to each character. a simple combo, an ultra setup, a button to press for poking and a button to press when someone jumps at you and you're good to go, really. like i say, once you get the basics down the game is as much about reading your opponent as reading their character (or yours).

[imp]

I think it's actually pretty important to try your training mode combos in real matches. Doing them in real matches gives a huge confidence boost and makes you more comfortable in doing them again. You need to be comfortable with combos to be able to bust them out effectively.

When the Mordor Mashup IX videos you can see a good example of execution not being everything in my match against Hylian Elf. You'll see that basically although my execution was on form, I lacked patience, and was so rusty with Ryu, I wasn't hitting all my punishes (even though the ones I did hit were usually big damage) and so I lost.

So much of the game is spacing, pressure and mind games, execution is just what you need to maximise damage when you get the opportunity. It certainly won't win you many matches alone. It's pretty much infinitely deep, mang.

[imp]

Just play the game and get comfortable with it - the pace, the moves, the situations than can occur. Just don't worry too much about winning or fancy combos or whatnot right now because most people you'll encounter online have probably been playing Street Fighter IV since 2009.

Also, here's a little tip - the throw does on average 130 damage. After a focus crumple, always dash in and do a combo. Even something as simple as c.HP, HP Shoryuken will do more.