[North Carolina] Let's make a scene

Ceron said:

What's odd is all the baby books we've read states that a father's jealousy towards his son is normal. Vice-versa if we had a daughter. I'll just have to not fight him near any volcanoes.

We're sessioning @ Cape Fear Games on Thursday, if anyone can make it. And there's sessions in Myrtle Beach every Wednesday. I post up official details for MB later. I'll won't be able to make the MB sessions until Feb 15.

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FOX said:

@Will, I'm hoping you aren't venting because I cancelled one session last week because they couldn't have us on Thursday. If you're that hungry for constant comp, Myrtle and Raleigh aren't that far and Jon and Justin are consistently holding sessions. You know more than anyone else that me, Angus, Alex and yourself aren't in a position where we can play as much as we want. See ya Tuesday, keep it possitive.
-Q

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Ceron said:

Looks like I'll be doing a lot of traveling to Raleigh and Myrtle Beach this time around.

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Caveman said:

So what is everyone thinking about the game so far?

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D4rkSch1sm said:

But it is a huge flaw in defencive ability. If you make moving unsafe then why did they also add chip damage and leave the guard crush? The only good defence is just guarding which I have learned. This game is way too aggressive. Shouldn't aggression be punished and defense be rewarded? If I wanted to play Mortal Kombat i'd just play Mortal Kombat.

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Ceron said:

'08ers :P

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Ceron said:

snip

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Ceron said:

I didn't have enough time to comment more on this before. Now that I do...

To start playing Soul Calibur at SC4 will hurt you in SC5 more than any other iteration of the game. To say that SC4 is anything like MK shows that you might not know much about fighting games, and though that may come off as an insult or an asshole thing to say it isn't meant to be either. It's just better to have a certain understanding of these things so that we can have a better conversation and community altogether.

That said, let's get down to SC5, or rather Soul Calibur in general. Step G has been complained about since SC2, not to the point where players were unable to enjoy the game, but players just simply adjusted to the dynamic of it. Keep in mind here the key word: Adjustment. This is what good players do and at least decent players aim to do. Since there was no real connection between Namco and the community during SC3 meant that a lot was going to stay the same. The only complaint Namco heard was that SC2 was way too defensive. Without any players active in the community to contribute to this opinion Namco does not know what to tweak. So what did they do?

1. They took out the Avoid system.
This system was similar to SC5 Quick Step except it was automatic. The other big differences include that when a character did an attack, if you 8wr at the right moment, your character would go into a stepping animation that could not only dodge verticals but a lot of horizontals as well. Obviously, that's a problem. Another problem was that for the person executing Avoid, your attacks, no matter what the hell their properties are, changes hit levels. Yes, your lows became mids, your mids became highs and your highs fly over your opponent's head. Trash.

2. Added run counter.
This was a welcome addition, though not the solution to the problem.

But they didn't get to the real essence of the problem. Step G. Here's what Step G does: It allows you to cancel your step animation in half. The result is that your character doesn't get hit by horizontal attacks as often as they should. Now let's back track to Soul Calibur 1.

Paper = Stepping/8wr
Rock = Verticals
Scissors = Horizontals

By allowing Step G to exist it makes scissors less effective to paper. When you screw with the paper/rock/scissors of a fighting game, the rules that everybody adheres to, you drastically change the dynamic of the game altogether. Which is why characters like Xianghua or Ivy have always been strong in the series (there are obvious game specific other reasons too).

Now why did I say that SC4 hurts you in SC5 more than any other game in the series? Well, starting w/ SC4 you have a certain mentality that doesn't make you a bad fighting game player, but makes you a lacking Soul Calibur player. In SC4, vertical attacks tracked more than in any other game. I don't know how many times I would dodge a large swinging vertical attack, be directly behind my opponent and still get launched. And obviously this isn't right since my opponent is still BT. In SC5, verts don't track like that anymore. They do what they are supposed to do: Contribute to the power of the character and crush most horizontal attacks. And then horizontals proved to be less useful than they are supposed to be because there's Step G. I will say this once and only once: If you commit to stepping a move through guessing or anticipation: YOU SHOULD BE PUNISHED FOR MAKING A WRONG DECISION. It's not a matter of you not being able to defend yourself while stepping, it's a matter of making better and more intelligent decisions now. ADJUSTMENT. SC4 was way more 2D than it was supposed to be. Still the only true 3D game (other than VF) out there, but it was way more 2D than its predecessors. And this hurts anybody coming into SC5 that played SC4 only.

To you personally, D4rkSch1sm, I can tell that you will be an asset to this community. You might become the best player in NC and I won't tell you differently unless proven differently over and over in tournaments. But the complaints you made while playing online says that you're not willing to adjust and actually learn a new game. They were complaints that came off as bitter childish whining and that's not attractive to other players. You still want to play SC4 and this isn't SC4. From playing you in SC4 (even if it was online), I knew that you weren't going to be able to handle certain strategies in SC5. I even said this to several other calibur players about you in conversation. And I was unfortunately right. Now that Step G is gone you can't randomly step when you want to step and hope for good luck. Now you have to make educated decisions and react!

Also, you think this game doesn't punish aggression? Have you ever looked at SC frame data?! Have you actually ever played SC/Tekken/Namco fighters? These games are ABOUT punishment.

SC5 is a great game. I have my own unrelated concerns, but because I've enjoyed competitive calibur since SC2 I'm looking for ways to deal with those concerns and adjust.

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