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Beginner Questions Thread

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indieanimator said:
Haven't seen any info on this, so:
What's the purpose of ranked/quick match? I don't see any info on what my rank is? The people there are advanced, so I just got stuck in very long combos. The way to break a long combo mentioned above is IP. I remember it from the tutorial- a light switches from red to green, right. Not sure if I've seen !!!s or sparks.
I guess by the time it activates, most your health is gone. Ha.

Yesterday I had a lot of great battles in "Create Lobby"- beginner level.

Go to the Leaderboards and youll see your rank.
As for "Breaking long combos" - There is no combo breaker in this game.
You can only break a combo if the person doing it screws up and hits IPS/Undizzy, which good players won't do very often. So do NOT count on being able to "burst" out of combos.
 
indieanimator said:
Haven't seen any info on this, so:
What's the purpose of ranked/quick match?
What IS Ranked/Quick Match? You press a button and then get paired quickly (..hopefully..) with a random opponent.

Meaning:
- You get to play matches fast; without being forced to bother with things like searching for a lobby.
- You play a lot of different opponents (see various different styles of play, can test out setup X on multiple people)

This is also useful to learn:
- What "bullshit" the various characters got (most people on ranked will abuse some silly shit that doesn't fly in lobbies, because you'd adapt to it)
- How to adapt to your opponent's playstyle quickly (can't go "I'll treat the first 5 matches as feeling out my opponent, and start playing only afterwards)

It's infinitely worse than Sets with people for learning how to actually *play*, but:
- Good to toss in once in a while to see whether the things you do are effective against everybody, or just against the 4-5 people you tend to play with
- Generally faster than lobbies, so if you just want to play 3 matches before you go shopping, you can hop into Quickmatch and play some, rather than searching for a lobby
 
quick match is just that. It grabs some random guy and you play them. The ranks don't matter.
 
@IsaVulpes and @alexpi

That's what I was afraid of. I was more just hoping, I guess. I would love a lk.buer + assist. That said, lp.nails is effectively about the same minus some damage, so no biggie.

Thanks for checking.

@indieanimator

Ranked is meaningless. Think of it as a way to find matches fairly easily. As far as I know, you aren't placed with players of equal skill (which would be super difficult given the size of our community).

As far as combos, if you get confirmed you are still going to take a hefty amount of damage. IPS is really only there to prevent infinites and most decent players will rarely hit IPS except on purpose to take advantage of a burst bait. That said, we all fuck up and forget where we are on occasion and active IPS.

The other mechanic is dizzy. It is that green bar that builds up as your combos get longer. The tl;dr version is that if a combo runs too long, it will green spark and allow you to burst just like IPS. It is a tad more complicated than that, but I'd just google it if you need to know more.

What you really want to look for is resets. This is an attempt to start the combo over (at the risk of you blocking/countering) to reset damage scaling (hits do less damage the longer a combo runs on), IPS, and to a lesser extent dizzy (dizzy depreciates slow enough that it can and will still activate after a reset).

If you are new, don't get discouraged and just accept that you are going to get pushed around your first umpteenth matches. You'll get better before you know it. Feel free to add me on steam (qspec) if you'd like some help.

That said, as you found out, looking for beginner lobbies is probably the fairest way to get matches. The only problem is that lobbies are less reliable than QM. My advice? Make friends with people who are roughly equal skill and play vs them.
 
FWIW, especially early on, resets aren't 100% necessary. Some people play like Mayor, who never finishes a combo. Others like to go for full combos and learn to be very good and hit-confirming into a combo knowing that they'll need 2-3 touches to kill a character.
 
Ah, thanks for the detailed responses. I forgot to check the leaderboard. DOA5U displays your rank more prominently, but I've never taken it too seriously. This is the second fighting game I've tried online. I come from the old school of arcades, starting w/SFII. Pretty blown away by a US indie 2D fighter. And that you can match up in beginner lobbies. I wonder if other fighters have that...

I'll stick w/ beginner's lobby then. And or the "burst"/IP, I was able to grasp BlazBlue/P4A a bit quicker.

Took your advice & looked it up, though:

Halfway into the vid it explains it. I hadn't even noticed the green bar filling up to get the green light. Looks like the person attacking has a green light too. Maybe it's of no concern, though.

2-3 touches to KO someone? Man. I've never been able to do that in a fighter, even in MvC2 & 3. I just use defense, punish mistakes, do short combos into supers, mix up attacks, and adapt to the opponent. If I launch someone, I can get a few hits in the air, then there's...Band's drum super, maybe? I usually save meter for Horn Crush, though. Thanks for the offer, Spencer, but I can only play on PS3, and since I don't have one- the wait is on for next weekend (to visit my brother).
 
I've been playing this game for a while now, and I'm noticing I have some really bad habits. I always seem to get in bad positions for being punished. Muscle memory gets the better of me and I just start wailing on the opponent even if they block my attacks and just get annihilated by their 50 hit combo. Now, how do I break this bad habit? I've learned some decent combos, yet I just think I'm fucking up at this. Not sure if it's the only thing I'm messing up, but whatever.
 
not entirely sure what you are asking.
one thing to figure out are safe blockstrings. if you attack and are blocked know what move you can end with that gives you a combinations and spacing and mainly frame data that you are hard to punish or unpunishable. any punish against you should put you in a bad position so the best bet is try to avoid getting punished in the first place. (i know its like going to the doctor and saying it hurts when i do this and the doctor replies well dont do that but thats really all there is to it)

as far as breaking bad habits, knowing you have them is the first step, congratulations! now when you play you need to really try to keep you bad habits and mind and try to avoid them. you will probably be worse for this for a while but in the end you will come out stronger. as far as block strings, once you figure out a good block string you can go in training and set the dummy to random block and practice going into your block string if blocked or combo if you hit.

hope this helps, feel free to reply again if i totally missed the point <_<
 
Ping: did a forum search & was wondering... What is optimal, average, etc. Is there anything I should know about it? Thanks!
 
Don't play over 200ms

Some people will be laggy no matter what their ping says

Try which GGPO delay feels best for you;
Some people put something like "2 no matter what" to get used to a specific timing on things regardless of the opponents ping, others vary (eg 0-100ms: 0 delay, 100-150ms: 1 delay, 150-200ms: 2 delay)
Generally you want to put it as low as possible, and the "Recommended GGPO" settings are 2-3 too high no matter what they say
 
@IsaVulpes

Is there any truth at all to keeping it a specific number to keep timings correct? As in how bad does using 5 on GGPO fuck up timings?

@indieanimator

I generally won't play anything over 200ms. Gotta draw the line in the sand somewhere and that seems reasonable. I also think there is reason to port forward since this is locally hosted and believe this may account for the ungodly bad stuttering, etc. despite good ping numbers, but that is a different issue and one which may be baseless.

There are some exceptions to this:

Certain times on off-peak U.S. hours, you'll get a lot of Japanese players which means bad ping... in that case, I deal with it and start accepting matches up to 250.

Other times you'll get a ton of people with nigh perfect ping in which case I'm usually a lot more picky (say nothing under 150ms).
 
Spencer said:
Is there any truth at all to keeping it a specific number to keep timings correct? As in how bad does using 5 on GGPO fuck up timings?
Uh by, 5 frames?.?

If you link A into B, and your GGPO setting is 5, then you need to press B five frames earlier than you would have to @GGPO-0.
If you always have your settings on 2, it will be 2f earlier than in training mode but you will get used to it after a while from just playing matches.
If you always have your settings on 0, it will be the same as training mode, but you either can't play high ping matches at all, or have to live with rollbacks.
If you vary your settings (eg 0 delay for low ping matches, 2 delay for high ping ones) you have to adjust your timing depending on what ping range you're fighting which is very difficult.
 
What's an easier way to do airdashes with a controller? I need it to do cancels for Ms.Fortune, and I keep fucking it up. Double Punch has too much of a delay for that to work really well, and the stick doesn't respond fast enough to combo with it.
 
SK2 said:
What's an easier way to do airdashes with a controller? I need it to do cancels for Ms.Fortune, and I keep fucking it up. Double Punch has too much of a delay for that to work really well, and the stick doesn't respond fast enough to combo with it.
Set one of your macros to double punches if you can.
 
What's a burst bait? What are good, easy one for the two chars I play? I've heard this term come out quite a bit on this website, but I've never heard this term in any other fighting game, and I can't find a good description on what it means.
 
Is there a way to display combos step-by-step on the screen in training mode, similar to the tutorial lessons?
 
Mono said:
Is there a way to display combos step-by-step on the screen in training mode, similar to the tutorial lessons?
No.

Funkermonster said:
What's a burst bait? What are good, easy one for the two chars I play? I've heard this term come out quite a bit on this website, but I've never heard this term in any other fighting game, and I can't find a good description on what it means.
If you burst (I'll assume you know about bursting) and your burst hits the opponent and they fly backwards, or they block it, or they use armour to absorb it etc, the person who bursted is invincible and able to block right after they recover.
If someone hits you triggering IPS or Undizzy, then backs off for example, and then you burst, and the burst misses them completely, you cannot act or block after the burst and are free to get hit again (A burst bait)
So an example of a burst bait would be something as simple as launcher into air attack that sets off IPS or Undizzy, and then you cancel into a back dash, then you hope they burst after you've cleared out so you can hit them while they burst.
 
I know this was answered but I'm incredulous.
Funkermonster said:
What's a burst bait? [snip] I've heard this term come out quite a bit on this website, but I've never heard this term in any other fighting game, and I can't find a good description on what it means.
Have you played any other fighting games with bursts? It's a very common term. :^)

A burst bait is when you place the opponent into a situation where you predict they are going to burst, then you dodge the burst and hit them out of the recovery, thereby starting a new combo for much more damage. Burst baits are slightly easier in Skullgirls than in other games, since the attacker can directly determine if and when the defender is allowed to burst at all, as opposed to Arc System Works games where once your burst is available you can use it pretty much any time. Common predictable burst spots are when the opponent is at low life and got hit by something that will lead to death, when they get hit by an unexpected good hit that may lead to big damage, or when it looks like the attacker has screwed up their combo. This last one is particularly important.

In most cases, doing a burst bait means sacrificing any further hits in your combo ("dropping the combo") so that you can be in a good spot to dodge the burst. To avoid a burst bait the defender simply must not burst. In Skullgirls, this means the defender must not hit any buttons, so a burst bait setup is a good counter if your opponent likes to try mashing supers or invincible attacks during your combos in case you drop the combo or try for a reset.

The term itself comes from Guilty Gear (along with the term "Burst", which was the common term for what GG officially called a "Psyche Burst").
Here's the GGAC guide from like 6 years ago mentioning burst baits (under the Blue Burst section): http://dustloop.com/guides/ggac/data/burst.html
Here's a section from dustloop.com mentioning them: http://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php?title=Strategies#Burst-Bait_Combos
Here's a random video of a Blazblue burst bait that I found while looking for a specific burst bait video.
Some Venom burst baits from GG#Reload in 2006.
(I never found the GGAC RoboKy combo video I wanted...it was only a few minutes long and set to the Lucky Star theme...)
 
Looking forward to playing again this weekend. Before Fri. hits: lobby question-
Beginner, Practice, Casual, and I forgot the last one.
Anyone notice any differences in them? I've tried a few & have only been playing a month, so beginner seems right, but...which one would come next?
Also, anyone able to play on PSN this weekend? I'm W.Coast US. I've tried contacting a lot of people these last few weeks in the matchmaking topics, but haven't been able to practice w/anyone from here yet. Thanks!
 
There's quite a few Skullgirls chat groups around, there's the Skullgirls IRC room too, might be easier to go to one of the chat groups rather than asking people individually.
 
ashxu said:
There's quite a few Skullgirls chat groups around, there's the Skullgirls IRC room too, might be easier to go to one of the chat groups rather than asking people individually.

Sounds good, thanks. Don't see Chat on the top menu bar. Any idea where it is? Not sure where or what a IRC room is, but will also try reposting in the PSN & Beginner matchmaking threads when the weekend is finally here.
 
Thanks, but I have no idea how that Mibbit works. It has a dropdown on Channel w/a lot of choices (didn't see Skullheart). Channel: not sure. Guess that's an external site since this site doesn't have chat.
I posted in Beginner's Matchmaking topic today, and will try inviting people from this site again on PSN. I'm determined to find a way to play someone from Skullheart. Just need to be patient & see if it's possible.
 
indieanimator said:
Thanks, but I have no idea how that Mibbit works. It has a dropdown on Channel w/a lot of choices (didn't see Skullheart). Channel: not sure. Guess that's an external site since this site doesn't have chat.
Clicking on IsaVulpes link should of brought you to a page where you can enter a nickname and then after a short while there should be a #skullgirls tab that appears with the chat.
 
I entered a nickname, but don't know what to do at the next screen. Nothing seems to work.

Did a search for #Skullgirls and found:
http://search.mibbit.com/search/#Skullgirls

But I was the only person there & didn't see a way to join. Maybe I can't use it on my brother's computer.
My computer's better, but he has the Ps3. Thanks for the support, though. Maybe the Mibbit mystery will be unraveled someday. I had some good random matches by hosting in Beginner's lobby: West Coast US.

For other games, on GameFAQs I usually just give my PSN & get an invite to a lobby.
 
There's a white bar at the bottom above a bunch of links. Click on it and type. Then hit Enter. That's chatting on Mibbit in a nutshell.

Also, DON'T go through Mibbit itself. It uses its own server, which doesn't have the IRC chatroom. Use the link provided by IsaVulpes, and you should be able to go there without a problem.
 
?????? When you click on my link, there's a few loading screens and then this:

♠♠♠

To connect please choose a nickname, and click on [GO]! Happy chatting.

IRC: irc.mizuumi.net Auth | Charset | Key

irc_icon.png
Nick:<SomePreset> Channel:#skullgirls [GO!]

♠♠♠

You type something into the Nick field, then click on GO and are in the channel.

I have no idea what you're doing.
 
Thanks for the replies.

To speciify what I'm doing, the past three weekends, I typed something in the nick field, clicked GO, and get this:

Welcome to Mibbit
infocircle30x.png
Choose a Nickname and channel to start chatting.
Tip: Channels usually begin with #
If you don't know where you're going, try a search!

Instead of taking me to chat, maybe it takes me through Mibbit itself, which Shoryu mentioned I don't want. At that point, there seems to be no way to progess.

Could be my brother's computer. Chat on other forums works fine. I should try getting a screenshot.
Too bad the site itelf doesn't have chat. It's a good site, though!
 
So, as many people did, I grabbed Skullgrils in the flash sale on Steam even though I've never played a fighting game before.
I finally got passed the entire tutorial using my wireless 360 pad but, before I commit to learning more I'd like some opinions:

Should I ditch the 360pad and it's subpar Dpad and just use my 3KRO keyboard instead(hitbox layout most likely) or should I try using the analog stick instead?
 
Nimlothien said:
So, as many people did, I grabbed Skullgrils in the flash sale on Steam even though I've never played a fighting game before.
I finally got passed the entire tutorial using my wireless 360 pad but, before I commit to learning more I'd like some opinions:

Should I ditch the 360pad and it's subpar Dpad and just use my 3KRO keyboard instead(hitbox layout most likely) or should I try using the analog stick instead?

First, welcome to the community. Stick it out though the learning process can be painful at first. This is a great game and a great community.

Second, 360 dpad blows (I have a weakness for platformers and the 360 pad pisses me off), but there are great players that use it. So if you aren't having any problems and/or if it is comfortable to you, no sweat. Also, keep in mind that the xBox One controller now works for PC and so I imagine that means it works for Skullgirls. It has a better dPad and is an investment I'm looking into for other games.

That said, I really love playing on an arcade stick which is probably the majority position around here.

If you try the keyboard and like it, look into a hitbox which I'm tempted by and a lot of people love.

A hitbox:

images

In the last two cases (stick/hitbox) you are going to look at spending a fair amount of cash.
 
Nimlothien said:
3KRO keyboard
you will run into issues using a keyboard with only 3 keys of rollover esp. if you input quickly

technically if you use the macro buttons you should only ever have to press 3 keyboard keys at once, but in practice you'll probably experience drops trying to press keys quickly

sometimes the numpad is on a seperate circuit and won't conflict with the other keys, I'd recommend trying that if you have issues

if all else fails cheap NKRO keyboards are like $15-20
 
How to chase Peacock down when she's got assists pushing me away? Cerecopter and Brass Knuckles to be exact. There's just this particular guy I face doing it (and he's a jerk) and one word fills my mind: revenge.

I know there's no magic words for this or anything, but there's got to be at least some way to bypass her defenses.
 
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peacock takes a lot of patience to get in on, especially with a good assist backing her up. wait and look for an opening, you'll take a lot of chip doing so but its still your best chance. hit the assist when you can, even a jab or launch > jump cancel will give the assist extra delay before they can be called again. if you do get in try snapping the assist in and fighting that instead of peacock (if you do id keep an eye out for tags trying to get peacock back in)
 
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