Footsies, and….ummm…???

Anonmyous scrub asked what Footsies are and how they apply to games.  We’ve actually been wondering when this question would come in.

Footsies are, as simple as can be put, your gameplay on the ground involving your knowledge of every character’s moves in all aspects (Range, priority, speed, damage, extra properties) and how you use them.  The goal is to out reach, out poke, out bait, and overall outplay your opponent on the floor.  While it may not sound like much at a glance, staring down a Ryu who is on point with fireballs and shoryukens will force you to play this way.

You can think of footsies as a strong game of chess where every player has a different set and number of pieces.  You could have a gimmick type of player with a weaker set of moves for footsies (El Fuerte in SF4) or a character whose pieces feel like they’re all queens (Chun-Li in SF3).  There is a TON of information that could take footsies into further detail but it has already been written well by Maj of Sonic Hurricane.

http://sonichurricane.com/?page_id=1702

You’ll get a ton of examples with video on some of the concepts and “tricks” of footsies.  This is an excellent read and it’s recommend you go through all of it.

As far as other games go?  It’s pretty general for any 2D fighter.  It’s a fundamental concept that applies no matter what type of movement system there is.  Certain games have unique systems that can avoid some types of footsies (Rolls in KOF or CVS2 and Parry in 3S are a few examples) but footsies can be applied to multiple games while those systems only work for their own specific games.  It is a skill that is invaluable and is best picked up by experience and smart practice (As in don’t mash cr. Jab with Yun/Balrog).

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Mark Charteris asks…well…umm…hold on.

……

Okay, I think I found the question.  You want to know how to beat Zero, Wolverine, and Akuma and what you’re trying isn’t working.

Well for one, it seems like you’re thinking way too hard about this.  You’re getting into some Street Fighter style punishing in a game that has a significantly faster flow than that.  And you’re trying to punish a move that’s -1 with a 1 frame command throw, plus the dash.  That adds up to way more than 1 frame.  The general advice for starters is that those moves have a ton more recovery if you’re not there to block it in the first place.  Wolverine wants to close the distance so he can throw or cross you up, Zero wants to get in for his great mixups, and Akuma lands great damage off his Tatsu.  First solution?  Don’t be there to get hit by it.  Know what angles of approach these characters want.  Wolverine approaches from the ground or at a dive.  Know Zero’s teleport angles.  Know that Akuma is fishing for that tatsu straight on or from a regular jump.  Know what assists your opponent is using and be prepared to avoid the pressure.

When you do get put into the pressure, and it will happen with good players, the next step is to keep your defense up and be prepared for your moment to escape.  I’m guessing you’re getting hit a lot by repeating dive kicks or Zero’s magic series.  That is most likely a sign that you’re mashing Advance Guard or another move trying to get out.  Be patient.  Wait for the appropriate moment to advance guard.  Sit and take it for a moment if it means that you’ll be at a position to punish a laggy move.  Be ready to super jump to escape if that option is available.

Last, know what moves you have beat theirs.  You’re using Dorm, Wesker, Sent.  It’s true Sent has a bad matchup with Wolvie but that means you have to be smart about what you’re doing to get in.  You know he has an instant overhead, a fast dive kick, and a special that can cross you up on the ground, so that takes out some of your options in beams, holding down-back, .  By not doing those you’ll prevent a lot of damage.  You can blow up his dive kick with all three characters by using Sent cr.B, Dorm Flame Carpet, or even jump back gun with Wesker.

Zero?   You’re having trouble with his ground series, which again makes me think you’re mashing out and getting hit.  Go into training mode and record Zero to do it, then try advance guarding to get him off you.  Don’t look to punish just yet, just see how you can get him out to the range you feel best about fighting him.  And again, Dorm Flame Carpet.

Akuma’s Tatsu may eat fireballs but you can hit it from above.  Do so.  Or pushblock the last hit.

In short?  Don’t mash during block strings, don’t mash out Advance Guard, don’t try to punish unrealistically, and most of all, don’t put yourself in a position where you have to block to begin with.  Then, fight back.

 

 

Magneto’s MVC3 ROM Combo

DZ through e-mail asked for tips about how to land the ROM combo with Magneto.

Example of a real life Magneto H

From your message it sounds like you can do the ground series, then you neutral jump straight up and hit H, but miss the air dash df+H.  You’re aiming for the lowest possible spot on your opponent.  You need to delay the air dash from the first H so that you travel a bit higher, giving your H enough time to come out and still hit your opponents feet.  On normal sized characters it would look like you’re making them stand on your slap.  You need to make sure that you hit your opponent low enough so that they’re at the proper height to continue doing the ROM.  After this it’s a matter of learning the rhythm of doing IMMEDIATE sj upback, H, IMMEDIATE air dash df, H, and repeating.  It comes out very quick when done.  You should be able to do about 7 loops before hit stun deterioration kicks in.  While there’s no real “trick” to learning it besides practice, here are a few tips for parts where you may drop the combo.

-If Magneto isn’t flying upback quickly after landing, you’re not super jumping correctly.

-If you don’t get the air dash df H on the looping portion of this combo, you’re not air dashing fast enough.

-If you’re getting some funky crossups midscreen trying to start it, make sure your first airdash is straight down.

-If you’re using a stick, you can push dash twice with M+H instead of M+H, H, and you’ll get a dashing H.  You can also push L+M, H if that’s faster for you.

Focus on doing the first part of the combo, then one loop (Launch, sj+H, air dash d+H, sjb+H, air dash df+H) until you learn the timing.  Then continue to add more reps (sjb+H, air dash DF+H) until you can do them consistently.  Good luck, and keep practicing!

Source:  MegamanDS’s ROM tutorial

Mixups<Execution<Landing a Hit, & Frame Advantage Basics

Talon on FaceBook asks:

“Hey, I have really good execution, and I need help with the other parts of my gameplay. I can get my resets in and my mixups, but I have a lot of issues initially opening people up with my combos. I want to know how to differentiate safe and unsafe moves, on block and on hit. I know there are guides for this, but they’re difficult to find, and I need to better understand the concept of frame advantage. Any tips?”

From the comments you mention you play MVC3, but these ideas are universal and fit all games.  Taking your question one part at a time:

Execution is key to any fighting game and will lead you to consistent damage.  And mix-ups keep your opponent guessing, allowing you to continue to pile it on.  But if you can’t open up your opponent, you’re missing out on the most vital part of a fighting game.  You need to land that first hit of the combo.  This is where smart play comes in.  The majority of your game revolves around trying to land that first hit to open up your opponent for a combo.  Execution then follows, so you complete the highest damage combo you and your characters are capable of.  This is followed by mixups in order to keep the flow of offense in your favor.  It’s like climbing a ladder – one step at a time.  Skipping one is possible, but not recommended for safety.

This is one of the biggest problems with coming into the fighting game scene.  While the combo is the flashiest aspect of the game few players recognize that the read, the bait, or the punish is what leads to these moments.  Whomever your team is in MVC3 try to focus on the matchup outside of your combos.  Figure out what the ideal spacing is for your team so that you are prepared to rush in when needed, be able to react to and block/punish moves, or back away when things get rough.  What are your movement options?  If you’re Magneto or C.Viper you should have excellent control of your air dashes.  Do you have a flight mode?  A normal air dash or 8-way dash?  A teleport or other useful movement special?  Use it and stay mobile.  You don’t always have to move forward towards your opponent when you can dodge first.  This mobility is key and will help you find those openings in your opponent when need be.  Good mobility and defense can frustrate an opponent, and a frustrated opponent makes mistakes you can use.

Your focus should be on getting in and landing simple, hit-confirmable moves that will allow you to follow into your combo execution.  MVC3’s system lends itself nicely to hit-confirms with the ABC magic series combos.  You need to be able to recognize when your combo is not landing and stop it or change to a safer alternative before you put yourself in a punishable situation.  Let’s look at Dante for this example.  In practice mode, set a computer to block randomly, and try air-dashing in with jumping B, land, crouch AB.  See if you can tell if these moves are blocked or hit.  Practice continuing the combo if it does, or stopping if it doesn’t.

The other part of this question involves frame data.  This is akin to knowing exactly what a player’s stats are in any sports, only much MUCH consistent.  Rather than having an average sprint time or free throw percentage you have the speed of a move and how much block and hit stun it does, that is accurate 100% of the time.  This will be covered further in another article, but for now here’s what you need to know for safety.

Startup – The number of animation frames a move has before it gets a hitbox (and can therefore, hit the opponent)

Active – The number of frames a move’s hitbox stays on screen before dissappering

Recovery – The number of frames after the hitbox fades before the character can move again (Does not count if the move is canceled into another)

Hitstun – On hit, the number of frames that a character will reel from an attack before they recover

Blockstun – On block, The number of frames a character will still be blocking before they recover

Advantage/Disadvantage – The attacker’s recovery frames subtracted from the opponents stun frames.  Noted as a positive or negative number such as +2 (advantage) or -10 (disadvantage)

Moves are “safe” when the attacking player does a move that places him at such an advantage, that the defending player has no move fast enough to hit back after recovering.  Of course this is matchup specific.  Just because the move is safe on one character does not make it safe on another, for they may have a faster move that can punish you.  The best example (and one of the most complained about) is Wesker’s launcher.  On block, he is left at -1.  The fastest startup normal in the game is 3 frames.  By the time you try to hit Wesker he’ll have been able to block or move for 2 frames (-1 + 3 = +2).  This is, without a doubt, a “safe” move.

On the flip side, moves are “unsafe” when they leave you at such a disadvantage that your opponent can hit you.  Certain moves are obviously unsafe and should be punished such as dragon punches or whiffed command throws.  But there are normal moves that have such terrible disadvantage on block they should be punished regardless.  Dante’s launcher leaves him at -28.  Dorm’s Chaotic Flame is 8+3 frames startup, or 11 frames total.  This means that if you were to block Dante’s launcher, Dorm could punish with this super with 17 frames to spare.  This is a glaring example but there are other more subtle moves that are still punishable based on matchup.  If you think a move is punishable, check its advantage/disadvantage on block, and see if you have a move that will hit before their frames returns to 0.

In short – If you’re attacking, you want to be in the positive or as close to 0 as you can be.  If you’re defending, you’re looking for the lowest number possible.

(Credit to Tau for helping with the frame data numbers)

Doing Fast Seismo Hammers with C-Viper in MVC3

From our first comment, Deez asks (paraphrased)

“How does Marlin Pie do those C.Viper seismos so fast?”

Marlin Pie is super jump canceling (sjc) his seismos, which I’ll break down into its parts.

-A seismo hammer in itself has quite a bit of recovery before you’re allowed to move again.  This recovery can be canceled, by doing either a hyper combo or a jump/super jump.

-A  super jump can  be canceled by doing a  move before C.Viper actually leaves the floor.

By combining these two, you can actually do a seismo, super jumping to cancel the recovery, then doing another seismo before you jump.  This lets you do as many rapid-fire seismos as you can, provided you keep up the execution needed to do it.  You can also do her other specials instead of seismo if you’d want to, such as seismo, sjc, H thunder knuckle.

To practice this  try doing a seismo by itself, then super jumping.  The motion should be – (DP+Attack, up-towards).

Now, you’ll be adding a second seismo in-between the first seismo and the up motion.  You’ll do the second seismo command but instead of ending in a down-forward direction, continue rolling the pad or stick to up-towards before you push the attack button.  In short, you’re doing a second seismo with a tiger knee motion.  When you do it right, it will look like C.Viper does two immediate seismo with no delay between the two moves.  You can do a third, fourth, or as many more seismos as you’d like as long as you do the motion correctly.  If you’re getting different moves to come out, make sure that you reset the stick/pad to neutral between each seismo.  The motion will be – (DP+Attack, neutral, DP, toward, up-toward+Attack, neutral, repeat).

It may take some time to get used to.  If you just want to see the timing for the cancel before doing it with multiple seismos try doing seismos canceled to thunder knuckles.  Either way, this is a high execution technique that will take practice to learn and more to perfect.  Do it right though, and Viper gains a powerful new tool in her rushdown arsenal.

If you have any other questions, just let us know!