¨°PÞ-§°¨ Bane
Smash Apprentice
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2012
- Messages
- 161
i've been wanting to make a thread about this for a while, so here goes.
seeing as most online players get the luxury of playing on low frame delay (majority of the online community is east coast or somewhere in the middle, hardly any WC players), it seems as though many players seem to forget the noticeably bad disadvantages that come with playing on higher delay. many even seem to disregard the factor entirely - saying that it's not that big of a deal, high frame players need to stop johning, and that some players actually seem to be better on high delay.
i'd like to remind (or inform) you all that this is complete nonsense.
let's say that you get 1 frame and your opponent gets 4. imo, 4 is the threshold for playability, but even this scenario isn't the greatest. this literally means that for every situation in the neutral game, your moves will come out 3 frames faster than your opponent's. for some fighting games this wouldn't be too big of a deal, but for a game like smash where every frame is crucial this is a huge factor.
but this isn't even the only concern. if you are on high delay, you also have to worry about:
- lag spikes: if these happen, your opponent gets to react to them faster.
- shield pressure/pressure in general: if your shield is getting hit hard, good luck getting a fast oos option. it's basically impossible in high delay. you're forced to do dumb things like roll which are highly punishable by your opponent.
- predictions: you have to be really, really good at them. since your opponent gets to run around on low delay and basically react to everything that you're doing and since your moves are always going to come out later than theirs, you have to predict what they are going to do in every single situation far in advance. and THEN you have to time it properly through the high delay. i'm not saying that low frame players don't have to predict anything a high frame player does, but i am saying that the reaction factor is essentially eliminated for high frame players. i can't even tell you how many times i've gotten hit by fox's firefox because i tried reacting to his recovery (an easy feat that i am used to doing in low delay, but in high delay you have to know exactly where they are going to go because your edgeguard move will not come out in time and you will get hit).
- moving: anyone that has played on 5/6/7 frames consistently is acutely aware of how much slower your movement is in general in high delay. moving around the stage becomes a burden when every single input has a buffer to it. it's even worse when you have to move around while avoiding projectiles or spacing out your opponent. this is a bigger deal than it seems, because moving fast is a crucial part of top level play since it makes it much more difficult for players to react to you and forces them to predict what you're going to do.
high delay is essentially the equivalent of playing on an hdtv. if me and armada are playing ssbm and i get to play our matches on a crt and he has to play our matches on his end on an hdtv, do i get to say i'm better than i'm armada if i win? you be the judge, but that's basically what a lot of online players do in our community.
tl;dr, high delay is bull****. i'm done playing on 5 frames and i can't host p2p. so if anyone wants to play with me you'll either have to be able to host p2p or another west coast server will have to emerge since temple isn't around anymore.
seeing as most online players get the luxury of playing on low frame delay (majority of the online community is east coast or somewhere in the middle, hardly any WC players), it seems as though many players seem to forget the noticeably bad disadvantages that come with playing on higher delay. many even seem to disregard the factor entirely - saying that it's not that big of a deal, high frame players need to stop johning, and that some players actually seem to be better on high delay.
i'd like to remind (or inform) you all that this is complete nonsense.
let's say that you get 1 frame and your opponent gets 4. imo, 4 is the threshold for playability, but even this scenario isn't the greatest. this literally means that for every situation in the neutral game, your moves will come out 3 frames faster than your opponent's. for some fighting games this wouldn't be too big of a deal, but for a game like smash where every frame is crucial this is a huge factor.
but this isn't even the only concern. if you are on high delay, you also have to worry about:
- lag spikes: if these happen, your opponent gets to react to them faster.
- shield pressure/pressure in general: if your shield is getting hit hard, good luck getting a fast oos option. it's basically impossible in high delay. you're forced to do dumb things like roll which are highly punishable by your opponent.
- predictions: you have to be really, really good at them. since your opponent gets to run around on low delay and basically react to everything that you're doing and since your moves are always going to come out later than theirs, you have to predict what they are going to do in every single situation far in advance. and THEN you have to time it properly through the high delay. i'm not saying that low frame players don't have to predict anything a high frame player does, but i am saying that the reaction factor is essentially eliminated for high frame players. i can't even tell you how many times i've gotten hit by fox's firefox because i tried reacting to his recovery (an easy feat that i am used to doing in low delay, but in high delay you have to know exactly where they are going to go because your edgeguard move will not come out in time and you will get hit).
- moving: anyone that has played on 5/6/7 frames consistently is acutely aware of how much slower your movement is in general in high delay. moving around the stage becomes a burden when every single input has a buffer to it. it's even worse when you have to move around while avoiding projectiles or spacing out your opponent. this is a bigger deal than it seems, because moving fast is a crucial part of top level play since it makes it much more difficult for players to react to you and forces them to predict what you're going to do.
high delay is essentially the equivalent of playing on an hdtv. if me and armada are playing ssbm and i get to play our matches on a crt and he has to play our matches on his end on an hdtv, do i get to say i'm better than i'm armada if i win? you be the judge, but that's basically what a lot of online players do in our community.
tl;dr, high delay is bull****. i'm done playing on 5 frames and i can't host p2p. so if anyone wants to play with me you'll either have to be able to host p2p or another west coast server will have to emerge since temple isn't around anymore.
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