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Q&A Official FAQ and QnA Thread - Ask Your Questions Here!

Bones0

Smash Legend
Joined
Aug 31, 2005
Messages
11,153
Location
Jarrettsville, MD
So you get more shield stun when you are light shielding. Does hit lag increase as well? I am wondering if I can light shield to make it easier to shield DI to escape some shield pressure.
You have more shield stun, but I think hitlag stays the same. Not sure.
 

Kadano

Magical Express
Joined
Feb 26, 2009
Messages
2,160
Location
Vienna, Austria
So you get more shield stun when you are light shielding. Does hit lag increase as well? I am wondering if I can light shield to make it easier to shield DI to escape some shield pressure.
Hitlag only scales with post-staleness hitbox damage and electrical multiplier on hit. Analog shield level doesn’t influence it. Crouching halves victim hitlag (attacker hitlag is unaffected), but it’s not available when you are shielding.

Concerning your shield pressure quest: In general, the highest distance gain between you and your opponent is achieved by using a middle level of the analog shield. A low level (“lightest shield”) will slightly increase the distance you slide, but there will be no pushback on the attacker. A digital (fully pressed) shield will have the highest pushback on the attacker, but the distance you slide will be a lot less. By using a high analog level, you get both a high slide distance and attacker pushback. Also, your shieldstun will hardly be longer than that of a digital shield.
 
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fwb

Smash Cadet
Joined
Dec 11, 2007
Messages
51
Location
NorCal
Right now my options for offline practice are wii+LCD TV (5 part component cable), or dolphin+mayflash adapter on a high end PC. I know non-crt TVs have lag, so is offline dolphin a better option? But I also read that using a component cable eliminates the lag by effectively skipping the de-interlacer (http://supersmashbros.wikia.com/wiki/Lag).
 
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Bones0

Smash Legend
Joined
Aug 31, 2005
Messages
11,153
Location
Jarrettsville, MD
Right now my options for offline practice are wii+LCD TV (5 part component cable), or dolphin+mayflash adapter on a high end PC. I know non-crt TVs have lag, so is offline dolphin a better option? But I also read that using a component cable eliminates the lag by effectively skipping the de-interlacer (http://supersmashbros.wikia.com/wiki/Lag).
No matter what you practice on, if it's not a CRT, it will be very difficult to adjust when you go to events. Just buy a cheap CRT off of Craig's List.
 

qSven

Smash Rookie
Joined
Mar 21, 2014
Messages
6
Hey guys my name is Quentin and I've been looking into smash competitively. I love the game and am still quite new to the pro scene. I currently live in Beamsville which is in the Niagara region. I am 17 years old and have plans to attend university next year. I have a few friends that play but we are looking for tournaments or other players some what nearby. Most of the threads I've found on here are quite outdated. I do drive so transportation is not an issue. So if you live in the area or know of tournaments in the area could you please email me. I probably check it more than the boards.

Email: quentin.martin@hotmail.com
 

Bones0

Smash Legend
Joined
Aug 31, 2005
Messages
11,153
Location
Jarrettsville, MD
Hey guys my name is Quentin and I've been looking into smash competitively. I love the game and am still quite new to the pro scene. I currently live in Beamsville which is in the Niagara region. I am 17 years old and have plans to attend university next year. I have a few friends that play but we are looking for tournaments or other players some what nearby. Most of the threads I've found on here are quite outdated. I do drive so transportation is not an issue. So if you live in the area or know of tournaments in the area could you please email me. I probably check it more than the boards.

Email: quentin.martin@hotmail.com
www.tinyurl.com/smashfacebook
 
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Dapplegonger

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
207
Location
San Jose, CA
NNID
PetX-tremist
3DS FC
5129-1289-1208
Why does everybody go crazy doing insanely quick dash- and wavedashes after they get a KO? Why can't they just taunt or just move like a normal person to their preferred location?
 

fwb

Smash Cadet
Joined
Dec 11, 2007
Messages
51
Location
NorCal
Why does everybody go crazy doing insanely quick dash- and wavedashes after they get a KO? Why can't they just taunt or just move like a normal person to their preferred location?
to keep your flow going, hands warm, pressure for the other guy, etc.
 

SAUS

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 20, 2008
Messages
866
Location
Ottawa
Hey guys my name is Quentin and I've been looking into smash competitively. I love the game and am still quite new to the pro scene. I currently live in Beamsville which is in the Niagara region. I am 17 years old and have plans to attend university next year. I have a few friends that play but we are looking for tournaments or other players some what nearby. Most of the threads I've found on here are quite outdated. I do drive so transportation is not an issue. So if you live in the area or know of tournaments in the area could you please email me. I probably check it more than the boards.

Email: quentin.martin@hotmail.com
You're in luck. There are a lot of players in GTA, so you can probably find nearby tournaments and players. I know there was a tournament in Hamilton earlier this year, and that's not too far for you. Maybe I'll see you some day :p

Dunno, others might be doing it for the things mentioned by fwb, I'm doing it just for fun :D
Definitely this. I remember some guy asked me why I was shooting lasers around after my opponent died (I was playing as Falco) and there was no reason. It was just fun.
 

d z

Smash Cadet
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
49
Does a shield poke occur if any part of the exposed hurtbox overlaps with a hitbox, or does the hitbox have to overlap the hurtbox AND not touch any of the shieldbox (is there a term for this?)
 

Monkley6

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
356
Does a shield poke occur if any part of the exposed hurtbox overlaps with a hitbox, or does the hitbox have to overlap the hurtbox AND not touch any of the shieldbox (is there a term for this?)
I believe it's the second method you said. The hitbox must overlap with the hurtbox, and NOT the shield.
Shieldbox sounds good to me!
 
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Alulim

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 15, 2014
Messages
100
Location
Canada
It should shieldpoke if any part of a move's hitbox comes into contact with the hurtbox regardless of whether other parts of the hitbox are in contact with the shield or not. Basically, any collusion between a hitbox and hurtbox (not covered by shield) should result in a shield poke.
 

d z

Smash Cadet
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
49
It should shieldpoke if any part of a move's hitbox comes into contact with the hurtbox regardless of whether other parts of the hitbox are in contact with the shield or not. Basically, any collusion between a hitbox and hurtbox (not covered by shield) should result in a shield poke.
Hmmm that definitely does not seem to line up with my experiences and observations, How could g&w ever shield any of Marths attacks if that were true?
 

Kadano

Magical Express
Joined
Feb 26, 2009
Messages
2,160
Location
Vienna, Austria
Hmmm that definitely does not seem to line up with my experiences and observations, How could g&w ever shield any of Marths attacks if that were true?
You’re right, it’s not true.

The relevant part of collision detection works like this:
1. Collision between attack hitbubbles and eligible shield or invincibility bubbles?
If yes, mark the victim as hit (so the currently active hitbubbles can’t connect with them again) and put him in shieldstun
2. Collision between attack hitbubbles and eligible hurtbubbles?
If yes, mark as hit and put him in hitlag. If it‘s a tangent collision, go into phantom hit substate.
 

SAUS

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 20, 2008
Messages
866
Location
Ottawa
You’re right, it’s not true.

The relevant part of collision detection works like this:
1. Collision between attack hitbubbles and eligible shield or invincibility bubbles?
If yes, mark the victim as hit (so the currently active hitbubbles can’t connect with them again) and put him in shieldstun
2. Collision between attack hitbubbles and eligible hurtbubbles?
If yes, mark as hit and put him in hitlag. If it‘s a tangent collision, go into phantom hit substate.
It would have to work like this because otherwise everyone would get shield poked all the time. Marth's moves would basically be unblockable if he is close enough to hit both sides of your shield.
 

pikmin.org

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Feb 18, 2011
Messages
147
Location
Melbourne, Australia
This question's kinda hard to articulate, but I'll try my best -

How many distinct levels of drifting in the air are there? Because if you hold the control stick fully left or right whilst in the air, your character will accelerate their fullest in that direction (the degree to which they end up doing is based on their aerial mobility). But if you only slightly move the control stick left or right, they'll only slightly accelerate in that direction. How many degrees are there in between not accelerating at all and accelerating the greatest amount possible? In the same way that there are a ton of distinct control stick angles (and not just 8), are there a lot of degrees of sensitivity in terms of drifting left/right in the air?
 

Kadano

Magical Express
Joined
Feb 26, 2009
Messages
2,160
Location
Vienna, Austria
212, more or less. Control stick range is quantified as 0-255, but 106-150 is treated the same as neutral (128). Also, most of the range not available on controllers due to the octagonal shape is "flattened" in a similar fashion for some actions, but iirc not all. If it is for drifting, it's probably only ~180 discrete values.

Note that these values include both left and right, but not up and down. Most likely, using diagonal angles will give you drifting values in-between of the discrete values achievable with you (y=0) alone. I suppose 180^2 = 32400 would be a decent approximation for that case.
 

N9TMARE

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
25
Best way to practice moving around the stage fast? I wavedash sometimes but i play on a HD TV so i sort of feel a lag. If it matter, i maincaptain falcon.

Quote this please
 
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MeleePete

Smash Rookie
Joined
Apr 21, 2014
Messages
1
Welcome to the Question & Answer Thread and FAQ's

This thread's purpose is to try and keep the melee discussion board from being so cluttered and give those that are new to the game or those that have just a general question about the game to come here and ask! Everyone here is willing to help you, so don't be afraid to ask even the dumbest question! As long as it goes in here, you probably won't get trolled...probably :)

Also anyone feel free to IM me about this thread and smash in general, I love talking about smash online.

A Guide About Competitive Smash by SCOTU This a really good guide made by SCOTU, some of it is brawl material, but the general concepts apply. Read it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fun stuff to read


The almighty Magus DI Thread (Credit Witchking for Compiling)

Witchking Compilation of frame data

Mew2King's SSBM Statistics List

Out of Shield options frame data by Wiseman

The Official Everything Thread - The Basics, How to Improve, Frame Data, etc

FAQ’s

What is a frame?
A frame is 1/60th of a second, so 60 frames = 1 second.

How do I L cancel?
There are three timings to L cancelling: hitting nothing, hitting an opponent, hitting multiple opponents (ice climbers, teams, hitting shy guys on YS, etc), and hitting a shield. Each three have varied timings for each aerial. The only real way to get better at l cancelling is practicing.

How do I practice L cancelling on a shield if I don’t have anyone to play?
Go grab a rubber band, and around another controller wrap the rubber band around L or R and just go play.

What is DI, SDI, and ASDI and how are they different?
DI is your directional influence. After you are hit by an attack you are sent away in a direction depending on the attack. DI affects the trajectory at which you are flying at after you are hit. The better your DI is, the higher chance you have at living at higher %. There are frames of hitlag where you are frozen right before you are sent flying by an attack. During these frames, you can move using Smash DI. If you smash the control stick in that hitlag, your character “teleports” to that direction. It isn’t a very big difference, but enough to save yourself (Sdi’ing a fox uair). Automatic smash Di, or ASDI, occurs on the 1st frame of hitlag. The game reads the position of the stick on the frame of hitlag. C stick out prioritizes the control stick in this situation. The difference between SDI and ASDI is that ASDI doesn’t send you as far as SDI.

So…what are the best ways to DI?
Well it depends on the situation. If you want to DI out of a combo, You most likely hold away along with another direction depending on the move. If you want to survive a hit, like Marth’s fmash, then you want to survival DI, which is perpendicular to the trajectory that the move is sending you. For SDI and ASDI, it depends on what you are trying to do. Sometimes people try to SDI and ASDI into the stage so that they can tech. Other times they try to avoid follow ups, like the second hit of fox’s uair. Other times we try to tech on the stage so we SDI or ASDI in towards the stage so we don’t die from an edgeguard. It’s really situational depending on what you are trying to do.

Who should I main?
We can’t tell you. It all depends on how you want to play. For example, I love playing as sheik, but I don’t think most others do. I just find her enjoyable to play as. It’s all about preference, so take time to figure it out.

What exactly is CC?
CC is crouch cancelling. When you are hit while you are crouching, your knockback is reduced and hitstun is reduced apparently. You can also crouch cancel to cancel a dash. At low percentages you don’t fall over and can react with a variety of things, but when you start getting to higher percentages you fall and you can get wrecked…or you can tech it.

What are all these grabs?
Well theres your basic standing grab, dash grab, jump cancel (jc) grab, boost grab, pivot grab, and dash dance grab. The first two are exactly what their name implies. A jump cancelled grab is a grab where you dash, jump then grab before you start the jump animation. A boost grab is where you cancel the dash attack animation with a grab. A pivot grab is when you utilize the pivot, where you dash, then dash back into the neutral position instead of dashing the opposite direction, and grab. A dash dance grab is also exactly what it sounds like. When you dash dance, then grab. Each is good in its own right. You rarely use standing and dash grab. JC grab almost always > dash grab. Boost grab is really only good for the characters that gain momentum in their dash attacks, as they speed up when they grab, giving them a slight frame advantage. Pivot grabs are good for chaingrabing characters or for spacing, and same with DD grabs.

When Can I tech?
You can tech within 20 frames of hitting the ground, and then you can’t try for another 40.

What is buffering?
Out of a shield you can buffer an attack so that it does what you are imputing as soon as possible. You can jump cancel an upsmash, roll, jump and side dodge.

My favorite question: What button should I use for *insert command*?
WHATEVER THE **** YOU WANT

I'm going to my first tournament, what should I expect??

Don’t, for the love of god, expect to win. Come expecting to give it everything you’ve got and play to win, but don’t feel disappointed if you don’t come in first, or top 15, or make it out of pools even. Some of these players have been playing this game for 4-5 years, maybe more. Even if you haven’t heard their name, it doesn’t mean they still aren’t good. But come to play, come to win, but most importantly come to have fun. Be open with the players that are there. There is seriously nothing like the melee community. You will be glad you are apart of it. But again I digress. Please never expect anyone to have a controller for you. It is your responsibility to bring a controller to play with, besides, I personally like to play with a controller I know will work and know the ins and outs of. Don’t be late, don’t be late in your games, don’t john, don’t complain unless its legit, be a good sport. As far as money, it will usually cost 5-10 dollars for teams and another 5-15 dollars for singles. Plus, you will want money for food and drink, as these tournaments last the whole day. So 45-50 dollars is more than enough. Just be ready, don’t be an ***, and be prepared to meet a ton of new people and have a lot of fun!

Read this . Help TO's out in anyway you can, even if it means just not being late to the tourney, playing your matches when your supposed to, and cleaning up after yourself.

If I missed any or more pop up let me know and I will edit this
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So for the love of all things beautiful..

USE THIS THREAD
I have a question. Say two characters are approaching each other and both are about to attack. What usually determines who gets the hit off, the priority of the move or the timing of the player?
 

Bones0

Smash Legend
Joined
Aug 31, 2005
Messages
11,153
Location
Jarrettsville, MD
Best way to practice moving around the stage fast? I wavedash sometimes but i play on a HD TV so i sort of feel a lag. If it matter, i maincaptain falcon.

Quote this please
You need a CRT.

I have a question. Say two characters are approaching each other and both are about to attack. What usually determines who gets the hit off, the priority of the move or the timing of the player?
If both characters are doing ground attacks, priority determines if one move beats the other or if they clank. If one or both characters are doing an aerial, all that matters are the hitboxes and hurtboxes. If your hitbox overlaps their hurtbox before their hitbox overlaps your hurtbox, you will win. This is why characters with highly disjointed hitboxes like Marth's sword are able to beat almost any other move. If your hitboxes connect with each other's hurtboxes on the same frame, you will trade.
 
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SAUS

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 20, 2008
Messages
866
Location
Ottawa
super noob question but how can you determine if your TV is a CRT Tv?
If it is heavy and fat (for its size compared to any flat TV with the same size screen). Also they're old. And they're heavy.

What are the rules that are usually used for crew battles? Some points I am wondering about:
1) Do you choose characters before or after you are sent in? Can you choose whichever character suits you best for the player you are about to fight as you are sent in?
2) Are you character locked?
3) How does counterpicking work? We do stage strike for first stage, then the player that survives strikes a stage and his opponent chooses a stage from the rest (they are only banned for the 1 pick, otherwise everything would eventually be banned).
 

Bones0

Smash Legend
Joined
Aug 31, 2005
Messages
11,153
Location
Jarrettsville, MD
How does this Falco platform drop bair work? Is it possible on any platform?
It's called a platform cancel. If you aerial as soon as you begin dropping through and hit an opponent, you will land back on the platform you dropped from. Many characters can do this, but it depends on how fast the aerial comes out and how fast the character drops. Luigi can platform cancel almost all of his aerials because of how quick they come out and how low his gravity is.
 

mixa

Banned via Warnings
Joined
Jun 6, 2012
Messages
2,005
Location
Isle of ゆぅ
Cool. Do you happen to know what is the frame window for Falco bair platform cancel?

And it seems like you don't need to L-cancel it, is that right?
 

SAUS

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 20, 2008
Messages
866
Location
Ottawa
Cool. Do you happen to know what is the frame window for Falco bair platform cancel?

And it seems like you don't need to L-cancel it, is that right?
I don't know the frame window, but you do need to L-cancel it (or you get longer lag as usual when you don't L-cancel).
 

mutoshi

Smash Rookie
Joined
Apr 23, 2014
Messages
4
Location
Alfornelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Hey, many should've asked this question but...
I want to begin playing smash, but what are the options?
Which one is more played, has more competition, Melee or Project M?
If it is Melee, how do I find partners to play with if I have no one to play offline? And if I play online on Dolphin, won't screen lag be a bad factor?
If it is Project M, then again, won't screen lag be a bad factor?

As mentioned above, Wii's with a component cable can remove deinterlacing, therefore be on par with a CRT right?

Sorry for a probably already asked question.
 

Kadano

Magical Express
Joined
Feb 26, 2009
Messages
2,160
Location
Vienna, Austria
Hey, many should've asked this question but...
I want to begin playing smash, but what are the options?
Which one is more played, has more competition, Melee or Project M?
If it is Melee, how do I find partners to play with if I have no one to play offline? And if I play online on Dolphin, won't screen lag be a bad factor?
Melee. Go to the regional boards > Europe and ask there. The Spanish scene is pretty strong, but I’ve never heard about Portugal.
Dolphin lags a lot. At least one frame, probably a lot more when including monitor lag.
As mentioned above, Wii's with a component cable can remove deinterlacing, therefore be on par with a CRT right?
It’s not that simple. The fastest LCD monitor (Asus VG248QE) has about 3 ms input latency for 60 hz inputs, which feels lagless to a good portion of players. Other monitors can have anything from 5-50 ms input latency for 480p60.

CRT monitors that support 480p60 have about 1 µs input lag. That’s 1/3000 of LCD input lag. Some, especially Sony PVMs, support 480p60 over component (YPbPr), while the much cheaper and easier to get CRT PC monitors support 480p60 over RGBHV (DSUB / VGA or BNC connectors on very old models).
 

Jackson

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
1,331
Location
Alexandria, Virginia
So, I'm a bit confused with L cancelling. Do you need to press L, R, or Z every time you hit the ground, even if you're doing nothing when you land? Or do you only L-cancel when in the process of an aerial as you hit the ground?
 

Alulim

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 15, 2014
Messages
100
Location
Canada
So, I'm a bit confused with L cancelling. Do you need to press L, R, or Z every time you hit the ground, even if you're doing nothing when you land? Or do you only L-cancel when in the process of an aerial as you hit the ground?
Aerial that's inputted late enough to not auto cancel.
 

s_cube

Your favorite Smasher
Joined
Feb 6, 2014
Messages
14
I'm looking for information on stages.

General stuff about all the stages, at which percentage you would kill certain characters and which character should pick/ban which stage.
Does something like that exist?
 

mutoshi

Smash Rookie
Joined
Apr 23, 2014
Messages
4
Location
Alfornelos, Lisboa, Portugal
CRT monitors that support 480p60 have about 1 µs input lag. That’s 1/3000 of LCD input lag. Some, especially Sony PVMs, support 480p60 over component (YPbPr), while the much cheaper and easier to get CRT PC monitors support 480p60 over RGBHV (DSUB / VGA or BNC connectors on very old models).
What if I play on Dolphin with a CRT monitor? The question is really, what's the best game + setup for netplay, as the scene in Portugal as you said is almost inexistent. And I can't go to Spain everytime I want to play.

What are the most common configurations?
ex: dolphin + crt + mayflash adapter + netplay, kinda of thing.

Again sorry for the stubbornness!
 

Kadano

Magical Express
Joined
Feb 26, 2009
Messages
2,160
Location
Vienna, Austria
What if I play on Dolphin with a CRT monitor? The question is really, what's the best game + setup for netplay, as the scene in Portugal as you said is almost inexistent. And I can't go to Spain everytime I want to play.

What are the most common configurations?
ex: dolphin + crt + mayflash adapter + netplay, kinda of thing.
I suppose Dolphin with Mayflash and a CRT monitor (~15€) or the Asus VG248QE (300€) would be the best for your situation. But there is quite a bit of lag inherent to Dolphin you cannot currently work around. Dolphin takes a lot longer to display the results of your inputs than Gamecube / Wii do.
 
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