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So first of all shoutout to GMaster for keeping my popularity tier list going. I kind of fell of the face of the earth for a while being busy with school and whatnot.
Secondly, I would like to get good at project m, but where do I start? I've been struggling with character choice for a while now, and thats probably my main issue. A few questions:
To get good:
Should I only pick one character? Or should I pick multiple characters? If so, how many? Either way, how should I choose those characters?
What things should I learn and practice? I can already tech pretty well and l-cancel almost without fail. My wavedashing needs more work, mainly because I don't actually ever use it in game. I just mess around with it but never actually apply it.
If I don't have anyone good to play with, should I play only level 3's or only level 9's or both?
Etc, etc. Please just describe or list all the things I should do to try and get good at the game. I'm shooting for being good enough by the end of the year to enter tournaments locally and actually have a chance. Thanks in advanced.
This is a game of hitting people with the things you want to hit them with, and not getting hit by the things you don't want to get hit with.
Always keep that in mind, no matter who/what you're playing.
Binges and breaks.
If you work on something exclusively for a given time-frame, rather than dispersed among other activities, you'll excel at it a lot more.
It's like dabbling in guitar for 20 hours over the course of a year, but never more than 1 hour at a time...
Compared to dabbling in guitar for 20 hours over the course of a week and not touching it for a year.
In that single WEEK, you'll have gotten more done then the entire year. but it's the same overall quantity of time.
Make sense?
Apply this to smash and what do you get?
You can do this with individual characters, or even the game itself. Work on a character for a few weeks/days/even just a weekend. Focus purely on them, don't waver from this, and when that time-period is done, move on to the next and do the same. After you've gone through a few 'binges' you can return to playing them all at once. What you'll get from one will translate in some beneficial form to another, whether you notice or not.
It's like the common thing that newer players are mentioning about how Project:M makes them better at Melee/Brawl and vice versa.
Take breaks, intentional breaks. This is one of the least practiced things from average smashers, and one of the most beneficial to any who do, intentionally or not.
So learn how to take breaks. AKA binge and natural breaks will be given accordingly. Giving you the greatest chance to reflect on things/see what you can reflect on at all.
For this, I often suggest 4 characters at once. 1 you're comfortable with, 1 you have NO idea what you're doing with, 1 that requires a lot of fundamentals, and 1 you would like to try.
Play each for a few matches, but don't stick to one too long, and don't play them 1 game at a time. Mini-binges and breaks within your binging.
Technical stuff.
A great practice for getting fluent with wavedashing/general technical detail, is a little process or neutral-game maneuvers.
Pick Falcon
Dash Left > Dash Right > Shield
SHFFLC an aerial
Dash Right > Dash Left > Shield
SHFFLC an aerial
Repeat this. It works the L/R finger in every functional way (shields/LCs/etc) but in quick succession with some mixes.
From there, do different amounts of Dashing, different aerials then WDs out of your shield, JC grabs, and gravitate out like that towards pivoting aerials/tilts, everything from empty jumps to wavelands to whatever.
Do it quickly, meaning never let there be a standing/neutral animation between your actions. You motions should be smooth, without any unintentional hesitations, pauses, or involuntary actions. If you're comfortable with a lot of things, but have trouble with WD OOS, then do a lot of those littered among the rest of the actions. When those are comfortable, move on to doing them all randomly (and intentionally) until something else uncomfortable comes up.
It doesn't have to be Falcon, but he's as fundamental as it gets. You can do this hitting opponents or not.
The goal is essentially to make every possible action of the character your working with become a 100% naturally comfortable option to you, so you never have to force it out, think about it, or have any uncertainty/hesitation to perform the action.
In the end, it's extremely redundant stuff, but a necessary step as many things are... if you're looking to bring out your best in this game.
Often it's forgotten that teaching can be the best way to learn. Find a new player, build a community, and help them learn how to beat you at the game. Make that your challenge. Only when they beat you is succeeding, and only when you don't know how they can possibly beat you ever again, have you succeeded.
^
That's just an example of something you can try. Go with what's comfortable to you, but always change. If something doesn't work, work with it until it does. When you're absolutely certain of all the dynamics behind it, then you've done your job to yourself, and move on.
Keep moving.
Mental stuff.
Be willful, it may take effort, but proper effort in the proper places will do you well. You will know when you're doing this at all times if you take the time to check it out.
What can you possibly be missing? What can you possibly be doing differently that can help you? What is your opponent doing that's giving you trouble? Can you do that back to them? If you were doing it, what would be difficult for you to accomplish it? Can you do it to them, and will it work? If it works, what can they do to stop it? Can you do that to stop it too?
Intellectually figuring out how to improve is one thing, but having this as an experiential way of being is a lot different. In the end, you want to naturally be in a state of 'permanent-reset-button' but it won't start there. You'll get punished for something, or see a vid of something, or develop some technical thing, or try a new character/match-up, and there will be something new. The 'reset-button' you're developing starts with accepting that, experiencing or understanding it, and applying it to your game.
Hope that makes sense.
Don't give attention to what you're doing/what your opponent is doing. Give attention to why you're doing it, why they're doing it, if they're aware of why they're doing it, and if you can abuse THAT, because 'that' is the stuff that never falters, at any level of development or play. Noobs or not, your 'competition' and 'resources' are more than enough to become as good at smash as you can be. Scrubs, videos, forums, cpus and awareness.
You don't need a year if you go about it as best you can.
1) Personally, I would start by playing multiple characters, figuring out which clicks with you most (whether it be its feel, how successful you are with them, or playstyle), and sticking with one character. This varies depending on the player, but I'm of the opinion that beginning players should focus on developing fundamentals with one character before branching out to several characters.
2) I would prioritize wavedashing, L-canceling, and sweetspotting at different angles with whatever character you decide to pursue. Wavedashing has more applications than just using it from the neutral position; nowadays, you'll also be able to wavedash out-of-shield and waveland onto platforms in order to compete at high levels of play. L-canceling is also very important, but the timing for L-canceling after hitting a shield, hitting someone, or whiffing all vary to some degree; try practicing L-canceling in those various situations in order to be truly consistent. Sweetspotting isn't really an AT, but it is something that will save your life against human players when you try to recover. Once you master sweetspotting, you can practice edge-teching by throwing motion-sensor bombs into the stage and trying to tech off of them.
3) I usually practice by beating down level 1 CPUs to get a grasp of some combos, but other times I play in Training Mode to polish movement options and staple combos at specific %s. Depending on your connection, Wi-fi is a good option.
4) With regards to entering local tournaments and "have a chance," I wouldn't view it that way; tournaments are the best way to improve because they're one of the only places where you can feel genuine competitive and monetary pressure and, ideally, you'll also be able to play a wide variety of people who can give you advice. Don't shy away from the tournament scene just because you think you'll get destroyed; as painful and embarrassing as it is, the best way to improve is to realize your faults, whether it be by self-scrutiny (like what Dr. PeePee does) or by having people exploit your bad habits. On that note, I recommend treating tournaments as learning experiences, opportunities to get better, and opportunities to socialize and make new friends. I'm not sure how it is in Florida, but Smash communities are generally (but unfortunately, not always) comprised of great people who are fun to hang out with; don't deprive yourself of that opportunity just because you think you're not good enough.
Haha, no problem about the thread. I found the old one incredibly interesting, and its kinda fun to be doing something like that. (also am happy you aren't mad lol, this was one of my worries)
About characters: In my experience, if you don't have a character preference prior to getting into the game (like other game experience or just liking a character in general), go around characters for awhile. Check how they move, feel, attack. See the general structure of each character, their obvious strengths/weaknesses. After awhile of this, you should be able to focus down on a few characters you really like. My example is that I knew from the start I would main Ness, as I liked the character himself. Playing random characters (yes, against CPUs at the start), I got a list down to Wolf (who is now my secondary), DDD and Link. Now, months later I main Ness, second Wolf and am actually still deciding on my third (or if I'm even going to have one).
Imo, the first thing you should learn is what your character can and cant do. This is a big part, as techniques like DDing and WDing are largely based upon who is using them. As you learn what your character is capable of, it will get easier to use the more advanced techniques. However, the other big part of techs is knowing when to use them, something that doesn't come with fighting CPU's, only with experience with players.
About tournies, its worth it to go whenever you can. You meet new people, you get experience, you learn stuff. Unless it puts you far out of your way, its very worth it. Friendlies are probably the best way to learn. Get people to do critiques, tell them you are still learning. As people above me have said, most people in the community are friendly and helpful.
That's unfortunate, but common. Don't worry about the people or players near you that won't do you any good. Good people > good players, in everything from music to smash to whatever other analogies have been made. You can mold and be molded from a good heart and mind to a lot better place than you can from a good set of button pressing hands.
Be good, and good will come. SCIENCE AND MATH!
All hard to be around is a little harsh. Be as good a person you can be, it'll rub off on others, and hopefully it'll rub off back on you in the form of smashing too.
Take both of what GMaster and metroid said about the character selection thing. There's a time and place for using many characters and a single character, don't linger in the confusion of "struggling with character choice" and decide on one extreme or another, or find a balance in there somewhere. This is a redundancy when learning the game, and irrelevant to your development. You'll end up simply delaying your steady progress if you let these types of things clutter your mind when you're trying to improve. Just PLAY. You'll get there. :D
Edit: Another example of this, is the CPU level thing.
What are you going to be using the CPUs for? Beating on them! Not much else, so adjust it accordingly. I'm sure it doesn't matter too much, but leaving it at 3 or down to 1 is probably fine, considering they're essentially a poorly DIing dummy and not much else.
What are you doing 'whatever' for? Set it up accordingly.
Why are you playing the character you're playing? Pick the character accordingly.
Of course, reading a ton of stuff here isn't going to help by itself, but applying what you read, as well as practicing "situational awareness", something Bamesy constantly preaches, but it's true. That is, being aware of what you're doing, why you're doing it, and if it's really the best thing to do. It sounds really simple, but it's something a lot of players lack, and they go through their matches on autopilot. People would argue it's tech skill, but SA is what really separates the good players from the freakishly good players.
Okay so after reading through a lot of the 10,000 words of power post, I still am having trouble choosing a main. The writer says to pick your main based on your own personality. I am going to list a few of my important qualities and I want you guys to help me make a list of characters that fit my personality, and then I will choose from that list the character I like the most. The most important thing is that it has to be a character I enjoy so I can actually stick with it.
1. I dont take criticism well. When I am criticized I tend to take as a personal offense and so I try hard not to **** up at all so I can avoid criticism. I guess this links in with picking a main in general, and getting good enough with a character that you **** up minimally.
2. I am an objective thinker. I like to remove myself (theoretically) from a situation before I analyze it, both in game and in life. Not sure what this means towards character choice.
3. I like to tackle difficult things. Between college and my personal life, I tend to tackle goals that are above average difficulty and put a lot of effort into them. Maybe this means I should choose a character with a high tech skill requirement?
4. I like to show off knowledge when I have it, and I try to impress people with that knowledge. Maybe this means I need to choose a flashy character.
5. I am a fighting-game hipster. I tend to choose female characters or odd characters and I like choosing characters that people think are bad or for some reason just do not use a lot.
6. I am too comfortable off-stage and so I tend to stay there too long and die because of it. This means I should probably choose a character that has a high ability to get back to stage.
