Does FG lag exacerbate the game's problems?

[Icebound]

First, I think Smash4 is a great game.

Many have expressed concern/complaints about defensive options with little effort (i.e. "roll spamming" and shielding) being superior to offensive ones. I understand these concerns and they make sense. However, are people basing these opinions on 1 vs 1 FG? I've come to think I personally have.

FG is an environment with lag and this isn't likely to change for the game's lifetime. There is almost no such thing as a perfect connection for both parties. It seems to me that there's always some degree of lag. The problem with this is that it allows rolling and shielding to be even more powerful. It's effectively granting said rolling and shielding "extra frames". This is when you make a hard read into a roll and the attack goes right through anyway because of the invincibility frames.

Playing online you come across situations where it seems like all of your attacks whiff into a shield or through a roll. I notice this happens FAR less playing locally.

Tl;dr Online lag makes roll and shield spamming seem much worse than they are.

Thoughts?

 

[Zylach]

I agree with this point. From the moment I got the 3ds version the day it came out, I played primarily online FG because I had no local friends that wanted to face me competitively (How I would like to face my friends so we can both get better). Because I've primarily been on FG, I had had a ton of trouble punishing rolls even with Zelda who's really good at it. I got the Wii U version over the holidays and decided to complete the challenges instead of play FG so I could get music tracks that I really wanted. After many hours of completing the challenges offline, I played online FG again against one guy for about 10 matches and I realized just how bad the lag makes the game. In trying to pull off all the stuff I was consistently doing offline, I wasn't actually doing anything online.

I couldn't fastfall properly, I couldn't spotdodge at the right time, I constantly got hit the few times I tried to roll (One should limit rolling even online where it seems to be more effective) because the opponent would hit me in the frame or two after the game registered the roll when invincibility frames had yet to kick in. I couldn't frame cancel any aerials (Instead, I would just land on the ground after doing nothing due to the lag which meant an easy punish. I couldn't punish any attacks, even stuff like Ganon's fsmash because I just couldn't hit the opponent during their endlag resulting in an easy shield grab. I don't think the online does this game any justice in any way and would encourage everyone to play it offline as often as possible.

 

[Icebound]

I agree with this point. From the moment I got the 3ds version the day it came out, I played primarily online FG because I had no local friends that wanted to face me competitively (How I would like to face my friends so we can both get better). Because I've primarily been on FG, I had had a ton of trouble punishing rolls even with Zelda who's really good at it. I got the Wii U version over the holidays and decided to complete the challenges instead of play FG so I could get music tracks that I really wanted. After many hours of completing the challenges offline, I played online FG again against one guy for about 10 matches and I realized just how bad the lag makes the game. In trying to pull off all the stuff I was consistently doing offline, I wasn't actually doing anything online.

I couldn't fastfall properly, I couldn't spotdodge at the right time, I constantly got hit the few times I tried to roll (One should limit rolling even online where it seems to be more effective) because the opponent would hit me in the frame or two after the game registered the roll when invincibility frames had yet to kick in. I couldn't frame cancel any aerials (Instead, I would just land on the ground after doing nothing due to the lag which meant an easy punish. I couldn't punish any attacks, even stuff like Ganon's fsmash because I just couldn't hit the opponent during their endlag resulting in an easy shield grab. I don't think the online does this game any justice in any way and would encourage everyone to play it offline as often as possible.

All of these observations are accurate. I realize that roll soamming and shielding, while slightly problematic, aren't the inherent problem. It comes down to the lag. Like you said, it doesn't do the game any justice. Which is a shame because it's a great game.

Also to add, I'm making this opinion solely based on the 3DS version because I don't have a WiiU yet. Maybe the lag is better on the WiiU.

 

[Zylach]

The lag on the Wii U isn't any better unfortunately.