Q&A Game Play Advice and General Discussion

[BlueX]

How do I stop taking every loss I take so seriously? I mean, I know I shouldn't because I'm forced to play online after all, due to location, but I keep getting overly emotional after every loss, taking every loss seriously like it means I'm the worst player ever. What should I do to stop taking these matches seriously?

Take a drink of water and rest for 25 seconds. Try to get your mind together so you can think again. Take losing as a way to think about what you did, what you should of done and do it when it happens. Remember that it is just a game and you can improve if you think.

I wrote this once.

http://smashboards.com/threads/game-play-advice-and-general-discussion.382927/page-38#post-20288051

 

[KanjiGames]

I have a huge problem with autopiloting. Is there anyway how I can force myself to think actively?
I also have a habit on staying way too much in shield not sure how to prevent this it may has something to do with me autopiloting but I'm not sure about that. What should I do about that.
And I watch often my replays but I don't really know what I should watch out for. So how should I actually analyze my own replays?

 

[BlueX]

And I watch often my replays but I don't really know what I should watch out for. So how should I actually analyze my own replays?

When watching replays. The things you should be looking for is the mistakes that you make. Look carefully at the situations and look at what option that you chosen... was it a good option?

Ask your self why you made that option, think about whether it was a good option, if not then think about what would be the best option. Also look for others mistakes like holding the shield too long which is bad since you can be grabbed for it. Explore your OOS (Out of shield) options and choose which option is the best depending on what happens.

 

[CHICO 93]

Do you guys think that playing lvl 9 CPU in lil sets like you would at a tourny good pratice for heading into a tourny? I dont have many friends that play smash and online is always laggy for me but till i get better internet. But what are your guys thoughts on playing CPU? Is it even worth it? How do you guys train for tournys?

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Truthfully, that's a poor idea. The CPU tends to have reflexes that a human player can't replicate. You won't do any better against a human player if you're facing CPUs all the time anyway.

 

[CHICO 93]

What would you suggest?

 

[AvengerV]

You will never improve by playing CPUs. You have to play real people in order to learn match ups properly.

 

[Jenna Zant]

It's a horrible way to practice. If you're absolutely out of options, a level 6 or 7 CPU will work okay, but it'd still be a better idea to fight real people, offline or online.

 

[RayNoire]

CPUs are fine, as long as you know their limitations. They're very good at helping you in the areas WiFi is terrible at, namely improving spacing and safety.

 

[Yasuhiro the Ninja]

Late Night Posting with a ninja, Im Yasuhiro the Ninja and been playing Smash since good old days, but I got to wonder, up until a few weeks ago Ive been playing to have fun and then to understand myself to gain better experience in becoming a good fighter in my town, only to wonder, has training myself without guides, fighting on FG, fighting CPs or even against others around my home town really gotten me anywhere? Alright fellas, a few things about me fighting.

I barely spam my moves like for example: Mario: D-throw > U-tiltX3
I dont look at guides to better myself in playing Smash
Ive taken in my own studies on my Mains and Secondaries
And I feel if I try to troll on purpose Ill lose my focus so its hard for me to troll and focus
AND ALSO, Im new around these forums

Tell me and dont hold back, do you believe this ninja is on the True Road of the Smash Fighters? Sorry if I dont take you guys too personally and for late night talk. Ill see ya soon next time on the field of battle. b^_'

 

[BlueX]

CPU's are generally good to practice combos and to test things like tech, etc but if you want to improve then you have to play with real people who will give out feedback whether if it is online/offline. It is also good to understand how most of the important things of Smash like reading works that you would not learn from a CPU.

 

[I speak Spanish too]

What reaction drills do you guys use and what have you been able to train yourself to react to? I want to improve my reaction time immensely.

Also, battling against CPU's can help in a lot of areas such as

1) autopiloting. When I was on FG I wanted to win the battle so much that it turned from trying to improve into devloping bad habits and playing the game without thinking and analyzing the situation. Against a CPU, you have no pressure to win and you can just calm down and take your time; basically think about the battle. I have been playing against CPU's now and I can tell you that I have IMPROVED by just switching my battle environment. Their is also no lag/connection issues so their's that.

2) Spacing. CPU's are really good at punishing bad spacing which is not seen much on FG. If you mispace a move or aerial you can bet that you will get Up smashed OoS or punished with anything via Perfect shield. You really need to improve your spacing if you don't want to get punished.

3) Combos. This is self explanatory. They are computers so they will try to Jump or air dodge on the FAF they can. Practicing against them can tell you when you need to go in the lab and work on your input competence.

4) Reaction Time. Since you are offline you can really focus on reacting to the CPU's and punshing them. I have seen slight increase in my reaction speed so battling cpu can help. I

 

[Rango the Mercenary]

I still have issues auto-shieldgrabbing when I expected the opponent was supposed to land and hit my shield. They jump over me, what do I do? Shieldgrab the air.

Does anyone have this reflexive problem and how did you learn to curb it?

 

[teluoborg]

Rango the Mercenary There's only one solution : patience and discipline. You have to be conscious about it while playing and think everytime you shield : "WAIT until the sheild gets hit". Repeat it a few hundred times and it should show results.

In general it's always good to keep thinking while playing.

 

[epicnights]

One thing I've been struggling with is run into shield. Either the shield comes up and then almost immediately roll, or I go into the skid stop animation before shielding. I know the second one is because I'm putting the analog stick into neutral too early, but I'm not sure what's causing the first issue. If I'm already holding the direction when I put up shield, it should just angle the shield, right...?

 

[Megamang]

The first is probably overcompensation for the second. It sounds like you're moving the stick further from neutral after the button press.

You can press all the way left or right to dash, keep it there, hold the shield, and you should dash to shield. If you are just rolling in place, you are pressing shield too soon. Each character has a different length of time before they can shield from dash.

 

[Pazx]

I still have issues auto-shieldgrabbing when I expected the opponent was supposed to land and hit my shield. They jump over me, what do I do? Shieldgrab the air.

Does anyone have this reflexive problem and how did you learn to curb it?

Do you play with rumble on? I personally don't, but you might want to turn it on so that you only perform an OoS option if you feel somebody hitting your shield.

This goes under the assumption that your controller actually vibrates when you shield an attack, I actually have no idea if that's the case or not. Either way, focus more closely on your opponent, if you see the startup of an attack react to that, and beware of the audio and visual ques both of attacks in general and attacks hitting shields (there's a distinct sound/graphic). Double jumps also have a very obvious visual queue, so if you see that you should do something other than grab.

 

[KittyKyat]

How do I get used to not using tap jump? It feels so clunky not using tap jump while trying to space people out.

I'm using a gemepad at the moment sadly tho.

 

[Stryker95]

How do I get used to not using tap jump? It feels so clunky not using tap jump while trying to space people out.

I'm using a gemepad at the moment sadly tho.

Practice practice practice. Over time you will get used to it.

 

[Ze Diglett]

Any tips for misinputting less? I have this awful habit of constantly misinputting all the time (F-tilt instead of F-smash, using aerials in the complete wrong direction, rolling and spot-dodging out of shield when I mean to dash or D-tilt/smash, etc.) and it's costed me probably hundreds of matches and is the main reason why I've practically given up on trying to improve as a player. Should I just not be playing fighting games? In case it means anything, I use the Gamepad as my main controller, and my only other viable options are the Wii U Pro Controller, which has some weird button placements and is still kind of stiff since I haven't used it a lot, and the Mayflash GC Adapter, which I've noticed has more lag than the Gamepad, at least from what I'm seeing.

 

[WatchfulComa24]

I hear all this great advice and I want to use it but every time I forget to use it making it worthless. Can someone help me find some sort of way trying to force it in my brain so I can start betting better at the game which is the only thing I really want to do.

 

[GHOST4700]

I've been trying to do this AT (jab cancelling) but I simply can't I don't know the timing. Please help.

 

[SapphSabre777]

When watching replays. The things you should be looking for is the mistakes that you make. Look carefully at the situations and look at what option that you chosen... was it a good option?

Ask your self why you made that option, think about whether it was a good option, if not then think about what would be the best option. Also look for others mistakes like holding the shield too long which is bad since you can be grabbed for it. Explore your OOS (Out of shield) options and choose which option is the best depending on what happens.

Not even 2 months in from here, and I wind up back here. The issue with me is that even though I look at the replays, even though I take notes, even though I watch videos of MikeKirby and D3K, I still am not improving. I don't fully comprehend what I am doing wrong, all I can see is that:

1) I am grabbing too much (12/13 grabs per game with Kirby, only 2-4 hit on average)
2) I am scared of shielding because I fear I will get grabbed.
3) I keep on getting grabbed despite my efforts to not get grabbed.
4) I keep on getting hit because I do not want to get grabbed.
5) I do not know the concept of an acceptable approach or acceptable defense, nor acceptable bait-and-punish.

Is there any way I can find someone who could tutor me on all this, or something similar? I feel that the only way I can get better is for someone to teach me what I am doing right and wrong in scenarios, as I lack the ability to do so.

 

[Tobi_Whatever]

Not even 2 months in from here, and I wind up back here. The issue with me is that even though I look at the replays, even though I take notes, even though I watch videos of MikeKirby and D3K, I still am not improving. I don't fully comprehend what I am doing wrong, all I can see is that:

1) I am grabbing too much (12/13 grabs per game with Kirby, only 2-4 hit on average)
2) I am scared of shielding because I fear I will get grabbed.
3) I keep on getting grabbed despite my efforts to not get grabbed.
4) I keep on getting hit because I do not want to get grabbed.
5) I do not know the concept of an acceptable approach or acceptable defense, nor acceptable bait-and-punish.

Is there any way I can find someone who could tutor me on all this, or something similar? I feel that the only way I can get better is for someone to teach me what I am doing right and wrong in scenarios, as I lack the ability to do so.

You know what helped me?
I had someone hit me with an empty plastic bottle on the head every single time I made a stupid beginner mistake.
I'm not joking.
Your brain subconsciously associates the action with the sound and feeling of the bottle on your head and you stop.
That's how I stopped roll spamming, over extending, dash grab spamming, smash spamming and dAir spamming.
You need to be reminded of your mistakes DURING the match, not just before and after.

 

[Megamang]

Any tips for misinputting less? I have this awful habit of constantly misinputting all the time (F-tilt instead of F-smash, using aerials in the complete wrong direction, rolling and spot-dodging out of shield when I mean to dash or D-tilt/smash, etc.) and it's costed me probably hundreds of matches and is the main reason why I've practically given up on trying to improve as a player. Should I just not be playing fighting games? In case it means anything, I use the Gamepad as my main controller, and my only other viable options are the Wii U Pro Controller, which has some weird button placements and is still kind of stiff since I haven't used it a lot, and the Mayflash GC Adapter, which I've noticed has more lag than the Gamepad, at least from what I'm seeing.

Slow down and focus on doing the correct input. Try to realize what went wrong each time you did a misinput.

The gamepad is a poor choice if you are going into competition. The mayflash adapter does not add an appreciable amount of lag (at most 1 frame, tests have shown); almost every competitive player uses the gamecube controller. The pro controller does get some usage, but I've never seen a good player prefer the gamepad. (No offense intended, just my honest observations).

 

[SapphSabre777]

You know what helped me?
I had someone hit me with an empty plastic bottle on the head every single time I made a stupid beginner mistake.
I'm not joking.
Your brain subconsciously associates the action with the sound and feeling of the bottle on your head and you stop.
That's how I stopped roll spamming, over extending, dash grab spamming, smash spamming and dAir spamming.
You need to be reminded of your mistakes DURING the match, not just before and after.

Then the issue becomes that I can't find anyone that plays Sm4sh at my general vicinity and that I don't know what my mistakes are (and how many times I do them) in true hindsight, even before and after. I need (and I really feel like I need) someone that can tell me what is good, what is bad, what to do and what not to do, because I forfeit that I can't do it alone. I don't care if I have to spend money at this point, I need to seek "professional help".

 

[Tobi_Whatever]

Then the issue becomes that I can't find anyone that plays Sm4sh at my general vicinity and that I don't know what my mistakes are (and how many times I do them) in true hindsight, even before and after. I need (and I really feel like I need) someone that can tell me what is good, what is bad, what to do and what not to do, because I forfeit that I can't do it alone. I don't care if I have to spend money at this point, I need to seek "professional help".

Huh. Where do you live that you virtually can't find anyone to play?
I live in a place where the average person couldn't care less about video games, in the middle of east Germany, which possibly can't get more Sonyland than it is and had no scene before I got my ass up and even I managed to find people to play.
You're 22, I'm 99.9% sure you can find someone to play with at your local uni.

 

[SapphSabre777]

Huh. Where do you live that you virtually can't find anyone to play?
I live in a place where the average person couldn't care less about video games, in the middle of east Germany, which possibly can't get more Sonyland than it is and had no scene before I got my *** up and even I managed to find people to play.
You're 22, I'm 99.9% sure you can find someone to play with at your local uni.

I should've specified this, my apologies: readily accessible people to play at my university. Granted, we have venues every Friday, so I can go there and do that, but college is college around here.

Also, I have figured out the big issue with my game, all thanks to my gameplan outside of the game. I've been studying ONLY optimal situations where moves are used, ignoring the sub-optimal, yet efficient ways people can play, so I don't react accordingly to those things. This is only fixable through tutors watching my matches (which I have found) and experience with these things. Guess my awareness towards the game isn't good enough yet, but I WILL make it better.

Thank you very much for the help, you were right on being aware of others and myself.

 

[Rockir]

Anyone have tips on how to easily spot others peoples habits? Please reply, as right now I am basically playing with 95% reads, and I'm not doing so hot.
Thx guys!

 

[Megamang]

Make sure you are watching them and not yourself, but be conscious of your decisions as you really want to identify a response so you can exploit it.

Play a safe neutral in any case and you wont be only using reads.

I cant teach you to read though, that comes with practice and conscious play.

 

[Ze Diglett]

Slow down and focus on doing the correct input. Try to realize what went wrong each time you did a misinput.

The problem with me is that whenever I slow down to think about what I'm doing, next thing I know, I'm already being slapped across the screen, or the opponent has already shielded, spotdodged, or done whatever to avoid my attack by the time I've actually inputted the move. I just can't afford to "slow down" due to my piss-poor reflexes and overall sluggishness, or at least I don't feel like I can.
As for the controller, I've recently switched to the GC Adapter to no noticeable avail. I still misinput just as much as before, so I'm convinced it isn't a problem with the specific controller...

 

[Megamang]

Youll misinput less and become quicker with practice, just keep the right mindset and dont give up!

The controller wont be an immediate fix, its just the more common competitve choice. Many many tournaments ban the gamepad, as its a logistics nightmare.

 

[Ropato]

I hope this is the place to ask.

There is a doubt i have when edge guarding. When i throw my friend out of the stage and he try to come back most of the time i jump and try to hit him with NAir or other cloud aerial but if a i atack he just airdodge and come back to the stage if i wait for the dodge he just atack me and come back to stage anyways. Sometimes i succed hiting him but it is rarely... how i can edge guard better?

He usualy uses ness or mario btw.

 

[Notsocool]

So I intend to eventually play at a local smash tournment. But because of where I live, I have a particular disadvantages in honing my skills.

Basically, it's because I don't have boardband internet and I'm unable to, because I live in a rural area around a large landscape of hills and trees that greatly hinders the ability of our local ISPs to give us usable service. So me and my family are stuck with sub-par satellite internet with too little data bandwidth to watch videos and too slow latency to play online matches.

So I basically can't study smash 4 through youtube videos nor can I play online matches at my home.

And the only players I can regularly play against are my two brothers, We ususally play with no items, stock 3, neutral stages and in 3-Player FFA. We all want to improve for when we get the change to join a tournment, How can we compensate for not having the tools of youtube vids and online battles?

 

[Stryker95]

I hope this is the place to ask.

There is a doubt i have when edge guarding. When i throw my friend out of the stage and he try to come back most of the time i jump and try to hit him with NAir or other cloud aerial but if a i atack he just airdodge and come back to the stage if i wait for the dodge he just atack me and come back to stage anyways. Sometimes i succed hiting him but it is rarely... how i can edge guard better?

He usualy uses ness or mario btw.

When you edgeguard, sometimes you get a hit, sometimes you don't. It is all about mixups, there is nothing you can do but get a read. You can try using different methods of edgeguards, such as limit break side B to stage spike, but really most comes from reads.

So I intend to eventually play at a local smash tournment. But because of where I live, I have a particular disadvantages in honing my skills.

Basically, it's because I don't have boardband internet and I'm unable to, because I live in a rural area around a large landscape of hills and trees that greatly hinders the ability of our local ISPs to give us usable service. So me and my family are stuck with sub-par satellite internet with too little data bandwidth to watch videos and too slow latency to play online matches.

So I basically can't study smash 4 through youtube videos nor can I play online matches at my home.

And the only players I can regularly play against are my two brothers, We ususally play with no items, stock 3, neutral stages and in 3-Player FFA. We all want to improve for when we get the change to join a tournment, How can we compensate for not having the tools of youtube vids and online battles?

Well, I would say you will have to learn and get better by simply playing and discovering things, like people did back in the day. Fortunately for you there is Smashboards, look up your character's forum and you can get alot of information from there. Otherwise, play 1v1, playing 3 player FFA won't help much so make a rotation.

 

[Daxter]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here are some videos of recent play from me on For Glory 3DS. I refuse to play Wii U FG because of the bullies online, and because it's much more difficult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMRBbu4ydL4 (D.Mario vs Corrin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1oK2uKNOIw (Robin vs Lucina)
http://youtu.be/WrwKa6H7rY8 (Robin vs Luigi)
http://youtu.be/Z1EQJiAxmAc (Wario vs Luigi)

Excuse the strange angle of the first video, I have no idea why that happened.

I know I won the second game, but it honestly feels like I should have done much, much better at all of them I gave them everything I had, but still struggled, and while I bounced around trying to bait out the opponent or watch for habits, they would roll/smash and I couldn't find a way to punish them. At least that was the case with the first opponent in games 1 and 2. The 2nd opponent as Luigi decimated me. But it's been an entire year now, and I still lose this badly. My worst game? A Dark Pit only using rolls and Electroshock exclusively defeated me with ease. What do I do? No matter how hard I try, there's something I can't figure out for myself here.

By the way, when I lost the 2nd stock as Doc Mario, I swear I was meant to shield while running towards the charging smash, but for reasons I can't understand, nothing happened. It looks like a joke though, I'm sure

EDIT: Just learned I've been doing half my techs wrong for an entire year like mistaking vectoring for DI. How am I supposed to improve now? I can't get the old tricks out of my head!

 

[Stryker95]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here are some videos of recent play from me on For Glory 3DS. I refuse to play Wii U FG because of the bullies online, and because it's much more difficult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMRBbu4ydL4 (D.Mario vs Corrin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1oK2uKNOIw (Robin vs Lucina)
http://youtu.be/WrwKa6H7rY8 (Robin vs Luigi)
http://youtu.be/Z1EQJiAxmAc (Wario vs Luigi)

Excuse the strange angle of the first video, I have no idea why that happened.

I know I won the second game, but it honestly feels like I should have done much, much better at all of them I gave them everything I had, but still struggled, and while I bounced around trying to bait out the opponent or watch for habits, they would roll/smash and I couldn't find a way to punish them. At least that was the case with the first opponent in games 1 and 2. The 2nd opponent as Luigi decimated me. But it's been an entire year now, and I still lose this badly. My worst game? A Dark Pit only using rolls and Electroshock exclusively defeated me with ease. What do I do? No matter how hard I try, there's something I can't figure out for myself here.

By the way, when I lost the 2nd stock as Doc Mario, I swear I was meant to shield while running towards the charging smash, but for reasons I can't understand, nothing happened. It looks like a joke though, I'm sure

EDIT: Just learned I've been doing half my techs wrong for an entire year like mistaking vectoring for DI. How am I supposed to improve now? I can't get the old tricks out of my head!

1. Don't play online. It is difficult to play well due to the natural input lag.
2. How to unlearn bad habits? Stop doing them. Practice. Discipline. There is no method or secret technique, it comes with time.
3. There is a separate thread to post videos.

 

[Nihabz]

I've mainly been using them to practice punishes, follow ups, and overall learning how to be patient and watch my opponent. I tend to use level 9 CPUs since for me they seem to emulate real players the best out of all them. I never treat them as real opponents though and I've played in enough tournies to be able to distinguish the difference. Is this a correct use for them or all they still considered terrible for practice?

 

[|RK|]

They are terrible for practice. They don't act like real people at all, and learning to read them won't help you read real players.

 

[Rioku]

They are pretty great for practicing frame traps since they cheat on air dodges. Punishes and anything reaction based is doable. Otherwise worse in every way.