Q&A Game Play Advice and General Discussion

[anaglyphix]

Thanks, I'll try and keep that in mind.

 

[Endei]

Thanks, I'll try and keep that in mind.

If they end up getting sweaty try wavering your hands in the air or wash them with water to dry them up.

 

[free33]

Hey everyone! I'm a zero suit samus main and I mainly have problems with the characters put and (toon) link. What are some good counter pick stage for these guys?
Thanks!

 

[NGUY (guitarstage)]

sweaty hands. anyone know a way to fix this?

The best thing you can do is visit a dermatologist i had that and now its almost gone for me

 

[Smog Frog]

idk if this really goes here, but i found out that there's a (really small) smash tournament weekly nearby me. now, a thing i have to ask?
-how do i broaden my grandparents horizons to smash, and esports in general?

 

[Funkermonster]

What training regime do you guys follow when trying to practice? I notice that sometimes when starting the day smashing, I barely use training mode at all, and just jump online without practicing my execution. I know that's wrong and I'm pretty certain its been messing me up quite a bit lately.

I'm thinking of going in there for 15 minutes per character to practice my fundamentals like combos, ATs, mixups, and whatnot; but is there a better way than this?

 

[Endei]

What training regime do you guys follow when trying to practice? I notice that sometimes when starting the day smashing, I barely use training mode at all, and just jump online without practicing my execution. I know that's wrong and I'm pretty certain its been messing me up quite a bit lately.

I'm thinking of going in there for 15 minutes per character to practice my fundamentals like combos, ATs, mixups, and whatnot; but is there a better way than this?

I usually do 8 player smash with my amiibos to practice my awareness. Then I do 7v1 cpu with my amiibos to practice my team combos.
I do Crazy Orders to work on my speed I guess.
I go on For Glory to practice against scrubs who I need to adjust my style to. I go on For Fun 2v2 to practice my defense.
And there's no one I can really practice my bad habits with.

 

[SupremeSuperiorStick]

So I'm currently stuck at a point which I'm sure many other people are as well. This being that I have no idea what I should do to improve. I feel like I am a solid player, but my placings at tournaments are somewhat mediocre. Now majority of you will say that it simply comes with practice, and that is true. However if I have been playing the same way for the past few months despite playing in tournaments with many skilled players almost weekly, then I feel that my practice isn't paying off as I'm still placing the same. Now I feel that this is mainly due to my mindset. If I have the same mindset/ thought process while practicing for months, I'll still place around the same as I am right now. So what I did was I asked a few high placing players to tell me what exactly seems to be my biggest problem, and one said that I simply needed to play smarter. Now while I agreed, it did not help me as much because playing "Smarter" isn't exactly something you can teach or practice. I feel like my mindset needs to change for me to play "Smarter" and I haven't seen much improvement at all for the last few months. I've been watching competitive Smash for years now and trying to learn from top-players only helped so much. Therefore I would like to ask some higher levelled players how exactly they came out of this, as I'm sure everyone has been in this place before. I'm sure this will help many other people who have the same problem as me as well.


And I happen to play Sheik so if there's a certain mindset I need to have as a Sheik main I would appreciate any help

 

[anaglyphix]

So I'm currently stuck at a point which I'm sure many other people are as well. This being that I have no idea what I should do to improve. I feel like I am a solid player, but my placings at tournaments are somewhat mediocre. Now majority of you will say that it simply comes with practice, and that is true. However if I have been playing the same way for the past few months despite playing in tournaments with many skilled players almost weekly, then I feel that my practice isn't paying off as I'm still placing the same. Now I feel that this is mainly due to my mindset. If I have the same mindset/ thought process while practicing for months, I'll still place around the same as I am right now. So what I did was I asked a few high placing players to tell me what exactly seems to be my biggest problem, and one said that I simply needed to play smarter. Now while I agreed, it did not help me as much because playing "Smarter" isn't exactly something you can teach or practice. I feel like my mindset needs to change for me to play "Smarter" and I haven't seen much improvement at all for the last few months. I've been watching competitive Smash for years now and trying to learn from top-players only helped so much. Therefore I would like to ask some higher levelled players how exactly they came out of this, as I'm sure everyone has been in this place before. I'm sure this will help many other people who have the same problem as me as well.


And I happen to play Sheik so if there's a certain mindset I need to have as a Sheik main I would appreciate any help

I've been having the same problem, and while I'm nowhere near high level, I think that when they say play "smarter" what they really mean is you need to make an adjustment in your play-style. Perhaps you aren't punishing enough because you're too careful/defensive, or you're getting put into bad spots because you're too aggressive. Even if your tech is solid, the way you play is usually more important.

Another problem that you might be having is that you're too predictable, and might be having trouble adjusting on the fly when people start figuring you out, so maybe try mixing things up a bit in your matches or be more alert to when the opponent starts catching on to punishable habits.

 

[nugget61]

I've been playing a lot more online recently, and I am playing in an online tournament on Saturday and playing in an in person event on Sunday. I've jotted down a couple of things I know I can improve on, and would like some pointers on how go about improving. I main sheik btw

I get hit by stupid things. Repeatedly. I have gotten hit by too many Ganon up tilts to count, and it is frustrating because that move is so punishable. But as soon as I get hit by a laggy move, I can't help but go on tilt and get hit by a second one and then a third. It is difficult to beat something that is so predictable because I think that they might mix it up, because they should but they don't. I nearly got killed by falcons side b hitting me 6 times or so, because I thought he would do something else.

I find myself using suboptimal di when it comes to getting hit by combos, mainly because I don't know what the other characters can do. Where can I learn what is and isn't a DI mixup?

And how does survival di work exactly? Combo di is more intuitive than I thought, but I could be misunderstanding it.

I also find myself not rolling often enough(surprising for a for glory player, I know), and find myself in shield whenever I am being approached and only roll once or twice a match, when I could probably not get punished because it would be so unexpected.

I also miss my techs too often for my liking, is there a good stage/character I could practice this on? I know that hyrule temple is good for wall techs, but looking for the ground techs.

Any help is appreciated, and I know that if I'm noticing my flaws then they are probably very huge lol. There's probably many more I'm missing, so if there was interest I could upload some replays.

 

[NK1046]

This might sound like a very stupid question, but how do you DI in smash correctly? I hear the term being used all of the time during matches, but i don't know what they mean by "good DI". If it makes a difference I main Ganondorf/ Little Mac. Please help.

 

[DblCrest]

Been meaning to ask something similar to this since this has been bugging me for several years
I've been playing the 3ds version for quite a bit (Still missing a few hats to complete the challenge board :x)
I do manage to play someone in Smash Wii U during a group meet up but seeing as most of the players there prefer PM and haven't played enough of Smash Wii U I usually come out on top when there's no items 1 on 1 or even 8 player. So over time it got boring and I don't have anyone to practice with to shut out my bad habits unless it's CPUs.

Now today FINALLY someone who was good at the game showed up and beat me in 6/7 matches.
Only bad habits he had was dodging as soon as I tried to chase him while airborne and he would only pick a character after me as if to counter them somehow.

I usually try out all kinds of characters to keep the game from being stale in terms of playstyles so I'm decent with anyone.

Now matches against him
-While fighting him I would fall for rolling behind him into a down smash,
-At times he tended to read me like a book . He would begin foxtrotting or dashing in one direction and tend to catch wind of where I was going to go on land.
-He throws out attacks with short hops before retreating when I tried to punish him . Which led to me getting attacks to the face plenty of times.
-When using my shield he would tend to run right past me and jump and attack from behind. It came to a point where the only way I could really hit him was by shield grabbing and baiting out his dodges to hit him even more. I couldn't hit him with any smash attacks it seemed as he was always ready to shield them. I tend to use them for securing most of my KOs. Even after perfect shielding he'd always be ready to dodge a smash attack. It was nuts...

The advice he gave me was I shield grab a bit too much XD . He'll be around next time so I can play him again though.



Overall I'd say my playstyle is pretty aggressive regardless of which character I play which I think works against me when people actually know what they're doing.

MeVHim
GreninjaVLink
Was a close game I got hit by tons of projectiles and used shadow sneak far too much than usual. Completely outcamped my shurikens
MegamanVZelda
Another close game . I was able to see everyone of his Lightning kicks coming but I feel he only picked Zelda to counter my projectiles.
Game and WatchVPeach
Close but not much to say on this. He kept fishing for Kos with his Fair and I probably should have used more of G&Ws disjointed hitboxes
ZSSVPalutena
He took advantage of Palutena's shield having good priority to beat out most of my air attacks
SonicVMario
He would catch me falling after using spin dash with a up smash every single time .
Kirby VJigglypuff
I actually won this match this with my favourite character somehow xD His jiggz would be spacing me out with short hops and retreating neutral airs and Fairs and at times pound.He even Koed me with rest while I was comboing him. But I managed to hit him with Hammer flip since he tried to put me to sleep...I think he may have been screwing around just a tad.
FalconVMarth
He beat me here too and even managed to smash my shield. Said Marth was pretty good at that and he uses him online for that purpose. He tried gimping we quite a few times

tl dr
After going against a real challenge in the Wii U version I'm wondering what would be the best way to iron out old bad habits and find new and better ones.

Now despite the matches being kinda close and losing 6 times . I actually enjoyed the game a lot more than my usual meet ups since it was a challenge and all.
I'm just wondering how to improve...I can't get the timing for perfect pivots at all ,I rarely spot dodge. Ledge trumping is pretty alien to me as is going for gimps since PLENTY of times my attack gets beaten by the other person when I try.
I'm not completely sure what habits or combos do work compared to Players and CPUs even :x

Would I need to hit the labs to find the right Kos moves or options other than Smashes?
How does one get better when there's a general lack of players to actually play the game?
Is finding more people the only way to go?

(I don't post too often here...was this too long?)

 

[(Buddha)]

On a scale of 1 to 10 what is you rating for a WildCatz controller? I understand that it all comes down to personal preference but what is its physical durability? Actually just tell me the ol' 1 to 10.

 

[HeroMystic]

So I'm currently stuck at a point which I'm sure many other people are as well. This being that I have no idea what I should do to improve. I feel like I am a solid player, but my placings at tournaments are somewhat mediocre. Now majority of you will say that it simply comes with practice, and that is true. However if I have been playing the same way for the past few months despite playing in tournaments with many skilled players almost weekly, then I feel that my practice isn't paying off as I'm still placing the same.

I was exactly in this same situation. And I got out of it very recently. I'll give you the secret to figuring out how to improve.

Get stomped. Get stomped so bad that it makes you want to cry.

When I was at a monthly tournament in SA, I got dead last despite being a constant 9th placer at my weekly. People from out of city came in and they introduced new playstyles and new skills that I was not accustomed to. That is when your general skill as a player is the most exposed, when you are in an unfamiliar situation and you have to adapt. What is your basic gameplan? How do you decipher this new opponent while keeping the match close?

It had to take a severe loss in a tournament for me to figure out the holes in my play and now I can fix that. So generally, you want to find someone you know is better than you and they can often show you any poor play you make.

 

[KittyKyat]

Hm, I have a bit of a problem I can't seem to iron out myself.

I think I'm way too predictable. I try various things to keep myself from being predictable, but I feel like it's just not working, and I'm losing too much. Watching replays kinda doesn't teach me enough from what I do and I kinda just feel a bit lost. What should I do to improve and stop being so predictable?

 

[Depth_]

Quick question about invincible moves... Can another move clank with them?

 

[Dexmaster]

I'm on the stage. He's hanging on the ledge. I almost always screw this up. What am I supposed to do when he's getting up? dsmash? He'll roll too far away. Is there any way to predict what he's going to do or a specific protocol? I typically play Dedede, Lucario, Pikachu, and Little Mac, so if there are character-specific strategies, these are the ones I'd like to know. Assume he'll get up before I can trump him (is that a normal assumption?)

 

[Grass]

Quick question about invincible moves... Can another move clank with them?

No. Just like you can't counter a counter.

I'm on the stage. He's hanging on the ledge. I almost always screw this up. What am I supposed to do when he's getting up? dsmash? He'll roll too far away. Is there any way to predict what he's going to do or a specific protocol? I typically play Dedede, Lucario, Pikachu, and Little Mac, so if there are character-specific strategies, these are the ones I'd like to know. Assume he'll get up before I can trump him (is that a normal assumption?)

uh just hang by the edge. What I usually do is hold shield by the edge in case they try for a get up attack. Or if you're too scared they'll try to get up and grab you, just hang near the edge with enough space to punish a normal get up and an edge roll.

 

[TheDeathChicken]

I have got the basic game down, but was wondering what stuff I should be practicing to improve my game. I was wondering if someone could point me to some good guides or share some advice on what to practice and how to practice it? Thank you.

 

[Locuan]

Hey there. We have a pinned thread here on this sub-forum that you can use to ask questions such as these, Game Play Advice and General Discussion. Also, I see that you are a Duck Hunt main. You should head on over to the Duck Hunt character sub-forum and you will find a lot of resources to improve your gameplay.

 

[TheDeathChicken]

Hey there. We have a pinned thread here on this sub-forum that you can use to ask questions such as these, Game Play Advice and General Discussion. Also, I see that you are a Duck Hunt main. You should head on over to the Duck Hunt character sub-forum and you will find a lot of resources to improve your gameplay.

Thank you.

 

[Funkermonster]

When to use pivot grabs? Trying to incorporate something new into my game, since I can only use standing and dash grabs currently.

 

[KittyKyat]

When to use pivot grabs? Trying to incorporate something new into my game, since I can only use standing and dash grabs currently.

As a fast character, run behind your opponent, turn and grab. Mainly use it to suprise your enemy when you expect a shield.

 

[Smog Frog]

When to use pivot grabs? Trying to incorporate something new into my game, since I can only use standing and dash grabs currently.

tech chase situations mainly. if you're using a fast character like sonic, if you read the roll back, dash and do a pivot grab(if you dont input the grab fast enough, you get an ftilt, which still does decent damage). also above.

 

[Grass]

As a fast character, run behind your opponent, turn and grab. Mainly use it to suprise your enemy when you expect a shield.

Well, you CAN try to predict shield that way, but that's in effective. It's a good way to bait certain things. So pivot tilts and pivot grabs are both important to remember as it'll allows for tech chases and great for mind games.

 

[nyanturtwig]

Whenever I'm playing I feel like I'm slow to start combos and react to things happening. I always end up becoming predictable and getting hit pretty hard by my opponent. How can I improve my reaction time to help with my combos and general game play?

 

[Spirst]

Whenever I'm playing I feel like I'm slow to start combos and react to things happening. I always end up becoming predictable and getting hit pretty hard by my opponent. How can I improve my reaction time to help with my combos and general game play?

I have moved this post to the Gameplay Advice thread where it's better suited. Just giving you a notice.

 

[GdspdUblkprzdnt]

Whenever I'm playing I feel like I'm slow to start combos and react to things happening. I always end up becoming predictable and getting hit pretty hard by my opponent. How can I improve my reaction time to help with my combos and general game play?

Reaction is like 80% anticipation. Both your hesitence to act and your slow reaction to tour opponenets move will go away with experience. Just keep playing the game. You'll notice an improvement sooner or later.

Human reaction speed is between 10 to 25 frames. It's not as huge a variable as some might think.

 

[ecylisis]

I need some help right now. The characters I main (Marth and Shulk) tend to use aerials a lot. Problem is every time I use one my opponent shields it and then grabs me. Every time, no matter who I'm fighting, like it's the most basic knowledge will shield and then grab me. I have absolutely no idea how to get around this.

 

[David Galanos]

Does anyone know how to deal with people who throw out moves so you can’t approach? Someone I know literally just throws out moves as Mario, falco, and wario. I don’t know what to do against it. Mario it’s the worst so with him he’ll throw out Nairs, down airs, and back airs. I can’t approach him at all cause i just get hit. Has anyone experienced anything like this? What did you do to get around it?

 

[MASTER719]

Just shuriken

 

[David Galanos]

Just shuriken

That's what my reaction was to it but I still can't get in afterwards. Like yeah I get the shuriken but then he'll just go back to what he's doing

 

[Se7enSB]

I have a question. who is a character that will require fundamentals to win with?

 

[KittyKyat]

I need some help right now. The characters I main (Marth and Shulk) tend to use aerials a lot. Problem is every time I use one my opponent shields it and then grabs me. Every time, no matter who I'm fighting, like it's the most basic knowledge will shield and then grab me. I have absolutely no idea how to get around this.

Spacing Spacing Spacing! You need to hit with the tip of you aerials to attack from a range, with being in risk of being grabbed.

 

[Cypher99]

What are the most common mistakes made by beginners at tournaments

 

[Se7enSB]

What are the most common mistakes made by beginners at tournaments

Rolling inwards when pressured near the edge. Rolling in from ledge. Panic jumping (when you knock them off and they don't want to grab edge, so they use their second jump). Getup attack when you knock them on their back.

 

[Pazx]

What are the most common mistakes made by beginners at tournaments

In addition to what was said above: not sweetspotting the ledge when recovering (see also being predictable when recovering), random smash attacks, rolling too much (especially at high percents), technical errors (eg jitters getting to you, accidental pivot grabs, full hops, etc)

 

[partytank]

I'm super new to these boards so forgive me if this has been asked before

When I'm playing against people and I'm trying to get close I often find that my character starts to dash when I don't want them to, causing me to miss punishes or completely ruin my spacing. The Wii U pro controller seems to be have very sensitive analogue sticks. So am I just being too heavy handed? Is there a way to avoid this happening or do I just have to bear with it?

 

[popsofctown]

I'm super new to these boards so forgive me if this has been asked before

When I'm playing against people and I'm trying to get close I often find that my character starts to dash when I don't want them to, causing me to miss punishes or completely ruin my spacing. The Wii U pro controller seems to be have very sensitive analogue sticks. So am I just being too heavy handed? Is there a way to avoid this happening or do I just have to bear with it?

Is your TV set to game mode? It sounds like a mistake I might make on a laggy tv, at least vaguely.

I assume you're trying to walk? Walking can be kinda tricky. If you have some buffer time before the walk, say, you spotdodge the laggy attack you want to punish with a walk forward fsmash, you can use that 10 frame buffer period to get your control stick slowly to its fullest extent right and then just hold it in place there. Same technique that is useful for uptilting with tap-jump on. The fullest extent right isn't necessarily interpreted as run, it's the sudden change from neutral to that direction that makes it interpret a run.

If you walking option doesn't just totally outclass your running options, some people will just use a running punish because they are easier to execute than walking punishes, truth be told.

I don't know about the idiosyncracies of the Wii U pro controller, but I know those idiosyncracies about how Smash interprets directional inputs in general.

 

[iDaire]

Background and Questions:

Spoiler

So. I need help with Smash 4.

Just created my little sister's account for For Glory. She's not as good as I am, and yet she managed to use Bowser Jr. and Ganandorf to beat three people in For Glory (she lost two matches). Mainly, she just used Ganandorf's DSpecial whenever she got launched in the air, which was fairly punishable. Yet, she employed a strategy that was highly effective somehow: she used it whenever she got close to the ground and dodged when she was about to be punished. It was a strategy that I have never seen her use. Normally, she would just roll around the board, constantly spamming the dodge button until I attack, then she would smash me.

Yet, when I step on with Lucina (keeping in mind I never used her before; just transferring my skill from Brawl Marth), I play this Ness. I got wrecked. This guy just kept spamming PK Fire and whenever I made a move that he could punish, he grabbed me. I must've been grabbed about 20 times in that match. I believe I might be doing something wrong.

So, basically, how do I play against those people that spam fast moves like PK Fire? Also, how do I play against people who just keep dodging around the board waiting for something they can punish? How do I, in general, just move quicker? I notice my left hand moves slower than my right, therefore I can attack pretty quick and time it with perfect accuracy. Moving is a problem since my left hand doesn't move or react at the same times my right hand does. What I find even weirder is that I'm a lefty.

I can't read people properly. If I find you are doing a repeated action, sure, I'm going to counter it, but mid-game I can't think of anything that quickly and as a result, most of the punishes I could do, I find myself forgetting them and using something else. With Marth, I rely on Sword Dances and with Link, I can't find a punish that quick.

I find inputting moves like DTilt and Uptilt hard. Normally when I input those, I end up putting in their respective smashes instead. Is there an easier way to input tilts? Also, is there an easier way to input neutral airs and aerial back tilts? I notice that other people have no problem putting tilts in. I'm not sure if it's the fact I'm using a WiiMote or the Gamepad, but I just find problems putting tilts in.

I also find a similar problem in Blocking and Sidestepping (Dodging Downwards). I'm not used to blocking whatsoever and I also neversidestep, emphasis on the never. I usually side dodge any attacks that I see coming my way, which could be a problem. How do I break out of habitual side dodging?

Also, I'm still new to these techniques. What is vectoring? How do I gimp properly and how do I tech properly?
[/spoiler]

TL;DR Version

Spoiler

• How do I play against people that spam fast moves like PK Fire?
• How do I play against people that spam dodge around the board?
• How do I move quicker in general? (My left hand moves and reacts slower than my right)
• How do I input tilts easier, grounded and aerial? (I end up putting in respective smashes rather than tilts.)
• How do I break out of habitual side dodging? (Moving left or right while blocking)
• In which situations is it better to block and sidestep (Block + DStick Down) rather than roll?
• What is vectoring? Is it directional influence?
• How does one read people and predict how they move?
• How do professionals remember what moves and options they have mid-game?
• How do I gimp and tech properly?

Latest Perils

Spoiler

So, played For Glory (some of you may have already met me. Lucina/Marth/Link main. My name comes up as iDaire).I managed to obtain a record of 10 wins and 30 losses. I can't help but feel that I'm doing something majorly wrong. If there were a way to record a video and show people the way I play through video, I would do it so that I could actually get some help, but I don't have the money to buy expensive hardware such as the Elgato and other similar hardware. I'm not that much of a gamer to the point where I need to constantly record my videos.

Often times, I find myself up against players that use the same combo: dash, grab, Dthrow, shorthop uair, repeat. The problem with this is that whenever I use an attack, such as sword dance, the attack comes out very slow and punishable. It may even not come out slow, but I do see it as punishable to a major degree. Ness utilized this and just caught me multiple times with PK fire and used the aforementioned combo. It's really annoying, but then again, not much can be done about the ending speed of my attack (I think it's called ending lag).

Then, there's those Greninja. That up smash and his moveset and combo potential in general. I can argue Greninja to be one of the best characters in the game for that one smash alone. I exaggerate of course, but that smash is very hard to read and punish, especially when my main is someone like Lucina or Marth, who has almost no attacks that can land them safely to the floor after being airborne.

Fought against Little Mac the other day. Haxx. Couldn't see him in his neutral stance for one second. Moves so fast you can call him The Flash of Smash. I really need to go research some of the Little Mac maneuvers, so that I can at least have an idea how not to get launched from his smashes. I understand he has terrible recovery and is therefore susceptible to gimping, so maybe I can try that. If I can get him off the stage that is.

This guy informs me that his best character is Link. Me being fairly adept at the Link-dom, I challenged him to a friendly duel. Do you know what his strategy was? Stand on one side, and use neutral special. Maybe if he gets lucky enough for me to come close, he can get out an up special. Sounds like it was an easy match, right? At first, I used Lucina. Bad move on my decision, since projectile-based spacing characters such as Link would wreck her, or maybe that's only me. Second, I used Captain Falcon, and ran off the edge of the board twice by accident. Luckily, my derps were compensated for when I used Link and, for lack of better words, kicked his rear-end in. It was first a bow/boomerang showoff, but after a while, I got up close and beat him using my hookshot skills. No Spink will beat me. Nowhere, at no time.

My little sister, by some insane power, is doing better than me in For Glory, and she can barely beat me 1v1. She's learning some Captain Falcon. Graduated her from Bowser and Ganandorf (unfortunately) to a much lighter character, one I believe suited her play style of running out there and getting those intense kills. So, I taught her some basic Falcon (how Dair is a meteor, how Fair can sweetspot to get insta-kills, etc). I find it impossible that she is somehow doing better than me, when I'm the one teaching her. I watched her. She went on a 6-win streak, while I'm over here getting my derriere handed to me by Ness, Greninja, and Little Mac. It's led me to believe that she just throws our games on purpose whenever we play and gets intense online, which is impossible considering the way she plays offline and online are synonymous (Roll around the board. Toss a smash when no one expects it. Occasional throwing. Terrible gimping skills. Predictable) and she's been playing the same way since Brawl. What matter of sorcery is this?

To make things worse, I play the Level 9 AI. I'm evenly matched with it. It seems that Super Smash Bros really stepped up for the fourth version. Everything is more fluid. More techniques are involved. So, I have to get more involved in order to dominate For Glory (I don't have the time real life to attend tournaments or events. So, I just do good casually on For Glory), which is why I ask how do I read frame data mid-game? I've asked this for Tekken, I'm aware Killer Instinct for PS4 and XBOX One have a tutorial that gives a brief summary on it, but no one has ever answered my question. How do I read frame data?

This is just a rant. Ignore it if you want.

If someone could answer some of these questions, that would be nice. Thanks.

-- iDaire