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

[EC_Joey]

Why shouldn't I play against level 9 CPU's to get better?

Biggest reason? It'll give you bad habits.

 

[Tamoo]

Level 3 cpus are probably the best, they sometimes mix up their DI rather than always DIing in or out.

Or you could go meet up with the awesome scottish smash scene

 

[Kason Birdman]

was just clipping my nails and was wondering what length you guys like your fingernails to be when you play smash?

to you think long/short nails change your ability to press buttons?

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

real men bite their fingernails

 

[Kason Birdman]

i used to bite my fingernails. does that count for anything?

 

[Pi]

real men bite their fingernails

stop smoking

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

i quit last month brah

 

[the_CAM_factor]

DI questions

I've been very confused about DI lately and was wondering if anyone could simply break down aspects of DI, smash DI, ASDI, and c stick DI. like when do you need to smash the control stick and when can u just hold it down? Same with the c stick? How can you use c stick/control c stick to affect your di/help you live/ get out of combos.....and when and how should smash di be applied? And how are regular DI, Smash DI, and ASDI applied together on one hit? Idk just some questions on the topic and if anyone can clarify in the simplest way how all forms of DI are used with both the c stick and control stick......thanks

EDIT: also i read Doraki's guide to DI and am still having trouble understanding all of the concepts/uses

 

[Jonas]

Lemme help you out
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=97603
Scroll down to the Magus section.

 

[Metal Reeper]

Someone post that DI picture. I think Bones0 posted it to me awhile ago. It helps a lot. That pic should have its own sticky <3

 

[MooseEatsBear]

I just made a video that can help show what SDI and ASDI are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv3yhoOHots

Watch that. Every frame that Peach is in hitstun from the knee, Peach moves. That's because you press the control stick in a different direction every single frame you're in hitstun. SDI is moving your character in the blocky ways that Peach is moving in this video. ASDI is "Automatic Smash Directional Influence". The only difference between SDI and ASDI (By the way, c-stick DI IS ASDI) is that ASDI does the regular SDI that you can see in the video only on the FIRST available frame of hitstun.

Regular DI... Well, let's say somebody stomps you at like, 80%. You're Sheik, so you go a decent distance up. DI tells us that you can't change the direction you go by pressing up, or down, because the way you get knocked back it vertical. You need to hold the control stick perpendicular to the direction you're being sent, so if you're being sent up, you hold the control stick left, or right.

If you want me to get into frame data, I can do that.

 

[Signia]

the only time you use the c-stick is when you want to ASDI in one direction and DI in another, because the c-stick outprioritizes the normal stick for ASDI. Otherwise, don't use the c-stick to DI, it does not DI or SDI. The normal stick will ASDI if c-stick isn't.

When do you want to ASDI in one direction and DI in another? Idk, not very often. Maybe when you want to crouch cancel and move toward your opponent. Not sure if you have to hold down throughout the hitstun to crouch cancel or not, otherwise you could just do a quarter circle motion to crouch cancel and SDI towards your opponent.

 

[lwouis]

Someone post that DI picture. I think Bones0 posted it to me awhile ago. It helps a lot. That pic should have its own sticky <3

I did that picture, and I'm glad it helps. It's not intended as an intro to DI; it's intended as a complete cheatsheet when you are wondering for the 5th time "is SDI working with C-stick or control-stick?", or any other precise questions. Magus posts are great, but I felt that a central, comprehensive reminder was needed.

 

[DtJ Jungle]

like merging this with Q&A thread.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

Thats a great image. I believe SDI can help hug floors but you need the ASDI down also in order to tech. Could be totally wrong tho

 

[ChivalRuse]

lwouis should be given a medal.

 

[KAOSTAR]

Thats a great image. I believe SDI can help hug floors but you need the ASDI down also in order to tech. Could be totally wrong tho

Ur right. But thats only true with teching into floors. You can wall tech with SDI into walls or ceilings.

Lwouis big *** picture

also 1 SDI input moves you .6 the horizontal distance of a standing jigglypuff, 1 ASDI moves you .3 the horizontal width of a standing jigglypuff. So its double SDI to ASDI. At any decent percent you will need SDI to get you close enough to ASDI into the floor, in most cases you are better off preemptively hitting L/R because you have to be more precises to try and hit the tech buttons after ASDI. and I think but im not sure that ASDI happens during the hitstop just like SDI but its just the last frame, so on the next frame u begin moving.

When you press L/R all the way down to enter the tech cycle, you have the ability to tech for 20 frames as long as you dont break the working tech cycle, and then the next 20 frames you cannot tech. So Its not 40 frames u cant tech, its u can tech for 20 and then not tech for 20 assuming you dont press L/R again within the first 20 frames or attempt to tech during hitstop.

teching changes your velocity, in most cases it completely stops it(stick teching caused by hitting L/R, not regular teching caused by simply moving the control stick when u fly over a platform), however it seems that you keep your momentum.

 

[linkoninja]

I was wondering
if you play n64 super smash brothers on a new TV (HD I think) it's like playing with a couple frames of lag
and I've noticed this.

Question I have is:
Does this same problem exist if you play Melee on an HD Tv?

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

yep .

 

[Kanelol]

unless you can get CRT wii cord transverter things

 

[Cheeri-Oats]

Question About Frame Data:

I was looking at SDM's frame data, and I had a question regarding Hit Lag.

As I understand it, hit lag is when your character freezes in place due to hitting a shield. In Brawl, hit lag not only affects the character that is performing the attack, but also the character in the shield.

For example, in Brawl, if I attack a shield and my move has 3 frames of hit lag, and 6 frames of shield stun, when I hit my opponent's shield, we both stay frozen for 3 frames, and then the opponent is stuck in shield stun for 6 additional frames while the rest of my attack animation completes.

Is this still true in Melee? Because according to SDM, hit lag only affects the attacker and not the person in shield.

I just want to verify. Thank you.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

it effects both parties involved, except in the case of phantom hits and invincibility. The former only has hitlag for the person hit and the latter has hitlag only for the attacker.

 

[Cheeri-Oats]

Well that changes quite a few of my numbers. Thank you very much!

 

[PurDi]

Melee noob question.

So, I've been playing Brawl a lot (I know... don't flame me) but I really aspire to be good at melee, only problem is, no one plays around where I live. At least no one plays with no items and actually knows what theyre doing.

So my question is, is it better for me to play against a computer or a scrubby human? And If neither, what can I do on my own to become better before I set out and start playing in a larger scene?

 

[Teczer0]

Most players here would actually probably encourage you for playing melee lol anyway.

I'd say if you grab another person thats trying to learn more and you learn together thats better. Playing a computer really doesn't aid you in any way.

If you need to learn the technical things just go to training mode or play a lvl 1 cpu.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

Fun things to practice on lvl1 CPUs...

1) Ness 0-deaths on fast fallers (uthrow uair regrab uthrow uair regrab uthrow uair uair uair uair bair/fsmash)
2) DK 0-deaths on spacies (cargo uthrow CG til 30, cargo uthrow uair uair uair chargedb/fair/bair)
3) Marth shenanigans on spacies
4) Generic Falco shine combos
5) Mario & Doc CGs & usmash/uair combos

Fun stuff to practice against nobody
1) Sheik needle turnaround waveland
2) Fox repeated reverse waveshines
3) Marth wavedashes and wavelands and the Fade
4) Moonwalking
5) Peach's fast float cancel nairs/bairs

Lots more, but thats stuff i do if i practice

 

[raxomukus]

2 questions

First, how do you pull off the pikachu super-wavedash? (does it even exist?)

And secondly, how should you hit with G&W Dair to make it meteor? Can't ever seem to get it right..

 

[Sim]

Melee noob question.

So, I've been playing Brawl a lot (I know... don't flame me) but I really aspire to be good at melee, only problem is, no one plays around where I live. At least no one plays with no items and actually knows what theyre doing.

So my question is, is it better for me to play against a computer or a scrubby human? And If neither, what can I do on my own to become better before I set out and start playing in a larger scene?

Personally, I would have never gotten better at Melee alone. I need someone to play with.

But that's just me.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

the pikachu "SWD" is a glitch that is caused by the upb clanking with a move of equal priority. I know you can make it always happen if you upb into a reflected thunder jolt.

 

[SDC]

Honest yet stupid question:

Why am I better with trash character mewtwo then I am with top tier character jiggz?

 

[rhan]

It's probably because of two reasons:

1) He's more fun to play for you.

2) Not many people play against him so you winning matches is solely on that fact while Jiggs is starting to be more common in a tourney environment.

 

[127832]

Hello all,

New to the thread and Melee for that matter. I know it sounds odd considering Melee's been out for a good decade, but I can honsetly say that I never really had the time to pick up a copy until now. (I'm not a competitve player, and not even close to being even qualified for those levels of play. So basically...I'm not good.)

So just a couple of questions from a rather new user:

1. I know the difference between a tilt and a smash, but when I'm playing with friends, I usually just mash the control stick out of pure nerves and end up throwing out a poorly timed forward smash. My question is, how would I go about controlling that instinctive mashing when the situation gets hairy? I have the same sort of problem when I'm trying to recover to the stage, and end up executing a side B rather than an up B.

2. My friend uses Zelda whenever he plays, and I can never get close to him because he spams that weird diamond thing that makes him impossible to hit. I've tried grabbing him and using tilts, but I just get shocked whenver I try those. Maybe using an aerial would work? Any suggestions?

 

[Bl@ckChris]

for number 1, experience should help you get control of those situations. the more you get comfortable and know the situations for your tilts, the better you'll be with them. it's an odd part of tech skill, but directional control and tilt control with time.

for number two, any time you have an idea of what they will do, simply wait for it, and punish the ending lag. if you run in and they use the diamond, just wait for it to finish, and then hit them.

 

[127832]

Thanks for the advice.

Another question that's been floating in my mind is:

Does using advance techniques (ie. ShFfL, wave dashing, etc.) make a difference in casual play?

For example: I could be familiar with the techniques and know how to properly execute them in the right situations, but my opponents would know nothing about the above mentioned examples.

 

[Seikend]

Thanks for the advice.

Another question that's been floating in my mind is:

Does using advance techniques (ie. ShFfL, wave dashing, etc.) make a difference in casual play?

For example: I could be familiar with the techniques and know how to properly execute them in the right situations, but my opponents would know nothing about the above mentioned examples.

Whether your opponent knows about them or not isn't too important. It just depends on how they play.

For example, wavedashing is generally a positional thing. But if your opponent is standing on the spot spamming say, a tilt, you don't need that positioning tool anymore.


Basically, you should know what the point of each tech is, and from this work out whether it'll make a difference in any given situation in a match.

 

[LowFatHat]

I was wondering if there's any legitimate way to learn a matchup against a character you've never played against competitively.

I've never been to any tournament, and the smashers I have to play against are limited. I'm still in high school, and I live too far away from anybody else who plays ssbm (as far as I know), so traveling is out of the question. I'm really considering going to Cataclysm this year, but I'm afraid I won't have the experience to make it anywhere. Would it be worth my time watching/studyingmatchups on youtube? I feel as if I already do that enough, but is it worth paying attention in great detail?

Don't get me wrong, I'd pay the money just to watch some great melee. I just wouldn't mind getting to play more than 5 matches or so.

 

[Kanelol]

I heard PPMD say once that when he first started playing he would watch videos of really good players over and over and over again and try to dissect what exactly each player was thinking at any given time. What options they were trying to cover, what techs they were spacing to punish, if they expected their opponent to be offensive or defensive and how they zoned accordingly, etc.

Short of getting out there and playing as many people as you can, (which is a lot harder than it sounds, I know) "studying" matches on youtube is one of the best ways to get better, at least in the sense of mental game.

 

[KAOSTAR]

I was wondering if there's any legitimate way to learn a matchup against a character you've never played against competitively.

I've never been to any tournament, and the smashers I have to play against are limited. I'm still in high school, and I live too far away from anybody else who plays ssbm (as far as I know), so traveling is out of the question. I'm really considering going to Cataclysm this year, but I'm afraid I won't have the experience to make it anywhere. Would it be worth my time watching/studyingmatchups on youtube? I feel as if I already do that enough, but is it worth paying attention in great detail?

Don't get me wrong, I'd pay the money just to watch some great melee. I just wouldn't mind getting to play more than 5 matches or so.

make sure you are studying the vid. not watching as a fan. should be equivalent to watching another teams game tape.

I actually suggest watching the best players and some a little or closer to your skill level. u won't understand top level thinking until u have more similar thinking.

then play the MU in versus mode to get a feel for weights and combos and hit s
stun.

 

[LowFatHat]

I have always been watching videos more as a "fan", only because I wasn't sure if over-analyzing would be a good or bad thing. I'm going to give it a try now, though.

I'm kinda afraid of testing the matchups agaist CPU's, if that's what you're suggesting. For instance, I know a lot of people, and a lot of top players play fox. If I never get real experience, and just practice against CPU foxes, or even real people who haven't played fox before, sure I might get a feel for the weight and combos, but I might get too comfortable. A CPU fox isn't going to waveshine me OoS, or anything of the like.

Then again, I might be taking this way too seriously.
Thanks a lot for your opinions.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

i dont think you can learn a matchup without actively thinking about the matchup.