Your opinion on practicing against computers?

[WinterShorts]

Well.....more specifically against level 9 computers.

Does it help with my training? Are level 1's better to fight simply because I can practice more tech skill on them? Do you find the lv 9's constant jabbing really, really annoying? Of course I do realize that playing any human, whether it's a professional or a noob who doesn't know anything, is always the better experience than playing a computer of any level, but enter a scenario where my player base, with the exception of online netplay (which I don't want to do yet given the fact that I'm going to need a wired connection most likely) isn't accessible.

Just never mind my personal circumstances. I want to know what do you think of level 9 computers, and that's it. Are they worth your time to begin with? Do they practice anything relevant in a game with frame-strict properties? etc.

 

[mythbust4000]

Well.....more specifically against level 9 computers.

Does it help with my training? Are level 1's better to fight simply because I can practice more tech skill on them? Do you find the lv 9's constant jabbing really, really annoying? Of course I do realize that playing any human, whether it's a professional or a noob who doesn't know anything, is always the better experience than playing a computer of any level, but enter a scenario where my player base, with the exception of online netplay (which I don't want to do yet given the fact that I'm going to need a wired connection most likely) isn't accessible.

Just never mind my personal circumstances. I want to know what do you think of level 9 computers, and that's it. Are they worth your time to begin with? Do they practice anything relevant in a game with frame-strict properties? etc.

To practice with CPUs don't jusy play them start with 5 then try to 4 stock them if you fail go down if you 4 stock it then go up
I recommend doing fox

 

[AirFair]

To practice with CPUs don't jusy play them start with 5 then try to 4 stock them if you fail go down if you 4 stock it then go up
I recommend doing fox

Please DON"T DO THIS

Cpu training is NOT an effective option to simulate a match with a real player. ON IT"S OWN.

DO NOT PLAY AGAINST LEVEL 9's. They teach very bad habits and always DI the exact same way, which is up, every time.

Play against level 1's. Work on combos and punishes. If you can, get the 20XX hack pack to get even further use out of it.

Practice tech. Practice using your moves and movement. Please don't try and beat up a level 9 if you have even a thought of taking this game seriously.

Just try and think about what you are doing when you play cpus, and how a regular opponent would react. It does take some experience against people tho, but that's another story

Just avoid level 9's. Please.

 

[Plunder]

I'll say this first:

Movement really is the most important thing to practice and you don't even a need a CPU for that. Just being nimble and unpredictable, navigating each stage as fast as possible, knowing your options from any point on any stage, incorporating DD and WDing seamlessly. All of that is actually very hard to master and can get boring to practice but it's the most useful tool when you face a real human. You have to be unpredictable with your movement, and it has to be crispy and intentional so you can have approaches that beat human reaction time and punishes that connect before hitstun/lag expires.

In general playing against a CPU and treating it like a match is an atrocious idea that will instill bad habits and misguided strats.

But each tier of CPU does have a purpose

- Level 1s are good for trying brain dead combos, you have to keep track of when they are in histun though since they won't try and escape.
- Level 3s start DI'ing a bit
- Level 6-7 DI randomly but not consistent enough to practice actual combos or throw set ups on. can be good for CG practice depending on character.
- Levels 8-9 can be good for practicing dash dancing and wave dashing or other tricky movement into an attack/grab. Playing keep away with the high levels can be very useful. They will also Nair ASAP to break combos or throw setups. But, they powershield WAY too much and have reaction times that you won't encounter with a real human.

Always with any CPU use them in spurts and only practice one singular aspect at a time (movement, evasion, DD, OoS options, etc). Don't play them legitimately in match because the information gathered and practice will be useless.

 

[Zoxre]

Don't all CPU's in 20xx DI randomly? So using 20xx and fighting lvl 9's wouldn't be awful right?

 

[Deleted member]

Lvl 9 cpu's don't play like a human does, you learn bad habits from them that are completely useless in a set.

 

[WinterShorts]

@ mythbust4000 @ AirFair @ Plunder and @JowJowGnome thanks for the responses! I've been mostly playing against lv 1 computers to practice mostly combos, so glad to know this is the way to do it.

 

[The_Most_Effectual]

So, as someone new to the game who plays CPU's WAY too much, I can definitely say that they are nothing but negatively impactful on your gameplay. If they don't hurt you in one way, they'll hurt you in another. Most people will tell you that they teach you bad habits (i.e. being too aggro, over-extending, etc.), and while this can be true, I'm encountering a different problem. For me, after hearing people bash CPU's over and over, saying that they give you all these really bad habits, I end up doubting myself whenever play with real people. I start thinking of myself as some scrub who only plays against CPU's and who's whole game is built around bad habits, and I tell myself that I need to throw everything I think I know about the game out the window. I forget that I'm actually half-decent at the game. So basically, if they don't negatively affect your play directly, they will find a way to do so indirectly.

 

[Dolla Pills]

As someone who plays a lot against CPU's, I will say that they are helpful only when you regularly play real people. That way you can treat the CPU like a dumbed down human and you don't learn to fight against a computer instead of a person.

Now, in my opinion level 1 CPU's on the 20XX hack pack are the ideal computers to face. This is because they will DI and tech completely randomly (because of the hack pack), but they don't do annoying stuff like powershield all your moves. Since the computer can read your inputs, higher level computers will react much faster than a human and beat out a lot of stuff in unrealistic ways, but it is also beaten in stupid ways like roll back fsmash. That's why you want to stick to low level and just dance around it and beat it up.

 

[GenNyan]

Playing level 9s is ok if you're specifically trying to implement a new tech/movement option and are focusing on a singular aspect, rather than trying to play the CPU legitimately. If you don't have 20xx, mix up what level computers you use, they all DI differently. Don't make it a habit of playing lv 9s a lot and don't try to play the neutral.

Do you find the lv 9's constant jabbing really, really annoying?

Its annoying, but can be helpful. You can go into a match vs fox with the sole goal of trying to avoid the jab (which in a real game can combo into upsmash), to learn that specific aspect of play.

 

[EPsilon933]

CPUs are too boring for me to practice against. I play other fighting games online to learn how to fight against opponents (spacing, prediction). The skill can transition pretty well into Melee. Being more fun makes it easier for me to put more hours into. This works best if someone plays as nontechnical characters. Practicing alone in their room works best if someone plays as technical characters

 

[Dolla Pills]

Its annoying, but can be helpful. You can go into a match vs fox with the sole goal of trying to avoid the jab (which in a real game can combo into upsmash), to learn that specific aspect of play.

I tend to disagree with this because a level nine is jabbing for a completely different reason than a human would. Level nines jab you because they instantly detect you have made an input for an attack or a jump or whatever and then react with a jab. A human cannot do this. Instead, humans throw out jabs after wave dashing out of a dash dance (for example) to try to catch where they think their opponent will go. Computers do not dash dance, in fact they don't even dash unless they are going for a grab. The bottoms line is that the moves are used so differently by computers and humans that it is pretty worthless to try to learn how to deal with things from a computer.

 

[WinterShorts]

Don't all CPU's in 20xx DI randomly? So using 20xx and fighting lvl 9's wouldn't be awful right?

Now, in my opinion level 1 CPU's on the 20XX hack pack are the ideal computers to face. This is because they will DI and tech completely randomly (because of the hack pack)

And there ya go @ Zoxre

 

[-ACE-]

As Ganon I often chaingrab level 1's to practice my pivot dash (smash turn) jc grab for DI behind. In terms of Ganon's dthrow, they always DI full behind when grabbed while airborne, and slightly behind if grabbed while standing. Useful since it's the hardest regrab to get on fox/falco, but I also cg humans a lot so I never get used to covering DI behind automatically.

 

[SphericalCrusher]

Since I don't have anyone in my town to play with, I'll usually practice against level 1-5 PCs. I'm incredibly rusty anyway, so it helps me just get back into the flow of things. Netplay is also nice.

 

[WinterShorts]

Since I don't have anyone in my town to play with, I'll usually practice against level 1-5 PCs. I'm incredibly rusty anyway, so it helps me just get back into the flow of things. Netplay is also nice.

Pretty much what I'm doing now whenever I get to Melee.