Thinking of Giving Up....

[Justice]

But before I do, I thought I'd ask for some advice.

The main reason I feel this way is that I'm spending time in the lab, perfecting my kombos, and I drop them more now that I ever have. I'm losing to bots I have never lost to before. Earler today, I lost to Kintaro. NOONE loses to Kintaro, he's just a big orange Halloween donut! Last night, I continued on Shao Khan over 50x! Earlier that day, I beat him without continuing at all. I haven't gotten the trophy for beating Expert without continuing (nor do I see that happening. Ever).

So I am really down on myself and I don't think I can cut the mustard......

 

[PND_Mustard]

dont sweat it, the cpu is hardly a measure of your skill, they moveread and drop combos on purpose, if you win its really because the cpu lets you, lol

 

[Faded Dreams V]

Every AI character follows a pattern. Just memorize it and win. For example, Sub-Zero will always slide when you jump. Same thing with many teleporting characters. If you're blindly rushing down a cpu that knows your every move, obviously you're going to lose.

Also, like Mustard said, playing the cpu and playing against a real person are drastically different experiences, so you shouldn't even feel bad over it.

 

[Alright RyRy]

Every AI character follows a pattern. Just memorize it and win. For example, Sub-Zero will always slide when you jump. Same thing with many teleporting characters. If you're blindly rushing down a cpu that knows your every move, obviously you're going to lose.

Also, like Mustard said, playing the cpu and playing against a real person are drastically different experiences, so you shouldn't even feel bad over it.

If your fighting Kung Lao just get full screen and uppercut his teleport and jump away works every time.

 

[GamerBlake90]

But before I do, I thought I'd ask for some advice.

The main reason I feel this way is that I'm spending time in the lab, perfecting my kombos, and I drop them more now that I ever have. I'm losing to bots I have never lost to before. Earler today, I lost to Kintaro. NOONE loses to Kintaro, he's just a big orange Halloween donut! Last night, I continued on Shao Khan over 50x! Earlier that day, I beat him without continuing at all. I haven't gotten the trophy for beating Expert without continuing (nor do I see that happening. Ever).

So I am really down on myself and I don't think I can cut the mustard......

That's how I often feel about myself, as nearly 100% of the people who've seen me fight will tell you. But I have to say this:

You cannot fight an AI the way you would fight a human player, it's just impossible. You could practice the pros and cons of your character whether it be for pressure, combos, defense, everything, but against a bot you can almost never utilize smart tactics against them. You can't beat them in terms of reading anything. You'll have to randomize yourself.

Bots are in no way a measure of your skill. Unless I am wrong, no-one ever asks how well players like Tom Brady, REO, THTB, etc. do on the Arcade Ladder because - who cares?! We've seen for ourselves that they are outstanding players. Ultimately the competition between human players is all that matters.

As for dropping combos, ask yourself why that is the case. It's pretty easy to nail them in situations without pressure involved, but when you're actually fighting...the window of opportunity rarely ever opens, especially if the player is smart. We're not counting bots here this time. You gotta really sharpen up your instincts so as to spot that opportunity.

A good recommendation would be to go to Training Mode and set the AI to Expert level so as to intensify your practice. After all, you have to practice more than just combos and mix-ups in order to hold your own. You appear to be a smart guy, I am sure you can pick up on my meaning.

Many people have told me not to give up, and thus I pass that message over to you. I'm not gonna have other members feeling down on themselves.

 

[AREZ God of War]

dont sweat it, the cpu is hardly a measure of your skill, they moveread and DROP COMBOS ON PURPOSE, if you win its really because the cpu lets you, lol

SOOOOOOOO true........UMK3's AI has been doing this to me for EONS and it drives me nuts. FG's AI are horrendous and should NEVER be used to measure skill.

 

[GodsLonelyman]

But before I do, I thought I'd ask for some advice.

The main reason I feel this way is that I'm spending time in the lab, perfecting my kombos, and I drop them more now that I ever have. I'm losing to bots I have never lost to before. Earler today, I lost to Kintaro. NOONE loses to Kintaro, he's just a big orange Halloween donut! Last night, I continued on Shao Khan over 50x! Earlier that day, I beat him without continuing at all. I haven't gotten the trophy for beating Expert without continuing (nor do I see that happening. Ever).



So I am really down on myself and I don't think I can cut the mustard......

Losing to the AI is no biggy. It's what the other people say, the AI has patterns. The minute you stop treating it like a human player is when you'll start winning. Shao Kahn for example is the easiest character to beat on the ladder. As soon as you start crossing him up he opens up to meaty combos, it's braindead really lol. Try picking a zoning character like Noob for example. Sit back fullscreen and start spamming projectiles. You'll see that the AI will not try to dash in or avoid the zoning, instead they always opt to zone back. The AI is garbage.

with that said why are you playing the ladder? For fun and trophies? Or for lack of offline competition? If the latter I can see why you would want to drop the game. The online specially for playstation sucks really bad, the game plays totally different and did I mention the terrible lag and netcode? Just having one offline friend to play with can really make the difference with mk9. Best of luck and hope you don;t drop it.

 

[rev0lver]

Another thing is, maybe you're a little bit like me. When I play too much of something for too long, I start to fall into patterns and overthink things. I barely played MK this week for the sole reason that I'm going to NEC. I trained a little with Pig, played a little ranked, went to VSM, but that's it. Maybe you should take a few days off and come back and see how things feel for you.

 

[Justice]

Thanks for the wonderful words of encouragement guys!

[MENTION=6465]Mustard-LK4D4[/MENTION]: Thanks dood! It's awesome to get advice from a player of your caliber!

[MENTION=5038]Faded[/MENTION]Dreams: I have noticed certain patterns but just when I think i can rely on those patterns, the AI does something horribly stoopid and bodies me into oblivion. I have noticed things like jumping over Shao Khan's hammer throw and nailing him with a hefty kombo will usually make him toss the hammer again.

[MENTION=7574]XBLMindGamez[/MENTION]: Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely remember that!

[MENTION=416]Crazy Blake 88[/MENTION]: I already do that. I've got a tournament coming up on the 10th that I would like to go to since tournaments aren't held in my area often so I went back to basics. That's when all this started. I went back to try to commit at the very least Sonya's strings to muscle memory so I wouldn't look like a total assclown while getting bodied by these players. Didn't work for Shang Tsung tho since in the practice arena, he never uses his morphs oh:

[MENTION=279]AREZ God of War[/MENTION]: That's actually my problem. Everyone talks about how bad or stoopid the AI is, so in my mind, it works like a ladder. I graduate from the beginner class (AI) to intermediate grade (online) to master class (offline). So for me to not be able to beat the AI decisevely means I'm not ready for anything else.

[MENTION=4634]GodsLonelyman[/MENTION]: I don't have internet anymore. The scene in my area fits into my living room when we get together. Due to scheduling conflicts, we are unable to get together as much as we would like, but that's life :bigsmile: My training regimen has been lately to pick a kombo, go to the lab and hammer it out for about an hour or so, then go to Ladder for funs and the off-chance I can get that trophy My goal in ladder is to just go until I lose and restart/quit at that time. But what invariably happens is, I'll lose to say Sheeva in the first round and I can't leave it at that. I gotta figure out what I did wrong.

Thanks for the advice on Shao Khan. The problem I have with him is, if I cross him up, I get nailed with an up sholder or swinging hammer when I'm behind him. And I don't seem to have the timing down. The rare times I get away with jumping over him I start the kombo too early and slap him in the face and stand there, or he shoulders on reaction and out of kombo range. I tried zoning him fullscreen with Sonya but he only bites for so long before he shoulder spams knocking me into the corner and I put the controller down until it's time to continue.

[MENTION=5442]rev0lver[/MENTION]: I'm like that too. I forget which game it was now, some action or racing game I think (Might have been Motorstorm) but I hit a spot and it was like hitting a brick wall. I couldn't get past it to save my life. I got royally :salty: and quit playing for 6 months. I got bored one day, went back to it and not only did I breeze through the spot where I was stuck, but in one session I damn near finished the game. The only problem is, I would like to enter this tournament that's like 8 days away. I can't really afford to take time off of practicing.

 

[Euphoric]

But before I do, I thought I'd ask for some advice.

The main reason I feel this way is that I'm spending time in the lab, perfecting my kombos, and I drop them more now that I ever have. I'm losing to bots I have never lost to before. Earler today, I lost to Kintaro. NOONE loses to Kintaro, he's just a big orange Halloween donut! Last night, I continued on Shao Khan over 50x! Earlier that day, I beat him without continuing at all. I haven't gotten the trophy for beating Expert without continuing (nor do I see that happening. Ever).

So I am really down on myself and I don't think I can cut the mustard......

From a guy that exclusively is forced to fight AI, due to my lack of transportation to go to my local scene. I've learned that, the AI is random, it cheats, it reads inputs, so unless you're doing something that's not random, you'll get Fd up by the bosses/AI.

Dropping combos is common, happens to everyone, MK requires specific timing on some combos, such as Smokes 3, D1, 2.

I wish I can play real people! I refuse to play online, I refuse to adjust my offline timing for combos, I don't want to adapt to the input delay, as I feel it'll hinder me when I do play offline players, it's best just to be accustomed to offline inputs.

If you think I'm BSin, I've accumulated 800k+ Koins. :|.

 

[Faded Dreams V]

From a guy that exclusively is forced to fight AI, due to my lack of transportation to go to my local scene. I've learned that, the AI is random, it cheats, it reads inputs, so unless you're doing something that's not random, you'll get Fd up by the bosses/AI.

Dropping combos is common, happens to everyone, MK requires specific timing on some combos, such as Smokes 3, D1, 2.

I wish I can play real people! I refuse to play online, I refuse to adjust my offline timing for combos, I don't want to adapt to the input delay, as I feel it'll hinder me when I do play offline players, it's best just to be accustomed to offline inputs.

If you think I'm BSin, I've accumulated 800k+ Koins. :|.

You know, despite the input lag and adjustments you need to make, playing online is better practice than beating up the AI all day. I do both, personally.

 

[Justice]

From a guy that exclusively is forced to fight AI, due to my lack of transportation to go to my local scene. I've learned that, the AI is random, it cheats, it reads inputs, so unless you're doing something that's not random, you'll get Fd up by the bosses/AI.

Dropping combos is common, happens to everyone, MK requires specific timing on some combos, such as Smokes 3, D1, 2.

I wish I can play real people! I refuse to play online, I refuse to adjust my offline timing for combos, I don't want to adapt to the input delay, as I feel it'll hinder me when I do play offline players, it's best just to be accustomed to offline inputs.

If you think I'm BSin, I've accumulated 800k+ Koins. :|.

Meh. You're still a scrub until you get at least 1mil

I can live with the dropped kombos. What I can't live with is when I specifically train said kombo only to drop with increased frequency after doing so.

Don't completely discredit online dood. It may not be the greatest play environment but it is real people. You can still learn matchps and tech this way. Just keep playing offline so that you don't lose that timing. Angry Worm is primarily an online player and he kicks my ass from Outworld to the Netherrealm and back.

A thought: Maybe I'm doing worse against the AI because I get to play real people occasionally?

 

[Euphoric]

I'll give it a go, I don't want to play it. I hate it, it just makes me rage, especially when the game randomly chops up for 2-3 seconds, I just want to turn it off, even if I'm winning.

Plus, I don't think, anyone wants to play me while I adjust, when only jabs and shit come out because I can't adjust to the strings/delay online.

 

[Justice]

I'll give it a go, I don't want to play it. I hate it, it just makes me rage, especially when the game randomly chops up for 2-3 seconds, I just want to turn it off, even if I'm winning.

Plus, I don't think, anyone wants to play me while I adjust, when only jabs and shit come out because I can't adjust to the strings/delay online.

Just saying dood. If it'll lower your enjoyment of the game, don't do it. You gotta find you ways to skill up where you can

 

[Lumpymoomilk]

The CPU is a terrible judge of skill honestly, like others have said if you do a move they basically instantly respond to it and have patterns, which of course people do too. But you can usually adapt and outsmart a human player but the CPU is just obnoxious because they pre-counter what you are doing. I have also found that the better I got the harder the CPU did against me as well, when all I did was uppercuts and 2 hit 10% combos they seemed to go easier on me than when I do 30% combos on them now.

 

[Justice]

The CPU is a terrible judge of skill honestly, like others have said if you do a move they basically instantly respond to it and have patterns, which of course people do too. But you can usually adapt and outsmart a human player but the CPU is just obnoxious because they pre-counter what you are doing. I have also found that the better I got the harder the CPU did against me as well, when all I did was uppercuts and 2 hit 10% combos they seemed to go easier on me than when I do 30% combos on them now.

So in a way, the AI does sort of learn? Interesting.....

 

[Slego]

Sonya will do this to you. You will find youb have really off days playing, but tough it out and you will IADK your way to awesomeness, I promise.

 

[Lumpymoomilk]

So in a way, the AI does sort of learn? Interesting.....

sort of yeah, When I first played the game, it seemed like I would just randomly hit the computer and they would just randomly hit me, now they are doing 15-20-25% combos on easy mode even in the early fights when I don't just completely screw around. It's like the bigger the combos you do on them the computer seems to try and do back to you. At least from my experience.

 

[CapnCook]

Stop worry so much about combos. Combos will come, just continue to practice them if that makes you feel better but don't think about them when you're in a match. Eventually you'll get to the point where your muscle memory will take over and you'll get them consistently. If there's something that keeps coming out wrong, go into training mode and see if you can find out what you're doing wrong. But seriously, whatever you do, don't think about combos while you're playing a match. I don't care if you're playing the AI or a person, it will make you a much MUCH worse player.

Also, as everyone else has said and I will reiterate, winning or losing to the AI isn't really a good measure of your skill. You have to play the AI like it's a totally different mode then playing a normal person...If anything, take a break from the game, consider playing online more (you will get better this way then playing the AI. It doesn't take that long to readjust your timing and you will improve in other facets of your game) and just don't take it too seriously. The moment you start to relax is when things will come together (I know from experience, so trust me).

 

[Justice]

Stop worry so much about combos. Combos will come, just continue to practice them if that makes you feel better but don't think about them when you're in a match. Eventually you'll get to the point where your muscle memory will take over and you'll get them consistently. If there's something that keeps coming out wrong, go into training mode and see if you can find out what you're doing wrong. But seriously, whatever you do, don't think about combos while you're playing a match. I don't care if you're playing the AI or a person, it will make you a much MUCH worse player.

Also, as everyone else has said and I will reiterate, winning or losing to the AI isn't really a good measure of your skill. You have to play the AI like it's a totally different mode then playing a normal person...If anything, take a break from the game, consider playing online more (you will get better this way then playing the AI. It doesn't take that long to readjust your timing and you will improve in other facets of your game) and just don't take it too seriously. The moment you start to relax is when things will come together (I know from experience, so trust me).

Thanks for this. All I'm doing is practicing basic strings like Mess Hall and Fierce Assault. I can do those with my eyes closed in Practice but dropping them in battle. It's gotten so bad that I'm messing up Kartwheel and Energy Ring Blast; two inputs that I haven't messed up very often since SF2....

I don't have internet to play against others :boohoo: But I also figure that if the AI is reacting to what I do, then at least that is some practice with defending myself and learning the matchups to some degree.

I dunno. I still feel the pull to play but also feel like I'm being punished for trying to level up my game. If that makes any sense.

 

[CapnCook]

Thanks for this. All I'm doing is practicing basic strings like Mess Hall and Fierce Assault. I can do those with my eyes closed in Practice but dropping them in battle. It's gotten so bad that I'm messing up Kartwheel and Energy Ring Blast; two inputs that I haven't messed up very often since SF2....

I don't have internet to play against others :boohoo: But I also figure that if the AI is reacting to what I do, then at least that is some practice with defending myself and learning the matchups to some degree.

I dunno. I still feel the pull to play but also feel like I'm being punished for trying to level up my game. If that makes any sense.

Trust me, I've gotten to the point where I'm so overfocused and really obsessive and stressed about my gameplay that i'll mess even basic things like that up, like accidentally uppercutting instead of throwing a projectile for instance. What you need to do is just relax like I said and probably take a short break, or maybe pick up a new/different character for a little bit.

That sucks that you don't have the capability to play online but obviously you can't help right now so I wouldn't beat yourself up for that. If you could find another person to play with that would be ideal but if you're stuck with the AI that's better then nothing, just know that the AI is bullshit especially on expert. Shao Khan and Kintaro are bullshit too. You really have to give in to the cheap/braindead strategy of crossing them over/teleporting right before they do a move and doing that the whole match to beat them. Still, don't worry about the AI, just try to learn their strings and such and practice your defense, anti-air, things of that nature.

What I'll do if I'm playing the ladder is quit and restart when I get to shang. Because at that point it really starts to get stupid and it will do nothing but frustrate you. So unless the trophy/achievement means that much to you, just do like I do and go to the beginning and just practice. Don't worry about winning and losing just work on a specific area like anti-air with normals or something and do that (may even be better to play on an easier level because sometimes it's hard to accomplish anything on expert because the AI is so cheap!).

Keep your chin up bro!

 

[MagicMan357]

The AI is really exploitable, just turtle and spam projectiles LOL

 

[GNG Iniquity]

If all you have is the AI, I can't blame you. Online isn't much better and that's what I have to play 75% of the time, but it's still better than the AI alone.

 

[Justice]

Thanks a bunch dood. Maybe I'll start playing Ladder with my eyes closed. That'll take the pressure off

That's probably my biggest problem. I've never bothered actually learning a fighter, just unlocked whatever there was to unlock, saw all the endings/stories, etc. and moved on. Trying to take my game to place it's never been before probablly has some growing pains associated with it.

 

[RomeoBravoDelta]

Among other things, the AI is impervious to mind games. You can't practice against them in any serious manner.