Shaken Up

[ELC]

Alright, a bit of exposition before-hand. Since last week, I have been practicing by playing on the Expert Ladder, and since this past Monday, I've been doing pretty damn well, actually getting to Goro and Shao Kahn without losing a match in two playthroughs. And then, last night, after doing so well, I get my butt handed to me online in one of the rooms. About ten matches overall. And I was raging pretty badly. So I decide to go back to Expert Ladder, but success is now a chore to achieve. So I go into practice mode, and I could not execute any combos/resets/mixups right. So I thought maybe I was just tired, so I go on Expert Ladder and Practice mode this morning, but still no luck.

Anyhow, enough exposition: anyone know what has gotten me shaken up so badly? And how do I get my edge back?

 

[Zyns]

Expert ladder is not a very good way to practice. Find people at your skill level to spar with.

 

[kabelfritz]

real people behave differnet than ai, thats all. you gotta get used to both a bit.

 

[JrK]

Yeah playing the computer is only good for practicing combos on a moving target.

You play (your attitude) vs a computer differently than a person (Confidence wise), and even if you don't realize you know the computers pattern, you do.

 

[dribirut]

also timing in online and offline for combos,resets, etc is very different... maybe that threw you off

 

[randomdps]

The fact that you can beat this game on Expert using nothing but Kano's d,f+2 should tell you something about the value of "practicing" against the A.I.

 

[Enenra]

The fact that you can beat this game on Expert using nothing but Kano's d,f+2 should tell you something about the value of "practicing" against the A.I.

I dunno, expert AI hits far higher combos and puts up a far better fight than most people online.

 

[Mr Roguelike]

Anyhow, enough exposition: anyone know what has gotten me shaken up so badly? And how do I get my edge back?

Take time off. Play a different game, a different genre, spend the next few days doing something completely different.
What happened is you got mindf*****. Taking some time off will let your brain reset and analyze the situation so you can build beyond it.

 

[catch22]

I personally when i started, i hit traning room and set the AI to expert, i noticed that practice ai on expert is more aggressive that ladder on expert.

 

[brotana]

I like doing the ladder sometimes, the AI can be challenging, but its mainly because of the fact that it vaguely "cheats" by being programmed to recognize what your doing and answer it immediately and precisely. It doesnt seem to quite read your inputs like the old MK's did, but its similar. It almost cheats, i guess you could say.

Its very poor preparation for playing against folk though. The players have been playing the game since release, learning from each other, learning from experts advice and youtube vids and character guides etc, and just good old personal experience, what some call the metagame if you will. The AI has been using the same code the game shipped with, and its based on creating a challenging, entertaining experience that is ultimately meant to be "beaten". A human player has no such design goals.

 

[doomfarmer]

It could just be playing online destroyed you and you're still mad. That's how I am, I cannot play online. Some people actually stick up for online and say its only laggy sometimes... these people live in some kind of hotspot or something. Every game i've ever played online (around 2000 between all modes) has been laggy. Every single time. Ever. There has never ever been one game where I felt like it was fair, and that each player was represented properly. And it's never fun. I just keep going back to it because I don't have any other options. Mortal Kombat and I have a love / hate relationship.

Anyway, I find after playing online I can't play offline just because of how fucking frustrated I am.