Ultra Street Fighter IV

[Lyrical Donut]

I'll be there on Friday too.

[joeplus]

I was planning to come on Friday too.

[Plopboy]

These have arrived today just in time for Heggfest

so now I'm ready to be better than Desk and thus I'm thinking of changing my name to Occasional Table, because obviously this will make me a better player, oh yes fear my octagonal gate.

[jiroczech]

Imagine if you beat everyone at Heggfest and they were like "It's all because of those pesky octagonal gates" and they went mental and caused a big scandal and in the tabloids it'd be called "octagonal gate gate".

I've just spent the last hour filling in a stupid form. Now it's Street Fighting time.

[joffocakes]

I feel like my block against his dragon punch isn't working effectively. What could be the reason for this?

What do you mean by that? Do you mean you aren't blocking it? Or that you are, but you're not able to punish him when he lands? If it's the former, just hold down-back and don't press any buttons. Unless he knows how to cancel out of the dragon punch he should sail way above you. If you're trying to do a combo and he's dragon punching through the middle of it, you're not timing the combo correctly. So practice that combo more, but also recognise the part you struggle with, and deliberately stop before getting there next time and again block with down back; the mashed dragon punch should hit your block again and sail up into the air, punishable. A Ken who doesn't dragon punch wisely should offer up more than enough opportunity to beat him soundly. Just play a little more catiously until you gain confidence with your combos.

If your problem is punishing him as he lands as he seems to recover too quickly (and no doubt dragon punches through your combo) then you need to learn an easy, consistent punish combo to use on him. For now even a dragon punch of your own should suffice. There's some Ryu players on here who'd know some effective, simple Ryu combos, but a pretty much universal approach for all characters is to hold medium punch and medium kick to focus attack and let go just as he's landing; this should "crumple" Ken if you time it right. It's important to learn to dash out of this focus attack once you hit and get a feel for the timing, which can be odd at first, as you'll be able to get right next to him and follow up with anything you want. If you can't manage the dash after, just use crouching hard kick to sweep. That should hit, even if he's almost lying on the ground.

Failing that, you could always use light punch + light kick together to throw him. You'll knock him down. If he's dragon punch happy, stad over him, block, watch him do another and repeat the process.

What's the difference between Ryu and Evil Ryu? /noob

They have similar basic moves, but Evil Ryu's fireballs and crouching medium kick aren't quite as effective. He also has a fair bit less health than Ryu, so you'll die from less hits. He has an axe kick thing which can be used for some pretty lovely, kinda tricky combos and, like Akuma, he can combo his dragon punch after his light kick hurricane kick. Oh, and he can teleport as well. He's probably a character to use when you have a greater understanding of the game though, as your damage with him will come from landing long combos whereas Ryu can still get reasonable results from more basic, hard hitting stuff.

Also, Ryu listens to Enya whereas Evil Ryu listens to Linkin Park.

[joffocakes]

Yes! That's an important thing to know. And later you'll be looking more into attacks which force the opponent to block standing; jumping attacks all act this way, but some characters have "overhead" attacks they can use on the ground. Ryu's overheard attack is a "command normal" (any normal attack which only comes out when holding a specific direction); forward+medium punch does his 2-hit Collarbone Breaker. Defensive opponents who like to hold downback can be hit using that, or throws.

When you're performing a combo, especially with crouching attacks, you can be holding down back already, so that if you stop at any point you will block. From the sounds of your opponent I think starting an offense and stopping abruptly will see them make a mistake you can capitalise on.

[joffocakes]

Oh, do you know about "crossup" attacks? They're basically when you jump over your opponent but do an attack which hits far back enough to still connect. I think in Ryu's case you'd be best going for him jumping medium kick as it's pretty lenient timing wise. The best thing about this type of attack is not only that your opponent will have to block standing, but also they'll have to block in the other direction suddenly, basically hold the direction toward the spot you'd jumped from, as you're now hitting from the opposite side. Beginners find that a very difficult to get used to, and even later it can be key to opening up trickier opponents.

This all ties in with "spacing", and learning where you have to be on screen for your jumps and attacks to be most effective.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

which strength of kens dragon punch is he using? if its hp then you have forever and a day to punish him for it. if he's using lp then he doesn't go as high and recovers a bit more quickly. this means you don't have as long to think about a punish or to execute one. try crouching hard punch into hard dragon punch, or even just use a dragon punch of your own since its a really fast move.

try setting up a ken dummy mashing the dp you're having trouble with and work on punishing him for it.

and like Joffo says, some kens just mash dp all day. the best way to beat this is to deliberately drop a combo, like do cr.lp cr.lp then block. if he's just mashing then he'll sail up into the sky. thus also means you'll be on the lookout and prepared to punish, so won't be panicked.

[Camel]

I've been making notes all day and watching videos from http://shoryuken.com...or-ssf4.103038/

And thus, a new JLM was born.

Guys, at Heggfest can we set something up so that we can make extravagant entrances set to music like boxers entering the ring? I'd like this music please:

I haven't played SFIV for god only knows how long so I quite literally probably won't be playing (much) for fear of embarrassing myself.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

In you look a ways down in that thread, double o, there's a video entitled "basic mix-up ryu" that might interest. Mix ups are basically things you can do to keep your opponent confused and guessing. The best time to mix someone up is after a sweep or throw when they're on the floor.

You might choose to cross them up, not cross them up but make it look like you are, do an empty jump into a low attack to catch them blocking high, throw on their wakeup, tick throw on wakeup, charge a level 3 focus attack and either unleash it or backdash, or just block on their wakeup and hope they do something stupid like a dp which you can punish. Some characters are better than others at this, but everyone can do some kind of mixups.

They're fun to lean and to use, so give 'em a try. Mix up!

[Camel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTmWXC87nkw

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Yeah, no rush! This game is deep man, and the more you know the deeper it gets.

Also, geomon, was there lag going on last night? I think there was because a) my links aren't THAT bad and b) your punishing my blocked spiral arrows by getting thrown is perhaps slightly sub-optimal. GG's though. Your e.ryu has those horrible month-long mega damage combos down. I was superbly happy when I punished your unsafe fireball string with super. First time I've done that.

I got donut-oni'd again

[Goemon]

Yeah, no rush! This game is deep man, and the more you know the deeper it gets.

Also, geomon, was there lag going on last night? I think there was because a) my links aren't THAT bad and b) your punishing my blocked spiral arrows by getting thrown is perhaps slightly sub-optimal. GG's though. Your e.ryu has those horrible month-long mega damage combos down. I was superbly happy when I punished your unsafe fireball string with super. First time I've done that.

I got donut-oni'd again

Yea, was some crazy stuff going on with my version last night!

Game was pausing and there was times where I would press buttons and nothing would happen!!

Your Cammy is coming along a treat though! The super through the blocked fireball string was great but showed me that I am leaving myself open, which scared me...

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Yea, was some crazy stuff going on with my version last night!

Game was pausing and there was times where I would press buttons and nothing would happen!!

Your Cammy is coming along a treat though! The super through the blocked fireball string was great but showed me that I am leaving myself open, which scared me...

Ugh that sounds fun! I did feel a bit fraudulent after that match, haha.

Yeah, I picked up on those strings and probably should have ultra'd you through one or two more. Gotta be careful with those against some characters!

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Oh, and to counter a ken who keeps dp'ing, you could always just jump with no attack and hold block, so that you fake him out into dp'ing and then punish him.

What you have to do first is train the ken into not wanting to dp, show him that you know how to punish it, how to bait it, and that doing it every time is a bad idea. Then, when you've got him worried about whether or not to dp, you can start doing stuff like that.

It is also possible for ryu to time his crossup attacks so that ken's dp will miss and he'll sail merrily upwards.

[joeplus]

Fuck. Just found out that because I transferred our phone line into my name, it's going to take about a week to set up the new broadband, even though the old deal expires today.

No Heggfest warmup lobbies for me

[nuskool]

So is heggfest now confirmed for the weekend of the 8th Sept?

[joffocakes]

I hope so; I've got ma bus ticket!

I'll be so, so disappointed if Hegg's shaved off that magnificent, magnificent beard.

[df0]

A bus ticket, how very rural.

[nuskool]

What's the official accommodation for the festival or is the plan to do it straight through with no sleep haha

[Lyrical Donut]

And thus, a new JLM was born.

Guys, at Heggfest can we set something up so that we can make extravagant entrances set to music like boxers entering the ring? I'd like this music please:

I haven't played SFIV for god only knows how long so I quite literally probably won't be playing (much) for fear of embarrassing myself.

This should probably be playing whenever I get to play JLM

and this might be handy for anyone who has trouble dealing with crossups

[Goemon]

For this Ryu basic mix up. He is basically using a jumping medium / hard kick every single time.

What is to stop Ken just countering with a dragon punch instead of blocking?

Basically nothing, which is why you need to time your jumps ins so they are not obvious and it's more about you're opponents reaction speed to anti air.

You can also set up 'safe jumps' which is where you jump at the opponent after a knock down but your timing allows you to land safely before you opponent can hit you. This is a bit more advanced.

[Lyrical Donut]

It's a real shame that Haggar and myself won't be able to showcase our impromptu choreography at Heggfest. We've been nailing some rather lovely stuff lately, but it only happens when no-one else is in the lobby.

I reckon we need to move forward with it though, maybe we could do a panel at next year's Evo or something.

[hegg]

I did attempt to trim it Joffo, sorry. But emphasis on "attempt", I don't really know what I'm doing, it's all so new..

Sorry to all for lack of posting lately, and street fighting. I've been incredibly busy. I'll message everyone who PM'd me the other week this weekend, to kick things off. Only a week to go, flip! I was thinking about a random team tourney (?), mostly because I haven't been playing and I'm scared of getting beats.

[hegg]

Oh I should have said, if anyone wants to come but hasn't PM'd me, please do so today!

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Oh yeah the rose slide stuff last night was delightful.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Also good last night was our round of quazi-esque gameplay, where we replaced footsies with jumpsies.

[Qazimod]

Also good last night was our round of quazi-esque gameplay, where we replaced footsies with jumpsies.

[cale]

Are there lobbies tonight? I've not played this godforsaken computer game in weeks.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

No, Friday is rest day.