online and offline play...? (still new to this lol)

[Mer1L]

On online play, you've got lag times to deal with. Even with a near perfect connection, you can still have slight differences in frames.

That's why I need to be crazy when playing online. Can't win playing like on offline.

 

[zero667]

oh, one other question, what are these "frames"? it seems all the experienced players who know about this can predict some of my moves before i use them, is it like a mod or something ??

 

[Supa]

oh, one other question, what are these "frames"? it seems all the experienced players who know about this can predict some of my moves before i use them, is it like a mod or something ??

The game runs at 60 frames per second. That is a "frame" ~ 1/60th of a second. In all modern fighters, people will make lists of frame data that include specific information about a move in the game. It might feel like they're able to predict you because they're using their knowledge of frames - for example, there's a shield attack with Pyrrha Omega that puts her at +2 when you block it - most anything you do after that will probably get crushed by whatever she chooses to do since you're at -2. If we were mirror matching and both attempted to stab after I had done that attack it is guaranteed that I would "win" and stab you first.

Here's one of my favorite guides that people have released in the past few years:
http://www.dustloop.com/forums/content.php?104-Reading-and-Using-Frame-Data-Part-1

Keep in mind that Soul Calibur terminology is usually a little differnet - instead of Startup and Active you'll only see "Impact". Impact is the time it takes the move to hit something (effectively startup+active). If you look at some of the characters in the Wiki for 8wayrun you can find their frame data for SCIV and (most) for SCV.

 

[zero667]

The game runs at 60 frames per second. That is a "frame" ~ 1/60th of a second. In all modern fighters, people will make lists of frame data that include specific information about a move in the game. It might feel like they're able to predict you because they're using their knowledge of frames - for example, there's a shield attack with Pyrrha Omega that puts her at +2 when you block it - most anything you do after that will probably get crushed by whatever she chooses to do since you're at -2. If we were mirror matching and both attempted to stab after I had done that attack it is guaranteed that I would "win" and stab you first.

Here's one of my favorite guides that people have released in the past few years:
http://www.dustloop.com/forums/content.php?104-Reading-and-Using-Frame-Data-Part-1

Keep in mind that Soul Calibur terminology is usually a little differnet - instead of Startup and Active you'll only see "Impact". Impact is the time it takes the move to hit something (effectively startup+active). If you look at some of the characters in the Wiki for 8wayrun you can find their frame data for SCIV and (most) for SCV.

oh wow :o thats awesome, thanks bro!

 

[OkamiBW]

And on frames, I haven't looked up any data on this, nor have I done much research on it, but there's a certain amount of frames that it takes to react to something. I believe it's dependent on the rate at which you're expecting it.

Some moves are going to be "unreactable" regardless of how much you expect them. In SSBM (Smash: Melee) for example, you'll never be able to shield a normal jab (3 frames) on reaction no matter how hard you try. I believe it's over 10 frames, so I don't think you'd be able to react to an iMCF (Yoshimitsu's Instant Manji Carve Fist) on reaction (8 frames). Some jabs/interrupters (like a quick horizontal strike) are fast enough where you won't be able to react to them. I believe Natsu's AA* is unreactable.

Something that you're expecting to happen is easier to see. If you know someone is going to use a certain move, you can better react to it. I'm not certain where the threshold is, but, let's say a i17 like a grab may be ducked on reaction if you know specifically that someone is going to do it.

Something you have seen before, but are not expecting should be the next tier. Perhaps you may not have expected a grab, so you miss the duck. But on something that's slower you can react to it (e.g. Natsu's 1A, i25).

Something that's slow that you haven't ever seen before...or better yet, looks like something else, may be unreactable. Natsu has a very slow mix-up with HOV A (i57) and HOV B (i58) which are a low and mid respectively. But not only have you rarely seen them, but they look somewhat alike in the beginning. So let's say you block them on reaction 50% of the time. On the other hand, if you've seen them a kajillion times, you'll probably block them about 95% of the time (or so I've heard).

*This may prove helpful for Basic Terms and Notations: http://8wayrun.com/threads/basic-notations-and-terminology.58/