Struggling to be competent at the game

Stormwrench

Allow me to explain, I have been playing Ultimate MvC3 for about 6 or 7 months now, and have also been playing online quite a bit to see how I can fare against most people I play against. This, of course, leads to me being destroyed and very rarely actually winning a match. I believe my online W/L is about 10 wins / 20ish losses.

I practice at least 30 mins a day when I get the chance, and often switch up characters to see if I can find a nice team comp I like or characters I'd like to learn. Unfortunately, no matter how well I seem to think I do, I end up (as mentioned above) being completely destroyed when I face human players. I do try the Missions to learn some small combos and learn some abilities that connect to each other, but am so far incapable of beating Missions 8 or 9 on most characters.

My ability to defend myself is pretty much non-existent too. I try to learn to block, but my opponents will /always/ overhead or low attack when I'm not prepared for it. That or just chip me out.

I apologize if this just seems like me whining or complaining, but it frustrates me that after so long of playing the game, that I'm still as bad as I was when I started (despite knowing bread-and-butter combos with Wolverine and Doctor Doom). I was wondering if I could get advice on what I can do to improve, as everything I've tried so far doesn't seem to be working.

wolverine-master

My advice bro, keep playing and be patient, you'll get there. You started playing when everyone already had an idea on how to beat certain characters, so that may be a little tough on you. Regardless, keep playing, keep practicing and it'll just come to you. I'll help you if I can.

Stormwrench

wolverine-master, post: 7620265, member: 7627 wrote:

My advice bro, keep playing and be patient, you'll get there. You started playing when everyone already had an idea on how to beat certain characters, so that may be a little tough on you. Regardless, keep playing, keep practicing and it'll just come to you. I'll help you if I can.

I guess. Would it be considered better for me to actually just practice on AI until I'm able to defeat higher levels of difficulty, or just keep practicing until I get a nice muscle memory for combos? And yeah, I guess other people having played the game before I did and for longer than I have would give them the great advantage, even if a lot are the same rank as myself. And help how exactly?

GameHova

stick to a team, and get the feel or frame for what attack is punishable also build a solid team and know when to be rapid or patient.

J.D

You seem to lack fighting game fundamentals in general.
If this is the first fighting game you're trying get good at, it will take some time because you need to learn all those fundamentals, and then you start learning the game itself. I know it feels like a long time but 7 months is nothing, however, that's only because it's your first time. If you actually have the patience to learn this game, I can assure you that picking other fighting games in the future will be a lot easier, thus making your experience a lot more enjoyable from the start.

The thing is, you need to realize that fighting games aren't rewarding in the sense that you get a better item or an weapon upgrade. In fighting games, you have to find the upgrades within yourself, and that is why fighting games might look as unwelcoming to new players at first, but the reality is that people are turned off by the fact that they need to actually sit down and learn the science behind it. I personally think that's the beauty of the genre, but some people think that video games should only be a means to entertain yourself.

Oh and one last thing, you should look at them live streams from time to time as well. You don't have to be good at the game to enjoy them, and I promise you will start watching those patterns sooner than you think. Commentators might also teach you a thing or two.

Emil

Stormwrench, post: 7620199, member: 65662 wrote:

Allow me to explain, I have been playing Ultimate MvC3 for about 6 or 7 months now, and have also been playing online quite a bit to see how I can fare against most people I play against. This, of course, leads to me being destroyed and very rarely actually winning a match. I believe my online W/L is about 10 wins / 20ish losses.

You've been playing for 6-7 months and you only played 30 or so matches? you need to play more matches so that you can become more competent in recognizing the situations to apply what you've been practicing...not to mention there are a ton of things you can't learn from practice mode.

Iamthejuri

Stormwrench, post: 7620340, member: 65662 wrote:

I guess. Would it be considered better for me to actually just practice on AI until I'm able to defeat higher levels of difficulty, or just keep practicing until I get a nice muscle memory for combos? And yeah, I guess other people having played the game before I did and for longer than I have would give them the great advantage, even if a lot are the same rank as myself. And help how exactly?

No way, A.I is good for absolutely nothing. It could even be argued that fighting high difficulty A.I is actually counter productive. The very best thing you can do (aside from playing in person) is find players who are better than yourself and who also have playable connections and run some long sets. Also check your character's sub-forum, tons of helpful advice and character specialists that can give you more specific tips. Other than that just play, play, play and play some more! God luck! :)

chirp

playing against the computer can be helpful for learning what sort of things you do are unsafe, or learning how to convert random ass hits into damage. of course, if you can play against an actual opponent, that's even better.
don't go playing the computer hoping to become a better player, though, you'll just pick up bad habits and learn how to exploit the a.i. rather than how to play well.

Stormwrench

Thanks for all the replies. I've been practicing for a good two hours today with a team I've been finding rather good (for me, anyway) of Wesker / Jill / Vergil. Still need practice for Vergil and Jill's combos, though I do know a basic combo which with Wesker on point is enough to kill a character with around the same health as Hawkeye.

@J.D. - Fighting games are actually my favourite game genre, and have been hooked on them since I first played Street Fighter 2 about sixteen years ago. Since then have played stuff like Tekken (2-6), Street Fighter (2-4), BlazBlue and now UMvC3 (which I find the most visually enthralling for fights). I even played a Jurassic Park fighting game (which I adored as a kid). But yeah, I have struggled with fighting games over the years, most of the time I've never been able to get good combos due to lack of reflexes, though today found that was getting better at executing a Wesker combo that included a ground bounce straight after my OTG gunshot. As for streams, I don't often watch them, though I do watch Maximillian videos, combo videos and of course videos of EVO when I can.

@Emil - 30 or so Ranked matches. I've tried going into lobbies to play against people for fun, but end up going against people in the Lord rank all the time, usually 1st Lord.

@Iamthejuri - I use the AI usually to see how in some situations I can land some attacks, and which assists are good when a character is being changed in. Such as with Jill and her cartwheel kick assist, she can knock the incoming guy down and allow my current character to S them into the air for the start of the combo. I was surprised when the cartwheel kick could also be combo'ed with Wesker's Samurai Edge to allow him to S them back into air too, which was an accidental discovery for me.

@chirp - Yeah, I do still need to get a better grip of my defenses, and the computer to me is a good starting point. I do know now at least some of Wesker's moves that are unsafe if they're blocked or miss, so I'm learning. Slowly. :P

huckles98

Keep playing and focus on small goals one at a time. I'm not a marvel player so I can't say what exactly to aim for, but this is general to learning any fighting game. Also, play a lot. Don't worry about win/loss. Online should be treated like free practice. If you stress yourself over stats you will never get better. If you play enough to consistently win it will probably only work in your favor to have a poor record and you surprise your opponent with your competency. I don't know how marvel keeps track of stats but I wouldn't put too much emphasis on them

Just keep grinding at it and if you find yourself getting too frustrated take a break and go mash on another game you enjoy on a more casual level. You would be surprised how taking a short break (for me 1-2 days) can help you to approach the game differently, its almost like resetting your system. Good luck.

Stormwrench

Well... that Wesker, Jill and Vergil team got me into a constant losing streak. Changed over to Nemesis and Sentinel and seemed to just change the tide completely. Bah...

GordonsBeard

A win/loss of 10:20 isn't awful, but what's sad is that that isn't 1000:2000.

Marvel 3 is a hard game to practice because while you -need- to have your combos down and be able to convert off anything, it's almost more valuable to not know your combos and instead learn how to open people up. You need to be playing 10x as much online because until you get those first hundred losses under your belt you won't know what to defend yourself from.

Methysan

As someone who was in your position (Marvel was the first FG I actually tried learning+learning a stick at the same time) you really just need to play a lot. Playing against the A.I. won't help you at all. Playing against other people is the only way you'll learn how to block mixups and avoid resets etc. The more times you're put into a situation the better you understand it and the faster you can react to it correctly.

That being said, find a team you like and play what you're comfortable with, for now at least. Learn a bnb for each character as well as things like throw followups if they have them. As time goes on you may find your team doesn't have the best synergy and that's fine because you'll be able to learn a new character more easily with all that execution practice you've had.

Finally, it sounds like you're struggling with the same thing I did when I first started online. I knew the combos but my neutral game was awful. I'd recommend watching some pros playing with your characters. Watch how they move, how they open people up, etc.



edit: Don't even look at your w/l record man. Everyone is gonna eat shit when they first start. Try to learn from your losses though. Try to analyze what exactly caused you to lose the game and learn from that. After the match think about what you could have done differently and remember it for next time. If you can record your matches that's even better.