TAC Question: Can you still churn butter for a counter?

#1

So I’ve been toying around with TAC combos, specifically because Frank is in my number 2 spot and it helps him gain levels quicker. Something I noticed is that sometimes online certain players will ALWAYS counter the TAC no matter how many times I did it. I change directions, use it at different times in the combo, etc. Yet they will counter everytime. Obviously they aren’t guessing right especially when I tried it 20 times (literally) in a match just to see what was going on.

I noticed this has been happening quite a bit to me and I was wondering if anyone knew if it was possible to still churn butter on the joystick and TAC counter by mashing S (at least for online gameplay). In addition I was wondering what the deal was with Hit boxes and if its possible to mash all 4 directions and S and always counter a TAC.

#2

I was always under the impression that you can mash whatever you want, but the game will only accept one directional input for the counter and ignore any others.

#3

That’s what I assumed too, but it seems like you’re not commuted to the direction you press until I (the combo starter) commits to a direction. This does remove the derpiness of a guaranteed TAC but I almost feel like there’s a way to just mash all directions. Not to mention that he obviously isn’t looking at my stick so he can see which direction I’m pressing. Do Left and Right + S count as the same since they have the same effect? Or do you need to press Left when I do Left in order to counter it?

#4

The bible says no, but who knows. It’s just the bible.

#5

I believe it’s just Up/Down/Side, so left should counter a right exchange, and vice-versa

#6

Maybe they have a broken Hitbox and just press every direction + :s: at once. :eek:

#7

There is a flash of color during the TAC sequence and if you were godlike you could theoretically correctly counter every single TAC. It’s possible that with online lag that this window is enlarged a bit making it easier to guess. It’s also entirely possible to guess right 20 times in a row - even without knowing your patterns.

#8

^You’d need Shaolin monk-like reaction to counter TACs with anything but guessing.

Anyway, churning the butter definitely doesn’t work offline in Ultimate. I’ve tried many times in training mode, and 9/10 times, I would fail breaking (not factual numbers). I haven’t tried circle mashing online, but I wouldn’t doubt that there is some fluke that allows 100% breaking with circle mashing.

#9

I don’t think its possible, even if you know what way they’re TACing, you absolutely can not use the flash as an indicator, as in, by the time the flash appears, its too late to counter.

I haven’t tested it myself, just testimonies from people who have tried and tested it out.

As for the OP, I feel with the new TAC changes you can predict what people are going for, like if i’m fighting a Dante/Frank team, I know hes going to go for the down exchange off his initial combo, because 1) If he side exchanges, I don’t care because 2) Without the down exchange, he probably hasn’t built enough meter for a THC to get frank an easy level 4/5

Up exchanges are whatever, they aren’t that much more damage than a legit combo and they don’t allow for too many reset opportunities because you’re up so high, left/rights don’t matter too much to me because all my combos are self sufficient in their cost, so I always go for down exchange counters in most cases, obviously this is going to differ from person to person, but its a starting point.

TL;DR - You can’t react to the flash regardless of how good you are, and the new TAC system allows for predicting to be more advantageous than going for completely random countering

#10

Definitely I feel like TACing is a lot more predictable in UMvC3, but after some testing, it seems churning fast enough does indeed give you a higher chance for a free counter. I am able to counter more than 80% of the time when they tac by simply rotating the stick and pressing S. This is after 50 or so games so I want to keep trying and testing it out. At least right now it seems that its a stupidly viable “technique” (if you can call it that) way to counter a TAC somewhat reliably.

#11

If this is true this really hurts some characters like Frank West. Way to go Capcom, you’d think they’d be able to get a simple guessing mechanic right.

#12

Actually I just noticed something that I don’t think has been talked about too much.

Each TAC direction has a different attack animation.

For example with Magneto. his Up direction uses his air H animation. Side uses Air M, and down is S. If you pay attention to what move a char makes you can correctly guess the TAC

#13

Eh, that sounds like the old “if a player presses a button in SF3, just parry it and counter” advice. I will say this much though. Height definitely has something to do with it. If the player attacking is below the character getting hit most down exchanges wont work. If the attacking character is significantly below an up exchange is usually the only one that will hit.

#14

:eek: Yes, spin-and-mash still works.

#15

Wait, ummm, wth just happened? Did the “NERF PHOENIX WRIGHT” patch give back circle mashing? I’m absolutely sure this didn’t work before.

#16

Well this is the thing, I play Frank so it does hurt me quite a bit. One of the ways I get Frank to level 4 or higher is simply using Zero on point to rack up 50 or so hits, TAC to frank, Picture into Iron Fist Dragon fang into Picture again into super. So far I am having success in countering TACs by quickly rotating the stick. Again its not fullproof and obviously its not guaranteed, but its better than just guessing which way they’ll TAC. I feel like this needs more testing to figure out the exact properties and timing of the TAC.