The Stick vs The Pad

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
#1

Hi guys

Ive played pad all my life, i played a little in arcades but i live in england we currently have 2 arcades in the whole country that stock SF4. I have a madcatz fightpad and a TE stick. On the pad i can pull double hadouken ultra’s easy and play shoto’s good. On the stick i can plink (not very good at that though) and play charge characters really well. Im stuck inbetween which to stick with, no pun intended. The problem is execution of shoto moves on stick i don’t see how people do it, its a flick of the thumb on a pad but i have to move my whole hand on the stick, how do people make that full hand movemnet as quick as a thumb. Maybe its the square gate making me struggle with shoto’s, any advice on training on stick or if its possible to play pad. Cause i would probly play pad but how the hell do people hit tight links on pad its impossible to hit it consistently surely. All advice welcome. Thanks

#2

it’s really your preference. I don’t think asking for someone else’s opinion on this one helps very much. A very good player by the name of Vangief in my area got top 8 I think at Evo and he plays extremely well on a pad. There are a ton of people who I’ve seen say that they just play better on a pad, or on a stick just because. I’d say use them both for now, and eventually whichever is better for you will show up. Your gameplay will be much better with one of them.

Also, I used to use a controller too. When I got my first fightstick, I thought QCF on the square gate of the stick were retarded. But I grew into it.

#3

@Zab, did you get that thing I sent you?

#4

yeah thanks man it helped

#5

If by one of the two you mean Piccadilly Amusements in Manchester, they got rid of SF4 and replaced it with outrun 2. I think they might get SSF4 though, hopefully.

#6

Yes, playing on pad is fine. Though rarer, there were top 8 finishers in evo this year who use pad.

The best way to get better with stick is to practice. There is a sticky on execution in the Newbie Dojo to help you figure out what you are doing wrong.

#7

there are appx. 3,485 threads on SRK about this very topic.

#8

Exactly. If you want to get good on stick, you have to stick with it and maybe read the stickies.

#9

Nah, I think he’s referring to London as there are 2 here - 6 in Casino on Tottenham Court Rd and 2 in Troccodero.

Frank

#10

Regarding preferences:

I first started using a stick last year to make the game more fun to play and because I work on Tottenham Court Rd and use to see SF4 players at lunch time going at it. I wanted in but wasn’t prepared to spend money at the arcades learning how to use one so I bought an SF4 TE Stick and started practicing at home. If you really want to be good at this game and at using the stick you’ll put the time in and practice regulary when you can. I did and I can vividly remember struggling to do 10 Hados in a row. Now I get frustrated if I drop a cr.lk, cr.lp > SRK > FADC > Ultra1 (Ryu) combo! Trust me, it will start to come together with regualr practice!

Frank

#11

I would say square gates are more for charge characters, while the octo-gate works superb for motion characters.

Also, one huge reason stick is preferred by so many is because the joystick shoots back to neutral in which helps execute more complicated combos, though it does take a little while to get used to.

#12

I’m having the same trouble, Zabuza. Ever since I got my TE (about two weeks ago), I’ve been maining Boxer because I just can’t do any of the non-charge motion specials consistently with the square gate.

Tonight, however (after reading through the stickies), it hit me like a ton of bricks that, like everything else in life, it all comes down to practice. If you put the time into getting your execution down, then you will be rewarded, and one day, you’ll see the payoff happening in real-time and have a good feeling of accomplishment over it.

Will you get better after one practice session? Of course not. Will you get better if you continue to practice? Absoulutely.

#13

I don’t play any charge characters and I prefer square gate. I mostly play King of Fighters and it helps me a lot to be able to feel the corners when I’m using a lot of df command normals. I also find it faster to do dps as I can hit the required button at df instead of between df and f.

#14

Ah right, I always assumed you had 1 arcade with SF4 in London.

#15

I used to believe that I needed an octogate to pull off QCFB motions easier, but the truth is, you should really just learn to build execution with a square gate. The Octogate is good for building your skills up, like training wheels. After a while, however, its time to ride with the big boys.

#16

Practice makes perfect. I was a pad player since the early 90s until a couple of months ago. I use the TE with the square gate and I couldn’t throw out constant fireballs when facing the right side of the screen. Once I found my grip and just kept throwing them in training mode my muscle memory caught onto it and now I’d never go back to pad. Also it might help to open up the stick and look at the switches in the stick. I know it sounds weird but it gave me a better understanding of where everything is as far as how far to move for execution. The best piece of advice I can give for a beginner on a stick is learn as precise as you can where the stick needs to be for each command (left,right,up,down,diagonals etc) then go from there. At first I was kinda going diagonal down-back to forward for the fireballs, until I realised I was inputting that diagonal down-back for no reason, teach yourself to start with the down motion. Just little things like that.