Is this game still active online?

[MadDash]

I bought SFxT when it first came out on Steam, but due to the poor matchmaking system where I felt like I had to wait 5 minutes just to find anyone (and that was near the launch) and I'd get repeatedly told I have found a room which I cannot join, I kinda quit and haven't touched the game since.

Lately, I've decided to pick it back up, and although a lot of issues seem to have been addressed (not getting much lag, sound problem fixed, matchmaking happens fast when there are people), the game just doesn't seem to be that populated.

I'd often still be waiting around 5 minutes per match, but now it's not because of Capcom's poor netcode, rather there just seems to be hardly anyone playing. Sometimes I'd get matched up quickly but I find it's the same 2 people getting matched with me over and over again. And then sometimes I'd get into a match only to have the game tell me I have to return to the lobby because the other guy left the room. This happens often during the character/stage selection but once in a while when the match starts, and I'm not sure if it's because the other guy dced or he just didn't want to play me again, as these are usually rubber matches.

I mean, now that I've actually sat down with the game and no longer have to deal with as many frustrating bugs, I'm finding it kind of fun, and the gem system seems really deep with a lot of variations I'd like to explore. But it's really disappointing that almost nobody is playing the game.

For me, who plays a lot of online games, I consider any multiplayer focused game which doesn't have at least 500+ people playing online at any given time to be pretty much dead. Now I know fighting games have a niche market to begin with so I can maybe drop that number down to 100+, but even then it feels like there's barely a handful of active SFxT players. I don't know if that's just the PC community, or if the PC community is further fractured between Steam and non-Steam users, but it is a really paltry lot nonetheless.

So am I correct in my assessment? Is this game basically dead online? Or is there something I'm not doing right, somewhere I'm not looking? Is there a time of day specifically when most of the active gamers come out? TBH at this point I'm kind of discouraged to get back into this game if it's going to be a chore just to find people to play with. No, I don't want to have to post on the forums everytime I want to find a match, and no, the single player mode is not worth my time, that's not what competitive gamers like myself buy fighting games for.

[Cynimun]

The few times I've tried, I have had no issues finding games. what I do is play arcade mode and turn on fight request. I usually cant even get past the first round of the first fight before it finds a match.

Yeah you get repeat people, but it is to be expected. Fighting games have a niche audience, and their lack of popularity on PC and the problems this game still has only compounds the issue.

Try looking for games around prime time, and set region and skill to any. setting region to any runs the risk of laggy matches, but i think its a gamble worth taking.

[real eyes]

With your standards this game is dead, but with mine its fine

[MadDash]

Well to clarify, I'm lumping this game in along with all other online games that have a multiplayer aspect, whether that is vs, co-op, grouping, whatever. So that includes games like MMOs, FPSs, RTS, racing, etc etc. Obviously a fighting game is not going to match up to the standards of something like WoW or GW2, but I don't think wanting at least a few dozen players to be online at any given time is too much to ask.

Just to throw out SC2 as an example. I'm an avid SC2 player, and I live on the West Coast. On any given day, even at 2am PST, which is probably the least active time for gaming in the continental US, I have no trouble whatsoever finding opponents, and mostly American opponents at that, I'm not talking about the people who play from overseas on the NA server. I wait 10-15 seconds tops and I'm guaranteed to get someone.

Here, sometimes I could play through the entire Arcade mode and not have 1 person hit me up for a match. And when I do, often it's just the same guy repeatedly interrupting me whether he means to or not because there's just no one else.

I actually feel kinda bad for some of my opponents because obviously I suck at this game right now, having just gotten into it, yet they're not able to find anybody else close to their rank because there's so few people online. This sometimes leads to my opponents leaving the room once they see me enter, which makes the whole situation even worse. And before you go, "well you should put the rank and region settings to ANY so that you can find more people," yes I've tried that, it isn't much better. I might get an additional player or two who are miles above me in skill and just stomp me without me being able to even learn anything from the match. And then there's the lag from matches with people in other countries.

Don't get me wrong, I want to like this game, and I want to get good at it. But for me to do that, I need opponents. I'm going to spend more time on it and see if the situation improves, but it's just hard to justify dedicating much time to the game right now due to the dearth of activity.

[Heroxoot]

I just came to this forum to ask if 1.08 increased activity. People just hate the PC versions of these games because crapcom doesn't keep it updated with the console ontime. You could think 360 to pc wouldn't be incredibly hard to port. They could drop the update with steam/MS at the same time as 360.

[real eyes]

1.08 changed the flow of the game to make it more enjoyable, and id definitely increased player count, but overall unless you're in the states or russia you're gonna have to wait sometimes for games.

[MadDash]

I'm in the states though, and I don't feel like the game is nearly as populated as it should be. I mean if we were talking about some indie company attempting to make waves with a new license, then it's understandable if the game isn't doing all that hot. But this is Capcom, one of the biggest if not THE biggest 3rd party developer, with a Street Fighter game, which is riding on at least what used to be one of their flagship licenses.

I get that most fighting gamers don't like to play these games on the PC, but even then, I expected a slightly better turnout :/

[Ravenus]

See you in skullgirls

[real eyes]

My opinion is now that SFxT isnt trash people still wanna hate on something, so they hate on SFxT, PC version, because of "lag" that i hardly experience. I guess the low numbers are because of people already owning the game on a different console but thats the way FG games go anyway.

[SHREDDER]

The PC version of SSF4 AE who came near 2 years ago but has perfect netcode is very active all the day at any time but SFXTK due to it bad netcode is not so active. Do you understand now? If you buy SSF4 AE PC right now you will realize that you will find people all the time to play. That because SSF4 AE has a much better netcode that allows people from all over the world to play online with no lag. Also the netcode issues of SFXTK exist on console versions too , i recently spoke with someone who has the game on both 360 and pc and he confirmed that xbox version is ghost town also, but he also told me that SSF4 AE is so active on both pc and xbox that it is hard to say if one of the two versions is more active than the other but he agrees that SFXTK is near dead in all versions of it..

[SHREDDER]

If SXTK had such a good netcode then it would have been very active. Capcom killed the online communiyu of it by not making a better netcode. It is all capcom fault. Mortal kombat 9 and Skullgirls that will come on PC this summer might be even more active than both pc and 360 versions of SSF4 AE due to steamworks.

[real eyes]

I don't think netcode is the problem. PC and Xbox share the exact some netcode IIRC, but the lag is cause by people with crap computers/high ping. I can play flawless online if the other person has a high benchmark setting. If both players' benchmarks are 100+ and they don't live a whole continent apart, I don't think lag will be a factor. Also, I have more lag on SF4 than SFxT.

[SHREDDER]

Still the SSF4 AE has a better netcode compared to SFXTK. I have a Core i5 2500k 3,3 ghz MSI GTX 560 TI TWIN FRONZ II OC 2 GB 12 GB DDR 3 1600 MHZ and i have playeed lot of matches in SSF4 AE and so far i had very few lag. While in SFXTK the lag was much more.People with crap computers are not a problem because the majority of pc gamers has a pc that is at least about the same specs as mine if not more powerful nowdays. Only a few people have a pc that is less powerful than mine . In both games i get more than 200 fps in benchmark, Pc versions of fighter will never be demanding because you know they are fighting games. Anyway the fact still is this: PC version of SSF4 AE is a 2 years old game and is very active and alive online while pc version of SFXTK a one year old game is near dead,

[Heroxoot]

Lag isn't the problem on pc, its that the game loses sync quickly and you see frame skips. I rather both of us feel the slow horror than he beats me because his character skips to another part of the screen in a second.

[real eyes]

#12
Are you kidding me? My system is almost the same as yours and i don't get lag in SFxT, but in sf4 its a different story.

[Pich]

Like a lot of people, i leaved because of lag/teleport problem. I liked this game, but the netcode is really really bad, so... I return to SSF4 AE.

I don't understand how capcom can fail the online after a good SF4 and SF4 AE netcode.