Can any human actually play this game??

[dimmu1313]

Ok so I've been at this for hours, and I've tried both my xbox for pc controller and just the keyboard, and i simply cannot land any non-basic moves.

Reading the moves list, I'm trying to understand what certain combinations mean. Sometimes it shows two keys right next to each other, sometimes it's two keys separated by commas, and sometimes its two keys with a plus sign.

my understanding is that the plus sign means hit at the same time, and the other two mean hit in successing, one more rapidly (i think when there is no comma it means very fast successing, and the comma means just fast succession).

I'm seeing that i cannot look at any visual aids becuase the animation seems to play much more slowly than the key combinations are supposed to be pressed.

It took me about an hour to get through the tutorial alone. Some problems I have are that certain things, like the breaker, aren't even listed in the moves list. It also wanted a tag assist and a tag special, and though the list shows things that are tag moves, none are actually called tag assist or tag special. but that's a separate issue.

my main issue is that i cannot possibly hit these combinations in any faster succession, but no matter what i do, they simply don't trigger; well, to be clear, I will have a move trigger *maybe* one in ten or one in fifteen attempts. Unfortunately, when I do finally trigger the move, I have no idea what i actually did to get it to trigger because of the pace of action.

Basically I've resorted to facerolling on the keyboard and i actually seem to have better luck with that than actually attempting specific moves. Not only that, how in the *hell* is anyone supposed to remember all these moves???

Any pointers or tips would be appreciated because apparantly I am just not getting it...

[Gongfuren]

Front Punch = 1
Back Punch = 2
Front Kick = 3
Back Kick = 4

For the moves in the Kombo Attacks category, press those buttons before seeing the full animation. As in, if a kombo is something like 2,1,4, press the 1 and 4 while the animation of the first 2 happens. The game does require that you press them quite quickly.

Of course, some kombos for specific characters require different timings. But most of them can be pressed in sequence while the first animation happens.

As to memorizing all the moves, that happens with time and practice. Play the same character for enough hours, and you'll start to mentally store the moves to muscle memory.

[Zodasaur]

I can't land anymoves using the crappy 360 controller either. it sucks for fighting games. I use a made in japan super nintendo controller to play MK9. So easy to land moves on this control it is day and night to me.

[Barrogh]

Actually MK9 is among the simpliest fighting games in terms of inputs. There's almost nothing in it made specifically for user to struggle with input itself (hello 720 degrees turns, just frames and stuff like that from different games).

As it was said, when you use predetermined strings (called "combos" in move list, which is technically correct, but... oh well, who cares really), you need to input each part of string during startup of previous one. Usually it means that you need to input them as fast as you can, but not always (some things can and should be "hit confirmed", I'll explain that later if you are interested, that's a bit more advanced stuff). This is called "buffering".

You can actually buffer specials instead of predetermined normal. For example, Raiden has 1,2,1,2 (sometimes people just type 1212 for that, get used to it just in case) string, but instead of inputting that last "2", you can buffer (i.e. input before 3rd strike hits) down,forward+2 (aka df2) to replace last punch with electrocute special move (only do that if your string is not blocked btw, that's basically what "hit confirming" is).

In directional inputs (like back+2) you basically need to input direction and attack simultaneously, but direction really goes a little bit first (like, very little, just enough to make sure you don't press button before direction).

That's pretty much it. At first inputs seem freaking impossible (I remember myself trying to achieve stable execution of Smoke's 3d12 string on day 1... dayum, how something so simple can go so bad? :D ), but it will go away with practice. After all, if people can learn piano, sure they can learn basic FGs inputs :)

Feel free to share your concerns here, will be glad to help.

Best of luck!

[dimmu1313]

I think the biggest thing i'm struggling with is trying to understand what i'm doing wrong. For example, during the tutorial, it will tell you to hit some sequence of keys, and i literally had to do it 10+ times in a row. When it finally took, I'm sitting there shouting "but i didn't do anything different!!" Thats my biggest frustration. I will go fight after fight only attempting a single combo just to try to get the timing down, and 90% of the time the combo doesn't engage, and i can *never* see anything wrong with how i hit the keys all those times it fails. At some point it does the attack successfully, and i've learned nothing. That's what's most infuriating about this: i can commit to muscle memory any pattern with enough practice, but when the game does not appear to behave consistently, then I am unable to actually commit anything to muscle memory. In addition to that, there are no real instructions. As I said in the OP, it doesn't actually tell you anywhere how to interpret a comma "," in a sequence vs. a lack of a comma (two keys next to each other with no comma). Because when I try practicing the routines it seems to *never* consistently hold true that "no comma means hit the keys faster".

Another interesting, if cryptic example is doing the finishing moves. I have all these problems while fighting, and yet the finish moves sequences I am able to land almost every time, the first time. And in those sequences there are no commas!! How in the *hell* is someone supposed to figure this out?! As I keep saying, there is no real instruction manual, so there is no way to know what the game is looking for in terms of timing on key sequences. As the last poster said, you have to actually hit one key *before* the other in the case of implied simultaneous key presses (indicated by the plus "+" sign).

I realize it's cynical, but I have literally had better luck facerolling. My latest technique is to hit all 4 movement keys at the same time as all 4 attack keys, and guess what? I am now doing special/combo moves more often! Again, very frustrated here and obviously just not "getting it". How can a game be learned when there are no instructions and there are no apparant patterns that can be learned in order to trigger moves consistently???

[Gongfuren]

I made a quick video of myself in training mode doing a few of the attack strings. I've added the attack string I'm performing to the top of the screen. Pay attention to my button inputs on the left side of the screen. Specifically, look closely at the timing of the button presses and the animation of Scorption.

http://youtu.be/kYCBJ2cA6YY

Yes, I know the recording quality is horrible. You should still be able to see everything important, though.

[VisciousFishes]

I struggled at first playing this and I found the analogue on the xbox 360 pad to be the main culprit of my issues. Don't get me wrong, there's things the xbox360 pad does well (shooting and driving games), but MK is certainly not one of them. My friend still uses my 360 pad but I use a cheap arcade stick I picked up second hand.

I can only explain how I got the method of input sorted - by thinking of it in musical rhythm instead of instruction list. Trills, triplets and quarter notes are how I think of the specials and combos when I am playing. One thing I did find though is that MK is not a Street Fighter clone the way that Tekken/Killer Instinct tends to be. There's no real "quarter circle" moves like Ryu's fire ball in Street Fighter. EG:- if the instruction is down, back, back punch then you need to think of it as this down, neutral, back, back punch. (I wish they'd left is as left punch right punch makes it so much easier to explain)

All the instructions are ****VERY***** digital so using the analogue and rolling the controlls will not get you very far.

[dimmu1313]

Originally posted by Gongfuren:

I made a quick video of myself in training mode doing a few of the attack strings. I've added the attack string I'm performing to the top of the screen. Pay attention to my button inputs on the left side of the screen. Specifically, look closely at the timing of the button presses and the animation of Scorption.

ok i don't think i understand. the fact that it shows the move list and the animations doesnt seem to be any different than what i see in the game. watching the animation itself doesnt help because i have no idea when you are actually hitting any keys.

i basically threw away my xbox controller because there seemed to be major timing issues with that. i couldn't get anything done with that no matter what i tried.

the best success i've had so far, which simply means better than never, is to have movements on wasd and kick/hit/etc on arrow keys, so i am using both hands and the keyboard seems a lot better with the timing.

my issue is that, yes i see what the moves are, and i see what the animation looks like, but i have no idea what the timing of that key presses are relative to the animation i'm seeing on the screen.

i'm on beginner in story mode, and have quite literally facerolled all the way to the point i am stuck now, which is the fight where you play kung lao, vs. the tag team of shang tsung and quan chi. like i said, im in beginner mode, and facerolling no longer works. i have been stuck on this one fight for days now, and have tried it probably a hundred times now. i beat one round ONCE. it is simply impossible for me. i try remember several of the moves from the list, but that makes no difference since 99/100 times they just plain dont trigger. forget the fact that any time i might actually land an xray just to even things out a little, they block it every time, which is really infuriating: i'm on *beginner* mode, and even when i do manage to trigger something it gets blocked.

this is really getting into the beyond-frustrating point and fast becoming unplayable for me. i guess it's just something some people weren't meant to play, or that only a certain subset of people can actually pull off :/

[Gongfuren]

Originally posted by Gongfuren:

I made a quick video of myself in training mode doing a few of the attack strings. I've added the attack string I'm performing to the top of the screen. Pay attention to my button inputs on the left side of the screen. Specifically, look closely at the timing of the button presses and the animation of Scorption.

If you look at the bottom-left of the video, you can see when the buttons are pressed. Everytime I press X, for instance, the "X" symbol immediately shows up on the bottom left at that exact moment. I've included a screenshot below with the mentioned area circled, in case you need further help in locating it. Use the display in the video to learn the attack string timing. It's about the same timing for most other attack strings as well.

http://i.imgur.com/RMMXpfB.jpg

[Barrogh]

Well, you already know some of your problems it seems.

First of all, indeed, throw away your xbox controller, it's no good for fighting games. I can remember my attempts to use it... "Oh, wanna do back, forward move? See, I'll just jump."

Anyways, I myself use KB. Some may argue that PS3-like controllers like Dualshock are acceptable too, some argue that arcade sticks or hitboxes are better. Whatever works for you, but pads with monolitic d-pad probably won't work.

Second, tutorial may be bugged. Sometimes it doesn't register your inputs properly to the point that it's impossible to do 111 cage's string. Fun.

Originally posted by dimmu1313:

my issue is that, yes i see what the moves are, and i see what the animation looks like, but i have no idea what the timing of that key presses are relative to the animation i'm seeing on the screen.

I think I've got another problem here. It's a common issue of newcomers, they try to time their inputs to match rythm of hits or something. As I've explained in previous post, this won't work.

MK is not MvC, SF, SG. It uses buffer system aka "dial-a-combo". When inputting a string, you don't have to time anything, but you must buffer it. To put it simple, do it as fast as you can. How fast is it? Well, let's take Cage's 111 for example. Startup of the 1st hit is 8 frames IIRC, that means 8/60 (2/15) of a second. Second "1" must be pressed within that timeframe. You've got the idea.

I suggest you to learn basic theory of fighting games first, it helps a lot in terms of understanding what you are supposed to do, you'll see it when you start to play other people.

For MK-specific advices, visit www.testyourmight.com, that's probably your best bet here.

Feel free to ask questions here too, you're welcome :)

[Zodasaur]

Originally posted by Barrogh:

Well, you already know some of your problems it seems.

First of all, indeed, throw away your xbox controller, it's no good for fighting games. I can remember my attempts to use it... "Oh, wanna do back, forward move? See, I'll just jump."

Anyways, I myself use KB. Some may argue that PS3-like controllers like Dualshock are acceptable too, some argue that arcade sticks or hitboxes are better. Whatever works for you, but pads with monolitic d-pad probably won't work.

Second, tutorial may be bugged. Sometimes it doesn't register your inputs properly to the point that it's impossible to do 111 cage's string. Fun.

Originally posted by dimmu1313:

my issue is that, yes i see what the moves are, and i see what the animation looks like, but i have no idea what the timing of that key presses are relative to the animation i'm seeing on the screen.

I think I've got another problem here. It's a common issue of newcomers, they try to time their inputs to match rythm of hits or something. As I've explained in previous post, this won't work.

MK is not MvC, SF, SG. It uses buffer system aka "dial-a-combo". When inputting a string, you don't have to time anything, but you must buffer it. To put it simple, do it as fast as you can. How fast is it? Well, let's take Cage's 111 for example. Startup of the 1st hit is 8 frames IIRC, that means 8/60 (2/15) of a second. Second "1" must be pressed within that timeframe. You've got the idea.

I suggest you to learn basic theory of fighting games first, it helps a lot in terms of understanding what you are supposed to do, you'll see it when you start to play other people.

For MK-specific advices, visit www.testyourmight.com, that's probably your best bet here.

Feel free to ask questions here too, you're welcome :)

I just use my SNES controller. IF it was good enough for me to kplay MK3 on then why not MK9.

[Barrogh]

Originally posted by ZodaEX:

I just use my SNES controller. IF it was good enough for me to kplay MK3 on then why not MK9.

I think the rule of thumb is to pick whatever suits you best unless you don't know what to use at all :)

[dimmu1313]

Originally posted by Gongfuren:

If you look at the bottom-left of the video, you can see when the buttons are pressed. Everytime I press X, for instance, the "X" symbol immediately shows up on the bottom left at that exact moment. I've included a screenshot below with the mentioned area circled, in case you need further help in locating it. Use the display in the video to learn the attack string timing. It's about the same timing for most other attack strings as well.

Thanks. Yeah I didn't actually see that. From what I'm seeing there it looks like maybe you are just hitting all the combos in rapid succession as fast as you can. tbh it doesn't actually look that fast, assuming the display timing actually matches the speed that you are hitting the buttons.

@Barrogh thanks for the advice. I'll check the site; hopefully i can learn something there.

I'm actually starting to be able to get some of the more basic special moves down. The problem with story mode is that it changes characters so when I finally start to get a move down it switches characters on me. so i'm constantly pausing to look at the list.

I have managed to get a few of the 3-key hits down, but usually only when it's the hit keys and not in combination with the movement keys. my hit keys are the arrow keys and the wasd are the movement. so when there is an attack like up-down-up i can usually land those. except if i try it more than once the computer adapts and will block it every time after.

any combos/moves that require a rapid succession of single keys and keys that get hit at the same time, like fwd, back, down+punch or something like that, or even the ones that have 4 things are just plain impossible. i simply cannot hit the keys fast enough or accurately enough :/

[Barrogh]

Originally posted by dimmu1313:

The problem with story mode is that it changes characters so when I finally start to get a move down it switches characters on me. so i'm constantly pausing to look at the list.

Yeah, I know how it feels. Never bothered to finish story mode because of that - so happens that I'm mostly interested in learning characters that are either abscent from story mode, or have their chapters near the end, so yeah...

Originally posted by dimmu1313:

I have managed to get a few of the 3-key hits down, but usually only when it's the hit keys and not in combination with the movement keys. my hit keys are the arrow keys and the wasd are the movement. so when there is an attack like up-down-up i can usually land those.

I use numpad 8, 9, 5, 6, for 1, 2, 3, 4 respectively and it works rather fine, arrows probably should work well too. After a while you learn the pattern for your hand to move and when you don't think about keys to press anymore, you'll get better at this.

Next steps would be to learn some actual combos and start to think of strategy more, which is the interesting part actually :)

[Gongfuren]

Help us understand which moves you are having execution problems with. Make us a small list of those moves.

[DaddyDubskee]

Some of you guys are trippin and just no good at this game. I KICK ASS on my 360 controller. I can do ALL special moves and fatalities and combos. I'll take on anyone to prove it. Message or Friend me and we can set up a match!