Level Expert--the good the bad

Do you guys think there is redeeming value to playing level expert? On one hand, I know it is forcing me to get better and making my game tighter, but on the other hand, I feel like I am conditioning myself to give up large quantities of what works like gangbusters online. There are combos you don't need to even try against expert b/c it is going to recover against that stagger every time, wheras only once every hundred matches or so someone online will struggle recovery from a given move.
Also, I use Lei as most on here know by now, and there is no fancy stance changing to confuse the computer, it does help for forcing you to switch faster and more fluid, but now mix up b/c they know what U are doing regardless.
You guys' thoughts would be much welcome.

and as a funny aside, i fought psycic wolf last night, it was amazing, he would block every sweep and do a crouch thro before i could stand up, if i so much as tapped guard, boom, instant throw. i'm no slouch online 7th-8th Dan, but level expert owns me like no other. I dare say I have only played a few people out of the almost 2000 matches that are as tough as expert. It defeats me about 90% of the time (talking assassins, conqueres, etc..)

 

There's your answer, right there. As long as you aren't abusing cpu blind spots, playing ai on expert will make your game tighter.

 

I think it's good to train you to play moral: using safe moves, training defense (TE/Fuzzy), using safe and effective combos. But it's totally useless for other aspect of real versus play (tricky gameplay, not be predictable, useing right throws etc ...) since CPU know your inputs.

 

Expert is the way to go. On normal the CPU doesn't block so you just land everything. I do agree with what you said about the staggers though. The CPU breaks staggers better than any human I've ever played so that is a little out of whack.

It does help you train to put in your throw escapes and improve your fundamentals a lot as well. Also helps you deal with evades because the CPU evades so often and so well.

 

Yup. the difficult thing is that he escapes throws knowing your inputs (lol) and struggle from stagger perfectly. I get my dblpalm blocked after stumbling trip (if it didn't got escaped)= non-sense lol, never seen a player do that....

 

SEGA has never gotten difficulty right with this series.

 

I recommend playing the game on expert and try to fight as you would against a human player. Even though it might seem impossible, I assure you it is possible to win consistently playing like this. The few downfalls from quest I see are...

1. It has no fear no matter what
3. Can not be conditioned
2. Miraculously guards low attacks sometimes too much
4. Doesnt use okizeme (pressure on wake up)

Quest mode on expert is great for training otherwise and helps me stay sharp.

 

I have

*edit* seen it, that is. didnt do it myself.

 

you can escape this. It just depends on how fast you react to the stumble animation.

 

Also, you must react to the stumble at the correct time - when the stick icon changes color.

I've never done it - just seen it done... to me... by Itazan... I made strange sounds... "gaFFuuccchhhtiiWATtt?"

 

I don't think even expert is hard.

But I agree it does good practice for every VF players /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

 

It is very easy to beat even my scrubby Aoi beats up on it on expert and it is very easy to do but it does have its redeeming value. Good enemies in expert don't fall for stuns and recover so fast very little can be done after a successful stun if you get anything to hit at all. The best opponents will recover from being turned around every time and respond to your next action like clockwork. Characters with low grabs will consistently get low grabs forcing you to throw escape if you miss any of your low attacks when you play the better characters.

Knowing this it will make the game very challenging and it reads your motions too as well making it even more adaptive. Beating it using the same simple spam won't work but it forces you to learn how to mix up your game abit because if you don't it will attack you the same way over and over until you figure it out. Once you see the patterns and know how to beat it, the game is child's play but beginners should try to get somewhere in it before they play online to really get a good feel for your characters before you play the better people online, it is a great training tool and if you are about to lose you can quit at any time and start over with no penalty. It is a shame online games can't be that way. Not!

 

I always try and struggle it but it never works, if someone struggled out of it on me i'd probably cry /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif

Wasn't there an exercise in 4: evo where you had to struggle the stumbling trip and block the double palm follow up?

 

Hey Shadow, so your saying you find level expert very easy? Wow, thats incredible! maybe its easier with Aoi, b/c like i said, i find that its far better than 99% of who i play online, hands down, no question. If you could stick a level expert wolf or something online for ranked matches i would guess it would have around an 80% win percentage and at least a 10th dan if not much much higher. just my take tho.

And as far as the playing expert expirement went, after playing it for nearly a week i got back online for ranked matches and my game was totally shot. Where it was like fluid water before its like muddy mud now. Altho i will say it strengthened some aspect of my game, ideally i will round back into form with some of the gaps in my game now filled in and be stronger than ever. But for now i'm broken, lol (still a 7th Dan, but a broken 7th Dan).

 

I wouldn't use online play as a litmus test. Latency can be misleading. Even with a good connection online doesn't compare to offline.

I also think expert mode isn't that hard. I like it though because each AI seem to have a bit of a unique personality to them. Some are very abare some are very safe, etc...

Quest Expert mode is a good sparring partner.

 

Fighting "The Animal" on expert in quest mode = 1 of the best training methods for ETEG

 

The Animal is REALLY tough to beat on expert, especially with Lion. I actually haven't even been able to beat him with Lion at all yet (probably tried about 10 times, and failed)...

The Animal <==== You bastard!

 

That Penou Akira (Avenger, Special List) drives me crazy but I might just be very dull. Any tips?

Vald is also similar.

And there was a Wolf who just giant swings you (fastest input) at every throw chance he has, really fun to play against. He's in the North arcade I think.

 

Call me a noob, but I'm staring at my Game Settings and I can set the Difficulty to:

Very Easy
Easy
Normal
Hard
Very Hard

Are people simply referring to Very Hard as "Expert" - if not, where's "Expert"?

 

I think mine says level expert, but i'm at work so i can't check.......but now you have me curious