New Content on Sonic Hurricane

[Maj]

Finally getting around to writing a series of long-overdue articles, so i figured it'd be better to make one general thread for minor updates on my website. By that i mean anything worth discussing which isn't a major video release.

First article is something of a primer that nobody here will find interesting, but i needed to get the introduction out of the way.

SF Combo Construction Essentials

Let me know what you think. (If you want, haha. I won't hold it against anyone for skipping this one.) Word choice gets kind of fancy, but i can't help playing with Thesaurus.com when i'm writing something boring.

[Magnetro]

Good. I think you should give exposure to these on SRK that way the non-combo video people can have an insight to this kind of thinking.

[Xenozip.]

I'd like to see notes on validity.

Well, basically everything mentioned in the Etiquette thread written in article-form.

[Maj]

Actually i'm not gonna go too deep into Tutorial Mode. If people want to get better at making combo videos, they can always find our Etiquette thread or similar threads on just about any reputable fighting game forum. For example whenever a new video gets posted on CX, pretty much everyone reviews it based on a wide range of criteria. Anyone can pick up all the basic guidelines they'll ever need from observing a few discussions like that.

If you're curious, i'm planning on writing four articles over the next month or two. They're mostly factual, exploring one basic question each.

- Evolution of Combos as a Game Develops/Matures

- Capcom Charge Systems Overview

- CvS2 Useful/Noteworthy Combo Dummies

- What Makes Guile a Good Combo Character?

All titles are tentative, but you get the idea. The one that's going to take the most work is the charge systems one, but it's by far the most important one cuz nobody outside Japan has a clue how any of that stuff works. Also i'm gonna have to go over it one way or another if i ever plan on explaining my Guile video. The article will focus on SF2 series, along with a few notes on CvS series. I'm not gonna go into any of the updates/gimmicks introduced by Alpha series, SF3 series, Marvel series, SFTM, or SvCC. Too much work and not enough interest.

[Maj]

Article numero dos is up:

SF Combo System Interpretation

Slightly more interesting than the first, but still mostly idle observations. Let me know what you think. Maybe i'll post about them on SRK. Or maybe i'll wait till i've done two more. I've been meaning to write that stuff about Guile for a while now, but i'll probably end up posting it all here instead of making it into an article. Seems like it'd be too much of a pain to format. Plus i'll probably keep thinking of new stuff to add to it.

edit: I think this is my 1000th post. Crazy!

[Magnetro]

Article numero dos is up:

SF Combo System Interpretation

Slightly more interesting than the first, but still mostly idle observations. Let me know what you think. Maybe i'll post about them on SRK. Or maybe i'll wait till i've done two more. I've been meaning to write that stuff about Guile for a while now, but i'll probably end up posting it all here instead of making it into an article. Seems like it'd be too much of a pain to format. Plus i'll probably keep thinking of new stuff to add to it.

I don't really know what to say, it's just stuff everyone(?) knows already written very nicely. It gives me the feeling there is nothing to say but GJ writing. 0.0

Hm. well if you want to bring more combovideo concepts to the general non-srk crowd maybe you could have small clips that act as visual aides to your articles? You know, since you're writing such lengthy and detailed articles, you may as well mlkjr them for all their worth.

[Maj]

Multimedia is the future but the to-do list is usually too long to go through the trouble of making pictures and video to accompany every article. Who knows, i might still get around to it someday. But if the choice comes down to writing new articles or making old ones more accessible, the new stuff tends to seem more urgent. In any case, i've added one more to the list:

SF2 Engine Randomness Rundown

Goes over most (all?) of the verified in-game randomized events occuring throughout the classic SF2 series. Obviously there's a ton of CPU stuff left out as well as a few things that take place outside of matches, including win quotes and opponent order in 1P games. Nobody cares about that stuff though.

[Maj]

This took way too long to write, but i'm very happy that it's finally ready:

SF Charge Conventions

Explains a lot of the core charge system rules that most Capcom fighting games utilize. I've left out a lot of subtle tricks but i didn't want to get too specific. After reading that article, most of what people put in combo videos should start to make sense.

I've got some follow-up thoughts to share but i'm planning on simply writing it out here, so it shouldn't take long.

[Maj]

This should have been online yesterday but i was in a hurry and i guess it didn't upload properly:

CvS2 Combo Dummy Lineup

Basically it's a roadmap to CvS2 combos from the viewpoint of the hapless victims. It's meant to be a reference for combo makers but more importantly it should help give everyone some insight into (and a better appreciation of) CvS2 combo videos.

[ZenFire]

Dunno if you intended ppl to reply in here, if not jsut delete this. I just wanted to say I really liked that last articles about dummies. I thought the Dan thing was brilliant.

[Maj]

Yeah, actually i was hoping for a little discussion but i guess everyone is busy. I'm happy to hear that you liked the article. I'm always happy when i can do something useful for the SF community.

For some reason it's a lot harder to get this stuff noticed now than it used to be. I think the Reputation system on SRK has something to do with it as well, since most people go with that instead of bumping the thread. That keeps the discussion more focused but the thread drops down the page faster, especially when it's surrounded by breaking news topics.

Which Dan thing are you referring to? Using his Taunt super in combos?

[ZenFire]

Yes, the taunt super thing to replenish meter. That, the finer points of the reversal glitch and the accellerated transportation with Vega were totally new to me.
I think part of the reason why you might not get the same response as you would have in the past is because of how old the game is.

BTW, Vega has this huge hitbox on the last hit of his roll attack that when you stand behind him you can trade with. Can you combo off that? If you could, it'd be a way to get an extra hit without pushback. That seems like a good combo dummy feature if it works.

[Maj]

Yeah i suppose nobody thinks of CvS2 as a new game anymore, even though it's still the most recent Capcom game that gets play. At any rate it's the concept of categorizing combo dummies that's important. I could do an article like this for CFJ as well, possibly even ST. But nobody cares enough about CFJ (not even me) and i'm hoping someone else will take care of ST.

The problem with Vega's roll attack is that it causes a ton of hitstun. It wouldn't be very useful as a combo starter unless you were using something with extreme hitstun like Balrog's lvl1 super. Vega himself can combo off that as a trade or as a meaty (if someone sticks a delayed limb in the way).

There are a ton of very cool, very intricate combo setups out there which are only useful to one character. I tried to focus more on the ones that get used all over the place. Personally, if i can think of an alternate setup for a combo idea, i always try to stay away from Rolento and Zangief. But they're too damn useful so it usually doesn't work.

[Don Vecta]

Hey. Sorry for not being too active lately, but work has been a bitch lately and my time is as limited as my current videogaming life.

I read the articles, I really dig how were they explained and systematically observed, and I'm sure many Capcom players would find it heavily useful.
Looking forward to read more about them, I'm learning a lot about those systems as I'm a Capcom n00b myself.

[Maj]

I'm not entirely sure why i felt like writing this, but i guess there's some cool stuff inside:

SF2 Chain Combo Minutiae

Lots of common knowledge about SF2 chain properties, along with some newish stuff that i should have explained a long time ago.

[Maj]

Updated the main index with shorter/simpler intro text cuz i really didn't need to be mentioning the website's "collection of official Guile artwork" anywhere on the front page.

Updated the SF? Guile Exhibition (Evo2k7 Edition) page with a link to this SRK thread containing a bootleg rough transcript on page six.

[Maj]

The following content is neither new nor on Sonic Hurricane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP5mhlUoT0I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5uAyYuWfUw

This post is a lie.

[Maj]

Went through all of my old videos in the media section and added two sample snapshots to each page. Probably should have done this ages ago, because my txt file of a website could have definitely used all the extra color it could get.

[Maj]

MiloDC sent me an e-mail telling me that my SF terms were incomplete, so i stopped being lazy and updated that page. In all honesty, i wasn't planning on ever updating it again but it's not very often that someone steps up and demands an update from me.

SF Terminology Encyclopedia v1.3

It could probably be a lot better but i think it's plenty thorough for my own purposes. I don't really need it to be anything other than a quick cheat sheet for anyone who might be trying to understand one of my other articles. Especially since there are so many other fighting game strategy websites and wiki pages popping up on the internet lately. Someone will eventually get around to doing this right, with full multimedia support like pictures, screenshots, and videos to enhance everything.

[Maj]

So i've been kicking around the idea of starting something like a blog on Sonic Hurricane. I'd probably update it a couple times per week, and the focus would be split between technical combo ramblings and match strategy observations. I'm not the best player around and i've never won a tournament, but sometimes i notice stuff that other people don't. Since i've been around for a while, maybe my ideas would be interesting to some of the people who came to SRK hoping to understand fighting games better.

The only catch is that in order to justify the amount of time this demands, i'd have to install some ad banners and such on the website. Is that cool with you guys? I've been producing multimedia content for the fighting game community for almost a decade now and i've never tried (or wanted) to make any money from it. In fact even if i do go through with this, i honestly doubt i'll ever break the minimum wage barrier. But it's gotten me more and more curious recently, whereas before i always outright rejected the whole prospect.

What do you guys think?

[fullmetalross]

Im cool with it. Everyone deserves the right to get theirs. As long as the site doesnt become nsfw (not that I think it would) I have no problem.

[error1]

I would read it. Adds are no problem. Seems like you already do a lot of this kind of thing on the fourm anyway.

[Maj]

Sweet, thanks for being open-minded about it. But if at any point it starts to bother you, don't hesitate to speak up. I've got no idea how it'll turn out or if the SRK crowd will ever even click on any of those banners, so we'll all find out together i guess.

[onReload]

i'd definitely read it, ads or no ads. I mean, as long as they weren't obnoxious, which I'm sure you wouldn't want anyway.

[Maj]

Yeah it's kinda weird because more than one person has pointed to iPlayWinner as the preferable way to incorporate ads, while talking shit about how unpleasant EventHubs is, but there really isn't much of a difference.

Anyway i'm sure i'll be mucking around with layout options for quite a while, so i'll cross that bridge (over and over and over) in due time.

The front page is up now so i guess i'm actually doing this.

[Maj]

Hey, i just wanted to make something absolutely clear: Please don't feel like you ever have to do me a favor by posting a comment on my blog.

Sometimes i'll link to something on there and maybe it sounds like i'm trying to get you guys to register and post comments, but trust me that's not the case. Of course i totally appreciate it whenever one of you does leave a comment, but the reality is that if nobody else bothers then there's no point. If it's just gonna be you guys, i may as well shut down the entire thing and post everything directly here. The blog is targetted towards the fighting game community in general, so if it turns out that none of 'em care about anything i have to share, then i'm better off giving up and focusing on other interests.

So when i say i hope someone does something regarding the blog, that's not a subtle way of asking you guys for a favor. It's just me openly sharing my thoughts/concerns.

[onReload]

Hey, i just wanted to make something absolutely clear: Please don't feel like you ever have to do me a favor by posting a comment on my blog.

Sometimes i'll link to something on there and maybe it sounds like i'm trying to get you guys to register and post comments, but trust me that's not the case. Of course i totally appreciate it whenever one of you does leave a comment, but the reality is that if nobody else bothers then there's no point. If it's just gonna be you guys, i may as well shut down the entire thing and post everything directly here. The blog is targetted towards the fighting game community in general, so if it turns out that none of 'em care about anything i have to share, then i'm better off giving up and focusing on other interests.

So when i say i hope someone does something regarding the blog, that's not a subtle way of asking you guys for a favor. It's just me openly sharing my thoughts/concerns.

That being said, on the other side of that notion, does it bother you that I comment on almost every single damn one? It's one of the only blogs I read now.

[Maj]

Haha, not even a little bit. We can have a 70-post discussion attached to any given post and i'll be happy. As long as it stays relatively on the subject, it's cool. It doesn't even have to be on topic as long as it's still about games or combos or whatever.

[Maj]

Probably asking for trouble writing this thing, but it had to be done:

SF Tool-Assisted Combo Rationale

Also brought it up on the blog because there are plenty of other aspects and tangents to discuss surrounding this issue, and sure enough someone picked the throwaway MUGEN comment to elaborate on.

[Maj]

Spanish Hurricane!

This should be interesting ...