A model that came out of it: Tactics/Strategy and PvP
Let's say that sheik is running at falco. She's got dash attack, grab, or wd back. The pvp answer is to guess based on history, but if you look at the specific mechanic then falco can solve for that entire situation by analog jump back then dair or laser on reaction to if it's an attack or fakeout.
That's a tactic that fits into his broader strategy of "land a move then combo into stage control" and if you've worked it out and practiced the situation then you don't have to guess. On the reverse, the "run at falco" tactic is effectively fallible for sheik until she at least adds a jump mixup.
He said that because Armada is Armada and you can't assume that you can consistently win PvP situations and in order to play to win he would have to reduce the game to a small number of tactics that he knew for sure would work.
If your tactics aren't thorough then when you lose it can feel like you're just guessing wrong over and over, when in fact they are probably just accounting for more than you are.
PvP is a real part of the game that's super super exploitable and important, given that every interaction in the game is based on what 2 players do via DI etc. Apparently PP has looked into it to such a degree that he's defined certain archetypes of players so he can predict what you'll do in situation C based on what you did in situation A and B. But PP has hella flowcharts first. It's overly difficult to try and beat someone in 50 consecutive games of RPS, so if it's possible, like in the sheik falco example, you should think up a way to autowin, avoid having to play a guessing game, or at least throw rock and scissors. In this way, PvP is NOT intended to substitute tactics. It is NOT a foil or an opposing perspective. Think of it like, we now know how to react to shiek's forward movement. If we can interpret the sheik's intentions and anticipate the run then the reaction is easier. Executing the tactic is easier. Tight punishes become easy to execute. By informing our reactions with PvP awareness we can ENABLE tactics. Rather than compete, these perspectives amalgamate and make the game easier.
That's all relatively straightforward, but it's embarrassing how few tactics I can claim to have. This perspective also accounts for why it can be so exhausting for me to play puff— I'm always making playing the game much harder than it needs to be.
I also make my puff game significantly more difficult for me. I do basically everything on reaction and don't have many overarching themes that I work on.
ReplyDeleteBut when I play PM as Wario I destroy people even though I play much less. This is because I only played after I learned AT and strategic game play and have no bad habits with the game as a result. I just abuse his dashdance and wavedash game and cheese my way to victory. I just do the same thing and try to bait reactions and adjust my avoidance to their offensive style. It really sucks going back to puff where I have all of these bad habits like jumping before every aerial and accidentally short hopping when I want to full hop and approaching when I shouldn't. I'm getting a lot better the more AT I practice with her, but it's really hard to break my poor foundations.