Due to the nature of where I live, it's very difficult for me to find matches to play locally. As a result, in-game lag is something that I just have to learn to deal with when I'm playing. If you're able to find lcaol games, or even online games that are fast and efficient, then you have a luxury that I don't. So, I can either complain about the lag, quit playing, or learn to cope with it.
- What does lag entail?
- What does lag enable you to do?
- What does lag prevent you from doing?
Is lag a big deal?
Lag is caused for a number of reasons, none of which really matter for the purposes of what I'm writing about. The key thing is that it slows down the speed at which you can input commands to the game, and the speed at which you can react to your opponent. Many players that are used to playing locally find that it renders the game unplayable, because they are used to entering their inputs at a certain speed and have trouble adapting to a slower tempo.
Although I don't disagree with the frustration that players better than I experience, I think that there is still a game to be played when lag is a factor. When I say game, I mean it in the sense that there is still strategy to be put into use, and there is still an ability for someone to win the game and minimize the amount of luck that has a factor in the outcome.
Using lag to your advantage
I believe that lag can be used to your benefit. In my own experience, I've found that I'm able to get away with more full combo strings than normal. This is typically bceause the opponent has attempted to break me out of the combo where they would normally be able to, without lag, but in this instance, they have input their command too late. With lag, you also have to be thinking that much further ahead than your opponent, since there is even less reaction time available to you then normally (the longer the lag, the earlier you have to input your command to have it actually reach the other machine and execute in time).
What does this really come down to? Good yomi.
Yomi is the key ingredient to playing in a laggy environment. If you have trained your opponent well enough, you should barely need to use any reaction time late in the game - you should already have a very strong idea of what your opponent is going to do next, and thus you react accordingly. Part of using yomi effectively is making good guesses. The more you guess correctly, the more predictable your opponent will become, as they start to fear you reading them. You can see that there is obviously a snowball effect here, and ultimately we're aiming to dominate our opponent's mind. Once we have succeeded at that, the rest becomes easy.
Cheating
Lag will also make it more difficult for someone on the defense to break into your attack pattern. When you have the offence, it is generally easier to continue through to the end of the string than it is to break in with the opponent's attack. This puts the power into the hands of the attacker, since they get the choice of whether or not they will complete the string or break it off into a throw (etc.).
In addition to simply following your strings through to completion, you'll notice that with more lag, you will be less likely to get hit at the end of your sequence, as the opponent has to understand when they need to enter their own inputs given the lag, and are less likely to do this successfully. Learning how to speed up or delay your inputs while playing in lag is a valuable skill indeed - it can be applied to games that don't have any lag at all.
Lastly, you can cheat out of your frames of disadvantage. Because of the point above, you will often be able to score cheap strikes following a situation where you should have been at a disadvantage, simply because your opponent didn't input at the appropriate time. See if you notice that your opponent's response is slightly delayed after you follow through with particular strings, and then abuse those delays that you notice.
Lag as a style
In addition to adapting and reacting to the lag, it is important to learn how to use this as a strength. Lag is just one more avenue in which deviations of your rhythm come into play. Lag forces you to slow down and speed up your movements, and adjust to the pitch of the environment within which you're fighting. If all the characters are moving more slowly, you, as a player controller them, are going to have to act more slowly as well.
Good players will, over time, gain the ability to adapt as needed and adjust their inputs accordingly - certainly a valuable skill, However, there is a disadvantage here as well - they have been trained themselves adjust your inputs based on what you see on the screen. If I now start to stutter my inputs and make my flow more jerky, your eyes are going to tell you that the game is in lag mode, and slow your inputs.
By simulating a laggy game, you can throw off your opponent's timing
Successfully throwing off your opponent's timing will mean that you control the flow of the game, and the rate at which it can be played. Being in control is a good thing - it makes it easier to adapt to the pace of the match, and easier to apply pressure and yomi to your opponent.
At its finest, you will be able to play with a choppy style that visually puts forth the illusion of lag to your opponent, and confuses their attempts to respond and counter-hit. I have had many legitimate complaints about lag during games I've played, but I have also had complaints when the game, at least on my end, was very very smooth. I like to believe that this is due to the style of rhythm that I am presenting to the opponent, and forcing them to adapt to.
Playing within the confines of lag is like any other aspect of the game - it takes some adaption and understanding in order to deal with it. It will never be as pure as a game without lag, which is to say that it will never be as close to the best game that you can ideally train yourself to play. However, it's well worth your time to practice training in this kind of environment - a good deal of your fights online will be laggy.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment