This is not intended to be hating on the new patch or complaining about not understanding how it works. That's not what I'm talking about at all. I started playing the game again because of this patch. I'm not here to bash it or anything like that, this is a larger point.
Nearly every player I fight isn't even using head movement, period. Instead opting to hold high block until the opponent throws a strike, relying on combos afterwards.
Look I get that this isn't unstoppable, but it's just not fun at all. It's boring, it's frustrating, and it kills the entire experience once you realize that you're caught in it. Because there's nothing you can really do to make the guy vulnerable unless he decides to do that. If he's totally content NOT fighting you, that's just how it's gonna be.
It was never this way prior. You fought one of these dudes every now and then, but it wasn't the way it is now. I can probably count specifically the players I've fought post-patch that actually used head movement. Not even proficiently, at all period. I can't help but also notice the player population has been halved in the past month after it was already dropping. I don't think that the new changes have been helpful to that cause. Any player that wasn't already at an expert level would probably now feel like it's impossible to ever reach that given how things keep switching on them. It's driven some people I know away from the game entirely, because they're afraid to even learn it and have it change on them. Some have argued that the new head movement system increased the skill gap, I would argue that given how little people even use it now online that it did the opposite. It enabled people to be able to hold high block the whole fight and just spam simple combos, not even attempt to sway, and win consistently. I understand the idea that it's easier to be Chris Leben than Anderson Silva, but the disparity should not be so huge that my 9 year old brother has a positive record online from quite literally hammering random buttons. He was like 5 and forty something pre patch and he's sitting at like 17-4 (EDIT: Just checked he's 15-6. Point is he should be 0-15252 if he's just moving through with jab/straights or uppercuts) or something now. Doesn't know a jab from a hook, can't defend a takedown, and yet he's stomping through dudes who's gamertags I actually recognize to be decent at the game PREPATCH. Because they are visibly struggling to move out of the way of his insanity. The times he's lost have been visceral, playing me or the AI or even just his older brother he loses routinely. But the older one doesn't even play online because he's too intimidated by the depth that he sees me dealing with when I do. I only bring them up to just illustrate a personal example of these issues playing out. I don't have statistics to back this up, I could just start recording every person I fight who's doing this or record all of my brother's fights, but the point I'm making isn't so much about that. It's about the playerbase as a whole.
I know everyone's just gonna bash ME instead of what I said, that seems to be what happens when I say anything now. But given that this forum is populated with hardcore fans, I think it's important for us to remember we aren't the only ones playing the game. If we keep making such drastic changes, especially without even explaining them adequately in the game itself and expecting people to go out of their way to figure it out online, it'll be just us left. I don't know about you guys, but the prospect of the same 50 or so dudes just fighting each other all day every day sounds crappy to me. I should never log into a AAA game in 2018 and see 700 people or less online at the same predictable times as I do on this one.
Nearly every player I fight isn't even using head movement, period. Instead opting to hold high block until the opponent throws a strike, relying on combos afterwards.
Look I get that this isn't unstoppable, but it's just not fun at all. It's boring, it's frustrating, and it kills the entire experience once you realize that you're caught in it. Because there's nothing you can really do to make the guy vulnerable unless he decides to do that. If he's totally content NOT fighting you, that's just how it's gonna be.
It was never this way prior. You fought one of these dudes every now and then, but it wasn't the way it is now. I can probably count specifically the players I've fought post-patch that actually used head movement. Not even proficiently, at all period. I can't help but also notice the player population has been halved in the past month after it was already dropping. I don't think that the new changes have been helpful to that cause. Any player that wasn't already at an expert level would probably now feel like it's impossible to ever reach that given how things keep switching on them. It's driven some people I know away from the game entirely, because they're afraid to even learn it and have it change on them. Some have argued that the new head movement system increased the skill gap, I would argue that given how little people even use it now online that it did the opposite. It enabled people to be able to hold high block the whole fight and just spam simple combos, not even attempt to sway, and win consistently. I understand the idea that it's easier to be Chris Leben than Anderson Silva, but the disparity should not be so huge that my 9 year old brother has a positive record online from quite literally hammering random buttons. He was like 5 and forty something pre patch and he's sitting at like 17-4 (EDIT: Just checked he's 15-6. Point is he should be 0-15252 if he's just moving through with jab/straights or uppercuts) or something now. Doesn't know a jab from a hook, can't defend a takedown, and yet he's stomping through dudes who's gamertags I actually recognize to be decent at the game PREPATCH. Because they are visibly struggling to move out of the way of his insanity. The times he's lost have been visceral, playing me or the AI or even just his older brother he loses routinely. But the older one doesn't even play online because he's too intimidated by the depth that he sees me dealing with when I do. I only bring them up to just illustrate a personal example of these issues playing out. I don't have statistics to back this up, I could just start recording every person I fight who's doing this or record all of my brother's fights, but the point I'm making isn't so much about that. It's about the playerbase as a whole.
I know everyone's just gonna bash ME instead of what I said, that seems to be what happens when I say anything now. But given that this forum is populated with hardcore fans, I think it's important for us to remember we aren't the only ones playing the game. If we keep making such drastic changes, especially without even explaining them adequately in the game itself and expecting people to go out of their way to figure it out online, it'll be just us left. I don't know about you guys, but the prospect of the same 50 or so dudes just fighting each other all day every day sounds crappy to me. I should never log into a AAA game in 2018 and see 700 people or less online at the same predictable times as I do on this one.
So that was satisfying at least, but yeah, it got really bad. At least for me anyway.
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