Did anyone else quit playing Ness because of this?

[Putuk]

When Smash 4 first came out, I was real excited that Ness had improved so much compared to the other titles in the series, but recently, I find myself playing him less and less.

The reason being primarily online lag. Ness in a laggy match just feels awful. His jumps feel all over the place and PK Thunder feels like it's got several kilos of lead strapped to it, I couldn't tell you how often I've fallen off the stage due to not being able to direct it at the angle I wanted (sure, you can easily just make a lil' circle, but that leaves you wide open for attacks sometimes).

So more recently I've switched mains to Dedede and had significantly better results on For Glory. His moves don't suffer a lot in lag, he's got very powerful attacks and is hard to knock out of the ring (and you can eat people and jump off the ledge, very amusing). I'm winning a bunch more matches and am getting a lot less angry at the game as a result. It's a nice change.

I've also recently taken a liking to playing Jigglypuff and I think I enjoy playing her more than Ness too.

Only problem is that EarthBound is by far my favorite series of vidya, I guess I feel like I'm betraying it here.
Is it bad that I quit playing my favorite character on the roster because I'm not as good with said character or have a hard time with their shortcomings?

(Keep in mind, I only own the 3DS version, I have no idea how the online on the Wii U is.)

 

[Noa.]

I mean you should play who you have the most fun with. If that's DDD then play DDD. If you don't like playing ness, don't play him.

Though if the problem is lag, just play locally. Get involved in your local smash scene and find players to play with locally.

 

[Putuk]

I mean you should play who you have the most fun with. If that's DDD then play DDD. If you don't like playing ness, don't play him.

Though if the problem is lag, just play locally. Get involved in your local smash scene and find players to play with locally.

I would. Problem is, I live in a small village in a small country (Austria, that's a german-speaking country south of Germany). To find a "local" scene, I'd probably have to drive 1+ hours or possibly even leave the country.

Oh well, thanks for the response.

 

[Noa.]

Aw it's a shame that it's difficult to find players around you to play with.

 

[L9999]

For a time it angers me, but because I suck with everyone except Ness it's like, OK let's give it a shot. If I can play a laggy Ness I can play full speed Ness.

 

[Yokoblue]

I started playing pikachu online and completely understand you. Sometimes I adapt my playstyle to include less quick attacks or less fancy recovery (as Ness). Play more safe and leave games that lag more than usual.
Dont let the lag discourage you... Once you get used to it, you will crush offline because you will feel so fast

 

[Uffe]

Keep using Ness. Certain characters excel with lag. It seems King Dedede is one of those characters. Little Mac does because he's fast and he's strong. Samus does because she can run away and spam. Toon Link also does well because he does what Samus can do, as well as Link. Even Mega Man. The thing is, you shouldn't drop a character you love because of the stupid lag online. If you can go to tourneys, then that there is especially the reason you should stick it out with Ness. Honestly, if a match is horrendous to the point it lags hard, I just run off the stage and not care.

 

[Yokoblue]

One thing to note is that your opponent has lag as well. Uffe just said that TL excel in lag but as a TL player I can tell you that its really hard to play. Zoning with projectile is just as hard as dodging them.

You need to make sure you master the lag. By that I mean that you need to be able to NOT do mistakes when playing alone. If you play alone in lag and do mistakes, you need to these mistakes

 

[Noa.]

Almost everyone thinks their character is worse with lag zzzz

 

[Uffe]

One thing to note is that your opponent has lag as well. Uffe just said that TL excel in lag but as a TL player I can tell you that its really hard to play. Zoning with projectile is just as hard as dodging them.

You need to make sure you master the lag. By that I mean that you need to be able to NOT do mistakes when playing alone. If you play alone in lag and do mistakes, you need to these mistakes

Don't worry. My intentions were not to bash specific characters. I remember playing against a Mega Man on For Glory. It was lagging hard and I lost my first stock after having being thrown off and trying to recover with PKT2. Instead of heading to the stage, I went away from it. My opponent had two stocks, 17%, and somehow along the way I had barely won the match. Don't think I'm saying that Toon Link will always win in lagfi. I'm not saying that. He doesn't necessarily have to get close and some characters do. So getting around a barrage of projectile in lag isn't exactly easy. I now just SD if the lag is so bad because it's not worth dealing with.

 

[KRBAY]

This is why secondaries exist.

 

[Earthbound360]

I don't think it's a great idea to ditch a character solely because of lag, but if your only option is wifi, and the lag is really making you disliek the character that much, then I guess I see where you're coming from.

 

[Magicant+Memories+Mother]

I feel you with the lag. Whenever I play online and use PK thunder I suddenly move across the screen and lose my recovery. As stated previously that is why you have secondaries. I main Ness and occasionaly use Lucario. When I find I lose to my opponent using them I switch to Pac-Man.Problem solved (for me). I go to a public school in the United States and lots of people there have Smash Bros for 3DS. I found a solid character in Ness but people critiscized me for not grabbing enough. I try to grab more but I find it difficult with Ness's short range. I tried other characters but just don't feel comfortable. Then I decided to just stick with who I like, I am good with, and just think is plain awesome. So I stuck with Ness. So it is really up to you. Who do you feel most comfortable with? I understand how it can be hard not being able to play locally and fighting CPUs gets boring quickly so you might need to change. When all you can do is play online I think you should change to Dedede. However I hope you enjoyed Ness as I did.

 

[Magicant+Memories+Mother]

That was my first post!!!!!!!

 

[Ggjeed]

The real issue is online. I played a lot of online (as ness), but it just slows everything down and then I play locally and get wrecked by people with more practice with faster gameplay.

 

[kro_]

EVERY character in the game feels like they're terrible because of lag.

 

[Andinus]

I know what you mean with lag affecting the pk thunder. It really gimps ness. But meh, just leave find another match or reset your router. Either of those options alway work for me in the end.

 

[Yikarur]

I would. Problem is, I live in a small village in a small country (Austria, that's a german-speaking country south of Germany). To find a "local" scene, I'd probably have to drive 1+ hours or possibly even leave the country.

try www.SmashLabs.de you're welcome.

 

[PSI Rockin Ω]

As someone that plays Ness 90% of the time online, I can definitely say that sometimes it's worth playing laggy matches with a character because you come to get more used to them in more situations. if you're playing a calm game and suddenly get a lag spike, then you know how to react to it instead of just suddenly not playing anymore. But obviously if it's lagging to the point where both players are frozen every other second, then yeah don't deal with that. I feel a lot more comfortable now when the game starts to lag when I play Ness, cause I can act accordingly and input attacks earlier and such.

TL;DR: Like others have said, lag shouldn't be a reason to drop a character completely. Just work around it ^^

 

[Soupy]

I mained Ness all the way from Melee, then I dropped him for Luigi because I don't like a LOT of Ness match-ups in this game. Don't feel bad for switching your main haha.

 

[visvim]

I mained Ness all the way from Melee, then I dropped him for Luigi because I don't like a LOT of Ness match-ups in this game. Don't feel bad for switching your main haha.

Really? Don't get me wrong, Luigi is awesome in this game, but this version's Ness is the best in the series by far. Hate to get into tier talk but he's definitely around the same spot as Weegee in terms of viability too.

And to OP - lag is enough to throw anyone off their game, but if you truly love the character, you work around it as others suggested. But if you genuinely have more fun with a different character, no need to feel guilty about betraying your series!

 

[Soupy]

Really? Don't get me wrong, Luigi is awesome in this game, but this version's Ness is the best in the series by far. Hate to get into tier talk but he's definitely around the same spot as Weegee in terms of viability too.

And to OP - lag is enough to throw anyone off their game, but if you truly love the character, you work around it as others suggested. But if you genuinely have more fun with a different character, no need to feel guilty about betraying your series!

No no, I don't deny that. In fact, personally, I think Ness is better than Luigi if we're going to talk tier lists.

I just don't like playing against most high tiers with him. It's not really enjoyable, IMO, to be terrified of being knocked off the stage, only to be gimped by competent villager, rosa, shiek, etc. It's like having little mac syndrome.

With Weegi, I just enjoy him overall so even the tough match-ups are fun.

 

[The PK Dragon]

i can see where your coming from with the lag
i swear 45+% of my loses come from some form of server lag
like today i felt like using ness's ability to use pk thunder twice by bouncing off a wall and right after i had started to circle the pk thunder around the game lagged to the point that the dreaded loading icon appeared and as you guessed it messed me up. i was gimped by lag and my reward was a good ol taunt. i guess i had it coming for trying to use it just for the sake of useng it but I WAS GIMPED BY LAG

 

[Andinus]

i can see where your coming from with the lag
i swear 45+% of my loses come from some form of server lag
like today i felt like using ness's ability to use pk thunder twice by bouncing off a wall and right after i had started to circle the pk thunder around the game lagged to the point that the dreaded loading icon appeared and as you guessed it messed me up. i was gimped by lag and my reward was a good ol taunt. i guess i had it coming for trying to use it just for the sake of useng it but I WAS GIMPED BY LAG

Even the slightest bit of sudden lag that hits at the right moment can totally screw up your trajectory for pkt2. It's sucks but if I'm playing for fun I usually don't mind lag here and there but if it happens too much in for glory I just find another match, I got a pretty solid record going in team battle and I'm not gonna let lag screw that up. I've got plenty of my suckiness and other people's suckiness for that.

 

[Ggjeed]

Even the slightest bit of sudden lag that hits at the right moment can totally screw up your trajectory for pkt2. It's sucks but if I'm playing for fun I usually don't mind lag here and there but if it happens too much in for glory I just find another match, I got a pretty solid record going in team battle and I'm not gonna let lag screw that up. I've got plenty of my suckiness and other people's suckiness for that.

This brings up a good point about online in general. People take for glory too seriously. Obviously it tracks your mistakes and points out your losses in ways other modes do not, but that doesn't change the fact that for glory is more or less pointless. This situation is very easy to see in something like hearthstone where players are climbing the rank to get to legend. They want to prove they have what it takes. Every loss that is tracked is another step away from proving yourself. Another problem is that it's online so you don't have any instant support (like you would if you went to a tourny with some friends). So you sit there alone, upset, stewing.

My advice for this is DO NOT use online as a way to judge how good you are. The greatest thing you can get out of for Glory is serious practice with matchups and human competition. Online is better than bots in training your reads and learning opponent habits. In for fun mode you don't always get people trying to be serious, instead they are just having fun (not always, but often). People in For Glory want more of a challenge and will provide more of a challenge. That is the purpose of for glory. Forget your record. Your tournament record (if you can find some) is a much better way to prove yourself.

A major downside, is the lag of course. I stopped for glory because I noticed it did absolutely nothing for my reaction time. I would get really good at for glory and get rocked by my IRL friends because the speed difference is off the charts. So take online for what it's worth. Learning. Always learn and look past the lag issues to find holes in play. If you get a chance to save replay and find some errors in your play for a match that you lost, delete it and forget about that match (not the things you learned, just the match itself).

As for finding the local scene, find friends in your town, every couple of months try to get to a tournament within 2.5 hours drive. (In highschool we sometimes traveled 2.5 hours away for competitive stuff that started saturday mornings at 9, so there has got to be a way to get to the nearest scene). See how you do at these and what you need to learn. play friendlies there too outside of the tourny. Where there is a will, there is a way (even in austria).

 

[Noa.]

The fastest and best way to improve at smash is to go to local tournaments and play at Smashfests with other competitive players in your area. Get involved in your scene!

If there is no scene make one yourself. Find a venue and host a tournament. Post about it everywhere on facebook and in real life. Go to geeky comic stores or LANs. Spread the information to gaming clubs in colleges and high schools. Post on smashboards. Etc

 

[Andinus]

This brings up a good point about online in general. People take for glory too seriously. Obviously it tracks your mistakes and points out your losses in ways other modes do not, but that doesn't change the fact that for glory is more or less pointless. This situation is very easy to see in something like hearthstone where players are climbing the rank to get to legend. They want to prove they have what it takes. Every loss that is tracked is another step away from proving yourself. Another problem is that it's online so you don't have any instant support (like you would if you went to a tourny with some friends). So you sit there alone, upset, stewing.

My advice for this is DO NOT use online as a way to judge how good you are. The greatest thing you can get out of for Glory is serious practice with matchups and human competition. Online is better than bots in training your reads and learning opponent habits. In for fun mode you don't always get people trying to be serious, instead they are just having fun (not always, but often). People in For Glory want more of a challenge and will provide more of a challenge. That is the purpose of for glory. Forget your record. Your tournament record (if you can find some) is a much better way to prove yourself.

A major downside, is the lag of course. I stopped for glory because I noticed it did absolutely nothing for my reaction time. I would get really good at for glory and get rocked by my IRL friends because the speed difference is off the charts. So take online for what it's worth. Learning. Always learn and look past the lag issues to find holes in play. If you get a chance to save replay and find some errors in your play for a match that you lost, delete it and forget about that match (not the things you learned, just the match itself).

As for finding the local scene, find friends in your town, every couple of months try to get to a tournament within 2.5 hours drive. (In highschool we sometimes traveled 2.5 hours away for competitive stuff that started saturday mornings at 9, so there has got to be a way to get to the nearest scene). See how you do at these and what you need to learn. play friendlies there too outside of the tourny. Where there is a will, there is a way (even in austria).

Everything you are saying is true, but for me anyway online smash at home will comprise 99% of my play time. I'm old, have a family and a full time job, and so do all of my friends. Could I find local tournaments and get involved, sure every once in a while, could I go over to a gathering or have people over a couple of nights a week, hell no.

Additionally, though online performance cannot be used as an accurate measure of live tournament performance, statistically speaking a person would still have to go to a hell of a lot of tournaments and play a ton of people many times to truly get an accurate measure of how they really stack up against the rest of the smash playing world. That is one thing online has going for it, even if it only matters within its own bubble, but for people like me that bubble is all I can really invest my time in. I don't care that I will never win a major smash tournament (almost all smashers won't), but I do enjoy being able to boast a decent win record, even if I am the only one in the world that cares.

 

[Boasting Toast]

If you're legit dropping characters because of your record with them on For Glory, I feel sorry for you.

 

['Nanas]

You aren't betraying earthbound because Ness is difficult to play in online. Don't worry too much.

 

[visvim]

Everything you are saying is true, but for me anyway online smash at home will comprise 99% of my play time. I'm old, have a family and a full time job, and so do all of my friends. Could I find local tournaments and get involved, sure every once in a while, could I go over to a gathering or have people over a couple of nights a week, hell no.

Additionally, though online performance cannot be used as an accurate measure of live tournament performance, statistically speaking a person would still have to go to a hell of a lot of tournaments and play a ton of people many times to truly get an accurate measure of how they really stack up against the rest of the smash playing world. That is one thing online has going for it, even if it only matters within its own bubble, but for people like me that bubble is all I can really invest my time in. I don't care that I will never win a major smash tournament (almost all smashers won't), but I do enjoy being able to boast a decent win record, even if I am the only one in the world that cares.

Totally understand where you're coming from regarding how you choose to spend your time on the game given your real world responsibilities and I'm not one of those folks who thinks FG is totally useless (it can be a learning tool, albeit a limited one, and it's just good fun a lot of the time). But I can't really get why one would care about the win record, never mind care so much that they'd drop a character they like just to preserve it. It's just not an accurate reflection of much of anything - in that way it's kind of the standardized test to Smash's school.

 

[Andinus]

Totally understand where you're coming from regarding how you choose to spend your time on the game given your real world responsibilities and I'm not one of those folks who thinks FG is totally useless (it can be a learning tool, albeit a limited one, and it's just good fun a lot of the time). But I can't really get why one would care about the win record, never mind care so much that they'd drop a character they like just to preserve it. It's just not an accurate reflection of much of anything - in that way it's kind of the standardized test to Smash's school.

Well I kind of already mentioned it but I will clarify. Since I'm not going to be out to win tournaments, its just fun for me to boast a good record if I'm good enough to maintain it. FG does not matter in terms of live tournaments but since all thing are equal within itself, it matters, just within its own bubble though. Its really just me against myself trying to improve on it, and its fun when I can do that. Now I'm not about dropping a character to preserve it, or anything, if I lose I lose, But if after 10000 matches I've won 75% of or something, its something to be happy about I think.

 

[DanceLouisDance]

A lot of people dont know this but Ness in brawl is just as good (basically the same as in 3ds). and his Dair is way better. It actually meteors most of the time x) but yeah just play who you like. although as much as i hate the lag for ness and other things i still play him. i feel like im starting to get better at the (bad) matchups too x)