I’m serious! It all started when I tried out Forum Battles for the first time. I ended up not liking it, and I commented on how I felt that the Forum Battles weren’t something for me. Then people started to offer to mentor me into getting better at the game, in which I declined them.
However, those people then started to post constantly about how I “needed” to be mentored, even while I was calmy declining their offers. They started saying that I was “self-destructive” and one person even asked if I was “mentally-ill”. All because I felt that I didn’t need to be mentored.
This is madness. That’s why I have hardly any friends on Live…Too much drama, especially when it comes to fighting games.
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Yeah, I guess the thought of having someone decline an offer to be mentored is considered taboo to skilled players XD
But whatevs, the past is the past XD
The politics of KI mentorship…Lol…This is very interesting. I wish I knew more. But, we can just leave it there.
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It’s really, really not. That whole situation was just weird 
I am glad you stuck around though - hope you’re still enjoying KI 
It was weird, given the fact that I was called mentally ill for refusing to be mentored. So in all honesty, it felt that it really, really was the case.
I also suck at fighting games. I played Tekken 3, Soul Calibur 2, Smash Bros and more obscure titles like Garou: Mark of the Wolves. I never wanted to dedicate too much time getting better. There are just too many great games and so little time to just start anything. I came to Killer Instinct, since the player base seems to be smaller, compared to the competition.
But yet, I will not play online anytime soon. I would like to participate, but how can I figure out when I have a fighting chance? Getting teeth knocked out, over and over while all I want is to unwind and relax after working all day is not fun. And no, I’m not learning anything while watching my character getting thrown from one side of the screen to the other. It feels like the online gaming communities have no place for people like me. It’s all in or bugger off to Hidden Object Games. (Somebody really said that). That’s why I have high hopes for Xbox Clubs. The big pound of ranked matchmaking maybe really isn’t for me. I’m not taking it “serious” enough. Damn, I hate the snobbish “Get gud” mentality established by the Dark Souls community.
What I do right now is finishing the dojo. KI maybe has the best tutorial since Skullgirls. Not in one go, but getting into an AI versus match to actually practice what I was just taught. I’m not going to throw down any Ultra Combos soon, but knowing the buttons for low punch, high knicks and the concept of blocking feels like natural progression to me. I also finished Cinders story, which was the saturday morning cartoon fest I wanted. 
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This is especially so with the KI community. People think that by fighting highly skilled players and somehow learning how to get better is the answer to introducing new players. It’s isnt, or at least in my opinion.
Hell, I often feel that the entirety of the LI community is full of highly skilled players, since I’ve not once won a single online match this year. It’s a pretty bad feeling, believe me. And it’s one of the reasons why I dislike the KI community, actually.
I should also note that there are people in this community who act all cheerful and willing to help others, but do the exact opposite and go into senseless, mindless nonsence that doesn’t even correlate to the subject. I learned this when someone chatted with me though PM and went on about things that made absolutly no sense.
I can’t blame the community entirely for that. They are trying to help. If you ever played a MOBA, than this is outstanding in comparison. But that must be the view from the skill ceiling: Why do play online, if you don’t want to be challenged and get better? I haven’t read your discussion with the Forum Battles. I would have just backed out and continued with my day.
What you described, is just the web. There are going to be trolls, but those never represent the community.
Rather the nasty loud minority within it.
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If you’re not looking to play seriously at all and are worried about your skills getting you bopped online, then I’d recommend Shadow Lab. It’s relatively easier than Ranked or Exhibition, but also gives you the chance to fight human-like simulacrum so that you’ll actually improve. Once Shadow Lords comes out I imagine it’ll be a great mode for someone in your position, who kind of just wants to unwind a bit after a long day
Welcome to KI, and hope you enjoy the stay
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Serious enough. I would compare it to kick a ball with friends, while ranked matchmaking feels like being in a club.
I’ll finish the Dojo first, with Versus AI matches on medium. Thanks for the nice welcome.
This is a challenging problem. It turns out that the people playing on line are people who devote time and energy to this (and likely other) fighting games. They work to get better and so, the level of competition is generally pretty advanced when you go online. It’s tough to be a noob or a casual player. This is not just true for KI. I want to play a little Battlefront now and then and it’s tough to go online with people who have all the maps memorized and know the best locations to snipe at me and do any better than bottom three. So it hurts my enjoyment.
But it’s essentially a self inflicted problem. If you want to win you have to practice, and work to improve just like with any other competition. If you don’t want to do that, that’s fine. But you have to find another entertaining outlet - there’s no way to adjust the online element of the game to tailor to people who want to play infrequently on a casual basis beyond what is already there.
The Shadow Mode is tailor made for this. It’s way more engaging than fighting the AI and most shadows are not super advanced. I would second @STORM179’s suggestion to check it out. It really is fun. The other real opportunity is to go online, or come to the forums (for example) to find people around your same skill level. If you can build a community that will play on or about your level this can be really fun. Good luck.
The other thing that may or may not excite you is Shadow Lords mode. It looks like it will be a pretty involved gameplay mode that might have appeal to folks who don’t want to lab up their characters for online battles. In any case, I’m sorry @CriticalSix4677 had a bad experience at Forum Battles - I know most of those guys are really good guys and relaxed players even though some are really hardcore. Maybe there was a communication problem. Certainly there are jerks out there playing KI - but relatively speaking I think this is a really friendly and welcoming community overall.
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I’m not good, I’m currently working my way through it and what I’ve found are 3 things:
- Research - Read this entire thing: http://ki.infil.net/ Based on those descriptions and what you like to play, take a couple of characters into practice mode and settle on one to learn and practice. Then go to the tournament VODs and find pro players who play the character you like. Here’s a few links to get you started:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAj6nX4MmwlKlxE4TTIOhqfoch-DJeXl1 - This is all a guy named JagoBlake, and he plays Jago against a wide variety of characters at a high skill level.
https://www.youtube.com/c/onesixstudiosnet - Home channel of the 8-bit Beatdown, a bi-weekly KI tournament.
https://www.youtube.com/user/XiBassiX/videos - This is Bass’s channel, he’s a pro that mainly play Spinal and Cinder, but rough sets showcase most of the other characters as well.
In addition, google searches for CEO, KIWC, and EVO will get you VoDs from those tournaments pretty easily.
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Practice - Complete the Dojo…all of it…I know it’s painful. I know that ■■■■■■■ finicky DP it wants you to do at the very end is annoying, but it helps you establish muscle memory with QCF, QCB, and DP, which you’ll need for most characters in the game. Once you decide on a character, just sit in practice mode practicing all of their special moves, turn on hitboxes and frame data to test out normals, and practicing combos. Infil’s guide has highest damage combos, practice those until they’re second nature. Once you’ve done that, go back and watch those high-level VoDs again, because you’ll have a better understanding of what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. The first watch was for playstyle, the second is for strategy. Use them to determine what you should be doing in neutral, what can confirm into a combo, etc.
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Play a ■■■■■■■ lot. This is the part where I’m currently stuck (in part because my ISP is not being friendly with the Teredo system), but you should play online exhibitions and ranked frequently. When I tried this, I learned that all that ■■■■ I practiced just fell apart as I panicked to react to things my opponent was doing and lost horribly. The only way to get over that is to keep playing matches, get placed in wood league, then work your way up by developing muscle memory and understanding reactions. Losing teaches you more than winning, so try to learn something from each match. It takes a while, you’ll be bad for a long time before you get good. Just try to remember that the people that are good have been doing this ■■■■ for years, you’re not going to catch up to them in a week or two.
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It’s a rude awakening for me. Having played mostly Single Player games the past decade, mainly RPGs, Survival Horror and Racing. Now it’s all about eSports. Skill Floor is rising and big players take performance drugs to get an edge. Maybe this is just an old man’s rant, that online gaming isn’t like Counter Strike 1.6 back in 2001. I miss my n00b room in a server list. 
Killer Instinct is the first fighter to get my full attention. Never got Tekken 3, DoA or Street Fighter II back in the day. KI get’s the charm of the 90’s and I love it for that. Also watching Double Helix making a good game and maybe Iron Galaxy can prove themself after everything that happened in 2015.
I’ll continue finishing the dojo, playing Season I & II story modes, Versus and maybe I can beat the first enemy in ShadowLap.
Yes, the community is very friendly, welcoming and awesome. For now. No troll has posted in this thread, I’m impressed. But things will change. The more popular a game get’s the more trolls and douchebags show up. And the F2P model makes it an easy entry. I saw it happening to Warframe and Payday 2. But without a growing community, there is no support by Microsoft.
I’m having a hard time learning to properly and INTENTIONALY block. It all works in the Dojo lesson, but as soon as I start a match, it’s like it’s all gone from my head. I repeated the Dojo block lesson like 4 times, broken up by Versus matches to get to the meat.
What the hell am I doing wrong?
Well what I think is happening is that you’re really focused on trying to block that when you have a match you might be zoning out or more focused on your opponent. Blocking is easy but knowing when to block is important. If you find the right lobby I’m sure you can get the hang of blocking when necessary.
Help us understand better. Are you not holding back or are you just always hitting buttons? Spend a few matches not worrying about offense JUST try to block your opponent.
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…that actually worked WAY better. Thanks. Yes, I was still button mashing.
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