Let's talk about...Virtual On!

[NGEFreek]

Ah, I see, well I thought I'd give 'em a plug anyway ^_^

[sggg]

Well, like I said before, I have long admired the series but I am still very much a Virtual On newbie....... but I finally had some time to sit down and start to get the hang of VOOT today. I started playing in Training Mode in slow motion with the enemies attack turned off. So, it took a while but I am starting to get used to the control.

I can see why some people complain about the control. But people often times people complain about any game with an unusual control scheme. I have usually found that you should not judge a game based on that until you have really learned the control scheme well enough for it to be intuitive. Sometimes that takes a lot of patience and/or practice though. Anyway, it is still *far* from intuitive to me but I already like the feel of it a lot. It is one of those things were you can feel yourself improving and you just want to play more and more. It's fun!

So..... so far I like it a lot... and I think that I will like it even more once I truly get the hang of it! It's gonna take time though..

Anyone have any good tips for noobs?

[Prince Planet]

Originally posted by sggg
Anyone have any good tips for noobs?

There are whole websites devoted to VOOT strategies, and you should check them out ASAP. In the meantime, here are some very general ideas for you to consider:

1. The 'roids each have a surprising amount of moves/attacks. After trying them all, pick one you like and concentrate your efforts on that 'roid for a while -- try to become comfortable with as many of that 'roids moves as possible, bearing in mind the various attack ranges. [By the way, personal tastes aside, some 'roids are easier to learn than others. Temjin, one of my personal favorites, is essentially an "all-arounder". Not a bad choice to start with.

2. Again there are a TON of strategies, and players will certainly have different approaches. Regardless, here's a basic underlying strategy: you must bait the opponent into committing to some kind of dashing attack -- this allows you to subsequently commence your own dash attack (watari) at a superior angle of fire. (E.g., he's dash attacks laterally, and you therefore dash/attack forward.) The result? Most if not all of your opponents shots will miss you, and your shots/attack will zero in on your opponent. Simple, huh? Not.

3. Wait for the opponents' ATTACK! Simply making the opponent dash is not sufficient, since a non-attacking dash can be cancelled. Once the attack is commenced, however, the attack cannot be cancelled (hence, your opportunity to let fly with your own superior attack).

4. There's a lot of strategy involved. Is your opponent hiding? Flush him out with a bomb, or other long range attack (depending on your 'roids capabilities), and maybe he'll dash attack. Or maybe you can pin him down with repeated fire, and close in with a short-range attack, or fast homing attack (attacks have different homing abilities). Then, of course, there's the whole topic of watari dashing... read up on it.

Alright, I could go on and on, but I have to get back to work. Good luck, and practice, practice, practice. Also, check a good FAQ at Gamefaqs...I think Chris Tan did one that's really good, and lays out the basic strategies.

[NGEFreek]

Not many specific noob suggestions, but rather to learn infighting, it will help out most of the time and it does insane damage (I mean, come on, like 75% damage from one attack from AphB to Cypher?)

[Tain]

The numer 1 problem with newbs: Too much dash attacking is just plain foolish. While foward-dash attacks aren't too bad of an idea, repeated side-dash attacks are. They usually do poor damage and have poor homing. They aren't worthless, but they shouldn't be used as much as they are. Not to mention the freeze-time after an attack, as most newbs (and even decent players) have trouble doing the Doi-2, which shaves off dash attack freeze time.

I got to play version 5.66 today! Finally, the hack which will let you play 5.66 from the "5.66 Customize Disk". Made by the same man behind netplay, of course. The hack is very early, but it clearly shows how damn "finished" 5.66 for DC is. I got to play as the three new VRs:

Apharmd C - This guy is niiice. He's got the shotgun from the VOOM days, but it's not quite the same. Still, it's a nice weapon. His center weapon (and primary CC weapon) is a sword that flips out from his left elbow, and some of its long-range attacks remind me of Temjin's CW. His grenade seems very similar to the other Aps. Overall, he almost feels like a mix of Ap B and Ap S.

Stein-Vok - It's Grys-Vok... With laser weapons! I admit that I didn't spend much time with him, but he's interesting. His CC seems the same, and I couldn't find an obvious beam attack in the one round that I played. I'll try later.

10/80 Temjin - A prototype 707 Temjin. Very... weak. He can't air-dash, and he can't Watari, for one. The problem is, in this build of 5.66, his bounding box is waaaay too big. This is obviously not true with the "finished" arcade version, but on this CD, 10/80's bounding box is MASSIVE. The only CC attack I've been able to do is his center weapon, which I've never connected. The other two weapons won't be able to get into range because he's too big. I've even gotten hit by a beam attack that was probably 20 meters to the right of his visible model, but still took damage! That aside, he's got a vulcan cannon for a right weapon, and he's a speedy "little" beast.

[Tain]

Regardless, here's a basic underlying strategy: you must bait the opponent into committing to some kind of dashing attack -- this allows you to subsequently commence your own dash attack (watari) at a superior angle of fire. (E.g., he's dash attacks laterally, and you therefore dash/attack forward.)

Sorry for sounding strict, but that's not a Watari dash. That's Vector Dashing, which is important too. A Watari dash is simply a 90 degree dash turn.

[Prince Planet]

Originally posted by Tain


Sorry for sounding strict, but that's not a Watari dash. That's Vector Dashing, which is important too. A Watari dash is simply a 90 degree dash turn.

You're right of course. That was a typo. It should have read ("or watari"). As you can see from the rest of my post, I brought up watari-dashing later as a separate topic, and then decided to leave it alone. Too much info for one small post.

Glad to see someone's keeping me in line.

[NGEFreek]

I'll have to second that Watari-Dashing is a must, I didn't stand a chance against the SHGL people side-dashing ^_^ luckily, I was able to get a few CC hits in so I wasn't totally humiliated.