Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram Beginner's Guide

Discuss the Virtual-On series.
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Zaarock
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Joined: 02 May 2009, 05:51

Re: Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram Beginner's Guide

Post by Zaarock »

Yeah, you need to do have both. You beating "Five Star Generals" by running means they weren't much better than you probably (it just means they've played a bunch of ranked matches)

Cypher also has a different way of playing defensively because he is so fast at air dashing and landing.. you want to do safe air movements and keep landing between medium and long range and spamming safe projectiles. This also allows you to switch to offense easily.
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Leonard_McCoy
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Joined: 24 Sep 2011, 11:42

Re: Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram Beginner's Guide

Post by Leonard_McCoy »

Note: The below statement is just in regard to the play style known as turtling.

Turtling (machi, "playing the waiting game" or whatever you call it) on a high level has always been one of the more successful play styles in competitive games (there are many more).

A turtle's characteristic: a near zero-risk game, eking out even the slightest advantage in life totals, then shamelessly "running away, and "waiting" for the time tick out. In short, it's infinite patience what characterizes this kind of play style. There's nothing wrong with it.

Use whatever means you have at your disposal, that enable you to win. There's no morality in winning. A win's a win.
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MentholMoose
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Joined: 15 Dec 2008, 22:06

Re: Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram Beginner's Guide

Post by MentholMoose »

I don't think anyone is saying a defensive/turtle strategy is invalid in VOOT. My understanding of neoKEN's point is that when you are learning the game you shouldn't focus on building your defensive game at the expense of offense. I agree, since even if you want to use a defensive strategy, you'll still need strong offensive skills to implement it against skilled opponents. Schooly D made the opposite point, i.e. don't focus on offense at the expense of defense, and I agree with that as well. I'd recommend working on both offense and defense equally. But I am flexible... use whatever method works for you when learning, but at least consider the recommendations of more experienced players.

In VOOT the most successful players have well-rounded skills. Whether or not they are playing offense or defense, they do it with the utmost skill. If they are playing a defensive game and their opponent chases them down and gets in close combat range, watch out because they might just try (and connect with) a CC move or combo. Determining what to do is a critical skill, so you need to practice. You could follow a strategy of "heath lead = run away" and "health deficit = attack", but that doesn't always work well. If you gain a health lead and opt to ignore opportunities to attack (or don't recognize them), you are likely to be worse off. In VOOT, frequently all it takes is a single hit to lose a health lead.
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Zanyuki
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Re: Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram Beginner's Guide

Post by Zanyuki »

I haven't been able to play VOOT for a while now, but there was a time when the VOOT scene in Manila (Philippines) frowned and utterly dismissed the playstyle of turtling/machi as cheap and dishonorable. Later on we adapted to this as other players didn't share this philosophy and we were forced to develop our own techniques to counter them while staying true to our roots. When I look back at it now, we were both naive and immature, and I can attribute this to being isolated from the rest of the community for the first year of our existence (we sort of thought then that we were the only players in the world who played the game).

In conclusion, it doesn't really matter what style the other player uses. Most of us were taught to play VOOT as you would chess, not by maximizing all the moves and options your VR has but in trying to think a few steps ahead of the opponent. True that you need to have a working knowledge of your VR's arsenal, but to us it's less than half of what you really need to do to win - you think ahead and keep up a psychological battle. This seems a bit like something you'd see from the Art Of War or a second-rate Japanese manga, but it's actually useful when you can see through what the enemy will do in the next few seconds and act accordingly. In summary, the philosophy is to act, not to react. A reactive playstyle usually loses, no matter what kind of style you use - aggressive, passive, turtling, what have you.

Just my 2 cents. :)