HitomiBot v1.0
Difficulty Beginner
Focus Learning to Hold
HitomiBot is designed to get a player used to the unique defensive concept of Holds in DoA. The 4-way hold system requires a larger amount of attention to an offensive opponent's flow, and their exact movements. It can be difficult to get used to as a new player against the CPU, which mostly does random attacks and reads the player's inputs, making whether or not you should have succeeded in the hold harder to determine. Additionally, this is difficult to learn online, due to the high variability in opponent characters and playstyles.
Hitomi is useful for learning to hold, since her moves are straightforward, and slightly slow, but she has fast jabs, and tends to put you in spacings that are better for her offense on a hit. However, she is still slow enough and predictable enough that a player can reliably practice their holds on a simple character, while still in a stressful situation.
Stage Settings
Since DoA6, as of this writing, has no meaningful gauge settings or settings relevant to action replays in Training Mode, definitions for this section are related only to which stage to use. This may be updated in future if certain things change in the Free Training Mode
The stage for this bot training is DoA Colosseum or any stage very similar in layout and size.
Goals
Completing each action gives 1 point. Get to 10 points to win. Try to keep track of Hitomi's points as well, as this is part of the mental exercise. If Hitomi gets to 10 points, she 'wins', and the count restarts.
Points System
- A - Successfully mid-hold one of Hitomi's moves
- B - Successfully high-hold one of Hitomi's moves
- C - Successfully low-hold one of Hitomi's moves
- D - Tech Hitomi's throw
- E - Hitomi gets 1 point if she pushes the player into the wall
Difficulty Levels
- Easy - Points given for ABCD
- Medium - Points given for BCD
- Hard - Points given for B and C only, OR B and D only depending on what you need to work on
- Extreme - Points given for A and C only, but you must still attack properly when the situation for B occurs
Action #1
Perfect 5K hidden [5H+K] 5PP hidden [7H 9K] 5PP (end recording instantly)
Acceptable 5K hidden [5H+K] 5PP hidden [7H] 5PP (end recording instantly)
You should see Hitomi do a standing kick, then a quick triple-punch combo, even though you only hit punch twice. If you do not see this specific triple punch, you are not quick enough.
It is possible to be too fast with the 7H, but the bot is not adversely affected. The right timing allows it to hold high strikes more, which may be a stronger emotional test for players who like to press quick buttons in stressful situations. Since these bots do not remain between uses of the game, one may encounter this more or less on different days.
The 9K input is optional, it gives her a hopping kick that is helpful for the other type of player, those who try to reposition or backdash in stressful situations are more likely to be caught by that kick.
Hidden inputs are not visible in either record, or normal single playback (when you are replaying only action #1).
Action #2
Record from far away (so that the throw will not connect)
4T hidden [5K] 6K hidden [3P] 66 (end recording)
It is possible to do this input so quickly that you cannot see Hitomi's 6K. If this is so, the behavior may be unpredictable, however the 6K is not vital enough to the bot that it matters if it shows or not. Despite this, the player must input it. If the 6K is visible, the 3P will almost always be hidden, and the dash will not be hidden. If the 6K is not visible, the 3P will probably be visible, and the forward dash will not.
Most of this input is lenient, and it does not matter if she does any of the moves after the throw very often, or consistently. But, for rhythym purposes, try to make sure the sequence is entered as given.
Action #3
4P hidden [1T 4H] 1K (end recording instantly)
Variant
4P [two quick inputs, at player's discretion] 1K (end recording instantly)
The 4P and 1K are the important parts of this input. The 1T is almost irrelevant, however, the 4H can be quite helpful. Even this is not necessary, however, so the variant allows the player to put basically any two inputs in this space. Since the rhythym must be maintained, and most inputs will cause a different move or combo, we do not suggest using anything complicated.
A player should generally only modify this if they have extreme difficulty with aligning the two middle inputs, or have a good understanding of how bots work.
This recording needs to be ended fairly quickly, in order for the 1K to properly chain into other inputs. You can test this by verifying that when it plays by itself, she does an uppercut-like move after her 1K makes contact, instead of just doing 4P (you may need to poke her to trigger the 1K itself, but once she does, it should consistently follow up with a punch that is visibly different from her 4P).
In-Depth
The point system for this bot, as well as other DoA bots, mostly works by forcing you to keep track of both your opponent's successes, and your own. This is intended to give a similar cognitive stressor to remembering an opponent's previous actions and gameplan in a real match. Therefore, even though there are somewhat fewer combinations of moves compared to our other bots, the player is forced to build up the mental muscle memory for observing both player's actions, rather than being only focused on their own actions. This is an important skill at the higher levels of the game, when you need to be able to anticipate your opponent's intentions and adaptations in advance in order to keep up with their strategies.
Additionally, the throw tech part of the system in this and other DoA bots is designed to help keep you from only guessing what moves the bot will do. In order to distinguish when you should throw and when you should hold and still beat the bot before they win, you have to be reacting to what the Bot is doing rather than just mashing, so it simulates the same stress you would encounter in a real match. Even if you do win as a result of mashing, it is difficult to do so consistently.
HitomiBot's rythm in particular is slightly more predictable than other bots and therefore it is easy to just Hold at the correct rythm once you have learned her patterns. To make sure the player has a way to check if they are reacting to the moves Hitomi is throwing out, and to ensure that they are not winning solely on randomness and pattern recognition, the player can focus on getting the throw tech while still attempting the hold. This will ensure HitomiBot has enough opportunities to score her points to beat the player. Additionally, this creates enough stress that the player can be confident once they master it, as this mimics a similar intensity of stress and cognitive load as a real match at the beginner and intermediate levels.