Thoughts about changing to Arcade stick.

So, I've finally gotten myself a Sweet SFIV MadCatz TE arcade stick. These things feel smooth and pretty!

This is my second day trying out the arcade stick...
IT IS HORRIBLE! LOL.. no not really. I used to play with an arcade stick back in the arcade shops in the city, (Happy Land and Wahda Mall) and in the old days where Action Zone existed and KOF was still there. So, in other words, I do not totally suck in Arcade sticks!

My wrist begun to swallow from the stick wrist handle? I am not sure if it is because of their design, or my hands.. but I might just get used to it eventually.

I am happy about placing the stick on my lap while playing, It does not slide nor affect my input. I like the buttons and how smooth they are, they are (Sanwa) parts, a very good if not the best company that produces arcade equip.

Now for gameplay.........
......
.....
It was sad.. lol
....

Well, I started my very first character with the stick with Cammy, her instant cannon strike was much much easier to perform on the stick. I'm used to this move input because I used it a lot with C.Viper for her instant burning kick. It is the same motion.

I was able to perform FADC to either forward or back dash with no problems. I perform ultra no problem, but not as fast as the joystick.

I found myself to keep getting confused over which is a punch and which is a kick. I kept trying to do a canon spike with a punch button!

I found myself not being able to perform option select inputs with the arcade as easy.

Viper's Free FADC is much harder to do on the stick (for now). Also lots of viper tricks is harder for me to do (now) on the stick, instant SJ BK, Ex-Seismo xx Ex-Seismo. SJC-Ultra, and lots of other stuff, I have to work hard on them all again now :(

Though, Viper's FFF is much easier to do in the stick, and chances I'll screw and get super or ultra is much less now.

I still use 3 buttons to perform EX move instead of 2 buttons, this troubles me when a 3 buttons is used for characters for different moves such as akuma's teleport, and akuma's EX-Shoryuken. Also, sometimes an Ultra will come out instead of the EX because I press all 3 buttons, I have to get used to 2 buttons only.

Seems I still have some execution problems when trying to perform a qcb motion. a SRK comes out!! its ridiculous, I go from down to left on the stick, and a SRK comes out, I try to do viper's thunder knuckle, yet a seismo comes out! how sick is that? I have no idea why that happens, but it happened to me in the arcade shop as well, so I guess I am doing something wrong.. I have to work on this.

Piano input works BEAUTIFULLY, i am very happy with this. I am doing Honda's hands out of his jab everytime. its crazy! I have not tried blanka/gen/etc yet. I tried Chun-li's ex legs, but did not spend long time on it. Seemed kinda tricky.

Trying to press up alone seemed also tricky, Pressing down alone is way easier coz of how your hand is shaped, you can push your 4 fingers down to go down, but to go up, you have to push the stick with your thumb, and it has to be exactly up, I found myself sometimes go up right or up left, so I try to be extra careful when trying to press up, but when I do that, i almost left my hand off the stick and causes some trouble so I have to work on that as well.

I've tried Double tapping and P-linking, Its very hard to get adjusted to them at first, But I hope this gets better with time. I found it much easier to link 2+ frame links with double tapping, but its hard to adjust to that in the middle of a combo, as my mind will focus on double tapping and forget to continue, so that I have to work with.
I found it easier to link 1 frame link with the traditional on the spot press, but that's probably because I got good timing, I'd get 7+/10, but if with priority I can increase that, I would go for it, but from what i've seen now, p-linking is somehow difficult, and as I said above, I have to adjust to it when in a middle of a combo.

Guile and Vega's Ultra are much easier to land with the stick. I'd say 90% to 65% on the joystick.

Basically, Stuff your muscle brain memorized with the joystick wont help you here. The timing only might help you, but the places of the buttons wont.
I'm used to punish some moves that get a little range with viper's cr.mk to m.TK, I found myself never doing this on the arcade stick, I have to rebuild my muscle memory all over again.

Well, I hope this is going to be worth it. But starting today, I will only use the arcade stick!.. well, there is a tournament next week, so I might use the joystick one last time before completely converting to the Arcade Stick. Till then, Have fun ;)