Getting Better?

[SoggyWaffulz]

This isn't me looking for guidance on how to get better as much as it is me looking for confirmation about my inner struggle with FFR / SM.

So over the course of my time on this site, I went from being completely horrible as a one handed player to a... decent I guess... 4-finger spread player at both games.

I recently picked FFR back up, and I was worse than I was when I left off, obviously. But I was starting to feel like I was getting better over the course of the past week. I was able to sight-read FC a few 40ish songs, which isn't impressive by any means, but it's a good personal goal I guess.

Problem is, I just downloaded some song packs for SM and MOST of the songs seem way out of my league. Like I'll miss maybe 5-10 on Quasar, which when I was younger I thought that was a difficult song. But in comparison to everything I see on here and everything in these song packs, I'm still super bad.

Question: In order to get better, should I be playing songs that kick my ass, or should I be playing songs that are within my FC range, and playing them until I can FC them constantly? I've been taking the second approach because I hate getting my ass kicked in a song.

I appreciate anyone's input on this. :P

[MikeShinoda12345]

Re: Getting Better?

I'd probably recommend you just play the game for fun. It's cliche, but if you focus solely on the goal of improving by avoiding the songs you enjoy playing, you'll burn out and lose interest in the game.

[Hakulyte]

Re: Getting Better?

What do you want to get better at?

[SoggyWaffulz]

Re: Getting Better?

What do you want to get better at?

Y'know, I'm not entirely sure to be honest.

I can read at a fairly decent speed, I play FFR on a 1.825x, SM on C600-C700.
I can read streams pretty well, even with sixteenth notes as long as the BPM isn't ridiculous.

I guess my weak point would be jumpstreaming and jacks / trills. Jumpstreaming because I have a tough time picking those apart from the stream, and jacks / trills because my hand speed isn't quite up to par.

I'd probably recommend you just play the game for fun. It's cliche, but if you focus solely on the goal of improving by avoiding the songs you enjoy playing, you'll burn out and lose interest in the game.

This would be true, except I've always been this way about everything I do. Rofl.
Besides, I've been a member for over seven years, if I got too frustrated with getting pooped on I would have retired already.

[foxfire667]

Re: Getting Better?

Question: In order to get better, should I be playing songs that kick my ass, or should I be playing songs that are within my FC range, and playing them until I can FC them constantly? I've been taking the second approach because I hate getting my ass kicked in a song.

For the most skill gain in a short period of time, you should focus your efforts on StepMania, and play songs that you can typically get an A grade on.

Playing songs at this level will allow for you to get a fairly decent grasp of harder patterns, while still giving you the ability to (for the most part) keep up with the songs you are playing. Of course you will have to play SM files to know their actual difficulty relative to your skill, but the ones you are able to A you should keep a mental note of and try to use them for skill honing. As you start to AA these files, you can look for harder files that were giving you trouble in the past and note your improvement.

That is how I essentially managed my skill-boosting on SM (well, along with playing longer files that drain stamina).

[Xx{Midnight}xX]

Re: Getting Better?

To start with you need to train how to read charts first and foremost, if you can't read it the chances of a maggot luck run are really frickin' slim.

Most people here will tell you to download stepmania and play songs that are considered good solid charts. (Pretty much something that's not out of a dump pack)

My advice is to honestly train your reading skills. THEN work on execution. If you train your execution with shitty reading skills, you're gonna teach your brain the wrong way and then you'll have to retrain it to execute properly. Which is a pain.

Also this should stop you from splitting jumpstream like an idiot like myself.

There's a good batch of JS practice courtesy of Icyworld, I just cannot remember the name of it.

[Tristana]

Re: Getting Better?

play only midare 1-5
and red fraction + mina megapack 1-3

profit !!!

[DossarLX ODI]

Re: Getting Better?

Going to what foxfire said, if you're getting less than an A on stepmania files you decide to play (of course Bs are fine too) you're trying to push yourself to play files more extreme, but start a little easier first.

When I play stepmania I usually play on rates that I can see myself AA'ing on a file. Of course there are other situations where I'm simply looking to get an A or pass. Just keep a healthy balance/mix.

Also -- AVOID AWKWARD BURST CRAP. Play files with patterns more doable than awkward crapgluts.

[SoggyWaffulz]

Re: Getting Better?

Thanks for the input guys.

After reading your responses I feel like I've been expecting too much of myself. I feel like there are plenty of times where I can barely read certain sections of a pattern correctly, yet I still rack up repeats on that specific song in an attempt to get the FC. Maybe I should be content with A's for now. :P

Midnight, would the pack you're referring to be the IcyWorld MiniPack?

Final thought - how can I be certain I'm reading the charts correctly? I believe I'm reading them correctly for the most part. I can identify quite a few unique patterns at a fast rate. I just seem to stumble over the transitions. Normal?

Edit: On FFR, no matter the difficulty, I usually have a damn good PA count assuming I don't have to mash the song like an idiot (70+). Like 10 to 1 PA/Good on songs I would consider decently challenging . SM, my FA isn't nearly as good as my PA on FFR though. Just something I thought might be helpful to anyone who knows if there's any correlation between PA & chart-reading.

[xVaLoRx]

Re: Getting Better?

Midnight, would the pack you're referring to be the IcyWorld MiniPack?

He's talking about Icyworld's Nuclear Blast JS packs

[foxfire667]

Re: Getting Better?

Edit: On FFR, no matter the difficulty, I usually have a damn good PA count assuming I don't have to mash the song like an idiot (70+). Like 10 to 1 PA/Good. SM, my FA isn't nearly as good as my PA on FFR though. Just something I thought might be helpful to anyone who knows if there's any correlation between PA & chart-reading.

Well the perfect window on FFR translates to 3 frames, or about 1/10th of a second, where as SM's Fantastic / Marvelous window is 0.0225 seconds on it's default (judge 4) timing difficulty. So getting better at FA/MA at StepMania will yield a significant improvement in how well you can hit the arrows in FFR.

Also, FC's don't matter in StepMania, instead accuracy is the major factor of the scoring system. FFR currently uses a system focused around obtaining a full combo to get the most points (which is pretty silly) but for now is how you get the best ranks.

EDIT:

He's talking about Icyworld's Nuclear Blast JS packs

I hope not. Those files are very difficult, and probably wouldn't help him skill boost because of the sheer speed of the JS files (he's talking about FC'ing 40ish files on FFR, the jump would be pretty drastic).

[Tristana]

Re: Getting Better?

ffr is a really bad tool to use to improve

you can get 6 years worth of ffr in 6 months of proper stepmania training

[Xx{Midnight}xX]

Re: Getting Better?

He's talking about Icyworld's Nuclear Blast JS packs

Yeah that's it

I hope not. Those files are very difficult, and probably wouldn't help him skill boost because of the sheer speed of the JS files (he's talking about FC'ing 40ish files on FFR, the jump would be pretty drastic).

Yeah and midair packs aren't

The idea is that he's trying to read it, and not score on it. His score is actually really irrelevant

Like he needs to sit down and watch it be played, then he needs to try it and slowly work at passing.

But I also was assuming he was a bit better than his level ranks reflect. The issue is that there aren't any "quality" charts to train on. Like sure there's a million and a half charts made to force mistakes at high speeds ect

But there's not much to learn on that's actually worth playing and won't send you into fits of frustration

We need a training pack guaiz

ffr is a really bad tool to use to improve

you can get 6 years worth of ffr in 6 months of proper stepmania training

Just because it takes longer does not make it a "bad tool" in fact being one judge lower than SM it's actually a fairly good one. The charts are denser in teaching good habits like reading and not splitting and over hitting. You don't get that kind of practice in SM.

Thinking someone cannot become good in a short period of time on ffr vs sm is just something that hasn't been done yet

and not because it isn't doable or sm is "better"

You also run the risk more of dling an off-sync chart or an overwhelmingly bad one on SM than you do playing FFR assuming you know anything about what "legacy" means.

And we're not getting into FFR Charts VS SM ones but sadly, FFR at least has a pretty set in stone set of standards and a very good way of determining what gets in game (Unless you're Jae and put trash in the game)

FFR is just as good a tool as SM in a different skill set

[DossarLX ODI]

Re: Getting Better?

Don't use the "1/10th second" statement for FFR because in reality you're mostly aiming in the middle perfect frame, so you really only have 1 frame of leeway outside of it to not get a good or something else.

Also, frame discrepancies, notes are not evenly rounded in a file. Reality for instance has gross frame placements. The 3 perfect frames try to make up for this imperfection in placement.

[Hakulyte]

Re: Getting Better?

Do you have any lag? Is there something stopping you to AAA middle range files? I think it would be easier to fix these kind of issues than telling you how to play.