Skill

[popsicle_3000]

Re: Skill

what is it about SM? everyone says it, but idk why

[mrpreggers]

Re: Skill

if i knew what i was doing id be high d6 by now just play random shit until you get good it's worked for me so far and yeah i don't ever EVER play sm

[Xx{Midnight}xX]

Re: Skill

what is it about SM? everyone says it, but idk why

Here's what bothers me

all people will tell you is to play SM. The reasoning behind this is realistically SM is a more difficult game to score in due to pickier windows for each judgement. But what they leave out is SM teaches you a lot of things else wise you don't need to know, like hold stream and dodging mines. And due to the timing difference the skill from that game doesn't always just transfer over to this one.

Hakulyte pretty much covers what I think. But to add on to it, if you can't enjoy the game, you're gonna progress really slowly. So make sure you try to enjoy it.

I've recently cut down my play time and I'm enjoying it a lot more, and recently I've had a few small boosts which I've been hoping for.

[i heart candy]

Re: Skill

Reasons you play SM
1. It makes you faster.
2. You gain more stamina.
3. You play harder charts than ffr.
4. You learn to become a bit more accurate.
Warning:SM will hinder your FFR abilities if played for a days.
Best way to play SM effectively is you play stuff that you barely pass. For example, when I first got into SM, I tried to pass Ultrabeat Supreme in Icy's pack. I literally kept failing the first 20 seconds of the song. I kept working at it, and I finally can pass the song with a AA. Now I'm trying to work on a 1.1 pass and hopefully AA that one day. The point is of the story, when playing SM, you must set goals (realistic ones too). I could keep going, but it's up to you if you want to get in the game.

[foxfire667]

Re: Skill

Here's what bothers me

all people will tell you is to play SM. The reasoning behind this is realistically SM is a more difficult game to score in due to pickier windows for each judgement. But what they leave out is SM teaches you a lot of things else wise you don't need to know, like hold stream and dodging mines. And due to the timing difference the skill from that game doesn't always just transfer over to this one.

I've never understood why (unless you are experiencing lag) people say they have trouble migrating their SM skill over to FFR. I could completely understand if it's the first few times you've played FFR, or you've played strictly SM for like a year, but if you play both of them occasionally it should pose no real issue. Perhaps putting your FFR arrow receptors where your SM ones might help you, I've been doing that recently.

You may not need to know how to handle hold notes or mines in FFR, but they can help you improve in useful areas regardless. Hold notes can help you improve your ability to hit more awkward patterns, and also significantly helps improve your finger's independence from one another. I don't particularly like simfiles that are riddled with mines for difficulty purposes, but keeping yourself alert for such things could translate to improved focus and concentration when reading files.

SM essentially does what FFR would do for you in terms of skill boosting, except on a more exponential scale. You don't really need StepMania, but using it generally will help you get better faster.

You might be able to get the same benefits from just playing songs that are a fairly decent level above your AAA range (80-90%), and play them until you become physically tired of FFR. People typically play SM to challenge themselves, so I suppose if you can do that on FFR without it getting repetitive, then perhaps it won't be too much different.

[i heart candy]

Re: Skill

(unless you are experiencing lag)

If SM is set up properly, SM is lagless.
Check out Bluexoon and Staiain posted pretty good guide there to help people out.

[Choofers]

Re: Skill

I've never understood why (unless you are experiencing lag) people say they have trouble migrating their SM skill over to FFR. I could completely understand if it's the first few times you've played FFR, or you've played strictly SM for like a year, but if you play both of them occasionally it should pose no real issue. Perhaps putting your FFR arrow receptors where your SM ones might help you, I've been doing that recently.

The reason SM skill doesn't translate well to FFR skill is how each game looks. With SM, once you're a pretty good player, you have a certain set up. Specific Cmod, you look at a certain area of the screen, you use the noteskin you enjoy the most, etc. Once you switch to FFR, all of that changes.

[foxfire667]

Re: Skill

If SM is set up properly, SM is lagless.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, but I meant if FFR lags, not StepMania. If you are so used to SM running smoothly, and then you try to apply that skill here and the game is frame skipping, obviously there will be a problem. Although with standalones and everything else people can do to reduce lag, this really shouldn't be too much of a problem anymore for most.

As for what you said Choofers, yes there is far more customization options in StepMania, but it isn't as if FFR is devoid of any sort of changeable options. When you play FFR, you have your own unique speed-mod, key setup, some note-skin choices, and know where you like to focus your eyes when playing. Most people's SM note-skins are typically the ones they get when they first started playing, and they get used to them overtime (just as you do the FFR default noteskin).

I suppose you could always download the FFR StepMania note-skin, that helps some people in terms of transferring skills between one another. I know there's more to it that a note-skin, but it is a step in the right direction.

[3lijah]

Re: Skill

I have played Stepmania for years. The only thing that SM has helped me with was my speed, which was good because im trash at really fast bpms.

Ive also been playing index for almost 5 years before I came back to FFR last year, and now Im at a level of playing that I thought was impossible for me to achieve lol. I really love this game. But I did practice a whole lot, holy fcuk did I practice, but it was fun. Just stick with it if you like this game and ask yourself how badly you want to get as good as you want to be, and realize how much practice is going to get you there.

[EzExZeRo7497]

Re: Skill

The reason SM skill doesn't translate well to FFR skill is how each game looks. With SM, once you're a pretty good player, you have a certain set up. Specific Cmod, you look at a certain area of the screen, you use the noteskin you enjoy the most, etc. Once you switch to FFR, all of that changes.

^^^^^^^^^
My main problem would be getting boos. For some reason I can't concentrate while thinking of boos, which is why I can't do wrist jacking on FFR such as AIM Anthem, but I can do files like Jamais Vu or La Campanella. Of course there's no chord cohesion, the window is different and it's almost impossible to make it look similar to SM's, AAA-ing is much harder on FFR mainly because the highest rating is a Perfect, and you won't know if you got a late perfect or early perfect, unless you have Amazing timing on. Even then, framers make it even harder to AAA than it already should, SM doesn't have that problem.

Anyways, main word of advice is to play something above your skill level. If you can SDG stuff like Ambient Angels or Heavenly Spores, go for something that you can barely FC or keep up like Eradication or Reality.

SM would only improve your speed, you'll most likely take a PA hit if you keep playing it.

[PaperclipGames]

Re: Skill

Although with standalones and everything else people can do to reduce lag, this really shouldn't be too much of a problem anymore for most.

Still though, SM runs at a noticbly higher framerate than FFR does (I think it's 60 or maybe 50 for SM and probably 30-ish for FFR). When FFR was down and I didn't know about the offline engines, I used to play a lot on SM, and transisting back to FFR with the lower framerate was definitely very noticable, even without actual lag.

Of course, I'm pretty sure the major differences between SM and FFR skills are indeed because of the speed mods, noteskins and the fact that SM has a larger screen ratio (vertically) - or at least, that's my experience. I haven't played SM in years though.

[icontrolyourworld]

Re: Skill

give SM a shot, if it's not your thing there are other engines that host some hard stepmania files that you can practice on so it should be just as effective imo

[Spoiled_Milk]

Re: Skill

What the fuck is this shit?

[Dynam0]

Re: Skill

SM helps..sure

But if you've already exhausted that form of skill-building, I would suggest hunting down a better keyboard.

The things players can do now are incredible but it's not because they've been playing for 5+ years. Most players (if active enough) will peak in skill or at least stop boosting after about 2 years of playing, sometimes even less. Why are people in general so much better than 7 years ago...because the game wasn't challenging then and there weren't many dump files? NOPE! --enter NVLM-- I'd be terrified to see what someone like Thaor or Reach could do with a more modern keyboard.

Keyboards have definitely evolved and it can make a monumental difference with the right keyboard. If you're truly stuck, I suggest this.

[igotrhythm]

Re: Skill

Lol. I feel ya. But like I said, I was on this site playing for 4 years before this account was created. Definitely takes time but I feel like for as long as I've played and as much as I pick songs apart to study patterns and what-not that I'd have had a huge boost by now.

I was in a rut for about this long. Maybe it's your keyboard setup. If you're still using the arrow keys, you might find that you have difficulty hitting hands and quads due to ghosting. Plus, having your hands so close together can lead to problems with hitting fast patterns.

For me, just giving my hands more space to move allowed me to make a jump from struggling with 50-ish songs to SDGing a large majority of songs in the 60s, even a few AAAs. So great was the change that I was nominated for Most Improved Player of the Year, though that was the year of the Asian Invasion (damn you Pmon).