Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

[Dinglesberry]

So, I recently came back to FFR.. I used to think i was pretty decent at the game back in the day. Then I looked at my PA....

Since I've been playing, I've really been focused on ranking, I think the ranking system is amazing, excellent work done on it, it's a huge part of what makes FFR the best rhythm game for me, I have friends who play osu but it doesn't compare.

That being said, since the tournament especially, I have been much more focused on PA rather than just combo. I sort of had a moment where I realized that the only time you get goods are when you aren't accurate or your fingers stumble.

I'm curious now, how much of a weight does difficulty level have in ranking? For example, I'm rank 2000~, and I can usually sdg low 60 songs or so, perhaps I can AAA but I have difficulties being consistent for long songs, I suppose that's another matter though.... Would it be better to focus on getting more accuracy on songs I'm comfortable with, or having worse PA on higher difficulty songs? I suppose to get into the sub 1000 ranks, you would need to be able to sdg 70+ songs regardless, so I suppose the best way to improve long term is to work on speed with high level songs.

That leads into my main question: how do you practice the patterns that begin appearing in higher difficulty songs? For example a song i like to practice with is buzzards, but my best is like 38 goods because of the super fast rolls and random "spam" notes - i feel like I can barely read them, or move my fingers fast enough... Is it a matter of playing on a higher speed mod (or at least until you can comfortably see the patterns)?


Tl;dr whats the best way to improve your ability to read and to play some of the faster, "spam" patterns that begin to emerge at the 70+ tier songs, in order to break into d5+?

Any tips, songs you played with and such would be greatly appreciated, amigos.

[Walrusizer]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

play hard files to get better at hard files
also for fast rolls you can slightly cheat the pattern by hitting it as a jumptrill at half speed rather than actually rolling them, however you will only get good accuracy if the rolls are slightly fast.

[psychoangel691]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

Reading is mostly going to come with time, speedmod can play some small part in it because the faster it is the more space between notes but less reaction time. So you might want to play around with it a little to see what feels most comfortable.

For improvement for me it's always been to go a little out of my skill range. So basically take the densest thing you're able to read and go a few steps higher in density, then come back to the ones that were just out of your ability. You should start seeing an improvement in being able to read those patterns

[Winrar]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

Sometimes you just gotta make some coffee and keep playing different songs. Maybe pick a comfortable difficulty range and randomize the songs to warm up then increase it by 10. I tend to do better on sightreads or first attempts rather than grinding it out, mindblocks can ruin you.

[sweet2kill210]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

It's always good to start off playing songs you're already good at that aren't too difficult to warmup ofc. But to really improve I recommend playing things that are difficult for you but not so difficult that you're getting more (or the same amount of) perfects than amazings.

As far as ranking up, your current level is like an estimate of what difficulty song you can possibly AAA. So to level up and improve your rank, you will just need to get better scores in your top 15. Of course you get more of an increase in level from getting good PA on songs a higher difficulty than your current level. If you click the exp bar it will take you to a thread with a more in-depth explanation including how things are weighted. Or you can click here.

[HitlerWasRight]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

Honestly, the best way to improve at certain patterns is simply to practice them a lot. Try different methods of hitting them, and adjust to what works best for you. Fast rolls in particular like you mentioned in Buzzards can just be hit as jumptrills. When you first learn to hit rolls like that you will probably have issues with timing it correctly as it requires a little more precision than normal 16th jumptrills, but practicing files like Skeletor at different rates until you can consistently hit the rolls with good accuracy is likely the easiest way to improve.

[MooMoo_Cowfreak]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

Smack arrows

Then smack faster arrows

Then smack faster arrows with jumps

Then smack faster arrows with jumps and hands

Just keep playing harder and harder songs and you will get better and better, just give it time

[Conorn]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

This is the best part of rhythm games: you will hit walls no matter what, but overcoming those walls and breaking them is the best feeling in the world.

If your looking for PA/MA consistency, play slightly easier songs with simpler patterns and try really hard to keep on beat, especially during long streams.

If you want to increase your ability to read and hit harder patterns, then start pushing towards jumpstream. Jumpstream is the biggest initial wall to climb over, but once you can start to do it you will see your ability skyrocket.

Be sure to try all kinds of files too... get used to doing jacks, because jumpstream is literally jacks with stream in between, so make sure to push yourself and try jack files.

Lastly, when you get to doing shit like dump files, you can hit it like a jump trill but your speed will improve drastically if you practice hitting it like stream.

There are so many songs out there that will help push you in the right direction, but the most important thing to do is to have fun! As cliche as it sounds, that is vital to improvement. Good luck to you man, even the best still suck at Stepmania (relatively lol).

[kmay]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

also make sure you have the best play style to improve.... i started this game being an index player but after like 3 years i switched to spread.

so do you play spread?

[MinaciousGrace]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

but is spread even the best playstyle

[kmay]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

you tell me

[Conorn]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

but is spread even the best playstyle

Depends on how good you are at spread :]

[Walrusizer]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

Lastly, when you get to doing shit like dump files, you can hit it like a jump trill but your speed will improve drastically if you practice hitting it like stream.

wait do you actually think all dumps are fully jumptrillable? lol

[MinaciousGrace]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

Depends on how good you are at spread :]

Well no actually you're confusing something being better for you and something being objectively better; the former is an example of the sunk cost fallacy while the latter is the best course for cost sinkage.

My questioning of spread being the best playstyle is 2 tiered. On the one hand spread is split into two major camps at the moment, wrist up and wrist down, so merely describing spread as the best playstyle is an insufficent amount of information. On the other it's also possible that wrist up spread is not the best objective playstyle, and that there may yet remain a playstyle uninvented or dismissed that will yield better performance in the long term.

But yeah the whole whatever works best for you argument is total bullshit please don't invoke it. That more than literally anything else is what holds back players.

[Walrusizer]

Re: Ranking up and hitting higher difficulty level patterns

double setup is the best