Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

[drakethelegend]

So it's been 8+ years since I played FFR, haven't played since late 2007 / early 2008. Hell, I had a different name then! (Name isn't Drake anymore.) Anyways, I see a bunch of new things, and just had some general questions.

* The "Amazing" accuracy score is totally new. I read about it and how it's the middle and exact time you are supposed to hit the key, but I'm wondering if it's really beneficial. How many of you keep "Amazing" on, and how many of you turn it off? Why? I feel like for the most part, I pretty much already know if I hit it late or early when I get a Perfect, and I feel like getting "Perfects" and "Amazings" are too distracting. Does anybody else that used to play before "Amazings" came out feel the same way?

* AAAs are still the best score you can get, right? Does having more "Amazings" in an AAA make your score higher at all?

* Will username changes ever take place? I know in the FAQ it says to be careful about what you choose your username to be, because it's permanent, but after coming back from 8+ years, I see a ton of new changes. Do you guys think username changes will eventually be a feature? Hell, even if it was a paid feature, or credit buy type feature, I would do it. My name isn't Drake anymore (had a legal name change) and I hate my username. Going to hope that eventually it becomes a feature. What's stopping this from happening? The only difficult thing I could think that it involves is maybe changing usernames from past forum posts? What if I sent a mod a copy of my court order for my name change? (Yes, I want a name change that bad.)

* How do I get vet status?

* How do I "reset" the look of my profile? I can't figure out for the life of me how to do it. I just want it to the basic way it is when a new user gets registered.

* Is the "Rank" number you have mean that you are the #xxxxx best player out of all the players that play FFR? For example, I'm Rank 20,182. Does this mean I'm the 20,182nd best player in FFR?

* Who has the most AAAs in the game? Who has the highest rank? Who has the highest grandtotal? What settings do they use?

* I play spread. I see the most common method is ASKL, but ASL; makes more sense to me. However, I play with DFJK. Is that okay? Any con to playing like that? I do play on a laptop. Is spread still the most common method to play if one wants to get really good at FFR?

* Anybody play with Dark Mode on? Or any other Game Visual mods / Game Mods that help you get more Perfects?

* What's the best NoteSkin to play with?

* I still play with 1.5 speed. Is it still up for debate on whatever speed is best for people? Or is there a general speed that people have agreed on is the best speed?

* What does "Close" and "Hide" account do? I want to hide / close an old account (I played for the past month or two on a new account because I couldn't get access to this current old main account until now), but I want to keep that username available in case I ever get the ability to change a username. If I Close or Hide my other account, will I lose the ability to change the username, if that feature ever becomes available?

* How can I lag less? Is there a way to lower the quality or something? I have pretty good internet but I still lag from time to time.

Sorry about all the questions! Just happy to be back but man there is a lot of new stuff. Excited to go play!

[dadcop2]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

* How can I lag less? Is there a way to lower the quality or something? I have pretty good internet but I still lag from time to time.

download etterna

[drakethelegend]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

* How can I lag less? Is there a way to lower the quality or something? I have pretty good internet but I still lag from time to time.

download etterna

I looked that up and it looks pretty complicated. Can you give me a TL;DR version of what it is and does before I try to do all of it?

[dadcop2]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

I looked that up and it looks pretty complicated. Can you give me a TL;DR version of what it is and does before I try to do all of it?

stepmania but it runs like 10x better

[Hakulyte]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

* The "Amazing" accuracy score is totally new. I read about it and how it's the middle and exact time you are supposed to hit the key, but I'm wondering if it's really beneficial. How many of you keep "Amazing" on, and how many of you turn it off? Why? I feel like for the most part, I pretty much already know if I hit it late or early when I get a Perfect, and I feel like getting "Perfects" and "Amazings" are too distracting. Does anybody else that used to play before "Amazings" came out feel the same way?

I keep it on for the PA counter, but I turned off showing the "judge accuracy" in the middle of the screen. When I start playing, I like to compare the ratio of amazing/perfect to give myself a feel of the timing window.

Others do the opposite because they don't want to form an habit of looking away from the arrows and prefer to focus on the judge accuracy. In that case, they usually turn off amazings.

* AAAs are still the best score you can get, right? Does having more "Amazings" in an AAA make your score higher at all?

It doesn't.

* Will username changes ever take place? I know in the FAQ it says to be careful about what you choose your username to be, because it's permanent, but after coming back from 8+ years, I see a ton of new changes. Do you guys think username changes will eventually be a feature? Hell, even if it was a paid feature, or credit buy type feature, I would do it. My name isn't Drake anymore (had a legal name change) and I hate my username. Going to hope that eventually it becomes a feature. What's stopping this from happening? The only difficult thing I could think that it involves is maybe changing usernames from past forum posts? What if I sent a mod a copy of my court order for my name change? (Yes, I want a name change that bad.)

You can technically request a change by asking an admin for it, but it's currently done manually as far as I know.

* How do I get vet status?

The default requirement is 3 years and 3,000,000,000 grandtotal.
This requirement is also following a curve.
See: http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...icanhazvetyet/

* How do I "reset" the look of my profile? I can't figure out for the life of me how to do it. I just want it to the basic way it is when a new user gets registered.

Profiles doesn't have a reset button as far as I know, but if you empty every field in the style editor and delete background/banner etc., you should get back the default look.

* Who has the most AAAs in the game? Who has the highest rank? Who has the highest grandtotal? What settings do they use?

One Winged Angel has the most AAAs (this leaderboard doesn't count token AAAs): http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/mostnumberones.php
EtienneSM has the highest FFR Rank. http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/leaderboards/
Hakulyte has the highest grandtotal. http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ort=grandtotal

If you go on their profiles and check the replays, you can actually exit songs with your quit key and check their options to give yourself an idea of what they're using exactly.

Fun fact: You can click in the progress bar to skip anywhere in a replay.
You can also pause a song with the "Pause/Break" button next to print screen key.
That can be useful if a pattern was confusing.

* I play spread. I see the most common method is ASKL, but ASL; makes more sense to me. However, I play with DFJK. Is that okay? Any con to playing like that? I do play on a laptop. Is spread still the most common method to play if one wants to get really good at FFR?

As long as both of your hands doesn't get in conflict with each others and that it feels comfortable, it's fine.

* Anybody play with Dark Mode on? Or any other Game Visual mods / Game Mods that help you get more Perfects?

It's not common, but some players do use Dark mod to make the receptors darker. Changing the color of the arrows/noteskin is another thing that's fairly popular to do.
Mini notes also make the arrows smaller which has a similar visual effect as having more space.
You may as well just have fun and try everything you want until you find something you like.

* What's the best NoteSkin to play with?

The one that visually feels the most comfortable. EtienneSM is using delta in case you want a concrete answer. Bright colors tend to contrast well with the black background.

* I still play with 1.5 speed. Is it still up for debate on whatever speed is best for people? Or is there a general speed that people have agreed on is the best speed?

It depends on how fast you can read patterns, but it's general agreement that you want to move up your speedmod as you get better to read the more complex patterns.

If you're using 1.5, you may want to give a try to 1.75 and 2 by example to see if it helps or not.

* What does "Close" and "Hide" account do? I want to hide / close an old account (I played for the past month or two on a new account because I couldn't get access to this current old main account until now), but I want to keep that username available in case I ever get the ability to change a username. If I Close or Hide my other account, will I lose the ability to change the username, if that feature ever becomes available?

If you're refering to "Close Profile" in "Edit Your Profile Info" in Profiles, it just makes your profile page impossible to see in public. I don't know what you're refering to if that's not the case.
I don't think you can "lose" the ability to change your username no matter what you do because it's a separated process from anything else.

* How can I lag less? Is there a way to lower the quality or something? I have pretty good internet but I still lag from time to time.

This is a case by case process into optimizing how your computer handle flash.

This may be worth a read: http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/....php?p=3529601

[rushyrulz]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

* How can I lag less? Is there a way to lower the quality or something? I have pretty good internet but I still lag from time to time.

download etterna

please don't fucking troll people when they're legitimately looking for help. If someone is looking for help with FFR and your response is 'play stepmania lol' I don't see how that's at all helpful.

Profiles doesn't have a reset button as far as I know, but if you empty every field in the style editor and delete background/banner etc., you should get back the default look.

There is no full reset for profiles, but you can change the style

[drakethelegend]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

I keep it on for the PA counter, but I turned off showing the "judge accuracy" in the middle of the screen. When I start playing, I like to compare the ratio of amazing/perfect to give myself a feel of the timing window.

Others do the opposite because they don't want to form an habit of looking away from the arrows and prefer to focus on the judge accuracy. In that case, they usually turn off amazings.


It doesn't.



You can technically request a change by asking an admin for it, but it's currently done manually as far as I know.


The default requirement is 3 years and 3,000,000,000 grandtotal.
This requirement is also following a curve.
See: http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...icanhazvetyet/



Profiles doesn't have a reset button as far as I know, but if you empty every field in the style editor and delete background/banner etc., you should get back the default look.



One Winged Angel has the most AAAs (this leaderboard doesn't count token AAAs): http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/mostnumberones.php
EtienneSM has the highest FFR Rank. http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/leaderboards/
Hakulyte has the highest grandtotal. http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ort=grandtotal

If you go on their profiles and check the replays, you can actually exit songs with your quit key and check their options to give yourself an idea of what they're using exactly.

Fun fact: You can click in the progress bar to skip anywhere in a replay.
You can also pause a song with the "Pause/Break" button next to print screen key.
That can be useful if a pattern was confusing.



As long as both of your hands doesn't get in conflict with each others and that it feels comfortable, it's fine.



It's not common, but some players do use Dark mod to make the receptors darker. Changing the color of the arrows/noteskin is another thing that's fairly popular to do.
Mini notes also make the arrows smaller which has a similar visual effect as having more space.
You may as well just have fun and try everything you want until you find something you like.


The one that visually feels the most comfortable. EtienneSM is using delta in case you want a concrete answer. Bright colors tend to contrast well with the black background.



It depends on how fast you can read patterns, but it's general agreement that you want to move up your speedmod as you get better to read the more complex patterns.

If you're using 1.5, you may want to give a try to 1.75 and 2 by example to see if it helps or not.



If you're refering to "Close Profile" in "Edit Your Profile Info" in Profiles, it just makes your profile page impossible to see in public. I don't know what you're refering to if that's not the case.
I don't think you can "lose" the ability to change your username no matter what you do because it's a separated process from anything else.



This is a case by case process into optimizing how your computer handle flash.

This may be worth a read: http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/....php?p=3529601

Thanks so much! A few more questions... (sorry!)

> You can technically request a change by asking an admin for it, but it's currently done manually as far as I know.

Done manually? What do you mean? I don't mean the chat box username, I mean my actual FFR username. I can request an admin for it? What admin do I ask?


> The default requirement is 3 years and 3,000,000,000 grandtotal.

Ohhhh okay! So since I already have 3+ years (almost 10...) all I need is a 3 billion grandtotal to become vet?

> Profiles doesn't have a reset button as far as I know, but if you empty every field in the style editor and delete background/banner etc., you should get back the default look.

I tried this. Can you take a look at my profile and let me know if that's the standard look?

> One Winged Angel has the most AAAs (this leaderboard doesn't count token AAAs): http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/mostnumberones.php
EtienneSM has the highest FFR Rank. http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/leaderboards/
Hakulyte has the highest grandtotal. http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ort=grandtotal

Oh wow, I had no idea you could see someone's options! Thank you! And holy crap! I just viewed One Winged Angel's profile, damn! I think I might copy all of their styles and see which one I like best. Is there a particular style I should emulate more towards (AAAs, Highest FFR Rank, or Highest Grandtotal...)?

> As long as both of your hands doesn't get in conflict with each others and that it feels comfortable, it's fine.

Okay cool, thank you! I might try ASKL since I use a laptop and sometimes my palms touch the touch pad.

> You may as well just have fun and try everything you want until you find something you like.

Will do! Thank you!

> The one that visually feels the most comfortable. EtienneSM is using delta in case you want a concrete answer. Bright colors tend to contrast well with the black background.

Does rank mean he's the "best player" in the game? How is he the best player if he only has, according to his profile, 151 AAAs and 179 FCs?

Crap, I just meant to see what happens if I voted my stats up myself, and I hit thumbs down, then thumbs up... UGH. What does that mean? Is there a way to "unvote" myself, lol?

Also, I tried to emulate One Winged Angel's options just to see how it felt, but I can't get the screencut to work correctly. It's like, half the screen instead of at the bottom, like his. Any idea why this is?

[Walrusizer]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

aaa and fc count has effectively no bearing on how good you are at the game

[Hakulyte]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

You can technically request a change by asking an admin for it, but it's currently done manually as far as I know.

Done manually? What do you mean? I don't mean the chat box username, I mean my actual FFR username. I can request an admin for it? What admin do I ask?

I meant it like there was no automated process where I could just link you somewhere and you can change your username.

You'll have to contact PrawnSkunk either by discord or by private message.

The default requirement is 3 years and 3,000,000,000 grandtotal.

Ohhhh okay! So since I already have 3+ years (almost 10...) all I need is a 3 billion grandtotal to become vet?

Yes.

Profiles doesn't have a reset button as far as I know, but if you empty every field in the style editor and delete background/banner etc., you should get back the default look.

I tried this. Can you take a look at my profile and let me know if that's the standard look?

The only thing that looks different is the stats bar which has different color than the original one. Everything else looks like as if you changed nothing.

One Winged Angel has the most AAAs (this leaderboard doesn't count token AAAs): http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/mostnumberones.php
EtienneSM has the highest FFR Rank. http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/leaderboards/
Hakulyte has the highest grandtotal. http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ort=grandtotal

Oh wow, I had no idea you could see someone's options! Thank you! And holy crap! I just viewed One Winged Angel's profile, damn! I think I might copy all of their styles and see which one I like best. Is there a particular style I should emulate more towards (AAAs, Highest FFR Rank, or Highest Grandtotal...)?

How you play should depend on where you are in your own learning curve. You don't use a certain speedmod because you should use it. You use it because that's how the game feel comfortable to you. The main point with moving up speedmod is that songs will eventually get so fast that the notes will be very close to each others and this can affect the ability to read. It's really something you should experiment on your own.

As long as both of your hands doesn't get in conflict with each others and that it feels comfortable, it's fine.

Okay cool, thank you! I might try ASKL since I use a laptop and sometimes my palms touch the touch pad.

I think you can use a function key to disable the touch pad, but I don't know if that can make you avoid accidentally clicking outside of the window by accident. Maybe there's more ideal keys to use if this a recurrent problem.

Does rank mean he's the "best player" in the game? How is he the best player if he only has, according to his profile, 151 AAAs and 179 FCs?

He has the best scores on the hardest songs overall.

Crap, I just meant to see what happens if I voted my stats up myself, and I hit thumbs down, then thumbs up... UGH. What does that mean? Is there a way to "unvote" myself, lol?

Votes are mostly here for fun. I guess it's a way to notice activity.

Also, I tried to emulate One Winged Angel's options just to see how it felt, but I can't get the screencut to work correctly. It's like, half the screen instead of at the bottom, like his. Any idea why this is?

You have to go in (R^3) options -> editor (at the bottom) and click on the bar and move it yourself otherwise it's going to be in the middle by default. There's also an editor for multiplayer which works independantly.

[rushyrulz]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

How is he the best player if he only has, according to his profile, 151 AAAs and 179 FCs?

one AAA on a difficulty 100+ file is better than all of the AAAs on everything in the game that is lower than 90 lol

Also, fair warning jumping into a D8 player's settings might be a pretty huge shock coming from your current position (though iirc owa's settings are pretty tame compared to someone like staiain's), might want to gradually work your way there.

[drakethelegend]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

one AAA on a difficulty 100+ file is better than all of the AAAs on everything in the game that is lower than 90 lol

Also, fair warning jumping into a D8 player's settings might be a pretty huge shock coming from your current position (though iirc owa's settings are pretty tame compared to someone like staiain's), might want to gradually work your way there.

Yeah, I tried it out and it's way over my head. Both styles are just very difficult to grasp, honestly. I tried EtienneSM's and OWA's style.

It looks like there are some differences between the two, a lot of differences, which I find pretty interesting:

Keys:
Both have ASKL

Speed:
OWA = 2.1, EtienneSM = 2.8

Global Offset:
OWA = 0, Etienne = -1

Judge Offset:
OWA -0.1, Etienne = 0

Receptor Spacing:
OWA = 78, EtienneSM = 70

Framerate:
OWA = 60, EtienneSM = 200

Visual & Game Mods:

Both have No Background checked (which makes sense).

OWA:
Everything under "Display" is on EXCEPT Hide Multiplayer Judge. Everything else is normal, except No Background checked, like I mentioned.

EtienneSM:
Lots of items are off under Display: Judged Accuracy is off, Health is off, Combo is off, Song Progress Bar is off. EtienneSM definitely seems to have the more minimalistic approach. Doesn't use ScreenCut like OWA. Has Hide Multiplayer Judge ON. Has Mini Notes on and Halved Noteskin, and the Delta (White) Noteskin.

Sorry if I'm overanalyzing these two, but I just wanted to compare them.

What does the Judge Offset do? What does Receptor Spacing do? What does Framerate do? What's Multiplayer Judge? What does Halved Noteskin do, and what's the benefit of that, or Mini Notes for that matter?

[Hakulyte]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

What does the Judge Offset do? What does Receptor Spacing do? What does Framerate do? What's Multiplayer Judge? What does Halved Noteskin do, and what's the benefit of that, or Mini Notes for that matter?

Judge Offset moves up or down the timing window making you have to hit more early or late in general to achieve the same result. It's only affecting when you have to hit in relation to where the receptors are.

Example: A Judge Offset of -0.1 would mean that you can hit slightly more late while a positive Judge Offset would mean that you have tendency to hit early.
Ideally, you want to keep this at 0 and make sure your speed/global offset is right, but if the game or some delay is affecting you, this might be necessary.

Global Offset in comparison affects when the music starts to match the arrows if needed.

Receptor Spacing is the horizontal spacing between each notes for the receptor. It can help a bit with reading, but it's mostly preference.

Framerate is the refresh rate vs the monitor, but it's also following different rules depending on if you're using 30 fps or 60 fps. There's no point to use 30 fps anymore, it's just how the game used to run back in the day.
Pretty safe to say that you should use 60 fps or higher.

Multiplayer Judge hides the timing/accuracy of your opponent in multiplayer.

Halved Noteskin let you use a more limited amount of color for each note. I guess it can help with association if you don't like to see too many different colors for each type of arrow.
You can probably guess by the name that it's dividing by 2 a few notes. e.g: 32nd notes become 16th notes. (see note colors in options)

Mini Notes makes the receptor & arrows smaller which indirectly add more space to see the arrows coming. Space becomes meaningful as the game gets harder.

[Dinglesberry]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

settings are just preference, many people use different combinations of scroll speeds, screen cuts, note sizes etc and at the end of the day, they are all equally good, it just depends on what you are most comfortable with

I like to link these vids as examples

https://youtu.be/BSmbPKm4oOo?t=57s

https://youtu.be/DC4sQe1k_Pg?t=1m

obviously its different rates cause staiW but i mean, vastly different speeds but two good players

[rushyrulz]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

Sorry if I'm overanalyzing these two, but I just wanted to compare them.

Yeah I think you're looking too deep into it. As long as you have comfortable positioning for your hands and a speedmod that allows for effective reading of denser patterns (probably at least 1.7) you should be ok. offset tweaking will help with your accuracy, but in general for getting better at the game it doesn't matter too much.

[Dynam0]

Re: Haven't played in 8+ years, SO happy to be back. Got a bunch of questions!

aaa and fc count has effectively no bearing on how good you are at the game

Statements like these devoid of explanation serve no purpose when OP is looking to be educated on the matter. You're like a theoretical physicist who walks into a grade 9 science classroom and tells the students that their perception of the universe is wrong and then you leave the room. Though you're correct, it's irresponsible and counter-productive to do that, not to mention pathetic.

@drake welcome back, feel free to PM me if you have any questions