Any advice for a newcomer?

[Niggle]

I just started playing StepMania the other day and I am having a wonderful time.

I'm wondering if there are any generally recommended settings to use? I see many dozens of options and variables that can be fiddled with; are there any settings that are particularly important to modify that a new player might not be aware of? Right now everything is set to default. I'm on a 15" Retina Macbook Pro.

I was reading a thread on the Stepmania FlashFlashRevolution forum and someone recommended to use a noteskin other than the default. Are there any noteskins in particular that you guys would recommend? I tried the Metal noteskin but it caused my computer to lag like crazy for some reason. As for themes, I'm using the UltraLight theme and I love it.

Outside of the settings and noteskin(s), is there any general advice that you would give to someone just starting out in the game?

Thank you very much!

[ffr212]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

Your name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgk4Cd7h6ak

As for SM, seeing as you are using SM5 99.9% of the reactions you'll get from this question will be "switch to 3.95."
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Noteskins:

http://www.staiain.net/StepMania/smwiki/index.php/Noteskins

(Make sure they are usable on your version of SM) -I love Arch0wl's skin.
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Some settings that you may want to change but can't see will be in: C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming\StepMania 5 -- there you can add custom speed mods, which is much easier to do in SM5 because of the need not to add Language ini and metrics ini info.
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As for settings it's really different for everybody but the most common is a CMOD of 850> with DISTANT mod on.

[axith]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

You really just need to fiddle around with stuff until you find something that works for you (different speedmods, distant/overhead, up/down scroll, background options...). I've messed with countless settings, and still haven't found something I want to stay with.

As far as noteskins go, I'm a fan of the Wafles' Noteskins. They're based on the Delta noteskin and have coloring that more closely matches ffr as well as some lower profile mines which make mine dodging not as much of a headache for me. But it's another thing that you just need to figure out what's best for you. Orbular is nice, too (I like it for 6key).

If you haven't, add some custom speedmods.

Ultralight is a good theme, but it tends to cause lag on my computer. That could be a peice of the issue you have with the metal noteskin.

I'm sure other's will have more to say too.

[samurai7694]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

It's handy to have a couple of x-mods and c-mods. It's trial-and-error in order to find the right speed mod and I recommend c-mods personally since you may come across charts that have color theory and aren't "x-mod friendly".

You can also change the perspective of the incoming arrows (overhead/hallway/distant/incoming) that best suits you. This also applies to note skins and the type of scroll you want to use (up scroll and down scroll being the most common ones but there are a few other options if you're curious enough to try).

Depending on what theme you may use, there might be an option to change acceleration, appearance, and effect which aren't really necessary in my opinion but it may help you (players like midare and Mina have once used "hidden" which is under the appearance category).

In case you have difficulty with a certain chart, you may use the turn option "Mirror" to flip the arrows and, as an example, turn left hand patterns into right hand patterns (assuming you play with a spread style on the keyboard which is also recommended for harder charts that you may come across or have come across already).

Also, make sure to play with holds on and mines on. I think that covers most of what I wanted to get through.

[Mollocephalus]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

My personal reccomendations to anyone who starts out are:

1) setting spread keys, middle and index fingers of both hands. my setup is 12/* but you can choose what you prefer. Index style is also fun, using default arrow keys or other similar setups (you're supposed to unly use two fingers, one for each hand)

2) setting center1player, which puts the arrows in the center of the screen if only one players joins. Much better to read imo.

3) setting up CMODS and XMODS, which are the scroll speed of the arrows (it's only visual, doesn't change the song's difficulty) After starting out at about C400, i reached a comfort speed of C850/C875. Some people find it comfortable at C600. Try on your own.

4) reduce the background brightness during song play to 20/30%

5) set event mode instead of having 3 rounds to play and having to restart the game again if you lose or if you finish the 3 rounds.

6) fiddle with graphics options to adjust aspect ratio, quality and whatever else to maximize the performance. If your computer can afford it, you don't have to lower the settings though.

7) my favorite noteskin is metal/cel and i highly reccomend it. If yours lag, try a version sepcifically for SM5. Maybe yours lag because it's the 3D version, try the flat one.

8) remove menu timers, hide lyrics and danger on low healt.

[Niggle]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

Apparently I cannot post links until I have made five posts... fair enough, but I'll just snip some of the quotes to accommodate.

Recommendations

Haha my name is referencing a short story by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Thank you very much for the advice! Is there any reason to use custom speedmods in favor of the ones I can access through the in-game menu?

Arch0wl's skin looks great, but it does not seem to be available for SM5, alas.

Recommendations

Thanks for the help!

I've only ever tried overhead, but I will give distant a shot as well. I just picked up the Ultralight theme when it was recommended to another new player in a different thread, and it seems extremely simple to read. Not quite as simple as the theme that Staian uses in his videos though, wonder which that is.

I just checked out Orbular and it looks like a great noteskin. I will try it along with Wafles 2 noteskin.

It's handy to have a couple of x-mods and c-mods. It's trial-and-error in order to find the right speed mod and I recommend c-mods personally since you may come across charts that have color theory and aren't "x-mod friendly".

You can also change the perspective of the incoming arrows (overhead/hallway/distant/incoming) that best suits you. This also applies to note skins and the type of scroll you want to use (up scroll and down scroll being the most common ones but there are a few other options if you're curious enough to try).

Depending on what theme you may use, there might be an option to change acceleration, appearance, and effect which aren't really necessary in my opinion but it may help you (players like midare and Mina have once used "hidden" which is under the appearance category).

In case you have difficulty with a certain chart, you may use the turn option "Mirror" to flip the arrows and, as an example, turn left hand patterns into right hand patterns (assuming you play with a spread style on the keyboard which is also recommended for harder charts that you may come across or have come across already).

Also, make sure to play with holds on and mines on. I think that covers most of what I wanted to get through.

I will be sure to play with holds and mines on, thank you.

What is color theory, exactly?

Recommendations

1) I have my keys set to zx,. Thanks!

2) I figured that out, thank you.

3) I have the speed set to 1.5x, but I will try 4x, thank you. (If that's even the right thing I'm looking at in the settings).

4) I'll look into that within the settings as well.

5) Event mode, I don't think I have ever tried that. I just always play singleplayer normal.

6) I think I will leave everything on default for the visual settings save the default FPS, which is set to vsync I believe (yuck) -- I'll set it to 150 FPS.

7) Cel worked perfectly well on my computer, but the Metal noteskin just lagged like crazy 70% of the time. I got them from Staian's noteskin wiki.

Thanks!

[samurai7694]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

What is color theory, exactly?

I should have explained.

Color theory involved manipulating the chart's BPM in order to have different note values (such as 8ths notes, 16th notes, 12th notes, etc.) land on the main beat instead of using 4th notes. Playing charts like that on x-mod would cause a lot of uncomfortable skips.

I'm also not sure how people are with mines but I know that some players choose to remove mines and others prefer to keep them on since it is part of the chart.

[Wafles]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

As someone who played with mines off for a very very long time I'd recommend just keeping them on. If you ever want to switch back to mines on later it brings a bit of a learning curve but learning with mines on from the start should help avoid that.

Also SM5 is fine as long as your computer can run it smoothly. There's really no reason to use 3.95 over 5 unless you want a specific theme that isn't available on 5, or if 5 doesn't run that well on your computer.

[Niggle]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

Thanks for all the help.

I did everything suggested and so far so good! C850 has made all of the novice songs fairly hard for me now though.

I'm loving the midi-note noteskin packaged with SM5. Definitely sticking with the Ultralight theme unless I stumble across something better. Currently using the "Distant" mod.

I still have a minor question though -- how do I get rid of the BPM displayed on the bottom of the screen during the game? I see no reason to have it shown.

[Mollocephalus]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

I still have a minor question though -- how do I get rid of the BPM displayed on the bottom of the screen during the game? I see no reason to have it shown.

That is not a easy fix, you should delete the line of code related to the gameplay screen which refers to it. If you feel adventurous, you can find it into your theme folder. Make a backup before you try any of these modifications or you'll be sorry if things go wrong.

[Niggle]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

That is not a easy fix, you should delete the line of code related to the gameplay screen which refers to it. If you feel adventurous, you can find it into your theme folder. Make a backup before you try any of these modifications or you'll be sorry if things go wrong.

Oh good lord, maybe I'll just forget it haha. It's really not a big deal.

[Mollocephalus]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

3) I have the speed set to 1.5x, but I will try 4x, thank you. (If that's even the right thing I'm looking at in the settings).

You are now using a xmod, which means it takes the song BPM and multiplies it for the number of the mod - that will be the final scroll speed. This is not good imo because you'll have different output speeds based on each song's bpm. Instead, you can find a file called speedmods.txt somewhere on your computer, where you can manually add any speed you want by simply adding it to the list.

Oh, another thing you may wanna do is create a profile with your username and set it as P1, so when you start playing your name will appear in the bottom left corner when the evaluation screen comes up.

Lastly, event mode is a game mode that is exactly like single player mode, it just doesn't have a set number of rounds. It goes on until you decide to quit. Everyone uses it, it's much more practical. Rounds are there because stepmania originally meant to be a computer replica of the arcade thing.

[Niggle]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

I switched to C850 from x-mod, thanks for the tip.

I have Event Mode turned on. I also have my profile set as my username here.

[Mollocephalus]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

I'd say you're pretty much set

[Niggle]

Re: Any advice for a newcomer?

Thanks, I think so!

One last question -- why do so many people use Distant mod? Does it just give a little extra space to see the arrows by making them look farther away?