Suggestions from one artist to others.

[Neonatrias]

Before I go any further, I'd like to just mention that although I only have one file currently in FFR, I have written (probably) upwards of 100 unique simfiles for pad players on ITG2 machines patched to r21. So I believe I am well qualified to talk about most of the things below.

Okay, so. The way I see it -- and I know I'm not wrong -- some files appeal to some people, and not to others. Simply the way things go when it comes to things like these. I'm sure we can all agree on that, at least. =)

However, there are some things that are prevalent in recent files that have made it into FFR that I haven't liked. Keep in mind everything here is personal opinions, of course. I don't expect everyone to agree with me and I don't expect people to drastically change the way they write simfiles either.

In any case, some things I've noticed about recent files. And I may seem like something of a hypocrite in some cases, especially if my most recent submission makes it into the game.

1) Jumps. This is my personal gripe that I'm sure many people will disagree with. They're great things, really. Nice to throw on the heaviest of the heavy in a song. But for heaven's sake, don't put jumps on every note of the melody. Not that anyone's done exactly that, but you get what I'm saying here...Even on a keyboard, jumps thrown in the middle of 16th runs suck.

2) Awkward rhythms. I think Tass has done a good job catching anything like these, as I haven't seen anything like this slip past into the game, but some of the older files are guilty of having incoherent rhythms. That is, rhythms that don't go to anything in the music. Be extremely cautious of 12th and 24th notes; you really can't cheese an excuse for using them unless there's music to back it up. The same goes for anything lower than about a 32nd note. Usually you won't need to make use of them. The only exception I can think of off the top of my head is classical music, like TGWP. In these cases, the BPM is very loose and inconsistent, so rather than throwing a billion BPM shifts in there, you'll often opt in favor of using smaller increments to offset the more "free" beat.

3) Inconsistent BPMs. By the same token, when working with a song that doesn't follow a set, consistent beat (Again, such as TGWP) you may wish to avoid the song altogether. Unless you have a very good ear, or an unusual amount of luck, syncing the steps properly will prove challenging. Not to say you shouldn't ever try, but be very careful when stepping a song of that nature.

4) Biased towards index/spread. A lot of the "harder" files I see have some patterns which almost require a player to play spread style, and make it almost impossible to do well while playing index. While I think there is definitely room for a few of these types of files, we could use some more stuff like CIA Rave, where the difficulty lies in just having to run your fingers for that long without slipping up. Again, this is an opinionated thing here.

Just my input for people writing files. =) Hope it's helpful in deciding which files to write and how to write them. Again, I'm sure a lot of these are personal gripes or irks, but I think it's best that things like this be put out in the open for people to consider.