FFR vs. Stepmania

[CaptainAhab]

Howdy,

Just started playing Stepmania recently after someone recommended it to me, and I'm enjoying myself.

However, he told me he played quite a bit of FFR before getting more into Stepmania. Outside of the obvious differences between playing in a browser versus playing in a standalone client, are there major differences between the two that drive you to favor one over the other? What are those differences, and how do they affect your rhythm gaming experience?

This is purely out of curiosity. Hope you're having a good day!

[Devilchilly]

both are awesome. the end.

[African Anger]

they aren't equal though i only prefer FFR because my internet is shit and i don't feel like waiting a few hours to download a pack and sm isn't exactly the most user-friendly shit shouldn't have to look through forums to learn how to get the cmods you want and other stuff bleh wish ffr's timing were a little stricter/boos broke combo/got rid of combo scoring/bleh

[axith]

What I play depends on whether I have internet or not. Both games have their merits. I'm sure someone else will enumerate them later (or link to a post/thead that already has).

[Charu]

I can see this thread going places.

Before that happens though!

They both do the same thing, just one has few features the other doesn't. FFR can be played in a standalone flash client if need be (it's preferred however to use an outdated Flash 9 client) so that's not quite a difference between the two.

FFR has isolation features, the ability to play on a rate higher than what SM can achieve, and of course charts are handpicked by judges so a file can be played in its full potential. FFR is also very convenient as no setup is really required to play songs immediately.

SM has more features when playing, like holds, rolls, and mines. And because SM is not obligated to the permission issue FFR has, SM has pretty much an infinite selection of songs to play, of course you have to hunt them down first.

From this person, I say pick your poison. FFR if you don't want to download anything and set up stuff manually which can be a hassle if you don't know what you're doing. SM if you don't want to be limited to songs available and want the freedom to download whatever you want. (And if you do want the holds/rolls/mines/ect.)

[CaptainAhab]

Originally Posted by Charu

FFR can be played in a standalone flash client if need be (it's preferred however to use an outdated Flash 9 client) so that's not quite a difference between the two.

Really? An outdated Flash client is preferred to the newest one? How come?

[dAnceguy117]

I think PC vs. console video games would be an apt comparison. console games are the same for everyone, require little setup, and have standardized achievements and leaderboards. PC games often provide more of a sandbox; players can download mods (or mod the game themselves) and turn these games into whatever they want.

now replace PC games with StepMania and console games with FFR. voila!

[Charu]

Mainly because Flash 9 seems to cause less stutter and lag to many players. The newest versions seem to have a problem of suddenly dropping frames for an unknown reason.

Originally Posted by dAnceguy117

I think PC vs. console video games would be an apt comparison. console games are the same for everyone, require little setup, and have standardized achievements and leaderboards. PC games often provide more of a sandbox; players can download mods (or mod the game themselves) and turn these games into whatever they want.

now replace PC games with StepMania and console games with FFR. voila!

Jesus... that is a good comparison, lol.

[kmay]

i like FFR more for the competitiveness, but SM more for the files it has and songs it can use lol

[Arkuski]

Sometimes when I'm playing SM I wish I was adding points to my Grand Total. I really do think SM is superior in a lot of ways, but FFR has that competitive advantage going for it. Also more quality control.

[Staiain]

Stepmania's dead though

[j-rodd123]

Originally Posted by kmay

i like FFR more for the competitiveness, but SM more for the files it has and songs it can use lol

pretty much the same for me. love the tourneys and levelranks and leaderboards and everything on ffr. sm for the infinite song choice and also 6key! the only problem with sm is that it gets extremely boring for me and ffrmania/that stuff makes me really happy

[xVaLoRx]

stepmania has infinitely more playability than ffr

[EzExZeRo7497]

FFR has a couple of flaws (frame conversion errors being the biggest flaw, which makes files much harder than they originally are, which really do make difficult files far less enjoyable to play and actually puts a skill cap) but it's a nice game to boot up right when you start up your computer. File selection is a little limited but the game is set up to be pretty competitive as there's levelranks and leaderboards.

Stepmania on the other hand takes a longer time to setup and even load, but the game is smoother, have a larger selection of files (with the addition of holds, mines and rolls, which would make music representation far more accurate), a larger selection of skills to practice (vibrating, MA, speed, dodgeball are just a few) and just all in all more enjoyable for me. It's not really a competitive game by any means (other than SMO, there's no form of determining where your skill is at) and it's unarguably less popular than FFR... but does it really matter to begin with? If you're enjoying the game, I don't see a reason why you should actually care whether the game is actually "dead" or not.

Stepmania for me.

[Trogdor!!!!]

stepmania was always infinitely better to me but what do i know i haven't played in like a year

[Kekeb]

sm cause I can read the notes since they aren't skipping across the screen

[Kekeb]

15 fps

[Charu]

You can up the FPS now though. Unless you mean the unknown cause of sudden drop in frames with Flash 10/11.

[Kekeb]

I play standalone 9 but the drops are still noticeable regardless of the fps. I normally have it set to 60 or 120.

[Dynam0]

FFR is fun for the statistical aspect, Stepmania is fun for the vast amounts of things you can do with it, the multiplayer function is a lot better and it doesn't rely so heavily on framerate to play smoothly. For me it's Stepmania.