A new beginning for our SM community.

[Shikari]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

Gellenduo, these "classes" are more like hints for new stepartists. You adjusted your stepping styles based on how the FFR files were step, so people can adjust their too, or even find a new style. These classes, back in the days, weren't meant to be like "Hey, you do this, and this, and your file will get accepted". No. They supposed to be like an information database for those who wanted to get started on stepmaking, got it? That's the idea I have, and why i want to bring this project back.

[who_cares973]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

i never have and dont ever plan on superimposing my stepping style onto others. its the last thing i want to do. what i would do aside from teaching people how to use ddream is teaching them the basics of stepping like how sections can be stepped a multitude of ways and what not.

[Gellenduo]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

Gellenduo, these "classes" are more like hints for new stepartists. You adjusted your stepping styles based on how the FFR files were step, so people can adjust their too, or even find a new style. These classes, back in the days, weren't meant to be like "Hey, you do this, and this, and your file will get accepted". No. They supposed to be like an information database for those who wanted to get started on stepmaking, got it? That's the idea I have, and why i want to bring this project back.

What people need to know to get started is pretty much how to sync. Whatever you teach about techniques, it may be about color theory, dual holds, technicality, miniholds, jack theory or whatever, is what the people who has grown accustomed to these techniques find fun. As I said, the people from Otaku's Dream didn't and a lot still don't use (nor enjoy from what I've heard from a few) any of those techniques, because they never "grew up" with them the same way as ffr/odi etc did.
I don't have anything against people adjusting their styles to someone else's if they want to, but I'm against the idea of having classes about techniques, based on one single community's perspective and ideologies, that makes the people who has taken them look like they can make better files than everyone who else.
I'm sorry if I sound offensive, it's not my intention, but it's almost like saying that everyone can choose whatever political ideology they want, but they're recommended to check out conservatism, because that's what the king thinks.
If you haven't read nick's QED thread yet then I suggest you to do it because he takes up a lot more points about what I just said.

i never have and dont ever plan on superimposing my stepping style onto others. its the last thing i want to do. what i would do aside from teaching people how to use ddream is teaching them the basics of stepping like how sections can be stepped a multitude of ways and what not.

I don't think you're going to superimpose your style onto someone else, although, as I mentioned in the reply aimed at Shikari, everything you've learned about techniques is what you've learned and grown accustomed to from ffr and other communities with the same people. So I think that you'll automatically unconsciously teach "ffr and co.'s perspective" on what makes simfiles more fun.

EDIT: Actually I take back what I said about the basics, you obviously might want to know more about rhythm and maybe other stuff as well. Hopefully you get my point about techniques though.

[MixMasterLar]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

Wow, alotta replies and whatnot.

Just off the first post, I fully agree that this is what we need. Sadly, Time and not having my own computer keeps me from helping out as much as I would like, but if you have something you think I can do, I'll be glad to lend a hand.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

Since I don't see it has been posted yet;

A great time saving idea for everyone for the difficulty changing:

Instead of having everyone re download the entire packs and such, create folders that mimic existing packs.

example:

Songs > Hard Songs Megapack 1 > St. Scarhand (Zaghurim) > St. Scarhand.sm

but it'd be in the format of:

Songs > Pack > Song > .sm file only.

That way, download size is significantly reduced, and all the downloadee has to do is "Download file, extract in Stepmania folder, and hit 'yes to all' replacements."

Once that is done, reload the stepmania engine, and bam difficulties that have been edited appear to every file!

[wargasm1]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

Since I don't see it has been posted yet;

A great time saving idea for everyone for the difficulty changing:

Instead of having everyone re download the entire packs and such, create folders that mimic existing packs.

example:

Songs > Hard Songs Megapack 1 > St. Scarhand (Zaghurim) > St. Scarhand.sm

but it'd be in the format of:

Songs > Pack > Song > .sm file only.

That way, download size is significantly reduced, and all the downloadee has to do is "Download file, extract in Stepmania folder, and hit 'yes to all' replacements."

Once that is done, reload the stepmania engine, and bam difficulties that have been edited appear to every file!

how about people editing the files to make them easier before to convert them? Am i making sense or i missed something?

[customstuff]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

Hey Shikari, I'm up for making the Dumpstep pack compatible with this if you're interested. It won't be released too soon really, but if you want you can help with difficulties and stuff?

[~Zeta~]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

Awesome progress in such a short time.

[ddrxero64]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

what's wrong with the notes per second difficulty system? it's probably the most objective one yet. i think it caters fine to newbies and experts. like james said, just my $0.02 xd

i'd be willing to help with this in any way possible

Only reason I agree with this is because there's an actual system involved. I think if future packs were organized with the same system then everyone could understand the packs the same. Some people don't play certain packs because of how weird the rating system is really. There is the Xoon rating thing, Alice's rating (1-10 pad, 11-20 kb), classic/old school rating, ITG rating, etc.

Using this rating and that Fudge Factor thing to take into account patterns and voltage would be great. Even if some difficulties could be opinion, 11-13 is better than 2-16.

I can share the ways of jumpstream

Haha, nice.

As for the classes, I don't agree.

How did you learn to step? First find out how some of us learned to step, and see what we can better about that process. I only suggest teaching to sync. I think a person has to play and have experience with files to learn which patterns and styles they like most. Teaching how to do those BPM gimmicks is fine too, but actual pattern teaching should only be how people use them, and not about how you should use some to express certain parts of a song. For example:

Wrong (my opinion)

A trill is commonly used to express two notes alternating. For example, you take two piano keys and play them back and forth. That would be a trill in stepmania.

Right (my opinion)

A trill was commonly used to express two notes alternating. Like if someone played two piano keys back and forth, it would be like two arrows in a trill. Some people use it while creating a stream too, because it's naturally easy to follow for a style like index. It doesn't have to be used only for two notes, it's up to you how you want to use it.

[Kraezymann]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

I mean banner ads when I say ads, like what FFR used to have. A site like that is probably going to cost money, and you can't necessarily rely on donations alone.

When I said "thoughts" I didn't mean "thats my idea, discuss it now." I meant how is the site going to be paid for? Now, and in the future? I'm just curious about it, not trying to antagonize

[AlexDest]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

You know, letting other people rate files from a 1-100 difficulty makes it subjective and hard to determine (unless you use mathematics to determine technique, the bpm of the file, intensity, etc). The Notes Per Second system rating for difficulty is objective and easier to tell what files you are going to experience with the patterns it has.

[ddrxero64]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

I mean banner ads when I say ads, like what FFR used to have. A site like that is probably going to cost money, and you can't necessarily rely on donations alone.

When I said "thoughts" I didn't mean "thats my idea, discuss it now." I meant how is the site going to be paid for? Now, and in the future? I'm just curious about it, not trying to antagonize

Even though this is an issue, it's an issue better left discussed by the people potentially paying for it. I think if someone is going to pay for the site with someone else, money wise it shouldn't be important unless someone plans to contribute. I do agree if advertisements are needed that they could be suggested, but this is a more selective issue to be discussed by certain people.

Some sites will have a harder site getting advertisements than others. Dutch has payed for the server and site since 2007 (SMO.eu) which is ridiculous, but I don't convince him to get ads. It's really his choice. We do accept advertisements and have an email for that, but I personally don't go looking for it. If he hasn't and hasn't asked me to, then I rather not involve myself in his money.

But yea, I honestly don't know how open such topics like this will be. It's up to the people creating the site, which I assume are Shikari and Staiain.

[Kraezymann]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

But yea, I honestly don't know how open such topics like this will be. It's up to the people creating the site, which I assume are Shikari and Staiain.

It doesn't exist yet, so I think it can be openly discussed. With such an open topic like this, it seems like they would appreciate any and all ideas brought to the table, about anything in particular.

And if they don't want to talk about it, then they can just let it be known

[ddrxero64]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

It doesn't exist yet, so I think it can be openly discussed. With such an open topic like this, it seems like they would appreciate any and all ideas brought to the table, about anything in particular.

And if they don't want to talk about it, then they can just let it be known

Very true.

What would be a great start to getting advertisements to support the cost of this site? I don't dabble in ads, so I wouldn't know.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: A new beginning for our SM community.

Well before I start looking at files to rate, I would like some agreement upon whether we are going to do a difficulty rating of 1-100, or a NPS which would be really easy to calculate; just Notes / Time.