[sunn0glasses]

Originally Posted by Skelif

Well, I have been playing Stepmania for 3 months, so the memories of starting out are still fresh.

I already played some music games (Audiosurf, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Beat Hazard), and I saw someone mention Stepmania on a forum, so I thought I'd check it out. I search it on youtube and click on the AGDQ showcase. I was truly amazed and it convinced me to try the game.

I download Stepmania, start it up, and the default theme welcomes me, which looks like something out of the 90s, but it's not that big of a deal. I load up the first song: Goin' Under. I press the arrows as they come up the screen, looks like fun. I finish the chart, now let's move on to the next one! I press the down arrow, nothing's happening. I press again, still nothing. I press it repeatedly... I hear a click: instead of changing the song, it changed the difficulty! Cool, now I know how to do that. So I guess to change the song, I have to press the left and right arrows...? Yes! Alright, now I know that too. At this point I remember that Staiain and Etienne played with 4 fingers, so I head to the options menu and change the keybindings to DFJK. While I'm there, I quickly glance over the rest of the settings to get more familiar with the game. I play another song with the new settings, it works great.

The game is still a little overwhelming, so I go to Google and search for "stepmania getting started". I find a guide, it explains some of the terminology and that you have to download packs to get more songs. Alright, I google for "stepmania recommended packs", and I quickly find some packs recommended for beginners: DDR, ITG for absolute newbies, and Stepping Stones 1-3 for beginner keyboard players. I also download a theme that is more pleasant to look at.

After playing ITG packs for a week I thought I would give Stepping Stones a try (I'm a keyboard player after all, right?), and... I got absolutely destroyed. This pack is way too hard for beginners. After this traumatic experience I went back to playing pad packs. I also switched from mmod to cmod because I got fed up by all the unexpected bpm changes and stops.

Around 2 weeks ago I thought I had enough experience for keyboard charts, so I went back to the Stepping Stones packs. Well, it was still hard... but I said "Fuck it!" and just continued playing them anyway. At least I could get some Bs and As this time. The problem was that I was playing pad charts only, so my technique developed for pad files and I had trouble hitting certain patterns. For example, when there is a jump in a 16th stream, I completely trip over. I also started looking into the Otaku's Dream packs since they have some easier keyboard charts. Another problem was that I kept mindlessly increasing the scroll speed and as a consequence I had trouble reading new patterns, so I set my cmod back to 600.

Playing through the Stepping Stones packs I constantly thought to myself that if I get good enough, I will make beginner charts for spread, but reading this thread motivated me to start stepping right away, maybe I can even send some files for the Introductory Pack.

Personally, I didn't have problem googling around for stuff, you can find everything with ease, though I admit, it will help to have one huge doc that explains everything and has links to important resources. My biggest complaint is that there are no real beginner packs for spread players.

hey dude, much respect for stickin with it! if you have the urge to make charts, go for it. you'd be surprised how much chart-making can help you improve your own skills as a player.