some theory questions from a veteran, per se

[MonkeyMan00]

i've been a member for almost four and a half years, playing over 6k games on and off just every now and then

i don't really have the drive to whore songs and work on my PA, i mostly just try to combo combo combo the fastest songs et cetera but even then i usually get bored and often times never bother to try again for the FC. i'm sure if i cared enough i would be able to fc most songs around silence's level maybe higher

i came back to check on the new songs that were updated, and i saw setsujou hyakka whatnot at the bottom of dance2; let me say that i really enjoyed the stepfile and it was a good run, the new lawn wake as well

this got me thinking, and i don't know if this is common knowledge or whatnot as i've never really been on the forums or done any sort of research on ffr or rhythm games, but i'm just wondering if anyone can see where i'm coming from; this might be hard to understand due to my wording and high fever, but bare with me

i played index for a long time, and i mostly read the arrows in patterns or sections as they scrolled on the screen, once i had processed the falling arrow pattern i would try to move my eyes back to where the arrows appear (this would be the top of the screen for me since i play reverse) to read the next section of arrows and translate it into what my fingers had to do next. of course i would most often lose my track and get confused when i couldn't process the pattern fast enough into what my fingers had to do i.e. up left up right up left up right, which is a huge bitch on index if i remember correctly. on the other hand, sometimes i just spaced out and stared and the middle of the screen and just trusted my peripherals to do the pattern recognition and more or less i was at the same skill level. before i lose my train of thought, here is my first question: where do you guys look in the screen as you play?

after i switched to spread i realized that since the problems i had with my fingers getting caught up in each other from tough patterns was essentially diminished, and it was a matter of speed with each finger because i found myself able to read things that my muscles couldn't keep up with (very frustrating back in the day). so my second question is, for spread players, is there a noticeable difference between reading patterns in sections for your fingers to act upon, or somehow just leaving each finger as a mutually exclusive unit in the sense that one separate entity is in charge for each arrow direction? is that even possible? honestly please ask me to clarify anything that i've said because i'm sure i lacked coherence somewhere in here, and if you care to respond to find some sort of shared enlightenment, it would be appreciated...
i am also at a fever temperature of 39.8 degrees celsius

[remedy1502]

I look just above the combo, I play 1.75X.
I play spread, and I don't get what you mean by your question. All I do is I read the pattern and my fingers just know what to do. I don't even think anymore.

[Xx{Midday}xX]

I don't think when I play this game. I was good at it to begin with, and I never faced a problem reading the arrows in correspondence to the spread format. However, I do feel that my body memorizes visual patterns, rather than think each arrow or finger through individually. If I see a 2486 roll, my fingers just react and hit them that way, as they do with all the other common patterns in this game. The only time I have trouble is when my body can't physically keep up with my arrow reading skills (jacks for instance, from the likes of Blur).

In related thought:
On Stepmania, I have video backgrounds for most anime songs and such. I can focus on the background or the lyrics while AAAing the song. I can read the lyrics or the words on the background, recognize the anime characters etc. while maintaining a good PA/MA for a decent AAA.

Also, if I memorize a song and play it stealth, I can create mental scrolling that will allow me to AAA, for instance {Sunlight}, on FFR.

Tornado distorts the pattern in somewhat shape or form, so I have to focus a bit more. Tipsy, I suck at, because the jumps look like gallops, and I hit them that way. Drunk is out of the question... I have no idea what's going on, because I can't recognize any of the patterns. Boost, boomerang, hidden, sudden, I can do, because the visual patterns don't change.

Hope that was useful insight.

Oh, I also play 2.0x downscroll, usually around C625 to C700.

Woah, weird quintuple post glitch... o.o?

[TomatoShadow]

I look somewhere between the arrows and the combo but my eyes follow the arrows most of the time.

When there's a lot of them I usually stick to the same area though. Here's a pic :

[dandandamdandan1111]

I look at the combo.

[Silver_Brian]

Originally Posted by TomatoShadow

I look somewhere between the arrows and the combo but my eyes follow the arrows most of the time.

When there's a lot of them I usually stick to the same are though. Here's a pic :

This.

[Izzy]

Id say i just look at the screen anywhere. Seems pretty irrelevant. Its such a natural habit that my fingers just kind of do it with so little thought process.

[blindreper1179]

i look just below the arrows. that gives me enough peripheral vision to see the bottom of the screen so i know what's coming. also, i play 2x.

[Magewout]

I know what you mean about recognizing patterns when playing index. This is why spread is causing me a lot of trouble: I read everything as index streams, and when there are cross-overs, I still read them as index cross-overs, even when playing spread.

Of course, this might make little to no sense to most people :P

[Xanamda]

I play downscroll, and I look just above the combo. I find that I don't need to actually *focus* on the arrows or screen and can "zone out" but as long as I can see the arrows I play just as well as usual. But for more complicated songs I concentrate pretty hard. Also when a pop-up appeared infront of my FFR game I could only see the very top but I played fine too. So you don't need to see much of the arrows as long as you have a good sense of the rhthym.

[rushyrulz]

i mostly read the arrows in patterns or sections as they scrolled on the screen

Most people do that, perfecting this is what makes you really good at comboing. If you perfect this, that will prevent this

i would most often lose my track and get confused when i couldn't process the pattern fast enough

and this.

sometimes i just spaced out and stared and the middle of the screen and just trusted my peripherals to do the pattern recognition

This is usually okay if you know the patterns.

for spread players, is there a noticeable difference between reading patterns in sections for your fingers to act upon

No, that's why index is hard.

This is where I look btw.

[hoochan]

Originally Posted by MonkeyMan00

and i mostly read the arrows in patterns or sections as they scrolled on the screen, once i had processed the falling arrow pattern i would try to move my eyes back to where the arrows appear (this would be the top of the screen for me since i play reverse) to read the next section of arrows and translate it into what my fingers had to do next.

this is actually a really in depth description of how i play

i normally just call it scanning though and people get the jest of it

[hi19hi19]

stop thinking about it and wiggle your fingers



works for me

[nev670]

i play 2x and i just randomly scroll around wherever the arrows are , and like {Midday} , i was good at the start since i had little experience and improved vastly ( i started the game with fc's on very difficulty )

[Misa_Amane]

i dont even watch the arrows to see if they hit the "targets" right.they do perfectly though. i usually pay attention only to when they pass the words i.e. PERFECT. that only works on fast songs for me though.slow songs, i actually pay attention.