What keeps you using 3.95?

[tuxdude143]

Originally Posted by icontrolyourworld

I agree on all this stuff. I didn't know about the Cmod not being the same from version to version though. Kinda wacky



You can add tons and tons of options and features and other random stuff, but that's not what we need, even if it is nice to have. All we need is (preferred) Theme selection, (preferred) Noteskin selection, Background Brightness, Key Config, Speed (and preferred mods), Scoring (and screenshots), and Profile. After that, any feature added is just bonus stuff.

Of course the reality of having to go through so much stuff just to get set up and comfortable to start playing isn't really that cool. My biggest complaint is I shouldn't have to have someone tell me to make a portable.ini file in the stepmania folder, so I can have everything in 1 folder, otherwise I wouldn't know about it. It's easy to get over that though since it's like a 1 time thing. But you can see it's much more extreme for someone like mina to go through all his stuff to get going.



For the most part since you're not concerned about what we want in SM5 (smooth transition, 3.9/3.95 themes) but rather just features and options to add, IDK what to say. Add a mod that turns every file into jumpstream.

Ok I'm just going to address some of this stuff here.

Firstly, the options menu. Coming in the next build is a new options menu that has been designed around keeping the menu uncluttered but without removing functionality. What has been done is that settings such as graphics/sound options and key config have been left on the main screen (though they are now near the top) and other, lesser used options are now under submenus. Hopefully this helps with your options menu thing.

The theme stuff is an interesting one. I know a lot of people want to just use themes from 3.95 but 5 heavily overhauled the theming system allowing for more possibilities (and thus breaking 3.95 themes). However many people are working on porting 3.95 themes to stepmania 5.

As of now the default 3.95 theme is having a port worked on. You can also check out the spinal shark collective webpage for a few 3.95 ports.

Noteskins are a similar case. System was overhauled so old noteskins won't work. However a metric ton of sm3.95 noteskins were ported over to stepmania 5 and they work like a treat.

http://jousway.co.uk/ has all the noteskins that have been ported from 3.95. Chances are your fav noteskin is in there somewhere.

The cmod thing, oh boy. Well let me break it down. In stepmania 5 cmods scale the same as mmods do. I.e C625 is equal to m625. In 3.95 and OpenITG cmods did NOT scale like that. C425 or something is equal to m625. I don't know how it really works. I'll try and figure out the scale though and post it somewhere so it's easier for you to find your cmod in stepmania 5.

I do agree that documentation wise stepmania 5 is lacking. If anything I'll try to work on fleshing out the documentation more if asked.

With appdata, like kyzen said it's mainly windows being windows. While it's annoying to have to treck a ton of directories deep we can't do much about it. Would it help if a stortcut was placed on the desktop upon install which links straight to the stepmania 5 folder in appdata? That could probably be done on request.

Let me get this straight. Stepmania 5 is NOT meant to be 3.95 with a fresh coat of paint (we're not doing EA level stuff here). The whole point of a new version is to flesh stuff out like what has been done with the theming system, extra game modes and the like. Sadly this comes at the cost of breaking older stuff and there isn't much we can do about that.

I mean, the whole point of a new version of stepmania was to be new. Not 3.95 with a fresh coat of paint. This means that we can only do so much. There comes a point where the player has to make the switch upwards and no matter what is done it will be a change. It will take time to get used to. We can help make it easier but some responsibility has to fall on the player to get used to some of the changes that are outside our control.

Hopefully this clears a bunch of stuff up. I wanted to try giving a more friendly response as to why stepmania 5 is like this. I hope you guys understand.

However, if you do have any improvements or feature suggestions that you want to be passed on then feel free to pm me. I'll see what I can do.