Bag on Heavy...

[TeanninBramblefeet]

I know that y'all likely don't care, but today marks a very massive accomplishment for me, something I set out to do three months ago that I've finally actually done. Those of you who don't play DDR likely won't care, so go away

Those of you who do, I finally completed Bag on heavy today... Been working up using Stepmania to practice, starting on 0.5x song speed (dropping the song to 32.5 bpm) and working up in increments of 0.1 until I could get an A on each respective speed multiplier, to the point where I could finally attempt the song at 1x speed, took me around 5 tries, but I finally accomplished what I set out to do this morning, and I obtained a C grade on it... and of course, now I post... pretty much randomly for no reason other than to tell other people that I finally fuggin' DID IT!

All that glitters... Even the stars
All things precious... Even your life
The King of Bandits can steal them all
In the blink of an eye

[Lenilya]

Hahaha! Grats!!!

I'm working on Naoki - Can't Stop Fallin In Love - Speed Mix <DDR Ultramix>

Cant get above a fscking 'C' on 1.0x Speed/Heavy Step Lenilya Venomcraft - EQ - Emarr - Clan Autumnwood - Retired
Lenilya - FFXI - Cerberus - TheSafehouse Linkshell

[EZ_Gyorg]

Wait till kelthana sees this.

[TeanninBramblefeet]

Quote:Wait till kelthana sees this.

Hmm, should I be afraid of this? Hehe...

And Len, I just looked at those steps for Can't Stop Fallin' In Love... my god, I think you may have just given me another new goal

[EZ_Jerein]

Grats dude! thats a hard song to do. Im working on A'ing shakura and angelic mix, with the former being my priority (seeing as how angelic mix is fooking insane)

[TeanninBramblefeet]

Grr... I fuggin' did it once, now I just can't seem to do it again, I think I might have worn myself out for the night, but the part that really screws with me is that one sequence of arrows where they get more bunched up than usual (think it's down left down left down up, but on a faster beat than the rest of the song.)

Of course, I had this post open as I B'ed and then C'ed it right after (and then failed as far as I was concerned, too damn tired and sweaty to continue, lol) But that step sequence still fooks me up like nobody's business...

[Kelthana]

If you're playing on Stepmania, why don't you select 1.5 or even double scroll speed(top option on the first option screen)? It doesn't change the speed at all, but makes it a lot easier to read the arrows. For Bag, that helps more than slowing down the music. I did that until I could consistently beat it, and even after that it's good to use it when you start trying for the AA.

I got sick of the song pretty quickly. It's way too slow(my favorite is Paranoia Survivor) and I don't like how the steps switch between following the bagpipes and drums with no particular logic. Edited by: Kelthana at: 3/21/04 7:46 am

[TeanninBramblefeet]

I play it on 5x arrow speed, I was changing the speed of the song itself to figure out where my feet needed to be to prepare for the coming step sequences. And yeah, it's pretty slow and annoying, but a lot of people seem put off due to how difficult it looks without arrow speed modifiers. Plus I saw a video of Take AAA'ing it and I was just thinking, "That song isn't toooo hard..."

[Kelthana]

Take and Yasu are evil Japanese androids. Aaron too!

Do you use the bar at all? I tried it once for Legend of MAXX when I was first working on it, and almost fell flat on my ass.

[TeanninBramblefeet]

Since I practice at home, I don't really use the bar much, if at all, when I'm at the arcade. The first time I actually attempted Bag on heavy, I was whoring the bar like I saw Take do in the aforementioned video . *cough* My bar-raping form was obviously not good, as all it did was make my arms damnably tired and shoulders uber sore the next day, to the point where I couldn't type very well for half a week.

My style of play somewhat relies on how I'm moving my whole body while dancing, which includes a lot of my upper body, so the bar tends to screw with me. When I was mastering my first heavy goal (Cow Girl... don't look at me in that tone of voice!), I used the bar a little bit during the freeze arrow + 3 half beat to another freeze arrow and more half beat sequence, though it was mostly just a couple fingers on one hand to make sure I wasn't going to fall off the stage thingy. The bar is mostly what I hang my vest on when nobody's around, or what I lean against when someone else is picking a song (and once what kept me from breaking my skull the first time I ever attempted a light song when I was still in my "Step, return to middle, step, return to middle," phase of playing)

Wish I could have practiced a bit more today, but ntoskrnl.exe decided to become corrupt, so I've been replacing crap on my computer as of late. Good thing my gaming partition wasn't the same as my windows partition

[EZ_TribalGeek]

Hey what site are you finding the ddr videos on? I am playing right now on the xbox verision while I track my ps2 down so I can get my games back for it as well. I am still a newb though I am just now getting into standard.

[TeanninBramblefeet]

www.bemanistyle.com

Requires that you register to get the videos, and even then, you have to haven "tokens." You start with 150 or so, videos cost 50 each, and you get ~10 to 15 or so tokens whenever you post (Can get more if you post bigger, err... posts) on the forums.

[Bladesake]

I just freestyle and try to look good. Arrows give me a headache. Ooohh.. so shiney!
Manx's Lootbag

[EZ_Ceillas]

Pump It Up! > DDR.

That is all.

[Lenilya]

DDR > stupid knockoffs from ghetto companies trying to make a quick buck

That is all. Lenilya Venomcraft - EQ - Emarr - Clan Autumnwood - Retired
Lenilya - FFXI - Cerberus - TheSafehouse Linkshell

[TeanninBramblefeet]

Hmm... judging entirely from impact in arcades, due to the fact that I have never in my life seen a PIU machine, but I have seen DDR machines, in a TON of arcades... I think it would be safe to assume that DDR > Pump it Up

[TeanninBramblefeet]

*cough* Oh, by the way, this happened a while back, but oh well... all I have to say is this:

home.comcast.net/~deadlychicken/Bag.jpg

[Lenilya]

/applaud

I just AA'd my first song on Normal, I suck.

Oddly enough, it was the first time I've ever done the song, think it was called Sweet Sweet Magic.. Why can I do that, but not ever get better than 'C' on the one song I'm working on?!?

Oh and I kinda didn't realize there were variable beat songs... I was playin thru Ready Steady Go on Normal, just playin songs I never played afore, when the beatchange caused me to lose my balance and fly into the wall at a high rate of speed

I felt like such an idiot! Lenilya Venomcraft - EQ - Emarr - Clan Autumnwood - Retired
Lenilya - FFXI - Cerberus - TheSafehouse Linkshell

[TeanninBramblefeet]

Half the time, beat changes, pauses, stutters (H8 Healing Vision Angelic Mix!), and the like are put in almost entirely to throw you off. Sometimes they go with the beat of the song really well, but even then you have to expect it or else it throws you off COMPLETELY...

[EZ_Briyanna Tsui]

alpheratz.netfirms.com/lom.jpg (unfortunately, that was keyboard , cant come close to that on a real pad).

bag's a fun song wo/ any speed mods; w/ speed mods, though, its a really easy song (6-7foot tops, on anything past 2x). but hey, once you learn it and can do it on 1x, it looks really impressive cause everyone is like, "woah... how can you read the arrows?!" =D.

another fun (fairly easy, too) song that looks a lot more impressive than it actually is, is So Deep ~perfect sphere mix~ on heavy .

[Dorla]

Which DDR version are you guys playing? The only one we have is DDR Max 2, which is fun but I'd like to get another game for more variety.

I suck too... I love Hysteria and Tsugaru but I switch around songs a lot. I'm not even close to Hard mode yet... when we move into our house I'll play it more since we won't have neighbors below us. Endless mode is great too, you really get a workout from it.

[EZ_Briyanna Tsui]

the screenshot Teannin posted, as well as the one i took, are both in stepmania (www.stepmania.com), a computer version of DDR. you can find stepfiles for any actual song if you know where to look, and a *lot* of fan made ones, as well, at bemanistyle. for ps2, though, grab both DDRMax and DDRMax2; if you can mod your ps2, 3rd, 4th, 5th, Max, Max2, and Extreme (jp versions) are all good, too.

[TeanninBramblefeet]

Yes yes... Stepmania is much ownage... Having ~10k songs with dance steps to them makes for a lot of replay value

Not to mention, it makes for great arcade practice when the new mix isn't in america yet

[Kelthana]

What sort of controller setup do you use with Stepmania? I haven't looked for a PC dancepad in a while, and remember a lot of compatibility issues in the past.

[Lenilya]

I'm using DDR Ultramix, with pad, Xbox. Lenilya Venomcraft - EQ - Emarr - Clan Autumnwood - Retired
Lenilya - FFXI - Cerberus - TheSafehouse Linkshell

[EZ_Filan Fyretracker]

the title of this post still doesnt make sense lol.

Earth Destroyed by Solarflare. Video at Eleven
Theres something on theWing....

[EZ_Dahne]

Argh! I hate buying special adaptors for stuff. And now that I've heard of Stepmania, I won't be happy until I can play it with a dancepad.

Are PC dancepads expensive? It would be hard to conscience buying one, since I already have 2 for the PS2.

[Kelthana]

the title of this post still doesnt make sense lol.

"Bag" is a song on DDR. "Heavy" is a difficulty setting(basically Hard).

[EZ_TribalGeek]

Hey what sites are you guys getting your songs from? So far I have found one site and it dun have that many songs.

[EZ_Briyanna Tsui]

For adapters, I've found the ones that come with BNS pads to be good (www.buynshop.com); I've bought two pads from them (for friends) and both came with adapters that worked fine.

For songs... if you want legal, fan made ones, www.bemanistyle.com (although I think right now they're renovating the site, so they might not be up) has a ton. For actual DDR songs... you'll just have to look yourself, as the mp3s that they come with are copyrighted songs, which would fall under the "filesharing//illegal" section. Course, if an admin gives permission to list a few links...

[TeanninBramblefeet]

Adapter: www.lik-sang.com/info.php...s_id=1697&

Pad: www.levelsix.com/detail.aspx?ID=18

Both of those combined, with shipping and tax, are less than you'll pay for a pad similar to the one listed above. I'm not aware of there being any PC Dance pads, though I can say with firsthand knowledge that the EMS USB2 adapter and the levelsix pad work quite well with eachother, yadda yadda. That score of mine was with that setup. If ya want links to where I got all of my DDR songs off BitTorrent, PM me, but only if you own the games!

All that glitters... Even the stars
All things precious... Even your life
The King of Bandits can steal them all
In the blink of an eye

[Lenilya]

YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!

Lenilya Venomcraft - EQ - Emarr - Clan Autumnwood - Retired
Lenilya - FFXI - Cerberus - TheSafehouse Linkshell

[TeanninBramblefeet]

Consqueetulations Len! Hehe, I looked at that song and put it aside on my to-do list for... well, the eventuality that I want to try it again

And Dahne, I really didn't read your post fully, sooo... yeah, Playstation dance pads work for those adapters, you can also make your own but I prefer to just buy the damn things, heh, considering the savings over importing japanese releases of the game and modding my Playstation, heh...

[EZ_Briyanna Tsui]

Congrats, catas are a PITA when you first start trying them . Another similar one you might wanna try is BreAkdown, although its quite a bit faster, it has the same type of steps (lots of turning). Exotic Ethinic and Rhythem and Police are also good catas to try out; both are similar, step-wise, to CSFiLSM, although RnP has galloping, too. If you wanna play a harder cata, give Cartoon Heroes a whirl- that song is insane . The Maxes are always fun, too .

edit- removed "sig", as its just a broken link atm Edited by: Briyanna Tsui at: 4/8/04 9:43 am

[Lenilya]

Question:

the heck is a 'cata' ? Otherwise, thanks for feeding my ego, it was in sore need of some nourishment ^_^ Lenilya Venomcraft - EQ - Emarr - Clan Autumnwood - Retired
Lenilya - FFXI - Cerberus - TheSafehouse Linkshell

[EZ_Dahne]

Grats Len

I think "catas" is just another way of saying "ten-foot song", or "really freakin' hard."

I wish the US game releases had more awesome songs like Breakdown and less stupid rap crap.

[EZ_Briyanna Tsui]

Cata actually refers to 9-foot songs (catastrophic); they were called that in some OLD OLD mix (3rd or so, iirc), and the name stuck.

And I very much agree, less blah songs and more BeForU goodness ~

[TeanninBramblefeet]

Just buckle and get StepMania already, TONS of video game and anime music has been DDR'ified. And in MP3 format for easy listening!

Come on... you know you want to... just say the word, and a link will "accidentally" fall into your PM box...

EDIT -- Oh, and let's not forget all the rock songs and remixes either, I have something like 10,000 songs with stepfiles... it's just oh-so-nice. And you can get the bg videos too for that more authentic feel!

PS - This is what part of the alphabet would look like if "Q" and "R" were eliminated. Edited by: Teannin Bramblefeet at: 4/8/04 4:57 pm

[EZ_Dahne]

Downloaded Stepmania, but it's hard to find links to songs that actually, you know, work. But it's just not right to play without a dancepad.

[TeanninBramblefeet]

Linkage incame for ya Dahne Edited by: Teannin Bramblefeet at: 4/8/04 7:23 pm