BEST-mix.net - DDR Simfile Tournament

Yo, BLueSS, make them judging threads, please. I'd like to get down to business while I have the time this labor day weekend to do them.

And Ghost of Stephen Foster gets major creativity points. I hate my bracket!

So BlueSS, are public review threads going to be opened soon? There hasn't been a whole lot of discussion as of late, and I think that would rekindle it.

Threads created. :)

I think I'm going to do a review for one of the ITG brackets this time. There are some seriously awesome files. Kung Fu Empire is just about on par with the quality of TLOES files and the graphics have a very similar style.

zounder, re: short freezes read the readme. or to save you time, they're there to mark BPM changes (on vivid). it's not something you see in-game, but i think it would make a lot of songs much less unfair if it was so i've taken up the habit. basically if you see a 64th freeze in any of my charts it means that there's a BPM change on that note so it doesn't take you by surprise

that said if you find them upsetting because they're not DDR-like that's completely fair. i didn't really think about that

PS, if anyone has spare time, i know there's no score in it for me but please try the call disconnected's ITG edit chart :)

EDIT: on another note,

Braeden47 wrote:Joke charts don't belong in contests

depends on your interpretation of:

BLueSS wrote:Make a chart you wouldn't normally; step a song that isn't popular; make a ridiculous chart! Just don't make 2 cookie-cutter files because that's kinda boring. :P

It didn't really affect the score of the chart, I just mention it because it's one of my pet peeves. I can understand wanting the player to not be fooled by upcoming BPM changes, but I will appeal to the fact that most actual DDR songs give no warning. I do like to hear that there is a method to your madness, though!

BLueSS wrote:Make a chart you wouldn't normally; step a song that isn't popular; make a ridiculous chart! Just don't make 2 cookie-cutter files because that's kinda boring. :P

Yes, this... or else, we should've seen a bunch of Smile.DK and Bambee songs if the IIDX treatment wasn't enough. (nope, not my intention!)*suspiciously specific denial*

Greg wrote:3y3s 12.5 / 15
04 / 05 - Presentation
The title and the artist's name both look cool but I somehow don't like the background behind them.

Out of curiosity, why didn't you specifically like the backdrop in 3y3's graphics? Did the textures just not blend together well or appear messy to you or something? If you liked the text, then why is the rest of the image bad enough that you took off an entire point (keeping in mind that graphics are only a small part of the presentation score)? I actually made the artwork myself, which is why I ask.

Greg must've been expecting something related to the 3y3s Empress instead of that grunged-up road(?) in pink, like this:

http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php? ... d=23265831

#Infinity wrote:

Greg wrote:3y3s 12.5 / 15
04 / 05 - Presentation
The title and the artist's name both look cool but I somehow don't like the background behind them.

Out of curiosity, why didn't you specifically like the backdrop in 3y3's graphics? Did the textures just not blend together well or appear messy to you or something? If you liked the text, then why is the rest of the image bad enough that you took off an entire point (keeping in mind that graphics are only a small part of the presentation score)? I actually made the artwork myself, which is why I ask.

It's that IMO the text doesn't fit the background at all. And yes, some parts of it look like they're not blending, like the full-width bar behind the text which is visible on the right and not so much to the left.
IMO 4/5 is not a low score here. I would give 5/5 if everything was perfect, but I mentioned what's not. Maybe it should have been 4.5 but I doubt it would make a big difference here.

Zounder wrote:It didn't really affect the score of the chart, I just mention it because it's one of my pet peeves. I can understand wanting the player to not be fooled by upcoming BPM changes, but I will appeal to the fact that most actual DDR songs give no warning. I do like to hear that there is a method to your madness, though!

no worries, i just wanted to explain :)

apparently, you're not the only person confused by the short freezes, either!

k//eternal wrote:apparently, you're not the only person confused by the short freezes, either!

Actually at first I was expecting a pause where you need to hold the arrow/arrows since that's something you can see in SIMfiles from time to time :P Now I see you had an idea but I doubt any player would use that tip without any special info before playing the song.

Halfway through k//'s file I noticed what the short freezes were for, and thought it was pretty creative (I don't recall seeing that technique before).

BLueSS wrote:Halfway through k//'s file I noticed what the short freezes were for, and thought it was pretty creative (I don't recall seeing that technique before).

It's been used for years, I first saw it in Dancing Box - Modeselektor from R1221 and I think it's a great technique to make gimmicks tolerable.

What's the general consensus on copy/pasting charts then removing steps and changing arrows here and there for flow? Is that seen as lazy? Would it be better to MIRROR the chart so it's not obvious next time or does it even matter would that be just as lazy? If someone did that to 1/2 of a 4-min simfile would you think it was acceptable due to length or cheap?

First review of my 2011 Mashup (yeah it's a 4:00 simfile but it's sped up by 120% to fit into the 3:00 limit) really hated the Standard chart due to it being similar to Heavy and the odd thing is I actually almost swapped out all the L/R arrows but then I thought it's a stand-alone chart and I had already submitted it (albeit before the extension). I mostly did it to keep the musical patterns the same without having to start from scratch because it takes a long time to step a LONG song and I wanted to get easier charts done and lyrics as well. Should I swap the R/L arrows in the Standard chart before releasing it after this contest is over? Opinions please.

for small patterns within a chart i can understand, copy/pasting and suitably altering the steps helps cohesion and so you're not pulling patterns out of your butt

but whole charts, it doesn't translate well, and the patterns will inevitably feel like a diet coke version of whichever chart it was based on. the amount of time and effort going into removing steps and checking things like flow still work, one might as well just build one from scratch.