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[GUIDE] How to improve in osu!mania

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Tear
When I keep playing a map I can barely combo, I eventually start making the very same mistakes in the same places.. It's like my mind has been polluted with muscle memory and I can't actually read the map anymore .-. Even if I get more skilled, I can't improve at maps I remember. And since mania has very little maps, I'm pretty much stuck unless I stop playing for a few weeks... I'm not good enough for BMS converts and almost all o2jam converts are low quality or mistimed.
And before anyone suggests it, I dislike random mod because it ruins patterns :/ There's very little chance for patterns i'm bad at to appear.
Bobbias
I think I mostly avoid that issue because I have so few plays on most maps I play. I might manage to rack up 20-30 plays on my most played maps, but I tend to search through my collection and play lots of random things since I have a huge collection of o2jam charts.
ArcherLove
/me F2 -> Mania charts -> play, :3
Hanyuu

ArcherLove wrote:

/me F2 -> Mania charts -> play, :3
This is how you improve lol

Talk much play less think alot, do nothing. Just play
Xcrypt

Tear wrote:

I'm not good enough for BMS converts and almost all o2jam converts are low quality or mistimed.
What's with all the o2j hate... I admit, some of them are mistimed, but in my experience that doesn't occur too often. What I dislike though is there are a lot of ghost notes, and the song difficulity is often not very well distributed across the map. Still, there are tons of good o2j charts aswell. I like BMS as much as the other guy but I think some o2j charts can be more intriguing since they usually have a larger variety of patterns.
The Muffin Man
I like O2Jam maps because they're completely different from Mania maps, but I also dislike some for the same reason.

I use Random occasionally, mainly on osu!standard auto-converts. Strangely, I can do better on 'streams' (quick single notes?) when they aren't stairs. As in, go and try Almagest with Random on. I did rather a lot better on timing.
PyaKura

The Muffin Man wrote:

I like O2Jam maps because they're completely different from Mania maps, but I also dislike some for the same reason.

I use Random occasionally, mainly on osu!standard auto-converts. Strangely, I can do better on 'streams' (quick single notes?) when they aren't stairs. As in, go and try Almagest with Random on. I did rather a lot better on timing.
Same for me. I tend to time my hits better when the streams are random, but this also heavily depends on BPM. On a medium or low BPM song I know I prefer playing random streams than stairs, whereas on gigh BPM songs I prefer playing stairs rather than random streams.
Tear
I've been recommended o2jam converts mapped by Glenn Joseph, those seem to be good quality so far :D Except SV changes are done with redlines and I can't see notes under all those horizontal lines x_x I guess I should disable those for converts..
Bobbias
Yeah, the way o2jam's song format works, there's no way to properly use inherited sections. You'd have to figure out how to tell the difference between a speed change that's for effect, and one that's a legitimate speed change in the song. I'm not sure why the lines would be hiding the notes though, I actually prefer the use of uninherited sections because osu tells you the BPM range, most common BPM, and you get visual cues based on measure lines when you play the song, so you always know there are speed changes, and can read them easier when playing (assuming the measure lines don't cover your notes).

Glad you're enjoying GJ's maps. Rubythespamer/Apenix, yumel the lightbringer and FF Ken Yu all have some maps at lower levels as well (and are all pretty good quality), though I think they all have fewer low level difficulties then GJ has. Kuliner also has good low level diffs (on the ones I have uploaded, his easy diffs range from level 5 to level 13, and normals 15 to 24)
Tear
It's hard to play like that x_x And in motion there's several copies of each line because I can't afford a 180Hz screen

And I'm not *that* bad, I play level 20-25 now :P
Topic Starter
Drace
hm I've always liked how the converts did that with the beat lines for purpose of sightreading SVs. And very few ETs play on anything higher than 60hz, shouldn't come as a problem (though getting would certainly be a good thing haha)
Bobbias
The lines definitely help me sightread SVs. And doubled lines aren't that bad. I get "ghost" notes at high scroll speeds, which are harder to read.
Bryan
For the names "Runningman" and "Trilling Stairs", why not use the names "Trees" or "Ladders"

I picked up both terms when I used to play Guitar Hero more often than not.

A ladder is exactly what the trilling stairs is portrayed as, and can work both ascending and descending.
A tree is typically a three note stair (I.E. 1 2 3 2 1 2 3 2 1), but I feel like either that name would fit better than running man.

Anyways, great guide. I read this at school when I had free time and I now know what I should work on exactly.
Tear
I don't understand why this isn't sticked yet... It's pretty much essential reading for anyone willing to take up this mode. It's much more important than videos of someone playing.
Bobbias
Agreed. this really should be stickied.
tsundoll
This helped me find maps, +1 for sticky. Plus the patterns section is wonderful.
Topic Starter
Drace
Thanks for the positive feedback! I'm just glad to be of help ^^

New section added -> Fine-tuning mania to suite your hit-timings

I encourage everyone to give what ever feedback they may have in hopes to improve this guide for everyone o/
kidlat020
always play in 7K. then the lower keys will come at you naturally.

I've been an o2jam player for a while, and stopped for about a year or two. despite never playing 4K 5K 6K, I can "read" them just fine.

My problem is there's little available ranked maps meant for Mania. and they're not physically as tiring as its STD counterpart. I've lost some chunks of skills due to this.
Topic Starter
Drace
What about 8k? 9k? 12k?? 16k???? D:
ArcherLove
jubeat D: ??? ARCADE GAME D: !?!??!
PyaKura
Thanks for the timing part Drace, I'll see how mine turns out when playing on my mech (I could do it with my lappy's kb but it randomly lags when registering keys...).
Bobbias
I must be a freak of nature. I can notice offsets that are off by a few ms (like 2-3ms off) with an unstable rate that's almost always above 200 <_<
Bonzomi
I've been playing rhythm games for like... since I'm... 12? 11? I'm almost 20 now. Left O2jam after starting for almost a year, and then somewhere at 16 I think I started playing BMIIDX (Actually LR2 but just the same thing). In Double Mode. On a keyboard. Gosh it was hard. I never knew it could actually be done. Nowadays I play both games, more inclined on BMIIDX since it just feels like a more challenging game (16keys ftw).

Thing is that I constantly felt as if I'm reaching my own skill cap, and there's not much room for improvement, months of playing, maybe almost a year, and I'm still at the same place as before, I improve in only some songs, but there are just some patterns that won't cut it for me. It could possibly come from me not having an expanded list of songs that I was able to play with LR2 because there's not much songs for that game anymore. I haven't even seen anyone who would play it like I do since I first started. But then who knows, I just started out playing osu! again because of the mania mode, see how it works when I try out all the cool stuff. P*light is awesome btw.

Now I have to say that your body condition actually plays a huge role in performance, well at least for me. There are some times that I just felt like my fingers aren't going as I wanted them to, but then there are some times, where everything.... just goes so smoothly. I could play a lot of songs and pull off strings of melodies I never knew I could. My laptop does lag out a few times making me break combos, but that doesn't happen so often, I just wait it out and retry so it's kind of fine.


What's jackhammering anyway? Edit: Ah just read the Advanced section, I see. I'm probably around the Novice -> Advanced borderline. I thought you meant something as hammering your feet down according to the rhythm and play along. I do it a lot when I like the song, and a few times I'd stop playing just because my feet was so tired.
Topic Starter
Drace
It's pretty common to hit these so called "skill walls". To me and many others improvements in the upper levels has been done in small bursts. Feels like you're capped out for a couple months then bam, magical day where you beat everything. Constant improvement for a couple days until you hit your next wall, rinse and repeat.

Personally, I don't like "sticking around" in areas I don't see much improvement. Like if there's a handful of songs I can't beat my top anymore on, time for new songs. If I can't clear anything harder than I already have, I'll go back to easier stuff and aim for full combos. When I can't full combo anything harder than I already have, I move on to the mid-range, trying to ace songs I have Bs on, trying to S songs I have A on. When I hit a wall in bms, I move on to LNs. I bounce around my whole "skill spectrum" and usually when I get back to where I started, there's enough improvement in me to push a little further.

An other good thing to have is motivation, simply saying you want to be better at times isn't enough to push yourself to surpass your own abilities. I've seen people improve much faster when they set "achievable" goals one after the other; "Alright this week I'll S this bad boy...!!". Or two people of the same level range acting like rivals can really fuel up greatly fastened improvement.

All in all, just keep a positive attitude and play for fun. The wall you're facing is bound to crumble eventually!

Entozer wrote:

TRUST. BELIEVE. SUCCEEDED
PyaKura
Omg Drace I'll try that. :D
Pinecone
Alright this week I'll S this bad boy...!!

yup
Xcrypt

-Hazelnut wrote:

Alright this week I'll S this bad boy...!!
me too! D:
913037353
Umm I have a question
Why can I only get 300 on the short notes, but not on the long notes?
I can almost never get 300 on them, usually 100 or 200, or worst, 50
Short notes:

Long notes:

I think I pressed the keys at the right time for the long one, but it turned out I didn't. I don't know when to press :cry:
Topic Starter
Drace
You need to release them at the right time too ^^
TacticalBacon
What's the difference between normal 300 points and rainbow coloured 300 points? how do i get them?
PyaKura

Basically 300g/MAX/rainbow 300s gives slightly more points than normal 300 and increases the bonus score twice faster than normal 300s.
OD doesn't affect the timing needed to get a rainbow 300, meaning that no matter the OD you need the same accuracy to get one.
Akihiro
16ms ? Wow, i get way more pgreat in IIDX than 300g here.
Weird.

Nice table though, thanks for bringing it
iGod
is there a best way to set up keys

Linear,diagonally or something like that?
ArcherLove
up to you, well...
Taadashi

iGod wrote:

is there a best way to set up keys

Linear,diagonally or something like that?
There is no best way of setting up keys. It's all preferences. :)
Topic Starter
Drace
Even the most awkward of setups can workout in the end with a little work. Just use w/e you like ^^
lolpoi_old
So I am at a point where I am trying to power through a wall, and the way that I am doing that is by playing 10 songs that are almost unplayable, but not quite, with "no fail" on. I am seeing improvement, but there are still moments when I have no idea what is happening. Will this method work for improving or am I going about it the wrong way.
Taadashi

lolpoi wrote:

So I am at a point where I am trying to power through a wall, and the way that I am doing that is by playing 10 songs that are almost unplayable, but not quite, with "no fail" on. I am seeing improvement, but there are still moments when I have no idea what is happening. Will this method work for improving or am I going about it the wrong way.
If by nearly unplayable you mean that you spam most of the time and have no idea what's going on, you will probably not learn much from it. If it means you can read the notes to a certain degree but not quite hit them at the right time/with good accuracy then it'll probably work.

I try to play maps that I high C or get low B:s on to improve. :)
lolpoi_old
What about songs that I get mid to high d on?
Taadashi

lolpoi wrote:

What about songs that I get mid to high d on?
That probably means you're spamming like crazy and have no real idea what's going on, so I wouldn't play those songs. :)
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