Tess wrote:

Well, I read your entire post, but... To be honest; not only do you not make sense, it also seems as though your reply is written purely for the sake of disagreeing. Which is, just like the end of the post I replied to, rather disappointing. I could reply to everything you said but that would only derail the thread - I was assuming it would stop at my post, anyway.

I'm sorry if that's how you interpreted it. It was definitely not my intention to. Please understand that when you say things such as "you do not make sense" and that a part is "disappointing" I feel that it is a fault on my part, and as such, it is my obligation to explain myself as best I can in order to show that I have reason for my thinking so that it doesn't just look like some thoughtless b.s. thrown out there for the sake of nothing more than argument. That may have been counterproductive in this case, due to the fact that, my patterns of thought are quite disorganized and the fact that it was really late at night(or early in the morning?). To that end, if I have somehow come across that I'm antagonizing you or arguing with you just for funsies I apologize. I'll say it again, it is most definitely not my intention to do so. I think we simply had conflicting ideas and that's completely fine.

Tess wrote:

So, to bring things back on track; I firmly believe that "play more" isn't the way to "get better", nor are any of the snippets of advice that I've seen in this thread. That doesn't mean that none of it works - some of it makes sense, like editing your settings to make things more playable, practicing different kinds of methods and play styles, and trying not to get too frustrated when things don't work out. But people seem to have romantic interest in the idea of a "golden solution", a single answer to all of your problems - because it's easy! If all you had to do was focus on one thing, then all you would need is time to get you anywhere. And I see that as an answer a lot of the time; "How do I get better?" "Play more." "Practice moar." "Play more hard stuff."

That is an incredibly stupid thing to say, as there are at least five major and several other minor aspects to consider while trying to improve this game - playing more is only the natural effect of trying to develop said aspects. Now, everyone plays differently, so I doubt that I could tell you how to develop anything and have it work consistently with you, but I'll list the aspects you should consider when thinking about how to practice - perhaps that could nudge some of the people here into a more healthy direction, provided that they're willing to improve, instead of looking for a golden answer. If you want the easy way to get good scores - use hacks. If you want to actually get good, work hard and efficiently. It's not rocket science.

The things to be considered, and their respective questions that come with them, are;

Aim - What makes me or other players aim well? What can get in the way of good aiming? What kinds of maps would I need to play to train my aim?
Speed - Why are some players faster than others? How can I play faster without reducing my accuracy too much? How do I read faster without losing my ability to read slower?
Accuracy - What determines how accurate I am? Why are thelewa and Bikko so much more accurate than other players? How can I train my accuracy simultaneously with my speed and aim?
Reading - How should I define "reading", and why would that definition help me improve as a player? What can I do to practice my reading without getting bored? How do MillhioreF or BluOxy look at the screen while they're playing, and why does this enable them to play EZ and FL so well?
Consistency - How do I practice my consistency? Why are players like doctorindark so much more consistent than others? When have I been more consistent in the past, and what did I do then that I could start doing again in the present?

Once you start thinking more in-depth about these things, you need to take the precaution of assuming that the conclusion you draw about them will most likely be incorrect, and be constantly trying to find holes in your own logic, until you can't anymore. In short;

Ask questions -> Find answers -> Work the flaws out of the answers -> Repeat with your increased knowledge

Add this to your practice routine and you'll be surprised how well it works, provided you put the required amount of effort into it. Then again, if you're not willing to put in effort, you shouldn't complain about sucking~

Yes, yes, yes, and more yes!!!!!! I could not agree with you more. This is the type of response I love. I think you make awesome points, and although I'm sure you don't need nor really want my approval, I still believe that your points on aim, speed, accuracy, reading, and consistency are truly something that should be taken into consideration more by people who want to improve. I feel as though many look for that "one best way to improve" to the point that they overlook the simple things that are the entire basis for improvement, or rather, they don't even bother practicing them because they spend all their time looking for that one-best-way to improve, however, trying to apply any type of one-best-way method of improvement will leave you nowhere. These areas, broken down with these questions, are definitely something I'll consider when I work on improvement as well. Breaking things down and questioning yourself as to how you can improve on them and coming up with your own self-specific answers definitely sounds like an awesome way to improve skills.

Well, thanks for taking the time to reply, and I'm glad you liked my advice. Do try to be careful with quotespam in the future, though. And you don't come across as antagonizing or rude or whatever, I don't think that so easily of people.

Tess wrote:

I firmly believe that...
.
.
.

This was honestly the best piece of advice I have read till now. Thank you.

Thank you so much! I LOVE YOU!!!!!! <3 <3 <3

For anyone trying to improve in a skill, I would recommend a book named "The Little Book of Talent." It's an easy read that basically runs through a "menu" of practice techniques. You might find some that apply.

And don't lose heart. In Osu (and also in many other games), skill is NOT infinite. To see the upper bound, engage the "Auto" mod in-game and watch. It is possible, given enough time and effort, for you to reach the top.

Skill is infinite, difficulty isn't~

Nikkumi wrote:

B1rd wrote:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1265192/dpi- ... nter-speed

according to this, 8/11 multiplies dpi by 2. So try 1600dpi with raw input.

Tried it and it feels fairly similar. Possibly smoother than before.

Would it be a good idea to fall back to 6/11? I've read that the pointer skips counts above 6/11, although I got to admit I'm not sure what that means.

I'm just at the point where I've been playing at 8/11 for 9 days after a two month hiatus, so my muscle memory was sort of "reset" until that point (or maybe I'm wrong since I don't know how muscle memory works exactly).

I've read that you generally shouldn't change settings too much and stick to one, so I don't know what to do.

Raw input overrides windows settings.

But it's possible you can get wonky performance with some game/hardware combos.
In that case it's "best" to use 6/11 or below in windows. Since you are going to get skipped pixels above that. But most people don't even notice.

It all comes down to personal preference. I know people who prefer to have some mouse acceleration whereas I bought my mouse mainly due to the sensor being completely acc. free.

I really need some serious zen monk tips on controlling my nerves. Its so bad I can feel blood rushing to my head and my hands shaking even when I'm about to FC maps that would give me NOTHING.

I cant even play goddamn hards without my heartbeat raising if I'm on a high combo. I keep telling myself to 'stay calm who cares if you miss' but it only works until I'm actually doing well and then I just lose my cool. Its so goddamn frustrating to be cruising through a map at 99% acc, a map that you should be EASILY able to FC, and then just fucking choke it 98% of time on the dumbest shit you've managed to do 50 times before.
90% of my fuckups involve going over a single note and just not pressing it, it doesnt even have to be a jump.

All my FCs are basically flukes where I managed to supress my pen hands shaking/brains refusals to press buttons enough to somehow hit all the notes. I always lose my acc at the end of the song because of this too.

Why is this game s0 hard.

Why do you even care anyway? I get if you are trying to be competitive and all, but getting angry over stuff like that... I just don't get it. Well, actually, that's a lie, I DO get it, a long time ago I often got frustrated at video games too.

When I couldn't pass a level on Super Mario or Contra or whatever I used to get really mad... and then one day I was playing something and I thought "You know what, fuck it, it's just a stupid video game, I get enough things that frustrate me in real life, I don't need to add video games to the mix too."

What worked for me, is that I've accepted with a 100% certainty that I will never get good at osu, I'll never achieve a 3-digit rank( hell, I might not even achieve a 4-digit rank). And believe it or not, since I've accepted that, I'm having much more fun when I play.

I realize that this may not work for you and if you're dead set on becoming good, than who am I to stop you?! Just be prepared to continue getting frustrated over random misses etc.

For me, it's not worth it.

Its not about getting angry (yeah its frustrating but I wouldnt call it full blown anger) but about getting so ungodly nervous that I'm gonna fuck up that my aim and tapping becomes erratic, this usually leads to fucking up so its a vicious cycle of fuck uppery.

Try to manage your breathing better.

Nikkumi wrote:

Try to manage your breathing better.

Good news, I barely breathe after I reach half combo on a song so I'm an expert at that.

I don't think anyone can give you any tips on how to keep calm and not get nervous. Top-tier players to this day get nervous towards the end of a map, even when they have so much experience.

Someone could say "play more" (a phrase which I am sick and tired of), but even that might not help. It's not helping me and I know that it's not helping players such as lewa. He has been playing this game a lot and he has said that even now he can't help but get nervous towards the end of a challenging map while he has been keeping combo and high accuracy throughout most of the map.

Bottom line - you will continue getting nervous, I don't think anything can fix that. It's just part of the challenge.

yeah figures. Guess I'll just force myself to breathe calmly and relax my hands on every single play even if it means I'll miss because I'm focusing on relaxing for a while and see if it helps.

phonics wrote:

I really need some serious zen monk tips on controlling my nerves. Its so bad I can feel blood rushing to my head and my hands shaking even when I'm about to FC maps that would give me NOTHING.

The degree to which you get nervous can become habitual. If you don't grasp control of it early on, it becomes harder to avoid the longer it goes on. It becomes an instinctive response... fight or flight. Being nervous is something I personally have to avoid wherever possible for health reasons, so mastering my nerves is ultimately one of my osu! goals. I quit osu! twice for 3-4 months each time because of it, even ending up in hospital at one point because I could not control my stress. While I don't have zen monk tips, these are the things I do:

Start with analysis. Learn to recognise mis-reads instead of just assuming your nerves are at fault. Find quirks in patterns that aren't quite the shape or distances you thought they were. Some maps have patterns that appear to be really easy, but if you stop and analyze them, you'll see they are more difficult than they seem.

Keep playing maps you are confident on (read: consistent), and raise your confidence level before attempting to set top scores on stuff that is difficult for you to do in a few attempts. Confidence is the key to controlling your nerves, and is best done while avoiding being nervous altogether. Find something you don't get nervous on (seriously... anything) and play it. Find more like it and play them. Raise the bar slowly, build consistency and confidence.

This is basically like playing below your maximum skill level... However you can still practice above it, because your goal there is a means to an end, not "now", so your mind knows not to get nervous. Just avoid playing between those 2, your maximum, where your nerves take hold, because that 1 play out of multiple attempts is going to make you nervous. So don't retry so much, and build up your confidence from a skill level you know you reside at.

Take your time. Practice efficiency rather than doing things faster. Practice what you are bad at, instead of clinging to hope. Nothing stresses you out more than rushing.

Gigo wrote:

What worked for me, is that I've accepted with a 100% certainty that I will never get good at osu, I'll never achieve a 3-digit rank( hell, I might not even achieve a 4-digit rank). And believe it or not, since I've accepted that, I'm having much more fun when I play.

It's not necessarily about getting rid of high goals, but rather how you plan to achieve them. You can keep those goals, but decide to pursue them at a comfortable pace. The contradiction is that the goal is a moving target which gets further away the longer you take. However if you ignore that, you can still enjoy the game, play practice maps (for fun), all while keeping the goal of getting good... eventually.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

The degree to which you get nervous can become habitual. If you don't grasp control of it early on, it becomes harder to avoid the longer it goes on. It becomes an instinctive response..

I feel like I'm already at this point and beyond it. The funny thing I haven't gotten seriously nervous once in any other game and I've played some competitive ass games including CS 1.6, CS:GO, SC2 and Dota2, all at a fairly competent level and I took those games VERY seriously yet I never felt nervous when playing them.

Start with analysis. Learn to recognise mis-reads instead of just assuming your nerves are at fault. Find quirks in patterns that aren't quite the shape or distances you thought they were. Some maps have patterns that appear to be really easy, but if you stop and analyze them, you'll see they are more difficult than they seem.

I'm probably guilty of this as well because usually I dismiss them as nothing but standard chokes for me. I'll start thinking about my misses more.

Keep playing maps you are confident on (read: consistent), and raise your confidence level before attempting to set top scores on stuff that is difficult for you to do in a few attempts.

I don't even attempt to FC anything that I can't get at least 98% acc on a standard basis because I know it just wont happen with my nerves. The problem is I can play these 4.0~4.2 star maps with a 98% acc and then just panic and choke almost without exception even though they arent even challenging me anymore on mechanical skill level.

Find something you don't get nervous on (seriously... anything) and play it

This basically means I should go back to 3 star maps Would you still find it worth doing? I'm willing to try anything at this point so I can progress in this game.

phonics wrote:

I feel like I'm already at this point and beyond it. The funny thing I haven't gotten seriously nervous once in any other game and I've played some competitive ass games including CS 1.6, CS:GO, SC2 and Dota2, all at a fairly competent level and I took those games VERY seriously yet I never felt nervous when playing them.

Fight or flight is situational. I can tell you that osu! is the most stressful game I've ever played. It is what you make of it, and it's really easy to become stressed. Other games give you breathing room at certain moments, time to think upon your actions, and also last a lot longer, so you are given a chance to calm down.

phonics wrote:

This basically means I should go back to 3 star maps Would you still find it worth doing? I'm willing to try anything at this point so I can progress in this game.

I don't pay much attention to star rating myself. My recommendation is to detach yourself from that style of thinking. Yes, look at star rating to determine difficulty, but don't assume yourself to be a certain star difficulty in skill. Play stuff you feel you can play... well.

well for the past few days I've been forcing myself to keep both my hands 100% relaxed and I've been achieving FCs on songs I havent been able to FC no matter how hard I've tried.

Its getting better but getting one 'random easy miss' sets me off from this relaxed state and I go back to my old tense style. Its really really hard to maintain this relaxed state but when I get there I can easily FC / improve my acc on songs I've panic mashed through to maintain combo. Now all thats left is to figure out how to go from being relaxed 10% of the time to 100% and i'll be good I think.

So to anyone else who has choking problems just FORCE your hands to be 100% loose, its really fucking hard but I havent found any other way. Also never ever ever ever look at your acc / combo during breaks, at least for me its a guaranteed fail shortly after the break

to get better, i think it is all about your mindset. if you believe you arent improving then you never will. jut keep trying and NEVER SAY "i cant do this! it is too hard!" JUST KEEP GOIN TILL YA WRIST BREAKS!

phonics wrote:

well for the past few days I've been forcing myself to keep both my hands 100% relaxed and I've been achieving FCs on songs I havent been able to FC no matter how hard I've tried.

Its getting better but getting one 'random easy miss' sets me off from this relaxed state and I go back to my old tense style. Its really really hard to maintain this relaxed state but when I get there I can easily FC / improve my acc on songs I've panic mashed through to maintain combo. Now all thats left is to figure out how to go from being relaxed 10% of the time to 100% and i'll be good I think.

So to anyone else who has choking problems just FORCE your hands to be 100% loose, its really fucking hard but I havent found any other way. Also never ever ever ever look at your acc / combo during breaks, at least for me its a guaranteed fail shortly after the break

Same, I've always been bad at maintain combos. This was because I was choking my pen with my fingers, after loosening up I fc'd a few songs which I didn't even have the stamina to complete previously.

Would you recommend easy mod to practice reading in general or is it just a waste of time at my level (rank 30K-ish, playing 4-star maps)?

yoyomster wrote:

Would you recommend easy mod to practice reading in general or is it just a waste of time at my level (rank 30K-ish, playing 4-star maps)?

Just dont stop playing AR8 along with 9 (and maybe play some insane AR7 maps once in a while) and you'll be fine.

GoldenWolf wrote:

iLoveYordles wrote:

Short streams up to 260bpm (like 3 up to 9 notes) does not make real threat for me, but I've found issues in longstreams over 200bpm. I can barely pass 6 seconds then I'm rapidly going down to 100's and 50's and then failing beatmap. Can't really find out what's the reason of my disconcentration. Any tips?
Focusing on a thread - is it like "forget about the world - just focus on playing"?

you lack something called "stamina"

Give me some tips how to raise it, senpai!

LookEassu wrote:

Give me some tips how to raise it, senpai!

Just play "long stream practice beatmaps", like this https://osu.ppy.sh/s/72474 or https://osu.ppy.sh/s/76465

Well, i tried, even i were lazy to read all the texts

I think i can't get better anymore so i decided to play not for rank.

Si no mejoran , es porque son malos , jueguen el Tetris o al Pacman. :v

Kondzio2k wrote:

I think i can't get better anymore so i decided to play not for rank.

thats how to get better


just playing

Apink Chorong wrote:

Kondzio2k wrote:

I think i can't get better anymore so i decided to play not for rank.

thats how to get better


just playing

I'm not like the others
i just can't improve myself

When i started to play with hidden it changed the way i'm playing! And i dont know if its good or not.
1)Before i played in such way: wait for when its time to press note then move cursor and press the button. So it was like wait-move-press -> wait-move-press ->... But now i'm moving cursor and then wait (move-wait-press -> move-wait-press ->...)
2)Before i was focusing on the next note to press while trying to read all next notes that appears on the screen. But now i focus on last appeared note while trying to follow remembered pattern.

What do you think?

Thank God I learned how to snap

Have ScarletStory deleted his account because when I try to look at it I just got 404 error. Anyone knows?

sukiNathan wrote:

Thank God I learned how to snap

After reading this with focus (or at least trying to) I understood everything else than this "snapping". What this actually means?

Also, it's seems it more like an insult to new players instead of advises

Of course, playing with a stick doesn't give you advantage compared to a small box that you move continuously for minutes

Therieri wrote:

After reading this with focus (or at least trying to) I understood everything else than this "snapping". What this actually means?

In my words and as simple as possible, it's getting to a note and stopping on it in order to make sure you hit it. It's most prevalent with mouse users.
So lets say there's a huge jump from o1--------o2------------o3
You'd hit o1, then "snap" to o2, stopping on it to hit it, then "snap" to o3.
It's kinda hard to notice with tablet as there's less stability but it still can be done.
Please someone better than me correct me if I'm horribly wrong.

pola[r]is wrote:

Therieri wrote:

After reading this with focus (or at least trying to) I understood everything else than this "snapping". What this actually means?

In my words and as simple as possible, it's getting to a note and stopping on it in order to make sure you hit it. It's most prevalent with mouse users.
So lets say there's a huge jump from o1--------o2------------o3
You'd hit o1, then "snap" to o2, stopping on it to hit it, then "snap" to o3.
It's kinda hard to notice with tablet as there's less stability but it still can be done.
Please someone better than me correct me if I'm horribly wrong.

Aah! So thing what he tries to say in that "guide" is that you shouldn't ever stop from moving between hits?

Well it's sorta contradicting. I don't even "snap" to notes, yet it says to maintain your style of gameplay??

Gah...

a common mistake people make is that they flow when doing streams

Nice Tips. It's honest and Straight to the truth!

41236 wrote:

a common mistake people make is that they flow when doing streams

What the fuck is "flowing"

phonics wrote:

Its not about getting angry (yeah its frustrating but I wouldnt call it full blown anger) but about getting so ungodly nervous that I'm gonna fuck up that my aim and tapping becomes erratic, this usually leads to fucking up so its a vicious cycle of fuck uppery.

Spend a week playing mostly FL
Ignore how frustrating it is at first, and try to only FL maps you can easily FC
Post here again after that

Trust me, I'm a zen monkey