Last time I made a thread about this: t/243888
Basically, my main problem with this game is that if there are too many hit circle jumps in a row, in patterns that clutter circles together, I'll get confused after hitting the first few and lose track of the rest and miss them and fail the map. I've played a lot since I made that last thread, but feel like I've barely improved my reading.
Certain patterns like star jumps (at a sufficiently high bpm or distance), clock jumps, or (if there are enough circles) anything, except the simplest of jump patterns like back-and-forth zigzags, are more likely to make me combo break or die. Basically, I still have a huge amount of trouble reading any large amount of jumps that aren't organized on the map extremely cleanly and simply.
It's caused me huge issues trying to pass maps other people around or worse than my level can easily do, or FC maps that I know are mechanically easy enough (like if the circles were rearranged in a simpler pattern with the same distance snapping, I would be able to do it). The first one frustrates me because I can't pass those maps are challenging yet fun for other people, and the second is I feel a bottleneck on my pp that prevents me from making high pp plays because I'm unable to full combo harder maps that are more likely to have patterns that throw me off.
Hoshizora no Ima S.S
Those jumps at the beginning of Hoshizora no Ima S.S (a very popular map, the one that SnowWhite did with HD,DT for 508 pp, one of those maps that most of your friends have played)? Most 25-30k ranked players I ask to play it can FC them or clear them with only a miss or two, but every time I try that map (over 190 times now):
Like I said, it's quite frustrating that I can't come close to passing maps like these that I should be able to pass. Other maps like these are Luv Letter (Posthumous) and Granat (insane or extra). Luv Letter has a lot of back-and-forth jumps and Granat...hard to describe but you know what it's like.
Full Comboing
Those maps that I want to pass are 5+ stars, but at this rank I also want to full combo 4.6-4.8 star maps. So far, the ones I've been able to full combo (on my top performances), don't have too many jumps in a row so I'm able to read them and hit them fairly easily with a few tries. Those maps focus more on speed and aim, which I've played enough osu to have them good enough for maps of this level. The main source of difficulty on a lot of maps, however, is having a lot of circles in a row.
IamKwan's Magi the Labyrinth of Magic ending song map, for example, has a ton of medium sized jumps in groups of 8-18 at the end, starting at 01:05:884 (2) - . They're arranged in patterns confusing enough to throw my focus off.
Another one is the recently ranked Best FriendS Fycho's Insane. The end of kiai has 28 jumps in a row, growing consistently bigger until the end is basically full screen. I managed to FC this.
Why?
For me, these type of maps are "full combo or fail". If I manage to read them properly, it'll play great and something like full comboing the aforementioned song will happen. However, if my concentration lapses in the slightest while that's happening, or I wasn't reading the patterns too well to begin with, if I miss one circle, I'll end up missing most of the rest and pray I don't die until I reach a slider. It goes from trying to FC to trying to survive. In these kinds of maps, I either successfully full combo them or miss a circle during the tough jump patterns and die. It's very hard to get in between and finish the map with a 1x miss.
The thing is that my reading ability is consistently bad except for very rare, maybe random occasions. Usually after I wake up and start the day, my first play or two will be great: everything clicks perfectly, I can process and hit every circle, and unless I mess something like aim up or am unlucky, I'll manage to fc the map or pass a hard section. These are the only times I stand a chance of getting past the first set of jumps in Hoshizora no Ima or FCing an easier map like I said in the previous paragraph. The rest of the day, it's back to my usual bad playing on difficult maps.
I want to be able to play more often at the same level that I do at the beginning of the day, but can't figure out how to make it happen. I've tried taking breaks, playing different kinds of maps, playing much easier or much harder maps for a while and then going back, etc., but for the most part, getting myself to read jumps really well while playing still seems random to me.
Another thing that perplexes me is that I can dedicate a lot more effort to reading the aim aspect of circles if I have to worry less about the tapping part. Normally, I'm a single tap player who single taps all 1/2 notes and bigger and only alternates 1/4. However, if I come across some 1/2 jumps that I know are too hard for me to pass normally, I can allow myself to alternate each circle; somehow this can significantly increase the chance of passing the pattern or even hitting every circle without a miss. It's the only way I have passed a lot of maps over 5 stars, and almost all maps over 5.25 stars that I've passed have involved some amount of this alternating "cheat". I'm calling it a cheat because I'm cheating myself of passing it the normal, expected way by alternating with both keys instead of single tapping one key. I'd rather not do it if I could, but in the heat of the moment, when I'm desperate to pass the map after having failed tens of times, it happens. I don't know why alternating lets me get further, but my guess is that it takes less concentration to alternate tap at the right bpm than single tapping that bpm, so that allows me to focus better on reading the circles that appear on the screen.
I do even better if I don't have to tap at all. Any time I play with relax, I think my reading is pretty as good as my aim. Like Hoshizora no Ima SS was a 1x miss. The high accuracy is because of relax but I didn't aim anything wrong until a single circle in the last set of jumps. This is just relax though, so I don't want to extrapolate too much from that, but can't help feeling that having to synchronize tapping along with aiming might be a lot harder for me than for other people.
Whoa, it looks like I've written a lot about something that seems trivial to most, but this is just venting over half a year of frustrations that my playing continued to exacerbate, to my disappoint. I've played a lot; over 4 million hits and almost 24k plays (both numbers much higher than other people at my rank or skill level), but somehow the improvement I saw in my speed and aim isn't in my reading. I haven't heard of anyone who has had similar experiences to mine and can empathize, but I wonder if you guys here could help give some advice. Of course I'm gonna play more, but are there things I should focus on, or certain styles, techniques, maps, etc. I should take into account while playing? Basically I want to know what I should do differently to get my reading skills up to par, since right now it's way worse than I'd like it to be.
TL;DR: Can't read most jump patterns and easily lose concentration, missing circles and failing the map. Except rare occasions or when alternating/relax. Help pls.
Basically, my main problem with this game is that if there are too many hit circle jumps in a row, in patterns that clutter circles together, I'll get confused after hitting the first few and lose track of the rest and miss them and fail the map. I've played a lot since I made that last thread, but feel like I've barely improved my reading.
Certain patterns like star jumps (at a sufficiently high bpm or distance), clock jumps, or (if there are enough circles) anything, except the simplest of jump patterns like back-and-forth zigzags, are more likely to make me combo break or die. Basically, I still have a huge amount of trouble reading any large amount of jumps that aren't organized on the map extremely cleanly and simply.
It's caused me huge issues trying to pass maps other people around or worse than my level can easily do, or FC maps that I know are mechanically easy enough (like if the circles were rearranged in a simpler pattern with the same distance snapping, I would be able to do it). The first one frustrates me because I can't pass those maps are challenging yet fun for other people, and the second is I feel a bottleneck on my pp that prevents me from making high pp plays because I'm unable to full combo harder maps that are more likely to have patterns that throw me off.
Hoshizora no Ima S.S
Those jumps at the beginning of Hoshizora no Ima S.S (a very popular map, the one that SnowWhite did with HD,DT for 508 pp, one of those maps that most of your friends have played)? Most 25-30k ranked players I ask to play it can FC them or clear them with only a miss or two, but every time I try that map (over 190 times now):
- I hit maybe the first 3 circles starting at 00:23:235 (1,2,3) - (if you look at the map in the editor) and miss almost all the rest.
- If I happen to get past that part, it's quite common to miss almost everything at the small 8 circle star jump pattern 00:51:127 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) - because the thing just confuses me while playing it.
- The part right before the kiai 01:05:397 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1,2,3,4,5,6,7) - only got past there twice in my life. It's a big diamond followed by a big triangle, five 1/4 circles stacked, and then a giant 8 note star jump pattern.
- Both times I made it to the end of kiai 01:24:857 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5) - I died pretty quickly there.
Like I said, it's quite frustrating that I can't come close to passing maps like these that I should be able to pass. Other maps like these are Luv Letter (Posthumous) and Granat (insane or extra). Luv Letter has a lot of back-and-forth jumps and Granat...hard to describe but you know what it's like.
Full Comboing
Those maps that I want to pass are 5+ stars, but at this rank I also want to full combo 4.6-4.8 star maps. So far, the ones I've been able to full combo (on my top performances), don't have too many jumps in a row so I'm able to read them and hit them fairly easily with a few tries. Those maps focus more on speed and aim, which I've played enough osu to have them good enough for maps of this level. The main source of difficulty on a lot of maps, however, is having a lot of circles in a row.
IamKwan's Magi the Labyrinth of Magic ending song map, for example, has a ton of medium sized jumps in groups of 8-18 at the end, starting at 01:05:884 (2) - . They're arranged in patterns confusing enough to throw my focus off.
Another one is the recently ranked Best FriendS Fycho's Insane. The end of kiai has 28 jumps in a row, growing consistently bigger until the end is basically full screen. I managed to FC this.
Why?
For me, these type of maps are "full combo or fail". If I manage to read them properly, it'll play great and something like full comboing the aforementioned song will happen. However, if my concentration lapses in the slightest while that's happening, or I wasn't reading the patterns too well to begin with, if I miss one circle, I'll end up missing most of the rest and pray I don't die until I reach a slider. It goes from trying to FC to trying to survive. In these kinds of maps, I either successfully full combo them or miss a circle during the tough jump patterns and die. It's very hard to get in between and finish the map with a 1x miss.
The thing is that my reading ability is consistently bad except for very rare, maybe random occasions. Usually after I wake up and start the day, my first play or two will be great: everything clicks perfectly, I can process and hit every circle, and unless I mess something like aim up or am unlucky, I'll manage to fc the map or pass a hard section. These are the only times I stand a chance of getting past the first set of jumps in Hoshizora no Ima or FCing an easier map like I said in the previous paragraph. The rest of the day, it's back to my usual bad playing on difficult maps.
I want to be able to play more often at the same level that I do at the beginning of the day, but can't figure out how to make it happen. I've tried taking breaks, playing different kinds of maps, playing much easier or much harder maps for a while and then going back, etc., but for the most part, getting myself to read jumps really well while playing still seems random to me.
Another thing that perplexes me is that I can dedicate a lot more effort to reading the aim aspect of circles if I have to worry less about the tapping part. Normally, I'm a single tap player who single taps all 1/2 notes and bigger and only alternates 1/4. However, if I come across some 1/2 jumps that I know are too hard for me to pass normally, I can allow myself to alternate each circle; somehow this can significantly increase the chance of passing the pattern or even hitting every circle without a miss. It's the only way I have passed a lot of maps over 5 stars, and almost all maps over 5.25 stars that I've passed have involved some amount of this alternating "cheat". I'm calling it a cheat because I'm cheating myself of passing it the normal, expected way by alternating with both keys instead of single tapping one key. I'd rather not do it if I could, but in the heat of the moment, when I'm desperate to pass the map after having failed tens of times, it happens. I don't know why alternating lets me get further, but my guess is that it takes less concentration to alternate tap at the right bpm than single tapping that bpm, so that allows me to focus better on reading the circles that appear on the screen.
I do even better if I don't have to tap at all. Any time I play with relax, I think my reading is pretty as good as my aim. Like Hoshizora no Ima SS was a 1x miss. The high accuracy is because of relax but I didn't aim anything wrong until a single circle in the last set of jumps. This is just relax though, so I don't want to extrapolate too much from that, but can't help feeling that having to synchronize tapping along with aiming might be a lot harder for me than for other people.
Whoa, it looks like I've written a lot about something that seems trivial to most, but this is just venting over half a year of frustrations that my playing continued to exacerbate, to my disappoint. I've played a lot; over 4 million hits and almost 24k plays (both numbers much higher than other people at my rank or skill level), but somehow the improvement I saw in my speed and aim isn't in my reading. I haven't heard of anyone who has had similar experiences to mine and can empathize, but I wonder if you guys here could help give some advice. Of course I'm gonna play more, but are there things I should focus on, or certain styles, techniques, maps, etc. I should take into account while playing? Basically I want to know what I should do differently to get my reading skills up to par, since right now it's way worse than I'd like it to be.
TL;DR: Can't read most jump patterns and easily lose concentration, missing circles and failing the map. Except rare occasions or when alternating/relax. Help pls.
