ITG SKills Decreasing

[CreadShack]

wow now, i really think that if u can play itg well, then go back to ddr, your ddr scores will improve dramtically but u will lose the stamina u once had for itg, and u will end up becoming more of beat if u dont play endlessly getting AAA's in ddr

[GOD GODDY]

Playing PIU has nothing to do with my ITG/DDR skills since I didn't start playing it until recently. My stamina has nothing to do with it because the other day I was able to beat Energizer on expert after a 6-mile walk. I'm thinking the ITG timing window is placed differently than DDR.

[Chrisonfire]

The ITG fantastic/excellent window is much bigger than DDR's Marvelous/Perfect window. I have been playing DDR for three years and within that time I only accumulated twenty AAAs or so and they are still hard as hell to get. When I started playing ITG I was full comboing EVERYTHING a level 8 and under with all Fantastics and Excellents usually ending with 2/3 more fantastics. I understand that the emphasis is on Fantastics so the window must be bigger but the difference is dramatic when comparing ITG to DDR. I don't think I could 4 star ANYTHING if I tried my hardest.

[Uber-Zeo]

itg = judge 4
ddr = judge 5

[MagixMan]

Originally Posted by Uber-Zeo

itg = judge 4
ddr = judge 5

Could someone confirm this?


Hmm, I kinda stopped playing ITG and went ova to DDR SuperN... oh wait. We don't have it yet in my local arcade...

Nways, after a good sweat on the DDR Extreme, some friends of mine's asked if I could join them for a ITG-fest. Joined them a bit and what amazes me. My accuracy I had on the Extreme, which sucked balls (few AA's & lotsa A's), had an effect on the ITG machine. I had more then 97%+ then everyone else! Weird huh? I wasn't even tired after clearing Pandemonium.

[recessionatalus]

Originally Posted by MagixMan

Could someone confirm this?

it's not 100% accurate but it's pretty close

DDR timings in milliseconds:
Marvellous:14
Perfect:28
Great:63
Good:105
Boo:161

ITG timings in milliseconds:
Marvellous:21.25
Perfect:40
Great:90
Good:120
Boo:200

note that my timing windows for great/good/boo on ITG are rough estimates, I don't remember for sure what they are but I know they're MUCH bigger than DDRs

[DjMeas]

I can understand what you're going through God~

My arcade used to have DDR EXT and i would play doubles,
passing almost all the 9 footers. Now that they replaced it with
an ITG2, i can barely play the darn thing ^_^'''

Today i beat a 9 in ITG but after trying REALLY darn hard...
And when i went to play DDREX at another arcade, i did just fine.
Maybe even better than my last DDR EXT session.

Wierd *_*''

[ITGheaven]

Hmm. I think I can offer some clarifications/input here and I have a question as well:

Originally Posted by ranatalus

it's not 100% accurate but it's pretty close

DDR timings in milliseconds:
Marvellous:14
Perfect:28
Great:63
Good:105
Boo:161

Are you sure those are the values for DDR's timing windows? I thought the Marvelous was like 16 and the Perfect was about 33. Have those been confirmed?

Originally Posted by ranatalus

ITG timings in milliseconds:
Marvellous:21.25
Perfect:40
Great:90
Good:120
Boo:200

Here's the precise breakdown (in milliseconds, according to eVILPeeR):

Fantastic: 21.5
Excellent: 43
Great: 102
Decent: 135
Way Off: 180

Originally Posted by Uber-Zeo

itg = judge 4
ddr = judge 5

With the official ITG settings found on the stepmania.ini on ITG Freak, ITG is indeed the equivalent of Judge 4, but then DDR is somewhere between Judge 5 and 6.

Originally Posted by Mystic

... is it just me, or is it -much- easier to nail fast streams on Pump? I can fc through decently fast streams on Pump, but I struggle through slower streams on ItG.

Pump It Up's timing windows are even larger than those on ITG, so that makes perfect sense.

Originally Posted by God

Now, I used to be one of the better ITG players on this island, being able to beat all 11s and most 12s. I was getting reasonable scores in the game on both hard and expert, etc.

However, after awhile I got tired of going to the arcade where an ITG is close and went back to the mall arcade which only has DDR Ex. I was playing that for a few months, not playing ITG very often. My DDR teching has shot up since then, and I can AA most 8s and many 9s. However, I stopped playing ITG for about 3 months straight because my scores in that game had gone down. I was never able to beat any of my scores, and sometimes would be far from matching them.

I played again yesterday, and on Monolith (E-92%) I didn't make the scoreboard with 88%, VerTex2 (H-88%) I got about 78%, and on Energizer (E-83%) I made about 70%. Put simply, I suck at ITG now, but I am getting pretty good at DDR, hence why I have quit ITG for the most part.

Has anyone else experienced something like this?

I haven't experienced this directly but I can tell you that this is very common. You see, many of ITG's charts are significantly more difficult and stamina-draining than anything found on DDR, especially the ones you just mentioned. Because you were off ITG for 3 months and playing charts that are nowhere near the difficulty of the aforementioned ones, you didn't put very high expectations on yourself compared to your potential and you acclimated to playing much less difficult charts. Therefore, by the time you got back into ITG, your threshold had dropped. It's like me when I used to go running regularly and was able to do 8 miles with hills and soft sand like it was nothing (at a pretty good pace). Because I haven't run regularly since last year, I am now horribly out of shape and even 2 miles leaves me dead exhausted. Because you weren't consistetly challenging your threshold and pushing it, you now have to build it back up. You can certainly do it if you put in the time and energy.

Also, keep in mind that even though DDR has relavitely stricter timing windows than ITG, the Fantastic is still smaller than the Perfect.

Originally Posted by stupiful

Kinda happened to me. But in an even stranger fashion. I've been playing ITG2 MORE but my skill has been decreasing. The hardest song I could pass with decency was probably Infection expert, but for some reason over the past month or so my skill has gone down the toilet, even though I've been working harder and harder...I can't even pass Energizer, it's like my legs suddenly don't want to respond in the way I tell them to. And don't even get me started about drills. Even a 5-step drill will just look like a bunch of GREATs down the screen. It's awful and I can't figure out what's going on.

Your situation is pretty rare. Most people who have acquired a decent skill level find themselves able to improve much more readily without even having to play as frequently. For instance, last October I played ITG for the first time in 2 months and I still set new personal records by sizable margins, including at least a 2% improvement on Boogie Down Expert (~91% -> ~93.5%).

So my next question to you is: what difficulties have you been playing and have you made any changes to your playing style at all?

[GOD GODDY]

I know not playing will decrease my stamina, but like I said, I stopped playing ITG for so long because my skill started decreasing at a near embarrassing pace. When I was playing DDR for those 3 months, I was doing what I typically do in the game: 9-10 footers almost every game and almost every song. I worked myself up to my first few AAs of 8-9 footers and my first barless MaxX Unlimited clear (B). In addition to this, in the past month I've been playing PIU on occasion. Before that, my ITG skills were shit and almost any song I played brought upon me a bad score.

HOWEVER, I recently went to play a game of ITG, and although my scores were still generally in the basement, I managed to make it about 7 seconds away from passing VerTex^2, my best stamina record in the game. My stamina has little to do with my scores.

[ITGheaven]

Originally Posted by God

I know not playing will decrease my stamina, but like I said, I stopped playing ITG for so long because my skill started decreasing at a near embarrassing pace. When I was playing DDR for those 3 months, I was doing what I typically do in the game: 9-10 footers almost every game and almost every song. I worked myself up to my first few AAs of 8-9 footers and my first barless MaxX Unlimited clear (B). In addition to this, in the past month I've been playing PIU on occasion. Before that, my ITG skills were shit and almost any song I played brought upon me a bad score.

HOWEVER, I recently went to play a game of ITG, and although my scores were still generally in the basement, I managed to make it about 7 seconds away from passing VerTex^2, my best stamina record in the game. My stamina has little to do with my scores.

Ah I see. In terms of technique, I actually wasn't being specific enough in my response. When I was talking about how most of ITG's charts are significantly more difficult than those on DDR, I meant to say that they are also technically much more challenging (Euphoria's 32nds, Monoliths candle step 16ths at 196 BPM, Go 60 Go's 48th notes as a result of swung beats, etc). Therefore, I also meant to say that to readily improve, you need to push your threshold of technique by playing charts with patterns that are very difficult for you to execute even with good stamina.

Also, I'm sorry for misinterpreting what you said. You were obviously referring to having poor technique, not stamina. But I'll be glad to offer some more feedback whenever you feel stuck.

[GOD GODDY]

Well, my concern is that I suddenly started to go down in skill despite playing regularly. Whether I hold the bar or not, my scores have not been able to get out of this valley.

[ZanasoBayncuh]

I have CERTAINLY experienced this... of course my delay from the game was money/marriage/childbirth involved. I had over 100 AAA's (Heavy and Challenge) on DDR Extreme and then another 20+ in Doubles. AA's don't thrill me much anymore and I'm not a big fan of DDR anymore as it has become far too easy because I've gotten so used to tackling three 12's in a row. It became apparent immediately, how much trouble I was going to have when I finally returned to the game after having such a long recess from it. Then what was even worse was that I made several movement mistakes. First, when playing "Walking on Fire" - Expert, I was doing just fine until it got to the point that it had crossovers, then I slipped and my knee ended up hitting the corner of the pad (the dropoff to the floor). That sucked... but the final step was when I played Anubis - Expert, I had the song on 3x and forgot that the first step was all four arrows at the same time. This is relevant because you are supposed to do this particular movement in a particular way as it is unsafe for you to hit this position with your feet forward and your hands back (not always, but it surprised me and I did it quickly)... my left knee pops loud enough to be audible to people watching the nearby DDR machine. It hurt a lot and yet I was still stupid enough to finish the song with my foolish arrogance and lack of understanding as to what the pop was.

I have avoided getting my knee checked out because I'm sure that I'll need some type of treatment that I can't afford. I should be back in action though, as soon as I learn to adapt to the pain and find another machine that is worth playing on. I should also be buying a nice Cobalt Flux soon and that should also be a nice tool for recovery, not to mention that nothing builds stamina like a good round of my Marathon 'Ready to Die' or my stepfile 'Scars'... I'm not sure why I can enjoy my own work so much.

~fin

[xenogear]

hehehe im playing for 1 month and im at 8 9-feets now......i think its all about playin very often to improve.

[Tsuteto]

I don't have this problem, I think. I played DDR for the longest of time, and played ITG after about 4 months, and my scores improved at least 3% on average. Also, over the summer, I was playing PIU a ton, and yet my skill in DDR was better, getting less than 20 greats on most 9 footers and below.

In that sense, like you state, the problem doesn't lie in the fact of playing other machines. It started with you just playing normally, right? Maybe you should freestyling some. It'll let your body be a little bit, and give you a "new sense" of playing the game. That's why I enjoy playing DMX so much, because it allows me to just have fun with it, without worrying too much about how many perfects or greats I get, ESPECIALLY since they got rid of the gradings in the 2nd mix (still keeps score, mind you, and will track your perfects and greats and such when playing the IR).

So, yeah. My suggestion is to just either take a break from the likes of any DDR thing by playing something far less intensive (Gitaroo Man did work for me XD). Either that, or start playing a lot more freely, ignoring your grades and just, well, playing. Afterall, games are for our enjoyments, are they not? ^^

[The Butthole Surfer]

Originally Posted by ranatalus

if you don't play ITG you'll lose your stamina, and the ability to PA while playing harder expert songs

I've AAd Extreme, 50 or so AAAs on it, and I can't pass any 12s anymore because I stopped playing ITG. I can't even pass some of the 11s consistently, but I have 16 on PSMO lol

if you don't play ITG you'll lose skill at it, that's about it

fuck expert anyway

Ain't that the truth... I didn't go play ITG 2 for about a month, when I went back my timing was still good, but I had NO stamina... I had trouble passing Utopia (one of my best songs).

Pathetic.