Modifiying Stepmania To Your Liking (Add Songs, Add Speedmods)

[FFXICrosis]

I can't seem to do steps that require more that 2 keys/buttons whatever you want to call them. I wanna be able to play the songs that have "hands" without having to take an unneeded miss. How do i fix that.

[Patashu]

Originally Posted by FFXICrosis

I can't seem to do steps that require more that 2 keys/buttons whatever you want to call them. I wanna be able to play the songs that have "hands" without having to take an unneeded miss. How do i fix that.

If you want to do away with them entirely, hit enter twice when starting a song. Scroll down and look for the 'NOHANDS' modifier and enable it. That will remove any notes that force you to press or have more than two keys held at once, indiscriminantly.

You can also try and find a key configuration that accepts all four presses at once, if you're comfortable with leaving the arrow keys. Use the display input option to test configurations then change to one that works. (For example, when I play spread I use q-w-o-p and quads work fine) Alternatively some keyboards will allow quads to be hit on the arrow keys themselves, like a logitech media elite.

And if none of this will work for you, you can hit a triple or quadruple press by sweeping them. When they come up, hit two of the notes a bit early then the final one on time and it will register. You don't have to be too fast about it; you merely need all of the presses within the +/- boo range, and it gives the judgement based apon the last keypress that makes the triple or quad up. You can sweep for hitting arrows while holding freezes too; sweep your fingers onto the extra arrows then back onto the freezes to keep them unbroken. If you do it enough it'll become instinct.

PS: Whenever you see someone ask about hitting triple or quadruple presses refer them to this post.

[Patashu]

Originally Posted by mageman17

You mean change them all to .888888? When I tried it, Stepmania gave me
an E for a moderately good score.

Also, I have a question which i'll explain...

Scenario:I have theme a and theme b. They almost look exactly the same.
However theme b has more options ("drunk", "cover", etc.) than theme a.

How do I make it so that theme a has the same options as theme b?
Is it as easy as copying a string of words from the metrics or what?

But adding the speed mods was easy and a success for me.

("lots of pleasant people roaming these parts...")

First, back everything you'll be editing up since you might not do this right.
Open the metrics.ini in theme b.
Do a search for the word 'drunk'. You should now be in the place that lists all the mod options in each category. Select it all (INCLUDING the paragraph before that that lists all the categories in one go), copy it and paste it over the metrics.ini of theme a to replace all the stuff that it has in the same place.
Now, go into the languages folder of theme b and open up the english.txt, again do a search for the word drunk. You should see a list of lines stating drunk=drunk, cover=cover, x1=x1 etc and along those lines. Select all of these lines to do with mods, open the english.txt of theme a and copy them in. If you do not do this stepmania will not know what words to display for the mods and they will appear as blank spaces.

[heavymike]

how do you edit the metrics to show how many feet are in the difficulty meter?

for example when the song is an 11 on heavy, it shows 11 feet and the number 11 next to it. like in itg difficultys.

[LoboRsxS]

Is there a way you can sort by artist 2?

[maiar]

Originally Posted by FFXICrosis

I can't seem to do steps that require more that 2 keys/buttons whatever you want to call them. I wanna be able to play the songs that have "hands" without having to take an unneeded miss. How do i fix that.

Patashu offered a good suggestions, however, if you are playing one handed or index I might suggest switching to playing on your number pad(if you have one) and setting the keys to 4-5-6-8 or 1-2-3-5. only the arrow keys on most keyboards have a lock on pressing more than 2 keys at once. I'm a one handed player and had the same issue until I moved to playing on the number pad :P

Cheerio

btw Patashu sick Holy Orders stepfile, one handed ftl on that one :P I'll pass it later

[maiar]

Originally Posted by LoboRsxS

Is there a way you can sort by artist 2?

in game you can sort by artist by pressing up-down-up-down and it will list all options you can sort by. If this is not what you meant please explain more so we can help you out.

[maiar]

Originally Posted by David94

Whenever I try to put in a new speed mod, I do this:

[ScreenOptionsMaster]
# Player options
Speed=12 <--changed
SpeedDefault=mod,1x
Speed,1=mod,0.25x;name,x0.25
Speed,2=mod,0.50x;name,x0.50
Speed,3=mod,0.75x;name,x0.75
Speed,4=mod,1x;name,x1
Speed,5=mod,1.25x;name,x1.25 <--added
Speed,6=mod,1.5x;name,x1.5
Speed,7=mod,2x;name,x2
Speed,8=mod,3x;name,x3
Speed,9=mod,4x;name,x4
Speed,10=mod,8x;name,x8
Speed,11=mod,C200;name,C200
Speed,12=mod,C400;name,C400

The next step WOULD be to change the english Language setting, but before I can get to that, I try to save my data and it says: "Cannot create the C:\Program Files\StepMania\Themes\default\metrics.ini file. Make sure that the path and file name are correct." then it asks me to save it as something else, but if i were to save it as something else, it wouldn't work. Just a side note, when I open the file, it opens in notepad, if that's meaningful in any way. And also, I didn't really put those "<--changed" things in there.

wow triple post on my part sorry all but I like answering one question at a time.


Alright easy way to get around this, especially for those of you using pesky vista is to simply move the metrics.ini file out of the \Themes\default folder and onto say the desktop then modifying and saving it there and moving it back, it has no restrictions on overwriting it if you simply move it out of the folder(It worked for me it should work for you too). I know David already fixed the issue for himself, but just a handy tidibt incase someone else needs it.

[bumbaloe]

I was trying to add some speedmods to Nocturnal Dream (C250 and C600), and it went well until I got to F:\games\StepMania\Themes\Nocturnal Dream\Languages/english.ini . I did ctrl+f "OptionNames", but it didn't find anything. The only thing in that file is:

[ScreenSelectMusic]
HelpText=Use &MENULEFT; And &MENURIGHT; To Select, Then Use &START;  To Confirm :: &UP; &UP; Easier Difficulty, &Down; &Down; Harder Difficulty::Use &Up;&Down;&Up;&Down; to change the Song Wheel's Sort

[ScreenSelectStyle]
HelpText=Use &MENULEFT; And &MENURIGHT; To Select, Then Use &START;  To Confirm

[ScreenEvaluation]
HelpText=Press &START; To Continue

[ScreenPlayerOptions]
HelpText=Use &MENULEFT; And &MENURIGHT; To Select Options::Use &START; To Go To The Next Line::Hold &MENULEFT; And Push &START; To Go Back Up One Line

[ScreenSelectMaster]
HelpText=Use &MENULEFT; And &MENURIGHT; To Select, Then Use &START;  To Confirm

[ScreenTitleMenu]
HelpText=
HelpTextEvent=Press START to begin
HelpTextFree=Press START to begin
HelpTextHome=Use &UP; &DOWN; to select, then press &START;
HelpTextPay=Press START to begin

[ScreenSelectGroup]
HelpText=Use &MENULEFT; And &MENURIGHT; To Select, Then Use &START;  To Confirm

[ScreenInstructions]
HelpText=Use &START; To Continue

[ScreenSelectCharacter]
HelpText=Use &MENULEFT; And &MENURIGHT; To Select, Then Use &START;  To Confirm

Upon starting stepmania, there were no problems until I selected a song and went to options. Stepmania crashed with the error "Theme metric 'OptionNames : C250' could not be found in 'Themes/Nocturnal Dream/metrics.ini' or 'Themes/default/metrics.ini'.". I then went into Themes\Nocturnal Dream/metrics.ini , did ctrl+f OptionNames, and nothing. What am I doing wrong?

[Nightime]

IIRC, most Vista issues can be fixed/corrected by installing (or moving, and updating shortcuts for) Stepmania either to the Desktop or to My Documents.

Anyways, one thing I'm working on right now, is an alternative mode, similar to "Dance Master Mode." Being that you can go in, select a style/difficulty and group, but that the GameplaySongSelect is altered, so as to display 3 capricious songs with random, but displayed modifiers, and a fourth "random" option which is the same kind of thing, just not displayed. Possibly with adjustable speed/noteskin options, assuming they aren't set conditionally by the stages.

I've been trying this as a revised "song select," and a revised "course select" screen... and I've attempted to look for another way to make this like a looping "Extra Stage" screen - except that the ES/OMES system looks to be hard-coded, not necessarily metrics-manipulatable.

One source tells me I would have to LUA-program this mode (which I am not familiar with at all!), which would also require a newer version of SM (currently running 3.9 w/TechnoFiend 3.1 theme) to even use. If there's another, better way to achieve this, I'd love to know what it may be - or if not, can somebody at least link me to a SM~LUA tutorial?

One reason is for theme-compatibility. TechnoFiend 3.1 kicks ass, but doesn't work with 4.0!

P.S.: This other thing may be metrics/stepmania.ini editable; I've noticed that "Noteskins" are not usually included in the randomizable mods - how do I include them (or if they are, make them more frequently random)?

[Yarni]

How do you force AutoPlay to register a combo, like one of the old online versions did? It doesn't need to count for anything, I just want the combo on there.