IndyDDR.com

I found recently that I have a love for Pump It Up... But I want to play DDR/ITG as well, without losing my skill at it.

Ho will probably be best at answering my questions. I split my questions into five sections.

Section One:
Will playing PIU alot lower your playing ability at DDR? Will it help it?
Is it easily possible to be equally good at both games?

Section Two:
What is considered good on PIU? Playing Crazy? What difficulty number? (Not Counting freestyling as a "good option", even though thats really fun on PIU.)

Section Three:
I've googled and such, but is there a website where all the PIU players hang out? I'd like to find the biggest fanbase site, kinda like DDRFreak, except for PIU.

Section Four:
I'm pretty new at it, but I'm off Normal mode now pretty much. I can do up to 9s, and a couple 10s. I suck at Freestyle Mode, because I'm not used to the spins acrossed both modes. Any tips for getting better on freestyle mode (note, I can only do this at the Arcade that is two hours away from me, because I only have one home mat.)? Getting better at Hard/Crazy?

Section Five:
Is there a website or a place where I can get the EXACT same type of PIU soft pad as what came with EXCEED for PS2?

-----------------

Yeah, this addiction came from playing PIU: ZERO in the Fort all day from 3 to 11 on Saturday. I owned it before, but ZERO showed me how fun it truely was and how much I was abusing the fact I owned the game.

So Ho, or any other avid pump player, answering my questions would be greatly appriciated

- dj Xayro

Sec. 1:
I must say that playing PIU greatly lowered my already sucky PA in Didder. With that said, it could also improve your skill by improving your stamina. I guess it just depends on the player.

Sec. 2:
Play as many of the Crazy songs as you can since that is what most tournies will use. As far as difficulty number, just work your way up from where you stand now. Do start on the Freestyle songs too because they will help you if you ever decide to start playing the Nightmare songs.

Sec. 3:
http://www.ph-online.net
http://www.pumpcore.com

Sec. 4:
Like I said in Sec. 2, work your way up from the bottom. Learn the basic turns in the easier songs and then challenge yourself in something a little bit harder. Start with songs like Fiesta on Crazy and Power of Dream on Hard. A song that really helped me was Banya Classical Remix on Hard. As much as I dislike the song now, Hate was the first Freestyle chart I learned. Find ones that are rated a 3 or 4 and work your way up from there. If there is an Exceed or Exceed 2 machine around, give Koul a try.

Sec. 5:
http://mymybox.com/piuspad2.html

1. Depends. My PA certainly isn't any better than it was when I was playing DDR regularly, and may be a little bit worse. I used to routinely SDG 8s and easy 9s on DDR, and now I'm back up in the 20s again. However, it also will build your stamina and speed ability. Pump is what worked me up to being able to pass PSMO (which I finally did last evening). The timing windows are bigger, which would represent the general different gameplay styles: DDR players (and most ITG players, it seems) tend to focus on accuracy and timing, while Pump players tend to play more for outright speed and stamina challenge. I should also point out that I haven't really been playing DDR at all, so that alone may explain the worsening of my PA. I was never an excellent PA'er in the first place as I tended to play DDR like most people play Pump: find the hardest song that I can pass.

2. Well, I normally hate to get into a discussion like this, so I'll just say that most "casual" players seem to top out at level 11-12 crazies (which is the low end of crazy). As far as good, it's all relative, of course, but there exist people who are able to S Dignity Nightmare without touching the bar... These people are also probably actually robots, not human...

3. Pump Haven seems popular. Bemanistyle also has a number of pump players.

4. Play it, a bunch. Don't neglect the lower level difficulties in Freestyle like I did - you have to learn the turns before you can handle the speed that Nightmare will throw at you. As for CZ, again, play, a bunch. Play a good variety of songs that encompass the various aspects of pump gameplay: speed, stamina, turns, drills, hands, holds

5. No clue. People have argued that the Korean pads are better, though. MyMyBox also has a metal pad out, or you can use Cobalt Fluxes with a little coercion if you already have those (note that the panels are not correctly sized, but neither are the sensors on the Exceed SE home mats).

I think it's funny that you called on me specifically and got answered by the two people I would have suggested you ask.

I do have a few thoughts that I can share though...

#1
You will probably struggle a bit at whichever game you learn second. It does take a little bit of effort to adjust to the opposite location of the panels between the two games. I know I stomped metal more than a few times when I first started playing PIU regularly. Eventually you just get used to it and it just becomes another skill like when you learned the first game.

One night MonMotha and I alternated between DDR and PIU for each song. We'd play a song on one game and then immediately switch machines for the next song. Neither of our heads exploded and we played both games fine.

The timing windows are definitely much looser in PIU, so it could affect your PA in DDR. PIU seems to be far more focused on pass/fail rather than precision. The extremely difficult stuff in PIU is much more difficult than the hardest stuff in DDR and it's expected that you will rely on a certain amount of "slop" to be able to pass. I don't really know any PIU players that count S grades or SDGs or anything like that.

The patterns and play style between the two games are pretty different, so I don't know that either one will directly help you play the other. However, what MonMotha said about building stamina is quite true. PIU has songs that make DDR's "stamina busters" seem like a walk on the beach with your girlfriend. Wait...that could get your heart going, too....a walk on the beach by yourself.

I would say that it's certainly possible to be equally good at both games. TaQa is incredible at DDR and was able to gain a massive amount of PIU skill in a relatively short time last summer...though I don't think he's kept up with it (PIU).

Personally, I just started playing DDR semi-regularly again after playing Pump almost exclusively for the past year. My PA has never been very good, but it actually seems better now. Go figure.

#2
Passing songs on CZ or NM seems to be considered good on PIU. Passing with stage break on, even better. When comparing two people who can both pass a particular song, letter grade seems to be the next differentiator. After that, probably fewer misses.

Freestyle is awesome! I find freestyling PIU seems more fluid and natural than DDR.

#3
Pump Haven is the only one I'm at all familiar with, but I don't really frequent it.

#4
Flakk is right on saying to work your way up from the bottom. The biggest mistake I see people make is believing that since they can pass 9s and 10s on DDR that they should start there in PIU. They are different games with different skills. If you're a DDR player, you may not want to start at level 1, but 2s and 3s might be appropriate for at least a song or two just to get used to the different stage layout.

As for Freestyle, it just takes practice. I don't think there is any real trick to it. It seemed like a more difficult transition for me (DDR > PIU singles vs. DDR > PIU doubles), but with practice I'm very comfortable with it now.

#5
Flakk already answered. I didn't even know those were out there by themselves...good to know!

XeroCi wrote: Section One:
Will playing PIU alot lower your playing ability at DDR? Will it help it?
Is it easily possible to be equally good at both games?

Took me a bit, but played a few rounds of Supernova today, SDG'ed a bunch of Expert songs, even AAA'ed one of them. So not necessarily.

Section Two:
What is considered good on PIU? Playing Crazy? What difficulty number? (Not Counting freestyling as a "good option", even though thats really fun on PIU.)

"good" is a relative term. What do you consider "good" on DDR? Being able to pass 10 footers? Being able to AAA songs? Be as "good" as you want to be on your terms, not others. Looking at others may end up discouraging you.

I always think of myself as a good player, not enough to brag, but enough to hold my own, but there's always room for improvement. That way I can always set goals for myself and keep my interest in the game.

Section Three:
I've googled and such, but is there a website where all the PIU players hang out? I'd like to find the biggest fanbase site, kinda like DDRFreak, except for PIU.

Pumpcore.com (although I think some of the regulars there are real pricks, so I avoid the site), pump-haven (forgot the URL, but it's rather active and more accepting of n00bs, I'd recommend), and Bemanistyle (PIU forum isn't HUGE, but it's quite active now since 7.0). Most of the other sites are based in S. America.

Section Four:
I'm pretty new at it, but I'm off Normal mode now pretty much. I can do up to 9s, and a couple 10s. I suck at Freestyle Mode, because I'm not used to the spins acrossed both modes. Any tips for getting better on freestyle mode (note, I can only do this at the Arcade that is two hours away from me, because I only have one home mat.)? Getting better at Hard/Crazy?

I say get used to HD/CZ mode first. Be able to pass songs with complex patterns without problems and learn footing patterns. Then worry about FS/NM songs. Start easy with FS also, don't rush into level 6+ songs.

Section Five:
Is there a website or a place where I can get the EXACT same type of PIU soft pad as what came with EXCEED for PS2?

MadCatz makes the home pads for the U.S. Exceed. Try eBay?

MadCatz makes those incredbly durable and awesome pads?
MadCatz usually makes shit.

Thanks everyone for answering my questions. I'm trying to get better.
We just got a PIU machine in Kokomo.
But it sucks really bad. Sensors are terrible and it costs too much... and its a Korean Perfect Collection and Speed mods don't seem to work.

But at least I have EXCEED for home.

XeroCi wrote: MadCatz usually makes shit.

QFTQFTQFT.

I once bought a PS2 controller from them, no joke, it stopped working COMPLETELY within 20 minutes of playing.

I was also worried when I heard MadCatz was connected to the Exceed SE (US) release. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The pad is actually pretty darn good.

Have you ever played on MadCatz DDR pads?
They die in about a week, and they crumple up to the size of a piece of paper the second you step on them. They are horrid. MadCatz has never mad good products, and if they really made the ones that came with PS2 Exceed (which for some reason, you'd think Andamiro would of made them.)

Boycott MadCatz DDR pads, even though no one wants to buy them anyway.

Its UNBELIEVABLE they made those PIU pads.
Those are the best quality soft pads I've ever played on.

There's a PIU machine in Kokomo? Where? Last I heard, they didn't really have an arcade... don't tell me it's at the Raceway (that's where the tournament was, right?).

I have a feeling that MadCatz is just a distributor and not a manufacturer. So maybe they just wised up and started getting better quality stuff to slap their name on.

(Talking out of my butt here. I don't know anything about MadCatz for sure other than I generally agree that their DDR pads were crap and their name is attached to the Exceed SE pads.)

Ho wrote: Talking out of my butt here.

Usually Hos that can talk out of their butts are more expensive...is this post costing me?

As I typed that, I had a feeling someone was going to quote me on it.





And yes, this post is costing you...at least 3-4 IQ points.

Ho wrote:And yes, this post is costing you...at least 3-4 IQ points.

That was almost good enough to make me start a sig.

I'm always happy to provide the IndyDDR community with little nuggets for its amusement.