ZIv War Games 2011

If we could please carry over the total votes, that way it's more organized.

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To everyone saying the sync on my simfile is off: Can I please know what themes/version you are using?
I ask this because I used a clean install of Stepmania for this contest with no themes in hopes of avoiding syncing issues, but apparently the syncing issue is still popping up. I find this syncing issue odd because the sync on my version of Stepmania is perfectly fine.
Thanks in advance.

Will get to voting later on in the week after I've had some time to play all the files. For now midterms are getting in the way.

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I'm using SM 3.9, CyberiaStyle 6 theme, and felt that your SigSig remix simfile was off.
Probably the fact that you don't find it offsync it has to do with your hardware somehow.

I'll get my votes later on the week as well, but for now I have to thank everyone who has voted for my file

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I used StepMania 3.9, DDR X2 CS theme and it was way off. It was also off with the default theme and pop☆candy 2.
Global offset is 0.0.

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CyberiaStyle 6 has a changed assist tick noise. In fact the sound file of the tick is earlier then the default Stepmania 3.9 theme. Every time I get a new CyberiaStyle theme, I replace the assist tick with the 3.9 default one. As for the simfile I have yet to get around to it, been busy with crap.

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I resolve to rate and review everything I play in this contest. My highly technical scoring mechanism is simply how much fun I had playing your file. I am capable of having fun and failing a song at the same time. I played all Single/Expert and Single/Challenge charts (For better or worse). If I have time I'll go back and review any Doubles charts.

Week 1:
+5 Radioactive:
We do not have enough 3/4 measured songs in DDR. Your streams are laid out perfectly.

+4 redraw lots:
The creative Freeze Arrows, the slowdowns and cuteness overload makes this song extremely lovable.

+3 Bamboo on Bamboo:
I hate you too, WinDEU. ^_^

+2 Arksphere:
I would have loved an Expert chart completely without Freeze Arrows, this reminded me of some of those old beatmania crossovers. Excellent song choice and very appropriate steps.

+1 Raison d'etre ~Kousa suru shukumai~:
The steps started out kinda rocky but got better as time went on. The speed changes set this one apart from the average DoLL/Xepher clone.

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Honors What The Hell 61 Degrees Mix:
I played this understanding that the chart is likely incomplete due to personal issues. I really wanted this to be harder, but was still a lot of fun. Definitely could use a Challenge chart though. I would love to play a polished version of this. Also that background just cracks me up.

Honors Mermaid Girl -Akiba Koubou MIX-:
Nice, dense (though rather straight-forward) chart. Good song that I wouldn't be surprised to find on a real DDR machine.

Honors SigSig -Dark Side Remix-:
About a half-beat offsync. Regardless, the chart is excellent. It feels extremely tuned and refined.

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Elisha:
Great song and stepchart. It would have been a lot better without all the GrooveStat-esque stops and beat changes.

Bubble Pop:
A perfect song and chart mix marred by 16th that simply did not follow the synth properly during the pleasantly unexpected Dubstep section. Through the whole J-pop routine I was grinning from ear to ear. This song exemplifies what DDR is all about.

BEAUTIFUL LAIR:
It's hard to make a slow R&B song work in DDR, but you pulled it off nicely. Very mischievous use of 16th.

Last Burning:
The chart was kinda all over the place and didn't really settle on a style or a beat to follow, but it was interesting to play.

Silhoette of my Mind:
Too many jumps, too many drills, too many Freeze Arrows (Too many Freeze jumps), but... You had the right idea at the beginning of the song and the music itself is hauntingly beautiful. I see what this could be and would love to play a polished version of this file.

Umbrella (Lindbergh Palace Remix):
Offsync... that or the BPM started drifting (Some arrows were as much as a half-beat off towards the end). Even so, a safe, straight-foward stepchart that was fun to play, though some of the 16th didn't match the music. I had not heard this particular remix before and it's better than I was expecting.

MASTURI:
I don't dig a SO DEEP-style Expert charts in a song that slow and low key. But you went one step further with a marginally harder Challenge chart. Which by the way is not a 10. Good music though.

SHOUJO IN ~VIRGIN IN~:
This is really one of the worst songs I've ever heard in my life. The steps go with the... "audio" pretty well at least.

redraw lots - 21
Halfway Around The World (Allmighty Definitive Mix) - 8
Elisha - 7
Last Burning - 6
Mermaid Girl -Akiba Koubou MIX- - 6
Raison d'etre ~Kousa suru shukumai~ - 6
Radioactive - 5
Bamboo on Bamboo - 4
prompt - 4
Umbrella (Lindbergh Palace Remix) - 3
Arksphere - 2
BEAUTIFUL LIAR - 1
SigSig -Dark Side Remix- - 1
What The Hell 61 Degrees Mix - 1

My teammates:

prompt:
Wow, this song sounds like it belongs in pop'n music more than IIDX. I love the Expert chart because you made it fast and hard without going over the top. I love the Challenge chart even more because you made it harder... and still didn't go over the top.

Halfway Around The World (Allmighty Definitive Mix):
This would have been the one of the best song of the week if it weren't for that fade-out! Everything else about this file is absolute perfection.

KISS ONE MORE TIME:
A nice, off the beaten path song choice and an excellent chart that matches the song's relaxing atmosphere.

It's a bug with certain versions of Stepmania playing hardware-encoded MP3 files at the wrong playback speed. Someone mentioned this the last time I cut a song, and the fix was simply to convert to OGG, so that playback would be consistant throughout all the versions of Stepmania.

I forgot to tell you and Meseki to re-encode the files, before uploading them :{

+5 prompt
+4 redraw lots
+3 Raison d'etre -Kousa suru shukumei-
+2 Matsuri
+1 BEAUTIFUL LIAR

Honorable Mentions: Mermaid girl -Akiba Koubou MIX-, Radioactive, Elisha, Halfway Around the World (Almighty Definitive Mix)

Totals:
redraw lots - 25
prompt - 9
Raison d'etre ~Kousa suru shukumai~ - 9
Halfway Around The World (Allmighty Definitive Mix) - 8
Elisha - 7
Last Burning - 6
Mermaid Girl -Akiba Koubou MIX- - 6
Radioactive - 5
Bamboo on Bamboo - 4
Umbrella (Lindbergh Palace Remix) - 3
Arksphere - 2
BEAUTIFUL LIAR - 2
Matsuri - 2
SigSig -Dark Side Remix- - 1
What The Hell 61 Degrees Mix - 1

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[+5] - Elisha
[+4] - What The Hell (61 Degrees Mix)
[+3] - Bamboo on Bamboo
[+2] - Arksphere
[+1] - Raison d'etre ~Kousa suru shukumai~

redraw lots - 25
Elisha - 12
Raison d'etre ~Kousa suru shukumai~ - 10
prompt - 9
Halfway Around The World (Allmighty Definitive Mix) - 8
Bamboo on Bamboo - 7
Last Burning - 6
Mermaid Girl -Akiba Koubou MIX- - 6
Radioactive - 5
What The Hell 61 Degrees Mix - 5
Arksphere - 4
Umbrella (Lindbergh Palace Remix) - 3
BEAUTIFUL LIAR - 2
Matsuri - 2
SigSig -Dark Side Remix- - 1

...what? I'm not perfect at syncing but I know the song wasn't THAT off, or else I would've been able to tell o.O. I just listened to the ending now with assist tick on and it sounded fine.

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What theme do you use? I've heard some things about certain themes having offsync assist ticks.

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I'm currently using the default theme o.O. I really don't think it's me and I know the tempo didn't drift o.O

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Then I don't know what to tell you. I'll check out your file this weekend and see what I can say about it

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I threw the song into DDReam Studio and got an offset of 0.128 and a BPM of 124 flat. Playing the song with those numbers made it perfect for me. All but one of the 16th lined up and the ending was right on cue.

StepMania 3.9 final, default theme.

Still, my song wasn't off enough to make THAT much of a difference imo, but whatever. I'll do a more accurate sync next time.

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It's no problem. Also your graphics are improving.

Thanks . I plan on improving them further this time (finally figured out how to use GIMP lol).

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HAPPY HARDCORE
Intensive Care Unit
renard feat. FIAB

SP 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10

Ok, BEAUTIFUL LIAR was your warm-up; now we get to the fun stuff! Here's my sim of Intensive Care Unit. Don't get tripped up once you get to the 10!

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Ok, here's my review.

Arksphere - I enjoyed this sim, and the steps had a great sense of switching rhythms, which made the sim very chaotic but also very fun!

Bamboo on Bamboo - Incredibly enjoyable sim, although it felt a leeeetle bit offsync after the amazing gimmick section that I love incredibly as do my friends. Taro, I commend you for making your sims as entertaining to watch as they are to play!

Bubble Pop - This. Song. Is. Never. Gonna. Leave. My. Head. While the first section of the song was amazingly fun, the second dubstep section just seemed to lose all sense of rhythm. It was very disconcerting and that section was, unfortunately, not very much fun to play

Elisha - Something about this simfile just screamed "intense." It was the combination of the well-placed stops that I missed completely the first time, yet I caught the second, and the slow BPM for a rather instense section of the song. The elements worked well to create a dynamic, exciting experience.

Halfway Around The World (Almighty Definitive Mix) - I don't really have much to say here: it was a joy to play, and the patterns made sense in context of the song. The only problem I had with this file was the fade-out at the end. I'm not saying I never use them, but I don't like to, and I feel that they mar the file as a whole.

HARD TO SAY I'M SORRY - I did have one major problem with this stepchart, and that was how many jacks were in it. When playing it on our machine, this song actually was a little painful on the legs. The chart rhythms were spot on, but the step placement could have been a little better.

♡KISS♡ ONE MORE TIME - The song was damn catchy and the steps were fun and lots of spins! Woo! There were a couple step placements that felt a little weird when playing, like I didn't know when to turn, but nothing major to be said here. Good job!

Last Burning - Very interesting chart. It felt a touch on the easy side for an 8, but fun nonetheless. It did seem to play a little offsync on the machine when we tried it though.

Mermaid girl -Akiba Koubou MIX- - So much fun!! I have a soft spot for Eurobeat charts, and this one was just the right level of difficulty to be challenging yet immensely enjoyable at the same time!

prompt - This was a very cool song to pick and the chart flowed well... after I adjusted the sync. It was just a little late on the machine and on my compy, so something may have gotten messed up? Anyways, after the sync was fixed, it was very very fun to play! I do think there were a couple more rhythms that you could have explored within the song.

Radioactive - I really like the twelfth action occuring in this song. The rhythms changed up just enough to keep from getting repetitive, but they remained familiar throughout the song! Also, that song is catchy as hell.

redraw lots - Oh my god, you almost got points just for the song. redraw lots is fuckin' boss. Anyways, knowing the song, I knew this would be a difficult file to sync, and you mastered it. All of the BPM changes were handled beautifully, and the myriad of jumps made it feel fast, fun, and frantic!

SHOUNEN IN ~VIRGIN IN~ - Well... that was interesting. It was a very bizarre song but would work for a simfile. The chart felt a little unstructured, however, which, when I take the song into account, may have been your intention. Just not my cup of simfile I guess.

SigSig -Dark Side Remix- - yeah... it was incredibly offsync. Once it was onsync though the chart was good.

Umbrella (Linbergh Palace Remix) - I think the BPM was drifting while I was playing the song. However, I loved the rhythms that were present during the chorus. Those spins were so much fun to play.

What the Hell (61 Degrees Mix) - Wow the simfile had lots of potential! I know it's likely to be unpolished but you still did a great job on it anyways! IOnly a couple bits in the middle felt like they needed to be tweaked.

And now for mah teammates...

MATSURI - That song was gorgeous, and the stepwork was very well done as well, given that the song had no clear-defined four-on-the-floor beat like most stepped songs. Also, I think I may have just found some new favorite music. >.>

Raison d'etre ~Kousa suru shukumei~ - Those speed changes were genius. Also, I enjoyed how each "section" of the song had it's own unique step patterns to give them character and separate them from each other. It gave the song progression, and allowed that amazing climax to stand out even more.

Silhoette of My Mind - There were a couple things needed to be fixed with this file. There were a lot of jumps, and those sixteenth streams really came out of nowhere sometimes and were difficult to play. Also, a couple of the notes weren't appearing on a beat given in the song; a couple of the sixteenth notes feel victim to this. Also, if you need help with graphics, let me know and I will be happy to provide some. ^^

In the end:

Bamboo on Bamboo +5
redraw lots +4
Mermaid girl -Akiba Koubou MIX- +3
Arksphere +2
Elisha +1

redraw lots - 29
Elisha - 13
Bamboo on Bamboo - 12
Raison d'etre ~Kousa suru shukumai~ - 10
prompt - 9
Mermaid Girl -Akiba Koubou MIX- - 9
Halfway Around The World (Allmighty Definitive Mix) - 8
Last Burning - 6
Radioactive - 5
What The Hell 61 Degrees Mix - 5
Arksphere - 6
Umbrella (Lindbergh Palace Remix) - 3
BEAUTIFUL LIAR - 2
Matsuri - 2
SigSig -Dark Side Remix- - 1

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[DRUM'N'BASS]
Love Magic // D.J.SWAN
170 BPM

:1 :4 :7 :7

No freezes, odd ratings, it's a retro feast! Incidentally it really has been a while since I've seen a song with the same rating on Difficult and Expert, so I made one.

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Two 7s huh? I'll have to play your Difficult chart then.