What does the DDR community need?

I've been really wanted to take on some kind of DDR related project. Preferably programming related, but I'm up for anything at this point. What has been missing for the DDR community that you guys would like to see? A complete series song ranking (hardest to easiest)? Could you give me some ideas on what would be fun and useful to see?

Console mix scoring databases, maybe? ^.^'

I'm sure a LOT of us have a LOT of home versions, it'd be a shame to let them not count towards something. Plus it's considerably... uh "less" expensive than updating arcade scores. Especially during these trying times.
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Perhaps a randomizable "Master Mode" application which basically randomly generates between 1-4 songs from your mix, and a modifier condition; you proceed by entering the score you get after each stage; or you can fail/skip them. It may be a fun alternative to random/roulette during long-term console play. I would recommend making such an application d/l'able, with each mix's mini-banners and databases available externally (thus, updating for new mixes would be as simple as patching in a new mix subfolder to the already-existing application).

Detailed high scores for each song can be viewable as well, for uploading/comparing online between "friends," so online leaderboards can be vs. friends only, or localized/nationalized/globalized.

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I've thought about doing some sort of "super" score tracker that goes much more in depth than anything available right now that would allow you enter scores for the same song for different mixes, home versions, friend comparisons, generated challenges, dynamic mix grade assignment (i.e. if you get 13 greats on 5.1.1, viewing it under Extreme would list you having an AA but under Supernova you would have only an A), super localized leader boards (going down to state, city and actual arcade location), and just all kinds of crazy fun stuff.

Make stepmania work better with huge simfile collections.
Improve support for people with ridiculously large (6000+, (I have 11K, I think) simfile collections.
I realize we're a minority, but here are a few things I'd like to see:
1. Multi-level heirarchy for loading and sorting songs.
When you have over 300 folders, it takes a while to scroll to the right one. So being able to have groups of folders would help a lot. This could also be used to in part address #3.
2. Finer granularity on alphabetical sortings.
If there are more than 200 songs that stat with a letter, that group should be split in half. And have it go finer than that if necessary to keep a group size under 200.
3. Something to shorten the load time for returning to song select. For me, the difference between having 3000 songs loaded and 6000 songs loaded means an additional 15 seconds waiting for song selection to come back after hitting the button to continue.
4. Save scores for songs that aren't loaded. Right now, I change the "AdditionalSongFolders" line based on my mood to control what songs are actually loaded. The problem is, whenever I take an entry off of that, I lose all the scores for songs under that entry.
5. "WARNING: Unmatched 3 in "3030"". That's nice, what simfile was that in? I realize about 2 people actually see/read the errors printed to the terminal, but for those 2 people, it could mean actually fixing the problem with the simfile.

Yeah, tall order there, especially 1 and 3, because they would probably affect the basic structure of the code, but they'd be really nice to have.
I realize this is the wrong place to post this, but I don't feel like wandering around the forums trying to find the right place, since the last time I did it got ignored.

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1. That's just a matter of how YOU manage your folders. For example, having a "Japanese PS2 DDR Extreme" folder specifically for 4 songs will do that, you know. You can also trim out songs that you know you'll ignore forever.

My "DDR Extreme" folder, for instance, also contains the songs from US Extreme, JP-console Extreme, Extreme 2, Dancing Stage Fusion, and Dancing Stage Max. Because really, they all fit together and balance out well, and the console tracklists partly correspond to arcade Extreme as well. Likewise, I would just add the DS Unleashed songs to the DDR Ultramix ones. I also combine similar fanmixes; for instance, "Dancing Wipeout" = DW1 through DW3.

Another suggestion includes batching closely related mixes; like 1st-3rd Mix, 4th/PLUS/5th/SOLO, DDRMAX + DDRMAX 2 (as "DDRMAX"), etc.

2. What if you have 500 songs that are ALL 140 bpm, and you go to sort it that way? o.O At 3000 songs, I'm sure you do.

3. Yeah. That's called "Group Select." You might try enabling it, and watch your loading times melt away (when choosing something besides "All Music"). It's a little restricting, but with the proper restructuring (IE: See #1), it's not really so bad.

4. Just try #3. If that doesn't work, install a second instance of SM, one for offical files, and one for fan files, for example. I used to do that with DWI on my older computer.

5. I have no clue what to tell you there. ^.^' I don't even know what file you're talking about, to be honest!

ANOTHER IDEA!

Rework the autogen code so that 6-panel mode, where possible, is based off of Doubles charts, and in sort-of sensible variations.

I've had a few ideas how this could work, so far.

-P1's Up Left and Down, P2's Up Right and Down just become Up/Sides/Down, and the middle panels (1P right, 2P left) become the diagonals.

-P1's chart corresponds to (Up-Left) (Up) (Down) (Right) where P2's chart corresponds to (Left) (Down) (Up) (Up-Right), or vice versa. In fact, switching them (to encourage more diagonal interaction) is probably the better idea, there.

-Middle arrows, again, correspond to diagonals. P1's Up/Down correspond with Up and (Left or Right), P2's correspond with Up again, and (the other Left or Right). Both of the "outer" arrows (P1 Left, P2 Right) both correspond to down, again, the most "remote" of the arrows.

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1. Okay, I actually only have 238 folders when I load up currently. It'd be a bit over 600 if I loaded everything. Combining different DDR folders that are actually for the same mix would only eliminate 12 folders. A lot of it is because I group custom files by step artist or pack, depending on how the artist releases their files. I'm a packrat, I don't throw away simfiles. I haven't even thrown away the shit I got from FFR, and that stuff is really terrible.

2. True, finer granularity in BPM sorting would also be nice, but I don't use that often.

3. I usually do use "Group Select" or Group Sort. The load times I mentioned are with that as the default and most used sorting.

4. SM4 saves scores and reads preferences to a single directory. I'd have to reconfigure it a bit, and copy my preferences file to do that. Have you even considered that maybe I want to play some DDR officials, then a couple customs, then some ITG officials, then a few more customs? All without restarting SM in between?

5. Your answer to this one pretty much sums up all your "answers". You have no clue what you're talking about, because you simply don't have a sizable collection.
It's an error that SM puts out when reading a malformed sm file. Most users won't even see it, because SM prints it to standard out, which is just thrown away on Windows. But on Linux, if you run SM from a terminal, all those errors are visible in the terminal.

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You're right. I only have 1500 files, and ~500 courses. But considering they're in less than 25 folders, as opposed to your nearly-ten-times-as-many, there might just be a little something to the idea, here. Consider:

(DDR 3rd Mix)
1st Mix (+Internet Ranking, if you keep "TRIP MACHINE" in a group of it's own)
2nd Mix
2nd Mix Link Version
3rd Mix
3rd Mix Korea v.1
3rd Mix Korea v.2
3rd Mix PLUS

You just dropped your folder count by 6-7, by that one group ALONE.

(DDR 5th Mix)
DDR Solo Bass
DDR Solo 2000
4th Mix
4th Mix PLUS
5th Mix
DDR Party Collection
(alternatively, you can stick 3rd Mix PLUS and/or Korea v.1 here, instead; since both correspond with Arcade 4th Mix)

There goes another 4-7 groups, right there.

(DDRMAX series)
DDRMAX
DDRMAX PS2/Japan
DDRMAX PS2/USA
Dancing Stage EuroMix 2
Dancing Stage Fever
DDRMAX 2
DDRMAX 2 PS2/USA
DDRMAX 2 PS2/Japan
Dancing Stage Megamix
(DDR X's X-Specials)

See what that there does? o.o

(DWI Extreme S-series v.1)
DWI Extreme S-1
DWI Extreme S-2
DWI Extreme S-3
DWI Extreme S-4
DWI Extreme S-5

Even most series of fanmixes work better in combinations. In case you follow it, DWI Extreme/Glistening to Infinity series spans about 40 releases/folders ALL ON IT'S OWN.

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Don't forget this :

DanceDanceRevolution club version

We need more tambourines. That's it.

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SM: I'm thinking of keeping my song count at around 500 since I end up ignoring a lot of songs and I need the free space on my laptop. This will include periodically weeding out the simfiles sitting on the Player's Worst list and cycling in new ones (exception for my originals, which I would be stupid to delete). I also group my folders, but not to the extreme Nightime suggested.

DDR: More Universe crossovers to AC, no AC equivalent CS game until Konami has an AC game ready for summer of whatever year so we don't keep falling behind on songs, better AC service in the states, more 13s and up as opposed to just bulking up the 9 and 10 selection, more Challenge charts and realistic shock arrow use if they're serious about it.

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Once again, you assume that I am incapable of thinking of the blinding obvious solution you mention. Did it not occur to you that I glanced over the different folders I have, and did an estimate of how many I could eliminate? Where do you think I got the number when I said that combining different folders for the same mix would only eliminate 12 or so?

If a custom artist has released more than one pack, I need to know which pack it came from, in case someone asks me where I got it. That way, I can tell them where to go. So I don't combine different packs by the same artist.

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Ok this thread totally got derailed. It went from me asking what the community needs and trying to find something I could give it into what people want in DDR games, how to sort their stepmania files and just all kinds of dumb. Pfft.

I was actually suggesting things to add to Stepmania, which would be coding, which is what you asked for.
Just ignore Nighttime's posts, because he has terrible reading comprehension skills.

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They should of added a Pause menu when you're playing a DDR Song. What happened if someone is calling you in the middle of the song?

I've had this happen so many times...

...but i don't think this feature will be put on any future DDR titles =/

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I just answer my phone

"Hellooo?"
"Um, what's that noise in the background?"
"Oh, I'm jumping around on a dance pad."
"That's nice...."
"I'll call you back in a minute."

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I think Wii and XBox 360 crossovers would make the series more intriguing to more audiences. I have a lot of friends who only play the Universe series, so mixing in a few Universe songs wouldn't do much harm.

Also, BRING PARANOiA ~Respect~ TO THE NEXT US HOME VERSION!

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True...

but i don't have a house phone anymore (we cut off our home phone number to save some money...so we communicate through cell phones) and even the cell phones don't work with this issue...

...well, there is an alternate way:

Just play the song again and get a better score/pass it =P

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Lolz I was going to post something along the lines of that sentence.
But yeah, unless you're in the arcade (where there is bound to be a line, depending on where you are) just play it over.

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There are a lot of things in StepMania that will never be in a DDR title. I too would like a pause button, IIDX simulators have had that for ages now.

If this thread is about improving StepMania then I have a few things to say:

Quad (And Triple) support. <-- The best excluded feature since 2005.
Unison and 4thMIX Battle support.
The ability to specify different BPMs/rate changes/stops for the same song on different charts ala BMS/BMA files.
Gapless transition option for songs in a course file (mix CD songs that seamlessly go from one to the next during play just as they would on the CD).
Support for the dancers and stages featured in SuperNOVA and on.
Proper Unicode support.

The list for StepMania is a mile long. Ever since ITG development has slacked badly. The last 4.0 CVS was released almost a year and a half ago. There's rumor that they're working on a new build and that a completely redesigned theme is the reason it's taking so long but who knows.