Do people care about basic charts for simfiles?

I apologize if this has been asked before. I did some searching and couldn't find anything. I'm about to start making simfiles again and I was wondering if it matters to people whether a chart has basic/medium steps before I start working on a pack.

In my opinion they do, but it's all about audience. If you're making simfiles for people of all skill levels, then including full difficulties is a good way to include them and their abilities. If you want to make much harder charts starting at 10 and up, then the easier difficulties might not be as necessary, although some players may still wish to have them.

So think about who you're making them for, and make a decision accordingly. Ziv has a pretty good representation of both camps, I think, so chart what you think is appropriate.

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It was proven during ZIv's Summer Contest 2011 that people don't pay attention to lower difficulties (Daiz literally BS'ed his basic/difficult charts for his files and no one noticed), but I feel that they make simfiles feel more complete, so... in the end it's your decision. I'd recommend doing at least Basic and Difficult in addition to Expert/Challenge.

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no

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I like to have all available difficulties & options...But that's just me.//

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I think they do because I've had many cases where I'll show off my simfiles and someone their will be a player and he/she is glad that I made charts that lower level players can play. Also I think it just makes the simfile look more complete then say only having one chart. I can't stand it when I see a song I really like on an ITG machine and it only has a 13 foot Expert chart to it.

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^ Basically why I also write full difficulties.

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They probably only matter if you intend on putting them on an r21/r23/SM cab if you ask me. Not so much for if your simfile's being submitted for a contest. Unless of course, you decide to do what Konami does with its boss songs and make ludicrous beginner/basic charts.

Pretty much this, yes. I think it gives the simfile a more "complete" look.

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Realistically, there are 2 audiences for a simfile :

1) People who play DDR so much that they want to consume as much of it as possible, and so download and play a large number of simfiles.

2) People who are playing your song specifically because of the song choice, either on a Stepmania cabinet, or while browsing a simfile repositary.

For people in Group 2, your basic steps will probably get played, but you'll never hear about it, because the only time people will ever talk about a simfile only is to either praise or critique the charts. People in Group 1 also care about the fact that you include Basic and Trick charts, because they make a file look complete. Those charts might never get played, but if you don't include them, your song is much, much less likely to get played, for the same reason a song without a banner is less likely to get played.

Besides making a simfile look complete, that's about it for me. Maybe someone would want to go back and see what the basic stepcharts look like for certain songs but still. It's really all about expert and challenge pretty much.

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I like to see the progression of each chart. I have seen some step charts from users where they will make the "highest difficulty" and then strip it away. They won't even change the pattern of the steps. People will rant about how a shock arrow chart from Konami which is a stripped down chart but will do the same to and .

I could be wrong, feel free to correct, but a lot of times, people just focus on and , since those get played most often and have the most work put into them (hell, a good amount of simfiles only have those difficulties). will get played rarely, and honestly I don't know that many people even look at charts. Personally, I like to see simfiles have all the difficulties (optional chart), it's neat to see the progression in difficulty while still giving each chart its own unique steps that flow and clearly had time put into them.

In short, I care about the lower difficulties, because at times they can be the most creative and fun charts.

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It's useless to me.
I end up deleting them.

No one I know plays them.

Complete? Only needs a or .

I find it better and more complete when there's a and chart (and , but I know that some won't bother with that). If I like a simfile enough, I may play more than and . Also, when I'm playing on the pad, I may play a lower difficulty if I'm tired and/or don't feel like playing a 9 or higher.

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I think having a full range of difficulties adds a sense of authenticity if that makes any sense.

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The way I see it, and cater to two completely different play styles, the first often being for newer players or freestylers and the second for expert score attackers. [Although, I have rarely seen any simfiles that don't include a or chart.] So if I only wanted to attract one group of players for a certain song/pack, then I wouldn't bother making charts that don't appeal to that group. Otherwise, I would include all difficulties to attract as many people as possible.

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Sometimes I play and difficulties, usually only when and are keyboard charts. Or on any boss-level songs.

Though to be honest, when I'm stepping a song I put almost no effort into the charts. The last song I stepped I made the expert chart first and then just kept removing and changing arrows. Next time I'll try to put more work into the steps.

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Not sure if this helps, but recently, I've always made the chart first and then worked my way up. It takes a little more time and effort, but it gives me a fresh start to come up with new steps so I don't have to think about changing or adding arrows to a previous one.

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