Thursday 10 March 2022

DDR, the 8th year


The above picture (as a 7th credit play in a non-stop run) best describes my current DDR progress.

I never expected myself to pass Endymion again...not after 2020 where I almost dropped playing for 2 whole years (and instead spent time clearing Ring Fit), but I did it a few days ago and in a relatively easy fashion somehow. The question is how?

There are some clearly dropping metrics when you don't play for a long time. You become worse in reading hyper speed charts: in my case BPM 450-500 boost ~= BPM 680-750 normal is now hard for me. Instead I have to resort back to BPM 400-460  boost. Another problem arises is the difficulty in reading densely packed charts especially when you lowered the speed multiplier. Songs like A4A or Cosy Catastrophe could be harder. The last problem is you need to restraint yourself from wasting stamina on easier sections...not a big problem but annoying. Having your stamina wasted means that you won't be able to play consecutive 17s or 18s at your 7th credit.

These problems aren't too hard to deal with, since this is your 8th year playing DDR anyway as long as you keep playing. But still, it is quite surprising that I can play top 17s and 18s without getting too tired after being afk for some time.

The reason behind is clear though: I got better in playing BPM 200+ songs with the OVER200 folder during the latest event. High & Low and Panic Holic are very good songs and charts that I am happy to play over and over again, and there are 6 more similar charts with BPM 200+ songs in the folder.

The common feature of these new charts is that they all contain long 1/2 steams with 1/4 triplets inserted every 2 or 4 beats. They are combo intensive: High & Low and Panic Holic are about 600 combos, ノープラン・デイズ is of 650 combos and Sword of Vengeance is of 707 combos! They are not plainly streams either - ノープラン・デイズ consists of crossover streams and PANIC HOLIC has some single tap streams.

In short these are fast, intensive but not too straightforward charts.

In the past we usually say BPM 180 is fast in DDR. Then we received more BPM ~190 charts like HyperTwist, Our Love, AI and POSSESSION (20th Anniversary Mix). With the most recent folder it is clear that bar is once again speeding up. And since I play those fast charts over and over again, the older fast charts now look easier. 東京神話, New Decade and Endymion are the best examples.

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Let us now take a step back and look at how charts within a MUG evolves over time. It is always a choice between speed and complexity, both of them with a limited inherited based on the design of the game. The speed limit of DDR is inheritably slower comparing to Taiko, a game that is played by hands. The complexity limit of pop'n on the other hand, is higher than iidx by having one or two more tracks. 

By saying limit it is the boundary where the song or the map  become absurd or inappropriate for the game. It is common to expect BPM 300 1/4 (or equivalently BPM 150 1/8 in Osu terms) in the hardest Taiko songs, but anything above BPM 220 1/4 is almost forbidden in DDR (except Lachyrma...). Similarly you see patterns in iidx that is not feasible in pop'n because players simply can't hit them (physically).

You don't make crazy maps at the very beginning, but you need to slowly increase the availability of mid-top difficulty maps as players start to get better. The key is to attract enough players and enter a stable state before the potential is fully exploited -- consider Beatstream as an example. A new map (Chernobog) was announced at its last KAC final (here is the video - start from 1:13:00). This map came with a new difficulty rating...and some extremely weird sliders. It made some noise but far not enough for the game to sustain. That slider was considered too absurd to play and not many were interested. Beatstream had no choice but to terminate its service and turn into Nostalgia. It was a good game, but it is not compatible with harder maps -- it's just a prettier and easier Reflec beat. It is still a good game though and should receive a mobile port.

Now for DDR the evolution at the frontline has always been very slow -- only about 25% lv 18 maps are DDR A or later (which is crazy as DDR A and later covered more than 25% of DDR's lifespan). On the other hand, maps around lv 12-15 are constantly evolving. We have been observing maps that should have been placed one level higher under older standards: take 腐れ外道とチョコレゐト (originally at lv 12 then to 13), Firestorm (hard lv13), スーパー戦湯ババンバーン (expert lv14) and Poppin' Soda (expert lv15) as examples. Although once again, these maps found themselves hard to fit in that level due to high BPM but not overly complicated patterns.

The phenomenon of not having well-rounded maps is even more severe for top tier maps. In fact, we haven't seen such maps for a long time. There are a few particularly gimmicky maps like Firestorm csp (16), Prey csp (18) and び csp (18), but you feel like they are made just for that gimmick instead of good maps in overall. One exception is perhaps 東京神話 esp (17). Is this what Konami thinks DDR should evolve into? When will we get new maps like Blew My Mind csp (18) or Trip machine evolution csp (18) again? 

A pass on a new lv 18 song is still a pass regardless of the quality of the chart and I am happy to keep the all clear lamp on the lv 18 folder. But a good chart will put a smile on your face and makes the twice a week routine of DDR practicing more enjoyable.

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Past DDR entries:

Tuesday 1 March 2022

02/03/2022: 凜冬烈火.續集

砲火連天,徹夜難眠。

沒錯,說的當然是全世界都在關注的烏克蘭。

我一直追著不同的即時消息跟Twitter上各種民眾拍下來的影片,就像2019年那會在香港一樣。

看著烏克蘭大媽罵俄兵快去當肥料,不就像香港大媽下樓罵黑警一樣嗎?
看著烏克蘭平民以血肉之軀塞住道路阻擋裝甲車,不就像香港人撐起黃雨傘擋警棍嗎?--喔不,至少俄兵裝甲車還知道不要碾到人。
看著蛇島守軍對俄艦說go fuck yourself,不就像理大裡的學生堅守到底嗎?

這裡不是要比誰更高尚。斯拉夫民族的戰鬥根性在此處顯得可貴,港豬的覺醒也非常難得。在2019年烏克蘭對香港的示威感同身受,到了2022香港人緊追俄烏局勢也十分正常。

所以這個世界會怎樣發展呢?

大家當初理性的覺得普京只會吃掉烏東那兩個省,頂多吃掉以河為界的烏東--結果他不但想吞掉整個烏克蘭,甚至想著進犯芬蘭或波蘭。這一刻研究他是瘋了還是覺得「人生太短 出手要更大~旁觀者不需理解」所以來放煙火已經不重要了,他的沙俄夢終究只是空中樓閣。俄羅斯本來就像燃料用盡的飛機一樣在滑行,機師卻還想俯衝以速度換操作性,卻沒想到沒燃料的飛機衝下去就拉不上來了。於是這台飛機從滑行變成以300節速度往下衝,直到機毀人亡。

俄軍戰力之低下令人跌破眼鏡。有沒有可能是他們保存實力打基輔或波蘭呢?但你說前線都是新人也就算了,俄軍這幾天的表現是全方位的垃圾:前線協調、後勤、指揮、情蒐等都是全方位地差勁。更好笑的是有人還用大縱深理論替俄軍緩頰,說第一波都是砲灰,第二波才是主力云云,說俄軍藏了一堆不出來就是證據。那我想問:底層菜鳥爛就算了,多一天份的食物燃料也不打算給嗎?沒有步兵掩護的坦克推進和沒有制空的飛機運輸和空降,也是第一波裝弱的一環嗎?俄羅斯數十年來潛心開發尖端軍武卻沒錢提升指揮系統、通訊系統和標配武器的事實很難承認嗎?俄羅斯不知道打下去每一天制裁都只增不減嗎?他們不知道自己有多少錢可以燒嗎?這些還沒出動的士兵是精銳也不奇怪,但不太可能起甚麼逆轉的作用,一切已經太遲了。

目前看來俄軍並沒有殺傷平民的意圖,這樣即便他們成功圍城也不可能短時間內逼使烏克蘭投降。現在俄軍想贏的選擇只剩下用非核大殺傷武器(e.g.溫爆彈)……或者核武而已。對孤注一擲的普京來說,會不會真的用核武還真不好說……如果核威懾持續升級,被直接威脅的英法肯定毫不猶豫地搬核武出來對幹,但某失智老人有沒有能力作出正確決定,應該就是整個危機有沒有辦法壓下去的關鍵。

從歐洲的角度來看,這次侵烏終於使他們朝更適合面對極權政體的結構轉型。過去一年匈牙利不斷的搞事已證明歐盟全票採決制的漏洞非常大,以至其他國家決定以歐洲國家集體而非歐盟的名義行動。這次更進一步,波蘭和波羅的海三國直接跳過歐盟層面提供援助,之後到法國瑞典,再來是希望洗刷頭盔污名的德國。一直到了過去24小時在除了匈牙利外所有成員國都提供了軍援以後歐盟才匆忙宣佈戰機等支援,但大家都已看穿了歐盟在這方面沒法迅速做出決策。

歐盟和現任大佬德國也不是傻子。很明顯英法更為進取的姿態包括英國的情報支援和情報物資支援和法國的外交奔走就是想削弱德國的影響力。作為應對德國首先自己把軍費加了上去宣示自己從極度厭戰的政策中扭轉過來;再來就是推動歐盟把烏克蘭甚至擔驚受怕中的瑞士芬蘭這些傳統上中立的國家統統收納進去。此舉的後果就是歐盟不再單以經濟為主導,而是作為歐洲的利益--不但是經濟上的利益也有政治、國防上的利益--為主導的組織。在俄烏問題解決了以後,這個新的歐盟也會重新審視自己與中國的關係。到時中國那套銳實力還玩的下去嗎?

這次事件直接把中國置於兩難之中。作為多年的「兄弟」、現在的「患難手足」或者至少是反西方陣營的唯二大國來說中國很難不挺俄。從微博上就能看出小粉紅為攻烏作出來的一百個理由:烏克蘭欠錢不還、烏克蘭亂殺自己人、烏克蘭巴士不付車票被罰活該被打、徐州等中國鄉下很需要烏克蘭女孩、澤連斯基是猶太人等等等等。只是他們發現俄羅斯全面侵略原來是認真的,這超出了他們支持主權和領土完整性的底線,那到底還挺不挺俄好?挺俄會被西方一起制裁同時被蓋上支持侵略者的蓋章(雖然本來就是),不挺俄則是背叛加失去盟友。中國在思考數天後終究在聯合國安理會上投下了棄權票同時也偷偷買進俄產小麥。裝低調的中國或許可以躲過一時風頭,但如果某人真的想在有生之年收復台灣完成民族復興的話還是盡快打吧,過了今年就再沒有別的國家幫你擋槍了。

另一個觀察這次衝突的角度是從金融出發。貨幣是立國之本,是決定國家興亡的關鍵。從古到今從東到西各種帝國、1985年的日本、1997的亞洲一遍又一遍地告訴我們保不住幣值的國家有何下場。我們沒想到的是我們在有生之年居然又還能看到大國貨幣崩潰--而且一來就來兩個。

土耳其里拉的崩潰純屬是自己作死,盧布的崩潰卻可以成為現代貨幣的經典教材。我們可以看到SWIFT如何影響一個國家的金融系統(甚至將外匯儲備無效化)、看到一個國家在極緊急的狀態下如何守護自己的貨幣。啊對了任志剛你乾脆去俄羅斯守盧布好了,大幅加息剛好是你的拿手招數吧?香港人沒興趣聽你的廢話。

說了這麼多俄烏局勢其實跟我們大部分人沒有直接關係,但作為一個正常人我們很難不為烏克蘭的狀況感到擔憂。縱然有西方無窮的支援俄羅斯還是步步進逼接近完成圍攻之勢,而他們的狂轟濫炸也逐步升級。若然真的打巷戰基輔必定是俄軍的史太林格勒,但對別忘了蘇聯在那絞肉城裡也犧牲了一百萬人。烏克蘭在精神上和經濟上能受住這個級別的打擊嗎?

希望烏克蘭可以堅持下去,勝利終將歸於敢於捍衛家園的人。願榮光歸烏克蘭。