GD: How to practice shooting games

[Blinge]

When should one stop savestate practice and actually do full credits? I feel like I'm constantly spamming save states but rarely doing full runs.

All the time. Vary your approach, mix a few full runs into your practice sessions. If I'm hardcore save stating I like to throw in a full run at the end of my practice session, just a little reminder of the rest of the game and perhaps a benchmark to measure yourself against. Either that or try and feel as casual about your full runs as possible until you believe you can get the clear, after all you should like playing the game if you've dedicated this much time to it.

[trap15]

When should one stop savestate practice and actually do full credits? I feel like I'm constantly spamming save states but rarely doing full runs.

I like to do full runs when I'm annoyed with the practicing, or when I'm finishing up. Or if I want to be sure I've committed whatever I'm trying to learn to memory, I start at an earlier state.

Another thing, full runs don't seem to reflect what I do in save-states. To give an example, I make silly mistakes in early parts of a STG. Is that reason enough to practice those sections again or should I just assume its nerves or something messing me up?

I'd say that's generally just nerves. You still gotta grind out runs after practicing, you need to practice the run rather than the parts, if that makes any sense. After grinding enough runs, you get consistent at the full run and problem spots go away.

Of course, silly false starts happen. I just like to roll with the punches in those cases, keeps it a bit interesting.

[Rokogu_]

This is a great help! I've always loved playing shmups but now I can start thinking more about strategies rather than just dodge bullets and hope for the best!

ps : first post! I didn't see any introduction thread. So, hi everybody!

[LordHypnos]

Does anyone have any tips for practicing games that you used to have routes for, but haven't played in a few months? Does it usually come back after grinding practice mode for a while, or is there often a need to relearn your routes as if you had never had them before?

[Stevens]

I'm not sure if you've tried this but it might help.

Play it. When you get to problem areas go back and watch your clear. Couldn't hurt.

Good luck!

[Cata]

I'm not sure if you've tried this but it might help.

Play it. When you get to problem areas go back and watch your clear. Couldn't hurt.

Good luck!

Yes, its definitely a good idea to record a run or two of yours that way you can refresh your memory in the event that you need to

[trap15]

It's also useful to go back and watch your previous runs while practicing to identify problem spots. One of the easiest and most helpful things for practicing, in my opinion.

[Joggepogge]

I often start a new shooter with Credit Feeding to get a read on how the whole game looks like. Works perfect for me.

[Lobinden]

I often start a new shooter with Credit Feeding to get a read on how the whole game looks like. Works perfect for me.

I do this on my first run of a new STG to an extent. Since I don't like to see the entirety of a game's content right away though I still limit the amount of continues I will use, or just stop playing if I feel like I'm nearing the end to go back and practice the earlier stages.

[Mills]

I often start a new shooter with Credit Feeding to get a read on how the whole game looks like. Works perfect for me.

I had to credit-feed 2nd loop of Strikers 1945 because the succession of lives lost meant that I couldn't learn anything valuable for future practice sessions especially when you haven't played after a long absence.

[Sonne]

The full extent of the Jam is an awesome guide, but I have problem finding a good game to a emulator with a good save state (the Mame I use has problem when I try to save state).
Is possible to use a game that doesn't have save states (the games I'm playing have level select) or it'll be less efficient?

[Shepardus]

It'll be less efficient but many Japanese players set insanely high world records with no savestates or even level select, just playing the game in an arcade and possibly credit-feeding through it.

[trap15]

Definitely credit feeding. There's at least one interview where they mention they always credit feed.

[Sonne]

I credit feed just to see the game. After I complete for the first time I focus on trying to 1cc

[trap15]

If you have no practice mechanism, only playing single credits is going to be the slowest and least effective learning method possible. Superplayers credit feed on failed runs because it allows them to practice the entire game at once, rather than just what they already know. It's like if you were learning a piece of music and if you ever screwed up you restarted instead of finishing it out.

[Stevens]

If you have no practice mechanism, only playing single credits is going to be the slowest and least effective learning method possible.

I need to start doing this with Psikyo games.

[Sonne]

There are some games that have very fast patterns. How do you practice them if you don't know what is happening?

[trap15]

You can either just keep playing it until you figure it out, or pause emulator and frame step through it.

[Shepardus]

You can also start MAME with the option -speed rate where rate is the speed at which to run the game, e.g. 0.5 for 50% speed. I learned to deal with the 1-7 boss in Dragon Blaze by starting at a low speed and gradually increasing it until I was at 100%.

If you have no practice mechanism, only playing single credits is going to be the slowest and least effective learning method possible.

I need to start doing this with Psikyo games.

It's worth noting that with most Psikyo games continuing will send you back to the beginning of the stage if you're past the random stages, which is annoying if you're trying to see the whole game but good if you want more practice on that stage (albeit at a low rank).

[Kollision]

I'm not sure if you've tried this but it might help.

Play it. When you get to problem areas go back and watch your clear. Couldn't hurt.

Good luck!

Yes, its definitely a good idea to record a run or two of yours that way you can refresh your memory in the event that you need to

It works.
I remember when playing Ironclad on the NG and getting fried by the last boss.
I set up my shitty camera by my side and recorded the slaughter, than studied it later to beat the game.

[seraph]

I've heard it's cheating to use stage select, pause the game, hold a rapid button, play outside an arcade, or even press continue. I don't listen to those people though and that's why my replays are sometimes kind of nice.

[Emuser]

I legit never noticed this thread before I was about to make a shmups 101 post. I haven't read all the threads yet, but I feel there is one thing that is rarely discussed which involves vision. Of all the things mentioned here, I believe that this may be the most contentious and possibly what separates people into different levels of play. It is one thing to be looking at the screen, but where you are looking at a given time is an often overlooked point. I personally cannot say what people do generally, but if you've been playing and looking on top of your ship or extremely close to your ship at all times, this may be something to adjust. This may be normal whenever playing a bullet hell where there is a slow swarm of bullets you need to nitpick through ala Futari Ultra, but when not doing that specific thing, you'll want to be placing your immediate sight above your ship and no further than the middle of the screen. This way you can have peripheral vision on both enemies above and on your ship in conjunction with your weapons serving as additional indicators of where you are currently without looking directly at the player's ship. As bullet density increases, you'll need to scale back and keep a tighter look closer to your ship. This is something that takes time to get used to, but is something I wanted to mention as unless nothing is happening on screen I'm rarely actually looking at my player ship.

[davyK]

If you have no practice mechanism, only playing single credits is going to be the slowest and least effective learning method possible. Superplayers credit feed on failed runs because it allows them to practice the entire game at once, rather than just what they already know. It's like if you were learning a piece of music and if you ever screwed up you restarted instead of finishing it out.

It's kind of obvious reading that , but I've always played single credits. What you say here makes an awful lot of sense and it probably explains why I give up after a few weeks on a game when I hit a sticky point on level 3 or 4....

I'll try changing my ways. I 've always felt guilty about continuing...strange but that's how I feel.

[16bitpilot]

Currently practising the 1CC on R-TYPE for the PC Engine, but seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall, the problem is losing all power ups upon death, making me restart from the beginning again, gives me hardly any practice on the section I need to practice. I just can't seem to play using emulation, it's too different from the original hardware so not currently using save states.

[Perikles]

I only found out later, but the PS1 bundle has a power-up cheat that brings your ship back to maximum power. Is there something similar in this port, maybe? If you're playing the HuCard version you can obviously use the password to start stage 5 with all the equipment you need, that only helps so much, of course.

I have to say that I'm not sure how you can beat the final boss in R-Type without either having both bits (easy way) or having at least one bit from stage 7 and a ton of speed-ups (hard & awkward way). I'd love to know how you're supposed to get past him when recovering on the final checkpoint, I have no idea how that could work. If you stay all the way to the left the pod will protect you against the critters and you're safe from the projectiles at first, but you can't kill the boss in time which means that the projectiles will home in and kill you. You can't toss out the pod for proper damage since you're bereft of protection in that case, and once you leave the safespot you also have to deal with the spheres which seems hopeless. I can't imagine Irem didn't think of any solution, every other checkpoint is feasible, but I have no clue how to approach it.

[PuToTyra]

Play them every day, there is no magic trick or secret method.

Coffee helps.

I've heard it's cheating to use stage select, pause the game, hold a rapid button, play outside an arcade, or even press continue. I don't listen to those people though and that's why my replays are sometimes kind of nice.

lmao, then most of the world are cheaters cuz many countries don't even have arcades

Not to mention that some bullet hell games are not designed for arcades. And stage select is a nice way to practice.
That being said, I despise using continue in most games.

[trap15]

Play them every day, there is no magic trick or secret method.

Coffee helps.

Bzzt, incorrect

[PuToTyra]

Play them every day, there is no magic trick or secret method.

Coffee helps.

Bzzt, incorrect

I-I guess Monster or Red Bull is okay, too.

[ratikal]

Just wanted to drop in and to say RECORD EVERYTHING YOU DO. It really helps when you practice so you have better evidence of what works and what doesn't. It's also fun to look back on how far you have progressed.

If you are playing on MAME, you can use a low resource program like OBS to record everything. With consoles, you can get a good capture card for about $100 or just record to DVD or something. As far as JAMMA, you'll need to get more technical there.

[Zcvvhyhc]

I think the best option is to record your gameplay and then watch it. By this you can focus on moments in game you have difficulties with or just get rid of some nasty habits.