How to improve when there isn't much time

[BeruBeru]

Hi, I've been playing shmups seriously for about a year, almost exclusively danmaku games, the problem is that I almost never had enough time to practice, so my skill level is somewhat low.
I'm working 12 hours a day (meaning 14 hours not at home), so eventually it leaves me with very little time for myself, and I'm too tired for anything.
I've been trying for the past week to start playing again, but I felt like I got worse, couldn't concentrate enough and such.
I really want an advice about how to practice under these circumstances, because at the moment it goes something like that: starting a run, getting hit on the first/second level, becoming pissed-off, resetting, happens again several times, eventually don't reset but the continue screen, I say f this and either quit or coin feed.
I'm aware that the circumstances are the most awful to getting better, but I really hope for some advice regarding that matter.

[Treasurance]

play at work

or touhou on easy

or Double Spoiler

[Klatrymadon]

I think a key thing will be to keep your playing sessions regular, regardless of how short they are. Even ten minutes a day will be more beneficial and fun than trying to squeeze in a couple of hours at the weekends.

Be sure to mosey on over to the Strategy section and read through the "How to practice shooting games" thread, too. Lots of useful information and wisdom there.

[TVG]

Lack of sleep is a bitch. Sometimes it's worth it to sleep more to improve your quality of life. Yeah right, like I listen to that advice, especially if I work a lot.

I'm pretty mediocre at shooters but like everything you gotta dedicate to it and play smart.
I can only share what I learned in fighting games as I'm decent at that.

Do not play passively. Improving is an active thing. Search and fix your mistakes, or in the case of shmups, try to memorise and experiment as much as possible with each run, find out what's wrong, correct it. Make your time count. Some people play a shit ton over and over and never improve, keep doing the same mistakes. I don't think they are dumb, they just foolishly think it is enough to play to improve. It's not. I repeat, improvement is an effort, it's not something that just clicks. It does to some extent sure but there's a plateau. Also confidence, might seem like nothing but it's what it is. Just perform and don't ask yourself questions about your abilities (yeah like it's that easy when you're close to acheiving your goal, haha).

No matter what though, 14 hours at work, you're gonna play significantly better during off days. There's not much you can do about it other than do virtually nothing but sleep and work.

[RNGmaster]

Repeatedly resetting the first 10 minutes of gameplay is the worst possible way to spend your time. I suggest you go to the Strategy section, find the topic called "the full extent of the jam", and follow the advice to the best of your ability. It only takes 20-50 minutes a day of practice to accumulate skill quickly, as Prometheus will show.

[Hair]

What consoles do you have? Do you have a way to play shmups on your PC (a keyboard does not cut it)?

Download rRootage if you have a PC arcade stick or d-pad.

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/index_e.html

It has level select and something like 40 short levels (more like 160 since there are 4 modes with different scoring, weapons etc...). It's a great game to warm-up with because the frustration level is low. Ranges from easy to very freaking hard. A great shmup for quick sessions.

Or use Mame save states. Or play the easier Cave games (like ESPgaluda, Dangun Feveron, Guwange). These aren't "easy" games, but I find I can always pick one up and do okay at it, while other shmups require a longer warm-up time as I get used to the timing and hitboxes (if I haven't played it in a long time).

Any of the X.X games (such as Blue Wish or Eden's Aegis) are like this as well. Challening games with a diffculty curve that eases you in, so you don't need to start out focused (but hopefully will start to focus more by the end of level 2 or 3).

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Try to play everyday even if its just 1 run just so your hands and brain dont forget. That said dont even bother if youre tired, or even worse your enjoyment of the game has grown stale, it might be best to set the game / genre aside for a while and do something else. If im knacked I wont bother playing full runs instead ill just work on my memorisation of a stage or boss or possibly just watch some You Tube replays or read over strategy guides.

As shmups can be both revitalising or draining. If youre feeling too drained to bother playing then try doing something to revitalise yourself like to listening to uplifting music or play 10 mins of another shmup or game to get yourself into the right mood.

Keep analysing your progress, ask yourself when you make a mistake which is at fault, your stategy or you skill with a controller in acting it out. If youre playing just for suvival is there anything you can do to make it easier? I have a habit of playing for score when my main goal is a 1CC which often make things so much harder for myself.

[shadowbringer]

sorry if this is a derail, but I have another question

For people who have difficulty memorizing stages or bosses (for scoring purposes), would it be faster to
A ) try to reproduce someone else's replay until you've internalized it to avoid having to "fix bad habits" later and relearn a new route?
B ) use savestates to focus on practicing the latter stages? (what keeps me from doing so, is that I'm too much afraid of the factors that may come before said save state, such as rank -- *glares at the moment I tried learning to learn from savestates when trying to learn Garegga in STGT 2009 * -- how do people deal with the factors which can interfere or "invalidate" your save-state practicing procedure?)

dunno if I've said this already, but my procedure is:
- reset as soon as I make a mistake to help me remember what hit me and what could've done to avoid this
- repeat until I learn the stages (which takes quite a long time) and get more consistent on them and make sure I don't die the same ways as before
- keep doing this until you reach the end of the game (lol)

(unfortunately, there are games in which the latter stages give way many more points than the first ones)

[CptRansom]

It's not how much you practice, but how you practice. Use save states or level select. Quit restarting all the time (unless you're playing Raiden Fighters Jet, in which case pick a new game). Focus on only one game at a time. Set a goal you can hit in a few days, then set another one slightly higher, and so on. If you can only play 20 minutes a day, then make sure that damn game has your full focus during those 20 minutes. If you start losing focus, stop and go do something else because you're just wasting time.

Anyways, it's been working for me lately. I went from about 30M in RFJ to 82M in about three weeks of only playing 15-30 mins a day (with two exceptions where I had a couple hours). I spent a LOT of time in the last few months trying to play for fun (whatever the hell that means) and just generally ignoring what everyone better than me told me to do. Then I listened and got results.

Imagine that.

Tl;dr - Pick one game. Use save states or level select. Set attainable goals. Focus.

[mesh control]

Pick one game. Use save states or level select. Set attainable goals. Focus.

Best advice.

I'm in a similar boat as the OP. 15 hour work days and school twice a week don't leave me much time for serious play. Credit feeding through Gunbird 2 (lol1-5boss) or something during the week keeps me sharp for when I do get serious on days off.

As for Garegga's rank, discovering enemies patterns, locations, medal and item locations should be priority one not worrying about rank. A basic understanding of the system should be required though.

If i'm not mistaken, of course. Maybe Icarus will chime in, he always has sound advice.

[Icarus]

Maybe Icarus will chime in, he always has sound advice.

See below.

Pick one game. Use save states or level select. Set attainable goals. Focus.

Also, if you only have a small amount of time to play a day, then don't force yourself, as it will lead to frustration. Not much point in playing if you're not having fun.

Aside from stuff I've said many times in other threads, just make good use of your time. Play individual stages, and practice difficult bits if you want to make improvements, and make your practice effective and efficient - don't flap around trying out lots of hard tricks, make small and simple changes instead. Integrate things gradually until you have a solid strategy, which you can apply when you do have more time to throw in a full credit or two.

[CptRansom]

Pick one game. Use save states or level select. Set attainable goals. Focus.

Also, if you only have a small amount of time to play a day, then don't force yourself, as it will lead to frustration. Not much point in playing if you're not having fun.

I feel like I've had this conversation with you before, sir. It's definitely true! I completely ran myself ragged on RFJ and developed a strong dislike for it after a while. Lesson learned: Sometimes it's good to back off for a couple days! For the next game I get into, I'll be sure I don't play it until I hate it. =D

[RNGmaster]

(what keeps me from doing so, is that I'm too much afraid of the factors that may come before said save state, such as rank -- *glares at the moment I tried learning to learn from savestates when trying to learn Garegga in STGT 2009 * -- how do people deal with the factors which can interfere or "invalidate" your save-state practicing procedure?)

I pick a new game. I tried Dragon Blaze, but difficulty due to rank on a no-miss run is way too prohibitive and I don't know how to plan savestates and deaths to make practice worth it. I have accordingly decided to move back to Progear and CC.

starting a run, getting hit on the first/second level, becoming pissed-off, resetting, happens again several times, eventually don't reset but the continue screen, I say f this and either quit or coin feed.

After starting to get frustrated, you will start to play noticeably worse. Find a game you won't get tired of, use MAME save states or level select, and - key point here - don't make your expectations so high that you'll get frustrated easily. I always expect myself to play like a superplayer, but fact is I'm not. Unrealistically high expectations won't help you in the long run.

Look at this run. He dies early on, but doesn't get frustrated and quit. When playing DDP, I tended to always quit if I died within the first 3 levels, but I can see now that doing so deprived me of lots of potential chances to see more of the game and get better faster. If your expectations are too high, you'll get frustrated by failure and start to play worse. Try to avoid that pitfall.

[ratikal]

To back up what RNG said, in some games, your potential score raises higher with each stage.
For example in DFK BL Arrange;

You gain maybe 4x the score in Stage 2 than in Stage 1.
You gain double the score in Stage 3
You gain double the score in Stage 4
You can gain up to double the score from Stage 1-4 combined in Stage 5.

Seriously, don't let deaths in earlier stages let you down. I don't think that 10B loss from Stage 1 is gonna effect the 500B you make from Stage 5.