How to improve at Stepmania?

[KillerCop311]

I felt like asking here since there are a few Stepmania experts on here (read: Kingdaro) who know how to play really hard charts, but I've been trying a lot and there's some charts I can't really do.

Here's some examples of hard charts I've played - around 16s - 18s (dr. fetus flipping you off = failed song):






The percentage = how much I got, and the blue (or red) numbers is the difficulty.
I'm playing using spread(?), left is D, down is F, up is J, and right is K.
I do have trouble with streaming (and patterns) at some point, but sometimes the BPM is too hard to catch up with.
I've played for a while, can play these sometimes with enough practice, but what do I do to get better? Play more? Play less difficult songs to practice?

Let me know, I would seriously like to improve on this game.

Oh, and if you want the theme I'm using, it's for OpenITG and In The Groove (dedicabs), theme is right here.
Screenshots here as well.

[Ad Bot]

[.::Taboo::.]

goodlord, when people mentioned this game to me i didn't realize it'd look this bad
sticking to dj max

[KillerCop311]

goodlord, when people mentioned this game to me i didn't realize it'd look this bad
sticking to dj max

by look do you mean the theme?
the dr fetus thing is only there when I fail the song
however I can switch themes, I have a ton

[Renekar]

i want the songs you were playing 

[Kingdaro]

goodlord, when people mentioned this game to me i didn't realize it'd look this bad
sticking to dj max

It's a theme. If you hate the look, get another theme.

@OP: Literally, the only thing you can do is just keep playing, and keep practicing. I've been playing for about five years now, and I can safely say that that's the only thing that has helped me. Maybe making simfiles might help you get a better understanding of rhythms and patterns and such, but as with any game, practice, practice, practice.

If you haven't tried yet though, you could also try switching your keys. I've seen a lot of people perform better with a setup like ASKL or QWOP than the arrow keys or other configurations. For me, UIOP works best, and I can play index sometimes.

EDIT: Also forgot to mention that setting yourself to a comfortable speed mod is superbly helpful. It won't  give you instant skill, obviously, but it's better to have faster scrolling with more spaced notes than it is to have slower scrolling and a huge unreadable clump of bullstuff. Most people I see play on C600-700, and Stepmania 5 has MMods available, which are CMods but don't remove stops and BPM changes. I play on m600. MMods are in OpenITG as well, but they're not as easy to customize.

[KillerCop311]

i want the songs you were playing 

download the SPEEDCOOOORE 3, Tachyon Beta, and Tachyon Gamma, packs.

optional:
get Tachyon Alpha, Tachyon Delta, and SPEEDCOOOORE 2 packs. they blend.

[Zuero]

If you haven't tried yet though, you could also try switching your keys. I've seen a lot of people perform better with a setup like ASKL or QWOP than the arrow keys or other configurations. For me, UIOP works best, and I can play index sometimes..

i agree with this entirely, before when i played with wsad/arrow keys, i was stuck at songs with difficulties of 10 or so, but then i changed to qwop and i can do much harder songs

and as daro said, practice is the main thing you need to get better at stepmania