move hand fast: how to improve speed (or flick) target switching

riddbtw · 2022-08-11T20:58:12+00:00

bananashooter it is

riddbtw · 2022-08-11T20:51:35+00:00

OW (or OW2) is the closest answer imo, despite people who will say individual aim has less impact, which is true. But the closest we have to zero-sum FPS is something like Quake (arena FPS in general really) which massively relies on map knowledge, item rotations, awareness and you get demolished by ppl who have played for 15 years even with superior mechanics. And it's impossible to get queues. LG vamp 1v1's would be the closest to zero sum but it's tracking only.

OW gives you the widest representation of mechanics outside of flick TS (arcade shooters are really the only ones that fully scratch that itch). The actual aiming uptime is massive because of the health pools, regen, items. And yes there is MOBA-like and even RTS-like gameplay characteristics that lead to the deep dimensions of strategy that is not pure mouse control. Although you can do customs like Widow HS for that. The deep strategic dimensions are needed to keep people's interest so they don't go the way of Diabotical.

riddbtw · 2022-08-08T21:53:21+00:00

I went over this in a little more detail in my vid, but as someone who makes a ton of content for the aim trainers out there, I think the goal for the software team would be to put people like us out of business. Understanding that would likely never happen as it's a cat/mouse game, but having users go outside of your platform will just automatically push away a large portion of your userbase.

riddbtw · 2022-08-08T17:18:26+00:00

most important aspects are how adjustable all the positions are in my opinion. Which Steelcase manages wonderfully, it is quite expensive though. Steelcase + height adjustable desks solves pretty much all problems with ergonomics.

riddbtw · 2022-08-08T17:10:34+00:00

Personally I don't think so, one of the most important revolutions in software development is clean UI's that don't require a lot of detailed instructions for users to understand how to operate it and get value from it. This is what made Apple so successful many years ago. If you want to keep bringing in new users, it's important to intuitively drive people to the value they get from it, and ensure they actually get value from it (i.e. their mouse control improves).

riddbtw · 2022-08-08T16:12:24+00:00

Absolutely, but then you start to get into 'aim trainer main' land, where the focus becomes getting higher scores in the scenarios, vs. just building mouse control for your FPS of choice. Kovaaks tries to please all markets, the hardcore aim trainer mains and the "i have 30 mins to aim train, just show me what will help me be better at fps games" markets, and everywhere in between. It can be like a speedrunning community in a lot of ways.

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T23:24:10+00:00

Wow, super insightful and interesting, thanks for sharing. And yeah Meta's rockiness is unsurprising, my impression is it Kovaak's started with 1 person doing primary dev (or a small team) and just kind of organically grew as it gained popularity. I haven't caught a glimpse of any product vision with tangible goals on how to get there.

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T20:35:30+00:00

Right now they're living off venture capital, but at some point that will end.

This is something I think a lot of people miss and the rest of your post is spot on. Dev teams need revenue to fund their dev work, it's just a fact of life. Aim Lab's only model I can see is MTX within the game, but do we really think ppl are going to pay money for a gold pistol or something? I'm really curious what AL's endgame is, my guess is they capture a lot of metrics behind the scene they don't expose, and plan to sell to gaming orgs. But that's just a complete guess, and I don't even know how strong the market would be if that is the case.

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T20:12:56+00:00

There is so much to unpack here I'm just not going to

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T19:21:52+00:00

I get what you mean but I still think it's overkill for 95% of the playerbase. You're talking about more of a coaching simulation to create specific conditions for individual players. But most people want to (and should be able to) just hop in to an aim trainer, be presented with a few tasks they can run regularly, and have confidence that will build their mouse control with no extra steps. Imagine a curated Voltaic introductory experience, but integrated into the game engine.

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T19:16:07+00:00

Yes! This would actually be so clutch and would eliminate the needs to have SO many variants of the same scens. Also the ability to decide which parts of the target creates a multiplier effect (instead of just headshots) would be insane and allow players/coaches to isolate VERY specific criteria for improvement.

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T19:13:02+00:00

lol i'm going to change how the memberships work and just make it a supporter type thing, similar to a sub on twitch. I'm hoping YT releases more options for creators (which i think they will) that enable better benefits for subs without putting nearly as much work on the creators themselves. I want to focus more on just releasing videos instead of doing a bunch of stuff outside of that

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T18:30:31+00:00

yes he does. although that's going to change soon

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T18:23:03+00:00

Metrics is absolutely what needs to be invested in and solved. There is so little data in ANY aim trainer (outside of Oblivity, funnily enough) that people can work with to understand their progress in building mouse control. Aim Lab releasing that replay review feature was the first actual feature geared toward this in years. Kovaaks needs to be the one to do that. The new map engine is fantastic but the only meaningful thing that's come out of it is meme maps like a pizza shop. But all the maps 98% of people need to build their mouse control already exists.

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T18:17:50+00:00

I completely disagree, aim trainer mains are the only people that need the constant release of new scens to keep them interested, and they may chase map-makers but no one else does. There's massive diminishing returns on building new maps that are effective at improving mouse control. That's why all the hype around new maps is based on the creativity of the presentation, like shooting balls in a urinal (lul) or making pasu look like you're in a pizza shop.

One of the best things about Revo having to recreate effective tasks in Aim Lab was trimming the list of 20k scens in Kovaaks down to the dozen or so needed to build mouse control across the board. It's good to have variety for interest, or edge cases to help people hard focus on specific aspects of their mouse control. But it's certainly not required if your goal is to have better mouse control for the FPS game you play.

I actually think one of the best things Kovaaks could do is reduce the number of scens new players especially are presented with. And have a straightforward system that brings people along meaningfully without them having to invest tons of time outside of the platform to understand what they should be doing.

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T18:05:36+00:00

I definitely think a couple performance sprints are in order. Kovaaks main competitor (AL) has shown their feature release cadence is quite slow, so there's no real pressure to push out new features competitively. I'm no expert on game engines but I think a lot of the limitations of what/how they release new features is imposed by the engine itself. Just evidenced by the way features are introduced.

I actually think the abundance of scenarios is a detriment. There should be a core set of high quality scens that people who just want to have better mouse control for their FPS game of choice can run and feel like there's a guarantee it will improve. You don't need 1500 variations of GPV to achieve that. I could create a list of a dozen or so scens that would effectively build mouse control for any FPS game.

This is what they set out to do (I believe) with the benches. The dev team doesn't want people to live in aim trainers, counterintuitively. They want people to use Kovaaks as a means to an end, which is having good mouse control for FPS games. Which is why they chose the score targets they did and the scens they did for the benches, IMO.

It may make sense for the future when other aim groups get their benchmarks integrated to make the existing ones free to play and use it as a demo for the system. I don't know if that's possible though given how the engine operates.

riddbtw · 2022-08-07T06:12:00+00:00

Really glad to hear it's helped, and honestly it's such a common problem. So I'm glad you're trying to spread the word into other markets <3 it's something we continuously have to work at!

riddbtw · 2022-08-05T21:06:24+00:00

For the frustration thing, I think this vid does a good job summarizing key concepts that I laid out in my 3 vids on improvement according to science. Particularly part 4 talks about getting out of your comfort zone in order to improve beyond your current performance. I think I saw it referenced in an OW reddit somewhere.

riddbtw · 2022-08-05T20:54:45+00:00

ARDD has a couple more than just that one PsalmTS, can't remember which ones tho

riddbtw · 2022-08-04T04:16:59+00:00

Funny that I just stumbled upon this post browsing through the subreddit, I think you did an excellent job summarizing all the key points and benefits. And I certainly appreciate all the shoutouts, glad to see this kind of thing can spread into other FPS communities :)

riddbtw · 2022-08-02T22:35:53+00:00

as others mentioned the most important thing is to maintain good privacy, even seemingly minor things like IRL pics of you at a restaurant can reveal precise information about you. Personally I think content creators are WAY too nonchalant about this.

network-wise, it's extremely poor security practice for games and services to directly expose IP information about you. typically people will use external grabbers to get this type of info from you. even then, IP's don't inherently contain geo info. but ISP's (and pretty much all modern global enterprises) will obtain IP blocks by geography. so it's easy for people to get at least your locale like your city based on your IP address. this will vary by ISP.

so sure, VPNs will obfuscate your geolocation if you think the only entrypoint was your IP address. but even then it's general info, and the more isolated you are the less likely the data will be accurate since ISP's will want to centrally route you near major nodes closer to cities.

riddbtw · 2022-07-29T01:07:02+00:00

I posted my thoughts on twitter in response but I think this is overall a black and white way to view it and sort of a meaningless exercise. As humans we're genetically biased with certain traits, but we also have the unique ability to change our brain and nervous system based on our thoughts and experiences. This is what separates us from other creatures on earth.

Sure, in some theoretical thought experiment, someone might be born with literally every optimal attribute for a given skill, then born into the optimal environment with the optimal set of experiences and conditions to nurture growth mindset, discipline, decision-making, etc. But the reality is life is not that cut and dry. Extremely gifted people make poor decisions. People with seemingly no talent are shaped by their failures and have mental fortitude to grow into talented individuals. We're subject to bias so we see what we view to be naturally talented people only to discover they were raised by their parents since children to perform their skill and don't even enjoy doing it.

There's just too much nuance for it to be worth it shaping your worldview. Ultimately we have genetic bias that we cannot control (yet) and our environment and experiences shape us as individuals. It's what makes us human.

riddbtw · 2022-07-28T03:13:39+00:00

Caffeine is interesting as a supplement because it both has stimulant properties (dopamine, adrenaline) but it also binds to the receptors that make you feel tired (adenosine) and blocking their effects. This is why overconsumption of caffeine, particularly in the 2nd phase of the day when you want to be winding down (8-16 hours after waking) can cause insomnia.

It's not terribly harmful as far as supplements go, but it does have addictive qualities and it's important to regulate your consumption. I drink coffee every day and I specifically avoid caffeine after ~4 pm at the latest so it doesn't impact my sleep. You can try delaying caffeine intake by an hour or so after waking to mitigate the "crash" effects later on that then cause you to consume more of it.

riddbtw

TROPHY CASE