I've been practicing Crash Team Racing, and was doing well until I reached Papu's Pyramid. There, I cannot beat the "Oxide" staff ghost after triple figures worth of attempts. And yet I see loads of videos of people getting it right in one go flawlessly. How long does it take to become good, especially if you have s horrid memory like myself? And more importantly, are so many mistakes normal in the learning process?
Hundreds of mistakes? You're already doing better than most. :p
It's perfectly normal to make mistakes, especially when learning a new game, regardless of what anyone might say. You're looking to improve your game, after all. If the community is helpful, you can ask them what their strats are or have them check what you're doing wrong and tell you the correct method.
After over 100 attempts you are still I,able to clear one specific spot? Is there a way for you to save before the hard spot so you can specifically practice it until it's easy for you?
I know it looks like everyone is doing it flawlessly, but for every successful run of a difficult part that you see done flawlessly, there is usually many, MANY mistakes that you don't see that were never uploaded. Nobody who cares about their run will submit one full of mistakes. Anyway, if it was easy, it wouldn't be much fun when it finally goes right.
If it helps, sometimes I try thinking about it in a different way. For instance, don't just react, but consciously think about what buttons you are pressing and the timing between them. It makes it much easier to remember when you hit that patch in the future, and your brain won't spazz out from pressure. When I was running Operation Neptune (which is full of instances where you have to know the precise timing and movement patterns), I tried to associate the individual room with a pattern of key strokes instead of relying on just reactions. Having a good reaction time can save you if things start to go astray, but it should be a last resort. If you're taking 100+ attempts and still not getting it right, think about how you are practicing. Can you close your eyes and walk yourself through the run? Do you know at what point you should hit certain buttons? You're not going to get it all immediately, but if you start small- know what the 2-3 button combos are, then learn how to string the combos together into bigger combinations, you'll soon find yourself able to string together multiple combos without thinking about the nuances of each button's effect.
It's not just about practicing, but practicing ¤correctly¤. Otherwise it's just playing the game over and over. That's not to say that this is the one and only way to practice, but it's what works for me.
I'm relatively new to speedrunning and trying a couple of games out - it's so easy to make mistakes, particularly if RNG is involved!
I'm at a stage where the hard bits I've practiced many many times I'm getting a lot better at, but the easy bits I make stupid mistakes :-)
"I know it looks like everyone is doing it flawlessly, but for every successful run of a difficult part that you see done flawlessly, there is usually many, MANY mistakes that you don't see that were never uploaded. Nobody who cares about their run will submit one full of mistakes. Anyway, if it was easy, it wouldn't be much fun when it finally goes right. "
Right, it's called selection bias. Unless you're there on-stream for the grind, you're only gonna see the successes and none of the failures.
Uhhh... Actually! All you see on speedrun.com is the person's most successful run. In reality, they have failed the run thousands of times and made billions of mistakes in the process. So yes that is normal! :) The biggest success you can have is when you've picked yourself up from failure over and over. Otherwise, it's just too easy. As for how long it takes to get to their level, most WR holders have been playing the game for 3 years, and still make mistakes! So I'd say around that.
Welp, you asked a question and looks like the speedrun community was more than happy to answer. In many ways and in many forms. Yet, all seem to say the same thing I did. So what do you think? Is it normal to fail? Welcome to speedrunning. >:)
dont trust what you see for a 7min05 run on excitebike i most have played 10 hours so trust me 100 times i would have been happy
The part of the game you know the best is the part to the first usual reset point. That is if you dont practice the hard parts a lot.
On youtube I got videos of my old runs with mistakes. You can see the progress from bad to a good time. Also on GDQ and ESA you see that it doesnt go flawless most of the time.
Just keep running and practicing to become good. Nothing goes flawless in a run. Even if it seems that way, there are several tiny mistakes to be spotted.