Autopilot

[c-nero 5[c]]

In case you don't know what I'm referring to by "autopilot", I mean the drifting sort of state you enter wile you're playing, when you're not entirely focused on the match at hand and, with your mind drifting, you start playing entirely by muscle memory and basic reactions. Obviously not a good state of affairs.

So how about ITT we talk about our experiences with Autopilot and ways to get around it or otherwise help ourselves.

Personally I find after a warm-up period of 2-3 matches I can properly hold concentration and play decently for a maximum of 3 matches. In a strange way I almost "recharge", after 10 matches or so I notice I often start playing much better and start taking matches back at this point. Obviously being a Nanaya player autopilot hurts me a lot but I've done some shit that surprises even me when I got myself out of it (cancelling clash into arc drive on reaction 8D). But no matter how hard I try I can never keep my concentration for very long. At the moment I'm currently experimenting with trying to "create a better autopilot"(for lack of a better phrase) by grinding in dat training mode for hours. Hopefully I'll see at least some improvement.

EDIT: whoa awesome, I have thread 1000.

[Irovax]

Ahaha~

I play MB because you absolutely cannot autopilot, as long as you're playing with someone better than you. Same reason for Touhou and OZ/DMC/etc and Beatmania/DDR/etc. Call me weird, but my brain thrives on being overclocked. =X

However... I know the feeling. I used to be really proud of my subconscious gamer. I was playing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance with my friend at a sleepover. Without my knowing, I had fallen asleep. The only reason I woke up was when she tapped me on the shoulder and asked me why I hadn't distributed my points after leveling up. X3

I dropped most turnbased RPGs, including all MMORPGs, after realizing that I'm basically sleeping, not playing. "Oh," the W*W addicts complain. "World of W*rcraft isn't turnbased!" Uh huh. Yeah. If I have 100 frames to see an attack, yet be unable to do anything about it, I'm calling it turnbased. ((=/ One of my really good friends is trying to recruit me to the game... I had her play some Touhou, and she still thinks that Wo* can rival it in terms of reflexes. And now she hates me. oro oro...))

[Qaenyin]

At one point I fell asleep playing Shadow Hearts, only to wake up the next morning having beaten at least one dungeon, let the dog out, fed him, gave him some fresh water, and then went back to sleep(leaving the backdoor open).

That was rather disconcerting.

But yeah Autopilot is a nasty nasty thing for fighting games because you need to be able to improvise on the fly, which Autopilot doesn't really permit for.

[rashani]

I've been having trouble with focusing my eyes lately, so one night I decided not to even try focusing, just being blind and thinking about other things, thinking I'd be dead on Survival mode in minutes.

40 levels later...It was one of my best nights playing vs. the AI. I'm now sorely tempted to try this strategy next time I'm with my buds (as long as there's no money on the game, that is ).

[Keith]

sleepover ... she

[Sh1k1]

Autopilot? Yeah, I know the feeling. Happened quite a few times to me already, though I can't really say it happens while fighting. It's mostly on boring action games, slow RPGs, and stupid puzzles.



Though it's more common for me having it happen on real-life stuff, such as talking with people on the phone or listening to a particularly boring class. >_> You'd often see me solving problems, writing code and doing exams half asleep, and the amazing thing would be that eight times out of ten, I'd deal with the situation much better than I'd have done if I was completely awake. >_<

[c-nero 5[c]]

Wow that's weird. I thought a lot more people would have had trouble with autopilot in MB at some point. There must be some trick to maintaining your concentration, I guess.

[mewofforcena]

It happened before, when I was playing Metroid: Zero Mission after spending the whole night awake. I kept playing, and yet I knew I was asleep. About 2 hours later
Also happened once in Melty, I was playing Warc, difficulty at maximum, damage at minimum, 5-round matches, and I still managed to beat Blue. (it was ReACT).

In exams, never, but I once had a complete system shutdown, spent around 45 minutes frozen during my final Chemstry exam. Must've been running '95.

[Phil]

Heh, yeah, if I'm just mashing away at Practice mode (For some reason I cannot pull off a perfect BnB on command 90% of the time, no matter how hard I try on Nanaya. -.-) I'll just fall into autopilot and snap out of it like an hour later. With some games though I fall into a sort of autopilot, though I do better than I actually am. Super Autopilot?
 

As far as I know the best way to keep yourself from snapping into autopilot is to find something to occasionally grab your attention away from MB, but this has the side effect of being pretty annoying. I can't think of anything else to help other than get better when you're awake so your autopilot a) doesn't suck or b) is more like Super Autopilot, if you understand what I mean. 

[mizuki]

Crouching Fierce.

[Devereaux]

Switch to Satsuki. Its theoretically impossible to "auto-pilot" playing her.

[Greyvangelist]

I used to autopilot when I used to play MB on netplay.

Now I autopilot on a lot of RPGs and Assassin's Creed.

[Sh1k1]

I've noticed that MB's AI is entirely incapable of rendering me nervous/excited, so nowadays I tend to autopilot whenever I'm playing solo... On netplay, though, that's another matter entirely. >_>

[The6thFlame]

Switch to Satsuki. Its theoretically impossible to "auto-pilot" playing her.

[Nanako]

I always autopilot but I don't lose. To the AI that is...
When me and my friends battle, I also win and I'd say I'm not even concentrating, so that means I'm auto piloting, right?

But when my friend gets serious, I sometimes lose, especially when he's using Sion and Hisui.
I don't even master the characters I use, I just select random. Well, I'm not good with Kouma though.
I'm not lying though. I'm not even doing a lot of combos lately.

I also autopilot when I'm playing bullet hell games.

[Draku]

I always autopilot but I don't lose. To the AI that is...
When me and my friends battle, I also win and I'd say I'm not even concentrating, so that means I'm auto piloting, right?

But when my friend gets serious, I sometimes lose, especially when he's using Sion and Hisui.
I don't even master the characters I use, I just select random. Well, I'm not good with Kouma though.
I'm not lying though. I'm not even doing a lot of combos lately.

I also autopilot when I'm playing bullet hell games.

I'd have to say this is because your friends aren't used to the game, and the AI sucks anyways. If you started to play better people, you'd probably stop autopiloting.

[Nanako]

Probably.
But that's different if its a bullet hell game like Touhou.

[Qaenyin]

I've found having music playing in the background helps me prevent autopilot to a degree.  I use winamp to keep myself occupied.

[Phil]

Probably.
But that's different if its a bullet hell game like Touhou.

Haha, whenever I autopilot in the middle of a game like that I end up dying. It's the same thing as with other games, sometimes I autopilot and accidentally move directly in the way of a shot and don't realize it but sometimes I super-autopilot and dodge perfectly. Which is it for you?

[SacchinWantPie]

I autopilot sometimes. it helps if my oponent is strong and i take a break ocasionally.  once i was up playing games all night and the next morning as im driving my car i wake up and realiize that i lost fifteen minutes and have no idea where I am(dont try this at home kids). 

[Alfonse]

I tend to switch to autopilot when faced with an insane steam of arrows on Stepmania and clear it so swiftly and nicely that it leaves spectators stunned.

 Then I come back to my senses on the easier parts of the song. 

[Nanako]

Probably.
But that's different if its a bullet hell game like Touhou.

Haha, whenever I autopilot in the middle of a game like that I end up dying. It's the same thing as with other games, sometimes I autopilot and accidentally move directly in the way of a shot and don't realize it but sometimes I super-autopilot and dodge perfectly. Which is it for you?

I super-autopilot.
But I only got on stage 3 in perfect cherry blossoms
I can't beat Alice. Maybe it's because of the autopilot thing.

[Alfonse]

Stage 1 of Mountain of Faith can be autopiloted easily.

However, any Phantasmagoria of Flower View matches with Shikieki requires your full attention, or else you'll be cornered by a flurry of knives 

[Nanako]

O_o

[Irovax]

Urk-- I don't have problems with Shikieki, since I'm a Fairy spammer ((level 2 spells whoo)), so I enjoy flurries, since it means even more crap's being tossed over. However, I do have a problem with certain high level avatars. Since I have no way to immediately counter them ((combo counter's usually 500,000+, circuit's drained always)), I have to kill them by hand... Shiekieki's is fine, except for "I stole Marisa's IaMP JYANT LAZAR" form if I don't have good left/right movement.

And also, post your score!! >_>
http://www.meltybread.com/forums/index.php?topic=1001.0