Getting Started

[SendMoreCorpses]

Kitaru or someone else will have to answer this.
On TF - no. But on NulpoMino, you can just set your gravity (how fast the pieces fall down) to 0, giving you inf. time to think.

Although it's good practice to have high gravity.. gets your reflexes going etc. ^^

Thanks. It is more for block combinations and stuff than speed. I'll fire up NulpoMino.

[Kitaru]

I don't have exact numbers for Tetris Friends delay and rate settings, but I have decent estimates. I think the delay values are within +/- 1 frame, anyway.

DAS ("Delayed AutoShift", the initial delay before DAS kicks in)
Level 1 - 16 frames = 267ms
Level 2 - 12 frames? = 200ms
Level 3 - 10 frames? = 167ms
Level 4 - 8 frames? = 133ms
Level 5 - 6 frames? = 100ms

ARR ("AutoRepeat Rate," i.e. DAS iteration rate -- how fast the piece moves after start-up)
Level 1 - 20hz
Level 2 - 30hz
Level 3 - 40hz?
Level 4 - 50hz?
Level 5 - 60hz

EDIT: The practical information to draw away from this chart is that you should max out ARR and do "sensitivity" adjustments by changing DAS start-up. See how DAS 2 or 3 suit you and then move your way up when you feel comfortable doing so.

[Wojtek]

public static const kGAMETWEAK_ARR:Array = [50 * 1000, 35 * 1000, 17 * 1000, 7 * 1000, 0 * 1000];
public static const kGAMETWEAK_DAS:Array = [280 * 1000, 200 * 1000, 150 * 1000, 133 * 1000, 120 * 1000];

[Kitaru]

Wojtek, I love you man. You're my hero.

Here is that info formatted into a nicer table:

DAS:
Level 1 - 16 frames (280 ms)
Level 2 - 12 frames (200 ms)
Level 3 - 9 frames (150 ms)
Level 4 - 8 frames (133 ms)
Level 5 - 7 frames (120 ms)

ARR:
Level 1 - 20hz (50 ms)
Level 2 - 30hz (35 ms)
Level 3 - 60hz (17 ms)
Level 4 - 60hz (7 ms)
Level 5 - 60hz (0 ms)

If you're looking at ARR Levels 3 to 5 and wondering why in the world they're all 60hz, it is because the devs don't understand the implications of their own engine! These levels gave me the most trouble when I was working out the values because I felt sure that they had to be different, but it was incredibly difficult to distinguish the difference between each one. Flash lhiccups and 30fps render rate made it increasingly difficult to distinguish whether I was seeing an intermediary frame or whether there was an actual improvement. My original table had strange values like 45hz/50hz/60hz for Levels 3-5, but now I'm positive that I was reaching for differences that did not exist.

Just like TOJ's Level 5 Soft Drop is a meaningless rip-off, I'm convinced that TF's ARR 4 and 5 are the same. If you want to be really safe, Level 4 puts you on the "better" side of 16.67ms, but my understanding is that these values are going to round down and 17ms is just as much 60hz DAS as values as high as 31ms would be. You have to start getting on the worse side of 32~33ms to see 30hz DAS, which is why Level 2 is 35ms.

Shameful stuff.

tl;dr: Stop at Level 3 ARR and adjust DAS as you wish.

[vipjun]

I use ARR4 instead of 5, i dont' really notice much of a difference in movement speed either, but ARR5 has a higher likely hood of shifting the next piece for me.

[SendMoreCorpses]

Just a quick thank you for all your input guys.

I've adjusted my DAS and ARR slightly. Played a fair bit of Ultra and Sprint. Managed to finally get my Sprint below 2min and my Ultra over 10k. Small steps