Some beginner questions.

[Feynman]

I've got a few questions about blockbox and tetris in general.

1. How does the combo system work in all the different vs modes on blockbox? I've heard that there are two similar to TOJ and hangame, but I have no clue how those work. And is the only difference between those 2 modes that hangame doesn't have garbage blocking? And what kind of garbage do T spins send?
2. What are the differences between SRS and ARS? I noticed the blocks coming up differently. Is it true that you can do different kind of T spins /L spins etc?
3. Is there in the standard rated mode any garbage sending by combos? Or is it just for multiple line clears?

There were a few other things I'ld like to ask, but I can't remember at the moment

Feynman

[Kasumi]

I can't answer 1 or 3, but I'll do my best with 2.

As you've already discovered, ARS gives you pieces flat side up. SRS gives you pieces flat side down. Another big difference between them are their "kicks". A Kick is where the game decides to move the piece if the space the piece would occupy after rotation is already occupied by the walls, the floor, or other pieces in the stack. ARS solves this problem rather simply. It first tries the initial rotation, then it tries one block to the left of the initial rotation, then it tries one block to the right of the initial rotation. If none of those spaces are free, the piece will not rotate. (There are exceptions to this rule in ARS which can be found in the wiki link below.) ARS will only kick a piece upward once in a floorkick, and in one special case with the T-Block.

SRS kicks are a little unpredictable at first because they allow pieces to "climb" the stack. If you continually rotate a piece by a "wall" in the stack, the piece may "climb" to the top of that wall, while in ARS you would be stuck on the lower level of the stack. It can kick a piece down (which allows a T-spin triple) or up (which allows climbing) as well as left or right. SRS will also allow you to continually move and rotate a piece to keep it from locking for much longer than ARS allows. (In fact, in some games if you continually rotate or move a piece it will NEVER lock) ARS only resets lock delay when a piece moves down one or more cells in the stack. What SRS uses to reset lock delay is called "move reset" and what ARS uses is called "step reset".

Another difference which is a little more subtle: ARS pieces always keep the lowest falling point of a piece at the same level. (except for the I-block.) SRS pieces rotate around the center point of a block so if you have a piece rotated vertically that is touching the stack, if you rotate it to a horizontal orientation it may no longer be touching the stack. Compare the rotations of the T-block, L-Block or J-Block in this image (ARS) [!--ImageUrlBegin--][!--ImageUrlEBegin--]

When they are rotated flat side is down in ARS, it is still touching the bottom three of the 3 by 3 grid cells. When it's rotated in SRS, the bottom three of the 3 by 3 grid cells are empty.

SRS has four rotation states for S, Z and the I piece, which means if you rotate it from the default horizontal position in one direction, it will shift one cell different than if you used the other rotate button. (Again, compare the two images above)

In ARS it doesn't matter which direction you rotate these pieces from the default horizontal position, because the result is the same.

Hah. Oh yeah, the pieces are also different colors.

Since some of this may be inaccurate and is only some of the differences, I suggest you read the two links below, and compare what you find. Also, other players who know more, please feel free to correct me.

[a href=\\\"http://harddrop.com/wiki/SRS]About SRS

About ARS (TGM rotation)

Edit: Post may still be edited, but I think it's mostly fine now.

Edit: Fixed a small error. I said SRS has two rotation states for certain pieces, when it has four. Ooops. Put the correct description with the wrong number.

[Blink]

1.  The Ren system is different than the Combo system in that Ren doesn't start adding any lines until Ren 2, whereas combos start adding sooner - at Combo 1.  Garbage adds are as follows:  

For TOJ's Ren system:

Ren 2 and 3 add 1 each
Ren 4 and 5 add 2 each
Ren 5 and 6 add 3 each
Ren 7 and higher add 4 lines each

For Hangame's combo system it's like this:

Combo 1 and 2 add 1 each
Combo 3 and 4 add 2 each
Combo 5 and 6 add 3 each
Combo 6 and higher add 4 lines each

T-spins adds are double the amount of lines cleared , so:

T-spin single = 2 lines sent
T-spin double = 4 lines sent
T-spin triple = 6 lines sent

There are other differences between Hangame and TOJ that you won't find in Blockbox's settings.  In TOJ, garbage hole change rate is around 30% whereas in Hangame it's random.  Also,  TOJ garbage is sent to 1 person whereas in Hangame it is sent to everyone.

3.  In the standard rated mode, combos do not send any additional lines.  However, after clearing 4 single lines, you will send 1 line of garbage to your opponent.

[Zircean]

Another thing about SRS and ARS is that SRS tends to perform better in lower gravity situations, where ARS is at its best when the gravity is higher. With SRS in lower gravity, you can use rotation in both directions to decrease the amount of keys per tetromino. Its basic rotations are more intuitive, because the tetromino rotates about a center point. This works well in low gravity, but once things get steep, SRS loses its luster.

In higher gravity, ARS behaves in a controlled fashion. When you use SRS, pieces may have their bounding box go into the floor. When you try to rotate it, this could be handled in a few ways. Some older games like Super Tetris 3 did not have wallkicks or floorkicks, and thus the pieces would not rotate when they hit the floor. However, in modern SRS such as that you would find in Tetris DS or Tetris The Grand Master 3, the game uses a floorkick to let you rotate the piece. However, SRS has very arbitrary kicks, and the floorkicks don't move the pieces straight up but generally also move them sideways. For example, take your favorite Guideline game and turn the gravity up as high as it goes. Let a piece hit the floor and then start hitting one of the rotate buttons. You should notice the piece start to "walk" sideways without hitting any of the movement keys. Because ARS always keeps its pieces on the bottom of the bounding box, rotating does not require a floorkick as Kasumi already described (with the exception of I and in rare cases T, and these floorkicks were implemented in TGM3) and the pieces will not walk sideways when they are rotated.

In short, if you are playing for speed in low gravity games like 40 Lines, SRS is your best choice. If you want to play other modes like T.A. Death, you'll want to use ARS.

[Maske]

T-spins adds are double the amount of lines cleared , so:

T-spin single = 2 lines sent
T-spin double = 4 lines sent
T-spin triple = 6 lines sent

i've heard the treatment of T-spin triple was altered in TOJ several months ago.
it appears that "native-TST" was still no different from the old detail, while "BTB-TST" came to add 8lines.

however, since i uninstalled TOJ, i can't check  whether it is true. i'm sorry for being lazy

[Feynman]

Thanks for the help and replies. I have 3 more questions.

4. How does the line sending work on blockbox in rated games with multiple people?
5. What would be a good shift gravity and Custom DAS? I'm playing 1/7 atm and just testing 0/7 now. Should i be tapping or hitting the right wall and than press 1 left for the 9th colom to maximise speed?
6. I noticed blink, maserati and many other that went 150+tpm with perfect stacking. How much do you guys look at the previews? I'm guessing you see them all, but do you actually really look at them or just see the colors while looking at the board? I'm having some trouble focussing on the previews alot. When I do, I feel myself not having to think about were to place the block because I can than build for em, but I don't really go faster because I than need to look at the board a bit closer again. (sorry if I'm being confusing)

Feynman

[Blink]

4. 4 lines sent per tetris, 2 per triple, 1 per double.  Also 1 line sent for every 4 singles cleared.  Sends in FFA are sent to 1 person instead of all, using a system deniax made, hopefully he'll elaborate for me as I don't know the specifics.

5.  I'm also using 1/7 right now, it's all preference.  Some people like the 0 shift gravity and some don't.  I'd recommend a DAS of 8 or lower just so you're not handicapping yourself with slow DAS.

6.  I don't know about maserati but I look at only around 2 previews when playing 40L mode, but for any other mode I try to use as many as possible.  Sometimes i recognize them by color, sometimes by shape.  Are you new to blockbox?  you might be having difficulty recognizing the previews because they're at the top?  When i first started playing blockbox it took me awhile to get used to the previews because I"m used to having them on the right side.

[Rosti_LFC]

Also 1 line sent for every 4 singles cleared.

Is this definitely true? I've heard it quoted a couple of times but mostly from unreliable sources.

Also, to my knowledge clears are sent to everyone, but the number of lines sent to each person is reduced from what it would be if it was one vs one.

[meow]

deniax himself stated that its 4 consecutive singles that add 1 line of garbage. any non-single will break that 'combo'.

[Blink]

yeah it's true, i've tested it before.  I didn't know the specifics but I guess meow just said them: they have to be 4 singles consecutively.

[clincher]

wow I thought that was total bs
I thought only multiple clears counted hmm...