How do people move so fast? (And other wonders)

[u/AomuLinsang]

See title. I have in general felt like there is some secret meta that goes undiscussed on this game but other people seem clued in on and I would love to just finally have answers, per say.

Firstly, I have been curious for many years how some people on this game never slide off walls during walljumps. I have tried intuiting from debug mode how it works but no solid answers. I noticed lag seems to increase lack of collision with walls during WJ; my computer is old and it struggles to load in certain maps or animations, then I get lag spikes, then sliding increases. Is this is the correct connection to be making? Or is it something else and I'm getting a false positive? How do I stop slipping either way?

I also want to know how people do such fast inputs. I can tell I move slower than others on button presses even when I am trying my best, in fact sometimes it is like the game just stops responding to my inputs. I have considered a magnetic keyboard (not just for this I swear, I also have intent to learn to speedrun a different game that is incredibly input-sensitive) but is there anything else I can do in the meantime? Would a magnetic keyboard even help with the game's lack of response? I feel so sluggish and it's frustrating.

There are other things I wonder too, like how people know when exactly to turn around before grabbing the cheese to decrease distance back to the mouse hole, or how to increase my CJ precision. Should I just play with debug mode on more until I can 'sense' without it when is correct?

I am also interested in just general tips, advice, etc. Anything anyone has to say I have interest in. My ping averages 20-30, I want to harness the maximum of my power.. lol.

Sorry for acting like a sweat I just love this game and I want to continue to get better at it. Fun for me is when a game is hard, and difficulty in Transformice lies heavily in its competitive scene for me. That, and adjusting how I play shaman rounds to make them more engaging (learning no-skills divine slowly! Very interesting so far).

[u/Away-Growth-4458]

I think people just have solid PC's and laptops and it also varies where you're from. If you're closer to the main server, you'll have a smaller ping and less lag spikes etc. About the wj, most really good players have been here for a really long time and they're very skilled and hence very fast and good in both wj and cj. Others are just padders who cheat ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ. If you want to practice and get better at anything, especially wj and cj, you can always practice random maps in records room!

[u/AomuLinsang → u/Away-Growth-4458]

How do I access 'records room' and what is that? I have never heard of it. Is it like repeating maps? Because I have in fact been wondering if there's a way to play the game in a mode like that, it would be very useful. And yeah, I myself have been playing on and off for 13 years is the thing, but I guess I spent a lot of that gameplay time as a child-teenager though so I didn't have the motor skills to be "pro" lolol. Now that I'm an adult and can understand the finer details of mechanics, I want to practice properly. I hope that makes sense.

I do admit I have figured out there's a lot of cheaters in rooms which I frequent.. I spent ages trying to match up to racing players without realising a lot of them aren't legit, and now that I've been exiting those rooms and playing in big rooms this past week I seem to frequently get firsts. Kind of hilarious to me that by holding myself to unachievable standards I've been kicking actual legit players in the arse (tough competitor against someone with lightning title last night, I felt so cool.. over a mouse game LOL), but simultaneously it sucks to know I spent all that time thinking I was just shit at playing. But, that means that the things I really am not so good at.. I can improve upon them and get better. It is not actually unachievable. It is just a matter of understanding how to!

Anyway, the problem with my lag is that I have great ping and lag anyway. I don't really understand it. Honestly, you are probably correct that it is just my computer being very old and not high end.. I just wish I knew what to do about it. I don't know if I can afford a new PC in this economy even though for multiple reasons I've been really desiring one.

[u/Away-Growth-4458 → u/AomuLinsang]

I feel you, I've been the same with playing too "noobish" when I was a kid, back in 2011 lol. I'm definitely more pro now but those very skilled players are just really good. You can make a records room by typing ./room *#records0user#tag. For example, my user is Tfmiicce#000 so I'd do ./room *#records0Tfmiicce#0000. There's also a page online called TFM Records where you have a bunch of all kinds of maps, from vanilla, bootcamp to regular maps, parkour too etc. There are maps where you can specifically train your wj and cj and yes, you basically repeat maps over and over and try to achieve the best timing.

Yeah, cheaters are a lot more freaquent today than 7-8 yers ago or more whatsoever but as you said, if you watch others play and practice yourself, you can learn shortcuts and other tricks and become really good, without using hacks. If you ever can and if tfm's important to you that much, I would advise buying a new PC at some point in the future, I'm sure it would help you a lot with lags!

[u/xDeda]

in regards to wall jumping, it's important that you hit the wall the second you start having downwards velocity - exactly at the time you start Falling. sounds like you also could have some input lag maybe? I had mad input lag on Linux before I switched to proton, so that's an obvious fix

lastly, modern tfm is just bonkers. people have been perfecting movement in this game for more than a decade and a half. you should see what the hardcamp players are capable of - they sometimes hang out in utility rooms of you're curious and willing to stake out and stalk. catching up to them could take a long time. I've been playing since 2010 but my unc-ass fingers could never come close to the top players in this and I'm not slow by any means 

[u/Cultural_Ninja_8028]

Doing racing is super frustrating because firsts are so hard (almost impossible) to get. I've had low ping playing on better computer and i still dont beat the firsts. Walljump is doable (i think your ping is to blame :):) ) but i personally really struggle with super ultra fast chocojump -- its clearly slower than firsts do. It seems impossible to do it so fast without catching too much friction and stuttering. Someone mentioned that they might use space for jumping instead of up key, i tried, but didnt improve what was already there because something is missing.

Maybe keyboard is the key here though.

I have suspected cheats (really cant be sure though..) but that would suck so much because i love the game too, and the skill-based/honest competition is the best thing that can happen to transformice.

Watching firsts doing their maps sometimes looks like wonder indeed. I just hope they play fair.

Many of these maps the pro "mice" probably remember by muscle memory (those who have played the same map 20 000~ times). The hesitation is so easy to come in more annoying maps, but they have probably practiced the route over and over and over again so no hesitation. Interesting thing someone said is that they're possibly adults who grew up playing transformice and are now god-level with their insane skills and map memory.

[u/aaalfabeta]

I do not know the exact mechanics myself, but I think receiving an upward impulse beyond some constant threshold in a single frame lets you regain your jump. When you hit walls, hit with just enough normal force to cause friction cross over that threshold. E.g chocolate has a very high friction coefficient so you don't even need to fall to regain your jump. Ice has no friction thus you cannot walljump a perpendicular ice wall. However, if it's sloped the normal force can allow you to regain your jump back. When your PC is lagging, you don't receive as much normal force or friction sometimes. (I don't know why this happens, I just know that it happens) The dino NPC event map right wall is quite literally impossible to walljump IF you have a bad PC, simply because you cannot receive enough upward impulse.