Request: New gigs for DLC in Band World Tour.

[GloriosoZoso]

I love the BWT mode. My only real concern is that we almost never play our downloaded songs. We have purchased over 20 now and the only time we play them in BWT is when we do the "Make a Setlist" gig or the "Mystery Show."

The end result is that we often get stuck playing the 58 songs from the disc over and over while we almost never play the DLC. The other day wife even commented "Wow, I forgot we had a CCR song" because we never get to play the DLC songs. Because BWT is so deep we do not want to play quickplay mode just to play DLC.

Since we have completed all the make a setlist gigs, we can't get more stars for playing the DLC. I know we can still play the DLC; my concern is that we can no longer play the DLC and progress at the same time.

I am extremely excited about additional news songs. But this problem has already stopped me from buying more DLC. Of the already released DLC, I didn't buy a handful of marginal (in my opinion) songs because I thought "I don't want to pay for a so-so song that I'll only play once a month." If these songs appeared more frequently in BWT I would have bought them.

Here is my proposed solution:

In the cities where there is only one venue, the large arena, Harmonix could add the small and medium sized clubs. For those without additional songs, these are new venues with the original 58 songs.

For those with DLC, the new setlists would be 100% DLC. This would give us the option to play the DLC songs on a regular basis and continue to earn $, fans, and stars in BWT mode.

The purpose of this post is to offer a suggestion of how to make BWT more exciting and to get more bang for our DLC buck. These changes would make me purchase more DLC in the future.

If you agree, please respond so that Harmonix will know about our concern.

[CodeRedDK07]

i agree with u!

[DesiredFX]

Sounds like a good idea.

It's frustrating enough that I rarely get to play my DLC online (because of the requirement that everyone have it) without having it get lost in BWT, too.

[v0lum3]

Sounds like a good idea.

It's frustrating enough that I rarely get to play my DLC online (because of the requirement that everyone have it) without having it get lost in BWT, too.

Agreed... paying for the songs I'd hope to get to use them in the whole game...

I really hate it when people don't own ANY DLC songs :(

[sandswipe]

I CONCUR.

That sounds like an awesome plan.

[Corscore]

I agree with you!

[strebalicious]

I'm going to have to disagree because I think this equates to buying a higher score for the leaderboard. You are spending money to get access to venues that other people would not if they didn't have DLC. So you can get a higher score since the score is basically finite according to the number of gigs.

Add new venues, sure. But maybe just make them all random or make a setlist gigs.

[Ferretwave]

I agree I can see it becoming very annoying having all this DLC while the BWT still focuses on the original songs from launch. Screw the leaderboards, what matters is making the game better, so Harmonix, please consider this..:o

[RedTsunami]

yeah, lets do it! I'm all for it!

[bdawg95]

Wait, dont you have to play the songs is solo mode then they go to bwt or am i misunderstanding the question and the answer? :confused:

[obsoleteshock]

I agree. How about this for a solution to the leaderboard problem?

In the solo tour, there is a separate tour for the bonus songs. Why not just have a separate BWT mode that opens up for DLC? They could put in the exact same gigs, but they pull up specific or random DLC for each gig. That way, they don't have to re-balance the game or create any new cities or venues. It would just be a matter of telling the game to cut and paste the DLC songs over the setlist songs of similar difficulty in this separate world tour. If you don't have enough DLC, it would just leave in some of the disc songs as needed.

[GloriosoZoso]

I'm going to have to disagree because I think this equates to buying a higher score for the leaderboard. You are spending money to get access to venues that other people would not if they didn't have DLC. So you can get a higher score since the score is basically finite according to the number of gigs.

Add new venues, sure. But maybe just make them all random or make a setlist gigs.

Since my original post said nothing about leaderboards, it obviously is not a priority for me and I am definitely not trying to buy my way into the leaderboard.

Harmonix could work around the leaderboard question. Maybe obsoleteshock's idea will work.

Nevertheless, let's keep this on the topic of integrating DLC into BWT so that the game becomes even more enjoyable.

All I (and the others who have posted in agreement) want is way to be able to play the DLC more frequently.

This will become a bigger concern once the full albums come out; soon we will have 100s of songs but we will only play the 58 original songs in BWT.

For those who agree with my OP, thank you, and keep posting. Hopefully Harmonix will see this and respond with a possible solution soon.

[Ardius]

Erm, am I the only one to realise this would cause another load of complaints on this forum about how people cant "finish the whole game without paying extra money".
I agree with this idea, but keep in mind not everyone buys DLC (some people may not be able to for whatever reason) and may be a bit cheesed off that they cant finish the game (completely and utterly) unless they spend even more money on what is already an expensive game.

[Drossvirex]

Yes I totally agree. I am tired of the main setlist.

Integrate the DLC better into the game please!

There is no reason people who don't buy DLC can't finish the game. If DLC is bought, the BWT tour gets bigger. What is the problem?

If the BWT was already completed more DLC would simply open it up again.

[KaneTaker]

Hmmm...I swear I've seen my DLC show up in the Random Song slots in several shows. Obviously not in the main sets, but they are there. I really like the idea of having special venues for these, though. Or maybe have each song in the DLC flagged to be played in a certain place and randomly replace one of the songs already in the BWT.

[erickOnasis412]

this is a cool idea!

first off, concerning the leaderboards - technically, down the road, there will probably be at least 10-20 bands who "cap out" fans by gold starring every song and set list.. so by adding new DLC songs into the BWT mode, it will allow bands who capped out to increase fans again and if harmonix kept adding new venues, it would keep the players interested literally for years to come

second, what if harmonix made the venues FREE of charge, but like you said - you have to purchase a certain amount of DLC before each venue unlocks.. that would be a smart way to make money, and us customers would get a whole new game experience as well.. it would probably even make more people start downloading new content that weren't purchasing content before

[SSPWOLF]

There's a few flaws with this.

1) In your OP you said "Increase stars, points, and fans" which is, in essence buying a higher score. You said you didn't care about leaderboards... so you are suggesting that they not only code in a way to do your suggestion, but they also code in a way to disable your BWT band from being able to be viewed on the leaderboards or show up on the Rockers portion of this website.

2) I would view it as I am no longer paying for "extra" content, but now I'm forced to pay money in order to experience the full game in and of itself. If BWT has venues, I want to unlock them. If I can't unlock them without paying money, I feel as though I'm being forced to pay more money for the game, not pay more money for extra content.


I personally have all the DLC, and plan on getting every song that comes out. I play the songs online, and I play them in quickplay all the time.

One thing my BWT band does is "warm up" by doing some band quickplay before we dive into the BWT mode. We almost always play the DLC content for our "warm up" set. Not only is it usefull (warming up helps everyone "stretch out" on all the instruments) but it's sort of a fun ritual. We joke about it being our sound check before we go onstage.

so.. we play DLC every day, as a band, and it does mean something to us.

[GloriosoZoso]

Almost immediately after we got the first set of DLC (11/20), I noticed that the DLC songs only appear in "Make A Setlist" or "Mystery Sets". Because of this my wife and I decided to keep a notepad and write down each DLC song that shows up in BWT apart from "Make A Setlist." We play BWT every day for at least an hour, probably 3-4 on the weekend. In the past month+ the following songs have never appeared in BWT:

*11/20: Joker and the Thief, My Sharona, Bang A Gong, Blackened, And Justice For All, Roxanne, Synchronicity II.

*12/4: NIB, Sweet Leaf

*12/11: Ever Fallen in Love, Rockaway Beach, I Fought the Law.

12/18: Brass in Pocket, Buddy Holly

The following songs have appeared: Ride The Lightning, Can't Stand Losing You, 3's and 7's, War Pigs, and Fortunate Son.

In summary, 5 out of 19 of the DLC songs that we have bought have appeared in BWT. So basically we play 25% of the songs we pay extra for!!!

By comparison, since we started our list we have played Tom Sawyer 12 times, Highway Star 14 times, and Run to the Hills 9 times. (We kept track of two of our favorite songs and our least favorite). Since these are all among the harder difficulty songs, I would bet that we have played easy songs such as Weezer and Hole at least 15+ times.

I hope that this makes my point even more valid. We play the 58 disc songs incessantly, but almost never play our DLC. Since we pay extra for DLC, it stands to reason that we like it more than much of the original 58 songs.

Harmonix, please fix this before we say "Forget DLC, I can only play it in quickplay mode anyway."

[GloriosoZoso]

There's a few flaws with this.

1) In your OP you said "Increase stars, points, and fans" which is, in essence buying a higher score. You said you didn't care about leaderboards... so you are suggesting that they not only code in a way to do your suggestion, but they also code in a way to disable your BWT band from being able to be viewed on the leaderboards or show up on the Rockers portion of this website.

You are missing my point because you are looking for an argument. I have never checked the leaderboards so they mean nothing to me.

Since I didn't explain well enough for you, let me try again:
I would like to be able to play the DLC in the BWT mode. BWT is much more fun than quickplay because of the progression and achievement aspects. I am not looking for a way to boost my score. I just want DLC to be available in equal amounts to the original songs within the BWT mode.

As a possible solution, maybe the new venues could be open to all but those who have more DLC get their venues full of DLC.

Those who do not have DLC simply get more venues with the 58 disc songs. This would give everyone an equal playing filed on your precious leaderboards.

Agian, to reiterate, please respond if you want Harmonix to look into adding DLC more fully into BWT.

[rockst01]

I wish that existing gigs on BWT would get updated with DLC where appropriate. For example, there's an 80's song gig that has the 4 songs on the disc that are from the 1980s. It would be cool if this setlist was automatically updated with DLC songs that are from the 1980s. And the punk rock gig would be updated with any new punk songs. Harmonix already sorts the DLC songs into genres and decades on the full setlist screen so this probably wouldn't be too hard to pull off. Of course there should be an option to turn this off because in a few months there might be 20-30 more 1980's songs and it would be a little overwhelming.

[BathTub]

I wish that existing gigs on BWT would get updated with DLC where appropriate. For example, there's an 80's song gig that has the 4 songs on the disc that are from the 1980s. It would be cool if this setlist was automatically updated with DLC songs that are from the 1980s. And the punk rock gig would be updated with any new punk songs. Harmonix already sorts the DLC songs into genres and decades on the full setlist screen so this probably wouldn't be too hard to pull off. Of course there should be an option to turn this off because in a few months there might be 20-30 more 1980's songs and it would be a little overwhelming.

That's pretty close to how it should go, the play lists don't have to get bigger, but "4 of the available punk songs" or "2 of the available '80s songs" would work. They could also add playlists in a similar fashion that used DLC if available, otherwise fall back to the old tracks.

[Kingfish]

I like the idea...a LOT!

For those that seem to on the opposite side of this again worrying that unlockable content based on DLC is = to buying more success and thus might push some bands higher on the leaderboards. So what? Let there be an asterisk or something beside the names of the bands that use this feature. then you will know who the PURE bands are (and when all bands have an {*} next to their names what will everyone say?).

For those that say, hey an unlockable tied to DLC...this means i have to spend more money to complete the game, NO FAIR! I say make the venues TIED to various songs...maybe songs from certain bands "pop" venues in their home cities or region. Buy a Black Stone Cherry song and a venue opens in Nashville or Helsinki...Buy an Evanescence song and a venue opens in Little Rock or Luxembourg.

This would effectively make the new venues DLC and NOT unlockables.

[strebalicious]

You are missing my point because you are looking for an argument. I have never checked the leaderboards so they mean nothing to me.

Since I didn't explain well enough for you, let me try again:
I would like to be able to play the DLC in the BWT mode. BWT is much more fun than quickplay because of the progression and achievement aspects. I am not looking for a way to boost my score. I just want DLC to be available in equal amounts to the original songs within the BWT mode.

As a possible solution, maybe the new venues could be open to all but those who have more DLC get their venues full of DLC.

Those who do not have DLC simply get more venues with the 58 disc songs. This would give everyone an equal playing filed on your precious leaderboards.

Agian, to reiterate, please respond if you want Harmonix to look into adding DLC more fully into BWT.

Not an argument, a counterpoint. Something made for the casual will always get exploited by the hardcore.

I would love it if they implemented DLC better in BWT. I just think new venues should be akin to quickplay (all gigs are make a setlist). But as 75% of my time in Rockband is me solo on the drums, I guess it's just not a priority for me. The few Random/Make-a-list gigs in BWT will just have to do for me.

[Kingape]

Or they could just set up new venues that HEAVILY favored DLC and if you didnt have any it would randomize the songs in the games. Thus everyone could have more venues and the artificial inflating argument is gone.

[Kingfish]

Or they could just set up new venues that HEAVILY favored DLC and if you didnt have any it would randomize the songs in the games. Thus everyone could have more venues and the artificial inflating argument is gone.

Works for me...lets see if they will put out any new code without seeing any guaranteed profit from it.

I like the idea of just changing the way the current venues "see" DLC...maybe just a reworking of the system already in place would solve this...at least be a Band-Aid.

[superman001]

Excellent idea!

[dfjdejulio]

There are actual venues I would pay to download for their own sake, the main one being the "Whiskey A Go-Go".

They could also add entire cities. Doesn't it seem strange to anyone else that Las Vegas isn't there? Seems the perfect place to go to play some DLC...

(Heck, maybe I just haven't unlocked it yet. I haven't gotten the "washed-out has-been" achievement...)

[Bakkster]

That's pretty close to how it should go, the play lists don't have to get bigger, but "4 of the available punk songs" or "2 of the available '80s songs" would work. They could also add playlists in a similar fashion that used DLC if available, otherwise fall back to the old tracks.

Too many permutations to do this reliably.


Or they could just set up new venues that HEAVILY favored DLC and if you didnt have any it would randomize the songs in the games. Thus everyone could have more venues and the artificial inflating argument is gone.

This is a good idea.

Personally, when I want to play my DLC songs, I go to quickplay, or Make-a-Setlist. I never expect random setlists to be songs I want to play (that's part of randomness, isn't it?).

[GloriosoZoso]

It sounds like everyone is interested in having the DLC appear much more frequently in BWT.

As this will only become a bigger concern when we get the full length albums, I really hope that Harmonix sees this and responds.

[GloriosoZoso]

Harmonix:

Are you aware of this minor concern we have with an otherwise amazing game?

[GloriosoZoso]

HMXsean:

Please reply and let us know if Harmonix has any plans to more fully integrate the DLC into BWT at some future date. Your response would be appreciated.

PS
I had to update a patch for RB a few days ago and it now seems like 80% of the time a mystery set is played at least one song is from DLC. Is this just a coincidence or was there really a patch?

[GloriosoZoso]

Anyone at Harmonic care to respond?

[MisterSchulz]

The other problem that I don't think has been mentioned here is that the only way to register scores on the Leaderboards for DLC or any song for that matter is through Band World Tour, because playing songs on Quickplay won't have a band name to associate the score with, and thus won't go on the Leaderboards.

Thus the only way to get a band score on the Leaderboards is through BWT, but the only way to play DLC in BWT is through Make a Gig or Myster, as mentioned before. This is a hassle because: those Gigs have already been completed; you can't just play one DLC song, you have to play at least 2 songs; you have to play both songs at the same difficulty, etc etc.


Case in point: my band played Won't Get Fooled Again on Quickplay, got over 1,200,000 points, good enough for top 15 or 20 on the leaderboards... but we didn't get a Leaderboard entry because it wasn't under a Band name in BWT.

Kind of relevant to your DLC gigs. If there were DLC gigs in BWT, it'd be at least a little bit easier to record band scores for DLC songs!