Why must the online servers ALWAYS be a letdown?!

[druchebag]

For all of this, I am referring to the Xbox 360 versions. Compared to the development of Guitar Hero III, Rock Band seemed like it might have more to offer. Granted, the guitar parts are easier (but that's why it's ROCK Band not GUITAR Band, it's an eperience for all). Anyway, considering the money consumers shelled out (just retail, mind you) is in the nine figure range and up... wouldn't they make a decent enough dedicated server for online play? Instead all they handed out was a duplicate of Guitar Hero III, except worse. The only options for multiplayer are to: either find a bandmate online to fill in, or play face-off. No co-op, no pro-faceoff, no battle, you can't even pick what song you want to play. All you get is a difficulty. Then it hands you a random song, oftentimes either incredibly easy or ridiculously difficult, so much that the winner is determined at random. Or they give a 50/50 chance of server bias. Yes, there is host and lag in a multiplayer online match. They also pick one of the two (and for some reason I end up getting the shorter stick most of the time) to give the easier sections of notes and additional overdrive phrases, making it impossible for the other person to win, even if they 100%. I really don't want to play against anyone anymore until they give us what we PAID for. Then again, I'd like to just win the twenty matches achievements and get it over with. But thusfar, I barely get any wins because of the server some tech obviously hired their kid to make from playdough, or the other player forfeits - which doesn't count as a win for you? There's my rant. I honestly won't care about leaderboard rankings because as I've explained, they're extremely flawed.

[HeXcoda]

I believe you're talking about the online options, not the "servers"...

Co-op - Band Quickplay. Four people jam together. What more co-op do you want? Online band world tour? They couldn't get the feature out in time without delaying the game.

Pro faceoff - It's in there, in Score Duel and Tug-of-War, and the random songs are so you have a level playing field. You can't have someone pick a song they know they rock at and you suck at. It's the ultimate fairness.

Lag is not an issue. Scores are calculated player side and even if there's some "catch up" you will never be forced to fail a string of notes due to it.

As for difficult phrases being handed off to one player and not the other, that's never been my experience, but granted I haven't marathoned competitive matches. I'll let others chime in on that.

Players disconnecting equalling losses for both is stupid, I will agree on that part, but big deal.

I paid for an awesome cooperative music game with online, offline, and solo components and that's what I got. How exactly am I not getting my money?

[druchebag]

Well, I did mean servers and not options. I retract the co-op statement - kindof got caught in confusion of game reference ( I was wondering why there was no guitar/guitar and even mention online band quickplay but then said there was no co-op *slaps self*). But I disagree about the lag and one-sided server bias. And the pro-faceoff (lack thereof) is mainly the cause of that (tug of war and score duel in my experience are regular face-off - breaks). One other main thing I'm disappointed about is the Fender controller. It's the worse built thing ever. I guess in theory they were going for more of a realistic body shape but instead it just makes it more awkward. The keys are now flush and barely noticeable (trying to act like they're actually simulating a guitar?) and the whammy bar is monstrously disproportioned and incoveniently placed. If only I could find some threads on hard modding for the new guitar, I would do it myself or pay someone else to do it, because as is it's worthless. Granted the game isn't horrible, but with the time and budget they had, they could've done much better.

[HeXcoda]

I can't say anything about one-sided bias, but how do you see lag featuring into this? When you play, you're basically playing your own isolated solo game, and only your scores and missed notes get sent over the wire. So, there's no way network conditions can throw you off rhytm and cause you to lose score. Or do you mean video/TV calibration lag?

As for the guitar, I really like the guitar. It's MUCH better proportioned for my fingers, and it's easier for me to reach from key to key; my performance has improved. But really, this is a matter of taste, and in a perfect world EVERY guitar would be compatible with Rock Band... you can blame Activision for that one. Fortunately 3rd party guitars are coming, ones compatible with BOTH games and strongly resembling the GH guitars. Yes, you bought a guitar you're unsatisfied with but you knew going into this that there was a chance of that -- the alternative was to buy game-only and use old GH tars or wait for the 3rd party stock. This is the same dillema you'd face buying GH+Guitar and there's no way around the simple fact that one size does not fit all... but will fit some.

[Zero3ffect]

From what I remember from the Guitar Hero series, the regular face-off is comparable to Tug of War in Rock Band (as each player plays random sections) and the pro face-off is comparable to Score Duel in Rock Band (as each player plays the entire song). Therefore, I don't really understand what you are complaining about.

If you want to select the song than just go to "Player Match" instead of "Ranked Match" and you can select the song (or communicate to the other person of your song selection).

[SSPWOLF]

Sounds like someone is just getting frustrated.


I have only recently began delving into the world of Competitive Online Rock Band. First thing I did was go to drums on expert and after about 4 landslide wins a row I ended up going back to my solo tour.

On the guitar it was a different story.

Went on expert and got smashed on QoTSA right off the bat. Stepped down to hard and got three landslide victories in a row. Was just about to start patting myself on the back when GGaHT came up, lost by about 4k.

Then an easy song came up, it was one of those "first person to make a mistake loses" match. Was real tense, fun... I ended up losing, but thought it was fun.

Next match, Aerosmith comes up, I smash the guy. Then it was Nightmare, got beat by about 2k. Same person, we play Smashing pumpkins.. I smash him in the first 50 notes and he disconnects.

Three more disconnects, and two more wins...


Anyway, the point is.. I played quite a bit and had a lot of fun. It kept me on my toes...

In GH3 on hard it seemed like every single person I played got 100% on every song they picked while I was getting 98% or so on the ones I picked and 90-91% on the songs they picked.

At least in RB it's a matter of your actual skill on the controller instead of your skill on the song sometimes, and if YOUR song comes up... well, you get to see just how good you are at it. Sometimes you'll get a great player.. sometimes you'll get a sorry one, but you can't always rely on those 3 songs you practice 1000 times.

I can honestly say that when GGaHT came up it was a blast chasing the guy who was better than me. He didn't play the song like he'd practiced it 1000 times, but you could tell he was good. At any point I could have got on a roll, hit the right overdrive, and caught up.. but he kept one step ahead of me.

In GH3, when I saw someone pick Slayer or Dragonforce, I INSTANTLY knew I was going to lose no matter what.

[HeXcoda]

In GH3, when I saw someone pick Slayer or Dragonforce, I INSTANTLY knew I was going to lose no matter what.

And THAT is the crux of why ranked matches are random.

Non-ranked, sure, play whatever you want. Bias is a factor, but it doesn't matter. But when ranked you don't want to constantly go against people picking songs they know for a fact they can 100% using the optimum Overdrive path -- you basically are fighting a brick wall at that point. The converse is true, there's no challenge in picking YOUR best song and they beat against the wall in futility. And don't pretend that wouldn't happen... it's ranked. People will, when given a number to fight over, pull every trick they're legally allowed to in order to win.

Randomization means you're both on even ground. Your best songs have an equal chance of coming up compared to their best songs, and you may even be tossed a song that (god forbid!) both of you are not perfect at and you can have a REAL battle goin' down. Awwyeah.

[SSPWOLF]

^

I concur with everything he says :)

[dcha]

360 version doesnt get to pick the song?

[druchebag]

Meh... overall it's not so bad anymore. I would just like to get the 20 matches per matchtype achievements over with and let them tweak it (fix it) up before I play some more. I just don't like quite a few of the unfair advantage features. For example, if I 100% FC a song and the other person sporadically breaks multipliers (i.e. 93%), somehow even though I have a higher multiplier they make a gain on me. How can that be possible? Or for instance, the one sided random winner theory - they give one player up to 10 more overdrive phrases than the other. They also place (on tug of war) overdrive phrases inconveniently different for each player. I had a guy easy then they give them two phrases near the end and only one for me - and of course they make a miraculous comeback. I do know what calibration is and that certainly is not the case. In some (very few, 2 or 3) cases, my screen freezes for about 15 seconds but the song continues to play. Then it resumes and they are in the lead by a landslide. This is due to either server lag or someone desperate enough to attempt bridging out. I also wish it automatically allowed you to play DLC songs on online multiplayer (I know both players have to have it and they just haven't added that feature yet because it requires them to work). All I'm saying is with the time and money, they could've taken this alot further but decided not to. It was a choice.

[HeXcoda]

Okay, here's MY legit complaint with the HARDKOREZOMGCOMPETITIVE(tm) side of Rock Band.

Nobody wants to sing. It sucks. It's the only instrument I can play on Expert and not fail out instantly, but whenever I search for ranked tug of wars or score duels, nobody's doin' it. It's hard to get that Win 20 Times achievement when you hear the melodious sounds of crickets chirping whenever you search for some competition.

Beyond that, well, I rarely do anything other than Band Quickplay, so I have no complaints. :)

[dfjdejulio]

whenever I search for ranked tug of wars or score duels, nobody's doin' it

Ha! Try to find ranked bass matches some day. Go ahead, try.

[GoclFaThER]

Ya I get confused too, because I finished medium on drums. Now I went to hard and Im not getting any fans, just money. I try and go to expert, I do a couple of songs, and Im still not gettin fans. -_-