Changing roles in BWT

[SmokaCola]

You'll have to make a character for each instrument, only way to change.

[beldoe34]

Is there a way to change the role of the band leader to a different instrument? Being, I'm the band leader on drums. Well my foot got tired after awhile and I wanted to play guitar, but for some reason, I couldn't do it. Is there a way to? And if so, how do I go about doing this?

[beldoe34]

Understood, but from what I was doing, somebody always had to be on the drums. I couldn't change my leader character to the guitar. I even created new characters to fill the band, but I myself couldn't move my character to the guitar.

[KazerX]

Yeah, you can't change the leaders role in BWT. Only way is to start over with a leader that uses a guitar or mic.

[SmokaCola]

Hmmm... Don't really know why it's doing that... sorry :(

[jonfitzsimon]

It is pretty dumb that you cant switch instruments. I understand during a show you cant, but when you back all the way out, you should be able to switch it around. I think it is very silly and an easy overlook imo.

[skyehill]

Calm down, its not as if we didnt know about this before...........and it doesnt break the game.

No but it is indicative of shoddy programming and design. Much like the guitars.

[HeXcoda]

Calm down, its not as if we didnt know about this before...........and it doesnt break the game.

WE knew about it before -- but a lot of people just joining up after buying Rock Band probably didn't know. That's also why there's a lot of "How do I go online with BWT?" questions.

These are things people assume are possible, because... well, why wouldn't they be? It feels like a natural fit, and it's not like the box carries warning labels over these fumbly interface and feature issues. But HMX didn't work out the kinks and as a result, there's confusion.

Patience when dealing with newcomers is the best way to go. Not everybody was in the loop.

Me, I'd be fine with forced-instrumentation if I didn't need to sign in / out profiles on my xbox for every connected instrument...

[Ultrace]

Not sloppy so much as restrictive. More than the online BWT, solo BWT, peripheral issues or anything else, I wish it was more convenient to switch characters around in BWT or even quickplay modes. Having a character locked to only one instrument is an irritant, but having the leader of the band locked to a single position is really rough. I can make four avatars for myself (each one with a distinctive look for their instrument), but having the same character play one position as a band proceeds hurts.

Patching the game to add more menus and such for these transitions could be tricky, and there's no hope for PS2 owners, but this is at the top of my wish list. Maybe by the time Christmas rolls around...

[steelcurtain187]

I hate that you can't switch either. It's BS!

[Ardius]

It's BS!

Calm down, its not as if we didnt know about this before...........and it doesnt break the game.

[VixOrien]

I'd have to agree. It'd be real nice to be able to change roles. There are several real bands who do this, sometimes in the middle of shows too. Plus, as far as the game is concerned, it would just make it more fun.

So, do you really have to make a band for all the different player/instrument combinations if you ever want to switch? Is that really the only way to do this? The whole "create/manage a band" interface seems rather sloppy.


-Vix

[metasynthie]

I'll add some more reasons why this is bad, and ought to be patched:

Let's say my friends and I play together all the time, we've each made our own characters and formed a band. I decided to sing and made the singer the leader of the band.

Here are the problems:

1. I decide I don't want to sing. Someone else has to play my character and sing; this band always has to have a singer even if nobody wants to sing. If there are only two of us playing one afternoon, and one wants to play the drums and the other wants to play the guitar... too bad. One of us has to take the singing part.

2. If anyone else made a singer character, for instance so that they can do Solo Tour, they can't be in the band, there's no way that character can participate or earn money in that band. Only my character can ever sing, unless we make a new band.

3. If the people playing want to play different instruments, which is bound to happen ("let me play the drums for a while, my voice is tired") they have to use each other's characters. Obviously this isn't the end of the world, but it's kind of disappointing not to be able to bring your own singer in. Basically same as #2 I guess.

I can think of a bunch of possible ways this could be patched -- attach the band data to an Xbox profile instead of a character, put in an option in the band management screens to switch leaders (that would be inconvenient but would get the job done), etc. Ideally, let the characters themselves switch to different instruments, that would be fine too.

[grifta67]

Hmm, I'm glad I came across this thread before we started up our first band tonight.

So we all agree that it sucks and its a pain in the ass. Lets discuss the workarounds. Would the best route be to make the lead guitarist the leader of the band? If I think about it, it seems the guitar would be the most commonly involved instrument amongst my friends. I guess this is really annoying, since I was going to be "leader" since I'm the most common player of the game and will be playing with various groups of people.

What exactly does it mean to be the "leader" anyways? Just that that particular character/instrument has to be involved to play as that band?

Having to use each other's characters in order to switch up instruments is cumbersome and a bit annoying, but not the end of the world. I'm usually the guy who hates people using his profiles since it "might mess up my stats or achievements man!" :)

Thanks!
-Sean

[metasynthie]

Yeah, my roomate and I have just decided to scrap our band and start over with a guitarist as the leader. Our first band, which we got a fair way through BWT with, had a drummer as the leader. The problem is that neither of us have gotten good enough at the drums to be able to play consistently on Hard, which means we can't earn more than 250,000 fans in BWT. I'm not totally sure but I think that means we won't be able to get to the end.

So the alternative is to either start over with a new band, or practice the drums a lot -- which I would like to do eventually but not right now. We just want to play through BWT and see it all, but because we started the band with a drummer, every single time we play one of us has to drum!!

For obvious reasons, a singer is not the best leader either -- for instance if you play a song that nobody knows how to sing, or if everyone is either hoarse or doesn't like to sing, etc. So far in playing this game with various groups, singers have been the hardest to find, so you wouldn't want that to be a requirement.

Guitar is the way to go for band leader at the moment, especially since there are so many people around with GH experience, the fact that the leader can go on guitar or bass (for the newbie players) etc.

But all of this demonstrates why this would be a nice thing to patch.

[Maggot_Brain]

Ok, guys, it turns out that we are all in the "Usability and Ergonomics Test!" Let's all make sure that we speak out often about this so that that Rock Band's user friendliness is improved.

[VixOrien]

I agree with Maggot Brain. A few tweaks to the workings of the bands, and it will shine! Plus, it'll just be way more fun with a large group of people :)


-Vix

[jmiscavish]

It was very difficult playing with my wife last night. We had to create two brand new profiles and characters just so we could switch instruments. Is that honestly the best they could come up with? Now, whenever a new friend comes over to I have to have like 20 different profiles on my xbox? Dang, I'm having 10 people over saturday night for the MU/KU game who want to play rockband. Either they play as me or they have to start a whole new profile. That's pretty stupid.

Game rocks but this is driving the score down, down, down. I don't know how the reviewers didn't notice this unless nobody tried to switch instruments.

[Pandacon]

It was very difficult playing with my wife last night. We had to create two brand new profiles and characters just so we could switch instruments. Is that honestly the best they could come up with? Now, whenever a new friend comes over to I have to have like 20 different profiles on my xbox? Dang, I'm having 10 people over saturday night for the MU/KU game who want to play rockband. Either they play as me or they have to start a whole new profile. That's pretty stupid.

Game rocks but this is driving the score down, down, down. I don't know how the reviewers didn't notice this unless nobody tried to switch instruments.

You're serious? You have to make a new Xbox Live profile for every person that plays? Hah, I had to deal with that playing Final Fantasy XI, and it really annoyed me, I'm even that much more glad now that I got it for my PS3.