Instrument Changing and Band Leader Issue!

[walnutthewise]

It might not be classified as a bug, and may very well be how the game is designed. I know many others are having issues changing instruments for your custom character in Band World Tour, or using the same character for multiple instruments in solo modes. It seems as if the characters are locked to an a specific instrument.

The changing instruments also presents a problems for Band World Tour. Let us say my wife and I are playing and I am the band leader; I am on guitar and she is on drums. After a few songs we want to switch; I want to play drums, and she wants to sing. No one will be on guitar and the Band World Tour mode will be locked out without our leader. If a character is able to switch instruments, the band leader can just switch and would be present to "lead" the band.

Though this may just be bad interface design choices, it should be treated as a critical problem and should be addressed in the next patch. All those in favor please reply!

[ChaosElement]

Sounds like a real pain in the gluttius maximus

[InsaneGame]

Yeah I really hate how in band world tour my guy is stuck as singerbecuase he is the leader.

[MJDoja]

This forum is full of whiners.

[walnutthewise]

I love the product insanely much, however there are some critical issues that can be fixed through a patch and if people do not voice their opinion then they will not get addressed.

[shadus]

I'm with you, it's silly that you need to create a new character for every single instrument except guitar/bass. You should be able to create one character or ten and use that one character on any instrument or have chars for each individual instrument, band leader needs tied to the account, not specific character.

[jmiscavish]

I agree, but there's already a huge thread about this.

This issue is terribly frustrating and annoying.

One person on one account with one character should be able to have full access to this entire game, BWT and solo tour on each instrument. Assinine.

[Darkfalz]

One person on one account with one character should be able to have full access to this entire game, BWT and solo tour on each instrument. Assinine.

QFT.

Oh, and no solo World Tour is just plain poor, close minded game design.

[NickBalto]

This isnt much of a problem for me. my leader is gonna be the drummer because all my mates are fighting over the drums already, i havent even got the thing yet...

[Maggot_Brain]

This forum is full of whiners.

No, we're unpaid Interface Testers and we have spoken!

[randomhajile]

Absolutely true. My gf and I began the World Tour mode tonight and after a few songs I wanted to try the drums, and the only way to do that was to exit out, sign us both out of our 360 accounts, have her sign in, create a new band, with two new characters (with different names) under her account in her band.

And now every time we want to switch off (without being each others' characters instead) it's a exit exit sign out sign out sign in sign in process. I can see the reality of the band's guitarist always being the band's guitarist, but yeesh. I'm glad there's only two of us ;)

[OrdealByFire]

same "problem" here too. it's rather frustrating...

[bumbousdude25]

I'm all for a patch. You got my vote. :)

[espher]

It's not like this was the design of the mode as has been described for the last few months or anything. Clearly a critical problem.

[ibender]

I agree with the OP

[RogerTarin]

Yeah, it really sucks you have to create 3 characters in order to have your costumized player to play and that you can't play without your specific leader character on his specific role.....cut the specific crap this should be completely free to roam around so your character can just run and grab a guitar/bang the drums/or scream his/her guts out with the mic!:cool:

[rebelace]

I posted in the other thread as well. But this is a big enough anoyance to me and obviously all you guys as well so I see it as deserving a double post or whatever it takes.

[jmiscavish]

Didn't they have people playtest this? Did those people not say "Why is it that I have to have 3 different characters per person on each different account just to switch instruments?"

[Rook_x51]

Besides it being the thread that Sean decided to drop the "No online BWT" info in, I had created a thread like this a while ago. I was flamed pretty hard, but it seems that the general public agrees with me.

Be warned however, there are many fannies that don't agree with us. And HMX' response was that selecting an instrument is like selecting a class in an MMO. Once you pick it you are stuck with it.

Which seems silly to me.

[jmiscavish]

Besides it being the thread that Sean decided to drop the "No online BWT" info in, I had created a thread like this a while ago. I was flamed pretty hard, but it seems that the general public agrees with me.

Be warned however, there are many fannies that don't agree with us. And HMX' response was that selecting an instrument is like selecting a class in an MMO. Once you pick it you are stuck with it.

Which seems silly to me.
LOL, this is nothing like selecting a class in a MMO. Mostly because this isn't an RPG. That metaphor doesn't make any sense.

Patch your game to add online and solo BWT, while you're at it, let me switch instruments. I'm not sure why anyone would flame this. It really just makes sense. This is a party game, not a "really-convoluted-confusing-having-to-sign-in-and-out-and-never-be-able-to-switch-instruments" game.

[Maggot_Brain]

Patch your game to add online and solo BWT, while your at it, let me switch instruments. I'm not sure why anyone would flame this. It really just makes sense. This is a party game, not a "really-convoluted-confusing-having-to-sign-in-and-out-and-never-be-able-to-switch-instruments" game.

This is one of the greatest games I've ever played in over 20 years of gaming and with just a little more work it could be perfect. I hope they're listening to us?

[linuxguru]

My wife, my brother, my sister-in-law and I all play.
At the moment, we do not care who the characters are..we just play.

...with that said, I agree that it seems convoluted that the character created can not switch from say singer to bass guitar (any Sting fans out there?)

To look at it from a real world perspective...not many bands have members that can play everything, so it sort of makes sense that if you are a drummer, you are a drummer....but this is a game and we should not be locked into a "class".

Patch it and allow us to choose our own destiny.

All in all....very fun.

[Badosh]

This forum is full of whiners.

true, but you dont have to complain about it

[Rook_x51]

true, but you dont have to complain about it

Oh dear. That may have ended the internet for me. I think that was the best thing I have ever read on this forum.

Nicely done.

[mltdwn]

After thinking about it awhile I can see why they did it to a degree...

If you want to just play the songs as a group and swap instruments easily, etc. that is what the Multiplayer Quick Play (or whatever the non-BWT) is for. BWT is for "this is your band, you are going place to place and building fans and becoming more and more famous" not everyone "just playing" so it is kind of an RPG. I mean while there are some bands like the Eagles that the players change instruments on the majority never do (least I don't remember Mick or Steven Tyler ever doing anything but singing, and I don't remember Alex Van Halen ever playing anything but drums even though he can play guitar, and Eddie never did anything but guitar with occasional keyboard fills).

So I can get their point. If you want to just play and have fun you do the quickplay, if you want to set up an actual "band" and take them through their career you do BWT.

[linuxguru]

After thinking about it awhile I can see why they did it to a degree...

If you want to just play the songs as a group and swap instruments easily, etc. that is what the Multiplayer Quick Play (or whatever the non-BWT) is for. BWT is for "this is your band, you are going place to place and building fans and becoming more and more famous" not everyone "just playing" so it is kind of an RPG. I mean while there are some bands like the Eagles that the players change instruments on the majority never do (least I don't remember Mick or Steven Tyler ever doing anything but singing, and I don't remember Alex Van Halen ever playing anything but drums even though he can play guitar, and Eddie never did anything but guitar with occasional keyboard fills).

So I can get their point. If you want to just play and have fun you do the quickplay, if you want to set up an actual "band" and take them through their career you do BWT.

Well said.

[Lazerus101]

I don't even have the game yet and from reading these posts I am kinda worried. Me and my friends all want to have a hand at all aspects of the game, and having to mess about like this sounds INFURIATING.
Just make it so each band member can choose their instrument on a per song basis.
Sounds like a simple fix to me.

Defining Ethos should be, if there is an opportunity to give a player choice... GIVE IT TO THEM.

Constraints are bad mmkay.

[linuxguru]

I don't even have the game yet and from reading these posts I am kinda worried. Me and my friends all want to have a hand at all aspects of the game, and having to mess about like this sounds INFURIATING.
Just make it so each band member can choose their instrument on a per song basis.
Sounds like a simple fix to me.

Well you can do that, just not in Band World Tour mode.

[RokBand]

While this might seem like something that should be in the game, I don't see why you guys can't just swap instruments with your friends. It's not like you have time to pay attention to what's going on in the background.

[spacecowboy]

While this might seem like something that should be in the game, I don't see why you guys can't just swap instruments with your friends. It's not like you have time to pay attention to what's going on in the background.

seriously. if you and friends are making characters for a band, i'd think you would probably like the characters they make and wouldn't care which character you play as. does it matter who is on the screen as long as your rockin away?

[Progged]

I've completely changed my position on this. I want my "character" to remain the position I set up in the band for the world tour. Just as others have mentioned, quick play is perfect for setting up multiple instruments with one character.

I'm at work right now, making my kids slave away through the solo career to open up songs for our band tonight :eek:

Did I mention this game smokes??? Love it!

[DDMagnaS]

I created a character, I want that character to be able to play whatever I feel like playing at the moment. If this persona is supposed to be a version of me that I want to play Rock Band as, then he should be able to switch instruments on a whim, JUST LIKE ME.

The CHARACTER should be the Band Leader and the Band Leader (as well as everyone else) should be able to play whatever instrument they want.

Please fix this, Harmonix!

[Progged]

Your opinion... I disagree... Create your character on quickplay and play what you want. The band mode is not setup for you to bounce instruments - kinda like simulating a real rock band Eh?

[walnutthewise]

It might not be classified as a bug, and may very well be how the game is designed. I know many others are having issues changing instruments for your custom character in Band World Tour, or using the same character for multiple instruments in solo modes. It seems as if the characters are locked to an a specific instrument.

The changing instruments also presents a problems for Band World Tour. Let us say my wife and I are playing and I am the band leader; I am on guitar and she is on drums. After a few songs we want to switch; I want to play drums, and she wants to sing. No one will be on guitar and the Band World Tour mode will be locked out without our leader. If a character is able to switch instruments, the band leader can just switch and would be present to "lead" the band.

Though this may just be bad interface design choices, it should be treated as a critical problem and should be addressed in the next patch. All those in favor please reply!

I think some who have replied to this thread have had the wrong idea. Today, I played with lots of friends over for thanksgiving on Band Quick Play and it was very easy. However in the above post, I specifically mention Band World Tour. More importantly is the issue of band leader when playing two players. One of the players must always play that instrument and does not allow for very much flexibility in BWT.

As for people saying "Is is more realistic like a real rock band" because people usually only play one instrument. You are correct. It is more realistic; however, in the game Rock Band, I can play any of the instruments and I would like my Rock Band character to be able to in Band World Tour.

[Everman]

Your opinion... I disagree... Create your character on quickplay and play what you want. The band mode is not setup for you to bounce instruments - kinda like simulating a real rock band Eh?

By "play what you want" I assume you mean the handful of songs that are available without being unlocked. To unlock the entire song list, you must be playing in Band World Tour. Which brings us to the problem.

Are you going to be playing the same instrument throughout Band World Tour until the end of the game?

[ScreamingSlave]

I like having each character assigned to one instrument, and I like the concept of a "Leader" in the band, but it sucks that he/she HAS to be active to play BWT. Considering that the whole online version of it was cut at the last minute, it's a further blow to those of us who will be most playing this game solo or with one other person. I'd like to be able to switch and sometimes sing or play the drums, but with my situations, I will always have to be the lead guitar since I'm the only person in my household who can do it.

[PatrickY]

Yes please, do change this. I really, really dislike the fact that the band leader is tied to a specific instrument. My wife sings, but there are certain songs she isn't interested in performing, and it's frustrating that she can't just switch off to guitar for the duration of the tune.

[Frederf]

Requiring the leader to play each time, his one and only instrument, every time you want to do anything with the band is LAME.

[Culv3r]

I see where a lot of you are coming from but honestly, is it that crucial that your persona, your character is holding the exact same instrument you are?

Last night I ended up playing RB with some friends of mine on BWT and one wanted to play the drums.. I tried to set it up for them but I ran into those limitations you spoke of. So after some short debate I just got up from the drum kit, grabbed the guitar, and let them use the drum kit.

Because honestly, ask yourself this; Do you look at the screen background when you are playing <insert music game of choice>? If you do, I hope it's during an interlude when your not playing your instrument or you're either failing a song or have some crazy eyes that can take in everything.

So a quick solution to your problems is just to switch up the instruments, and not the characters.. Yeah, it's not YOUR guy/gal w/e.. but like I said.. if your paying that much attention to the background.. you're probably doing something wrong.

Quick solution to a seemingly mind-racking issue.

[Rook_x51]

I see where a lot of you are coming from but honestly, is it that crucial that your persona, your character is holding the exact same instrument you are?

Last night I ended up playing RB with some friends of mine on BWT and one wanted to play the drums.. I tried to set it up for them but I ran into those limitations you spoke of. So after some short debate I just got up from the drum kit, grabbed the guitar, and let them use the drum kit.

Because honestly, ask yourself this; Do you look at the screen background when you are playing <insert music game of choice>? If you do, I hope it's during an interlude when your not playing your instrument or you're either failing a song or have some crazy eyes that can take in everything.

So a quick solution to your problems is just to switch up the instruments, and not the characters.. Yeah, it's not YOUR guy/gal w/e.. but like I said.. if your paying that much attention to the background.. you're probably doing something wrong.

Quick solution to a seemingly mind-racking issue.

You missed the point here by a mile. Re-read the posts.

[walnutthewise]

I see where a lot of you are coming from but honestly, is it that crucial that your persona, your character is holding the exact same instrument you are?

Last night I ended up playing RB with some friends of mine on BWT and one wanted to play the drums.. I tried to set it up for them but I ran into those limitations you spoke of. So after some short debate I just got up from the drum kit, grabbed the guitar, and let them use the drum kit.

Because honestly, ask yourself this; Do you look at the screen background when you are playing <insert music game of choice>? If you do, I hope it's during an interlude when your not playing your instrument or you're either failing a song or have some crazy eyes that can take in everything.

So a quick solution to your problems is just to switch up the instruments, and not the characters.. Yeah, it's not YOUR guy/gal w/e.. but like I said.. if your paying that much attention to the background.. you're probably doing something wrong.

Quick solution to a seemingly mind-racking issue.

I really could care less whether or not my own created character is playing the instrument I am playing. Would it be nice? Yes. However, I specifically mentioned those issues when you are having two people play BWT and one is tied to specific instrument because of the band leader assignment.

[linuxguru]

I really could care less whether or not my own created character is playing the instrument I am playing. Would it be nice? Yes. However, I specifically mentioned those issues when you are having two people play BWT and one is tied to specific instrument because of the band leader assignment.

Exactly! I was just saying that too.
We have a band that when we created it, the leader was assigned to the singer role.
In our haste to play we did not really pay attention to that and I happened to click in first.

Now...if I do not want to sing, and it is just the wife and I playing, someone MUST sing. We do not have the option in BWT to just have Guitar and Drums. It is strange that you can substitute ANY character in your band for BWT except the leader.

[Frederf]

I see where a lot of you are coming from but honestly, is it that crucial that your persona, your character is holding the exact same instrument you are?

Last night I ended up playing RB with some friends of mine on BWT and one wanted to play the drums.. I tried to set it up for them but I ran into those limitations you spoke of. So after some short debate I just got up from the drum kit, grabbed the guitar, and let them use the drum kit.

Because honestly, ask yourself this; Do you look at the screen background when you are playing <insert music game of choice>? If you do, I hope it's during an interlude when your not playing your instrument or you're either failing a song or have some crazy eyes that can take in everything.

So a quick solution to your problems is just to switch up the instruments, and not the characters.. Yeah, it's not YOUR guy/gal w/e.. but like I said.. if your paying that much attention to the background.. you're probably doing something wrong.

Quick solution to a seemingly mind-racking issue.

Honestly, no, I don't particularly care about what characters are up on screen, but the biggest complaint is this:

Me and my two friends want to play drummer, guitarist, bassist and the band is lead by a singer character. WE ARE SCREWED.

[Pilsen6]

Wow I didn't know this I thought that as a leader you could play any instrument as long as your avatar is present then you can lead your band.

But if what you say is tru this must be change ASAP I demand the change on the next patch, I paid too much money to not be able to enjoy the game the way I want it.

Other thing why haven't reviwers point out this quirck on the game?

Com on HARMONIX MAKE THE CHANGE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[Alphadown99]

true, but you dont have to complain about it HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was freaking hilarious. It would have been even more funny, though, if you would have said, "true, but you don't have to whine about it".

[wEEman33]

Yep, this needs patching ASAP.

[tantric132]

It might not be classified as a bug, and may very well be how the game is designed. I know many others are having issues changing instruments for your custom character in Band World Tour, or using the same character for multiple instruments in solo modes. It seems as if the characters are locked to an a specific instrument.

The changing instruments also presents a problems for Band World Tour. Let us say my wife and I are playing and I am the band leader; I am on guitar and she is on drums. After a few songs we want to switch; I want to play drums, and she wants to sing. No one will be on guitar and the Band World Tour mode will be locked out without our leader. If a character is able to switch instruments, the band leader can just switch and would be present to "lead" the band.

Though this may just be bad interface design choices, it should be treated as a critical problem and should be addressed in the next patch. All those in favor please reply!

I'm sure this has been voiced already(considering this thread is 5 pages deep) but I think the game was designed like this...think about it. In most cases, each person in the band plays an instrument and sticks with it...

[matrix2222]

I say they halt these DLC songs and fix this friggin game, because I won't be contributing the "cash cow" until these issues are fixed.

[tantric132]

I say they have a big enough team to do both.

[Maggot_Brain]

I'm sure this has been voiced already(considering this thread is 5 pages deep) but I think the game was designed like this...think about it. In most cases, each person in the band plays an instrument and sticks with it...

Who cares? It's a game, man! And, evidently I am real talented because I have already played Guitar, Bass, Drums and sang in Rock Band. It's just another annoying interface decision that is taking the luster off the best damn game ever. (After it's fixed.)

[Hellcat305]

I see where a lot of you are coming from but honestly, is it that crucial that your persona, your character is holding the exact same instrument you are?

Last night I ended up playing RB with some friends of mine on BWT and one wanted to play the drums.. I tried to set it up for them but I ran into those limitations you spoke of. So after some short debate I just got up from the drum kit, grabbed the guitar, and let them use the drum kit.

Because honestly, ask yourself this; Do you look at the screen background when you are playing <insert music game of choice>? If you do, I hope it's during an interlude when your not playing your instrument or you're either failing a song or have some crazy eyes that can take in everything.

So a quick solution to your problems is just to switch up the instruments, and not the characters.. Yeah, it's not YOUR guy/gal w/e.. but like I said.. if your paying that much attention to the background.. you're probably doing something wrong.

Quick solution to a seemingly mind-racking issue.

Yes this is a quick solution and we have been doing this. But a better solution would be to alllow you to have one character that can play multiple instruments(one at a time of course). IT could then allow for a special solo career play award-for being able to complete solo tours on every instrument! Now that would be an achievement. You could also then get bonuses for your character's play in multiple bands.

I also would not see the harm and could see more benefit to being able to toggle a different band leader. This way losing a band memeber would not cause a whole tour to collapse. In real life bands do not have to start over just because they change out a member, who happens to be the leader.

I realize this is all a software setup issue, but one that would seem to be easily fixed.

[jmiscavish]

Stop saying that's what happens in a real band. This isn't a real band, and this is not a band simulation. This is a party game. BWT is the main career mode, and I should be able to play with my wife without having 3 separate bands to get us all set with the instruments.

If you're not going to let us change instruments, at least let us change band leaders. Good lord, if local BWT is this convoluted, imagine what would happen if they actually did let us do online. No wonder they scrapped it.

I played all night with the family throgh band quickplay and it was great fun. Nobody worried about who was what character. I'm not too concerned with that. It's the BWT with my wife that is screwed up.

[Frederf]

This is a party game. BWT is the main career mode, and I should be able to play with my wife without having 3 separate bands to get us all set with the instruments.

Bingo. I don't know how you could play test Rock Band without running up against this niggle darn-near immediately unless all your play testers were die hard one-instrument guys and they ONLY played four player. All I can think is that HMX wanted you create a band every 6 seconds and never progress significantly through any of them.

[MJDoja]

Casual game! Party mode!

Optional difficulties! Make 1 rocker for each instrument ahead of time, then take 10 seconds to get up from your instrument and switch with your wife/grandma/unborn child, press B on the controller, switch to your created character and play a few songs until you decide that you want to play one of the other 4 instruments!

Band leader is a bit of an issue if you have two people playing and for some reason you made the lead a singer or something that nobody is good enough at to do collectively. but with 4 people it doesnt matter at all.

[jmiscavish]

Casual game! Party mode!

Band leader is a bit of an issue if you have two people playing and for some reason you made the lead a singer or something that nobody is good enough at to do collectively. but with 4 people it doesnt matter at all.


This is true. With four people who don't care at all about their stats or achievements, then it doesn't matter in the slightest.

However, I am the leader in my wife and I's two person band. I play the drums. She likes the bass. When we want to sing and play guitar, we're screwed. If we want to do anything that doesn't included drums, we're screwed.

Like I said, I shouldn't need three different characters, and we really don't need three bands just for two different people.

After you fix this, add solo and online BWT, then let us finish the game on medium. Then this game will be a 10/10.

[melman101]

I think they do this for difficulty or i could be wrong. For instance, I can play guitar/bass way better than I can drum. But I started the band as a drum guy and he was the leader. Now, if I want to progress in BWT I have to play drums in medium, and can't switch to guitar/bass. Someone has to play the drums on medium. LoL. I think thats why they did it.

Needless to say, I can't believe I can play the drums on medium.

[Hanover]

It IS silly.

The New Pornographers, which is featured in Rockband, has THREE SINGERS. Each sings lead among their various tunes...A.C. Newman sings and plays various instruments. Neko Case also sings and plays guitar. Danny Bejar also sings and plays keyboards sometimes. So there you go...thats reality (or the Canadian way of thinking) :)


Besides it being the thread that Sean decided to drop the "No online BWT" info in, I had created a thread like this a while ago. I was flamed pretty hard, but it seems that the general public agrees with me.

Be warned however, there are many fannies that don't agree with us. And HMX' response was that selecting an instrument is like selecting a class in an MMO. Once you pick it you are stuck with it.

Which seems silly to me.

[blgage]

please god tell me i can have multiple bwts and solo careers at once.

[jmiscavish]

please god tell me i can have multiple bwts and solo careers at once.


LOL, dude you can lead up to 3 bands if you want to. You'll probably have to. You'll need at least 3 different solo tours.

[Culv3r]

My apologies to those that quoted my previous thread and pretty much flamed it.. guess I mis-read what was going on there. The only real solution I can see to this unless they enable the Leader (and other members) to switch up instruments is to either do the BWT with Guitar as leader (since most bands wouldn't be caught dead without a guitarist and with the exception of vocalist is the easiest of the three instruments to pick up and as well is interchangeable since you can switch up Bass and Guitar on a single song/set list)

Although it would be nice to be able to have just your one persona and switch up instruments on the fly they haven't designed the game that way and I'm unsure if a patch could even be made to fix that considering how much core code would have to be modified just for that purpose.

Best hope I can offer is if they put out a wishlist if/when RB2 comes out ask for the change.

[Smoky_McAshtray]

This forum is full of whiners.
QFT!
[10 char]

[MJDoja]

essentially, with two people.. you CAN just create a singer character and a guitar character.. press B a few times and then join in on the controller of choice.

its a minor issue imo not a game ruining one.

[jmiscavish]

unless you and your buddy want to play drums and bass or guitar and drums. That band leader needs to be able to change instruments, plain and simple.

It doesn't break the game, but it's about as annoying as it gets. Now, capping the fans out is another story...

[Frederf]

essentially, with two people.. you CAN just create a singer character and a guitar character.. press B a few times and then join in on the controller of choice.

its a minor issue imo not a game ruining one.

Wait, you found a say to play a BTW band led by a drummer with only a singer character and a guitar character? How?!? This would reduce the game smashing limitation to only a class B annoyance.


unless you and your buddy want to play drums and bass or guitar and drums. That band leader needs to be able to change instruments, plain and simple.

It doesn't break the game, but it's about as annoying as it gets. Now, capping the fans out is another story...

Either the band leader needs to be able to change instruments or the band leader doesn't need to be played by a human player. One or the other really must change. It's the combination of those two hard associations which makes this game janky.

[irlsanders]

Word. We're all multi-instrumentalist here at my house, and switch it up all the time. And just like a real band, players come and go all the time. The RB user interface is really horrible. Any player should be able to choose any character and instrument at any time without having to start a whole new freakin' band. Phil Collins will switch from lead to drums within a set, so why can't I?

[jmiscavish]

Word. We're all multi-instrumentalist here at my house, and switch it up all the time. And just like a real band, players come and go all the time. The RB user interface is really horrible. Any player should be able to choose any character and instrument at any time without having to start a whole new freakin' band. Phil Collins will switch from lead to drums within a set, so why can't I?
because harmonix hates you

[Abspara]

I find it ironic that even on one of the the messages during the loading screens, Harmonix mentions that the band (which names escapes me at the moment, i think it might be one of the bonus songs) has a member that can play two different types of instruments, yet we are obviously not talented enough to be able to do that with our created rockband.

[raine697]

Wow, someone adresses a legitimate issue that could make the game better and everyone says they complain too much. These forums aren't full of whiners, they're full of trollers.

I agree that your character should be able to play any instrument, it sucks in BWT because I had to make 3 seperate characters and 3 seperate bands with each of those characters the leader of a separate band, because everyone doesn't want to stay with the same instrument all the time, and there will be an instrument no one wants to play atm, and if that's the leader then we are SOL. If the game was more flexible, we would be much farther in BWT, but we have to keep switching bands.

And if anyone is going to say "ohwell just suck it up and play something you don't want"....go back and look at that statement. Why should we play something we don't want to when the point of the game is just for us to have fun? That is completely idiotic.

Hopefully they will change this later on, because I would rather have one band to play as than 3 bands that don't go as far. That is just silly.

[raine697]

I see where a lot of you are coming from but honestly, is it that crucial that your persona, your character is holding the exact same instrument you are?

Last night I ended up playing RB with some friends of mine on BWT and one wanted to play the drums.. I tried to set it up for them but I ran into those limitations you spoke of. So after some short debate I just got up from the drum kit, grabbed the guitar, and let them use the drum kit.

Because honestly, ask yourself this; Do you look at the screen background when you are playing <insert music game of choice>? If you do, I hope it's during an interlude when your not playing your instrument or you're either failing a song or have some crazy eyes that can take in everything.

So a quick solution to your problems is just to switch up the instruments, and not the characters.. Yeah, it's not YOUR guy/gal w/e.. but like I said.. if your paying that much attention to the background.. you're probably doing something wrong.

Quick solution to a seemingly mind-racking issue.

This is not a quick solution when you only have 2-3 people playing and you want to switch off. Oftentimes it is just me and my best friend playing when we can't get everyone together, and there are some songs we want to sing and some we don't. Some are a little hard for us on drums...

Besides, it feels weird to see yourself as < insert friend's name here > either when or after you are playing. Sure THAT part isn't game-breaking, but if they changed it, it would make the game better overall. It's the little things that make a game great. These topics are here to hopefully help Harmonix get ideas on what their target audience wants and how to improve their product.

And in response to other posters, I understand that most bands have members static on one instrument, but this isn't a real band, this is a video game. The point is to be fun, not tedious. And anyway, I seem to see a couple bands that have the lead singer also on an instrument. Just a few. *end sarcasm*

And if you all don't like having your alter ego playing multiple instruments, then don't play him on multiple instruments. Better to have it in there so everyone can play the way they want than to exclude it for *authenticity's sake.*

-Raine