Bottom Line - If You Want to Have the Top Score in Blitz, Become Lucky

[atalkingfish]

As a person who plays poker regularly with his friends, I can confirm that poker is definitely more skill than luck.

And, of course, so is this game.

So I disagree with the premise of this thread.

Plus, randomness gives an advantage to those who play more frequently, and that seems totally fair.

[SurefireDwarf]

Aren't white notes at the same places that they are in regular Rockband? It's definitely more skill than luck though. If two equally skilled players played a song with the same power ups, they'd likely come within 1% of each other. However, if one of them picked bad power-ups, that could really kill their score. Picking the right power ups is a skillful decision as well.

[Magnet]

It's completely possible to "seed" the generation of a "random" number in a way that, when the seed is reused, the same number occurs. So it would be possible to seed the powerup note placement based on some concrete variable pulled from the song data so that they're effectively random yet still consistent each time the song is played, across all players.

I'd hate for one of my favorite songs to have randomly-placed note power-ups in awful spots that were permanent.

[Bront20]

There are random elements to the power-ups, but not nearly enough to make a huge difference, especially when going for the top of the leaderboard. Like you said in the op, kind of like poker to an extent. There's random elements to it, but in the end there's more to it than that. If there wasn't then you wouldn't see the same people in the finals of World Series of Poker tournaments and you wouldn't see the same people in Rock Band Blitz tearing up the top of the leaderboards constantly.

They can make a several hundred thousand point different on single lane songs due to when you can activate the Pinball.

[uppyb0t]

I'd hate for one of my favorite songs to have randomly-placed note power-ups in awful spots that were permanent.

What I'm trying to say with this thread is that there is no even playing field.

You may like that, but if you want the top score, it will have to rely on luck of the draw for note placement.

Having those in permanent spots would likely be beneficial for top score competition. You know what to expect and can prepare and react with some foresight.

[Bront20]

What I'm trying to say with this thread is that there is no even playing field.

You may like that, but if you want the top score, it will have to rely on luck of the draw for note placement.

Having those in permanent spots would likely be beneficial for top score competition. You know what to expect and can prepare and react with some foresight.

They're generally random in a particular area though. So they may not always be in the same spot (sometimes they are), but they tend to be in a particular area.

[uppyb0t]

Meaning it will always grant you a different score?

[Magnet]

Having those in permanent spots would likely be beneficial for top score competition. You know what to expect and can prepare and react with some foresight.

But I like not knowing what to expect. Part of the fun in this game for me is that the player has to be able to react and adapt to random note power-up placements. I'm okay with not getting number one on some songs if it means the songs never get completely predictable.

Permanent spots for note power-ups would likely be detrimental for top score competition when a song becomes a solvable math problem for the highest score, and players are forced to take a specific path with no margin for error to attain the highest possible score. That may be something that sounds fun for you, but I don't want this game to become like that, and it would make the game much less fun for me. I like going into a song with a general high-level strategy and not having to invest a ton of time studying a song and following a specific path just to get number one.

[RoboEnigma]

I like it. I'm usually around the same area of the leaderboards too, so I know it's not just "random".

Personally, I'd rather have this. It gives people a chance to overtake each other because there is no "perfect path".

It also adds replay value, which I would much rather have than what we had in RB. Plus I think the masses would agree... people got tired of regular Rock Band... it was always the same stuff with predetermined paths. I wish some of this stuff would move over to the normal series, actually.

[lightsup55]

I have the top number 1 score in a song, but I'm not going to mention it if someone else just wants to attempt to beat it.

Hint: Xbox 360 release. I have linked my Facebook account, so that should make it a little easier. Good luck finding what song it is as you probably don't even have it.