What Happened to Flame Notes In Rockband Blitz?????

[HMXPope]

Two points of clarification I thought I should explicitly state:

1. Regarding the "exploit" in RB Blitz, whether you want to consider it an exploit or not is a bit of semantics. Using it does severely unbalance the game, though, so you are right in suggesting the Flame Note change was partially in response to that.

2. We do try to remind you all from time to time that, yes, you sort of are our "1%" here, but the intention is most definitely not to demonize or marginalize you. As HMXHenry has said, we obviously value you here GREATLY, considering Harmonix employs people to interact with and support you on a daily basis with not just forum moderation, but regular content, goals, live events, and attempts at fun new things like these Tournaments, etc. (It bums me out that the jury still seems to be out on the Tournaments, as that was something I personally chased down and got built to deliver something fresh to our RB Blitz community.) I want you all to realize though, whether you want to refer to yourselves with the terms hardcore, vocal minority, or 1%, your voices are heard very loudly internally here at Harmonix.

I get that this may be cold comfort to those in this thread who remain unhappy about the current state of the Flame Notes, but we are, indeed, continuing to read your responses and thoughts.

[Bront20]

2. We do try to remind you all from time to time that, yes, you sort of are our "1%" here, but the intention is most definitely not to demonize or marginalize you. As HMXHenry has said, we obviously value you here GREATLY, considering Harmonix employs people to interact with and support you on a daily basis with not just forum moderation, but regular content, goals, live events, and attempts at fun new things like these Tournaments, etc. (It bums me out that the jury still seems to be out on the Tournaments, as that was something I personally chased down and got built to deliver something fresh to our RB Blitz community.) I want you all to realize though, whether you want to refer to yourselves with the terms hardcore, vocal minority, or 1%, your voices are heard very loudly internally here at Harmonix.

I think the tourneys are cool, but it's hard to get super excited when realistically most folks only have a shot at the random consolation prize. I'd love one of those guitar cases, but I'm not good enough, nor am I likely to become good enough to win one. Doesn't mean I won't enjoy trying or winning one of the consolation prizes though

Perhaps more folks would be jazzed if the odds of winning were better for even entering (Say, 5 random 2 code winners as an example)

[www1221]

Maybe make a tourney for the top 10% and one for the rest. That way both groups of people have a chance at a "big" prize. If thats even something thats possible to do.

[cowboys282]

Two points of clarification I thought I should explicitly state:

1. Regarding the "exploit" in RB Blitz, whether you want to consider it an exploit or not is a bit of semantics. Using it does severely unbalance the game, though, so you are right in suggesting the Flame Note change was partially in response to that.

2. We do try to remind you all from time to time that, yes, you sort of are our "1%" here, but the intention is most definitely not to demonize or marginalize you. As HMXHenry has said, we obviously value you here GREATLY, considering Harmonix employs people to interact with and support you on a daily basis with not just forum moderation, but regular content, goals, live events, and attempts at fun new things like these Tournaments, etc. (It bums me out that the jury still seems to be out on the Tournaments, as that was something I personally chased down and got built to deliver something fresh to our RB Blitz community.) I want you all to realize though, whether you want to refer to yourselves with the terms hardcore, vocal minority, or 1%, your voices are heard very loudly internally here at Harmonix.

I get that this may be cold comfort to those in this thread who remain unhappy about the current state of the Flame Notes, but we are, indeed, continuing to read your responses and thoughts.

I find it odd you refer to those in this thread as the 1%. Implying that there is some huge movement of support for your Flame note decision everywhere but in this forum.

All any of us have to go off of is this forum which is overwhelmingly against the major change made to a game we loved the day after Christmas with no warning.

I know after trying to use pinball, getting extremely bored quickly, I have stopped playing a game that I loved just a couple of weeks ago.

So although there might be only 60+ unique users in this thread how much gameplay do these unique users account for? Lets' just say that the people in this forum are only 1% of the games population. Do you think these 60 account for only 1% of the time played on this game?

How many of the "99%" are happy with the change to Flame notes? How many of the "99%" play the game more because of the Flame note nerf? How many of the "99%" buy more songs because of the nerf?

What made your game great was the addictive nature of it. That was what caused so many hours of gameplay to be logged. People had countless songs to play and leaderboards to compete with. Your tournaments might give some a reason to still play. But after all it's only 3 songs. That gets pretty boring. Especially when all they use is Pinball/Synch. And Pinball ruins songs for any of us who enjoy playing notes.

And if your intention was to encourage multiple load outs for your tournaments has that worked with nerfing Flame notes? You have the data. Are tournament scores being accomplished with different load outs? Or is everyone with top scores that are unbeatable using Pinball/Synch?

The best suggestion I saw given was to only use 5 lane songs in the tournament and keep Flame notes the way they were. That would have removed the exploit from the tournament and keep the game relevant.

I am part of the "1%" against the change and have stopped playing. Time will tell if others did the same. I fear after a few weeks of tournaments others will get tired of playing 3 songs all week as well. If they haven't already.

[charliesmile]

No, you apparently want to boost your ego by feeling like you're good at something without putting in the time/effort it takes to actually be good at it.

I guess that's my fault for having a full time job, and an actual life outside of Rock Band Blitz. MY BAD GUYS.

[charliesmile]

How many of the "99%" are happy with the change to Flame notes?

I know I am.

[zage1337]

We are not hating on the Tournaments, although the US only restriction is disappointing and I think it's a great idea.

There were several players who played this game for hours and hours learning and mastering skillful playing styles such as Jackpot/Flame and Bandmate/Flame(legitimately juggling the flame notes) and the nerf not only destroyed their enjoyment and game for them, it also closed down the doors for any newcomer to pick up on these fun play styles. I wasn't affected by the nerf nearly as much because I developed sync strategies, but other players who only relied on flame notes now have all their efforts completely wasted and their spirit to chase scores gone down the drain.

Right now the best pinball players will win the tournament, and the data on the tournament leaderboards shows that. I don't think it's fair that Player A who developed pinball playstyles are able to dominate the tournament while Player B who developed Flame Note styles can't even enjoy the game anymore.

I like using pinball styles and achieved countless cross platform 1sts with them. However even that gets boring to do that all the time, and It was a lot more fun when I can use several playing styles to achieve top scores. I was just getting into band/flame but now I can't improve that, and jack/flame was also a lot of fun when you get successful at it.

Before the nerf I would use 4-5 completely different playing styles to achieve scores, now I use pinball on 80% of my songs and the 20% being jackpot/blast notes which isn't as fun as the game was originally. I also outright ignore every song that has less than 4 lanes and songs that are low tier because those top scores are literally impossible without flame notes.

Again the community isn't frustrated that you are doing a tournament, they are frustrated that you significantly dumbed down your own game and made it much more shallow.

The alternative should have been to buff Runaway Notes significantly to further improve the variety in the game and give a reason for players to start developing playing styles with Runaway Notes because as it is right now, they are not worth your time and effort to get good at a powerup that gives you no chance at being competitive. Kinda like how post nerf flame notes are now.

[Bront20]

I find it odd you refer to those in this thread as the 1%. Implying that there is some huge movement of support for your Flame note decision everywhere but in this forum.

The 1% as in the top 1% of the player base. It had nothing to do with support or disagreement with the nerf.

As for your other points, I stopped playing when I found out about the "exploit", and picked it back up again recently. Again, small sample size and all, but still...

[cowboys282]

The 1% as in the top 1% of the player base. It had nothing to do with support or disagreement with the nerf.

As for your other points, I stopped playing when I found out about the "exploit", and picked it back up again recently. Again, small sample size and all, but still...

I see what you are saying. It seems like he is talking about us that use the forum though. I had HMX Henry remind me numerous times that there are only 60 unique users in this thread and we are such a small sample of people. I disagree.

And I share your concern with the exploit. I hate the exploit. Unfortunately they cannot patch the game to fix it. The exploit was very difficult to do though. I beat most people who used it and I used Jackpot/Flame which is not an exploit.

Right now all anyone uses is pinball/sync and the same people are at the top with unbeatable scores. The only difference is that there are only 3 songs a week that you can try to beat people on. Are you saying the game is more fun now that it was 2 weeks ago? And if it is how so?

[cowboys282]

I know I am.

That is great you are happy with the change. I think many on here would love to know why you are happy? It would be nice to have some dialogue with those for the decision.

What makes the game more fun now than 2 weeks ago? What are you enjoying more now about the game?

And so you know my opinions I do not enjoy the game anymore. I cannot beat my previous scores, my friends scores, or the leaderboard scores. I have no desire to play all the songs I bought. I do not use the Facebook App so I don't play tournaments. I can't stand pinball because it takes away from hitting notes. The same people who dominated with Flame notes are dominating with Pinball/Sync.