Questions About RBN

[JPSChampagne]

(Sorry if there's a thread in which these questions would be more appropriately asked - please lock and remove if this is not the place to post this.)

I haven't come across these particular questions yet about this great new innovation for Rock Band. I'm posting this in hopes that someone from HMX will answer, or that someone from the community will know.

Will the songs be playable in practice mode? If so, will they be required to be broken up into sections, and will you be able to decrease their speed like current releases?

Is there going to be any type of quality control with the character animations? I can see that getting lost in the shuffle of charting critique. Also - will the songs be required to be functional with the stage kit? Will there be any kind of quality control with that?

Will the songs be measured on the leaderboards? Will each of the thousands and thousands of songs likely to be released on RBN each have their own scoring page like current, Harmonix releases do?

Will album art (and information) and song previews be included with these songs? Will they be displayed in the song menu with the normal DLC icon, or will they have a different one?

Basically - are these songs going to be required to have the exact same functionality and quality as current DLC releases? I can see it being a black eye to the entire operation if, while the songs are charted correctly and play correctly, the character animations, lighting effects, and in-game functionality are ruined.

[Meatmuppet]

yes

[trg007]

They've said that the songs are supposed to be equivalent in every way to the ones released by HMX. As for whether there will be leaderboards for every new song, that's a good question...

[Apples]

They have specifically said that artists can include their own album art and song details. (such as year, genre, etc)

[dlowell]

Very good questions, I would especially like to know if the stage kit is going to work. woohoo lights, fog & seizures!

[DavidRS]

(Sorry if there's a thread in which these questions would be more appropriately asked - please lock and remove if this is not the place to post this.)

There is a discussion thread in the Community's Greatest Hits section.

I haven't come across these particular questions yet about this great new innovation for Rock Band. I'm posting this in hopes that someone from HMX will answer, or that someone from the community will know.

Will the songs be playable in practice mode? If so, will they be required to be broken up into sections, and will you be able to decrease their speed like current releases?

I have no idea on it, but I would think they have to be charted to a similar, if not the same, standard as HMX charts.

Is there going to be any type of quality control with the character animations? I can see that getting lost in the shuffle of charting critique. Also - will the songs be required to be functional with the stage kit? Will there be any kind of quality control with that?

Again, no idea on this, but the theory above still holds.

Will the songs be measured on the leaderboards? Will each of the thousands and thousands of songs likely to be released on RBN each have their own scoring page like current, Harmonix releases do?

That is a question I cannot answer, but I would think it would be possible. It would just need a really beefy database server to provide it.

Will album art (and information) and song previews be included with these songs? Will they be displayed in the song menu with the normal DLC icon, or will they have a different one?

Album art will appear on the store, so I expect it will in the game. Song previews would be similar. As for the icon, I'm hoping for a different one, but not expecting it.

Basically - are these songs going to be required to have the exact same functionality and quality as current DLC releases? I can see it being a black eye to the entire operation if, while the songs are charted correctly and play correctly, the character animations, lighting effects, and in-game functionality are ruined.

As I said above, I am under the impression that all songs released on RBN must be authored to the HMX standards, and it is up to the XNA community to ensure those standards are upheld.

Disclaimer: I do not work for HMX, and living in Australia, will have no access to RBN when it goes live. These are all guesses, and if an HMXer comes in and tells you that I'm full of bull****, then that's the case.

Hope that answers your questions.

[JPSChampagne]

Thanks for all the replies, everybody. Good community here. Just hoping that my stage kit isn't gonna go to waste. haha. Hopefully there will be some kind of word about the leaderboards, as that's a huge undertaking.

[davidshek]

Will album art (and information) and song previews be included with these songs? Will they be displayed in the song menu with the normal DLC icon, or will they have a different one?

To this point specifically: Yes, there will be album art, it's part of what Magma packages up into the DLC file that you submit to XNA.

As for previews, you get MORE than current DLC. There will be not only the normal 30-second preview (and yes, the author of the track gets to pick which 30 seconds of the song are the preview), but there will also be a FREE 1-minute (or 35%, whichever comes first) downloadable demo of every song in the RBN Store. This one is the first minute (or 35%) of the song, not changeable.

[JPSChampagne]

Wow, I hadn't heard the 35% thing. That's really cool. It's really looking like HMX is dead serious about quality content being delivered through this. Very reassuring.

[Apples]

Just hoping that my stage kit isn't gonna go to waste. haha. Hopefully there will be some kind of word about the leaderboards, as that's a huge undertaking.

As I understand it, the stage kit goes off of the lighting cues scripted in each song.

So in theory it should work, because the RBN kit will allow you to customize lighting, animations, etc.

Note: This is purely conjecture on my part based on observation.