RB3 Request a Feature, Bug Report and Suggestion Thread (no song requests)

[m_estock]

Besides the whole ad populum thing, which doesn't really bode well for some of the features RB3 bought to the table as it'd be just as illogical to carry those forward if popularity is the sole metric for such considerations, RB3 did inflate the amount of charts.

I'm not sure as to what goes into Tug of War and Score Duel on the charting side of things as far as anything extra being done with the charts during authoring to support them, but you pretty much go from RB2 with 4 sets of Guitar, Bass, Drum, and Vocal charts to RB3 with all of those plus 4 sets of Keys, 4 sets of Pro keys, 4 sets of Pro Guitar, 4 sets of Pro Bass, Harmonies, etc... So if there was even an innocuous amount of work incorporating those, all hew new charts exponentially increase even a small amount of work.

Like I said, I don't know what the process is, but some of my RBN songs are Tug of War-less so I'm assuming something has to be done on the authoring side, so maybe the omission is to save some authoring pain as well to offset doubling the amount of charts? Just speculation. If they could figure out a way to get it back in it'd be great though, I was a fan even if I was in this apparently in this infinitesimal minority I keep hearing about. You must be the other guy that played then.

Was a hit at my parties though, love to see it come back.

Good points about the charting side of things. I don't remember ever having to wait very long for a score duel match, and it's not like it was the same few people I played every time. Oddly enough I've had to wait much longer to get into an online band session in RB3 than I had to wait for score duel (and yes I realize I'm waiting for 3 people instead of one). But then again, sometimes it takes a while just for one person to join the session.

[Obi_Wan_Kenoli]

Good points about the charting side of things. I don't remember ever having to wait very long for a score duel match, and it's not like it was the same few people I played every time. Oddly enough I've had to wait much longer to get into an online band session in RB3 than I had to wait for score duel (and yes I realize I'm waiting for 3 people instead of one). But then again, sometimes it takes a while just for one person to join the session.

That's probably around half of the people that picked up RB2 even picked up 3, and out of that group how many still play regularly, or if they still do play, do so in the torture chamber the online experience has become. There's just no real incentive to do it game-wise or in my opinion, enjoyment wise. Your more likely to find a group that ends up pissing you off now more than ever, so unless you have a good friend's list of people that still want to play, why waste your time?

I didn't have trouble with Score Duel in the beginning but I started running into problems later in RB2's lifecycle. Much earlier than I when I noticed queue times for world Tour start creeping up anyway. Started running into the same invincible machines. On drums one guy just stopped mid song to taunt me... Ouch. I took my beating like a man, but when I got matched up with him again and again, there's only so much shame i can take before being forced to commit seppuku with my drumsticks.

At the end of the day while I enjoyed the modes themselves, the online play wasn't all that enjoyable. If there was a way to get matched up with people of similar skill levels along with some incentive for staying in the match, win or lose, I'd have done it more often. But as it was I'd hop on, win, lose, or get quit on and eventually just go back to subbing in Tours as that gave me more money (and fun) doing that anyway.

If the modes were unpopular online, my money would be on that reflecting just how unenjoyable they were in that context. Multiplayer is dependent on your community, and the players that gravitated towards the competitive modes, more often than not, weren't that fun to play with in my experience. Player Match was okay in the beginning, but when those players dried up I was left with Ranked, full of your usual suspects, the prima donnas, trash talkers, quitters, and cheaters.

Locally however it was a blast, with people you know and pal around with, particularly Tug of War, which allows you to chose different difficulties for each user so all skill levels can approach it without getting hammered. Just a good time, as couch co-op usually is. We rarely have jackasses next to us on our couch after all.

Like I said, my group misses it, and if it had to be sacrificed ah well. But it would have been nice if they thought up other modes that would have had more appeal to replace it with if appeal was the issue.

[TheHundredDollarHeadache]

The difference between Score Duel and the Stage Kit is that the Stage Kit folks spent a lot of money (or not, if they got one while they were being blown out) just to see support for it completely removed upon RB3's launch.

Harmonix believes that leaderboards are an acceptable substitute for Score Duel. I'm saying it again - they are the most primitive form of competitive play.

[GNFfhqwhgads]

I'm saying it again

If you want to emphasize something, say it's your first time saying it, then maybe we'd care.

[peterock2007]

Harmonix believes that leaderboards are an acceptable substitute for Score Duel. I'm saying it again - they are the most primitive form of competitive play.

Actually the majority of users think that leaderboards are an acceptable substitute, remember the whole "we didn't put it back in cause no one used it"?

Now I feel like a broken record, more than just 3 people need to want something for HMX to waste time programming it.

[TheHundredDollarHeadache]

Actually the majority of users think that leaderboards are an acceptable substitute, remember the whole "we didn't put it back in cause no one used it"?

Nobody used it online because of the whole "getting thrashed by the online virtuosi is no fun" thing mentioned a few posts back.

And I didn't say that primitive = crappy. You might have read it as implying so.

[GNFfhqwhgads]

Nobody used it online because of the whole "getting thrashed by the online virtuosi is no fun" thing mentioned a few posts back.

Reasons don't matter. If no one used it, no one used it.

Especially when the issue is personal actions, there's no way to change it anyway.

[SirDavidTLynch]

That doesn't explain why nobody used it locally either.

[Obi_Wan_Kenoli]

That doesn't explain why nobody used it locally either.

Depends on how the usage data was being calculated. If they checked server logs to see what modes people were playing online on the game servers, or if the software keeps a hidden log of time spent on modes, even if played offline and locally, then uploads them the next time a console logs onto their servers. The second is doubtful and HMX never really says how they get their metrics, but the first is most likely, but gives no information on those that only used it in ''couch co-op/competitive" play nor is it indicative of the value of the mode itself. If volume of player usage is the sole metric for mode quality, Pro Guitar would be the worse thing to happen to music games.

But it isn't, it's just not a popular mode, which is all the information can really show anyway, and if it's just compiled from server data then there's more than a little margin for error in the case of a mode that is better played offline in the majority of player's cases as the gap between elite RB players and even the average/good players is huge.

[mikeyts]

If they checked server logs to see what modes people were playing online on the game servers, or if the software keeps a hidden log of time spent on modes, even if played offline and locally, then uploads them the next time a console logs onto their servers. The second is doubtful...

And why is that doubtful??? We know that if it can't connect to the servers during a session and you achieve any new high scores, the game will update the leaderboards the next time it can connect to the servers. If I was writing this I'd most definitely collect a variety of usage stats and upload them when possible. You couldn't get data for people who never play on systems connected to the net, but it'd cover everyone else.