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

[PedroRVD]

Well at least we can all agree that, after all, having all the game in the cloud and "online-only" was a genious move by harmonix, they can tweak the game all the times they want. I just want we can all agree and have the game balanced in the best way without killing the leaderboards.

At this point I guess getting flame back to normal is the first step...buffing other powerups should be next. I insist of doing a poll with many alternatives.

I also liked Zage's idea of reducing bandmate time.

[cowboys282]

Well at least we can all agree that, after all, having all the game in the cloud and "online-only" was a genious move by harmonix, they can tweak the game all the times they want. I just want we can all agree and have the game balanced in the best way without killing the leaderboards.

At this point I guess getting flame back to normal is the first step...buffing other powerups should be next. I insist of doing a poll with many alternatives.

I also liked Zage's idea of reducing bandmate time.

Zage does have a good idea about reducing Bandmate. They could also limit the amount of Flames that come in a string. this could help nerf the Bandmate/Flame combo.

They have to be careful about buffing. Some of those other powerups don't require skill. 2X points is only there for people who are not good enough at Jackpot. They should not be rewarded for being less skilled.

I feel like I am 5 years old when using Bottle Rockets. I can see some skill needed to use that powerup. You would have to know a song well and know exactly when to launch the Rockets.

Shockwave and Road Rage good get a buff but neither require the need of much skill.

The one Powerup that does require skill that does not reward players is runaway notes. That is the one Powerup that should equal Flame notes in value.

In the end all Power ups should NOT be equal. The easier ones should be there for those who want to enjoy the game and compete with friends.

The difficult Power ups should be worth more and allow for top leaderboard competition. The harder the Power up is to use the more it should be worth. In my opinion only Runaway notes should be buffed. It increases the difficulty of songs.

And like so many others have said Blitz mode should actually be worth something. Although I can easily stay in it the value is not there to stay in it. To me Blitz mode is useless. Make the points worth it and suddenly the difficulty goes way up on most songs.

But honestly change will always come with negatives. I think most of us who still play this game liked it the way it was. hopefully the developers will listen like they claim they do.

Like who were they listening to when they changed this? I never have registered for the forums before today. I came on here once in awhile to look for news and the forums are always dead. Barely any posts. So where was the big uproar to change Flame notes?

[MaximusDM]

Zage does have a good idea about reducing Bandmate. They could also limit the amount of Flames that come in a string. this could help nerf the Bandmate/Flame combo.

You don't get it.
You can't nerf anything without destroying the point of leaderboards.

You buff something; fine. Everyone can now replay under new rules to achieve the same scores albeit random power-up placement.

You nerf ANYTHING and you have leaderboards with unobtainable scores. Now if HMX ever stated that what they are nerfing has never achieved #1 on any leaderboard for any song then fine, but if that were the case, it would be completely redundant.

So where was the big uproar to change Flame notes?

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232287
There is a HMX response somewhere in there, might be two. Most of the posts are senseless bickering and fingering pointing.

[cowboys282]

You don't get it.
You can't nerf anything without destroying the point of leaderboards.

You buff something; fine. Everyone can now replay under new rules to achieve the same scores albeit random power-up placement.

You nerf ANYTHING and you have leaderboards with unobtainable scores. Now if HMX ever stated that what they are nerfing has never achieved #1 on any leaderboard for any song then fine, but if that were the case, it would be completely redundant.

I do get it and I agree that nerfing anything will make the leaderboards useless. I don't know if Harmonix knows that though.

I was simply saying if they were going to nerf anything i agree that it was Bandmates time limit that should have been. but honestly I don't think they should have touched anything. But if they are going to touch something they have to reset the leaderboards or else the game becomes obsolete.

They need to just change it back.

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232287
There is a HMX response somewhere in there, might be two. Most of the posts are senseless bickering and fingering pointing.

Seems like a few people who are not good enough making a stink. Once again if this was so over powered than why does only one guy have the big score on these songs? If this combo was overpowered than a ton of people should have those type of scores. they don't.

And as i figured out in this thread I beat most people who use that combo when I use something else. It seems like the developers chose the day after Christmas to over react to something that was not a problem.

There was no glitch. There was no cheating. The rules were the same for everyone. Like every other game ever made some people are better than others. That doesn't mean you change the rules in the middle of the games life cycle, and make it impossible to better any score in the game.

I have no reason to buy another song that is already out and give Rock Band my money. I am sure all who spend money on this game will also no longer buy another song for it.

[pelemerengue]

All I can really say is that this is a giant bummer.

I just hope they don't nuke the leaderboards. There's no way I'm playing through all those songs again, it took me like 3 months to get through 90% of my library. :\

[PedroRVD]

All I can really say is that this is a giant bummer.

I just hope they don't nuke the leaderboards. There's no way I'm playing through all those songs again, it took me like 3 months to get through 90% of my library. :\

This.

It would be a tragedy for me as well.

[Mircosoft93]

Originally posted by PedroRVD

Originally Posted by pelemerengue
All I can really say is that this is a giant bummer.

I just hope they don't nuke the leaderboards. There's no way I'm playing through all those songs again, it took me like 3 months to get through 90% of my library. :\

This.

It would be a tragedy for me as well.

Wouldn't it be more tragic if from now on noboby can compete anymore for top spots on the leaderboards? It would ruin your scores from the past 4 months but otherwise it would ruin almost every score for the upcoming months/years

[PedroRVD]

That's why the guys that said nothing should be nerfed / Blitz mode should be drastically buffed...etc... are right.

Or, well, if they reset the leaderboards, at least keep our Career Scores alive. THAT would be the most pacific solution. I wonder if it is actually possible to do that. (I guess it is not because it's the sum of all scores)

[Mircosoft93]

That's why the guys that said nothing should be nerfed / Blitz mode should be drastically buffed...etc... are right.

buffing Blitz mode wouldn't change anything, because the best players are able to switch between two lanes while beeing constantly in Blitz mode

[Epsilon82]

This is a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease.

I believe Harmonix's instincts were correct in the initial round of tweaks by not nerfing anything. I would agree with everything MaximusDM has said on that subject, but I would also add that not only does this make the existing leaderboards untenable, it has a dramatic effect even on users' personal score chasing. I believe most people would be able to tolerate the occasional ridiculous top scores due to Bandmate/Flame exploiting, provided that their own PERSONAL high scores could still be attained using the same methods they had used previously.

I can't say how disheartening it was to come home last night, pop into Blitz, put down what I felt was a nearly perfect Jackpot/Flame run on one of my favorite songs, only to discover that not only did I not score very high on the overall leaderboard, but that I couldn't even beat the score I posted like a week after the game came out using a newbie combo like Road Rage/Blast Notes.

In my 600+ hours of playing Blitz, one of the most satisfying elements of the whole process was developing skill at the more nuanced aspects of the game and improving my technique to the point where I could use an advanced combo like Jackpot/Flame and be rewarded with scores that absolutely dwarfed those that I achieved on the same songs with less skill-oriented combos like Road Rage/Blast. I found myself having so much more fun with the game using that high risk/high reward combo that even if the leaderboards get reset, I simply will not feel as accomplished or enjoy the game nearly as much if such high-skill combos are not as lucrative as they were before.

I suspect the reason Harmonix resorted to nerfing Flame notes instead of simply stopping flame spreading past a certain ridiculous threshold is that the latter would have required a software patch, and that would be expensive and difficult to implement by comparison. But like I said before, this cure is flatly worse than the mild effects of the exploit. It completely ruins the game for people who were using Flame notes legitimately.

I suggested in the initial thread about this that the way to combat the true exploit (button mashing) would be to leave everything else alone but substantially buff Blitz mode. I stand by that solution 100%. The best part about it is that it would only noticeably affect those who are particularly skilled at the game on the high end. Those who weren't getting much from Blitz mode might see a marginal increase, but there is nothing but good to come from rewarding flawless play.

But at the very least, I urge Harmonix in the strongest possible terms to roll back this change as soon as possible. It punishes pretty much everyone across the entire spectrum of ability. Even those who have no interest or desire to compete for the absolute top spot on songs are now faced with the possibility of never having any chance to beat their own scores posted when they were noobs. Without the personal score chasing aspect, the game will die a quick death.

My proposed solutions in order of my personal preference:

1) Roll back the flame nerf, and substantially buff Blitz mode to address the button-mashing Bandmate/Flame exploit. This way people who are playing two lanes simultaneously but can do so without breaking Blitz mode often are rewarded for their legitimate skill, and those who are button mashing will be severely punished.

2) Roll back the flame nerf, and do nothing else.

3) Reset the leaderboards for all songs.

4) through 998) ???????

999) Leave things as they are now.