Thank you for your feedback. I will consider what you said. Also, what skin are you using? I tried to make the mod use the white block from non-casual puzzle modes, and I thought there might be an issue with it.

I like the name Powered Up Hero. I named the bonus White Assassin because I couldn't think of anything else; thank you.

I'll update the gamemode to include any changes/fixes based on your feedback around 5:00 PM CST.

Also, I don't want to use colored blocks for the powerups. They are supposed to be completely different from the other color blocks. However, if I absolutely need to, I will change this.

I use a slightly modified version of "full-focus". The color list I placed into the skin instead of it's default color list is:
{r=255, g=0, b=0},
{r=255, g=0, b=0},
{r=255, g=0, b=0},
{r=255, g=0, b=0},
{r=255, g=0, b=0},
{r=255, g=0, b=0},
{r=255, g=0, b=0},
{r=255, g=15, b=15},
{r=255, g=31, b=31},
{r=255, g=63, b=63},
{r=255, g=191, b=191},
{r=255, g=223, b=223},
{r=255, g=239, b=239},
{r=255, g=255, b=255},
{r=239, g=255, b=255},
{r=223, g=255, b=255},
{r=191, g=255, b=255},
{r=63, g=255, b=255},
{r=31, g=255, b=255},
{r=15, g=255, b=255},
{r=0, g=255, b=255},
{r=0, g=255, b=255},
{r=0, g=255, b=255},
}

It's a long list, but it works out so that uphill sections are red, relatively flat sections are white, and downhill sections are cyan. When I tried to just do simple red-white-cyan in three colors, the timing for the colors to change just seemed weird to me.

I was talking about the block that shows up in mono mode at peak moments of the song; the power block, not the normal blocks. Of course the sets of 10 shouldn't look like literally every other block in the track xD (; If keeping the mode's white blocks is that important to you though I guess I could adjust to them... it might just take me a while to >.<

Anyway, you're welcome for the "Powered Up Hero" suggestion ^^ I'm glad I could be of help (; I'm looking forward to the continued improvement of this mod ;D

So, I played around with a version of hero that did not reset multiplier to 1 if a block was missed or a spike was hit. With a multiplier reduction of 25% (based on the multiplier you had at the first miss. first miss resetting ever second if another miss did not occur) I missed half the blocks and got around 750,000 to 1,000,000 points, on a three minute song. It was way too easy in my opinion. I didn't want to shoot down your suggestions without trying them, and so I did.

My goal when making hero was to make a gamemode that was both easy and hard at the same time, as well as being far and competitive. In other words: it encourages perfection.

My original plan for the white blocks was to make them the normal blocks from the current skin, but with their color set to white. That way, the skin can override the color. I never figured out how to do this, however, and I spent a few hours looking around the internet for resources and trying different things in the mod. Eventually, I settled on using a preexisting powerup block that what white. It was a compromise. If I had information about how skins and mods are handled by the engine and what a mod or skin can and cannot do, I would most likely be able to figure it out. If you have any suggestions on how I might fix this, I would gladly accept them.

I was thinking about making 2 other versions of hero: an easier one and a harder one.

Also, I decided to use "Energetic Hero" rather than "Powered Up Hero". It just sounded weird to me. Your suggestion led to my choice, though.

If you go into my profile, my most recent screenshot shows the difference in score from missing only 2 blocks at around the mid point of the song. Encouraging perfection shouldn't ever be something you have to consciously do; a well-designed mode naturally sorts players by actual skill level instead of by what point(s) of the song they screwed up at. A couple misses right at the start or right at the end would've none practically nothing, whereas a miss around the mid point cripples the score completely. The penalty for screwing up should ideally be equal no matter what point the screw up happens at. That's actually kind of why I don't like multipliers much in the first place, nevermind fully resetting multipliers.

Right now, this mod is still far higher on my list than hero is, because the punishment for screwing up is exactly equal no matter where you screw up. Believe me; that mod is absurdly competitive for how simple it is and how equally it treats any screw up. Only absolute perfection lands you on the throne in that mod, unless nobody else is perfect either; in which case raw overall skill decides the ranking ladder.

Obviously, your mod will always punish missing a white block far more than missing any normal block; the white blocks give a massive momentary score boost when you collect all 10 successfully. That's part of what sets your mod apart from other mods. I think you could probably find a fair way to handle the intended play style of your mod without the use of any persistent but potentially resetable multiplier; that kind of scoring system just makes me want to quit if I screw up even once. If it's fair, then it's naturally going to be competitive because everyone should be able to accomplish the same feats as each other so long as they're as skilled as each other; no matter the screw up the final score will be reduced in the end. Forcing perfection is (rage/despair) quit-inducing, not fair and therefore nothing more than a frustrating race to see who aces the song first in terms of competition.

Huh. I see your point now, and I agree with you. The problem I had was finding a way to reduce penalty accross the song, even at low multipliers. I was thinking maybe reseting multiplier if it's not above a certen threshhold, say 10 or 20. And the multiplier lost for missing a block would be either: the loss be a percentage of your current best multiplier or 10-30% lost based on the multiplier you ahd when you missed the first block (if you miss more than one in a row, it wouldn't reduce the ammou nt lost). It could also just be 10-30% reduction.

Something else I could do is: instead of spikes reducing multiplier like missing does, it could lower base block score for a few seconds, say 2-4. And not removing multiplier if a power block is missed. It's kind of harsh when I think about it.

An alternative way to solve this problem is to set a max multiplier, and keeping the full reset. Another way would be to remove multiplier reducing entierly, and instead remove points at the end based on spikes hit and blocks missed.

After getting a chance to acctually play the mode instead of just needing to test everything, I realized that it could be much better if I focus the gameplay around the powerups and the momentary score bonus. I don't know much about designing for a rhythm game. All the ones I've played were brutal with scoring worse that hero.

If I may ask your oppinion on my above ideas, it would very much help. I need to rewrite traffic generation code aswell, sence there seems to be some weird bugs with power block set placement. The next update will (hopefully) fix most if not all of the problems we've discussed here, along with a scoring rework to make the gamemode more fair and less harsh on players. It will most likely be a while before I'm done doing all this. I hope you can still enjoy the brutally harsh rage-enducing bug-filled agoney that hero currently is :)

So, basically you want ideas for alterante mechanics, right? Here's what I can come up with partially based on some of the ideas that you listed and keeping in mind that you seem to want 1,000,000 points to be hard to get:

Normal blocks:
Worth 10 points flat with no penalty for missing (other than of course missing out on the 10 points).

Spikes:
Add to the "spikes hit" counter if hit; will be used in score calculation later. No immediate penalty.

Power blocks:
Mostly the same as normal blocks, but collecting all 10 in the set instantly gives an additional 1,000 points (to counteract varying # of normal blocks in the space 10 seconds after the power block set). Since power blocks also act like normal blocks, the net total from collecting all 10 is 1,100 points (10*10+1000).

Score calculation:

1. RawPoints*(70,000/(TrafficCount+(PowerBlocks*11)))=Step1
   
2. (Step1/100)*((100/SpikeTraffic)*(SpikeTraffic-SpikesHit))=BeforeBonuses

This calculation method standardizes scores for any song regardless of length or traffic count, while still being quite fair and making sense. This would allow a player to look at a scoreboard and immediately know how much the current top contenders are struggling, and be able to gauge their chances of taking the throne based on their position in relation to those other players on scoreboards for other songs. Also, while this step maxes out at 700,000 points the remaining 300,000 of the 1,000,000 can come from bonuses. It is possible to do it in one equation:
((RawPoints*(70,000/(TrafficCount+(PowerBlocks*11))))/100)*((100/SpikeTraffic)*(SpikeTraffic-SpikesHit))=BeforeBonuses

Bonuses (standard type):
Energetic Hero; +50,000 points
Sneaky Hero; +100,000 points
True Hero; +150,000 points

BeforeBonuses+Bonuses=AfterBonuses


Strange Feats (hidden bonuses that won't reveal their names on the results screen unless earned, and aren't hinted at on the splash screen):
Picky Hero; Collect 100% of the power blocks but absolutely 0 normal blocks with no spikes hit. (AfterBonuses*0)+313,337
Strange Hero; Collect 100% of the normal blocks but absolutely 0 power blocks with no spikes hit. (AfterBonuses*0)+737,373
Villain; Collect 100% of the spikes. (AfterBonuses*0)+666,666
Omnicidal Villain; Collect 100% of the spikes, normal blocks, and power blocks. (AfterBonuses*0)+888,888

Basically ideas for easter eggs that you could add for people that... I dunno, goof off on AS2 a lot...? Lol I dunno, take it if you like the humor potential, leave it if you don't xD Even an Omnicidal Villain is no match for a Sneaky True Hero, and even one missed spike would disqualify it. So there shouldn't be any risk of the easter eggs becoming the main play style >;P xDD


One thing; my suggestion basically throws multipliers out the window and you seemed to want to keep multipliers in there somehow or other. If you want me to try again and keep multipliers in the equation, just say the word (;

You can give suggestions on ways to keep multiplier if you'd like. It would definately help, and you seem to know your stuff. I want to know exactly what I'm going for w hen reworking scoring, so the more ideas the better.

I thought of a few more things that might work. They all keep the multiplier and focus on the power block sets.

Instead of keeping multiplier throughout the song, your multiplier doubles as the timer for the power blcoks, slowly draining during the affect until it reaches 1. The higher your multiplier, the longer powerups last. This would mean that I would ahve to space out power block sets more.

The other thing is a slightly altered version fo the previous idea. It completely removes multiplier and the current power bonus. Collecting a power block increases something called 'overdrive' by 1. At any time, pressing a key would activate the normal powerup state, and overdrive would be the duration of the powerup. I would likely have to change how power blocks work currently to do that, though. And no penalties for hiting spikes or missing blocks other than losing the the bonus at the end.

Something else would be to have a perfect score always be 1,000,000 points. Which means that your score, if done correctly, would reflect your skill. This would also remove imediate penalties for missing blocks or hitting spikes.

Originally posted by Searous:

Something else would be to have a perfect score always be 1,000,000 points. Which means that your score, if done correctly, would reflect your skill. This would also remove imediate penalties for missing blocks or hitting spikes.

That sounds basically like what I just suggested; think you could give it a whirl and see if it works well enough for you? ^^ ;D (;