Rock Band: Battle Of The Bands [Lan #6]

[Sideshow]

Results:
# | Band | Wins
-------------------------------------------------------
1st | Blue On Blue | 3
2nd | Sex Panthers | 2
3rd | Wink 182 | 1
4th | Nazi Rape Laser & The Felch Kings | 0



Unless the numbers increase dramatically we're gonna do a round robin. It's looking like 4 bands, so everyone can pair off against everyone else: 3 rounds. Each round your band chooses a song to perform, and at the end of the round the total score from your band is compared to that of your opposing band. Bands don't need to play the same song as each other in a round (though they can if they want). If you fail the song then your fail percent will be used as a tie-breaker. Winner of the tournament will be determined by number of rounds won. We might do a final showdown between the leading 2 bands if the scores are close, or maybe just if we want to :)

Song selection:
To try and keep the rounds balanced we're going to apply some stipulations on what songs you can pick. Don't worry! Nothing is being proscribed, we're just gonna try and keep each round exciting by trying to get bands to play songs with a similar potential score. To that end:
Every band gets 50 points to spend on songs. Every song has a cost (found here (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pKTyKOdcGbzQMbtq1qC1SRw)). Each round you buy a song to play; simple. However, the song in each round must cost more than the song you played in the previous round. As a rule of thumb, look to spend around 10 points in round one, 15 in round two and 25 in round three. Of course, you can mix this up however much you want. If you want to save points by lowballing rounds one and two, you'll be able to afford GGaHT in round three...

List of songs ordered by potential score (http://rockband.scorehero.com/top_scores.php?platform=2&size=4&team=0&group=15&diff=4&sort=4&order=back)

If numbers increase dramatically then we'll switch the format to Swiss and still run three rounds, with a definite play-off at the end.

Post here if you want to join in! You can either form a band with other members, or just sign up as a session artist who'll be allocated a band later. I'd like a confirmation from each band member; the first to post can list band name and all the members, after which the other members can just post the band name to confirm. You can list member positions if you want, but they won't be enforced in the tournament: you'll be free to swap instruments around each round.


Blue on Blue
Sideshow
TK_Maximus
Ru
Phizz

Nazi Rape Laser & The Felch Kings
GigaFuzz
Octavion
BluePixie
Saladin

Sex Panthers
Sid
Gor
Mogwai
Random Michael

Wink 182
Thanatos
Fyndir
neogramps
?

Just remember: God gave rock and roll to you.

[TK-Maximus]

Are you participating? And if so, are Blue on Blue Owning this tournament making an appearance?

I'm going to Engerland for the weekend I think, but I might hold off my departure until the wee hours of Saturday moring for this.

[GigaFuzz]

Is this going to work any better than last time? Since the amount of points you can get is based on the length of song and the various difficulty levels, the band that picks the longest song has a much better chance of winning, unless everyone picks long songs, which they might not necessarily like playing. So you could end up with a shit band getting a higher score on a long song than a good band on a shorter song.

Is there not some way to do it based on percentages (weighted by difficulty) instead, or am I completely missing the point?

Oh, and I'm in. Are NRL & The Felch Kings re-uniting for this one?

[Sideshow]

TK: I'll be playing, for sure. Blue On Blue is a distinct possibility.

Giga: I missed the last one (fuckers), so I don't know how it was run. Rock Band isn't like Guitar Hero: it doesn't handicap the higher difficulties, so a player playing well on Expert is going to get a much higher score than a player playing well on Medium. I.E. Skill is Rewarded.

I posted a link to the songs which shows potential scores. If you change difficulty you'll see the difference. You can also see that apart from GGaHT the scores form a fairly contiguous block. Using percentage doesn't work, since it just encourages people to play below their level to get 100%s. It's possible that we'll just get everyone playing the top N songs, but IMHO that won't happen: for one, I think the score difference provided by player skill is going to outweigh the score difference provided by song selection. On top of that I'd personally be very wary of picking some of the harder tracks like GGaHT or Highway Star, since the possibility of failing out completely is there. The other thing is that even though this is a tournament (i.e. competitive), Rock band is about the fun. I think people will be motivated more to pick songs they like than to pick songs they can score big on. There's not gonna be any prizes for this.


In short: judging by score rewards skill / by percentage does not. I think the most skillful players (in any game) should be the ones who win.

[TK-Maximus]

Is this going to work any better than last time? Since the amount of points you can get is based on the length of song and the various difficulty levels, the band that picks the longest song has a much better chance of winning, unless everyone picks long songs, which they might not necessarily like playing. So you could end up with a shit band getting a higher score on a long song than a good band on a shorter song.

Is there not some way to do it based on percentages (weighted by difficulty) instead, or am I completely missing the point?

Oh, and I'm in. Are NRL & The Felch Kings re-uniting for this one?

Having glanced at the list, if your guitarist can get through Green Grass and High Tides, you probably deserve to win.

[Sid]

I missed the last one (fuckers), so I don't know how it was run. Rock Band isn't like Guitar Hero: it doesn't handicap the higher difficulties, so a player playing well on Expert is going to get a much higher score than a player playing well on Medium. I.E. Skill is Rewarded.

Yeah, that was the problem last time. I was thinking that the overall points available would be the same for Expert or Easy, so we'd worked out a rule that you had to have 1 easy, 1 medium, 1 hard & 1 expert per team.

Probably best just to let everyone in a team play their difficulties of choice. I'm not sure how you'd work out the songs, though. Some are worth more than others obviously, so surely everyone would have to do the same? Or at least offer a table showing the maximum potential score for each song so that people can make an informed choice. My team's song got well over 90% for each instrument but came 3rd because the song was low scoring, so I think that the song does make a big difference.

Edit: I didn't read the 2nd paragraph of your post before making this post, Iain - sorry if I've duplicated anything.

2nd Edit: The Sexpanther guys will obviously be doing "Green Grass and High Tides" - all on Expert.

[GigaFuzz]

TK: I'll be playing, for sure. Blue On Blue is a distinct possibility.

Giga: I missed the last one (fuckers), so I don't know how it was run. Rock Band isn't like Guitar Hero: it doesn't handicap the higher difficulties, so a player playing well on Expert is going to get a much higher score than a player playing well on Medium. I.E. Skill is Rewarded. .

Fair enough, I hadn't thought that through fully enough.

Still doesn't get around the fact that longer songs = more points though. As I said before, one band could completely ace a shorter song, but be beaten by a band who only did okay, but on a longer song. The way only way this would be fair is if everyone plays the same song.

[Octavion]

I wish to rape some people with my national socialist laser while my monarchs extract ejaculation fluids from rectums.

i.e. Nazi Rape Laser and the Felch Kings are going to pwn j00...or at least be mildly competent.

[GigaFuzz]

I wish to rape some people with my national socialist laser while my monarchs extract ejaculation fluids from rectums.

i.e. Nazi Rape Laser and the Felch Kings are going to pwn j00...or at least be mildly competent.

With all my GH practice, I should be able to do more than bore everyone to death with medium bass as well. \m/

[Sideshow]

Song length has little to do with potential score: number of notes is what's important. GHaHT's is so large because it's massively long AND has a high note-density. Everyone playing the same song is incredibly dull, and like I said, not really necessary since the level of skill doesn't warrant exacting standards in potential score. If you are really bothered about it then by all means play the same song as your opponent. I'll be happy playing a song which has a similar potential score (say, within 20%), depending on the opposing band. Also, the difference in score between "completely ace" and "doing OK" is actually exponentially large, because of the way that the score multipliers work. if you look at 45th place on the Green Grass and high Tides leader-board you'll see a 'doing OK'. They all get ~85%, yet their total score is a paltry 920,000. Only 11 songs in the game have top scores less than that. The top score on GGaHT is 3.5 million.

[Bluepixie]

Hmmm this is all rather exciting! :p

Were are all the bands though?!?

Sign me up to Nazi Rape Laser & The Felch Kings. :) Highway Star on expert? Pah! No problems, except for the scary guitar solo, oh my word..........I bet I'll never repeat that performance.

[saladin]

Another Felch King reporting for duty here.

Remember: more felching, less sucking this time.

[Sideshow]

Bump for great justice

[Bluepixie]

I see Big John is taking part, will be good to see him along. :p

[Octavion]

Sid's on-man-band effort should be interesting to watch. :D

[Sideshow]

24 peeps signed up for lan and only 8 for this? WTF!?? BUMP BUMP BUMP

[Thanatos]

not sure if il be there but if i am il have a go at whatever, bearing in mind iv as yet never played it. might get some practise on the friday night/ sat tho. i was thinkin drums or singin cos i cant play guitar for shit. why isnt there a trombone attachment?...

[Fyndir]

My main problem was that I've never played it and I suck at Guitar Hero, so I thought I would just be getting in the way if I signed up. =S

[neogramps]

i have never played any guitar hero-esque game so I'm sure I would suck bigtime, might give it a try tonight once I get a few beers in me. me and fyndir could join forces and form the worst band ever

[Sideshow]

Updated the rules (as in, I made some :P)

[Fyndir]

I'm up for some sort of super-shitty band.

We can think of a parody name (Wink 182? Stinkin Lark? HER?) or something too.

[neogramps]

lol - i like "wink 182"

[YcMing]

Do you know what time is this going to be on ????????

[Sideshow]

According to the schedule, midnight tonight.

[Sid]

Greig has said that he might not be able to bring Rock Band along (he isn't coming until Saturday) and has asked if Saladin or Sideshow can bring theirs and sort out guitars between them.

[Sideshow]

I'll bring my guitar if Saladin brings the rest... :)

[Sid]

I'll bring my guitar if Saladin brings the rest... :)
Saladin is already bringing a PC, monitor, TV, console etc.!!! It's quite a lot to ask for him to bring rock band along, too.

It's maybe not the end of the world if we don't have Rock Band there tbh. We could maybe just do Guitar Hero?

[saladin]

TBH, I think that not having Rock Band would be a huge mistake. It's all over the posters and has proved hugely popular in the past.

At the moment, I'm bringing my pc, monitor, PS3 and my Wii. Without help there and back, taking Rock Band could be tough. I dunno. It looks like Jan's signed up to give me a lift, which helps. Why don't you bring your Rock Band equipment, Iain? I can bring the guitar.

[TK-Maximus]

Saladin is already bringing a PC, monitor, TV, console etc.!!! It's quite a lot to ask for him to bring rock band along, too.

It's maybe not the end of the world if we don't have Rock Band there tbh. We could maybe just do Guitar Hero?

Lies!

I wont be free until shortly before midnight, but if King (Or someone else) can make it round to mine, he is welcome to bring my Drums, Mike and Guitar. The PS3 can't go (It's not mine) and indeed doesn't have any bonus tracks anyway.

I'll be in between 5 and 6, failing that King can contact The Frenchman to get in.

[saladin]

Lies!

I wont be free until shortly before midnight, but if King (Or someone else) can make it round to mine, he is welcome to bring my Drums, Mike and Guitar. The PS3 can't go (It's not mine) and indeed doesn't have any bonus tracks anyway.

I'll be in between 5 and 6, failing that King can contact The Frenchman to get in.

If you could do that, it'd be brilliant mate. Thinking about it, there's no way I could manage all that stuff. I can provide the PS3 no problems.

[Sideshow]

I'll pick up Pit's stuff tonight, and bring my guitar. Pit, can you make sure your flatmates know this is happening; I can do without pointless arguments.

[TK-Maximus]

I'll pick up Pit's stuff tonight, and bring my guitar. Pit, can you make sure your flatmates know this is happening; I can do without pointless arguments.

Rozi is in Plymouth. Craig is in the back of beyond. Eriiiiic shouldn't be a problem. It'll be bagged and Tagged and ready to go.

[Sideshow]

Awesomeness

[Sideshow]

This was good fun, well done everyone who took part. Hopefully we'll have even more players next time!

[Bluepixie]

Yeah was good fun. Pity the Felch Kings were made of McPhail that night. :( next time eh?

[Fyndir]

So, like, I won, right?

[Sideshow]

Well, you weren't last... does that count as a win?

[Fyndir]

It's good enough for me. =D

[GigaFuzz]

Yeah was good fun. Pity the Felch Kings were made of McPhail that night. :( next time eh?

Fuckin' roadies brought the wrong guitars, man.

[Octavion]

Fuckin' roadies brought the wrong guitars, man.

Me being pished with a nasty cold sure didn't help either.

[saladin]

Me being pished with a nasty cold sure didn't help either.

How the hell did that affect your guitar skills?