Fifth Note at Non-Amazing Difficulty

[DoctorM]

NBSRDan seems bang on with what you usually see.
I'm not sure of his classification of gamer types though.

Someone who is heavily into video games but has never played a guitar game should be able to start on this difficulty without issue.

I'm a serious gamer (mostly FPS's). I've been playing FoF for awhile now and I still can't get out of medium difficulty.
As soon as I move my hand to cover fret #5 I become completely dis-coordinated.

Perhaps I'm not a serious enough gamer for NBSRDan, but I think 'start on this difficulty without issue' is an exaggeration.
I suggest it would be more accurate to say: 'can get use to this difficulty'.

I guess I should change "heavily" to 'very heavily', since I personally don't consider myself "casual", yet initially found Medium challenging and Hard impossible. Perhaps I'm just overestimating others' skill.

Wait, you initially found Medium challenging and Hard impossible? So we are in the same boat.
Mind you I will admit I got lazy and stopped trying to learn Hard difficulties a while back.

Btw, I don't think it was mentioned that you will see HOPOs very infrequently on Medium difficulty, but they are somewhat common on Hard (and I suppose Expert).

@Kilyle - I agree. I've been burned by the fake-out Easy/Mediums before. More freters should take the time and really do these difficulties.

You know, there is no reason why a piece of fretting software couldn't include an auto-difficulty option (or maybe just an applet for this).
The fretter would create the highest level of difficulty and then the software would strip notes that are too close together, have too many notes in the cords and notes in the 4/5th column are moved or removed depending on the difficulty.

It may not be extremely accurate, but it's really a fairly simple formula and would make fretting several times easier since only one difficulty would need to be made initially and then at the click of a button the rest are done (or mostly done but can be refined afterward if desired).

Heck, the end-users could use the software to import downloadeded songs without lower difficulty levels and 'down-difficulty' them for themselves. Hmmm. I'm liking my hypothetical software.

[death_au]

Hmmm. I'm liking my hypothetical software.

I believe the software exists, but the charts it produces are crap, and people who have used this software have not taken the time to fix up these difficulties and it has earned a reputation for producing crap charts.
It should still be around somewhere with some intelligent searching

[Mahtari]

here's an idea: practice. a while back, i sucked at RB completely. I couldn't even do Medium. It was that bad. Now I'm on expert. Now, I'm no Puppetz (not that Puppetz is the best, I'm refering to him), but I can pass most songs on expert. If your work your way up, you'll be able to play expert in no time. Of course... i play guitar irl, so idk if that has anything to do with my fast leap from easy to expert....

[abomb12]

I found that playing on a difficulty that you fail nearly every song actually gets you better...I went easy to medium in an hour and from medium (skipped hard) to expert in a day...Of coarse I sucked at expert and could only beat really easy songs but when I went back and played on hard it was easy and I went through all of guitar hero 2 in like 3 days on hard and beat expert in like a week after that...

this is my break down of how the difficulties should go

Easy / Super Easy: the first 4 notes (Green, Red, Yellow, and Blue), and only a few chords where they are needed, but not chords that are serpated by a button (Example: Green and Yellow Chord), and about 75% of the notes from the song...The reason I think easy should have the 4 notes is it makes it easier to play the harder difficulties when you have better control over using all of your fingers.

Medium / Easy: the first 4 notes (Green, Red, Yellow, and Blue) with the ocassional orange but only in solos and things of that nature...Also have all chords but no 3 button chords, and and about 85% of the notes from the song...this would make players ocassionaly have to press the orange button to and get used to more difficult parts in songs.

Hard / Medium: All 5 notes regularly, a few 3 note chords, and the only notes not in the song would be at really difficult parts (example: solos)...again this would help prep for expert with a few 3 note chords and regular use of the orange note.

Expert / Amazing: All 5 notes, All types of chords, and 100% of notes

[ADeadlierSnake]

ok back when i was a n00b and i just downloaded other ppl's songs (not that theres anything wrong with that ), i saw some ppl make one single chart that would normally be played on expert, and then take that chart and copy it into other difficulties so it could be played at lower ones. since i have the same problem of sucking at expert, i rly liked this idea, so now that i fret my own songs, i fret all my songs this way. one chart using all frets, playable in all difficulties. Anyone can check these out in my song thread.
P.S. i still suck at expert XD

[iamsensay]

ok back when i was a n00b and i just downloaded other ppl's songs (not that theres anything wrong with that ), i saw some ppl make one single chart that would normally be played on expert, and then take that chart and copy it into other difficulties so it could be played at lower ones. since i have the same problem of sucking at expert, i rly liked this idea, so now that i fret my own songs, i fret all my songs this way. one chart using all frets, playable in all difficulties. Anyone can check these out in my song thread.
P.S. i still suck at expert XD

Hang on, what? You leave a FULL EXPERT CHART on easy medium and hard as well? Umm, why couldnt people just play the expert chart as it is? By putting it on lower difficulties you get a slower moving fretboard thats all. All that would do would make the notes REALLY close together and hard to read. It certainly wont teach people skills for expert playing because they will be totally thrown when the play on expert speed.

[ADeadlierSnake]

ok back when i was a n00b and i just downloaded other ppl's songs (not that theres anything wrong with that ), i saw some ppl make one single chart that would normally be played on expert, and then take that chart and copy it into other difficulties so it could be played at lower ones. since i have the same problem of sucking at expert, i rly liked this idea, so now that i fret my own songs, i fret all my songs this way. one chart using all frets, playable in all difficulties. Anyone can check these out in my song thread.
P.S. i still suck at expert XD

Hang on, what? You leave a FULL EXPERT CHART on easy medium and hard as well? Umm, why couldnt people just play the expert chart as it is? By putting it on lower difficulties you get a slower moving fretboard thats all. All that would do would make the notes REALLY close together and hard to read. It certainly wont teach people skills for expert playing because they will be totally thrown when the play on expert speed.

It makes it so ur rock meter doesnt go down as fast when u miss notes. plus u can always turn on hyperspeed to space them out again

[Stefan_Alfons]

@Difficulties: There ARE some songs which have chords on easy difficulty, also (RaBl for example)
Just wanted to point that out.

[warhol]

Notice how GH2 expresses Hard that they make full use of 4 notes and add a 5th note very rarely, but in GH3, Hard is just a dumbed down version of Expert.

[DoctorM]

Notice how GH2 expresses Hard that they make full use of 4 notes and add a 5th note very rarely, but in GH3, Hard is just a dumbed down version of Expert.

Most reviews of GH3 were fairly negative because of the difficulty level. I wouldn't use GH3 is a guideline.

[coolguy567]

GH2's use of orange on Hard isn't so much "GRYB with occasional O" but more "alternating long sections of just GRYB and just RYBO" (so you don't have to move your hand around as often as on expert).

[DoctorM]

GH2's use of orange on Hard isn't so much "GRYB with occasional O" but more "alternating long sections of just GRYB and just RYBO" (so you don't have to move your hand around as often as on expert).

Very true. It also seems to the RYBO sections are fewer like your natural hand placement is GRYB.
Rock Band on the other hand is more RYBO heavy, like that is the normal hand placement.

[death_au]

Rock Band on the other hand is more RYBO heavy, like that is the normal hand placement.

I find it easier to move my index finger to hit green than to move my pinky to hit orange, so it makes sense to use the RBYO finger-placement, and by that measure, it makes sense to train you in that before you get to Expert.
I'm not saying it's the same for everyone, just that I can see why they would do it that way.