[WIP] FoFiX Theme for 4.0.0 - by the community

[death_au]

How about dynamic button directions at the bottom?

like green - select red - go back etc but it would display exactly what button you need to hit depending on what you are using

That would be awesome, and help out a lot of people.
I could see that really cluttering up the bottom of the setlist, but it would at least be nice to see what you can do and how to do it.
And it would point out to people who are still unaware how to edit their character.

[OzzyOzrock]

OUR EPIC POV.
(don't take this seriously.)

[Eze_2k]

i really like to see a "total score" for tiers,and for the entire carrer

[ADH]

OUR EPIC POV.
(don't take this seriously.)

haha that would be kinda cool actually

[Jama7301]

It'd be annoying using a near top down perspective like that though, haha. And trying to see chords ahead of time...

[Leapo]

The score you just got should be highlighted in the core list, so you can tell which one you got just then without having to compare the scores

and also, on a few multiplayer modes, you can have multiple people playing the same pat (you could probably have four players all playing Expert Guitar). In this case, instead of showing the parts that weren't played greyed out, perhaps it should just list the players and their parts, nothing more.

How about dynamic button directions at the bottom?

like green - select red - go back etc but it would display exactly what button you need to hit depending on what you are using

Those are some pretty easy fixes. This kinda what you had in mind?



This also eliminates the need for a separate scorecard for singleplayer mode. Just use the above with only one column.

Edit: Updated the quickplay list to match:

[death_au]

That's looking good, but I think aduro was referring to keyboard keys for the dynamic button directions as well.

So like:
[green fret][enter] Continue [red fret][F2] Replay Song [yellow fret][F3] More options
(that's just from your screenshot, those functionalities are all made-up atm)

[Leapo]

That's looking good, but I think aduro was referring to keyboard keys for the dynamic button directions as well.

So like:
[green fret][enter] Continue [red fret][F2] Replay Song [yellow fret][F3] More options
(that's just from your screenshot, those functionalities are all made-up atm)

Ah, that could be done by dynamically changing out the fret button icons for keyboard key icons, depending on the controller. Shouldn't be too hard to implement once it's actually made into a skin.

[coolguy567]

Those are some really nice mockups. I actually think they look nicer than the official GH menus, and maybe even the RB menus too...

Question: if your score isn't good enough for the highscores, how do you get your percent? I'm thinking that you could put their score on the final line with a solid line above it, kinda like ranking systems on some fantasy soccer leagues and such - if you look at the rankings, they show the top 10 and then yours underneath it for comparison, with a thicker line to signify all the scores that have been omitted. But without numbers down the side (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) that may seem unintuitive (it might look like you've always got a high score).

On the band score list you've combined multiplayer and single-player scores in some weird way. With the way you've done it, I don't see it making much sense unless you limit that high score list to *only* Expert Guitar and Hard Drums, rather than trying to lump them all together .What would happen if there was a score with Expert Guitar and Expert Drums as well as scores with Expert Guitar and Hard Drums, just Expert Guitar and just Hard Drums?

I agree that the breadcrumb trails at the top left are unnecessary and in some cases (like the scorecard) confusing, even. I think just the current menu name should appear there, with some kind of visual separator (like the arrows you already have), and then a quick textual explanation of the menu you're on or something. Or a scrolling marquee, those are cool . I'm not sure if FoF has any menus that are sufficiently unintuitive to justify the explanation, though.

Now just small things which would probably be fixed anyway (or just disagreed with ):
* The scores on the high score list should be right-aligned so the columns line up nicely
* Thousands separators would help on the high scores, too
* On the single-player scorecard, note streak and number of notes hit (X/Y, not percentage) should be included as there's easily enough space
* On the song select menu, songs which haven't been played should just have no high score, not a 0 (aside: it's always annoyed me how in career mode you need to scroll up and down to find the song that says "play to advance". you should be able to see which songs are completed just from looking at the list. Only showing highscores earned in career on the career song select would work. Unless that has been fixed without my noticing.)

[Leapo]

Question: if your score isn't good enough for the highscores, how do you get your percent? I'm thinking that you could put their score on the final line with a solid line above it, kinda like ranking systems on some fantasy soccer leagues and such - if you look at the rankings, they show the top 10 and then yours underneath it for comparison, with a thicker line to signify all the scores that have been omitted. But without numbers down the side (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) that may seem unintuitive (it might look like you've always got a high score).

Well, that's how Guitar Hero III's high score list works. You need to score higher than the last score on the list, if you score too low, you simply don't appear on it.

That's about the time Jurgen would say "You've just found a new way to suck" (as he usually does if you do horribly at a song).

Speaking of which, has any thought been given to sound effects for FoFiX? Jurgen is starting to feel a little dated, I think a simple crowd-cheer or crowd-boo loop at the end of a song would hold up better.

On the band score list you've combined multiplayer and single-player scores in some weird way. With the way you've done it, I don't see it making much sense unless you limit that high score list to *only* Expert Guitar and Hard Drums, rather than trying to lump them all together.What would happen if there was a score with Expert Guitar and Expert Drums as well as scores with Expert Guitar and Hard Drums, just Expert Guitar and just Hard Drums?

That's exactly what's going on, actually. The scores are ultimately listed by total score, and then filtered by which ones contain the same instruments and difficulty levels that were just played.

So in the above screenshot
- Score 1: Had both Expert Guitar and Hard Drums
- Score 2: Had both Expert Guitar and Hard Drums
- Score 3: Had Expert Guitar only (solo score)
- Score 4: Had both Expert Guitar and Hard Drums, as well as Expert Bass (not shown because Expert Bass wasn't played here).
- Score 5: Had Hard Guitar and Hard Drums (Hard Guitar was filtered from the list because it's not Expert Guitar).
- Score 6: Had both Expert Guitar and Hard Drums
- Score 7: Had both Expert Guitar and Hard Drums

I think you get the picture.

It could be simplified to list only exactly-matching scores (in the example above, only scores that have Expert Guitar and Hard Drums, disregarding all others) if it turns out to be too much trouble.

I agree that the breadcrumb trails at the top left are unnecessary and in some cases (like the scorecard) confusing, even. I think just the current menu name should appear there, with some kind of visual separator (like the arrows you already have), and then a quick textual explanation of the menu you're on or something. Or a scrolling marquee, those are cool . I'm not sure if FoF has any menus that are sufficiently unintuitive to justify the explanation, though.

I like the breadcrumb bar, it allows you to figure out exactly what path you followed to get to the screen you're at now (was I playing quickplay mode or career mode? What list of high scores am I looking at again?).

The "Main Menu" entry could get bumped off the side, though...that would help a bit. Then it would just show you "Quickplay > Select Song", "Quickplay > Scorecard", "Career Mode > Select Song", etc.

Now just small things which would probably be fixed anyway (or just disagreed with ):
* The scores on the high score list should be right-aligned so the columns line up nicely
* Thousands separators would help on the high scores, too
* On the single-player scorecard, note streak and number of notes hit (X/Y, not percentage) should be included as there's easily enough space
* On the song select menu, songs which haven't been played should just have no high score, not a 0 (aside: it's always annoyed me how in career mode you need to scroll up and down to find the song that says "play to advance". you should be able to see which songs are completed just from looking at the list. Only showing highscores earned in career on the career song select would work. Unless that has been fixed without my noticing.)

I'll take those suggestions into consideration. Fixing up alignments and adding thousands-separators is a pretty quick fix, lol.

[death_au]

The "Main Menu" entry could get bumped off the side, though...that would help a bit. Then it would just show you "Quickplay > Select Song", "Quickplay > Scorecard", "Career Mode > Select Song", etc.

I agree with this. Dropping "Main Menu" would be good.
Also, if you're playing multiplayer, you should show what mode you're playing, e.g. "Multiplayer > RB Co-op > Scorecard"

[slantyr]

if it says rb co op you know your in mutlit-player the other multiplayer modes are just as self explanatory as say career or quickplay

where it's fine to let you know where you are and even add a modifier like that for quickplay, career, or co-op, it shouldn't display information that is already implied

[death_au]

if it says rb co op you know your in mutlit-player the other multiplayer modes are just as self explanatory as say career or quickplay

where it's fine to let you know where you are and even add a modifier like that for quickplay, career, or co-op, it shouldn't display information that is already implied

Granted.

[akedrou]

For the results screen, I think what would work best would be a button press of some sort for "Detailed Score Info", or something like that - that way there is room to put, for example, how many notes you missed, your streak, your HOPO settings, etc - and that could be the screen upped for HS verification. It'd be rather preferable to trying to crowd that information on as we do.

Additionally, the score idea you offer would be straightforward enough to pull out of a database. I'd agree that right alignment would be nice, and the thousands separator as well.

As for SFX? Yes, all the sounds will need to be changed too, so we'll be needing to come up with those. I've a few ideas for that, but nothing concrete yet. Seems like the theme flavor needs to be finished off before we can really commit to SFX, though presently I'm imagining ignition type sounds (ie the sound a furnace makes when it is lit; not cars or explosions) to be part of the theme.

And I agree with slantyr - if the submenu is easily inferred, it doesn't warrant being on the breadcrumb bar.

[coolguy567]

Well, that's how Guitar Hero III's high score list works. You need to score higher than the last score on the list, if you score too low, you simply don't appear on it.

That's about the time Jurgen would say "You've just found a new way to suck" (as he usually does if you do horribly at a song).

Well I get that - only problem is that it's impossible to find out what your note hit percentages are if you don't get a high score.

I agree that the "more stats" page is something FoFiX should have had ever since practice mode was added. Then we can have the percentage notes hit for each section like GH has. It seems a waste to only use the sections for practice mode.

That's exactly what's going on, actually. The scores are ultimately listed by total score, and then filtered by which ones contain the same instruments and difficulty levels that were just played.

So in the above screenshot
<snip>

I think you get the picture.

Okay that makes sense, although I'm not sure that's the best solution, as there's a lot of information left out (such as the bass player in Score 4 - the player would think "how did he get so much with just drums?). And a band of two players would have no chance competing against a band of 4, so it's not fair to put them on the same high score table. Now forcing the instruments and difficulties to match wouldn't be good as there are so many combinations that most the time the high score list would be empty.

Here's what I'm proposing: the instruments have to match but the difficulties don't in order to appear on the same high score list; the difficulties that each person played on are shown as an icon (or something) next to the player's name and percent. So XGuitar HDrums XBass competes alongside MGuitar EDrums MBass, as they have the same instruments (but obviously the former would have a much higher score as they have more notes to play), but not XGuitar HDrums XBass HVocals, as they have different instruments. Generally an X score will beat an H score as they have more notes, but there might be a situation in which the H score would have a better score (because he broke combo less), which isn't ideal, though.

If you need clarification: in a full band, there is no such thing as an "XGuitar HDrums XBass score", only a "Guitar Drums Bass" score. All the "Guitar Drums Bass" scores compete against one other regardless of what difficulties each instrument were played on.

Note that this system is only in place for co-op modes; for single player the instruments and difficulties have to match (so "XGuitar" and "HGuitar" are separated).

---- EDIT ----

I just noticed something: all those mockups are 16:10 whereas most monitors are 4:3 IIRC. You need to make sure your layout will still work on a 4:3 monitor. The setlist especially looks like it might be a squash on 4:3, as well as the scorecard with a 4-player band.

And now for something completely different: FoFiX needs some indication on the setlist of which instruments each song has a note-chart for. With full career packs, especially ripped ones from GH/RB, it's not a problem, but if you download a lot of individual songs from Tune Posting then it can become difficult to remember which songs have which instruments. Throw in a player who doesn't play on expert and now it's even worse - he has to find a song that has the right instrument and the right difficulty on that instrument.

There are a few ways I can think of of representing this:
1) a grid. Each row represents an instrument and each column a difficulty. A tick or something is placed in each cell to signify what the song has. In my ASCII art a 1 is a space and an 8 a tick (just 'cos numbers have a fixed width).
[1][8][8][8] Guitar
[1][1][1][8] Bass
[1][1][8][8] Drums
[1][1][1][1] Vocals
This song has M H and X Guitar, X Bass, H and X Drums and no vocals.
I don't like this way - it takes up too much space.

2) We use Rock Band-like icons to represent each instrument and have different background colours for the difficulties; say, cyan for Easy, green for Medium, orange for Hard and red for eXpert. So take the Rock Band Guitar icon (obviously we'd make our own icons) and give it an orange background - that is a universal symbol meaning "Hard Guitar" which can be used everywhere. Take the Drum icon and slice the background into 3 slices of 120 degrees each. Colour one of them red, one orange and one green - this shows that the song has M H and X drums. So the same example song as 1) would show:
A Guitar icon with a three-slice background: green, orange and red
A Bass icon with just a red background
A Drums icon with a two-half background: orange and red
No Vocals icon at all

Where would these icons go? I don't have a clue. They don't have to be shown for every song, just the currently selected one. Obviously if there was vocals then there'd always be a 4-slice background as it's impossible to only have (e.g.) expert vocals.

3) If we make the assumption that a charter will always chart the same difficulties for all the instruments, then we can just use two indicators, one for which instruments are charted and one for which difficulties are charted. example:
G B D V
E M H X
Guitar and drums are present, both at hard and expert.
This is nice and concise, but relies entirely upon that assumption: if the charter likes Guitar more than Bass and therefore charts M, H and X for Guitar but only X on bass then there's no way to show this.

4) before I begin with this idea let me just clarify: "absolute difficulty" is what's shown on the "difficulty" panel in the RB2-style setlist in your mockups e.g. "four flames" and "relative difficulty" refers to difficulty levels e.g. "expert"

combine it with the "difficulty" panel from RB that you already have in your setlist; this way we don't take up any more space. Showing which instruments are charted is easy - just only list the instruments which are present. So if we take FP/LT, as shown in the mockup of the setlist, but delete the bass (and vocals) chart then it would show (two brackets represents a "flame"):
Band: () () () () ()
Guitar: () () () () ()
Drums: () () () () ()
So it's easy to see that there's only Guitar and Drums.
Now if these absolute difficulties aren't specified in the ini, we'll still show the box, we'll just put "Unknown" where the little flames go. So some song with just Bass and Vocals charted and no indication of absolute difficulty in the song.ini would show:
Band: Unknown
Bass: Unknown
Vocals: Unknown

Now how to show which relative difficulties are included? This is much harder. Here's an idea, using the same colour scheme as in number 2):
Guitar: () () () () () () () () () ()
Bass: () () () () () () ()
So Guitar and Bass are charted. Guitar has Medium, Hard and Expert. The Medium Guitar chart has an absolute difficulty of 5 flames; the Hard chart is 8 flames and the Expert is 10 flames. The Easy Bass chart is 1 flame; the Medium is 3 flames; the Hard is 5 flames and the Expert is 7 flames.

This also reveals something which is difficult to represent otherwise: Hard Guitar is harder than Expert Bass! The real problem is, of course, deciding how hard each individual chart is...

Alternatively we can put the icons referred to in 2) onto this difficulty panel. So we have the Guitar icon with it's sliced background, then the word "Guitar", then the little flames.

tl;dr: we should find some way to tell the users what instruments are charted, and at what difficulties, for each song on the setlist.