Star Power MIDI Event?

[dadudemandude]

We're not talking about "someone's highscore" but about TONS of highscores. And no one wanted to throw away the idea, we just need to find a way so everyone is happy about it.

Like I said before, we should just be putting this in and get used to it like we did with the UC mod

Davey

[Sealclubber]

This is CRAZY, Highscores is beside the point, an original Star path is what i would like to play. you all know that songs have places that just "feel" like starpower belongs there and starpower just has to be used there.

I TOTALLY agree with dude, change is not always bad, dont be scared...

[Razlo7]

There's already an option to add starpower paths to the MIDIs in Feedback, we just need someone to code it into the game, so that the game will read the SP path while loading the song and load it in that place.

[Sealclubber]

yea, we just need coding... Im no coder, i fret and shred

[Razlo7]

I'm just a expert fretter/guitarist/drummer lol ... no coder

[omfgdrphl]

Isn't detecting a note from the midi piano roll easier then detecting a series of text? Fof has been able to do that from start, so why not do it the normal way?

[raynebc]

Note-based and event based are both comparable, and the end results are the same if it is implemented correctly. FoF still has some work to go for the text event system before it's considered finished, such as per-instrument solo-ing.

[nshredz123]

could make it like
sp_path = 1 or 2
1 for on/off
2 for the opposite

[myfingershurt]

So obviously nobody here is an Alpha tester for FoFiX, because otherwise you'd be enjoying real starpower / overdrive paths instead of suggesting what you think are feasible ways to implement it.

Not only that, but it's been marked as finished in the issue tracker for almost a week now.

If this intrigues anybody, here are instructions on how to become an Alpha tester (no support offered; only bug reports accepted):
http://code.google.com/p/fofix/wiki/RequiredSourceModules

[raynebc]

Does the alpha release use Feedback's method to identify star power notes?

[myfingershurt]

Does the alpha release use Feedback's method to identify star power notes?

No idea, I don't use Feedback. I model FoFiX's logic around the real console games.

http://code.google.com/p/fofix/wiki/SongFrettersTips
http://code.google.com/p/fofix/issues/detail?id=107

[raph666]

The main problem with score-modifying mods and score charts comes from the way the game stores and uploads the scores. When you finish a song and upload your score, the game will actually try to upload all the scores there are in the song.ini. You might think it's a good thing since it allows you to play the game offline and upload your score later which of course is nice for people on dial-up connections and such. However, if it was not for this feature you could easily modify the "uploadHighscores" function so it includes the mod version, the hit-window settings, the hopos settings, the sp-paths/midi-events options used, etc. in the uploadscore request, thus making it quite easy for score charts admins to classify and group together scores using the same options. But because all the scores in the song.ini are uploaded, all these options would need to be encrypted in the score hash for every scores you find in the song.ini and later be decrypted by the charts systems or otherwise you could play a song with particular settings, save the score, change settings, upload the scores and voilà, you cheated. Encrypting everything in the scorehash was discussed before (a long time ago, in the Rogue_F era.. ) and did not happen so I guess it was not an easy alternate solution. A solution to this would be to modify the uploadHighscores function so it sends only the "last-played" score but then, it would be sad for people playing offline. There does not seem to be an easy solution that would fit everyone's needs but unfortunately, at one point, decisions will have to be taken. If not, I predict the fall of the global "world" charts as people will realize the charts have no credibility anymore (this might create a rise of the "private" charts though, where you compete against selected players, maybe not a bad alternative since charts are very easy to setup for people with few php and mysql knowledge).

This said, "The I don't care about score charts" argument is very weak and egoist. I personally now care less about the charts but I sure remember when I was a more active player on popular charts and I remember how the subject was very important to me. People cry, requesting online multiplayer gamemode but do not see that currently the score charts are what's closest to be an online multiplayer gamemode. Changes are not bad, but it is also the responsibility of the programmers to make sure these changes are not destroying all the things other people put time and effort to build. Unfortunately, coders are usually more busy coding than playing and tend to actually forget about highscores but they are an important part of this community, highscores sections prove it.

[myfingershurt]

I agree; FoFiX needs its own world chart. I have no time to work on it, nor do I have any idea how to start. Someone familiar with Divra's code would be more appropriate to attempt to modify it to accept a new version string identifier, accept a 7-star "FC" scoring, keep track of all relevant options that can affect scoring (HOPO system, HOPO frequency, hitwindow, MIDI or auto starpower, etc), separate scores accordingly, and return an accurate ranking result after an upload.

Once this is in place, then it won't matter if someone uploads scores after playing offline, each score will contain all the relevant scoring info in it so it can be placed into the appropriate world chart.

This is something I've wanted to make happen for a long time but I don't foresee making any progress on this any time soon, I have other issues to address first. In the meantime, the way to further this goal is for someone familiar with the world chart code to start examining the Python score uploading code and try adding some scoring items to retrieve and display in your world chart. Once some progress has been made in this area (show me a modified world chart where I can submit a high score and then go see, for example, what HOPO system I was using to get that score), I am highly likely to help on the Python side.

[Razlo7]

Just an idea... because it IS possible for someone to modify the number of starpower phrases in a song, is it possible to make the "new chart" that you are talking only allow the first amount of SP phrases that was submitted with the song? ... if that makes sense to you.

[raynebc]

The score would probably have to be uploaded with the fretter's name and a file hash of the MIDI. It would be easy to tell when the MIDI was altered from the original, and the score could be rejected.