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The Future of Rocksmith?


mczero

Question

I'm after inside information or informed opinion, not just wishful thinking.

Lets face it Guitar Hero and Rock Band are all but dead and no longer supported by the companies that made billions from them.

In 2012 we got Rocksmith, great.

In 2014 we got Rocksmith 2014, even better.

In 2016 we got Rocksmith Remastered for free, Yah!

In 2018 we got a few bug fixes, great.

So what next?

It's now a relatively mature product, so any improved version would probably require a complete costly rewrite.

Ubisoft continues to support the product with ODLC, great, but for how long?

CF has an apparently growing membership, a huge database of content and many dedicated charters (especially in death metal.  :))

We see guitar shops folding and time honoured guitar companies going bankrupt. Kids are into singing and dancing these days more than playing guitars.

Will Ubi upgrade again and keep the psarc format or create a whole new music game with a different format DLC.

Will some other software company see the possibilities and create a bigger, better music game for guitarists and steal away RS users?

Can CF carry on if Ubi dumps the product, no more support, ODLC or Real tone cables?

Of course, we all want the status quo to continue with more improvements and more ODLC. I buy as much ODLC as I can afford with this in mind, even if I've got the song in CDLC.

Does any member know someone who works for Ubisoft or a developer and can shed light on any of this?

Your information in response is most welcome.

Cheers,

mczero

 

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Let me start by saying I've been messing with guitar for about

20 years.  Now, as much as Rock Smith can help get people

started, it's current interface seems to impede progress as

experience increases.

 

Note Highway, geeze that thing can be a pain in the butt.  Like

a bunch of us, when the going gets tough the tough have to

go to Guitar Pro to figure out the score.  Too many notes 

jammed to fast with the note spacing of the Note Highway

jammed together and only being able to see a fraction of

what is coming up.  Let's get this straight, the Note Highway

is not 'sight reading.'   Sight reading involves running through

the entire score before you play it for the first time.  At least

please allow Rocksmith to do tabs which leads to the next 

part.

 

Rhythm, I don't have to go into what's wrong with that as this

is the biggest fail and really a shame.  Any type of complex

chord rhythm and Rocksmith just can't.  Well, can't and

even simple rhythms can be a pain to figure out.  Back out

to Guitar Pro to figure it out.  We need tabs or at least

stroke direction arrows.

 

Some of us have more than one guitar and bass, Rocksmith

does not think so.  The biggest problem is the fricking gain

adjustment.  Give us a hot key manual gain adjustment

from the note highway screen that includes a Gain Meter!

I know it was simplified for beginners but I think we can

handle it. 

 

ASIO support please please please.  I don't have a problem

using Rocksmith cables but by the gods,  why is Rocksmith

looking for one unique identifier number before it will use

the usb cable.

 

Rocksmith has so much potential to be a serious learning program

combined with fun.  It could be updated to something great without

losing the beginner aspect for which it was created.

 

P.S.  what would happen if real AI programming where used

to judge progress instead of hard coded switches?  

 

What would happen if Rocksmith was under regular updates

based on user feedback?

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a lot

 

The highway is not so bad. Some songs just have the scroll speed too low or high and that crams all the notes together or spreads them out and laser blasts them at you. Kinda a CDLC creator's liberty. They set it the way they want it.

 

Anyways, it's Learn a Song mode, that's where you do the sight reading. And if you have trouble, that's what riff repeater is for. Just hit spacebar, pick the section and repeat it. The toolkit can spit out tabs if you really need them.

 

Now the rhythm thing is correct...very chord dense songs have current chords blocking the next chords coming up. Kinda a pain randomly trying to figure out the strum direction on the fly too. But again, riff repeat and slow down can get through that. Or get tab from the toolkit.

 

+1 for on the fly gain adjusting. Would be very helpful, especially for those switching between single and double coils.

 

+1 for removing cable check. it's godawful and fragile and my sound card has far superior encoding and decoding hardware than a RTC.

 

RS is still great for learning songs, it just isn't the end all be all of guitar education. For me, it just livens up a practice. But this game teaches no technique or theory. It's just for fun.

 

PS: there is no such thing as real AI.

 

PPS: they should add a string break detection and have a change string minigame when you break a string.

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Yes the problem with the Riff Repeater is not how it was executed

but what it was intended to do.   Old fossilized dudes like me learned

on sheet music.  The passage you want to work on is on the there

in front of you,  you can see the entire passage.  Riff repeater is 

apparently not meant to be played when stopped as big block letters

pop up covering the highway.  That and you can't see mush of

the passage.  There was someone that hacked Rocksmith and

it shows a pop-up transparency next to the highway with tabs.  

Photoshop or for real he's shown a direct road map to a better

Rocksmith.  

 

Video guitar lessons under utilized.  You you can go out to

You tube and  find what you're looking for just as easy.  Perhaps

no reason to add on?  I don't know,  they could just be carried

forward and fleshed out with but perhaps the time is better spent

reworking the interface.

 

I'm talking some small implementation of computer learning and

fuzzy logic.  Fuzzy logic has been used for years to control elevator

speed, why not use it to control Note Highway speed instead of

the finite speed jumps in tempo the computer throws at you.  Same

with tracking you're progress.  Session mode is doing something

like that it just need to be brought forward for the Highway.

 

I have used the tab converter when I can't figure out what's

happening passage or rhythm wise.  Thumbs up or down

of you find it easier, that's the main crux of my argument.

 

For many guitar pedals are a big part of covering tunes but

RS does not go into teaching in this area.  Yes you can look

up the pedals used in a song.  At minimum how about having

a easy way (easier) to visually reference the chain with a 

hot key.  Learning pedals is not part  music theory but a

critical element for guitar players.   Alas for copyright reasons

the pedals and amps are given nonsensical names.  So close

but yet so far!

 

RS was meant as a transition from Guitar Hero, I get that.  Guitar

Hero in itself is in the spirit of Japanese computer party games.

Does RS work in the intended spirit of a party game?  I'm thinking

only only if you have prior guitar skills before you come to the

party.   Perhaps RS could shift a bit away from 'party mode'

philosophy and find a wider audience yet still retain some of the

pure 'fun' aspect.  I see plenty of people one Youtube ripping

through RS songs with serious skill.  

 

Well, the band played on while B.B. King fixed the broken string.

Try that in RS and Mr. Snarky voice will sneer "Unacceptable Performance."  

Mr. Snarky voice needs a dose of A.I. or needs to leave the studio.

 

If only RS had competition nipping at it's heels.  That ain't ever going

to happen because of the burden of stupid copyright licensing.   Copyright

licensing makes the internet a content sparse medium and games

like RS few and far between.   I can't see why RS could not be opened

to mod authors.  It would not affect the RS revenue stream and would  greatly

enhance the game.  It's not like people do not have experience modding

the Gamebyro engine.   

 

Well, the RS crew is working on something in the future.  I'm sure they

want the game to evolve as much as we do.  Like everything out there,

they are working with resource limitations  handed to them.  If I had

a Way-back Machine I'd go into the past and tell them not to tie their

copyright licenses to the date on the title screen '2014' cuz ya took

your 'Clean Slate' and busted it.

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Not enough screen real eastate leads to a information jam-up.  We don't need the 

Phrase Location Bar when the highway is in motion.  It could be set to...

 

1. Turn off automatically when we are playing

2. Do a TAB Crawl Display when playing or highway stopped.

2..Do a Standard Notation crawl when playing or stopped.

 

When the HIghway is stopped, please remove the huge

Block Letters the cover the lower right quadrant  of the

Note Highway.

 

Pitch bends need a small notation next to the note

such as, 1/2  or 1 or 1 1/2.

 

Do something with the RHYTHM NOTATION PLEASE!   

FIX IT  FIX IT  FIX IT  FIX IT  FIX IT  FIX IT !!!!!!!!!

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@@1Aviationnut this is not a place for feature request for the game, the dev of the game surely don't lurk around here and won't notice your suggestion.

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The thing is, most of this have already been talked about over Rocksmith forum or during their stream. They are aware of what could be better and would help, they've also asked question over Rocksmith Discord about some stuff.

 

There's not much point left in suggesting what could be improved, the question is wether or not doing an update is something that they consider viable/interesting or have the proper manpower to do and how far can they really go with the current game code. Many thing that we can't know about without inside information.

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When asked a developer did say that something was coming and that

it would take, "more than a month and less than two years."    I agree that

the code is probably pretty patched together at this point and forking the

save file means a major rewrite of code.  I'd be willing to shell out money

for a new version but I think others are thinking more along the lines

of another update and that's probably what's coming.   Saw something

on YouTube about a program in development that uses a Note Highway

and Guitar Pro files.  Interesting end run around copyright issues, or

maybe not.  As they say, "If you want something done, you got to write

it yourself."

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More songs.

Per instrument tracks.

Drums and Keyboard playing.

Improved picking hand notation that actually helps to see how its meant to be played.

 

I've read the gazillion excuses of all kinds to not make those happen. And i dont care. Thats what would propel Rocksmith to a tenfold and beyond.

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They have come a long way in design and usabllty since the start.  A lot of effort

seems to have be in the note reconginition engine.  At the start RS had problems

with note reconginition and intonation.  As you have probably noticed now your guitar

can drift quite a bit out of tune and RS will still pick up the notes.  One can hope

that this will allow RS to handle bottle neck slide in the future along with other

new features.  Unfortunately RS code seems to be in a somewhat fragile state

with all manner of misfunctions,  especially using manual tone switch.  I think

they have come the farthest of anyone in making this work.  I would just like

to see a total rewrite to fix core functionality and user interface.  Alas as long

as RS is primarily written for console first and ported to PC then RS will probably

remain constricted in what it can do.  That's sort of my pet peeve with having to

put up with the clunky game console/game-pad interface on a PC.

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New DLC-

 

Very interested/pleased in the 'Lesson DLC' upcoming. Seems like Greg is trying to breathe new life into this IP...

...However, his intentions are self-serving.  He (his corporation) gets (almost) $1 from each DLC sale.

(Remember Kids: you can only negotiate partials/residuals/commissions when you work on a 'contract' basis. Poors work hourly, Slaves work salary. The wise man has a lawyer/representative/manager negotiate his fee for him. A man that represents himself has a fool for a client.)

 

This DLC is an interesting idea- taking the 'song' format and twisting it into a practice tool. Clever, but should have been done before (or with the base game). Also, I remember 'rote-practice' being the antithesis of RS2014. Guess they went back on that

 

But before I spooge myself. Let's face it. $4 for single note hammer-ons, pull-offs, and scale practice ain't that great. Also, kinda feels desperate- two 'zero copyright' releases in a month- you be the judge.

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He (his corporation) gets (almost) $1 from each DLC sale.

Souce?

 

It's something that have been asked for years and now that they do it, they get flacked as if they are going out of business or something without any information indicating any issue, they are still recruiting, they are still active, they are putting out content players asked for, how can that be considered a problem?

 

It's way too early to judge anything at this point as the next month can easily get back to the usual artist/variety pack like they did for years now.

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What's next. I hope Electronic Drums would be added that would be the best. I just got a 8 piece mesh kit. Amazing if you live in a apartment played till 5am one night.

 

I know someone in the thread earlier on mentioned it not being a party game, but I would love to have other options for input aside from Guitar/Bass. I know Singing is sort of supported, but Drums or Piano would be dope too. Got a lot of friends that are much less likely to try and take up guitar/bass due to perceived difficulty than those other common instruments.

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What concerns me the most of the state and future of Rocksmith is looking at the Global Achievement stats on Steam.  26.3% of Rocksmith 2014 players (ie people who own the game) have played 'Learn a song' for 10 hours.  14.4% have played 'Learn a song' for 25 hours.  Anyone that has played Rocksmith less than 25 hours, is probably not buying much DLC.   If someone has played Rocksmith less than 25 hours, it means they tried it (because they liked the idea of guitar hero with a real guitar, or whatever) and gave up on it.  That means 85% of the people that have bought Rocksmith 2014 have a low probability of buying a new version of Rocksmith (at least until they can pick it up during a Steam sale for 75%off), because now those people have tried guitar hero with a real guitar, found out playing a real guitar is hard, and are not interested in buying another game that requires them to play a real guitar. 

 

Really, all I want is for Ubisoft to continue providing support to keep Rocksmith 2014 compatible with Windows. I'm pissed off enough that Microsoft is ending support for Windows 7.  

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