BUFULO's dashboard

A comment on the problem "Stop Higher "Ranked" Players From Earning Points In Easier Rooms" in Tapulous:

It sounds like there is already a limit to get into the Extreme Room. Maybe more are needed, but where does it end?

That's a good example of why an ELO scoring system alone might not be enough! Maybe there needs to be a way to better control the accounts?

I doubt there is a solution that will make everyone happy, but I hope the final solution doesn't include limiting Room, or at least Song, access. The main reasons I visit other Rooms are to play different Songs & to avoid waiting 2-3 minutes for a song I like. The wife also likes to play together in the easier rooms sometimes. – bufulo, on July 21, 2009 23:37

A comment on the problem "Stop Higher "Ranked" Players From Earning Points In Easier Rooms" in Tapulous:

I think we all assume the other issues with the game would be fixed for the sake of this discussion. You are pretty "rank" though - better take a shower! :) – bufulo, on July 21, 2009 22:37

A comment on the problem "Stop Higher "Ranked" Players From Earning Points In Easier Rooms" in Tapulous:

Displaying "+ <1" isn't a bad idea, but I think you might be surprised how many people would have no clue that "<" means "less than."

I'd rather see the Global Rank displayed instead of the accumulated points anyway. At the end of a game, the number of points won could still be displayed (or not) but the focus would be on how your Rank changed instead of the points. This way the Rank could evolve to include other stats like maybe accuracy, variety of games played, number of games played, or whatever. Just thinking out loud here.

PS. If DXChain only played Freakazoid, could anyone challenge him for #1 Global Rank? Of course that would be pretty boring for him, but is just an example of why I think there should be more to Global Rank than just accumulated points. – bufulo, on July 21, 2009 22:30

A comment on the question "Does 8x take effect during or after a tap & hold?" in Tapulous:

I think you mean the hold portion of the tap & hold is always scored the same, right? The initial tap of a tap & hold does seem to get scored with consideration to the mulitplier & accuracy. Thanks though - it's easier to ask then test. – bufulo, on July 21, 2009 22:24

A comment on the question "Tapulous, are you working on the responsiveness of the arrows in TTR2 at all?" in Tapulous:

It seems like the Apple OS firmware presents the accelerometer hardware to the application as a means to detect ANY movement, not just what we would consider shakes. So the sensitivity (responsiveness) & time window are probably related in TTR.

The application is notified of any movement, so it is responsible for deciding when the time window begins, probably based on a certain accelerometer output level. Then the application has to filter the dozens or maybe hundreds of these movement events to find the time at which the output level peaked (the "tap" center). It's very flexible for Apple to do it this way, but also makes it sort of cumbersome for an application like TTR, especially if the accelerometer hardware or firmware changes. This seems to be the case with Apple OS 3.0.

I also think the physical location of the accelerometer matters to a small but maybe significant degree & could be different on the various platforms. The software problems are bigger than that & should be workable unless Apple made substantial changes that we're stuck with. – bufulo, on July 21, 2009 21:49

bufulo replied on July 21, 2009 21:19 to the idea "Genius Mode" in Tapulous:

The 4 lanes in Gaga Revenge are a little too far apart, so either closer together or maybe 5 lines would work for me. I think 6 would be too close together & too wide overall - not to mention pretty much impossible to play.

It would also be nice if the tap targets were moved up on the display ~0.5 cm. Otherwise we're all going to end up on disability for TapTap Tendonitis!

bufulo asked a question in Tapulous on July 21, 2009 20:54:

Does 8x take effect during or after a tap & hold?

Sometimes the 50th note in a streak is during a tap & hold. Does 8x go into effect for the tap & hold lane immediately (during the hold) or not until the next tap?

Also, whatever the behavior is, has it been consistent thru the various versions of TTR?

A comment on the idea "Feature Request: Non perfect hit counter" in Tapulous:

That's sort of lame though. We could also just count the non-perfect hits in our head. The old dudes can't remember what they had for breakfast, let alone a score at a certain spot in a certain song in TTR! :)

I don't think a stats summary is much to ask & would be a nice addition to TTR. – bufulo, on July 21, 2009 20:43

bufulo replied on July 21, 2009 20:39 to the question "Tapulous, are you working on the responsiveness of the arrows in TTR2 at all?" in Tapulous:

I've found the arrow behavior is VERY song dependent. For example, on Light It Up (Hard) they behave perfectly while on 18 Days (Hard) & Heregoesnothin (Extreme) it's absolutely impossible to not have some turn red. Two arrows in a row that are sort of close together are "tapped" with each shake. Sometimes I can get them individually with a perfectly timed tiny shake, but very rarely & almost never green.

The accelerometer events require filtering in TTR so the point in time of the peak acceleration can be found. It seems pretty obvious that the filtering for shakes has been altered somehow since Apple OS 3. That doesn't mean Tapulous couldn't or won't have to make changes to compensate. It seems like the "shake window" is now too long at the very least.

There are also sensitivity issues on the iPod Touch 2G that could entirely be up to Apple to fix. So I think Apple OS 3.1 will fix most of the issues with the arrows, but an update to TTR will probably still be necessary after that.

A comment on the problem "Stop Higher "Ranked" Players From Earning Points In Easier Rooms" in Tapulous:

Isn't +0 necessary for there to be a theoretical upper-bound on points? In reality, I suppose there is always someone better or at least better for a game - at least before we reach the end of time.

Rounding down to zero might be the only sure way to stop points farming though. I think anything else is going to have flaws (cheats) or require constant adjustment. Maybe that's better than dealing with the complaints.

One thing for sure is the gold & silver catch-up taps mess the system up big time! I lost 3 butt-loads of points the other day when a much lower-ranked player got some 20k higher than the maximum possible score on a song due to catch-up taps. I don't recall the exact song, but it was one of the easier & lower scoring ones & I hit everything green except maybe half a dozen light blue. – bufulo, on July 21, 2009 08:01

A comment on the question "TTR player demographics?" in Tapulous:

According to my wife - me! :) – bufulo, on July 20, 2009 23:27

A comment on the question "TTR player demographics?" in Tapulous:

jkatj - you just beat me online last week!

Hey, if TTR had a neutral setting for the arrows we could play on our backs in our Kraftmatic adjustable beds! Pretty soon we'll be giving new meaning to words "shakes" too! Getting old would be fun if it didn't hurt so much! – bufulo, on July 20, 2009 23:26

A comment on the idea "Save Score so you can submit later" in Tapulous:

Definitely possible but there could be issues with verifying "legit" scores depending on exactly how Tapulous does it. – bufulo, on July 20, 2009 21:20

bufulo started following the idea "Save Score so you can submit later" in Tapulous.

A comment on the question "Are you playing with one or two hands?" in Tapulous:

Freakshow! I can't even come close to FCing that song yet. I see you prefer your right thumb on the fast taps sometimes too. I do the same thing & even have to drop a tap & hold sometimes so I can use my right thumb for fast stuff in the other lanes. There are also songs like Aeon where you have to cross one thumb over the other a lot (on the tap & holds) to get as many points as possible. – bufulo, on July 20, 2009 20:52

bufulo replied on July 20, 2009 20:41 to the question "Are you playing with one or two hands?" in Tapulous:

Two thumbs up! My fingers aren't very agile (spinal cord injuries can do that), but my thumbs do OK until I have to move them really fast more than 4 times. I think TTR is good hand therapy!

A comment on the idea "Feature Request: Non perfect hit counter" in Tapulous:

That quick reference is only helpful for songs without many tap & holds though. Expanded stats at the end should be pretty trivial to tabulate & display. Personally, I don't see it as a must-have feature at all, but it would be a nice minor addition. – bufulo, on July 20, 2009 20:36

A comment on the question "TTR player demographics?" in Tapulous:

There are moments when I do OK, but I get beat by lower-ranked players pretty regularly. Maybe Tapulous could have an "old fart only" contest some day with a year membership in AARP as a prize. – bufulo, on July 20, 2009 20:05

bufulo replied on July 20, 2009 20:01 to the idea "Feature Request: Non perfect hit counter" in Tapulous:

I don't like the idea of making "high-score hunting" easier. Just play the whole song or manually restart if you must.

I do like krohn7master's idea of showing the expanded stats at the end, not during play. I'd add the maximum possible score to that list as well.

bufulo replied on July 20, 2009 17:34 to the problem "Stop Higher "Ranked" Players From Earning Points In Easier Rooms" in Tapulous:

I don't really like the idea of limiting who can play in what room, but I'm definitely in favor of improving the scoring/ranking system so that points are awarded more fairly. Farming for points shouldn't be possible. Awarding zero points to winners in some cases makes perfect sense to me. Limiting room access is just a quick fix.

I also think the number of points awarded should depend on how the scores compare to the maximum possible or, maybe better yet, the maximum score on the Leaderboard. This would address the "difficulty" element that is currently missing or patched-in by limiting room access.

My gut feel is that this approach would work well, but I haven't done the math to be sure.