Mono balance

[myoho]

Now something that should be done about mono, is ironmode. Why does iron mode decrease Mono's scoring ability? surely it should raise the score ceiling whilst making it slightly harder to gain that score.

It's actually specific to individual songs, not Ironmode itself - for example, I know that hitting every color block in Mono on Unsun's Whispers will produce a higher score than hitting every color block in Mono with Ironmode toggled.  On most songs though the increase in speed equates to larger clusters of blocks more often, resulting in a higher possible score in Ironmode (provided of course the player is up to it).

Whenever I'm dethroned from a casual high score, the first step to getting my throne back is typically "toggle Ironmode on", and that almost always does the trick the first time through.  Songs where my score goes down when I play in Ironmode are the exception, not the rule.

[drperry]

Iron mode gives higher traffic and a lower match timer. Although the score potential is higher, as with more traffic, it can be harder to keep the chain going. I would suggest playing without at first and then working up to it. Though I'm sure someone will say start with it on

I find playing in Ironmode easier... I don't accidentally click the mouse and extend the fins... 

[0VERS33R]

Hold on! This this my thread? What kinda dumb person would have the idea of giving mono characters a clean match bonus? It's funny how much you learn after playing a game for a little while.

Lol I was about to say "Nah, this really isn't a good idea" Then quote the two colours that mono has.

[Vapula]

I'm just sick of seeing second place and down being very close mono scores (the way leaderboards should be), but the first place is some puzzler with at least 5 times as much as everyone else.  It's why UFC, for example, has a title for each class. 

[myoho]

I suppose it really depends on what song you're looking at, and which grade you're playing - I have more than a few top scores in Casual mode and all I use is Mono.  Overturned quite a few fairly long-standing puzzler top scores too, though I certainly run into the "unbeatable puzzler scores without also playing puzzler character" scenarios from time to time.

Doesn't really bother me when that happens because 90% of the time I end up with the top Mono score, so I take solace in being better than everyone else using that character at least.

[Vapula]

[/i]  though I certainly run into the "unbeatable puzzler scores without also playing puzzler character"

I don't know much about casual or medium, but as far as the the elite (I hate calling it that) scores go, this is ALWAYS the case on any song that's even remote popular.

[Ko-Tao]

Considering that in elite mode, mono is vastly simpler (and, on the great majority of tracks, vastly easier) than any of the puzzle characters, it should not be surprising that its scoring potential is accordingly vastly lower.

Players wanting to compete on the global scoreboard with mono can almost always do so in casual mode.

Also as a reminder, the mono modes have their own scoreboard (click one of the mono icons at the bottom of the online stats scorelists to reach it), so mono-only competition is always available in all modes.

[myoho]

Also as a reminder, the mono modes have their own scoreboard (click one of the mono icons at the bottom of the online stats scorelists to reach it), so mono-only competition is always available in all modes.

That's more a feature of sorting than a true scoreboard, as the current holder of the top Mono score won't receive any notification if another player surpasses them, unless they also had the global high score for that song (but then why would you need to look at just the Mono scores?).

Or in other words, it's not really the same as winning something.

[Passerby]

it's been explained a million times it is impossible to balance mono against the puzzlers, it is pretty easy to figure out the maximum score potential of mono on a song, but on puzzlers it is almost impossible to figure out there maximum potential. and there is way more room to improve wiht puzzlers.

with mono it olny took a day to get prefect runs on everything put with pointmann or pusher i am still improving at them and i got the game when it released 2 years ago.

[murlough23]

Doesn't really bother me when that happens because 90% of the time I end up with the top Mono score, so I take solace in being better than everyone else using that character at least.

That's assuming the song hasn't been played by 10-12 puzzlers who have all beaten the top Mono score. Which is probably nothing you'll have to worry about unless it's a REALLY popular song. But still. The more time goes by, the more Mono scores will get bumpedd off of the scoreboards.

I don't even play Mono, really, but I feel bad for you guys, and I do think all characters at the same level of difficulty should be reasonably competitive with one another. It may be hard to balance, but maybe Mono's scores should simply be increased (by some multiplier across the board) while the general rules of playing and scoring stay the same?

Failing that, I do really like the idea of being able to drill down to the top scores per character. I know there's a tag where you can play ONLY as mono, but of course hardly anyone else will be using that scoreboard, so it would be really slick if viewing the scores for the song in general, filtered on Mono, would be equivalent to viewing the scores for people who played the song using the everybodymono tag.

[Saeda88]

Or in other words, it's not really the same as winning something.

I disagree. Managing the top Mono score to break the Top 10 puzzlers or to be best scoring mono on a high popularity song is mentally just as valuable as a throne. I.e. the current 18 minute radio song, where I am Top Mono Stealth Player at all classes, though I only have one throne. I take it I have three thrones there, since the song is for mono. And I'm the only one to stealth it yet.

Yet I agree that there should be a Character individual throne.

Plus for the balancing: The Radio Song is long enough so leaving the stealth for the chain is valuable - which jeopardises the concept of mono, which requires the most perfect run to be the best. If we kind of did the opposite to the clean bonus at Pusher, we could do a -50% score if the match isn't clean at mono. This would affect grays in your cluster and as well would influence matches that have two unconnected colours on the other side, which would add another bit of strategy to mono.

[Laserrobotics]

...so it would be really slick if viewing the scores for the song in general, filtered on Mono, would be equivalent to viewing the scores for people who played the song using the everybodymono tag.

That would be a development nightmare, requiring a complete recalculation of the score as if all of the blocks had been the same color.  Do you really want to do that to Dylan?

[Passerby]

...so it would be really slick if viewing the scores for the song in general, filtered on Mono, would be equivalent to viewing the scores for people who played the song using the everybodymono tag.

That would be a development nightmare, requiring a complete recalculation of the score as if all of the blocks had been the same color.  Do you really want to do that to Dylan?

that would be horrible

[blue_h3x]

...so it would be really slick if viewing the scores for the song in general, filtered on Mono, would be equivalent to viewing the scores for people who played the song using the everybodymono tag.

That would be a development nightmare, requiring a complete recalculation of the score as if all of the blocks had been the same color.  Do you really want to do that to Dylan?

that would be horrible

It couldn't be applied to previous scores anyway, as chain drops are important for working out scores.

[murlough23]

That would be a development nightmare, requiring a complete recalculation of the score as if all of the blocks had been the same color.  Do you really want to do that to Dylan?

You are right, it's not just a simple multiply by "a". I hadn't thought through the particulars of mono scoring, so I was assuming a * ((1 + 2 + 3 + ...) + (1 + 2 + 3 + ...)), etc., would be the same thing as 1a + 2a + 3a + ... + 1a + 2a + 3a + ..., and then a possible stealth or match 7/14/21 bonus at the end, which also just apply a percentage of the score... but I think there are other subtle things going on that I hadn't factored in, that might accumulate exponentially rather than just simple multiplication.

So yeah, the ability to drilled down to one character's version of the scoreboard would me the much more intuitive solution.