Scoring system?

[Errick]

I touched on this in the feedback thread, but I'm wondering, could we get more details on how the scoring system works? Primarily I would like to know how the highest scores are so many orders of magnitude higher than the majority of scores.

I'd like to assume they're not cheating for the scores, or at least, that some of those high scores are genuine, but how does the scoring system work, then? does it work out on a logarithmic scale so that, the closer to perfect you get, the greater the magnitude of the score increase?

I'm just trying to figure out how the scoring works that there can be such a disparity in scores, but I've been having trouble figuring it out. I've even tried re-running the same song repeatedly, with different timing on the first handful of notes, but the points per note don't seem to range enough to account for these scores.

[Eimiwef]

which scores are you referring to? specific song or total

[Errick]

I'm not sure what you mean by total. I'm mean high scores for songs I play, I sometimes run across songs a number of other people played and there are scores orders of magnitude higher than mine, so I'm wondering just how the scoring works exactly, or what I'm doing wrong that they differ by so much.

[Sonic Boom]

Hello all,

We had a post over at this thread regarding scoring: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1373683

Or you can read below. Hopefully this will help clear up any questions you may have about Rhythm Zone's scoring system.

Hey everyone,

I see a lot of you guys are posting questions about high scores compared to other scores. Well let me go into a few details on how our scoring system works, and possibly this info will help you guys improve your Rhythm Zone game so that you can work your way up those leaderboards.

First variable in scoring, is the difficulty. As you play on the higher difficulties, each note you successfully hit will grant a higher amount of points than it normally would on say, Easy difficulty.

Second variable is note accuracy. This is a big one. The more accurate you are to hitting a note exactly on the target mark, the more points you will receive. Now you will still get some points for narrowly hitting a note, but you’ll receive far more points if you hit the target dead on. Accuracy of your note strikes can easily make the difference between a high score, and only an OK score!

Third variable are chords. Chords count as two individual notes. Make sure to hit both notes! If you only hit one of the two, you’re only receiving 50% of the points that that chord strike is worth.

Fourth variable are sustained notes. When you see a note with a trail behind it, be sure to hold that note for as long the trail exists. Every moment counts and you’ll be receiving points the entire time you have that note held down. And be sure to release the note as the trail ends! If you hold the note for too long, you will receive less points!

Other general tips are to watch your Multiplier. Ensuring you have a high multiplier at all times is key to a high score. And along with this, using Focus Power efficiently is also extremely helpful. Try saving up your Focus Power until you have all 4 sections ready to be deployed, then use it in an area of chords and sustain notes. Also save it for when you have a 5x multiplier, which will then result in a 10x multiplier. You can expect to REALLY watch the points roll in then!

Most importantly, just keep practicing. Learning how to be most efficient with note accuracy and utilizing Focus Power and Multipliers are keys to getting to the top of the leaderboards!

[Errick]

I did read that before, yeah. It's just that, I'm not sure accuracy accounts for the disparity, unless a dead-on note is 5 times the points of a not-quite-dead-on note.

[Errick]

Bit of a bump, since I actually took a picture to explain why I'm so lost.

http://a.imageshack.us/img836/4580/rzscore.jpg
By errickfoxy (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/errickfoxy) at 2010-09-03

For those who don't want to click on the picture link, I did "Tank!", the theme song from Cowboy Bebop. My score was 516,085 with:

Grade: 100%
Longest Streak: 561
Performance Bonus: 46,916

Zero missed notes, there's really little I could have done to play the song more perfectly, yet the high score is 3,267,976.

Either there's something fundamental I'm missing, that score is a cheat, or there's something else going wrong. Perhaps that person's version of the song is a lot longer than mine but for whatever reason it's identified as the same track? I'm really at a loss to explain what the heck is going on.

[Deathexpert]

110% with you buddy and if you need more pictures i can get some to approve you.

[Deathexpert]

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/4379/summertimenoshowveniceq.jpg
Learderboard screen : http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/583/leaderboard.jpg
This is the song for the currently week competition.
Song : Summertime No Show by Venice Queen
Score : 543,769
Grade: 98%
Longest Streak: 613
Performance Bonus: 49,433
Miss : 0

[Errick]

Yeah, this is why I'm suspicious so much. It's not that the scores are so much higher, but there's this huge gap of 500k points. If there was no cheating, there should be a more contiguous range of scores, not huge leaps like that.

[lylatwOW]

http://i55.tinypic.com/30t2ec4.jpg
Learderboard screen : http://i54.tinypic.com/bc65d.jpg
This is the song for the currently week competition.
Song : Summertime No Show by Venice Queen
Score : 1,284,466
Grade: 100%
Longest Streak: 893
Performance Bonus: 116,769
Miss : 0

WTF??

is the same in expert

http://i56.tinypic.com/1z659g4.jpg
I have 97%
it is clear that there is something odd

[green_imp]

Trust me guys, I never cheated. Neither Tanemomi, we were discussing it too. But, at the moment, I can't get even NEARLY to my previous best, although I play much better now. SB says the scoring system is okay, but I don't think so.

BTW, I have a feeling it has something to do whith the fact that there is still no results for the last competition.

[Genesis0333]

Then how did you do it? green imp, do you know, that is impossible to make this high score!
In the past was the point system different? Or what?

[green_imp]

Then how did you do it? green imp, do you know, that is impossible to make this high score!
No idea. Tell ya, it's impossible even for myself now.

In the past was the point system different?
Yeah, looks like it. Hell if I know, what whas the point in ruining the whole competition. Hope they're working on it now.

If they can't fix it, the best thing they could do is reset all the hi-scores (without touching total points gained and level progress). I wouldn't mind.

UPD: Just read the Support thread. Yep, maybe it's better to reset everything and start over. Wouldn't mind either, but not sure about the others. Some people reached very high level.

[Errick]

I don't see any need to reset people's levels, but it might be good to wipe the high scores, or at least any scores from before the scoring system was fixed. I'm not sure how they store the high scores so I'm not sure if they'd just have to wipe the whole thing clean or what.