Score value scaling changed, but already recorded high score values did not scale

[sirschmoo]

I want to make it clear that I love Trombone Champ and I'm writing this out of love for Holy Wow Studios so they can make this game and perhaps future games the best they can be.

It is my understanding that how the score value is determined has been subject to change historically and this is fine. However, revisiting the joys of being a tromboner, I was playing SkaBIRD (best track ever) and was shocked to have doubled my previous high score with a very terrible performance. I'm disappointed that previously recorded high scores were not scaled according to any new algorithms or parameters introduced. Perhaps someone can clarify, but I don't understand why new scoring methodology was not applied to previously recorded high score values in the game files so that they would change to the new values respectively.

In essence, all of my previous high scores have been nullified and all my previous efforts seem meaningless...baboons be praised, this is discouraging! I guess I have no option now but to guzzle some glizzies in a record fashion.

[mjboy9932]

Definitely felt that. I was grinding some scores last week and now after playing a few tracks today, I'm now top 15 in every song I played. However, I am currently number 1 in St. James and I will be soaking that in, even if it is only because of a score system change lol.

[Foxhack]

I somehow managed to get FIRST PLACE in She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain for a few minutes, with a 4.7 million score. And I still didn't get an S! (My previous score was 1.4 million and I got an A.)

So yeah, the score amounts went way up, but the actual rating seems to be calculated just the same.

[holywowstudios]

Originally posted by sirschmoo:

It is my understanding that how the score value is determined has been subject to change historically and this is fine. However, revisiting the joys of being a tromboner, I was playing SkaBIRD (best track ever) and was shocked to have doubled my previous high score with a very terrible performance. I'm disappointed that previously recorded high scores were not scaled according to any new algorithms or parameters introduced. Perhaps someone can clarify, but I don't understand why new scoring methodology was not applied to previously recorded high score values in the game files so that they would change to the new values respectively.

Apologies for the frustration - you're correct that the max score values has gone way up, but previous scores haven't been scaled up. We were hoping that keeping letter grades would lessen the impact: if you've gotten an S, you still have the S.

Unfortunately it's not technically possible for us to scale all old scores with the data we have - we would need to save version number along with the data, and also we'd need to save the scores for every note, because we have no idea which notes contributed to your score. Short notes are worth more now while long notes are worth approximately the same - so, theoretically, if your old score flubbed all of the short notes, a scaled version might not go up so much.

If it makes you feel any better, we don't plan to adjust the score algorithm again. This is our first time adjusting scoring since the game's launch, and the old scoring system had some obvious flaws that were overdue for tweaking. And during this adjustment period you have the opportunity to leap to the top of a ton of leaderboards....

[sirschmoo]

Holy Wow Studios, I appreciate your response and trust that you made the right call. I do not make programs, but with your clarification it is understandable why this was not feasible. You have further demonstrated your commitment to the game and community by responding to a simple steam post in a matter of hours. Thanks for all the toots!

[quale]

Regardless of justification, can I say how crazy this is? I have yet not to double an old score. My third song was 2.7x, still being super rusty.

I’ve thought of full recordings before. Those could be nice for reference, seeing how you did in the past, or even what it looked like when someone else got their amazing score. That would also allow rescoring. It’s possible for the local/global leaderboard to be shuffled a bit, but nothing horrible so long as the input system stays pretty much the same.

Edit: It isn’t even that rare to quadruple+ scores.