Hit Songs for thee, not for me

[Uncle Fester]

I am convinced, my game is broken. I have followed everyones advice on how to obtain a hit song, nothing is working. I have combined the lowest and built up to making 15 & 20 quality pieces, my songs are ranging from low 30's in quality and difficulty, up to about quality in the 50's. I have created songs on 3x days, non 3x days. I have created songs from mostly one person, to songs by 4 different members. I have even created songs whilst rowing a canoe in the fountain while sucking my thumb while blindfolded. I have started a new band with 4 members obtained within a music store, thus eliminating my last theory of a 100% created band not being able to write hit songs. This band has won 7 Battle of the Bands contests, and on a headlining gig, they can gain crowd attention of 100% by song 6, every song in a 12 song gig is either 4 or 5 smiley faces, and the crowd loves every song, but not once, NOT ONE SONG, has ever gotten better than a "The crowd loved this performance", no one ever tapped their toes, no one ever danced, or clapped, or even picked their nose, all I ever get is loved or liked, unless an instrument is out of tune, then no one liked the out of tune guitar. I have gotten the tapping toes a long time ago, before the last big update, but that was several bands ago, last summer. I'm bum-fuzzled. I give up. I love the game, but if I cannot write a hit song, what is the use of playing long term with a band. I'll post a gig result in the Screenshots area to prove the songs are loved by the crowd. But, I think I am done with the game.

[farish4]

That will be a shame, I haven't got round to making a hit song either tbh but they are are starting to get a 'buzz' rating

[Bohemian Rap City]

You need to craft songs well above 30's to get hits. I crafted over 150 songs in the first 18 months of game with zero toe tappers or dancing. It wasn't until I raised my skill well enough to craft consistently in the 65-85 range that I got my first two hits.

[Bohemian Rap City]

This is REPOSTED from the Recording Tip thread.

Originally posted by Manouche:

This is what the game FAQ says about hit songs :

How are "hit" songs determined?

First the game determines if the song has any hit potential at all. If not, then the popularity boost value is between 0.2-1.0. Examples: The chance of having hit potential in the first place is 7% for a 100 quality song, about 4.6% for a 50 quality song.

If it is determined that it has hit potential, then the value can go as high as 4.0, but much of that is determined by the quality of the song. The higher the quality, then the higher the hit potential can be..
Examples: If a song has 100 quality and is determined that it has hit potential, then it randomly chooses from a range between 2.00-4.25, but maxes out at 4.00
If a song has 50 quality, it would be randomly between 1.00-2.50



So for 30-40+ quality songs, the chance of getting a hit would be... I don't know... from 2 to 4% to pick a wide range. Statistically wise, you could have a hit already but it's not improbable to have none.
The good news is you were never as close to hit on a hit :)

[MrShady]

And I'm having more hits than I ever did before. I posted last week how my last album had six US hits and several EU ones, so that I left a few off. I'm working on the follow-up now and have at least 5 US hits, and several well-received "non hits" that gain a high amount of popularity whenever they are played

My tips: keep writing songs on tour, take tour breaks and catch gigs to keep your inspiration up. After the tours you will have tons of songs to test. Some of them should be hits.

Also you may want to get your song quality up higher, hire producers to help boost song ideas above your production skill when needed.

Originally posted by Uncle Fester:

, or clapped, or even picked their nose,

Hmm, never got this reaction to a song, the game is indeed, broken! :(

[MrShady]

Originally posted by Bohemian Rap City:

You need to craft songs well above 30's to get hits. I crafted over 150 songs in the first 18 months of game with zero toe tappers or dancing. It wasn't until I raised my skill well enough to craft consistently in the 65-85 range that I got my first two hits.

Is this a change? When I started playing, it was claimed that song quality had no bearing on hits, but now it does?

[waltduo]

I agree with Bohemian, you definitely need to get your songwriting skills beefed up to have a chance to get hits!

With this latest band, I got my first big hit in the first year and it was 95 quality (best on the CD). Then, toward the middle of the 2nd year, I got another that was 85 quality and below several others I was recording. Finally, in the 3rd year I got one that I combined several tiles to use with a higher one and it was 88 quality. Then, I lucked out about a month later and got a 4th big hit that I didn't combine any tiles with and it was 100 quality. By now, the big hit from the first year still gets a lot of interest at gigs, but doesn't get the toe tapper/dance thing mentioned for it anymore like my other 3 big hits do.

Just keep grinding and they will come, but you need to clearly get higher quality songs to achieve this.

[Manouche]

Originally posted by MrShady:

Originally posted by Bohemian Rap City:

You need to craft songs well above 30's to get hits. I crafted over 150 songs in the first 18 months of game with zero toe tappers or dancing. It wasn't until I raised my skill well enough to craft consistently in the 65-85 range that I got my first two hits.

Is this a change? When I started playing, it was claimed that song quality had no bearing on hits, but now it does?

It was indeed changed about a year ago.
Version 2.22.201. You can look at the note in-game.

[Eeyore Donkey Donk]

I recall old threads where you once needed at least a 70 to get hit potential to register with a crowd, and I think it was lowered to around 45 or 50 with a smaller percent chance. I know the lowest quality hit I've ever had was a 55, and I don't look for hits until songs are 70+. I take that to mean that the hit potential in fragments used in the early songs are still there, and I make a point to recycle almost everything I can from my early songs that get "loved the performance".

So my most successful post update band, they are in late 2009 and have the following numbers -- 371 songs written, 10 hits.

I also note looking at the song list that there is very even distribution of hits in the 70's, 80's, and 90's, and only one of my 100's is a hit.

[Uncle Fester]

I wrote a big ol' thesis on my response to everyones' replies, but just wiped it all.

[Eeyore Donkey Donk]

Originally posted by Uncle Fester:

I wrote a big ol' thesis on my response to everyones' replies, but just wiped it all.

I did that a few times before posting the somewhat more succinct precis I did.

[Uncle Fester]

One last shot.
Took my created band, and all of the top songs they wrote, recorded them on a CD.
This is the 4th album.
Not one song below 90 quality.
A few songs even have 90+ difficulty.
Two songs are 100% quality AND difficulty.
Played them to audiences for 2 months BEFORE recording album.
NOT ONE song got better than "The audience loved this performance."
After the release, still no hits.
Album charted at 132 and began to fall.
With results like this, how can justify playing on? I may come back somewhere down the road and play again, just to sink some time, but for now, I am done. Todd has a great game going, and it seems to be working great for you guys, just not for me, as silly as that sounds. Good luck guys, and take care.

[MrShady]

How many songs did you test in front of audiences?

About half the songs I test are garbage (gain little to no popularity after a show)

The other half do ok, but aren't hits

But I keep testing new songs until I get a "hit" response. They will come but you may have 20 non hits for every hit

[Uncle Fester]

Originally posted by MrShady:

How many songs did you test in front of audiences?

About half the songs I test are garbage (gain little to no popularity after a show)

The other half do ok, but aren't hits

But I keep testing new songs until I get a "hit" response. They will come but you may have 20 non hits for every hit

How many songs did I test to an audience? All of them! Nearly 140 songs, not one hit. By your reply, I could have had close to 7 hits already. I have had NONE, not one. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Everyone loves my songs, but no hits. The last 30 songs have all been high quality and many high difficulty, still....yup, you guessed it. Nothing. The last 90 songs I would estimate have all been over 40 quality, at least. By that quote from the FAQ being hits chances anything over 40 quality, I'm getting nothing still. How many did I test indeed.

Half of your songs tested are garbage? Well, 100% of mine are. This post isn't about knocking Todds game, it really isn't about complaining about my lack of hits any more, it's about telling the crew here to take it easy, and enjoy the game, and I will chat them laters.

[Yeol]

In my previous playthrough I created about 120 decent 100% album songs (5 lp's), and I also never had 1 hit song. It did not bother me too much, but one needs to be lucky to have a hit song.
I just restarted with a second playthrough, wrote about 20 songs (still bad quality, but still learning how to play), but also not one song with hit potential. Again, it does not bother me, but hits seem to be very rare. Maybe the difficulty setting has an influence? I'm always playing on highest difficulty.