GHWT: Drums register only 2/3 of hits on Hard/Expert?

**TehHero** · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

I had serious sensitivity issues with the drums and got the USB-MIDI cable from RedOctane (delivery took 2 weeks). Finally I got even the blue pad mostly working. Still some more calibration to do, however, now I'm facing a completely new issue with GHWT for Wii.

I have calibrated the lag, but it didn't seem to help. The audio is also still slightly out of sync, since I have to play the drums a bit faster than the song. But well, I've gotten used to this.

I've also playd Rock Band since its release with the drums and there the drum parts work perfectly on any difficulty level. They're also in sync with the audio. The easiest way to notice this is to first play Rock Band and then GHWT.

I can probably best illustrate the issue by giving 2 examples from practice mode:

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1. When I play only some single, easy part on Hard/Expert with the drums, eg. take Livin' on a Prayer verse, Eye of The Tiger first Duh-duh-duh or something else so easy you can't really miss any hit. I even have a friend in the same room, watching from the screen feedback that I really do hit every note and counting the ones I miss.

When I play such a simple part on Medium, I get 100 % as expected. It is not much different on Hard/Expert, but nevertheless, the game gives me only 5 %. Why? My friend was as stunned by this as I am, because the game clearly shows on the screen I hit every note, yet only registers 1 or 2 of them to the end result for the part.
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2. Then a full song. No matter what I play, I will only receive 30-60 % result from the game on the Hard/Expert levels. Medium will give me the true result (which could be 80-100 %, depending on how well I play). Because of this, I cannot play the drums in the actual game, only in practice mode. It will fail the song for me, even though it still shows the notes being properly hit on the screen while it fails me!

My friend calculated me less than 10 missed notes in some songs (based on the screen feedback), yet the game gave me only as low as 40 % as the end result. When I looked at the more detailed results, it even registered 0 % for some parts where I was hitting 80-100 % of the notes.
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This pretty much ruins the game for any kind of band playing experience. If the drummer always has to play on Easy/Medium, it gets boring. Playing alone you can at least use the practice mode.

Let me also state that none of these issues exist with the guitar/bass parts. The guitar and bass work flawlessly (out of the neckslider issues like the yellow pad locking up, but fortunately the slider can be disabled from the game).

Is there something that I don't get about this game? Do you need to do some extra magic tricks not shown in the charts? Since day one I've obviously always doubted my own playing skills, but after inspecting the issue more carefully it has become clear it is not only about that. I may not be a great player, but I definitely do not suck at Livin' on a Prayer so badly that I'd only deserve 30 %, when in Rock Band I can play every song on Expert to 80 % at minimum.

Oh, and I like the structure of the GHWT drums better than the Rock Band drums, but now they need more calibration again. Yellow pad double-registers, green pad has stopped registering. Blah...

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EDIT: Found a solution!

When googling for GHWT related stuff, I ran into a cheat called auto-kick. Since this was a drum related thing, I enabled it out of interest. Now the game suddenly registers the scores right! And I'm not talking about the pedal parts, at all.

I played the easy Kent song on Expert with both the auto-kick on and off. This song has almost no pedal at all, only at the very end (which I left out of the selection, so that the whole song I played had no single open note). With auto-kick off the game gave me 35 % and with auto-kick on 99 %!

I then went on to try the Livin' on a Prayer and Eye of The Tiger parts as I described earlier. These parts have very, very few open notes. Yet, with auto-kick on, I now got 100 %, while after disabling auto-kick my score was back to 30-60 %.

Somehow the auto-kick cheat affects the pads as well, while it should only affect open notes, which are used for the pedal alone. This is very strange behaviour from the game. The only downside of leaving this cheat on is that I get no money & highscores in career mode and I will get a too optimistic result in songs that have a lot of bass drum (even if I miss, it will still count it).

**Ph4ZeR** · Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 126

There's no way I'm reading that whole post, but I assume you have a problem with your drums. Email Red Octane and I'm pretty sure they have some sort of PC application that allows you to change the sensitivity of your pads.

Hope this helps

**DYRE** · Joined: 05 May 2007 Posts: 719

**TehHero** · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

**oneeyedlittleman** · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 108

*Not meant as flaming*

Step 1: Go to electronic store.
Step 2: put RB2 drums in cart.
Step 3: Pay

I don't mean this as flaming, but the RB2 drums are honestly next to perfect.
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**Azerach** · Joined: 31 Mar 2008 Posts: 56

does this happen on other instruments as well? it sounds like its a software issua, something very wrong with the disk perhaps
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**TehHero** · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

**hydrapower** · Joined: 28 May 2006 Posts: 1708 Location: Rochester, MN

This sounds like a serious issue with the disc itself. I would see if you can exchange it for another one. I have heard of neither issue outside of these stories you're relating here.
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**TehHero** · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

**TehHero** · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

Fortunately the store switched the whole set after I described my problems. So here's an update...

Guitar neckslider works better now, but still sometimes "locks down" with the yellow or blue pad, meaning it won't accept anything for 15-30 seconds. This can mean an automatic fail in some solo parts. It doesn't "shoot", however, hundreds of frets to the game anymore.

Drums work now, but right out-of-the-box, I needed to tune some sensitivity issues, using the USB-MIDI cable.

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As for the main issue (the "notes hit" score counting), it still remains. But I might've been too hasty in determining, where it appears.

I usually play the game in practice mode, since the charts are easier to see without the background animations and lights. Now that the drums don't double-register, I was beating many of the songs on Expert in Quickplay mode. Even the score seemed right, I got 75-99 % depending on song and how well I played.

When I went back to playing in practice mode again, I ran into the problem again. I finished Hail to the Freaks in Quickplay with 99 % of notes hit, yet in practice mode the game counted me 29 %! Yes, after enabling the "Auto-Kick" cheat, I got 98 % in the same song in practice mode. In a song that uses no bass drum at all.

This problem would seem to be limited in practice mode. I never play the GH games in Career mode, so it's a really unfortunate problem for me. I find it hard to believe switching the package & disc again solved it.

**ABee1010** · Joined: 18 Nov 2008 Posts: 133

There are some SERIOUS timing issues with WT practice mode on WII (read the guitar thread on SH). Does the timing between the audio and video seem messed up when you are in practice mode. I am not sure how the auto-kick cheat could improve the situation though. I got so fed up with how janky practice mode on WII is that I sold it and bought and XBOX (which still has at least 1 practice out of sync issue). I would take a careful look and listen to the timing...

**TehHero** · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

**ABee1010** · Joined: 18 Nov 2008 Posts: 133

Bummer dude, sounds like the timing is your problem which is true for all WII copies of GHWT as far as I know. Get an XBOX! I only have found 1 song so far that is messed up in practice mode (Assassin->Guitar->Expert)...

**TehHero** · Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

**dore** · Joined: 26 Jun 2007 Posts: 1244 Location: Boone, NC

If you prefer not hearing crowds/seeing crazy animations you can play in the Tool venue (unless that's not allowed in QP? just throwing out ideas).
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