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Armageddon  





Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 3006
Location: Durham, NH

PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:57 pm    Post subject: New to Scorehero? Read here! Reply with quote

Please discuss this topic at this location: http://www.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=44723

Hello, and welcome to ScoreHero! If you are reading this, then perhaps you have just joined our wonderful community, or maybe you have a couple of questions you need answered. Whatever your purpose, this thread is here to give you the basic information necessary to navigate the forums successfully and gain a better understanding of some aspects previously unknown to you. This is the official guide to becoming a good citizen of this wonderful online community, and we hope you find what you need! Before we begin, thanks to JCirri for reviewing this and giving me stuff to add. Super special thanks go out to HylianHero for not only giving me ideas to put here that I forgot, but for being the first person to make a 'New to ScoreHero?' thread, which was incredibly helpful to many people during the course of its existence.

Table of Contents

I: Important information here!
II: How do I enter scores on ScoreHero?
III: How do I upload co-op scores on ScoreHero?
IV: How do I upload pictures/videos?
V: What are contribution points? What are they for? How do I get them?
VI: What are proofs?
VII: How do I submit proofs?
VIII: How do I get those images that display my rankings into my signature?
IX: What do all of these acronyms mean?
X: Do I need photographic proof for all of my scores?
XI: What is my forum banner based on? Is it based on leaderboard rankings?
XII: What are the secret songs in GH1? What is the GH2 OPM Demo 110? What is the GH3 Demo OXM 77?
XIII: What are the 4-star and 5-star ratings based on?
XIV: What are 6, 7, and 8 stars? Do they actually exist?
XV: What is "squeezing"? How do you do it?
XVI: How do I get custom songs in Guitar Hero?
XVII: What are leagues? How can I join?
XVIII: History of ScoreHero...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I: Important information here!

Before we begin, I feel it is of utmost importance to show you a few important links. First, here is the Introduce Yourself! thread. Feel free to introduce yourself to the community, and let us know who you are! Next, read the Forum rules and User Agreement announcement. This thread outlines the rules of ScoreHero, and is VERY important.

II: How do I enter scores on ScoreHero?

Completely new to ScoreHero, and want to know how to submit scores? This should take care of it.

Step 1: Log in. Return to the Home page.

Step 2: Click on Manage Scores.

Step 3: Select Game, then Platform (if applicable), then Difficulty.

Step 4: There will be a list of songs in the same order as the game itself. Scroll to the desired song, and look to the far left. There is a small column labeled 'Action'. There are 3 links under this column for each song: 'Insert', 'Delete', and 'View All'. Click on 'Insert'.

Step 5: Input score, % notes hit and note streak. Note that the only thing you NEED to enter is the score. If you wish, add the picture URL and/or video URL to link the picture or video for that song. Click 'Submit'. The page will refresh, and the score will be entered.

Note 1: If you don't know one of the options such as % notes hit and/or note streak, don't bother putting it in. Having weird note streaks or percentages that don't look right can make a moderator suspicious.

III: How do I upload co-op scores on ScoreHero?

First, you AND your co-op partner need to have a ScoreHero account. When you and your partner are both registered on ScoreHero, one of you will need to go to Manage Scores. Select any game besides Guitar Hero 1 (because there is no co-op), and to the right of the Co-op section there should be a 'Manage Teams' link. Click it. From this link, you should be able to select 'Initiate New Team Request'. Type in the username of your co-op partner as well as your team name. Have your partner then log in and accept the request. Now both you and your co-op partner can enter scores. Once a score is uploaded by one user, the other user automatically has the score entered; you do not need to enter in the score for every user on a team. It is worth noting that once you accept a team request, you cannot gain that team slot back, even if all scores are deleted from a team. To gain more team slots, go to the Store, and use your contribution points (scroll down to learn what those are) to buy more. Each person starts off with 3 free team slots, and can obtain more by buying extra slots at the Store.

Note 1: All other important information regarding how co-op works on ScoreHero can be found here.

IV: How do I upload pictures/videos?

Having trouble uploading digital pictures or videos on to the internet? Well, you're in luck! All you need is a digital camera, and you're good to go!

To upload pictures: First, set your camera to take 640 x 480 pixel picture. In most cases (song stat proofs, personal score-keeping), taking a picture of the newspaper screen is the best choice, as it is the standard for ScoreHero, and it shows the song name, star rating, difficulty, %, and NS. However, the song selection screen is acceptable in most cases for the purpose of personal scorekeeping. When you are ready to put them on the internet, connect the camera to the computer via the Interface Cable (cable that connects the camera to the USB port on your computer). Then, either upload the pictures on 'My Pictures' or go to your favorite hosting site to upload the picture(s). Let's use Photobucket and Flickr for example, but there are plenty of other image hosting sites out there. Don't be afraid to experiment. Don't forget that these image hosting sites can resize the picture for you, which is convenient. If you forgot to set it to 640 x 480, this is a good time to fix it. After they are uploaded, copy the 'URL link' or 'Direct link' from the image site and paste the URL into the Picture Link section when you are ready to submit the new score. If you want to embed the picture into your accomplishment thread in ScoreHero, just copy the 'embed' link and paste it into your thread.

To upload videos: First, get the video onto your computer. More often than not, the movie will be very large uncompressed. If you want a few programs that will fix that situation, I recommend WinAVI Video Converter to get it down into whatever format you want. Once you get the video down to the optimal size (Most of the recordings that you'll do in Guitar Hero should be somewhere between 5 and 20 MB. It depends on the type of compression you use.), go ahead and make an account over at YouTube and upload your video. Then, much like the picture link, copy the URL link (not the 'embed' link), and place the URL into the Video Comment box.

V: What are contribution points? What are they for? How do I get them?

Contribution points are awarded to ScoreHero members that either donate money to the site or narrow down the range for cutoffs. You are awarded points based on the amount you donate, or how many cutoffs you narrow the range for. With contribution points, you can go to the Store and buy Daily Updating Stat Images, increase the number of scores you can view in your viewing history, and the number of team slots you can have.

VI: What are proofs?

Excellent question. One of ScoreHero's most unique aspects is the 'Song Stats' section, where users take pictures in order to find the 4-Star and 5-Star cutoffs of songs. For example, say you would like to know how many points you need to get 5 stars on Jordan on GH2X (Guitar Hero 2 Expert) for the PS2. To find this, you would need to go to Song Stats and select 5-Star Cutoff, then Guitar Hero 2, then Expert. You would scroll down and look for the song Jordan. You can see from the green text that you need 254,904 points or more in order to get 5 stars. This is essentially what a proof is. People try to narrow the range of a song until they know exactly how many points you need to get 4 or 5 stars on a song. This can take a while, but with mathematical formulas that some studious ScoreHero members have derived, we can tell you how many points you want to shoot for in order to find the cutoff. You are not required by any means to do cutoffs, but it can be a fun hobby, and is a money free way to get contribution points. You will receive one contribution point if the proof satisfies one of these criteria:

Code:
Cutoff Range    Required Narrowing %
-------------------------------------
> 10,000               40
1,001-10,000           30
101-1,000              20
10-100                 10
<10                   None


VII: How do I submit proofs?

This question is asked quite often, yet is surprisingly simple. All you need is a digital camera to get digital pictures, and you're set!

Step 1: First, you need to upload the image on to an image hosting site. All information regarding uploading pictures can be found in section IV of this sticky. After uploading the photo and copying the URL, now you can submit this picture as proof.

Step 2: Go to the Home page.

Step 3: Go to Song Stats.

Step 4: Choose the statistic (4-Star or 5-Star Cutoffs only, no need for total notes). Select game and difficulty.

Step 5: On the left hand side, if the song is not fully proved, the link 'Submit Proof' will be available. Click it.

Step 6: In the 'Submit Proof' submission window, input correct score, star rating, and correct direct link/URL link. click 'Submit Proof'. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Note 1: All three criteria in the 'Submit Proof' submission window must be entered. If any of these three are not entered, the proof will not go through.

Note 2: There are two reasons that your proof can be rejected. If the picture is too small, too dark, too blurry, or anything that would otherwise make it difficult to read, then it will be rejected. This can be avoided if you set the camera to 640 x 480 pixels and make sure to review your pictures before uploading them to the internet, to make sure they are legible. Also, if you made a typo in the submission form, and the score or star rating does not match the picture, then it will be rejected.

Note 3: Personal submitted scores that narrow the cutoff range and have a picture link will automatically be submitted.

Note 4: The only valid images for cutoff proofs is the newspaper. Do not submit images of setlists, encore pages, or videos as proof. They WILL be rejected.

VIII: How do I get those images that display my rankings into my signature?

ScoreHero has the ability to generate custom images for you to advertise in your forum signatures or websites to show off your scores and rankings. It costs 20 contribution points to obtain this image, and is attainable in one of two ways.

Method 1: Donate $16 to ScoreHero. This is the smallest amount of money you can donate that will get you 20 contribution points. This is the money to-contribution-points transfer table, and tells you how many points you can get based on how much money you donate:

Code:
$1: 1 point
$5: 6 points
$10: 13 points
$20: 30 points
$50: 100 points


Also, you are given nifty little stars next to your username for donating a certain amount of money. The "cutoffs" are as follows:

= $5
= $10
= $25
= $50
= $100
= $1000

Method 2: Narrow 20 cutoffs for ScoreHero. This is a free way to get the Daily Updating Stat Image, and is the method of choice for most members.

IX: What do all of these acronyms mean?

ScoreHero has a TON of acronyms. For many of you who have joined, I know how incredibly difficult it must be to keep up with the literally hundreds of acronyms on ScoreHero, so I created a comprehensive acronym thread. This thread contains every GH acronym you'll ever see on ScoreHero.

X: Do I need photographic proof for all of my scores?

ScoreHero was created on the honor system, a belief that people can be trusted to put in honest scores without the need to ask for digital pictures to prove it. The vast majority of members do not need to submit photographic proof; As long as you are completely clean, we will probably not ask for proof of your scores. However, it is expected that those who submit top 5 scores for any song will submit photographic proof. If you think you have the capability of obtaining #1 scores on any song, it is expected that proof will be given, ESPECIALLY if you are a new member. The important thing is to remember that the honor system holds until the very top ranks, where cheating is monitored VERY closely and new high scores are rarely more than a few hundred above the former top score. For most of you, it's honestly nothing to worry about.

XI: What is my forum banner based on? Is it based on leaderboard rankings?

Many people have asked this question, and it is simpler than you think. Like many other forums on the internet, your "posting rank" is based on how many posts you have on the forums. This ranking is based COMPLETELY on how many posts you have, NOT what your rank is on the ScoreHero leaderboards. That being said, people have asked how many posts you need for each rank. Here's a table that shows how many posts you need for different rankings:

Code:
0-9 posts: Rocker
10-24 posts: Young Gun
25-49: Shredder
50-99: Pro
100-199: Guitar Hero
200-499: Guitar Legend
500-999: Guitar God
1000-1999: Mascot
2000+: Freebird


XII: What are the secret songs in GH1? What is the GH2 OPM Demo 110? What is the GH3 Demo OXM 77?

For anyone who is reading this, the listing of these songs can ONLY be found on the GH1 rankings/top scores area. The two secret songs, Trippolette and Graveyard Shift, are two songs that were cut out from the first Guitar Hero game. However, the data for these songs was left on the retail disc, and thanks to phnord and quackadilly's hacking skills, they found the code and released them to the public (phnord found the code for *Trippolette, and quackadilly found Graveyard Shift). These songs can ONLY be unlocked through a Gameshark, ActionReplay, or other cheating device, and cannot be unlocked otherwise.

The 'GH2 OPM Demo 110' came in issue 110 of the Official Playstation Magazine around October 7th, 2006. Prior to the official release of GH2, a demo for the PS2 came out that had 4 songs on it: Shout at the Devil, You Really Got Me, Strutter, and YYZ. In order to get this demo at this point in time, you would either need to borrow it from someone or order the magazine directly from OPM. However, it's been over a year since the release of GH2, so you should just get that.

The 'GH3 Demo OXM 77' came in issue 77 of the Official Xbox Magazine around October 12th, 2007. Prior to the official release of GH3, a demo for the Xbox 360 came out that had 5 songs on it: Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Lay Down, Even Flow, Rock You Like A Hurricane, and The Metal. In order to get this demo, you need to obtain an off the shelf copy of OXM issue 77. However, since GH3 is currently available (in North America), you should probably just get that.

XIII: What are the 4-star and 5-star ratings based on?

Excellent question. For those of you who have just joined ScoreHero, you may have some of your own ideas. The two most common misconceptions regarding 4-star and 5-star cutoffs are that 1. Whammying gives you more points (which it does NOT), and 2. That star ratings are based on Note Streak, %, or a factor of both (which it also does not). Star rating is based ONLY on the final score; If you do not have a certain amount of points on a song, you will not achieve the 4-star or 5-star rating. Any technical questions you could possibly have regarding Guitar Hero is explained here.

XIV: What are 6, 7, and 8 stars? Do they actually exist?

This is another unique aspect of ScoreHero. First off, 6 stars, 7 stars, and 8 stars do NOT exist on the retail Guitar Hero discs. Long ago the community, by proving cutoff points for 4-star and 5-star performances, was able to derive the mathematical formulas for the "base score" of each song. Using the mathematical formula for the base score, JCirri found out how many points would be needed to achieve a "6-star", "7-star", and "8-star" performance on a song. Given the different amounts of Star Power phrases on each song and the layout itself, each song is different in what is possible. All songs can achieve a 6-star, some songs can achieve a 7-star, and few songs can achieve an 8-star. Here is a visual representation of each on ScoreHero:

6-stars:
7-stars:
8-stars:

For a more extensive explanation of the base score and other interesting mathematical formulas found in Guitar Hero, read up on the Scoring System FAQ.

XV: What is "squeezing"? How do I do it?

Squeezing is explained shortly in the extensive acronym thread linked above, in section IX. However, I will explain it in depth so that you may gain a better understanding of this technique. Generally, only high calibur players (top Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert players) use this technique, while those in lower ranks generally work on gaining more fretting and strumming skill. Here is an explanation.

* Before we start. notice that all notes on Guitar Hero have a timing window in which you can hit the note. This window is flexible enough so that you can hit any note a little bit early or a little bit late. This is the first essential element of squeezing.

* Squeezing is all about utilizing SP (Star Power) as efficiently as possible so that it will hit the most notes possible, which will get the player more points. This is the second essential element of squeezing.

* Now imagine that you have a certain amount of SP. Now, if you are going to activate on the next green note, you want to make your Star Power last as long as possible so that it will be activated under as many notes as possible, therefore getting you more points. If you are trying to maximize efficiency, it wouldn't make much sense to activate SP two whole seconds before the note comes out, would it? Of course not. To maximize the amount of SP usage, you would want to activate SP as close to the green note as possible. In fact, you might even want to activate it a little bit later than the actual note, but still early enough so that the timing window for the note is open and you can hit that note under SP. This is the first half of a squeeze.

* Now imagine that the end of the SP phrase is coming. You're running out of SP. Now, you see a red note in the distance, and you're not sure whether you can get this note under SP. If you do, you'll get an extra 200 points, but if you don't, you miss the 200 points. If you were playing it REALLY safe and activated the SP phrase two seconds before that green note (just like we talked about recently), then lets say there is no way in hell you're going to get that note under SP. Now, if you activated SP late in the green note's timing window, suddenly you have a greater chance of hitting that red note under SP. However, even with this efficient SP activation you're not completely sure you'll get it. As the red note comes closer, you decide to take a bit of a chance. Instead of hitting the red note when it's ON the bottom part of the fretboard, you decide to strum it early. Not so early that you miss it, but early enough in the timing window that you get it under SP JUST before the activation ends. Hooray, you just squeezed!

* This is essentially what squeezing is. Using the timing window to your advantage and activating SP very efficiently to hit more notes under SP. The top scores are obtainable ONLY by squeezing EVERY activated SP phrase in the song, in addition to hitting all of the notes (or at least as many as possible).

XVI: How do I get custom songs in Guitar Hero?

This is THE most commonly asked question on ScoreHero. Hundreds of people flock here every day, and quite a few don't take the time to browse the forum and actually try to figure it out themselves. If you're reading this, then I pray you listen to my every word if you plan on doing custom songs. This is what you need to do:

Step 1: Read these rules. You will not be here long if you do not abide by ALL of these rules.

Step 2: Now that you are well versed in the rules in Software, you may be ready to start learning how to make customs. Use this: nickb611's 'The Newly Updated Guide to Playing Custom Songs in GH1/2/80s'.

Step 3: If you plan on MAKING custom guitar hero songs, you should read this: Turkeyman's 'Idiot Proof guide to MAKING custom charts using FeedBack'.

XVII: What are leagues? How can I join?

The leagues are essentially an extension of rivalries. In the Leagues, you participate in a league where multiple players can compete against each other. Leagues last six whole weeks; four weeks for the regular season and two weeks for the playoffs. All questions that you could possibly ask are answered in this Leagues announcement.

XVIII: History of ScoreHero...

These are ScoreHero announcements from days gone by, announcements that show some new users the history behind ScoreHero, from it's humble beginnings to the site that is today. Some of these announcements show that not only did we start small, but we didn't have NEARLY as many extra bells and whistles as we have now. We walked 15 miles in the snow, both ways, etc.

This is a time line of ScoreHero's major events:

2-15-2006: Top Scores Display
2-19-2006: Song Stats / Contribution System
4-7-2006: New Page: Compare Users
4-23-2006: 1,000 Users!
6-4-2006: Donations / Account Upgrades
6-19-2006: 2,000 Users!
6-29-2006: ScoreHero Merchandise is Now Available!
8-10-2006: 3,000 Users!
8-20-2006: Extended ratings system: 6-stars and up!
9-5-2006: New Position: Echelar
9-10-2006: Daily Updating Stat Images!
9-25-2006: 4,000 users!
10-31-2006: 5,000 users!
11-7-2006: Guitar Hero II - Up and running!
11-29-2006: Paginated Rankings
12-16-2006: Co-op Mode Added!
1-11-2007: New Mod: emptyset
1-21-2007: Donor Ratings
1-28-2007: Happy B-Day ScoreHero! Have 10,000 Members!
2-9-2007: User Drop-downs Replaced
2-12-2007: Compare to Top Scores / Sort by spread
2-19-2007: Manage/Browse: Sort by Rank
4-3-2007: Guitar Hero II - 360 is up!
4-11-2007: 25,000 Members!
4-12-2007: Guitar Hero II - 360 DLC added
4-19-2007: 1,000,000 Scores Submitted!
5-5-2007: Harmonix donates $2,000: Server upgrade on the way!
6-2-2007 Server upgrade: done!
6-6-2007:Welcome New Moderators: elx and krimsunmunkeys!
6-30-2007: 50,000 users! Congratulations!
7-24-2007: Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s is up!
8-10-2007: Congrats MetalMadness! Harmonix Signed SG - Sold for $1,550!
9-3-2007: New Moderator: Armageddon
10-13-2007: GH3 Demo from OXM 77 is up!
10-16-2007: 100,000 Users!
10-28-2007: Guitar Hero III - Now available!
11-5-2007: New moderators: Alakaiser and socrstopr
11-20-2007: ScoreHero: Rock Band!
12-2-2007: Updated Stats Images! (80s and GH3 support)
12-17-2007: Rock Band score-tracking now available!
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