Re: Pulsen
 

Oh, this is still a thing? So many double posts.

Btw, 2 and 3 look like a house I'd see in a Zelda game.

Re: Pulsen
 

I love how this post directly doesn't respond to the fact of a quadruple post. And for those who did care would be checking back up on this or asking questions in relation to Pulsen itself.

How is Pulsen any different from what any SM is capable of?

That's a question I've been wanting to ask for awhile, and sorry if its been asked and answered already.

Re: Pulsen
 

Oh no problem man. Usually Jason answers since he actually co-develops on both projects and remembers the differences better than I do, but I’ll give it a shot.

Here's a list of some of the differences generally. I'll explain anything you'd like to know more information about.

:: General ::
- Pulsen is a game, a complete package; think DDR or ITG or Mungyodance
- Thousands of lines of SM5’s code were rewritten or created from scratch
- Bug fixes SM5 does not have
- None of the previous content you have suddenly not working in the newer version

:: Interface ::
- Can be resized to any resolution or aspect ratio properly
- Works on netbooks and in surround gaming resolutions
- [ALT][ENTER] has no problems no matter the in-game resolution
- Performance optimizations
- 3D and 2D versions of every noteskin
- Disabling animations
- Others
- A lot of things automated with the ability to disable them if need be
- Different modifiers (some are similar, but not exactly the same)
- Easy modification of speed mods without editing any text files
- Custom scoring modes based on your playing preference

:: Features & Content ::
- Constant updates to features as needed
- No need to pay a bounty if you want a feature added
- Exclusive content
- Music custom-made for Pulsen (you can find these in Pulsen: Ultra I, Pulsen: Souleye, and later packs)
- Noteskins like Pulsen's, the shapes, the new arrows, and the VVVVVV noteskins along with others we haven't revealed yet for other packs
- Charts you can’t find anywhere else
- More stuff coming along
- Novice-friendly features as well as features aimed as more experienced players
- Colorful, easy-to-read, documentation such as a manual explaining how everything in the game works

:: Charts & Music ::
- Consistency of all the content including chart designs, syncing, difficulties, features, and overall design
- Professionally-made charts
- Songs from musicians who don’t want their content available for free
- Musicians compensated for the use of their music
- Chart designers and graphic designers paid for their best work
- Some highly talented people who want to work on community projects but can't because of time work on Pulsen

And I'll add in some future things we’ve been working on since October which will be available in later builds soon. As soon as Pulsen r0004 releases, we should be getting content out there a lot faster.

:: General ::
- An automatic updater so you don't have to keep checking for updates and installing them manually
- Automatically adjusting performance options if the game notices your computer is having issues
- An exclusive story mode with levels, chapters, bosses
- An in-game tutorial

:: Online ::
- Online play out-of-the-box
- Online-connected leaderboards in-game
- Leaderboards on our website
- Uploading of your recorded-game to Facebook or Twitter for your friends to watch or play against (yes, ghosts are under development)
- While we’re still creating the logistics for a keyboard pack, it will include ridiculous timing for those on the advanced scoring mode and have other enhancements

Re: Pulsen
 

So...pretty much right now it's just a more stable-rewritten SM5 with easy speed modifier additions and taking out the ability to create custom charts and instead only being allowed to play whatever songs you guys allow at a price on top?

I'll stick to SM5

Re: Pulsen
 

Hello ddr_f4n. Are you saying you'd like us to add functionality to have your own custom songs and charts in the game?

Re: Pulsen
 

thatd be a great feature to have. an easy way to get that too would be to charge a one time fee to unlock the ability to play custom files with pulsen

Re: Pulsen
 

I was thinking something along those lines too.

Re: Pulsen
 

Even with all the above said, I still don't see what really separates Pulsen from any SM.

Re: Pulsen
 

What exactly you are looking for?

Re: Pulsen
 

Reason to play and/or create something for the game?

Personally have had a lot of free time recently to play other games, but I'm pretty sure an application into working on Pulsen for some "tricky" things would be second nature to me (refer to my sig for example.)

I just really see no difference after watching videos of Pulsen versus SM, at least yet.

Re: Pulsen
 

I caught your videos after your first post actually. I was really impressed with what you've been doing! :)

If you're talking about the available note types, those are currently the same as what SM5 offers to a degree. I mean, the noteskins define how they show up and as far as I know, we're the only ones doing fakes 1:1 with taps.

We've already started putting out ideas for more note types though so it's only a matter of time till those make it in the game. I'd love to hear any suggestions you have.

Now if you're talking about the game engine itself, have you tried clicking and dragging on the window corner of Pulsen to resize it? This is one feature I know is explicitly not in SM5: interface scaling to any resolution and aspect ratio on-the-fly. While we haven't advertised this feature, it's probably one of the most time-consuming ones we've added.

Pulsen might be released, but there've already been quite a few changes since October, and there will only be more now that the game's out.

Pulsen was designed to be modular for the very fact that we didn't have to sell a Pulsen 2nd Mix and make you buy the game itself again and again. What you see now might not be what you see a year from now.

Is this the kind of information you were looking for?

Re: Pulsen
 

In a way, yeah.

If anything I'll write a nice detailed message in the near future about what you should do that can make things better (specifically modifier wise.) And once I see the game in a better view, a purchase may not be the worse case scenario.

Re: Pulsen
 

Great! I would love to see the kinda input you'll have ;) for us in the near future.

Re: Pulsen
 

I've gotten a bunch of comments about songs in Pulsen since release so I want to know what people really think and would like to hear what you guys have to say.

1. Do you want more official (made by us) songs to play in Pulsen?
2. Do you want currently-released packs for SM5 playable in Pulsen?
3. Do you want the ability to play your own songs in Pulsen?
4. Do you want to make and release your own packs for Pulsen?

Re: Pulsen
 

I stopped reading at professionally-made charts........


cmon man even steppers like lurker can step a chart much better than what i've seen so far...... lol

Re: Pulsen
 

This is getting ridiculous.

Find a community that is interested in Pulsen and maybe you'll get your questions answered. I probably sound like a huge dick at this point because this is frankly pissing me off with the double to quadruple posting and 2 month bump double post extravaganzas.

This community has shown a clear lack of interest with hardly any posts in this thread praising Pulsen, and the majority being skeptical posts. So to answer your questions from the standpoint of practically everyone in this community:

1. Do you want more official (made by us) songs to play in Pulsen?
No idea if you're talking about stepcharts or musical compositions here, but stepmania has more than enough of both, what makes yours any better? The professionally/officially made argument is crap, because there are unprofessional step artists in this community that could probably step circles around your experts. And I don't think rhythm game stepcharting is something you can go pro in.

2. Do you want currently-released packs for SM5 playable in Pulsen?
No thanks, I'm perfectly happy with playing SM5's packs in SM5 like they were intended.

3. Do you want the ability to play your own songs in Pulsen?
Withholding this aspect from Pulsen is the biggest mistake you could possibly make. A good chunk of StepMania users only use it for creating their own content. If that's not possible with Pulsen, StepMania is the clear winner.

4. Do you want to make and release your own packs for Pulsen?
Would these packs only be playable on Pulsen? If so, then absolutely not. The only way the answer to this question would be yes is if the stepping interface is easier than StepMania's and the finished product will work on all platforms.

Re: Pulsen
 

Thanks for speaking on everybody's behalf, rushy!

Re: Pulsen
 

only watched the preview video so correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't this just a weird looking stepmania build with less features?

Re: Pulsen
 

To better gauge what you don't like, what have you seen so far?

I believe FFR is interested in Pulsen; this is why people are posting their opinions about the game even if their opinions are completely degrading.

I enjoy finding out what people think and what we can do to make the game better. I’ve gotten so much input and changed so much in the game because of this thread that I keep coming back to ask more questions.

I’m talking about charts.

What makes our charts better? That’s a good question. Well I can’t say what makes our charts better because I don’t know what I’m comparing them to, but I can tell you my opinion why I believe they’re better than what I’ve seen.

Pulsen has features for charts not in SM5 and any other game. We’re slowly adding more to this list, and we’ve even added these to any old charts that need ‘em.

Most of the songs are customized by musicians for Pulsen. This means the musicians get to play a part in how their song turns out in the game.

We also have a review process. If you’re done charting, it’s not done yet. The chart needs to be playtested and then fixed and playtested many more times until we can say it’s good enough for release. Sometimes effects have to be stripped out because they just didn’t work or didn’t fit the song. Sometimes we need to drop entire charts or just make new ones from scratch. Sometimes the difficulties aren’t balanced and things need to be re-thought to allow for this balance to happen.

I’m not saying the review process doesn’t happen in the community or that people don’t modify the code to add in their own custom features, but overall, this is why I believe our charts are better.

I also agree that saying professionals doesn’t mean higher-quality. All of our charts are made by folks like you and me in the community. These are people have made hundreds of charts already, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re familiar with their work outside of Pulsen.

Why do you feel that it’s the biggest mistake to leave out an editor?

Are you saying you want to make songs for Pulsen, but have them be backward-compatible with other versions of StepMania, DanceWithIntensity, and PyDance or are you saying you’d like them compatible with any operating system?


Kinda depends on what you watched. I would have to disagree as there are more features in Pulsen than SM5.

This is my opinion since it depends on the features you are looking for. If you’re looking for loading SM files in Pulsen, then it won’t be true. If you’re looking for more available mods, noteskin features, charts with more capabilities, and other things like this, then it would be true.


Thanks for your responses! These have been very helpful, and I look forward to the next ones.

Re: Pulsen
 

No custom content.

Pulsen is dealing with a community that isn't limited when using programs like SM, so by limiting the players to only playing what you feel to provide, then players will just stick to SM where anything and everything is available.

Other versions of SM most likely.