A New version of Notedrop has been released! In addition, we are also introducing a new service, Notedrop Online, an online scoreboard that interfaces with the game. Register an account with Chromatiqa in the forums to save your scores online, add a rival to compete against, and compare your scores against other players around the world!
See other players’ scores in-game
Notedrop Novus contains several major overhauls, including a new scoring system and the removal of Effectors for the new game options. Many changes were aimed towards making the game more competitive and balanced for both new and experienced players.
Page 1 of 2
Continue reading for an in-depth view at the changes in Notedrop Novus, or play the game now to experience them yourself!
Hi, Bitz here. I’m going to explain some of the changes in Notedrop Novus, as well as my thought process behind them.
SCORING SYSTEM
The most significant change is the overhaul of the scoring system. This time, I completely changed the system in favor of “clarity” of score; that is, I tried to design the system such that the meaning of a score, in terms of performance, is clear. I formatted the new score as a percentage, which I thought people would be more comfortable reading and associating with performance rate, instead of the really long number with a questionable maximum value that Delta had. I also tried to make score reflect actual performance better; in Delta, score lost due to breaking notes overpowered the small losses caused by low score accuracy such that scores were either a “full combo score” or “not a full combo score.” Novus’s score is essentially your note hit accuracy, with broken notes counting for 0%.
I removed the small accuracy ratings that Delta had (the percentage number shown in hit accuracy) and simplified hit accuracies into three categories, plus breaks. The new SUPER is worth 100% of a note’s score and has the same timing window as a Delta SUPER. A GOOD is worth 50% of a note’s score and has approximately double a SUPER’s timing window. The new BAD is worth only 10% of a note’s score and has approximately triple a SUPER’s timing window. BREAKs are worth no score, and do not reduce score.
In one equation: Score = ( SUPERS + 0.5×GOODS + 0.1×BADS ) / number of notes. Scores are only significant down to 0.0001%.
To accommodate for perfect scores and ties, players can obtain a bonus 0.0001% score (called “perfection”) for every “perfect” SUPER that they hit. A perfect SUPER is granted for notes hit exactly on the hit indicator, which has a window of about += 6 ms (or one-fifth of a SUPER’s window / one frame out of sixty per second). So, don’t be surprised when you see 100.0024% on all those easy charts, and I can guarantee this is going to happen on all the LTs. Of course, there is also a “perfect perfect” score, but whether or not veryhardcore players have the patience to do this on charts with more than twenty notes is up in the air.
CLEAR GAUGE
Whereas Delta’s health bar was about not failing out of a chart, Novus’s new clear gauge is focused on maintaining good play. The clear gauge must be in its upper half by the end of a chart, or else it will count as a fail regardless of score (though score is still saved).
In game options, the difficulty of the clear gauge can be changed, and the gauge you clear (or fail) a chart with is saved with your score. Easy mode is a more forgiving version of normal mode; the hard and extreme clear modes act like Delta’s health bar in that you automatically fail out if the gauge reaches zero. There is also a sudden death bar, which forces full combo play at the penalty of \YOU FAILED/
SUPERs increase the clear gauge, BREAKs decrease it, and BADs also decrease it (but not by as much). Harder clear modes allow for fewer breaks before reaching zero, and also lower the recovery rate of the bar.
GAME OPTIONS
In Delta, effectors granted a small score bonus for use. Now, they (called game options) do not. Score bonuses for ridiculous game modifiers encourage unfun play that encourages explicit memorization and gimmicky play over more “pure” skill for score attacking. There are still ways to play with these modifiers, but they’re no longer “required” for competitive scoring play.
One great addition to game options is the pacemaker, which tells you your score performance relative to a goal in terms of note score or percentage score. You can pacemake against various high scores, specific letter rankings, or simply see your raw score or projected score during play.
I added a new assist modifier called enjoy mode; in enjoy mode, all notes hit (or missed) automatically become a super. No fail is for practicing (or having fun with) really difficult charts; autoplay is for watching charts; and enjoy mode is for “enjoying” a chart, whether that means mashing keys on difficult charts, or playing charts with no regard for score.
GAME HUD CHANGES
I changed some of the graphical effects that appear during the game in an attempt to make clear what I think is important information. For example, instead of a giant COMBO going WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP during play, your combo number is now nice and large and actually visible! I also made the score number larger, instead of tiny text hidden who knows where.
The new combo indicator also acts as a performance indicator; you can tell what letter grade you’re projected to receive based on the intensity of the circles’ animation and their color. For reference: D = gray, small circle. C = two-color, small circle. B = two-color, wobbly small circle. A = two-color, big wobbly circle. S = rainbow, big wobbly circle. SS = S and big thumping circle. SSS = SS and rainbow bubbles.
The clear bar also has different color animations based on the clear mode you’re playing with; try different clear modes to see them for yourself!
AND SO ON
There are many other small changes that I didn’t cover in this article, such as the new chart complete menu, new settings menu, or accessibility changes in the chartlist menu. I suggest you go play the game and check everything out yourself!
