CH Leaderboards PTB 3 release!
The third Public Test Build for Clone Hero Leaderboards is here! This version is a small update that prioritizes fixing a few big bugs that have been introduced or discovered in the last PTB thanks to testing from you - the player. Let’s get into it!
Literally the entire thing (game-side)
This update has few enough things that it is pretty reasonable to post the whole changelog here. So here it is!
- Replays now correctly record your Double Strum Protection and Sustain Drop Leniency settings. This should significantly reduce the number of desyncs, which as a reminder, is when the server-side validation disagrees with the game on what the player just did. Getting to a point where the server-side validation and the game fully agree on everything at all times is where we’re trying to get to!
- Fixed the PFC crown doing kickflips in screenshots (tragically)
- Resolved issues where the game would softlock when quitting a song after using practice mode, or when scrolling the menu while unpausing
- Fixed a specific crash/exception that would occasionally occur during online play
- Fixed various font issues and menu sorting bugs that appeared after the recent UI refresh
- In-game submission stats now include your song-speed modifier
- Added a Squeeze Loss stat for when you let a note escape the end of a starpower activation. This complements the previous PTB’s “Squeezed Notes” stat, which is when you’ve played a note early enough before the end of a starpower activation to get the multiplier bonus for it, when you wouldn’t have had you played it on time.
- Fixed song scanning to correctly detect Pro Drums on Full Difficulty MIDIs
- Add backend status verification to properly show error messages if failed to start a song session. In particular, if the leaderboards are full, it will tell you, and if there are no leaderboards at all for your version of the game, it will encourage you to check that you have the latest build, or try again in the future
- Remove pause and popup on session disconnection due to internet or server issues and replace it with a notification popup instead. (this was previously pausing the game entirely)
- Hide leaderboards in-game hud on connection failure (so you don’t think you’re in leaderboards still)
- Save only the most recent replay file (saves space on disk)
- Add warning on mobile platforms about leaderboards not being supported yet
The rest of the things (backend)
Following some reports of abuse from players, we’ve been hard at work on a moderation system which we are now testing out. To no one’s surprise, we want CH Leaderboards to remain a fair place for competition, so we are working hard with new tools to help with this goal.
Lastly, as with every PTB release so far, we have to wipe the leaderboards once more to upgrade them to the new submission format. We expect this to be less necessary as time goes on, but it’s safe to expect every new version to necessitate a leaderboards wipe, so don’t go grinding important scores with the expectation that they’re going to stick around while leaderboards are in Public Test Build state!
How to join the PTB
The only way to join the PTB is thorugh our Discord server, which you can find here. Once in, navigate to the Public Test Build channels, where you will find the dedicated channels for PTB announcements, downloads and discussion.
Final word
That’s it for this release announcement. The team wants to extend their thanks to all the players who have reported bugs and given feedback wiht the last PTB, as this has been a particularly helpful time. Keep them coming, and see you all in the next one!