109579-wildstar-the-musical-playable-instruments-in-game

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So! Waaaaay back in beta, I asked people if they'd be interested in playable instruments in-game, and while the hardcore people foamed at the mouth at my filthy casual dreams, a lot of people seemed interested, and I even had the guy in charge of the sound department talk about looking into creative ways to implement this.
 
Now that the game has matured a little bit, and now that we have our real playerbase, I'd like to pose the question again.
 
Do you think adding playable instruments, a la LOTRO / Mabinogi, is an idea worth looking at?
 
I know I would have so much fun just playing instruments. xD I burned out on the combat? Well, now I'm not taking a nap, I'm goinna go play some music for a while! As it is, Wildstar really lacks that mini-game feature. Housing is fun, sure, but there's only so much you can do - and once you're done, you're done.
 
WoW has battle pets. LOTRO / Mabinogi had music. GW2 had JP's and all that. FFXIV... I'm not sure. Rift had housing, but again, I'm not sure. Wildstar doesn't have that signature mini-game, and I think it's about time we talked about one. :3
 
So, thoughts? Lead sound engineer, you still around? Any updates? :P
 
Architects could build instruments, parts, etc.
Survivalists could turn wood into paper for trading songs / writing music.
Band capabilities.
/ignoresound feature, and volume slider for player music.
Various instruments, and various types of the same instrument with special effects (rarity could increase potential notes, give extra octaves, so on).
Ability to just have at it, or write a sheet of music like in Mabinogi / LOTRO.
New hobby, that gives you more options as you level up.
etc.
Oh, and to keep everything in one post, here's the lead sound engineer from Carbine commenting about it,
 
 
 
I love Starbound too and got the same idea when they announced that feature. [Playable music]
 
Unfortunately, when I looked into it, this is not just a trivial task of decoding a text file into sound timings and pitches, or the slightly more difficult work of distributing it to everyone around you and giving a pleasant interface for it.  I need to add synthesizer support to the sound engine and the ability do sample accurate starting/stopping of sounds.  These are major feature sets, that have to be scheduled with other features.
 
But I still love the idea, so I am still looking for even more clever ways to do it.
 
 
 
And here's my original post from back in beta if you care to read through it.	
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			I keep trying to talk Jeff Kurtenacker into working on a Musician hobby, similar to the old Musician system they used in Star Wars Galaxies. It was a fun and robust system (when you ignore the way it attached into the buff system and just look at how it played music). Lots of sound flexibility and variety in the tracks and a player's ability to shine both solo and in a group.	
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			Challenges are WS's "mini game" - I'd rather they focus efforts on fixing bugs and adding more real content to the game rather than adding a distraction (like SAB from GW2...*shutters*)	
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Music is real content. Not everything has to be a raid, y'know. :P I know lots of people, myself included, who played Mabinogi / LOTRO 99% for the music system. So...
 
Keep bugging him, Lemurian! Though I don't think he's really involved. He might record the samples for the hobby, but it would be up to the sound department to actually get it rolling. :P
 
I also talked to the CEO at Carbine, and while he didn't really comment on it, he said he loved that about LOTRO. So pester him too! xD	
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I like the music idea, i'm a semi-professional musician so i would appreciate this kind of feature, i may not use it but it is something nice and it doesn't take anything away from the experience if so it adds .. and as you said you can always add options for other grumpy hardcore players to ignore/slide a volume down or disable the experience for them!
 
Thumbs Up for the suggestion!!! :)	
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Yep! All the foaming-at-the-mouth hardcores don't even have to hear it if they don't want to. :P Let the filthy casuals have a little bit of fun! ^^ I think Tony would approve, too.
 
Roda, you're still around? I haven't seen you since beta, but I get two likes from you in an hour? Haha. :P
 
Here's the Dev post, by the way,
 
 
 
I love Starbound too and got the same idea when they announced that feature.
 
Unfortunately, when I looked into it, this is not just a trivial task of decoding a text file into sound timings and pitches, or the slightly more difficult work of distributing it to everyone around you and giving a pleasant interface for it.  I need to add synthesizer support to the sound engine and the ability do sample accurate starting/stopping of sounds.  These are major feature sets, that have to be scheduled with other features.
 
But I still love the idea, so I am still looking for even more clever ways to do it.
 
 
 
And here's my original post from back in beta, https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/40653-suggestion-the-power-of-music-man/?hl=music	
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Challenges are WS's "mini game" - I'd rather they focus efforts on fixing bugs and adding more real content to the game rather than adding a distraction (like SAB from GW2...*shutters*)
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			... so you want SWG Musicians and dancers as a class?	
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So many likes to give to one small thread!
 
I think adding playable music is a really easy addition to the game, with a HUGE return on that investment in terms of players using or enjoying someone else using that feature. Adding the playable notes isn't hard at all, it's just having someone choose which instruments and sound ranges to give to players, and making it easy to use in a friendly UI. The UI part is probably the only show-stopper along with adding new animations for playing said instruments.
 
I REALLY hope they add this in. It's a mature, deep feature that was proven to work without much abuse in LOTRO. Lets expand on adult content in the direction of the Moonshiner's Cabin FABkit for that matter!	
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SAB is super awesome funtime content and you should be shunned for disliking it!   There was even a protest in-game today in Rata Sum because the lack of it's return for quite a while now.   It's a big deal content that many, many, MANY player wholeheartedly enjoy.
 
Just because you don't like something, does not mean that you're the majority.  It's very much possible -and likely- that you're in the minority and the rest of the player base is overjoyed about content such as that.  It's because that kind of content is time-filler (for when in queue, for when waiting for a raid, for a Saturday night drinking binge with friends in-game and on Vent, or just whenever), it's also the reason why Fireworks, Piccalo's (sp?), and the like were well sought after in early WoW because they were enjoyed by the playerbase so much.
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It's immersion breaking garbage that takes away from dev resources for real content.  Oh ,but the guy did it in his spare time...yeah, sure he did - because all that it takes to implement something like that into a live game is just designing it...no art assets for the weapon skins, no QA testing to make sure that it doesn't break the game, etc - nope, all in one guys spare time.  You want to go play super mario bros? Go play it on a PC emulator (at the very least) - don't put it in my modern day MMO-RPG.  Same goes for musical instruments - go play Garage Band or Guitar Hero.
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Azurrei, this is an MMO, meant for thousands, if not millions, of people. If we focused on JUST fighting, that alienates a whole lot of people, doesn't it? Like it or not, this is a company who is trying to make money, and they will make their game appeal to as large an audience as possible while still maintaining their design philosophies.
 
You want to kill things, and do nothing but kill things? Go play Call of Duty, or any other game on the Xbox / PS4.
 
Like Lemurian said, all content is real content, and it's all just as worthwhile as what you call "real" content. There are more people than just you who play this game, sorry. : /
 
And, by the way, I loved the SAB. That's just the kind of references I would expect to see in Wildstar too, haha. xD	
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It wouldn't be easy to build in something really fun and worthwhile.  That said, if they could manage it, more power to them.
 
I play IRL bass, but it would be fun to make "Wildstar" music with Wildstar instruments.	
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It's immersion breaking garbage that takes away from dev resources for real content.  Oh ,but the guy did it in his spare time...yeah, sure he did - because all that it takes to implement something like that into a live game is just designing it...no art assets for the weapon skins, no QA testing to make sure that it doesn't break the game, etc - nope, all in one guys spare time.  You want to go play super mario bros? Go play it on a PC emulator (at the very least) - don't put it in my modern day MMO-RPG.  Same goes for musical instruments - go play Garage Band or Guitar Hero.
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How does other people making music break your immersion, Azurrei? 
 
You know what damages my immersion?  A game that consists of nothing but being repeatedly, temporarily slaughtered by a giant monster who craps blobs of red light on the floor until I figure out how to kill him instead through trial and error damages my immersion.  It shoots my suspension of disbelief all to shit. 
 
Back on topic, I'd love to be able to make musical instruments in the game, and I'd love to be able to play them even more.  I don't know how other games have handled it, having played none of them, but I'm all for it here in Wildstar.
 
EDIT: Sorry - was unnecessarily rude, and off topic.
			
				
	Edited August 20, 2014 by Kaganfindel	
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If anything, music would only increase immersion. In a real life setting, people find ways to waste away time, and music has been around for a very, very long time as one of those methods. Like Kagan said, just temporarily killing a giant monster every week and doing nothing else is a bit immersion breaking. However, making the world come to life by playing music (even NPC's could play some songs that are pre-determined), so don't try to say that it would break immersion. If anything, it would increase the immersion profoundly.
 
But, it's definitely possible for them to add it - the lead sound engineer said as much - but it wouldn't be easy. Though, I think it's worth it. ^^	
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			For REAL immersion try playing an instrument in RL	
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			I do, Khue, I play seven instruments and sing. Doesn't change the fact I'd like instruments in-game. ^^	
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			Great idea. I'd also love to see fishing added to the game. I am a filthy casual btw	
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Back in SWG we actually had player bands that would travel and do tours in player cities.  It was an awesome community thing, regardless of what you thought of Battle Fatigue.
 
Mechanically, the way that it worked where each instrument played a song part, and you could have just one or two musicians playing a melody or a full ensemble with all the parts going, was really quite ingenious.  The only real criticism was that players could never create their own music, just use the songs that existed within the system - and new songs were only ever added once.
 
Still, I prefer the SWG implementation to the LOTRO implementation, where music is free-form based on a note entry mechanic.  While the LOTRO system enabled people to be true artists in the sense of composing their own music or playing freestyle, it also resulted in websites where people would just download and macro the LOTRO version of whatever pop song they wanted to play.  I mean really, do I need to log into an MMO to hear a MIDI rendition of something that I can turn on the radio for?	
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Well Neph, if I couldn't compose my own music in-game, then what's the point? That's the whole idea. Sure, some people are annoying and just play pop songs, but then some people make truly brilliant work. ^^
 
If we just get to play pre-made songs, then I don't support it at all. Free-form composition, or it isn't worth it. : /	
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			Just going to revive this thread. :3 Was buried fairly quickly, and I want to see how the community responds to music in Wildstar! I also wanna see if I can nab the attention of a certain composer or a lead sound engineer. ^^	
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Great idea. I'd also love to see fishing added to the game. I am a filthy casual btw
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Back in SWG we actually had player bands that would travel and do tours in player cities.  It was an awesome community thing, regardless of what you thought of Battle Fatigue.
 
Mechanically, the way that it worked where each instrument played a song part, and you could have just one or two musicians playing a melody or a full ensemble with all the parts going, was really quite ingenious.  The only real criticism was that players could never create their own music, just use the songs that existed within the system - and new songs were only ever added once.
 
Still, I prefer the SWG implementation to the LOTRO implementation, where music is free-form based on a note entry mechanic.  While the LOTRO system enabled people to be true artists in the sense of composing their own music or playing freestyle, it also resulted in websites where people would just download and macro the LOTRO version of whatever pop song they wanted to play.  I mean really, do I need to log into an MMO to hear a MIDI rendition of something that I can turn on the radio for?
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I heard people talking about SWG, and that's not what I was getting at in any way. :P Sure we might have a few premade things, but the whole idea was to create your own music. :3
 
But, I could see fishing contests / music competitions, and all that! That would be a fun alternative to the Stranglethorn fishing contest. :P "Wildstar: Battle of the Bands!"	
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But, I could see fishing contests / music competitions, and all that! That would be a fun alternative to the Stranglethorn fishing contest. :P "Wildstar: Battle of the Bands!"
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			Yeah, Wildstar really just focuses on PvP and PvE, and doesn't really give you anything to do outside of combat. A lot of games do that these days though - they either focus entirely on end-game, or entirely on extra fluff, with only cursory development in other areas. GW2 had a lot of fluff, but not much in the way of content. WS has a lot of end-game focus, but not a lot of fluff. I'd like to see a game like WoW that has a bit of both - but people seem to HATE anything that doesn't exactly line up with their gaming values. So, I don't know if we'll ever get anything fun to do outside of combat.	
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Well housing is my main vice outside of combat as you put it - It's a wonderful feature in theory but the item caps, and the lack of choice when choosing a pre-designed house are glaring issues to me. Hopefully they will look to expand greatly on housing (expanded item caps, larger housing plots/more than one plot per char, BoA housing items, maybe even allow you to design the houses in modules MC style rather than them coming fully pre-designed). The spacious houses being harder to do custom work with than the small houses bugs me bigtime.
 
Dunno, the Wildstar devs always seem like they have lots of things they want to do, but never enough money, developers, or the time to implement them, so areas always end up missing, rushed or lacking - we shall see if they find time to add more 'casual' content (pets, mounts, fishing, music items, etc) as time goes on I guess.	
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