Musician Archive

"How about allowing entertainers to heal BF in camps now? As currently there is absolutely no purpose for camps at all."

I agree, but it should require a ranger tent.

I know the odds of this ever becoming a reality are non-existent, but I still want to say it anyway.

As part of an Entertainer/Musician revamp, the game would benefit immensely from the addition of a Music Composition Device. It would be similar to a crafting device in that you'd boot it up and use it to craft items; it's a little involved so bear with me as I explain.

At the current moment, whenever you play a song in the game you're really just triggering shortprerecorded files (mp3s or wavs or something, I don't know for sure)to chain together. As part of the revamp, each of the instruments would need tobe associated withsampled midi voices, and upon considering how each instrument currentlysounds when you play it, it's possible that each instrument could have several voices to it (for example, the fizzz might have the voices of a clarinet, muted trumpet, and trombone associated with it). So, you get your Music Composition Device, boot it up, and select to create a new song. It's basically a midi editor; you piece together a song by writing notes into blank staffs (and of course there'd be all the musical options available -changeable time signatures, accidentals, dynamics, etc). You can add parts for as many instruments as you like, and whenever you begin writing a part for an instrument you have access to all of its voices - so if you write a part for a fizz, when you place notes in you can choose if they're played in the clarinet, muted trumpet or trombone voice, all of which can be played simultaneously as well. The editor would have the option to play back the songs at any point so the composer can hear what it's sounding like, and perhaps they can even save a few works-in-progress into the devices' memory for them to work on later. Complicated to use? Not really, it'd most likely be something players get the hang of quickly and spend a lot of time with composing. When the song is all done, the player gives it a title and sets the device into craft mode, and out pops Sheet Music - so say you wrote a song and it has a part for a fizzz, two fanfar parts, a kloo horn part and a traz part, then you will get a piece of Sheet Music for each. Players can form bands and hand this sheet music out to the musicians (so you'd need to find players to fill all instrument parts), and then the band can perform these custom songs.

Already there are a number of possibilities for game expansion. Each song that a player receives sheet music for could have its own experience level, and if you try to play a song that you haven't properly practiced and leveld up then the game engine will vary the notesyou play- in other words, you'll make mistakes and play wrong notes. And so you'll want to practice your songs and get your band to dedicate time to rehearsals so that when you go out and perform your songs sound like they should (and if you don't play a song for a while, your level on it drops as you "forget" how to play it). Maybe the individual instruments will have their own levels now too - the more you play a fanfar, the higher your fanfar level will be, and the faster you can learn fanfar Sheet Music parts. Also, maybe a status ailment like Stage Fright will come over your character if they haven't performed very often and find themselves in front of a large crowd (it's cureable of course by performing over and over to get your Showmanship skill leveled up, or maybe even a couple Jawa Beers will loosen your character up).

The important thing is that at this point bands are no longer just musicians showing up at a cantina and joining the random group of people already there. I mean, don't take that out of the game by any means, but now musicians will have other options instead of the all-too-tempting AFK grind. Now players can form bands, write their own songs and perform them, perhaps ending up with fan bases. Maybe even the Business Artisan can become an agent and book them in cantinas and theaters across the galaxy - heck, give out group xp for the band when they successfully play gigs (bands shouldn't be just regular groups though, they should be mini-guilds that stick with the characters until they /leaveband). There's already a cover-charge system in the game, so cantina and theater owners can book bands and collect on it. Heck, players can even book bands for any event - guild gatherings, parties, wedding receptions. And how about in-game events like battle-of-the-bands contests where audience members get to vote on their favorite performers?

Back to the sheet music for a second. The Music Composition Devices will spit out a copy of every instrument part you wrote and a Master Chart that has every part on it (much like the master charts orchestras use). Feed a Master Chart into a Music Composition Device and it'll churn out a copy of every instrument piece, meaning you can make copies of either the individual parts or the Master Chart and sell them to people (if you don't mind your music being played by other bands). Not only does this make players money, but the composer should gain experience every time the music is copied (even by other players). Imagine music shops full of charts and instruments now, instead of walking into a vendor tent and sifting through listings of Bone Armor Boots and Maroj Mellons to find a Fizzz on which they will play starwars2 for the next 80 weeks. Also, the Music Composition Device should be able to transpose as well - don't have a fanfar player in your band, but the song you want to play calls for one? Transpose the fanfar part to an instrument you have a musician for, and it'll rewrite that part for the instrument you choose (won't always sound good though, of course).

A few side-suggestions that would fit in nicely with this revamp are a new building structure - Marquee - which club owners can put out front of their establishments and list upcoming acts on, and a Bulliten Board - in starter cities these should be in the bank/bazaar squares, in player cities they can be anywhere, but they're basically an electronic corkboard on which there arecategories (like the destroy/deliver categories on the mission terminals) along the lines of Shows and Classifieds. Under the Shows category will be postings (made by either the bands or their agents) of where bands are playing across the galaxy (complete with saveable waypoint) so players can easily keep up with their favorite bands. Under the Classifieds category is where all of those spammers can post their ever-important and never-annoying (/sarcasm) messages like TRAINING BRAWLER 3/4/3/1 I NEED THE AP PSTor MOMO'S CHEAP BIKES SWOOPS TRAVEL BISCUITS COME TO WP 2348 -385, and people can just read them there (sortable by a listing type - vendor ad, training services, etc). Hopefully it'd catch on and reduce the clutter in your chat box.

Okay, those are my ideas. Like I said, I know the chances of this stuff happening are pretty much non-existent, but it'd sure be nice if I was wrong. Custom songs that musicians can write, perform and/or sell, rather than pressing the devs to sit down and record more songs and flourishes (no flourishes in the custom songs, btw). Heck, maybe players can even form 19-piece orchestras (with 1 conductor) and put on more formal concerts - that'd give you a reason to use that formal clothing the tailors can whip up, anyway. New missions could include bands with custom songs needing to play a certain number of paid gigs or touring NPC cantinas. Oh, and dare I say that when JTL launches bands can even chip in and buy old rusted out freighters to tour the galaxy in? Or perhaps play gigs on luxury cruiser ships?

Okay, that's all. Thanks for reading!