Music

[RedQueen.exe]

Well I think ideally it would just be a small "note" icon or something you could click, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

[Slyder_Glyder_Ryder_etc]

I don't like this idea. I don't like music. jk

Anyway I kind of like the 'build your own midi with selectable notes based on the instrument being played and the musical skill of the character' idea. Seems the only way this would work. It would also give people something to do when not much is going on, like a mini-game! BUT I'm also afraid that if it were done like this people would over use it... like a ridiculous amount. IF this was implemented it would be important that creating a midi musical number could only be done like twice a day max and that creating one didn't increase skill... or people would just spam and spam and spam midi files all day. SO I would suggest having a way to train the skill.. like creating a 'sheet music' or something and it's use would be 'practice music' as a project to slowly gain more notes and more measures or something...

That is all... I think.

[Snickie]

1234-5: You hear a man in his twenties play some music on a used bone flute.
1234-5: a man in his twenties says: "–he plays a short, melodic tune (http://www.url.com/filename.mid)–"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Not to mention that attaching a skill to music would give a serious advantage to musically inclined players like myself, and a disadvantage to those who can't read music and don't know how to make a melody out of notes (if they are trying to play a character who is musically talented).

If such a program is ever set up, though, maybe it should have an optional tutorial where it teaches the player the basics of reading music and some basic theory. I would be willing to write said tutorial, if it ever happens. Somebody else would have to program it, but I could provide content. Additionally, we would have to define the note range for each instrument (can't have a bone flute playing in the lower range of a cello, for example), but that wouldn't be a problem for most instruments, which have a set lowest note but theoretically can go as high as you want).

Another problem we would have is what program would we be using to create the MIDI files? Most programs require payment (one-time, fortunately) and they can be really expensive (some versions of Sibelius and Finale run around $300 USD). Noteworthy is around $50 USD. Lilypond is free, and is formatted more like....programming, I think? It's an interface I'm not at all familiar with, anyway. (Actually the only interface I am used to is NoteWorthy Composer.) Either way, it'll be an issue not only to teach people the program, but also to make it available to all Cantriians legally. Additionally, I think playlists of what your characters have composed and played should be available and accessible to the player.

Even if somebody would want to take up the challenge of making their own music-editing program for Cantr to use for free, there are still a lot of things to deal with such as glitches and bugs, and that's out of my realm of knowledge and experience.

Wow I've gone really in-depth. Well, I'm rambling now. See you guys later.

[muidoido]

It's like teaching fencing to players that want to play a pirate...

[Wolfsong]

Except pirates never fenced.

[muidoido]

This shows how much I know about fencing...

[FiziKx]

Although I don't want to beat a dead horse, as more time goes by I realize more and more that I need this feature in Cantr and would be willing to do pretty much anything to make this happen in some way. Culture in Cantr would be enhanced so much by allowing audible music to exist in game, and I just want this so so bad. Every time it's brought up, though, discussion just ends and there never seems to be an official word as to whether somehow linking to music files/creating some sort of in-game midi audio creation tool will be permissible or possibly worked towards.

If we can just restart actual, legitimate discussion about this with the goal of having a definitive, staff-made response, I would be so very happy. And if people want some sort of in-game creation tool but nobody wants to take their time to figure that out, I'll literally donate a large sum to the game or something just to make it happen. (Bribery probably isn't allowed, but the offer truly stands if the player-base decides definitively that we want this and if a monetary incentive would make the staff work to complete it--that's how badly I want this.)

So anyway, this is me once again saying that we should discuss being able to get actual music in-game.

[Marian]

But wouldn't that mean players who aren't musically talented themselves wouldn't realistically be able to RP a musician character?

[FiziKx]

I would expect some to be better than others, but the same could be said about people who aren't good at drawing trying to roleplay being artists. Regardless, though, a lot of music creation tools are easy enough for anyone to use to make nice, yet non-complicated melodies and if we had a tool of our own, I'd expect it to probably not be extremely intense.

Either way, this idea is just to help people who would want to write music down--musical notation could really become a thing, and if people were going to play music they could either role-play it the normal way or maybe pass out copies of a note with their midi song in it (and also some musical notation or instructions for singing/playing inflection, so that there'd be a reason for the audio file to be in/linked to the note) while they roleplay playing/singing it.

[Friar Briar]

Several ideas on this board, including this one, reminds me a lot of another text-based RPG that I had played years ago. It used a browser-based front end, and players had the option to either embed their own MIDIs or choose silence in the background. Players could choose to have different MIDIs triggered whenever they entered certain locations.

[prometheus]

I'm killer at poetry and writing, but I can't do music, so I'm not exactly for something that genuinely requires real-life skill. But has anyone ever play ocarina of time? What about something like that? That would be way too end heavy, though, it would require creation of a whole new like, side--whatever it'd be called. Like mini game? But different functionality?
I don't know, I feel too, like that opens the door for more graphics based options (which I personally wouldn't have a problem with, but I know most people -seriously- do.)

[Slowness_Incarnate]

Wasn't this poor thread sleeping? Shame on you. I like the idea but then again I don't...I don't want to hear Hendrix linked as someone's music.

[prometheus]

Ooh, god no. Can we just make plagiarism like, against the rules already?

[FiziKx]

It slept way past its alarm so I needed to wake it up

And yeah, there would definitely need to be rules--which I do believe, though, would be followed by nearly everyone who actually plays this game if they were officially instituted.

[Slowness_Incarnate]

This would be hilarious in a way, I can make you all some smooth beats on my pots and pans?