Bardsong

[crazedgoblin]

When i use bardsong i say like a small phrase like from the song "By Sword By Song By Note By Tune!" as the bardsong is not just like a spell you cast with a few words and BAM the spell is on you for however long. Bardsong is different it is constant for however long it lasted, to sing for the entire duration would be abit annoying to the rest of the party. i was just wondering what others felt about this as i think it would seperate bardsong from looking like other spells.

[Acacea]

I'm not sure what the suggestion is. You say a small phrase, were you suggesting that it be made to do that for everyone? Suggesting people have their own (and song doesn't necessarily mean lyrics)?

[Talan Va'lash]

Acacea - 4/15/2006  5:36 PM

I'm not sure what the suggestion is. You say a small phrase, were you suggesting that it be made to do that for everyone? Suggesting people have their own (and song doesn't necessarily mean lyrics)?

Acctually the definition of "song" is that it has lyrics.

Bardsong is a bit of a misnomer and the class feature is properly referred to as "Bardic Music."

Even Bardic Music doesn't properly cover all possible uses of the class feature as (at least in my interpretation) stirring oratory could be substituted for any musical content.

Edit: I am also not sure what the suggestion is.  

Another note - A bard is not neccissarily performing for the duration of the "bardsong" effects, though it isn't instantaneous either.  iirc the acctual "performance period" is 10 rounds long.  A bard with a longer duration "bardsong" has taken feat(s) that allow the inspiring effects to endure x rounds after the bard has finished performing.

[Acacea]

I should have clarified that I meant the bard's performance does not necessarily include lyrics.

Other than that...! Hehe.

[crazedgoblin]

i suppose they could play a tune i guess but if they are playing songs would be good to have words

[Acacea]

Heh, er, so the "suggestion" was just for ...people to ...indicate that they are singing? Or...something? What that is, is more personal preference and not something to be implemented, though.

[Faldred]

Acacea - 4/16/2006  12:59 PM

Heh, er, so the "suggestion" was just for ...people to ...indicate that they are singing? Or...something? What that is, is more personal preference and not something to be implemented, though.

I dunno, it could be kind of fun (although let me stop right here and say I have no idea how complex the scripting would be or the performance impacts) to have a "library" of songs in the game database, and each time the bard uses bardsong, select one song from the DB and (automatically) have the character "sing" one line of the song each round of the bardsong's duration.  This would require that every song in the library be exactly ten lines long, of course.  The songs in the library could be a mix of fanciful, simple little ditties, and songs of lore based on the history and peoples of Layonara.

Going into the realm of really complex, I'm sure, would be a mechanism of some sort for the Bard in question to be able to "learn" these songs from exploring the world -- only those songs learned (plus a small set known on character creation) would be used when randomly choosing one to "sing".  There would be no game mechanics difference between the different songs, but it would extend the "flavor" of the Bard class.

[Dorganath]

This would be an interesting and flavorful addition to the Bardsong ability, however it's also something that can be done individually by each bard with a small bit of preparation. One can quickslot a short text string to denote the start of a song, and just hit that right before hitting the Bardsong ability.
  At this point, however, we're likely not going to be implementing any significant new systems for the time being. We have several things in the pipeline as it is at the moment.
  In my personal opinion, the song each bard would sing would be different and probably unique to that particular bard, and so a database of standard songs would just be largely impersonal and make bards seem like somewhat generic "cover bands"....which really isn't the case.
  I can conceive of a system which would allow a bard to bank his/her own songs (within reason, of course), but again, I point to my comment about new systems.
  This is something we might consider in the future, however.

[SuperMunch]

I worked around this obvious lack of flair with a client-side keyboard macro.

Whenever Freldo charges one of some 40 different shouts (some mine, some shakspeareian and some from other sources) are given while he sings the song.  It's sincronized when he's not in battle already - that is, the shout's given and the song starts almost at the same time - but when he's engaged, the song starts up to 6 seconds after the shout's given.

I have quite a few macros set up actually, one for the curse song (mostly French Knight insults), one for Freldo's psychotic episodes (spits on the enemies or calls for them to kill him), one for his smiling (so that I don't have to keep typing "*smiles*" all the time) and a few more that I can't remember right now.

It works pretty well in most cases - while he's in battle is the only place it comes out really out of sync - but doesn't tax the servers with unecessary lag.

[Acacea]

Dorganath - 4/17/2006  6:24 AM   In my personal opinion, the song each bard would sing would be different and probably unique to that particular bard, and so a database of standard songs would just be largely impersonal and make bards seem like somewhat generic "cover bands"....which really isn't the case.  

  That is exactly why I wouldn't want something like this implemented, unless it was in some manner customized as mentioned. However, even then I don't really see the necessity, since anyone can do it on their own. Complicated systems for things easily managed by individuals seem a little weird from my end.

[Ozy_Llewellyn]

The only thing of note for my two cents would be the request for the addition of an already established function. Bards being able to mimic the ability of the jukebox something we can't do no mater how much effort we put into it.

[crazedgoblin]

i wasent thinking scripting just maybe have it put forward on a wider note for the first few lines of the song to be said and as for know when their singing you could use the notes floating off their head as an idea for how long they are playing the tune for.

[darkstorme]

It might not be hard to have bardic songsheets that you can scribe using the quill and thereafter draw from when using bardsong.  I'll look into the scripting involved after exams.