Guild Wars 2

I recently watched a recording of the streamed ‘frame drum tutorial’ ArenaNet did, on YouTube. I got super excited and then my excitement doubled when I thought I heard the adio people say that they may be working on more instruments.

From elementary school to Highschool I played the violin (I’m very rusty now though) and would love to see a ‘bow and stringed’ instrument pop up in the game some time. (Violin, Fiddle, Viola, etc)

The problem though is that ‘string and bow’ instraments can have a very wide range of sounds and changes used in their performance and that might prove to be a nightmare, not only to program into a game but also for the players to play. So I will definitely understand if a ‘string and bow’ instrument never shows up in the gem store.

But
Since my excitable mind was on the subject, it came up with a few rudimentary ideas of how it might work.
(I’m no programmer, so I probably don’t know what I’m talking about lol)
The basic notes and octaves can be played or used via the normal skill keys 1-0 like the flute.
But the performance changes like vibrato, staccato, “smooth bow”, plucking and rest can be accesed through the F1 – F4 keys.
?
The F1-F4 keys can be hit to activate the select style which is applied to all of the notes played then after. And then hit again to turn the select style off.
F1 : Vibrato (gives a nice warble sound to the notes)
F2 : Smooth/Staccato (“smooth bow” will be the beginning default and when F2 is hit it will switch to the staccato style untill F2 is hit again) (“smooth bow” (I forgot the technical term) would be where the notes kinda fade into eachother to give a calm flowing sound while staccato is very sharp & quick bow strokes.)
F3 : Plucking (where the strings are plucked like a lute/guitar instread of stroked by the bow)
F4 : Rest (to silence the instrument until the note keys are hit again).

…so ya, that was my excitable (might not work) idea that I wanted to share with you awesome people.

Thank you for your time. I really appreciate this opportunity you have given us to share ideas here.

Have a great day!
~Vellenay

Ah Interesting! I collect the musical instruments, they are my personal version of legendary weapons lol.

Anywho, If they do add more, I hope they add a few more options.

Firstly, I hope they add chromatic instruments and a way to bind more than one octave. Oh what would i give to be able to bind my midi key board

Secondly, I hope they add an option to either play client side or server side. What I mean by that is that sometimes you want to play server to play with other people, and sometimes you want to play more accurately and the lag can really mess you up.

It would be great for a mode that plays instantly client side, but sends it to the server just the way you played it.

Either that or somehow reduce the lag of the existing instruments.

That’s cool Cobrakon!

Hahaha I had to look up what “chromatic instruments” were.
… speaking of keyboards – I’m sure that pianos are not options because they’re too big & don’t “fit in with the gw2 world” like the other travel-sized instruments they discused briefly in the frame-drum tutorial … but maybe the Asura could have a few cultural instraments – use their high-tech ways to place hover devices on the underside of a keyboard-like instrument, etc. lol

…
My excitable brain just tossed up some small yet funny ideas:
1 – smaller/simpler instruments like tiny chimes/symbols, cow bell, triangle, maracas, etc.
(Imagine a large Norn/Charr tinkling their tiny instrument pinched in their massive fingers)

2 – Monty Python Coconuts!
(imagine players running around clip-clopping coconut halves together while in a lopsidded galloping animation.) LOL