Guild Wars 2

This was probably the best feature in the mmo, Lord of the Rings Online. What this allowed me to do was buy an instrument, download MIDI files, and execute a command that played these files, thereby allowing me to play Linkin Park on a Clarinet in a tavern. This was a really cool feature that made the music in the game actually cool. My best experience was when I heard an entire band of five play the Mos Eisley Cantina theme from Star Wars. I think this would be really cool if it was added to Guild Wars 2, and I would definitely buy an instrument if this happened.

+1 i think the instruments in this game are one of the best things about the game. I love being in pvp lobby and having someone play something for me. Gives me something to do while waiting for queues. This could be a really fun idea especially for rp’ers!

There actually is a workaround for this.

Go to http://www.gw2mb.com and download the macros of the songs you like. Now all you need to do is download a program that can play these macros for you while in-game. One of them is linked on that website as well. Bind these macros to specific keys on your keyboard and you’re good to go!

It’s not perfect, but it gets the job done and allows you to play really cool tunes on the instruments in GW2.

I’ll have to warn you about Locus post. Macro’ing even for the music can get you ban.

I do agree with being able to play MIDI Files, custom made or downloaded.
I mean you can put your own music library into the gw2 music folder.

I’ll keep an eye on this one.

Riku.4821:

I’ll have to warn you about Locus post. Macro’ing even for the music can get you ban.

I do agree with being able to play MIDI Files, custom made or downloaded.
I mean you can put your own music library into the gw2 music folder.

I’ll keep an eye on this one.

Um actually.. I’m sure GG mentioned that macroing for music was allowed.

It was stated a long time ago that macros for musical instruments is allowed.

Riku.4821:

I’ll have to warn you about Locus post. Macro’ing even for the music can get you ban.

I do agree with being able to play MIDI Files, custom made or downloaded.
I mean you can put your own music library into the gw2 music folder.

I’ll keep an eye on this one.

You won’t get banned for using macros for instruments

What about for the people who actually compose music but don’t want to program a macro?

I don’t think an external macro program is a good reason to dismiss this idea. It can be much less convenient to people who are bad with managing external software, especially when it comes to self composed music.

I wholeheartedly agree with this post, this game needs more flexibility in it’s musical component. The current system limits a lot of creativity in terms of tempo and the general flow of the tune your character plays (which can also be effected by latency), in turn making some tracks sound clunky.

While midi’s are accessible, easy to use and overall can make GW2’s musical experience more appealing to the musical community. There isn’t a real barrier in the current or suggested method to prevent players from playing a ear guttering note for hours on end without having to force yourself to mute the sound in options, which is a real bummer and I’m pretty sure a few of us have experienced this first hand. I myself have muted instruments for this very reason, there’s no real reason to turn it back on either. I mean 1 track with a set octave unless you switch? That’s pretty limiting in my opinion, the same applies for midi’s. People can create a file with 5 tracks playing one horrible tune to displease other players for who knows how long the file is. This in turn can be a whole other topic on how to prevent but let’s keep on track shall we?

While I’m all for the midi suggestion can i also suggest an alternative to this? It’s a musical coding called MML (Music Macro Language) If anyone’s interested in it please feel free to wiki it. Yeah it’s an ancient thing but is it outdated by any means?

No and here’s why.

It’s flexible like a Midi, developers can easily set how much tracks, letters and octaves it may or cannot play. This means it can limit songs to play an X amount while being limited to, lets say 4 tracks. While the coding itself may look confusing (Myself being an amateur to this style of coding) there is a foundation for composers, you and me alike can indulge in and learn and create some really stellar pieces.

A great example of a game that has used this is Nexon’s Mabinogi. While the game itself was decent in my opinion, it has this musical component while limits players to only 3 tracks and a set amount of characters to work with to create said music. With this limitation it created a need for people to group up and create great musical experiences, while also making the solo playing just as great. With this limitation some pieces couldn’t be as long as the original, so composers from that game cut and toyed with the music and in turn remixed it and they could sound just as good or if not better than the original.

While it did have some downfalls, in my eyes with a bit of adjusting to fit player freedom while still having a restriction is probably one of the best idea’s for a in-game musical experience.
Archeage also used this but it was really poorly done and should be an example of how to NOT implement the MML system.

So yeah! Personally i would pretty much prefer this system rather then anything else but a midi component would work just as well, as it would fit most of our musical needs.

TLDR: MIdi’s are great but a lacks a rule type system. MML’s provide that and i would very much vouch for that. Although in the end i support both ideas.

Imo the whole instrument system with the buyable instruments of the Gemstore should get overworked, so that the instruments become

1) easier to handle for players
2) more interesting as a play tool in general, by letting them allow you to SAVE and REPLAY what you play on them
3) giving players an option to used via external help Songs, which you can then upload for the moment to play the song with your instrument

In brief, NAets Instrument System needs to get improved to allow its players functions, that we all know from Online Games like Lord of the Rings Online, or Mabinogi and other MMOs, that are very well known for their awesome Music Instrument Features, that allow players to replay very good and fluidly songs from all kinds of games, movies, animes and so on by being able to synchronize themself also with other players to make together concerts

This is the reason, why I was here in the forums one of the very first persons, which suggested at all that ANet should give the game Music Instruments, so that they can show us, that they can make a better Music Instrument System, than those way older games with the help of the technic and design mechanics that are possible of today and not with such old stuff, from like 5 to 10+ years ago with the result to have at the end a Music instrument System, that is so intuitively easy to use for everyone, that also total music beginners, that play not an instrument also in real life would have much fun with that system and would have a way to replay their most liked songs somehow, while letting others naturally also see, that you use a replay function at that moment and don’t play self, so that those musiciands that can play well by themself have still also a way to let others see that they are skilled enough to play songs also solely by their own musical skills.

But at the moment, the instruments are too unhandy and are basically only fun to use for those players, which play also an instrument in real life and know due to this, how to handle them to make stuff, with that which sounds good and not like a total ear horror lol ^^

A good start for an improvement of the instruments woudl be to add an ABC System or MML, so that theres a framework also for the Music Instrument System that you can use also as non musical player to create with it songs, that actually sound also like songs and that you can replay at will whenever you want by lettign the game play the notes for you, without that you need to break your fingers on such an unhandy note system that the instruments have currently.

I personally find it very difficult to play songs with the instruments because of lags.
I play an instrument myself and it is kind of difficult to get the rythm right, when the tone comes out 1-2 second after you “produced” it.
I’m okay with the key system, my only problem is that the sound is so delayed.
I now externely play in the music with the much more responsive tool of the website http://www.gw2mb.com and then play them as macros.

It’s great to see so much positive support for this suggestion! Thanks everyone! : )

all i want from the instruments is that they can play the full chromatic scale, and that they can be controlled with an external device (such as a midi keyboard). Until then, i am holding my gems on instruments.

or you could just listen to those midi files outside the game. there are already way too many people using automated songs in the game. adding this to the game would even more of an insult to people who are actually good at playing

i like it better, when it is pre-made and sounds good then when i get annoyed by random badly played instruments.
it also excludes people with a " not-so-great" internet conection from using instruments to bring actual fun to other players.
also, atleast on the EU server, it is pretty seldom that I see someone play an instrument. It’s not like it is overused, since it is still a gemstore item, you’ve got to pay for with real money.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

There actually is a workaround for this.

Go to http://www.gw2mb.com and download the macros of the songs you like. Now all you need to do is download a program that can play these macros for you while in-game. One of them is linked on that website as well. Bind these macros to specific keys on your keyboard and you’re good to go!

It’s not perfect, but it gets the job done and allows you to play really cool tunes on the instruments in GW2.

Alternatives are great but it’s far better to have a real in-game option to avoid macros altogether.

NEW ITEM SOON IN THE GEMSTORE: MIDI Player

Oreithyia.3064:

also, atleast on the EU server, it is pretty seldom that I see someone play an instrument. It’s not like it is overused, since it is still a gemstore item, you’ve got to pay for with real money.

i don’t know which cities you go to but practically every time i’m in DR, LA or Rata Sum theres some dumb afker polluting the place with those kittenty kitten scripts

add this to the game. it sounds great.

don’t know which cities you go to but practically every time i’m in DR, LA or Rata Sum theres some dumb afker polluting the place with those kittenty kitten scripts.

I’m usually just in the big cites to sell stuff, craft or to meet up with friends, so I don’t spend big amounts of time there. I’m not a too big friend of spending hours in one place doing nothing in video game…but well, when it fun for other…who am I to judge them?

how is it polluting when it sounds nice and is fitting the genre/mood?
Isn’t badly played “real instrument players” poluting the atmosphere of the game as well? or do you want to forbid these people playing the instruments too and just the 2% of the players that actually make it sound nice are allowed to play around with it?
why is it pollution just because it is premade?
Music on CDs and MP3s is also premade and I can still enjoy it.
The emote animations of the game are also programmed and I still like them.

I can understand people, that spend time getting good with it, wanting to be recognized for it. i also sometimes catch myself thinking “people should start picking up a real bow” instead of using digital orchestra libraries to mimic my instrument.
yes it is more challenging to play for real, but in the end, that’s not what matters for the average user and listener.
They want to hear nice music not the sound of people arythmicly smashing their head on the keyboard, just because it’s lagging again. They don’t care how it is made, as long as it sounds nice.
Also just because they use macros doesn’t mean these people don’t spend hours of trying around to make it sound good as well.
You need to have a good ear and/or have basic knowledge of timing, chords and have to be able to read sheet music as well. Especially when you work with classical music in different keys.
of course there are always people that make it easy for themself, but just because of that you shouldn’t call the effort of others wanting to make some thing nice for the community “pollution”. :C
Not to forget that they don’t have any advantage over other players by doing that. the Music has no effect in any way on leveling, fighting or loot. It just to make the time of the people a bit sweeter while wating on something else.

I’d still prefer an in-game tool though. ould make the life much easier.

alcopaul.2156:

NEW ITEM SOON IN THE GEMSTORE: MIDI Player

I would be disappointed if this was implemented instead of the ability for all instruments to play MIDIs. A straight up MIDI player would be the wrong approach when there are so many instruments in this game.
Also, Hurrah for more positive feedback! : )

I bet a program could be written to read a MIDI file and play a macro from it. Files with more than one track might be a problem, but I really have no intention of heading up any effort to create such a thing.

On another note, what could be even better is if this was a server program that multiple people could connect to and choose different parts of the same MIDI composition, so you could have a whole ensemble in the town! Synchronizing might be hard but w/e it’s all hypothetical anyway.

Andred.1087:

I bet a program could be written to read a MIDI file and play a macro from it. Files with more than one track might be a problem, but I really have no intention of heading up any effort to create such a thing.

On another note, what could be even better is if this was a server program that multiple people could connect to and choose different parts of the same MIDI composition, so you could have a whole ensemble in the town! Synchronizing might be hard but w/e it’s all hypothetical anyway.

Actually, the play file command could be synchronized with “/command *” As for getting multiple parts for the same piece, it’s totally doable.

The midi protocol is pretty complex. They would have to implement the entire code into guild wars…

In terms of the Macro if it is allowed, my apologies, I just wanted to give a fair warning as I’ve heard or guilds of “musicians” getting ban because of macros.
Does anyone have a post confirming this?
Because theoretically any marco is not legal as it is only by mouth that its used “for instruments” and I’d be to paranoid to bother using one.