Mandachord 2.0, please.

[Callback]

I love Octavia, both as a frame and in concept.  But I absolutely despise how restrictive the current mandachord system is, to the point of being nearly unusable.

The "idea" behind the restricted pentatonic scale was to force everything to harmonize.  Technically true but people can still make complete ear bleed with max volume 16th note spam.  It created a severe issue of limitation without solving the community issue.

To solve the community issue, on the escape menu, next to the mic "mute" option, include a mandachord mute per-player in case of annoyances.  Add a right click to blacklist feature to relays in case people try to troll in there.

 

Now that the worry of abuse is gone, you can free up the entire scale for Octavia to use.  For simplicity (and to prevent overload to inexperienced users, another of your initial goals), start the mandachord as it looks now, but include an "expand" button on the melody and bass sections to open them up to take the entire UI, and give you the full scale and ideally a couple octaves to work with (you could even make it so we can click multiple times in a single "slot" to change the "color" of the note, denoting a different octave).

 

Second, I'd like to see the 4 measure limit changed.  Let us pick if we want 4, 8, or 16.  Most good short loops take 8 or 16 measures to get themselves across.  There's a bit that can be done with 4 but not that much.

 

Third, I'd love more save slots.  Now I know server space is limited, but local storage is an option that can help with that.  Let us save multiple songs on our own machines, and update the server only when we switch them out, or when we link one in chat so you have the correct one loaded (invalidate old chat links if a new one is posted)

 

Those are the major requests I have that would really make the system fun to use.

 

 

As a bonus minor request, can we get a sequencer option?  Taking multiple loops and playing them in order.  It lets us make longer compositions, especially ones with several repeated bars.  Limit the number of unique loops in a composition to ~32-64 bars total so you can load them all into server space as needed.

 

Small limitations promote creativity to do as much as you can within them.  Large limitations discourage it.

 

The fixed tempo and 16th note "tick" can stay, since it's needed to sync the gameplay functions.

 

 

I think a more open mandachord system would allow a great outlet for community creativity, and make Octavia a lot more fun to play around.  As it currently stands, people use the silent 16th note spam simply because the actual music alternatives are so dull.  When your music system is overshadowed by Mario Paint for the SNES, you know you have a problem.

 

Oh, and of course once we have this great outlet for creative composition, we could use some more sound font packs to go with it.

Edited November 7, 2017 by Callback

[meristu]

it would be fun to compose bigger songs but you are missing 2 points

1 you are supposed to do actions to the music and I doubt someone is going to be able to properly shoot or jump to wagners ride of the valkyries so its going to end as another earrape just to boost you as often as possible

2 half of this community are either 10 years old (dont take it as insult) or dont have genes for music .. or both ... so it would just end with bunch of people making songs for other while 90% of octavias would be either muted or some slaaneshi dirge

[Ninjamander]

if only we could upload midi file and use those for octavia...with her own SoundFont of course!

 

One can dream....

[Callback]

18 minutes ago, meristu said:

it would be fun to compose bigger songs but you are missing 2 points

1 you are supposed to do actions to the music and I doubt someone is going to be able to properly shoot or jump to wagners ride of the valkyries so its going to end as another earrape just to boost you as often as possible

2 half of this community are either 10 years old (dont take it as insult) or dont have genes for music .. or both ... so it would just end with bunch of people making songs for other while 90% of octavias would be either muted or some slaaneshi dirge

The visuals on metronome plus the fixed tempo should be enough to work with the actions, but see below for another suggestion.

 

As for #2, yes I expect a fair amount of copypasta.  It's a necessary sacrifice for art.  Besides, you can already make "Fighting Dreamers" (Go!) in the current system, but I never hear it around (maybe there's just a lack of Mabinogi copypasta memers on WF).

Edited November 6, 2017 by Callback

[(PSN)N7_Dredgen]

14 minutes ago, meristu said:

1 you are supposed to do actions to the music and I doubt someone is going to be able to properly shoot or jump

I actually think they should do away with this aspect of it to be honest, it feels limiting to your musical creativity and ingenuity.   Too uniform, too demanding - and as you said in your own post, not everybody is musically inclined, so even though I am - it's hard for my squadmates who aren't to make use of the buffs.  For a frame that is largely a team player, I think she needs to be more team friendly.  

Of course they'd have to change the buffs to compensate, but I think the whole "you need to time it to the music" thing doesn't play well for synergy.   

[Callback]

1 minute ago, (PS4)lagrue said:

I actually think they should do away with this aspect of it to be honest, it feels limiting to your musical creativity and ingenuity.   Too uniform, too demanding - and as you said in your own post, not everybody is musically inclined, so even though I am - it's hard for my squadmates who aren't to make use of the buffs.  For a frame that is largely a team player, I think she needs to be more team friendly.  

Of course they'd have to change the buffs to compensate, but I think the whole "you need to time it to the music" thing doesn't play well for synergy.   

Or if Octavia activating the effect herself spread it to everyone in range.  She can dance to her own beat to encourage the group.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Callback

[[DE]George]

A lot of good ideas in the initial post.  We will be taking a look at some of these soon.  As for muting other players, you can do that in the Audio Options menu under "Ally Mandachord Volume".  This is a global to raise or lower the volume of other Octavias in the game.

[Callback]

On 11/7/2017 at 10:14 AM, [DE]George said:

A lot of good ideas in the initial post.  We will be taking a look at some of these soon.  As for muting other players, you can do that in the Audio Options menu under "Ally Mandachord Volume".  This is a global to raise or lower the volume of other Octavias in the game.

Yes, thank you.  I would still like to suggest individual muting as a further improvement so players could have an easier means to avoid the few bad apples out there without needing to opt out of the system entirely, or go through a lengthy menu process to toggle when one appears.  Plus selective muting would make it easier to listen in the rare case you get multiple Octavias on a mission together.

 

Oh, if we are improving the music, can we get a rework for her 2 or a way to play the bassline without using it (such as 4 plays all 3 parts)?  If we improve the mandachord to make good music, it would be nice to hear it all in mission instead of only the melody and drumline.  Having a 2 that actively interferes with the rest of her kit is easy to ignore for now, but if it meant cutting out part of a good song it would get rather annoying.

Edited November 27, 2017 by Callback

[Kainosh]

В 06.11.2017 в 23:19, Callback сказал:

Second, I'd like to see the 4 measure limit changed.  Let us pick if we want 4, 8, or 16.  Most good short loops take 8 or 16 measures to get themselves across.  There's a bit that can be done with 4 but not that much.

 This can be implemented as "slot merging".  Merge 2 slots to create a bigger one  ( Irrelevant if songs can be stored on our machines)

So 8 step song uses 2 slots and 16 uses 3....and so on.  I would merge all of them.

Im not into having lots of small and limited songs. I would prefer to have ONE long song. 

В 06.11.2017 в 23:19, Callback сказал:

Now that the worry of abuse is gone, you can free up the entire scale for Octavia to use.  For simplicity (and to prevent overload to inexperienced users, another of your initial goals), start the mandachord as it looks now, but include an "expand" button on the melody and bass sections to open them up to take the entire UI, and give you the full scale and ideally a couple octaves to work with

Yeah that would work as a solution. Its better that "3 pitch levels per note" that i suggested.  And much easier to understand actually.

Also, SHIFT + M1 to create loud note, CTRL + M1 to create quiet one.

 

В 06.11.2017 в 23:19, Callback сказал:

The fixed tempo and 16th note "tick" can stay, since it's needed to sync the gameplay functions.

Tempo can be changed without affecting gameplay if doubled.

Playing 8 step song with 2x tempo will be as fast as playing 4step song, but due to tighter grid, it will be MUCH more detailed.   That might add flexibility and will allow to create sick beats.   And DnB.

 

 

[Kainosh]

One more thing i would like to have:

Ability to put any instrument on any line.  Like...2 bass and 1 drum. Or all 3 melody. Or all 3 drums.

 

I would use drums on Metronome line. Because its easier to trigger buffs.