Music Adjustments I would Make

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I want to preface this with 2 things. 1. Overall I LOVE the music system. 2. I am an “expert” musician, having expert starred every song on every role that I have music pages for*, so I at least have decent experience with the system.

Now for my adjustments. These are in order from what I consider MOST important to less important.

  1. Music Sheet Drop Rates:

We are now 4-5 days into the update, and multiple songs CANNOT be played because the music sheets essentially do not exist. I have not found them, they are not on the TP for ANY price. This means that either nobody has found them or nobody has found a copy they are willing to sell for ANY price, and I am on a high pop server, it’s not like people aren’t doing EVERYTHING there is to do. I mean wtf? There is really very little reason to make these that rare. They serve no practical purpose because any song and any role is as good as any other when it comes to buffs (more on that later). I’m actually toying with the idea that AGS screwed up and that some song sheets are not actually in the game.

  1. Expert skill means nothing:

I think it is supremely odd that I can play a novice song, get amazing easily, and then get the maximum buff as the same song played on expert. This system is not EASY to do on expert consistently and get amazing without practice with the songs, and I LIKE that. However, if I am playing for people, I want my skills and practice to mean something. No, more XP is not enough, I can play in the woods like a solo hermit and enjoy the extra XP. What is the incentive to play in public on expert when you can give people just as good a buff as playing on novice? Sure, I hope people will tip for my skills, but I dont EXPECT them to. I know most people will tip for the buff. Doing something on the hardest difficulty and at the maximum level of ability should REWARD something tangible that people will tip for that doing crap work on novice does not. Its a problem.

And before anyone says it, I know people who can do expert all the time are much more likely to get to 150 first and offer a better buff, but that novelty is going to wear away over time, and eventually grind will catch no up matter what you play. Something in the system should provide incentive to reach for maximum difficulty, expert/hardest song/hardest role should MEAN something. This is the only trade skill that actually takes a level of practice and skill to do well…but there is very little incentive for doing that other than to show off, which isn’t enough.

  1. Poor Flute:

The flute is like the forgotten stepchild of the instruments. It can’t be played above skilled, and it can’t be a part of ANY group songs. What went wrong with flute? Please add to it.

  1. XP needed to advance:

So this is kind of a back and forth for me. I enjoy the fact that perhaps not everyone will be able to simply buff themselves with music by grinding to 150 music in the first week (I want tips and to be “special” :). At the same time, as someone trying for just that goal it is quite daunting. I don’t want it to be “easy” to level music, but maybe the balance has swung too far. I mean, it will take hundreds and hundreds of hours of playing, I think, to get to 150 music, maybe more, and that is just a tad bit excessive. I am motivated right now by new songs and the need to personally master every song, every role (meaning I can play it consistently on expert with NO mistakes at all, more than what it takes to get amazing score), but what happens when I’ve done that and I am STILL not 150? I fear the possible future boredom.

I hope the devs are listening, and while I consistently praise the music system for what it is and how it works, these background things really need consideration. Take from someone who intends to be the first person on the server to max music.

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Which are the songs that you couldn’t find?
Also - which are the best songs to level up?

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4-5 Days and complaining starts „I don’t have all Songs“…

Don’t make it easier to find them - maybe introduce new songs with a really special Buff which are really really hard to find.
The Buff can only activated once a day - and you have just one try to master the song…

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A lot of songs or parts of songs. The list is too long for the top of my had but

half of the positions on The Sneaky Smuggler, half of all the flute songs, all but 3 of the solo guitar songs, King Stanley, and at least a few others. I don’t have these because a complete position on either guitar or mandolin does not exist on the TP.

As far as the fastest levelling, I argue that depends on your sanity. All the songs give roughly the same XP, length is not a factor, so a shorter song would therefore be faster to level. However, since you must play thousands of songs I am going to assume you don’t want to play Windsward inn or that really short flute song 7000 times in a row.

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Okay, so on one hand your response shows that you obviously miss the point. Your idea is…okay, one big super buff (or even better, different songs giving different buffs, is a neat idea). One try to master the song is a terrible idea.

However, all of that misses my point. The reality is that there IS NO difference between any of the songs on a functional level. Therefore, there is no logical reason for the pages to have different drop rates, and there certainly is no reason for some of them to be so rare that nobody has found a single extra page of them over an entire weekend of play on a full server. I’ve seen a guy posting WTB for the same list of songs all weekend, every day.

The point is it’s silly and doesn’t make sense. Other rare items make sense because they are better somehow, superior in quality or ability to more common items. Not the case with songs. The rarity is pointless, and it is also completely, ridiculously over-tuned.

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I don’t mind if some are rare, some shouldn’t be as common as some of the other songs that are basic. But some songs you have to go out and farm because they drop from very obscure places people don’t go to. Storm’s End Guitar Page 3/3(or whatever the name is) is very rare. not because of drop rate, but because who is going to Scorpius in Morningdale to kill mobs? I went there and got it after searching a few elite chests.

Don’t just stare at trading post, the music sheets do exists. Just google them and you will see what mobs/chests drop them. I spammed trade for 2 days thinking I could get some of these sheets, but nobody leveling would ever go to some of these places so its fairly pointless.

I do have to agree with the exp though. Even with double exp its way too slow. Bots will have 150 soon without having to have played several thousands songs by hand. I imagine anyone over 100 probably has some eye strain by now lol.

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Thank you for getting me to look harder in the database sites for farming locations. It helped. I did that today (worked with you on rabbit Island :slight_smile: and I got one new sheet after 3 hours of farming 4 different places.

I still think the drop rate is too low and it doesn’t need to be because there’s no point in making something like music sheets that rare. You “could” think of it like a rare cosmetic, but it’s really not. It just makes leveling music, which is already long, that much more boring because you are stuck with the same songs unless you want to mindless kill the rabbit ghost or level 15 ancients all day. Scorpius was fun to solo, but that was the limit.

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I would also add a small change to the notes. Some keys spawn in sync with the notes in the song, but others are purely random which causes a bit of confusion and it messes out with the rhythm

I would recommend to synchronize all all spawning keys with the notes, this way it would be easier and more satisfying to complete the song

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As a veteran player who reinstalled to check out medleyfaire, I’m thrilled with this new content. It’s a fun game mode, provides unique opportunities for non-combat co-op play, feels important thanks to the buffs, and generates positivity with the tip system. Kudos to the musicians who were involved in this design. I’m really enjoying seeing how the parts fit together, finding somebody to play guitar or mandolin along with this new bass piece I found.

I completely agree with OP about expert skill. I am, by their definition, also an “expert” musician. Linking difficulty with power/quality of buff I think is a MUST. Unlike all other trade skills, music is a performance art. It’s not enough for the expert rewards to be personal and inward. There has to be an outward expression of that achievement, however small.

I hope the devs are listening too. But I do feel that part of this game’s issues have been them listening too intently to the people who want to be the first person on the server to do/complete xyz. OP may be different, but inherently that seems to refer to players who will blast through content and leave to play other games regardless of what smaller changes are made along the way.

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That s hit me so hard that Beginner and Expert give the same buffs :frowning:

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With the double exp turned off I can’t imagine anyone just going into the skill will make it past 50. Its such little exp. Its not hard, just tedious. Wouldn’t mind if Expert was a great many times more difficult if it gave several times exp. Will probably get an exp nerf like how Fishing did, but I’d rather it be more difficult and not just get an exp required/level nerf.

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I like your post but I do have my own thoughts.

  1. Music Sheet Drop Rates:

I think in MMOs we need to be constantly reminded, it’s not a race. It is not in the devs interest to hand out all the content in the first week of a patch. I’d like to think the natural way of collecting all sheet music would take months of drops and chest runs.

  1. Expert skill means nothing:

I actually like that using music for buffs to be more mainstream, we always play a tune before a chest run or expedition depending on the group buffs. That way, Novice, Skilled and Expert become more of a personal focus and reward, the better XP to level it quicker is good.

Last thing I’d want is for people to have to redo a song over and over as someone in the group can’t get an expert tune perfect. Novice is sufficient for this.

  1. Poor Flute:

Completely agree, I also find it the most difficult to play, drums, guitar…all have beats to tap too, flute is just some noise stream that doesn’t make sense to get the timing right. It certainly feels like the black sheep in the group.

  1. XP needed to advance:

See 1. Music Sheet Drop Rates - it’s not a race :slight_smile: Although I’d rather they release a new feature making it longer than normal to accumulate, and then they buff it over time…than to release it so it’s super quick and they need to rope it back via nerfs which is frustrating.

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That’s a cool idea.

You have one chance per day to play it.

The buffs ability scales on how well it’s performed

Players would seek good musicians that can play it well to get the buff and tip handsomely

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I get your point, it’s not a race, but I want to share my experience now that I have some farming of my own.

Heartgem’s Burden: according to the database and anecdotes it drops from Armine Temple mobs and chests. I have now spent upwards of 4 hours in Amrine Temple over the course of several days. I have killed hundreds of ancients, I have looted every chest 5 or 6 times. I have gotten many music pages to drop, but I have gotten not one Heartgem’s Burden. This would put the drop rate somewhere in the .2 percent area. It’s gotten so frustrating that I am currently asking in trade chat how much gold it would take for someone else to go get it, I assuming something in the 70k to 100k area, which I would happily pay to avoid going insane.

Young King Stanley:

The rare pages for this song drop from the Harekeeper on Rabbit Island. I have been in a group of 4 or 5 players, 3 times, farming the boss upwards of 20 or 30 times before we all gave up. (It’s not a fast spawn, so this was quite a length of time) NOBODY got a drop of the rare page in all of that time.

So I’m sorry, but it’s too rare, it’s ridiculous, and it needs to be changed.

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