Orchestrion Fail or Bugged??

[Serilda]

In my FC we're planning on working together to rerun old content in groups and unlock the songs, so even though the drops don't go to everyone each time I think it's still doable. Perhaps they could have set it up so the FC's song list would be based on all of the members combined, so if someone has (say) Answers unlocked and they're a member, any other member can pick Answers from the Orchestrion? But I don't think this is a terrible alternative, otherwise large FCs would have every single song unlocked on day one and there'd be very little impetus to keep hunting for the missing tracks thereafter.

[Noxifer]

If anyone expected this to not involve collecting when the first heard of it they were just setting themselves up for disappointment.

Its an MMO of course theres gonna be collecting/grinding for it.

That is true, but they COULD have gone the way they did with the airships, and have it (and orchestrion scrolls) being craftable through the workshop. And once you crafted something and installed it in the jukebox, it'd be unlocked for everyone allowed to use that orchestrion. (So you could use it in your inn orchestrion, or personal housing/private room, instead of the FC one.)
But yes, it'd also mean loads of extra data to keep track of.

But hey, apparently the "server limitations" that impede us having more inventory or armoury chest space don't apply to storing more data unnecessarily for features like these.

I agree =/

[Andrea]

That is true, but they COULD have gone the way they did with the airships, and have it (and orchestrion scrolls) being craftable through the workshop. And once you crafted something and installed it in the jukebox, it'd be unlocked for everyone allowed to use that orchestrion. (So you could use it in your inn orchestrion, or personal housing/private room, instead of the FC one.)
But yes, it'd also mean loads of extra data to keep track of.

I mean I understand why they did it the way they did. Would be cool if say after you collect a song so many times (10?) then it just unlocked it on the orchestrion for everyone.

[Scott]

I think the collecting is ok. But it should be like Triple Triad Cards and you can use it right away. The whole "Find Material and let it get crafted" is a bit tediouse when you don't want to bother your LS Mates to always craft you your Sheets.

[SokiYagami]

Personally, I think it would be fine with 2 changes:

1. Give us the option to change between virtual surround (as it is now) and ambient music (like all other bgm) mode.
2. Let us store say, 5~20 tracks on a local Orchestrion as "Last Played" or "Favorites" so the rest of the FC can change the music as and when they prefer. It will also encourage more FC bonding as well.

This is kind of off-topic a little, but can we do Crystal Towers series with just a full party now? From the hints in the Orchestrion Log, it seems like we need 3 faded music sheet from each of the towers, I sure as hell hope it's a 100% drop into personal inventory with worst-than-Edda-frightening queue times for the towers. And before other people mentioned anything, nope, the music sheet alone wouldn't be enough motivation to get enough players back to do those contents. (I really wish I'm wrong though)

Also, good job on patch 3.2 guys! The development team deserve a thumbs up! ^^b

[dark494]

This feature's a failure for the community and is a big middle finger to FC's. How did SE not expect FC's to try out the feature, think they put a song in the "jukebox", realize only 1 person in the FC can even use said song in the "jukebox", and then quickly abandon it completely because of this poor implementation? Why is a furnishing, something that is built and supplied for the FC to the FC house, not a shared feature for the FC? I was excited for all of 10 minutes when I thought how cool it would be to setup an orchestrion and buy some songs to throw in it and quickly tell the FC "Hey guys, go check out the orchestrion in the FC house, I put some songs in it" and then the disappointment and loathing set in as soon as the first person showed up and demonstrated how useless it is to anyone but me. What a sham. What could've been an FC activity is now a solo endeavor whose value lies in reselling on the market rather than personal use.

And I don't buy any "server limitations" excuse. It's far more efficient if they had implemented the songs as a feature of the jukebox, an object that can only exist in finite quantities in limited areas (1 per house), and not the player data that can grow unbounded. What a huge oversight on their devs.

[SokiYagami]

Probably the technical difficulty to ensure every jukebox placed has an individual mini database to keep track what was "unlock" on it. Then there's the drama if someone accidentally remove the jukebox (if the Log doesn't tie to individual player). But I do agree there's plenty of room for improvement in the system and a combination of individual player's Orchestrion Log and local storage on the Orchestrion should be the answer to our problems as well as T13.

[WellFooled]

Which could have been avoided completely if the entire music collection was available from the beginning, which I'm pretty sure is what was requested to begin with. No data to be stored then. There was absolutely no need to make it a collect-a-thon.

I can understand wanting the convenience of having every song unlocked right away, but collecting items is a huge part of an MMO. Imagine if all Triple Triad cards were unlocked immediately or all minions or mounts or all gear designs. There would be no rewards for playing the game. This would make the game much less interesting and also would eat into its subscription numbers massively. Collecting music is no different from these features. Working toward a goal (in this case, getting a certain music or even getting them all) is what makes an MMO.

[SokiYagami]

I'm cool with collecting for the music sheet as well, it's pretty fun. But some really dead content like Crystal Tower series which requires 24 man to run is pretty harsh... I haven't work on those three yet but I seriously hope it's a 100% drop directly into player's inventory.

[Prynnie]

Can't I just think of the Orchestion as a giant (albeit poor) speaker and my song collection my person mp3 player that I hitch up to said speaker so I can make it go? Because that is what I'm going with. And I don't care how much I like you I'm not handing over my player! ^^

For FC's who seem downhearted that not everyone can use it though I am terribly sorry. I know it would be super duper cool.. but I also know that there is no difference between FC and Player Housing when it comes to furniture. So Perhaps there just needs to be two different music players. One that works as it does now for personal housing and a FC based one where you could store the music scrolls within to play for everyone?

I am however enjoying gathering up all the music and watching my collection grow, so I don't really think of it is a failure. I am also sure there are many like me who ARE enjoying it. It might just not be what people would have assumed/hoped it would be.