Perform: what are your initial thoughts?

[Malzian]

*chuckles* Now you know how I feel as an IRL alto-flute player.

LoL. I can see that. I play the guitar, so it's just all the more annoying for me. XD

I like the idea -- however I really wish the developers would've spent more time on the things the community actually wants -- like Egi/fairy/lunchbox glamours, a glamour log (coming soon?) a Coerthan housing area, a male bunny suit and so on.

Yes I realize that those require varying amounts of time - but they're things that we've been asking for for YEARS.

I know the team went to all this trouble to make individual notes playable... but it's just more of a neat little thing that will die off in a week than something that's actually cool to do. I say this being a player of three instruments IRL.

Actually the community has asked for it for a while, though not quite as fervently as other things. Personally I did want it but that was because of how LotRO handled music (Look up 'Weatherstock' on YouTube and enjoy).

In that game you used an emote, /play, to go into performance mode and then you could use the skill keys to play notes with the modifier keys to change notes. But they also incorporated the ABC file system to automate the process of playing songs where you could do '/play <songname>' and it would use the file '<songname>.abc' to play the song. The benefit of that being that there are also tools to take midi files and convert them to ABC files directly.

It meant you could record a song in midi, convert it and play it back in the game easily. But then Turbine is a US company, so there were the inevitable covers of copyrighted songs which SE can't afford to have happen as a JP company.

[GetFoesReqd]

As a bard main, I like the idea and the flavor behind it, but in its current state it has almost no draw for me. They really just need to swap it up into its own UI where you orchestrate the thing youre trying to play as if its a sequencer or something, then when you've done that, a button back in the regular UI can be pressed to fire off the string you sequenced, allowing you to utilize things like proper times and timing in general, chords (since this is on a harp after all) and so on, and most importantly, avoiding all lag and latency at least for you, and only before the initial note for everyone else. Then, until you change it, that button will play the thing you made from start to finish as long as you don't interrupt it. I realize that makes it basically a one soundfont MIDI sequencer with direct input and playback, but right now, that is a mile high leap above what we've got, and people would get a lot more enjoyment out of it too. I realize that is unlikely to the edge of impossible, but right now its like trying to play Flight of the Bumblebees on a tuba in a blizzard. :/

[Zfz]

Umm, MistyMew, you are playing an internet game. There WILL be latency.

The request is to single out local playback for a more comfortable experience. Specifically, instead of waiting for server acknowledgement (the obvious reason for the delay) the client side should immediately play the sound effect (the music note) as soon as the button is clicked/pressed, and only then send out the network communications and check with the server.

Now there may be cost reasons that prevent the devs from giving the Perform system special treatment, as it is very obvious that they are trying to reuse existing actions framework to implement music performances. But that's up to the devs. Technically, it is possible.

Whether they want to do it, is another matter, and I'm not optimistic that they will do anything, as it is a rather involved change. I have a feeling that they are just going to keep the delay because they don't feel it in Tokyo. But regardless, it is important for players who are really annoyed by this delay to express that it is a big put-off.

[Keridwyn]

Honestly? I think that 'Perform' should be a single button that activates 'Perform Mode' where all the buttons are arranged on their own hotbars. Like when you enter a PvP zone or hop in a vehicle for a quest and unique hotbars come up. This business about making macros to swap my archer hotbars with my bards is honestly for the birds, especially if they're going to be expanding on this system.

Second, I'd enjoy a way to save at least a couple of songs under their own buttons. Just one or two at most. I understand the lack of macros but if you're trying to pick out something yourself and don't really have a tune in mind, if you don't write it down once you find something you like...oopse.

[Granyala]

The request is to single out local playback for a more comfortable experience. Specifically, instead of waiting for server acknowledgement (the obvious reason for the delay) the client side should immediately play the sound effect (the music note) as soon as the button is clicked/pressed, and only then send out the network communications and check with the server.

While that might work for your local playback, I'm not sure what would happen to other players listening. Esp if you input faster than the server recognizes actions, it might end up being a nice piece for you and a jumble of notes for others.

Ultimately, I doubt that it would be worth the DEV time, considering this is a tiny gimmick for one of the many classes only.

[Selova]

So i have quick question about this, sorry if it was already asked. As long as we don't stream/record it in any way, are we allowed to play songs from other FF games?

[Granyala]

So i have quick question about this, sorry if it was already asked. As long as we don't stream/record it in any way, are we allowed to play songs from other FF games?

You can play whatever you want unless you monetize it.
Dear Lord why are people so ridiculously paranoid about copyright issues?

If your kid grabs a flute in Kindergarten and plays a melody by ear, do people expect it to be sued too?

As long as you are not a popular streamer, making money by performing, you have NOTHING to worry about. That screen you agreed to is nothing but meaningless "just in case" legal-blah that will never need to be acted upon.

[Zfz]

While that might work for your local playback, I'm not sure what would happen to other players listening. Esp if you input faster than the server recognizes actions, it might end up being a nice piece for you and a jumble of notes for others.

Ultimately, I doubt that it would be worth the DEV time, considering this is a tiny gimmick for one of the many classes only.

That's not really a problem. I mean we are providing feedback, it is not our job to think of every possible obstacle and lay everything on a plate nicely with proofs and industry best practices and so on. That's not our job. In providing feedback, we give the goals, then devs determine how to get it done, whether it's worth the cost, and eventually what exactly is going to be done.

Forgive me for being frank, but I really don't see any point in players debating the technicalities of something and whether it's worth the dev resources. We tell them what we want, and then it's the business of the devs.

And what we want: get rid of that annoying delay on our local client side.

[Granyala]

Forgive me for being frank, but I really don't see any point in players debating the technicalities of something

Engineer, can't help myself. Always end up thinking about the technical side.

[TaranTatsuuchi]

...
Dear Lord why are people so ridiculously paranoid about copyright issues?
...

I do believe there was an update to the terms of service mentioning the possibility of being banned over it.