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[judegraves7]

Here are some ideas on what music should look like later on:

1. Dwarves should receive happy thoughts from hearing music, particularly if the instrument being played is a material/instrument-type that they like. (see 4b)

2. Music should be played only in meeting hall zones, to control noise pollution.

3. Dwarves might prefer to sit or stand (dance?) when listening to music, depending on personality/age. This could make the choice of venue (dining hall with chairs, outdoor waterfall) affect the mood of the audience. Burrow assignments could help make sure that dwarves go to the "right kind of concert." For that reason, rebellious dwarf-children should occasionally sneak out of their burrow to go to concerts, which should be treated as a crime by the sheriff/captain of the guard.

4. Dwarves already have an innate sense of musicality, which could either
     a) Make it easier for them to learn to play instruments, which is not preferable, as such should be a skill.
     b) Dictate how whether they receive happy/unhappy thoughts from hearing music. Great sense of musicality creates happy thoughts, poor sense of musicality produces unhappy thoughts.

Please let me know what you like/dislike, what you would change, and what you would add/subtract from these concepts.

[Captain Crazy]

Seems solid to me! I'd love it if there were a use for all those rock trumpets lying around in forts.

[Auning]

I like where this is going. Perhaps the dwarves, when hearing music, would get temporarily increased willpower. This could be interesting, as you could have musicians going to battle with the military, to help keep their fighting spirits up and bolstering their morale. The skill, if producing happy thoughts like you said, could also be used to calm and soothe dwarves after a vicious fight, as they tend to lose their minds and get angry or depressed.

It would be great if such a skill could have a use in adventure mode, somehow. I can't really think of one at the moment.

[UHaulDwarf]

I like where this is going. Perhaps the dwarves, when hearing music, would get temporarily increased willpower. This could be interesting, as you could have musicians going to battle with the military, to help keep their fighting spirits up and bolstering their morale. The skill, if producing happy thoughts like you said, could also be used to calm and soothe dwarves after a vicious fight, as they tend to lose their minds and get angry or depressed.

It would be great if such a skill could have a use in adventure mode, somehow. I can't really think of one at the moment.

Ah, yes. The drums of war... wait, does DF even have drums?

[bitesh]

Drums of war and bards!

For that reason, rebellious dwarf-children should occasionally sneak out of their burrow to go to concerts, which should be treated as a crime by the sheriff/captain of the guard.

That would be kind of harsh considering how crime is dealt with in DF.

[Kamin]

Music is truly something that needs (and will eventually...?) be implemented. And your ideas about how it should/can work seem very solid to me. I actually quite like the idea of being able to play the instruments you make or trade for. It just makes so much sense!

[jfmherokiller]

I like where this is going. Perhaps the dwarves, when hearing music, would get temporarily increased willpower. This could be interesting, as you could have musicians going to battle with the military, to help keep their fighting spirits up and bolstering their morale. The skill, if producing happy thoughts like you said, could also be used to calm and soothe dwarves after a vicious fight, as they tend to lose their minds and get angry or depressed.

It would be great if such a skill could have a use in adventure mode, somehow. I can't really think of one at the moment.

I can just imagine now a dwarf fortress version of the battle between the British and America except its dwarfs agenst elves with drums and everything. the muskets might have to be in another suggestion unless they have not already been added.

[aka010101]

Armok knows this game needs a few more safeguards against tantrum spirals, as fun as they are. As for dwarves in battle, hearing a good musician should give them better morale, and maybe a legendary musician should be able to help induce martial trances, to REALLY give your fighters a boost.

[judegraves7]

First of all, I love the ideas about battlefield musicians, maybe a fife-and-drum sort of deal. =)

Drums of war and bards!

For that reason, rebellious dwarf-children should occasionally sneak out of their burrow to go to concerts, which should be treated as a crime by the sheriff/captain of the guard.

That would be kind of harsh considering how crime is dealt with in DF.

That's the idea: I want the children to suffer! >=)

I like where this is going. Perhaps the dwarves, when hearing music, would get temporarily increased willpower. This could be interesting, as you could have musicians going to battle with the military, to help keep their fighting spirits up and bolstering their morale. The skill, if producing happy thoughts like you said, could also be used to calm and soothe dwarves after a vicious fight, as they tend to lose their minds and get angry or depressed.

It would be great if such a skill could have a use in adventure mode, somehow. I can't really think of one at the moment.

I can just imagine now a dwarf fortress version of the battle between the British and America except its dwarfs agenst elves with drums and everything. the muskets might have to be in another suggestion unless they have not already been added.

I can think of a few possible adventure mode uses. Maybe playing music in towns will make villagers give you small amounts of money: BARDIC ADVENTURE!!! And soothing music could be great for getting animals/monsters from going aggro.

[soiducked]

I'm imagining you could build instruments in particular locations as furniture, then designate Concert Halls from them in the same way you designate Meeting Halls. Maybe they could work kindof like workshops in that you could queue up tasks like "Play cheerful music", "Play soothing music", and "Play rousing music" to help your dwarves, cheer up, calm down, or prepare for battle, respectively. Different sorts of instruments might be better for different sorts of music (harps are more soothing while trumpets are more rousing, and so on).

[bitesh]

I'm imagining you could build instruments in particular locations as furniture, then designate Concert Halls from them in the same way you designate Meeting Halls. Maybe they could work kindof like workshops in that you could queue up tasks like "Play cheerful music", "Play soothing music", and "Play rousing music" to help your dwarves, cheer up, calm down, or prepare for battle, respectively. Different sorts of instruments might be better for different sorts of music (harps are more soothing while trumpets are more rousing, and so on).

That would be convenient, but it would be more in the spirit of the game to just have them go play whenever the hell they feel like it. Then you could undesignate the instrument to force them to go back to work... You know, like when they have parties. Which, incidentally, would be greatly improved with music.

[soiducked]

That would be convenient, but it would be more in the spirit of the game to just have them go play whenever the hell they feel like it. Then you could undesignate the instrument to force them to go back to work... You know, like when they have parties. Which, incidentally, would be greatly improved with music.

whenever they feel like it, hmm? maybe dwarves with high musicality could grab an instrument and start playing whenever they're in a particularly extreme mood - I could see a miserable dwarf plucking out heart-wrenching ballads, or ecstatic dwarf blasting out some boisterous jigs.

[bitesh]

Exactly. And low musicality dwarves could, very rarely, try their hand at playing and suck at it, inducing bad thoughts.

[judegraves7]

I wonder if sad music = bad music. If the music being played reflects the musician-dwarf's mood, can the mood (good or bad) be spread? Perhaps high musicality could increase the "power" of the music to transmit mood. A novice musician could barely impact his audience's mood, whereas a legendary musician could literally make other dwarves want to kill themselves with a sad song.

[bitesh]

Yes, I agree, but a dabbling musician, with low musicality could literally make other dwarves want to kill him with a bad song, was what I was getting at (that at which I was getting).