Bard song locations

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toftdal
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Bard song locations

Post by toftdal » Wed Sep 14, 2022 5:58 am

I vaguely remember when the "new" bard songs were released, it was said that the spots where they can be found would be wiki'd once people had had a chance to explore to find them.

Has that idea been walked back since? I find it kinda odd that such a core part of a base class should be FOIG (and with very vague if existent clues).

Cutieriot
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by Cutieriot » Wed Sep 14, 2022 12:24 pm

As someone who played a bard recently I have to agree with you. People seem to say the locations are obvious, but I disagree.

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Za-Lord~s Guard
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by Za-Lord~s Guard » Wed Sep 14, 2022 12:42 pm

The fact that as people started to become familiar with the locations of some of the songs they were then secretly moved to be found elsewhere also makes it harder to learn where the song is, even from an IC standpoint.

"I learned this song while exploring the caverns of the Underdark, and seeing a beautiful cavern of crystals and luminescent fungi all around. The splendor and peacefulness of it all inspired me to compose it." (The elder bard says, lacking sufficient adventure xp to just teach songs for a while)

The young bard runs off seeking the same inspiration and finds...nothing in the place described. I believe a number of the songs also do not have fixed locations yet, and some of the songs had their number assignments changed - so now you get flavor text explaining why you're suddenly inspired with reason to create song 11, only to immediately be given song 2.
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by DM Monkey » Thu Sep 15, 2022 1:20 am

Ask around IC. A critical part of the system is encouraging you to go and find other bards to learn from.

Try harder! Help set a good example of roleplay for the server culture.


xf1313
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by xf1313 » Fri Sep 16, 2022 11:22 am

I figured like...2 locations? Honestly when I thought I have explored most locations the lack of findings is telling me otherwise. I do hope they are assigned to fixed locations and somewhere that fits. But at the same time, not inaccessible...really.....not in a hidden plane...pls
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AstralUniverse
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by AstralUniverse » Fri Sep 16, 2022 2:43 pm

I'm not even sure all of the songs have IC locations. There are at least 2 songs that after asking around I dont think any bard actually found. Everyone seem to have learned them from someone, likely tracking back to a bard who got it for free from their race or random song on level up.

I can say I found somewhere around 5-10 songs just from doing writs, without even trying to look for them.
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Za-Lord~s Guard
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by Za-Lord~s Guard » Fri Sep 16, 2022 2:44 pm

xf1313 wrote:
Fri Sep 16, 2022 11:22 am
I figured like...2 locations? Honestly when I thought I have explored most locations the lack of findings is telling me otherwise. I do hope they are assigned to fixed locations and somewhere that fits. But at the same time, not inaccessible...really.....not in a hidden plane...pls
Actively searching for them is an exercise in futility. They're the sort of thing you only get if you step over the exact right spot in the exact right place, meaning you could've walked around the particular spot that gives a song a million times without ever knowing. This is compounded with how when the song locations previously started becoming familiar to players, they were scrambled around to new locations.

On my last bard, I asked people IC where to "find inspiration" for a specific song - and a lot of people knew where it had been, but were unaware of it being moved. I spent the better part of two hours sifting through every part of walkable mesh in the area and found nothing, only to later on learn it was changed to come from a place that has no thematic reason to inspire that particular song.

It's probably easier to just find other bards who learned their songs randomly on level up or from race rather than hunting the songs locations, because even asking people IC where to find them is foiled by the location scrambling (which could happen again).
"I don't believe in fairies!" - Harry Dresden, the Dresden Files

xf1313
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by xf1313 » Sat Sep 17, 2022 7:45 am

Za-Lord~s Guard wrote:
Fri Sep 16, 2022 2:44 pm
xf1313 wrote:
Fri Sep 16, 2022 11:22 am
I figured like...2 locations? Honestly when I thought I have explored most locations the lack of findings is telling me otherwise. I do hope they are assigned to fixed locations and somewhere that fits. But at the same time, not inaccessible...really.....not in a hidden plane...pls
Actively searching for them is an exercise in futility. They're the sort of thing you only get if you step over the exact right spot in the exact right place, meaning you could've walked around the particular spot that gives a song a million times without ever knowing. This is compounded with how when the song locations previously started becoming familiar to players, they were scrambled around to new locations.

On my last bard, I asked people IC where to "find inspiration" for a specific song - and a lot of people knew where it had been, but were unaware of it being moved. I spent the better part of two hours sifting through every part of walkable mesh in the area and found nothing, only to later on learn it was changed to come from a place that has no thematic reason to inspire that particular song.

It's probably easier to just find other bards who learned their songs randomly on level up or from race rather than hunting the songs locations, because even asking people IC where to find them is foiled by the location scrambling (which could happen again).
Thanks... that exact spot thing is really too much LOL, I love it when I see the little text that tells me I learnt a new song, just hope the team look into this issue sometime and expand the spot into the whole area.
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Sincra
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by Sincra » Sun Sep 18, 2022 9:07 am

To my recollection the songs haven't been moving or adjusted module placement wise since Bat left the team.

The issue with a mismatched number can be remedied but it'll either need a code fix (i.e. if 2 give 11, if 11 give 2) or an area fix, which would be the correct way but more time consuming.

The issue of specific spots is likely them not being large enough to cover the conventional walkpath near said spot, possibly Bat didn't know the path or opted specifically to avoid it, the solution there is to resize them to better cover walkpaths where possible.
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Eyeliner
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by Eyeliner » Mon Sep 19, 2022 2:21 am

Songbooks that give hints to the locations could be welcome. FOIG is cool but sometimes I feel like there could be more help with things like this to aid players who aren’t part of the in-crowd or who would rather tackle the puzzle as a challenge then blindly ask around for the answer

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Kelaris
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by Kelaris » Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:28 pm

I would love to see some changes to the song learning system. Either in game hints, or some songbooks like summoning stream books/prisms would go a long way. Even if the general locations were available on the wiki, actually collecting all the songs would be a considerable journey, especially compared to "Find a high level bard and ask/bribe them to teach you everything".

I've dedicated probably 30+ hours of my current character's playtime to meticulously combing settlements, dungeons under my level, and the wilderness, all while solo to avoid wasting other people's time while I check every corner. I've gained a much better grasp of geography, but only found 3 new songs by level 25. This has been some of the least enjoyable time I've spent on Arelith, and gives me flashbacks to getting map exploration completions in Guild Wars 1.

The two bards I've spoken with and asked to exchange songs have been unable to. One didn't have enough adventure xp, and the other didn't have high enough effective song level to enable song teaching. I'd feel kinda weird chasing down random passing people with musical notes above their head, whacking them with a bag of gold, and saying "Hey! Please! Can you teach me healing hymn so I can stop casting cure minor wounds 200 times per dungeon!?", but I feel like that's the direction I'm headed in.

ElevenOne
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by ElevenOne » Wed Sep 21, 2022 5:38 pm

I have learned a few songs with past toons but my newish bard got nothing on the same spot, so I wonder if the spot are bugged, there is some hidden extra check that I am not aware of or if they are changed.

As the learn spots are FOIG, I am not even sure to submit the bug report, because, if someone in game tells me to go to a spot and I didn't get anything, could be just RP from the player.

AstralUniverse
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Re: Bard song locations

Post by AstralUniverse » Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:32 am

Sometimes I struggle to RP telling another bard where I 'found' a song. Because technically my character wrote the song, but what was discovered is the magical tune of the song (which I like to refer to as a certain genre, like 12-bar blues format, or a jazz standard or a metallica guitar wall rhythm style). My character isnt necessarily going to be able to pin point where they got the 'inspiration', except maybe in a few cases where there's actual music in the location or if it's an item. I will say tho that I found at least 5-10 songs if not more just from doing writs, without thinking about looking for songs.

What I did a lot and also what I recommend the most is to stop and RP with literally any bard you see. ANY. BARD. (you can spot them by the floating music notes above their avatar 24/7, also they often have an instrument mentioned in their description or one visible on their back) more often than not, you'll come out with a song trade or potentially just all of the songs handed to you on a silver platter.
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I've spoken with Kenji and warpriest will be allowed to take elemental avatar so keep this in mind too


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