RELEASED Musician Tenant 0.1.6

Idanwin submitted a new mod:

Musician Tenant - Want your town to have a singer-songwriter? Or a rockstar? Well, now you can!

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Idanwin updated Musician Tenant with a new update entry:

Recipes

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This should be an interesting mod. Forgive my ignorance, I haven't added it in yet. Does the tenant do anything special?

 

It was be very impressive if you could get the npc to play ABC songs.

 

I'm sorry to disappoint: no the tenant does not do anything ... yet. I'm going to look into making the tenant play songs, but I can't make any promises.

 

Idanwin updated Musician Tenant with a new update entry:

More instruments & microphones

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Idanwin updated Musician Tenant with a new update entry:

SFX

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I'm thinking of making instrument recipes a rare musician gift.
Although a more realistic idea would be to add luthier tenants. You would attract those by placing musical instruments and a workbench/tools in a home.

I've looked through all recently updated race mods and the only 2 to include instruments were Felins and Orcana. A compatibility pack for Felins is already included (musicians-felins.zip), and a permission request for Orcana is pending.

 

Hi, I'm planning on featuring this mod in my mod pack, is that ok?

 

Sure

You may want to wait a little though, as I've only just started this mod it's currently being updated very often, but if you don't mind that: go ahead!
(and tell me if you find any compatibility issues)

 

No worries! I'll add it in and regularly update it

 

Idanwin updated Musician Tenant with a new update entry:

Orcana support, new objects, tenant fixes

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looks nice. though, i have one question. it may allready have been answered and im just blind as ever, but here it is. is there any possible way you can interact with these NPC's, manually equip them with specific instruments, and have them play WITH you if you insert a band name with them nearby, playing a tune from the player's song book?

 

None of those things are currently possible, and they're unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future.

 

ah.. well, thanks anyway. though that would have been a fun mechanic.

 

Currently preparing a concert IRL, so I don't have much time to mod.

 

You know I think much of that would be possible, but complicated. By "possible" I mean with lots of LUA coding. Starbound certainly doesn't support that sort of thing from the box. It would take mostly new code rather than minor tweaks of existing code. Most mods are relatively simple** JSON tweaks combined with new/modified assets used. The more complex mods though take LUA scripting ability which is a whole other skill set.

The good news though, is that this is something I actually want to do. I think I would be capable enough** to pull it off in one form or another. Anyhow it is on my list of projects(I have many projects on the coals, but little focus unfortunately). I'd probably roll this into another project - I'm reworking the colonization system itself in multiple ways. If I was smart, I'd probably take a closer look at nightly because that's changing anyhow, but I'm pushing ahead for now despite this. I think what I'm doing can compliment whatever changes are made. What you're talking about certainly would not be in the initial release, but as a stretch plan.

Some of what would need to happen though has already been done previously by other mods using different means. I believe one mod allows you to get an NPC to change gear via a specially made tech, and they'll put on whatever you're currently holding. I think another had you put stuff in a container, and the NPC will put it on(or am I imagining this? I plan to do something similar). I'm also thinking these mods are possibly outdated, and can't even think of the names... but point is that much can be done within the limitations of the Starbound engine.

That said, they're talking things like armor, weapons. NPCs don't "equip" instruments... as is. That might be possible** to do with some extra work. It probably wouldn't be too hard** to make them "equip" instruments such that you'd see NPCs holding them as a guard might his weapon. Of course that alone would be a welcome addition to a mod like this even if that's all the further you can take it.

Having them USE the instruments is another matter. That's probably far more involved, and I have no screaming idea if you can make them play a song, or if so specify what they'd play. Much of that depends on what sort of functions are exposed to the NPC. Can they even access the .abc files? Can they access the function that plays the songs? I really don't know. I'm tempted to assume they can't by default.

Now assuming it is possible to make them play the instruments, I need to figure out how to control what they play. Possibly instead of directly controlling it(probably requiring a GUI that I don't know I can make happen), a more passive approach might be better. This I believe is probably the easy part** because I know NPCs already co-ordinate to attack a common target. It should be possible** to make them perform a common song with whatever instrument they have. The best way to handle this is to actually have 2 new types of NPCs - musicians(at that point they'd be more than JUST tenants because they'd use alternate/additional LUA scripting) and a Musical Conductor/Band Leader. The Musicians in a certain proximity to the Conductor would play the same song as he/she is playing. Or maybe the Conductor would be chosen based upon him/her being equipped with a conductors wand, or vocalist's microphone.

I'd probably have the Conductor choose a random song - at random intervals - to play. If I start wanting to actually control what they play, that gets more complicated fast. What probably is not too complicated** though is having them play whatever you're playing when you're nearby.


**I say that now, but once you start actually doing things(after figuring out how it needs to work in practice) it often ends up much harder than you initially estimated... and occasionally it just won't work at all (pending the limitations of the engine you are using). What functions you can access especially being a major limiter in what is possible. If something is in practical terms too complicated, that can be another limitation. And if I can't find the focus or will to stay on the project... yet another roadblock.