[Suggestion] Bard (Job) Expansion/ Additional Content

Hi everyone, I was chatting to some of the devs and community members on the Discord and we got onto the topic of Lute Crates as a little joke the devs had considered putting in the game. I really liked the idea and asked why they didn't go ahead with it.

After that I started pondering how they could be included and that led me to this suggestion.


Currently (as far as we know, unless I missed something) the Bard job is one of the more open/less extensive jobs roles. You collect Music Sheets to learn new tunes and earn money by playing your lute for people. And don't get me wrong it's a great way to handle letting people be a bard, but I think it could be expanded up a little to make the Bard job a little more fleshed out (not to mention get some great "Lute Crate" puns in there too)

My suggestion comes in 3 main parts:

1. A new Bard Tutor/Lute Seller NPC

First and foremost, he acts as both a tutor of the player, introducing the job through a quick tutorial, and also the primary source of bard equipment (mostly lutes).
When first met he would offer the player a quest to borrow his lute and a sheet of music, and go play it for 5 people (the sheet of music would probably be some kind of ad for his Lute Crates - because exploiting the player to advertise his crates to other people like that is beginning to look eerily accurate with that new activision patent)

Upon completing the quest he awards you with a freebie "Lute Crate" which of course he encourages you to open right there in front of everyone else. Once opened, despite being labeled with a drop % chart, this freebie crate always awards the player with a basic common Lute and that same sheet of music from before. He would then make a (not so) subtle reference to the fact that he also sells the Lute Crates and that you might have better luck next time.

"Unlucky! You only got a Common Lute. Ah well i'm sure you'd get a better Lute next time. Tell you what i'll even throw in a copy of my Music sheet for you as well, since i'm nice like that... There, now you get out there and share your lute playing skills with the world, by the way if you want another shot at getting a better lute I sell my crates for a very reasonable price, guaranteed prize every time. You can't lose!"

2. Lute Quality Tiers/Variants

Now obviously finding and collecting the music sheets is (and should still be) the main bulk of the Bard job, but i'd also like to add 4 quality tiers of Lute which would drop from the chests and work pretty similarly to tools in Minecraft. Each lute still works the same mechanically (they all use the same music playing minigame/mechanic) but in the same way a Diamond Pickaxe is more efficient and durable than a steel Pickaxe, a Legendary Lute is better than a Common or Rare one.

To keep things simple, i'd propose a Multiplier bonus to the income that playing music for people earns. I have condensed this down into 4 tiers of Lute, which are named and coloured appropriately to parody the commonly used rarity tiers of loot drops in games and each Lute has a better multiplier as the quality improves.

Legendary Lute (with an Orange colour scheme) - 100% Bard Income multiplier (Double the Money per song played basically)
Epic Lute (with a purple colour scheme) - 50% Bard Income Multiplier (1.5x as much money per song played)
Rare Lute (with a blue colour sheme) - 25% Bard Income Multiplier (1.25x as much money per song played)
Common Lute (with a normal wood/unpainted colour scheme) - No bonus income.

As you can see, the bonuses are nice but not a forced requirement to make an income as a bard. They simply reward a player for investing in that particular job over the others.

3. The "Lute Crates" themselves

The first thing to note is that they are actual crates, the Lute Seller himself will be stood next to one wherever he is placed and the player will be able to interact with it to read it's current "drop rates" (which are fictional as you'll see in a sec). Once you buy one you'll be able to interact with it to crack it's lid and collect your Lute.

Whilst each Crate will have a drop table listed on it (and these will be ridiculous odds meant to poke fun at how loot tables work in other games), the actual content is pre-determined, and the player always gets the next tier up of Lute each time they buy one (unless they already own a Legendary Lute in which case either random Music Sheets could drop instead or the Lute Seller claims to be out of stock). This means it is effectively the same as buying an upgrade to your Lute but is handled in a self aware, joke at the loot crate industry, way.

Each time you "get lucky" and win a better lute, the lute seller will react in shock and complain about having to put his prices up and tweak the odds (explaining how they get more and more ridiculous over time) next time to keep making a profit. This will result in the crate next to him showing new odds next time you interact with it and obviously the price of the next upgrade being more expensive.

"Oh you're back! Hey listen i've got a great offer on right now, my brand new Lute Crate order just arrived and i'll sell you one right now in this limited time offer for just X money. Don't delay this great offer is only whilst stocks last!"

"Crikey! You got an Epic Lute... You wouldn't believe the odds of that, you must be the luckiest punter.. *cough* i mean customer i've had in weeks. Well make sure you tell everyone where you got such amazing lute from. I should be getting another crate delivered soon so make sure you tell all your friends and family about my amazing Lute Crates!"

And due to the way i've designed it, there shouldn't be too much work (or additional assets required anyway) in adding it.

You'd need:

- The Lute Seller NPC character (Sprite)
- The Lute Crate (Sprite)
- The Dialogue windows, etc - Although i'd imagine there is already a dialogue system in place and this would be more a case of just adding the appropriate scripting for the dialogues.
- The 4 sprites for different rarity Lutes (Legendary, Epic, Rare, Common).
- The code to make it all work (which I admit is the biggest bit here)

So that's my idea, and whilst this is mostly a joke about Lute Crates (which was my starting point), it also ties together a tutorial system for the bard job (where players learn by doing rather than reading) and an upgrade system for their equipment which both add some depth to the job.

I'd love to know what everyone thinks of it and whether or not you'd enjoy seeing something like that in the game.

I think it is a great idea! Even though it is a joke, the reality hits too close to home right now though... It would also be awesome to find legendary music sheets, in old caves and ruins and stuff thats been forgotten.

Maybe if you're tired of playing your lute in front of "normal" citizens and wants a richer audience you need more unusual music to play for them. Therefore you need to find Epic music sheets or even Legendary music sheets to be able to woo the most discerning audience!

For example, if you would have a Legendary lute but no cool tunes to play on it, only normal farmers would be impressed. Kinda like playing Smoke on the water on a Stradivarius.
But if you also find a Legendary track to your legendary lute, then you have some serious musical firepower.