Do we need street players?

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Do we need street players?


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Heck those shanties from AC4 were much better music than MOST music I've heard in the past couple of years. That's real quality and immersion. I hope CDP does this and beyond with TW3

Yep. Shanties are such a nice touch! I never even used fast travel, but was always going on cruising speed while listening to them. I hope in TW3 it will be much more like AC4, and less like Skyrim with its three songs singing in every tavern. Though Age of Aggression/Oppression and Dragonborn comes are nice, actually.
 
Yep. Shanties are such a nice touch! I never even used fast travel, but was always going on cruising speed while listening to them. I hope in TW3 it will be much more like AC4, and less like Skyrim with its three songs singing in every tavern. Though Age of Aggression/Oppression and Dragonborn comes are nice, actually.

Same here, well, through the majority of the game at least. I never fast traveled until the very end of AC4. But until then I had happily sailed(avoided travel speed even) the entire time and emptied pretty much the entire map. Listening to the great shanties of course. :)

I liked the bard songs in Skyrim but most of all I liked the sad sad flute and drum song you only heard at some tavern.
 
I agree aswell

But dont we have something like that already?

in a skellige isle tavern we have a bard singing.
 

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Wouldn't mind some musicians to be around again. They added much to the atmosphere.
 
Just an observation about the Dice music in TW1. It's performed by a different group than the rest of the soundtrack, it doesn't make it on to the soundtrack release itself, and the pipes in it are definitely Uilleann pipes and not the Duda or Bock, which are likely used for the rest of the music. I'm still uncertain which, and there's a tune or two more that might be Uilleann.

Point I'm making is either the dice music was an afterthought, or CDPR initially thought to have subtly different music styles for different areas. I kind of hope it's the latter, because if we have music played by locals in different areas, we'd want it to be different for each one. Practically awkward but would be atmospherically pleasing.

@CDPR; I can introduce you to one of the worlds two finest Uilleann Pipers - who manages himself - and through him, damn... some of the worlds best suitcase carriers.

 
Just an observation about the Dice music in TW1. It's performed by a different group than the rest of the soundtrack, it doesn't make it on to the soundtrack release itself, and the pipes in it are definitely Uilleann pipes and not the Duda or Bock, which are likely used for the rest of the music. I'm still uncertain which, and there's a tune or two more that might be Uilleann.

Point I'm making is either the dice music was an afterthought, or CDPR initially thought to have subtly different music styles for different areas. I kind of hope it's the latter, because if we have music played by locals in different areas, we'd want it to be different for each one. Practically awkward but would be atmospherically pleasing.

@CDPR; I can introduce you to one of the worlds two finest Uilleann Pipers - who manages himself - and through him, damn... some of the worlds best suitcase carriers.


Wow Kudos, that was beautiful! I dreamt myself away for a spell when I heard the music. To hear that live would have been an experience for sure.

I loved the dice music in Witcher games. And especially in Witcher 1 for some reason. Hope the devs pick up on your offer! :laughing:

EDIT: @HumanHonor

Thanks to you as well! :laughing:
 
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I know, the guys great. The "Air" is the most difficult type of tune to play as well, which is why I picked that one, but do a search for more of him, should be quite a bit, plenty of jigs & reels, marches & hornpipes - music for all occasions.

But now it's time for a story:

 
@Kudos


"Now's your chance!" :rofl:

I'd love to see this in Witcher 3.

Place a storyteller by the hearth in an inn, see the gathering of all kinds of people, and I'll gladly stand there, listening to all of his stories. THIS is atmosphere!
 
I'd love to see this in Witcher 3.

Place a storyteller by the hearth in an inn, see the gathering of all kinds of people, and I'll gladly stand there, listening to all of his stories. THIS is atmosphere!

As long as he doesn't loop the same story over and over again like the "Plough 'em all" guy did in Loredo's mansion.
 
As long as he doesn't loop the same story over and over again like the "Plough 'em all" guy did in Loredo's mansion.

Wasn't that a song? And he had the largest bladder anyone had ever seen. Oh, wait, that was someone else. 'Twas still a song was it not? "Ploooouuuugh 'eeeeeem aaaaall."

I'm thinking more of storytelling as the innkeeper in Murky Waters(who tell us of Cirilla) and of the two Blue Stripes telling war stories outside Henselt's camp. Hell, even Vesemir can spin a tale, and I'd love to hear more of those. Stories of heroes, soldiers, sorcerers and common folk. Of how the peasant outwits the baron and such. Where's Dandelion when you need him?

EDIT: Hell, I even enjoyed Lambert and Eskel's stories of past times, the world and of sword techniques and their background:

"It was devised by Temerian landsknechts, simple men. It works best against heavy, armored opponents."
 
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Wasn't that a song? And he had the largest bladder anyone had ever seen. Oh, wait, that was someone else. 'Twas still a song wasn't it? "Ploooouuuugh 'eeeeeem aaaaall."

I'm thinking more of storytelling as the innkeeper in Murky Waters(who tell us of Cirilla) and of the two Blue Stripes telling war stories outside Henselt's camp. Hell, even Vesemir can spin a tale, and I'd love to hear more of those. Stories of heroes, soldiers, sorcerers and common folk. Of how the peasant outwits the baron and such. Where's Dandelion when you need him?

I agree with the general concept, I'm just noting that The Witcher 2 had problems with the same line being looped over and over again. I just gave the "Plough 'em all" song as an example since it's the first thing that came to mind.
 
I agree with the general concept, I'm just noting that The Witcher 2 had problems with the same line being looped over and over again. I just gave the "Plough 'em all" song as an example since it's the first thing that came to mind.

I have no trouble with looping, but yeah it could get somewhat tedious in the end. Well, as long as the stories are good and there's a lot of material they can loop all they want, but it shouldn't be the same five sentences looping all the time.
 
Street players, tavern players...

Both of these should change. If you go in the street during the day, you see the street players. If you go into the tavern, there are just a few local drunks in there, maybe a few others.

At night, the street players leave. If you go into the tavern, it's much more crowded. There are people telling stories, people playing music, things of that nature. Maybe have a few different sequences for the tavern in each town so that it's not the same every time you walk in.
 
Definitely a medieval tinge to those for my ear... great stuff.

Check this too, a medley of an air & a couple of juxtaposing Hornpipes... which is Pirate dance music of course, dating from the ~1500's. Air & hornpipe, wind & sea... Skellige hoy !


The reality of this kind of music in pubs is majority medley. So an innovative way of blending suitable brief tunes is what we really need, with intervals for talk / stories / poetry, or someone breaks out in song. Fighting & games in an adjoining area. I think The Witchers Inns, and the way they've done the music, have always conveyed an authentic impression to me.

medley
c.1300, "hand-to-hand combat," from O.Fr. medlee, var. of meslee (see meddle). Meaning "combination, mixture" is from c.1440; that of "musical combination consisting of diverse parts" is from 1626.

In rpgs, Loops are a necessary evil, but the longer, more varied each iterations duration the better.
 
You guys realize none of this will affect what we actually get in The Witcher 3, right? :) At least until CDPR releases some patches.

Anyway, I agree with in game music. I loved the street performers in Vizima and I always like a good story teller in games. I also enjoyed Dandelion's concert at the Hairy Bear.

I think an interesting mechanic would be if songs or stories were progressively "unlocked" as we progress through different paths of the game. For instance, we complete an important plot section far away in the forest, and rumors of a crazed mountain man battling a giant elk spread all over the land in the form of songs and poems. Little do they know it was just a witcher and the battle was not that heroic and there was no damsel in distress.

We could have different musical and poetic styles depending on the region. For instance skalds in Skellige could compose verses using kennings and old norse poetic form. Novigrad could have music and poetry similar to that of medieval central and western Europe, and No Man's Land... well, no idea.

Maybe CDPR will surprise us and TW3 already includes this, or maybe they will add it in a future patch or EE.
 
@HumanHonor
The second song you posted by Arany Zoltán(Hungarian?) felt more 'medieval' to me and was more to my liking thb. But both were good! :thumbsup:
@Kudos Haha, look at 1:11 how the guy is winking to another in the band. As if playfully challenging anyone to outplay him.

And they keep smiling at each other and you can see they're enjoying themselves and the music!

Well, I won't be worse, and it's thanks to you Kudos I found this lovely tune!


Maybe not medieval but surely magical! I bet you've heard it already though.
I'd gladly pause my journey for a spell had I heard this lovely voice coming from an inn in Witcher 3. :D
 
You guys realize none of this will affect what we actually get in The Witcher 3, right? :) At least until CDPR releases some patches.
Och I wouldn't rule it out completely at this stage, soundtrack could be part of the final tweaking, if they feel the atmosphere needs a little more. But you are probably correct.

@Bellator Pius Gratus; You aren't the only one to be attracted to that particular tune :p
you should duckduckgo for "Ciara McCrickard".

As for the onstage communication on display in that vid, that may be due to the sheer pleasure these guys must have felt when they quickly realised their pipes were behaving themselves. A notoriously fickle instrument, completely handmade right down to their reeds (arguably the most sensitive in use in instruments today), and you might notice they are each made from different woods, box & ebony. So much can go wrong that it is extremely rare to get 2 pipers brave enough to sit down and be recorded. More common in pubs ofc when it really does become a medley - a quarrel.

Either that or it's just how great musicians communicate on stage, see Led Zeppelin live, for instance.
 
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