Drums&Flute

[Simon445]

It would be great idea if you put Drums&Flute *Musicians* in game.

Imagine slow march to your enemy and musician playing some good songs

[Rithal]

Looking back at some of the work that some of this team has done in the past, I am about 99.9999% positive that musicians will be in the game, as well as flag bearers.

[Hairywarhero]

Would be great hearing fife and drums music being played

[Bravescot]

I want to hear The Minstrel Boy blazing across the battlefield on some bagpipes!

[Hairywarhero]

I want to hear The Minstrel Boy blazing across the battlefield on some bagpipes!

Trust a jock wanting to hear bagpipes!

[Bravescot]

Trust a jock wanting to hear bagpipes!

The 79th New York will rule the battlefield with their pipes!

[Hairywarhero]

The 79th New York will rule the battlefield with their pipes!

Pls no :'(

[Bravescot]

Pls no :'(

Make it so please Hinkel babe

[Hairywarhero]

Make it so please Hinkel babe

Haha oh god

[Hinkel]

The 79th New York will rule the battlefield with their pipes!

Its good that the 79th lost their uniform after manassas and never used pipes in the battle ;)

[Hairywarhero]

Its good that the 79th lost their uniform after manassas and never used pipes in the battle ;)

That's music to my ears ;)

[Bravescot]

Its good that the 79th lost their uniform after manassas and never used pipes in the battle ;)

Nooooooooo! Why must the Civil War be so mean to us Scots!

[Hairywarhero]

Nooooooooo! Why must the Civil War be so mean to us Scots!

Hahah no freedom for Scotland

[Bravescot]

Hahah no freedom for Scotland

It's like a small part of me just died.

[Hairywarhero]

It's like a small part of me just died.

Naww oh well. now get back in the box

[Bravescot]

Naww oh well. now get back in the box

Sir......*salutes meekly and gets into his box* Oh flower of Scotland....*sobs*

[Hairywarhero]

Sir......*salutes meekly and gets into his box* Oh flower of Scotland....*sobs*

Please cry when you get in there

[Bravescot]

*shuts box lid* I'm staying in here. Call me when the battle ends.

[[RG]Chewie]

I think it would be a waste to have musicians, how often did they actually go into battle? It would absolutely ruin my immersion if i saw an idiot musician running around like i see in Napoleonic wars. However, It would be interesting to have available for regiments whenever they drill or want to have a parade but not in battle.

[Bravescot]

I'd like to see the orders be passed smoothly with out drum and bugle calls though. They were a key part to the battlefield.

[[RG]Chewie]

Not necessarily, orders were often passed by courier back and forth between officers, Colonels shouted orders and Majors, Captains, and sergeants often parroted them. Musicians were used in camp to call regiments to muster, breakfast, drill, dinner, supper, tattoo, and reveille. Musicians were also used heavily on long marches to keep regiments in step and to keep them entertained, but i don't know how often we would be marching in game.

My conclusion is that if we do have musicians limit them to a drummer and fifer or flutist per side.

[Hinkel]

Chewie;5437']I think it would be a waste to have musicians, how often did they actually go into battle? It would absolutely ruin my immersion if i saw an idiot musician running around like i see in Napoleonic wars. However, It would be interesting to have available for regiments whenever they drill or want to have a parade but not in battle.


Well, musicians in terms of drummers and buglers were part of every regimemt. To repeat orders made by the colonel. So something like that is definatly needed.

Musicians in terms of marching bands are very well recorded during the battle of Antietam. For example, there was a huge marching band playing, while French division attacked the Sunken Road. They charged while listening to the songs played by the band same for the Iron Brigade.. They had a band, while marching into the Cornfield. So at the battle of Antietam, such marching bands were pretty common and recorded in the after action reports :)

[Bravescot]

Boom! The law has been lay down!

[Rithal]

Musicians are an absolute must to me. I would recommend limiting each type of musician to maybe three on each side by default, but allow it to be changed in private server settings.

[[RG]Chewie]

i digress, but i have seen much tom foolery at the hands of musicians in Napoleonic wars. Maybe i am biased because of that who knows, but i am hoping it will be handled in a much more realistic way in war of rights.

[[RG]Chewie]

And on the topic of musicians in battle, yes it has happened in numerous occasions, but the numbers supported it. By that i mean there were up to a thousand men per regiment (Less and less as the war went on) so you could afford musicians, in war of rights who knows how many people would be on the server. You could end up with 20 infantry and 6 musicians. Maybe you could limit the number of musicians based upon the amount of infantry on the server, just a thought.

[Bravescot]

I can get behind a numbers limit. It should be done on a ration of rank and file to specialists

[Rithal]

A numbers limit would be nice. 30 rankers for every 1 musician? Also, should ranks like sergeant and lieutenant be handled out of game on a character development basis, or be handled in game where you just select what class you want to play as like in NW? Where character development would be cool, I don't want to see a full line of sergeants ordered by thirteen lieutenants marching through a field :D

[Bravescot]

I don't want to see a full line of sergeants ordered by thirteen lieutenants marching through a field :D

1 Sergeant is scary enough and a lieutenant with a map is the most dangerous thing in the word. That line would be unstoppable

[Maximus Decimus Meridius]

It would be great if a drummer plays for example NY volunteers all players who can hear him see the texts at the bottom of their monitor so they would be able to sing to this song. I love the idea marching into battle with my guys and sing New York Volunteers!

[A. P. Hill]

Musicians, also acted in the capacity as stretcher bearers, ammo carriers, and aiding walking wounded to the rear.

The official tactical manual shows the location and make up of the musicians for each regiment.

[Maximus Decimus Meridius]

I know but I love the aspect that we could sing together but not everybody know the text of every song so it would be really nice if the text shows up

[Dyers]

Yes i get to be the lone drummer being blown to pieces by a cannonball

[Beanbomb]

Would the recordings of the music the musicians play be unique to WoR?

[Colonel P. R. Page]

I'd love to hear Dixie and the Bonnie Blue Flag being played by the band just before we went into battle!

Fun Fact: At one point during the fighting a Confederate soldier started singing The Bonnie Blue Flag and then the entire Confederate line in that area started singing it.

[Challis89]

Can we have musicians armed with guns or at least able to pick them up. Makes them more flexible when the going gets tough. Still think they would be better carrying the bandages too instead of ncos. Buglers will be important for skirmishers given how speed out they can be.

[Simon445]

Jesus guys, this thread is so old xD

[FakeMessiah27]

Putting text on screen sounds a bit intrusive. I, personally, would dislike that for example. In a realism game, the less UI the better.

If you really want to sing a song together with your company, you could just learn the lyrics :P.

If the devs do decide to make something like this I hope they will give the option to toggle it on or off

[Theodor Schmidt]

Well it all depends on how the game is going to be made/player. There are two things that I need to point out.

1. How people are going to choose class/units.
If it is how I largely suspect it will be, people will be able to select one of a few units (be it division, regiment or battalion level) within each Corps, similar to how it is in Verdun (although with much more people in each).
That will mean that each unit will have a limited amount of musicians for each unit, meaning that there will never be too many musicians and that they will also be linked with a unit (so we don't have 1 unit with a load of musicians and another with none) and will likely stop them from running around like headless chickens.

2. Will a 3D realistic VOIP be in game (and be used)
In my opinion if it isn't in the game, there will be no point for musicians. While it is nice to be able to listen to music, it will quickly lose its novelty and the likelyhood of it becoming a target for trolls outweighs the former for me. HOWEVER if it is in the game it will make musicians very useful, it will allow all those who cannot hear the units leader to respond to orders which will be vital to larger units and for skirmishers. This will mean that musicians will not be seen as a gimmick and will mean that the role will not be targeted by trolls nearly as much as it would do otherwise. But if 3D VOIP isnt included in the game, there will be no use for the musician (may as well be replaced with an ammo carrier class) since people will have to use TS3 to communicate (effectively) and will mean that everyone will be able to hear all orders no matter where they are.

EDIT: I just saw the 3D VOIP video. Hurrah!

[Destroyer_Mutsuki]

I wonder if the presence of musicians and colours give attributes like it did in M&B (Faster reload time, accuracy, etc)?

[Challis89]

I wonder if the presence of musicians and colours give attributes like it did in M&B (Faster reload time, accuracy, etc)?

Oh god please no.

[Bravescot]

I wonder if the presence of musicians and colours give attributes like it did in M&B (Faster reload time, accuracy, etc)?

I hope not

[SemajRednaxela]

I wonder if the presence of musicians and colours give attributes like it did in M&B (Faster reload time, accuracy, etc)?

Opposite of what game is trying to deliver....

[Bearhug67]

There would be also always the option to have some musicians in the ranks provided by your computer as npc's (non player characters).

They could be an immersive way to add music to the game and because they are not active fighters like players, they do not compete with them but can help to fill a bit the ranks as not all multiplayer games might have enough players for effective volleys.

Like mentioned before, they can also add as 'medics' by bandaging wounds and help so longevity of players with a possible soldier 'career' with patches and scars, if that might become an element in the game.
npc musicans and bandaging wounds could be optional when players prefer to overrule with full, healthy respawns at any time.

npc musicians could also allow maybe personal preferences in music when so properly programmed.

[SemajRednaxela]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_American_Civil_War?wprov=sfla1

But men with rifles first over anything else....

[Grant97]

Yes but I think it would take long to add them

[Bearhug67]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_American_Civil_War?wprov=sfla1

But men with rifles first over anything else....

Thank you so much for that informative link.

I agree with you as that is the nature of the game to play out battles and not some music talent show.

But there is one very commonly known fact with multiplayer games over time. To fill games with players, especally in multiplayer only games.

I think the devs are doing good to think after the release, debugging and tweaking the game to start working on some so called bots. For this game the aim should be not to create them to allow sole vs bot matches (which would be nice of course for a quick match when you have little time and friendsa re unavilable)

The idea would be more to develop bots which do not just allow battles for a single player but helping a multiplayer (MP) session to fill the battle field with soldiers as enough REAL players will become eventually a problem at some point down the road.

Again, for the release the main focus shoud be the original game play idea and mechanics, debugging and improving them for the release and in the months after before thinking seriously about some believable bots as well.

Not ones like in some shooters which hits you miles away right between the eyes but ones with strengths AND weaknesses like players in the game as well.
Hopefully such bots can show up in the game before player numbers start to decrease to fill not just the ranks but which allow maybe even battles in scales which the game didn't saw before, allowing to replay larger, historical battles with numbers players alone could never provide on the servers.

When you can make believable fighting bots ten you can also create bots for other tasks as well like musicians, cavalry and even civilians caught between the front lines.

It's just an idea but I hope the devs consider at least such a step.

[A. P. Hill]

What's the difference between a flute and a fife? As I have always heard these units called fife & drum corps, not drum and flute corps. :)

[Bearhug67]

What's the difference between a flute and a fife? As I have always heard these units called fife & drum corps, not drum and flute corps. :)

I just know that the fife tends to be played mainly by military music corps and is hold sideways as the airhole is on the side were the flute's airhole is at the very end of the instrument.
Hence the German name for a fife = Querfloete, freely translated = right angle flute
https://dict.leo.org/ende/index_de.html#/search=quer&searchLoc=0&resultOrder=basic&multiwordShowSingle=on

As the term flute is commonly more known it tends to be used quite generously for all kind of flutes, including the fifes.

I can just imagine that there was maybe some practical reason why a angled flute is primarily used in military bands. Maybe their higher tune going better with the drums? Maybe the fife being less in the way by playing when marching? I am sure the chance to hurt your lips with a regular flute when you march in opposite to a fife is much higher.
I hope someone else can shed more light on those details as I have no clue.

Here's some nice piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43LKHuQWsBs

[Colonel P. R. Page]

Would there be a button to press for musicians to play certain songs?

[Bearhug67]

You're barking up the wrong tree I am afraid. But I would certainly love an embedded player which allows a choice of own music pieces. Discussion about such music pieces could fill evenings at the boot camp I can imagine. :)