Ability for colonists to make music

[DanGio]

Hello,

so here's the suggestion : the ability for colonists to play procedurally generated music, by singing or playing an instrument. I'm not sure it fits the global spirit of the game, but I thought it would be fun, and interesting for gameplay, reinforcing the "colonist community" feeling while playing. Also, it would open new possibilities for creation, as every tune played would be somewhat unique (and memorizable by colonists).

How it works :
Idle colonists interested in "Artistic" skill can begin to play an instrument. Then, another idle colonist could :
- Play an instrument with him
- Begin to sing a song ("Shy" trait doesn't permit that)
When someone's singing, everybody nearby receive a bonus happiness modifier. And everybody can try to sing-along. When singing along, colonists work faster, and memorize the tune for a given time (depends on Artistic skill). When a tune is memorized by 3 colonists or more, you get the option to name it, in order to replay it later.

An idea of Happiness modifiers :
   - Hearing music : + depending on the skills of musicians
   - Playing or singing music : ++ and -Fear depending on the number of musicians/singers
   - Hearing a known tune : ++
   - Hearing a minstrel play : +++
   - Singing a known tune : +++

So, 15 colonists singing a known tune all together would get a good happiness bonus and massive fear reduction (and raiders could get +Fear). And it could be useful to sing the "Song of the Survivors" when hauling 20 raider corpses to the bonfire (Recipe : stone walls with roof to avoid stupid rain, and Molotov Cocktails)

In my idea, the music created thereby has to be VERY simple, in order to avoid confusion with possible ambient music. So, almost only percussion and monodic voice, and rare polyphonic tuned instrument. The instruments could be : bass and snare drums, the easiest ones to craft and play, idiophones like claves or bells, and perhaps high-end tier tuned instruments like metallophones or picked string instruments, only playable by minstrels. These instruments could be crafted or bought to vessels.

Now, I've already thought of ways to get random music made, but there's no point explaining it if the idea don't interest people... Moreover, I've got Programming skill at 0 and English skill at 2, so I think the less I write, the less people will get repealed by this post !

So, have a nice day, and hey, an alpha version which works perfectly and already has a thrilling gameplay experience ? That's so great.

[Sion]

That could work like a battle cry to bring fear and panic to the raiders
Also there need to be a battle cry mod!

[Flebe]

This would be a great idea, but I would say instead of Idle it should be a work mode, maybe a bit lower then research, or maybe just be able to set a time in the day when the Colonists could relax. To make music though there should be a form of like camp fire for early tribe chants and then could add small instruments and then once you become a bit more advanced you could use like a Writing desk and more artistic people could right different levels of songs, similar to that of the cooking stove, so things like Simple song (small happiness boost, use of basic instruments), Complex song (Mid happiness boost, Addition of more difficult instruments), Master piece (Large happiness boost, Very complex instruments). They could all have different levels of happiness boosts or be used in the new faction system as you could invite different factions to come listen to the song and improve relations, of have the biggest battle of the Tribes (music not fighting :') unless they lose and go crazy) battle ever seen on Rimworlds, with them or even sell the song to them for some silver and make more copies of it in sheet music. It would really add a lot to the game and make it very interesting to use as a happiness boost.