Long time lurker, first time poster.
Why do we need musical instruments in our Cataclysm? Here’s why:
[ol][li]Roleplay! Atmosphere! More useless stuff![/li]
[li]Jokes aside, some simple musical instruments could serve as a good morale booster for a lo-tech survivalist (also a good way to attract moose, zombears and HORDES of fans)[/li]
[li]BASH ZOMBIES WITH NOW-USELESS ELECTRIC GUITAR THAT IS ON FIRE!!![/li][/ol]
Sadly, I’m no programmer. For me, injecting all the musical goodness will probably take a lot of time. But you probably want your flamin’ Gibson right now… and if you can make it happen faster than I (hopefully) will - make it happen!
Playing the instrument:
[ul][li]Takes time (let’s say 5-10 minutes)[/li]
[li]Makes noise (high, but not too high)[/li]
[li]Gives morale bonus (for balancing purposes lo-tech craftable instruments should probably give lower amounts of morale)[/li]
[li]Can perhaps be affected by “hearing” traits - good hearing makes morale bonus bigger, bad hearing makes it smaller and animal ears will perhaps allow you to become some kind of a werewolf Hendrix and stuff.[/li][/ul]
And here’s some ideas about what instruments our characters could play:
Craftable lo-tech instruments
[ol][li]Flute - crafted from log (probably not 2x4). Small size, small bonus.[/li]
[li]Drum - crafted from log (maybe 2x4), a hide and some sinew/threads/fiber. Small to medium size, okay bonus.[/li]
[li]Lyre - crafted from log (totally not 2x4) and some sinew. Medium size, average bonus[/li][/ol]
Non-craftable instruments - perhaps they could be crafted with good enough tools and ears… But where’s fun in that?
[ol][li]Harmonica - smallest of them all and makes you feel blue[/li]
[li]Violin - small to medium size, good bonus, makes you feel all classy and stylish[/li]
[li]Guitar - medium size, decent bonus, doubles as an emergency blunt weapon[/li][/ol]
Maybe non-craftable instruments should have a really neat bonus, balanced by rarity and “incomplete” versions like “guitar without strings” that you need to combine with “guitar strings” to get a subpar “badly tuned guitar” that with help of some “set of tuning forks” (or some TuningSoft) can become “tuned guitar”. Of course, to fill the game with even more stuff, we can add more instruments (ukulele! tuba! basoon!); and wearable cases/straps for the instruments; and blah blah blah reinforced Stratocaster ON FIRE.
