Custom Faction Territory Music

[Lecic]

Now, I'm sure some music for Starmade is planned, and I'm sure some of that is things like "Trade Guild Territory" or "Pirate Territory" or "Neutral Territory" music. But what I think would be interesting is if factions could upload custom music for their own territory, instead of some generic Friendly/Hostile/Neutral track. Server owners would be able to restrict it (not at all, after admin check, no restrictions), and players would also be able to disable custom faction territory tracks.

 

[Reilly Reese]

This is a very neat idea. Honestly the whole sound system needs an overhaul so hopefully the whole music thing gets done along with the sound soon.

 

[Valiant70]

Good idea! It's rather like uploading a skin, really. Perhaps music could be handled through a URL instead of uploading it to already-bloated server files.

 

[Lecic]

Good idea! It's rather like uploading a skin, really. Perhaps music could be handled through a URL instead of uploading it to already-bloated server files.

Either would work, though the issue I see with URLs is that you could edit it to be something else after an admin has allowed it.

 

[Valiant70]

Either would work, though the issue I see with URLs is that you could edit it to be something else after an admin has allowed it.

*hands Lecic a banhammer*

 

[Forgedrake]

I really don't want to see this as lets face it someones gonna chose a 10 hour song loop I have to download increasing my transfer not to mention someone or someones will pick inappropriate or purposefully annoying music

could you imagine someone making you listen to - the bird bird bird is the word - for several hours long - or narwhal? I'd want to kill everyone within 20mins

and while adding in the bandwidth needed for players on slower machines it really doesn't add much more then arguments on what is or isn't appropriate or how big of a file it should be

 

[Valiant70]

I really don't want to see this as lets face it someones gonna chose a 10 hour song loop I have to download increasing my transfer not to mention someone or someones will pick inappropriate or purposefully annoying music

could you imagine someone making you listen to - the bird bird bird is the word - for several hours long - or narwhal? I'd want to kill everyone within 20mins

and while adding in the bandwidth needed for players on slower machines it really doesn't add much more then arguments on what is or isn't appropriate or how big of a file it should be

That's why you disable your player music in options while you kill off the troll faction.

 

[Forgedrake]

I just don't see a big advantage of having it - more bandwidth to the game and server not to mention legal issues and other copyright info for using these songs in a game and all I get is a song someone else likes or lets face it - the star wars theme song - and its not like I'm gonna know who's faction music it is going to belong to

 

[Valiant70]

I just don't see a big advantage of having it - more bandwidth to the game and server not to mention legal issues and other copyright info for using these songs in a game and all I get is a song someone else likes or lets face it - the star wars theme song - and its not like I'm gonna know who's faction music it is going to belong to

Anything humans are involved in will be subject to abuse. Someone could make a skin of a monster with a head that looks like a large phallus. People frequently build objectionably shaped or decorated ships. Proper server moderation will prevent the issues you list here just as it does for ships, skins, chat, and everything else.

 

[Lecic]

not to mention someone or someones will pick inappropriate or purposefully annoying music

could you imagine someone making you listen to - the bird bird bird is the word - for several hours long - or narwhal?

"Server owners would be able to restrict it (not at all, after admin check, no restrictions), and players would also be able to disable custom faction territory tracks."

Either find a server with non-shitty admins, or turn it off. There will always be morons. It's up to server admins to deal with it if they want a good server.

not to mention legal issues and other copyright info for using these songs in a game

I'm pretty sure there are 0 legal reasons you couldn't play a song on a server, considering how there's no profit being made off that song. Also, if that's an issue you see, you better talk to all those replica builders, because a replica of a ship would be just as much cause for someone to sue. Remember to warn all the replica builders in Minecraft and Space Engineers too!

 

[jorgekorke]

Upload-able low-res faction emblems for menu/HUD would be a nice touch too.

 

[Poodleinacan]

Though, having custom themes from the internet (or computer) would also be nice.
.... Though, there would have to be a size limit, because no wants to download a 3Gb Wave file.

But I'd surely use this (or another theme from the Star Control 2 (screw SC3))


Or this one, so people know we knoe business.

 

[PizzaPress]

Some kind of volume limit(both max and overall volume) would be nice for the no-restrictions: someone might eventually get banned for an overly loud song, but we don't want anyone's ears bleeding.

 

[ne3zy]

my faction music
best

 

[Knack]

Because of Copyright, this is a REAL BAD IDEA.
I don't think every admin is a copyright expert and has the time to check the license of the uploaded music.

Copyright violation can cause draconian penalty, servers with 100 users could be charged for several tenthousends Euros/Dollars.
It could also be seen als illegal sharing platform.
Don't fuck with the content mafia.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

what Knack said.

While cool it would be a copyright infringement nightmare to include such an option as an official game feature.

would be better suited as a server-side mod of some kind

 

[Tydeth]

More likely, if StarMade were to have a customizable faction music system, it would involve "building" the tune in a system similar (at least in concept) to that of EA's Spore, with the only files sent to and from servers being text files telling the game clients how to make a faction's background music for their systems.

Why would this be more likely?

1. It would be much cheaper to make a few BGMs for non-player-controlled systems and create a little system for building tunes than it would to make potentially dozens or hundreds of the things that not everyone would use. Alternatively, just leave out the BGMs entirely and let server admins make their own Trading Guild/Pirate/whatever themes (and/or start a contest or such like with stations).
2. StarMade is a creative sandbox that is about building your own empire. Music is as much a part of faction identity in sci-fi as its ships/stations/uniforms that we can already create and share.
3. Code in a .jar is a lot smaller download during patching than music files, as is a text file from a server.
4. Like ships and stations, the resulting music would be user-generated content. This makes respecting the copyright the responsibility of the player uploading the file. Note the StarMade and SMD licenses for use both state that we're not supposed to upload content that violates copyright, and the SMD team can take down anything for any reason (including such violation). If the music-generating text files can be saved and uploaded to the Dock, the licenses already can cover that as well.

 

[Winterhome]

More likely, if StarMade were to have a customizable faction music system, it would involve "building" the tune in a system similar (at least in concept) to that of EA's Spore, with the only files sent to and from servers being text files telling the game clients how to make a faction's background music for their systems.

Why would this be more likely?

1. It would be much cheaper to make a few BGMs for non-player-controlled systems and create a little system for building tunes than it would to make potentially dozens or hundreds of the things that not everyone would use. Alternatively, just leave out the BGMs entirely and let server admins make their own Trading Guild/Pirate/whatever themes (and/or start a contest or such like with stations).
2. StarMade is a creative sandbox that is about building your own empire. Music is as much a part of faction identity in sci-fi as its ships/stations/uniforms that we can already create and share.
3. Code in a .jar is a lot smaller download during patching than music files, as is a text file from a server.
4. Like ships and stations, the resulting music would be user-generated content. This makes respecting the copyright the responsibility of the player uploading the file. Note the StarMade and SMD licenses for use both state that we're not supposed to upload content that violates copyright, and the SMD team can take down anything for any reason (including such violation). If the music-generating text files can be saved and uploaded to the Dock, the licenses already can cover that as well.

inb4 the local musicians see this and force Schema to add a digital audio workstation to SM at gunpoint

 

[Ithirahad]

This sounds pretty awesome... Inb4 someone uploads Fuck You as their faction territorial theme, though. And what about really shitty/shitty-quality music?

 

[Lecic]

This sounds pretty awesome... Inb4 someone uploads Fuck You as their faction territorial theme, though. And what about really shitty/shitty-quality music?

At the end of the day, if the admins want to have free uploading with no restrictions, they'll have to deal with those kinds of consequences themselves. Most quality servers will probably be running with the "After Admin Approval" option.