It's time to have a serious discussion about Bards.

[SwearinAaron]

Before I start, I want to emphasize that this is not an anti-Bard post. If anything, it's actually a pro-Bard post, which will hopefully open a discussion about Bards being useful for a change, which is what I'm aiming for here.

Now I love me some Bards, I've even tinkered around with LuteBot myself, just for the hell of it. After all, nothing soothes the soul quite like the sweet sound of music, right?

Well, unfortunately, that sweet sound of soothing goodness goes right out the window when three Bards and ten Soldiers are having a musical circle jerk in some dark corner at the base, while other people are left to fight 1v5s on the objective. For those that don't understand what this means, well, it kind of ruins the game as this will certainly guarantee defeat for whichever team has the most Bards.

Now obviously, you can't just "remove" instruments from the game, as being a Bard is (sort of) an integral part of the game now. There's a whole ass guild and multiple programs for whichever fool wants to stand around all day and play music. It simply wouldn't be fair to just take a giant dump down all of their throats, even though their usefulness in battle is questionable, to say the least.

This is why I am proposing an idea for Bards to provide AoE buffs in-game, as long as you're in radius of them. I'm not talking about anything too crazy here, probably something like faster health and stamina regeneration for starters. Make the instruments cost more points, put a "Bard" perk in the game that allows said buffs to work, something along these lines. Obviously balancing is important, but not as important as Bards needing to be useful on the battlefield.

Discuss, post ideas, have at it.

[Automaton-37467]

I like it but i think some people wouldn’t because it would give an insensitive to kill them and a lot of them just wanna be chilling with everyone. Also im not sure if that would fix them just standing in a remote area or spawn because you could still do it. But it would be cool because then it would give people that still want to be useful or serious players an insensitive to use the lute.

[★Captain Kirk★]

At this rate add mages and healers, spells all that stuff :D

[Automaton-37467]

Originally posted by ★Captain Kirk★:

At this rate add mages and healers, spells all that stuff :D

It would be more like a moral boost

[DeSoto]

Good bards already do that. Bad bards get killed by both teams lol.

[Eliphaser]

I think part of the issue could be solved by having bards do more than just sit aimlessly in a corner of the map
if they were playing the music near the battlefield/objective (and not on it), or just generally directing players that follow them towards the actual battle, this might also help around

compared to having half the team lollygagging near a random bard for half the match in some random corner of the map, that'd be an improvement

fake bards that actually play the objective and attack people with their lute are also funny to see, and they are actually more useful to the team than a classic, "neutral" bard

[Catatonic Twitch Streamer]

it's only fair: a health buff for awful music to listen to.

[MEDIC MAN]

yo this is genius!

[Philwhore]

omg this conversation is so serious i really value this

[Buuhanon]

I don't think that it should be added. Just because some players are already unkillable, but with any sort of buffs, it would make few players absolutley immortal.
What I would really like to propose, is a perk that makes bard, dealing very little damage no matter the weapon, however - being really thick and barerly taking any damage, as well as unable to interact with objectives at all. Thus, make them indeed a walking radio.
On other side, a bard actually making any sort of buffs - would be very cool to the game, but why not got even further and provide the game with outright magic? Casting fire-balls and so on?

Or they could gain points for making music around players, or around objectives!

[Blackhawk]

I agree that it's getting out of hand when you're losing while 1/3 of your team is either playing Star Wars on the lute or shield surfing.

I just don't think that's the solution.

[Martial Autist]

Originally posted by Blackhawk:

I agree that it's getting out of hand when you're losing while 1/3 of your team is either playing Star Wars on the lute or shield surfing.

I just don't think that's the solution.

I think you are correct. The main problem in my opinion is a lack of incentive. A win (or even just being near the top of the scoreboard) is worth little compared to just doing whatever. So while a decent amount of players do push objectives, some roam the map alone looking for individuals to fight without doing much to really push the team forward, and some just lolligag. Because the end result is much the same for everyone. I've never really seen it as an issue personally but it is what it is.

Maybe it would help to double the base payout on a win.

[Wabbits]

As a bard, i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate when other bards try and play the music with me. Any ping at all makes the music sound from quite nice where i edit midis to fit lute, into sounding like actual ear rape because they just have to join me. Too many bards in one game because of a bard perk would add too much ear rape to the whole map

[Icey Coldddd]

Originally posted by ★Captain Kirk★:

At this rate add mages and healers, spells all that stuff :D

+1