Goonhub
In ten words or less: You can play an instrument live on the radio channel.
I like Radio hosts. I like that they can play music and ad spots. I certainly wish there was a hell of a lot more of both because after a while: I've had to turn the music off or go absolutely spare. I also like that we have a variety of people who enjoy playing a musical instrument on station. Sometimes, people will set up and do this in an area all round. I like the custom DJ function that lets admins inject their own music into a round, but know that in no way at any time could this function ever be offered to players beyond the limited scope of the occasional prayer for a particular track or song.
As a result, I feel radio hosts generally fall into phased stages of life: First, they actually play a lot of music, even radio ads. Then they begin to realise there's a couple dozen tracks far less ads and begin to transition into a talkshow-based format. Don't get me wrong, I like that too, but I feel like there's an opportunity here to bring a few things together for the benefit of round in general.
In essence, I think that in a time-limited or use-dependent fashion, allowing someone to perform on an instrument "live" and it play as if it was coming from (and controlled by the same audio slider for those not interested) somewhere local to listening players. I think this addition could:
The potential problems I see with this idea (and a mitigating factor) are:
As a result, I feel radio hosts generally fall into phased stages of life: First, they actually play a lot of music, even radio ads. Then they begin to realise there's a couple dozen tracks far less ads and begin to transition into a talkshow-based format. Don't get me wrong, I like that too, but I feel like there's an opportunity here to bring a few things together for the benefit of round in general.
In essence, I think that in a time-limited or use-dependent fashion, allowing someone to perform on an instrument "live" and it play as if it was coming from (and controlled by the same audio slider for those not interested) somewhere local to listening players. I think this addition could:
- Give and attract more attention to radio hosts and musicians
- Break up the fantastic but I would argue "overplayed" (for anyone who has played more than say a few months) real tracks
- Be nice to listen to for those who are focused on departmental jobs and might not get to come hear their performances normally in a round.
The potential problems I see with this idea (and a mitigating factor) are:
- How easy this is to code. I have no idea, but asking around on the discord gave no immediate response of "Absolutely not are you crazy". This is a key hurdle though.
- What if someone spends the entire round playing mary had a little lamb? First off, good taste, but I agree! I would suggest a "music window" with a similar performance time and cooldown as any other track played on the radio. You are given X minutes to perform the piece, and there's Y minutes before you can play, do, or put in an advert for anything else.
- "buddy this idea is very bad for <reasons>": I've had this idea sitting at the back of my mind for a month since the vinyl "admin" discs were made. It is a bugbear that scratches at my mind and I need to get it out. I have no problem if you kindly point out how terrible this is for reasons I've missed! But someone waves a rolled newspaper in my direction if I put an idea on discord but don't put it here, so here it is.