This is an IDEA from the COMMUNITY. This is not a VR plan or anything I've ever heard of in any game really. End of disclaimer.
I'm not a networking or game design nerd. I'm a fan, a musician, and I want to run something by you other smarter folks in the community.
Imagine the combat music you would like to hear in Pantheon, whatever it is. Now, simplify it a bit from what you are thinking. Strip out some of the soaring strings or unnerving minor-heavy laments of a Russian all-male choir. Take it down to the pocket. Melody. Rhythm. Mood. What if there were a way to take that fundamental track and layer it with accompaniments specific to races, factions, or mob types. I'm talking dynamic motif fight music based on where you are and what you are fighting. Take your base fight music in your head, on a 30-sec track loop or whatever, find a perfect spot in there to overlay the eerie oriental stringed instrument from Joppa's Khaga track, or bring back that Russian all-male choir as an accompanying second melody in one single spot that hearkens to the music of the deptsh of Amberfaet.
I was hoping someone could enlighten me if this could be done server side or if it would have to be client side. I envisioned tracks on a server side clock, always running. whenever a fight is initiated, it picks up where on the loop the server is and begins playing whichever loops are necessary depending on what you are fighting at the same server-set time. So, your fight music doesn't always start at the top of the loop, you jump in wherever it is.At that point tracks themselves can be either client or server, but they know where to begin their loop based on this ticker controlled by the server and it says which tracks to play simultaneously. So the Black Rose accompaniment track is completely quiet except for a two second window at two different spots where it adds its own color to the track. Or maybe it's a 5 second part. Is this possible with all the other processing going on or is this too heavy a lift?
Just imagine though. Each time you fight, the combat music is slightly different and feels much more intimate to the specific fight you are in. Youre fighting some North Tusk Orcs and you get a bear add and all of a sudden you have this extra loud two-chord minor crescendo at one point in the loop that scares the crap out of you. The possibilities become overwhelming.
Is this doable from a game design standpoint? Would it be a good idea? Thoughts?
I expect the ingame music to adjust to the situation that I am in. Each city and zone to have its own theme. I expect 'danger' to show up in the music. I don't particularly expect every type of mob to have its own danger theme. But it would awesome if it did.
So I think that the answer you are looking for is more a matter of degree than an absolute yes-no.
And given Joppa's background in music (not to mention the great stuff he's already written for the game), I think there is reason for optimism.
I remember that some time ago VR mentioned that they were looking for a composer for game music. Since we haven't heard anything more on the subject, I'll guess that other more pressing needs put that quest on hold. So we might not get much of an official response to this question until they actually hire a Dev for the job.
But it's a great subject for discussion.
Jothany said:I don't particularly expect every type of mob to have its own danger theme. But it would awesome if it did.
In this scenario, it wouldn't be every mkob, for sure. The purpose of motifs is that it creates a mood for something specific. The whole bear example above could just be that the creatures in Avendyr's Pass have their own layer for the cobat track that's the same for all animals in Avendyr's Pass that hearkens back to the zone's main theme. If you pull a North Tusk Orc and a wolf, it plays the North Tusk Orc themed layer and the Avendyr's Pass layer over top of the fight music.
This would be easy to do since a zone's layer may have more of an impact to the combat music loop than a particular monster and since you'll never be in two zones at once, these layers don't have to be able to work together. However, if there's some North Tusk Orcs that have a camp far out in Silent Plains. Their layer could have hints of the Avendyr's Pass theme interweaved in the North Tusk Orc layer so that could come across but it wouldn't fight with the more complex zone layer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFEVGRJFcVg
oh this might get removed. it in regards to nier automata vertical dynamic music. this is so good if VR does this.
yes its doeable in any game design, especially with unity. u just need to pay your audio tech and engineer some more money.
Doesn't matter to me. Music is usually the first thing I turn off. It doesn't add to the game IMO. I know some really love it, but I find it distracting.
I would rather have more realistic surround sound. To hear someone/something coming up behind me, hear the wind, leaves, moving water. I'd rather be one with the environment while playing.
This sounds like a fantastic idea.
Different music for different zones is pretty normal and expected, we've seen Pantheon has musical triggers when discovering things, like the hole in a wall in Halnir Cave triggering The Snow Falls during one of CohhCarnage's Warrior streams with the devs.
I enjoyed games like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark which had music for each level, then a more intense version of each track at the end of the level when things escalated.
Freelancer also had a lot of music for different areas and then different battle music for different key events and also for other general areas depeding on whether it was a light, heavy or mysterious attack.
Music for fighting certain key enemies or zones would be neat, orcs, undead, Amberfaet, Black Rose, wraiths etc.
The music and sinister atmosphere that was created for the Hyoket fight in Cohh's most recent stream with the devs was fantastic.
Id like to see a system that takes this one step further, where a group member could play the combat music them self. Maybe a cross between guitar hero and AC2's player music system. If the player manages to play certain segments of the sequence correctly, it grants the group certain combat bonuses.
This is a BUMP but only because we received more info from Rob and Kyle. They were asked a question near the end of the stream that led to game audio conversations. While they were unclear what the question was specifically, they did mention that VR has been doing at least some digging around to find a worthy company to assist with audio FX and/or compositions. The discussion they had was specifically about "layering" the music it seemed. This is precisely what this article was about, having dynamic music in the game that introduced layers of scores depending on where/what you were fighting over a base standard combat track. I hope this is what they were referring to. Joppa, care to elaborate pretty please?!?!?!??!?!!?!
stellarmind said:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFEVGRJFcVg
oh this might get removed. it in regards to nier automata vertical dynamic music. this is so good if VR does this.
yes its doeable in any game design, especially with unity. u just need to pay your audio tech and engineer some more money.
I just now got around to watching this vid, Stellar. Thanks for the link. that is pretty close. Right idea, but done slightly different. I noticed there were distinct differences from one piece to the next, so they weren't just overlaying additional tracks, but each was its own song that faded in and out completely. The only think I would do different to minimize strain on audio files is have each one as a track that is overlayed. The end result is almost the same though, and Nier Automata does a great job. makes me wanna go buy it.
Years ago Joppa spoke about using different music as subtle audio 'cues' and 'prompts'. I remember a stream where, if you were paying attention, as you approached a particular rock formation the music subtley changed to something 'mysterious' and, sure enough, if you looked around, there was a crumbled statue in amongst the rocks (which had some in-game meaning).
That was supposed to be a technique that would be used elsewhere and, yeah, would be cool if different areas had different 'fight' music and whatnot.
Since the 'lead guy' used to be the 'music guy' I'm pretty sure Joppa is 'on' this, but it's not a current priority, like many things ;^)
Battle music is the reason I turn of Music. Often they cannot be turned off seperately.
Just walking around and having to hear a battle tune as soon as something aggros me becomes annoying. Think about what happens if you are just passing through an zone. I rather just have the background music that doesn't play all the time.
I really doubt Dynamic Battle music would change my opinion. If it just interrupts the zone music when a battle starts I don't see the point.
Sorry I am just disgruntled about battle music, I can't seem to see anything positive about it. So people who do enjoy battle music, just ignore my post! ;)