Vanguard - Nino posts a bit about music for the game

[Braen]

I know some of this was posted before, but I thought the amount of music he mentions is interesting:

http://www.vanguardsagaofheroes.com/...182#post319182

Music for Vanguard is thematic in nature and is tailored to the specific region you are exploring. On top of that, each of these areas has combat music that compliments the ambient music heard while travelling and exploring. We've gone to great lengths to make the compositions as varied and diverse as possible. We've announced three continents thus far: Thestra, Qalia, and Kojan. Thestran music is based on western musical instrumentation and harmonic structures and ranges from pastoral to epic. Qalian music has more middle eastern influences both in instrument selection and chord progressions. Kojanese music takes thematic elements and instrumental selections from the Orient and Pacific Rim. Each continent has a very specific look, and therefore we supplied a very specific sound to accompany the visuals.

I know it is impossible to make everyone happy, but we really do have a large depth of variety so far. To put it in perspective, I have 7.7GB of uncompressed music files built for the game so far that encompass some 90+ regions; and I am still have much to do. Factor in that in each region there is music for day, night, and two distinct combat modules. There really is a TON of compositions in the game.

[Skars]

Maybe it's just me but I haven't come across a game that has great music. Every game ends up having the sound turned off 30 mins into it. Hopefully Vanguard can be different, I doubt it however.

[Braen]

One of the reasons you turn off the music in Eq was that you heard the music over and over and over for hours, days, months and in some cases years...

And of course the rise of MP3s helped.

[Iannis]

The combat drumroll became the normal music, not the zone music.

And I hated that combat drumroll after awhile. RV and Otterfolk village music still got turned on though.

[Dandai]

I never heard better music in EQ than when you walked along the shore in West Karana. Never heard it any where else but it was pretty damn good, even for MIDI.

[beepbeepbeep]

Diablo 2 defines good game music for me. Atmospheric and enjoyable, with a ton of character.

http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/diablo2/...eek/d2mp3s.zip

For anyone interested.

[Braen]

Icewind Dale was great too.

[Camerous]

Best game music ever was FFII. <3 FFII music!!

[Asmadai]

Originally Posted by Dandai

I never heard better music in EQ than when you walked along the shore in West Karana. Never heard it any where else but it was pretty damn good, even for MIDI.

Hell yeah, that and the music when you were on the boat in Odus were great.

[Neric]

What's the purpose of talking about music that nobody can listen to? Sample pls!

[Vagoo]

i havent played a game yet with the music on. sound effects yes, music no. id rather listen to my music.

[Froofy-D]

Best in-game music ever was Unreal 1 IMHO. This has been rehashed a lot on the VG boards, but if you want music not turned off:

1) Don't make ambient music loop forever. When you enter a new zone/area it plays once thats it.

2) Keep tracks short. That way if you dont like it, it is over fast. If you do like it you wont get bored of it.

3) Give the option to turn off combat music only, or make combat music a short piece to signify combat then its done. I think combat sounds are integral to realistic combat. You can hear the mob coming up behind you. You can hear your cleric getting mauled before his HPs start dropping. You can hear a caster chanting so start trying to interrupt. Stuff like that.

4) Short sound effects/music to signify special or dangerous areas would be cool. Like the scary sounds you hear when someone enters the creepy house in a horror movie. Or when they know someone is following them.

[Mkopec1]

Originally Posted by Froofy-D

Best in-game music ever was Unreal 1 IMHO. This has been rehashed a lot on the VG boards, but if you want music not turned off:

1) Don't make ambient music loop forever. When you enter a new zone/area it plays once thats it.

2) Keep tracks short. That way if you dont like it, it is over fast. If you do like it you wont get bored of it.

3) Give the option to turn off combat music only, or make combat music a short piece to signify combat then its done. I think combat sounds are integral to realistic combat. You can hear the mob coming up behind you. You can hear your cleric getting mauled before his HPs start dropping. You can hear a caster chanting so start trying to interrupt. Stuff like that.

4) Short sound effects/music to signify special or dangerous areas would be cool. Like the scary sounds you hear when someone enters the creepy house in a horror movie. Or when they know someone is following them.

Yeah, remember the origonal Resident Evil or those Tomb Raider games for PS1?

The music built up drama, so you knew some bad shit was gonna happen. Music and sound was a huge and integral part of that game. The music in mmorpgs needs to be more varied. You spend so much time in these games that you really get sick of the music eventually even if its badass.

[Merklyn]

I'd really rather prefer music that's appropriate for that location. Raucous bar music when at a tavern. Minstrel's and bards for the (travelling) faire. War drums when appropriate. Creepy wailing in an undead region. Spending a lot more time on audio ambience would be much more worthwhile to me than background music. Make auditory cues to help me play the game and get immerssed instead of fancy music that only gets in the way if played too loud.

Also, I largely despise music that gives away the danger before it happens. There's a very fine line between foreshadowing / ominous doom and telling you straight out that you're going to get jumped in 3 seconds and you can't do anything about it. There's precious little (no?) music in Thief and I've had some freakishly heart wrenching moments in that game.

On a side note: I still have that goddamn FF7 Golden Saucer song stuck in my head. Sometimes I actually like it.

[AladainAF]

I liked the PoP music in EQ, but the worst of all time has got to be the Sarutabaruta music in FFXI. UGH. Talk about bang-your-face-in-the-wall repetitiveness.