(New?) Update Idea - MUSIC Overhaul!

As I was playing a new Psi assault dominator, I could not help but be distracted by what was marring an otherwise great power, Telekinetic Thrust... and that happened to be the poor quality sound effect it uses, practically to the point of distortion.

And so, I thought of this post and a much-needed bump. As it stands, I would be surprised if sound and music comprise 1% of any new content's development time.

Good idea, I turned the music off 2 years ago or something. The GR char creator song was kinda neat though.

Music is a VERY powerful tool in creating atmosphere, emotion and actually making your players CARE about what is taking place before them. And I'm not talking about just action music that gets your heart racing, I mean mood music of all kinds, from sad tunes to punctuate a tragedy or a terrible situation, to soothing melodic tunes to describe the beauty of a scenic location, to mysterious, strange music that brings home just how alien and incomprehensible a location is.

I know artists, painters, sculptors and other people of the visual arts will often play mood music as they work to help them get into the right state of mind and retain it as they work, and I know that I will often find inspiration for an entire story just from the basic emotion a piece of music brings. If you can harness that into your game and actually direct it to match and emphasise events, you can create a much stronger experience than your typical MMO gameplay video you'll find on YouTube where a character repeatedly swings a sword at the same five enemies for a while to the sound of clicking keys and cooling fans. There are few better ways to make a game look and feel boring.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I still play with the music on, even after going on four years. Some zones, I just really enjoy the music (especially the Praetoria stuff, but still some original zones). What really surprised me, though, was the cutscene music from Adair's arc. When I first heard it, I was amazed - it gave it a whole new level of awesome.

Then you've got the 'GET THE HELL OUT OF THE BUILDING' music from the end of Leonard's arc, which also totally rocks...

Add another vote to getting OminousVoice to do music for the game...

... failing that, I'd love to hear what Chance Thomas can do with COH.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Having persistent music play throughout an entire zone would be a very good thing. It could give the zones a LOT more flavour. The one you linked to, for instance, sounds like something that would be really appropriate for Grandville (obviously) or Boomtown, or, hell, even something like Sharkhead Island.

Right now, a zone's "theme" is so poorly delivered and so hard to feel that it's like someone sitting down to explain the plot synopsis of a great movie. You just can't get the same experience. Adding music would transform this from an explanation to an actual first-hand experience.

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To be honest, City of Heroes may have a lot of good things going for it, but presentation has never been one of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

There's music? No kidding?

I've been playing THAT other MMO with a friend recently, and they always do great soundtracks for their expansions. In fact, the theme of "Wrath of the Lich King" was cued up on my mp3 player, and used as part of the soundtrack to my first ride into Manhattan this past fall, no word of a lie.

In City of Heroes, I only bother with the game music in Preatoria, because it's actually pretty good. Otherwise, I turn the sound off and don't bother. Most of the in-game music is stale and boring, IMHO.