Some music criticism

    I want to start out by saying that overall I love the music in the game. I just have a few praises/criticisms to make.
    My descriptions will likely be horrible because I don't know for sure what to call each track (except the main title and the Christmas title). Also, I'm not too well educated in music so I'm not sure what all the instruments are called. Anyways , here goes...


    1. One of the initial songs added with the texture overhaul (it sounds like another song I think added with the biomes update.. but is shorter and does not have a piano solo nor a certain melody that is present in a few others and #2 on this list began with before the into was modified). It doesn't seem to really add anything to the game. The longer version is nicer but it may be because I love piano so much). I wonder if the shorter one is an attempt at adding ambient music to the game (I'm a huge ambient and space music fan so I kind have a feel for that kind of stuff). I was wondering if this one might be improved on as well.


    2. The one song remixed and has the pipe organ intro added sounds amazing and is much improved over the old version


    3. The sleigh bell sounds in the Christmas title were removed (you can set your PC date to 12/25 to get the alternative title screen music to play) and I actually really liked it how it was before


    4. Another piece of music has a wind effect added in. I personally find this hauntingly beautiful in itself However, perhaps later on down the road, when weather is added, the wind effect could either be dropped from the music and played as a SFX. Wind should pick up strongly at this specific point. Also this seems only appropriate for winter biomes, i've heard it play in other areas too but it just has that certain "chill" to it


    5. In general, certain pieces of music should play at certain times in the day/night cycle or in certain biomes (I think this is Waveshapr's goal because some of the titles in the fmod file are labeled like "transition to snowy biome", or "snowy biome 1" however I don't feel the music is completely implemented to be daycycle or biome specific)... One specific song has a "rising" sound as part of it's melody. This seems most appropriate to hear at sunrise while the other calm melodic daytime tunes are more appropriate for various times in the afternoon. However I've heard this at other times throughout the day.

    What are you suggesting? Better music? A problem in current music?


    Personally I don't know I leave music off in most games including this one.
    I spend time listening to podcast, tv or personal music.


    I only leave effect / ambient sounds on.
    I hate constant noises in games like going into a city in game all I hear is same conversations and humming like it's a meat market.


    I end up killing bears because they are noisy.
    I don't want hear constant flies and bugs disgusting animal & constant sounds.
    I have my character who will be making noise by his working and moving too.
    Ambient sound shouldn't be overwhelming, it's not music.
    I got mining noises and the like in ambient sounds now for no reason also annoying to me, but over all it's not constantly doing that.
    As far as music goes yeah sure "change it" my music will still be off.
    I don't know why you care about ambient sounds if your music is on.
    If this game ever gets too noisy with ambient sounds I will turn that off too then complain to everyone about the ambient sounds are driving me insane but so far it's not constant noise which is good.
    If you ask me the mining sound that is ambient server wide makes no sense.
    Flies I could imagine if you just killed some animal or your in a garden.
    I rather like some ambient sounds. Crickets at night, birds at sunrise, wind blowing, trees rustling and dead silence good too.
    The trees blowing in wind / leaf rustling sound is very common in real nature yet I usually don't hear that in games perhaps everyone is inside in real life.
    I think i will enjoy it when if he adds rain /soft thunder sounds and similar sounds from other nature tracks for jungles / rivers / snow and oceans biomes depending on proximity.
    You know he doesn't even have (mobs sounds) so soon you will wish for the peaceful ambient sounds back.
    I enjoy music off & nature sounds on like I am fishing on a lake or outside on a nice day.

    Hi Yak,


    Waveshapr said that with most of the sfx issues out of the way that he wanted to retun his focus to improving the existing game music and adding some new music. So I'm offering some of my own observations and suggestions. My concern about #1 is not referring to the the ambient sound effects in the game, I'm referring to ambient music (if you ever listen to Hearts of Space or Echoes on NPR then you'll have an idea of what the genre is).

    I am sure more variety and new tracks would improve any game including this one.
    One of the few games I left music on is APB because if you joined a team and they turned on a song you could hear it to. Which is kind cool I don't know how they never got in trouble doing that but
    my team mates would load a MP3 song play it, exactly like the car radio feature in Grand Theft Auto, it stream the song to all teammates. At same time you still have VOIP to everyone

    I remember Second Life had the same thing and it certainly added a personalized feel to when someone would teleport into your world. It certainly would be a nice feature to have in vanilla Rising World (its been discussed before here) but if not then perhaps a plugin script could exploit the voice chat feature (does RW even have that?)

    Quote from YakMe

    Personally I don't know I leave music off in most games including this one.
    I only leave effect / ambient sounds on.
    I hate constant noises in games like going into a city in game all I hear is same conversations and humming like it's a meat market.


    Hear, hear! I'm glad someone else expressed exactly my feelings (as I tend to have heterodox opinions...).


    I also always turn music off in all software, hate ambient music in 'real world' situations (shops, restaurants, elevators, ...) and enjoy the silence, when possible, with a little addition of natural noises. Even natural noises might be disturbing in the reality (there is ore specific bird in my garden which whistles a single note call every few seconds and might go on for hours: if it catches your attention once, you risk to go mad!) and I would prefer even them to be rather low in volume and far apart in the game.


    About the music itself, being an amateur musician myself, I understand it might sound disrespectful and I am sorry, but do whatever you like, as @YakMe, I will keep most likely it turned off.

    Quote from Miwarre


    Hear, hear! I'm glad someone else expressed exactly my feelings (as I tend to have heterodox opinions...).


    I also always turn music off in all software, hate ambient music in 'real world' situations (shops, restaurants, elevators, ...) and enjoy the silence, when possible, with a little addition of natural noises. Even natural noises might be disturbing in the reality (there is ore specific bird in my garden which whistles a single note call every few seconds and might go on for hours: if it catches your attention once, you risk to go mad!) and I would prefer even them to be rather low in volume and far apart in the game.


    About the music itself, being an amateur musician myself, I understand it might sound disrespectful and I am sorry, but do whatever you like, as @YakMe, I will keep most likely it turned off.


    Perhaps in this we are the same. I don't know how many times morning doves with the giant loud "CAH COO COO COO, WOO WOO WOO" at 5 am I can deal with. The little bird chirps I don't mind it's not bellowing as that.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0LKPT1u1E8


    It's like a bad flute player trying to play
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsDP2ZxZMu8

    Quote from Miwarre


    ...hate ambient music in 'real world' situations (shops, restaurants, elevators, ...)


    As I told Yak, I'm referring to ambient music (ambient being a genre of music just like rock, rap, country, classical, etc..) not the sound effects in the game.


    Quote from Miwarre


    About the music itself, being an amateur musician myself, I understand it might sound disrespectful and I am sorry, but do whatever you like, as @YakMe, I will keep most likely it turned off.


    Alright, I'm getting a vibe here. I'm offering some criticism about the music in the game. Are you seeing my criticism of the music to be disrespectful? From my point of view criticizing music (especially as a component of this game) should be no different from criticizing any other element of the game whether is be the functionality of the construction system or a recipe on a workbench.

    Oh ok. I really didn't mean any negative criticism towards Waveshapr or the work he's done so far. I think its great and I look forward to future improvements.


    I don't think turning down the music or sounds for your personal preference is disrespectful towards the artist at all. I've done some composition myself when I was younger. Totally big into the trackers and the demo scene back in the day :)

    know what would be great, being able to have a option to stream a radio station into the game for all to hear. And to make it even better, make a api for lua so us scripters can do some funky stuff like with area protection.


    Lot A is playing a rock station while Lot B (next door) is playing a blues radio station.

    Quote from Chrisx84

    know what would be great, being able to have a option to stream a radio station into the game for all to hear. And to make it even better, make a api for lua so us scripters can do some funky stuff like with area protection.


    Lot A is playing a rock station while Lot B (next door) is playing a blues radio station.


    Hi (former) neighbour! This reminds me of another nuisance of real world noisy environment: the guys who force on you their musical tastes by driving around with windows down and music at top volume. Scripting interfaces are always good, but I would find this annoying and I would ask for an audio setting to turn it off (or for it to be lumped in the music audio setting). :S

    Hey everyone,


    I thought I might pop in and share the actual titles, so we know what we're talking about.


    See this link for a 30 second preview of each piece of music:
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/kl77p3dri2wxe9x/Rising World Pieces.mp3?dl=0


    Here are the titles, the times they come up in the audio file and their intended place in the game:


    1. Atop the Tallest Mountain (0:00) – specifically written for mountainous areas
    2. Field of Snow in Sight (0:32)– for transitional areas between the woods and snowy biomes (tundra)
    3. Icy Breeze (1:04) – for use in snowy biomes
    4. It's Clearly Warmer Here (1:36) – transition to the woods
    5. Through Pale Moonlight (2:08) – for nights in the woods
    6. A New Dawn (2:41) – mornings in the woods
    7. My Feet Are Killing Me (3:12) – transition from the woods to deserts
    8. The Sweet Smell of Maple (3:44) – for general use in the woods
    9. Muffled Echoes Of Bells (4:16) – nights in snowy biomes
    10. Glistering Rays (4:48) – for general use in the snowy biomes


    Everything is still subject to change and I consider most of them demos at this point. If colors, animations and other things change so much as to change the mood in the game, there's still room to adjust or kill and replace pieces that don't fit.
    :)

    Finally found that damn track that spooks the hell out of me when it chimes in out of nowhere! Glistering Rays used to play a lot in my first test world that I had to mute the damn music side of things for how it startled me for how 'out of nowhere' it was. A 'horror' type soundeffect just playing out of nowhere. So glad I don't really hear it anymore because I feel that random piano key noise being misplaced & startling.


    That, and the odd wood cracking & such, yet those I can tolerate. The piano-synth not so much.

    Holy f*** those dungeons are going to give me the nightmares with that kind of music! Very effective ;-p


    And ok, so back to my original criticism now that we have a playlist sorted out, like. First, tracks 3 and 10 are reversed in this playlist unless something else is changing. But its the same piece that ArcticKitsu complained about. The shorter of the two ( "Glistering Rays" or "Icy Breeze") seems a bit out of place. I know the affect you're trying to go for so maybe it just needs some tweaking. Maybe it's the initial note that is sustained a bit long and rather loud. That's about as much concrete criticism I can give for it.


    "Field of Snow in Sight"... Thats the one remixed recently that sounds incredible!


    And these demos must be for unreleased versions of the music. Something about them stand out about them as different or maybe because they are originals, not processed by fmod. Very high quality indeed.

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