Reactive music

invader Zim

<div class="IPBDescription">music that changes with game play</div>It seems to be generally agreed that music affects the atmosphere of a game. However during a 10min game on ns1 the type of atmosphere can change as the game progresses. Could the score in NS2 change as the game progresses?

How could this be done practically?
in NS1 rt control is a pretty good indicator of whos controlling the game. If one team controls many rts, they are probably kciking ass. and the team with few rts are in a tight often tense spot, maybe feeling tense atmosphere. The sound track could be triggered by the number of rts a team has capped. so if a team has 2 or less rts the music selects from a list of tense, impending doom esc music scores. If a team has 7 or more rts they could get music selected from a list a kind of up beat lets go kick ass music. The factor that influences the music selection doesnt have to be rts - maybe ns2 wont have rts, but it could be DI expansion or any other quantifiable game component that indicates the pace of play. Im not a programmer but im sure a system based on this idea could be implimented i know it would not take many lines of psuedo code to outline.

A more complex system could be employed for shorter term changes in atmosphere, like between fights and random wanderings around corridors, but this would be harder to code.

any thoughts

corpsman

I think the only way you could use it and not get too repetative, is by only using it during the fighting. First of all, I don't know if I ever listen to the game's music, except for professionally created tracks, like those found in either a hardcore shooter, with a band like TOOL or Megadeath doing the good stuff, or in RPGs like Oblivion where ther music is orchestrated. Not to sound like the music the devs would choose would suck, but if it's not that good, then noone will use it, plus how much does that cost? They are selling the newer version, so I am guessing now they could not just include tracks from whomevers CD for free-

Back to the main issue, when/how, it seems like the only answer that feels right is when the fighting gets intense. If the music plays all the time, then it gets boring, overused and people will just shut it off. Games like Morrowind would only slowly ramp up the music when you started to get kills and see more enemies charging at you. So maybe if they do decide to include something, it would feel right and add to the mood, by having it slowly get louder and faster when 3 or more kills are in progress. The game could simply detect 2-3 kills in X amount of time = ######s goin down = start music. Then if the action continues, the game slowly speeds up the music to full speed [like a faster beat], until the fighting stops.

But having it play all the time, that would just get turned off after a couple days probably. I listen to my ipod anyways, so I wouldnt care, but never know.