Please Add Music to the pre-Battle Screen!

from Elemental Forums

Hello wonderful people of Stardock and their fans, 

Most of us have played the total war games, and that series has made numerous breakthroughs in game design. The most important design decision the CA team ever made for the total war series was adding music to the pre-battle screen. I beg Stardock to steal this idea for Elemental. There is nothing like your army's extravagant fanfares, ominous chants, and booming timpani strokes to build tension for a timeless battle.  

Although because Elemental, unlike Total War, is not always about two armies fighting, perhaps different tunes could play for different situations - maybe one for fighting bandits and lizards in the wilderness and another for engagements with dragons and massive enemy armies. You could do this as extravagantly as you want, even just one universal track for all races and all situations is better than the silence we have now! The tracks don't need to be any longer than 30 seconds, but the effect will still be glorious (just make sure they start over automatically after a few seconds pause). You could even add an option to turn it off for people who find such things annoying. 

Ideally, we would get 1-2 tracks for each set of factions that is sufficiently different from the others (like maybe some kingdom factions would share tracks and some empire factions would share tracks). But I am not clamoring for this, I will take anything! 

Please, Frogboy, even if it's too expensive to pay for this extra music or it will take too much time or whatever the reason, can you add a blank space in an XML file where I can type in a path to a music file on my computer that will play whenever the pre-battle screen comes up? I can't imagine it taking too much time to implement the few lines of code this would take. 

I humbly submit my #1 most desired feature for Elemental for your review. I know in my gut your players will reap great enjoyment from something that you might think is stupidly minor. I'll leave the game design to the pros, but this little addition is truly something I think is very important for your game. Thanks for reading! 

 

edit: I forgot an extremely important point! If there is any loading involved at ALL for tactical battles, please make the music play through the loading screen/loading phase. It will make all the difference. 

elemental
6,637 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Since its the beta, its ok to assume that they can have 1,000 tracks, but Beta players only get 1. So wait

Plus isnt there a CD release with the Special edition? SO got to be like 16 good tracks in the game.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I find myself going "Bum-bum-BUM!  Bududududu..." some kind of lame trumpets / drums.  Sorry to fountain that unbridled artistic genius, hope you can keep up Stardock!

(Awkward squirming here)

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

It sounds like your immersion is enhanced with better aural presentations. That makes sense. Me, I would love it if they included a music player or gave us access to our own music player, so we can play whatever music we like comfortably from within the game.

So that way when the mood hits, I can switch to the Lord of the Rings Soundtracks, or maybe a King Arthur one, or the Dawn of War 2 40k music sound track (really outstanding work by the way). Or something more classical, or even parsing all that. Maybe something by Skillet (Hero, or Monster). 

I realize currently I can run Winamp in the background after turning off the music. But there are MMO's out there (Everquest 2, and others) that have built in keyboard commands that allow you to shut off the ingame music and begin playing your music lists. 

But I digress, music is important I agree.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I much prefer mood-set music, designed just for the game. I hope there's plenty of tracks.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Gorstagg, reply 3
It sounds like your immersion is enhanced with better aural presentations. That makes sense. Me, I would love it if they included a music player or gave us access to our own music player, so we can play whatever music we like comfortably from within the game.

So that way when the mood hits, I can switch to the Lord of the Rings Soundtracks, or maybe a King Arthur one, or the Dawn of War 2 40k music sound track (really outstanding work by the way). Or something more classical, or even parsing all that. Maybe something by Skillet (Hero, or Monster). 

I realize currently I can run Winamp in the background after turning off the music. But there are MMO's out there (Everquest 2, and others) that have built in keyboard commands that allow you to shut off the ingame music and begin playing your music lists. 

But I digress, music is important I agree.

That would be really nice, but changing tracks manually is a bit extra work during gameplay if you know what I mean. If there are predefined "categories" of tracks that play during different times (to which you could add your own tracks before the game even starts) that would be greatest. For example, Elemental will likely have the categories of "Peace BGM," "War BGM," and "Tactical Battle BGM." For me, the most critical "category" we're missing is the "pre-battle BGM." If you haven't played total war, have a listen to a few of Medieval 2's greatest "pre-battle BGM" tracks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzKFWz-tDD4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIOjEAgrNrM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G0Vy8C_sNg

This music plays as you stare down your enemy's army on the pre-battle screen and through the loading screen to the start of the battle. It's the ultimate way to get hyped up for each and every tactical battle. Stardock, we've got to have this! 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Oh I know about the Medieval 2 Total War music. It's in my music rotations! hehe... and I also use it in our D&D games on Sundays. Fantastic music, incredibly immersive!