Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity [BETA RELEASED, GO TO THE NEW THREAD]

[Nihiliste]

The screens look awesome.

 

[Hormalakh]

Not sure if anyone else noticed this, but the river screenshot looks like there will be times where it will flood, and will cover up certain paths. You can tell because there's basically two "edges to the river."

Looks awesome. Especially with the two caves on the right.

Also, the art for dyrford matches the stronghold art. I bet dyrford is where the stronghold is located.

 

[Sensuki]

I'm not really a big fan of that track either. The string instrumentation just sounds really flat as well. It has a little bit of IE-ness in there but as others mentioned in the Eternity thread for the game there's more of other games in that track.

 

[kazgar]

Not sure if anyone else noticed this, but the river screenshot looks like there will be times where it will flood, and will cover up certain paths. You can tell because there's basically two "edges to the river."

Looks awesome. Especially with the two caves on the right.

Also, the art for dyrford matches the stronghold art. I bet dyrford is where the stronghold is located.

didn't they show a river height change animated in some video last year?

 

[Hormalakh]

They did. It was an example of dynamic maps. They'll obviously use it again in places that make sense. I think this river is one of those places.

 

[catfood]

That music was just as bland and uninspiring as I imagined it to be.

Here's an example of a good atmospheric village track:

 

[garren]

Heh, somehow that track reminds me of this

 

[Cynic]

That music was just as bland and uninspiring as I imagined it to be.

Here's an example of a good atmospheric village track:

Don't have to even listen to know this is Homlett

 

[MicoSelva]

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66060-update-76-music-in-pillars-of-eternity/?p=1440348

I almost always turn music off in RPG game mainly because I don't like the way music always changes so abruptly in response to events like combat or area change - I just always find it more irritating than atmospheric. My enjoyment is typically greater without music. Now - ambient sound is a different thing altogether - that always enhances if done well.

That saying a good theme such as the one illustrated here does help atmosphere but I wonder if it would be possible to have a setting that turns off looping so a player can hear such tunes upon entry to an area to create the mood but then have them fade out after a single play and rely on ambient noises to maintain that mood?

First, thanks everyone for contributing to this discussion! Its great to hear your feedback.

Regarding loops, as Zeckul rightly pointed out, the IE games had silence in between loops. I could have phrased what I said in the update better. To clarify, we will implement the music in a similar way as the IE games so that the loops don't happen in rapid succession. So I suppose the answer to your question is both yes and no. Yes there will be some areas where you'll hear only ambient sounds (like birds) for a span of time, followed by ambient sounds and music etc. And there will also be places where there will be wall to wall music.

In most cases it will boil down to how much time the player spends in a given area. In areas like quest hubs, where you may spend a lot of time talking to quest givers, the music will have space in between each loop to de-emphasize any kind of temporal awareness imparted by looping music. For smaller areas that don't take a lot of time to clear, such as a small dungeon, looping is more of a viable option.

But ultimately it come downs to feel. If the music starts to feel overpowering and too repetitious in one area, we'll either modify the music if there's time to do so, or we'll tune the looping pattern to address the issue somehow. Nothing is worse (to me at least) than overpowering game music that saturates the senses. Of course there's always a time an place for that, but in a game like this, it would be a deliberate choice rather than the default position if that makes any sense.

They should just copy IE music format (format, not the tunes). Music in those games was really cleverly done. Every track was divided into small pieces, which would play in sequence and make the whole truck, if uninterrupted. But for each track there were also a few separate small pieces who could serve as an end to the tune at any given point. In case of an encounter or other interruption, the correct 'end piece' would play and combat music (for example) would start. There was never a sudden jarring tune switch.

Combat music was created the same way, so it would end smoothly, regardless of at which point of the music track you killed the last enemy.

BTW, there a few (four, I think?) 'hidden' combat music tracks in the first Baldur's Gate. They are probably intentionally disabled, or it would have been corrected in a patch years ago. You can access them by editing a few text files, so they point to the unused music. I had the edited files somewhere on my PC, maybe I can find them later.

 

[Infinitron]

Hormalakh already suggested that: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66060-update-76-music-in-pillars-of-eternity/?p=1440384

And Justin responded:

Moving gracefully from two contrasting game states is definitely a challenge. It's something we are working on.

 

[Sensuki]

4 new scenes in that video, Infinitron River edge, mill, granary, and altar.

Altar isn't "new" it was actually in the Gameplay Teaser.

 

[MicoSelva]

BTW, has Roguey disappeared from The Codex? His/her last post was made over six days ago, and it was Roguey's 8888th post. Coincidence?

 

[Decado]

anything by Basil Poledouris

 

[coffeetable]

BTW, has Roguey disappeared from The Codex? His/her last post was made over six days ago, and it was Roguey's 8888th post. Coincidence?

well that answers "who stalks the stalker"

 

[Decado]

Poledouris fucking owns.

 

[Sensuki]

BTW, has Roguey disappeared from The Codex? His/her last post was made over six days ago, and it was Roguey's 8888th post. Coincidence?

He doesn't find it fun when people ignore his posts. That said there really hasn't been a controversial topic worth discussing for a while.

 

[Xor]

I'm sure he'll be back with a new account and gimmick any day now.

 

[Infinitron]

Roguey's been busy lately - he was posting less even before his most recent "disappearance". I don't think he's gone for good.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

It's hilarious how people are complaining about lack of creativity. You knew what this was about when you pledged. This is Obsidian's recreation of the Forgotten Realms setting which was the backdrop to the game series which they are hoping to emulate - Baldur's Gate. There will be no originality, no creativity because of course, you've seen all of this before. They are playing it VERY safe from a marketing side of things and that makes total sense for a game like this.

All you can hope for is for their creativity to shine through in the writing. If Obsidian misses the mark with this then it will really be truly disappointing.

If they get it right, it has the chance to be one of the greatest games ever.

I think its a little lazy to say that PE's world is a direct ripoff of the Forgotten Realms.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

"The music sounds so bland and uninspiring! here's an example of good game music. btw it's totally objective and totally not because I'm nostalgic towards it"

 

[Hormalakh]

Ohhhh sheeeeet.

Windmill image has a cursor near the bottom, below the first south looking window. Guess what it looks like?

 

[LivingOne]

Jajo, on 16 Apr 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

[...]What I've tried is this: I listened to the piece on its own and then listened to it several times while typing and focusing on another task - like I would have been while playing a game. The music performed as any background music I'd call good (not excellent) did - was unobtrusive (pauses weren't jarring anymore), conveyed the mood and had some likeable memorable phrases, that stuck with me.



Talking about atmosphere and emotion is unfortunately as subjective as it can get. I can't really explain this in any way, when I say, that to me the piece conveyed the atmosphere and emotion right from the very first seconds and managed to stay on the same track in both cases.[...]

Regarding the pauses, yes that is the intention. It's sort of hard to imagine the music in context with all of the other sounds, but it's important to me that the music has room to interact with the ambient stuff.

Sensuki, on 16 Apr 2014 - 10:49 AM, said:

[...]While Justin's piece may very well fit the mood of that part of the game/that village at that time in the game, I do not believe the piece has been done in the IE game style at all. This is fine, except for the fact that they've been saying that overall they are going to do something kinda similar.

[...]The thing that is the most jarring for me most of all is that the piece to me, gives me absolutely no 'vision' of Dyrford itself. Perhaps this is not the 'main' Dyrford piece. When I look at the Dyrford art (whether it be this concept art or the screenies):

Yes, you have a point. I've said a few times that we're trying to evoke the IE games, and when you hold up my music side by side with IE soundtracks, they are different. It is try that I look to those soundtracks as inspiration, and they are my starting point from an inspirational standpoint, but it should be said that the needs of the game dictate where that leads me when I'm writing.



At the end of the day I think that's inevitable. While I could strive to mimic the way those composers wrote their music, ultimately I have follow my own interpretation of what the game requires from a narrative perspective. It's unavoidable that the music sounds will sound like my personal expression of what that should be. Ultimately it's going to sound like something I wrote, and not something by Hoenig/Soule/Zur/Morgan, as amazing and incredible as they are.



You mentioned how sensibilities in game music has changed since 16 years ago when Baldur's Gate came out, and that statement couldn't be more true. I think what you're seeing here is a reflection of that. Wall to wall music completely consuming the foreground is an older way of doing things, and through experience, the audio niche of the game industry has learned that there is a time and place for that, rather than the default behavior.

Starwars, on 16 Apr 2014 - 1:24 PM, said:

Is it possible that we could get a toggle in the options for using combat music or not? I think it can certainly have a purpose but there are many times in games where I just feel annoyed when the ambient music cuts out, replaced by a gigantic "the end is nigh" doomsday choir, to illustrate that I'm now fighting a wolf.

If there's strong enough demand, I could always ask!

Osvir, on 16 Apr 2014 - 3:03 PM, said:

The tune tells me a "Story/Lore" of the area, it does not tell me if there is "Life" in the area.

EDIT: I also have a question for Justin, which I forgot to ask:

Do you do any field work outside the office? Like, go outside and record nature sounds outside, or do you have a big library of different sound effects that you use and mix?​

Right. The life is implied elsewhere in the soundscape. It's always tough to evaluate music in a vacuum, but the exercises you guys have done juxtaposing the music with nature sounds will provide you with a better sense for how the music will feel in context of the game.

Zed, on 16 Apr 2014 - 5:58 PM, said:

Do you play guitars, Justin?



I love accoustic guitar-driven music like in Diablo for instance, and would love to hear music like that in games again. I posted this track on the codex but I'll leave it here too cuz it's so good.​

I do play guitar! It's my main instrument. Thanks for posting this track, it sounds great. If there's an opportunity to use guitar in the game I'll definitely take it!





Also to everyone, thanks for such a lively discussion. I appreciate everyone's opinion. Now it's back to work for me! If I'm unable to post, don't take it personally! It's because I'm writing more music

Be safe, and have a good week!​

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66060-update-76-music-in-pillars-of-eternity/page-6

 

[J_C]

What I don't like is that everybody expects that Justin just copies the IE music. Art and music doesn't work this way. He uses IE music as an inspiration, and this piece is similar in style to the IE music. Of course it is not the same, but how would be copying it 1:1 a good idea?

 

[Infinitron]

Ohhhh sheeeeet.

Windmill image has a cursor near the bottom, below the first south looking window. Guess what it looks like?

 

[Hassat Hunter]

Hell yeah!

@ J_C; We want it to sound like the IE music, because the IE music was really really good.
Unlike what we just heard.