Hi, please move this to correct subforum, if not in the right one.
I've been playing CIV4 for so long time that I've got bored of all the in-game musics. I feel I could really hum all the tunes backwards, even the medieval chants with all those uncatchy melodies. And I don't think I'm the only one. So usually I just listen to what I'd usually would, but somehow, I just don't feel right raising my empire from humble beginnings to glorious highness and smiting my enemies with our god's/gods' holy hammer, while listening to hard rock or heavy metal.
So one time, when playing the 1000AD scenario, I used to search for a composer from the year I was currently playing at and play something on YouTube etc. I have to say that was a really immersive and different playing session, I loved it. And I really learned something about the evolution of Western classical music. Of course, problems were:
1. I had to Alt+Tab every 3-20 minutes to go find a new composer (Wikipedia had some fine lists and timelines though) and composition. That task got even more tedious the time went on, as the turns got longer while representing shorter time frame.
2. The classical music/Western art music is really Eurocentric.
3. It needed Internet connection (At that time we had to share one working Ethernet port.)
4. Some compositions/composers just didn't fit the game. It was all trial and error.
5. The practice of notation and has begun in the Middle Ages, so any REAL music older than that are impossible to find. The oldest _art_ music is from that period also.
6. This really requires a love to classical music, which mostly wasn't a problem for me.
So I've decided to start collecting some musical pieces and put them into the game folders so they would play automatically in-game. I'm going to search for those composers of different eras and try to throw in some ethnic pieces as well. But I've a few questions:
A)Can I just put them into "CIV4Base Game Folder"\Assets\Sounds\Soundtrack\"Era"? Does the game play automatically all the files in there? I've found that there's no folder for Classical Era as some of those musics are in Warlords/Assets/Sounds/Soundtrack. What about that era?
B)Do they have to be mp3? Any other restrictions?
C)Do you have any suggestions for music in the Ancient, Classical and Future eras? The Ancient and Classical eras have to consist almost entirely of ethnic music, or just some random fitting music, but I have no idea where to find such music. I'd like to leave John Adams for Modern Era, and I don't know, maybe put some ultra modern art music, jazz, or ambient/dark ambient for Future Era.
D)Would it be actually possible for the game to play the music dependent on the civ being played? It would be really cool to hear some Asian music while playing as China, or Middle Eastern music as Persia etc. Would I have to make a mod for that?
E)Also, would anybody else be interested in this project? If so, I could probably release the list of the new musics, once I've done my research. Of course I couldn't release the music itself, but one has many ways to find the original source material...
I've been playing CIV4 for so long time that I've got bored of all the in-game musics. I feel I could really hum all the tunes backwards, even the medieval chants with all those uncatchy melodies. And I don't think I'm the only one. So usually I just listen to what I'd usually would, but somehow, I just don't feel right raising my empire from humble beginnings to glorious highness and smiting my enemies with our god's/gods' holy hammer, while listening to hard rock or heavy metal.
So one time, when playing the 1000AD scenario, I used to search for a composer from the year I was currently playing at and play something on YouTube etc. I have to say that was a really immersive and different playing session, I loved it. And I really learned something about the evolution of Western classical music. Of course, problems were:
1. I had to Alt+Tab every 3-20 minutes to go find a new composer (Wikipedia had some fine lists and timelines though) and composition. That task got even more tedious the time went on, as the turns got longer while representing shorter time frame.
2. The classical music/Western art music is really Eurocentric.
3. It needed Internet connection (At that time we had to share one working Ethernet port.)
4. Some compositions/composers just didn't fit the game. It was all trial and error.
5. The practice of notation and has begun in the Middle Ages, so any REAL music older than that are impossible to find. The oldest _art_ music is from that period also.
6. This really requires a love to classical music, which mostly wasn't a problem for me.
So I've decided to start collecting some musical pieces and put them into the game folders so they would play automatically in-game. I'm going to search for those composers of different eras and try to throw in some ethnic pieces as well. But I've a few questions:
A)Can I just put them into "CIV4Base Game Folder"\Assets\Sounds\Soundtrack\"Era"? Does the game play automatically all the files in there? I've found that there's no folder for Classical Era as some of those musics are in Warlords/Assets/Sounds/Soundtrack. What about that era?
B)Do they have to be mp3? Any other restrictions?
C)Do you have any suggestions for music in the Ancient, Classical and Future eras? The Ancient and Classical eras have to consist almost entirely of ethnic music, or just some random fitting music, but I have no idea where to find such music. I'd like to leave John Adams for Modern Era, and I don't know, maybe put some ultra modern art music, jazz, or ambient/dark ambient for Future Era.
D)Would it be actually possible for the game to play the music dependent on the civ being played? It would be really cool to hear some Asian music while playing as China, or Middle Eastern music as Persia etc. Would I have to make a mod for that?
E)Also, would anybody else be interested in this project? If so, I could probably release the list of the new musics, once I've done my research. Of course I couldn't release the music itself, but one has many ways to find the original source material...
Simply selected a folder with some of my music, and bam, the thing was playing. So you can smack all your music in a folder, set it in-game, and it should play. Don't know if it's random or tune by tune, but it does indeed work! 
!
