Song of The Dead Sun

[WarKirby]

There's a song in FFH that I don't like, Song of the Dead Sun.
For anyone who doesn't know which one that is, it can be found at:

\Sid Meier's Civilisation IV\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Fall from Heaven 2\Assets\sounds\soundtrack

I really hate it, because it has so few notes. The singer basically just holds one note for several seconds at a time, while screaming at the top of their lungs. It's so obnoxiously loud, it feels like an assault on my ears, and I have to turn down my volume every time it comes on. I think this song was a bad selection personally.

Anyways, I wanted to ask about how songs are played in FFH. Does it just play random songs from that folder? Or are they coded in and selected by name.

Or to ask a different way, can I just delete Song of the Dead Sun and it will play others instead, or am I going to be getting errors ingame about the missing song?

On another note (pun not intended) can I put other songs into that directory and have them play automatically? I'd like to move My Cold Sea out of the Empy folder and into the main, because it's too good to be specific to one religion, I think.

 

[Methuselah]

I happen to like that song. I think you have the wrong track - there is no singing in it.

To answer your other question:

Place the songs you want to listen to in the applicable folder, then add their entries in:
Assets\XML\Audio\Audio2DScripts.xml
Assets\XML\Gameinfo\CIV4EraInfos.xml

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Yeah, no singing in it...

 

[WarKirby]

Definitely not the wrong track.

It doesn't have "words", per se, but it does sound like singing. Or maybe just a synthesised voice. regardless, it's still extremely loud.

 

[WarKirby]

hmm, this isn't very clear.

I found the entry for the song in the audio2dscripts.xml

<Script2DSound>
		<ScriptID>AS2D_SONG_OF_THE_DEAD_SUN</ScriptID>
		<SoundID>SONG_SONG_OF_THE_DEAD_SUN</SoundID>
		<SoundType>GAME_MUSIC</SoundType>
		<iMinVolume>100</iMinVolume>
		<iMaxVolume>100</iMaxVolume>
		<iPitchChangeDown>0</iPitchChangeDown>
		<iPitchChangeUp>0</iPitchChangeUp>
		<iMinLeftPan>-1</iMinLeftPan>
		<iMaxLeftPan>-1</iMaxLeftPan>
		<iMinRightPan>-1</iMinRightPan>
		<iMaxRightPan>-1</iMaxRightPan>
		<bLooping>0</bLooping>
		<iMinTimeDelay>0</iMinTimeDelay>
		<iMaxTimeDelay>0</iMaxTimeDelay>
		<bTaperForSoundtracks>0</bTaperForSoundtracks>
		<iLengthOfSound>0</iLengthOfSound>
		<fMinDryLevel>1.0</fMinDryLevel>
		<fMaxDryLevel>1.0</fMaxDryLevel>
		<fMinWetLevel>0.0</fMinWetLevel>
		<fMaxWetLevel>0.0</fMaxWetLevel>
		<iNotPlayPercent>0</iNotPlayPercent>
	</Script2DSound>

the filename of the song is songofthedeadsun.mp3
I don't see that mentioned anywhere in the above. Is the game smart enough to correlate "songofthedeadsun.mp3" with "SONG_SONG_OF_THE_DEAD_SUN" ?

The two are not very similar, from a systematic viewpoint.

Would it work just as well to have SONG_SONGOFTHEDEADSUN ?
Are the _ to seperate words necessary, especially considering they're not seperated in the filename?

 

[Ajidica]

The song itself is defined in audiodefines. audio2Dscripts tells the game how to play it. I dont remember the song though, so it cant be too bad. It has to be better than most of the Empyrean and some of the Order stuff, it sounds like people yawning.

EDIT: I just checked it. Doesnt seem that bad. First half is generic Arcana stuff and the last half sounds ripped from My Cold Sea. The Rune/Octo/Leaf tracks annoy me more.

 

[Methuselah]

*snip*

My mistake, forgot about AudioDefines.xml as well.

You could use the 2dscript file to make it mute when it plays.

Outright deleting its entries would also work.

EDIT:

May just be easier to disable ingame sound, and play the tracks you want via a music player in the background.

 

[Kael]

The AS2D file points to SONG_SONG_OF_THE_DEAD_SUN which is defined in the AudioDefins.xml file to point to the appropriate filename.

And there isnt any singing in it, but that is a particuarly loud song so I'll turn down the volume on it a bit.

 

[Capn Charlie]

I turned off the music in civ 4 back when I played vanilla like two years ago and never turned it back on, preferring my classic rock as a soundtrack.

 

[notque]

I like the music in ffh2 a lot. I've added a few bits of new music for leaders to make them stand out individually, and keep the repetition down a bit.

I could use some more Guybrush singing though.

 

[Bitwise]

That's a good song, it's just a little loud. I've certainly reached for my speaker volume a few times when the woodwind section hits.

 

[WarKirby]

The music in FFH is great. I wouldn't want to turn it off. It's just that particular song that irked me.
will look at Audiodefines.xml too. Hopefully I can add some music of my own too. Loreena McKennit does a lot of thematically appropriate music, and I have her discography

 

[Iceciro]

I stopped listening to music in Civ just because I didn't have control - I just run the whole "soundtrack" folder in Winamp.

And no more Guybrush - there's already a lot of pointers to him I have to mod out every time there's a new version change ;-P

 

[Song Rui]

you could easily replace the track by putting another song in the folder with the exact same name

 

[WarKirby]

I stopped listening to music in Civ just because I didn't have control - I just run the whole "soundtrack" folder in Winamp.

And no more Guybrush - there's already a lot of pointers to him I have to mod out every time there's a new version change ;-P

Why remove the lanun's hero ?

 

[Honor]

While we are talking about loud stuff, I'd like the mention the incredibly loud sound effect you get when you summon fireballs with a stack of mages. Is it possible to put a lower volume cap on that as well?

 

[someone67]

While we are talking about loud stuff, I'd like the mention the incredibly loud sound effect you get when you summon fireballs with a stack of mages. Is it possible to put a lower volume cap on that as well?

I had the same problem, but I "fixed" it by summoning the fireballs one by one I'ld really appreciate to put a lower volume cap on fireballs.

 

[Iceciro]

Why remove the lanun's hero ?

Not remove- just change his name to something that doesn't break with the rest of Erebus. I do the same thing to the Monty Python references.

 

[lokifireson]

If we are getting into random loud noises... When playing The Momus scenario; when war is ended/started on a mass scale, if you end your turn quick enough, you get to be subject to the War/Peace declaration sound. For every single civ. At once.

Makes me glad I am using a laptop with a separate volume control...

 

[Squiggs]

This thread seems to be drifting from its original topic. Nevertheless, let me throw my two cents in here. In short, there does seem to be a basic problem with sounds _stacking_ when more than one event occurs simultaneously. This (I believe) occurs in normal Civ IV as well. Perhaps a fix for this problem could be investigated?

Back on topic: Some of the new music is a bit loud, especially compared to the old Civ music that is mixed in. Perhaps, if any of you have some songs in particular that are too loud, you could post the names of songs that may need balancing. That way, Kael could fix them, so that we don't all have to reduce the volume on the songs individually (you could do this with Audacity, for example).