Early Game Music

[dregor]

I recently realized when playing that there is no game music for me during the Ancient and Classical eras. Sometimes I can faintly hear drums I think, and if I get close to a city then there's a bit of music, but it's so quiet otherwise. Is this normal?

[LordShiva]

You need to research Music. Duh.

Often, the silence becomes too overpowering and I need to alter my entire strategy in order to beeline to Music so that I can get the soundtrack going

[dregor]

oh >< That's a bit silly imo!

[Badtz Maru]

Originally posted by dregor
oh >< That's a bit silly imo!

I think he's joking, there are four tracks in the "C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Sounds\Soundtrack\Classical" folder, AncientSoundrack1, AncientSoundrack2, AncientSoundrack3, and AncientSoundrack4. Since Music is a Medieval tech, what would be the point of those being there? I'm pretty sure I've heard them in-game, though very faintly.

I think part of the reason why they may not be heard often is the way they are arranged. AncientSoundtrack1 starts with over a minute of non-musical rhythmic sounds, like forge sounds, occasional grunts, etc., before anything that sounds like music starts. I don't know how the music playing in the game works, but if it resets when you view cities or enter menus, you may not get a chance to hear the rest of the almost 13 minute track. AncientSoundtrack2 is mostly silent for the first 35 seconds before the vocals kick in. AncientSoundtrack4 is the only one that starts with music immediately, and all these tracks seem to be recorded at a much lower volume than the later ones.

[LordShiva]

[fani]

I had to research all the way to computers just to be able to play the game...of course completing the oracle in time to get computers as my free tech really helped to speed things up....but now i have to build the internet if i want to play a MP game...

[LordShiva]

Well, I made those beelines as well, but then it turned out that none of my cities were on rivers, and all the coal and uranium were on other continents, so I didn't have any electricity

[padillah]

The aim is to pair the music with the era, since they didn't have violins in 4000bc they tried something different.

I just take NiN tracks, rename them and play with that soundtrack

Tom P.