My game uses an ABS battle system, and there's likely to be a lot going on in each map. Interiors are on the map, with the buildings cutting away as you get near them like The Sims. Battles are on the map, and entering a region that has a particular event happening could invoke another piece of music, like stepping up in beat when you come to a marching troup of soldiers, or getting more serene towards a waterfall, etc.
Question is, is this annoying to the player?
My thought was to use a proximity-to-event plugin, and have the music change when you are near that event. That means if you are within 5 squares of an aggressive enemy you get battle music; if you enter a church you might get church music etc.
In Guild Wars 2 they fade out the main map music and fade in the battle music, with a sort of "jingle" at the start that is subtle but tells you you've entered a battle. (Think of it like the Whoosh in RPG Maker, but much more subtle). Once the battle is over there are a few seconds of silence and then the man map music fades slowly back in, for a few reasons - so it isn't a jarring switch from one song to another, and so that if you encounter another enemy you don't just keep flipping the music every few seconds.
Now that's OK if maps are huge, but huge maps and 2d graphics don't go together as easily. If you have to be within 5 tiles of an enemy to invoke music, then that's actually 10 tiles of the map taken up, which is half a default map or maybe 10% of a reasonably sized large map.
There's also a question of where does the music start or end? Does the map music continue where it left off? Does the battle music continue where it left off, or always start at the beginning (with the jingle of course)?
I'm curious if anybody has implemented such a system and what your players thought of it. I have a feeling it may be just another annoyance.
Going further it would be nice to have sounds such as footsteps, especially if a cutscene with a horse, or a waterfall, etc. This again could be done with proximity-to-events plugins so it's doable, but the question is still, is this just annoying to the player? Is it all too much? If it's subtle there's almost no point in doing it at all.
Appreciate your thoughts, thanks.
Question is, is this annoying to the player?
My thought was to use a proximity-to-event plugin, and have the music change when you are near that event. That means if you are within 5 squares of an aggressive enemy you get battle music; if you enter a church you might get church music etc.
In Guild Wars 2 they fade out the main map music and fade in the battle music, with a sort of "jingle" at the start that is subtle but tells you you've entered a battle. (Think of it like the Whoosh in RPG Maker, but much more subtle). Once the battle is over there are a few seconds of silence and then the man map music fades slowly back in, for a few reasons - so it isn't a jarring switch from one song to another, and so that if you encounter another enemy you don't just keep flipping the music every few seconds.
Now that's OK if maps are huge, but huge maps and 2d graphics don't go together as easily. If you have to be within 5 tiles of an enemy to invoke music, then that's actually 10 tiles of the map taken up, which is half a default map or maybe 10% of a reasonably sized large map.
There's also a question of where does the music start or end? Does the map music continue where it left off? Does the battle music continue where it left off, or always start at the beginning (with the jingle of course)?
I'm curious if anybody has implemented such a system and what your players thought of it. I have a feeling it may be just another annoyance.
Going further it would be nice to have sounds such as footsteps, especially if a cutscene with a horse, or a waterfall, etc. This again could be done with proximity-to-events plugins so it's doable, but the question is still, is this just annoying to the player? Is it all too much? If it's subtle there's almost no point in doing it at all.
Appreciate your thoughts, thanks.
