Factorio Forums

Since the removal of (most of) the music from 0.11 I really feel the game has become more atmospheric, but at the same time more empty and hollow. The old music was more upbeat and really fit a highly active factory in full production, while the new stuff is great for the desolate landscape and small outposts.

Thus, I suggest the following: A dynamic music system that plays tunes fitting to the scene you're currently in.
Total Annihilation (for those of you who remember it) had a great sountrack that did this in a nice way; as you built and fought, the music would change.

Factorio could use a similar system, playing ambient winds and slow music when out in the wilderness or near the start of the game, and the more active music could play once you near a (your?) main factory. There's no need to cut a currently playing track, just when the time comes to play the next track the game would check your current whereabouts and use that as a basis for what to play next.

For example, one of the triggers (indicators) of a highly active factory could be the number of working inserters inside a certain radius.

(Also, if we could customize the playlists for this: even better!)

Or, but this is very ambitious, one could have several versions of the same song, kind of like Defense Grid has, so that it could seamlessly switch between moods.
(I've kind of been brooding over a procedural music generation idea- which would require god-tier programming skills, of course- precisely because of this sort of thing.)

deepdriller wrote:Or, but this is very ambitious, one could have several versions of the same song, kind of like Defense Grid has, so that it could seamlessly switch between moods.
(I've kind of been brooding over a procedural music generation idea- which would require god-tier programming skills, of course- precisely because of this sort of thing.)

I like the thought behind it, but I can't help but wonder what would happen if you find yourself just at the border of a track shift criteria. Wouldn't the music become a bit disjointed if suddenly, as you were working & wandering back and forth, the music constantly receives and loses instruments? I suppose some sort of cooldown timer would help with this, though.

lancar wrote:

deepdriller wrote:Or, but this is very ambitious, one could have several versions of the same song, kind of like Defense Grid has, so that it could seamlessly switch between moods.
(I've kind of been brooding over a procedural music generation idea- which would require god-tier programming skills, of course- precisely because of this sort of thing.)

I like the thought behind it, but I can't help but wonder what would happen if you find yourself just at the border of a track shift criteria. Wouldn't the music become a bit disjointed if suddenly, as you were working & wandering back and forth, the music constantly receives and loses instruments? I suppose some sort of cooldown timer would help with this, though.

Not if there was a "gap" between the criteria areas. In the sense of: You have to stand next to a machine so the music switches to factory mood, but be, say, 15 tiles away from one to switch to outland mood.

deepdriller wrote:Or, but this is very ambitious, one could have several versions of the same song, kind of like Defense Grid has, so that it could seamlessly switch between moods.
(I've kind of been brooding over a procedural music generation idea- which would require god-tier programming skills, of course- precisely because of this sort of thing.)

that's done much easier with several layers that switch on and off depending on "reasons".

For example each level music in super mario sunshine has a bongo layer that turns on when you hop on Yoshi without interrupting the music at all.

See this post: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 185#p95559

This will be implemented.

Could I recomend that there is "battle" music for when you are attacking biters and their bases?

lancar wrote:

deepdriller wrote:Or, but this is very ambitious, one could have several versions of the same song, kind of like Defense Grid has, so that it could seamlessly switch between moods.
(I've kind of been brooding over a procedural music generation idea- which would require god-tier programming skills, of course- precisely because of this sort of thing.)

I like the thought behind it, but I can't help but wonder what would happen if you find yourself just at the border of a track shift criteria. Wouldn't the music become a bit disjointed if suddenly, as you were working & wandering back and forth, the music constantly receives and loses instruments? I suppose some sort of cooldown timer would help with this, though.

Just a slow fade from one track to the other would fix this issue, though not a volume fade, that would be noticeable I imagine.

I have some thoughts on this, since I've had a fair few games that I feel would benefit from this.


I feel that it would be ideal for some objects (trees, belts, etc.) to have a designated area where they add some sound value (falling off with distance) that progressively influences the music. For instance, a forest additive to the playing track should start to kick in (30%-50%) if there's about 40 trees in the vicinity, and really start to get into it at about 100 (70%+). However, a small patch of about 5 trees should still lightly play it (10%), which is achieved by nearby trees having a much bigger impact but still allowing more distant trees to have a cumulative effect to some defined maximum.

The main theme of the track could be determined by the overall biome the player is in, as well as the vehicle they're in (if any). Driving around in a desert should give a completely different feel to walking in a plains (or bulldozing trees with a tank), for instance. Optionally, each main theme could have its own additives (as defined in the previous paragraph), so that driving in a forest gives a different tone to walking in a desert.

Preferably, everything should fade in a nice manner. I'd recommend a kind of speed system to the fading, where the fade rate slowly moves towards the target speed in the given direction (it would want to go for 10%/s). This helps with cases where sudden shifts occur, as it would slowly start to change instead of suddenly going "ok time to fade out" and doing so.

The aforementioned system is a fair bit more work on the sound team, and also requires some code to go with it, but could work wonders if done correctly. A simple soundtrack also works, but a highly dynamic one would work wonders if done right.

not all pieces of music can easily be faded.

So in the worst case all music will need to be redone.

Variable Mix is done in many ways. If you want more musical gameplay, you need lots of short samples that you stitch together seamlessly. If you want something less daunting, have it only change "tracks" at defined points along the music tracks. Like if you are at borderline between ambient and factory1, when say factory1 activates, it plays through until near the end, where it can seamlessly switch back to ambient.

For an example of doing variable mix without too much interruptus, see Freespace and Freespace2. Escalation was done almost instantly (with a short interrupt score timed to the track), but the tracks would play through before crossfading back to the quieter tracks at set points. This gave the option of SURPRISE! ENEMYS EVERYWHAR!!! but also didn't yoyo between quiet time and battle themes.

I think this can be moved to implemented, cause the basic functionality is in v0.12 and (so the experience) will be improved with each version.

For more reasons see also

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14185&p=106527#p106005

https://wiki.factorio.com/index.php?title=Music

I definitely support dynamic music. Current one is a bit too ambient.