39.1. What kind of music will Vanguard have? Will there be a lot of variety?
Music for Vanguard is thematic in nature and is tailored to the specific region you are exploring. On top of that, each of these areas has combat music that compliments the ambient music heard while travelling and exploring. We've gone to great lengths to make the compositions as varied and diverse as possible. We've announced three continents thus far: Thestra, Qalia, and Kojan. Thestran music is based on western musical instrumentation and harmonic structures and ranges from pastoral to epic. Qalian music has more middle eastern influences both in instrument selection and chord progressions. Kojanese music takes thematic elements and instrumental selections from the Orient and Pacific Rim. Each continent has a very specific look, and therefore we supplied a very specific sound to accompany the visuals.
I know it is impossible to make everyone happy, but we really do have a large depth of variety so far. To put it in perspective, I have 7.7GB of uncompressed music files built for the game so far that encompass some 90+ regions; and I am still have much to do. Factor in that in each region there is music for day, night, and two distinct combat modules. There really is a TON of compositions in the game.
Source: Nino
Here is another example of how music functions in Vanguard:
This piece represents an example of what traveling through the Cobalt Deep during daylight hours without any hostile encounters may sound like. I basically set random layerings together for demonstration purposes. Your mileage can and will vary depending on any number of circumstances including time of day, combat encounters, party member's hit points, mobility, and the good old random number generator. - 18 November 2005
Source: Nino
39.2. Who is composing the music for Vanguard?
Todd Masten (Nino) is the Audio Designer. He has a long history composing for games and you can read his bio here. Check out his personal website for more information including samples of his work.
Source: Silky Venom
39.3. Will certain stats be aligned with certain classes?
If we say that there is a ranger who could be a race that has a +STR bonus that he therefore would only worry about wearing +DEX to hit, that is an over simplicfication and innacurate. He may need to worry somewhat less about +STR items, but he will still have to worry about all the other stats he needs to increase before a fight based on who he is fighting. Again, maybe he needs +AGI because the mob likes to kill rangers and he needs more ability to avoid taking damage. Or +con to get some extra HP so he survives a little longer and doesn't miss that crucial heal.
And then there's int, wis, etc. Stuff that is usually associated with casters. We are making those important for everyone. Maybe he wont be able to detect with the perception system key mobs as he scouts ahead if he isn't wearing other items. And then if he gets into battle, you aren't switching around items in reaction. Once you are engaged, at least currently in beta, we only allow you to swap out weapons.
Another way to put it: racial attribute bonusses will matter. But item bonusses, buffs, etc. will likely matter more. Enough moreso that it doesn't completely negate him worrying about a certain stat. Even with an innate +STR bonus he may well find himself in a situation where he needs even more strength and wears +STR items for that encounter. - 28 October 2005
Source: Aradune Mithara
39.4. Besides instrumental, what kinds of music will Vanguard have?
There is both 'real' singing by soloists and choirs, plus judicious use of sampled choirs and singers ranging from Gregorian, Boys Choir, and standard SATB choir. Some singing is in the native tongue of the inhabitants, some in Latin or 'wordless' singing. I love using voice, so there is plenty strewn about the soundscape.
Source: Nino
39.5. How are you handling music 'fade out' for longer idle times or AFK's?
The instrumentation thins out if you idle for X amount of time and eventually will slowly fade out if you continue to idle/afk for an extended period. The timing is such that if you run a grab a coke from the fridge you wont hear much in the way of music changes, but if you afk for dinner or something, you can expect to come back to just hearing the environment sounds until you start moving again.
Source: Nino
39.6. Will Vanguard contain an embedded MP3 player?
I am looking into this, but can not promise we will have anything ready until after launch. No matter how much music I write, I realize eventually the potential for it to 'get old' exists and the players should have alternatives at their disposal. If, and it is a big 'if' at this point, we do have a music player it will be WMA. We are using WMA as our compressed delivery format for music and sound. WMA also supports surround sound compression and decompression in real time; which I would love to use at some point. It also incorporates both constant and variable bit rate compression functions. I don't think there is any other compression format that offers this many features at this time.
Source: Nino
39.7. Will we need Creative Sound hardware to gain the benefits of the ISACT technology in Vanguard?
The short answer is NO, you do not need Creative hardware for ISACT to function as it is software based. I would however recommend either a Creative card or an onboard chip that supports EAX so you can take advantage of the reverb system.
Source: Nino
39.8. Will Player Characters have customizable sounds?
We've discussed this internally and there are potential issues regarding memory usage. In single player games where they allow this, they only need to load in one set of samples at a time. However in a MMOG things can get ugly real fast. If you are in a city and there are many different people using different voice packages they all need to be loaded on your client. You are likely to chew through the available memory extremely fast. If there were a good way to manipulate one set of recordings in real time you may be able to acheive a similar result, but it will still be lacking some uniqueness. I will explore more options on this.
Source: Nino
39.9. What about the music are you focusing on to keep the world's sound as diverse as the locations and people?
I’ve assigned instrument pools based on a hierarchical system. Large continental land areas have a definitive instrumental style that I pull from. For instance, Thestra is considered ‘Euoropean’, thus I primarily use instruments that are indigenous to those areas. Then within the continent I’ve assigned instrumental styles to the various races. Dwarven styles might incorporate more brass and staccato strings, while elves might use harp, voice, and legato strings. I’ve attempted this process with every area of the game in the hopes of providing a wide variety of styles, and a means of easily identifying with races and cultures.
Source: Nino
- From Vanguard Spheres Interview here
39.10. Explain how you approached and built Vanguard's music playback system?
Areas in major keys will transition on the fly to their relative minor to reflect combat music. Areas in minor keys generally don't deviate. I also went one step further and put the surrounding areas in complimentary keys; so when you are in the Northern Plains in G major, adjacent areas are likely to be in E minor, D major, C major, etc so the modulation flows musically. - 23 November 2005
Source: Nino