Is it possible to add Vendetta music to each faction?

[JMN4444]

One of the things that I really liked about Civ V is the fact that each Civ has its own war theme whenever war is declared on them (or vice versa), so I thought, why not do the same for the factions of Alpha Centauri? I mean of course, there is indeed music in the game, but to be honest, it does not really stand out that much (Especially if you've got SMAX and you wanted to play the Believers and got the alien music ). If you are actually fighting an all out war, it would actually add immersion if each of the factions had their own music in both Pact/Treaty/Truce and Vendetta. Their music would also play once you initiate diplomacy with them depending on your status with them. I think it would be great if there was a way to change the music format of the factions in Alpha Centauri to mp3.
As for the vendetta music, here's my idea on what I think would be suited for each faction:

Believers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oid_GoTqvxA
University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfAGGQ9a_Ko
Gaians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNe-fhHAHbw
Hive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R-2pG78mSo
Spartans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBOD8qeCBuc
Peacekeepers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T_YtklLyyo

I'm not sure what would be most fitting for the Morganites though .

Anyhow, I really think adding Vendetta music would surely add the immersion that you are really fighting for that certain faction and defending your ideologies to the death. It could also make you feel like a badass in doing so . What are your thoughts on what each faction would have as their Vendetta music ?

[Geo]

I'd rather have some extra music for Golden Ages.

[bvanevery]

I'll listen to your samples in a minute, but I actually like most of the existing music just fine.  You've got Gaia's "relaxed exploration" theme, and I think it's very evocative of Planet.  Zhakarov's "off kilter science tinkering" works fine.  My favorite is Yang's music, which I think also gets uses for Morgan.  I think it's a really solid piece.  The weak one is Santiago's guitar stuff.  It's endeavoring to be Queen's version of Flash Gordon, and it's just not that great of an effort.  It has a good conquest fanfare though, where they actually do nail the Flash Gordon effect.  I like the Believer's distorted church bell music, it evokes the sickness of imposing an errant religious view on the surface of this new world.

The Alien / Pirate music, well I'm having trouble thinking about it right now for some reason.  Maybe because I'm not entirely awake.

Ok, starting to go over your YouTube samples.

Believer music - that's way too blatant.  It totally discards the "Planet synth" motifs of the game, and wouldn't fit in at all.  Unless your intent is to completely wipe all that stuff out and go your own way.  I'm not into that idea, personally.  But this clip does make me think, having a really big church bell chime when you conquer a city as the Believers, would be really cool.

The Plague music would work fine for Zhakarov, but I think the existing music works well enough.

The Plague music you selected for Deirdre, nope.  Complete fail.  You're totally blowing her faction identity, her peaceful hippie vibe on a new Garden of Eden.

For Yang, you picked the wrong country.  He's not Russian.

For the Spartans, I can't seriously think of them as Industrial music.  It's a fail.  It should be something that Second Amendment Militia types would listen to, not people dressed in black dancing in weird urban clubs.

The Peacekeeper music, doesn't say "stolid UN enforcement bureaucracy" to me.  Nor is it about leprechauns dancing a jig.  Fail.

Ok, so, honestly I've given you 1 out of 7.  And that 1 doesn't really "need" the replacement IMO, it's just thematically compatible.

[JMN4444]

It's great to know that you did indeed listen to each of the music samples for each of the factions . I have even been thinking that some of them seemed pretty awkward and off though (Especially . Big fail on that one  ).


 Although I did use the Soviet march for Yang (Well instrumental that is) since it gives off a Communist vibe minus the lyrics since he's Chinese, but since the origin of the song is Russian, well yeah, big fail on that. Maybe it could fit Domai, but he's a different kind of Communist, and he's Australian.

 As for the plague music for Deirdre, well she may be kind of giving the Hippie vibe yes, but remember her Secret War where she ended up using Mindworms against the Spartans (Also though, this list here is Vendetta music ), and the Neurax Worm are almost the same in that they have a nigh similar function. Ingame, the Gaians are peaceful in nature, yet terrifying when provoked.

 I kind of thought that Hell March 2 at first would sound fitting for since she is known for her pretty elite forces, but then I was kind of insensitive of not thinking through in her background.

I barely even put any thought when thinking of what Lal's vendetta theme would on the game, all that just happened is "Yeah this song gives off a vibe of Freedom" and then boom .

Although I did see a really interesting Civ IV mod known as Planetfall, and it's got some pretty fitting music for each faction , not like my list though . Well at least you've seen the flaws of my music list, the constructive criticism did really help on making me think through the decisions of each faction leader's vendetta music.

Most especially:
 
Age of War Music

To be honest, I really want to hear the Believer's music in SMAX, since I get is the Alien Music instead (Believer music works in SMAC no expansion).

[bvanevery]

There could be more scope for music if it was tied to a faction's social engineering choices.  Like Deirdre who has gone Fundamentalist.

[JMN4444]

There could be more scope for music if it was tied to a faction's social engineering choices.  Like Deirdre who has gone Fundamentalist.

Maybe depending on the Social engineering choices that you make, the instruments could probably change too as well. I would definitely wonder what Power would sound like on your faction. Even more, if you chose the future societies, I wonder what effect would that have on your faction's theme?

[JMN4444]

I'd rather have some extra music for Golden Ages.

   would be proud about it. It could also be another great idea to have. You could imagine this, you developed a really great faction long enough, and you decide to ramp that Psych up, guess what happens?
GOLDEN AGE
You hear that? That the music you really want to hear, and for giving the paradise your Citizens and Talents deserve, you earned it . Citizens are at awe at your magnificence while Talents begin to write of how great your faction is. An audible Golden Age would feel really like a touch of heaven while the rest of the factions envy at the grandeur of your shining monuments. A sight to behold, and a sound to be heard. Now that is what a Golden age should be like!
Also it would be a great idea if the more cities are enjoying a Golden age, the stronger the music becomes  .
And then again, it would be cool too if the music for Golden ages were faction specific as well  .

[bvanevery]

Remember though that Golden Age occurs on a per city basis.  Different cities are going to be in different states of happiness or unhappiness.  The music wouldn't be the same from city to city, if it were even possible to have city-based music.  I suppose you could modify the "GOLDEN AGE, BEGUN" clip and see if you can insert a longer piece.  Bear in mind that in that case, you're going to hear the clip as many times as you have cities that are entering a Golden Age.

[JMN4444]

So I decided to check out if each faction did have a Vendetta Music in the original SMAC . Just so it turns out, they do  . I especially liked the guitar riffs that has when she begins smacking down her enemies, or  's Holy Drums when they're about to deliver the Judgement of God to heretics . I'm sorry if I did sound a bit ignorant at one part:

I mean of course, there is indeed music in the game, but to be honest, it does not really stand out that much

But it's justified by the fact that I usually play as the Believers in the game using SMAX. I even mentioned it before in here that:

Especially if you've got SMAX and you wanted to play the Believers and got the alien music

Where's the epic drum rolls? Where's the church bells? Where did the musical cues go? Instead of getting dynamic music (Music upon doing actions), all I get is static music that does not even change at all no matter what  . Are the Believers given that much hate that they lose their awesome music once they get into the expansion  ?

[bvanevery]

What version and official patch level of SMACX are you playing?  Maybe it's a solved bug.

[JMN4444]

I could probably have not patched it yet somehow since I haven't  checked.  I have 2 copies of the game in my Laptop, one that is unmodded, and the other is using your growth mod. I haven't brought my laptop right now so maybe I'll check it the next time I return. I presume that maybe Yitzi's patch could fix the musical dissonance of the Believers.

[bvanevery]

I wasn't asking about unofficial patches.  I'm asking what OFFICIAL version of SMACX you're using.

My mod will not work with Yitzi BTW.  Someone could make it work easily enough, it's probably mostly cut and paste, but I'm not going to maintain that. 

[JMN4444]

Ah, I was using patch 2.0.2.23. Recently just patched it after a long trip without my laptop, and it still plays that damn generic music when playing as Believers .

[bvanevery]

That's the Good Old Games patch level that I'm using.  I just cranked up an old Believer saved game, and I too am getting that "SMACX generic stress" music.  So it's not just you.  Where are my church bells?  I could swear that I've had correct music at some point with SMACX in the past, so now I must investigate.  First I will start a brand new game with the Believers.  BRB.

I started a new game in SMACX with the Believers and the 6 other original factions, on the possible idea that having Aliens in the game might change something.  I got the same non-Believer music.  BRB.

I looked in my game directory to find all the *.tmp files that I thought were simply "spewed in there".  Thought maybe they came from corrupted old games or something.  But upon further contemplation, they look more like files that were put in place when I installed the game.  Most of them date from 2012.  My game installation is certainly not that old, so I'm guessing Good Old Games put those in.  Maybe this is how the official patch 2.0.2.23 is implemented.  Some of them however date from April 2018, which is probably when I installed a fresh copy in a new directory to work on my "SMACX AI Growth mod".  These files do not exist in a later installation I call "SMAC Clean", which I keep around for reference.  No unofficial patches or any of my mods in that one.  So why these files exist, is a mystery.  I started to delete them, but thought better of it, thinking there are less invasive ways to test my theories.  BRB.

Looking at other installations on the same laptop, I see a similar pattern of some factions having *.tmp files with "modern file dates".  I'm guessing this is done during or just after game installation.  It might depend on what factions one plays.  I hope there is not any kind of interference from multiple installations.  I'm going to try testing this on my non-development laptop, deleting all previous SMAC installations and installing from scratch.  Then I'll know what a pristine installation looks like.  BRB.

Wow.  Uninstalling by clicking on the uninstallation .exe removed all installations of SMAC from that computer, not just the one in that directory!  No consequence to that, in fact it's ultimately what I wanted to get done, but good to know it's a dangerous operation.  Never uninstall unless you want all of them gone.  BRB.

I've made a clean install, at least in the sense of no previously existing files.  Don't know if the Windows Registry was clean.  Given a clean install and never having started the game yet, only the *.tmp files for the SMACX expansion factions exist.  They are dated 2012.  BRB.

I started a SMACX game.  Chose "Make random map", standard size, chose default rules, Transcend.  Set it up to play the original 7 factions from SMAC and chose the Believers.  At some point in me doing all of this, *.tmp files for the original 7 factions sprung into existence.  I hadn't even saved a game.

I wonder what happens if I delete all of these faction specific .tmp files?  Will they just magically reappear, even the ones that GOG created?  BRB.

I tried cranking up plain SMAC and played as the Believers.  Their music is correct.  BRB.

I cranked up SMACX again.  I tried loading my SMAC saved game into SMACX.  I'm a little surprised that it worked.  The Believer music is messed up now, it's gone to "SMACX generic stress" music, so the choice of music is not a property of the saved game.  Presently, it's a function of either SMAC or SMACX.  BRB.

I delete only the Believers' *.tmp files.  Then I start SMACX.  The files are instantly recreated the moment I start the game.  I didn't even have to play a game with the Believers.  I try loading that same saved game with the Believers and their music is still messed up.  BRB.

I delete every single *.tmp file, on the premise that they really are temporary files.  I start plain SMAC.  Upon reaching the game menu, most of the *.tmp files have been recreated, don't even need to start a game.  Since it's SMAC, the original 7 faction *.tmp files have been created, but not the *.tmp files for the 7 new SMACX factions.  I load the same Believer game I've been using and the music is correct.  BRB.

I take a break to eat lunch, so that it's very easy to tell the difference between timestamps on files.  Old files are 12:37 PM, new files are 1:07 PM.  Starting SMACX, some *.tmp files have been overwritten.  Looks like stuff pertaining to color, fade, shadows, spotlights, explosions.  Don't see anything about audio.  The 7 original SMAC faction *.tmp files have old timestamps on them, they were not overwritten by starting SMACX.  I'm at the main game menu and no *.tmp files for the SMACX factions have been created yet.  I double click the directory folder to refresh it, making very sure it is as I say it is.

I load that same save file I've been using.  The Believer music is wrong, it's back to that "SMACX generic stress" music.  No new faction *.tmp files have been created, I presume because I'm playing with the 7 original factions and the new ones are not needed at this time.

Without leaving SMACX, I start a new game.  I select the 7 new factions and play as the Pirates.  Now all the new faction *.tmp files have been crated.

In sum, I've confirmed the problem.  Starting the game up various ways, and deleting *.tmp files, doesn't change anything.  It is an inherent property of SMACX somehow.

[bvanevery]

Ok, I have just wasted time reinventing the wheel.  Scient's Patch, at least, knows about this bug and did fix it.

7. [BUG][SMAX] While loading the ambient sound file for game, there is a mistake in faction id check for Believers causing it to use SMAX default of "aset1.amb". Patch fixes check so Believers will now use their correct ambient sound file "bset1.amb".

Just tried Yitzi patch and Believer music is correct!  Case closed.

This is the 1st thing frankly I've known I wanted fixed by an unofficial patch, that an unofficial patch actually fixes.  What I've really wanted is better AI performance, but Yitzi at least doesn't do that.  Part of why I just spent 3 months making a mod.