Andreas Waldetoft or "Why is there no discussion about the soundtrack?"

[Aederic]

Since one year I follow the Hearts of Iron IV forum more or less frequently, but I have never seen a post about the soundtrack. That is why I have made this post, so that we can discuss about the soundtrack of Hearts of Iron IV.

We have seen lots of DDs and videos concerning this and that, but not a single clue about the soundtrack. Since I am enthusiastic about music and listen to a lot of it, I am very keen on getting information about what we, the players, will be listening to, while we conquere the world. Andreas Waldetoft made a splendid soundtrack in Hearts of Iron III, and I am sure he will do so with Hearts of Iron IV, but I really want to hear some examples.

In the WWW I was hardly able to listen to the soundtrack, because of the two guys babbling all the time, at some point, I was so frustated, (that I was not able to listen to the music) I quitted the video.

Please, let us listen to the music!

 

[Caesar15]

There was a video where Waldetoft was featured and he talked about the soundtrack for a couple minutes. Might have been the politics one?

 

[Axe99]

There's been a little discussion, and we got a snippet of it in a vid once (ages ago now, almost definitely over a year, or close to, but it's a mysterious vid I can't find a link to) and it sounded good. Agree it'd be great to hear more about it .

Edit: Ninja'd by Caesar .

 

[Aederic]

There's been a little discussion, and we got a snippet of it in a vid once (ages ago now, almost definitely over a year, or close to, but it's a mysterious vid I can't find a link to) and it sounded good. Agree it'd be great to hear more about it .

I have seen the video back then, but it is little to nothing, compared to other asspects of the game, which we have been informed about excessively. A little bit more of that music would be nice.

 

[Baron Jukaga]

It will be whatever it is and moddable I'm sure too. It's not like you won't buy the game based on the music.

 

[Aederic]

It will be whatever it is and moddable I'm sure too. It's not like you won't buy the game based on the music.

Surely not, but still, it is, what we all will listen to, when we are playing. Certainly, one can say, that you can turn down the music, but providing us with good music, like in HoI3, it creates an unique atmosphere.

 

[The_Meme_Man]

Surely not, but still, it is, what we all will listen to, when we are playing. Certainly, one can say, that you can turn down the music, but providing us with good music, like in HoI3, it creates an unique atmosphere.

I didn't like HoI3's music that much, but I certainly liked Victoria II's and Crusader King II's music a lot (though not EU4's music that much either). From the twitch streams I did catch some more stylized versions of HoI3 songs, at least just updated with better instrument quality.

 

[BBBD316]

You can hear some of the music on the stream when they are quiet.

 

[Caesar15]

I didn't like HoI3's music that much, but I certainly liked Victoria II's and Crusader King II's music a lot (though not EU4's music that much either). From the twitch streams I did catch some more stylized versions of HoI3 songs, at least just updated with better instrument quality.

Hoi3's was repative for me, even though I liked the individual tracks. Victoria's was definetly the best for me though. Eu4's was satisfactory CK's was good as well.

 

[Axe99]

March of the Eagles is my favourite PDS soundtrack so far (although I like all of 'em). They've been very good at putting them up on Spotify, so I'm hoping that after I've played enough of HoI4 that I'm looking for a little variety, I'll mix the HoI4 and HoI3 soundtracks with other appropriate tunes (tracks from Band of Brothers' soundtrack and what have you) and pace it out a bit that way.

 

[erkkijuusto]

You can hear some of the music on the stream when they are quiet.

All I heard was HoI3 music on streams.

 

[Wulf145]

It will be whatever it is and moddable I'm sure too. It's not like you won't buy the game based on the music.

It would be great if the Music would be in a separate folder which one could fill with Music of ones choosing, like in Silent Hunter 3.

I liked the HOI 3 music, but after over 200 hours of play it does get repetitive.

 

[Jazumir]

I am really not into music that much, but what i´d like to see for HoI4 is a dynamic soundtrack that gradually changes due to in-game variables. It´s probably a bit tricky to choose which variables that would be and when the music changes from, say, jolly march to funeral tunes, but other (more simpler) games (like Panzer General) did it - and it really helps with immersion, imho.

F.e.: Say you play germany and start barbarossa - at first, when you have little losses (historical circumstances assumed) and advance like 100km a week or whatnot, the game plays some sort of triumphing march. As the advance grinds to a halt and losses start to pile up, it gradually changes to a darker and more serious tone. When the soviets finally arrive at Berlin (provided you play on for that long) it´s some apocalyptic choir (think ´camina burana´ or what it was called).

 

[Aederic]

I am really not into music that much, but what i´d like to see for HoI4 is a dynamic soundtrack that gradually changes due to in-game variables. It´s probably a bit tricky to choose which variables that would be and when the music changes from, say, jolly march to funeral tunes, but other (more simpler) games (like Panzer General) did it - and it really helps with immersion, imho.

F.e.: Say you play germany and start barbarossa - at first, when you have little losses (historical circumstances assumed) and advance like 100km a week or whatnot, the game plays some sort of triumphing march. As the advance grinds to a halt and losses start to pile up, it gradually changes to a darker and more serious tone. When the soviets finally arrive at Berlin (provided you play on for that long) it´s some apocalyptic choir (think ´camina burana´ or what it was called).

I am not totally sure on that, but I think in Hearts of Iron III there was dynamical music, like you described.

 

[Jazumir]

Uh - then i never noticed. No, i really dont think that´s the case. I just played a campaign last weekend...

 

[Aederic]

Uh - then i never noticed. No, i really dont think that´s the case. I just played a campaign last weekend...

Well, as I said, I am not totally sure, but if you look at the music-files in the "music" folder in the HoI3 directory, you can see, that they have strange names. Furthermore, there are textfiles, which indicate, that some piece of music is played if some kind of "factor" is there.

Example:

song = {
name = "alliesdoinggood.mp3"

chance = {
modifier = {
factor = 2
ENG = {
faction = allies
faction_progress = 33
}
}
modifier = {
factor = 0
ENG = {
faction = allies
NOT = { faction_progress = 20 }
}
}
}
}

 

[Jazumir]

Huh - i find that very surprising, really. I never-ever would have thought. Is this code actually used? Cause i must have played hundreds of hours and never noticed.

EDIT: No, yeah - it seems HoI3 actually does this - it´s just that it´s implemented in a way, i never noticed. It seems to trigger certain pieces on certain events, like a convoy being sunk! "Big army", is one, that seemed unfamiliar to me, so that´s how i can tell that the code is actually being used - i hardly ever had 800+ brigades, ever. But many of the triggers seem odd and the music can not be really linked to them, imho. ´Sunk convoy´ would be better for a troublesome overall situation (which is, of course, a far more compicated trigger).

 

[Aederic]

Huh - i find that very surprising, really. I never-ever would have thought. Is this code actually used? Cause i must have played hundreds of hours and never noticed.

I guess so, I mean, the music of HoI3 is very subtle, but still creating a special flair while playing.

Just take a look for yourself, and you can see a lot of text-files in the "music" directory.

 

[Jazumir]

x-edit

Well, no, you are right, i stand corrected, HoI3 does this. So i´d suggest to improve it a bit, to make it more noticable.

 

[Aederic]

Huh - i find that very surprising, really. I never-ever would have thought. Is this code actually used? Cause i must have played hundreds of hours and never noticed.

EDIT: No, yeah - it seems HoI3 actually does this - it´s just that it´s implemented in a way, i never noticed. It seems to trigger certain pieces on certain events, like a convoy being sunk! "Big army", is one, that seemed unfamiliar to me, so that´s how i can tell that the code is actually being used - i hardly ever had 800+ brigades, ever. But many of the triggers seem odd and the music can not be really linked to them, imho. ´Sunk convoy´ would be better for a troublesome overall situation (which is, of course, a far more compicated trigger).

Surely, some trigger seem odd, but I still admire the fact, that they did this. Triggering music to certain aspects of the gameplay like "A lot of land action".