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Justin Bell

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Posts posted by Justin Bell

    Chamption Edition bonus soundtrack - terrible quality

    in Pillars of Eternity: Technical Support (Spoiler Warning!)

    Posted

    Heyblm_is_your_friend.  First off, sincere apologies for taking so long to respond to this.  I know you've been working with our support team , and they've done a great job communicating with me about this.  The failure is on me.  

    That audio sure does look distorted to me as well.  I can't explain why that's the case, but I have the source files here and this is what they look like:

    image.png

    I will work with our support folks to see about getting this resolved, please look for a response from them.

    [3.0] A song from PoE1 has come back... with a vengeance

    in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Technical Support (Spoiler Warning!)

    Posted

    @Phenomenum Seems reasonable.  Thank you very much for taking the time to make these suggestions.  I will try to integrate these changes, but it might need to wait until the next patch.  It's getting very late for me to modify data in this way for this next patch (this modifies more than just Wwise data, which gets slightly riskier considering we're locking the patch imminently) , but next patch will be much safer and I'll look into doing this.  

    • Like 5

    [3.0] A song from PoE1 has come back... with a vengeance

    in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Technical Support (Spoiler Warning!)

    Posted

    I hear you. Ok if there's another piece from Pillars 1 or 2/White March you guys prefer for night music sound off. It's got to be today or tomorrow my time though to ensure it gets into the build.

     

    Two provisos - I reserve the right to decline a suggestion based on music placement elsewhere in the game, AND new music is off the table for now unfortunately :)

    • Like 3

    Atmosphere (I hope Justin Bell reads this)

    in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted

    Just wanted to let you folks know that we're doing the following:

    • Night music in all Neketaka districts except for dungeons and inns, and some wilderness areas.  It will be two pieces of music, one for towns, one for wilderness areas
    • Boss music for all boss encounters
    • Reactive music turned off by default, but optionally turned on if you so wish.

    Couple notes to set expectations.  We will be re-purposing music from Pillars 1 for the music above.   I know that this will likely disappoint some, but my current workload won't allow for anything more than this.  That said, I really think it will make the difference you guys hope for and urge you to give it a chance!

     

    We're aiming to have this in when Seeker, Slayer, Survivor launches, but like anything we do, I can't guarantee the timing because we need to test it first to make sure we can safely add it to the game.  That said, it's looking good so far, and we hope to be able to do this for the 3.0 release.  If not for that release, then one shortly thereafter. 

     

    Stand by! 

    • Like 21

    Atmosphere (I hope Justin Bell reads this)

    in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted

    Strange thing: when i playing the game, music just flows and don't memorable, exept 2 or 3 tracks. But today i had a free time and desided to listen OST - and i was amazed how magnificient and charming all of Justin's work - every song has own temper, brilliant instruments arrange, interesting structure. All and all, it's state of art.

    Now i wonder why all this beauty don't recognized during the game process..?

    Anyway, if someone feels ingame music mediocre try to sit, relax, and carefully listen OST - maybe you change your mind like i did.

     

    If you guys want I can see if we can make it so soundtrack reactivity is an option that you can turn on and off.  Honestly, I think this would address a lot of the feedback folks have.

    • Like 9

    Atmosphere (I hope Justin Bell reads this)

    in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted

    I wrote down a list of my most memorable and favorite tracks from the Deadfire. I am not talking about the composition or quality of a soundtrack alone, but rather about the mood/atmoshpere it created together with its visual surroundings & the narrative of the section of the story. Apparently this is a personal thing but here we go:

     

    1. Eothas:

    While I didn't recognize it too much during the main game, it climbed to #1 after the Beast of Winter DLC. Just fits perfectly to the scene there, it feels divine & almost stops the time just by listening to it. Besides... experiencing that special scene was really a key moment. I believe, this scenery enhanced the track itself for me a bit. Hell, it enhanced the whole story (in terms of epicness) of not only Deadfire but also PoE 1 for me.

     

    2. Arkemyr:

    Just magical & mystical. Fits very well with the theme of an archmage. I find myself revisiting the Manor just to listen to it from time to time.

     

    3. All Gods:

    That's what you should always listen to when making important decisions & talking about serious, momentous things. I wish the gods would behave accordingly & not like children. Definitaly enhanced & maybe even saved my experience with the otherwise rather silly divine encounters.

     

    And I like most of the rest... like Mother Ocean & the Serpent Crown, and the shanties. 

     

    Nice!  That's awesome to hear, thank you!

    Atmosphere (I hope Justin Bell reads this)

    in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted

    Personally, I reckon the music in Deadfire was better than the one in PoE1, even disregarding the fab shanties.

     

    I'm wondering, though: Is any music ever affected/changed during convos?

     

    Perhaps you pick a detrimental choice, and then an ominous tone starts when you are pondering your next choice after the new mess you're in...

     

    Compare Pathfinder Adventures, when the bad guys spill the beans, for instance. I really like that.

    No, never to that degree of reactivity, but it would be pretty cool if we could pull that off. It all boils down to time of course, there was so much to accomplish during this project.

    • Like 4

    Atmosphere (I hope Justin Bell reads this)

    in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted

     

    @EdwinOdesseiron thanks for your kind words words and your support!

    Out of curiosity does Baldur's Gate have the same night time music everywhere?

    Also, @house2fly, if we played The Watcher Prevails only during boss fights, would that be a step in the right direction?

     

    Wow, that was quick!

    To your question: Yes and no. There were certainly different music "pairs" for day/night, but some of them repeated in other areas.

    Examples for outdoor:

    - Cloackwood forest (Day): www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8wwo7gpC3I&t=1615s

    - Night in the cloakwood: (Night): www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8wwo7gpC3I&t=1813s

    ----------------

    - Exploring the plains (Day): www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8wwo7gpC3I&t=633s

    - Night on the plains (Night): www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8wwo7gpC3I&t=770s

    Examples for cities:

    - Daytime in the slums (Day): www.youtube.com/watch?v=W80tmfVcQCo&t=591s

    - At night in the slums (Night): www.youtube.com/watch?v=W80tmfVcQCo&t=3965s

    ----------------

    - Waukeens Promenade (Day): www.youtube.com/watch?v=W80tmfVcQCo&t=475s

    - Waukeens Promenade (Night): www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfMVPS9GtdU

    In the last example with Waukeens Promenade there was no music at all in the night, only ambient sound if I remember correctly. Sometimes even silence does the job it seems. Or they just ran out of time, but I dig it. Silence before the storm.

    PS: Sorry for making those links unclickable but having multiple YouTube videos messed with the timestamps.

     

     

    Got it, thanks! Not sure how or if we can pull this off, but I'll look into it. Can't promise anything, but I'll try.

     

     

     

    @EdwinOdesseiron thanks for your kind words words and your support!

    Out of curiosity does Baldur's Gate have the same night time music everywhere?

    Also, @house2fly, if we played The Watcher Prevails only during boss fights, would that be a step in the right direction?

    Watcher Prevails is awesome, so it definitely would. Out of curiosity, is the track Rise Again Rise Again used anywhere? It's on the soundtrack but I don't recall ever hearing it in the game. It would make a pretty good boss track also

    Hmmmmm, Rise Again Rise Again *should* play. Wonder what's going on. RE Watcher prevails I'll look into it! Can't make promises here either, but I'll investigate.

    • Like 12

    Extensive first thoughts after finishing Deadfire's first playthrough

    in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted

     

     

     

     

    Can I just say that the best music in the POE2 is hands down the ship singing tracks. I wasn't even expecting them to occur the first time which made it all the more thrilling and atmospheric. It actually made me want to stay on the ship longer lol.

     

    Nice! Glad you like it :) Truth be told I was skeptical that people would like it, but I'm glad I was wrong.

     

    It felt almost like an intermittent song from a pirate movie. One you might hear between scenes in a film with lots of ale clinking and swinging from ropes. I would love to have some additional similar tracks for one of the future DLCs. In particular, I thought a good place to have some kind of shipboard atmospheric track or sound effects would be during the storm events on the overworld map.

     

    All around very good job with the music this go around, it is a massive improvement over the first's soundtrack (which was very repetitive in it's scope sad to say). I would like to echo the sentiments from another user about there needing to be a few areas that should have had unique soundtracks (such as the bathhouse). It might seem like a waste from a development point of view, but one thing that has always stood out to me in games that have become all time favorites is those areas where you get exclusive chills from epic music you've not heard anywhere else in the game. Some very good examples of this type can be found on late SNES early N64 video games. One of my all-time favorite games is Mario RPG (it is the first RPG I ever played to fruition back when I was 10). One of the things that still sticks with me about that game is some of the unique soundtracks for certain areas, from those with a sense of urgency to whimsy. While most areas still use the main soundtrack/themes.

     

    Some other good examples of this can be found in Ocarina of Time, though not exactly an rpg they did well with the idea of "unique" tracks to select areas which make them stand out and help one reimagine those places decades later.

     

    Just something for your consideration.

     

    Thank you for that @Excerpt.  Glad you liked it.  The scope of the game and the amount of work required meant we had to de-prioritize certain plans, and the bathhouse was one of them unfortunately.  I agree with you though and I also would have liked to do something unique for this area.

     

    As an alternative, what if I just persist the music from the exterior into the interior?  It might be more tonally fitting than the inn music.

     

    I like that idea of changing the music to the exterior music, I think it'd be more fitting personally. But I don't presume to speak for everyone.

     

    I will tell you this though. I would be willing to pay for an additional music DLC if it was of the appropriate caliber, don't know if you guys have ever thought of commissioning work based on that premise or not. In particular something along the lines of customizable and/or unique battle/dialogue music based on class/reputation/disposition. 

     

    Overall well done, and I really love and appreciate seeing the Developers interacting so much on the forums here with players/customers. It is an unusual and refreshing thing in the current age of game development.

    My pleasure really. We make these games for you guys, and it's important that we talk! I kind of agree about the bathhouse music. I'll make the change.

    • Like 2
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