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If you think it'd be cool, do it! There's no Should or Should Not :)

jmickle66666666 said:

If you think it'd be cool, do it! There's no Should or Should Not :)

Thanks for replying man, but I really want to know what the community wants. I want to put what the community wants before what I want.

Edit: Which may or may not be a good idea, but I'm still experimenting as a map maker so I don't really know what works and what doesn't. I want to play it relatively safe this time around.

Varied soundtracks are awesome! As long as the same music isn't repeated too often (see literally every oldschool RPG's battle music) then this should be awesome :)

AwesomeO-789 said:

Thanks for replying man, but I really want to know what the community wants. I want to put what the community wants before what I want.

Edit: Which may or may not be a good idea, but I'm still experimenting as a map maker so I don't really know what works and what doesn't. I want to play it relatively safe this time around.

"The community" is comprised of wildly different people, many of whom seek mutually contradictory things from the game. Trust your own judgment first, then take what others say into account. You won't please us all, so don't make too many compromises trying to do so.

Make something you like, and there's a good chance some other people will think it's cool, too. There's plenty of stuff out there for anybody who doesn't.

I posted this thread here because I thought of it more as a poll than a request for help. While I do appreciate the advice you guys are giving, I just want to know whether you guys prefer the classic style of a doom soundtrack or a varying one. Simple as that. Please, no more replies like the 2 above that didn't really give an answer.

Mithran Denizen said:

You won't please us all

Really, though. You can't. We're a load of putzes.

EDIT: For my part, when done well varying soundtracks are a cool way to set pacing. Check out Pirate Doom for an excellent use of exactly that.

Captain Ventris said:

Really, though. You can't. We're a load of putzes.

Exactly, if the community doesn't like the approach I chose I can I show them this thread and tell them THEY had the bright idea for me to include this. (edit: joke)

Captain Ventris said:

EDIT: For my part, when done well varying soundtracks are a cool way to set pacing. Check out Pirate Doom for an excellent use of exactly that.

Thanks!

AwesomeO-789 said:

Please, no more replies like the 2 above that didn't really give an answer.

Okay, if you're just polling for opinions, I personally think it's a really cool idea but also a waste of time, and I'll probably mute the music myself regardless.

Exactly, if the community doesn't like the approach I chose I can I show them this thread and tell them THEY had the bright idea for me to include this.

That sounds like a cop out. Nobody here can be responsible for your creative decisions, and the handful of replies this thread recieves will never fully represent the community anyway.

Mithran Denizen said:

That sounds like a cop out. Nobody here can be responsible for your creative decisions, and the handful of replies this thread recieves will never fully represent the community anyway.

I didn't actually mean that, if my wad sucks, my wad sucks. Not gonna blame it on others.

Also, thanks for sharing your opinion!

If you're making your WAD to please someone else rather than yourself, you're maybe doing it wrong. :P

"The Community" isn't a hive mind with a single opinion so you will never please all of the people anyway.

@Enjay

AwesomeO-789 said:

I posted this thread here because I thought of it more as a poll than a request for help. While I do appreciate the advice you guys are giving, I just want to know whether you guys prefer the classic style of a doom soundtrack or a varying one. Simple as that. Please, no more replies like the 2 above that didn't really give an answer.

Well, my point is, there isn't really a "you guys" if you are looking for a consensus. Individually, we will all have our own opinions on this. My first statement actually covers my opinion: you should be making it for yourself and what you think is best because you aren't going to please everyone whatever you do.

Even your starter question from the thread title doesn't make much sense, from a certain point of view. By some definitions of a "classic Doom WAD" you wouldn't have the option of varying the music within a single map anyway. To do so requires "advanced port" features not available in what many people here would consider to be "classic Doom".

Personally, I think a single track for a whole map or varying music within a map can both work. It's a bigger question than simply "what's best" because it depends on other factors too, not least of which is the style and pacing of the map itself. That's probably not much help but it really isn't as simple as your question makes it out to be. You are the only one with a proper overview of your map, so you are best placed to make that decision. You might ask yourself questions like have you used other "advanced" features or not. If you have, changing music might seem good or even be expected by some people. If the map is very vanilla in style, perhaps having scripted music changes might clash a bit. Or maybe it wouldn't.

Did you ever get to play Alone in the Dark? (I, II, III) One of the coolest things about that game was how the slow spooky music switched when a ghost appeared. It was quite unnerving, to downright scary! Sometimes you'd hear the music even before you saw trouble, but you just knew something bad was getting ready to happen.

But, for Doom? It really depends on the atmosphere. To just throw it into any ol' Doom level would seem like a gimmick to me. It would only work if the level was designed for it. I think it would only work if the music switch was synchronized with, or provoked an emotional state change in the player. Examples:
Fear, especially on a dark level with very few, powerful ugly monsters.
Excitement, say after picking up a useful powerup to be used in this battle.

Does that make sense?

Why not tie it to the song you think fits best and release a music pack of MP3's that people can put on random in the background, calling this "recommended mode"?

I do something similar when I play the Heretic megawads. I have a big playlist of appropriately themed music from a whole slew of games that I put on in random in Winamp and mute the music in Zdoom. It's a good experience, and, if I wanted, I could just stop it and unmute the normal music. Best of both worlds.

RunningWild said:

Why not tie it to the song you think fits best and release a music pack of MP3's that people can put on random in the background, calling this "recommended mode"?

I do something similar when I play the Heretic megawads. I have a big playlist of appropriately themed music from a whole slew of games that I put on in random in Winamp and mute the music in Zdoom. It's a good experience, and, if I wanted, I could just stop it and unmute the normal music. Best of both worlds.

I don't think this'd be a good idea, the wad I'm working on has a variety of different maps with different tones, colours, lighting, etc. etc. You wouldn't be able to sync it up with the wad, and it'd be weird playing an atmosphere-based level with heavy metal music going lol, thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I'll check out some of the wads you guys mentioned and I'll experiment for myself to see if it fits or not.

my preference is whatever you want