More Music!

[Zloth]

The music is pretty good in this game but there isn't much of it. 4X game sessions can last an entire afternoon AND evening, which makes for a lot of repeated music. Luckily, it's really trivial to add more music to Distant Worlds. If you look in your game directory (inside the Steam directory) there's a directory called "Sounds" and a "Music" directory inside that. Simply drop all the MP3s you want into that directory and they will get incorporated into the game!

Now I'm not sure what might happen come patch time or if you do a verify files with this system. A better one might be to simply set up a trivial customization. That means restarting your game, though.

P.S. The GalCiv3 preview also uses MP3s, as does Endless Space. You can have the music from all three games show up! X3:Terran Conflict uses MP3 files, too. Maximum space-out!

[Ri0Rdian]

Try some of those:
Such as Paaltio - interstellar travel, some tracks from Helios (The sun, The moon, Fourteen drawings, Infinity-touch of space) and plenty of tracks from John Dreamer.
Also I think both .mp3 and .ogg work.

[Patrick]

May I recommend this thread...

Any reccommended music for Distant Worlds?

[Anonamouse]

There is a risk that Steam might overwrite anything that you dump in the main directory. I'd suggest instead putting your custom music in something like:

\Customization\MyTheme\Sounds\Music

And then, congratulations: you have made your first mod :-) from the main menu of DW, select "change theme" and select MyTheme. And if I haven't forgotten something absurdly basic, it should work fine.

Other recommended music: I always dig a little Carl Orf, O Fortuna, and Holst the Planets (Mars, etc.). Adds a bit of grandeur to the proceedings, I think.

[Zloth]

Putting them in a theme would work but then you'll have to restart your game. You can't switch themes mid-stream. If you're already using a custom theme, though, you could always drop your music into that theme's music folder.

[Anonamouse]

I think savegames would be compatible if you switch from default to a sound theme. I think I've done it (though I am not positive.) Worst case scenario, you could always switch back to the default theme.

[Zloth]

The first thing I tried was a theme. I switched to my theme but, when I loaded my save game, it switched right back again.

P.S. If ogg files work then Civ 5 and the Paradox games can go in, too!

[Anonamouse]

I think only mp3s work. I use fre:ac, a solid open source converter. And, yes, I've put in some civ5, paradox, and the last federation songs into my mix.

find it: http://www.freac.org/

[Pat Splat]

Darkspace is excellent to listen to while playing sci-fi/space 4x games. They even sample Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri in a couple songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BywgV-tKIps

[Stuie]

Just set up a Pandora station with "Tomita" as the artist. You'll get a good soundtrack for the game.

[Orion314]

sorry, but darkspace really sux hard

[Narkulus]

Originally posted by Orion314:

sorry, but darkspace really sux hard

I didn't realize space music had that much distortion on guitar.

[Zloth]

Space is big. Really big. If you look far enough, eventually you'll find anything you can imagine. Be that a planet full of living matresses or heavy guitar distortion.

I'm just happy I can add whatever music I like so easily. I really wish a lot more games would do that.

[Pat Splat]

Thread's severely lacking in heavy guitar distortion space music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POD3riJvL18

here's the Alpha Centauri sample:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srWSOrCosJs

[Henchman 21]

I just thought I'd mention Stellardrone works really well for ambient music for this game as well, and all his work is available at the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine for free in ogg and mp3 form, uploaded by him it seems. Aurora 4X uses one of his albums for its own smbient music.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Stellardrone%22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ0L_6D1ouw

[Zloth]

Wow, I haven't thought about this game for a bit! I sure hope some of the new games showing up pay attention to how Distant Worlds did it.