Default Planetary Soundtracks in Civ: Beyond Earth v2.0

This guide lists when certain tracks from the official Civilization: Beyond Earth soundtrack plays in-game for each of the five planet biomes i.e. lush, arid, frigid, fungal and volcanic).

Version Control

1.0 - 06/11/2014 - Beyond Earth Soundtrack
2.0 - 14/11/2015 - Modified for Rising Tide

Methodology for Beyond Earth

I'm a big fan of the Civilization: Beyond Earth soundtrack and the Affinities system but one thing I've always wondered about the soundtrack is if certain tracks were composed specifically for a particular affinity or not. Some of the titles would definitely hint towards this (e.g. "Solid State Citizen") so I thought I'd give it a look. I stumbled across a few XML files in this directory:

[drive letter:]\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth\assets\Sounds\XML

and they seemed to contain a whole bunch of triggers/event names and music file names associated with them. The files in question are:

• DefaultPlanetMusicScripts.xml
  
• DesertPlanetMusicScripts.xml
  
• FungusPlanetMusicScripts.xml

The music filenames in the xml files seemed to correspond to the .OGG music files contained within this directory:

[drive letter:]\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth\assets\Sounds\Streamed\Music

I then manually went through playing the .OGG music files in these folders and tried to match them up with the events/triggers in the three XML files above. The result is this guide you're reading.

Note: I didn't list the music files that play when you're at "Peace" but suffice to say, they're most likely the ambient pieces for particular planets along with repeats of tracks I have already matched.

Methodology for Rising Tide

For the expansion Rising Tide, there's been a few changes made in terms of the soundtrack.

Firstly, I had to look in a new location for the Rising Tide music. XML files were located here:

[drive letter:]\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth\assets\DLC\Expansion1\Sounds\XML

The files examined were:

• DefaultPlanetMusicScripts_Expansion1.xml
  
• DesertPlanetMusicScripts_Expansion1.xml
  
• FrigidPlanetMusicScripts.xml
  
• FungusPlanetMusicScripts_Expansion1.xml
  
• VolcanicPlanetMusicScripts.xml

and the .OGG music files that the XML files referred to were located here:

[drive letter:]\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth\assets\DLC\Expansion1\Sounds\Streamed\Music

The second change I noticed is that the XML files rid themselves of music that was attributed to the three original affinities of Purity, Harmony and Supremacy - they probably did so because you have hybrid affinities now.

As was the case before, I manually went through playing the .OGG music files in these folders and tried to match them up with the events/triggers in the five XML files above. The result is this guide you're reading.

Note: Again, I didn't list the music files that play when you're at "Peace" but suffice to say, they're most likely the ambient pieces for particular planets along with repeats of tracks I have already matched.

Lush Planet Soundtrack (Default)

Planetfall Music = The Lush Planet and The Lush Planet - Ambient Early
Satellite Launched = Lux Perpetua
Colossal unit Spotted = Destroyer
Planetary Wonder Built = Beauty in the Eye of the Orbiter
Victory Imminent = Our New World
War 1 = Xenomancer
War 2 = O Muse
War 3 = Destroyer
War 4 = Earth's Ambassadors
War 5 = Tidehunter
War 6 = Solid State Citizen

Arid Planet Soundtrack

Planetfall Music = The Arid Planet and The Arid Planet - Ambient Early
Satellite Launched = Dogmatic Engineering
Colossal unit Spotted = Xeno Titan
Planetary Wonder Built = Solar Collector
Victory Imminent = Deep Memory
War 1 = Xenomancer
War 2 = O Muse
War 3 = Xeno Titan
War 4 = Earth's Ambassadors
War 5 = Tidehunter
War 6 = Solid State Citizen

Frigid Planet Soundtrack (The Old World)

Planetfall Music = The Old World and The Old World (Ambient Early)
Satellite Launched = Terra Incognita
Colossal unit Spotted = Ice and Conquest
Planetary Wonder Built = The Dendrite Frontier
Victory Imminent = Fractal Aquilon
War 1 = Xenomancer
War 2 = O Muse
War 3 = Ice and Conquest
War 4 = Earth's Ambassadors
War 5 = Tidehunter
War 6 = Solid State Citizen

Fungal Planet Soundtrack

Planetfall Music = The Fungal Planet and The Fungal Planet - Ambient Early
Satellite Launched = Xenomalleum
Colossal unit Spotted = Promethean
Planetary Wonder Built = Acclimation
Victory Imminent = A New Beginning
War 1 = Xenomancer
War 2 = O Muse
War 3 = Promethean
War 4 = Earth's Ambassadors
War 5 = Tidehunter
War 6 = Solid State Citizen

Volcanic Planet Soundtrack (The Young World)

Planetfall Music = The Young World and The Young World (Ambient Early)
Satellite Launched = Immortal
Colossal unit Spotted = Lahar
Planetary Wonder Built = Mobius Horn
Victory Imminent = Hybrid Champion
War 1 = Xenomancer
War 2 = O Muse
War 3 = Lahar
War 4 = Earth's Ambassadors
War 5 = Tidehunter
War 6 = Solid State Citizen

[[GoC] Col. Mustard]

Yep just found that out too - it's the music that plays when you're just about to win the game on a Primordial/Volcanic world :)

[Hardûn]

Aha, that explains it. I keep getting dragged into wars by AI allies!
I wonder though, probably my favourite track aside from teh title is Hybrid Champion, do you know when that plays yet?

[[GoC] Col. Mustard]

Currently working through this list Hardûn and to answer your question, the reason you hear Tidehunter quite a bit is because it's one of the five common "War" tracks that play in Rising Tide :). I've only heard it just today but really digging it - has a very swashbuckler, Age of Sail or Master-and-Commander feel to it.

[[GoC] Col. Mustard]

Yeah I only just started listening to the Rising Tide music and it's good stuff - it takes a lot of leitmotifs from the original soundtrack but sounds a lot more optimistic. Tidehunter is one of the new tracks which is why you don't see it in my list (I originally created this for vanilla so it didn't have Tidehunter yet :)) - but once I get around to it, I'll be sure to make an update to the guide!

[Hardûn]

Wonderful guide! I'm loving the Rising Tide music, which is odd because the vanilla BE music didn't catch me much. I am wondering though, where does the track 'Tidehunter' come in? I've definnitely heard it in-game somewhere, but it's not on the list.