Overview
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:
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:
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:
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:
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