Feature request: Continuous zone music (Option to stop league mechanics overriding zone music)

Issue: zones/maps have base music + ambience that is great. However league mechanics force their own music within those zones, before reverting back to the base music again. Some mechanics like ritual are particularly egregious - you have forced 3-4x transitions per map if you engage with it. When multiplied by many mechanics it gets overwhelming and breaks game flow.

ARPGs are in my opinion important to consider game flow, mood, consistency as part of their aesthetics. To break it feels cheap, tacky and unconsidered.

Imagine having 3 rituals, 3 alvas and a blight and a legion - 8 music transitions within a ~5 minute window. This is not an unreasonable scenario either, it could be far more. Things like legion often come in 2-3 per map, ritual can go to 4. This even occurs during campaign - its not an endgame only problem

Its incredibly jarring. I find, I mostly cannot bear listening to the ingame music, despite liking it (and I love choosing maps for aesthetic reasons like Crypts etc). If I do want POE music I would actually mute the game and run it off youtube as its a more immersive + better experience, which is unfortunate.

There is also the issue of false-hype. Maybe legion was exciting the first 100 times, but the crescendo / escalating music when you are doing white map farming is just not appropriate. As per habituation effects - the impact is greater when it is not overdone: save it for the important times and the both sides win. The maps are cleaner aesthetically, and the appropriate tension is applied in a more measured and appropriate fashion

Furthermore, with legion/blight specifically - after completing the content and running in/out of the vicinity, it will often start and stop which is just really immersion breaking and silly.

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Suggestion is to, (as an option can toggle on or off or whatever)... If option is enabled:

- Have the base zone music prioritised
- Don't play any league mechanic or similar music during that zone
- Do play league mechanic music when doing specific league content that is not encountered in maps. For example play legion music in the Timeless conflict, play Blight music in Blighted maps, and so on

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Full list below of how I think specifically it should work

Spoiler

- Breach - only plays in breachstones - no change needed
- Harbinger - no change needed
- Abyss - only plays in abyssal depths - no change needed
- Bestiary (only plays in Menagerie and associated zones - no changes needed
- Incursion - disable In-Map Alva x3, keep for temples
- Delve - no changes needed
- Betrayal - disable research music, no change needed for Safehouses and Mastermind
[So a bit of testing showed only Research encounter (inside the 'downstairs') has different music, but its not Betrayal music specifcally but from one of the 'crypt generic zones' that's used in a few tilesets.]
- Synthesis - no changes needed
- Legion - Disable In-Map, keep for Timeless Conflict
- Blight - Disable In-Map, keep for blighted maps
- Metamorph - (occurs on spawning the metamorph into the map) disable In-Map, keep for Tane's Lab
- Delirium - Disable In-Map (random and deli orb maps), keep for Simulacrum
- Harvest - Disable for In-Map Garden, keep for Oshabi zone
[for consistency this is fair, but this is the one that I feel could remain, really feels like a different zone.. Arguable either way IMO]
- Heist - no changes needed
- Ritual - Disable In-Map x3/4
- Expedition - Disable In-Map, keep for Logbooks
- Sanctum - use inside the floors, not for the lobby zone
Last bumped on Feb 21, 2023, 7:09:16 AM

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