Music

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Revision as of 22:16, 1 October 2022 by Michiyo (historical) (talk) (Change Medie links to File links, this should invoke the media player)
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Overview

There were few things in City of Heroes that set the mood more than the short pieces of music that played as you moved about the city. Nearly every neighborhood in every zone had unique music that clearly identified where you were, even without seeing what was on the screen.

The styles of music used varied widely, and ranged from soft pop and techno to hard rock and full orchestra. The music used for the original release of the game through Issue 5 consisted of fairly generic synthesized instruments and percussion, which made it more difficult to maintain uniqueness without sounding amateurish.

With the release of City of Villains and Issue 6, the palette of instruments and percussion was completely overhauled which allowed for more realistic and lush arrangements. All zones added or revamped since then (such as Faultline and Rikti War Zone) made use of those updated sounds.

The new music for the Praetorian zones in Going Rogue, and that which was added after Issue 18, was written by award-winning composer Jason Graves. It had a high level of thematic unity, with both melodic and rhythmic motives providing a more coherent immersion while playing through that content. One potential drawback to this composition method, however, was that it could be difficult to discern differences between pieces because they did all sound very similar.

After the shutdown of City of Heroes, a member of the Titan Forums converted the .ogg music files into MP3 format and made an archive available for download.


  • A Note About Browsing This Page: Most browsers (Edge, Firefox, & Chrome) can play these .ogg audio files within the browser itself just by clicking on the file link. However, Apple's Safari web browser does not have a built-in player to listen to .ogg audio files. For ease of use, try using one of the other browsers mentioned above instead of Safari.


Neighborhood Listings

Hero Zones

This is a consolidated listing of each zone's neighborhoods and the music associated with them. Neighborhoods marked with an asterisk (*) were duplicated or modified from music elsewhere in the game. See the following section for details.

Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood
Outbreak
Atlas Park
(Pre-Issue 21)






(Unused)
Atlas Park





Echo: Galaxy City





Sewer Network




Kings Row






The Hollows
Four Seasons (No Music)



Perez Park




Steel Canyon





(Unused)

Skyway City Aeria Plaza (No Music)


Vista Plaza (No Music)
The Gruff (No Music)

Boomtown



Echo: Faultline




Faultline




Independence Port









Talos Island










Striga Isle




Dark Astoria
(Pre-Issue 22)
(Unused)





(Unused)
Echo: Dark Astoria St. Elegius (No Music)





Moth Cemetery (No Music)
Terra Volta







Croatoa




Brickstown







Founders' Falls






Blackstone Hills (No Music)
Crey's Folly





Eden





Abandoned Sewer Network




Peregrine Island







Firebase Zulu
Tempest Sector (No Music)






Point Tango (No Music)


Cascade Archipelago




The Chantry



(Unused)
(Unused)


The Storm Palace







Villain Zones

Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood
Breakout
Mercy Island
{Pre-Issue 21)



Mercy Island


Port Oakes




Cap au Diable




Bloody Bay






Sharkhead Isle




Siren's Call


Nerva Archipelago


St. Martial


Fortune's Wheel (No Music)


Warburg


The WEB (No Music)
Grandville


Recluse's Victory



Monster Island


Co-op / Shared Zones

Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood
Rikti War Zone









Pocket D







Ouroboros Cimerora

Midnighter Club Dark Astoria





Praetorian Zones

Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood Zone Neighborhood
Nova Praetoria


Imperial City





(unused)
Neutropolis

Underground Nova

Underground Imperial

Underground Neutropolis

First Ward




Night Ward






Reused Music

Although there was a large amount of unique music found throughout the game, there were several neighborhoods that used musical cues which had slight differences from, or were exact duplicates of, those used elsewhere. Listed below are examples of the neighborhoods that used identical or similar music. They are sorted by the earliest zone/neighborhood in which the music was used, or by the first zone that used the most complete version. If there are no notes after a secondary listing then it used the identical version as the primary one.


-- longer version


-- longer version


-- similar version


-- longer version


-- shorter, similar version
-- similar version


Abandoned Sewer Network / Atlas Park Sector


The Hollows / Grendel's Gulch
Abandoned Sewer Network / Boomtown Sector
-- unused longer version


Abandoned Sewer Network / Skyway City Sector
-- unused extended version


Abandoned Sewer Network / Steel Canyon Sector


Abandoned Sewer Network / Underworld


-- longer unused version




-- similar version 1, added intro
-- unused similar version 2, added intro


The Hollows / Eastgate Park
-- similar, shorter version
-- same as Talos Island version


-- extended version
-- similar version


-- extended version


-- extended version
-- similar extended version


-- omit rhythm, added animal sounds
-- similar to Dark Astoria version


Striga Isle / The Maw


Striga Isle / The Wolf's Throat
-- similar, longer version


-- similar extended version


-- similar extended version


The Hollows / Eastgate Heights


-- added animal sounds
-- longer, added background effects
-- longer, added bird sounds
-- same as Dark Astoria version


-- added atmosphere
Abandoned Sewer Network / Kings Row Sector -- same as Sewer Network version
-- longer version with intro


-- extended version
-- longer version


-- longer version


-- longer version
-- unused similar version


-- extended version


-- extended version with intro




-- added intro


-- similar, longer version


-- unused longer version


-- longer version


The Hollows / Cherry Hills
-- slower, shorter version


-- different intro
Warburg / Hero Base -- same as Bloody Bay version



Striga Isle / Port Noble


-- longer version


-- longer, added animal sounds
-- longer version


-- added intro effect
-- slightly longer version
-- extended version
-- longer version
-- longer version
-- muffled version of Hero Lobby 1


The Hollows / The Red River


-- omit bells, extended slower version


-- unused version, added intro
-- unused longer version


Monster Island / Cutlass Isles


-- longer version
-- extended version


-- unused longer version


Monster Island / Tempest Quay
-- shorter, unused version


Faultline / Overflow


Bloody Bay / Arachnos Base
Recluse's Victory / Sector 2


-- similar version
-- muffled version of Villain Lobby 1


Warburg / Warburg


Siren's Call / Buildville


-- unused version

Bloody Bay / Water Street -- unused version


-- shorter version
Faultline / Overbrook Dam


Bloody Bay / Water Street
Grandville / The Fab


-- unused longer version


-- unused similar version


Faultline / Aftershock


Faultline / Arachnos Dig Site
-- shorter version


Grandville / Spider City


Recluse's Victory / Sector 4


Echo: Dark Astoria / Barca Plaza


Echo: Dark Astoria / Dido's View


Echo: Dark Astoria / Raimi Arcade


Echo: Dark Astoria / Romero Heights


Echo: Dark Astoria / Toffet Terrace


Unused and Alternate Music

Some neighborhood music cues had alternate unused versions or were omitted completely from the game. The list below highlights some of these.


Atlas Park

-- unused


Steel Canyon

-- unused


Faultline (Pre-Issue 8)

-- removed in Issue 8
-- removed in Issue 8
-- removed in Issue 8
-- removed in Issue 8
-- removed in Issue 8
-- removed in Issue 8


Faultline (Issue 8)

-- extended version
-- unused alternate version
-- unused New Age version
-- longer Oriental version looped in Mr. Yin's store


Dark Astoria (Pre-Issue 22)

-- unused loop
-- unused


The Chantry

-- unused
-- unused


Bloody Bay

-- unused alternate version
-- unused alternate version


Breakout

-- unused
-- unused


Mercy Island

-- unused alternate version
-- unused alternate version


Port Oakes

-- unused alternate version
-- unused
-- unused alternate version
-- unused alternate version
-- unused alternate version


Cap au Diable

-- unused alternate version
-- unused alternate version
-- unused alternate version


Sharkhead Isle

-- unused alternate version
-- unused alternate version


St. Martial

-- unused longer version
-- unused
-- unused


Imperial City

-- unused
-- unused
-- unused


Pocket D

-- used in missions
-- muffled version of above


Miscellaneous Unused Music


BoomBox Tracks

This list includes the different tracks that could be selected when using the BoomBox emote. Lo-Fi versions of the tracks were implemented in Issue 17 to more accuractely simulate the sound quality from a real boombox.


Altitude   
Beat   
Catch Me   
Dance   
ElectroVibe   
Disco Freak   
Dog Walk   
Heavy Dude   
Info Overload   
Jumpy   
Kick It   
Looker   
Meaty   
Notorious   
Move On   
Peace   
Quickie   
Raver   
Shuffle   
Spaz   
Technoid   
Venus   
Wah Wah   
Wind It Up   
Yellow   


Mission Music

Going Rogue and Combat

These tracks were first introduced in Issue 18 and continued to be used through sunset. They typically were featured during boss fights in missions, or accompanied with tense storytelling moments. The zone name for each file does not imply that it was used exclusively for content in that area. For example, Who Will Die Episode 5 used Underground4_D during the fight after the cutscene.

Zone General Combat Other Mission Use
Nova Praetoria





 



 



 



 
Imperial City






 
 



 
 



 
 



 
 
Neutropolis





 



 






 
The Underground





 



 



 



Incarnate Trials

These looped tracks were introduced in Issue 20 for use as background music during Incarnate Trials. The "A" and "B" tracks were released first, while the "C" tracks were added with Issue 21.5.

"High" Loops

  


  


  
"Low" Loops





 

Mood Music

These tracks were used in missions, usually just inside the opening area to set the mood. The first wave of them were introduced in Issue 6, while more came in Issue 18. Many of the Issue 6 tracks were looped versions of other music previously used for city zones, but most of them were unused overall.

Issue 6 Issue 18 Issue 24


























































 





























 


Cutscene Music

These tracks were used in the various cutscenes which played in missions, task forces, and trials later in the game. They were generally first started to be used in Issue 18, and continued up to the last Issue 24 beta.

Incarnate Trials

Death Incarnate () () ()


Signature Story Arcs

Sig Story Arc 05 () () ()
Sig Story Arc 06 () () ()


Task Forces


Morality Choices


Story Arcs

Clone Death () () ()
Protean () () ()
Rage Quit () () ()


Special Events


Easter Eggs and Obscure Music

This final list includes music cues which a player would typically have to go to a specific spot to be able to hear.


Faultline

-- Stand outside the restaurant door at (881, 31, -1830)[Copy] in New Overbrook to hear this music.
-- Stand near the jukebox in the Cryptic Lounge to hear this music.
-- Stand outside the restaurant door at (1088, 31, -1537)[Copy] in New Overbrook to hear this music.


Grandville

-- This was the speech that looped in the main entrance to Grandville.
-- This music could be heard coming from the restrooms in the Dev Prison room hidden in the tunnels of Grandville. It is an altered version of the old standard Moon River, with some PG-rated sound effects added.
-- This music could also be heard in the Dev Prison.


Imperial City

-- This music could be heard while inside the C.D.E.C. building.
-- This "spoken" loop could sometimes be heard outside the TPN building.
-- This music could be heard while inside Studio 55.


First Ward

-- This was the "breathing" noise made by The Seed of Hamidon as it flew around First Ward.


Miscellaneous

Title Screen Music
-- Used from launch through Issue 16.
-- Used from Issue 17 through Issue 20.
-- Used from Issue 6 through Issue 20.
-- Used from Issue 18 through Issue 20.
-- Unified music used from Issue 21 through sunset. (Also used during character creation.)
Character Creation Screen Music
-- Used from launch through Issue 16.
-- Used from Issue 17 through Issue 20.
-- Used from Issue 6 through Issue 16. (Music file is 12MB and too large to upload - a link is provided in the Discussion Page.)
-- Used from Issue 17 through Issue 20.
-- Used from Issue 18 through Issue 20.
Mission Completion Music
-- This music was never used in-game, but was frequently used as background music for early promotional videos.
-- This music looped while you used the "Jingle Jet" temp power during a Winter Event.
-- This music looped in the area of the Carnival of Shadows tent setup on mission and zone maps.
-- This music was heard when a Zombie invasion began in a zone.
-- This music was heard when a Deadly Apocalypse began in a zone.
-- This was heard when a Deadly Apocalypse ended.
-- This was heard when approaching the sonic barrier surrounding the Praetorian zones.