[ISSUE] X-Com Files Music Royalty Block

[cranewrecked]

Hello! First I just wanted to say how much I love OpenXcom and everything everyone is doing for this game. I stumbled across it just a few weeks ago and was incredibly happy it exists. I then found this mod and I was over the moon. What a perfect addition to one of my favourite old-school games.

I decided to stream the X-Com Files but found that the track 'Strategist' by Kensuke Ushio isn't a royalty-free or original track. In general, it's frowned upon to use music you're not licensed to have whether it's in games/streams/whatever. I know this is a simple fix to just turn off the in-game music and use my own but I just wanted to bring attention to it hoping that maybe it helps others in the future avoid a similar issue!

Nothing bad happened because of it, just a muted portion of my VOD which truly isn't a big deal.

[Juku121]

This is not a new issue, and I think not the only track that has that problem.

I recall someone trying to do a 'streamer-friendly music pack', but it might have been for Piratez? Yep, Starving Poet. Not sure it works with the current version.

[krautbernd]

Hello! First I just wanted to say how much I love OpenXcom and everything everyone is doing for this game. I stumbled across it just a few weeks ago and was incredibly happy it exists. I then found this mod and I was over the moon. What a perfect addition to one of my favourite old-school games.

I decided to stream the X-Com Files but found that the track 'Strategist' by Kensuke Ushio isn't a royalty-free or original track. In general, it's frowned upon to use music you're not licensed to have whether it's in games/streams/whatever. I know this is a simple fix to just turn off the in-game music and use my own but I just wanted to bring attention to it hoping that maybe it helps others in the future avoid a similar issue!

Nothing bad happened because of it, just a muted portion of my VOD which truly isn't a big deal.

Instead of turning off the music you could've simply replaced the track with one of your chosing. All you'd have to do is rename the track in question. I don't really care for "streamers" as an audience to be catered to either.

[Juku121]

Instead of turning off the music you could've simply replaced the track with one of your chosing. All you'd have to do is rename the track in question.

Not mid-stream, or generally before they became aware of the problem. And choosing a suitable and royalty-free replacement track (or several) is not as trivial as you make it sound. If it was, I imagine Solarius could already have done it and this problem would not exist.

I don't really care for "streamers" as an audience to be catered to either.

Eh, XCF has gotten some good coverage from Youtube and streamers. And it's not the streamers who need catering to, it's their audience. Maybe Solarius can paste a big red warning somewhere that says "Streamers Not Allowed!"?

[Rag]

Do you know during which missions Stratergist plays and other missions that have copyright music in them?

I was thinking of maybe recording / streaming this myself after vanilla stuff at some point so would be nice to have a list to know ahead of time which missions to put a different track on with the in-game music swapper. Of course can always find out the hard way after the fact and then just edit the video, but if people already know the missions with such music it would be handy.

[Juku121]

Do you know during which missions Stratergist plays...

'Strategist' is the GMGEO4.ogg track, so it doesn't play during a mission, it plays all the time on Geoscape.

...and other missions that have copyright music in them?

A lot of them. The Thing, Fallout, Emperor: BFD, Frontier Psychiatrist... I think it's a better question which ones don't.

[Rag]

'Strategist' is the GMGEO4.ogg track, so it doesn't play during a mission, it plays all the time on Geoscape.
A lot of them. The Thing, Fallout, Emperor: BFD, Frontier Psychiatrist... I think it's a better question which ones don't.

I suppose a geoscape one has a benefit as while it would happen more often there's no worry of losing combat sounds if having to replace game audio for a while. Thanks for listing the ones you knew.

[Juku121]

If you're worried about combat sounds, OpenXcom has separate volume controls for SFX and music. While those may be stolen, too, I kinda doubt you'll get copyright strikes for the occasional Zergling.

[cranewrecked]

I don't really care for "streamers" as an audience to be catered to either.

^ I don't see what this accomplished or added to this topic.


I'll probably remove the track but wanted to make it known in general. Didn't notice it had been an ongoing issue.

I see there's a bit of hostility on this forum, probably won't be posting again. Appreciate those who had insight on this though.

[Juku121]

I don't see what this accomplished or added to this topic.

While somewhat rude, it told you that - like many other mods - if you're streaming it, you should do your homework and not  expect a lot of support unless you're on good terms with the modder.

I'll probably remove the track but wanted to make it known in general.

It is known. I think there's an entire playthrough on Youtube that's pretty much entirely blocked due to that right now.

Removing this one track should be safe enough, although the mod is riddled with others that might become problematic as well. I advise taking some time to make replacements, or just turning music off in-game and providing your own ambience.

I see there's a bit of hostility on this forum, probably won't be posting again.

Going "one person was rude to me, this entire forum sucks" won't endear you to anyone. Make of that what you will.

[Rag]

While the UFO Defence stream scene isn't as big as the newer games, there are a few streamers I watch and they tend to be a good place to talk about the game and its mods, so don't worry about the mods not wanting to be streamed as people like both playing and watching the game (especially since watching others suffer from typical XCOM shenanigans is less stressful than yourself)

But as Juku mentioned you do have to be prepared to do some legwork like with any old game to get it to work properly for your recording needs, especially with copyright or potential NSFW issues depending on your audience. (Not sure if twitch / youtube will whine about the Avatar / dead naked bodies). Personally if I get around to recording this mod if I can't figure out how to replace the music being played I'll probably resort to muting it and playing the acceptable music / other music externally, then swap tracks when going into new missions etc. for variety. Sounds like a good fallback approach.