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Myrhial Arkenath
Ghost Festival
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Posted - 2008.09.17 08:33:00 -
[1]
Studies of games and entertainment as a whole have proven that sound is about as important as graphics because it adds to a richer experience as well as user friendlyness. A common phrase in EVE is however "EVE has sound?". I've been looking into why players say this and play the game without sound and here is the reasons I have gathered:
- Sound and music cause lag - The sound is too loud, and disruptive when using voice comms - The sound is boring
Sound and music causing lag is a fairytale. You need to have a very bad computer or a poor onboard soundcard for this to be the case. I can recall one bug that stacked the warp sound which would become a memory hog over time, but we have recently had a bugfix patch so I doubt it can be blaimed on a bug any longer.
Sound being too loud and boring, that is what I do want to talk about. I've had to turn the sliders down a fair bit myself to keep hearing vent at all times, because missiles for example just make a lot of noise compared to the other sound effects in the game. This could do with better balancing.
Sound being boring is my biggest peeve however. When I look at other popular mmo's, it strikes me that for each skill/spell/ability/item/ect. there is a unique and easy to recognize sound effect. This helps with identifying what the hell is going on around you a lot. Hear that fizzly sound of a fireball behind you, may want to turn around before you're a burnt crisp! I've experimented with it a fair bit, removing the sound from other mmo's in their respective PVP environments and my conclusion was that my survivability went down a lot because you simply can't see everything due to range, no eyes on your back, stealth mechanics ect.
Now I know that certain modules in EVE have a sound effect associated with them, but the moment you zoom out a bit some of them just stop playing (scrambler for example). In my eyes that defeats the point entirely. Why wouldn't our pod interface be able to play the sound for us even if we zoom out our camera drones? If you want to make the UI more user friendly I would suggest the following:
- Different sounds for each weapon and ammo type and size. 125mm rails should sound different with lead or iron ammo, and rails by themselves should sound different than autocannons. Goes for drones too. - Sounds for module activation such as but not limited to shield boosters, armor repairers, nos, neut, any ewar stuff. Different sounds for each type of ECM. - Sounds for e-war when applied to you in addition to the warning icons in the overview. - Priority for sound playing should go first to things applied to you, secondly things you do, and thirdly to whatever happens around you.
That is about all I have to say about the subject for now. I hope this will be taken into consideration because thanks to Trinity and soon Ambulation we get treated to some real eye-candy hear. So there should be some ear-candy to go with that!
Diary of a pod pilot |
Manxome NOXX
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Posted - 2008.09.17 10:03:00 -
[2]
Absolutely. The sound in EVE leaves a lot to be desired. Especially the stargates. When jumping the sound is too harsh, it sounds like a car crash!
Why do we not hear the low rumbling of our warp cores or the mechanical elements in the ship, like docking or launching drones. When an autocannon round hits a ship there should be a definate impact sound to let the pilot know the ferocity of the damage, so a glancing shot would be less audible than a wrecking shot.
There is so much atmosphere and usability added if the sound were given the same attention as the graphix.
NOXx
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Myrhial Arkenath
Ghost Festival
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Posted - 2008.09.19 11:18:00 -
[3]
*bump*
Diary of a pod pilot |
mamolian
Madhatters Inc.
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Posted - 2008.09.19 11:50:00 -
[4]
I'm not sure I want to listen to 600 people firing their weapons at the same time. No.. Id rather spend those spare PC resources elsewhere. I certainly don't want to listen to game music coming through along with the persons voice over TS/Vent.. I grind my ****ing teeth every time I hear the gate fire drowning out the guy screaming "jump in!" -----------
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Jin Labarre
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Posted - 2008.09.19 11:56:00 -
[5]
Suggestion: Good. Solution: Optional Premium Sound.
Those who don't want it can still deactivate it. Everyone is happy.
One thing I found very boring, soundwise, is mining. And then, just recently, I noticed what I am missing.
Does anyone who has played "The Dig" remember what it sounded like inside the alien asteroid at the beginning of the game? This sound of rumbling and cracking rock? I think that would be an awesome addition to mining. Especially, if the sounds depended on the type and size of asteroid that is being mined. Actually, I started playing the 'The Dig' soundtrack, whenever I was mining, recently.
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Astria Tiphareth
Caldari 24th Imperial Crusade
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Posted - 2008.09.19 12:15:00 -
[6]
Originally by: mamolian I'm not sure I want to listen to 600 people firing their weapons at the same time. No.. Id rather spend those spare PC resources elsewhere. I certainly don't want to listen to game music coming through along with the persons voice over TS/Vent..
That is your choice, but not everyone agrees. You have the simple option of turning your sound off. Those that want better sound cannot say the same. I for one agree with the OP that the sound is well overdue for improvement, though some of the new music pieces are better.
For me, the game is about immersion and no sound is about as immersion-breaking as it comes (yes, ironic, considering it's all set in space, but true). I'd rather have the system set up so that the rest of the sound is muted whilst someone is talking than no sound at all. EVE Voice at least could do this; doing it with TS and Vent would be harder. ___ My views may not represent those of my corporation, which is why I never get invited to those diplomatic parties... Environmental Effects
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mamolian
Madhatters Inc.
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Posted - 2008.09.19 12:21:00 -
[7]
Edited by: mamolian on 19/09/2008 12:23:48
Originally by: Astria Tiphareth stuff.
You'll notice I did not say a bad word about the op's post.. I simply implied (from my own experience) that for the vast majority of action in this game PVP related.. improving the sound or not.. The playerbase will still continue to not use it.
By all means add in a few extra soundfiles to vary the strip miners! Go right ahead and put in some fancy new FX for the weapons! But if you have any sense at all.. you turn that crap all off when your PVP'ing.. Its distracting, unhelpful and lags the shit out of your system in large scale combat.
Only reason I'd be upset with CCP for improving the sound.. is if they were taking valuable human assets out of other more worthwhile and needed projects in EVE development.
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Astria Tiphareth
Caldari 24th Imperial Crusade
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Posted - 2008.09.19 12:40:00 -
[8]
Originally by: mamolian improving the sound or not.. The playerbase will still continue to not use it.
By all means add in a few extra soundfiles to vary the strip miners! Go right ahead and put in some fancy new FX for the weapons! But if you have any sense at all.. you turn that crap all off when your PVP'ing.. Its distracting, unhelpful and lags the shit out of your system in large scale combat.
My apologies if I seemed to be critical - I was simply pointing out an alternative viewpoint. That said, I PvP a fair amount, including some very laggy battles (though not 0.0 huge blob lag) and I've found sound more informative & immersing than distracting, suitably tuned so I can hear the FC, and to have zero effect on my lag at all. I'm not saying your point has no validity, far from it, just that as with Premium Graphics, some can run it fine, some can't, and therefore CCP should explore it but as an optional thing, as they did with Trinity.
I merely don't think we should argue for no improvement purely on the basis that some have trouble with sound. Sound and graphics do have an 'impressive' factor that helps attract customers, keep immersion, and so on - after all we could reduce EVE to a text-based spreadsheet game (and some have asked for this client) but I'm not sure it would have the same appeal. I say this as a person who way back played text-based 'MMO's long before the genre gained popular appeal. ___ My views may not represent those of my corporation, which is why I never get invited to those diplomatic parties... Environmental Effects
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Myrhial Arkenath
Ghost Festival
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Posted - 2008.09.22 09:08:00 -
[9]
mamolian: The whole idea behind my post is to have sound add to understanding what is going on around you, so this would be an improvement to PvP. In other mmo's and multiplayer games you often get sound warnings. Take for example an RTS where you get a bleeping sound when your base is under attack.
Sound is handled by your computer, so it would at worst cause client side lag. Can be solved by having a normal sound set and a premium quality one. And if your machine is really that bad, turning it off remains an option.
Of course there would be sound filtering so you don't go crazy.
Also another suggestion would be that if you use an external voice program you could tell EVE what the keybind for this is, and when it is pressed, the sound automatically gets tuned down to a value of choice. I think eve voice currently already does this?
Diary of a pod pilot |
Amalath Tari
Tau Online Explorator Corp
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Posted - 2008.09.22 12:58:00 -
[10]
Originally by: Myrhial Arkenath Also another suggestion would be that if you use an external voice program you could tell EVE what the keybind for this is, and when it is pressed, the sound automatically gets tuned down to a value of choice. I think eve voice currently already does this?
No, it doesn't. I'm one of the unfortunate few that hates Teamspeak, can't set up vent to save my life, and thus, have to run with EVE-Voice. It would be a damn useful feature though.
Also, to the OP, I too salute our new aural overlords. Let the new [sound] wave begin. Plus, when my 1400mm Artillery fires, I want it to actually sound like I've fired a small car at another spaceship not that my cat sneezed and the toaster popped at the same time. שששששששששששששששSigשששששששששששששש The magic behind Minmatar ships is the fact that there is only one type of Minmatar ship. The only variation is when they decide to stop building it. |
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Myrhial Arkenath
Ghost Festival
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Posted - 2008.09.23 07:57:00 -
[11]
Then it was another mmo that had that feature. I'll add it to the first post :)
Diary of a pod pilot |
Myrhial Arkenath
Ghost Festival
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Posted - 2008.09.29 06:01:00 -
[12]
Been using eve-voice in the last few days, and I am highly impressed by how well it works! So I would like to bring this topic to the attention again, especially the part about eve-voice in it.
Diary of a pod pilot |
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