A20 feedback - ambient noises

[ckuebler]

Fun Pimps Team:

I am writing to convey some feedback regarding the ambient noises system.

I believe this "feature" was present even in late A19.  But just while being still, crouched in stealth, occasionally the music or ambient noises will do one of the following cues:

The bear snort
The wolf muffled woof

The boar muffled oink
The sleeper zombie "shifting" noise

Along with several other random noises (like the PVC pipe "flute" / tube air noise).  Is there a list of all of these ambient sounds, with names for each?

The first four mentioned above are highly confusing, and disconcerting.  When stalking at night, and when hunting sleepers in POIs - I depend on these noises.  When these "ambient" featured sounds happen when I am in my own base, or in an area that is clear of bear, wolf, and sleeper zombie threats, it is quite frustrating.  I get trying to create ambient noises that distract or spook the player.  But the rando stack of queued up sounds that duplicate those key indicators of a threat nearby are really distracting.  And, frankly, disappointing.  I have become accustomed to hearing the "soundtrack" sounds, and depending on my circumstances, I wholly disregard them.

What would be better would be to include some different noise that are distinctively different than the existing danger/mob queues.

For example, in the forest, if there is no wolf, but you want me to believe that there is a wolf, perhaps loop in a twig snap.  Or bark scraping/scuttling from some squirrel or some other rodent.  Or a random bush shuffle.  The sound of mud or turf shifting or settling.  Etc.

In a house, perhaps consider adding a water drip, or a floorboard squeak or creak.  If I hear a sleeper zombie shift, and there is actually no sleeper zombie present to shift, that diminishes the immersion.

There is a lot of promise and potential with the ambient noises system.  But please ask your sound team to work on it a little more.  Make the spook sounds different than the very obvious and distinctive danger/mob queues.  Or perhaps design some kind of subtle difference between the two that can work to maintain immersion.

Thank you for reviewing and considering my feedback.  Really enjoying A20, and looking forward to your other improvements!! 


 

Edited December 23, 2021 by ckuebler
Adding the muffled oink noise (see edit history)

[ckuebler]

Any thoughts or feedback here from the community at large?

Are The Fun Pimps usually pretty good about sifting the forums for feedback?

[Mahnogard]

2 minutes ago, ckuebler said:

Any thoughts or feedback here from the community at large?

Are The Fun Pimps usually pretty good about sifting the forums for feedback?

The feedback does get back to the devs, yes.

 

And I agree. I'm fine with more generic spooky noises (like some of the nighttime ambient) occasionally, but I don't really like the sounds of actual creatures that aren't there. It's immersion breaking in those moments when you know what it is because it feels like "the game is doing that" as opposed to "something outside is making that noise". I would love environmental noises that indicate that something may be out there, like you described - snapping twig, rustling grass, etc. I imagine that those noises may have been meant to represent something off in the distance, but the audio just doesn't convey that at all. 

 

Most of all, I would love the ability to turn off all non-environmental ambient so I could experience the game with nothing but the actual sounds of the game world. Just wind, weather, crickets/peepers at night, birds in the forest, and zombies / creatures that are actually within earshot. A natural soundscape.

[ate0ate]

I was watching some youtuber playing Alpha 1.1 he had on an old hard drive. The night was absolutely terrifying. Creepy sounds all around and of all types, even a crying baby. Way more atmospheric sound-wise than its current iteration. It'd be nice to hear some more things roaming in the dark.

[Krougal]

1 hour ago, ate0ate said:

I was watching some youtuber playing Alpha 1.1 he had on an old hard drive. The night was absolutely terrifying. Creepy sounds all around and of all types, even a crying baby. Way more atmospheric sound-wise than its current iteration. It'd be nice to hear some more things roaming in the dark.

Because there actually were more things roaming in the dark back then.

[ChickenWings]

Yeah there's some messed up noises going on.  Snake hissing way after you kill it, I keep having to check around for another one, or course there never is.   Or that weird dog growl thing when no dog anywhere in sight.

 

And what's up with the emergency broadcast signal going off, and static radio noise?  I'm out in the wilderness for cryky's sake 🙂

 

You're right, you hear noise like that and it breaks the immersion, I'm like "what?"

[ckuebler]

ChickenWings, you make a very good point.  Some of what you describe with the snake hissing also happens with the zombies.  It's almost like they are in their subroutine to make whatever zombie sound they are going to make - it's committed... queued up as it were.  And then you knock the guys head off with a sledge hammer power swing.  So then they make the dying sound first, but then they also end up making the standard zombie sound that they were going to make that was queued up before you hit them.

This always makes me take a double take, and spin around in my surroundings searching for the sound of the zed I just smashed.  Because... how could he have made that "I'm here" alerting sound AFTER his head had been taken off?

I hope that The Fun Pimps make a full sound pass, and get a rock star sound engineer person on the task.  They really need it.