Silent footsteps in RO2 is indeed beyond ridiculous. This is basic FPS 101 stuff here, guys. Honestly, how can you get this so wrong.
Aaanyway, enough of the rage, time to be constructive.
Let's first establish what we do hear:-
- One's own footsteps, sound being representative of the floor material.
- Enemy 'shuffle' sounds even when out of sight (incl. behind).
- All screaming and shouting.
And now on to what we don't hear:-
- Footsteps that are not your own, period. Not a sound; silence, even when in clear view.
It has been mentioned before that hidden footsteps aren't being heard due to network relevancy: the client doesn't know what kind of surface that the hidden enemy is standing on thus it elects to play no footfall sound at all. (I don't know if this is technically correct, this is just as I understand it now.) However, the shooting, reloading, heavy breathing, shouting and shuffle sound effects are still being played so some sort of network relevancy is being achieved for hidden movement. The obvious (!) fix for this being that for hidden movement, be that friend or foe, play a 'neutral material' footfall sound effect until the client is aware of the surface whereupon the proper footfall sound effect is played.
No-one needs me to harp on about how silly it is to be shivved up from behind for the umpteenth time by a silent ninja running full tilt across a wooden floor, or how all of a sudden six blokes charge out from behind a wall as if they'd all been teleported in hitting the ground running at that exact moment (spawn points excepted). This needs to be resolved ASAP as much like the recent team loadout changes it will have a dramatic effect on improving the game play for all. Call it a low hanging fruit fix if you will.