I often find that sound is more important to immersion than sight...so here is my list of suggestions for audio awesomeness, in no particular order (some have been stated before)
- No in-game music. No, not even the option. TWI shouldn't waste time/money on this.
- Voice proximity is a must for both voice commands and active chat. I'd like to know how far away and in what direction someone's speech is. Have it for enemy voices, too, but instead of hearing what they actually say (in the case of active voice chat), you'd hear random recorded speech in the correct language.
- I'd rather not have the radio system where everyone can speak freely to eachother...it's just not realistic, and I'd like there to be an advantage to sticking close to your team mates. Also, the radio system subconsciously creates a layer above the grit of war which takes away from your sense of 'being there'. Just yell into your mic if you want someone far away to hear, lol... but there would still be tank to tank communication through radio.
- Realistic voices. Ostfront's were pretty good. Essentially, I want them to sound like what they really would've sounded like, not like the stereotypical German/Russ people hear in American movies. I don't think they would mess up on this, but it should be mentioned.
- Voice variation. Sound fatigue closes in quickly when you hear the same recorded voice over and over. I don't think it'd be too hard to record 5 to 10 different people saying each command 3-5 times each (EDIT: with different phrasings), at least for the most used ones (they're only like 1sec each). A random batch of sounds recorded from a single person would be assigned to each player on spawn, so a player's voice does not magically change.
- Sounds should sound different depending on where they were made. Rooms should have some echo. Sounds behind doors/walls should sound muffled. A gunshot on the other side of town should sound different than one next to you (not just the same sound at a different volume). Et cetera.
- Dropping weapons/casings/empty clips on different surfaces should make different sounds.
- Better gun sounds. The current ones are good, but don't seem to have the right low-end frequencies to them (esp. the G43). Just take a trip to an outdoor shooting range with good quality recording gear handy, if you didn't do that with Ostfront.
- Being too close to very loud sounds should temporarily make your player lose a bit of hearing, with ringing in the ears. (EDIT: also, being in a tank that is hit will result in a slightly more dramatic stun/shock effect)
- Lots of random yelling, especially when injured. If a player is effectively dead, they should scream (loudly) in absolute agony (EDIT: a random chance of this happening, maybe around 25%), until they respawn or someone finishes them off. Ya know, crying for the good old days or their mother or about random things if they're delusional. They should record as many of these as they can.
- A slider bar for volume balance. With it all the way to the right, normal sounds are brought up to just under the level of weapon/explosive sounds. With it all the way to the left, all sounds are realistically proportioned (weapons/explosives are MUCH louder than, say, footsteps). Most games have the balancing fixed, which is rather annoying if you want to turn your volume up (I want gunshots to blow my eardrums out, not a voice command).
- Have normal sounds realistically proportioned to other normal sounds, and weapon/explosive sounds realistically proportioned to other weapon/explosive sounds.
- Have lots of little things like rustling of leaves/grass, chirping of birds on non-deep winter maps (before shots are fired), and wind passing your ear. Details make the difference. (EDIT: also stepping on leaves and snow and such)
- Have someone put on a full uniform with all needed equipment, including a rifle and ammo, and some non-active grenades (this game can get done without any casualties), and have them run around. Take note of all the sounds of things jiggling around.
- Have sounds for actions like changing stances and bringing your weapon up to your shoulder (sling locks rattling around, etc).
- Tanks need to be louder. Everything...the engine, the tracks, the guns.
- Have sounds from nearby/semi-distant fighting (I wouldn't think that just one group was fighting at a time in such a big battle).
- Detail and variation is key.
Take all of this and add it to a detailed, dirty, dusty, foggy, gritty, smokey, miserable, depressing environment and you've got a hell of a game.
...hopefully the engine (not to mention our computers) can handle this
- No in-game music. No, not even the option. TWI shouldn't waste time/money on this.
- Voice proximity is a must for both voice commands and active chat. I'd like to know how far away and in what direction someone's speech is. Have it for enemy voices, too, but instead of hearing what they actually say (in the case of active voice chat), you'd hear random recorded speech in the correct language.
- I'd rather not have the radio system where everyone can speak freely to eachother...it's just not realistic, and I'd like there to be an advantage to sticking close to your team mates. Also, the radio system subconsciously creates a layer above the grit of war which takes away from your sense of 'being there'. Just yell into your mic if you want someone far away to hear, lol... but there would still be tank to tank communication through radio.
- Realistic voices. Ostfront's were pretty good. Essentially, I want them to sound like what they really would've sounded like, not like the stereotypical German/Russ people hear in American movies. I don't think they would mess up on this, but it should be mentioned.
- Voice variation. Sound fatigue closes in quickly when you hear the same recorded voice over and over. I don't think it'd be too hard to record 5 to 10 different people saying each command 3-5 times each (EDIT: with different phrasings), at least for the most used ones (they're only like 1sec each). A random batch of sounds recorded from a single person would be assigned to each player on spawn, so a player's voice does not magically change.
- Sounds should sound different depending on where they were made. Rooms should have some echo. Sounds behind doors/walls should sound muffled. A gunshot on the other side of town should sound different than one next to you (not just the same sound at a different volume). Et cetera.
- Dropping weapons/casings/empty clips on different surfaces should make different sounds.
- Better gun sounds. The current ones are good, but don't seem to have the right low-end frequencies to them (esp. the G43). Just take a trip to an outdoor shooting range with good quality recording gear handy, if you didn't do that with Ostfront.
- Being too close to very loud sounds should temporarily make your player lose a bit of hearing, with ringing in the ears. (EDIT: also, being in a tank that is hit will result in a slightly more dramatic stun/shock effect)
- Lots of random yelling, especially when injured. If a player is effectively dead, they should scream (loudly) in absolute agony (EDIT: a random chance of this happening, maybe around 25%), until they respawn or someone finishes them off. Ya know, crying for the good old days or their mother or about random things if they're delusional. They should record as many of these as they can.
- A slider bar for volume balance. With it all the way to the right, normal sounds are brought up to just under the level of weapon/explosive sounds. With it all the way to the left, all sounds are realistically proportioned (weapons/explosives are MUCH louder than, say, footsteps). Most games have the balancing fixed, which is rather annoying if you want to turn your volume up (I want gunshots to blow my eardrums out, not a voice command).
- Have normal sounds realistically proportioned to other normal sounds, and weapon/explosive sounds realistically proportioned to other weapon/explosive sounds.
- Have lots of little things like rustling of leaves/grass, chirping of birds on non-deep winter maps (before shots are fired), and wind passing your ear. Details make the difference. (EDIT: also stepping on leaves and snow and such)
- Have someone put on a full uniform with all needed equipment, including a rifle and ammo, and some non-active grenades (this game can get done without any casualties), and have them run around. Take note of all the sounds of things jiggling around.
- Have sounds for actions like changing stances and bringing your weapon up to your shoulder (sling locks rattling around, etc).
- Tanks need to be louder. Everything...the engine, the tracks, the guns.
- Have sounds from nearby/semi-distant fighting (I wouldn't think that just one group was fighting at a time in such a big battle).
- Detail and variation is key.
Take all of this and add it to a detailed, dirty, dusty, foggy, gritty, smokey, miserable, depressing environment and you've got a hell of a game.
...hopefully the engine (not to mention our computers) can handle this
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