Brainstorming on new sounds

[sayerulz]

With a sound update seemingly in the works, I thought that it would be good to throw around a few ideas for sounds that could be good additions. My ideas are as follows.

-footstep sounds: we really could use some simple sounds for footsteps. Clanking on ship hulls, swishing in sand, Ect, to get rid of the disembodied head feel that walking around has.

-ship HP sounds: sounds for when armor HP is down, that change with ship size. For small ships, a metallic tearing sound, as the hull is ripped open, for large ships, a deep, metallic groan, as the ships entire structure is put under too much strain. Think like the sounds capital ships make in homeworld when they are destroyed.

-sounds from systems: parts of ships besides the cores should make sounds. Engines making engine-y noises, again changing with size, power reactors humming, computers making occasional beeps (have to make sure that one doesn't get annoying).

-better weapon sounds: this is obvious, but we need weapons that sound good. all of them but cannons need sounds added, and I feel that cannons need their sounds redone a bit. Again, make them change with the damage of a shot, so that huge cannons have an epic sound that makes them really feel like the massive weapons they are. Some sounds as the travel would be good to, missiles especially could use sounds as they travel.

Anyone else is free to put your ideas.

 

[Grimtongue]

The lack of sound in this game makes it dull.

 

[Blaza612]

With a sound update seemingly in the works, I thought that it would be good to throw around a few ideas for sounds that could be good additions. My ideas are as follows.

-footstep sounds: we really could use some simple sounds for footsteps. Clanking on ship hulls, swishing in sand, Ect, to get rid of the disembodied head feel that walking around has.

-ship HP sounds: sounds for when armor HP is down, that change with ship size. For small ships, a metallic tearing sound, as the hull is ripped open, for large ships, a deep, metallic groan, as the ships entire structure is put under too much strain. Think like the sounds capital ships make in homeworld when they are destroyed.

-sounds from systems: parts of ships besides the cores should make sounds. Engines making engine-y noises, again changing with size, power reactors humming, computers making occasional beeps (have to make sure that one doesn't get annoying).

-better weapon sounds: this is obvious, but we need weapons that sound good. all of them but cannons need sounds added, and I feel that cannons need their sounds redone a bit. Again, make them change with the damage of a shot, so that huge cannons have an epic sound that makes them really feel like the massive weapons they are. Some sounds as the travel would be good to, missiles especially could use sounds as they travel.

Anyone else is free to put your ideas.

For ship HP sounds, I would like something similar to EVE Online's warning sounds, since they really scare you/force you awake.

I would like a light hum in general, this could of course scale near engines depending on how much they're being used (pitch/volume is altered as speed increases)

Same with weapon sounds, the pitch/volume should just be scaled as the damage of a weapon increases, making your big mega guns feel like mother fucking mega guns. :D

 

[Billazilla]

You could base the "largeness" of the ship sound effects by making tiers of SFX based off of the ship's current mass value. That would allow for engine sounds, background hums, and damage sounds to adjust by ship size. Dimensions might be another factor, but not every ship is a solid block of metal and components. Mass would provide a better accounting of sounds transmitted, I think. Still, you could augment the having the SFX tiers based on mass with an echo or muffle effect whose intensity is based on ship dimensions. A long, thin lightweight ship might have lightweight sounds, but an echo-y effect applied as the sound waves travel the length of the hull.

-Weapon strike sounds would be great: Cannon rounds 'spakk'-ing on the hull, crispy searing noises from beams, pulse weapons making an ominous 'whuff', missiles... well, I think missiles are good with the explodinating and stuff.

-Sound overlays based on weapons with slaved systems would be nice, such as having an energetic crackle on EMP attacks or a flangey thrum on Ion-linked weapons, deep rising/falling pulses on push/pull attacks, a metallic addition to cannons and missiles with explosive effects, etc.

Other ideas:
-A soft jet hiss when astronauts are moving in Zero Gee.
-Salvage sounds: crumbling for rocks, tinkling for crystals, thuds for ores, metallic noises for ship-part salvaging
-Computers making occasional beeps and whirrs, perhaps pinging a signal noise when a weapon is fired or an effect is used
-Docking clanks and linkages (also tiered by ship mass)
-A planet core could provide atmospheric noises like wind, rock sounds, and on planets with life, maybe some bird or insect analog noises.
-Factories should churn and clatter when actually producing something (and maybe an idle noise when auto-running but not producing)

 

[Blaza612]

You could base the "largeness" of the ship sound effects by making tiers of SFX based off of the ship's current mass value. That would allow for engine sounds, background hums, and damage sounds to adjust by ship size. Dimensions might be another factor, but not every ship is a solid block of metal and components. Mass would provide a better accounting of sounds transmitted, I think. Still, you could augment the having the SFX tiers based on mass with an echo or muffle effect whose intensity is based on ship dimensions. A long, thin lightweight ship might have lightweight sounds, but an echo-y effect applied as the sound waves travel the length of the hull.

-Weapon strike sounds would be great: Cannon rounds 'spakk'-ing on the hull, crispy searing noises from beams, pulse weapons making an ominous 'whuff', missiles... well, I think missiles are good with the explodinating and stuff.

-Sound overlays based on weapons with slaved systems would be nice, such as having an energetic crackle on EMP attacks or a flangey thrum on Ion-linked weapons, deep rising/falling pulses on push/pull attacks, a metallic addition to cannons and missiles with explosive effects, etc.

Other ideas:
-A soft jet hiss when astronauts are moving in Zero Gee.
-Salvage sounds: crumbling for rocks, tinkling for crystals, thuds for ores, metallic noises for ship-part salvaging
-Computers making occasional beeps and whirrs, perhaps pinging a signal noise when a weapon is fired or an effect is used
-Docking clanks and linkages (also tiered by ship mass)
-A planet core could provide atmospheric noises like wind, rock sounds, and on planets with life, maybe some bird or insect analog noises.
-Factories should churn and clatter when actually producing something (and maybe an idle noise when auto-running but not producing)

If we want to have scaled sound effects, then they'll all need to be scaled seperately.

For example, the damage of a weapon will determine how powerful it sounds.

The size of an engine will determine how powerful it sounds (the speed % will also determine the % of volume)

The % of mass that's dedicated to reactors will determine the volume of the reactor noise (most likely humming)

These will all be relatively easy to do, if Schine is capable of messing with pitch/volume/etc. of different sound files.

Also, for mining, I would like only the rock crumbling, I don't want to hear a little tinkle or thump when mining ores or crystals, use EVE Online's mining sounds as an example.

 

[Billazilla]

Actually, I like those ideas better. Nice!

 

[Zaphord]

I'd love to have a red alert klaxon sound for when you detect hostile ships.

An FTL sound for when you engage your jump drives would also be pretty sweet.

 

[whooplaah]

If we want to have scaled sound effects, then they'll all need to be scaled seperately.

For example, the damage of a weapon will determine how powerful it sounds.

The size of an engine will determine how powerful it sounds (the speed % will also determine the % of volume)

The % of mass that's dedicated to reactors will determine the volume of the reactor noise (most likely humming)

I would only agree to this if we have the understanding that there is an upper limit to how loud it will get. I don't want to set my sound at 50% and have my ears blown out when I walk through an engine room just because the room is big.

You could create the 'illusion' of the sound getting louder than the hard-coded max by decreasing the volume of all other sounds (which are being 'drowned out').

I'd also appreciate a set of sliders for the sounds used by my ship. It would be a bummer if every ship from every race and every faction had the exact same AI voice, warning siren, engine hum, laser pulse, etc. I think that being able to slide-adjust echo, static, or pitch would be great start at personalizing the sound set for a ship/faction/species.

 

[Billazilla]

I wasn't thinking volume adjustment as much as entirely new sfx per level of system size. An oil tanker doesn't sound like a louder version of a tugboat, I mean. A small fighter could have a high-pitched, reedy engine sound (ie. TIE Fighter) while a frigate would have a thrumming power system, and capital ships would have beating warp cores while a titan would have a constant low heavy bass rumble or something. The sounds would change to different sfx files based on their massiveness.

 

[Raisinbat]

I want boops and beeps you can activate via logic, as well as charging sounds.Crude text to speech block (microsoft sam etc) that you can link a text block to would be nice also

 

[Keptick]

I'm all for sound. However, great care must be taken when implementing them as bad sound can completely ruin an otherwise great experience, no matter how nice the game looks and plays.

The abysmal, cringe worthy white noises emited by cores currently in game come to mind.

 

[Blaza612]

I would only agree to this if we have the understanding that there is an upper limit to how loud it will get. I don't want to set my sound at 50% and have my ears blown out when I walk through an engine room just because the room is big.

You could create the 'illusion' of the sound getting louder than the hard-coded max by decreasing the volume of all other sounds (which are being 'drowned out').

I'd also appreciate a set of sliders for the sounds used by my ship. It would be a bummer if every ship from every race and every faction had the exact same AI voice, warning siren, engine hum, laser pulse, etc. I think that being able to slide-adjust echo, static, or pitch would be great start at personalizing the sound set for a ship/faction/species.

I'm not an expert (or amateur) in sound design, so I don't know the actual terms, I said the only two things about sound I know. :P

In general, the volume limiting and options would all be obvious, as it'd be kind of stupid to not add in with the system I proposed. However creating personal sounds for your ships/faction sounds rather interesting, while I'd probably stick to the default sounds, I'm sure a lot of people would create some interesting sound effects for their ships.

 

[Dellexe]

As others have said, varying the pitch of sounds would be awesome for differentiating between more power and less powerful systems. Little 1:1 cannon AMS turrets should have a relatively high-pitched *pew*, whereas a high alpha cannon:beam weapon should have a lower toned *whum* as its fired. Same with beams (and size of projectiles, but that's another topic).
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As billazilla said above, weapon impact sounds would also make the game a lot more hype. Little tings and pings popping from your hull are easily ignored and not really worth noting. Big, deep, powerful, resonating impacts, on the other hand. Those make you sit up in your seat a little more and pay attention. You feel like your ship is actively getting absolutely hammered by enemies and the adrenaline starts flowing. (Another not sound-related thing that would hype up battles is a slight camera shake (able to be disabled) that occurs when your ship takes a big hit, depending on your hp/armor hp, of course.
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Stuff like all of the suggestions in this thread would make battles in Starmade feel a little less plain or uninteresting, and much more exciting and intuitive.

 

[Rixxan]

I agree with all of these, starmade desperately needs new sounds. It's just unplayable without youtube or skype in the background, I can't stand the silence.

 

[GaeasSon]

Scaleable sounds:
It seems to me that we could re-use a lot of the same sounds, just by changing the playback speed.
"pew!" can actually be the same sound file as " THRUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!"

 

[Parameter]

We need screen vibration to go with loud or harsh sounds. Nothing says "Oh CRAP!" like Microsoft Sam saying "Damage. Damage. Damage." over and over while you hear a steady cascade of wrenching crashes from cannonfire hitting your ship, your screen shaking with every impact.

I also have to say, losing your cockpit in Elite Dangerous is one of the most visceral experiences I've ever had in a space sim. The muted sounds from vacuum, the loss of the hud, the sick feeling of being almost out of time, whew, what a rush! I'd like being in space to be a juxtaposition of the quiet stillness of vacuum and the noise of humanity.

Also, obligatory request for beeps, boops, beep-boops, warbles, be-boop-bottle-barps, ERH-UNHs, waaah-waaahn-waahns and whee-ohs. I can never have enough synthetic computer interaction noises.

 

[Edymnion]

Just last night I was attacking a pirate station and actually got a single loud explosion sound effect from a missile that got through my point defense turrets.

Scared the ever loving crap out of me.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

We need screen vibration to go with loud or harsh sounds. Nothing says "Oh CRAP!" like Microsoft Sam saying "Damage. Damage. Damage." over and over while you hear a steady cascade of wrenching crashes from cannonfire hitting your ship, your screen shaking with every impact.

I also have to say, losing your cockpit in Elite Dangerous is one of the most visceral experiences I've ever had in a space sim. The muted sounds from vacuum, the loss of the hud, the sick feeling of being almost out of time, whew, what a rush! I'd like being in space to be a juxtaposition of the quiet stillness of vacuum and the noise of humanity.

Also, obligatory request for beeps, boops, beep-boops, warbles, be-boop-bottle-barps, ERH-UNHs, waaah-waaahn-waahns and whee-ohs. I can never have enough synthetic computer interaction noises.

Michael Winslow much? Also, +1 on the Elite Dangerous canopy breach... Absolutely heart wrenching.
[DOUBLEPOST=1442886334,1442886019][/DOUBLEPOST]Why not do what Star Trek Bridge Commander does; allow for user customizable sounds? You could make the beams sound like phasors and the cannons sound like Star Wars lasers, then save the sounds for your individual client so that everyone has their own preferred sound font. They could even add a server config setting for an admin specified default that can be downloaded and used by other players.

 

[Blaza612]

Michael Winslow much? Also, +1 on the Elite Dangerous canopy breach... Absolutely heart wrenching.
[DOUBLEPOST=1442886334,1442886019][/DOUBLEPOST]Why not do what Star Trek Bridge Commander does; allow for user customizable sounds? You could make the beams sound like phasors and the cannons sound like Star Wars lasers, then save the sounds for your individual client so that everyone has their own preferred sound font. They could even add a server config setting for an admin specified default that can be downloaded and used by other players.

I think that this would work better as a mod, as Starmade is it's own universe, it should have it's own unique sound set rather than using say Star Wars sounds, and not to mention the blatant copyright breaches it would create. :/

 

[Rixxan]

True enough, disney's rather picky about their stuff.