Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hi there,

Just wanted to see wether people's still wanting a laser sound revamp. I remember them having a powerful hissing noise on impact and a vibrating buzz on shooting, but since Retribution they sound... little powerful, like coming from an old sci-fi film. There's a (long time locked) topic still around, from where those sound revamps took place, I red several times, and it seemed like the overall opinion was a want, although it has passed a long time since that and we didn't got any CCP news about it.

So the question would be: is there the intention to revisit laser sounds in the near future? CCP, you made an awesome job with that sound revamp (projectiles and turrets sound powerful and I'm loving ship and planet ambients), but I have to say lasers got the least good of it, and many people (used to) have the same opinion.

It's quite sad for me, as I'm leaning towards laser boats, and they feel like lacking the punch I knew of them. I remember once in SiSi fitting a full rack of large pulses on an Apocalypse and shooting them un-grouped, wich lead to an awesome POWOWOWOPOWOWOWOPOWOWOWO (sorry but I had to)... Now, the same sounds like prrtznnnprtznnprrtznn. Hell, I watched some DUST 514 vids with laser rifles and those sounded as they should: a ttzzzznnnnnrrrssssskkkkk between an energy thingie and a circular saw, eroding its way through everything.

So what do you say? CCP? I suppose most of us are still wanting some kind of a come back to the old sounds.

EDIT: for this being a better topic OP,

This is the old topic I'm talking about.
This is the DUST 514 video I mentioned.

EDIT 2: seems like my long post drowned on the comments, so I'm reproducing its core here:

I'd say their main issue is that sounds tend to be 1) brief, and 2) somehow muzzled, silenced. This is not completely a rule: x-large beams sound ominous, both lasting for a long time and with several secondary 'discharging' effects: this video is a good example. Small lasers also have a well-scaled sound, but medium and large ones tend to sound too similar.

- Pulses: as they rapidly go on/off, their 'pulsing' sound is quite fitting, but I my opinion the general sound they have is not the best they could have. I generally don't like Star Wars laser sounds, but there's a single example in there for how I think pulses, specially small and medium ones, should sound: this one. I can really imagine Gatling Pulse Lasers, as well as some medium and even fighter lasers, sounding like that: shooting a non-stop of stroboscopic lightining. For large pulses, I remember the old sound for them being quite fitting (also sound like a scaled version of the Star Wars example).

- Beams: being designed to focus a prolongued discharge on the same spot, they seem to shoot for a too short time. I imagine them being very similar to laser rifles from DUST 514; one moment they're completely silent and suddenly (as sudden an electric discharge can be) ZZZMMMMMMMMMM-silent again. I'd say they should sound more buzzing, more 'bass', than pulses, which would be, well, pulsing.

- On-hit sounds: they're something that sounds a bit, um, unfitting. I doubt laser hits as powerful as those sound that close to a glass breaking, or a car crash. For pulses, I suggest fast, deflagration sounds like the ones on the previous Star Wars example, when Obi-Wan is finally hit (I'm also liking those little flames on the crater). For beams, a sudden hissing noise as they penetrate the armor or interact with the plasma shields.

As a side extra note, sometimes firing animations (not only for lasers, but specially Gatling Pulses) do not match the sound, or viceversa. I don't know if that's a server side effect or they simply can't be matched everytime for technical issues, but it does break inmersion a bit.

Agreed, We need more noise in space :P, but yeah new laser sounds please :D

But guys, lasers are silent...

...BUT! I will take a sample of a little kid shouting 'PEW PEW PEW!'...complete with a playful giggle. :3

this won't be done for Rubicon.

and it's not my decision to change these.
By the way, I know a lot of you want to change these - but it was kind of funny reading all the comments on the new turret sounds, as it was always quite obvious which turrets people normally used and which they didn't.

it was usually like:
"lasers sound fine"
"hybrids sound fine"
"Projectiles, can't be explained unless writing a five page essay about it"

or any other type of turret. it was actually quite weird to figure out which was actually the one people liked or didn't like.
and we received quite a few mails, from people loving one and hating others - so we had no consistent player guideline as to these should be changed or not.

I would like to suggest some sort of charging sound before the laser is fired.

edit:

describe how it sounds? oke lets see.

slow charging high static sound that grows louder, depending on the size of the beam, then just before its climax it goes completely silent for a second and then the built up energy gets released in a loud almost explosive manner while the energy gets released.

closest sound i could find to my description, not entirely what i had in mind though.

Light don't make sound when it bounce of you, technically laser is light. So the last thing you want is to hear the beam. The sound of working machinery is like humming of a large transformer and the sound effect isn't impressive: http://www.wykop.pl/link/1455053/wypalarka-laserowa-cnc/

So its already too much what we have today in the game.

Yes, yes, the whole sound in a vacuum...but the is EVE and WTF, EVE has sound!?! lol. Think outside of the box on this one. If it was true to reality we'd have no funky MWD drive noises and I love that sound!

For laser sounds please look at:

1) Homworld 2 beam weapons.

2) Freespace 2 beam weapons.

The great part of those sounds was an "interlude" when the energy was gathering before shot and then there was a powerful strike like a jet engine on afterburners.

I would also like to see a chnge to how pulse lasers animation looks. I mean I know they need to "pulse" but their modulated beam just looks like cr*p.

Sounds like a gimped BFG9000

For EvE world;
It is not the light making sound, it is the machinery amplifying the laser to a very strong levels and unleashing it to a specified point, from the fantasy point of view. I like the FS2 sounds as it fits perfectly to this. Just for example: http://youtu.be/tOTnv8wfjno
even clearer: http://youtu.be/5HpaWcDX0f4