Test Server Feedback

Hello,

I spent a few hours testing various new sounds on Duality. Here is my personal feedback. Some is very positive, some is very negative. Of course, some comments are just a matter of taste, but I did my best to keep it as factual as possible.

Travel

The new ambiance sound on the star map is a subtle but very nice addition.

The new warp engine sounds add a lot more immersion to the warp process. The “swoosh” when reaching max warp speed may fit better during the acceleration phase (which remains silent), with the current “bang” still sounding much better.

The new gate fire sounds made a very bad impression on me. The current sound is absolutely fine and the additional ones (they seem to play at random) are of rather poor quality.

Weapons (general)

Most weapon impact sounds would really benefit from getting the same bass and reverb effect the inferno/scourge/nova missile impacts have. All other weapon impacts (including XL guns) pale in comparison to even a light scourge missile.

In general, found that a fundamental flaw of the current sounds has not been fixed in the new ones: the guns’ sounds don’t seem to reflect their relative and absolute size. For example, the 150mm railgun sounds heavier than the Dual 150mm railgun, and the XL hybrids don’t sound massive at all.

Weapons (lasers)

Overall impact sound issue: The impact sounds for most lasers are good when listened to one by one (except XL laser impact, which sometimes sounds like shattering glass), but when the player’s ship is shot at by a large number of lasers, it sounds like hail hitting a car’s roof. This doesn’t sound right and is almost unbearable over an extended period of time, such as in a lvl 4 mission.

XL Lasers: Pulse gun sounds ok, but could use more bass and a little longer sound. Beam gun sound and visual are awesome.

L Lasers: Large laser gun sounds are good across the board, except for mega pulse which sounds too much like a toy, which is unfortunate, since it’s probably the most used gun of the category.

M Lasers: Beams are good, but pulses sound too much like toys.

S Lasers: Gatling pulse sound is not in synch with animation and cycle time. Dual light sounds like artillery. Small focused pulse has a second sound in the middle of the cycle after the animation stops, which sounds wrong (also on small focused pulse impact sound). Small beam lasers are good though.

Weapons (Hybrids)

XL Hybrids: Gun and impact sounds are ok, but don’t sound massive at all.

L Hybrids: Ion blaster sounds too different from Electron and Neutron. Please stick to one type of sound and add more bass. Neutron blaster impact sound is too muffled. For railguns, the impact sound is ok. As for large railgun guns sounds, dual 250mm and 350mm could use the same kind of low frequency sound after the initial shot the 425mm has. They need more bass overall.

M Hybrids: Blaster sounds are good, especially the impact sounds, but the neutron blaster sounds too muffled. Railguns have excellent impact sounds, but the 250mm, just like the neutron blaster, sounds too muffled. The Dual 150mm gun sounds too light.

S Hybrids: Light blasters sound good. Light railgun sounds are awesome! They actually sound powerful! The 150mm rail sounds heavier than the dual 150mm version (maybe just using the 150mm rail sound twice in very fast succession with overlapping would be a nice fix).

Weapons (Projectiles)

XL Projectiles: AC sounds good, but you can't hear all six barrels. Arty sounds too muffled on both gun and impact and you can't hear all four barrels.

L Projectiles: Dual 425mm and 650mm AC sound like firing a single shot instead of a short salvo. Impact sounds are ok, but could sound a little heavier. 800mm AC needs to sound heavier too. Large artillery sounds ok, but should, once again, sound heavier.

M Projectiles: I hate to say it, but the medium AC sounds are all bad across the board. Dual 180mm AC sounds like firing a single shot instead of a short salvo. 220mm and 425mm AC still have the old problem of sounding like a sewing machine. Medium artillery sounds good though, but the 720mm should sound heavier than the 650mm. They seem to have the same sound atm.

S Projectiles: Good light AC sounds. Light artillery guns both sound like quad barrel guns, but they aren’t. They also seem to have the same sound, although the howitzer should sound heavier.

Weapons (Missiles)

Those don’t seem to have new sounds, so I’ll keep this short. The sounds are good across the board. I found myself having a real soft spot for the (rapid) light missile launcher sound. It really makes the start of the missiles spectacular. As previously mentioned, the inferno/scourge/nova missile impact sounds should be considered as a new standard for impact sound quality. The explosions sound great and appropriately massive and have a nice reverb/echo effect.
The bigger launchers could use deeper sounds.

Weapons (Smartbombs)

No sounds or animation whatsoever.

Music

Two or more tracks play at once. Can be reduced by setting the jukebox on pause.

To be continued…

Edit: If the dev team working on this would like to get my feedback on a particular sound effect not yet covered, or just provide me with a list of all the new sound effects, I would be more than happy to expand on this post.

I hadn't noticed the new sounds apart from warp. I usually turn most of them down as they tend to cut each other out and generally be a mess.
Will check later.

My main man.
I was thinking about making a forum post, wasn't even sure where to put it, so I placed it in the open period forum. Glad to see someone else cares about audio

will add my own part here soon

I can't believe no one has said this yet:

EVE has sound?

Yeah, the jukebox should go, but it would be nice to have a quick audio menu via the NeoCom, not from the escape menu. Mute/unmute sounds quickly.

The engine sounds are terrible and I hope they are still not finalized. I think that the idle sound should be much quieter, while the engine sounds will fire up when moving, depending on how much power they're getting, and then a different sound for afterburners and MWD. I also miss the sonic boom when going into warp.

Engine sounds should sound more muffled and quieter the farther you are from your ship, and based on if you're close to the actual engines (tail end of the ship) or closer to the nose of the ship.

Would be nice if the autocannons sounded like autocannons. Remember the old 220 vulcan II's? A good place to start from

You picked CCP Audio as your name? Really?

PS. I'll take your like virginity too while I'm at it.

What about giving the damage control module an effect and a sound? (A subtle one, though)

I'll have a look at it.

Please for the love of all that is good no. A looping sound for a DC would drive me insane