Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Oh neat looking game, had flashbacks to Allegiance there.
Neat, also found this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMa3LXe6oVc

Large Hybrids, and well turret graphics in general are awful

But in particular, I think all gun sounds need a full review.

When I fire a rack of Large Hybrids, if I'm zoomed into my ship, I want my whole house to shake with the thunder of guns that massive. Think like modern day battleship guns... massive punch in a tiny window. I WANT TO FEEL THE BOOM...

I'm not going to lie I do miss the old large railgun sound, now those were dirty.

+1 but only if they bring back the old powerful sound of the mining lasers and strip miners.

I don't see large hybrids doing this. 1400mm arties.. YES. Those need to sound like the full battleship broadsides going off. Railguns don't have the traditional boom associated with gunpower explosions. Rails use magnetic fields to propel the projectile bolt. Hybrids should have a charging/capacitor sound before some kind of higher pitched firing sound as the bolt leaves the barrel/rail.

I agree that it's the onboard equipment making the noise, not the beam/projectile/charge traveling through space. TBH, I've always liked the Firefly/BSG cut scenes where there's explosions and pandemonium breaking out onboard -- cut to space with absolute silence -- back on board with the pandemonium.

A view/sound option that follows our armaments down range replicating this would be awesome.

Something like, noise of the missile launcher loading and engine igniting, then total silence as your view fills the screen with an ever enlarging enemy ship floating silently, then IMPACT & 'SPLOSION!

Trust me CCP, if you could see this in my mindseye you'd see how awesomely this would rock!

I wish CCP would keep the old and new sounds and let players select in their options which sound to hear for each gun.

I understand; Rubicon's too close for trying to insert this in, every implementation needs time for developing.

Yeah, there's an Spanish phrase about that, which could be translated as 'nothing written about likings'; it means everyone will have a different opinion about their likings on somethings.
I'd like to know your sincere opinion (yourself and the audio team) about these new laser sounds. Do you prefer them over the old ones (just the sounds, and just lasers), or do you somehow miss the days of old, or something different?

I think there's a fair majority of people who thinks that they don't sound like having the punch they have in reality. As you said, describing how a fictional weapon 'should' sound to professional audio designers is quite a difficult task, but I'll try my best to point out the good and the not that good about them.

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.

ah . haha .. uhm. no.
change your weapon ;)

Sounds like a complicated, but viable option. It could then be refined as people comment on the sounds presented. Maybe I'm of too democratic a mind set though.