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Sound balancing


Suomiboi

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I have been doing a little testing as an invisible admin on how sound ques currently work. Here's a run through of what I would suggest would work better to make the gameplay more interesting, realistic etc. This is of course all stuff that isn't a priority over bigger stuff, but some things are an issue and changing them would improve current gameplay. I would maybe put these changes to effect after the stealth overhaul to create balance for that and emphasize it's meaning.

 

[note] When I'm talking about something making a sound, I mean in game as in zombies reacting to it.

 

1. First the most obvious to me. Windows breaking. They don't make nearly enough noise to attract zombies. Not when broken by player and not when broken by another zombie. Here are a few pictures to demonstrate.

 

In these first two pictures a zombie is banging the window and breaks it. Behind me is a horde of roughly 30 zombies that I spawned. The main issue here is, even with the tightest zoom, where zombies naturally hear foot steps and some zombies would even react to sneaking, only 7 zombies hear the window breaking. If I'd ran past that window or inside that building, the whole pack would have definitely noticed me. Mainly I think that windows should make even more noise than running. It only makes sense to me. In the second 2 pictures I've broken the window at the end of the building. Only the zombies that were already next to the window noticed it breaking.

zombie breaking a window

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7 zombies notice the window being broken.

 

Me breaking a window

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There's no reaction from the pack. The sound isn't even equivalent to shouting or running.

 

And just to prove a point. Here's me hitting a zombie in the first group of roughly 30 zombies. The whole pack reacts to the hit. I think the hitting sound is in balance and works well, but definitely proves that windows don't make nearly enough noise.

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2. Issue number two (admittedly smaller) is that none of the zombies hear the window being banged on. Compared to them being able to hear sneaking, i'd say it's off balance.

 

I also tested hitting thin air and it made more sound than the window breaking or the zombie banging on the window.

 

3. Third is the fact that they don't react to each other. when a crowd of 7 zombies move to a window they don't raise the suspision of any other of the zombies. this is the same case as when a small pack notices the players, they don't draw any others. However imo this point is up to debate wether it should or shouldn't be that way. I think that as they are making an actual noise when they attack the player, that should at least draw some zombies. Even a small domino effect when they notice you would be nice.

 

4. Shouting is too quiet in my opinion. It is comparable to the sound made by hitting a zombie (see picture above).

 

Here are the comparison pics from shouting. You can notice that the whole group moves with the exeption of the two zombies in the top. That's roughly the same amount as hitting a zombie. Imo, it should be louder. You could even add a "psst..." whispering shout when you're sneaking to balance it out. :P

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5. Forcing windows open makes very very little noise (1 zombie in a pack, literally around a window, reacted) and failing at it doesn't nearly account to the sound that it makes in my headphones. This is similar to no.2 but it does make the game less exciting and it's a feature that I've always thought that should be in. Again, walking/sneaking makes more noise than forcing windows or failing at it.

 

6. The horde forming noises. This, while a great improvement to zombie behaviour, it caused a real issue when testing with sounds. The fact that when a zombie broke a window and those 7 zombies came rushing in, they immediately changed direction after getting in and returned to the horde, without checking the building at all. This is definitely a case of zombie AI and I'd consider adding something more to that so that the zombies would actually try and search the house. I'd rather have the zombies that followed the sound que into the building make the horde forming noises as it would be with suggestion no.3.

 

Guns make enough noise imo and are working great in that regard! They could maybe cause a spawn trigger but that's another topic.

 

TL;DR:

1. Window breaking needs to be a lot louder.

2. Zombies banging on windows should make a sound.

3. Zombies could have a sound que to make them react to each other, when they're reacting to something. In other words, domino effect.

4. Shouting is too quiet. Hitting a zombie makes roughly as much noise.

5. Forcing windows and failing at it makes as much or less noise than sneaking. Should be louder.

6. Zombie AI would need a tweak to somehow fix that zombies are more interested in each other than what's probably food. (and no it shouldn't be a case of making zombies less likely to group, rather more interested in the brains)

 

Again disclaimer, these are all my observations and opinions on how I think the game should work. Agree or disagree, let me know!

 

Long post is long. Thanks for reading. :)

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-snip-

 

I cannot agree more. You've made some good points.

 

On my side I can add that when you sneak up to a zombie and start to swing your weapon that zombie will instantly turn around before your weapon actually connects (which is weird).

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While we're on the topic of sound...those damn house alarms. The actual audio that plays when you set off a house alarm seems tied to the player, not the house. I.e., when I set off a house alarm and flee, the alarm sound should fade as I distance myself from the source. Unless it's just a bug on my end, the volume remains the same no matter how far from the house I am.

As far as the above suggestions, I definitely agree. The zombies are either partially oblivious sometimes to audio stimulation, or these levels need some adjusting.

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You have some very good points there. I've always thought sound should be the main factor behind zombies' migration. They can "smell" blood and see survivors, true, but their main sense will always be hearing. Most player actions should be much more noisy, as you suggested.

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While we're on the topic of sound...those damn house alarms. The actual audio that plays when you set off a house alarm seems tied to the player, not the house. I.e., when I set off a house alarm and flee, the alarm sound should fade as I distance myself from the source. Unless it's just a bug on my end, the volume remains the same no matter how far from the house I am.

As far as the above suggestions, I definitely agree. The zombies are either partially oblivious sometimes to audio stimulation, or these levels need some adjusting.

Yea, the alarm is a bit annoying I agree, especially with headphones. The devs said in a Mondoid a while back that they were looking at the possibility of using fmod sound engine to play the sounds in game, which would definitely take the game to a different level sound-wise, but I'm not sure if that ever got further than the looking...

 

Nice to hear that you all mostly agree with this. :)

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