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NoiseWorks sound feedback


Shivaxi

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I do not know what to name the topic exactly, but essentially, I'd like to give my feedback on the current sounds we have in version 41.54 from NoiseWorks.

 

I feel a lot if not most of the sounds I have experienced so far are worse than the sound we had, and hurt gameplay, and here are a few examples I've come across:

- Every sound has slight reverb to it, even when outside, which should have no reverb whatsoever
- Car door opening/closing have an incredibly repetitive squeak (most cars) that is painfully noticeable and gets annoying quite quickly
- Many weapons like the hand axe sound far too weak and light for the actual amount of damage and impact you are doing, missing a nice "thunk" or any sort of bass behind it.  This is especially important in video games, even if not realistic as just like movies, things tend to be over-exaggerated in sound game design on purpose to give a user the necessary feedback that feels nice and feels like you're really making an impact
- Certain engine noises have a strange high pitched electrical whine to them?  Unsure if intentional, or only on damaged vehicles, unsure, but it is unpleasant to the ears.
- Stomping on a Zombie is both de-synced from the animation, and is also missing that heavy thud that feels good to let players know you're making an impact and actually doing something.  The de-sync is made far more obvious when you kill a zombie with a stomp, as the stomp sound plays first, and then a second later you hear/see the zombie death sound
- Sound balance seems a bit all over, windows breaking are rather quiet, zombies sound awkwardly loud even at distance (may have to do with that reverb that is everywhere, even outside), car engine turn over sounds are incredibly quiet, things like running into a zombie with a vehicle seem to have the sound completely removed, as in the actual impact sound of the car hitting a zombie, that loud metal thunk, which, if you've ever been in a car that has hit a deer or another animal while driving, you know how loud and bassy that really should sound/feel.

These are just a few things I noticed in my short time playing today.  I know this is only the first pass of the sound design, but these are the same sounds we heard in the video previews months back, and I had the same concerns then.  I would personally like to see more of a mix between old and new sounds, not just replacing the new sounds completely, as I felt the old sounds were rather good in a lot of ways, and for gameplay made a lot more sense, giving players the feedback they needed, such as the classic metallic "jiggle jiggle" of a door being locked.  While that was the sound for EVERY type of door being locked, it at least let the player know that the door was locked, that feedback was immediate, where as now, some doors without doorknobs for instance simply make a slight "thud" if they're locked, and I initially couldn't tell if that was a zombie hitting the door or something else.

I feel there is a fine balance between realism and gameplay that should be struck here.  Super realistic isn't always better when it comes to gameplay and providing good feedback for players.  I hope this helps in the development of Project Zomboid and I eagerly look forward to the next update!

 

-Shivaxi

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To me at least many of these sounds seem like a step backwards in terms of quality/ immersion. Some things I noticed:

 

THE BAD:

-Melee sounds pretty bad now, especially the big clumsy "whoosh" noise when you swing. Nothing sounds anything like it should.

-Faucet sound is over-the-top, you can convey that a bottle is being filled without those ridiculous over-loud fake-sounding water sloshing noises. Old sound was better

-All doors are now old creaky castle doors, old sound was kind of basic but a lot better at conveying that a door was being opened/ closed

-No more distinct "zombie head-splat" noise. I kept getting kills on zombies and not realizing it.

-No more distinct "zombie thumping on window" noise. Is that zombie I hear thumping on a door or window? Who knows?

-No more distinct "you got bit/ scratched" noise. I got scratched and didn't notice right away.

-Outdoor ambience is odd, about 300% too many bird/ wolf noises and they always sound like they're nearby. Also the constant wind noise is just unconvincing, real wind rises & falls and goes silent for long stretches. What we have now sounds like there's a waterfall over the next hill at all times. I also immediately recognized the stock wolf howl they used from about 1,000 other places.

-Footsteps on wood floors sound like tap-dancing, old sound was better

-No more individual noise volume sliders. Ech.

-Audio balance for a lot of these sounds is way off, some noises are way too quiet and some are way too loud. I have faith that this will be fixed though.

 

THE GOOD:

-Enjoying the new zombie snarls (there are some who disagree with this)

-New gun noises are quite good

-New zipper sound is an improvement

 

 

Frankly I played for about 10 minutes last night then quit in disappointment. A lot of these new sounds are just so out-of-place/ cartooney/ low-quality that it's sort of ruining the game for me. An option to revert to the old sounds would be a blessing, until then I guess I'll move on to another game.

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I'd been playing PZ for a while, steam says that I played like 3000 hours or so. In all this years I never felt the need of saying something negative about an update but this time I am feeling a little uncomfortable about it. I don't know if it is that we are so used to the old sounds or what, but almost all sounds feel wrong for me. Some more than others. And maybe I'm getting old, but the steps are driving me crazy. My steps. All the time. Some people are saying that there's ton of "generic" sounds now and when I read that I felt like they were right. Sound doesn't have "personality" now, and that was something that PZ always had.

 

About the 3D models; I don't know if is just me but I lost plenty of fps since the last update, and I usually don't have any problem with that. I have no idea if it is related but something in this update made the performance way worse in my end.

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