Sound Effects and Music - the Game's Emotion

[Germanico]

Having searched the forum and watched the videos on youtube I felt obliged to open a thread about the game's sound aspects. 

From what I've gathered there seems to be the rather typical game-dev focus on graphics, animation and visual effects over the importance of sound.

 

I would like to stress the importance of good sfx, voice acting and music to make the action come alive - at a much lower cost than e.g. added particle effect layers...

Sound, especially voice commands and shouts, the ambiance of a wooden ship reacting to weather and wear and an adaptive soundscape will do miracles for the imagination and immersion.

Players initially won't need animated crew under deck with physical dismemberment mode set to "on" if they can hear the effect of a broadside. Simple as that.

 

Right now it seems that the majority of the on-board sound consists of walla's (muted voices coughing or talking incomprehensibly), bosun's whistles, bells and gun's going of. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walla

Simply put: that's just not enough and it's not what combat would have sounded like. Where are the in-language commands being yelled? The calls for assistance, the orders, the screams of the wounded?

 

To underline my point listen and compare these two - without watching: 

 

• Naval Action Combat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hCOVm14aDQ - sounds like a handful of sounds looped endlessly, and I believe that's what it really is that I am hearing...

• Master And Commander Combat (from min 2:00 onward): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f06_CkYvIik - clearly distinguishable commands, shouts, orders, screams, yells and cheers.

 

Of course I am not proposing to come up with an audio budget to rival Master And Commander, but just using some of the acoustic elements will make this game come a long way in player immersion.

 

Required Sounds:

1. Yells, Cheers, screams (indistinguishable) single and group
2. Orders: nautical, combat, encouraging, disciplinary (in nation's language) indiv.
3. Shouts: similar to Orders but more emotional (in nation's language) indiv.

 Proven source for professional multilingual recordings at a budget: http://www.voices.com/ 

[Charles Caldwell]

I placed a similar post in the suggestion thread. The barking of orders are sorely missed currently, however I am sure they are on the to-do-list, but its wise to mention them now.

 

My post:

 

 

My first suggestion is based purely on emersion.... and from the videos posted. Namely period uniforms or dress for the Officers and Crew and the national vessel.

 

Add to that the regionalised barking of orders and sounds of the vessel both in combat or just maintaining a course.

 

for example on a British vessel, shouts during combat of "Beat to Quarters" "Look lively there lads" "To your stations" "You Sir, yes you sir.... quick the action!" "Less gawking boys" etc etc

 

[Sir. Cunningham]

It'll come, don't worry. The Devs have already done an amazing job with the sounds of gunfire in the distance, and I'm sure that the rest will follow as soon as more of the gameplay elements are finished.

[Germanico]

Indeed. Good to see that this being addressed by the community. A looped Walla with guys caughing simply doesn't cut it in a 30+ Dollar/Euro game.

Although I don't expect the full Bioware-Monty I definitely want some voice commands and acting. Been there myself and done it often enogh - it ain't as expensive as it used to be.

We just have to push the guys for it. Most of the coders are not very aware of "emotions" and "language" if you get my drift

[BungeeLemming]

I am with you on the improvement of voiceacting. Altho the dev team is small I really feel advanced voiceacting will bring a lot more immersion to the gameplay.

 

I would be happy if there are shoutings in english at least. After all thats the universal language we all use. (reloading procedure, sail trimming, helm orders, etc.) In addition to the pipes we hear when switching crew focus we may get officers involved.

Shouts at the crew, some reliefed joys from the men when an enemy mast falls or the hull gets significant damage. (not the final wave of relief ofc.)

 

On the other hand I like to hear injured men screaming. That may be a dream from my side but that would bringa lot of immersion to the action.

[Germanico]

That may be a dream from my side but that would bringa lot of immersion to the action.

 

It's really not an issue anymore. You simply buy some sounds online and stick'em into the game - depending on the engine it's as simple as 1-2-3. 

Step 1 is to write a few requirements, step 2 is to look for the ready files or voice talent to provide online, step 3 is integration of finished takes. 

So you neither need a large team nor a lot of money. What it takes is some writing talent (in our case the community could provide good assistance) and a small budget of a few thousand Euro/Dollars.

[BungeeLemming]

I have no experience with the adult rating of games. When there is a game rated at 12+/16+/18+.

Thats more my fear because realistic death screams incorporated into this game may rise the age needed to play it.

 

Somehow this is a semi-valid point because every child knows how to play 18+ rated games but still..

[Germanico]

Screams are not so much of an issue as swearing and offensive language. In case of NA I would not be worried to achieve a 12+ PEGI rating.

 

PEGI 12: Videogames that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy character and/or non graphic violence towards human-looking characters or recognisable animals, as well as videogames that show nudity of a slightly more graphic nature would fall in this age category. Any bad language in this category must be mild and fall short of sexual expletives.

 

For the German USK it's basically similar. As long as the game doesn't depict any excessive violence (which it doesn't) that's fine. It also wouldn't be accurate in a historical sense to have the officers swear like common seamen. So that can be ruled out as well. 

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

Im not really sure I want to dwell on the human cost of these encounters. I'd prefer any wounded/death screams be capable of being muted/turned off by the player.

[Germanico]

Im not really sure I want to dwell on the human cost of these encounters. I'd prefer any wounded/death screams be capable of being muted/turned off by the player.

 

I understand and salute your objections. Please don't misunderstand this thread as a call for violence. Though it was a very brutal way of fighting, my request is more about the commands and Orders interspersed with human "noise". Additionally there should of course be the already existing boom of guns and all the other soundscape elements. 

Pain and screams should definitely not be the dominant element - just one of many.

Depending on the system used by the devs muting specific sounds should not be a problem - though tbd at their discretion.

[Hawke]

The cannon effects are outstanding, this is encouraging to me because it shows the developers know how important the element of sound is to a game, something which is all to often overlooked. I'm sure that as they work their way down the laundry list of items more sounds will be added. 

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

I understand and salute your objections. Please don't misunderstand this thread as a call for violence. Though it was a very brutal way of fighting, my request is more about the commands and Orders interspersed with human "noise". Additionally there should of course be the already existing boom of guns and all the other soundscape elements. 

Pain and screams should definitely not be the dominant element - just one of many.

Depending on the system used by the devs muting specific sounds should not be a problem - though tbd at their discretion.

 

I suppose I had in my mind loud calls of agony and death. If they're a combined part of the general background noise, it wouldn't be different than many other games where it doesn't bother me, just as long as they're not too graphic.  

[Germanico]

The trick with voice FX for games with crowds (like dozens or hundreds of men on board a wooden craft in perilous situations) is to not make one voice stand out to clearly for reasons of repetition.

Unless, of course, the voice conveys some form of information, such as: "All Hands on Deck!" or "Fire!" which clearly accompanies some form of ingame action.

This then is handled as a command or order and can even be attached to a distinctive voice actor, lending the faceless crew some character.

Commands in turn could or should trigger a crowd response such as "Heave-to, Heave-to!" or similar.

 

As much of the game is spent "under fire" or in other "repetitive" situations hearing one man cry out over and over again would quickly lead to an "arrow in the knee" syndrome: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-took-an-arrow-in-the-knee 

Imagine sailing your craft for 4 hours realtime listening to the same bloke repeat "mhhh... dunno, but this grog ain't as good as under Nelson" again and again every few minutes. Brrr...

So we need a well tuned set of differing voice recordings for differing situations. Only then can the player really immerse himself in the ambiance of a tall ship.

[Destraex]

I actually think that one of the things missing at the moment i agree is that personal touch to a ship by way of the first officer and men sounding familiar and correct for the nation. I possted a huge post about relayibg orders by sound.

[Steve]

As the title says will there be sea shanties/music in the game later on.

 

[Aksark]

As the title says will there be sea shanties/music in the game later on.

 

 

Not sure what kinda music they will add into the game down the road. But here's a link to this subject.

 

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/2222-periodic-music/

 

~cheers

[admin]

Music is not on the short term feature list. But it is not a risky feature (that can lower performance or break gameplay) thus it is definitely in our long term plans.

[Robert Danforth]

I'm part of a group who could sing/record some if you want, once you get to that point. We know far too many of them.

[Steve]

Music is not on the short term feature list. But it is not a risky feature (that can lower performance or break gameplay) thus it is definitely in our long term plans.

 

Will there be more ambient noises because the game is very quiet with exception from the cannon fire.

[spadde]

I just play it on youtube while playing, but ofcourse it would be cooler if it were ingame

[PIerrick de Badas]

It's what i miss the most in the game atm, goods sounds.

 

The sea don't make any sound exept when mast or part of wood fall in. In storm, your ship go in wave like if he would sails on oily sea. Please make an huge effort on sound to make the game better in immersion.

It's a key point for make us fell like sailer

[Wicked Mouse]

Music is not on the short term feature list. But it is not a risky feature (that can lower performance or break gameplay) thus it is definitely in our long term plans.

Sounds like a "Could Have" on the software developer's MoSCoW list

[ItsaPiratesLife]

I have to admit, I did not think of shanties. That is a genius idea in its simplicity and would add much more of a flow to the game. By flow I mean the game would seem to progress faster. Assassins Creed 4 shanties were a major part of why I enjoyed the open seas aspect, I would suggest getting some of the more popular ones from AC4 if they are not copy-write.

 

May I also add to this that perhaps weather changes in battle to also add to the ambient environment of combat? Not the battle as a whole, but perhaps an area has the possibility of storms from clouds, or even cloud changes. Ambient changes in environment can have a huge impact on gameplay, POTBS would have benefitted greatly on its OS mechanics with this concept in some form.

[Destraex]

This is a gimic that I hope will stay at the end of the list waaaaaay past being able to hear your key commands repeated back to you by sailors\officers as a sound confirmation that you have pressed the correct key. That would be much more my preference.

That is the problem with games like black flag. The priority is with the hollywood experience and it becomes little more than playing a poorly researched fantasy movie. You learn nothing from it because nothing is even close to real and waste hours but for some it is fun. 

 

I like my games to teach me the basics in some form. Especially when one may have sailed in real life. Then a game like black flag becomes very hard to suspend ones disbelief in. Breaks immersion. 

 

As an extreme example;

I The first time I went up for a flying lesson they checked knowledge first and let me do a bunch more because of PC flight simulator knowledge and stick time..... much like they use flight simulators to train real pilots at least the games I had been playing were basically right. I also have a mate who had the same thing happen, in fact he was flying a tiger moth and the instructor attributed his being able to keep the horizon level "naturally" and so well to his flight simulator experience.

 

Now I don't want a sailing simulator out of this game and I don't expect to be able to run a sailing ship. But I basically don't want to be lied to by the games physics and the mechanics it does have. I want some things to apply when I am reading novels, books or actually sailing myself. I love to live and breath it.

I love to be able to see what would have happened, that is much more interesting to me than dressing up in a disney costume and playing pirate like kids in the back yard.

 

This game is the best we have for that currently. There are other games out there to accomodate the crowd that simply want to be peter pan. 

I am hoping that they do not sway the developers into turning this game into a anime joke.

 

Now don't get me wrong. I love the idea of sea shantes for time compression. They sounded really good in AC3.

 

P.S. I have also sailed a 8 man yacht a while back for weeks and would love to do so again. I will be thinking of this game when I next sail a little hobycat which is the most I will probably do in the coming years! But here I can sail the big boys that I would never have the chance of sailing ...... especially in an operational capacity!

[suprememat]

Lol pirate core aka alestorm.